Blog Tour: The Silver Ladies Sieze the Day by Judy Leigh

 

Nadine the pig is back! Wait .... maybe I should have started with the gang from Middleton Ferris is back, not just the pig!

We first met the Silver Ladies in the book The Silver Haired Ladies Do Lunch which I reviewed here. From the blurb for this book, you would think that Cecily's story is the one that takes up most of the page time, but it's only one strand of multiple stories. Minnie is umming and ahhing about taking the next step with her American beau whilst hosting her sister at her home in Oxford. Josie's first love has come back to the village to live but she's not sure about whether she can even think about dating him again. Lin still can't cook a thing. And then there is Florence, a young mother who is struggling with juggling everything she has going on her life, without the additional stresses which get added in this book.

It is, however, Cecily's story that is the most moving when she is the centre of the story. Cecily was the village teacher for many years. After returning she became friends with some of her former students. Now 92, she doesn't have regrets as such for she has lived a very fulfilling life, but in the back of her mind there is always Eddie, the man who she was engaged to but had to watch as he married someone else. When she is contacted by Eddie's granddaughter, she has to decide if she wants to see him again, or if the hurt of what happened all those years ago is too much. Some days she very much wants to, but other days she does not. Of course, everyone else has an opinion on what she should do.

And the pig? Well, she's part of a story about the plight of farmers in the countryside around towns and cities in the UK.

I generally like Judy Leigh's books a lot. I like the humour, the Britishness of the characters, the locations and the fact that she is generally telling stories about more mature women. Yes, men too, but mainly women. Those are the reasons why I automatically say yes to her books. She also writes under another name but I haven't said yes to those ones yet, mainly because I already have way too many auto-read authors.

Having said that, despite this book being full of all the things I enjoy, I didn't love this one as much as other books I have read by her, and I felt the same about this group of characters in the previous book. I think there are just so many stories being told at once, with each one having it's own central characters and then secondary characters which may or may not intersect with other stories. I think that we could easily have done without one of the stories and still had a complete book. 

Of course, it could just be a case of it's not you, it's me! Either way, when the next Judy Leigh book is announced I will be volunteering to read it because I just can't help myself. 

Here are some links to other Judy Leigh books I have read previously.

The Golden Gals' French Adventure

The Golden Oldies' Book Club

The Silver Haired Sisterhood

The Silver Ladies Do Lunch

The Vintage Village Bake Off

I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews and British Isles Friday hosted at Joy's Book Blog.  Be sure to check out other stops on the tour shown below. Thanks to the publisher, Netgalley and Rachel's Random Resources for the review copy.

Rating 3/5

About the book

The Silver Ladies Seize the Day

You’re never too old to fall in love…again!

Cecily Hamilton is months away from her ninety-second birthday. She’s lived life to the full, choosing work over romance, friendship over love. And now she has a host of silver-haired friends living nearby, ready to fill her time with picnic lunches, prosecco and cheer!

Cecily thought she was content. She thought her cup was full…

But when the granddaughter of Cecily’s first and only love arrives on her doorstep, claiming that her grandfather, Eddie, is still in love with Cecily after all these years, Cecily wonders if there might be room for a little romance after all. Especially since, one by one, her friends keep falling head over heels for old flames and new.

Can the oldest silver lady of the bunch really hope for her own second chance at love? Is it finally time for Cecily to seize the day?

Purchase Link - https://mybook.to/SilverLadiesSeizeDay

About the Author

Judy Leigh is the bestselling author of Five French Hens, A Grand Old Time and The Age of Misadventure and the doyenne of the ‘it’s never too late’ genre of women’s fiction. She has lived all over the UK from Liverpool to Cornwall, but currently resides in Somerset.

Social Media Links – 

Facebook: @judyleighuk

Twitter: @JudyLeighWriter

Instagram: @judyrleigh

Newsletter Sign Up: https://bit.ly/JudyLeighNews

Bookbub profile: @judyrleigh

The Bad Bridesmaid by Rachael Johns

 

When Winifred Darling's mother announces that she is getting married again, she is horrified. Winifred, more commonly known as Fred, is also determined that she is not even going to even attend the wedding, let alone stand up as maid of honour. After all, this is her mother's sixth wedding and Fred is tired of picking up the pieces when things go wrong.

