Who said that only real heroes could be found in fiction?
Sarah Smith had an addiction – she was addicted to romance novels. The meet-cute, the passion, the drama and the gorgeous men! Now this wouldn’t have been such an issue if she hadn’t been the owner of the only bookshop in Ashford, Connecticut.
Ever since her close friend Lil, from The Gingerbread Café, had become engaged she had been yearning for a little love to turn up in her life. Except Sarah knew a good man was hard to find – especially in a tiny town like Ashford. That was until New York journalist, Ridge Warner stepped into her bookshop…
Love could be just around the corner for Sarah, but will she be able to truly believe that happy-ever-after can happen in real-life too!
Today I’m really excited to be part of the blog tour organised by the lovely girls over at Gosling Girls Book Tours for Rebecca Raisin’s latest novella, ‘The Bookshop on the Corner’, which was released on the 17th of June 2014. Some of you might have come across Rebecca’s name during the past few months in connection with her series about The Gingerbread Cafe. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to read those novellas yet, but I am familiar with Rebecca’s work, only under her pseudonym, Billie Jones. I got the chance to review ‘Mexican Kimono’ last year, a read I really enjoyed (click here to read my review), so I was excited to read something of Rebecca’s romance work this time around!
‘The Bookshop on the Corner’ tells the story of Sarah Smith who owns her own lovely book shop in Ashford, a small town in Connecticut. Sarah loves nothing more than making herself comfortable with a good romance novel in order to dream away about an attractive man who can sweep her off her feet. But, one day, when Sarah is stuck with her nose in another novel, an actual handsome stranger walks into her book shop. Ridge Warner is a journalist from New York who is writing an article about the small town of Ashford and Sarah and her bookshop have managed to get his attention. Will Sarah be able to step away from the pages of her beloved romance novels and take this chance to find love in the real world?
This is a novella book lovers will undoubtedly fall in love with, just like I did. It was easy to warm to Sarah, because I could recognise myself in her. I’d do anything to be the owner of an amazing book shop like the one described in this story; it sounds like such a wonderful place, heaven on earth for book lovers! Rebecca Raisin’s descriptive writing style really made it easy for me to imagine everything in my head; not just the book shop, but the entire village and the cast of amazing characters. I loved Sarah’s friends, such as her best friend Missy, who runs the beauty salon in town, and CeeCee and Lils from the Gingerbread Cafe, and there’s also the handsome stranger, Ridge; I could completely understand why Sarah was swept off her feet by him!
I’m not familiar with Rebecca Raisins’ other novellas about the Gingerbread Cafe; this didn’t bother me while reading this particular story, so it definitely works as a stand-alone. It did make me curious, though, and I look forward to picking up Rebecca’s other stories in the near future! If I have to name one thing I thought was a bit of a shame, it has to be the fact that this is a novella. The story was quite short and I finished it rather quickly. I fell in love with the characters, the storyline, and the setting, and I definitely wouldn’t have minded if this had been an entire book, with space for more background information and more details. Overall, ‘The Bookshop on the Corner’ is a simply charming, wonderful, quick read; a story which any chick lit/romance/book fan will certainly enjoy.
Rating:
9,0
/10
For more information about this book: Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Goodreads
Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Mexican Kimono is fast-paced, satirical chick lit by upcoming Australian author, Billie Jones, guaranteed for a laugh or three. Narcissistic Samantha simply can’t resist buying the beautiful kimono at auction on a whim. That’s what credit cards are for, right? And then the kimono’s curse starts taking apart her life, spectacularly and destructively, one hair extension at a time, and Sam’s in for a hell of a ride.
At the start of this year, I was contacted by publisher Really Blue Books about the release of ‘Mexican Kimono’, a new novel by Billie Jones (pseudonym of author Rebecca Raisin, chosen so she could easily separate the different styles of her novels). I hadn’t read anything by Rebecca Raisin before, even though I heard about her and loved the cover of her 2013 Christmas e-book ‘Christmas at the Gingerbread Cafe’. I thought the blurb of ‘Mexican Kimono’ sounded fun and I do enjoy a satirical read every now and again, so a few weeks ago I sat down one afternoon, eager to find out what this novel would be like!
Samantha simply can’t help herself when she spots a gorgeous colourful kimono at an auction she’s attending. Without thinking about it, she pops out her credit card and she’s the new owner of the kimono for the price of 10,000 dollars. However, Samantha’s joy of owning this beautiful garment quickly disappears when she finds out it is actually cursed and completely destroying her life, bit by bit. Samantha finds herself in numerous crazy and inexplicable situations, one after the other, and she knows she has to find a way to break the curse, whatever it takes.
Samantha, the main character in this novel, is nothing like most other chick lit heroines. She is extremely selfish and has a foolish but fascinating way of thinking; she, for example, truly believes that every single guy she meets has a crush on her (which results in some quite funny situations, I have to admit). Most of the time I just wanted to slap her in the face, but at the same time I couldn’t help but laugh at how she sees the world and handles the crazy situations she finds herself in after she has bought the cursed kimono. I guess she is the perfect example of a character you can hate and love at the same time. I loved seeing how the secondary characters in the novel deal with Samantha, and it definitely resulted in some truly entertaining conversations.
Billie Jones’ writing is quite addictive and made it easy to visualise everything, from the setting to the characters. The story also included quite a few twists and turns I did not see coming; I honestly couldn’t predict what was going to happen in this book, which is also one of the reasons why I just wanted to keep on reading. I suppose I was constantly looking for the basic chick lit recipe, but while the novel definitely has some chick lit elements, it is also quite original in its own way. ‘Mexican Kimono’ is a unique, fast-paced and entertaining novel that is filled with so much satire you can’t help but laugh out loud while reading about Samantha’s life. A fun read and different from anything else I’ve read!
Rating:
7,5/10
For more information about this book: Amazon UK / Amazon US / Goodreads
Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.
