The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell

The story spans many events in the lives of the Bird family over the years from 1981 through to 2011.  Most of the story is centered around the mother, Lorelei.  There is also the father, Colin, and the four children, Megan, Beth and the twins Rory and Rhys.  They live in a cottage in the Cotswolds.  

Lorelei lives only for the present and is a really happy and colourful character.  Over time, what started as collecting a few things which were pretty and colourful, turns into an obsession.  When Megan leaves the family home she becomes the complete opposite of her mother.  She is obsessively clean, neat, tidy and minimalist.  

A tragic event happens in the family home one Easter Sunday.  None of them can talk to each other about what happened but all their lives are affected and the family is slowly torn apart.  

I enjoyed this story and the interaction between different members of the family, although some of the relationships were a bit obscure.  There were a couple of occasions whilst reading the book, just as when I am watching television programmes about very dirty houses and people who hoard, when I felt a need to put the book down to go and sort, tidy or clean something!  

Payback by Kimberley Chambers

Brothers Vinny and Michael Butler are gangsters from the East End of London. Together they run a nightclub.  Vinny in particular is not well liked and has made a lot of enemies.  Life for the family becomes difficult when slowly people begin to turn against Vinny and plan their payback.  

This book is very much in the style of a Martina Cole novel with East End gangsters, drugs, killings and coarse language.  

This was a free download kindle book.  

The Sweet Dreams Bake Shop by J A Whiting

Angie Roseland opened The Sweet Dreams Bake Shop in the small town of Sweet Cove just a year ago.  She wanted to return to the town where she had good memories of the family visiting each summer to stay with their grandmother.  

Retired, elderly, Professor Linden visits the cafe every morning for her breakfast.  One day, just after leaving the cafe, she collapses and dies and the whole town is in shock.  Following a post-mortem it is revealed that Professor Linden has been murdered.  After the reading of the will Angie finds herself to be a beneficiary and this also puts her on the suspect list for the murder.  Angie, with the help of her sisters, is determined to find out the identity of the real killer.  

This is a Sweet Cove Cozy Mystery story.  This was a free download which I read on my Kindle.  

A Cottage by the Sea by Carole Matthews

Now in their 30s, Grace, Ella and Flick have been friends since university.  When Ella's parents die she inherits the family holiday cottage near the sea in South Wales.  This is somewhere that Ella has always loved to be.  She invites her friends to join her at the cottage for a weeks holiday.  The party will Ella and her partner Art, Grace and her husband Harry and Flick who is single.  

Grace hopes that a week away will be relaxing and that it will give her and Harry time to spend together to get their marriage back on track.  Ella knows that Art finds the cottage far too isolated and would rather that she sold it and bought another one somewhere else, preferably in a warmer country.  Flick arrives at the cottage, late as usual, and unexpectedly bringing a new man with her.  

The anticipated week of catching up and having fun does not go as any of them planned. 

This is an easy read, chick-lit story that makes you feel real empathy for some of the characters.  

Other books I have read by Carole Matthews are 'With Love at Christmas', 'The Chocolate Lovers' Club' and 'The Cake Shop in the Garden'.