Last day of the blog tour, and I’m really delighted to be joining in and sharing my review of Jessie Wells’ Saving the Good News Gazette. Published as an e-book by One More Chapter on 4th August, it’s now available for kindle via Amazon in the UK (just 99p at the moment!) and in the US, and on all other major e-book platforms. If you’d rather wait for a paperback, you won’t be waiting too long – it’ll follow on 17th August, and is available for preorder in all the usual places. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for the invitation and support, and to the publishers for my reading e-copy (provided via netgalley).
One of the things I like best of all about reviewing books on my blog is the privilege of reading books by new-to-me authors and – if I like them, of course! – helping to spread the word. In November last year, something unheard of happened, and although I don’t usually quote from my own reviews, indulge me just this once…
Just in case my review leaves you in any doubt (and I do hope it won’t!), I thought this book was absolutely fantastic – in fact, I’ll say upfront that it’s going to be one of my books of the year. It promised to be feel good fiction – I picked it up at lunchtime, finished it the same evening, having laughed, cried, made new friends, and rooted every step of the way for its wonderful heroine. And when I put it down, and reluctantly had to leave the Westholme community, my first thought was “that was absolutely perfect”.
That book was The Good News Gazette – and (stern look…) I do hope everyone’s now read and enjoyed it every bit as much as I did (you’ll find my full review again here – and, just in case you haven’t caught up with it yet, that one’s just 99p too!). Things have been just a teeny bit busy recently, and I was a bit worried that I might not be able to join the tour to review her second book – but, where there’s a will, there’s always a way, isn’t there? And a big thank you to Jessie for mentioning me in the acknowledgements to this one – even when you’re as old a hand as I am, it’s something that always gives me a rather special buzz! Let’s take a closer look…
Zoe has a special talent for saving lost causes…but she’ll need a miracle to save herself from this mess!
When her biggest advertising account cancels their contract, single mum Zoe Taylor’s Good News Gazette – Westholme’s pre-eminent feel-good news source – faces an uncertain future.
Determined to save her paper, Zoe strikes a bargain with millionaire developer Daniel Lewis – he’ll help her find advertisers and in exchange she’ll spearhead his campaign to save the Art Deco cinema from destruction.
But with her boyfriend Sam no fan of her new business partner, an unexpected job offer from her old boss, and an unshakeable feeling that there’s something more between her and Daniel than there should be, Zoe’s future soon feels as uncertain as her paper’s…and she’ll be forced to make a decision that changes everything for her and her son Charlie.
How lovely to be back at Westholme – the small businesses in the saved shopping centre now thriving, the acts of kindness in a community that recovered its beating heart providing so many heartwarming stories for Zoe’s Good News Gazette. The lads from the Orchard Estate are still a brooding and destructive presence though – and there will always be the cynics, sharing their views on the community’s Facebook pages (wonderfully shared at the end of each chapter…).
A year on, Zoe is still muddling through – living on her uppers, being the best mother she can be to young Charlie, trying to find time for her relationship with Sam (which has rather lost its sparkle), always being there for her friends and family, never going to be a star at Slim City (although she’s doing really well… at times anyway…). But the Good News Gazette is struggling – the big advertisers are withdrawing their support (times are hard for everyone…), and it looks like their days might be numbered. Enter Daniel – the millionaire developer she won over in the last book – with an offer of help in securing advertising income if she’s willing to work with him to save and reopen a local Art Deco cinema. She’s still not sure if she entirely trusts him, and being close to him makes her heart beat uncomfortably faster – but she really doesn’t want to accept the offer of a magazine job in London, and trying to save the Gazette really has to be worth a try, doesn’t it?
If this is your first visit, you’ll very quickly feel every bit as at home in Westholme as I did – there’s a large cast of characters, many a touch quirky, every single one quite wonderfully drawn, and there will be so many you’ll really take to your heart. And none more so than Zoe herself – she’s so easy to identify with, and when she hurts you find yourself aching with her, although she’ll also provide plenty of moments to laugh about along the way. I was with her every step of the way with her efforts to rescue the cinema – the negotiations with the “committee” over the fine detail, her slightly uneasy partnership with Daniel, the major setbacks that broke her heart (and mine), and the way the community pulled together to try to save the day. I want to tell you all about the small detail – there are even some Hollywood touches too, that were so thoroughly lovely – but I’d really rather let you read it for yourself, and experience the same heartbreak and joy at every fresh twist and turn.
There are multiple sub plots and minor stories too, some light, others dealing sensitively with some more serious issues – with the author in complete control of her often emotional content, tangling and teasing out the different threads with absolute confidence and total aplomb. The humour is simply wonderful – sometimes gentle, sometimes unashamed slapstick, and then there were the wonderful moments when I wasn’t quite sure whether my tears were laughter or another of those moments that pierced me to the heart. I really must mention the octopus incident (you weren’t expecting that, were you?) – completely unforgettable, both extremely funny and really touching – but I’ll leave it there! The romance? I was rather disappointed in Sam – I think you might be too – but the developing relationship with Daniel really was absolutely everything I wanted it to be. And the writing was just superb – the author’s real affection for her characters really shines through, and that makes the whole story so heartwarming and quite wonderfully uplifting.
I must tell you though – although the main story reaches its wholly satisfying conclusion, the book ends with a real humdinger of a “to be continued”. That’s not so unusual these days – and I honestly couldn’t have been more delighted really, as it means that the story isn’t over. For as long as the author chooses to write books about Westholme and Zoe’s adventures, I’ll be blissfully happy to read them and tell everyone how wonderful they are. Once more, this will be one of my books of the year – and I couldn’t recommend it more highly.
About the author
Jessie Wells lives with her husband and two children in Merseyside. She has always written in some form, and previously worked as a journalist on the Liverpool Echo and Sunday Mirror and as a freelancer for various national women’s magazines and newspapers before moving into finance. She loves nothing more than getting lost in her imaginary worlds, which are largely filled with romance, communities bursting with character and a large dose of positivity.
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