Emma's Guest Review: Sharon Maas - The Secret Life of Winnie Cox

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

1910, South America. A time of racial tension and poverty. A time where forbidden love must remain a secret.

Winnie Cox lives a privileged life of dances and dresses on her father’s sugar cane plantation. Life is sweet in the kingdom of sugar and Winnie along with her sister Johanna, have neither worries nor responsibilities, they are birds of paradise, protected from the poverty in the world around them. 

But everything can change in a heartbeat… 

When Winnie falls in love with George Quint, the post-office boy, a ‘darkie’ from the other side, she soon finds herself slipping into a double life. And as she withdraws from her family, she discovers a shocking secret about those whom are closest to her. Now, more than ever, Winnie is determined to prove her love for George, whatever price she must pay and however tragic the consequences might be. 

Amazon link: Kindle

Author Interview: Jane Turley

Today it's my pleasure to welcome author Jane Turley to the blog.  Jane initially self-published her debut novel The Changing Room which has recently been re-published by Sweet and Salty Books.

Can you tell us a little bit about your novel?
Sure! The Changing Room is about the time in life when older women start to reassess their lives and reflect in what direction they want them to go. Sometimes there’s a trigger – like the menopause or empty-nest syndrome but, quite often, it’s a period when women are trapped in the sandwich zone. They might be caring for elderly parents and still have the responsibilities of children or a job - or even have other worries like redundancy or financing their kids through college. It’s a phase in life that can be very tiring and difficult, especially when faced with the loss of youth. But it is the sense that they are losing control over their lives which is the starting point for reflection for many women. And this is what happens to my heroine, Sandy Lovett. 

Gosh, I hope I’ve not made the premise of book sound too depressing because it’s definitely not meant to be that way! Basically, I wrote it to be a fun and uplifting story for older women about surviving tough times and coming out the other side in a positive mind-set.

Which character did you have the most fun creating? 
Oh, that’s a hard one. I loved them all! Stepping into their shoes was an absolute joy. I’m particularly fond of Frosty, the military-obsessed manager of the furniture store. He’s a pompous old fruitcake, but he also has such a strong moral code you can’t help but love him. If ever The Changing Room makes it onto the screen I’d want him to be played by Bill Nighy. He’d be hilarious as Frosty as he has such a gift for comedy. But I am also very proud of Sandy’s husband, Dave. He turned out to be everything I wanted him to be – warm, loving and supportive. There are so many women’s books featuring broken families and relationships, I was determined to show a strong family unit. Dave was a big part of that.

Can you describe The Changing Room in one sentence?  
A heart-warming comedy-drama with some slapstick silliness.

What can we expect from you next? 
My next project, which is going live in a few weeks, is a children’s story called Fantasia.  I’ve taken it from my short story collection, A Modern Life. The other stories in the collection were solely for adults, but Fantasia is a universal story so I wanted to publish it separately for children. It’s a story about Walt Disney and the urban myth that he was put into cryogenic suspension and, more importantly, what might happen if he was brought back to life. Ultimately, it’s an educational story about how the past, present and the future and all entwined and how we must all accept responsibility for what happens to our world, particularly in relation to climate change. 

Debut Spotlight: Daisy James

Today it's my pleasure to introduce to you Carina UK author Daisy James whose debut novel The Runaway Bridesmaid was published yesterday.

Daisy James is a Yorkshire girl transplanted to the north east of England. She loves writing stories with strong heroines and swift-flowing plotlines. When not scribbling away in her peppermint-and-green summerhouse (garden shed), she spends her time sifting flour and sprinkling sugar and edible glitter. Her husband and young son were willing samplers of her baking creations triple-tested for her debut novel - The Runaway Bridesmaid. She loves gossiping with friends over a glass of something pink and fizzy or indulging in a spot of Afternoon Tea - china plates and teacups are a must.

Daisy would love to hear from readers via her Facebook page or Twitter feed, especially if they have given any of the recipes in her book a whirl - photographs are very much welcome.

Daisy has shared with us one of the recipes that's included in The Runaway Bridesmaid below.

