Review | The Last Piece of my Heart ~ Paige Toon

The Last Piece of my Heart

Paige Toon

May 2017

Simon & Schuster

Rating 5/5

Kindle | Paperback

               

When life feels like a puzzle, sometimes it's the small pieces that make up the bigger picture... Join Bridget on a journey to put her world back together.

A successful travel journalist, Bridget has ambitions to turn her quirky relationship blog about the missing pieces of her heart into a book. But after a spate of rejections from publishers, she accepts an alternative proposition...

Nicole Dupré died leaving behind a bestselling novel and an incomplete sequel. Tasked with finishing the book, Bridget is thankful to have her foot in the publishing door, even if it means relocating to Cornwall for the summer and answering to Nicole's grieving husband, Charlie...

               

Ive been a massive Paige Toon fan since I first read Thirteen Weddings - which is where I was first introduced to Bridget ( although I believe she can also be found in The Longest Holiday), and I was super excited when I heard that Paige's latest book, The Last Piece of my Heart, would be focused on Bridget and her story - and this book certainly did not disappoint!

Paige has a brilliant way of writing that makes you instantly fall for the characters, as soon as I heart Bridget's occupation as a travel blogger, I was immediately gripped and slightly jealous!!

The Last Piece of my Heart starts off with Bridget in Australia where she bumps in to Elliot, her first love and the first person to steal a piece of her heart. Bridget has this cool idea of wanting to write her own novel about all the ex-boyfriends shes had who have stolen bits of her heart, and plans, to ask them for it back so that she has a complete and whole again heart, ready for her life with Elliot.

However, now back in the UK, Bridget is struggling to get a publishing deal for her book idea when her agent offers her a job as a ghost writer for a sequel to a best selling novel by author Nicki Dupre.

Sadly Nicki passed away before putting pen to paper for book 2, and after reading a copy of the first book, Bridget travels to picturesque Cornwall to meet with Nicki's widow and young daughter - Charlie and April respectively.

Getting the job, Bridget moves to Cornwall for the summer and not only spends the next few weeks sorting out the endless notes that Nicki has made but by also getting closer and closer to Charlie and further away from Elliot - I honestly love books where you can feel the characters falling for each other and this one is no exception - particularly the chapters set in Thailand where the pages literally oozed chemistry!

The Last Piece of my Heart is a wonderful story about love and loss, discovery and adventure. 

Its heartfelt and honest and was, quite simply, a joy to read.

One of the clever highlights for this book, is that effectively you are getting two stories for the price of one - theres Bridget and Charlie's story but there is also clips of Nicki's book and sequel along the way so you get to know that one too.

Although Thirteen Weddings will always hold a special place on my bookcase as the first book read by a new author often do, however I can honestly say that The Last Piece of my Heart is a serious contender for that top spot!

               

Review | The One We Fell In Love With ~ Paige Toon

The One We Fell In Love With

Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK

Date: 19th May 2016

Amazon UK

Waterstones

Phoebe is caught between a rock and a hard place. Settle down and get married, or return to the French Alps to pursue her passion?

Eliza is in love with someone who is no longer hers. In fact, he probably never was… And her dream of becoming a successful musician seems to be vanishing before her eyes.

Rose is out of a job and out of a boyfriend. To make matters worse, she’s been forced to move back in with her mother…

But these very different girls have one thing in common. Angus. 

The one they fell in love with…

Almost two years ago, I was introduced to Paige Toon with her novel Thirteen Weddings. I devoured that book in one sitting and firmly categorised Paige as a favourite author.

It was my mission to purchase and read her back catelogue and then I started to read and review books for my blog, and whilst I now have the previous books, my TBR is forever growing and I've get to get around to it - but I will!

I was very lucky to obtain an early copy of The One We Fell In Love With, which is Paige's 10th novel, when I attended the Spring Blogger Event back in March - thank you once again to SJV.

During the event, Paige did a reading from the book so opening the pages I had already been introduced to Phoebe, Rose and Eliza, albeit briefly and I was excited to read more of their story.

The three girls are identical triplets.

They all have the same blonde hair and green eyes.

The same body shape.

