Blog Tour: Saving Starlight Hall by Debbie Viggiano

 

Last year I read and enjoyed the first book in Debbie Viggiano's Starlight series, so I was pleased when I saw that the second book was coming out.

Starlight Croft is a small village where everybody knows everybody and they all know each other's business, especially Hetty who seems to have the sight and has been known to make pronouncements about the future. Jen Armstrong is doing everything she can to avoid Hetty because she has secrets, big secrets that she cannot share with anyone. Her husband Peter has recently died, and it's fair to say that the biggest emotion that Jen feels is relief. She and her two grown children can now begin to plan for their new life.

Jen is also conscious that she has to get involved in the fight to save Starlight Hall, the place in the village where weddings are celebrated, parties are held, and where the village comes together regularly. One of the people interested in buy the Hall is property developer Liam Lancaster. Despite being the bad guy in this scenario all the town women agree that he is a very, very handsome man, including Jen. 

With her husband having only recently passed away, the last thing Jen expects is to feel something for another man, but she needs to keep her feelings hidden because she could not put up with another philanderer! Can Liam convince her that he is a decent man, despite his plans for the village hall.

There are lots of fun secondary characters including Jen's friend Alice and head of the Saving Starlight Hall activities and pub owner, Cilla. There were some slight references to the previous book, but not enough to make you feel like you would be missing out if you haven't' read it. 

Having now read two books by Debbie Viggiano, I can say that she has a very distinct voice in her writing, which is definitely playing for laughs. And it works. I definitely smiled my way through this book, but was also surprised by a couple of the events in the book, especially near the end. If you like a British style of humour, then it is definitely worth giving her books a try.

I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews. Thanks to the publisher and Rachel's Random Resources for the review copy. Check out the other stops on the blog tour as well!

Rating 4/5

About the book

Saving Starlight Hall

Nestled deep in the countryside lies Starlight Croft – population small, gossip levels high, and secrets harder to hide than a cow in a phone box.

Jen Armstrong thought she had life more or less under control – marriage ticking along, teenagers on the right side of the law – until hubby Peter unexpectedly demises leaving Jen suddenly single, hugging a secret, and trying very hard not to fall apart in front of the entire village.

Just when things couldn’t get messier a For Sale sign appears. The community centre – the only place big enough to host Pilates and the local psychic’s séance nights – goes up for sale.

Cue The Starlight Society: a mismatched crew of locals with hearts of gold, questionable strategies and Jen reluctantly roped in to assist. Their mission? Raise the cash to save the hall before a charming-but-infuriating property developer named Liam Lancaster possibly turns it into a boutique hotel with mood lighting and tufty towels.

Can they pull it off? Will the hall survive? Might a secret be unwittingly revealed? And can Jen resist throttling an enemy who has the most annoyingly twinkly eyes?

A feel-good romantic comedy where love, lies, and livestock collide.

Purchase Links

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Saving-Starlight-Hall-Book-ebook/dp/B0FSL3NZ2B

https://www.amazon.com/Saving-Starlight-Hall-Book-ebook/dp/B0FSL3NZ2B

About the Author 

Prior to turning her attention to writing, Debbie Viggiano was, for more years than she cares to remember, a legal secretary. She lives with her Italian husband and a rescued pooch from Crete. Occasionally her adult children return home bringing her much joy... apart from when they want to raid the fridge or eat her secret stash of chocolate. Tweet @DebbieViggiano or follow her on Facebook!



Social Media Links –

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DebbieViggiano

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/debbie.viggiano.5

Instagram: debbieviggiano

Blog Tour: Escape to the Northern Lights by Carrie Walker

 

You know I love an escapist romance. While I normally read a lot of books set in France, Italy and Greece, this year my focus seems to have moved North as I have read a couple of books set in Finland and now this one which is set in Norway.

Sara Pearson is a lawyer who is going places. Sure, her private life is a mess given that she is currently going through a divorce from sleazy Mark, but any day now she is going to be made partner in her law firm. When she wins a big case but doesn't get made partner, her anxiety and stress reach burn out levels and she is forced, albeit unwillingly, to take a month off work.

