Book Review – Spare by Prince Harry

www.audible.co.uk/pd

Fact or Fiction?

Firstly, can I just say it was nice to hear this book narrated by Harry his self?

He does go in to quite a bit of detail about most things and his life. However, the thing that got me was a lot of what he said was guesswork. Either He has a very bad memory, he has possibly repressed some of these memories, or he’s simply trying to make up stories to fill the book, but he doesn’t seem to know what was said, where he was, and what time in his life it was a lot of the time in this book.

I never thought, when starting this book that I would hear so much profanity, drug references and the volume of references to his penis was shocking. Most of the middle part of this book is pretty much dedicated to his penis. It’s bewildering.

A lot of people who have read this book, have commented how it’s basically a takedown of his brother and his father, I see this differently. To me this book is more focused on the things he claims Camilla has done and the stories he claims she has leaked. It does make you wonder how much truth is in what we read in the news. He is obviously lived this story firsthand, and he claims that a lot of what’s been reported in the news has been nonsense.

He has an obvious hate for the media, which is understandable given the events of 1997, but surely with him having seen a therapist, he must’ve worked through some of this trauma and one would think that he would’ve found a way to try and cope with some of that pain by now.

He references conversations that he claims to have had with the Queen and he also says that they were very close. At the same time he describes her as someone he was almost afraid of. When I say afraid, I mean as in the sense that he had a build himself up to have conversations with her. He constantly references the fact that he wanted to hug his grandma but couldn’t. I personally think this is a bit of a pity vote. Poor me, I can’t even get close to my own family.

Touching back on his use of marijuana, which he has noted on a number of occasions. Throughout this book, I would’ve assumed that these instances happened during his use and that he would’ve grown out of this sort of behaviour by now. Yet he mentions smoking a joint in his back garden in America. This is obviously a recent story given the fact that they’ve only been living in America for the last few years. I think a lot of his State of mind may come down to his use of marijuana. I’m not for a second condemning him for smoking a joint or two, but everybody knows that smoking marijuana can make you paranoid. Perhaps if he put down the joint once in a while he wouldn’t constantly think that everybody is out to get him.

To summarise what I have taken away from this book, I feel that he is very damaged. I get a sense that he is very jealous of his brother, and in general I think he’s a very sad man.

No one can really know if this is the absolute truth. It was a very interesting listen, but let’s all pray for the sake of the Royal family and the monarchy itself, that he has now got this nonsense out of his system and doesn’t see the need to release another tell all.

I rate this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I would love to hear your opinions if you have taken the time to read / listen to this story.

See you soon!

A book Review – The Mother of All Christmases by Milly Johnson

www.audible.co.uk/pd

I finished this book around the Christmas break but only just got around to writing a review.

This story is lovely but the narrative is a little confusing. It’s set after ‘A Winter Flame’ and all the main characters are there but they are just not the same. Eve is now pregnant and this features heavily in this story but the title suggests that it’s a Christmas story when in fact most of this book is set in summer.

Again the Daily Trumpet posts are ever so funny and probably the best part of these stories with the funny mistakes bordering of hilarious most of the time. It wasn’t really the cosy Christmas story I was hoping for but with the presence of the Winter World theme park throughout I suppose it’s Christmas adjacent.

I wouldn’t rave about this book but I still rate it a solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Book Review – My One Month Marriage by Shari Low

www.audible.co.uk/pd

At first this book fried my head. It’s starts by listing everyone who is in the story and how they are related. My first thought was ‘oh Christ I’m never going to remember this so I hope they circle back around to it’! Safe to say they did thank god.

The story focuses on the lives of 4 sisters. Each very different in their own way. We have one workaholic party animal, one who works as a nurse but her caring side continues much further than the hospital, one who absolutely has to control everything down to a millisecond and the 4th sister is practically a stranger in her own family. She doesn’t share anything about her life and is so shut off that she doesn’t realise how much that has affected her life.

This story seems that one man can affect this family so much when he gets involved with one of the sisters and whilst this is true the revelation is that all of their behavioural habits stem back to another man in their lives than none of them dare mention.

Once one man is ejected from their lives and they acknowledge the effect that the departure of the other has had on them that they actually start heal, reconcile and realise what each of them has needed all along.

I rate this story ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

If you’ve read this book, I would love to hear your opinions.

Book Review – An Autumn Crush by Millie Johnson

www.audible.co.uk/pd

I love listening to stories that reflect the time of year we are currently in. This is the third one from this author I have listened to now. It was a nice heartwarming story about new love, old and new friendships and the funny way that life has of surprising us when we least expect it. This story touches on the topic of online dating and now uncertainty this can bring.

The great thing about this book is that there are little autumn quotes between the chapters and I do love a good quote! 🥰

Although I loved this book, I feel that it ended a little too abruptly for my liking but it was still a great story.

