Book review: A Passionate Love Affair with a Total Stranger by Lucy Robinson

My edition: Paperback, to be published on 31 January 2013 by Penguin, 434 pages.

Description: Charley Lambert has put considerable effort into achieving a perfect life. She has The Job. The Wardrobe. And The Flat. Her womanising, junk food-loving housemate Sam lowers the tone a bit but that aside, things are peachy.

Then she breaks her leg in three places, watches her unrequited love propose to someone else and - worst of all - is forced to hand over her job to her nasty deputy while she recovers. Workaholic Charley fears that she will soon go mad.

Desperate for something to do, she discovers her talent for helping the lovelorn online. And then William arrives in her inbox. Within hours of his first email, her world starts to change. Helpless, she watches herself fall in love with this man and begins to realise that she's not who she thought she was. But will she be brave enough to turn her back on her old life - all for a total stranger?

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Book review: Forgive Me by Lesley Pearse

My edition: Paperback (ARC), to be published on 14 February 2013 by Michael Joseph, 512 pages.

Description: Cheltenham, 1991

When Eva Patterson returns home from work one day, a devastating scene awaits her. Her mother, Flora, lies dead in the bath. Beside her is a note saying only: 'Forgive Me'.

Until then, Eva always believed her family's life would be comfortable and secure - but Flora's suicide changes everything. And when Eva discovers that in her will Flora left her an artist's studio in London, she realises how little she knows about her mother's past.

When Eva visits the now derelict studio, she is shocked to find out that her mother was once a successful artist back in the 1960s. A chance encounter leads her to Phil, who agrees to help her restore the studio, as well as offering her the advice and friendship Eva so badly needs.

In the studio attic she finds a collection of Flora's paintings and old diaries, which Eva believes were purposely left for her to find. Searching for answers, Eva encounters a psychic who mysteriously warns her to beware of a 'sleeping serpent', which she soon discovers refers to a shocking crime in Flora's past.

Will discovering the truth destroy Eva's belief in everything she holds dear? And will Phil stand by Eva even when her journey leads her and those she loves into certain danger?

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Book review: The Last Time I Saw You by Eleanor Moran

My edition: Paperback, to be published on 7 February 2013 by Quercus, 594 pages.

Description: When Olivia Berrington gets the call to tell her that her best friend from university has been killed in a car crash in New York, her life is turned upside down. Her relationship with Sally was an exhilarating roller coaster, until a shocking betrayal drove them apart. But if Sally had really turned her back, why is her little girl named Olivia?

As questions mount about the fatal accident, Olivia is forced to go back and unravel her untangled history. But as Sally's secrets start to spill out, Olivia's left asking herself if the past is best kept buried.

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Book review: Lost & Found by Tom Winter

My edition: Paperback, to be published on 21 February 2013 by Corsair, 320 pages.

Description: It started with a letter...

Carol is married to a man she doesn't love and mother to a daughter she doesn't understand. Crippled with guilt, she can't shake the feeling that she has wasted her life. So she puts pen to paper and writes a Letter to the Universe.

Albert is a widowed postman, approaching retirement age, and living with his cat, Gloria, for company. Slowly being pushed out at his place of work, he is forced down to the section of the post office where they sort undeliverable mail.

When a series of letters turns up with a smiley face drawn in place of an address, he cannot help reading them.

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Book review: Stolen by Lesley Pearse

My edition: Paperback, published in 2010 by Penguin books, 469 pages.

Description:A beautiful young woman is discovered half-drowned on a Sussex beach... Where has she come from? Why can't she remember who she is - or what happened?

She's wearing an old-fashioned dress and her hair has been hacked off. She's obviously been bound by the wrists and ankles. But without knowing her own name or who did this to her, she can't begin to piece together who she is and what led her to this unfamiliar place.

The police are baffled, but when the doctors examine her they make a shocking discovery: she has recently given birth. Who on earth is she? And where is her baby?

