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An Orkney Hearth - Love and Other Ports Book one by Sara Romera #Review

  An Orkney Hearth – Love and Other Ports Book One   She has spent fifteen years learning how to need no one. Nora Sterling is the Cruise Director of the Vesta. She runs a department of a hundred, remembers nine hundred guests by name, and can talk a shipful of frightened people through a mid-ocean helicopter evacuation without once raising her voice.   She has no address. She has never slept on a mattress that was not somebody else's first. She has spent her entire adult life at sea and she has been perfectly, deliberately fine.   Then the ship takes on a new Music Director. Erland Isbister is Orcadian, unhurried, and quietly immovable. He does not perform, he does not push, and he notices everything. He also reports directly to her, which puts him squarely on the wrong side of the company handbook and squarely in her path ten hours a day, months at a stretch.   On a ship, there is nowhere to put a thing like this.   Nora has spent her whole ...
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The Memory of You by Samantha Tonge #Review

 


I am delighted to be taking part in the celebrations for The Memory of You by Samantha Tonge. It was published on May 16th by Boldwood Books.

A gorgeously uplifting story about memories, storytelling, love and friendship, about the journeys we take and the people we meet, what we remember and how there are some things we can never forget.

Alex would like to believe she’s a woman who has it all. Or that’s what she tells everyone, including herself. But this is far from true. Actually she’s on the cusp of losing her home, her dream career as a writer is in tatters, her ex won’t speak to her, and her mother’s gone forever.

But then a chance meeting with a stranger named Hope gives her the opportunity of a lifetime, when Hope jokes that perhaps Alex should take over her job in a cafe while she goes travelling.

Just at that moment, it sounds like the answer to all her problems. So Alex persuades Hope to let her step into her shoes for a month. She brushes away Hope’s attempts to explain about the café, instead demanding to know more about the owner Tom.

But she should have asked to know more. Because the ‘Wrong Order Café’ isn’t like anywhere she’s ever been before. And Alex’s life is about to change forever…


 My Thoughts

There are so many layers to this story which deals with some serious issues in a warm and humane way. The Alex you meet at the beginning is not particularly likeable but then you realise that she feels that way too. There are plenty of people who you can enjoy in the Wrong Order Cafe and there is a feeling of community there and acceptance of  the loss that dementia brings to people and their families. As it takes away a person’s identity as memories fade away, there is nevertheless a determination to hang onto as much as possible to what makes them unique and loved.

I enjoyed all the humour which was to be found in the story, from Captain Beaky to the customers who delighted in the wrong order being delivered. Alex’s realisation about what she values and her opinion on how she has been living strikes home. I also loved all the references to the writing process and books. Most of all, I enjoyed the setting in Manchester having caught the bus in Stevenson Square many years ago as a schoolgirl. 


In short: a warm uplifting story which goes beneath the surface. 




About the Author

 

Samantha Tonge is the bestselling and award-winning author of over 15 romantic fiction titles published by HQ, and most recently Aria. Her first book for Boldwood, Under One Roof, was published in February 2022 and her move to Boldwood marks a broadening of her writing into multi-generational woman’s fiction. She lives in Manchester with her family.

 

You can follow Samantha here: Twitter   |  Facebook   |  Website
  |  Instagram   |  Newsletter sign up  |  Bookbub 

Book links: Amazon UK  

         
Thanks to Samantha Tonge, Boldwood Books and Rachel of Rachel's Random Resources for a copy of the book and a place on the event.
 
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