Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher for my ARC in exchange for my honest review. This was an enjoyable book.

Leah's looking for a fresh start- could it be in Greece? This is a fast fun albeit trope-y read with a good character in Leah. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC.

Linn B. Halton has created an enjoyable story of friendship, romance and family dynamics. It takes place within the glorious scenery of the Greek capital which adds to the fun and excitement of this beautiful tale. Happy reading!

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I loved the storyline and the setting in greece . Who wouldn't want to read about romance set in beautiful Athens . ♥️

4 stars...because it's Greece!!!

3 1/2 because it's summer :c)

Another fun read though!

**OMG! I cannot believe that these reviews haven't been done! I am so sorry they are so late!!!**

Unfortunately, pretty cover doesn't mean anything. I know I'm only 9% in, but so far nothing makes me want to read further. There's just talk about blogging, what she does with her blog and all. Nothing meaningful. If this is the beginning of the story then I think even the rest of it is probably worth 3 star rating. Very mediocre for my taste.

To be honest, I made several attempts to finish A Greek Affair to no avail. It never grabbed my attention and I struggled to relate to the characters. I wish I could've finished it so I could give it a fair, honest review but it just wasn't a book I could get into.

The best thing about this book was the beautiful descriptions of Athens which desperately made me want to visit! The rest of the book didn’t excite me so much - the characters seemed flat at times.

Lovely summer read. It was a feel good read. Perfect for the summer months. You can forget your surroundings and get swept up in the story like your the main character having this summer fun

Let me be honest with you. I couldn’t finish this book. I tried and tried multiple times. I really didn’t want to give up. But I just couldn’t bring myself to finish something I truly wasn’t enjoying. Throughout the entire book I questioned why is it taking so long to explain things? It just felt like things were taking forever to get to point. Perhaps this author’s way of telling this story is better suited in another story or in another book. I had one of the most difficult times getting through a little bit less than half of the book.

This kind of story maybe just wasn’t for me. I would love to give this author another chance by reading another book by her. She writes beautifully. I flat out don’t think this is a book for me.

I truly don’t like giving negative reviews, but I want to be 100% honest on how I feel about the books I’m reading. Because I abandoned this book, but not it’s author, I am going to give this ⭐️⭐️.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Leah is a travel blogger who has spent the last seven years trying to make right all that her husband destroyed. Her blog is starting to grow and this helps her to meet new people and inspires more confidence in herself. She gets the chance to travel to Greece and that is when the chance of love appears.
Firstly I really enjoyed the beginning of this book, Leah and her travel blog were fun and interesting aspects to follow and I loved her trip on the cruise ship, meeting fellow passengers and Leah starting to come out of her shell. Unfortunately though, the new relationship story line just didn't draw me in and I didn't especially click with the love interest. I so wanted to love this book and if it had all been about Leah and her blog I would have been all for it.
It is a solid read though and if like me you enjoy blogging and holidays then you should definitely pick it up.

A lovely holiday read. The descriptive scenes in Athens are spectacular and will get you reaching for the travel brochures. The story itself is well written but a little too saccharine sweet for me.

Well, I want to go to Greece now!! Such lovely descriptions and a fun second chance story. I enjoyed this book.

Many thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

It is great to be able to escape to Greece for a short time in the middle of the January post - Christmas period. Travel is at the centre of the story as Leah is a travel blogger and I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of the places she visited on her cruise and of course, of Athens.

Leah turns out to be an interesting character with a complicated backstory which is never totally resolved. Not all the loose ends are neatly tied up at the end, which I like. Leah's friendships are shown to be as important to her as her family and I found Harrison, in particular, to be a good addition to the story.

Taking a risk second time around is not an easy thing to do when there are other people involved, especially children and this feels like a mature romance rather than 'love's young dream'. Leah shows that she has a determined streak to protect her daughter and to succeed. She can be proactive and learnt not to just sit back and take what life has to throw at her.

In short: romance grows amongst the ruins.

When Leah wins a travel blogger award she is astounded, she is the new kid on the block and was amazed to be nominated even let alone win it! Suddenly she is being inundated with holiday offers and ways to pay off her debts and make a better life for herself and her daughter Rosie. Her first trip is a weekend cruise where she meets Harrison a lovely man who is struggling to come out and introduce his boyfriend to his family, they form a life long friendship and spend time counseling each other on their life problems. Next off its it's a trip to Greece with Rosie, who has her own section on the blog to give the kid's point of view, and here she meets Daniel and his daughter Belle. Belle and Rosie hit it off instantly and really want to become a proper family........ but how will that work out for a Leah and Daniel!

Another lovely book from this author, I have loved all of her books and this is up there with the best. The characters are lovely, they all have their flaws but you know Leah and Daniel are meant for each other if only they can overcome all the obstacles!

I enjoyed this book. It was engaging and the characters were believable. I particularly like the authors description of the scenery and this meant it was even more easy to sink into the story. I highly recommend this book.

Drawn by the colourful cover and the enticing summary, I was hopeful the book A Greek Affair would offer a lovely moment of escapism. Overall, I thought it was a good storyline with strong characters and interesting stakes. The part about travel blogging makes for several exotic scenes which is ideal to daydream. The only let down would be that the book didn’t deliver as much on the “feel good” side of things. Infused with serious family drama, A Greek Affair is quite an intense read with many heart-wrenching scenes. It is a poignant drama, if not your usual light romance.

