CUTE COVERS: Molly Miranda: Thick as Thieves

Having absolutely loved Jillianne Hamilton's action-packed debut novel Molly Miranda: Thief for Hire (let's face it, Molly is my kind of heroine), it was highly exciting to find out about the upcoming sequel - Molly Miranda: Thick as Thieves. And after seeing the cover, I'm even more excited! The novel will follow professional thief Molly in a brand new adventure...

Molly Miranda has made a successful living from "acquiring" valuables and delivering them to clients who pay buckets of cash for her unique services. Things go astray when she knocks boots with her charming roommate right before taking off to Scotland with an untrustworthy wildcard on a job assignment that doesn't go quite as planned. 

Join Molly on her hilarious adventures as she dodges bullets, trespasses, wears disguises, and steals her way into trouble...

"How much fun is this? I'm loving the debut from Hamilton—now I need more about her sassy, sometimes awkward and always brave heroine, Molly Miranda. Stealing other people's stuff has never been so charming. Bravo!" - Patti Larsen, award-winning author of the Hayle Coven series.

BOOK NEWS: The Curvy Girls' Baby Club by Michele Gorman

Fans of bestselling author Michele Gorman (whose books include Single in the City, Misfortune Cookie, Bella Summer Takes a Chance and fabulous novella Weightless) will be happy to hear that new novel, The Curvy Girls' Baby Club, is due for release in September. The body-positive novella follows on from The Curvy Girls' Club, and follows Ellie as she navigates new motherhood.

Ellie is fresh back from her honeymoon and can’t wait to share her news with her best friends Katie and Jane. To everyone’s surprise, mother-of-two Jane has news of her own… The women are due a day apart, on December 25th and 26th, and Katie can’t wait to be an honorary auntie to the babies. 

But it’s hard to keep your sense of humour, not to mention your self-esteem, in the face of haemorrhoids and elasticated waistbands. Add a clingy mother-in-law, a career in cardiac arrest and a sex life that makes Mother Theresa look lusty, and soon their lives are as out of control as their bodies.

As the co-founders of The Curvy Girls Club, where loving yourself is the only rule, will the friends be able to practice what they preach? 

UNCOVERED PICKS: Five more festive reads!

As it's now truly winter outside and Christmas is now well on its way, it's been great fun curling up with some festive reads.  Here are five more Christmas picks, including the new novel from Talli Roland and the sequel to Holly Martin's One Hundred Proposals.

One Hundred Christmas Proposals by Holly Martin
If you thought Harry & Suzie’s life couldn't get anymore sweepingly romantic than Harry asking her to marry him at the end of One Hundred Proposals – think again!

It’s Christmas in a snow-kissed London, and the.PerfectProposal.com have vowed to carry out one hundred proposals in December. No easy task at the best of times - made even more complicated by Harry & Suzie trying to plan their first Christmas and a visit from the dreaded in-laws. But one hundred deliciously Christmassy proposals later they find themselves asking if everything is still perfect in their own relationship….

Welcome back to the divinely warm world of One Hundred Proposals – with a sprinkling of pure, joyful, festive magic.

The Reluctant Elf by Michele Gorman
Meet Britain's Worst Innkeeper...

Single mother and extremely undomestic goddess, Lottie, has five days to become the ultimate B&B hostess to save her beloved Aunt Kate’s livelihood. 

When Aunt Kate ends up in the hospital, Lottie and her seven-year-old daughter are called to rural Wales to stand in at the B&B. Without the faintest idea how to run a hotel (she can barely run her own life), Lottie must impress the picky hotel reviewer and his dysfunctional family who are coming to stay over Christmas. Without the rating only he can bestow, Aunt Kate will lose her livelihood. 
But will Danny, the local taxi driver who she hires to help her, really be Santa’s little helper, or the Grinch who stole Christmas? 

Married by Midnight by Talli Roland
Christmas is coming . . . and so is the biggest day of Kate's life.

While choosing a vintage dress for her Christmas Eve wedding, Kate finds a cryptic note pinned to the inside of a 1930s gown. As doubts about her own ceremony loom, Kate is determined to track down the dress' owner and determine what became of her - and the marriage.

