ItaPixie's Book Corner

        Synopsis:   It’s Christmas time in Lytell Stangdale! When Romy Stainthorpe sees Holly Tree Cottage staring back at her from the pages of a magazine, she’s sure it’s a sign. The quaint property is situated in Lytell Stangdale, a village in the heart of the North Yorkshire Moors . Her time there is steeped in happy memories of carefree days with the moorland wind blowing through her hair. And not just that, it’s where she had her first kiss and where she first fell in love. It was her perfect place, where she felt most at home. Until her family’s hasty departure years twenty-one years earlier. Since that day, Romy has never been back, but the cottage has regularly crept into her thoughts. And now it’s available to rent for the festive season… Could it be the perfect getaway Romy needs to get her life back on track, not to mention escape her friends’ well-meaning attempts at matchmaking since her divorce from Russ? Local farmer , Finn Tin...

    Synopsis:   With the wedding of the year approaching, excitement is running high at the café! But there's just one problem. Maddy is grappling with a dark secret. Could it derail all of hers and Jack's glorious plans for their big day? Will there actually be a wedding?   Review: Maddy's wedding is planned for this December, on Christmas Eve, but the journey towards it is full of unexpected bumps and hardles. Will she get the wedding of her dreams or will she be forced to cancel it? Rosie Green has skillfully crafted and a new and anticipated installment of the Duck Pond Cafè serie. Here we can read and appreciate the warming feels of friendship that run throughout the entire novel, and the wonderful wintery experience in Lapland. I can understand Maddy's scares and struggles, but her keeping everything inside when she is surrounded by her kind friends and her attentive fiancé hurt them. Fortunately she redeems herself and her cherised ones are the...

      Synopsis:   Abigail Parker just wants to get through the holidays, but fate has other plans... After a year of unexpected twists, Abigail finds herself in the small town of Sugarville Grove, Vermont, as the guardian of her late cousin’s two young children. Leaving behind her bustling city life and dream job at a veterinary practice, Abigail’s only goal is to adjust to her new responsibilities and figure out how to be the mother they need. Falling for her rugged, no-nonsense neighbor is definitely not part of the plan. Luke Hayes has his hands full raising his lively four-year-old daughter, Lily, while managing his family’s maple syrup farm. With his heart still scarred from being abandoned by Lily’s mother, Luke has sworn off romance. But when a broken fence and a mischievous dog bring Abigail into his life, he starts to wonder if maybe love isn’t as far out of reach as he thought. As the holiday lights sparkle and the snow falls, Abigail and Luke f...

      Synopsis:     All this single dad wants is a quiet Christmas, but he’s in for a sweet surprise… Charlotte Kendrick is thrilled when her best friend invites her to run the family ice cream shop in small-town Sugarville Grove. She’s had a rough year with a bad break-up and a terrible loss. But Charlotte isn’t going to let that dampen her spirits. She’s determined to have fun, finish the things she starts, and avoid falling for another guy – especially her best friend’s grumpy, gorgeous older brother. Tag Lawrence has buried himself in his work on the family dairy farm and his fierce love for his kids ever since losing his wife years ago. People might say he’s a grump, but he’d rather focus on his energetic five-year-old son and increasingly reserved thirteen-year-old daughter than worry about the world outside Lawrence Farm. But when an early freeze and a burst pipe leave the pretty new manager of the dairy’s ice cream shop out in the cold, Tag ...

      Synopsis:   Kissing my brother’s best friend has been my only Christmas wish for years. But now he’s on my permanent naughty list—and not in a good way. I’ve been in love with Noah Drake since the day he showed up at our house for a sleepover in junior high. His tussled blond hair and emerald eyes were my obsession, as was his raspy laugh that always seemed to fill our house whenever he was around. When he finally kissed me this past summer, I thought it meant he felt something too. But then he acted like it never happened. And now that he’s the hot shot college hockey goalie with girls literally throwing their panties at him on the ice, he’s gone from being the object of my dreams to the nuisance in my waking nightmares. To top things off, I’m stuck playing elf to his Santa all winter break. And while he seems determined to pick up where we left off, for some winter fling, I’m equally intent on being the one girl he can’t have. Not anymore. But w...

