Just in case my review leaves you in any doubt (and I do hope it won’t!), I thought this book was absolutely fantastic – in fact, I’ll say upfront that it’s going to be one of my books of the year. It promised to be feel good fiction – I picked it up at lunchtime, finished it the same evening, having laughed, cried, made new friends, and rooted every step of the way for its wonderful heroine. And when I put it down, and reluctantly had to leave the Westholme community, my first thought was “that was absolutely perfect”.

I took Zoe to my heart from the very beginning – a single mother just doing her best and frequently falling short, her life going particularly pear-shaped when she loses her job on the news desk of The Northern News. Ok, it was never the best job in the world – she was on the path to greater things when she worked on a national newspaper in London, but had to return to Westholme when she found she was expecting – and the stories she covered were particularly negative and depressing, but it paid the ever-mounting bills. After a heart-to-heart with her closest friends – one of the good things in her life, so supportive but sometimes brutally honest – she decides to take to social media, together with also newly jobless Olly, with the plan that a newspaper might follow, focusing on all the good things about living in Westholme, and calls it The Good News Gazette.

Her posts slowly begins to win people over – despite the questionable comments that follow each post and cleverly end each chapter, bringing a smile – and she finds that there’s (rather unexpectedly) plenty of good news to cover. But Westholme itself isn’t the community it used to be – the gangs from the estate have brought it down, despite the many efforts of individuals there’s very little pride in their surroundings any more, and that’s particularly evident from the neglected state of the local shopping centre. But when plans emerge to demolish it, and to build a large new supermarket in its place taking away the livelihoods of the small shopkeepers and tearing out the heart (however broken) of the community, Zoe finds a cause she really wants to fight for.

Zoe herself is the the most wonderful character at the story’s heart – I loved her unreservedly as she struggled in her personal life, propped up by her fantastic friends, the only thing that ever seems to go right for her being her relationship with her lovely young son. Her money’s running out, her car’s on its last legs, she’ll never be the weekly star at the slimming club – and every new thing she tries makes her feel like a failure. But as she squares up to the developers and finds she has more people in her corner than she could ever have imagined, she finds she’s much stronger than she thinks, and she slowly learns to love herself – and I simply loved seeing her personal transformation. And there’s even a rather lovely tentative romance – football coach Sam (he’s just gorgeous in every way) helps build her son’s confidence, but makes Zoe’s heart beat rather faster too.

Every single member of the supporting cast is beautifully drawn – there are some real characters, and they all have their own lovely stories, both funny and touching. And, of course, there’s a villain – Daniel the developer, who proves to be rather more nuanced than he initially appears as Zoe works to convince him to abandon his plans. Acts of everyday kindness abound – and so many of them really touched my heart. And I loved the focus on friendship and family relationships – her father’s interventions were a particular highlight for me, however misjudged, but there are so many wonderful moments in this book that I’d be here all day if I mentioned every one that touched my heart. The writing is just fantastic – the storytelling is superb, and the whole book just wrapped me up in the warmest of hugs.

Can you tell how much I loved it? I do hope so! And the best news of all is that this book is the first in a planned series of four – I couldn’t be more delighted. Go on, add it to your reading list – I promise you won’t be disappointed, and you might just love it as much as I did…

What better time to unroll the good news than now? The world is full of crime and hate, and the local Westholme paper is full of it. After coming back from her amazing paper job in London due to pregnancy, Zoe is perpetually late to her job at the local paper. With no fire left for the regular bad news, she is not so deflated when she is laid off due to redundancy.

What Zoe longs for is to tell the world some good news. After meeting with her best friends, she sets up a website and newspaper, The Good News Gazette, and sets off to light the world on fire for good.

Jessie Wells does an excellent job of endearing Zoe and her ideals to the reader. Zoe sets out to do some good, and she ends up uniting a community in the process. There is also some romance, which never hurts. Overall this is a really cute, fun read. I look forward to more reads from Jessie Wells.

