Staying at Home This Year? Why Not Travel by Book? - Part Two

No one is going to be travelling anywhere for time being, so what better than to immerse yourself in one of these wonderful novels that are due out this summer? These are by some of my favourite authors, and I'm looking forward to settling down, indoors or out, and sailing away with them!

From Venice with Love by Rosanna Ley out on June 25th -  Destination Venice
I have travelled all over the world with Rosanna Ley since reading her first book, The Villa, which was set in Sicily. I love her books because she always makes the setting a key part of the story.
I'm looking forward to this one because it starts in Dorset, and goes to Lisbon and Prague before reaching Venice. A wonderful trip indeed!
It is about two sisters: Harriet who is struggling to run the family farm and Joanna who returns home only to set off again to solve the mystery of Emmy, who wrote the bundle of illustrated love letters which she finds.

The 24-Hour Café by Libby Page was due out on June 25th, but now it's been put back to February 18th 2021, but we can still read it on Kindle or in hardback. Personally, I prefer a paperback, but there you go! - Destination, Your local café
I'm looking forward to reading Libby's second book because I enjoyed her worldwide success, The Lido, so much.
If you are missing your local café, because of social distancing, this will one be a treat. Stella's café is open for twenty-four hours each day and everyone is welcome. Hannah and Mona work there and have dreams of their own, but during one twenty-four hours, their friendship will be tested, lives will be changed and the community will come together.

The Family Holiday by Elizabeth Noble also due out on June 25th - Destination, not sure! Looks like a bit of a magical mystery tour as there is little information available about it online.
Anyway, I've enjoyed all her other Sunday Times best selling novels over the years, so I'm sure this one will be no different. The blurb says it's about 'the joys and heartbreak of a family divided and reunited', so I'll be glad to go wherever it takes me.

Kate and Clara's Curious Cornish Craft Shop by Ali MacNamara due out on July 23rd - Destination, Cornwall!
Earlier this year, I read all Ali's Notting Hill trilogy, and also once again enjoyed Step Back in Time which you must read if you love The Beatles!
However, I have read all her more recent books too because they always have a wonderful touch of magic.
Kate has at last opened her quirky craft shop selling her handmade textile designs. However, some embroidered pictures and mysterious paintings hint about a sixty-year-old love affair, which Jack, who runs the local art shop, helps her to solve, resulting in the discovery of many similarities between them and the 1950s pair.  I can't wait to find out what happens!

Escape to the French Farmhouse by Jo Thomas due out on July 9th - Destination, Provence
Jo is another of my favourite authors, and I have read all her books since her very first, The Oyster Catcher, which came out in 2014. All her books have been about food and love, from oysters to lemons! This one is about baking with lavender.
After a disastrous six weeks in Provence, Del and her husband, Ollie, decide to return home, but as the removal van drives away, she decides that a new life in France without him would bring her the most happiness. She finds a recipe book at the market which Fabian runs and begins to bake, but will this really bring her the joy she desires?

I hope that you will enjoy my selection of novels and try some new authors. Travelling by book is much cheaper than your usual holiday, after all!
If you missed Part One, you can find it here.
Happy travelling!

Between A Mother and Her Child by Elizabeth Noble - Emotional, but Uplifting

If you are looking for an emotional, but uplifting book to read this Mother's Day weekend, then
Between a Mother and her Child by Elizabeth Noble is for you.

Maggie met Bill when he was over on his gap year in Australia. She was a champion swimmer with a chance for the Olympics, but when she became pregnant, they married and returned to the UK where Jake was born.

Life was beautiful: they had two more children, Aly and Stan, and Bill's building business was going well. Then shockingly, when Jake was on his gap year with two friends in Thailand, he drowned in the Boxing Day tsunami.

The fact that this happens before the novel starts doesn't lessen the heartbreak for Maggie and Bill who deal with it in their different ways; she staying at home to try to come to terms with Jake's death and he going out to Thailand to find his body and give help to the people there in any way he could.

Kate has her own problems. In her sixties, she now lives alone, her life once so full of colour, is now monochrome. And it is Livvy, Maggie's younger sister, over from Sydney for Christmas, who suggests that she finds a 'companion' for Maggie now that Bill has moved in with young widow, Carrie, who he's met at his bereavement group, and who finds Kate through an advertisement.

It was intriguing to find out if Maggie would accept Kate and what impact she would have on Aly, aged seventeen, doing her 'A' Levels, but increasingly withdrawn since her brother's death, and Stan, aged ten, who suffers from dyslexia and dyspraxia and who is a challenge at the best of times.

Elizabeth Noble tenderly explores the relationships between all the characters, drawing a vivid picture of each one, but concentrating on the one between Maggie and Jake which is at the heart of this novel. It is emotional, but it is uplifting, and I was hooked until the touching end.

Have you read Number One Best Seller - Love, Iris by Elizabeth Noble?

I've read and enjoyed many books by Elizabeth Noble in the past, so when I saw Love, Iris, I knew that I had to buy it!
As its title suggests, it's about love and all its different aspects.
Tess discovers she's pregnant, but her boyfriend, Sean, says that it's not the time to have a baby because he has a fantastic job offer in New York, so feeling that he can't love her if he wants her to get rid of the baby, she leaves him, and all through the book, Tess 'writes' letters to her baby, describing her feelings and telling her how much she loves her instead.
Gigi has a husband, Richard, two grown-up sons, Chris and Olly and a daughter, Megan, at uni. But she feels that her marriage is on the rocks because of Richard's lack of attention and understanding, (do they really love each other?), so she decides to leave him as well to see if life is better on her own.
Iris is Tess's grandmother who Tess has spent so much time with growing up in Salisbury as her mother, Donna, couldn't settle down after Harry left her. But now, Iris is in a nursing home because she has Alzheimer's, and it is there that Tess meets Gigi who still visits Richard's father, James.
Tess discovers that Iris has a secret that she's kept from her and Donna, and which helps them both to look at their lives differently.
Meanwhile, Gigi's daughter-in-law, Emily, is wonderfully supportive, but Olly brings home Caitlin who he hopes to marry, and Gigi feels that she will never fit in at all.
However, when Olly meets Tess at the nursing home, things change for them both.
This is a wonderful novel, packed full of emotion which really does keep you glued to the last page and makes you wish there was more!