Thank you to everyone who contributed a review in April for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. It's been a good start to the 2026 challenge. 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.
Rebecca has secretly been in love with her best friend Will for years. When she attempts to finally show this to him, he doesn't see her at all as anything other than the friend who keeps him afloat following the death of his wife five years before.
Humiliated, Rebecca decides that she needs a change and so she packs up and moves to the Algarve in Portugal to work as the yoga teacher at a small family run hotel for the summer.
There she meets the Rebelo family, more specifically Felipe Rebelo. Felipe and his family run the Quinta do Mar hotel. His mother runs the kitchen, his sister the spa, his nieces have jobs that they are forever trying to negotiate their way out of. Whilst Felipe gives off the air of a charmer who has a relaxed view of life, the reality is much different. Whilst none of his family can see it, Felipe is the one who everyone relies on to get everything done, the one they come to for decisions, the one who fills in the gaps such as working shifts in the laundry when no one else can. They all had to lean on him when his father and uncle died years before and they continue to lean on him now.
Felipe had dreams of being a professional cyclist but those dreams were put away to focus on his family. However, Rebecca is very competitive and so they first meet when they silently challenge each other to a race in the pool. She has no idea that he is really her boss. That rivalry quickly turns into attraction.
Soon Rebecca is torn. She has loved Will for so long but Felipe makes her feel desirable, wanted and valued in ways Will never has. Going with Will means leaving behind the life that she is building in Portugal.
I really enjoy Julie Caplins romantic escape series which is set in all sorts of interesting locations around the world and this was no exception. Portugal is on my list of places I would love to visit, although to be fair I am unlikely to join one of Rebecca's yoga classes
I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews and Bookish Books challenge hosted at Blogging ‘Bout Books. Thanks to the publisher and Rachel's Random Resources for the review copy. Be sure to check out other stops on the tour below too!
About the book
The Hotel by the Sea
Pack your bags and get ready to fall in love with The Hotel by the Sea—your next romantic getaway awaits!
Rebecca needs to escape. After making a complete fool of herself watching the man she's secretly loved for years run off with someone else—she jumps at a temporary job at the family-run Quinta do Mar hotel. Sun, sea, and a fresh start sound perfect.
What she doesn't expect is Felipe Rebelo.
Charming, infuriatingly confident, and always ready with a flirty quip, Felipe seems to have life sorted. But beneath his carefree exterior lies a man carrying the weight of his entire family. The last thing he needs is another responsibility. Especially one who challenges him at every turn, makes him laugh, and is dangerously easy to fall for…
Escape to Portugal's stunning Algarve coast in this uplifting summer romance about finding yourself, choosing happiness, and discovering that love isn't about being needed—it's about being seen.
Jules Wake aka Julie Caplin is an internationally bestselling author with over 2 million sales over twenty five books including the highly successful Romantic Escape series which has been translated into over 24 languages. Her books have topped the charts in the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Iceland, Italy, Czech Republic and Slovakia.
After reading English at university, Jules Wake worked in PR where she honed her fiction writing skills on press releases and swanned around Europe taking journalists on gastronomic press trips. These visits inspired the locations of many of her books. She’s now a full-time author and what better job is there than making stuff up! It certainly beats housework.
As an avid romance fan, she’s written in several genres including historical romantic fiction, contemporary women’s romance fiction and romantic comedy.
No Weekend Cooking post this week. We are currently on holidays in Turkey and while I have at least two posts to come about all the amazing foodie experiences we have had, I will save them for another week.
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is April Showers (Interpret this however you’d like: rainy day reads, books that make you cry, books that give you happy tears, books to wash away a bad reading experience, books set in rainy places, books with rain/raindrops/umbrellas on the cover, blue book covers, etc.). I am choosing to focus on water and rain!
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen - I haven't thought about this book for the longest time!
The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve - I am not sure I remember anything about this book
The Seduction of Water by Carol Goodman - I read a number of Carol Goodman books back in the day!
