Friday Five Challenge ~ Summer at Shell Cottage by Lucy Diamond

Rosie Amber’s Friday Five Challenge, involves taking only five minutes to choose a book cover which appeals instantly. So take a few minutes, pour yourself a coffee…..and have a browse.

In today’s online shopping age, readers often base their buying decisions from small postage stamp size book covers (Thumb-nails), a quick glance at the book description and the review. How much time do they really spend making that buying decision?

AUTHORS – You often only have seconds to get a reader to buy your book, is your book cover and book bio up to it?

My Friday Five Challenge is this….. IN ONLY FIVE MINUTES….

1) Go to any online book supplier,

2) Randomly choose a category,

3) Speed through the book covers, choose one which has instantly appealed to your eye,

4) Read the book Bio/ Description for this book, and any other details.

5) If there are reviews, check out a couple,

6) Make an instant decision, would you BUY or PASS?

I searched under Summer Reading for this weeks challenge and this cover caught my eye almost immediately…

The book description reads…

Summer at Shell Cottage is another delightful summer read from Lucy Diamond, author of the bestselling The Beach Café.

A seaside holiday at Shell Cottage in Devon has always been the perfect escape for the Tarrant family. Beach fun, barbecues and warm summer evenings with a cocktail or two – who could ask for more?

But this year, everything has changed. Following her husband’s recent death, Olivia is struggling to pick up the pieces. Then she makes a shocking discovery that turns her world upside down.

As a busy mum and GP, Freya’s used to having her hands full, but a bad day at work has put her career in jeopardy and now she’s really feeling the pressure.

Harriet’s looking forward to a break with her lovely husband Robert and teenage daughter Molly. But unknown to Harriet, Robert is hiding a secret – and so, for that matter, is Molly . . .

Kindle price: £3.29/$5.13

On the high side for a Kindle copy but it does run to 481 pages. A seaside holiday at Shell Cottage sounds ideal and somewhere that would suit me perfectly. It seems, though, this is not going to be a relaxing holiday. Stuffed with guilty secrets and characters you’ll root for from the start, this warm and emotional summer novel about a family in crisis makes for delicious summer reading (Sunday Express) 

There are 186 reviews 128 of which are 5* and 42 at 4* with an overall rating of 4.5* I haven’t actually read anything by this author but the reviews are nearly all very positive with only good things to say about Lucy Diamond. She appears to be a very popular author with a solid back catalogue and consistently high ratings. 67% of reviews on Amazon.com are 5* and 33% are 4* with none in the lower categories.

I love the cover, the colours and the font, it shouts summer at the seaside and although it’s not my usual choice of genre it’s good to have a change.

So, would I BUY or PASS? Definitely BUY. I have in fact, bought a hard copy for £3.85

If you’d like to enter next week’s challenge, and the more the merrier, check out Rosie’s blog to read about the Friday Five Challenge.

Today’s challenge choices…

Rosie chose a Young Adult fantasy

Terry chose crime and political intrigue

Shelley went for chick lit and summer reading

Alison chose the Sunshine State