Fred isn't necessarily against love, at least not for other people, but she is very determined that it isn't for her. She enjoys meeting men, but she lives her life according to a strict set of rules will prevent any kind of deep connection. Now she has a contract to write a book about these rules which will be called 21 Rules for Not Catching Feelings

Her mother, Tracy is marrying a man named Paul she has known for years. They were teenage sweethearts but they broke up, and went their separate ways. Despite her objections Fred finds herself on the plane to Norfolk Island where the two families are meeting for the first time. At the very least Fred hopes that she will find some time to write some of her book. Paul's son Leo isn't particularly pleased with how quickly his dad is remarrying after his mother's death. Can Fred and Leo join forces and put a stop to the wedding once and for all? And what happens to Fred's rules and book deal if she starts to feel something for Leo? 

The Bad Bridesmaid is connected to The Other Bridget which I read last year and loved. It's not strictly a sequel and it could be read as a standalone, but it probably is helpful if you read it first. 

One of the things I enjoyed most about this book is the Norfolk Island setting. Seriously, the tourist office could just sell this book and tell people to read it as a guide of places to visit. I haven't been to Norfolk Island myself, but I have wanted to for a long time and reading this book has absolutely reiterated that desire!

There is a cast of colourful characters from Paul's kids and grandkids, including a very sassy granddaughter, Fred's brother and his partner, and not to forget the locals who all seem to have multiple jobs on the island and therefore keep on popping up everywhere! There is also the magic of a gorgeous island location (albeit with limited creature comforts), the mayhem of multiple things going wrong, but ultimately there is much love.

Whilst I didn't love this book as much as I loved The Other Bridget there is still plenty of fun and entertainment to be had when reading this book!

As always, Rachael Johns is a must-read author for me. I am already looking forward to her next book

I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews

Rating 4/5

The Women by Kristin Hannah

 

I wasn't really in too much of a hurry to read this book. However, I have been talking about it a lot as there were a couple of people at the readers retreat I went to recently who raved about it and so I moved it up the TBR list.  It also fit the theme for this month for my read on a theme book club as the theme was 1960s. I had already read one book, but I think I would surprise the group if I only turned up having read one book. Ironically, it turned out that three of us had read this book!

This book seems to be very divisive. It won the Goodreads Choice award for Historical Fiction and was nominated for and won a bunch of other awards. It was also the most reviewed book for last year's Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host. And yet, if you spend time in any historical fiction related groups you will find many people who really, really dislike it, as in with a passion! So, where did I land? I am firmly in the I loved it camp.

Frankie McGrath has led a sheltered life growing up on the island of Coronado near San Diego in a wealthy Catholic family. She has just started nursing but really, this is something to do until she meets the man of her dreams, gets married and has kids like all good Catholic girls. 

Her family is very patriotic and proud of their history of serving their country across generations. When Frankie's brother joins up to go to fight in Vietnam it is celebrated. That night, a conversation with one of her brother's friends changes her life completely when she is reminded that women can be heroes too. Frankie decides to follow in her brother's footsteps and head to Vietnam as a nurse.

To say that the conditions in Vietnam shock the sheltered young girl is an understatement, but it isn't long before Frankie finds her feet and becomes an exceptional theatre nurse under horrific circumstances, thanks in no small part to her friends Barb and Ethel. She sees a constant stream of men coming to the field hospital, many of whom will not survive, but she is also sees the suffering of the Vietnamese civilians who she also provides medical care for. They perform surgery whilst being under attack, she loses people she loves, she works herself to the point of exhaustion, and finds moments of great joy despite the adversity. 

After two years, Frankie returns home to a country that is against the war, who have been known to call returned service men things like baby killers, and to a family that is not proud of her. Suffering from what we would now easily identify as PTSD, Frankie struggles to settle back into civilian life. Even her nursing skills which have been honed under intense conditions are not recognised and she has to start her nursing career from the bottom. 

Isolated, suffering from PTSD, not sleeping, Frankie begins to spiral and soon is taking drugs and drinking way too much. She needs to find what it is that is going to centre herself and try to build a new life before she destroys herself completely. 

A while ago someone asked in a comment what the difference between a 4.5 and a 5 star rating is for me. A book doesn't have to be perfect, and this one isn't. The last chapter had me rolling my eyes at how neatly things were wrapped up. However, my response to that question was that it all comes down to the feeling I get when I close the book. If I have loved a book it will be a 4.5, but if I am completely emotionally drawn in and close the book with a contented sigh then that will be a 5. While I didn't close this book with a sigh, I did close it with tear filled eyes. Even the bloody acknowledgements made me cry!

What this book did do is make me feel....a lot. Mostly it made me feel angry. I was angry with Frankie's family, especially her father, I was angry with the system, I was angry with the men she got involved with (yes, you Rye!), and I was angry with the soldiers who were in Vietnam but wouldn't acknowledge the fact that the nurses deserved recognition too. 

