The Ice Cream Girls was my first ever introduction to Koomson’s writing – my good friend Kim lent me the book, after she rated it her favourite read of the year in 2011. I was a bit doubtful by the name & the pastel cover of the book thinking it would be chick-lit nonsense (!) but, A) never judge a book by it’s cover B) have a little faith in your friends’ taste.

I was immediately hooked with The Ice Cream girls – I thought I had reviewed it on my blog, but it must’ve been during one of my bouts of absence that I read it. However – highly recommended, I was reminded how much I loved the book while watching the TV series & watching the story unfold.

I have since read some other books by Koomson (all lent by Kim!)

The Chocolate Run – reviewed here: http://nicsnotebook.com/2012/07/06/june-books/ – probably my least favourite of her books, I gave it 3/5.

My Best Friend’s Girl – reviewed here: http://nicsnotebook.com/2012/06/16/may-books/ – another winner, I gave it 4/5 and it was my “book of the month in May 2012″.

The Woman He Loved Before – I have read this one but again missed the review of it I remember it was fab though, and I award it 4/5.

BUT my absolute favourite of her books is The Rose Petal Beach (her most recent book). There was a lot in this book that relates to my personal situation at the minute and I found it very encouraging and strengthening. I loved the book even before the main part of the story (the murder bit) kicked in! I would definitely have to give this book 4.5/5 (not the full 5 as there was one character that I wanted to know more about what happened to her at the end!).

The magic thing about Koomson’s books is that they all have a deeper underlying theme, they are not just fluff & nonsense. Thrillers for females is maybe a good way to describe them..? I love my thriller books but sometimes the language and excessive violence puts me off. Koomson’s books are a great compromise. Her characters are always fabulous as well – you really get involved in each story and feel you know the characters.

I am shocked to discover that there are more of her books that I haven’t read (agghhhh!) – must remedy this soon!

Are any of you fans of Dorothy Koomson’s books? Or have you been persuaded to read some now after reading this? (yes, you must!)

I made some healthy banana/oat/honey/nut/cranberry flapjacks yesterday afternoon, so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to eat 2 more for breakfast! I have been trying to make better food choices recently but sometimes you just crave something sweet and tasty. Here I would normally have cake/chocolate but they always give me a real sugary high followed by a massive sugar low – so I searched online for a healthier alternative.

I came across THESE on Oh She Glows, and my bars are an adaptation from her recipe.

I used:

2 very black over-ripe bananas (mashed with a fork)

1/4 cup milk (ahhhh – just realised I used the nasty milk in these too… )

1 tbsp linseed, pumpkinseed, gojiberry mix (from Aldi)

1/4 cup coconut oil (melted)

dash vanilla extract

1/2 cup dessicated coconut

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1.5 cups oats

1/2 cup brown sugar

dash manuka honey

1/4 cup wholemeal flour

1/2 tsp cinammon

1/2 tsp baking powder

handful chopped walnuts

* Preheat oven to 170deg C

* In a bowl, mix the sugar, coconut oil, milk, vanilla & linseed – whisk.

* Add the mashed bananas to the mix and also stir in the cranberries & walnuts.

* In another bowl – mix all dry ingredients.

* Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients & mix well.

* Add mix to a lined brownie tin or similar – press down firmly.

* Bake for 35-40 min until golden brown on top.

* Leave to cool in tin for 10 min then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

* Cut & enjoy!

Very yummy & relatively healthy too! Result

Sooo – I discovered Patricia from Fancy Girls Designs and fell in love with her work. Her style is pretty, girlie and quite simple – just like mine! Patricia designed this fab new theme for me and I love it! Thank you so much Patricia, and thanks for putting up with my little-to-no technical knowledge!

Hopefully I will be posting more frequently now!

Here are the pups to say hello – pulling silly faces on their new big dog bed!

x

I saw this book on a few “best reads of 2012″ lists and reserved it at the library. I have never read any of the Harry Potter books by the same author (nor have I seen this films). I didn’t even read the description of this book, I do that quite often – I just like to start reading and be surprised! I assumed by the title that this was a book about a hotel (vacancy!) but it isn’t at all. The story centred around the goings on of a small village where everyone knows everyone, council politics and class divisions. It was quite interesting, but I found myself thinking half way through that I wouldn’t really care if I stopped reading. I did, however continue to the end. 3/5

Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn

OMG I loved this! Exciting, tense and a bit disturbing – I couldn’t wait to finish it, but yet I didn’t want it to be over at the same time. A great thriller with a few good twists in the tale. We actually find out the “truth” about what is happening in the book about half way through. I thought this did spoil it a bit for me, but it was good to read the rest of the story then knowing what actually happened. Highly recommended. 4.5/5

Jubilee – Shelley Harris

Recommended by Bec on Goodreads so I thought I’d reserve it from the library. I’m sorry to say I really didn’t enjoy it. We are told at the start of the book that something awful happened all these years ago when a photograph of a street Jubilee party was taken, so I kept reading to find out what it was. It was so not worth it. Big let down. 2/5

Book of the month & of the year so far – Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn – I urge you to read it if you haven’t already! Any fab book recommendations for me?!

