A Cottage by the Sea – Carole Matthews

As summer is upon us, for the next few posts I will be reviewing books which are just perfect for reading to get into the mood for summer sunshine and happy holidays. The first in this collection is Carole Matthews’ latest book, A Cottage by the Sea.

Ella, Flick and Grace have been friends for years. They have shared heartaches and celebrations and although it is a while since they lived together at university, when Ella inherits Cwtch (pronounced Cutch)Cottage on the Welsh coast, she invites her two friends for a week away by the sea.

Grace is now married to Harry who is older than her and has become rather fond of drinking way too much these last couple of years. She feels the strain of their relationship as they seem to grow further and further apart so she is hoping that this week away with him and her friends and their partners will be just the boost they need to help their flailing marriage.

Ella and Art have been together for years. Art leads a rock and roll lifestyle looking after major rock bands. He often has to go on tour with them, leaving Ella behind. When she inherits Cwtch Cottage Art encourages her to sell it as it doesn’t really fit in with his image and lifestyle. Ella, however, has so many lovely childhood memories of visiting the cottage during the long summer holidays when she was growing up. She loves the place and cannot imagine selling up.

Flick is the wild one of the group. Single, with an eye for attached men, she rolls up to the cottage with the charming and handsome Noah who hasn’t met any of the rest of the group before.

The atmosphere is filled with expectation, hope and longing and what a week of discovery, forbidden love and surprises it turns out to be when they all spend time together in A Cottage by the Sea.

Let me start by saying that I love Carole Matthews’ books and this one did not disappoint. Set in and around a cottage by the beautiful South Wales seaside, this story is of three best friends who met at university and although they are still close, don’t get to spend as much time with each other as they used to. Ella decides to make up for that by inviting her friends and their other halves to her cottage for a week’s holiday together.

As the days pass by the group seems to fall into two parts with those who love to party, drink and stay up into the wee small hours and those who like to make the most of the beautiful scenery and feel happier watching the sunset rather than drinking sun-downer’s or having long lunches in nearby pubs.

A Cottage by the Sea is a lovely story of friendship, love, relationships and the South Wales seaside which is breathtakingly beautiful under Carole Matthews’ penmanship. If you want a lovely summer read that will take you on an interesting journey then this is the book for you.

9.8/10

The Chocolate Lovers’ Club and The Chocolate Lovers’ Diet – Carole Matthews

Lucy Lombard loves chocolate and is the founding member of The Chocolate Lovers’ Club. Fellow members include Autumn, Nadia and Chantal and they all agree that chocolate can cure anything from illness to a broken heart. They get together regularly at their little haven, a café called Chocolate Heaven which is base and almost a second home for them. They even have a code for calling crisis meetings – whenever a text message reading “Chocolate Crisis” goes out, they drop everything and head to Chocolate Heaven to find out what’s happening.

Lucy’s long-time boyfriend, Marcus, has trouble staying faithful to her and as hard as she tries she cannot seem to break it off with him permanently. Her boss also has a bit of a thing for Lucy and flirts with her constantly, “Crush” (as he has been titled by the girls) is very handsome and Lucy does not mind the attention, at all. Autumn is trying to save the world, one drug addict at a time, through a craft programme she teaches. Unfortunately, her brother, Richard is also fond of drugs and regularly brings trouble to her door. Nadia’s husband is addicted to online gambling and he pushes her to the limit by landing them in serious debt whilst trying to land the big win. Chantal is stuck in a loveless marriage and although she cares for her husband, he is cold and distant and sometimes she cannot help looking elsewhere for comfort. Add all these ladies together, mix in some divine chocolate recipes and what comes out is adventure and entertainment.

I loved the Chocolate Lovers’ Club when I first read it a year or so ago and had meant to pick up the sequel, The Chocolate Lovers’ Diet, but just hadn’t come across it. Then the lovely Carole Matthews offered a giveaway of a signed copy of each book, plus a tea cup carrying the slogan “Go away I’m reading” and a pair of chocolate shoes! (see photo above) I just couldn’t resist entering and was beside myself with joy when Lovely Kev (Carole’s other half) drew out my name as recipient. The first thing I did when I received the parcel was make a cup of tea using my new mug, begin to re-read The Chocolate Lovers' Club and then I feasted on The Chocolate Lovers’ Diet for the first time, all within the space of a week! I had a lovely time.

I have read and enjoyed a lot of Carole Matthews’ books, she has published over 20 so far and these two did not disappoint. I love the way the girls get themselves into shocking fixes and have to depend on each other to get out of them. Both books are laugh out loud funny, and I especially love Lucy’s disastrous escapades during her company’s team building exercises. Even though the stories and events are humourous, underneath it all they are about women with big problems who look to their friendship (and chocolate) for the strength and support to get them through. Carole Mathews handles some serious issues with humour and charm and I know I will read both books again for the sheer entertainment value they provide.

You can sign up for Carole Matthews newsletter on her website here at http://www.carolematthews.com and follow her on facebook here at https://www.facebook.com/CaroleMatthewsBooks. Carole is funny, friendly and takes time out to listen and interact with her readers and fb friends. I have enjoyed every one of her books I have read and hope she will carry on writing and long continue to keep us entertained with her work.

Christmas Short Stories from Carole Matthews, Nita Wick and Stacey Joy Netzel

This year I decided to read some short stories during the run up to Christmas because I rarely get time to sit for long at this time of year and if I am really into a story, having to put the book down is really frustrating for me.

I started with Carole Matthews trilogy of short stories which she made available for free on any e-reader. Winter Warmers contains three short stories.
All I Want for Christmas is You is about two friends working in an office and about to have to endure the office Christmas party for another year without a date. Carole does a good job with the dialogue and some of it is laugh out loud funny.
Cold Turkey is about a woman who is dating a married man who lets her down once again on Christmas Day by not turning up for dinner as he said he would. It is a warm story in the end.
About Gardening is a story about a couple who have been married for ten years and have kind of lost the spark in their relationship. It is the shortest of the three stories but even so it was interesting to listen to the wife relate her relationship to her garden.

All three stories have a Christmassy feel to them and of course a fairly happy ending. I found them light hearted and reading these little tales of love and romance put me in the mood for more things Christmas. If you get a chance to download Winter Warmers it will be worthwhile as the stories did not disappoint and whilst not as fleshed out as Carole’s usual novels, were very entertaining.

You can still download this book for free at Amazon.com or search on Little Brown website http://www.littlebrown.co.uk

The Christmas Angel by Nita Wick is a short story about a child who thinks she has spotted a Christmas Angel whilst out looking for a Christmas tree. Although it is really short, it is a lovely little story and made me smile. It definitely has a feel good factor and is worth the time it took to read. I wish it had been longer. If you want to feel the love, make sure you look for this story.

Mistletoe Mischief is one of three books in Stacey Joy Netzel’s Mistletoe series. It is a story about two single parents who find themselves together during their daughters’ field trip to the zoo. Although this book is set in July, the summer camp trip to the zoo is called Christmas in July complete with Santa in full beard, usual hat and tee-shirt and shorts! (Well, it is Wisconsin in summer!) This is the longest of the stories I read and possibly my favourite along with Carole Matthews All I Want for Christmas is You.

Finding short stories to read for Christmas was definitely a successful experiment and one I will carry on with until the New Year.

It's a Kind of Magic and For Better, For Worse - Carole Matthews

Carole Matthews is one of my favourite authors. Her work is funny, charming, often fairytale-like and reading her books always cheers me up. Thanks to the great review of It's a Kind of Magic from the lovely Dot at Dot Scribbles, I wanted to re-read a couple of Carole's books again and so I did.

It's a Kind of Magic is a fairy tale, quite literally!




Emma and Leo have been an item for five years. They are constantly breaking up and getting back together again, usually because of Leo's unreliablity especially when he teams up with his two best friends, Grant and Lard. When Leo turns up for Emma's thritieth birthday dinner a couple of hours late, drunk and dishevelled after being with his mates, Emma can't help but wish that things were different and Leo would change. Of course, they fall out again and Leo heads home alone, too drunk to drive, so he walks.

As he is passing over Tower Bridge Leo meets the beautiful Isobel and he instantly falls under her spell, which is only to be expected as she is a fairy and has chosen Leo to be her human mate. Leo is bewitched with her from that moment on, but, all the time he thinks of Emma and what she means to him. Emma notices how Leo is changing before her very eyes. She realises that at her insistence Leo has moved on and has met Isobel and Emma doesn't like it one bit. If she is to win Leo back she must do some things that are out of character for her and so she begins to change herself. The results are very amusing and the tale takes on a couple of surprising turns.

This is a magical tale of love and change and friendship. My favourite parts of the book are centred around the dialogue especially that between Leo, Grant and Lard. I just adore their banter and Carole Matthews writes this extremely well.

If you want to escape the real world for a few hours and sample some magic then I would highly recommend you pick up this book.

9/10

For Better, For Worse.



Josie Flynn has just signed her divorce papers after being married to Damien for five years. The day after, she heads off to New York to be bridesmaid at her cousin, Martha's, wedding. It is with some trepidation that she sets off as this is the first time she has travelled alone on such a journey. She finally takes her seat on the plane and finds herself sitting next to Matt Jarvis who is a music journalist and also a nervous flyer. He orders a couple of stiff drinks after take- off and soon he and Josie fall into easy conversation despite her mother’s warning not to speak to strange men on the flight. She doesn’t think that Matt is strange at all and as they get to know each other better, it transpires that Matt is also recently divorced. After they swap divorce horrors and in spite of Josie’s good intentions to arrive in New York sober and hydrated, she ends up joining Matt in a few stiff drinks, too.

They arrive in New York very drunk and much the worse for wear and have a plan to meet up again later to visit the Statue of Liberty together. They have a wonderful time and agree to meet up for dinner later that evening. Unfortunately, Matt arrives one and a half hours late having been waylaid by the pop group he has come to New York to interview. They literally pass each other on the street, but, fail to see each other.

The rest of the story revolves around Matt trying desperately to find Josie again and of course, Josie’s cousin’s wedding. As always with Carole Matthews writing there are some laugh out loud moments and some great dialogue. At the same time she touches upon some serious topics such as fidelity, growing up, grief and family ties in this book. In spite of this For Better, For Worse is a great read and very entertaining.

9.5/10