I rate this story 4 stars

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Happy autumn everyone 🍂

Book Review – The Plus One Pact by Portia Mackintosh

www.audible.co.uk/pd

I absolutely loved this book. It’s funny, relatable and feel good.

I love the character of Cara, nerdy but cool and very single. She has tried the whole dating app thing which has produced a number of undesirable characters. Then just as she is about to give up she meets Millsy in a bar. From here, her whole life changes. Millsy picks her up out of her mundane life and shows her all the things she could be doing. Essentially they become each others plus one to all up and coming events over the summer.

After Clara having a makeover (courtesy of Millsy’s connections) she feels like a whole new woman. More confident, outgoing and daring.

It’s a very will they won’t they situation as Clara clears fancies the pants off Millsy but also doesn’t know if it’s reciprocated and is petrified of ruining their friendship.

Without spoiling the ending I will leave it at all’s well that ends well.

This is probably the best story I have ready in a while. Literally made me laugh out loud at times.

I rate this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Book review – The Secrets of Ivy Garden by Catherine Furguson

www.audible.co.uk/pd

This was a nice story. Although a little sad at times with reference to the death of Holly’s parent followed by the death of her grand mother Ivy.

Holly, totally alone in the world and deciding to fix up and sell up her grandmothers cottage doesn’t have it easy when she finds that the cottage had flooded and garden which was much loved by her grandmother has been destroyed by recent storms doesn’t let these set backs phase her and gets stuck in wholeheartedly. Following the discovery of her grandmothers diary and the revelation that the man she had always thought was her grandfather discovers that Ivy actually had a secret lover who was in fact her mothers biological father. This sets Holly on a path to discover who the mysterious B is.

Assisted by a friend she begins her search one person at a time. She makes friends with local shop owners daughter who soon discovers Holly grave fear of the wide open countryside which is a natural reaction to the circumstances surrounding her parents death.

Following the first unconventional meeting between Holly and Ben there are feelings that they both share but as with all great love stories this takes time for it to become apparent to each other.

This story has a lovely happy ending where Holly finds that she is no longer alone in the world but she in fact has a whole family that she didn’t know anything about before going to Appleton and with her new relationship with Ben just getting started she has found that the countryside is no longer something to be feared but I may well be a place to call home.

To sum up I would rate this book

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

If your looking for a lighthearted read this is the one for you.

Happy reading everyone!

Book Review – The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella

www.audible.co.uk/pd

I loved this story. High flying lawyer turned housekeeper, Samantha is absolutely useless at the everyday tasks. It makes you wonder if there are people in this world who really are that useless!

She turns it around and learns the skills needed to pull off her bluff all whilst finding love. This book is really heartwarming in the sense that thinking that she had lost everything showed her what she had really been missing all along. I am a big fan of the slower pace of life so this book was like an idilic little day dream!

I rate this book 5 stars!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Happy reading everyone!

Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven – Book Review

They dubbed this series of books the next Harry Potter. I wouldn’t go that far. Yes they’re both technically orphans who have magical powers and neither find out about the magical world until they are older but that’s were the similarities end.

I enjoyed the book but I feel that the story took a long time to get going and just as you get into it the book ends. It’s not the sort of story that’s tied up neatly by the end as it practically ends on a cliff hanger. Perhaps that’s smart writing on the authors part to entice you to read the next one. Either way it worked and I have now started the second book to find out what happened.

This is an enjoyable story filled with magic, demons and bad guys as you would expect. However, as I have said don’t expect this book to be anything like the Harry Potter books because it’s not.

I would rate this book an optimistic 4/5

XO – Mel

Bathroom Update

During lockdown I’ve been reassessing the decor in my home and giving everything in sight a freshen up because while your stuck at home what else is there to do.

This week the on the agenda is the bathroom. Because it’s tiled from floor to ceiling there’s not a lot I can do with the walls without completely destroying the room so I figured I could change the blinds to give it a tweak.

At present we have a white roller blind with a suede flower pattern in black in there and I’ve never really liked it since I put it up but at the time it was better than what was there when we moved in.

Existing bathroom blind

As I’ve been looking to modernise the house bit by bit I find myself torn between two options, Venetian blonds with ribbon or day/night blinds.

New blind options

I love them both which is why I can’t decide so I’ve taken to Instagram polls to see what the masses think.

Hope your all staying safe! Have a great weekend!

Be who you are and say what you think.

Those who mind, don’t matter.

Those who matter don’t mind.

Never have I uttered a truer phrase. When that time comes that you think about changing yourself whether it be your ways, appearance, or trying to change the things you enjoy to please someone else for someone else, just remember, the people who truly know you will accept you for who you are no matter what.