Sweet Basil Biscuits for New Love Interests

Ingredients

150g butter, softened
75g caster sugar
75g ground almonds
150g plain flour, sieved
Large bunch of basil

Louise's Guest Review: Louise Beech - How to Be Brave

Reviewed by Louise Wykes

This is a novel about how stories bring magic to our lives. 

Natalie and Rose are transported to the Atlantic Ocean in 1943, to a lifeboat where an ancestor survived for fifty days. Natalie struggles when nine-year-old daughter Rose is diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and refuses her life-saving injections and blood tests. When they begin dreaming about and seeing a man in a brown suit who feels hauntingly familiar they realise he has something for them - his diary. 

Only by using her imagination, newspaper clippings, letters and this diary will Natalie share the true story of Grandad Colin's survival at sea, and help her daughter cope with her illness and, indeed, survive. 

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Books Read: Alice Peterson - The Things We Do For Love

Love may hurt, but not loving hurts even more...

January Wild loves her daughter, her dog Spud and her childhood home by the sea.

Single parenting is tough, but January has no regrets. She has a job she loves, a happy home, and the support of her beloved grandfather. The arrival of a new boss, however, threatens to shake up January's safe world.

Ward Metcalfe loves great sales results and a well-run office.

Everyone at her office agrees: Ward is a soulless, corporate slave driver. Even Spud, the company mascot, dislikes him.

A secret stands between them.

Yet over time January realises first impressions aren't always right. Slowly she unravels more and more about her new boss, things she couldn't possibly have imagined, nor expected...

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Author Interview: Rhoda Baxter

Today it's my pleasure to welcome Choc Lit author Rhoda Baxter to the blog so that we can find out a little more about Please Release Me which was published as an eBook earlier this month.

Can you tell us a little bit about your latest novel?
Please Release Me follows the lives of three people – Sally, who is in a coma; Peter, whose life is on hold because he doesn’t know if his new wife will wake up or not; and Grace, who has been a carer for a long time and is struggling to get back to a ‘normal’ life. It’s a romantic comedy set in a hospice. I will be donating half my royalty earnings to Martin House Children’s Hospice.

It started with a single image of two women who were ‘frenemies’. One of them, a bride, was a ghost.

What inspired you to write about the stages of consciousness of someone in a coma? How much research did you need to do?
Once I worked out that Sally was in a coma, rather than actually dead, I did some research into comatose patients.  I found out a lot of stuff about the Glasgow Coma Scale and assessment of levels or awareness.  I put some of it in the early drafts, then figured out that, whilst interesting, they didn’t serve the story, and took them all out again.  Once I had a second/third draft, I asked a @zoegoodacre, who works in the NHS and knows a ton of stuff about palliative care, to beta read it. She picked up a few points that weren’t quite right – like how long a person would be kept in a medically induced coma and a bit about the parallel planning side of things. [Parallel planning is when the family have to think about  several care plans – one where the patient wakes up, one where they don’t  and one what happens when they die– the plans (often nothing more than a conversation) run alongside each other, so if a change occurs you can switch from one to the other. Peter mentions it to his mother at one point].

I also asked a couple of people who had been long term carers to beta read, just to check that I hadn’t done anything insensitive.  

If you had to describe Please Release Me in one sentence, what would it be? 
Ghost meets Mean Girls.

Sarah's Guest Review: Wendy Holden - Wild and Free

Reviewed by Sarah Brew

Wild & Free is the festival du jour. Everyone piles through its gates - and Cupid lies in wait to sprinkle a little midsummer madness on them all.

Teacher Ginnie is desperate to forget her crush on headmaster Mark, and hopes glamping might do the trick. But Mark is also heading for Wild & Free to reform his college band ... desperate not to be seen by anyone he knows.

Mark's bandmate James dreams of a festival blow-out with his son, Guy ... until his wife Victoria's ambition kills the dream. Now she and Guy are en route to Wild & Free instead but when Guy meets Shanna-Mae and falls for her earthy charms, Victoria is determined to snap Cupid's arrow.

Will the magic of the festival send them wild? Or set them free to find peace and love?

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Author Interview: Anouska Knight

Today it's my pleasure to welcome author Anouska Knight to the blog to talk about her latest book Letting You Go which was published last week.