It probably didn't help that recently we have been watching the Ken Burns documentary about Vietnam where the events that were happening both in Vietnam and back in the US were shown from the protests against Vietnam to the political grandstanding and so much more. That did help me with some of the events in the book. For example, at one point, Hannah mentions the Tet Offensive but I had already watched the documentary episode where this was covered. 

I have read a couple of Kristin Hannah books now with the other one being The Alice Network. I am going to go back and read her backlist if this is the kind of response that her writing can create!

I am sharing this review with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host here.

Rating 5/5

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 of my 20 Books of winter

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is a Summer/Winter Freebie so there is no set theme.

Recently it was announced that Emma from Words and Peace and Annabel from Annabookbel have taken over the 20 Books of Summer event that was previously hosted by Cathy at 746Books. It was an event that I always intended to participate in, but it's winter here and so it just didn't happen. This year though, there is even a 20 Books of Winter graphic, so my post this week is 10 of the 20 books that I intend to read for the Books of Winter event. I haven't decided if I am going to aim for 15 or 20 books and chances are that I won't review everything even if I do read them. We'll see. We also have a Books of my Winter TBR topic coming up in a couple of weeks so I will probably share the rest then. 

The books themselves are a combination of old and new books, books that I want to read for events, and some that I have been meaning to read for the longest time but just haven't gotten to yet.

Beartown by Fredrik Backman - I know a few people who LOVE Fredrik Backman. So far, the only thing I have read from him is a short story called The Answer is No. 

A Bakery in Paris by Aimee K Runyan - This is the current Cook the Books selection and also will be one of my posts for Paris In July.

Half Truth by Nadia Mahjouri - I heard Nadia speak at the Rachael John's Readers Retreat last month, and I just had to buy the book straight away. I am really looking forward to this one! In fact, I have hold myself back from starting this one too early in case I finished it before 1 June.

Three Juliets by Minnie Darke - I have really enjoyed everything I have read from Minnie Darke so I have high hopes for this one too!

A Secret Garden in Paris by Sophie Beaumont - I really liked The Paris Cooking School, and I have been intending to read this one ever since it came out. Sophie Beaumont has just announced her next Paris book which will be out later in the year.

French Rhapsody by Antoine Laurain - I have read a number of Antoine Laurain books over the last couple of years. This year I think I will read this one.

The French Kitchen by Emma Davies - Unsurprisingly this will likely be a Paris in July books too.

The Village Cafe in the Loire by Gillian Harvey - I am on a blog tour for this book in July, and it will also be a Paris in July book. 

The Story Collector by Evie Woods - I have read two Evie Woods books now. I thought one was fine but the other was fantastic so I am keen to read this one to see where it lands!

The Kings Jewel by Elizabeth Chadwick - I have had this on several lists as a book I really want to read. I am determined to read it soon!

This week...

I'm reading

After a few hectic weeks where I was juggling a lot of books, this week felt a little less frantic. Whilst I am still juggling a lot of books, I wasn't starting and/or finishing quite as many.

From last week, I did finish Head Over Wheels by Leonie Mack, a sports romance featuring professional cyclists. I liked it a lot.

Next up, I read The Women by Kristin Hannah. I wasn't really intending to read it right now, but I had been talking about the book when I was away a couple of weeks ago, so I decided to read it in time for book club. I know that this book can be a bit divisive but I loved it! I am hoping to review it this week but we will see if I get around to it.

I then read The Silver Ladies Seize the Day by Judy Leigh. My review for this will be up in a few days.

I also braved the Melbourne traffic and went to an event with Aussie author Nicole Alexander who was talking about her latest book, The Limestone Coast. The story sounds really interesting. Now I just have to find time to read it!

This weekend was our read on a theme book club meeting. The theme this month was 1960's and I read both The Tea Ladies by Amanda Hampson (reviewed here) and The Women by Kristin Hannah. It turns out that three of us had the same idea and all read The Women. However, there were some other books read as well as shown in the picture above. The next theme is War. Pretty sure I will find multiple books to fit this theme!

Can you believe that we are in June already? The picture at the top of this post are all the books that I loved this month. I finished 17 books and these 7 I rated as 4.5 or 5 stars. I rated The Women as a 5 star read, and the rest were 4.5 star reads.

At the end of last month I saw a new feature at It's All About Books called Bookish Travel. I love travelling all over the words through the pages of books, and so I thought I would share the places that I travelled at the end of each month. So, where did I travel this month

Asia -         Hong Kong

                    Vietnam

Europe -     Scotland

                   England

                   Italy 

                   France

                   Greece

US -           Nantucket Island 

                   Georgia

Australia -  New South Wales

I might try and do something to represent this a bit differently in future but I will figure out what that looks like later.