When one of her friends mentions that she saw that a Hollywood star had recently stayed at a luxury resort called Firefly Forest, Sara decides if it is good enough for them, it's good enough for her so she impulsively books to stay at the spa retreat for four weeks. It's pricey, but it's going to be worth it. 

With her bags packed filled with her most fashionable winter clothes, Sara heads off to Norway. She probably should have taken a closer look at the website because the place where she ends up is less luxurious spa retreat and more vegan getting back to nature retreat! As such, it is against the rules to use the internet unless there is an emergency, it is alcohol free, and every day there is a silent lunch. Then there are various wellness activities which encourage participants to look inwards. It is not what Sara signed up for. She does contemplate leaving but there are no refunds and the air fares are expensive to reschedule, so she stays...for now. 

There is one bright light though. Firefly Forest is a family run affair. There is the father, Tore Nilsen and his two sons, Henrik, and Jonas  and his fiancee Greta who are doing their best to keep the retreat commercially viable. Henrik is one of the good guys. Handsome, attentive and drawn to Sara despite her initial unmet expectations of her destination, he too has had a high flying career but these days he is happy to live and work in the family business 

When the Nilsen's whole home and livelihood come under threat from an unlikely source, Sara becomes involved, which is probably the least she can do, especially since she may have been the person who inadvertently caused the problem in the first place.

It took me a while to warm to Sara. She was so focussed on her work that it did make sense that she wouldn't look further at the website to understand where she was going but on the flipside surely as a very successful lawyer she is good at looking for detail. I also didn't always understand some of her decisions. For example, she was moving back into her flat which she decided to get redecorated in exactly the same colour palette of the marital home. And as for Mark....ugh, what a sleaze. 

This is my first book from Carrie Walker, and I am glad that I took a chance on this new to me author. I am interesting to read her previous two books as well. The titles make it sound as though they might be connected but I don't think they are. Those books are set in Tuscany and Switzerland and they both sound like fun.

The idea of seeing all that snow and the Northern Lights fascinates me. I read this on the plane to Sri Lanka, so you can't really get much more different weather conditions. We are, however, contemplating a trip to see the Northern Lights at the end of 2026 so this was definitely a good taster for that trip. I can't wait for the day that we too can escape to the Northern Lights.

I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews. Thanks to the publisher and Rachel's Random Resources for the review copy. Check out the other stops on the blog tour as well!

Rating 4/5

About the Book

Escape to the Northern Lights

Packed with humour, romance and a love affair with nature, Escape to the Northern Lights is a story of transformation, second chances and finding home in the most unexpected places.

High-powered lawyer Sara thought she had life figured out – until her whirlwind marriage ends in divorce, her dream promotion slips away and a burnout diagnosis forces her to take a break.

Desperate for a reset, she books a four-week spa retreat in Norway, imagining a luxurious escape. Instead, she finds herself in the rugged wilderness of Firefly Forest, knee-deep in reindeer droppings and stuck with an annoyingly bohemian – and ridiculously attractive – outdoorsman, Henrik.

What starts as a nightmare turns into a journey of self-discovery as Sara swaps designer heels for bare feet, legal briefs for tree-hugging, and fleeting flings for something far deeper...

Purchase Link - https://amzn.eu/d/5U4BLAz

 

About the Author

Carrie Walker is a Brummie born rom-com lover with a lifelong passion for travel. She has lived in a ski resort, by a beach, in the country and the city, and travelled solo through Asia, South America and Europe. Her own love life was more com than rom until she met her husband a few years ago and settled down with him and her dog Ziggy in a small pub-filled village in Essex.

Social Media Links 

https://www.carriewalker.co.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/carriewalkerauthor

https://x.com/carriewauthor

Top Ten Tuesday: What I am reading and have just read

 Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is The First 10 Books I Randomly Grabbed from My Shelf (Stand in front of your book collection, close your eyes, point to a title, and write it down. If you have shelves, point to your physical books. If you have a digital library, use a random number generator and write down the title of the book that corresponds with the number you generated. You get bonus points if you tell us whether or not you’ve read the book, and what you thought of it if you did!)

