The Man Who Didn't Call * Rosie Walsh

The Man Who Didn't Call by Rosie Walsh 

Imagine you meet a man, spend six glorious days together, and fall in love. And it’s mutual: you’ve never been so certain of anything. 

So when he leaves for a long-booked holiday and promises to call from the airport, you have no cause to doubt him.
But he doesn’t call. 

Your friends tell you to forget him, but you know they're wrong: something must have happened; there must be a reason for his silence.

On the 2nd June, Sarah comes to the same spot, at the same time to remember the tragedy that ruined her life. What she didn't think would happen, was that she'd fall madly in love with a complete stranger, that she's only known for seven days. 

Seven wonderful, marvellous, days she'd spent cooped up with Eddie David's. Then out of nowhere, he just vanished without a trace or even a phone call. 

Sarah can't shake the feeling that something is wrong; they shared life stories, dreams and even a little wooden mouse! So where did he go? When did it all go wrong? 

As Sarah battles with a loss she never knew she had, a love so fierce it may send her into madness and heartbreak so strong, that it physically hurts. One things for certain, she has to find Eddie David's before its too late and who he really is.  

The Man Who Didn't Call by Rosie Walsh, is the first book that Walsh has written under her real name. Before, she has written under the pen name 'Lucy Robinson'. You can't begin to imagine my excitement when I realised this revelation and I couldn't wait for it to be released. I adore Rosie's writing, and her stories are just so beautiful. 

The story was nothing like I'd expected, I suppose I thought it would be like her other ones, but the story just took me by surprise and what a fabulous surprise it was! It's very well written, the plot is great and the ending, oh that ending. If there's one book you should read before the year is out, please go pick this one up and give it a read, you won't be disappointed! 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and seriously can't wait for more by Rosie.

I will be giving this book 10/10

**This book was read in June, this is a late review

The Day We Disappeared * Lucy Robinson

The Day We Disappeared by Lucy Robinson 

Annie has a secret. But if she's not going to tell, we won't either. 

Kate has run away. But she's not going to tell us why - that would defeat the point of running, wouldn't it? 


Annie Mulholland is not like your average girl. She has a troubled past, that she has fought long and hard with and nothing will get in the way of her remembering it. 

Throughout the years Annie slowly but surely starts to learn how to live life like everyone else, though not without some bumps along the way. Being in Le Cloob has helped over the years, what with her sex obsessed sister Lizzy, her gracious yet obnoxious french friend Claudine, and of course her slightly insane friend Tim. She feels like she can take on anything, apart from men.  

Until the beautiful and charismatic Stephen Flint shows up one evening in the massage room and her world is slowly turned upside down. He has it all, the dream cars, the house, money and not to mention a lovely resort out in sunny France. But once Annie begins to scratch beneath the surface, she becomes terrified. 

Kate Brady used to work at a high flying IT centre, but now she's running from something. Needing to get as far away as possible, she arrives on the doorstep at a farm but not just any old farm, it's only Mark Waverly's. One of the top horse riders in the country, and when Kate brags her way through the interview, she finally starts to feel safe.  

But things aren't what they seem, when she's thrown in at the deep end with not an ounce of knowledge about horses or even the rider himself. Though when she befriends Becca, a tough gordie girl and Joe, a deprived sex "god", things start to slowly turn around, though she hopes that her past will too. 

As both girls cope with their past, their future hangs in the balance. Will Becca and Annie be able to live normal, safe lives? Or will they always be on the run?

The Day We Disappeared by Lucy Robinson, was wonderful! I don't know what else I can say!...No, wait I do! As always, Robinson's books are brilliantly witty and full of surprise. So when I heard that she was bringing out a new book last year, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it, and now I know she's on with her fifth  novel! Ahh the excitement, I can't contain it!! But we'll get back to the review.  

I honestly thought that this book would be about romance, but I was wrong, totally wrong. I mean, don't get me wrong it does have some level of romance, but it's more on the line of a comedy thriller. Which I just love, it's different and there we're so many page turners and twists, I finished it within a week! (Though that's because I've been at work) But I haven't read a book so fast in a while, it was a lovely feeling to be able to briskly read all the way through! 