Can you tell us a little bit about Letting You Go?  

At first glance Letting You Go is a story about guilt and the terrible slog Alex Foster has to endure just to have a chance at finally setting some of that down. Alex carries the heavy burden of knowing that if it hadn’t been for her lapse in concentration, had she not have been so preoccupied in the bushes with then boyfriend Finn instead of monitoring her little brother by the riverbank, Dillon’s fate would almost certainly have been different. 

In the aftermath, Alex quickly learned that it was too painful to stay and witness the irreplaceable loss her family was suffering, compounded by her father’s obvious desire to keep Alex at arm’s length from their home town and everyone in it, particularly Finn and his undesirable background. So for the decade since Dill’s accident, Alex has been living a quiet, small life as far away as possible from the ghosts of her past. When Alex has to return to her home town though, it becomes clear that there’s more to her family history than she could have known and Alex isn’t the only one who’s made far-reaching mistakes. As she’s forced to confront her fractured family, Letting You Go becomes a story about family bonds and the challenges love in various forms brings with it.

How long did it take you to complete the writing/editing process for Letting You Go before you were ready to submit it to your agent or editor?
Letting You Go was roughly eight months’ work in draft before I started looking at tightening up the manuscript and implementing the suggestions my editor was making. However, I know my own weaknesses, and time-management is one of the whoppers! It just wouldn’t work for me to disappear for nearly a year and remerge with a manuscript in draft. I’m untrustworthy. There are too many distractions and I’d end up watching far too many box sets, procrastinating about character names and then panic-typing a load of guff just to hit my word count. So to keep myself on track I like to fire off about a quarter of my manuscript at a time and check with my editor that I’m not veering catastrophically off plan.  Once the whole, dishevelled thing is down and saved and I’ve eaten a proper meal again, my long suffering editor and I spend another couple of months going back and forth through the tweaking process together. 

Books Read: Miranda Dickinson - A Parcel for Anna Browne

Anna Browne is an ordinary woman living an ordinary life. Her day job as a receptionist in bustling London isn't exactly her dream, yet she has everything she wants. But someone thinks Anna Browne deserves more . . .

When a parcel addressed to Anna Browne arrives, she has no idea who has sent it. Inside she finds a beautiful gift - one that is designed to be seen. And so begins a series of incredible deliveries, each one bringing Anna further out of the shadows and encouraging her to become the woman she was destined to be. As Anna grows in confidence, others begin to notice her - and her life starts to change.

But who is sending the mysterious gifts, and why?

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

High Tide Blog Tour: An introduction to Kate by Veronica Henry

Today it's my stop on the blog tour for Veronica Henry's latest book High Tide which is published tomorrow.  The fab blog tour poster below shows the layout of the village (click on the picture to be taken to a bigger image) and shows places that you'll soon recognise as soon as you start reading including Bellevue which is the family home for Kate one of the central characters in the book.

Kate is Pennfleet born and bred, and had an idyllic childhood growing up by the sea, with two loving parents.  Yet sometimes we have to escape to discover our full potential, even if we love the place where we were born.  Kate has flown the nest and gone to live in New York, where she has a glamorous and exciting career as a party planner.  It really does seem as if she has the perfect life. 

But when her mother dies, a few years after her father, Kate comes home to clear out Bellevue, the tiny house that has been theirs all her life.  Going through all their belongings brings back memories, and she is reminded of the simpler and less complicated life she once had.  Is New York really the place for her?  An encounter with her teenage crush adds to her dilemma.  But when she finds a mysterious letter in her mother’s handbag, she realises her mother had a secret.   Who wrote the letter and what is behind it?  And will the answer affect Kate’s own future?

Emma's Guest Review: Giovanna Fletcher - Dream a Little Dream

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Sarah is doing just fine. Sure she's been single for the last five years, and has to spend an uncomfortable amount of time around her ex-boyfriend, his perfect new girlfriend and all their mutual friends. And yes, her job as a PA to one of the most disgusting men in London is mind-numbingly tedious and her career is a constant disappointment to her mother. But it's really okay. She's happy (ish).

