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Off to the seaside! Book Review.

Meet Me at Pebble Beach Book Cover Meet Me at Pebble Beach
Bella Osborne
Fiction, Women's fiction
HarperCollins UK, Avon
May 28, 2020
416

Meet Me at Pebble Beach was originally published as a four-part serial. This is the complete story in one package. Regan is holding a winning lottery ticket. Goodbye to the boyfriend who never had her back, and so long to the job she can’t stand! Except it’s all a bit too good to be true… When Regan gets pranked, she finds herself jobless, homeless and boyfriendless in one fell swoop. Luckily her friendly seaside community provides a beacon of hope, proving to Regan that sometimes you really can rely on the kindness of others – and one local in particular, a handsome fireman called Charlie, helps Regan realise that this could be her chance for a fresh start. Armed with a list of ways to change her life, Regan decides it’s time to step out of her comfort zone. Because – as Charlie knows all too well – life is for living . . . A feel-good summer read, perfect for fans of Jill Mansell, Veronica Henry and Cressida McLaughlin.

This was an interesting story in that i thought it could have been better. The concept was good but the proof of concept needed improvement.

There was more opportunity for humour than was used, and the starting chapters were rather dull and lacking in originality. The later chapters improved but her final solution was not, for me, fully realised and believable. an almost story. I am giving it 3 stars because for some people it will appeal.

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High up there is a meeting place: Book Review

What We Find Book Cover What We Find
(Sullivan’s Crossing, Book 1)
Robyn Carr
Fiction
HarperCollins UK, Mills and boon
April 1, 2016
384

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF VIRGIN RIVER SULLIVANS’ CROSSING: BOOK ONE 

Is leaving her life behind the only way for Maggie to find happiness – and love?

Neurosurgeon Maggie Sullivan knows she needs to slow down before she burns out completely, and the best place she can do that is by heading home to Sullivan’s Crossing.

Indulging in the simple life should be the perfect escape. But Maggie’s world is rocked and she must take responsibility for the Crossing.

When quiet and serious Cal Jones, offers to lend a hand, Maggie is suspicious of his motive. Though as Cal and Maggie spend more time together it gives Maggie hope for something brighter just on the horizon…

This is a book based in Sulllivan’s Crossing, a camp site, high up in the mountains, and it is a really nice long read.  It is a story of second chances.

I remember reading about these really long mountain trails in the United States in actual biographies of people who have undertaken these trails, so the setting was immediately less strange to me.

 In these stories of how people undertook these extreme long walks they mentioned the crossing places where people met up, left packages in the post office, left messages for other travellers in diaries, and so on. But this is Colorado and to own a crossing place in Colorado, high up in the mountains, is an extreme undertaking. There is such a long cold winter and such a short summer.

 I thought that the background stories of Cole and Maggie were told wonderfully.

 I specially empathised with Cal – California – and his wife with scleroderma. Our daughter has it, although not so aggressively as in his wife’s case.  It can be very nasty indeed, especially in the world of autoimmune diseases as it tends to be – see one add one.  

To some extent the ending was inevitable, but the way we got there was very nicely told. This may not be great literature but it is satisfying reading. Good storytelling, well described characters, and some good plotting, as the author herself tells us – there should always be possibilities in a good story  – believable ones have a complex process in plotting, and the greats of literature she says, got their characters up a tree and then threw rocks at them (see location 2478 in the eBook).

A solid 4 stars.

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Yet more secrets

Falling For The Secret Prince Book Cover Falling For The Secret Prince
(Royal Christmas at Seattle General, Book 1)
Alison Roberts
Fiction
HarperCollins UK, (Mills & Boon Medical)
October 29, 2020
192

Revealing his past... is a risk worth taking! Dr. Dom Di Rossi’s world literally crashes through the ER doors when his father, the King of Isola Verde, is involved in a car crash. Until now, Dom’s royal connection has been carefully guarded. But when Dr. Emilia Featherstone, his old medical school rival, recognizes a previously unseen vulnerability behind his delicious eyes, she unintentionally becomes the keeper of his secret – and his heart!

