Edie Browne's Cottage by the Sea by Jane Linfoot (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

Of all of the fictional locations I wish I could visit, Jane Linfoot's St Aidan in Cornwall isn't just at the top of the list of places I wish I could visit -- it's at the top of the list of places I wish I could call home. I first fell in love with St Aidan and Jane's storytelling abilities three years ago with the first book in her Little Wedding Shop series (which I loved so much it got a Teaser Tuesday AND a Friday 56). I may have even audibly squealed when the shop got a little shoutout early in her latest offering -- Edie Browne's Cottage by the Sea.

After a life-altering turn of events, Edie takes refuge in my beloved St Aidan to stay with her Aunt Jo. She herself has taken refuge in the confines of the cottage she moved into with her husband just weeks before he passed. She rarely leaves the cottage -- ordering the vast majority of everything to be delivered. (Been there. Done that.) Edie and Josie need each other -- and St Aidan itself -- to move on and heal. Their journeys are hilarious and heartbreaking and, through it all, more than a little cathartic. I know all about devastating and unexpected loss and how hard it is to move on like Aunt Jo, and I know way too much about Edie's angst.

20+ years ago I became the not-so-proud owner of a Traumatic Brain Injury. I remember all too well relearning how to walk; how to do basic things most take for granted; how to merge multiple noises together to make a "normal" sound. Do you have any idea how many different noises there are when a door is opened and closed? I don't recall the exact count, but I spent a couple of hours driving my family crazy by opening and closing the door repeatedly to piece it all together. I get Edie. I get her frustration at being told she looks well when she and I are both well aware that you can't really see most brain injuries without medical equipment. I know how bothersome it is to not be able to drive  (something I will probably never do again). It's been 20+ years and I still know how heartbreaking it is to not be who you were ... and to not know if you ever will be again.

*Not A Real Spoiler Alert*

It gets easier.

For myself, and for Edie.

Her story is far more enjoyable to read than mine probably would be, but there are some similarities. For both of us, much of the "easier" came from good friends and family, a really great kid, and a pretty darn spectacular, stubborn and incredibly patient man. I'll spare you the details about mine, but I definitely urge you to read all about Edie's.

Friday 56 (today is from page 256ish from the advanced pdf received by the author) is hosted at Freda's Voice & Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader.

Summer at the Little Wedding Shop by Jane Linfoot (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

Jane Linfoot has done it again!

This is our third visit to the little wedding shop in Cornwall, Brides by the Sea, and each time I love it a little bit more. I highly recommend starting the series from the beginning so you can fall in love with the characters and watch how their lives change over the course. So many "series" seem to largely forget about the lives of those met in prior installments, but Jane keeps us filled in while giving us new people to care about!
This time the main focus is on Lily. She used to help out with the floral aspects at the shop until she up and got married herself. That didn't quite work out so now she's back and Jess has tasked her with starting up the styling department of the shop. Of course, she immediately gets to start dealing with dueling bridezillas who are all sorts of hilarious. There's quite a lot of smack talk, an Instagram battle, and any minute I expected an epic dance off!
To make matters even better (or worse), one of the brides-to-be is her own widowed mother -- who is constantly on Lily's case over ... well ... pretty much everything, but especially over her lack of a lovelife. Of course there are options who could remedy that. There's Fred : the "boy next door" farmer type who may or may not have some secrets up his sleeves. Then there's Kip : the spoiled bad boy who just so happens to be starting up a posh wedding venue in direct competition with Lily's friends ... and has hired Lily as a stylist to help him. I don't want to give too much away because I'm a firm believer that you should just read it yourself if you enjoy romance at all (and, if you don't, you wouldn't care what I gave away anyway). Jane Linfoot is amazing and, hopefully, has many more trips to the little wedding shop coming up!

As always, Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice & Book Beginnings is at Rose City Reader.
This week's 56 is from the 56% mark in the e-ARC I received from the author.
The freeness, of course, had no influence on my love for the book.

from Amazon:

#24in48 Winter 2017 Readathon Recap

It's not 12:30am and the 24in48 Readathon is finished. I fell half an hour short of the 24 hours, but had a blast, won a prize, and read four great books in the process (well, two great, one pretty good and one okay).

Book 1: The Corpse in Oozak's Pond by Charlotte MacLeod -- Not my favorite in the Peter Shandy series (likely because there wasn't enough Svenson for me), but not a bad read. This installment revolves heavily around the Buggins family, murder, and a lawsuit over the pond that the college uses for their utilities. Shandy is his same ol' snarky brilliant self and Chief Ottermole is along for a great deal of the investigation. Of course, he is the police chief so that makes sense ... but he's just not nearly as much fun as some of the other sidekicks have been. Lots of twists and turns and old family secrets kept things interesting, but I still missed my viking President.
*also fits in with my Cloak & Dagger Challenge

