Book of the Month - August

The books I read this month:

-       The Cherry Tree Café – by Heidi Swain 5/5

-       A Kiss in the Dark – by Lisa Fox 4/5

-       I Knew You Were Trouble – by Paige Toon 5/5

-       Mile High – by Rebecca Chance 3/5

-       Picnics in Hyde Park – by Nikki Moore 5/5

-       It’s Got To Be Perfect – by Haley Hill 4/5

-       The A-Z of You and Me – by James Hannah 5/5

-       The Secret of Midwives – by Sally Hepworth 5/5

-       Appleby Farm – by Cathy Bramley 5/5

-       The Aubrey Rules – by Aven Ellis 5/5

-       Letting You Go – by Anouska Knight 4/5

-       The Great Village Show – by Alexandra Brown 5/5

August was a great reading month for me, not as good as July, but I’m happy. Here are my tow favourites:

Picnics in Hyde Park – Nikki Moore

The bit on the back:

The last story in the fun & flirty #LoveLondon series from exciting new chick lit author Nikki Moore! The perfect novel for reading in the sunshine… and falling in love with London.

A summer to remember…or forget?

When Zoe Harper returns to the UK after five long years in New York, the last thing she expects is to find her younger sister Melody jobless, homeless, broke and dumped. Unfortunately, life has a way of delivering the unexpected. She should know that, given her ex-fiancé Greg’s faithless behaviour.

Filled with rage and determined to get revenge on the infamous Reilly brothers for her sister’s heartbreak, as well as get some answers, Zoe hatches plan Nannygate. Unfortunately that means moving in with the gorgeous but uncaring music producer Matt Reilly to be nanny to his two adorable, complicated children. But something isn’t adding up, and over the course of the hot London summer, she starts to think that perhaps Matt isn’t so bad after all.

Let down by his last nanny and weighed down with guilt about his wife’s death three years before, wealthy but camera-shy Matt has spent a long time pushing people away, including his own kids. His stunning new nanny challenges him every single day in completely different ways, but maybe that isn’t such a bad thing?

But what happens when you open your heart, and someone isn’t who you thought they were? And can it really be true love when it’s on the rebound, and starts off with a plan for revenge?

My opinion:

Nikki’s style of writing is really unique. She always finds a gripping way to engage the reader, the scenes flow beautifully and have an authentic and unique spark. London and the settings seemed vivid and I felt like being there with the characters and that’s what I love for in a story!!! FABULOUS, TERRIFIC and JUST AWESOME!!!!!

Read my review here: http://skysbookcorner.blogspot.ch/2015/08/picnics-in-hyde-park-by-nikki-moore.html

Nikki on Twitter: @NikkiMoore_Auth

Website: https://nikkimooreauthor.wordpress.com

Goodreads - Amazon UK - Amazon US

The Aubrey Rules – Aven Ellis

The bit on the back:

Some of the Aubrey Rules to Live By:

*If I’m going to indulge in French fries, I must add extra time to the treadmill the next day.

*Always keep your work and private life separate.

*Being open to new experiences will never involve eating kale.

*Never, ever date a professional athlete.

For Chicago social media professional Aubrey Paige, the rules are everything. So much so that Aubrey has painstakingly written her rules for living into a polka-dot Kate Spade notebook that she carries with her at all times. It’s her personal guidebook to living her life. These rules are the Holy Grail—ones never to be broken. They guide her actions for everything, from dealing with workplace drama to finding a great guy to date. After all, these are her own rules, built from her life experiences and observations. So they have to be perfect, right?

Or are they?

Because when Aubrey meets a cute Canadian, she suddenly finds her rules being tested and challenged in ways she never dreamed possible. Beckett Riley is the shy, quiet, determined captain of the Chicago Buffaloes, a hockey team on the verge of turning the corner to becoming a winning organization. He’s Aubrey's opposite, with so many qualities that Aubrey had listed as ones she’d never want in a man.

Yet Aubrey finds herself drawn to Beckett in ways she’s never known. And when she unexpectedly finds herself working with Beckett, she wonders if rules are meant to be broken after all . . .

My opinion:

This is the story of a hilarious and passionate girl living by rules, but when meeting the right person she is learning to follow her heart! Two wonderful and relatable characters, who have an awesome chemistry. Aven’s writing has it all – romance, passion, humour, heart, love and so much more!!! She really know how to create a special setting and story!!!