Stolen is a riveting, nail-biting story of a young woman desperately trying to recover her past and make sense of the woman she used to be.

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Book review: Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by Abby Clements

My edition: Paperback, to be published on 25 October 2012 by Quercus, 357 pages.

Description: Childhood friends Laurie and Rachel's lives have taken very different paths since they picked up their A-level results together.

Laurie is living in London and dedicated to her career, keeping track of her friends on Facebook. Rachel is seemingly living the family idyll in a cottage in Yorkshire - except she worries her marriage is starting to show cracks.

When Rachel's mother in law falls ill and needs treatment in London, and Laurie decides she needs to get away for a break, a house swap falls into place. Soon Rachel is braving the mean streets of London while trying to keep her family together, while Laurie tries to figure out how to work an Aga and befriend the locals - and forget the man who seems intent on breaking her heart.

Will their relationships survive this test? And will they make it home in time for Christmas?

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Book review: With Love at Christmas by Carole Matthews

My edition: Paperback, to be published on 25 October 2012 by Sphere, 432 pages.

Description: Can the imperfect family really have the perfect Christmas?

Juliet Joyce adores Christmas. She loves the presents, the tree, the turkey, the tinsel, everything. Already the festive spirit is upon her, which is just as well as this Christmas things are starting to get out of hand.

Her son Tom is out of work and bringing home a slew of unsuitable partners; pregnant daughter Chloe and her little boy have moved back in; Juliet's father, Frank, is getting over a heartbreak of his own and Rita, her eccentric mother, is behaving more erratically each day. And has the chaos got too much for Juliet's husband Rick?

With the big day fast approaching, Juliet hopes that she can stop everything spiralling out of control, because the only thing she wants is her family all around her and her home to be filled.

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Book review: It Happened in Venice by Molly Hopkins

My edition: Paperback, published on 30 August 2012 by Sphere, 480 pages.

Description: Welcome to Venice, the city of love.

He cheated, but only once! Evie Dexter has promised to forgive her fiancé Rob - and her efforts to absolve his sins are paying off: in the past ten days she's only called him a two-timing love rat eleven times.

Thank goodness her flourishing career as a tour guide takes her to fashionable Dublin, in-vogue Marrakech and cool Amsterdam.

And when Evie's offered a luxury visit to the sensual city of Venice she jumps at the chance. With its delicious wine and sultry Italian men, four days in the city of light and love is just what she needs.

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Book review: Life, Death and Vanilla Slices by Jenny Eclair

My edition: Paperback, published on 5 July 2012 by Sphere, 352 pages.

Description: Jean Collins is in a coma. She stepped out into the middle of the road without looking and was run over by a motorbike.

But what had distracted her? And why was she carrying a box of vanilla slices - the cream cakes she only ever bought for special celebrations?

For Jean's daughter Anne, these questions are the least of her concern. Travelling back up north to visit her mother, Anne frets about leaving her two sons behind in London - boys who are rapidly becoming men, and not very pleasant ones at that.

And there are secrets waiting for Anne, back in the house where she grew up. Secrets she doesn't want to think about - that she buried a long time ago...

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Event: Vintage tea party at Little, Brown

A few weeks ago I read the excellent The Vintage Teacup Club (find my review here) by Vanessa Greene and I was very fortunate to be invited along to a special vintage tea party by publisher Little, Brown Book Group hosted by none other than the lovely author of the novel herself.

On Wednesday afternoon I set out for the Little, Brown offices, which are housed in a stunning neo-classical building on Victoria Embankment.

As you can see on my photos below (behind the cut), we were upon arrival treated to a spread of colourful cakes, sandwiches and scones. The table was also filled with pretty vintage tea cups and saucers, which was of course very suited to the theme of the event. I filled my plate with two types of yummy sandwiches, a cute little pink cake and a scone with the most delicious clotted cream ever.