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It felt very contrived. It should be borne in mind that Dillon is one of those authors who have improved immeasurably since her early novels. Although I can't really recommend this novel by her, do, do, do pick up her later novels once she found her stride and her voice more thoroughly. She is an excellent writer, but this wasn't the best example of that. Jun 08, Gurdeep Assi rated it it was amazing. Great storyline with interesting characters.

A Lucy Dillon novel never fails to grab you, such an enjoyable read. Gosto de um bom livro aconchegante. Segredos para um fina Gosto de um bom livro aconchegante.

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Lucy Dillon foi uma estreia profundamente avassaladora. Oct 26, Leah rated it really liked it Shelves: I loved it, it was warm and it was just the perfect book to curl up with during the colder Tenerife months. Yes, Tenerife has colder months! What really made the book for me was the book shop. Lots of Chick Lit books give their characters jobs as hairdressers, as writers, as whatever else is in vogue at the time, but rarely do Chick Lit books feature book shops.


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I know — weird, right? A book shop that sound divine, quite frankly. Although I would add in sofas to my bookshop and it would perhaps look a bit like Central Perk. What I mean is, it was cosy. It added to the novel. It was like a character in itself. Having a good plot, having good characters, is all excellent but the added scenery is even better and the book shop gives the book a bit more of a kick.

I found it even more interesting how two seemingly rubber-and-glue-type people became friends, as Anna and Michelle did. I loved Rory, he really lit up the book when he appeared. I liked the return of some previous characters, too, which was a nice added bonus. Lucy Dillon just seems to have this natural storytelling ability, this natural way of just making you fall in love with her book until you get to the very end and the addition of the pets makes it all the more.

Okay so, so many thoughts about this one. First off, found out about this while browsing through GR. So thank you for the suggestion for book related books about And the summary had me at: So of course this would be my kind of read right? Well, let's just say I was surprised with this one. You have two different women, Michelle a businesswoman who starts a shop called Home Sweet Home and then the shop next door which was already a bookshop.

She then has the book shop running Okay so, so many thoughts about this one. She then has the book shop running again and appoints her new friend Anna as manager. It helps that Anna is a bookworm through and through.

The Secret of Happy Ever After by Lucy Dillon

As the story goes along, the both of them have their own stuff their dealing with in their everyday lives. I thought the tone would be somewhat lighthearted with some drama thrown in. But I was surprised where it was vice versa. You really feel for the two ladies. While I was annoyed in some moments, especially Phil, you get at least what he's going through.

Not exactly but he has his reasons.


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  • Anyway, dogs Pongo and Tavish sound freaking adorable. And of course love, LOVE, the book title references. Especially the list of books at the end. I recognize some, read some and some I never heard of. I also thought I was going to like reading about Anna and the bookshop. But found myself wanting to read more about Michelle and of course Rory. If ever they make this a movie And yes Anna and her at the bookshop mostly. I mean who couldn't relate with Anna and her love of books, having it be a dream come true to run her own bookshop?

    Who doesn't love those places, from the small shops to bigger shops. Something about shelves lined with books you know? Anyway, this was a surprising but good read to just take your time with. Sep 24, Adelyne rated it liked it. My major issue with this book is the balancing of plot pace, it felt like absolutely nothing happens in the first pages or so, and then everything happens and is magically tied up in a bow in the space of just a few chapters.

    After clouding Michelle in this massive cloud of mystery, including on the blurb on the back, there was disappointingly little revealed. Yes, the details of the event which turned her into the person she is was eventually revealed, but I had hoped for a bit more of a drawing out — both Michelle out of her shell by Anna as well as Rory! Ele era mesmo um estupor! Ainda mais trabalhando ele para o pai dela, Michele dev Gostei muito!

    Letto il primo quarto con l'interesse, all'inizio piuttosto alto, che lasciava il passo alla disillusione. Dec 26, Lisa rated it liked it Shelves: This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I enjoyed this book. It was a nice, easy read and there wasn't anything really "wrong" about it. I wouldn't call it a favourite but it was a good one to spend a few days of Christmas break on.

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    I liked that there was a bookstore, and at first I thought all the references to old childrens books were fun. I, too, loved such books when I was a kid, so I really enjoyed this at first! I haven't read all of the books mentioned, but most of them. I loved Little Women and books like that, and I can defin I enjoyed this book. I loved Little Women and books like that, and I can definitely relate to the nostalgia. The problem with all of this, though, is that it gets too much after a while.

    Anna is a librarian and described as a book lover - I do find it strange that ALL she cares about are these really old books she read as a child, and that most women who comes to her store seem to be the same way. In a way, this is related to her longing for a child somebody she could share all those old books with but it's not just that. While I did re-read one of Edith Nesbit's books recently when I was at a library with nothing else to do except studying I would probably be happy if my child if I had one liked those books as much as I did, but I would never expect it.

    Most kids just don't like that kind of books these days. When I re-read something like that like the Anne of Green Gables series that I read parts of two years ago, for the first time as an adult I react to some of the old-fashioned values and things I didn't really think of as a child; there are parts of old literature for children that are just out of date in today's world and that kids might not even understand, much less relate to. There are wonderful parts of those books as well, but I feel that Anna is just too uncritical. Especially when it comes to those school books. I haven't read the Malory Towers series but other similar books.

    I completely understand Anna's and the others' fascination, because I felt the same way as a child. But now, as an adult, I feel that Anna is very naive for being surprised when Michelle doesn't speak well of her school experience. I read those too, but didn't enjoy them half as much as the older books. I'm quite surprised that Chloe doesn't like Twilight at least the movies and that Anna doesn't have an opinion on it. And is there a reason why they're so into romance books I don't know anything about Jilly Cooper but as far as I understand the novels were somewhat "daring" in young Michelle's eyes but never talk about 50 Shades?