      Synopsis:   My past has come back to haunt me. I’m the oldest player and the captain of a minor league hockey team. My aspirations of playing in the big-time are fading, and I’m facing an uncertain future. My teammates decide to have a little fun at my expense and sign me up for a dating site. My first and last date happens to be with my old nemesis, Emory, who still blames me for ruining her chances as a hockey player. Not a fun time I’d wish on anyone. Imagine my surprise when the team’s social media admin retires suddenly for personal issues, and Emory arrives as his replacement. We’re butting heads at every turn much to the amusement of my teammates. The night of the Lynx holiday party, we’re assigned to the same cabin as the result of an alleged administrative mistake, and there’s no other room at the inn. If that isn’t bad enough, a wet, furry bear of a dog adopts us, a blizzard hits, and we’re not going anywhere soon. Emory and I might gr...

        Synopsis:   Verity Callaway is running away. From her job. From her quiet life in the Midlands. And most of all from her ex-fiancée…who has just become her newest neighbour. The plan is hop in her reliable camper van and cross the Channel, headed for a rendezvous with her best friend in Amsterdam to kick off six months of travel. But when Verity stumbles across a decades-old postcard while preparing her cottage for its temporary tenants, her life takes an unexpected turn, and she finds herself on a ferry to Puffin Island instead. Verity’s childhood was filled with adventures set on the picturesque island, but she’d always thought her beloved granny had made it all up. Now, knowing the stories and the setting were real, Verity is determined to find the postcard’s sender and uncover the secrets of her grandmother’s past…even if it means setting off a sequence of events that will change not just her own life, but also that of the sleepy island’s...

        Synopsis:   Nurse Gemma Tate is heartbroken when she hears that one of her young charges at the Foundling Hospital has been killed. She knows that police inspector Sebastian Bell will work tirelessly to uncover the truth, but, obstructed by the curt matron, he’ll need her help navigating the cloistered world of the orphanage. The mystery thickens when Sebastian finds a small wooden doll clutched in the murdered girl’s hand and Gemma hears whispers of a shadowy romance. But that isn’t the darkest secret hidden behind the high hospital walls. As time runs down on the investigation, Gemma won’t give up. But could the shocking discovery she makes be her last?   Review:    Murder At The Foundling Hospital is the third installment in the Tate and Bell Mystery series, and I highly recommend to also read the previous books because are all masterfully written. This book was a little hard to read, because the victim is a young girl, ...

      Synopsis:   I am a ballet dancer from New York City, currently in Lake Mistletoe, Idaho, to perform as the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker at the Sun Valley Ski Resort. After my breakup with my boyfriend, I needed a break from my fast-paced life. This quiet, snow-covered town seemed like the perfect escape. Staying at The Gingerbread Inn feels like stepping into a holiday postcard. However, what really catches me off guard is Dutch. Dutch is the electrical engineer working on the sets, and he's a single dad to Josie, an adorable little girl who loves ballet. As I bond with Josie, I find myself drawn to Dutch in a way I didn’t expect, and the life I left behind in Manhattan starts to feel distant. He’s a different kind of distraction. He’s not the type of guy I usually go for—he’s all flannel, muscle, and practicality. But there’s something about him that’s hard to ignore. What starts as a hot holiday fling turns into something more, and I begin...

        Synopsis:   Can this small-town single dad melt a city girl’s heart this Christmas? Tanner Williams takes pride in two things—his reputation as the best electrician in small town Trinity Falls, and his energetic, fun-loving seven-year-old son, Zeke. But lately little Zeke’s happiness is fading as he struggles under a mountain of homework. And even though Tanner just landed the biggest job of his career, he can’t seem to think about anything but Valentina, his new project manager. She’s all-business, but Tanner longs to see the serious young woman with her hair down. When Zeke makes her laugh, giving them a glimpse of her adorable dimples and her carefully guarded lighter side, both of the Williams boys are completely smitten. Valentina Jimenez has spent her whole life chasing the success she knows her parents want for her—and she’s finally close to making all their sacrifices pay off. She can’t let her career get stalled in some small tow...