Secret Princes are all the rage at the moment – at least this one isn’t a RockStar but a very successful ER Consultant and chief of Seattle’s main hospital.

Prestigious as his work is, and however hard he worked to achieve this role and his success, he has always known that at some time it would come to an end, and he would have to go back home, to Isola Verde and become King. Absolute Monarchy rather than Constitutional it seems.  And this time arrives. And he is needs more .. so his old rival in medical school is seen as that more..

In many ways this draws on the typical medical drama – a successful male and a female in his department – except that this female is a genius and completed her medical trauma training at a very young age. And is not a nurse!

We have drama and plenty of opportunity for further books to become pat of a series as to how it all works out and what about his sister and his best friend?

Nicely written in its genre but little that is unexpected once you know he is a Prince in disguise. Will appeal to the core audience for medical dramas.

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Let’s have an island kingdom.

Falling For The Secret Prince Book Cover Falling For The Secret Prince
(Royal Christmas at Seattle General, Book 1)
Alison Roberts
Fiction
HarperCollins UK, (Mills & Boon Medical)
October 29, 2020
192

Revealing his past…

is a risk worth taking!

Dr. Dom Di Rossi’s world literally crashes through the ER doors when his father, the King of Isola Verde, is involved in a car crash. Until now, Dom’s royal connection has been carefully guarded. But when Dr. Emilia Featherstone, his old medical school rival, recognizes a previously unseen vulnerability behind his delicious eyes, she unintentionally becomes the keeper of his secret – and his heart!

Secret Princes are all the rage at the moment – at least this one isn’t a RockStar but a very successful ER Consultant and chief of Seattle’s main hospital.

Prestigious as his work is, and however hard he worked to achieve this role and his success, he has always known that at some time it would come to an end, and he would have to go back home, to Isola Verde and become King. Absolute Monarchy rather than Constitutional it seems.  And this time arrives. And he is needs more .. so his old rival in medical school is seen as that more..

In many ways this draws on the typical medical drama – a successful male and a female in his department – except that this female is a genius and completed her medical trauma training at a very young age. And is not a nurse!

We have drama and plenty of opportunity for further books to become pat of a series as to how it all works out and what about his sister and his best friend?

Nicely written in its genre but little that is unexpected once you know he is a Prince in disguise. Will appeal to the core audience for medical dramas.

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Let’s go Adventuring – you can be King!

An Atlas of Extinct Countries: The Remarkable (and Occasionally Ridiculous) Stories of 48 Nations that Fell off the Map Book Cover An Atlas of Extinct Countries: The Remarkable (and Occasionally Ridiculous) Stories of 48 Nations that Fell off the Map
Gideon Defoe
Humor, History, Anthropology
HarperCollins UK
September 3, 2020
304

Prisoners of Geography meets Bill Bryson: a funny, fascinating, beautifully illustrated – and timely – history of countries that, for myriad and often ludicrous reasons, no longer exist.

 Great fun to read and to learn the characteristics of most monarchs of these countries:

  • Mad;
  • Good at borrowing money and not paying it back;
  • Charismatic;
  • Bum at choosing locations for their country;
  • Useless at managing a country;
  • Unable to either defend against the various colonial empires or to sell their own country to these empires;
  • Great at designing flags and uniforms.

So basically stupid, and worryingly, able to persuade people to get involved in their schemes, many of whom lost their lives due to famine, disease or other avoidable disasters.

Learnt something very interesting about the Vanuatu island and their hairless pigs, who are pseudo hermaphrodites – whereby the males have internal testes.

There is an article in 2006, by Lum et al in the PNAS journal, that days – pig is food in itself but is also a food storage unit, thus we obtain societal wealth and ecological balance by a form of competitive giving – of the pig.

Some pigs become ritual animals and are considered to have the equivalent status to a ‘man of title’ as they are very difficult to rear and being hairless suffer from sunburn. They are therefore extremely valuable in the pig hierarchy.

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