prettylittlewriter

But that was then... Now Michael is the earl and Francesca is free, but still she thinks of him as nothing other than her dear friend and confidant. Michael dares not speak to her of his love... until one dangerous night, when she steps innocently into his arms, and passion proves stronger than even the most wicked of secrets...’

This is probably my second favourite of the Bridgerton novels so far! (#3 Benedict is still my fav).

It starts with Michael Stirling pining over his cousin’s wife, whom he’s been in love with since her first met her, and his internal monologue is showcasing his turmoil about how he can’t have her.

Then pretty soon after (maybe even the first chapter?!) his cousin John dies, and Francesca is left widowed.

Michael, ever the gentleman, still refuses to consider that he could now be with Frannie; it would be disrespectful towards John and Frannie didn’t feel that way about him, did she?

Francesca doesn’t consider Michael as a romantic prospect for quite a while throughout the novel, talking about him as her best friend, and like a brother to her. The relationship between them was quite special, and I loved seeing how close they were without any romance involved at the start, and it was quite apparent to me that John would definitely have approved of them together after his death (he even comments upon how Michael looks after her when he’s not around, before his death).

We skip ahead 4 years after John’s death, and Michael has been in India for the last 4 years, unable to cope being around Francesca knowing his feelings towards her.

Upon his return, he meets Francesca in London unexpectedly (she is ready to find a new husband), and it soon transpires that he has caught malaria on his travels.

This is the first time they both have some intimate relations, as Francesca takes care of him during his fever spells.

As the story progresses, Francesca starts to realise that she is beginning to have feelings for him, but is determined not to act on them to honour John’s name.

The one thing that infuriated me a little bit was how much they both refused to give in to their feelings. It took them nearly ¾ of the novel before they started having any romantic/intimate encounters, as they were both being incredibly stubborn that it wasn’t the ‘done’ thing.

I will say however, that once the spicy scenes started, they were brilliant. I would even go as far as to say that this is the spiciest of the first 6 books! The scene where Francesca is taking charge over Michael was *chefs kiss*.

I also really liked how much Michael considered Francesca’s feelings throughout, even though he knew she wanted him after their first encounter, he would always wait for her consent before doing anything.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one, and it’s definitely one that I look forward to seeing play out on the TV show!

4/5 stars

This book was the loveliest celebration of life and of death wrapped in one.

Our lovely MC Florence has her fair share of heartbreak in this novel, from losing her father, to her vile ex who stole her life and memories, and then to top it off, her new editor who had potential to be something more.

After the shit meeting Florence has with her new editor regarding the half-finished manuscript, she goes on a night out with her best friend Rose, and she ends up bumping into her ex who destroyed her belief in romance, and then her new editor Benji ends up in front of her too! Just when you think she’s going to perhaps find her love for romance again after a little smooch with Benji, she gets an earth shattering call from her mum.

Upon returning to her hometown after her Father’s death, Florence has some figuring out to do, mainly in the way of what the hell she’s going to do about this half completed manuscript she needs to finish for Anne Nichols, the author she is ghost writing for. As planning her Father’s funeral gets underway (he has some very specific instructions for it, including Elvis!) editor Benji rocks up to cause even more chaos.

Ghost Benji isn’t sure why he’s still around, and what unfinished business he may have, and Florence believes it’s to help her finish the manuscript, but as she has no motivation for completing it at the present moment, Benji is just there to help her through this incredibly difficult time, and he becomes a source of comfort for Florence quite quickly.

I love that both Florence and her Father had the gift of being able to see and communicate with ghosts, it was a really special bond between them, but I must admit I was waiting for her Father to also pop up at some point as a ghost to offer her some Fatherly advice.

I managed to guess the twist to this story quite early on, as I picked up on something that best friend Rose, DIDN’T say, along with a couple of other hints from Poston about it, which I really enjoyed seeing play out. The only thing that upset me a little was how late on in the novel that this happens, as I would have liked more scenes from ‘after’ between Florence and Ben.

The relationship between Florence & Ben was the sweetest development. With Ben being a ghost, it was quite heart-breaking watching them both start to fall for each other, when they knew they couldn’t ever really be together, even if Ben managed to stick around as a ghost (although it didn’t stop them from having a couple of very sexy encounters; Ben certainly has a way with words!). Although they knew they couldn’t be together properly, they were both there for each other in the best ways they could be, especially Ben for Florence, as he became a beacon of light for her whilst she was wading through the depths of despair surrounding her Father’s death.

Florence’s ex Lee was the most infuriating character ever. I HATED him for destroying so much of her life, including her belief that she would ever find love again. So seeing his novel based on her life being published almost led me to throwing the book across the room a few times! I really wanted karma to come along and bite him in the ass.

