The frosty mornings have disappeared and in their place have been some truly awful days; I’m sitting here listening to the wind howling outside and the rain has been hammering on the windows for most of today. Weather like this is known as soggy doggy days in our house as the towels pile up for the wash after drying our two labradors.

This post will be a day late at yesterday was a full-on day for our family; our daughter, her husband and their two gorgeous children packed up the last of their worldly goods and set off to spend the night in a hotel nearer the airport ready to fly off at the crack of dawn on the first leg the journey to their new life in Japan. Our son-in-law is Japanese and our daughter has a fabulous job offer and, whilst we are fully supportive of their decision, we are going to miss them all so much! Our grandchildren are 5 and 10 and they have lived here for just over five years – it was so hard saying goodbye. With the worldwide pandemic, we can only hope it won’t be too many years until we all meet up again.

Anyway, onto this month’s reading. It has been non-stop with thirty-two books on my list and a fantastic array of genres. With some favourite authors as well as some new to me and a mini deluge of Christmas novels, I’m upbeat and full of festive spirit with my gift shopping well underway. November is equally busy despite my best intentions; what’s a girl to do with so many fabulous books out there?

So many five star reads makes it extremely difficult to choose just one as my Book of the Month but, as I have pondered to and fro (many times), I found that I cannot look past one which is the latest stand-alone read in a terrifically entertaining series. The characterisation is outstanding, the stories truly delightful and the writing is sharp, succinct and hides an amazing sense of humour – this author never, ever fails to make me laugh! A Village Vacancy by Julie Houston did more than live up to my expectations .. it easily surpassed them and left me with a very happy heart and lightness of spirit. If you haven’t read anything by this author then I would absolutely recommend each and every one of her books.

I’m already working my way through my November list – another 32 this month. However, after that it reduces drastically as I’m planning on a two week break over the festive season. With this horrid virus on the rise again, I hope you all have a stack of books calling for your attention. Be happy and, please, stay safe!