The same make up if you like.

Yet they tell you themselves at the very beginning that personality wise, they couldn't be more different.

Cue Angus - their new next door neighbour.

The one similarity all three girls have is that Angus is The One they all fall for.

Okay, I know this might sound a tad predictable. A typical love story if you will.

But the more I read, the more I was captivated within Paige's writing and the more I realised this was far from the usual romance novel.

This was a story that I did not see unfolding and now having finished it, I can see just how poignant the title is too.

Each of the chapters were told from the prospective of one of the girls, and memories are shared giving us a great insight to their upbringing, different characteristics and of course, informing us how they met Angus and the effect he had on them individually. Their individual chapters moved the story on to where they go from now in a very unique way.

I loved all three characters, but felt particularly pulled in Rose's direction. Whilst Phoebe told of her love of climbing and taking risks, and Eliza shared her passion for music and singing, Rose I was at a bit of a dead end and therefore I thoroughly enjoyed seeing her progress over the course of the book. Ultimately towards the end it was more about Rose that the other two sisters, and I would just love to know what happens next between her and Toby.

Toby, alongside Angus, is really the only other character in the book. When Rose is out of a job, she starts working alongside Toby at his families bakery. He was a fun role and really brought out a different side to Rose.

Angus then. 

It's very clear that he has an important role to play in each of the triplet's lives and it's also clear that he loves all three very much and the twists and turns along the way with each of the girls and him just shows how many different ways you can love someone and made the book enjoyable to read.

Paige Toon has a wonderful way of writing and story telling. The locations were so descriptive at times that I found myself looking up area's of The Alps that were mentioned as I was reading which just enforced the setting in my mind even more.

I loved Paige's way of telling the story from three angles too - it was very cleverly done and although as mentioned I've yet to read them all, I feel that this story is one of her best and will have readers hooked right from page one.

The One We Fell In Love With is one of those books that not only captivates you, but has you turning the pages before you've finished reading the first one, and made me feel a whole host of emotions - I smiled, I laughed, I cried.

It broke my heart several times but also mended it is such uplifting and warming ways.

Of course, this book wouldn't be a true Paige Toon book if it didn't have references to Australia or mention a character or two from a previous novel - I always have a slight 'coming home' feeling and find myself smiling when a character from the past pops up and it's always fun looking out for the character links and cameos! 

And no... I'm not revealing who!

Rating 5/5

Feature | Goodbye April ~ Hello May

Goodness, these weeks are flying by! I can't believe I'm on my second Goodbye ~

Hello post already.

To recap, this is wrap up post of the month just gone and a look at what I have coming up in the next month.

April has been a busy month personally, but book and blog wise I posted six reviews along with various My Book Corner features and a whole bunch of cover reveals and guest posts for blog tours.

Here are the books I've reviewed, please click on the images to read.

March saw Lozza's Book Corner take part in six blog tours covering a mixture of reviews, guest posts and Q&A's. I would also again like to thank Tracey Sinclair, Helena Sheffield, Laurie Ellingham, Victoria Walters and Isabelle Broom for taking part in the My Book Corner feature.

This feature has really taken off in the last month, as I put a pinned tweet up and I'm now scheduled up until the beginning of August with a host of bloggers and authors taking part!

It's been a good month for receiving books too. 

Thanks to some amazing publishers my TBR is never ending and the new titles added are:

eBooks

The Summer We Danced -Fiona Harper

An Autumn Affair & A Summer of Secrets - Both by Alice Ross

The Summer Flings Travel Club - Aimee Duffy

Something Old, Something New - Darcie Boleyn

Summer at the Cornish Cafe - Phillipa Ashley

The Secret of Orchard Cottage - Alex Brown

Cupcakes and Confetti - Jane Linfoot

Paperbacks

The Assistants - Camille Perri

Martini Henry - Sara Crow

Mad Girl -Bryony Gordon

And finally, March saw the blog have a little makeover. 

I'm one of these that are never happy until it's just right and can now say that I love the new header, ratings image and signature to sign my post's off with. I now just need to decide whether to keep the floral background or revert to one that's not so busy - please let me know your thoughts as you are the ones that read the blog after all!

