Category: books

My 2024 Book List 🎉📚

Hi guys 👋🏻

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2025 IS HERE!

I have been keeping this little book list all year and thought I would share it with you now that it is complete!

I have included my favourite books of the year, as well as some more indepth info on my reading for 2024.

Let’s take a look!

(Pink books are Book Club Books)

Novels

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

The Colour Purple by Alice Walker

The Land of Stories: Worlds Collide by Chris Colfer

The Sisters by Claire Douglas

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russel

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

Noone saw a thing by Andrea Mara

November 9 by Colleen Hoover

None of this is true by Lisa Jewell

The Traitors by C.A. Lynch

The IT girl by Ruth Ware

A Song of Me & You by Mike Gayle

All the Lonely People by Mike Gayle

The Trap by of Catherine Ryan Howard

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

The Holiday Escape by Heidi Swain

The Inmate by Freida McFadden

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

The Guest by Lorraine Mace

The Housemaids secret by Freida McFadden

The Housemaid is watching by Freida McFadden

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

The Little Venice Bookshop by Rebecca Raisin

The Twins of Auschwitz by Eva Mozes Kor

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

Haven’t They Grown by Sophie Hannah

Taking at night by Claire Daverley

The Dream Home by T M Logan

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

The Wilds by Sarah Pearse

Twin Truths by Jaqueline Sutherland

The Perfect Son by Frieda McFadden

Just Another Missing Person by Gillian McAllister

One by One by Frieda McFadden

Behind Closed Doors by B A Paris

The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood

The Teacher by Tim Sullivan

The Coworker by Freida Mcfadden

The Locked Door by Freida McFadden

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

The Christmas Cottage by Sarah Morgan

Happy Bloody Christmas by Jo Middleton

The Christmas Sisters by Sarah Morgan

Home for Christmas by Heidi Swain

I wish it could be Christmas every day by Milly Johnson

Novellas

A Highland Christmas by M.C Beaton

Maybe Not by Colleen Hoover

Audiobooks

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J K Rowling

Glutton: The Multi-Course life of a very greedy boy by Ed Gamble

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

1984 by George Orwell

The Dead Zone by Stephen King

Other

The Land of Stories: The ultimate book hugger’s guide by Chris Colfer

Dino Dad by Andy Day

Let’s take a closer look at this year’s reads…

What has been your favourite book of 2024??? 📚

What’s the best book you’ve been recommended??

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas 2024: Day 21 Our final Book Club meeting of the year 📚🎅🏻

Hi guys 👋🏻

On Thursday, we had our final Book Club meeting of the year!We all met up at a local restaurant, which is the new location for our Book Club.

We all dressed up in festive attire, and the tablescape looked great and very Christmassy.

As is tradition, I made everyone a little handmade gift. For the last two years, I’ve made Christmas tree decs with the books we read that year in/on them. I thought it would be nice to do something different this year after two years of baubles, so I went for Bookmarks.

Simple, effective, and super handy for book lovers like us.

Our final book was…

‘Happy Bloody Christmas’ by Jo Middleton

I gave this book 🌟🌟.5 stars out of 5.

My take on the book?

‘Festive, funny, farfetched.’

I was an easy read! Perfect for the hectic Christmas period for a bit of light relief and a laugh.

Because we were at the restaurant we all went for the 3 course festive menu, which was yummy!

All in all, it was a fun evening! Lots of good discussion, festive cheer, and good food.

Here’s to another year of reading 📚

Are you part of a Book Club? What’s the best book you’ve read this year?

4 days until Christmas!

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas 2024: Day 19 My Christmas Reads so far…

Hi guys 👋🏻

I thought I would give you a little update on the Christmas books that I have read so far, during this festive period! I started reading them in November in order to get through more than I usually do. I have a lot on my shelf and I really wanted to get through more of them this year than I have in the past few years. I will also include which book I am gong to be reading next.

Lets take a look!

The first Christmas book that I read was ‘The Christmas Cottage’ by Sarah Morgan. This is her latest Christmas book and as I really enjoyed hers last year I went for this first. They are a little longer than some of my others too, so starting this one in November seemed the better option.

I would give this book 🌟⭐️🌟 stars out of five.

