Review: SWEPT OFF HER FEET by Hester Browne *****

The steps of a charmingly complex dance—Scotland’s famous reel—are at the heart of Hester Browne’s enchanting contemporary novel of two very different sisters whose dreams may come true at a romantic Scottish ball.

Evie Nicholson is in love . . . with the past. An antiques appraiser in a London shop, Evie spins fanciful attachments to Victorian picture frames, French champagne glasses, satin evening gloves, and tattered teddy bears—regardless of their monetary value.

Alice Nicholson is in love . . . with Fraser Graham, a dashing Scotsman whom Evie secretly desires. As crisply neat and stylish as Evie is cheerfully cluttered, Alice is a professional organizer determined to pull her sister out of her comfort zone—and who presents her with an irresistible offer.

As a favor to friends of Fraser’s family, Evie jumps at the chance to appraise a Scottish castle full of artifacts and heirlooms. What could be more thrilling than roaming the halls of Kettlesheer and uncovering the McAndrews’ family treasures—and dusty secrets?

But crossing paths with moody heir Robert McAndrew has Evie assessing what she wants the most . . . and at an upcoming candlelight gala, a traditional dance will set her heart reeling.

Last year, I read my first Hester Browne book, The Finishing Touches, and I absolutely loved it! That's why I was over the moon when I heard about Hester's 2011 book Swept Off Her Feet, which sounded fantastic too and I rushed to read it as soon as I could since I knew I was in for a treat!

If I had to sum up the book in one word, it would be: romantic. A stately home, snow, dashing men, secret compartments, a love story from the past, an upcoming ball - what's not to love? I'm not an overly romantic girl myself, but I happily allowed myself to see the world through Evie's eyes, where romance is everywhere and I have to admit I found it quite enjoyable. She's an antique appraiser so it's a dream come true for her when she's invited to find to the Kettlesheer castle in Scotland to help its residents find something valuable that they could sell in order to cover the massive bills. Though she's supposed to be working, she also has plenty of opportunities to daydream and she even gets the chance to learn the Scottish reels herself, which results in several hilarious situations since Evie is meant to be the clumsiest person ever, haha.

I just loved getting lost in the snowcovered Kettlesheer - I thought there was just something magical about it. I was rooting for Evie to find something valuable (goodness knows that proved to be more difficult than it seemed at first) and to find some romance of her own. I'm not telling if she did or not, but the chemistry between her and a certain dashing male character was certainly off the hook! I also loved reading about the Scottish reels, which took me by surprise. I admit I wasn't too familiar with them before, but since Evie's lessons were described in so much detail, I decided to look up of videos of the particular reels (Hamilton House, The Eightsome, 51st Division) so I could picture them more easily, and surprisingly I found the far more fun and endearing than I thought I would! I'll attach one of the many videos below so you can see how adorable these dances are!

All in all, like I said, what's not to love? The plot was wonderfully romantic, the characters were a bit quirky and positively lovely, plus there was several lough-out-loud scenes. I loved the setting itself and the little twists & turns. I'll admit a few coincidences were perhaps a tad too coincidental (certain things are discovered just in the nick of time), but I wasn't too bothered by that at all since to book was just such a delight to read!

Yes, this is a very fluffy read, but luckily not in the way that would make you roll your eyes, but more in a way that will leave you feeling all warm & fuzzy inside and you'll close the book with a smile on your face. Sometimes it just feels goooooooood to read books that take you away from the stress of everyday life, am I right? Well, if you need a bit of romance in your life or some cheering up, then give this book a try - you'll love it!

overall rating:
plot: 4/5 | writing: 5/5 | characters: 5/5 | cover: 4/5

Review: THE FINISHING TOUCHES by Hester Browne *****

Every girl should know what the finishing touches are.
That dash of gloss on the cheekbones to lift your complexion.
High heels for poise, and a luscious lipstick for the perfect pout.
It’s the spritz of perfume on the pulse points and the...
....ability to stand on your own two feet?

When 21st century girl Betsy is called in to rescue an exclusive finishing school from financial ruin, she knows she must change the school drastically, if it’s ever to survive.
So it’s out with debutante decorum and in with modern manners and man-management.
But before she can teach the girls how to walk in high heels, Betsy may just have to remember how to wear them herself.
With the added bonus that her gorgeous friend Jamie and the surprisingly hunky bursar Mark both seem to rather approve of her new stilettos...

When I started reading this book, I had absolutely no idea what 'finishing schools' are about (in my defence, I'm not from the UK and this concept doesn't exist in my country) and when I learned about them in the book, the feminist in me was so enraged that I honestly nearly gave up on the book after like 50 pages - I just couldn't handle reading about a finishing school in the modern times ... But then I figured I might as well try reading some more and see what happens - about 50 pages later, I started loving this book so much that I just didn't want to put it down and ended up totally loving it!

The story opens on 21 July 1981, when a baby is found in a marmelade box in front of the Tallimore Academy, an exclusive finishing school in London. The baby is brought to Lady Frances Tallimore, whose husband owns the school, and she names her Betsy and she's determined to give her the best upbringing possible.
The next chapters opens 27 years later at the funeral of Lady Frances. We learn that Betsy grew up at Tallimore Academy, but wasn't 'allowed' to take classes with the other girls, which hurt her so much that she moved to Scotland and completely turned her life around.
After the funeral, Lord Tallimore tells Betsy that the academy has gone through some rough times and he asks her to have a look around and maybe propose some changes - he thinks Betsy is a management consultant when in fact she manages a shoe shop.
Nonetheless, Betsy takes up the challenge. She moves in with her best friend Liv and comes up with some great ideas on how to bring the Academy more up to date and start some new classes that might appeal more to the modern girls - she thinks it's time to ditch Table Etiquette and Literary Appreciation, and instead she decides to bring in classes on how to deal with money, look good in photos, park properly, wear the right things, walk in heels and a whole lot of other practicall skills that a modern woman needs to know.
There are a few twists and turns and I'm sure you can smell a love story from a mile away, but that's roughly it without giving too much away.
Oh and there's also the sub-plot of Betsy searching for her birth mother, which was quite touching and it didn't end quite like what I expected - which is a good thing, because I had a far more corny ending in mind, heh.

