Book Review, Giveaway: A Cosy Christmas in Cornwall by Jane Linfoot

A Cosy Christmas in Cornwall

by Jane Linfoot

Amazon US / UK / AU / 

B&N / Apple / Kobo / GP

A December to remember…

Christmas in a Cornish castle? Sign Ivy Starforth up! Hired to kit out the holiday rental as the world’s most Instagramable festive dreamland, there’s only one thing standing in the way of her hefty paycheque – the lord of the manor.

Bill Markham could give Scrooge a run for his money but Ivy is firmly #TeamChristmas…even if her handsome host seems to be doing everything he can to sabotage her staging. Maybe she shouldn’t have stumbled in on him starkers in the hot tub?

As the temperature outside cools, things inside the castle heat up. It’s been a long time since Ivy allowed herself to give in to temptation…surely one little kiss under the mistletoe won’t hurt?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

… buying your own present might mean you forfeit those two seconds of amazement when it arrives. But the plus side is you get exactly what you want and you’re never disappointed.


And then there was a clatter of the phone being dropped, Fliss was telling Oscar not to lick his mango yogurt off the TV screen, and we got cut off. I must admit, conversations like this make me view the super-cute baby clothes in Daniels in a whole different light – the kind that has me whooshing off to Pet’s Corner. Five seconds listening to life on Fliss’s sofa is enough to remind me crooning over the tartan velvet coats and diamanté dog collars is a whole lot safer. Even if they cost ten times more than the human versions they’re cheap at the price when you consider what they’re saving you from.

It’s what my dad would call a FISH moment – frig it, shit happens.


Let’s face it, given the choice between teensy trousers or buttercream, in theory it’s great to say you’d go without and be skinny. But get a hundred percent real and squishy cupcake in your hand and it’s a whole other story. You’re mostly left with an empty bun case and a bad case of guilty regret before you even get around to thinking about your choice. I mean, who wants to be strong willed and skinny anyway, it’s hideous and boring and everyone despises you for it.


Tansy has a go at our eyebrows, and we all end up looking like we had an accident in the dark with a Sharpie and have to go and scrub them off.


I’m going to take a second to relive the last ten minutes, wrap them very carefully in tissue paper, and tuck them away in my safest memory box.



My Review:

This is my third time reading this clever and insightful author and have just realized what a witty and cunning minx she truly is. Her characters tend to be complicated and multi-faceted and not always likable, yet there are always numerous reasons behind that and quite a few layers to go through to get there, so patience and forbearance were required but trust me, the HEA reward was well worth the effort. The busy, lively, and highly amusing storylines were well-balanced in tone, cast with an unusually peculiar yet intriguing and quirky slate of characters, and hit all the feels with agile levity as well as vividly described and shrewdly detailed observations.


The eventful story occurred over a two-week span in preparations for a wealthy and extremely driven and exacting client’s family Christmas holiday and was written from the first-person POV of Ivy, whose name should have been Rose or Thorn, as she was rather prickly. She was stridently bossy, rude, snappish, judgmental, and demanding towards the yummy Bill, the unfortunate man providing the venue which happened to be a castle. Ivy seemed to have a rather large yardstick wedged in an uncomfortable place, and there were several regrettable reasons for that, but until those causalities were fully enumerated, I had a difficult time appreciating Ivy, but I got there, as did she.


I gained a fun new entry for my Brit Word List with wodge, which is British informal for a large or bulky amount. Bill must have had a wodge of money to splash out for Dior Fahrenheit cologne as after Ivy’s obsessive mentions of his delicious scent I looked it up thinking of a possible gift for my husband. Regrettably, my wallet seized and my credit card melted at the cost. ;)

About The Author

 Jane Linfoot is a best selling author, who lives in a cottage on a Derbyshire hillside with her family and their pets. Although she loves seeing cow noses over the garden wall, she’s happy she can walk to a supermarket. 

Jane grew up in North Yorkshire where she spent a lot of her childhood avoiding horizontal gales blowing off the sea and wrote her first book by accident. While she loves to write feel-good books that let readers escape, she’s always surprised to hear her stories make people laugh, admits to (occasionally) crying as she writes, and credits her characters for creating their own storylines. 

Jane’s garden would be less brambly if she wasn’t on Facebook and Twitter so often. On days when she wants to be really scared, she rides a tandem.