Read my review here: The Aubrey Rules - Review

Aven on Twitter: @AvenEllis

Website: http://www.avenellis.com

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Picnics in Hyde Park – by Nikki Moore

Original Cover

My own copy

  

The blurb:

‘Whoever said romance was dead has clearly never read a Nikki Moore book’ – Rachel’s Random Reads

The last story in the fun & flirty #LoveLondon series from exciting new chick lit author Nikki Moore! The perfect novel for reading in the sunshine … and falling in love with London.

Hot summer romance…or cold revenge?

Super nanny, Zoe Harper is mad! It was bad enough discovering her ex-fiancé Greg cheating on her just weeks before their wedding. But now she’s returned home to London to find her younger sister Melody has been left jobless, homeless, broke and dumped.

Zoe is determined to get revenge on the infamous Reilly brothers for her sister’s heartbreak. So when an unexpected opportunity gives Zoe a way in to uncaring—and dizzyingly gorgeous!—successful music producer Matt Reilly’s world, she jumps at the chance to make him pay.

But living with Matt as nanny to his two adorable, but complicated children, Zoe soon begins to suspect that not everything is as it seems… Matt insists on pushing everyone away including his children, but why? And if his delicious summer kisses are anything to go by, he can’t be that bad surely?

Can Zoe convince Matt to open up a little and help fix this family before she leaves…or worse, before Matt learns who she really is?

My Opinion:

*Book provided by the publisher on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Here it is! Book #6 of the #LoveLondon series, sadly also the last one. I enjoyed this series so much, every single book was special and I don’t want it to end!!!

This last story, Picnics in Hyde Park and it follows Zoe Harper. Zoe is a nanny and has just come back from America after her fiancé Greg has cheated on her. In addition, there is her sister Melody, also a nanny. She has been fired in a cruel way, is jobless now and heartbroken. Zoe is determined to seek revenge and goes to work as a nanny for Matt Reilly, Melody’s previous boss. We find out that Melody was in a relationship with his brother Stephen. What really happened between them we don’t know, Zoe knows what Melody told her and Matt knows what his brother told him.

Matt’s kids are adorable and we have met them already in Skating at Somerset house. Jasper is Noel’s godson and I was so happy to read about Jasper and his sister Aimee again, they are awesome! Zoe develops a great relationship with them and that was wonderful to read about.

Now back to Matt Reily, successful music producer. He comes across grumpy and arrogant at first. His behaviour becomes quite clear and understandable when we learn about what happened to his wife Helen, to mum of his children. The story is very touching and emotional.

Meeting Zoe changed something in him and not only him, also his children. She makes him see his own children in a different light and she was able to break his shell. It was wonderful to see their relationship change and he became this attentive, sexy, sweet and charming man. Hello book boyfriend ;)

Zoe was a great character as well. Of course I didn’t like her plan of revenge, but I could see her change her mind as well. She got to know Matt and the kids and her feelings developed. Zoe had some cute scenes with the kids, I really enjoyed those. Her scenes with Matt were different, but also very gripping, interesting and charming. I loved their scenes. Zoe found a way to bring them back to Hyde Park, a place connected to sad memories, but she was able to create a new happy place for the whole family.

At one point of course Matt had to find out about Melody and that was not all! That added a lot to the storyline and the drama and I just hoped for them to find a way.

What I thought was fantastic in this story, was that all the previous couples had an appearance again, it was so wonderful to read about them again and to see the connections between them.

I think I found a new favourite in this series, I just adore this story!!! Zoe and Matt are a fab couple and next to Noel and Holly they are my faves. I really like all of them though and I hope that we’ll hear from them again, How about a “5 Years Later” #LoveLondon book Nikki?! ;)

Nikki’s style of writing is really unique. She always finds a gripping way to engage the reader, the scenes flow beautifully and have an authentic and unique spark. London and the settings seemed vivid and I felt like being there with the characters and that’s what I love for in a story!!! FABULOUS, TERRIFIC and JUST AWESOME!!!!!

Rating:

My possible cast:

Zoe: Kaya Scodelario

Matt: Wes Brown

Nikki on Twitter: @NikkiMoore_Auth

Website: https://nikkimooreauthor.wordpress.com

Goodreads - Amazon UK - Amazon US