Book Review - The Hygge Holiday by Rosie Blake

Amazon UK

Title:  The Hygge Holiday

Author: Rosie Blake

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Sphere

Publication Date: 21st September 2017

Rating: 5 Stars

The perfect recipe for hygge this autumn: make a hot chocolate, draw the curtains, snuggle under a blanket and read your way to happiness!

It's autumn in Yulethorpe and everyone is gloomy. It's cold, drizzly and the skies are permagrey. The last shop on the high street - an adorable little toy shop - has just shut its doors. Everything is going wrong for Yulethorpe this autumn. Until Clara Kristensen arrives.

Clara is on holiday but she can see the potential in the pretty town, so she rolls up her sleeves and sets to work. Things are looking up until Joe comes to Yulethorpe to find out exactly what is going on with his mother's shop. Joe is Very Busy and Important in the City and very sure that Clara is up to no good. Surely no one would work this hard just for the fun of it?

Can a man who answers emails at 3 a. m. learn to appreciate the slower, happier, hygge things in life - naps, candles, good friends and maybe even falling in love?

What a warm hug of a book, this book is pure hygge, and I absolutely love it as a result. 

Ok, so until even part way through I wasn't completely sure what Hygge was, I just knew it was something that seemed to appear all over twitter at this time of year for the past few years, but couldn't quite work it out. 

Well if you are like me you will find this book not only a great story with plenty of humour, but it will also teach you all you need to know about Hygge, and a few Danish swear words too! 

Lady Caca as if often the case with fictional parrots, utterly hilarious. This is a bird that has a habit of calling out various phrases from TVs and Films, often and incredibly relevant moments almost as though she knows whats going on. 

Clara arrives in Yulethorpe (which can I point out is a fabulous name for a village in a wintery book), not intending to stay in town long. She is wandering from place to place, just clearly not settled. After a great nights entertainment in the pub, she takes a chance, end ends up as a house sitter and also in charge o the local toyshop. 

It is how Clara transforms that toy shop which amazed me, she had some brilliantly creative ideas, and the window display is memorable.  I loved the descriptions of this toy shop, but not only that but she transforms other spaces in the village too, and makes some good new friends. 

Then there is Joe, who is the complete opposite of Hygge, he works far too many hours in a day and is really suspicious of Clara's motivations towards his mother's shop. He goes to Youlthorpe to confront Clara and work out what was going on, and finds slowly his life starts to change. 

This is a fantastic book of people trying to find their own happiness, always searching for something just out of reach, there are a few romances, some adorable children, and just a warm cosy feeling indeed. In fact the feeling I got from the book was one of Hygge! 

Thank you so much to Sphere and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily. 

Book Review & Giveaway - How to Get a (Love) Life by Rosie Blake - #AroundTheUKIn144Books #Bristol - Fab Firsts

Fab Firsts is my new regular Sunday feature, that is going to be highlighting books that are firsts. When interviewing authors, it will be about their first book, as well as other firsts in their lives. When reviewing books for this feature, there will be a mix of debuts, first books in a series, the first time I read an author, and possibly other firsts depending on what I can think of!

If you are an author wanting to take part in Fab Firsts then please do email on gilbster at gmail dot com and I'll whizz the questions over to you.

I hope you enjoy this look at a variety of hopefully fabulous firsts, while making some sort of dent in my review and paperback TBRs which are my current main focus!

How to Get a (Love) Life was Rosie Blake's debut novel and is now coming out in paperback on the 2nd February. 

Amazon UK

Title:  How to Get a (Love) Life

Author: Rosie Blake

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Purchased

Publisher: Corvus

Publication Date: 2nd February 2017

Rating: 4 Stars

Nicola Brown doesn't like to lose control. Her flat is always meticulously tidy and her weekly meals carefully planned; Nicola keeps her life in order. When her carefree colleague Caroline challenges Nicola to find a date for Valentine's Day, it's a surprise to them both when Nicola agrees.