The Water Horse by Julia Gregson - I read a few of this authors books but it's been a long time since I did so.
Fish Out of Water by Mary Janice Davidson - I only read this book because the author was coming to Australia as a guest of honour at a reader convention I was going to many, many years ago!
A Life on Pittwater by Susan Duncan - Next time I go to Sydney I wouldn't mind going out to Pittwater. It sounds like a beautiful place
Water Under the Bridge by Lily Malone - This is part of a trilogy set in a small town in Western Australia
Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin - I read this for last year's Paris in July. I have a couple more books from her to read at some point
The Right Attitude to Rain by Alexander McCall Smith - This is part of the Isabel Dalhousie series set in Edinburgh
The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang - This is a fun Korean fantasy novel
Last month, the Lambs Ears Cook Book Club chose Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious One Pot Cookbook by Poppy O'Toole as it's March selection. I tried to get that one from the library but they didn't have it, so instead I borrowed Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious One Pot Cookbook instead.
We haven't had much luck with British chef Poppy O'Toole. I love watching her, and I like her voice and attitude. The intros to her recipes are always a lot of fun, but the two cook books I have tried from her before were interesting, but there wasn't much that I wanted to cook from them.
Poppy is a Michelin trained chef who gained popularity on the socials during the pandemic when she started sharing all the different things you can do with a potato. It turns out that there is a lot and so the first book I looked at was her potato one, and then I borrowed her air fryer cook book because we are still looking for better ways to use the air fryer.
If it hadn't of been for the cook book club, I wouldn't have even looked at this book, and I would have missed out, because there are quite a few things we have made from this book and they are all good. So much so, I am contemplating buying this book so we can keep cooking from it!
The book is set up in a pretty standard format with chapters covering Soups, Chicken, Beef, Lamb, Pork, Turkey, Veggies and Desserts. As you would expect from a cook whose passion is potatoes, there is a whole chapter on potatoes in this book as well.
We have a combo slow and pressure cooker all in one, and we tend to use the pressure cooker function more than the slow cooker. With the weather becoming cooler, it was a good time to try some of these hearty slow cooked meals.
So far we have tried Beef Bourgignon, Marry Me Chicken, Chicken and Chorizo Orzo and Tomato and Paneer Curry which is the recipe I am sharing today. All of them have been good, with nice flavour which sometimes can go a bit missing when you are cooking things in the slow cooker.
There are so many recipes that I would like to try though which is why I might need to purchase this book. Some I want to try include
Chicken: Coq au Vin, Teriyaki Chicken, Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs, Fajita Chicken, Chicken Korma and more
Beef: Beef Rendang, Stroganoff and more
Pork: Char Siu Pork, Overnight Apple and Cider Pork Bap
Veggie: Potato and Aubergine Curry, Breakfast Home Style Potatos
For the record, we also tried a recipe called Chicken and Orange Tray Bake which comes from the One Pot book and is available on her website. It was delicious too.
Today I am sharing the recipe from the Tomato and Paneer Curry which was really good. Before I went to India last month, paneer isn't something that I would normally have gravitated to. While I was there we ate quite a few curry dishes which featured paneer so now I am looking forward to experimenting with it more.
2. Stir in the cream, lime juice, spinach and coriander stalks, until the spinach has
wilted. Taste to check the seasoning and adjust as needed.
3. Divide the curry between four bowls and scatter over the coriander leaves.
Weekly meals
Saturday - Swedish Meatballs Sunday - Marry Me Chicken (new) Monday - Pork chops with mash and broccoli Tuesday - Spaghetti Bolognaise Wednesday - Away Thursday - Away Friday - Away
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
Since his wife died 9 months ago, chef Guy Lyon has shut himself away from the world. He has closed down their food and boutique hotel business in the villa they owned, Villa Celestia and refuses to see anyone. It’s not just grief though. Guy doesn’t really know why his wife was in the taxi that day.