Things I liked about this book were:

  • Likeable characters
  • Cute romance
  • A lovely dog
  • A twist I didn’t see coming

For our December Book Club book we like to go for a Christmas story. This year we went for ‘Happy Bloody Christmas’ by Jo Middleton.

I would give this book  🌟⭐️🌟stars out of five.

Things I liked about this book were:

  • Funny
  • Easy reader
  • Different to my usual Christmas books
  • Relatable/realistic characters

A Sarah Morgan Christmas book that I have had on my shelf for at least 4 years is ‘The Christmas Sisters’/ I started this book (albeit the first 48 pages anyway haha) 3 years ago and for some reason I never got around to finishing it. I have been determined the last few years to read it and finish it but haven’t succeeded… until this year! I thoroughly enjoyed it and I am really glad I finally found out what happened to the sisters!!

I would give this book  🌟⭐️🌟stars out of five.

Things I liked about this book were:

  • It felt very festive
  • Interesting and different take on a family
  • Interesting characters
  • Relatable in terms of how different sisters can be!

Currently I am reading ‘I wish it could be Christmas everyday’; by Milly Johnson. This is another book that I started one year and ran out of time (I’m not a ‘can read festive books all year round’ kinda gal) so it was abandoned. Again, I have been meaning to pick it up again and finish it as I remember really enjoying the characters and being intrigued by the story. I was a bit further along in this book, at least 150 pages but I decided to start again as I knew you were introduced to quite a few characters at the beginning and you learn a lot about them, all stuff I definitely wouldn’t have remembered so the refresh was needed to fully appreciate and enjoy the story.

Things I like about this book…. (So far)

  • Very intriguing story
  • Interesting and endearing characters
  • Well developed characters
  • Easy reader

So, What is going to be my next read???

Well I have been saving the best until last!! The latest Heidi Swain Christmas book ‘Home for Christmas’

Heidi is one of my all time favourite authors, I have read everything she has written so far and ALWAYS pre order her books (so I have waited very patiently to read this)

I’ve saved it until the end because I want to be able to read it during the Christmas break (from work) in order to fully enjoy the reading experienced. I want to be able to fully immerse myself in her wonderfully festive world of Wynbridge and Wynthorpe Hall. I CAN’T WAIT!! Its like being reacquainted with old friends.

Plus, her books are SUPER festive so they are ideal for reading right before Christmas to add to the festive feels.

I’m also listening to a little Christmas audiobook too. ‘The Christmas Book Hunt’ by Jenny Colgan. I am enjoying this so far, and it’s only a short one of about 3 hrs, so that’s good.

What festive books are you reading?

6 days until Christmas!! 🎄

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Blogmas 2024: Day 4 Christmas Book Recommendations

Hi guys 👋🏻

It’s Blogmas Day Four and it had to be all about books!!

What better way to start the festive month than with a brilliantly festive read to get you in the mood.

Here are a few Christmas book recommendations for you to read during this festive period 🎄📚

I had to start off with these books… no festive period is complete without a Heidi Swain Christmas book. Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without it now.

This year’s newest book is…

‘Home for Christmas’

But every one of her festive reads is worth diving into!

‘Mince Pies and Mistletoe at the Christmas Market’

‘Mince Pies and Mistletoe at the Christmas Market’ was the first ever Heidi Swain book that I read, and let’s just say I was hooked and have never looked back.

‘Snowflakes and Cinnamon Swirls at the Winter Wonderland’
‘Sleigh Rides and Silver Bells at the Christmas Fair’
‘The Christmas Wish List’
‘That Festive Feeling’
‘The Winter Garden’
‘Underneath the Christmas Tree’

They are feel good, festive, and full of friends that you’ll miss when you are finished.

Another great Christmas author is Sarah Morgan!

Her latest novel is…

‘The Christmas Cottage’

Her other novels include…

‘The Christmas Book Club’

I read ‘The Christmas Book Club’ last year and loved it.

‘The Christmas Sisters’
‘Snowed in For Christmas’
‘The Christmas Escape’

Some other Christmas reads that I would recommend are:

  • ‘Happy Bloody Christmas’ by Jo Middleton
  • ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens
  • ‘An Unfortunate Christmas Murder’ by Hannah Hendy
  • ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’ by Milly Johnson
  • ‘The Merry Christmas Project’ by Cathy Bramley
  • ‘Baby it’s Cold Outside’ by Emily Bell
  • ‘Finding Love At The Christmas Market’ by Jo Thomas.

