Tag: womensfiction

Blog Tour – The Tanglewood Bookshop

Christmas – a time to slow down, take stock and have some well earned R&R after getting through another year. Well, unless you’re Kazz Fernsby. After a streak of luck so bad that she must have broken at least a hundred mirrors in a past life, Kazz decides to wave goodbye to her cosmopolitan London life, up sticks and relocate to the quaint village of Tanglewood to start a second-hand bookshop. I wasn’t familiar with the ‘Tanglewood’ series before discovering this festive instalment, however I will definitely be making a return visit through its predecessors.

“Tanglewood might be a quiet little place, but it sure had its fair share of interesting characters.”

Tanglewood may appear the classic sleepy, picturesque village, i.e. the perfect place for Kazz to slow down and reboot, however it became quickly clear that whilst it may be quaint, Tanglewood is by no means quiet. Yes, at times, it seemed that the village may contain more resident sheep than humans, but the characters it contains have enough depth and secrets to rival the excitement and drama of Kazz’s beloved London. I loved spending time with Kazz and her fabulous group of friends, but it would be unjust to mention the feisty females of Tanglewood and not mention my favourite character – Betty. We all need a Betty in our lives. At first, she seemed the classic, slightly irritating, curtain-twitcher who lurks around every corner, keeping various hands (and ears) in everyone’s business, but as the story unfolded it became clear that she has a heart of gold and everyone else’s interests at the centre of it.

“Saul had vowed never to let another woman anywhere near his fragile heart….Was he ready to break that vow? Or would he keep the wall around his heart for the rest of his life?”

With a total career change and a relocation to be contending with, the last thing on Kazz’s mind when she moves to Tanglewood is romance. Similarly, for dashing, albeit slightly aloof, farmer Saul, love is the furthest thing from his mind this Christmas, or any time really. Once burned and twice shy, he has no intention of setting himself up for more inevitable heartbreak, that is until he is tasked with helping Kazz turn her bookshop dream into a physical reality. Betty may be my favourite character overall, but Saul Green has absolutely cemented a place high up on my list of literary crushes. Even setting aside the fact that he is drop-dead gorgeous (and appreciates the solace of curling up with a good book!) the sweetest thing about Saul is, in my humble opinion, the bond he has with the adorable, if slightly mischievous, Donald the sheep. Without spoiling the end for anyone who hasn’t finished yet, Donald does turn out to be quite the charming wingman, in an epilogue perfectly romantic and warm that it could melt the snow from the top of Skirrid Fawr on the coldest Winter day. There aren’t many men who can remain dashingly handsome whilst donning wellies, but somehow with Saul, he is even more so.

Even though ‘The Tanglewood Bookshop’ finished with such a heartwarming scene, and had all the key elements of a perfect Christmas romance, Lilac Mills knows just how to keep her readers guessing until the very end. The twists and turns throughout the plot had me furiously turning the pages in a desperate need to know what happened next, muttering the lie we all tell ourselves of ‘just one more chapter’ (or three).

“You’ve got the opportunity to try something new, so why don’t you take it? If you don’t, you’ll spend the rest of your life wondering ‘what if?'”

So, we have a gripping plot, great characters and a sizzling romance, what more could we ask for? Ah yes, a good old cup of cheer to put the reader right into the festive spirit! The only thing more picturesque than Tanglewood, is Tanglewood at Christmas. I read this book in the height of Summer, and could still practically smell the roast chestnuts and pine needles wafting out of the pages. Even reading this book in my sun-soaked garden, I felt a slight chill around my shoulders as though I were curled up in one of Kazz’s armchairs watching the snow fall outside. It may not even be Autumn yet, but I have closed ‘The Tanglewood Bookshop’ feeling so festive that I am quite desperate to put up my Christmas tree and break out the mince pies…

“The Christmas she had been dreading was now something she was quite looking forward to. Could life get any better?”

Social Media Links –

Website: https://www.lilacmills.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LilacMills

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lilacmillsauthor 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lilacmills

Purchase Link – https://geni.us/TheTanglewoodBookshop

The Tanglewood Bookshop

A fun, festive cosy romance

A rural book shop. A chance to start over. But can she make her dream a reality?

Kazz used to love the excitement of her London life, but lately her passion for expensive city living has begun to wane. So when she’s given the opportunity to open a bookshop in picturesque Tanglewood, she jumps at the chance.

But village life is much quieter than she anticipated – is she actually suited for rural living? Resigned to a boring and uneventful Christmas, when she meets gorgeous Saul she is more than ready to have some fun and enjoy the festivities. If only Saul didn’t have a reputation for being a player…

Will Kazz become the heroine in her own Christmas romance, or will he love her and leave her under the mistletoe?