  Synopsis:   The annoyingly handsome hockey captain glaring at me needs my help. He won’t admit that, of course. But with his teammate’s gone for the summer and him fresh off a season-ending injury, someone has to keep him in check and it’s not the nurses he keeps running off. I’m having one last summer of fun before I move away to start my first grown-up job, and I seem to be the only woman on the planet immune to his charm. Sure, I’ve noticed his chiseled jaw and sculpted muscles (Did I mention he’s annoyingly handsome?), but I have too much self-preservation to fall for a grumpy hockey star who can have any woman he wants and doesn’t do serious relationships. Except once he lets me help him, I see past his broody exterior and jerk comments and I realize something terrible. I want him. Now I just need to convince him to throw out all his rules for a fling with his teammate’s little sister.     Review:   Forever Wild is the perfect conclusion to the ...

      Synopsis:   Never back a wallflower into a corner.   Shunted aside, Eveline watched her younger sisters find love and marry. Disheartened by her situation, she relocates, inventing a new persona and snagging the attention of Levi Overton, Duke of Lennox, whose amorous pursuit leaves her head spinning. However, Eveline's past followed her to Wiltshire…and it wants revenge. With the truth of her identity hovering on the tongue of a woman who lost three suitors to Eveline's sisters, Eveline struggles to maintain her silence while the lady unleashes a barrage of rumors designed to destroy Eveline's reputation. Faced with revealing her past or fading into the shadows as a permanent spinster, Eveline must determine if she's courageous enough to allow Levi to love her true self. That is, if he forgives her for lying…   Review:    When five dukes make a bet to never fall in love or they'll pay a large amount of money to the winning bac...

        Synopsis:   He’s a hot, grumpy, reclusive vampire, and the last thing he wants is an interfering human tidying his castle…until her . Lord Alaric Valerian has a problem. His mother is visiting his castle for the first time, but she doesn’t know that Alaric has filled every room with his centuries of artistic passions and creative pursuits. Desperate, he hires professional organiser Winnie Preston to help him tame the mess. But Alaric isn’t prepared for bubbly, passionate Winnie to show up at his castle and ram a metaphorical stake through his cold, vampire heart. Winnie sets his fangs on edge, but the more closely he works with her, the more he wishes she could be his. So when Alaric’s mother arrives with a new bride-to-be in tow, Alaric convinces Winnie to pretend to be his fiance. He may be causing all kinds of scandal in the vampire court by being engaged to a human, but at least he doesn’t have to give up his reclusive life. But Winnie st...

      Synopsis:   As the nights draw in, gingerbread lattes and festive hot chocolates are on the menu, and the Little Duck Pond Café girls are gearing up for the cosiest time of the year. But one popular customer, Laurel, just wishes she could sleep through the whole jolly affair! It might be October, but she's still haunted by the events of last Christmas. Could a new start in Sunnybrook help to heal her heart?   Review:      Cosy Nights & Snowball Fights is another beautiful book which was a quick, pleasant, but still quite emotional. Laurel ran to Sunnybrook when she found her fiancè betrayal, and living in the same small village risking to meet him became impossible. Will she forget her painful past in order to make a new life with the help of the Little Duck Pond Café ladies? I liked to discover Laurel little by little. She has had a hard start at life but she never gave up, and she got up again and again. I was really glad ...

        Synopsis:   The Highlander’s choice: Protect her or his clan? Every family has secrets. Kenna Hay’s? The mother who abandoned her is alive! Now Kenna must journey across Scotland to find her. After years of lies, she’s determined to keep Rolf Cameron, who’s tasked with escorting her, at arm’s length…despite their unexpected connection. Highlander Rolf swore to Kenna’s father he’d keep her safe. Even though his own quest to uncover his family’s past could put both their clans in danger… But what’s more dangerous is the all-consuming attraction between them, which is becoming impossible to ignore!     Review:    A Highlander To Protect Her tells Rolf Cameron and Kenna Hay story. They embark on a journey, they have different motivations but the same goal, to reaveal old secrets that could change the peaceful future of the Highland. We are at the end of the Secrets of Clan Cameron trilogy, I've mixed feelings about it becaus...