Blog Blitz: A Review of A Little Christmas Magic by Suzanne Rogerson
Today I am taking part in the Blog Blitz for A Little Christmas Magic by Suzanne Rogerson! Part of the Winter Warmers Series, A Little Christmas Magic is a heart-warming collection of stories with a focus on family, friendship, love and goodwill.
Book Description:
From a much-loved family pet that goes missing to a neighbour in need.
Chance meetings and the kindness of strangers.
Overcoming trauma to help others and being prepared to make sacrifices.
A father rushing to get home to his kids in time for Christmas.
Dive into a short and sweet story to get you in the festive spirit.
Eight Stories included:
Poppy’s Christmas Wish
Last Minute Dash
Driving Home for Christmas
The Honeymoon Period
A Christmas Toast
The Last Train Home
The Wrong Post
Taking Care of Belle
A Little Christmas Magic
Series: #2 in the Winter Warmer Series
Author: Suzanne Rogerson
Narrator: Colette Davies-Kerwin
Published: November 17, 2025
Audiobook: 2 hours 26 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: December 9-10, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Jessica’s Review:
A Little Christmas Magic is the second in the Winter Warmer series and it knows how to get a listener ready for Christmas! Comprised of eight short stories ranging from a few minutes to just over half an hour, you can get this novel finished a quickly as you want or you could spread the cheer out over eight listens (one listen per short story!) Each story brings out a meaning of Christmas and a listener will definitely choose a favorite for their individual preference! My favorite was one of the shorter stories: Last Minute Dash. It just spoke to me more than the others. It shows the kindness of a stranger while also sharing in the joy of Christmas and memories of childhood. Not a bad story in the novel, this was an enjoyable listen that can help get anyone in the Christmas spirit.
The narrator Colette Davies-Kerwin did a great job with her narration in these stories to help spread Christmas cheer!
Many thanks to the author and Rachel of Rachel’s Random Resources for a copy that I could listen to for the Audible blog blitz.
Buy Your Copy Here!
About the Author:
Suzanne lives in Middlesex, England with her husband, two children, a crazy cocker spaniel and a rather aloof cat. Her writing journey began at the age of twelve when she completed her first novel. She discovered the fantasy genre in her late teens and has never looked back. Giving up work to raise a family gave Suzanne the impetus to take her attempts at novel writing beyond the first draft, and she is lucky enough to have a husband who supports her dream.
Now an author of four fantasy novels, including the Silent Sea Chronicles trilogy and a standalone fantasy, Visions of Zarua, Suzanne has recently turned her hand to short stories with four collections published to date.
She loves gardening and has a Hebe (shrub) fetish. She enjoys cooking with ingredients from the garden and regularly feeds unsuspecting guests vegetable-based cakes. Suzanne collects books, is interested in history and enjoys wandering around castles and old ruins whilst being immersed in the past. She likes to combine her love of nature and photography on family walks, but most of all she loves to escape with a great film, binge watch TV shows, or soak in a hot bubble bath with an ice cream and a book.
Contact Suzanne:
Website
Newsletter
Audible US author page
Audible UK author page
Amazon
Twitter @rogersonsm
Goodreads
BookBub
Instagram @suzannemrogerson
Blog Blitz: A Short Story Review of Don’t Forget the Crazy by Lucy Kaufman
Today I am taking part in the Blog Blitz for Don’t Forget the Crazy by Lucy Kaufman! I am sharing my review for this short story. If you are lucky enough to be in the UK, there is a giveaway going on!
Short Story Description:
Her lists are life or death.
“If it’s on the list, I have to do it.”
Milli Morgan lives by her lists. Groceries, goals, organising her boss – nothing escapes being ticked off her ever-growing to-do lists. Order brings her comfort; control keeps the chaos at bay. Everyone can rely on Milli.
Until the day new items start appearing on her list in red ink.
At first, she blames stress. A prank. Someone playing mind-games. But one instruction on the list refuses to be erased and demands to be completed.
A command so terrible she would have to be crazy to tick it off.
Don’t Forget the Crazy is a dark psychological suspense short story about obsession, perfection, and the dangerous pressure of always being “the good girl.” Fans of Gillian Flynn, Lisa Jewell, Patricia Highsmith, and Shirley Jackson will devour this chilling portrait of order unravelling into darkness.