Thank you to Harper Collins UK and NetGalley for the digital ARC. The opinions expressed are my own.

A pleasing, heartening, feel-good read that I could become immersed in quickly and easily. This writing style is straightforward and comical, making the storyline easy to follow, and the entertainment level is masterful. I found Zoe likeable and relatable and was holding out for a happy ending for her.

I haven’t read anything by Jessie Wells before, but I will look out for her books if I ever need a soothing and comforting read. This offers its within its pages, and I highly recommend it!

When life seems at an all time low, Zoe puts on her big girl pants and fights back. If she can survive raising a child on her own and redundancy then she can survive anything. Things can always get better and Zoe finds a way to turn it around. A great read.

Just lovely! This was a fabulous read, funny, uplifting but with some real life lessons woven in. Truly a comfort - reading it was rather like sinking into a hot bath! Highly recommend.

What a wonderful, lighthearted novel The Good News Gazette is! I'm sure the story will resonate with a lot of towns - I know I felt like it could've been written for my home town, Boston (UK). Zoe returned to get hometown several years ago, pregnant with her first child after having a successful career at a national newspaper. She took up her old job at the local rag but after all these years, she is made redundant. After a boozy session with her friends, she sets up a Good News website and aims to publish a newspaper which delivers good news stories about the town. I loved it.

Oh my I needed this book!! This was heart-warming and uplifting, and one of those fun reads where you just don't want to put it down!! Loved it.

Zoe returned to her hometown after living in London with her son. She’s a journalist and works on the local paper until her boss lets her go. On a drunken night with her friends she decides to make a webpage and eventually a newspaper called The Good News Gazette.

The story is happy, funny and loved the base around the story. We need to safe more local shops and high streets. The Community Facebook page comments at the end of each chapter were very funny and witty. Loved those. Light reading for a cozy afternoon.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley, Jessie Wells and HarperCollins UK for the book
The Good News Gazette. This is my personal review.
Zoe wanted to make a difference in her life after moving back to Westholme. She gets together with some friends, and this is how she started The Good News Gazette. She wanted to spread good news to let everyone know not all news has to be bad.
She surely did not foresee this venture would go in the direction it has gone.
The book was a nice break from the normal books out there right now.
This is one to pick up and spend time on the journey Zoe is one with friends and the community she lives in.

3.75⭐️

First off, this story is quite enjoyable. I love the premise of someone losing their job and then trying to find the good and creating a career from that. I think that is wonderful and I think we all could use some good in our lives. The characters were very enjoyable, the fight that Zoe put up to save the parade was very inspiring (and amusing), and seeing a community come together was wonderful.

Where the book lost me was the ending. ***SPOILER*** Zoe ending up with Sam was wrong to me. Is he a great character? Absolutely. He was some wonderful qualities, he gives back to the community, and helps out anyone he can. He is a genuinely good guy. But right for Zoe he is not. I cannot get the conversation where either Beth or Emma said to Zoe that she needs someone who challenges her and THAT IS NOT SAM. Daniel is the one who challenged her. Daniel is the one who pushed her to fight harder, albeit not on purpose. Also a great guy who gives back to the community, I fully believe that Daniel is the man she should have ended up with. Sadly, because of this ending, this story went from a 4.5⭐️ to a 3.75⭐️. I was very disappointed ☹️.

If you’re still reading because you’re a heathen and you like spoilers (haha), I do recommend you give this book a read. It is a feel good story!!

Thank you to Jessie Wells, One More Chapter and NetGalley for a gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a funny, light-hearted read and I really enjoyed it. It was a quick read and I just gobbled it up. I enjoyed the story very much and was rooting for the main character all the way through. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Just a fun, uplifting book. I usually read romance but women’s fiction is just an enjoyable and entertaining genre that I find easy and fun to read.
I’m not saying that there isn’t romance either but this has just a story about a whole bunch of people and what happens to them and I just adored it.