I'm watching

I didn't realise that the fourth series of Welcome to Wrexham was showing so we binged watched the four episodes that are available so far. I love the way that this show is not only about the soccer cllub but also about the town of Wrexham as well.


When I was preparing my post for yesterday about Tucci in Italy, I also stumbled upon a new Youtube series featuring Stanley Tucci called Stanley Tucci Puts his Cards on the Table. The idea is that he invites three other well known guests for dinner and during the course of it they answer questions from a box which contain starter questions. The only episode I have watched so far featured Melanie C from the Spice Girls, Formula 1 driving Carlos Sainz and Tan France from Queer Eye. Here's the trailer

Life

Nothing much to report on really.

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Animal Companions
Blog Tour: The Santorini Writing Retreat by Eva Glyn

An Italian Wedding Adventure by Leonie Mack

The Tea Ladies by Amanda Hampson

Weekend Cooking: Macarons Class

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - June links

Tucci in Italy/Nonnas - Italian food!





I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date and Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz

Weekend Cooking: Tucci in Italy and Nonnas - Italian Food!

I have a bit of a problem at the moment in that I have more Weekend Cooking posts than I have Saturdays available to post them on. I do, however, have a spare Sunday so today I am going to share another food related post, just because I can. That does make three for this weekend but that's okay

Tucci in Italy

In the last few years, I have become a big fan of Stanley Tucci. I have watched both of TV series, watched movies, and he personally read both of his audiobooks directly to me (or at least it fell to me). In his most recent book, What I Ate in One Year, there was a running joke through it about whether his TV series where he features the food and regions of Italy would find a new home, and if so what would it be called. 

It turns out that the series would be called Tucci in Italy and it would be shown on the National Geographic channel, and we binge watched it recently! 

It is very similar in concept to Searching for Italy which was originally shown on CNN. Stanley goes to a particular region of Italy, talks to them about their food, history and customs. Everyone he meets falls under his spell (I mean, I would too) and he loves everything that he eats, and then he moves onto the next place. 

Stanley visits five regions in Tucci in Italy.  Some of them are places he has been before, and others are new. The places are Tuscany, Lombardy, Trentino-Alto Adige, Abruzzo and Lazio. I was particularly interrested in the Trentino-Alto Adige which is a region in the very north of Italy. Some parts of the region are also called South Tyrol. Over the years it has sometimes been part of Austria and sometimes Italy, so it has a very particular language, food and style that it different to the rest of Italy. I had recently read a book that was set there so I think that was part of why it interested me so much!

I think the production values for this series are probably a bit more restricted than they were for the CNN show. The sound isn't quite as full, the subtitles are more obvious...just small things. For the most part though, it is more of the same captivating TV.

I guess the big difference for this series compared to the other show is that in order to watch it again I will need to go search it out specifically.  For the original series, it is shown repeatedly on one of our cable channels and if I see that the show is on then I will often start watching it, no matter which episode it is and what part of the episode we are at.

Now, we wait to see if there will be more episodes of Tucci in Italy. I really hope so.

Coincidentally, as I was writing this post I found a video of Stanley Tucci hosting a dinner with F1 Carlos Sainz, presenter Tan France and Spice Girl Melanie C, all answering questions about their lives and food including a crisp sandwich.  It was a lot of fun! Check it out here! The series is called Cards on the Table and I am looking forward to watching more episodes. It looks like there are a few episodes available everywhere.

Nonnas

A recent Netflix movie release, Nonnas stars Vince Vaughan, Susan Sarandon, Lorraine Bracco and Linda Cardenelli amongst others. It tells the story of a man named Joe Scaravella who inherits some money following the death of his mother. He reminisces about the great Italian food of his childhood, and decides to use his money to open a restaurant, despite the fact that he has no experience whatsoever. He is also trying to figure out what some of the ingredients are in some of the dishes he remembers like Sunday Gravy.

He finds an empty restaurant for sale on Staten Island and sets about refurbishing the restaurant with help from some very good friends. What he hadn't counted on was opposition from the locals who had fond memories of the previous restaurant that was there and didn't want it reopened. That doesn't really make sense as it was an empty building otherwise but people are sometimes strange, right? Thanks to support from good friends, Joe gets the restaurant ready despite some unexpected setbacks along the way.

Joe's plan is to have Italian Nonna's cook their specialities and so he puts an ad in Craigslist and his first three women come to apply. However, things don't quite go to plan when two of the nonna's don't get along due to the fact that one is from Bologna and the other from Sicily

It is touch and go as to whether the restaurant will even get off the ground, but Joe's persistence and determination mean that he is going to give it the best shot he can.