We meet Leah at one of the most shocking moments of her life so far – it’s the strangest moment to meet someone and to begin with you want to turn your face away – to shield any embarrassment of an extra onlooker from Leah – to give her a bit of privacy. But somehow, from the very first page – you just can’t. You care about this woman too much. You can’t turn your back on her, walk out the door- you want to stay and see what she does next. We have a bird’s eye view of what feels like a special story and we want to see our girl come out with a victory. We are the spectators of the show – and so we stay low, hunker down and silently will her on with every turn of the page.
The lines of a James Blunt song float through my mind, getting stronger and stronger, with every paragraph, every chapter, louder and louder with every line as we draw closer to Leah and her Bonfire heart. As we find out more about the intervening years between the moment of impact and where we pick up her story, we know that Leah is a fighter and the grin slowly, but ever so surely sweeps across our face.
And I’ve been looking at the stars
For a long, long time
I’ve been putting out fires
All my life


Days like these lead to...
Nights like this lead to
Love like ours.
You light the spark in my bonfire heart.
People like us—we don’t
Need that much, just some-
One that starts,
Starts the spark in our bonfire hearts

But who is the stranger of who her heart speaks? is there a lover that she silently seeks? Is it the love that she thought was of her life – Antonio? No, sadly he has only left her reeling, left her thinking that she is ‘lacking in some way’, he has not sparked her soul, he has not ignited a romantic passion, just a fierceness that turned her into a soul-shining survivor.
Leah’s future is ‘Rosie’ – she and her little lovely girl have taken one another’s hands and taken those baby steps forward – and surely the tight little team of two deserve themselves some happy.
‘Not all ruins are ancient’ muses Leah when she looks around a property on one of her travel tours- and the same can be said of our heroine. She feels like she has been living in the ruins of her past life, she feels pretty much like a shell of her former self, but we know, we just can see, that she has ‘a lot of redeeming features’ and we so want her to have more than one day in the sun.
Leah is full of positive energy – buoyed by the love of her parents and her greatest friends, both old and new. She lives her life and realises a true treasure along the way that ‘life can only be lived one day at a time, and its about making sure each one really matters.’ Leah leads her own life. She makes moves to step out of the ‘expectations that we feel are placed upon us.’ The Greek gods above ‘may throw a dice, their minds as cold as ice’ and the likes of us ‘way down here, may lose someone dear’ but Leah proves to us that the ‘game is on again, a lover or a friend?’ Who knows? Will the ‘Winner’ ‘take it all’. For me Leah is a true winner – she gets knocked down for sure – but she gets back up again, with an even stronger love for life in her heart, a greater zest and spring in her step and a passion for living. The ‘gods’ may have wanted to crush her spirit – but This Greek Affair turns the tables on those gods- and true love prevails.
Coffee Cup Conversations and Teapot Talking Points:
If you and I dear reader were sitting down together today, settled in at a table overlooking the Parthenon, having both read the book, here are a few of the points we could mull over together.
Did Leah’s story of survival resonate with any moments in your life?
I myself was encouraged by Leah’s example. It’s true that sometimes, as she says ‘it means letting go of one dream and chasing another’ I have had to do this. Only recently I was mourning that loss a little and feeling the pinch of pain as the embers of a dream finally seemed to go out. But Leah doesn’t lay down and die- she keeps up her fight, she accepts that life is about change, but she keeps on chasing her arrow. Life can change – in the blink of an eye – in a telephone call – but Leah’s story is ultimately one of hope – corners can be turned - Life can suddenly change for the better too – 24 little hours can bring good news as well as bad.
Is there a song that stokes your heart and helps to fire up your fight song?
Music can change our mood quicker than almost anything else. Is there a song that you listen to that instantly perks you up, turns you around and turns you into a true blue version of yourself? For me most songs by ABBA will have that effect. I can’t sing Super Trouper and not strike a power pose – you simply can’t be blue when there are some strains of ‘YOUR’ song coming through. Why not make a pep you up playlist to carry you into the new year.
What makes your soul shine?
Leah creates a profession for herself as a travel blogger. I enjoyed taking a sabbatical year, a year of living creatively last year. I absolutely loved finding out for sure what really made me tick and what really mattered to me. We honestly only get one life and NOW is now – it’s a gift – that’s why it’s called the present! So I truly believe that we can and must reimagine our lives so that we are living out as much of our inner essence and our creative self as we can – whether that is letting the light in on an old hobby or finding and exploring something new. Igniting our souls is what makes us feel truly alive. There is literally no point climbing the ladder, if it is against the wrong wall! Not all changes have to be huge – it’s the little baby steps towards living out our true selves that can make us feel really and truly the best.

This book attracted me when I saw the word blogger. Being a blogger myself, I could understand a bit how Leah feels as a blogger and what are her duties even tho my blogging is much different than hers. Seriously, if I was travelling a lot, I would probably make a blog about it. Leah, to me, is amazing character. She is really a strong woman and I admire her for everything that she went through and still find a power to go through everything.

Fast becoming one of my favourite authors, I loved this book from the first page. The truly modern setting of the life of a blogger was something I could relate to and made me want to restart my own various failed attempts. The travel settings were beautifully described and you could really imagine being there, and the characters felt so real that you were rooting for them throughout. Even the kids were lovable without being annoyingly cute. I do however have a couple of reservations. Whilst her narrative is excellent, much of the dialogue felt unnatural, speaking in very long paragraphs that felt scripted, especially from Daniel. And one minor point that grated (editing or proofreading error?). If her ex-husband has more children they'd be half siblings not step-siblings