The summer is not quite over yet! Here is a fun book for those last lazy days whether at the beach, on the porch or in the AC.
Phoebe writes greeting cards for a living. It has all gone a bit sour as her latest romance ended with her partner getting ready too marry someone else (the nerve!). So, this Brit goes to visit her wealthy sister in LA. Readers will enjoy watching how her California dreams come true.
Lindsey becomes friendly with Bel who has a massive crush on Ren. In a modern take on Cyrano, Phoebe tries to move this relationship forward. But…who would make the best couple? Read this one to fine out!
The descriptions of LA, food, houses, beaches, etc are all designed to give readers a great armchair travel experience. There are times to laugh and also some moments of deeper emotion.
All in all, a pretty perfect summer read.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper 360 for this title. All opinions are my own.
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this title. Many thanks to everyone at HTP for this opportunity.
On Sale Date: August 19, 2025
9780778387626
Trade Paperback
$18.99 USD
352 pages
About the book:
For fans of Frederik Backman and Phaedra Patrick, a heartfelt and moving multiple POV tale that follows Sophia, who’s trying to save her favorite uncle’s flower shop; Blade, a devoted son looking for his mother’s long lost love; and Edith, who’s trying to hold on to her memories for as long as she can, from Ally Zetterberg, author of The Happiness Blueprint.
Edith has Alzheimer’s. The idea that she might someday forget her son, her life, even herself plagues her constantly. So there is something important she must do before the disease robs her of her memories: she has to find Sven, the love of her life whom she was supposed to meet on a bus stop bench twenty-seven years ago and run off with, but he never showed.
Her son, Blade, is struggling to keep an eye on her, to keep her safe. His mother’s full-time caregiver, he resents the fact, if he’s being honest, that he gave up his career and most of his life to look after her. But what wouldn’t he do for his mother? Track down her decades old flame so that she has a chance to finally understand why he never showed all those years ago, before her mind fails her? Sure, he can do that.
Sophia is desperately trying to keep her business afloat. Her uncle — her favorite person in the world — left his flower shop to her and her brothers after he died, but she seems to be the only one interested in keeping it; they would rather sell. But she can’t let that happen, can’t let the memory of him and the times they shared fade away. All she has to do is land a big job, big enough to show her family not only is the business worth saving but she’s the one to do it. So when an opportunity comes along that takes her all over Sweden, she can’t say no.
They say life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. While Edith is desperately trying to hold on to her memories, she discovers friendship in a young woman who sits with her daily at the bus stop. While Blade is looking high and low all across Sweden for Sven, he learns to embrace his relationship with his mother more fully and see her for everything she is and is not. While Sophia is fighting to keep her uncle’s dream alive, she comes to terms with the way her parents treated her as a child, and the therapies forced upon her in response to her autism diagnosis. Life is happening all around them, and it’s a delight to watch these different stories unfold, to watch how their lives change, all while they were busy with something else. And much like with life, there’s so much good to be found in these pages.
Try it now:
Prologue
I’m sitting on the kerb of a cobbled pavement, not far from the bus stop, feeling as old as I am: sixty-four. And I have felt like I was waiting for something my entire life. Even as a child I’d stare out the window, expecting something where there was nothing other than the cars lined against the road and the black bin bag on the ground, uncollected, because Mother had gotten the day muddled again. At first I thought it was a sign that things would fall into place and I could simply put my life on autopilot until they did. Perhaps it was a psycho- logical thing. Lately I’ve come to accept it’s more likely my mind playing tricks on me. Old age? Some kind of progressive disease? Who knows.
There is a breeze today on Hornton Street. I’ve counted thirty-one chewing gums on the ground, varying shades of dirt-marbled pink, grey and coal-black. People come and go, and I try to look for patterns. I always find patterns in every- thing, much like some people see the face of Baby Jesus or George Washington in potatoes. There have been four blonde ladies, so a brown-haired one must come soon. Or three men have walked past, so a child should be coming next. I’m try- ing to figure out after which sequence of passersby the one
4 Ally Zetterberg
I’m waiting for will appear. And what he will say? I have been through it in my mind a hundred, a thousand—more than that—times.
‘Hello,’ he might say. Or, ‘I’ve missed you.’ Maybe, ‘So this is where you are.’
I’d like him to simply say, ‘You came.’ Smile wide. Or perhaps with a serious face.
Of course, I know he won’t say any of these things. People never say what you expect them to.