As Nicola's search for a man begins, she is thrown in at the deep end - sometimes quite literally - of the dating scene. From men more likely to sell their mother than open their wallet, to those who are determined to find a girlfriend who shares their passion for extreme sports, Nicola has to run the full gamut of dodgy dates. But as the deadline looms closer, Nicola realises it isn't so bad to lose control. It turns out that trying to get a love life can be rather a lot of fun...

How to Get a (Love) Life is a highly amusing story about one girl and her attempts at dating. Nicola is at the start of the story an incredibly regimented person, she is slightly OCD, has a habit of eating the same food the same day each week, and even waits until a certain time of her lunch break to eat a sweet treat. Her life seems to be in  a bit of a rut, but she isn't completely sure she needs to change. 

Her colleague Caroline dares Nicola to have a date by Valentines Day which is four months away. Nicola agrees which is rather surprising and from that her life slowly changes.  There are some absolutely hilarious dates which Nicola is set up on, my favourite of which involved Kayaking in the sea, in November! 

While Nicola is trying to see if she can find anyone she would even like a second date with, her brother keeps coming round too, and has his own romance problems. Her brother is absolutely bat mad, and seems to be fairly socially inept. He has his own specific way of looking at things, and even comes up with a plan to win the girl he loves, including graphic stick figure drawings!

I loved seeing the lengths Nicola was willing to go to, just to try and win a dare. You get the first hint as to her whole mindset in the prologue, while the majority of the book is leading up to that point in time. Amongst the ways she tries to meet men is going to a driving range, and taking up a carpentry class. Add in a whole bunch of unreliable and dodgy men, and you have the general idea of her current attempts at dating! 

I found as the book went on, I was liking Nicola more and more, as her personality opened up a bit, and her brother grew on me too. I also was loving both Caroline and James who she works with, and in fact the whole entire nutty office environment she was working in. 

This was Rosie Blake's debut novel but yet its the third book of hers that I have read, and with that point of view, I can say that her writing, and storytelling gets better with each release. How to Get a (Love) Life is a very pleasurable debut, and is a book I thoroughly enjoyed. 

Giveaway to win 1 x How to Get A (Love) Life (Paperback) (Europe only) 

I happen to have a spare copy of the new paperback release of this book, for one lucky winner. 

Giveaway is open to Europe only (but don't worry there will be more INT giveaways in the future) , all options are voluntary, but please do what they ask, as I will be verifying the winner. Giveaway closes 23:59 6/2/2017. Winner will be announced on twitter and emailed, and they will need to reply within 7 days, or forfeit the prize, and I will re-draw for a new winner.  Good luck everyone.

Win 1 x How to Get A (Love) Life (Paperback) (Europe only)

Book Review - How to Find your (First) Husband by Rosie Blake

Amazon UK

Title: How to Find your (First) Husband

Author: Rosie Blake

Format reviewed: Paperback

Source: Publisher supplied review copy

Publisher: Corvus

Publication Date: 2nd June 2016

Rating: 5 Stars

Isobel Graves moved to LA determined to be the Next Big Thing. Instead, she is dressed as a giant prawn handing out fliers promoting a fish market. Rather than attending glamorous parties and dating exciting men, her evenings consist of watching box sets with her sort-of boyfriend, whose idea of romance is a late-night drunken text.

Where did it all go wrong?

When Isobel catches sight of Andrew Parker, her childhood sweetheart, in the background of a TV news story she feels it's a sign. If she'd stuck with Andrew everything would have turned out better. Now she just needs to find him...

Join Isobel as she travels from LA to Devon and to a remote Malaysian island in search of true love.

I loved this book, so much that I read it in a very short amount of time. It is full of amusing sections, incredibly sweet reminiscences of a childhood "romance" and a borderline stalkerish hunt for Isobel's first love. 

For when Isobel was still in school, she and Andrew Parker had a wedding in the playground, however she was then dumped a few weeks later, and then Andrew left the school, and Isobel has been without closure since. Unlike some of her childhood friends she never did the playground divorce thing with Andrew, and still considers them married, even after he cursed her to never have another husband. 

Fast forward to adulthood and Isbobel is living in LA, doesn't exactly have the life of her dreams, and finds herself continually daydreaming about what could have been with her and Andrew. So when she spots him in the background of a newsclip, she decides the only thing to do is to find him, and persuade him to fall in love with her. 