January will be an easy month to review as I only read 2 books! It took me 3 weeks to read the first, then just under a week to read the second!

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

I saw a review of this on Amelie’s House blog – it sounded different from anything I would normally read so I decided to give it a go. Plus I want to start reading more “classics”.

It was written in 1905 and is set in 1890′s New York, following the life of socialite Lily Bart. The language was a little difficult, but not as bad as I expected. The story itself was quite fascinating, although I did find myself getting a little lost with some of the characters (but maybe this was because I was so tired when I was reading a few pages each night?!).

I was intending to give it 3 stars, but once I had finished, I couldn’t stop thinking about the ending and about Lily (the main character) so for that reason I will give it 3.5! 3.5/5

The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen

Tess Gertisen is one of my all time favourite crime/thriller authors. I realised I hadn’t read anything from her in a while so hunted out the next book in the Rizzoli & Isles series in the library.

I find her writing so easy & comfortable to read and I was immediately drawn into the story. However, I found myself disliking one of the main characters for the first time ever which I thought was a little strange. The story was up to her usual standard, and kept me guessing. I was a little disappointed that the ending seemed very rushed, but other than that it was a good read. 4/5

What good books have you read lately? Oh, and looking back over my book reviews from 2012, it seems that my favourite book was The Hunger Games (first book!).

Well, we had our first proper snow fall yesterday – it was so pretty. I love the first day that the snow lies, it’s all so crunchy & fluffy – not so nice when it turns slushy & grey!

The pups had an absolute ball! It was Holly’s first “proper” snow as it didn’t snow much last year for her, but Chester was an old pro at it all.

Pretty Holly

Happy Chester

Snow Pups!

Crazy Holly!

I headed off for some winter sun in Lanzarote with my mum.

I turned 30!

Gary & I went on a lovely walking weekend in the Lake District with the pups and got amazing weather.

I set up my own bakery business – Holly’s Little Bakery.

I reached the finals of the Marie Claire Inspire & Mentor programme and got to travel to London to meet Martha Swift and Lisa Thomas from the Primrose Bakery.

I suffered from a really bad bout of depression mid-2012. It was not nice and at times suicide felt like the only option.

I made new friendships, strengthened others & let others fade.

I set up the Runcorn & Widnes Clandestine Cake Club.

I joined a church, in the hope to find some purpose & inner peace. It didn’t work.

I discovered that being a Christian doesn’t automatically make you a nice & perfect person – they have to work at it as much as the rest of us.

Big changes when Gary got a full-time job. After being together nearly 24/7 for 4 years this was a bit of a change, but not necessarily a bad one.

Holly & Chester turned 2!

Jess & Meg turned 6, and Jinx turned 5.

I went on a family trip to the Lake District for my mum’s 70thbirthday – and got to see my uncle (her brother) who lives in Sweden, and we rarely see.

I am ending the year feeling a lot more content and happy than I did all throughout the year. Plus, I’ve got a cake baking in the oven, so that always helps!

Here’s to 2013 & whatever lies in store Happy New Year’s Eve from me & all the animals…..

From top: Holly & Chester, Jess, Jinx then Meg x

I don’t think that dogs should miss out on birthday cakes so I rustled up one of my specialty peanut butter and carrot dog cakes for her! I think it’s safe to say both her & big brother Chester enjoyed it!

She decided that she wanted to go to the beach for her birthday treat (!) so we headed to New Brighton beach (after getting lost en route) and had a nice, very cold walk!

Happy Birthday Holly! xxx

PS - I’m sure you all know about my love of baking and my love of my pups – Soooo I have been running my own cake/cupcake/bakery business for a while now. And it is called “Holly’s Little Bakery” in honour of my little pup Holly! She really is my inspiration to make myself a better person and to live each day with renewed hope & to follow my dreams so that is why I wanted to have her name in my business!

You can follow Holly’s Little Bakery on Facebook HERE and on Twitter HERE! Would love to see some new followers. x