The book never slowed down gradually picked up the pace, like a snowball down a big mountain, but it was good and such a brilliant read. They way that Robinson kept me hooked form beginning to end and made me gasp with shock as joyous, as I don't gasp that much at books!

Without giving too much away about the plot and story, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I'm not just saying that because of the author. She genuinely is a wonderful story teller and her stories and writing style are different from anyone I know. It's fun to read her books and I can't wait for the next one to come out. Wonderful and beautiful writing skills. 

(I wanted to give this a really good review, but I'm a bit out of sync what with my last review being in July last year!)

I would seriously recommend this book, and Lucy Robinson. 

I will give this book 10/10 

  

The Unfinished Symphony of You and Me * Lucy Robinson

The Unfinished Symphony of You and Me by Lucy Robinson

Sally is an incredible singer but she sings only in her wardrobe where nobody can hear her. She'd rather join a nudist colony than sing in public.

That is until she ventures to New York where a wild and heady summer of love and loss changes her forever. No longer able to hide in the shadows, Sally must return home to London to fulfil a promise she cannot break - to share her voice.

But just as she's about to embark on her new life, a beautiful man turns up on Sally's doorstep bearing a sheepish smile and a mysterious hand-written message.

Sally Howlett has a secret, a secret she has kept since she was a young girl. She loves to sing, and not just any singing. Opera singing, and she's been singing ever since she was seven. Something that her mother and father really don't want to be doing, since a tragic death in their family. 

Since then Sally has been sworn to secrecy by her parents that she will never sing again, though that won't stop her. She just sings in her wardrobe, to no one else in the world apart from her teddy bear Carrot. But when her cousin and best friend Fiona hears her sing, her whole world comes crashing down.  

But whilst she's a wardrobe mistress and working as close to being in opera as she can, she's in a dream come true. Working with her friends Barry and Bae and even her freckle, Fiona. Though when she bumps into the handsome Julian Bell, after he opens the door on her stealing his candle. Her whole world flips upside down and she is on top of the world. 

Julian has a heart of gold and a vice like silk, he also makes Sally feel wonderful about herself. She has found her man! But Fiona starts to take a turn for the worst with alcohol and drugs and is soon off the rails,so Sally doesn't know what to do. She doesn't know who to trust anymore and what to believe, she's spent her whole life being a friend, a sister, cousin and a mother. But now that the tragedy has happened, how can she move on? 

Stepping into the Royal College of Music in London was a big move on for her. How can she sing in front of people when she's only sang in a wardrobe? Nothing could be worse than this, but when she soon finds out that Julian is her singing coach, the same man she fell in love with and soon fell back out of love with him. She wants a big black hole to open up and swallow her whole. She also wants nothing to do with Julian ever again and wants him out of her life.  

But when things slowly start to change is Sally's little bubble of a life, what will she do? Could this be a new act in her life waiting to unfold into something wonderful? Or could it be a disaster on wheels going at 100mph? 

The Unfinished Symphony of You and Me by Lucy Robinson, is the third book to be released by the author and I honestly cannot get enough of her work! I've been waiting for ages for this book to come out and nearly passed out when it did! It's smart, creative, hilarious and just down right laugh out loud. I feel I can always connect with Robinson's books as he writes about real life problems, and the little feelings that every woman gets and feels like that at some point in her life. 

I feel some books don't really put much humour into their books, such and putting things in that would never happen in a million years to someone, such as yourself. But with Lucy Robinson's books, half of the embarrassing things that happen in her books, you can count on has happened to you or someone you know and you can really sympathise with the characters which I think is great! 

I really loved the story line for this book, I thought it was very well written with the right amount of drama, comedy and romance. I loved Sally's character and can totally understand how she feels with not wanting to perform any music, because that's how I feel with playing the drums. I liked Helen's character and think I liked her a bit more than Fiona. I was torn between Julian and Jan as I couldn't make my mind up on who would be better for Sally in the end.  

The story line was really good and had many twists and turns in the plot that I thought we're great. At some point's I did think that the book was a little slow on places, but soon picked it's pace back up! All in all I think this is a great book, and do really enjoy Lucy Robinson's books,  probably a bit too much! She's bringing another one out soon!! I can't wait!! 