Hopefully, there are enough suggestions there to keep you going throughout December and through to New years!

21 days until Christmas

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Halloween fun! 👻🦇

Hi guys 👋🏻

I love Halloween! So I thought I would share with any of my fellow Halloween fans out there, what I’ve been up to this spooky season!

Let’s take a look…

Decorating!
Pumpkin picking!
Halloween nails!
Pumpkin carving!
Halloween film night!
Spooky reads 📚

What have you been up to this Spooky Season?

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Favourite book of the month, 2024 edition

Hi guys 👋🏻

How is it already October!!!

Spooky season is upon us 🎃

I thought I would share my favourite book from each month so far this year. There have been so many good ones. And who knows, you might even find some inspiration in my list!

Here goes…

January

Title: The Land of Stories: Worlds Collide

Author: Chris Colfer

Genre: Fantasy (Children’s)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

February

Title: Remarkably Bright Creatures

Author: Shelby Van Pelt

Genre: Mystery

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

March

Title: Noone Saw A Thing

Author: Andrea Mara

Genre: Thriller

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

April

Title: Glutton

Author: Ed Gamble

Genre: Memoir

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

May

Title: Tattooist of Auschwitz

Author: Heather Morris

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

&

Title: The Inmate

Author: Freida McFadden

Genre: Thriller

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

June

Title: The Housemaid Series1.

1. The Housemaid

2. The Housemaid’s secret

3. The Housemaid is watching

Author: Freida McFadden

Genre: Thriller

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

July

Title: The Dead Zone

Author: Stephen King

Genre: Science Fiction Thriller

Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

&

Title: The Twins of Auschwitz

Author: Eva Mozes Kor

Genre: Historical, Autobiographical

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

August

Title: The Wilds

Author: Sarah Pearse

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

&

Title: The Perfect Son

Author: Freida McFadden

Genre: Thriller

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

September

Title: Behind Closed Doorz

Author: B A Paris

Genre: Thriller

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

What’s been the best book that you’ve read so far this year?

All recommendations welcome!

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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July Highlights ✨️

Hi guys 👋🏻

Here are my July Highlights…

Lots of fun cinema trips! A Quiet Place Day One was a highlight for sure!

We celebrated my husbands 33rd birthday!

We had some birthday treats including listening to Rome Historian Mary Beard and A trip to the theatre to watch ‘Come from away’ both of which were brilliant.

We celebrated my nieces 7th birthday! 🎈🎀💜

Lots of book buying this month, which is also a highlight. My reading in general has also been great, and I managed to read 7 again this month!! (I’m sure that won’t last into the busy last part of the year 🤣)

Fun with my favourite two 😍

And a bit of pre season watching ✌🏼🚜

Roll on the Summer Hols ☀️

How was your July?

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Book Recommendations 📚

Hi guys 👋🏻

Can you believe that we are actually halfway through the year!!?! Madness.

So far this year I have read ..

I’m hoping to get to 52 by the end of the year 🤞🏻

I thought I would chuck a few recommendations out there based on what I’ve read so far.

These are some of the books I have read, and I’ll give them a little rating out of 5 for you.

‘The Housemaid’ by Freida McFadden

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

‘The Housemaids Secret’ by Freida McFadden

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

‘The Housemaid is Watching’ by Freida McFadden

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

‘No One Saw a Thing’ by Andrea Mara

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

‘The Holiday Escape’ by Heidi Swain

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’ by Heather Morris

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘The Inmate’ by Freida McFadden

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

‘The Trap’ by Catherine Ryan Howard

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

‘November 9th’ by Colleen Hoover

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

‘None of this is true’by Lisa Jewell
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5
‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’by Shelby Van Pelt

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

Have you read any of these?

If you do, let me know! & any recommendations always welcome.