While I’m thinking, someone does come up to me. It’s a gentleman who works at Whole Foods on Kensington High Street.
‘How are you today?’ He hands me a five-pound note and walks on before I have time to answer the question or ob- ject to the note now nestled in my hand. I’m not broke. I’m broken-hearted.
Only two more hours until home-time now, when I board the bus and head back to the warmth of my house where my son will lecture me until he decides it’s no use and gives up. I ate the plate of lasagne he’d left me before I headed out this morning (it was a better breakfast than the lamb stew we had last week), moved my crossword to a new place and left a half-drunk cup of tea on the living room table. I even pulled off and f lushed half a metre of toilet paper down the loo. Extreme? Trust my son to notice any little trace I leave behind. Like this, for all he knows, I’ve had a productive day at home, eaten my lunch and had a bowel movement. As long as I’m back before he comes through the door I’ll be fine.
I glance at my watch. It’s 15.14, on 8 June, 2023. I’ve been waiting twenty-seven years.
Sophia
Svedala
When you kiss someone, as many as eighty million bacteria are transferred between mouths. This is for a ten-second kiss. Don’t get me started on those long, slobby affairs that happen in, say, backs of cabs or on doorsteps after a fourth date. But wait—it gets worse. Couples who kiss more than nine times a day (first of all, who are these people? Do they not have to work? Or like, eat?) actually share communities of bacteria. So you don’t just share a home, you also share a saliva community. Which is, to cite my teenage self, GROSS.
It’s all I can think of as the perfectly handsome man in front of me who’s just treated me to dinner and half a bottle of wine leans in and tries to slide his tongue between my lips. I press them firmly shut. Because, well, bacterial transfer. He kind of moves to the side to see if there’s an opening there, and I’m forced to twitch my face to withhold. He gives up, draws back and looks at me.
His name is Ed, and he has brown eyes and hair that kind of shines without any hair product. He likes travelling and cars, works for a digital creator brand and wouldn’t mind settling down with the right woman. He seemed great; I was even willing to overlook his very clear You don’t seem Autistic at all
6 Ally Zetterberg
greeting. On paper he looks good for me, a twenty-five-year- old woman who has blue eyes and hair like unruly yellow straw, is taller than most men, owns her own f lorist shop and wouldn’t mind having her first boyfriend right about now. Or yesterday. In fact, I’ve been trying for God knows how long to have my first boyfriend. But looking good on paper doesn’t always translate to real life.
‘Are you okay?’ he asks, shifting his weight back and forth as if he needs a wee.
‘I am okay.’ Roof over my head, no ongoing war or con- f lict threatening my livelihood, and I just ate a bowl of pasta. Sure, I very much wish I had one and a half million kroners to buy my brothers out of my f lower shop so that it was mine alone, but I can’t claim to not be okay. I’d call my cur- rent mental state slightly unhappy, but then lots of people go through their whole lives that way. My mother’s words come to me: When there are those worse off, we don’t complain. Sure, there are those worse off—some single ladies may not yet have discovered the Le Wand 3.0 vibrator.
‘We had a good date just now. And the one before.’ He starts to recap our dating history. Which, although brief, has shown great promise. He has only a few annoying habits, chews with his mouth closed and, as opposed to the man I dated previ- ously who I spotted in the town centre wearing socks and crocs and thus immediately cancelled, wears sneakers.
‘Yes.’ It’s true. I’ve enjoyed getting to know him. I may have even fantasised about pushing my body against his, feel- ing my chest stop heaving for a moment, grabbing his hand and placing it somewhere I’m practically aching to be touched and—‘But somehow you’re not that into me . . . ?’
‘That’s not it, Ed.’
I realise I have to give a reason. And that when I do, this will be over. Much like my teenage years when I would sneak
The Second Chance Bus Stop 7
back into my parents’ house even before curfew, tonight I’ll go back to my f lat still unkissed. I don’t like labels. Like Autistic or control freak. Anxious. Eating disorder. OCD. Those types of things. Somehow I collected these kinds of labels throughout childhood the way others collected Brownie badges. Hence I’ve made it my mission to appear as normal as I can to avoid accumulating more of them in adulthood.
So here I am. With the chance to get rid of one of my most stubborn labels: unkissed. It’s meant to be good, isn’t it? Otherwise people wouldn’t brave the bacteria. The eighty mil- lion of them. An army. An invasion. Foreign bodies in my body. Well okay, I wouldn’t necessarily mind that last one. Can
we skip straight to it?