Moving on to the month ahead then..

As a general rule, I love May. I love seeing the blossom on the blossom on the trees and the feeling that the weather is starting to get warmer, but it's also a bitter sweet month for me too.

It's my birthday month and my late Nan's birthday is the day after mine. We always used to have lunch together and then enjoy tea and cake - she was the only other person I knew that put the milk in first and had her tea milky so it was out treat to have together without the rest of the family passing comment!

I'm not sure what I am doing for my actual birthday yet (other than working...boo!) but I am hoping to go away the weekend after to spend some time with my nieces and nephew.

I've kept the diary fairly empty for this month. I'm on a few blog tours and have a couple of cover reveals planned but I'm concentrating on attacking the TBR throughout May.

As well as the books mentioned in the above TBR list, the following three are right at the top!

The One We Fell In Love With - Paige Toon

Always With Love - Giovanna Fletcher

Lovers and Liars - Nigel May

Wishing you all a fabulous month of reading!

Feature | Spring Blogger Evening

Well... not only have I realised that today is my blog's first birthday - I thought that I started blogging in April 2015 but nope, thanks to that marvellous memories feature on a certain social media site, it's today!

Happy Birthday to me - I've a flash give away on my twitter and facebook pages today for you (UK/IRE only)

Anyway, back to this post...

Back in January I had an email from Sara-Jade Virtue (SJ) of Books and the City inviting me to Simon & Schuster HQ for their Spring Blogger Event.

I'm a massive fan of Paige Toon and I didn't even look at the date of the event or even thing about getting time off work... I saw her name and RSVP's with a massive yes!

So yesterday I set off to London ahead of the event. I usually love reading on the train - an hour and a half with no interruptions is pure bliss, however the train was awful. I can only describe it as being in a sauna on a merry-go-round... yuk!

Once there I met up with the lovely Sharon from Shaz's Book Blog, we met at Waterloo and headed over to Kings Cross and killed some time in Costa, the pub and talking about... books! Bet you wouldn't have guessed that one eh? My first book of the day came from Sharon who very kindly gave me a spare copy of a books and very naughtily treated me to some goodies too - thank you again Sharon!

We made our way over to the S&S building and met with other bloggers before being moved upstairs where we were greeted by SJ herself and given our name badges before being left to mingle and grab a drink..

Shortly after we moved rooms where SJ gave us a warm welcome and introduced us to S&S Editorial Director Clare Hay who then went to introduce us to the authors for the evening - Juliet Ashton, Holly Hepburn, Penny Parkes and of course Paige Toon.

We were treated to a reading by each author of their new books, followed by a Q&A which featured romance, love, friendship... and men ;-)

It was lovely hearing about each of their books, all of which sound glorious reads and I'm finding it fairly difficult to choose which one to start with!!

The evening was then wrapped up with us having cupcakes and fizz, plus collecting our goody bags and getting books signed.

The goody bags are amazing and include copies of the four authors books - plus a three chapter preview from Georgia Clark who had flown in especially for the event. There were also plenty of books available for us to take should we wish too.

Thank you SJ, Clare and all at BATC/S&S for a fabulous evening.

Lucy In The Sky by Paige Toon

The Review for Lucy In The Sky is by guest reviewer, Nicole.






                                               

A Lawyer.
A Surfer.
A 24- Hour Flight.

The frequent liar points are clocking up and Lucy's got choices to make...

It's been nine years since Lucy left Australia. Nine years since she's seen her best friend Molly, and Sam, the one-time love of her life. Now her two friends are getting married. To each other. And Lucy is on her way to Sydney for their wedding.

Life for Lucy has moved on. She's happily settled with James, her gorgeous lawyer boyfriend, with their flat in London and her glamorous job in PR. Surely there's no reason to expect this two-week holiday in the sun will be anything out of the ordinary?

But just before take-off, Lucy receives a text from James's mobile. She can't resist taking a look....and, in one push of a button, her world comes crashing down...

This is the first novel written by Paige Toon, after reading others by her and how her characters interlink I thought I would give this a try. I don't want to give away too much from the book but I thought it would be predictable and boy was I wrong.