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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June Highlights ✨️

Hi guys 👋🏻

Here are my June highlights…

Me, my twin sister and her family, my husband, and a couple of our friends went to the Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tour in Watford. This place is BRILLIANT, a must for any Harry Potter fans, I love visiting there. They had the ‘Return to Azkaban’ event on celebrating 20 years of the 3rd film – it was an awesome day out, and great to see some new parts of the tour.
We celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary on the 11th of June. Tim bought me some beautiful flowers, and we went out for a lovely meal at one of our favourite Italian restaurants.
To celebrate our 8th Wedding Anniversary me and my husband spent a touristy day out together in London. We started off the day at the Tower of London, we then had a boat rode on the Thames, followed by  the London Eye, sightseeing, and a comedy show in the evening. It was a brilliant and super fun day out.
For Fathers Day, we went to Felixstowe for a day in the sunshine.
We had a nice walk along the prom and a go on the ferris wheel with Dad.
We enjoyed dinner at ours, a nice sunset walk and games with my mother in law.
We celebrated my Dad’s 70th birthday with a family meal, with the cake I made for dessert… followed by a day on the Mid Norfolk railway 🛤

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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Birthday Book Haul 📚

Hi guys 👋🏻

I recently celebrated my 33rd birthday! 😱 Time flies aye.

In this blog post, I thought I would show you which books I was very kindly given. I didn’t ask for any of these, and I love seeing which ones people pick out for me.

There’s a nice mixture of genres here and I can’t wait to get stuck into them.

Is there a better present than a book someone has chosen for you because they think you’ll like it!!

Let’s take a look…

‘There are three rules Brooke Sullivan must follow as a new nurse practitioner at a men’s maximum-security prison:
1) Treat all prisoners with respect.
2) Never reveal any personal information.
3) Never EVER become too friendly with the inmates. But none of the staff at the prison knows Brooke has already broken the rules. Nobody knows about her intimate connection to Shane Nelson, one of the penitentiary’s most notorious and dangerous inmates. And they certainly don’t know that Shane was Brooke’s high school sweetheart–the star quarterback who is now spending the rest of his life in prison for a series of grisly murders. Or that Brooke’s testimony was what put him there. But Shane knows. And he will never forget.’
‘Lexie Dunbar is a book lover. And her favourite place in the world is her local bookstore, Book Ends. So when she hears that it’s going to be sold, Lexie decides she needs to do something to help.
Lexie’s plan to save the ailing shop is fully underway until gorgeous-but-grouchy artist Tobias Black arrives on the scene determined to turn the bookstore into an art gallery. Lexie is horrified, the last thing the quaint town of Bracken Way needs is a pretentious artist, even if he does seem to charm everyone but her.
Tensions continue to rise until Tobias discovers a shocking secret that shows they might have more in common than they realise. As sparks fly, can Lexie and Tobias work together, or will opposing ideas get in the way of them finding their very own happy ever after…’
‘Lynda Blackthorn is still reeling from the tragic car crash that killed her family more than a year ago. Throwing herself into her volunteer charity work, she is trying to piece her life back together.
When she’s asked to be the face of the charity’s annual fundraiser, an appeal for volunteers on the local news brings old friend Sarah to her door – and the events of fourteen years ago crashing down around her.
As the two women reconnect, Lynda invites Sarah to stay in her guest bedroom. But soon strange things start happening and Lynda learns it might have been better to keep the door to the past firmly closed . . .’
‘It is 1942 and, with the country still at war, the girls who work for Joe Lyons are praying for their loved ones to return home safely.
Happily married Rose is busy with staffing problems at the teashop, many women having taken on war work. Rose dreams of her husband’s return while trying to keep everyone happy.
Lily has her own worries when the father of her daughter appears back in her life – with no explanation. Katie longs for a family of her own, just as a handsome airman arrives on the scene.
At Sea View Guest House, Flora – wary of a relationship and marriage – is fearful of letting her feelings for John Bentley develop further. Especially as she has her guests to be mindful of . . .
Anya is torn, having given birth to a beautiful baby boy who is the spitting image of his father, who has been taken as a prisoner of war. Presented with a chance to save him, Anya confides in her friends, leaving her son in their care. With the uncertainty of the future, can the Teashop girls overcome their personal battles?’

I was also very lucky to get some other ‘bookish’ birthday gifts in the form of some book vouchers! (YAY! New books) as well as this lovely book themed throw from my mother in law (already tucked up safely in my reading corner) and this cute personalised tote bag from my friend at work (perfect for fitting in lots of books during my next shopping spree!!)

An excellent haul, I’m very lucky.

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

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