The Year I Met You by Cecelia Ahern

Jasmine Butler has been fired from her job and is starting one year of gardening leave.  After the first few weeks she feels unsettled and doesn't really know how to fill up the empty days ahead.  Up to this point she has always been really busy and hasn't had time to get to know her neighbours.  

Matt Marshall and his family lives across the road.  He is a late night radio chat show DJ.  Jasmine has never met him but for many years has disliked him since hearing one of his late night phone-in shows.  

Jasmine decides to dig up her paved front garden, lay a lawn and introduce plants and flowers.  Whilst working in the garden she gets to know a number of her neighbours.  Matt is regularly locked out of his house and starts to spend evenings sitting in his front garden drinking, especially after his wife leaves him.  Jasmine does not want to to get to know Matt or help him, but they keep being thrown together.  Jasmine and Matt help each other work through their problems, and whilst gardening Jasmine has the time to reassess her life and learn some important lessons about herself.  

This is not a love story, but Jasmine and Matt do really need to learn from each other to help straighten out their own lives and move forwards.  It is a really interesting story where gardening leave is taken really literally! 

Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell

This is a Kay Scarpetta novel.  

The naked body of American teenage tennis star Drew Martin is discovered in Rome where she is holidaying with friends.  She has been strangled and a portion of her flesh is missing.  There is contradictory evidence found within the body about the timing of her death.  Kay Scarpetta is called to Rome to assist in the case.  

Back in America, Dr Marilyn Self claims to have a family emergency, leaves her television show on which Drew Martin has recently appeared, and hides herself away in a private clinic for her own personal safety.  She has received an email which scares her.  She has also received emails from Marino, the technician who works with Scarpetta.  

The body of an unidentified young boy, who has suffered years of abuse and starvation, is found.   

A passer-by enters a house near the beach whilst looking for the owner of a lost dog and walks into what looks like a murder scene without a body. 

With the help of Lucy, her niece, Scarpetta is able to piece together bits of information and DNA which connect all these cases and lead us to the killer.  

I have previously read a few of the Scarpetta novels, I think I have read at least 'The Last Precinct', 'Trace' and 'Predator' and possibly a few more.  I have not read them in their chronological order.  Each one is a story in its own right, but reading then randomly does mean that there are odd changes in the relationships between the characters.  

I have a box set of 'All that Remains', 'Body of Evidence' and 'Postmortem' still to read on my bookshelf.  

Bay of Secrets by Rosanna Ley

There is more than one story running in different timelines. 

In England in around 2012 Ruby Rae's parents are suddenly killed in a road accident.  Ruby returns to her childhood home in Dorset and whilst sorting out her parents belongings she discovers a box containing some unusual objects. She decides to stay in Dorset for a while and meets handy-man and artist Andres Marin.  Following an argument with his father, Andres left his family home in Fuerteventura and refuses to return.  

In Spain in 1940, following the Civil war, Julia's parents decide that she must go to the local convent.  All families are struggling, there is no money and not enough food to go round.  By sending Julia to the convent she will be safe, fed and provided for.  Whilst living at the convent Sister Julia spends many years working in a local maternity clinic.  The doctor running the clinic encourages unmarried mothers to repent for their sins and give up their babies for adoption.  Sister Julia realises that he is not always honest with some of the young mothers.  Documents are falsified and records are not kept. 

The story draws you in to the lives of the characters.  I really enjoyed the book.  It reminded me very much of reading stories by Santa Montefiore and Victoria Hislop in the way the timelines and locations change and then all come together at the end.  This is the only book by Rosanna Ley I have read so far but I will definitely read more. 

Out of the Woods but not Over the Hill by Gervase Phinn

According to Mr Phinn himself his books are "about my life as a school inspector in the Yorkshire Dales.  ...a humorous account of the children and teachers I have met - sort of gentle, life affirming, observational writing."

This book bobs backwards and forwards in time with anecdotes from both school life and his own personal life.  It covers stories from being a small child growing up and going to school in Rotherham, working as a teacher and inspector in schools where he met many interesting characters, being retired and still being recognised by pupils he taught decades before, attending events as a speaker and also observing and overhearing people in conversation in everyday life.  The book is split into a lot of small sections and stories and so can easily be picked up for just a few minutes to read an anecdote or two.  

I have previously, many years ago, read the books in 'The Dales Series'.  These are:
'The Other Side of the Dale', 'Over Hill and Dale', 'Head over Heels in the Dales', 'Up and Down in the Dales'.  I don't remember reading the final one - 'The Heart of the Dales'.   
On my bookshelf I have 'Trouble at the Little Village School' still to read.  
I have seen Gervase Phinn speak a couple of times.  He is very entertaining and has his audience laughing out loud.