After losing her job at a local newspaper Zoe decides to set up a new local paper covering good news only. Finding out that a local shopping precinct is going to be knocked down to make way for a supermarket she decides to try to prevent this happening.
This is an ideal time to have good news stories, with an epidemic, war plus a recession going on. There's a wonderful set of characters, humour plus romance where you're not sure what the outcome will be. Overall an enjoyable story, not fast paced but gives a warm glow on how communities can pull together when times get tough.
I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley, however this did not influence my review of the book.

Community and friendship runs throughout this book. Lovely read and well worth doing so. 4 stars

Thanks to Netgally and publisher for this ARC

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

Zoe has been made redundant, she’s worried about how she will be able to look after herself and her son looked after. She starts looking for work, her two friends persuade her to start her own newspaper, but one which is only about good news, and not bad.

Zoe, listens and decides to do as they say, and in the village, she finds lots of good news as well as leading to save the shopping centre in town.

It was lovely to read about Zoe and her story, her romance, and not being thought of as a bad person.

The other supporting characters were humorous. I’d love to visit Cath’s Caff, and meet the locals.

All in all, this was a good hopeful story that I loved reading.

I recommend this book.

I received an E-ARC with a request for my honest review.

This uplifting book is set in Westholme a small town in the north-west of England. It follows Zoe as she finds herself redundant from The Northern News where she worked as a journalist.

Being a single Mum of a young son and wondering what to do with herself she decides to set up her own newspaper, calling it the Good News Gazette. With leads coming in from the community she sets to work. Meeting an old crush from her school days, she must decide if she is willing to let someone else into her life.

After hearing the local parade is going to be knocked down, she takes action to try and save the heart of the community.

Will she save the parade? Will she find love in the meantime?

This book is really heart-warming and uplifting, with the coming together of the community to save the parade. You hear many of the background stories of the characters, and it just makes you fall in love with them even more.

I really liked Zoe’s character as she is relatable, and she is strong in her own way even though she doesn’t believe it herself. I loved how her character developed.

There were times that I couldn’t stop laughing, I won’t spoil the moments by mentioning them.

Overall, an uplifting and heart-warming read where a local journalist starting a new life ends up with the challenge of saving the heart of the community.

I really enjoyed this book especially the community coming together. Zoe, is a single mum to Charlie, and when she is made redundant she decides to start the Good News Gazette. As she searches round her area seeking out good news stories she meets some amazing people.

When news leaks of the local shopping centre being knocked down to make way for a supermarket Zoe decides to fight the decision.

I liked Zoe and way she brought the community together. There was humour, romance snd a great central meeting point in the local cafe.

I guess you really have to be in the mood to read this book like it was for some people but for me, I thought it was ok.
I really like the idea of a whole community getting together to make things happen.
Zoe was a real go getter and I truly admired her for it. She was an awesome character in getting to know.
I appreciated her wanting to look for happy news but then things start to get a little more interesting and that's what kept me reading this cute little story. I wanted tonsee what happened next. I wasn't disappointed at all!
This new to me author has done an excellent job in bringing the characters to life and events that happened in this book was good too.
5 stars for a job well done. I recommend it.
My thanks for a copy of this book. I was NOT required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Zoe looses her job and decides to start her own newspaper. This one will only tell good news. She also takes on Daniel Lewis and his desire to tear down the parade. It’s home to several shops and Zoe’s new office.
I thought it was a good story but I also thought it was a bit depressing. Not sure why.
Thanks to the publisher and Rachel’s Random Resources for the early copy

It takes a village. Zoe and her small son Charlie are living in Westholme, where she's started the Good News Gazette because, well, aren't we all tired of all the bad news? It's going ok but then she finds a real story- that a developer wants in and local stores will be bulldozed out. Yes, you know how this is going to go but it's got a good spirit and the characters are good. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Would that there were more good news purveyors. And that there would be more good news.