Book 2: The Vintage Cinema Club by Jane Linfoot -- This was a light UK-based chick lit which I almost always love, but not at all what I was expecting. I guess it's my own fault for picking it up because of the adorable cover and Linfoot being an author that I've previously enjoyed. I enjoyed this, as well, but not as much as I had hoped. Silly me, I was expecting the Vintage Cinema Club to be based around old movies in some way! I also hoped to have the three "main" characters (Izzy, Luce and Dida) to have actually all been main characters rather than one main character and two afterthoughts. I kept reading through hoping for more on the other two and got very little.
*The "V" for Alphabet Soup

Book 3: If Fried Chicken Could Fly by Paige Shelton -- I originally grabbed this because I needed an "I" for the Alphabet Soup challenge and thought "Hmmm ... a cozy about a cooking school? Sounds okay. Sure!" It's so much better than okay, though -- there are GHOSTS!!! Of course, in my mind this instantly takes it from "okay" to "fantabulous." The only thing better would have been if they had been pirate ghosts instead of cowboys, but this is set in Missouri so pirates wouldn't be too prevalent. (There is, however, a funny bit about dubloons between the main character and her best friend so that sort of makes up for it!) Absolutely loved this book and I look forward to visiting Broken Rope again soon. (I've already checked and my library has the whole series!)
*The "I" for Alphabet Soup and fits the Cloak & Dagger Challenge

Book 4: Sorcery & Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia C Wrede and Caroline Stevermer -- I had wanted to read this when I was in middle school and it was first released but my father heard someone say something about it that made it forbidden. I had completely forgotten about it until OpenRoad was doing a giveaway on Twitter and it was one of the options. Nothing (and no one) to hold me back now! Such an interesting read! Heavily inspired by Jane Austen (therefore fitting into my Year of Jane) and magic, each chapter is a letter written from one cousin (Cecelia) to the other (Kate), with the authors each taking one of the cousins to write as. There's magic, mystery, humor, romance ... and I highly recommend it.
*The "W" for my A to Z Authors, also fits The Year of Jane in a roundabout "inspired" way

Sequins & Snowflakes by Jane Linfoot (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

Friday 56 (share from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice (today page 56 of the epub) 
& Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader

Amazon Description

‘Just like the perfect wedding cake…beautifully crafted and wrapped in romance’ Heidi Swain, bestselling author of The Cherry Tree Café

The snow is falling around Brides by the Sea, Cornwall’s cutest little wedding shop, and wedding dress designer Seraphina East is in her cosy studio designing exquisite dresses to make even the most demanding bride’s dreams come true.

Unless the bride is her big sister Alice of course. Saying that the two sisters don’t always see eye to eye is an understatement. Alice hasn’t even asked Sera to design her wedding dress. But when an absent groom and ill-fitting dress threaten to ruin Alice’s happiness let alone her big day, Sera’s determined to give her sister the winter wedding of her dreams – even if that means keeping not one but two irresistibly gorgeous best men under control…

Is Sera going to end up being the maid of dishonour…Or will repairing her frozen relationship with Alice be the icing on the wedding cake?

There’s sequins, snowflakes, and plenty of romance in this gorgeous love story. The perfect romance to curl up by the fire with this Christmas! Perfect for fans of Carole Matthews and Milly Johnson.

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RAMBLE BELOW

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STOP NOW IF YOU'RE ONLY 

HERE FOR THE TEASING

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I absolutely adored the first Jane Linfoot book set at Brides by the Sea, Cupcakes & Confetti. In fact, I adored it so much so that I teased and rambled about it twice (here and here)! I had even pre-ordered the sequel, Sequins & Snowflakes, but I'm quite lucky and incredibly spoiled in that Jane sent me an advanced read so I wouldn't have to wait as long. 

I really wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did Cupcakes & Confetti but, as it turns out, I may even have loved it a wee bit more!

This time the main focus is on Sera -- the shop's gown designer. She appeared a little bit in passing in the first story so I was already aware of her scattered beach bumness. She's in a bit of a design funk, but has other things to occupy her mind during the holidays. Her sister, Alice, is pretty much the exact opposite in finesse and demeanor and is planning a huge complicated wedding nearby. When Alice gets delayed with work for a few days, she puts Sera in charge of a great deal of the preparations -- with help from her ginormous book of plans and two best men.

Of course, things never work out exactly as planned in spite of big binders of plans. We're left wondering quite a lot of things for a bit:

* Will Sera get her creative groove back?

I'm a beachy girl, and that's where I do my best work. The designs flow much more easily when I'm flat out on the sand. Add in the crippling worry that I'm never going to be good enough again after designing for a celebrity, and I haven't been able to draw a thing. (4%) 

* Will Alice drive Sera and everyone else completely crazy with her demands and moods before the wedding? 

Seriously. The girl is a bit hard to stomach at times:

She sticks out her chin and glares at me. 'If you're going to turn up looking like a beach bunny who lost the wave, I'm going to have to uninvite you.'

'For  fuck's sake, Alice.' What's the obsession with beach bunnies? (36%)

(And that's one of her milder moments!)