Her recent stand-alone novels are all set in and around the (imaginary) seaside village of St Aidan in Cornwall. They are: Ivy’s Cornish Christmas, Edie’s Browne’s Cottage by the Sea, The Little Cornish Kitchen. Her four-book Little Wedding Shop series are standalone stories, also set in St Aidan. They are: The Little Wedding Shop by the Sea, Christmas at the Little Wedding Shop, Summer at the Little Wedding Shop and Christmas Promises at the Little Wedding Shop. They are all published by the Harper Impulse and One More Chapter imprints of Harper Collins.

Follow Jane on Twitter @janelinfoot, or find her on her Author Page Facebook or her Personal Page Facebook. She’s also on Instagram, and has lots of Pinterest boards relating to her novels.

GIVEAWAY

 Win a signed Jane Linfoot Book and some chocolate

 (Open INT)

*Terms and Conditions 

Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will be passed to the giveaway organizer and used only for the fulfillment of the prize, after which time I will delete the data. I am not responsible for dispatch or delivery of the prize.

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Book Review: Edie Browne’s Cottage by the Sea by Jane Linfoot

Edie Browne’s Cottage by the Sea

by Jane Linfoot

Amazon US / UK / AU / B&N

Those who don’t jump will never fly…

Hurtling through the sky was supposed to be Edie Browne’s flight of independence. But when she falls head over champagne bucket while celebrating her successful landing, her life is changed in an instant.

But starting over has its benefits, and as Edie relearns the basics under the watchful eye of her Aunty Josie and an entire Cornish village of new friends and neighbors, she finds love and joy she never could have imagined in the unlikeliest of places…

Come home to St Aidan and Periwinkle Cottage for a romance full of love, laughter and friends for life!


My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:



Marcus’s mates in creative media – and he had a lot – took male bonding to a whole new level… Mostly they swilled back craft beers with odd names and incinerated choice lumps of cow from the craft burger shops while they tried to channel their younger selves.



One of those moments where you wish the world would stop turning, because for this split second I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, or any other way.



But if you’re not ready it’s hard to listen, and even more impossible to hear.



And what the hell did you do to Malcolm while he was there? Since he got back he’s as antsy as an elephant with eczema, yet we can’t get him out at all.



My Review:



I enjoyed this cleverly amusing women’s fiction tale. It was written from the first person POV of Edie Browne, who was a hot mess. She didn’t use to be, but a mild stroke had scrambled her brains leaving her with word finding problems, reduced reaction times, memory gaps, the inability to smell or taste, and horror or all horrors – she could no longer read or drink alcohol - gasp! What a nightmare! Edie was also easily addled as she couldn’t process information as well or as quickly she knew she should, which understandably left her in a frequent state of bewilderment and prone to frustration, irritation, and overreaction.



I admired the author’s creativity in plotting Edie’s gradual recovery and the modifications and adaptations she devised. When she couldn’t remember the correct names or words, her substitutions were often humorous, as were her embarrassing accidents when she became flustered, I laughed aloud several times at this clever author’s colorful and witty descriptions. The storylines tugged at the heart while also entertainingly engaging and were cast with likable yet realistically flawed and multi-layered characters. The writing was insightful, perceptive, and comically detailed and concluding with a highly satisfying HEA, as all books should.

About The Author

Jane Linfoot is a best selling author, who lives in a muddy cottage, up a steep hill in Derbyshire, with her family, their pets, and an astonishing number of spiders. Although she loves seeing cow noses over the garden wall, she’s happy she can walk to a supermarket.

Jane grew up in North Yorkshire where she spent a lot of her childhood avoiding horizontal gales blowing off the sea, and wrote her first book by accident while working as an architect, and renovating country houses. While she loves to write feelgood books that let readers escape, she’s always surprised to hear her stories make people laugh, admits to (occasionally) crying as she writes, and credits her characters for creating their own storylines.


Jane’s garden would be less brambly if she wasn’t on Facebook and Twitter so often. On days when she wants to be really scared, she rides a tandem.


Her latest books include a series of stand-alone novels, based around a seaside wedding shop in Cornwall. Cupcakes and Confetti – The Little Wedding Shop by the Sea, Sequins and Snowflakes – Christmas at the Little Wedding Shop, and Bunting and Bouquets – Summer at the Little Wedding Shop, and most recently, The Little Cornish Kitchen. These are all published by Harper Impulse, an imprint of Harper Collins.


Follow Jane on Twitter @janelinfoot, or find her on her Author Page Facebook or her Personal Page Facebook. She’s also on Instagram, and has lots of Pinterest boards relating to her novels.

