The Good News Gazette Paperback – June 21, 2023

A book to make you smileThat's an accurate description of this book! It was fun to read and easy to cheer for the heroine. I really enjoyed it.

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.

This is a five-star read that will warm your soul. This book is like the reading equivalent of snuggling up with a blanket in front of a warm open fire with a large glass of something tasty. Zoe is a fighter, she really does push everything and she does it so well, she really is someone you can get behind, as you watch her fight for what she feels is right, it will bring you close to tears as there are so many ups and downs, and the characters you will start to care about watching them flourish and grow will grow your heart. This story shows us there is warmth in the world and its just so positive it cant help but make you smile.

The Good News Gazette is a sweet story about a single mother, Zoe, who after being made redundant at a local newspaper, decides to start a new paper that focuses on good news only in her community. While in the process of searching for good news, she connects to the community and becomes involved in saving the local parade shopping center from development into a generic supermarket. There is a bit of romance weaved through the book, but I wasn’t sure who she’d end up with in the end. Zoe is an easy character to like and I couldn’t help but want her to be successful. If you are looking for an easy read that focuses on the positive, I’d recommend Jessie Wells “The Good News Gazette”.Thank you NetGalley and One More Chapter / Harper Collins UK for sending this book for review considerations. All opinions are my own.

Zoe returned a few years ago to the small town. It's quite different from the life she had in London. Now she is a single mom and covers local news. Then she got fired.She got her friends over and over a lot of wine she come up with a solution, she will start her own newspaper, with a website and print as well, but will only write about good news. The news coverage has gotten very depressing and never covers anything good, and she wants to make a difference. She wants her Gazette to make people feel good and hopeful.Along with a brand new business, there is a threat to the community that she loves so much and she will do all she can to help it.It's a lovely story of never giving up, finding your own way in life and standing for what you believe no matter what. The story portrays a realistic view of the life of a young woman, who runs a business and is a single mother as she navigates daily life and the trouble that comes with it.got it on NetGalley, all thoughts are my own

We all badly need good news and a Good News Gazette would be perfect in this winter.This is a story about Zoe, a single mother who used to be an investigative reporter, and the power of news and of community.It's a well plotted, compelling, and engrossing novel featuring a cast of well developed characters.It's a first book I read by this author and won't surely be the last as I loved the storytelling and the style of writing.Highly recommended.Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

This book was sent to me electronically by Netgalley for review. This is a quick fun read with a quirky main character. Newspapers…careers…saving a town…friendship…get comfy in a cozy chair…grab a warm blanket…sit in front of a blazing fire…enjoy a cup of steaming herbal tea…get lost in this novel…fiction that reads like nonfiction…it could be true. Enjoy these characters who come alive on the pages of this book.

Thank you Jessie Wells and HarperCollins UK for the bookThe 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.

I can relate as I once operated an independent newspaper at a time when a developer was going to be allowed to build a condo tower on our public beachfront land in our small community. With the help of the newspaper and a lot of hard work, we won and we now have a beautiful public beachfront park that is always full of people in the summertime. The village has thrived since then. The Good News Gazette story can be real and serve as a template for communities who are threatened by over-development and the loss of important places and buildings. And I enjoyed the laughs.

The Good News Gazette is a very enjoyable and also a thought-provoking read.I found the main character Zoe relatable, even reading as a man. She is an exceptional individual in some ways, she has to deal with difficult situations and achieves a lot, but she is also quite ordinary, which is what makes her appealing. Her concern for others and her awareness of herself make her sympathetic. She is someone we can learn from, just as she learns from the people around her. Everyone in her community in Westholme is so likeable, and if they don't seem so, there will be a good reason for it, which makes you want to know more. It's not obvious either, there are a few surprises. It shows aspects of life in a new light and makes the reader see the importance of thinking positively and working together. There is real drama, with so many things at stake, on so many fronts. There is also humour, the comments on the Community Facebook page made me laugh – they’re just what people would say! The male characters, Sam and Daniel, are intriguing, I felt there was still more to know about them... maybe in the next instalment? So many themes are woven into the story: friendship, family, parenthood, community, a little romance, money, nostalgia, isolation, honesty, old age, and... dieting, but even that takes on a deeper significance. Things do work out, but not necessarily how the characters expected. It makes me think of the lyrics of a Rolling Stones song: ‘You can't always get what you want, But if you try sometimes you'll find, You get what you need.’This book is written with such ease that you forget you're reading a story, the world of Westholme feels real, and like all the best stories, I did not want it to end.

The sequel to The Good News Gazette is out soon, so I thought I'd go back and read the first before I jump into the next one.Zoe finds herself redundant and during a wine-fuelled night with her friends comes up with the idea for the Good News Gazette to spread some positivity. News spreads that a developer wants to knock down what is locally known as the parade, a set of shops which makes up Westholme's high street. She sets out to save the Parade with help from some of Westholme's quirky residents.The Good News Gazette is a light-hearted read, with plenty of heartwarming moments along the way.The story was predominately about believing in yourself and what happens when a community comes together. But there was also a bit of a love triangle on the side, too. I didn't think that Zoe picked the right person, but I'll see what happens in the next book with all that.Something that made me chuckle about the book was the little snippets at the end of each chapter from the local community Facebook group. They were sometimes so realistic I had to remind myself they were fictitious!Considering this is a sweet and uplifting tale, Zoe was, in the beginning, incredibly judgemental and snobby about other people and their looks. This meant I didn't warm to her as quickly as I would have liked.I'd recommend The Good News Gazette if you're looking for a heartwarming read with a positive message behind it.

I absolutely loved this book from start to finish. Beautifully written, believable characters and just a lovely, feel good, story. I would highly recommend 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 and I subsequently purchased it upon release.