I'll admit I wasn't blown away by the plot as such, but what really made this book were the characters and the writing. Betsy wasn't really the most exciting character, but others certainly made up for it! This book had me hooked as soon as I 'met' the current pupils of the Academy - this quote sums them up quite well (p. 151):
[Jamie] pretended to rub his hands like a Victorian maiden-abductor. 'Tell me more. What delicious young debutantes are currently being finished?'
'Well, at the moment, there's Clementine the Goth, Divinity the footballer's daughter, Anastasia the Russian squillionaireness and Venetia, the ...'
I wasn't sure how to describe Venetia. I suddenly realised I didn't know much about her at all, other than that she had her hair extensions done at Richard Ward and that she didn't carry cash.
'The trainee Bond girl,' I finished.
As soon as I was acquited with this lovely bunch, I knew I was in for a fun ride, haha.
Honestly, most of the characters were absolutely adorable - I loved Liv, Jamie, Mark, Lord Tallimore and others, what a fantastic set!

As I mentioned before, the writing was also brilliant - beautiful and oh so witty, especially the dialogue had me cracking up all over the place! This was the first book I've read by Ms Browne, but it certainly won't be the last!

All in all, in my humble opinion, this is chicklit at its best and I had SO much fun reading the book! The story and the characters and the writing just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy and you'll just want to hug this book as it's just too damn adorable for words. If you don't believe me, you can certainly trust Sophie Kinsella, the queen of romcoms, who blurbed it saying, 'What a delicious, entertaining book. I loved it!' - I couldn't have said it better myself!

overall rating:
plot: 4/5 | writing: 5/5 | characters: 5/5 | cover: 4/5

In My Mailbox #43 + A new book blog introduction!

Before I reveal which books I got this week, I want to invite you all to check out a new book blog on the block - it's called This Miss Loves to Read and the girl behind it is my friend from Uni/college, a fellow bookworm. :) She's now the first and only book blogger I know in real life (not surprising since she and I live pretty much in the Middle of Nowhere) and she's one of the few people I can discuss books with in real life. Then I got myself this blog and I started telling her how amazing the book blogosphere is and totally nagging her about how she should start her own book blog too since she reads a lot - and she finally did, yay!
So do go visit and follow her - she's already posted a whole bunch of awesome reviews, ranging from YA to paranormal to historical to classics and so much more (Twilight Saga, Fallen, The Book Thief, The Musician's Daughter, Wuthering Heights, The Luxe, The Collector, The Phantom of the Opera etc.)
I think her comments aren't working properly at the moment, but I'm sure she'll fix that soon. You can still follow her blog (she just got herself a pretty new layout, yay) or on Twitter. :)

Anyway, moving on to IMM! I'm happy to say that I've had an amazing book week, woohoo!

Firstly, here are the books I got for review:

• THE CASTAWAYS by Elin Hilderbrand - Another surprise from Hodder! I haven't heard of this before, but it sounds and looks good, and rather intriguing too!
• PIECES OF SKY by Kiki Warner - I've been waiting for this one for quite a while. It's actually a western (as in cowboys etc.) romance story, quite unlike everything I've read before so I can't wait to see what I think of it.
• A RELUCTANT CINDERELLA by Alison Bond - Yaaaaay, I've been looking forward to this one for ages and I even did a WOW post on it months ago! I was so happy when it arrived and I cannot wait to read it!

I also bought a few books (shocking, innit :p):

• HEART OF THE MATTER by Emily Giffin - I pre-ordered it a while ago and it arrived pretty much on the release date, heh. I've read two other books by Emily Giffin (Baby Proof & Love the One You're With) and loved them so I'm expecting great things from this one too! I've read the first chapter and it was fantastic, I'd totally read the whole thing in one sitting if I had the time, which I sadly really don't, argh!
• THE FINISHING TOUCHES by Hester Browne - Other chick lit blogs have been buzzing about this book for months and I just couldn't resist it, it's too cute!
• NO GREATER LOVE by Danielle Steel - This one was recommended to me by the awesome Juju @ Tales of Whimsy since we both enjoy Titanic-related books. I ordered it straight away - thanks for the rec, Juju! :)
• INFINITY by Sarah Dessen -This little book thingy is a major RIP OFF! The description online is really vague and since it's only about 100 pages long, I thought it was a novella or something, cool. Imagine my surprise when this book arrived and I opened it and I saw that it contains a short story called Infinity (30 pages) and then two excerpts, one from Just Listen and the other from That Summer, each 30 pages long with huge font and like double spacing. If I hadn't pre-ordered it for like 2 €, I would totally demand my money back. I mean, who wants excerpts in a book?! No one, especially not for 3.99 GBP! Just thought I'd warn anyone who might be considering getting this book. ;)

Right, that's it from me - can't wait to see what you all got!
Have a great weekend, everyone! :)

ps: Don't forget, there are only a few hours left to enter my contest to win a copy of Spotlight or The Making of Mia by Ilana Fox!