So it's not surprising that when Sarah starts dreaming about a handsome stranger, she begins to look forward to falling asleep every night. Reality isn't nearly as exciting. That is until her dream-stranger makes an unexpected real-life appearance, leaving Sarah questioning everything she thought she wanted.

Because no one ever really finds the person of their dreams... do they?

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Debut Spotlight: Louise Beech

Today it's my pleasure to introduce to you writer Louise Beech whose debut novel How to Be Brave was published as a paperback last week, eBook earlier in the year.

Louise Beech has always been haunted by the sea, and regularly writes travel pieces for the Hull Daily Mail, where she was a columnist for ten years. Her short fiction has won the Glass Woman Prize, the Eric Hoffer Award for Prose, and the Aesthetica Creative Works competition, as well as shortlisting for the Bridport Prize twice and being published in a variety of UK magazines. Louise lives with her husband and children on the outskirts of Hull – the UK’s 2017 City of Culture – and loves her job as a Front of House Usher at Hull Truck Theatre, where her first play was performed in 2012. She is also part of the Mums’ Army on Lizzie and Carl’s BBC Radio Humberside Breakfast Show. This is her first book, based on her experience with her own daughter’s diagnosis and the true story of her grandfather, Colin. She has beautiful photos to support!

Your novel How To Be Brave is based on a true story – or at least, a series of true stories. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
When my ten-year-old daughter Katy, who has Type 1 Diabetes, began rejecting her life-saving insulin injections it was a horrendous time for all of us.  I had no idea what to do.  Then I began telling her stories in exchange for her having an injection.  When we ran out of tales, I told her the true story of my grandfather, a merchant seaman called Colin Armitage, who was lost at sea for fifty days during the war.  His bravery inspired Katy’s and she has never rejected her regime since.  In the novel I created a fictional mum and daughter, but I tried to stick to the truth when telling Colin’s amazing story.

Was it difficult to use personal experiences, or did it make the writing easier?
It was incredibly emotional.  I faced many tears that I hadn’t realised I’d kept bottled up since Katy was diagnosed with her condition.  It made the writing therefore both easier (since the material was so close to my heart) and harder (for the same reason.)

Guest Post: Ideas and Inspirations behind A Question of Betrayal by Zoe Miller

Today it's my pleasure to welcome Zoe Miller back to the blog to kick off the blog tour for her latest book A Question of Betrayal which was published last Thursday.

I’ve stopped panicking when I hear some writers announce that ideas for the next book stream into their head while they’re halfway through writing their current book. I know by now that I need to have a book all wrapped up and consigned to the care of my editor before I can start thinking about the next. Besides, I’m usually so drained after typing ‘The End’ that I need time to recharge the writing batteries. I’ve come to trust in the process and know that happily enough, I’m never waiting too long for new ideas to arrive or characters to appear - they usually spill into that space between sending off a script and waiting to hear word back from the editor.

And so it was that on a holiday in the Algarve, shortly after sending in book six, I was relaxing on a sun lounger reading a newspaper article when I felt the familiar tingle that many writers will identify with - the tingle that announces the flicker of an idea for a story. It’s something that flutters through your veins, images that flit through your head, and with that comes a kind of recognition, as though you already know that you will be spending a lot of time with this germ of idea in the coming months, teasing it out and unravelling what it really means.

Cover Reveal: The Second Love of my Life by Victoria Walters

Today it's my pleasure to share with you the cover for Victoria Walter's debut novel The Second Love of My Life which is being published by Headline next April.  So without further ado... here is the gorgeous cover.

In the small Cornish town of Talting, everyone is known for something.

Up to the age of twenty-four, artist Rose Walker was known for lots of things: her infectious positivity; her unique artistic talent; her second-to-none cookery skills; and, of course, her devotion to childhood sweetheart and husband Lucas.

Emma's Guest Review: Lucy Cruickshanks - The Road to Rangoon

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

In 1980s Burma, the British ambassador's son goes missing.

Discovered in the north of the country, Michael Atwood is in imminent danger, trapped between sides fighting a bitter civil war and with no way of getting back to Rangoon. His best hope of salvation is to trust Thuza, a ruby smuggler who offers to help him escape.Beautiful and deeply scarred, Thuza has spent her entire life in a frontier town between rebel and government forces, never choosing a side but trying to make a living from both. For Thuza, the ambassador's son is her ticket out of poverty. For Than, an ambitious military officer, exploiting those caught up in the war offers an opportunity for promotion and distinction.

But as all three learn to their cost, in this exotic, enigmatic and savage country, everyone has a price.

Amazon links: Kindle or Hardcover

Author Interview: Caroline Grace-Cassidy

Today I'm joined by author Caroline Grace-Cassidy so that we can find out a little bit more about her latest book Already Taken which has recently been published. 

Can you tell us a little bit about your latest book Already Taken?
This is my 4th and darkest novel to date. I moved away from romantic fiction on this one and I took a look at how growing up with an alcoholic parent can impact the rest of your adult life through my main character Kate Walsh – the book is split around two main characters the other being Englishman Hugh Clover – Hugh made a single mistake and it ruined and is ruining his life. I wanted to see what would happen when two very broken people find each other.

When Kate was twelve years old and escaping the smell of vomit and screaming in her home she snuck into the local cinema. One day she saw Flashdance and the film had such an enormous impact on her that for the rest of her life she sees images from it. 

Eventually she dragged herself to a dance class and it was the greatest freeing thing she ever did. Dance changed her life. 

Hugh escapes London and his huge mistake to Dublin to hide out. He meets Kate while still doing shocking things in Dublin. When he eventually confided she should run but she doesn’t – she’s tired of running. She sticks it out and helps him. 

Describe Kate in three words? 
Loyal, bitter, hopeful.

Emma's Guest Review: Caroline Finnerty - My Sister's Child

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

My Sister's Child is the story of two sisters, and one huge question. 

Jo is the elder sister, responsible and hardworking. Isla is carefree and has always avoided being tied down. The sisters have always had a strained relationship, but when Isla asks Jo for something that rocks the very foundations of the family that Jo has worked so hard to have, she is horrified. And, as Isla persists in her pleas, Jo fears she will lose the one thing she holds most dearly. 

Thought-provoking and compelling, this is a layered and moving story of sisterhood, love and lies and the finely-woven link between nature and nurture that will challenge the way you think about motherhood.

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Guest Book Review: Tasmina Perry - The Last Kiss Goodbye

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Everyone remembers their first kiss. But what about the last?

1961. Journalist Rosamund Bailey is ready to change the world. When she meets explorer and man about town Dominic Blake, she realises she has found the love of her life. Just as happiness is in their grasp, the worst happens, and their future is snatched away.

2014. Deep in the vaults of a museum, archivist Abby Morgan stumbles upon a breathtaking find. A faded photograph of a man saying goodbye to the woman he loves. Looking for a way to escape her own heartache, Abby becomes obsessed with the story, little realising that behind the image frozen in time lies a secret altogether more extraordinary.

Amazon links: Kindle or Hardcover

Guest Book Review: Alison Jean Lester - Lillian on Life

Reviewed by Danielle Pullen

Lillian, a single, well-travelled woman of a certain age, wakes up next to her married lover and looks back at her life. It's not at all the life she expected.

Walking the unpaved road between traditional and modern options for women, Lillian has grappled with parental disappointment, society's expectations and the vagaries of love and sex. As a narrator she's bold and witty, and her reflections - from 'On Getting to Sex' to 'On the Importance of Big Pockets' or 'On Leaving in Order to Stay' - reverberate originally and unpredictably.

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Author Interview: Caroline Finnerty

Today it's my absolute pleasure to welcome author Caroline Finnerty back to the blog so that we can find out a little more about her latest book My Sister's Child which was published last month.

Can you tell us a little bit about your latest book My Sister's Child?  
My Sister's Child is the story of two sisters, and one huge question. Jo is the elder sister, responsible and hardworking. Isla is carefree and has always avoided being tied down. The sisters have always had a strained relationship, but when Isla asks Jo for something that rocks the very foundations of the family that Jo has worked so hard to have, she is horrified. And, as Isla persists in her pleas, Jo fears she will lose the one thing she holds most dearly. The story deals with the very finely-woven link between nature and nurture and I hope it will challenge the way you think about motherhood.

Where did the inspiration come from to write about infertility?
I was reading an article about donor-assisted conception and about how quite often it is a close family member who acts as the donor which must throw up a huge range of emotions for everyone involved. At the same time I also wanted to write a story about sisters - two sisters who are very different people and who had a strained relationship going back to their childhood and the story just grew from there.

How did you go about researching egg donation to enable you to write this story?  
I started off researching on the internet and reading the experiences of people who had been through it from both sides i.e. both the donor and also the recipient. Then I contacted the SIMS Fertlity Clinic here in Ireland and Dr. David Walsh kindly answered my questions in regards to the technicalities of donor-assisted reproduction and also the legalities associated with it.

Describe My Sister's Child in one sentence.
My Sister's Child is the story of two sisters and one embryo.

Guest Book Review: Amanda Prowse - Three-and-a-half Heartbeats

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Grace and Tom Penderford had a strong marriage, a comfortable home in the Hertfordshire countryside, and a healthy baby girl. They were happy. They were normal.

But soon after Chloe turns three, tragedy strikes. A disease called Sepsis claims the life of their daughter, devastating their little family. The Penderfords had never heard of Sepsis - a cruel, indiscriminate disease that claims a life somewhere in the world every three and a half seconds. Now, with their world crumbling, they must mend each others broken hearts... and try to save their marriage if they can.

To find out more about this tragic disease, please visit www.sepsistrust.org. All the proceeds from this novel will go straight to the Sepsis Trust. By buying it, you will help in their battle to save lives. Thank you for making a difference.

Amazon link: Kindle

Author Interview: LJ Ross

Today it's my pleasure to welcome author LJ Ross to tell us a little bit about her debut novel Holy Island, which was published earlier this year, before book 2 in her DCI Ryan series Sycamore Gap is published later this month.

Louise was born and grew up in Northumberland. She completed undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Law at King's College London, where she met her husband, and she continued her studies in Paris and Florence. After spending most of her twenties working in the City as a lawyer, she began to feel it was time for change.

After the birth of her son, she wrote the first draft of Holy Island, having been inspired by the atmospheric beauty of the real island of Lindisfarne, a place she knew well from childhood. Following its success in reaching the coveted #1 spot, she now writes full-time. The second book in her series of DCI Ryan novels, Sycamore Gap, showcases another part of the region: this time, Hadrian's Wall country.

She lives with her husband and son in the South of England, but visits Northumberland regularly, where she enjoys walking and building sandcastles on the beach with her son and reading other people's books! She likes to travel and spend time with good friends and family, dancing to 80's music (singing, badly...), watching old black-and-white movies, drinking coffee and eating cake.

Detective Chief Inspector Ryan retreats to Holy Island seeking sanctuary when he is forced to take sabbatical leave from his duties as a homicide detective. A few days before Christmas, his peace is shattered and he is thrust back into the murky world of murder when a young woman is found dead amongst the ancient ruins of the nearby Priory. 

When former local girl Dr Anna Taylor arrives back on the island as a police consultant, old memories swim to the surface making her confront her difficult past. She and Ryan struggle to work together to hunt a killer who hides in plain sight, while pagan ritual and small-town politics muddy the waters of their investigation. 

Murder and mystery are peppered with a sprinkling of romance and humour in this fast-paced crime whodunnit set on the spectacular Northumbrian island of Lindisfarne, cut off from the English mainland by a tidal causeway. 

Can you tell us a little bit about your debut novel Holy Island?
Holy Island is a suspense mystery with a sprinkling of romance and humour, set off the spectacular coastline of Northumberland on the real life island of Lindisfarne. The island is cut off from the mainland twice a day, which creates an atmospheric feeling of being wrapped up in the island’s small community, where everyone is truly a suspect. The main protagonist, DCI Ryan, is spending his sabbatical on the island after a recent traumatic event but is called to duty again when a young local woman is found dead up at the nearby priory ruins. Ritual practices muddy the waters of his investigation, but with the help of his team of police staff and Doctor Anna Taylor – former local girl and expert consultant – they uncover the truth behind the veil. 

