The Billionaire's Wake-Up-Call Girl - Annika Martin

Title: The Billionaire's Wake-Up-Call Girl
Author: Annika Martin
Genre: Chick-lit
Rating: 4/5
# pages: Audiobook ~9hrs
Date read: September, 2024

When my manager assigns me the task of finding a new wake up call service for our CEO, I think, how hard can this be?

Answer: practically impossible. It turns out that no wake-up call company in the world will take him on as a client. They’ve all had enough of his surly personality.

So in an effort not to lose my job, I secretly start making the calls myself, every day at 4:30 am sharp. OMG yes you read that right—four freaking thirty in the morning.

Confession: I’m not the nicest wake-up-call girl at that hour. Hello! Who wakes up before the roosters are even crowing? Luckily he doesn’t seem to mind my get-your-ass-out-of-bed attitude.


This was the perfect book to keep me company on a 4 hour drive. It had me laughing out loud on numerous occasions and I loved the banter between Lizzie and Theo as well as between Lizzie and Mia.

The romance was super sweet and the third act breakup less contrived than it often is in romance novels. Sasha's (I think that's her name anyways) behavior did subtract the final star though - it just seemed too malicious to be believable ... even within the book's own universe.

I wish we could have heard more about the bakery. I want a follow up that focuses on that!

Funny, cute and sizzling. Grumpy/sunshine and high levels of spice.

The Summer Seekers - Sarah Morgan

Title: The Summer Seekers
Author: Sarah Morgan
Genre: Chick-lit
Rating: 5/5
# pages: Audiobook ~11 hrs
Date read: September 2024

Kathleen is eighty years old. After she has a run-in with an intruder, her daughter wants her to move in to a residential home. But she’s not having any of it. What she craves—what she needs—is adventure.

Liza is drowning under the daily stress of family life. The last thing she needs is her mother jetting off on a wild holiday, making Liza long for a solo summer of her own.

Martha is having a quarter-life crisis. Unemployed, unloved and uninspired, she just can’t get her life together. But she knows something has to change.

When Martha sees Kathleen’s advertisement for a driver and companion to share an epic road trip across America with, she decides this job might be the answer to her prayers. She’s not the world’s best driver, but anything has to be better than living with her parents. And traveling with a stranger? No problem. Anyway, how much trouble can one eighty-year-old woman be?

As these women embark on the journey of a lifetime, they all discover it’s never too late to start over.


This immediately became a new favourite. It hits so many of my favourite tropes.
* Roadtrip? Check.
* Intergenerational friendships? Check.
* Personal growth? Check.
* Fraught relationships that are fixed by - wonder of wonders - communication? Check!

I loved seen Kathleen and Martha's friendship grow. I loved that Kathleen and Liza actually talked about their issues. I LOVED that Sean took the bull by the horns and realized he and Liza needed to talk. I was so, so, so grateful that Finn was a non-issue.

No third-act breakup, no annoying misunderstandings caused by lack of communication. Just a sweet and poignant story about very realistic relationships.

Loved it!

The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman

Title: The Thursday Murder Club
Author: Richard Osman
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Rating: 2.5 / 5
# pages: 430
Date read: September 2024

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders.

But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it's too late?


NB: This is not a bad rating! Goodreads translates 2 stars to "It was okay", which it was. I wasn't blown away by it, I didn't particularly like it - but it was okay.

I think part of it is that the book suffered from too much hype. I had had it sold to me as "an amazing read" and it just ... wasn't. I didn't grow to care for the characters, I wasn't really interested in the whodunnit part of it ... the writing style was fine, so it wasn't any great hardship to finish it, but I'm going to just leave it at the one and not bother with the rest of the series.