*Will there even be a wedding?

'Some days I feel like the wedding is bigger than the relationship. As the wedding grew, it strangled the love. Like I'm marrying a stranger.' (50%)

Then, of course, is probably my favorite wonder of them all:

* Would either best man be the best man for determined-to-stay-single Sera? 

  Best Man 1?

As I close my eyes and lean into his body, suddenly in my head we're running along the shoreline, hand in hand. Jeez. I can't quite believe I'm thinking this. But the more I try to blank it, the worse it gets. We're muffled against the cold, in matching scarfs, dodging frothing breakers as they roll up the beach. Really? (39%) 

Or Best Man 2?

One second we'll be chatting about something completely innocuous, the next it's toxic. Sentences begin by being cosy and safe and then move somewhere excrutiatingly uncomfortable. And all without warning. (45%)

I know ... it seems like it's definitely Best Man 1, right? Well ... Best Man 2 and our dear Sera have a long history and there are times when rekindling what once was doesn't seem like the worst idea ever had ... but I'll let you fill all of that in for yourself when you read the book. I've given myself a five quote pre-50% limit (not counting the meme, of course). Anything beyond that is up to you!

It's not necessary to have read Cupcakes & Confetti before reading Sequins & Snowflakes, but I highly suggest that you do. Not only will you get an introduction to Sera, but little bits and various characters will make so much more sense if you do -- like the history behind Daisy Hill Farms, Poppy and Rafe, Immie and Chas, Jess and Henrietta. It's nice having all of them involved again and seeing how things have changed for various ones between the two books. I'm already going a bit crazy wondering who we'll see the most of in the third book and I'm definitely going a bit crazy knowing that Goodreads says it's not due out until July!

Teaser Tuesday - Jane Linfoot's Cupcakes & Confetti

Jane Linfoot went onto my "find and read" list shortly after I re-discovered the wonderful world of UK Chick Lit in December. When she offered to send me the first in her new series, Cupcakes & Confetti, of course I jumped all over the chance... and I've loved it so much that I just pre-ordered the second book even though it's not due out until September.

I had planned to fly through Cupcakes & Confetti over the weekend but life got in the way as is often the case ... and rather than feel like I was rushing through it I decided to ease off and savor it much in the same way one would savor a decadent cupcake, you could say.

There were so many quotable/teasable bits that it was hard to choose the perfect one so I went to the first blurb I highlighted in my ereader from the 4%ish mark. It sums up Poppy so well .... at least in her own head:

"Give me a sponge and some icing and I can work wonders. Whether it's fairy castles, dumper trucks for birthdays, or the multi-tiered wedding cakes I make so many of now, they come easily. Sadly, if icing isn't involved, I have a great talent for stuffing up."

Speaking of her own head, I'm not always a fan of first person narratives because so often I walk away wishing I knew what the character was really thinking. No such worry with Poppy! She rarely holds back her thoughts and even apologizes for TMI moments. I love her. I love her friends and co-workers. I even love Henrietta the Chicken.

Amazon Description

Brides by the Sea, the cutest little wedding shop in all of Cornwall, has it all, including cake baker Poppy who lives upstairs. But wedding planning is not the piece of cake Poppy thought it would be, and when her best friend Cate’s wedding planner walks out, Poppy has to tie up the loose ends so her bestie can tie the knot.

Double-booked venues, ‘rustic’ locations and gorgeous but grumpy farmer Rafe have this wedding pro feeling like she could be Cate’s ‘something blue.’

Will the wedding, the shop and the cake all come crashing down on her? Or will Poppy pull it off to give Cate – and herself – the happy ever afters they deserve?

This is the first full-length novel in a brand new series set in Cornwall. Look out for the next books in The Little Wedding Shop by the Sea series,

Sequins & Snowflakes

Bunting & Bouquets

The perfect romance to take on your summer holidays! For fans of Milly Johnson, Jenny Oliver and Lucy Diamond.

Book Beginnings & Friday56 - Jane Linfoot's Cupcakes & Confetti

It's funny how things work sometimes, you know? A couple of days ago Jane Linfoot was awesome enough to gift me a preview copy of her newest book, Cupcakes & Confetti. I was so ecstatic that I went and got all gif-y for it:

Today's the day!!! Totally ecstatic about @janelinfoot's Cupcakes & Confetti! https://t.co/p76NC9qIya pic.twitter.com/Q4zIsZRCwp

— Karen (@wellreadpirate) April 28, 2016

By either a total coincidence or cosmic awesomeness, imagine my shock and delight when I went to pick out my Book Beginnings & Friday 56 blurbs:

Seriously? My Little Pony at the 56% mark?!? I likely couldn't have planned it as well if I had tried.

So this is my weekend plan: to curl up with a cozy blanket and quite possibly a cupcake (or two) and find out what's going on at Brides By The Sea - the little wedding shop by the sea where the tale takes place.

You can even join in by getting your own copy at Amazon (or wherever you may get your ebooks)!


As always, Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice & Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader.