Skip to main content

The Beach Reads Book Club - Kathryn Freeman

 


Genre: Romance | Romantic Comedy

Release Date: Expected 30th June 2021

Publisher: One More Chapter | Harper Collins

Content Warning: Some sexual imagery, mentions of death, mentions of cheating.


Lottie Watt loves book club - until she has to make a very sudden and not graceful exit for not following the rules. So now she wants to bring the fun back to book club and decides to start her own - where the fun, the cake and the laughter is far more important than rules, where you can read 'books we'd want to take on holiday, and books that take us on holiday.'

And so, The Beach Reads Book Club is born and have their first meeting at Books By The Bay, a very cute bookshop cafe that was reluctantly offered by Matthew Steele, the gorgeous but slightly prickly owner and his family. As far as first meetings go, it's one for the history books. 

But as the pages start to turn, Lottie starts to learn that maybe Matt isn't so scary after all, maybe he's just got another story that's waiting for the right person to read it. 


Kathryn Freeman always has a way of bringing strong, beautiful women and mouth watering romance together in a winning combination that's always impossible to put down. Right from the beginning, I was sucked in and needed to know more about not just Lottie and Matt, but the whole eclectic cast of the Beach Reads Book Club. From Audrey, a lonely retiree with a skill to always find the best sex scenes, to Sam who's been desperate for adult conversation since they had a baby, to Gira who is convinced her marriage is falling apart around her - each character was so full of life and love that as each chapter went by they felt more like old friends. 

Without even knowing it, Lottie was forming a community- not just a club. It was a place all of our characters came together and learned to be better friends, better people, and just have fun. 

And while the friendships of this story were absolutely wonderful - of course there's the prospect of romance in the air. But Lottie knows despite how many epic romances she's read, nothing is ever simple when it comes to matters of the heart - there's always baggage, unresolved exes, or a dog who doesn't like you very much getting in the way. 

"If you think that's what romance books are all about, you've clearly never read one. They're about hope, about joy. About handling adversity and coming through the other side stronger. Yes, they're also about love, the most powerful emotion you'll ever experience."

I so badly want to be a part of this club, and finding out what they were reading about every month was an absolute delight - I was so happy when they discussed books I'd already read (Love Square was brilliant) and I'll definitely be checking out the rest of their reading list now too. As I've said before, I'm a sucker for books about books, and this one was the gin and the tonic. 


RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Kathryn Freeman and One More Chapter for inviting me to read this ARC in return for an honest review. 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

REVIEW: This Could Be Us by Clare McGowan

Genre: Fiction | Literary Fiction Release Date: Expected 1st June 2023 Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group | Corsair  Kate has done the unthinkable. She'd worked hard to build a perfect life for herself, while ignoring her growing unhappiness. But when her second child was born profoundly disabled, reality hit. Unable to cope, Kate left - disappearing without a trace. She ends up in LA, with a glittering career and a new family of sorts, but the guilt is still suffocating. Husband Andrew was left to pick up the pieces and care for their disabled daughter and angry, confused son. Bereft and broken, he leaned on Olivia, Kate's best friend. She's been by his side ever since, ignoring her own needs to meet his. Years later, Andrew has written a memoir about his daughter learning to communicate against all odds. But when Kate's new producer husband decides he wants to make a film of it, their worlds collide once again. Now, Kate must return to the life she abandoned and reck...
Post a Comment
Read more

REVIEW: Live, Laugh, Lesbian by Helen Scott

Genre: Non-Fiction | Memoir | LGTBQ+  Release Date: 19th October 2023 Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Part memoir, part guide, part conversation and all queer joy — Live, Laugh, Lesbian is a brilliantly warm and friendly journey into the queer experience, not only from the author but from plenty of other lesbian, queer, bisexual and pansexual contributors who bring a unique viewpoint and voice and also show a beautiful diverse, intersectional scope of the queer spectrum and welcomes in queer people and allies of any kind to come feel the love. The book is very conversational, talking to the reader in a fun, friendly way — at times I rolled my eyes as the use of “famalam” but as a previous patron of Colours and Chicagos I’m not in a position to judge the Essex-isms. It’s full of anecdotes and observations that were witty and relatable as well as talking is through the more difficult side of queerness like dealing with workplace discrimination, religious trauma and coming out to family...
Post a Comment
Read more

BOOK TOUR STOP x RANDOM THINGS TOURS: Thirty Days of Darkness by Jenny Lund Madsen

  " This town has secrets that are best left alone." Author Hannah is a success, on paper at least. She's receiving critical acclaim and praise worldwide and her work is regarded as some of the best. She writes literature, not just books. But the reality is, outside of the literary circles nobody actually reads her work. But when she finally snaps at a book event and publicly criticises the genre fiction books that outsell hers, claiming they're easy and mindless she's challenged to write her own crime fiction novel in just thirty days by an author she loathes. Desperate not to lose to him, her editor arranges for her to spend a month in a quiet, cold village in Iceland hoping that the solitude will spark inspiration.  But instead of writing a murder story - she's in one . Just before she arrives, the body of a young man is pulled from the icy waters and her search for ideas soon becomes a search for a killer. And if she's not careful, she might end up the...
Post a Comment
Read more