Because I read physical books, eBooks and audiobooks this felt a bit tricky to me, so instead I am going to be sharing the three books I am theoretically reading at the moment, and then the last 7 books I read. 6 of these were books that I read while I was on holiday and the other was the last one I finished before we went away

Dear Mrs Bird by A J Pearce - This is one book that I am actually reading at the moment. Somehow I ended up both with a library copy and a copy on my Kindle. I am really enjoying this one 

The Secret Christmas Library by Jenny Colgan - I started listening to this before I went away. I did take my earbuds with me but I didn't listen to a single second of it. Mostly because I didn't think of it, but also because my phone died on day 2 of my trip. 

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - This is the theoretically book. I was doing well at keeping up with a chapter a day until I went back to work and now I am woefully behind. I do intend to catch up but not sure when that will be

Saving Starlight Hall by Debbie Viggiano - This is the second book in the Starlight series. I read the first one last year and knew I would read the follow up. The review for this will be up later this week. 

The Lucky Sisters by Rachael Johns - I can always rely on Rachael Johns for a good read and this was no exception. I did feel exceptionally lucky to be able to read this while I was on holiday in The Maldives. I am also attending an author event for her tomorrow night. 

A Christmas Gift by Sue Moorcroft - I really enjoy Sue Moorcroft's books and this was another good one. The review for this one will be up later this week. 

A Family for Christmas in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Christensen - Maggie Christensen is a comfort read for me every time so I was always going to read this book, and the next one, and the one after that. The review for this one will be up later this week. 

Escape to the Northern Lights by Carrie Walker - It did feel kind of strange to be reading this book set in snowy Norway while I was in very hot and humid Sri Lanka. The review for this one will be up later this week. 

The Tea Planters Wife by Dinah Jeffries - I chose to read this book as it is set in Sri Lanka. I will read more from Dinah Jeffries now. 

Christmas on Fifth Avenue by Julie Caplin - Christmas in New York. Yes please! (My review)

As you can see I have quite a few reviews to write this week now that we are back from holidays!

This week

I'm reading

It's been a couple of weeks as we have been on holidays but now we are back so it is time to catch up on everything I have read while I was away.

The first book I read was The Tea Planter's Wife by Dinah Jeffries which I chose to read because it is set in Sri Lanka which is one of the places we were going. I carried this book half way around the world with me to try and get a photo of it in a fitting location. It took a couple of attempts but the photo above was taken in front of tea bushes.

Then I read several review books which are all due to be reviewed this week so now I need to get cracking on writing the reviews. Those books were Escape to the Northern Lights by Carrie Walker, A Family for Christmas in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Christensen, A Christmas Gift by Sue Moorcroft and Saving Starlight Hall by Debbie Viggiano

I then read The Lucky Sisters by Rachel Johns which is also a review book but not a blog tour book!

Finally I started reading Dear Mrs Bird by A J Pearce just for fun, and so far it is! I can't wait to read it and I am pretty sure I will be picking up the next book in the series as well.

In October I read a total of 11 books. While most of them were good reads which I gave a rating of 4/5 stars there was nothing that I rated as a 5/5 read. I do want to specifically call out The Lucky Sisters by Rachael Johns which was the only book that I gave a rating of 4.5/5 stars to.

Books let our imaginations travel where our feet cannot - Nora Nguyen

Here's where I travelled through books in October

Europe

The Netherlands - A New Life in Amsterdam by Helga Jensen

Lots of countries - Last Stop on the Winter Wonderland Express by Rebecca Raisin

 - Escape to the Northern Lights by Carrie Walker

UK - A Christmas Gift by Sue Moorcroft, Saving Starlight Hall by Debbie Viggiano

America

Minnesota - Heidi's Guide to Four Letter Words by Tara Sivec and Andi Arndt

New York - Christmas on Fifth Avenue by Julie Caplin

Asia

Sri Lanka - The Tea Planter's Wife by Dinah Jeffries

Australia

Queensland - A Family for Christmas in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Christensen

Western Australia - The Lucky Sisters by Rachael Johns

Before moving on I wanted to acknowledge the sad new of the passing of Christopher Gortner, who wrote as C W Gortner. I have read a number of his books over the years and loved most of them. I first met him on the forums at Historical Fiction Online which must have been 22 years or so ago. Since then I have been Facebook friends with him. He was articulate and opinionated and far to young to have passed. RIP Christopher. 