Lucy has all she ever wanted and when she receives a message which indicates that James is having an affair from his phone, her world comes crashing down. He denies this and puts her at ease so that she can enjoy the wedding.

The book exposes Lucy's emotions and vulnerability, after seeing past friends from her childhood seeing them so happy. One friend, Nathan, Sam's brother catches her eye, he has changed so much since their childhood. They build a great friendship. I loved how the friendship progresses through this book. Lucy then questions her feelings for her boyfriend and wonders if he is actually telling the truth.

Lucy in the Sky is one of my favourite books that Paige has written, you will be gripped from the getgo, the twists and turns will make you not want to put the book down. Loved the last couple of chapters too, Sassiness at its best!! 5 stars all the way....

The Longest Holiday by Paige Toon

The Longest Holiday review is brought to you by Guest Reviewer Samantha.

"Don't wait for the storm to pass; learn to dance in the rain..."

"Laura has been married to the man of her dreams for seven months. But a week before the wedding, Matthew made a terrible mistake.

Escaping the humiliation that is now her marriage, Laura is whisked off to Florida's Key West by her best friend Marty. A carefree holiday full of cocktails and fun, surrounded by gorgeous, tanned men, is exactly what the doctor ordered.

Distraction comes in the form of sexy Cuban scuba diver Leo. Laura's instant attraction to him knocks her flying, and she falls hard.

As the end of the holiday approaches, Laura doesn't want to go home. Is it time to face the music? Or is there more to Key West than a holiday Romance?"


Having read Chasing Daisy after a friend recommended it to me, I fell in love with Paige Toon's books. You immediately become gripped and want to read on. This book didn't disappoint either.

Laura is just like many other people in this world. She has been cheated on and she wants to escape from her husband. She places herself in the happiest place that she could be but with more and more drama  unfolding throughout the book is it this really the best decision? The way that you can relate to the characters such as Laura is just what makes the book so good because she does what a lot of people would want to do.

I loved the way that Paige keeps the action going right up until the end where you are thrown into a different perspective and shown another side of what is going on. Laura and Leo are like children who are playing love chase and they really are sweethearts. 

This is one of the best books I have ever read and I want to keep reading the books by Paige. I will definitely be looking to get hold of some of the others and I may just have to re read this one in the mean time.

Witness Laura's love affair and follow her as she experiences events which can change her life forever.

Author Spotlight ~ Paige Toon

Paige Toon came into my life back last year when I first read Thirteen Weddings. I've since discovered she is a well loved author within my circle of friends, with many of us reading her various books. Safe to say, she's everyone's favourite author!

Many of her books are set in the UK and OZ and I can only guess this is due to the fact that Paige grew up between England, Australia and America, she currently resides in Cambridge with her family.


The first book Paige had published was Lucy In The Sky back in 2007, and her latest published just a few weeks ago, The Sun In Her Eyes, which you can read my review of here.

Most of Paige's books are stand alone reads, apart from Johnnys Girl which is a short Ebook sequel to Baby Be Mine which also happens to be a full length sequel to Johnny Be Good.
One Perfect Christmas is also a short sequel to One Perfect Summer.

One of the things I think makes Paige stand out from other authors is her character links and The Hidden Paige.

Character links.... I don't want to give too many examples of this as I think it's enjoyable as the reader to discover them for themselves, however I will give one for you.
In Thirteen Weddings, Alex has an on/off fiancée, Zara. In The Sun In Her Eyes, Zara again appears with a cameo role as Ned's boss.
From my research on Paige, in nearly, if not all of her books there are small cameos from characters you will have already heard and read about.... One article I read when looking into the links, referred to Paige having a complete character world called ToonVille!,
The picture below will also show the links should you wish to study it!

The Hidden Paige is something else I've only just discovered. Most authors have a section on their website where you can subscribe to their newsletter, The Hidden Paige is just that, however is cleverly titled as occasionally Paige will include short stories or additional chapters of a book from another characters perspectives along with news and competitions. Sign up to THP here which is also the link to her website.