Book Review, Giveaway: The Little Cornish Kitchen by Jane Linfoot

The Little Cornish Kitchen

by Jane Linfoot

Goodreads

 Amazon UK / US   / B&N 

It's time to come home to Cornwall

With an exciting new life in Paris, Clemmie Hamilton isn't looking forward to heading home to the picturesque but sleepy village of St Aidan, Cornwall. However, when she discovers that the cozy apartment by the sea, which her grandmother left to her, is under threat from neighbor and property developer, Charlie Hobson, Clemmie realizes she can't abandon her home in its time of need.

With her childhood friends encouraging her, Clemmie decides to turn the apartment into 'The Little Cornish Kitchen' – a boutique pop up pudding club raising money for the repairs to the building in an effort to stop Charlie once and for all. But when Charlie and his easy charm won't seem to go away, everything soon becomes even messier than the state of Clemmie's Cornish kitchen…

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:



I start to take a deep breath but stop halfway. In the five years since Sophie’s wedding, my dress must have shrunk in the wardrobe. A lot.


I purse my lips and stay silent. The only way to deal with Sophie in her ‘conquer the world’ mood is to go with her. Then clear up the wreckage afterwards.


As for me waking up for the first time in my life with a fur ball snuggled in the crook of my knees – comfortable doesn’t start to cover it. Suddenly all the stories about crazy cat women make complete sense.


I’ll always look back on that last hour we spent together as the time when the tilt of my whole world shifted –very gently, to a better place. There weren’t any thunderclaps or even any sobbing. In the end, there was nothing momentous or earth shattering about what is, after all, simply right.


I start to work my way down Sophie’s final menu list. Every item has the word ‘mini’ in front, except the drinks, which say large. According to Sophie, so long as food’s small enough to fit in a child’s mouth it has zero calories.


My Review:


It took me a good while to warm up to the character of Clemmie as she wasn’t always likable or admirable, she was often rude, thoughtless, snappish, and prone to escape or avoid anything that required much effort – such as conversations, relationships, self-analysis, or any type of feeling. The storylines developed gradually, at the slow and leisurely pace of a tortoise. Once I realized this, I settled in for a long, amusing, and gentle read that should have come with a warning label, as it proved hazardous to my diet. Don’t report me to your diet guru but - gasp - the food! It sounded positively delectable! The lessons, food prep, the mess, the eating… all of which had me frequently venturing into my pantry while foraging for food and gasp even a frightening moment where I was actually considering dusting off the mixer to replicate their baking efforts, that soon passed... But I was highly pleased to find a few recipes in the back, in particular, the one for brownies, which has only three ingredients and uses Nutella – OMG - that right there is worth purchasing the book.

And I hit a treasure trove of additions for my Brit Vocab List with: throw a wobbly” (tantrum), Serviettes (table napkin), mahoosive (extremely large) skew-whiff (lopsided), Eton mess (a sweet dessert), and Bloody Nora (an expression of dismay dating back to a long-dead 17th century Duke after one of his servants, named Norah, who had a penchant for battering and killing the Duke’s other servants with odd objects such as celery sticks and tea kettles, and thus causing a bloody mess). Learning a new vernacular is such fun.

Empress DJ

Author Bio – Jane Linfoot is a best selling author, who lives in a muddy cottage, up a steep hill in Derbyshire, with her family, their pets, and an astonishing number of spiders. Although she loves seeing cow noses over the garden wall, she’s happy she can walk to a supermarket.

Jane grew up in North Yorkshire where she spent a lot of her childhood avoiding horizontal gales blowing off the sea, and wrote her first book by accident while working as an architect, and renovating country houses. While she loves to write feelgood books that let readers escape, she’s always surprised to hear her stories make people laugh, admits to (occasionally) crying as she writes, and credits her characters for creating their own story lines.

Jane’s garden would be less brambly if she wasn’t on Facebook and Twitter so often. On days when she wants to be really scared, she rides a tandem.

Her latest books include a series of stand-alone novels, based around a seaside wedding shop in Cornwall. Cupcakes and Confetti – The Little Wedding Shop by the Sea, Sequins and Snowflakes – Christmas at the Little Wedding Shop, and Bunting and Bouquets – Summer at the Little Wedding Shop, and most recently, The Little Cornish Kitchen. These are all published by Harper Impulse, an imprint of Harper Collins.

Follow Jane on Twitter @janelinfoot, or find her on her Author Page Facebook or her Personal Page Facebook. She’s also on Instagram, and has lots of Pinterest boards relating to her novels.

Giveaway – 

Win a signed copy of The Little Cornish Kitchen, Mermaid Notebook and Sugar Unicorns 

(Open Internationally)

*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome.  Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will be passed to the giveaway organizer and used only for the fulfillment of the prize, after which time I will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize

a Rafflecopter giveaway