So book number 3 in my Goodreads reading challenge is Scandal with a Prince by Nicole Burnham.

‘A one night stand. A lifelong obsession.
One magical summer, Megan Hallberg met—and loved—Prince Stefano Barrali. But his royal duties took him home, and when she discovered she carried his child, she also discovered he was engaged…to a beautiful, worldly aristocrat.

Ten years later, Stefano runs into Megan at the grand opening of a Barcelona hotel, and it’s his every sensual fantasy come to life. His memory of the stunning blonde and their passionate summer has haunted his dreams, and a night under the stars gives him the perfect opportunity to reclaim the woman he thought lost to him.

Megan finds herself torn between passion with a prince and a fierce need to protect her daughter. Can the man who captured her heart so many years ago be her destiny…or her downfall?’ (Thanks Amazon)

As you can see, I have been enjoying my chick lit since Christmas!

Megan is an independent, highly successful woman who will do anything for her daughter, Anna.  She is fiercely protective of her, having brought her up all alone for a decade. When Prince Stefano walks back into her life Megan becomes flustered as her memories threaten to become a reality once again.  This is a story full of secrets and passion, as two people who were briefly involved in a passionate love affair come back together by chance, whilst discovering long held secrets.

This is a typical chick lit, with an infusion of sauciness for good measure!  This was a great light read, and i’m sure i’ll be reading Honeymoon with a Prince, the second book in the Royal Scandals soon enough!

Rating: 📖 📖 📖

Book number 2 in my Goodreads Reading Challenge is The Christmas Project by Maxine Morrey.  Despite Christmas having been and gone, I was not quite ready to let go of the festive cheer so I started working my way through a collection of festive novels I had saved up for Christmas and then had no time to read. I should also warn you all that I have been loving a good fluffy romance, so expect a few reviews in the coming days and weeks.

‘Professional organiser Kate Stone has never – NEVER – been tempted to hit a client over the head with a snow shovel, but Michael O’Farrell is the most obnoxious – and heart-stoppingly gorgeous – man she has ever met. If he weren’t her best friend’s brother, she would not have waited on his doorstep in the freezing cold for five minutes, let alone an hour.

Kate knows, however, that her job isn’t just about tidying up, sometimes she needs to be part therapist too, and Michael clearly needs her help to declutter his heart as well as his home.

But with the festive season just around the corner there isn’t much time to get Michael’s house ready for the O’Farrell family celebrations, but everyone knows that at Christmas anything can happen…’ (Thanks Amazon!)

There are no surprises in this novel, but that is not what I was looking for when I picked up this book.  In fact this novel completely ticked all the boxes for me; it has an organised, albeit slightly neurotic Kat who is expecting to spend Christmas alone (despite having an ‘amazing’ boyfriend who is always too busy to see her); it has the heartbroken but devastatingly handsome Michael, who needs his life and heart pieced back together; it has the very loving O’Farrell’s, the family Kat has never had; and it has the meddling but good-hearted best friend (and sister of said devastatingly handsome Michael), Janey.  So all the pieces are there for a lovely, feel-good Christmas novel.  All I had to do was kick back and watch Kat and Michael fall in love, despite their differences.  An added bonus was that Kat and Michael spent their time re-organising Michael’s beautiful home – I have a thing for home interiors!

I appreciate that it is now February (I did read this in early January), however I think we can all do with a little love and festive cheer at any time of the year.  So get reading!

Rating: 📖 📖 📖 📗

So it’s been a while since my last blog, and that is because I have had a serious case of ‘reader’s block’.  This has not helped my Goodreads Reading challenge at all!  Sadly, the cause of my reader’s block was a book.