Ed leans in again, and I finally blurt it out, ending any pros- pects of Ed and Sophia ever creating a bacterial community or any other form of community.
‘I’m sorry. I can’t do this.’
‘It’s okay, we can take it slow. Just kissing.’ He leans in again, completely unaware of, and not intending to find out, what it is I can’t do. I put my hand on his chest, and it drums against my palm. I don’t like it. It feels too excited—like a dog’s tail wagging. Drumdrumdrum.
‘I don’t kiss. I thought I could, but it turns out I can’t. I wrote it in one of my messages to you?’
He looks genuinely confused.
‘I thought that was some pun or turn-on technique. Hot girl wants to skip foreplay? Any guy is all in and down with that.’
Great. Remind me to add it to The Autistic’s Guide to Life’s chapter on getting the attention of a man: How to make your quirk work and really turn them on.
‘Well, no, it’s an actual no to kissing.’ We stare at each other for an awkward minute, as if we’re children checking who will
8 Ally Zetterberg
blink first. I think about placing a hand on his body but am not sure where I’d put it. I leave my arms hanging by my side. He attempts a joke.
‘Sure you’re not some kind of a prostitute?’
It’s not a funny one, so I don’t reply. He shifts uncomfort- ably on the spot.
‘The no kissing. You know, Pretty Woman? I thought that’s what working girls do to not get attached.’
‘Ed, I am trying very hard to get attached. However, I do not wish to attach my lips to yours. That is the point I am desperately trying to make here. All other body parts would be okay to attach.’
‘Gotcha. Erm, listen. I’m all for attaching stuff and all, but . . . we may have different goals here.’
I want to argue that no, we do not have different goals (we both want a relationship) but rather different paths and ideas about how to achieve them (no lips versus lots of lips). But then I think of all the inspirational quotes I’ve ever been fed that say things like Enjoy the Journey. I think how others are usually uninterested in my different-looking journey. And it’s clear Ed won’t be coming along with me on my journey.
‘I’m going to go now,’ I say. ‘Thank you for the dinner, the wine and the ice cream.’
I am about to turn around and leave him there when I have second thoughts. Kissing is essential for getting attached. I can’t meet someone and get them to like me without that part of the deal. I pep-talk myself. If this is what you need to do, then go and bloody do it, Sophia, I hear my uncle’s voice saying. I’m fairly sure he wasn’t talking about kissing men named Ed, but I think his words apply in this scenario too. I have tried a lot of things in order to advance my life, to become a happier, more fulfilled version of myself. The one thing I’ve failed to try so
The Second Chance Bus Stop 9
far is a relationship. And I’m convinced that it’s the answer to this nagging feeling of not quite having it all. It must be.
So I decide to try. At least once. I’m twenty-five and get- ting a little antsy, not for love and marriage and cute babies and getting to romanticise sleep deprivation. But for someone to like, hold and do those things with. I will look up how long bacteria live, and I will survive it. There’s always mouthwash. I have it at home. Perhaps if I do it once he will be satisfied, and we won’t have to do it again. Okay. Ready.
I lean towards him, and that’s all the encouragement he needs. Excited to have changed my mind, to have converted me, he puts his hand behind my head intertwining my long hair with his fingers, and I can sense all my follicles protesting. Then he ravishes my mouth. Devours it. Heads into battle, bending open my defence and rushing his army of bacteria in via a wave of saliva. He tugs at my bottom lip, and I stiffen. It’s wet and horrid, and my brain can’t anticipate where his tongue will move next so every touch is a bloody horrendous surprise. A shock to my nervous system and a complete sensory over- load. And there are so many tastes. A hint of fresh mint. Deep tones of arabica coffee.
It’s awful.
And in that moment I promise myself to never kiss anyone again.
This is the first and last time.I’m Sophia, collector of labels, and my most recent one is Single—Unhappily—for Bloody Life.
Meet the author:
Ally Zetterberg is a British-Swedish writer. She spent ten years working internationally as a fashion model before becoming a full-time mum. Being neurodivergent herself and the mother of a child with Type 1 Diabetes, she is passionate about writing relatable characters and representing those living with medical conditions in commercial fiction. She speaks four languages and spends her days doing her best not to muddle them up.
I can’t even begin to imagine (and hope that I never face this situation) what it would be like to realize that your mind is diminishing significantly and that you might not one day be able to remember what is most important. This is the situation that Edith faces.
Edith’s situation also impacts her son. Being responsible for a parent is a huge undertaking and one that a person might do with both love and a bit of resentment. This is the situation that Blade faces.
