All Aboard: The Canal Boat Cafe by Cressida McLaughlin

This is book one in The Canal Boat Cafe series. 

Summer Freeman returns to Willowbeck where Valerie, her mum's friend, neighbour and the local fortune teller, has been struggling  to keep the Canal Boat Cafe running.  Summer is horrified by the state of the cafe but she has not been back on the boat, which was both home and business to her mum, since her mum's death eight months ago.  

Not all the locals are happy to see Summer.  Jenny from the local pub does not want the competition of the cafe, she wants it to fail and close. But Mason, the new neighbour on the river who lives on the boat The Sandpiper, encourages Summer to stay and turn the business around.  

This is book one of four in the series, I downloaded it free.  It is a story in its own right, put to continue and find out what Summer does next you need to purchase book two in the series.  At 100 pages or just over per book they could all have been put together into one decent sized novel. 

The Fairytale Tea Dress Shop in Edinburgh by De-ann Black

This is book two in the Tea Dress Shop series. 

Delphine has been made redundant from her job in Glasgow.  Using every penny she has, and a loan from the bank, she takes out a lease on a shop in Edinburgh and opens up her own Fairytale Tea Dress Shop. 

Using her prior knowledge of the fashion industry she offers tea dresses which she has updated and given a new lease of life with new collars, hemlines, buttons, scarves etc.  She also begins to make some of her own dresses and accessories too.  

Having moved into the new shop she starts to get to know the other local shop keepers.  Some of the men begin to take an interest in her.  She sets up a website for the shop and has a few mishaps along the way! 

I have only read this one but each of the books in the series appears to be a different story with different characters but along the same 'opening up a Tea Dress Shop' theme.  They are classed as novellas due to the 100ish page length.  I downloaded this one free and it was well worth the read.  I will certainly read more by the same author, and I believe there are quite a lot! 

Bridesmaids by Jane Costello

Within one year 27 year old Evie Hart is bridesmaid at the weddings of three friends and her mum.  The weddings vary from high class hotels to a registry office with a reception held in a local field.  

Evie has had many relationships, but none that have lasted for more then three months.  She sees a few ex-boyfriends at the various weddings, some she is happy to see and some she would rather avoid!

At the first wedding Evie meets and is instantly attracted to Jack.  Unfortunately he is there as a guest and the current boyfriend of Valentina, one of her friends.  Jack keeps on popping up as a guest at the weddings and the attraction becomes mutual.  

This is a good chick-lit story and a really easy read.  I felt empathy for some of the characters, particularly Evie and Charlotte.  

I thought I had previously read a Jane Costello book but when I looked at the titles none of them seemed familiar.  I do have The Time of Our Lives on my book shelf waiting to be read.  

If this is Paradise, I want my money back! by Claudia Carroll

Following a car accident Charlotte has extensive injuries and is in a coma.  She heads towards the whiteness and meets up, in the afterlife, with her Dad who has been dead for a number of years.  They spend a lot of time together whilst they are waiting for Charlotte to be assessed.  As there's not a lot to do whilst waiting, Charlotte is offered a chance to do some Angelic Work Experience (AWE) back on earth.  She jumps at the chance and is given some training.  When she is ready to begin she is allocated her 'charge'.  To her horror this turns out to be James Kane, her cheating boyfriend of the last 5 years.  

Going completely against the rules of the AWE Charlotte sees her opportunity to have some fun with James and to get her own back for the way he has treated her over the last few years.  She is also able to visit and watch over her closest friend and family.  

This is quite a quirky story with Charlotte trying to help her friend Fi to find love as well as taunting James for his bad behaviour and arrogance.  

I have read a few other Claudia Carroll novels - A Very Accidental Love Story, Personally I Blame My Fairy Godmother, The Last of the Great Romantics and All I Want for Christmas (a very short Christmas story).  On my bookshelf waiting to be read are Remind Me Again Why I Need a Man and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?  
Claudia Carroll has some very long and unusual titles for her books.  Her stories are unusual and imaginative.  

