Skip to main content

Featured

His Last Christmas Gift by Debra Borchert #Review

    His Last Christmas Gift by Debra Borchert will take you to a different country and season. It was published by Le Vin Press on 1st November 2025. Widowed, fired, and 50, Claire is one hot mess. This later in life romance hits like a snowball packed with grief and hope and mystery and the kind of second-chance that says, “I didn’t think I’d ever feel this again, and now I’m terrified, but… Hi.” Romance that’s frost melting off a windowpane. It’s “I forgot my heart could do this.” It’s love doesn’t have an expiration date. Twinkly lights, mulled wine and flaming crêpes so immerse you in Christmas markets—you’ll book a flight to France before the fares go up. A book club fiction favourite, Claire’s journey of self-discovery is perfect for fans of women’s fiction and stories about strong women over 50 navigating reinvention with inspiration, humour, with a delicious frosting of romance. “Give yourself the gift of a lush, romantic, French adventure and be swept away ...

One Summer by Taylor Cole #Review

 

We are off to Cornwall, to the island of Loor, for Taylor Cole's latest summer read, One Summer. It was published by Aria on 4th July.


Two people. Two pasts. One summer to fall in love.

Caleb is a former professional surfer trying to build his life after a career-ending accident.

Lindy has moved to Loor island to start a new life, combing the shores for sea glass to weave into jewelry.

When the two meet, sparks fly – but not the good kind. Then they discover they’re neighbours, and they’re stuck with each other for one, long summer.

As they slowly learn to trust each other, and find themselves sharing their stories that brought them to Loor, their dislike begins to unravel into friendship, then maybe something more.

But will the weight of their pasts ruin their chance of a future?


 My Thoughts

There is plenty of humour in this story of starting over and finding love. Set on the remote island of Loor, the inhabitants add a liveliness to the writing. The quirky individuals seem to know what is going on on the island almost as soon as it happens. The island setting is stunning and so much of the story takes place on the beach. It is obvious from the first pages that Lindy is dissatisfied with her life and looking for a new direction. In moving to the island, she takes a leap of faith.

     Lindy finds herself petsitting back in her native Cornwall but is also nursing a broken heart. The grumpy next door neighbour has a back story which she find hard to ferret out. An enemies to lovers story, it is Lindy's reactions to life on the island and to her charges which are most amusing. You also find yourself hoping that she can sort her thoughts out and see certain characters in their true light.

In short: amusing enemies to lovers tale.

About the Author

Taylor Cole grew up on a council estate in Devon and is of Armenian heritage, via her maternal grandmother who survived the Armenian genocide as a child refugee. When she was twenty-one, Taylor left university to run away to Cyprus and live in a men's barrack block with her military boyfriend, but returned the next year to finish her BA in English, which she followed with a master's degree in Creative Writing. She lives in Newquay with the military boyfriend-turned-husband, two daughters and an eighty-year-old tortoise called Shelley who was found wandering the streets of Plymouth in 1958.

Purchase link 

Publisher's social media links: Twitter  |  Facebook  |  Instagram  |  TikTok

Thanks to Taylor Cole, Aeia and Rachel of Rachel's Random Resources for a copy of the book and a place on the tour.

Check out these great bloggers!


 

Comments