Sandy and her husband Romain run retreats. They hire lovely villa’s, provide themed events and good food and let groups of people with shared interests come together and thrive. When the owners of the villa that they had rented for an upcoming writers retreat pulls out at the last minute, they only have two options. First is to cancel the retreat. The second is to see if Guy will let them use Villa Celestia. Originally he is set against the idea but he finally agrees on one condition. He will cook simple food (not the fancy food he is known for) and he will stay in the background.
The attendees are a varied bunch. There is successful novels Liz James who is trying to find her voice again after going through a difficult divorce, there is Lorraine a successful self published author who wrote romantasy before it was a thing, Isobel is polishing her book, Helena and Mandy are friends who want to write a book and don’t know where to start. Finally there is Becky, instagrammer, influencer and wannabe fiction author
Helena has been in love with her childhood friend, Teddy, for years, but they have only just gotten together and she hasn’t told anyone yet, especially not her mother and brother. She does feel a bit guilty going on the retreat as it will be the first time in years their mother won’t be able to celebrate their birthdays today with either one of her children.
When her brother surprises her with a visit from their mother, it sets in chain a series of events which is life-changing for several people in the story. This was a lovely part of the story for me.
There were some interesting dynamics at play. For example, Becky was busy living her best Insta life and often left the group to go and do other things. She also thought she would be able to write a best seller but just working with AI
Several of our characters start to see life differently thanks to spending their time at the writing retreat including Guy, Sandy, Liz and Helena and her family.
This was once again an enjoyable visit to France through the eyes and pen of Jennifer Bohnet.
I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews and Bookish Books challenge hosted at Blogging ‘Bout Books. Thanks to the publisher and Rachel's Random Resources for the review copy. Be sure to check out other stops on the tour below too!
Can a grieving chef and a group of writers find their own happy endings?
Eight months after his wife Jacqueline died in a tragic car accident, Michelin stared chef and proprietor of Villa Celestia, Guy Lyon’s life has been in freefall. Consumed by grief and plagued by questions as to why she was in a taxi that fateful day, the doors to Villa Celestia have remained closed.
When a good friend, Sandy Thoreau, asks to rent the villa on the French Riviera for a fortnight to hold a women’s writers retreat after being let down, Guy reluctantly agrees.
All the women at the retreat are looking forward to being inspired. Helena and her friend Mandy are writing debut novels, Isobel is editing a cosy crime story, Liz is desperate to kickstart a new book, self-published author Lorraine is looking for advice and Becky, well Becky is a law unto herself.
Over the course of the next fortnight, two of these women will change the course of Guy’s life forever and new chapters - hopefully with happy endings - will begin for all of them.
The perfect tonic and escapist read to the South of France full of warmth and second chances.
Jennifer Bohnet is the bestselling author of over 14 women's fiction titles, including Villa of Sun and Secrets and A Riviera Retreat. She is originally from the West Country but now lives in the wilds of rural Brittany, France.
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.This week the theme is Book Titles That Describe Me/My Life (Example titles: Well Traveled could describe you if you like to travel, Hotshot Doc could describe you if you’re an awesome doctor, Falling into Place could describe a life where things are starting to work out, An Infinite Love Story could describe your relationship, It Could Have Been Her could describe a thing you’re happy you avoided or a path you could have taken but didn’t. You can explain your choices or not, and they can be as specific or as abstract as you’d like.) (Submitted by Susan @ blogginboutbooks.com)
I am taking a simpler approach to this topic by sharing authors/books/characters with my name! Let's start with authors I have read whose name is either Margaret or similar/derivative to Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Red Queen by Margaret Drabble
Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles by Margaret George
My Lady of Cleves by Margaret Campbell Barnes
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
And then move onto others
Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan
Summer in Bellbird Bay by Maggie Christensen
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
Are you there God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
I couldn't resist including the last two. The reason for the first is likely obvious, but the second not so much. The main female character in North and South is called Margaret. And my post title is a paraphrase of a line that comes from absolutely fantastic mini-series adaptation of the book!
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