Seeing Florence come back together with her remaining family was lovely, her relationship with her sister albeit complicated, was filled with so much love, that it was nice to see them find their way back to each other. The dynamics of the family were very different, with them also basically living and breathing death due to running a funeral home, it was nice to see them celebrating life in different ways, including dancing around the morgue to her Father’s favourite CD. It was a breath of fresh air.

There was a lot of love within the story, not just between Florence and Ben and her family, but also from friends around her. Although she had been away from her hometown for many years, the relationships she had with certain people in the town, including Dana and their partner John, were still very much in play, with some lovely interactions between them.

I also love that the Mayor was a dog! This was a very cute addition to the story.

There were quite a few pop culture name drops within the story (other authors mainly) and also my fav Taylor Swift, which I also really enjoyed.

This review is probably very scatty, I’m struggling to cohesively put one together as I just have so many random thoughts about it, but overall I really did love it and would highly recommend it to anyone that loves a rom-com with a difference. The only reason I’m not rating this 5/5 stars is I just wish the resolution of the story happened sooner, so we had a few more interactions between Florence & Ben afterwards.

4/5 stars

But having grown up in the same small town that was consumed by the murder, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn't so sure. When she chooses the case as the topic for her final year project, she starts to uncover secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden. And if the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth?’

This book had me hooked from start to finish! It was so good!

Pippa is the best MC, confident in her ability and not afraid to go against the grain. She’s also incredibly bubbly and I loved this about her! She definitely gets it from her family, as they are also incredibly fun and I loved her Dad!

When she begins her investigation for her school project, she starts off by visiting Sal’s family, and actually bonds with Ravi, Sal’s brother, and they team up as a double act to solve the case.

I was unsure how this was going to pan out, as one, she’s a teenage girl, how can she really expect to solve a murder that was an open and shut case with the police? And two, I just couldn’t picture what had really happened. There were multiple suspects for the murder of Andie, and let’s be honest, we don’t blame any of them as she seemed to be a complete bitch! But I found it incredibly difficult to pinpoint who I thought it was going to be. This is a sign of a brilliant mystery though, as it’s not quite as thrilling when you can guess who it was!

There were so many twists and turns, one minute you think it’s Andie’s dad, then maybe it was Sal? But then you’re back to another suspect because Pippa has discovered some new evidence. It honestly was incredibly well written, and I enjoyed that it was split into Pippa’s notes for her school work as well as the main story, as we got to see Pippa’s thought process whilst analysing the information she’d found.

There also wasn’t any waffling, I find that some murder mystery books can bombard you with lots of descriptive stuff to create atmosphere, but this was just bam, bam, bam with something new! It might be as it’s a YA novel, but I certainly enjoyed this more as it kept me wanting to read more.

I honestly can’t fault this novel in any way.

If you’re a fan of YA crime, then PLEASE read this! It was brilliant, and straight after I’d finished it, I ordered the next two books! Highly recommend!

5/5 stars

 Synopsis
‘Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six, but nobody knows the real reason why they split at the absolute height of their popularity…until now.

I was looking forward to reading Daisy Jones as it’s had such incredible hype, not only from the book itself, but as the TV show has now been released on Amazon Prime (I've watched it and it's AMAZING!!)

I love the way it is written, in the format of an interview with every character from the novel (including some with minor roles); I thought this was an incredibly clever way of telling the story.

Daisy was a character that I loved, she had so much passion in so many ways, including in the music, which made her story that much more bittersweet. There were a couple of other very strong female characters within, including Karen the pianist, and Camila, Billy’s wife, who kept him in check when he started drowning in his addictions.

Billy was a character that I struggled to actually like, mainly due to his infidelity, but there were times when he surprised me; him taking care of his family, including Camila, was part of that.

The plot itself, young starry-eyed, beautiful woman joins a band and falls in love with a band member, was your typical music-related love story, however, it doesn’t end how you would expect. There’s a brilliant time jump at the very end, which explains the importance of Camila’s character, and how she really shaped the band and those within it, to make some hard-hitting decisions.

There were some parts of the novel that felt inconsequential, and even characters that could have been missed out (Eddie & Pete mainly), and I think because of the way the novel is written (interview transcript) it did take away from the emotions of the story, and felt a lot less personal. I think this is the main thing that was missing for me, it just felt very matter of fact, and I wasn’t particularly invested in the characters’ lives.

It did however, have the incredible rock ‘n’ roll feeling, and the things that the characters went through/were doing (think lots of drugs) was true for the 70’s era.

Overall, I would say it is a very good novel, with an interesting plot, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone that has a passion for music and musical novels, it just had that little bit of personal character-reader relationship missing for me.

 I would also highly recommend the TV show, as it has been done incredibly well and all the cast are amazing!

4/5 stars