Dancing with the Virgins by Stephen Booth

Maggie Crew is attacked with a knife and left with terrible scars on her face.  She can't remember anything about the attack or her attacker.  The new Park Ranger then finds the body of Jenny Weston which has been laid out within the Nine Virgins stone circle on the Derbyshire moors.  Jenny has been stabbed.  The police believe that Jenny may have been killed by Maggie's attacker.  

Detective Sergeant Diane Fry arranges many meetings with Maggie.  She talks with her about why she was out walking on the moors and tries to jog her memory from around the time of the attack.  Anything she can remember may help in the search for Jenny's murderer.  

The police begin their investigations and interviews with people who have been within the area of the murder.  As new pieces of information are discovered they implicate, or clear, different people within the investigation.  

Detective Constable Ben Cooper knows the moors area well and he understands the difficulties faced by the local farmers who are trying to make a living on difficult land.  He refuses to believe the guilt of some of the people implicated within the investigation.  He sticks with his gut feelings about some of the people under interrogation but he is also very loyal to his colleagues.  

There are many twists and turns within the investigation and we begin to doubt the truth of the stories of some of the people involved. 

I have not read a Stephen Booth novel before.  This is one of his earlier books within the Cooper and Fry series.  All his books are based in the Peak District.  Having not heard of the Nine Virgins stone circle I looked it up.  It is generally known as the Nine Ladies, but all the other information about the legend of them being dancers and the outlying stone having been a fiddler all seems to be documented.  

A Hidden Life by Adele Geras

Shortly before she dies Constance Barrington decides to change her will.  She doesn't tell her family about the changes she has made and she does so with the intention of it causing ill feeling amongst them after her death.  

At the reading of the new will the family are all amazed at the content.  Instead of the family home being shared between her son and grandchildren as was expected, it is left to just one person.  And Lou, who is Constance's only blood relative grandchild, is effectively disinherited by being given the copyright to the novels written by her late grandfather, Constance's husband John.  The books have been out of print for many years, were not particularly well received on first publication, and the copyright is known to be all but worthless.  

Of all the family it is Lou who is struggling financially.  She is a young single mother who is trying to work and look after her small child without having to resort to asking for too much help from her parents.  She spends her working life reading screenplays and writing reports on them for a small production company.  

Lou reminisces about spending time with her grandfather and him reading passages of his books to her when she was a small child.  She re-reads 'Blind Moon' and realises that he had only read a part of the book to her, a lot of the story was based on his experiences in early life in a prisoner of war camp.  

The ill feeling caused by the new will begins to cause problems within the family and long forgotten conversations and information come to light, particularly around the early life of John Barrington.  

This is a really good story with some interesting characters.  It is the fourth adult novel written by Adele Geras.  If I come across any of the others I will certainly read them.  

Silks by Dick Francis and Felix Francis

Geoffrey Mason is a defence barrister and, in his spare time, he is also an amateur jockey.  Geoffrey loses his defence in a case for Julian Trent.  Trent is found guilty on eight counts - four for causing actual bodily harm, three for inflicting grievous bodily harm and one for attempted murder.  He is given a prison sentence of eight years.  Within a very short time he is released from prison on appeal.  

Riding as an amateur jockey Geoffrey shares the changing rooms with the professional jockeys and over time gets to know them.  One jockey is found brutally murdered and Steve Mitchell, a rival jockey, is the prime suspect.  Steve does not have, or will not give, an alibi for the time of the murder.  He asks Geoffrey to provide his defence and continually claims he is innocent and is being set up.  

Julian Trent makes contact with Geoffrey, he is very threatening and insists he must take on the defence for Steve Mitchell and he must lose the case.  Although Geoffrey is quite scared and intimidated by Trent he wants to know why Steve Mitchell is being set up, who the real murderer is and why it is so important that Steve Mitchell be found guilty.  

This is the first ever Dick Francis book I have read.  I had heard of him and knew he was an ex-jockey who wrote books about horses and racing.  This book was written jointly with his son Felix.  I found this to be a very enjoyable story with an ending I had not expected.