This gorgeous festive romance is perfect for fans of Kiley Dunbar, Rachel Lucas and Sue Moorcroft.

Author Bio –

Lilac Mills lives on a Welsh hillside with her very patient husband and incredibly sweet dog, where she grows veggies (if the slugs don’t get them), bakes (badly) and loves making things out of glitter and glue (a mess, usually).

 She’s been an avid reader ever since she got her hands on a copy of Noddy Goes to Toytown when she was five, and she once tried to read everything in her local library starting with A and working her way through the alphabet.

She loves long hot summer days in the garden, and cold winter ones snuggled in front of the fire, but whatever the weather she’s usually writing, or thinking about writing, with heartwarming romance and happy-ever-afters always on her mind.

Review – The Toffee Factory Girls

“Some may say I’m ruthless, reckless, a rebel. But all those ingredients, along with the best cream and top-quality sugar, go to make Jack’s toffees the best in the land.”

Chester Le Street, 1915. A war raging on longer than people had predicted, men enlisting in their masses and a huge factory in need of some order, hard work and a rebrand? Get some women in to sort it all out! Hetty, Anne and Elsie make the perfect trio in the first of Glenda Young’s latest trilogy ‘The Toffee Factory Girls’, which has all the ingredients of a gripping and un-putdownable saga; and is wrapped up with intrigue that has left me itching to know what happens next.

No-nonsense, organised Anne was my favourite from the start, but as with all of Glenda’s novels, I found myself constantly re-evaluating me opinions of each character as the story progressed. As a type-A person myself, I instantly related to Anne, but together with ditzy Elsie and dependable Hetty the three girls form a perfect blend of personalities which compliment each other, and are a force to be reckoned with when they work together. Without spoiling anything for those who are yet to read this, it became clear from early in the plot that Anne has a rich back story which I am intrigued to learn more about as the trilogy progresses. Glenda has once again mastered that fine balance of giving enough to really pique the reader’s curiosity, sending the cogs in my imagination whirring as I turned each page, but maintaining the mystery right until the end, which has left the door firmly open for us to (hopefully) delve deeper into her history next time, which I can’t wait for.

“If you want my advice, take happiness where you find it. You never know when your life will be turned upside down.”

One of the main things that I love about Glenda’s novels is the complexity of her characters. Although Anne was initially my favourite, I don’t mind admitting that I was frustrated at some of her treatment towards Hetty and Elsie at times. But, as with autonomous humans in real life, well-written characters seldom do what we want them to, or at least not consistently. Anne is exactly the type of complex female heroine that I have no doubt told Glenda exactly how her story pans out, and not the other way around! Similarly, I took an instant dislike to the somewhat immature Elsie, particularly after her early betrayal of Hetty, but through her complex personal journey throughout the story, I found myself really rooting for her by the time I closed the cover, and can’t wait to see her continue onwards and upwards (hopefully) when we see her again next time. Hetty felt, to me, like the glue which holds the group together, and could easily have become the typical passive ‘best friend’ character, who probably would have been given a back seat in favour of the more vibrant Anne and Elsie by many other authors. However, I presume Glenda is a dab hand at juggling from the way she perfectly balances all three girls’ stories with equal parts of drama, suspense and love. As a feminist it pains me to admit it, but something I really love about Hetty’s story is the bubbling romance, which is even sweeter than the toffees she wraps. But having said that, Hetty strikes me as the kind of girl who has always been overlooked. Expected to put her own wishes and feelings aside in order to support everyone around her, which is what makes her such a loyal friend, so if anyone deserves to have someone notice her and shower her with a bit of love, it’s our Hetty.

Again, as with all of Glenda’s other saga novels, the setting is so vibrant that it’s almost like another protagonist in itself. Despite being relatively local to Chester-Le-Street, I had no idea about the real factory which inspired Jack’s Toffee, but now I almost feel like I’ve been there because it’s described in such vivid detail as the plot progresses. I could practically smell the toffee wafting out of each page turn.

All in all, although ‘The Toffee Factory Girls’ has all the key elements of a typical saga – romance, mystery, feisty heroines and a rich array of background characters who swirl the plot around and keep the reader guessing until the end (and beyond), it certainly stands out from the others on the shelves. Once again, Glenda Young has taken a relatively forgotten and mundane chunk of local history, and given it a rich and exciting new life. I can’t wait to see what’s coming next for The Toffee Factory Girls, because if this first instalment is anything to go by, I know it won’t disappoint.