LAUREN Hewitt shares her picks for cosy reads to snuggle up with this Autumn.

Hannah Swensen cosy mysteries by Joanne Fluke:

One of my favourite cosy mystery series is the Hannah Swensen Baking series, set in a small fictional Minnesota town. Each murder mystery is solved by Hannah, a baker by trade. Hannah has a knack for getting herself into hot water and stumbling upon mysteries to solve in the most bizarre ways.

Add in one overbearing mother whose intentions are good but who is very pushy, two sisters who couldn’t be more different from each other, and two love interests vying for her attention. This series will have you craving all the sweet treats. But the best thing is that the recipes are included in the books!

They are quick, easy reads to snuggle up with on a rainy afternoon, and they won’t give you nightmares. If you like strong female protagonists, hilarious cats, sweet treats, and mysteries with a touch of romance, then you’ll enjoy this series.
There are 29 books in the series, with the latest being released this year. Because the background story flows and there are character developments from book to book, I would recommend reading the series in order.
They can mostly be found on Amazon; the Kindle editions start at just over $1 each.

Suzanne Snow, Romantic Fiction/Uplifting Fiction

Suzanne is a relatively new author to me who writes sweet romances set in North West England. She has 2 main series, The Love in the Lakes Series and the Thorndale Series.

Love in the Lakes is the series I’m most familiar with, and the themes of sweet closed-door romance, found family and stunning scenery just make you want to pack up your bags and go visit the location.

The first book in the Love at the Lakes series is a Christmas-themed/Winter book, but Christmas isn’t the main featured topic. There’s just something about reading winter themes that invite you to curl up with a warm drink and a fluffy blanket and get lost in the words of the author. So if you enjoy “clean” romance with a back story, then Suzanne Snow is a great author to look into.
Her books can be found on Amazon, and Kindle versions start at just over $1 each.

Stranded by Sarah Goodwin

I devoured this cosy read, not quite in one sitting but in under a day. Every twist and chapter ending had me unable to put the book down. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers, and suspense novels.
Eight strangers go to a secluded island off the coast of Scotland for a social experiment reality show.

The kicker is that they must live there for a year! The story is told by Maddy, who is an introvert, a botanist, and very different from the other 7 people.
Everything starts great but of course it all changes. The year passes, and on the day they’re supposed to return, the boat doesn’t arrive to fetch them. That’s when things go from bad to horrifying. And only a few return alive! Most of the characters were completely unlikable, but they fit the storyline well.
Sarah Goodwin does a fantastic job on her debut novel, and I’ll be reading her next book.

A Sister’s Promise by Caroline Finnerty

What exactly makes you a woman? Is it your heart? Your body? Your spirit? This book still has me pondering this question. Would I still feel like a woman if something physical changed?

Penny and her little girl Willow live in Australia, but when something happens, she returns to Ireland to see if her sister Laura remembers a promise they made to each other as kids.

Laura has problems of her own to deal with, and seeing her estranged sister is a bit of a shock. At first, Laura comes across as cold and almost heartless, but she quickly steps up and becomes one of my favourite characters.

The characters were so well developed that even the unlikeable ones at the beginning grew and developed into loveable, unforgettable characters by the end.

Lots of pieces hit hard and so close to home, and it was a heartbreaking book that had me sobbing into my tea and aching for all the characters in it. So keep your tissues close by!

Your Place or Mine by Portia Macintosh

Serena gets fired and loses her home on the same day that her beloved boss dies and her boss’s horrible children sell the business, and to top it all off, her boyfriend is a cheat!

Luckily, Serena’s friend steps in, offering her a place to stay. Unfortunately (or is it, fortunately? ), she has to share the house with a rocker guy named Ziggy!

Each one wants the place to themselves, commence the competitive pranks, the arguments, and the undeniable chemistry!

Serena then discovers that her boss left her a secret business, one of an obscure adult nature,  that needs resurrecting.

Will Serena cope?

The chemistry between Ziggy and Serena was amazing, with tension and pranks and their competitive natures clashing and complimenting each other all at the same time. It was a great enemies-to-lovers theme.

While there is cheating in the book, which I normally find a trigger, it was set up in a way that wasn’t triggering.

As always, I enjoyed reading a Portia Macintosh novel.

They’re hilarious, sweet, and feel-good novels that always have a little something to make you think.

My thinker in this novel was :

“Grief is the cost of love; if you feel a lot of sadness to have lost someone, they must have given you a hell of a lot of love while they were alive.”

Kids’ choice for cosy reads:

EB White (Elwyn Brooks White)

While he only wrote three children’s books, all three feature anthropomorphism, which is the attribution of human characteristics or behaviours to animals.

The Trumpet of the Swan is about a Trumpeter swan who cannot make a sound and his adventures in finding his voice.

Charlotte’s Web: This is EB White’s best-known novel and is about a pig and the spider who befriends him.

Stuart Little: The Tale of a human family who adopts a mouse as their son.

All three books are sweetly old-fashioned but are sure to delight your children.

Reading avidly from the age of 9 I am now a homeschooling and homesteading mom who incorporates reading and books into just about every aspect of my life. We live on a small holding on the outskirts of GQ with a menagerie of pets - more often than not there is at least one farm animal inside. I do bits of freelance writing and am currently writing my first novel. Last year I decided to share my love of reading by reviewing books and promoting the books and their authors. STAY INTOUCH WITH LAUREN Instagram  Blog TikTok