What follows is a fabulous story as Isobel travels to England and then onto Malaysia in order to find him. 

As much as I loved all the lead up and the initial search for Andrew, it was once Isobel was on the various flights to get to Tioman Island, Malaysia, that I felt the story really kicked up a gear, as Isobel starts to rediscover who she really is. 

Anyone that has seen some of my reviews previously, may by now realise that I love books with exotic locations, and this one was fantastic, although I didn't get a feel for Malaysia itself, there was definitely a wild small island feel to the story, with beach huts, local wildlife and a new group of friends all determined to have a fantastic summer. 

Rosie Blake's storytelling skills are as amusing as they are enchanting in this delightful story about re-discovering your first love and friendship. 

Thank you so much to Alison Davies at Corvus for this review copy. This was my honest opinion. 

Book Review - How To Stuff Up Christmas by Rosie Blake

Amazon UK

Title: How To Stuff Up Christmas

Author: Rosie Blake

Format reviewed: Paperback

Source: Publisher supplied review copy

Publisher: Corvus Books

Publication Date: 5th November 2015

Rating: 4 Stars

'Tis the season to be jolly. Unless you've found an intimate picture of another woman on your fiance's phone... 

Eve is heartbroken after discovering her fiance is cheating on her. Being surrounded by the joys of Christmas is more than Eve can bear, so she chooses to avoid the festivities by spending Christmas alone on a houseboat in Pangbourne. Eve gets gets an unexpected seasonal surprise when handsome local vet Greg comes to her rescue one day, and continues to visit Eve's boat on a mission to transform her from Kitchen Disaster Zone to Culinary Queen. 

But where does Greg keep disappearing to? What does Eve's best friend Daisy know that she isn't telling? And why is there an angry goose stalking Eve's boat? 

A hilarious and heart-warming novel about Christmas, catastrophes and cooking, containing exclusive Christmas recipes, from the talented Rosie Blake.

Enjoyable story, based around Eve who is heartbroken, and can't face another family Christmas. Especially as after last Christmas, her boyfriend had proposed to her, and she just doesn't want to deal with the memories while they are still raw. 

Having always been quite artistic, she decides the best thing for her to do is to get away for December, to avoid Christmas this year, so she enrols onto a month long pottery course in the little town of Pangbourne. And then as finding affordable accommodation, that accepts dogs (Marmite), she rents a houseboat for the month.

Local vet Greg just happens to pass the boat a few times, when things have gone a bit out of control for Eve, catching her in hilarious situations, and slowly a friendship grows between them, and he teaches her how to follow a recipe and cook. Based on having seen what a disaster Eve is in the kitchen, I was very happy Greg was helping Eve out. 

However its clear that Greg was hiding something, and although we occasionally got a chapter from his point of view, it takes a while for it to be revealed, and not what I was thinking.  I couldn't decide if I liked the Greg chapters, as often it was showing the exact incident we have just seen but from his point of view, which felt slightly repetitive but it did give a bit of insight into his thoughts, so was helpful. 

At the starts of some chapters there are recipes. Some of them are incredibly simple, such us for Pot Noodle, which made me laugh and also showed just how unaware of cooking Eve really is, to much more complicated recipes towards the end, as she grows in confidence. However my favourite recipe and one that is at the level of what I feel comfortable, is for Chocolate Biscuit Cake, and still hours after reading that bit of the book left me really wanting some!

There is an entertaining relationship between Marmite the dog, and the goose the often stalks the pathway by the houseboat. Neither being really friendly towards each other. I don't really recall a goose featuring that much in a book before but this one is very comical, and if Dickens is to be believed a seasonal animal. 

With lots of funny bits, as well as a good storyline, How To Stuff Up Christmas is a great Christmas book, without making you feel Christmassy. It feels far more like a book that just happened to be set in December, more than your marginally more typical festive read. However it is still a really enjoyable book, and one I was very happy to read. 

Thank you to Corvus Books for this review copy. This was my honest review.