So you may have noticed from my previous blogs that I don’t give ‘bad’ reviews.  I think that your views are very subjective, and what one person likes to read another will not.  I also believe that every book is the product of hours, days, weeks, months of work for the author so destroying that work with a bad review just seems mean.  So I choose not to review books that I do not like. However this leads me to the severe case of reader’s block from which I have recently suffered.  Whilst I will not name this book, I can say that it was a Sunday Times’ Bestseller, with a lovely shiny front cover to draw me in.  Unfortunately, despite it’s lovely reviews, famous author and riveting subject it took me three weeks to get half way through the book and I ultimately put it down before reaching the end.

Putting a book down before reaching the end really does upset me. I always endeavour to finish a novel, however in this case it was impossible. It also stopped me reading anything else! I just couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to pick up another novel.  So, after losing weeks of perfectly good reading time I am finally back in the game.  But the memory of that Sunday Times’ Bestseller still resonates with me.

Have you hit a reader’s block thanks to a novel you’ve read?

Book number 28 in my Goodreads Reading Challenge (and book number 9 of the summer holiday where it has been confirmed that I was unreasonably unsociable) was We Were Liars by E. Lockhart.

‘We are the Liars.
We are beautiful, privileged and live a life of carefree luxury.
We are cracked and broken.
A story of love and romance.
A tale of tragedy.
Which are lies?
Which is truth?’ (Amazon, thanks)

Firstly, I had no idea what to expect when I started this novel.  I genuinely had no idea what the book was about, and I did not know how it would end.  I don’t want to give too much away, but the novel focuses on Cadence Sinclair Eastman, a member of the wealthy Sinclair family.  Over the course of the novel she talks of her summers on Beechwood Island, her families island where she and her cousins spend the warm days living their privileged lives during their teens.

It is clear that Cadence had a horrible accident, as she tells us of stories from before and after her accident, but does not give much information about the accident itself as she can not remember.  She hopes that returning to Beechwood Island and spending the summer with her cousins and friends will jog her memory so that she can finally come to terms with why she suffers from such terrible migraines.

I am not going to talk about this novel anymore than this.  We Were Liars is a clever, poignant novel that deals with love, privilege and tragedy.  This is a young adult novel, but I would recommend it to anyone to read.  I can’t actually say that I loved it – however it raised a number of issues and was so thought-provoking that I must recommend it.

Rating: 3 and a half out of 5 stars

Book number 26 of my Goodreads Reading Challenge (and book number 7 of the summer holiday) was Breakfast at Darcy’s by Ali McNamara.

‘When Darcy McCall loses her beloved Aunt Molly, she doesn’t expect any sort of inheritance – let alone a small island! Located off the west coast of Ireland, Tara hasn’t been lived on for years, but according to Molly’s will, Darcy must stay there for twelve months in order to fully inherit. It’s a big shock. And she’s even more shocked to hear that she needs to persuade a village full of people to settle there, too.

Darcy has to leave behind her independent city life and swap stylish heels for muddy wellies. Between sorting everything from the plumbing to the pub, Darcy meets confident, charming Conor and sensible, stubborn Dermot – but who will make her feel really at home?’ (Thanks Amazon!)

Firstly, I bought this book quite some time ago, and then didn’t re-read the blurb so it was not what I was expecting at all.  This is classic chick lit (something I needed after The Two of Us) except that it’s set on the tiny Irish Island of Tara. In order to inherit from her Aunt Molly, Darcy must give up the city life that she knows and loves to set up a new community on Tara.

I enjoyed the concept of setting up a new community on an island where the total inhabitants equal one (think Ben Fogle in Castaway 2000).  It’s a little different from your usual chick lit.  Darcy however was a little too stereotypical city girl for my liking, and a number of details were often glossed over (her extensive debt for example – where did that go??  I know my credit card bill wouldn’t just disappear because I decided to take a year out!)

This book has all the classic elements of a good chick lit: a story of growth for the heroine; two very different men vying for her attention; a BFF to stand by and support her and a challenge to overcome.

I read this book on the beach, and it was the perfect easy read for that situation.  It wasn’t  a thought provoking novel but that wasn’t what I needed.  This fitted the bill perfectly, and if that is what you’re looking then please read this book!

Rating: 3 stars out of 5