I'm watching

I've pretty much been watching the world go by and watching sunsets. This photo was taken from the sunset cruise we did on our last night in The Maldives. I didn't even watch a movie on the plane even though they were quite long flights.

On Saturday night we watched Operation Mincemeat which was quite interesting. It has quite a few big names from British cinema in it but the main two are Colin Firth and Matthew MacFadyen. The story tells of how sending a body carrying fake papers was the key to the successful landing of the Allied forces in Sicily in WWII. Here's the trailer

Life

We had an amazing time in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. We stayed in some amazing hotels, ate some great food and saw some amazing sites. I will try and share some photos across the next couple of weeks. One downside was that my phone died on day two of our trip so my husband's phone became our phone. Hopefully mine can be fixed without losing all my data as I have lots of photos from our last couple of trips on there that I never quite got around to downloading.

It was our sixth wedding anniversary the day after we got home. We didn't do much this weekend but we are doing a fun meal next weekend to celebrate.

Posts since my last This Week post



Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Have Returned to the Library Unread
Weekend Cooking: Dish Podcast
Spell the Month in Books: October
Top Ten Tuesday: Arches and Windows
Blog Tour: Christmas on Fifth Avenue by Julie Caplin
Weekend Cooking: Making Couscous

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Weather Events in the Title

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: November Links

Weekend Cooking: In My Kitchen - October

Six Degrees of Separation: We Have Always Lived in a Castle to The Girl Who Chased the Moon

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date, Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and the Good Book and a Cup of Tea link up hosted at Boondock Ramblings

Six Degrees of Separation: We Have Always Lived in the Castle to The Girl Who Chased the Moon

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best. The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links. I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea hosted at Boondock Ramblings.

This month the starting point is Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle, a book I have not and I am unlikely to read.

I did start reading The Sundial by Shirley Jackson a few years ago because it was a read along book for RIPXVI. I never did finish the book. 

The readalong book for this year's RIP (the 20th time the event has been held!!!) was Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia which I ended up sending back to the library unread

I had a few books set in Mexico I could have chosen but I ended up going with the book Texas by James Michener. I know that sentence seems strange but a large part of the state of Texas was once Mexican territory. 

If I think about the early days of Texas as we know it now then Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry comes to mind.

I need to avoid going down the bird route because I end up doing bird related books quite regularly, so instead I am choosing the last book I read by Larry McMurtry which is Comanche Moon.

The word moon leads me to The Girl who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen.

Next month, the starting point is a novella that you may read as part of this year’s Novellas in November – Seascraper by Benjamin Wood.


Will you be joining us?

In My Kitchen - October

Welcome to the first Saturday of the month where I share everything I have made over the previous month. We were away for 2 weeks in October so didn't have a lot of time for baking. I'll be sharing some of the food highlights of our trip next week

Last month I mentioned that we had bought a chocolate brownies pack from the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie and this month I made it. It was super easy in that you just had to add melted butter and eggs, and the kit comes in the baking tray so easy clean up too. It was nice, although I was surprised when my son came out and said that's not the normal one you make is it, and then said he preferred the normal one. I did take some photos but unfortunately my phone died while we were away so it is currently in getting repaired. I hope that I don't lose all my photos. It was a bit of a pain to not have a phone while we were away but there wasn't much I could do about it. 

We did buy some new things from the Reject Shop. They do have some fun homewares ranges. You have to be quick though as they do change the range quite regularly.  I have bought a few bits and pieces over the last 18 months or so. This time it was a small flamingo plate, an elephant bowl and then two mugs. I love my M mug. I was hoping to find an R one for Robert but no joy so he got an Amsterdam one instead.