Will Kate find the answers she's seeking to propel her down the aisle, or will her discovery prompt her to call off the wedding for good?

Cold Feet at Christmas by Debbie Johnson
Running out on your wedding shouldn’t be this much fun!

A remote Scottish castle on a snowy Christmas Eve. A handsome husband-to-be. A dress to die for. It should have been the happiest day of Leah Harvey’s life – but the fairytale wedding turns sour when she finds her fiancé halfway up the bridesmaid’s skirt just hours before the ceremony!

Fleeing the scene in a blizzard, Leah ends up stranded at the nearest cottage, where she collapses into the arms of its inhabitant – a man so handsome she thinks she must have died and gone to heaven!

And when Rob Cavelli suddenly finds himself with an armful of soaking wet, freezing cold, and absolutely gorgeous bride on the run, he’s more than happy to welcome her into his snowbound cottage this Christmas…

The Great Christmas Knit-Off by Alexandra Brown
Heartbroken after being jilted at the altar, Sybil has been saved from despair by her knitting obsession and now her home is filled to bursting with tea cosies, bobble hats, and jumpers. But, after discovering that she may have perpetrated the cock-up of the century at work, Sybil decides to make a hasty exit and, just weeks before Christmas, runs away to the picturesque village of Tindledale.

There, Sybil discovers Hettie’s House of Haberdashery, an emporium dedicated to the world of knitting and needle craft. But Hettie, the outspoken octogenarian owner, is struggling and now the shop is due for closure. And when Hettie decides that Sybil’s wonderfully wacky Christmas jumpers are just the thing to add a bit of excitement to her window display, something miraculous starts to happen…

BOOK REVIEW: Don't Tell the Boss by Anna Bell

Following on from 2013 novel Don't Tell the Groom is Anna Bell's sequel Don't Tell the Boss, in which Penny Robinson is back for more wedding planning - though this time, not hers.

Don't Tell the Groom saw Penny plan the wedding of her dreams on a strict budget after a gambling habit wiped out the majority of her savings, leaving her to arrange the happiest day of her life under the elaborate guise of a TV-inspired 'surprise'.

Now Penny's back, happily married to husband Mark and, after successfully planning a wedding for pal Lara, lands herself the opportunity to plan the budget wedding of Henri Scott. Despite vowing not to plan anymore weddings, Henri refuses to back down until Penny agrees, and pretty soon Penny finds herself tasked with the nuptials of a potential bridezilla who thinks 'budget' is a dirty word.

But there's a reason why the seemingly affluent Henri Scott is having to plan her wedding so cheaply - and it's a reason, Penny soon discovers when she meets husband-to-be Nick,  that's particularly close to home...

Meanwhile, Penny's day job in HR is looking up when new boss Giles announces the possibility of promotion. The downside? Penny must compete for the position with 'frenemy' Shelly. But with her great organisation skills, and her new assignment - plan the army-themed company team-building event - Penny's set on success. That is, until she discovers her new boss's view on secondary jobs. And when Henri becomes more demanding, it's only a matter of time before Penny's two jobs collide...

Juggling the team-building weekend and a fight for promotion, reluctantly embarking on a second job as a wedding planner and being the budget-bride guru on popular blog 'Princess on a Shoestring', things are soon proving to be tough for Penny, especially with husband Mark and their plans for a baby.

Can Penny successfully send Henri down the aisle of her dream wedding, bag the promotion and keep it all from her stern new boss?

Don't Tell the Groom is a wonderfully-written novel that I was unable to put down. Granted, having loved Anna Bell's previous book Don't Tell the Groom, I had already expected a fantastic read. I loved Penny and her busy life (I could definitely relate!), and the story was so well-paced and made me continue reading. Anna writes in a such a funny way that you instantly fall in love with the characters - well, maybe not Henri (not first of all, anyway!), and the comedy moments make this novel perfect. I'm hoping there's more from Penny in future! If you enjoy books by Sophie Kinsella, Kirsty Greenwood and Tracy Bloom, then I would definitely recommend Anna Bell.

Rating: 5/5