I will give this book 9 out of 10 

The Greatest Love Story of All Time * Lucy Robinson

The Greatest Love Story of All Time by Lucy Robinson

It's Fran's thirtieth birthday and things are good . . .

She's bluffed her way into a Very Posh Job and her outlandishly handsome and talented boyfriend Michael is escorting her to the Ritz with a bulge the shape of a ring box in his pocket.

But something has gone wrong. Very wrong. By the end of the evening Fran is howling in bed with a bottle of cheap brandy and one of Michael's old socks.

In her quest to figure out why her life has suddenly gone down the pan, Fran comes up with a failsafe plan: live like a badger, stalk a stranger called Nellie and cancel her beloved Gin Thursdays in favour of drinking gin every night. But then Fran's friends force a very different plan on her and it's nowhere near as fun. How could eight dates possibly make her feel better?

But eventually she agrees. And so begins the greatest love story of all time . . .

What do you do when you're having the time of your life on your birthday, with the man you love who's about to propose to you. But then decides that he needs some time apart, and decides to give it three months with no contact between the two of you without an explanation of why he's done it?

You go to bed of course! Spend all day in bed for weeks, crying your heart out and drinking Gin and Tonics like your life depends on it. Well, it does if you're Fran. 

When her beloved Michael Slater wants a break for a while, Fran does exactly that, hibernating in her bedroom in a swarm of groggy tissues and Michael's old socks, drinking cheap Morrisons brandy from the bottle and crying to her best friends, Leonie, Dave and Stefania. 
Trying to get over the devastated state that she's in, her best friends make up a game for Fran to play. The Eight Date Deal. This meaning, that Franny has to sign up to an online dating agency and go on a total of eight dates before she can see her beloved Michael again. Though reluctant to this deal, Fran doesn't want to, she just wants to stay in bed and drink herself to death by Gin and Tonics.

When upon hearing the deal that Michael can be her eighth date, Fran agrees to go on them, even though she won't enjoy them one bit. The first bloke has a massive saggy bottom, the next doesn't care and rants on about his ex down the phone in the middle of the date, the one after that dresses like a cowboy and there's more to come.

But when Fran hears about Nellie, Michael's secret lover, a whole  new world kicks off as Fran goes on one massive stalking mission, which has no limits to try and find just what on earth is happening, with her boy.

Though Dave and Stefania strongly disagree, they are trying there very best not to let anything come between Fran and Michael, by trying to find out all the evidence they can to prove it and to keep her going on her eight date deal.

Dave the big massive, Glaswegian "tough as fuck"  man as Fran says, is as lovable as a big friendly bear and one of Fran's closest mates, he knows what Fran wants and where her head really needs to lie. And as for Leonie, Fran has known her since nursery, growing up with her through Primary school, secondary school, college and even university, and even though she wanted to be an author, her dreams have faded away to the point where she is a charity worker on the streets. Not to mention brewing up a secret love affair with Michael's best friend Alex, much to Frans disapproval.

Then there's Stefania, Fran's lovely foreign friend. She's quirky and different and always manages to get her words mixed up, but she's as loyal as they come. Plus she looks after Frans cat Duke Ellington and sends her cooked dinners through the cat flap so she doesn't die from alcohol.

Frans father lives far away in sunny Spain and her mother lives at home, with a very bad drinking problem. She needs help, and Fran hopes to help somehow. But when the press get ahold of her, at the biggest moment in everyone's life, who will Fran turn to and who exactly ratted her own mother out to the press.

And with the only man out of all the eight dates apart from Michael, Fran finds someone who males her smile and likes her for who she really is. But is he closer than she thinks?

The Greatest Love Story of All Time by Lucy Robinson is a wonderful book! It made me laugh so much and I could relate to it as well, just like the other one. I really do hope she writes more as I really really enjoy them.

This made me laugh out loud so much, I loved the Character of Dave ever so much, I  just loved the way he was created and even his foul language. I honestly know someone like Dave and he's just like him. It was honestly like reading a book in his point of view.