 

I did go to an author event last month It was a bit different to my normal author event. I went to hear cookbook author and Ottolenghi co-writer Helen Goh speak. As a bonus there were nibbles which were from several of her recipes. Helen Goh was born in Malaysia but moved to Australia when she was young before moving to London which is where she started working for Yotam Ottolenghi. The conversation was a bit of fun, and she confessed to things like loving the meat pies that you can get at the petrol station and that being one of the things she misses when she was in not in Australia. She was promoting her new baking book, Baking and the Meaning of Life.

Some friends of our went away and came back bearing gifts. In this case it was Croatian wine, Turkish Delight and a super cute Finnish moose corkscrew. In return we are giving them a coconut bowl shell from the Maldives. 

52 Recipes Challenge

We didn't try any new recipes this month. 

Weekend Cooking posts from the last month

The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie by Rachel Linden (book review)

Dish (podcast)

Making Couscous (foodie quote)

I am sharing this post with In My Kitchen hosted at Sherry's Pickings.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: November links

Thank you to everyone who contributed a review in October for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. Currently there are nearly 50 links! I will be back in the next week or so with all the statistics for the month. 

I am looking forward to reading your reviews throughout the rest of the year! I am sure there is going to be a lot of great historical fiction discovered and shared with fellow HF lovers over the course of this year!

If you haven't already signed up, it's not too late! The sign up post is here.

Just to recap what participants need to know. At the beginning of each month I will put up a post which will have a Mr Linky embedded into it for you to add your link.

Please remember...

• add the link(s) of your review(s) including your name and book title to the Mister Linky we’ll be adding to our monthly post (please, do not add your blog link, but the correct address that will guide us directly to your review). 
• it doesn't matter where you review - Bookstagram, Goodreads etc as long as you share a direct link to your review.
• any kind of historical fiction is accepted (fantasy, young adult, graphic novels...)
• if you have time, have a look some of the other links that are present. You never know when you will discover new blogs or books!

You can also join the challenge group on Facebook which you can find here and don't forget to use the #histficreadingchallenge hashtag on the socials.

Let the reading begin!!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Weather Events in the Title

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is a Halloween Freebie. However, in October 2023 one of the themes was Books with Weather Events in the Title/on the Cover. At the time, I put this list of books together but I never got around to adding the commentary and pictures or posting it....until now! It's a bit scary that it has been sitting in draft all this time. See what I did there?

I am starting with some wind and storms, then moving onto sun, rain and snow.

Ill Wind by Rachel Caine - Rachel Caine has a whole series of books called the Weather Warden series that I could have picked for this prompt. This is the first book in the series. (my review)

Season of Storms by Susanna Kearsley - One of the lesser know Kearsley books but, as always, I couldn't resist the urge to include one of her books. Unusually for Kearsley this book is set in Rome.

A Taste of Italian Sunshine by Leonie Mack - Wine making in Italy. Yes please!  (my review)

Under a Greek Sun by Mandy Baggot - Moving on from Italy, this is set on a Greek island   (my review)

An Island in the Sun by Kate Frost - Another country, another island. This time it was Portugal. (my review)

Floodtide by Judy Nunn - I read this years ago and don't remember much about it other than one particular scene. Looking at my rating on Goodreads I didn't like it at all, but the title fits the theme. 

The Right Attitude to Rain by Alexander McCall Smith - This is the third book in the Isabel Dalhousie mystery series set in Edinburgh. (my review)

Midnight in the Snow by Karen Swan - In the past this author put out a summer book and a winter book. Guess which one this was.

Snowy Mountain Cattleman by Alissa Callen - The Snowy Mountains are actually a place in this instance, but they do get a lot of snow. This is the second book in the Bundilla series.

The Secret of Snow by Viola Shipman - I still haven't gotten over not enjoying the last Viola Shipman book I read. This one wasn't bad though.