Room

Welcome to my little Niche within the library. So grab a coffee and let's review some books. Room by Emma Donoghue
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had a hard time reading this book because of the language used. The book is written in English but it was written in the often primitive language of a precarious six year old boy. The book is narrarated by Jack, the six-year-old boy who is also the main character of the book along with his mother, Twenty-six year old Joy. The story is told in the perspective of Jack, the Six-year-old boy. Since the age of nineteen Joy was kidnapped and placed in a small shed by a man only known as 'Old Nick'. Two years later Joy gave birth to a boy whom she called Jack. Jack was the product of rape. Joy brought up her son in the shed which Jack called 'Room'. His only reality in the world was Room and all the few possessions in it.
The story then goes on to reveal how Joy and Jack survived their ordeal and how they managed to escape. Although I found it difficult to read I find that the story is beautifully written. The story is now a motion picture The book has been nominated for a Man Booker Prize.

Emma Donogohue was born in the Republic of Ireland. She is a playwright, author and screen-writer. She wrote 'Room' in 2010. She lives in Canada.

The Perfume Garden

Welcome to my little Niche within the library. So grab a coffee and let's review some books. The Perfume Garden by Kate Lord Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I trully enjoyed this historical fiction.
The book is beautifully written in the style of Victoria Hislop's The Return.
The characters were believable and well-rounded.
After losing her mother, Liberty Temple to Cancer ,surviving her partner's affair with her best friend, Delilah and heavily pregnant, Emma Temple needed a new start in life.
Liberty Temple was a renkowned perfumsit who ran her own company. Upon her death she does bequeath the company to her Daughter, Emma. She also leaves a beautiful laquered perfume box filled with her letters to her daughter and a key.

To Emma's surprise the key holds the secrets to her family's past. She learns that her mother, Liberty has left her a house in Spain. Determined to start anew with a baby on the way, Emma travels to Spain to start a new life at the house her mother left her. Yet the house holds ages of family secrets that Emma has yet to discover.

This novel is set in the background of the Spanish Civil War. The author writes descriptive and narritive details of one of Europes most horrific wars...the Spanish Civil war which killed half a million Spaniards at the merciless hands of Fascist Franco.
I am intrigued to read the author's other works.

The Return

Welcome to my little Niche within the library. So grab a coffee and let's review some books.




The Return by Victoria Hislop
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Best friends Sonia Cameron and Maggie, two English women, take up Salsa dancing one night a week. Sonia has always been passionate about dancing. She took up dancing to get away from her stale and unhappy marriage to James. Maggie invites Sonia to Spain to celebrate her 30’s birthday. The two friends venture to Granada where they enrol in a Flamenco Dance school. Upon visiting one of Granada’s cafes, Sonia stumbles upon Manuel, an elderly owner of the café. Sparked by the pictures on the café walls and intriqued upon learning of her dead mother's Spanish history, Sonia asks the old man about Spain’s painful past, particularly about the Ramirez family and about the Spanish Civil War.
This is a story within a story. The author captures, in detail, the ramifications of the Spanish Civil War and weaves a tale of a chattered Spain fresh from the horrors of The Second Republic where brothers fought against brothers and the country fell into the tyrannical hands of the Fascist, Francisco Franco.
I bought this book because I, like Sonia, am interested in learning about the truth behind the Spanish Civil War and the Spain de mi abuelo (my grandfather) and his family...the War fought during 1931 and 1936 which claimed the lives of over 500,000 Spaniards. I love the vivid description the author gave of Granada and Andalucía. It was as if I were there.

The Christmas Surprise

Welcome to my little Niche within the library. So grab a coffee and let's review some books. The Christmas Surprise by Jenny Colgan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rosie Hopkins, newly engaged to Stephen Lakeman, is looking forward to another year in Lipton at The Sweet Shoppe, but when tragedy strikes both Rosie and her groom-to-be, the couple take a holiday in Africa to recuperate from their loss. What they didn’t know was that fate would change their lives forever. Rosie and her fiancé will need all the support they can get from their friends and family to pull through.
I got this book as a Christmas present from my husband. I enjoyed reading it. I love all the books in the Jenny Colgan collection. I am looking forward to read Christmas at Rosie Hopkins Sweet Shoppe and her latest, Summer at the Little Beach Street Bakery. I like Colgan’s style of writing. She is one of my favourite Chick Lit authors. My favourite of her books is Meet Me at the Cupcake Café and Little Beach Street Bakery. The author also throws in several sweet morsels of recipes to add an extra dimension to her novels and delight her readers.


***** 5 Stars

Here Comes the Bride

Welcome to my little Niche within the library. So grab a coffee and let's review some books. There Goes the Bride by M.C. Beaton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When Agatha's Ex-husband, Charles, invites Agatha to his Wedding with a young Spanish woman named Felicity, Agatha feels jealous. She decides to take a trip to Istambul to get over her jealousy and possibly find romance there with her French friend, Sylvan, only to find that Charles and his fiancee are guests at the same hotel as Agatha. The Wedding is set and Agatha and her friend, Toni attends the enagement party; but when the Bride is murdered, Agatha is named prime suspect. The bride's parents hires Agatha to investigate the murder of their only daughter. There are many twists and turns in the investigation with a surprise ending.