Paige Toon, in my opinion is a fab author. Her books that I've read have excellent and strong story lines, how she manages to cram so much into one book without confusing the reader is genius.
Her characters, mostly as Zara who I've previously mentioned is a nightmare, are loveable and you feel like you know them within a chapter or two.

If you've not yet ventured to reading one of Paige's books then I strongly suggest you add it to your list, I don think you will be at all disappointed.

Keep up to date with Paige Toon,
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PaigeToonAuthor
Twitter - @PaigeToonAuthor

       Photos used are copyright to Paige Toon via her website or shared publicly online.

The Sun In Her Eyes by Paige Toon

Blinding sunshine. ... A bend in the road. ..
What became of the little girl with the sun in her eyes?

Amber was three when a car crash stole her mother's life. She doesn't remember the accident, but a stranger at the scene has been unable to forget.  Now almost thirty years later, she's trying to track Amber down.

Amber, meanwhile,  is married to Ned and living on the other side of the world in London. When her father has a stroke she flies straight home to Australia to be with him.
Away from her husband, Amber finds comfort in her oldest friends, but her feelings for Ethan, the gorgeous, green eyed man she once fell for, have never been platonic.

As Ethan and Amber grow closer, married life in London feels very far away. Then Amber receives a letter that changes everything.

"Before your Mother died, she asked me to tell you something...."

"The perfect summer read" ~ Heat

I'm going to start with saying that despite this book reducing me to tears, I absolutely loved it!

I'm aware that Paige Toon has a few  novels out there, I first became aware of her when I read Thirteen Weddings last year.

I love Paige Toons writing style, The Sun In Her Eyes is set between rainy London and sunny Oz... having done some research on the author I discovered that most, if not all, of her books are based in these two countries and that stems from her personal up bringing.

I've also discovered that within Paige Toons books some of her characters cross reference. .. for example, in this book, Neds colleague, Zara, also features in Thirteen Weddings -based on this alone I've vowed to revisit all of her books to see how other characters make cameos! Very clever and something I've not known other authors to achieve.

The first half of The Sun In Her Eyes was an easy read...

Amber is married to Ned, she left her job as a teacher for something with  higher pay but is soon made redundant. Their marriage is rocky, Amber is convinced that Zara is after her hubby and if you've read the previous book with this character you can understand why!
No sooner as she loses her job, her father has a stroke... perfect timing but thats the beauty of the book world eh?!
Amber flies to Australia to help care for her dad and help with his recovery, despite the lack of bond she has with his partner.

To escape Liz's ways, Amber relies on her fiends and drunken nights out... its almost as if she is reliving her youth now she's home. Then Ethan arrives.
Amber last saw him at her wedding and even though she committed to Ned, Ethan always has a piece of her heart and when she accidentally let's slip she loves him they become close... too close!

Neither Amber's relationship with her husband or her lover are easy ones and each have their problems but then Amber gets another distraction when a letter comes from the lady who was there when her mother died in a car accident. Doris claims to have a message from Amber's mum and they arrange to meet up... that's not all that Amber has on her mind though.

The second half of the book for me was much harder to read.
This has nothing to do with the way it's written but more with the fact that Amber reveals her and Ned had a miscarriage the year before and Amber partly blames herself for this as she had a fall shortly before her loss - Paige Toon wrote this storyline tastefully however, personally I related to Amber on another level as I've been in this situation.

For a couple of chapters I picked the book up and put it's down again numerous times and eventually got past that section and continued with the story... which I have to say had a fab ending.

Amber received her mother's dying message via Doris and got her marriage back on track. .. she even started to make amends with Liz who was about to become a permanent fixture in her fathers life.

Many reviews on The Sun In Her Eyes I've seen state how Amber came across as someone proud of her affair and relished in her childish ways with her step mum, in my view I just saw a woman that had something missing in her life. She never really knew what it was, never really knew what path to take. But that letter changed everything and although a simple message, one that you'd expect from a dying parent, was given, I felt it made Amber the character she was.

Despite my personal difficulties with this story, I wouldn't hesitate to pass the boon on to my friends as I'd thoroughly recommend it.

I'm off to find my next Paige Toon book ;)