Don’t Forget the Crazy
Author: Lucy Kaufman
Published: November 30, 2025
Kindle: 57 pages
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: December 7-9, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Jessica’s Review:
This was a fun and quick read. Milli Morgan writes down lists. Not on her phone, but on paper in blue ink. She lives by these lists, everything she does is part of a list. Until strange things start showing up on her list. Not in the blue ink she uses, but red ink. These add ons get stranger until one item that appears on her list demands to be done.
I did enjoy this short story. I myself make lists on paper, yet not as extreme as Milli. I have to have physical lists! This short story starts by taking place at Christmastime, and its that time of year currently, so that added to my enjoyment. I did giggle out loud a couple of times, but then we get serious with the very demanding item. Will Millie do this demand? What will happen? And why is there a cat on the cover??!?!! If you read this short story then you will find the answers!
I’m a reader who doesn’t have to have a definitive conclusion, but in the case of this short story a few more pages with a definitive conclusion would have worked best for me. I look forward to seeing what Kaufman writes next.
Many thanks to the author and Rachel of Rachel’s Random Resources for a copy that I could read for the blog blitz.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
UK Giveaway
To enter the Giveaway: All you have to do is follow Lucy Kaufman on Instagram by 24th December 2025 to win an Audrey’s solid milk chocolate Scaredy Cat. *You must live in the UK to win**
Again, WHAT is the deal with cats?!?!? You must read this short story to find out!
About the Author:
Lucy Kaufman is an award-winning author, playwright, audio dramatist and poet. 40 of her plays have been performed professionally around the UK and Australia, to critical acclaim. She has lectured in Playwriting and Screenwriting for Pen to Print and Canterbury Christ Church University and is a mentor at The Writing Coach. Originally from London, she now lives by the sea with her husband, sons, dogs and cats.
Contact Lucy:
IG: @kaufmanlucy
@sepiainkpublishing
Sepia Ink Website
Blog Blitz: A Prescription for Madness by Linda Fawke
Today as a part of the blog blitz, I am sharing an extract from A Prescription for Madness by Linda Fawke. This one looks intriguing with many things to leave you thinking and I hope to one day read it!
Book Description:
When successful business-owner Kate Shaw realises she is pregnant, after a fling with a previous lover, she has life-changing decisions to make. She needs to be in control of her life. Pregnancy in her fifties was never part of the plan. It becomes her secret.
The risks of having a baby at her age are clear but she struggles with the idea of an abortion. No-one understands her increasingly erratic behaviour as the preoccupation takes over her life.
Her marriage is precarious; the relationship with her former lover uncertain.
Is this the way to madness?
This is a gripping story about dark choices, gnawing discontent and the uncertainties of love.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Info on the Extract from Chapter Three:
Kate, having discovered she is unexpectedly pregnant at the age of 51, wants someone to confide in and seeks help from her mother. Their relationship has never been close but Kate needs someone to talk to. Maybe not the best idea…
~~~
‘You’re a bit quiet today, Kate. Are you feeling alright?’
‘I’m not totally myself. In fact, there was something I wanted to talk to you about.’
Her mother sat upright as if someone had a gun to her back. She opened her eyes wide and put her hands to her cheeks.
‘You haven’t got some dreadful disease, have you? It’s not… you know … is it? Is it treatable? If it’s a matter of money, I’ll try to help. Don’t have much but you can have what there is. Private treatment is quicker. You shouldn’t wait around for some appointment months away. But you know all about these things. Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Or have you only just found out? Oh, my poor darling!’
The questions came ever faster and she stopped when she ran out of breath. She looked at Kate in horror. A piece of pickle dropped out of the sandwich she was holding and landed on her lap.
‘Calm down, Mum. I’m not ill. It isn’t cancer. Stop panicking. Just listen for a moment or two and I’ll tell you.’
‘Well, what a relief that is! But you’ve come specially to tell me something so it’s got to be important. Is there a problem with your businesses? Are you in debt? You’re not in trouble because of a wrongly dispensed prescription, are you? There was something on the radio recently about a case like that. Is there a lawsuit? My God, what will the neighbours say?’
Kate’s silence eventually got through to her mother.
‘Sorry, Kate. You asked me to listen. And all I’ve done is talk. I will listen now.’