I enjoyed the book. This is the third Agatha Raisin book I've read. Though I really enjoyed Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death , Here Comes the Bride is as funny and witty as The Quiche of Death. Agatha Raisin is a middled aged woman who retires to the Cotswolds. She owns a Private Detective Agency and goes around the Coswolds solving crimes in the style of Agatha Crhistie's character, Mrs Marpole.

Born in Scotland, M.C. Beaton worked as a journalist on Fleet Street. Ms Beaton divides her time between the village of Carsley in the Cotswolds and Paris.

The Undomestic Goddess

Welcome to my little Niche within the library. So grab a coffee and let's review some books. The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Samantha Sweeting is a high powered, Workaholic attorney for a respectable law firm, Carter Spinks. She is good at her job and is waiting to be made a Partner at the firm. On the day she is to learn if she made Partner she discovers a huge error she's presumubly made.....one that costs her client £50,000 and Samantha her job. With her career over, Samantha flees her London life and boards a train to the country. Arriving at Gloucester, she comes across this house and rings the doorbell.

To her surprise she is mistaken for a housekeeper by Trish who opens the door. Samantha is confused as to why she'd be mistaken for a housekeeper. She knows nothing about keeping house. But soon she is offered the position. Samantha accepts the job thinking it is only a temporary thing. With little knowledge of what to do with a whisk or a broom, Samantha assumes the role of housekeeper, leading her employers, Eddie and Trish Geiger, to think she is a top-notch housekeeper and cordon blue chef! Learning as she goes along, Samantha begins to love her new role and life in the country.

She meets Nathaniel, the Geiker's gardener, his mother, Iris, who teaches Samantha how to cook and bake bread. Can Samantha keep her secret identity from her new employers and Nathaniel? Is she ready to toss her lawyer career down the drain and become a full-time housekeeper? The Undomestic Goddess is the story of a girl who has to slow down, fall in love, turn her life around and discover what an iron is for!

I really enjoyed this book. It made me laugh so much my sides ached! I read many of Kinsella's works, including the Shopoholic series, Remember Me and Can You Keep A secret, but this book really drew my interest. I couldn't put it down!

Little Beach Street Bakery

Welcome to my little Niche within the library. So grab a coffee and let's review some books. Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan




After Polly Waterford's world turned upside down when the business she and her depressed and ' mamma's boy' boyfriend, Chris, went down the pan and had to sell their flat in Plymouth, all Polly wanted to do was start a new life.

She found a cheap flat in Cornwall in the little sleepy Cornish village of Mount Polbearne. There she meets a motely crew of characters including the insufferable Mrs Manse, her grumpy landlady who owns the local bakery, a group of lively fishermen, an American bee keeper named Huckle, Huckle's eccentric friend, Reuben and a puffin named Neil.



Polly tries to forget her past and takes out all her frustrations by kneading bread, which is Polly's favourite pastime. Soon her bread becomes famous throughout Polbearne and word soon spreads of her delicious bread much to the chagrin of Mrs Manse who forbids her to bake more bread. Determine to continue making bread, Polly starts selling her bread to the locals in secret.

When an accident strikes, though, involving Mrs Manse, Polly is forced into helping the old woman in the bakery. Soon Polly, with the gift of a brick oven given to her by Huckle's friend, Reuben, opens a new Bakery in town called The Little Beach Street Bakery.



I enjoyed this book from beginning to end! I especially loved Kerensa and Rueben's Star War-themed Wedding and the scene where Neil comes in the picture. Without giving too much away, the book has a happy ending.



This is the fifth food- related book that Jenny Colgan has written. I loved her Meet Me at the Cupcake Café, and she delighted me in The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris.

What inspired me to read her books was her baking -themed fiction. Being a baker at heart, I can relate to several of the characters in Jenny's books.



Each of these books include lots of recipes for the reader to try. Little Beach Street Bakery is a feel good kind of read. One of the themes covered in the book is starting over or turning a new leaf in life. The characters are well-rounded and believable. My favourite characters in the book are Polly Waterford, Neil the Puffin, the unforgettable Tarnie, Huckle, the Beekeeper from Savannah, Georgia, Polly's quirky friend, Kerensa and the eccentric chef, Reuben.



Born in Scotland, Jenny Colgan now lives in London and France with her husband and three children. Her books, Rosie Hopkins Sweet Shop of Dreams has won her the Romance Novel Award in 2013. A true Dr Who fan, Jenny has written a Doctor Who- related book, Dr Who-Into the Nowhere (Time Trip). Life definitely is Sweet with Jenny Colgan!