    Is it that Dillon just doesn't want to write about her present day fellow writers?

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    Well, enough of the books. I did like the characters most of the time. I didn't always understand them; sometimes their reasoning didn't make sense to me I didn't understand why Michelle wouldn't try to explain to her family about Harvey, but on the other hand I've known a person sort of like Harvey and I know that it's not easy to handle emotional abuse - in Michelle's case it's very hard because her mother is extremely unhelpful.

    Most of the time I just wanted to tell her to shut up and stay out of her grown up child's love life As for Anna, she's sweet and likeable, but with her, too, I was also a little bit annoyed for not speaking up for herself. But again, on second thought, I can understand it - it's hard to do for a person who'd rather be hurt than to risk hurting anybody else It's hard to see just what made her like that, though. Her strong desire to have a baby is highly relatable, in my opinion.

    The supporting characters were sometimes a bit like caricatures, or just They felt like just the expected characters! I think Michelle's issues with her past and with her mother would have been more nuanced and more painful if the mother had been more like a normal person and not like someone you wanted to punch in the face. Evelyn was a bit too mean. Phil's girls were okay, I guess, but I was a bit puzzled by Becca. I thought she was like a combination of Jane and Lizzie Bennett, and I couldn't figure out if Dillon had made her like that on purpose or if it was just me I found Anna's and Phil's life fairly interesting I do think Phil was rather realistic, even though his reasoning made me sad , but the thing with Rory was just too predictable in my opinion.

    I think it would have been better if Michelle hadn't disliked him so much in the beginning. The irresponsible Owen who found the inspiration to change because of his true love for the good girl Becca If only Owen had been more like a person and less like a "type", it would have worked. Now it sounds like I'm just complaining, but I do have high standards, and like I said in the beginning, I did find this an enjoyable read.

    Jul 27, Kirstie rated it really liked it. But, as the stories of love , adventure, secret gardens , lost dogs, wicked witches and giant peaches breathe new life into the neglected shop, Anna and her customers get swept up in the magic too. Even Anna's best friend Michelle - who categorically doesn't believe in true love and handsome princes - isn't immune. But when secrets from Michelle's own childhood come back to haunt her, and disaster threatens Anna's home, will the wisdom and charm of the stories in the bookshop help the two friends - and those they love - find their own happy ever afters?

    A heart-warming piece of escapism for long winter nights. Lucy Dillon was born in Cumbria in Lucy now divides her time between London and the Wye Valley where she enjoys walking in the Malvern Hills with her basset hounds, Violet and Bonham. Her fifth novel, A Hundred Pieces of Me , is out in An ambitious noble and his three serving men travel through the Irish countryside in the stifling summer of , using the advantage of the plague which has collapsed society to buy up large swathes of property and land.

    They come upon Nobber, a tiny town, whose only living habitants seem to be an egotistical bureaucrat, his volatile wife, a naked blacksmith, and a beautiful Gaelic hostage.

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    Meanwhile, a band of marauding Gaels are roaming around, using the confusion of the sickness to pillage and reclaim lands that once belonged to them. As these groups converge upon the town, the habitants, who up until this point have been under strict curfew, begin to stir from their dwellings, demanding answers from the intruders. A deadly stand-off emerges from which no one will escape unscathed. Kerry Hayes knows exactly who she is: Noah Martineau thinks he knows who he is: Strangers with nothing in common.

    Strangers living worlds apart. But it wasn't always this way From the internationally bestselling, Man Booker Prize-longlisted Siri Hustvedt comes a provocative, exuberant novel about time, desire, memory and the imagination, which tells the story of a young Midwestern woman's first year in New York in the late s and her obsession with her mysterious neighbour, Lucy Brite. As she listens to Lucy through the thin walls of her dilapidated building, S.

    Forty years later, S.

    Book Review: The Secret of Happy Ever After by Lucy Dillon

    Ingeniously juxtaposing the various texts, S. It's the highest honour they could hope for This year, there's a ninth. And instead of paper, she's made of fire. Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most persecuted class of people in Ikhara. Ten years ago, her mother was snatched by the royal guards, and her fate remains unknown.

    Now, the guards are back and this time it's Lei they're after - the girl with the golden eyes, whose rumoured beauty has piqued the king's interest. Over weeks of training in the opulent but oppressive palace, Lei and eight other girls learn the skills and charm that befit a king's consort. There, Lei does the unthinkable - she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens her world's entire way of life.

    Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide how far she's willing to go for justice and revenge. In a novel of breathtaking reach and inspired imagination, one of Australia's greatest writers tells the stories of two men who have much in common. What separates them is 42, years. Shade lives with his second wife amid their clan on the shores of a bountiful lake. A peaceable man, he knows that when danger threatens, the Hero ancestors will call on him to kill, or sacrifice himself, to save his people. The customers, and even Michelle, are falling under the spell of the magical stories of romance, adventure, and lost dogs.

    While in a local coffee shop she runs into, or gets ran into, by Pongo, a large spotted dalmatian that is the biggest people person ever. The owner of the dog, Anna, is a warm-hearted woman trying to start a family of her own with her husband. The two main characters, Michelle and Anna, do an excellent job of playing off each other. One, a strong person with a dark past and the other wearing her heart on her sleeve but treated almost as a doormat. Michelle owns a store in Longhampton called Home Sweet Home and finds out the bookshop next to her business opens up, she plans to expand her shop and take over the bookshop.

    She speaks to the solicitor but is told she must run it as a bookshop for the next year, before moving on with her own plans. Michelle believes her and Anna can run it successfully. Anna, who is an ex-librarian, has always dreamed of running a bookshop.