Another challenge is presented for the character of Sophia. She learns to live with autism (as did this book’s author). Sophia is trying to successfully run the flower shop that had belonged to her uncle.
Given the title of the novel, readers can imagine how the lives of these characters might intersect. How will a past love possibly connect them? How will things resolve?
This is a novel that is long, engaging and touching. Readers may well want to give it a look. It is a bit messy…just like life.
Meet Me in Monaco feels like the perfect title for right now. It is a gentle, romantic story that will allow its readers to escape daily life. Much of the book is set in France with its beautiful towns and countryside. And then, of course, readers also spend time in Monaco itself.
The background for the story is Grace Kelly’s wedding to Prince Rainier but Sophie and Jim are also prominent characters for whom readers want the best. Sophie is a parfumier with a beloved family business that is facing financial ruin. The man she is to marry does not always seem right for her. Jim is a photographer assigned at times to follow Ms. Kelly. Jim is divorced and the woman in his life is daughter, Emily.
Sophie meets Jim when he chases Grace into Sophie’s store. From this beginning, readers will spend time with the three and with the others who surround them, all the while hoping for fairy tale endings.
The book follows a typical narrative structure with the addition of nterspersed news articles. These are fun to read and help readers to feel that they are witnesses to the action.
This novel was written by two authors who worked very well together. It was impossible for me to detect who was writing when.
I highly recommend this novel for those who need a bit of feel good time.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title in exchange for an honest review.
Wow, they have now gotten to the 25th volume of this sampler. It includes lots of information on upcoming traditional mysteries. Each edition includes book covers, info on what a book is about, an excerpt, and a chance to learn something about the author. As an extra bonus, this is a free resource.
This time the included authors are Ellie Alexander, Cate Conte, Mindy Quigley, Elizabeth Penny, Donna Andrews and, M.C. Beaton (with R.W. Green). I will have some new books for my wish list including a new Agatha Raisin title. Find your own favorites here.
Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press-Minotaur for this title. All opinions are my own.
Libby Page’s novel, Mornings with Rosemary, also published as The Lido, was a favorite of mine. It told a touching story.
Now, readers get to find out what happened to Kate after that book ended. Here she is, living in the country with her husband Jay, as she becomes a new mother.
Readers also meet community mental health nurse Phoebe. Their stories intertwine in a novel that both tells a story and wants to leave readers with some messages.
One significant theme, I think mirrors the author’s own experience in becoming a new parent. This has to do with what it is like to transition to motherhood and how, despite what is often presented as a rosy experience, it can feel isolating, and bonding is sometimes a process. Any new mother who has felt overwhelmed may identify with Kate. Readers watch as Kate, Jay and Rosie become a family. Note that Rosie is named for Rosemary of the first book.
Phoebe takes her job very much to heart. One reason for this is her own family history. Readers meet many of those with whom Phoebe works and view their struggles and growth.
One thing that brings these characters together is their love of wild swimming. Will all go smoothly? I loved the scenes on the river.
The Lifeline is about many lifelines. Readers can think about and count them up. They are also encouraged to not be afraid to talk about what is difficult and to get help.
As soon as I saw the title of this book, I wanted to read it. The magic word, of course, was bookshop. I also found the cover to be very appealing. So, I initially judged this one by its cover. That said, I wasn’t disappointed.
This novel’s protagonist, Grace, is a young woman who recently lost her mother. Along with her best friend, Viv, she moves to London to stay with a family friend. The two arrive only to have war declared not long after. Viv enters one of the women’s units while Grace remains with her mother’s friend. She takes a position in a bookshop and the shop is also a character in the book.
This story points out the importance of literature. In a lovely scene, Grace goes underground during a bombing raid where she begins reading Middlemarch to those who are stuck in the shelter over night. Those stuck there look forward to additional chapters when the next call to go underground comes.
Grace organized the bookshop and develops a relationship with its curmudgeonly owner. She studies way to make the shop successful and, for example, advertises buying books to read while unable to sleep in one’s beds due to the bombings.
The author does a good job of portraying wartime Britain. There are losses of people, property, usual foods, a way of life. There are also the joys of friendship, love, books and connection.
There are so many WWII set novels being written now. My theory is that, awful as the war was, it is more reassuring to look back at that time than our current one. For all of the suffering, the reader knows that eventually Britain will declare victory.
I think that this title is worth reading. Let me know what you think!
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.