Kate waited. She needed the silence; she needed her mother to feel the silence, too.
‘I’m pregnant.’
There was a long pause. Kate could see her mother struggling to take in the information, to find the right words.
‘I came to talk to you about it and try to get my head straight concerning what I’m going to do. It’s called seeking parental advice.’
‘I didn’t think you and Neil wanted children. Isn’t it a bit late now?’
‘Mum, I think you’ve missed the point. I didn’t intend to become pregnant.’
‘You, Kate? You’re always so organised, you don’t have accidents. I bet you were on the pill and it failed. Always thought it was risky. A bad idea.’
Kate recalled a conversation they had years ago, prompted by a television programme about the pill. Her mother didn’t believe it worked and was uncomfortable discussing it. Kate tried to explain its mode of action but her mother would not listen and was adamant in her views. Instead she turned to finding negative, unscientific comments in newspapers or magazines, cutting them out and posting them to Kate. It was the closest she got to advice on contraception.
‘No, Mum, I wasn’t on the pill. I stopped it a while ago. And it does work. If I’d been on it, I wouldn’t now have this problem.’
This was proving harder than she expected. Her mother was either naïve or being deliberately difficult. Surely it could not still be embarrassment?
‘So what does Neil think?’
‘He doesn’t know.’
‘Shouldn’t you tell him?’
‘Okay, Mum. Let me give you the whole story. It’ll surprise you, probably shock you, but hear me out.’
A stunned face looked back. ‘I need a cup of tea. Just let me put the kettle on and make a pot.’
Tea was the answer. Her mother would make it whatever she said. Kate was standing looking out at the garden, manicured and neat, all character having been removed with the weeds, when her mother returned. With a shaking hand, she poured out two cups, trying not to look her daughter in the eye. Twice she started to say something and stopped herself. Kate broke the silence.
‘Do you remember a boyfriend I had in the last year at university? A guy called Jonathan.’
Her mother’s face brightened. ‘Lovely lad. I do remember him. He had lunch with us on one of our visits and was a delight. Chatted away to your dad and me as if he’d known us for years. And he brought you here when I had to go into hospital to have that gallstone operation. Me and your dad, we hoped it would last. Fancied having him as a son-in-law. Would have been an asset to the family. Not that I have a problem with Neil, of course. But suddenly he wasn’t around anymore. You never did tell us why and I didn’t like to ask.’
‘Well, I met him again at the reunion a few months ago.’
Her mother looked blank.
‘You remember – I told you about it. We went back to the pharmacy department to celebrate thirty years since we all graduated. Without giving you unnecessary details, Jonathan and I ended up in bed and I think the baby is his.’
Her mother let out a cry worthy of a third-rate, sensational film.
‘Oh, Kate, how could you? What a sluttish thing to do! And with your upbringing! I can’t believe a daughter of mine would behave like that!’
‘Which century are you living in, Mum? It’s 2006, people hop in and out of bed with each other all the time. Anyway, there was a reason for it, a serious reason which I don’t intend to go into. It wasn’t just lust or trying to turn the clock back. And I don’t sleep around; I object to being called a slut.’
Her mother gave her an unbelieving stare and made a guttural grunt.
About the Author:
Linda Fawke is an arts person who studied science but always wanted to write. Now retired, she indulges this passion, writing fiction and non-fiction, even occasional poetry, preferably late at night. She has now written two novels, ‘A Taste of His Own Medicine’ and its sequel, ‘A Prescription for Madness’ using her background in pharmacy as the setting of both. These are easy books to read, suitable for book club discussions. ‘A Prescription for Madness‘ is more serious than the first book, dealing with such issues as pregnancy in later life and Down’s Syndrome.
She has been a winner of the Daily Telegraph ‘Just Back’ travel-writing competition and has published in various magazines including ‘Mslexia’, ‘Litro’ online, ‘Scribble’, ‘The Oldie’, ‘Berkshire Life’ and ‘Living France’. She was a finalist in the ‘Hysteria’ short story competition.
Linda blogs at www.linimeant.wordpress.com where her ‘Random Writings’ include a range of topics from travel to ‘Things that pop into my head’.
Contact Linda:
Blog
Twitter: @LindaFawke
Facebook: Linda Fawke