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AMY HARRISON-SMITH

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HOW IT GOT STARTED

Hello and welcome to my little corner of the Internet! I'm Amy and I'm a blogger.


It all started when I launched a blog to compliment my award winning student radio show 'Amy In The Studio'. When I left university, I continued to blog and worked with my sister to create AmyandEllen.com.

Ellen and I enjoyed blogging together for over 10 years, but we have decided to pursue our own writing interests.

Welcome to my first solo blog.

Here you can find my attempts to reconcile my life with the bible, sprinkled with film and book reviews, a few short stories and other musings. 

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Book Review: Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

I am currently engaged in the #ReadingWithMuffy challenge for 2026. The challenge (which you can see the prompts below) for February is a book that starts with the letter l, o, v or e. I am trying to read books I already own to meet these challenges, so I looked through my Kindle app and my shelves and came up with a decent list of choices: Looking for Alaska by John Green Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree Of Mice and Men by John Steinbec

Book Review: Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry

It's no secret that I love true crime. I can't explain my fascination, and I don't really know when or how it started. I remember watching Jonathan Creek and Midsummer Murders with my grandad as a kid. I remember when Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells were abducted and killed by Ian Huntley - I was about 13 at the time, only a few years older than they were, but I remember being fascinated by it. Only 5 years later, Madeline McCann was abducted whilst on holiday and again I was

Book review: Undivided by Vicky Beeching

I was recommended this book by a family member when I explained I had an interest in how LGBTQ+ rights fit within the Christian community. I happened to find it in a charity shop a couple of weeks after the recommendation and so I bought it and started reading it. I can now happily pass on the recommendation - if you’re a Christian and you’re not sure what the Bible says about affirming LGBTQ+ relationships, this is the book for you. If you identify as LGBTQ+ and you feel tha

A Holiday in Book Reviews

A few weeks ago, we had our first holiday abroad since the pandemic started (and we hadn't been abroad since 2019 anyway). We decided to go to Nerja on the southern coast of Spain - my grandparents used to own a villa there and we were fortunate to enjoy family holidays there for the entirety of my childhood. When my grandad died, his wife decided to sell it, but we've continued to go back on occasion, though since Ellen moved to Canada we've been spending our holidays there.

Book review: The Windsor Knot

I can almost hear you exhaling a sigh of relief that this is not a review about another Virgin River novel. I diversified! Shocking, I know. I've got a bit of a shopping problem - my mum will be dancing and jumping up and down to this admission - but I have a specific problem with buying Kindle books. Although I love the feel of having a very real book in my hands, the feel of the paper and seeing the physical progression through a story - and the feel when you break the sp

Book review: A Virgin River Christmas (Book 4)

In my last review in the Virgin River series, I said I would take a break from the predictable small town. I did - I started reading a couple of other books, but they didn't quite grab me in the same way as Virgin River did. They were tougher reads and I was struggling with them a bit, and I wanted to remind myself of my love of reading and thought I would smash through another Virgin River book to break out of the funk I'd accidentally got myself into. If you want to catch

Book review: Virgin River Whispering Rock (Book 3)

Here we are again! As you know if you read my review for book 2 (which you can find here , and book 1 is here ) you will know I was super keen to crack on. I really enjoyed book 1 and to a lesser extent book 2. I was invested in the characters and the small town where the story is set. Of course I cracked on with book 3, and unsurprisingly we're now in uncharted territory. The series on Netflix currently has only 2 series released, so it shouldn't be a surprise that the plot

Book review: Virgin River Shelter Mountain (Book 2)

I just couldn't help myself. I needed to know what happened to Jack and Mel, and so just ploughed straight on with the series and I devoured book 2 in the series in less than a week. There's not a lot of preamble here - I was just keen to crack on, based on how much I enjoyed the first book, and the aforementioned small town America chic that I just can't get enough of (we can add Shitt's Creek to the list now too!) If you missed my review of book 1 in the series - you can

Book review: Virgin River (Book 1)

I love American country chic. It's an aesthetic I can 100% get behind. I love country music with a passion, I love small town America, and I particularly love TV shows that combine these things. Shows I have enjoyed in the past include 'Hart of Dixie' and 'Gilmore Girls'. So when I saw the trailer for 'Virgin River' on Netflix, I knew it was going to be a new favourite. Especially since Brick Breeland from 'Hart of Dixie' would be playing another grumpy small town doctor, an

Book review: I Am, I Am, I Am

Next week, for two weeks, is the Well Fayre at work. Normally (in non-COVID times) our Well Fayre is held over 2 days at our 2 main offices, it's over a few hours at lunch time. We have different stalls for different organisations and networks. It's essentially a mini-Freshers Fair. Sweets at every stand, and a few freebies to grab. It's well worth taking your lunch break there once a year. This year however, we've needed to flex accordingly. I'm part of the Empowering Women

Book review: The Thursday Murder Club

Everyone in the UK loves Pointless - TV quiz show where you have to think of the most pointless information that no one else might know, to win some money but most importantly: the Pointless trophy. If you tell me you don't like it, I think I might judge you. When I'd heard that one of the hosts had written a book, I'll be honest - I judged it before I'd even seen the cover. Out of principle I shun celebrity authors. They have easier access to publishers than the average Joe

Book review: Horrorstör

I decided not to make official New Year's Resolutions this year. I find that generally if I make them, I break them. It's the pressure. Like trying to answer 3 in 10 on Popmaster. I crumble under the trivia presh . The pressure is too much and I collapse. The one resolution I have ever kept, was to read a book a month. Personally, I think 2021 is going to be tough to handle without any pressure to do anything else, so I am just making an effort to read more. No pressure, just

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