Two Dogs and a Book

Cocoa Beach by Beatriz Williams My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is the latest novel of one of my favourite authors, Beatriz Williams. Cocoa Beach is an exciting read and not her usual style. The story takes place between 1919 and 1922 and is mostly set at Cocoa Beach, Florida. It is the story of Virginia Fortescue and Simon Fitzwilliam. Virginia is an American who joins the Red Cross during WWI. While in France, she meets Simon who is a British army surgeon. Simon pursues Virgina with determination, but his past looms over him and could cost him everything... even his love for Virginia This is an awesome summer reading! View all my reviews

A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams My rating: 4 of 5 stars Beatriz Williams is one of my favourite authors. I love her historical novels. They are well researched and well written. "A Hundred Summers" spans between 1931 to 1944 and tells the story of Lily Dane and Nick Greenwald. It recounts their love, their loss and the family betrayal they had to endure. In the end, love wins and there is a happy ever after. View all my reviews

Beartown by Fredrik Backman My rating: 4 of 5 stars I received this book from Simon & Schuster via Netgalley in exchange for an honest opinion. Bear Town is a novel about Swedish hockey town which is on the brink of being selected to have a major sports facility constructed in their town. Their chance lays on the local hockey team winning the hockey tournament. On the day of the finals, one of the players is pulled off the team bus by the local police and accused of a major crime against the GM's young daughter. The team lose the finals and the town is on a witch hunt. I have always been a hockey fan and was raised in a hockey town. My small 5000-people community has seen two of their young hockey players move on to the NHL. This is a rare feat. Beartown is an exciting read and will keep you guessing to the end. View all my reviews

The Mermaid's Daughter by Ann Claycomb My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was intrigued by this book. Who would not like to know what happened to the little mermaid; not the one in the Disney movie, but the one Hans Christian Andersen wrote about? What if she did not kill herself and had a daughter who had a daughter who had a daughter and so forth and so on? What if the spell which cursed the little mermaid would be passed from one generation to the next? So many possibilities to make this sequel a great read. It turned out that the sequel was a good read, but not great. It fell flat when compared to the original book. The Prologue was its redeeming grace. I think I would have like to read the story from that starting point. The Mermaid's Daughter is still a good and interesting read. View all my reviews

The Little French Bistro by Nina George My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is the second novel by Nina George I read. I enjoyed the first book a lot and that it always harder on the second. You have expectations and if they are not met, you find yourself wondering how can an author not being able to write as good as a book as the first one you had the pleasure to read. The Little French Bistro started very well but then the story lost its flavour and tasted like leftovers eaten on too many consecutive days. The story could have ended earlier than it did. Instead of concentrating on the main character's indecisions, the author should have exploited the story potential of Marianne's gifts as she discovers them. It is still a good story about starting life at 60. View all my reviews