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Coming Home to Maple Lodge by Alison Sherlock #Review

  I am delighted to feature the first in Alison Sherlock's new series set in the Corswolds. Coming Home to Maple Tree Lodge was published by Boldwood Books on June 20th. A family and hotel in desperate need of help… Maple Tree Lodge has been the home of the Jackson family for over a century. But the hotel has never been a success and, following the sudden loss of his father, architect Ben Jackson soon discovers the hotel is close to financial ruin. Ben has to make some tough decisions if the hotel is to survive and his family are to keep a roof over their heads. With the hotel in urgent need of a renovation, Ben’s sister calls on the talents of her best friend, interior designer Lily Watson. Cash strapped Lily needs a successful project to prove to herself and her high-achieving parents that she can carve a successful career and Maple Tree Lodge sounds like just the place for Lily to showcase her talents. However, Lily’s vision for a cosy, country Cotswolds hotel is the com...
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Oh, I do like to be... by Marie Phillips #Review #OhIDoLikeToBe #Unbound

I am happy to welcome Oh, I  do like to be... to the blog today. Written by Marie Phillips, it was published by Unbound on January 23rd 2019 and great fun it is, too.
 

Shakespeare clone and would-be playwright Billy has just arrived in an English seaside town with his sister Sally, who was cloned from a hair found on the back of a bus seat. All Billy wants is a cheap B&B, an ice cream and a huge hit in the West End. Little does he know that their fellow clones Bill and Sal are also residents of this town. Things are about to get confusing - cue professional rivalry, marital discord and a family reunion like no other. 

This modern update of The Comedy of Errors is what you get when Gods Behaving Badly author Marie Phillips decides to write an important, scholarly work about the life of William Shakespeare, reads the complete works, including the long poems nobody likes, and then decides to turn it into a witty, delightful romp that you can probably finish reading in an afternoon with two tea breaks.

 Funny, super-smart, clever and ridiculous Richard Osman

My Thoughts

I have a particularly soft spot for books which reference literary greats and this modern update of The Comedy of Errors pressed all the right buttons for me. Read in one sitting, the pages flew by and I loved some of the references to Shakespeare with all the misunderstandings, twins separated at birth and mistaken identities which you tend to find there. 
With a deft touch, this short read offers a hugely entertaining read. The cast of characters made me smile as Bill and Billy, and Sal and Sally gradually unravelled the chaos. Set at the English seaside, there felt to be a dose of good old farce about the story as the characters tore around the place. Beneath the action lurks quite a couple of questions - nature or nurture, and can genius be cloned? The juries out on those, I think!

In short: A witty take on The Comedy of Errors.
   
About the Author
 Marie Phillips is the author of the international bestseller Gods
Behaving Badly and The Table of Less Valued Knights, which was longlisted for the Baileys Prize. With Robert Hudson, she wrote the BBC Radio 4 series Warhorses of Letters and Some Hay in a Manger. Under the name Vanessa Parody, she co-wrote Fifty Shelves of Grey, a spoof of Fifty Shades of Grey.

You can follow Marie here: Website   |   Twitter 

Book links: Amazon UK 

Thanks to Marie Phillips, Unbound and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours  for a copy of the book and a place on the tour. 

Check out the rest of the tour!


 
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