I love a movie that is based on a true story, which this one. The Staten Island restaurant which is called Enoteca Maria is still running, and there are still nonnas doing all the cooking, although these days they are from all around the world!

With humour, a touch of romance, and plenty of Italian food porn, this was a very pleasant way to pass a couple of hours.

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - June links

Thank you to everyone who contributed a review in May for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. Currently there are more than 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!!

Weekend Cooking: Macarons class

Last weekend I had a very French weekend! I made eclairs which I posted about here. We then went and had a French dinner before attending the arena performance of Les Miserables. The performance was amazing, and I was very pleasantly surprised by the meal that we had. It was a fixed price menu and I was a bit worried that it would be underwhelming but every thing we had was delicious and a very generous serving. 

On Saturday, my friend and I went to a 3 hour long class to make macarons. I have made macarons once before. That was during COVID when a couple of friends bought a kit, and we all made them and then had a Zoom afternoon tea. Remember those days! It turns out that this class was from the same people who sold the kit. The pastry chef, Josh, was very excited to hear that we had made them and wanted to see all the photos. I posted about that experience here. 

Thank goodness those days are now gone, and we can do classes in face to face environments now. After a glass of wine to get started, we headed into the professional kitchen which was our classroom for the day!

First we mixed together the almond meal, icing sugar and egg whites. Then Josh showed us how to make Italian meringue and then we all got given the necessary amount from a pre-made batch which we then mixed together to form the macaron mixture! Once our mixture was the right consistency we filled up the piping big and piped what was supposed to be a 20cm size. Mine were probably all a bit bigger and not that consistently sized.  After giving the tray a bit of a wobble on the bench top, they then needed to rest for about an hour until there is a skin formed on the top of the macaron. This is what helps the foot that is such a distinctive part of a well made macaron.

While we waited for our macarons to rest, we were treated to an amazing afternoon tea of quiches sandwiches, and delectable cakes. It was almost like what you would have for afternoon tea. It was way more than I was expecting!

Once the shells came out of the oven, they were all put into the blast freezer as quickly as possible. At home they would need to rest until completely cool.

Then it was time to make the passionfruit and milk chocolate ganache which formed the filling which is made from chocolate, glucose syrup, cream and passionfruit puree. This is another element that normally needs quite some time to cool completely so we got to bring the ganache home and use a pre-made batch for our filling.

Finally, it was time to assemble. After finding all the shells which were similar sizes to each other and putting the ganache in a piping bag it was time to pipe.  A handy hint was to generously pipe the ganache in the middle, when you put the two halves together give it a bit of twist so that the filling goes right to the edges.

I learned a few handy tips from the class:

• Put any food colouring in with the meringue, not in the almond meal mixture. It will blend much better and give you a consistent colour
• When you combine the meringue with the almond mixture, keep on mixing it until the mixture is loose enough to fall back in on itself. It needs more mixing than you might think. This is why my previous attempt looked more like meringue kisses instead of macarons.
• Aim for a 20 cent size when piping the macarons. Mine were bigger but as long as they are consistent sizes it will be fine. Leave to rest for about an hour before baking.
• Once they are baked you want them to still be chewy. They should be able to peel off the baking paper once they are cooked but not just slide off as a meringue kiss would.
• You can freeze filled macaroons. Just take them out of the freezer 24 hours before you want to serve them and thaw them in the fridge. This means you can make big batches
• The flavour is much better if you leave them for a day before you eat them. If you can resist them!

This was the first time they had run this class so I think that it was an experiment to make sure that they had the timings right etc. The ladies who were part of the group also had lots of suggestions for other classes that they would love to do. I would definitely go again.

In addition to the macarons, I also bought home the tub of passionfruit and milk chocolate ganache which I then had to figure out how to use. In the end, I used it to top some of the eclairs that I had previously made and then filled with chocolate cream. We still have a lot left. One of the chefs who was working with us suggested you could have it on ice cream or toast. I could do ice cream, but I am not sure that I could do toast! All suggestions for how to use it gratefully accepted!

A while ago, I bought a kit to make salted caramel macaroons and now, having done the class, I feel much more confident to give them a go than I did previously. I think I will probably do them in a couple of weeks time!

Weekly meals

Saturday - Spicy Prawn Curry with rice and roti (new)
Sunday - Steak, baked potato, carrot and broccoli
Monday - Pea and ham soup with artisan bread (new)
Tuesday - Zucchini, mushroom and tomato pasta
Wednesday - Normandy Pork and mash
Thursday - Takeaway
Friday - French Onion Casserole

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