I read and enjoyed this author’s first, The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, so was intrigued by this second novel set in the world of books.
Here is a locked room mystery that fans of that genre will enjoy. However, they may feel differently in going into libraries for a while.
A group of friends hopes that a night in the library will be transformative and it is…just not in the way that they hoped.
This is a suspenseful read. Many thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this title. All opinions are my own.
Meg Shaffer’s previous novel, The Wishing Game, was one of my favorite books last year. So, I was incredibly excited to receive an e galley of The Lost Story.
In this title, the author develops an imaginative story that pays homage to CS Lewis. Just as Lewis did, Shaffer creates an alternate and magical world populated by unique characters and situations. As in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, characters lives will be transformed.
Two boys, Rafe and Jeremy, disappeared only to miraculously return six months later. How did their relationship and lives fare after this? What happens to them and a young woman named Emily fifteen years later? No more plot reveals as readers will want to have their own experience while reading this.
Good and evil, many kinds of love, and adventure await in this highly recommended title. BookPage has given it a well deserved star review.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing-Ballantine Books for this title. All opinions are my own.
Louise has finally gathered the courage to take the police civil service exam, but when she returns to her secretary job at the midtown publishing house of Van Hooten and McChesney, she’s shocked to find the offices smoldering from a deadly, early morning fire. Huddled on the sidewalk, her coworkers inform her that Guy Van Hooten’s body has been found in the charred ruins. Rumors of foul play are already circulating, and the firm’s surviving partner asks Louise to investigate the matter.
Despite a number of possible suspects, the last person Louise expects to be arrested is Ogden McChesney, an old friend and mentor to her aunt Irene. Louise will have to search high and low, from the tenements in the Lower East Side to the very clouds above the tallest skyscrapers, to get to the bottom of an increasingly complex case . . .
How it starts:
From the publisher:
How would you aid a police officer in making the arrest of one or more violent criminals?
My forehead broke out in a dewy film of panic. Ever since this past summer when I’d found myself in the middle of a murder investigation, I’d envisioned myself as a policewoman in the New York Police Department. In my dreams, I would rise quickly through the ranks by dint of hard work, bravery, and cleverness to become a detective. I set my mind on taking the police civil service exam and studied every night after my workday as secretary at the publisher Van Hooten and McChesney. I also set aside Sunday afternoons, as well as any other moment I could sneak a few glances at my well-thumbed pamphlet of New York City’s municipal ordinances. I was nothing if not determined.
Yet here I was, taking the long-awaited test, and my cleverness had deserted me at Question 2.
About the author:
Liz Freeland lives with her husband in Montreal, where she writes and astounds the locals with her makeshift French. An elderly cat or dog (or two . . . or four) can typically be found in her apartment, and during the busiest day, Liz usually finds time to sneak in an old movie.
Other titles in this series:
Book One
Book Three
My thoughts:
Those who enjoy historical mysteries that feature strong women protagonists will want to give this title a look. They will then meet Louise who wants to be in the police but works in publishing as the story opens. When a murder occurs, Louise knows the victim and at least one suspect. She gets involved.
Follow Louise as she traverses Manhattan trying to figure everything out. Readers will hope that she solves the case and gets her position with the police.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for this title. All thoughts are my own.
NOTE THAT ON 15 AUGUST, THIS TITLE IN E BOOK FORMAT IS UNDER THREE DOLLARS
Expect the unexpected in this fun debut to, what I hope, is a new series by Tamara Berry. It offers some eccentricity, a good story line and some unexpected events, all within the traditional(ish) mystery genre.
Amber must be feeling pretty desperate. She leaves home in the middle of the night and, although well below age, escapes to a community for older adults. Probably desperate to go here and to meet up with a relative she doesn’t even know. And, what about that tortoise? Add murder to the mix and the story is on its way. Lucky Amber has had some PI training.
This title is definitely worth a look and seems perfect for these lazy summer days.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this title. All opinions are my own.
Kirkus Reviews says: A knockout series debut from a veteran author with street cred in both mystery and romance…Despite Berry’s breezy tone and drop-dead-funny japes at Seven Ponds and its eccentric residents and staff, she tells a heartrending tale of how complicated families can be.” ― Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
Meet Me in Monaco feels like the perfect title for right now. It is a gentle, romantic story that will allow its readers to escape daily life. Much of the book is set in France with its beautiful towns and countryside. And then, of course, readers also spend time in Monaco itself.
Joyce's mystery and fiction book reviews with some non-fiction too! 