And Stefania was such a lovely character, reminded me of one of my friends from the Ukraine. The character was friendly and different, made me giggle with her accent and she was just portrayed very well. Was nice to create an image of what she would be like

I even liked just the way of life of all three friends, like Gin Thursday's like just smoking weed (I myself have never done it and don't intend to) But I just like the way how there life was so chilled out. I loved the story line as well, it was one of those where you're certain you know who she's going to fall in love with, but as it starts to get more into the story you think "Oh hang on, I may be wrong"

All and all, the story line was marvellous, the character's we're great, made you think and it was the greatest love story of all time. Also I loved the name Duke Ellington for a cat. Think I might use that one day! Haha

I will give this books 10 out of 10

A Passionate Love Affair With a Total Stranger * Lucy Robinson

A Passionate Love Affair With a Total Stranger by Lucy Robinson

Charley Lambert has worked hard at creating a perfect life. She has an aspirational flat, a job of international significance and a very good pair of legs, thanks to a rigorous health and fitness regime. Best of all, her boss has asked her out after seven years' hard flirting and a covert fumble in a mop cupboard.

Then she breaks her leg in three places, watches her boss propose to someone else and - horror - is forced to hand over her job to her nasty deputy. Charley, a certified workaholic, fears that she will go mad.

Dangerously bored, she starts helping people who are talentless at internet dating. Then William arrives in her inbox and rocks her world. Helpless, she watches herself fall in love with him and discovers she's not who she thought she was.

But can she turn her back on her old life - all for a total stranger?

Charlotte Lambert is a workaholic, she aims and thrives achievement in her busy and scheduled life. Weather it be for her family or friends, but most of all it's for her high standard, high paying job at Salutech. Being the director of communications is the love of Charley's life at the moment, she has a job that she loves and can't thing of anything else she would want to do.
Other than be the lover for John McAllister. Her strong, dark, handsome and downright dirty boss. Who she's been in a love tiff with for nearly seven years. And not to mention the 'man of her dreams'.

Then it all goes down hill, literally, as Charely soon wakes up in hospital with a broken leg in three different places and a broken pelvis to go with it. Panicking about her job, Charley tries to force John to let he carry on working. But he is having none of it and soon requests Margret to take care of things. Much to Charley's horror.

Sam Bowes on the other hand is Charley's best friend, and also her flat mate, her smelly, childlike, womanising flat mate. He was the kind who sulked off to his bedroom with a bag of bread and a jar of Nutella and would stay there for hours. But she loved him none the less.

Following boredom taking over herself and a recent read in the newspaper, Charley sets out to make a new business, First Date Aid. Her very own dating site, which soon becomes famous for a couple called Shelly and William. Here's how it went, Charley was a ghost writer, helping other people find love and time to write to there chosen men.

Though when she teams up to work for and with Shelly Cartwright, a busy, bossy business woman like herself. Lambert soon realises who she's become and doesn't like it. Slowly falling in love with Shelly's chosen man. Charley starts to worry as she spirals into a loving tiff with William. Who happens to be some one she is quite close too. But doesn't know it yet.

Soon First Date Aid kicks up a storm in many peoples lives, including Charley, Sam and even her best friend Hailey's. Spreading the love is harder than it looks, especially if you the one behind it all, trying to sort everyone else's relationships out, and your own at the same time.

Follow Charley Lambert, as she falls in love over emails from a stranger, has fall outs with her best friend's, romps with her boss and a love for her family that make the whole book magical.

A Passionate Love Affair With a Total Stranger by Lucy Robinson is a wonderful book. I know I say this often about books that I like, but this has got to be now one of my favourites books, one that I will read over and over again. It's hilarious and I laughed out loud so much, I felt I could relate to this book quite a lot, not with the whole loving you're boss part, But the part in which falling in love with a friend.

Her relationship with Sam is a lot like mine (With my boyfriend Sam, who was my best Friend before) and it was just a lovely and pleasant read. It made me giggle and smile so much, her grandmother, granny Helen reminded me of my own nanan which I loved even more.

I love books that I can relate to and this is one of them, the book is well written and I love the story line, it made me giggle, laugh, smile, grin and was also really shocked to some degree in some parts.
This book is a real pager turner with some great twists in, I will definitely be reading more of Lucy Robinson's stuff when it comes out.

All in all it's a great read which you can really relate too. With some laugh out loud hurmor, tales of friendship and family and even some saucy bits.

I will give this book 10 out 0f 10