Book-Mad-Mum

  Confessions Of A Forty-Something F**k Up by Alexandra Potter published by Pan Macmillan   Nell Stevens’ life is a mess – moving back to London from LA after her business goes bust and her relationship fails she notices that many things have changed. Her friends are now all settled with children, and she is forced to rent a room in a house. Life just feels like it’s f**ked up!. When Nell gets a job writing obituaries, she first encounters Cricket, an eighty-something widow with challenges of her own, and they strike up an unlikely friendship. Together they begin to help each other heal their aching hearts, cope with the loss of the lives they had planned, and push each other into new adventures and unexpected joys. Because Nell is determined. Next year things are going to be very different. It's time to turn her life around.   Initially I didn’t think I was going to like this book, as I mistakenly thought it was transcripts of a podcast, but how wrong was I? This is in f

  The Christmas Shop On Nutcracker Lane by Jaimie Admans published by HQ Books   Christmas has always been Nia Maddison’s favourite time of the year and as a crafter and a massive lover of Nutcrackers, this season gives Nia the opportunity to combine them both. As a child, her grandmother used to take her to visit Nutcracker Lane, a row of Christmas shops full of magic and wonder. When the opportunity to run her own Christmas gift shop on the most magical street in town arises, it feels like her wishes have been finally granted. After receiving a text from her boyfriend, who obviously meant to send it to another woman (!) Nia faces the holiday season on her own, but as she leaves work late one night, she makes a wish on the (supposedly) magical nutcracker and half-jokingly wishes to find Prince Charming. The next day Nia gets to work to find another decoration shop has opened directly across the lane from her own, and she can’t resist having a nose around. Whilst there, s