Kismetology - Jaimie Admans

‘Mac here knows her stuff when it comes to kismetology.’

This enjoyable contemporary novel deals with matters of the heart in an entertaining and humourous way. Mackenzie Atkinson moved three doors down the road from her mother Eleanor’s house to live with her partner Dan. As she might perhaps have suspected, this has resulted in her mother being a regular visitor to her home, made a problem by the fact that her mother doesn't hesitate to interfere in all aspects of Mackenzie's life, in particular her love life, and often comments, usually unfavourably, about Dan, even if he is in the same room! Mackenzie decides that what would help an awful lot is if her mother were less lonely and had her own romantic interest, and she sets out to help her find a perfect match.

The twist comes in that, rather than send her mother out into the world on blind dates with complete strangers, Mackenzie decides that she will do the advertising and sourcing of potential suitors and that she will even meet any prospective partners before her mother does and vet them first, only lining up dates with her mother if the men are up to scratch. Cue many episodes of Mackenzie meeting often very unsuitable and sometimes downright awful candidates! Finding a balanced, mature gentleman proves much more difficult than first anticipated. The story kept me engaged as I wondered who, if anyone, Mackenzie's mother would like, and whether Mackenzie's own love life would survive the whole experience intact too.

I really enjoyed this romantic, funny novel, and the storytelling and the editing impressed me. Mackenzie has a likeable personality and is an engaging lead character who carries the story throughout. Her reactions to the various different men she meets on the dates are brilliant. As well as trying to help her mother, Mackenzie begins to consider her own situation and wonders if she could improve it, in particular in terms of work but also love. Eleanor is an interesting character, usually accompanied by pampered pooch Baby. Despite the antagonism between mother and daughter at times, it comes across that Mackenzie genuinely cares about her mother and wants to see her happy. The only small thing I would mention is that sometimes the thing that Mackenzie had made her mind up to do was repeated several times in her thoughts; I think this was just to reiterate her determination to do what she had planned, but occasionally I thought the idea had been described and didn't need repeating again, or arguing about with Dan again. 

I thought this was a light, entertaining and funny read and many will sympathise with Mackenzie's situation. I looked forward to reading a bit more every time I picked up my ereader and the story always kept me interested and often made me smile. Jaimie Admans writes really well and with heart about love, relationships and families and has crafted a promising debut novel. Also I think the book cover is really pretty and attractive. 

Thanks very much to the author for kindly sending an ebook copy of this novel for me to read and give an honest review. 

You can find the author on twitter @be_the_spark and visit her website here.

With All My Love - Patricia Scanlan - guest review

Briony and her young daughter Katie are helping her mother Valerie settle into her new home in Spain. Valerie has moved there to try and find peace in her ageing years after suffering much heartache as a young woman. While sorting through things Briony uncovers an old photo album and a letter falls out addressed to her, it is from her paternal grandmother Tessa begging her to get in touch when she is an adult. She has fond memories of her grandmother and is devastated to discover Valerie has denied her a vital part of her childhood. Briony in anger vows never to speak to her mother again and begins to source flights home.

Valerie wants to explain to her daughter what led to this bitter separation and begins to question her judgement all those years ago. But will Briony listen or even understand? This is a novel that deals with the complex relationships often found in families.

The book is written in a way that draws you in making you feel like you are right there with them, in fact while memories were being explored and when we are brought back to the present I found myself shocked at how deeply I felt involved . The chapters dealing with the present are short and to the point whilst those delving into the past are more descriptive and explain each of the cleverly woven together characters and their impact on each other.The characters that stood out for me were in fact not the central ones but Lorcan (Tessa's husband) and Lizzie (Valerie's best friend) who both remained the voice of reason throughout the story.

There were scenes that I personally could identify with and the emotion the words carried actually brought a tear to my eye at times showing how well researched these parts were.

I found the fact that the prologue covered an event from the middle of the book a refreshing change and the epilogue left me feeling warm and reiterating my personal beliefs.

This is a novel to take your time with and to savour every single word and moment. Another hit from this author!

Reviewed by Fiona Keegan - guest reviewer

Many thanks to Fiona for reading and reviewing this novel for The Little Reader Library. Fiona is a nurse, mum and grandma who enjoys reading when she has a spare moment !

Published by Simon and Schuster

Thanks to the publisher for kindly offering a proof copy of this novel at their blogger event.