What three words would you use to describe DCI Ryan? 
Dedicated, complex and a little bit sexy. 

What attracted you to writing in the crime/mystery genre?  
Without a doubt, the beauty of my home county of Northumberland inspired me to write a mystery novel. The countryside up there is so dramatic and beautiful; it simply lends itself to all manner of dark deeds!

Guest Book Review: Joanna Barnard - Precocious

Reviewed by Danielle Pullen

There are some lessons you shouldn't learn in school...Fiona Palmer is (un)happily married when a chance meeting with her former teacher plunges her headlong into an affair. Intercut with the realities of their adult relationship, Fiona remembers first meeting the enigmatic Henry Morgan as a precocious and lonely fourteen-year-old. Her schoolgirl crush developed into an intense relationship, but it was always one which she controlled.  Or did she? 

Amazon links: Kindle or Hardcover

Guest Book Review: Cressida McLaughlin - Raincoats and Retrievers

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

It’s autumn and Primrose Terrace has never looked lovelier. But things are far from rosy for the Barker’s at No.6. Cat’s been walking their pair of gorgeous Golden Retrievers and she’s noticed that things are distinctly chilly between owners Juliette and Will. For Cat, things are coming to a head with Mark, but is he the right man for her? Especially as she is getting closer to flatmate Joe. Cat thinks she must be able to do something to stop autumn falling on the Barker’s marriage, but is there anything she can do to resolve her feelings about Mark?

Amazon link: Kindle

Debut Spotlight: Ayisha Malik

It's publication day for today's debut spotlight guest Ayisha Malik and her debut novel Sofia Khan is Not Obliged which is the first title in a brand new imprint from Bonnier, called Twenty7, which only publishes work by debut novelist, first in ebook and later in paperback.

Ayisha is a British Muslim, lifelong Londoner, and lover of books. She read English Literature at Kingston University and went on to complete an MA in Creative Writing (though told most of her family it was an MA in English Literature – Creative Writing is not a subject, after all.)

She has spent various spells teaching, photocopying, volunteering and being a publicist. Now, when she isn’t searching for a jar of Nutella in her cupboards, she divides her time between writing, being an editor, and studying.

Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged is Ayisha’s debut novel. @Ayisha_Malik  

'Brilliant idea! Excellent! Muslim dating? Well, I had no idea you were allowed to date.' Then he leaned towards me and looked at me sympathetically. 'Are your parents quite disappointed?'

Unlucky in love once again after her sort-of-boyfriend/possible-marriage-partner-to-be proves a little too close to his parents, Sofia Khan is ready to renounce men for good. Or at least she was, until her boss persuades her to write a tell-all expose about the Muslim dating scene.

As her woes become her work, Sofia must lean on the support of her brilliant friends, baffled colleagues and baffling parents as she seeks stories for her book. But in amongst the marriage-crazy relatives, racist tube passengers and polygamy-inclined friends, could there be a lingering possibility that she might just be falling in love . . . ?

Can you tell us a little bit about your debut novel Sofia Khan is Not Obliged? What prompted you to start writing it? 
A mixture of being bored with the way Muslims are constantly portrayed in the media and hearing so many bonkers stories about Muslim dating. Not only are single Muslim women (and men, I guess) trying to find a partner with whom they can share their life within these cultural limitations, but they’re also having to explain that they don’t believe in terrorism, forced marriages and yes, are particular about the meat they eat. There’s a sense of this constant justification and explanation – whether it’s to the outside world about the aforementioned or family about your state of single-ness. I thought it’d be good to intertwine the two in a light-hearted way. My aim was to create a strong Muslim character that challenged common misconceptions (no, we’re not oppressed) who was relatable – I wanted the fact that she’s Muslim to become almost incidental. It’s also a bit of a tribute to London – I’m not sure there’s anywhere else in the world where the things that happen in this story, would actually happen.  

How much research into online Muslim dating did you have to do to enable you to write about that element of the storyline? 
A fair bit, actually. I did join marriage/dating websites and it all proved very useful for the end product. 

Are any of the dates featured in the book based on your own experiences of dating?
It’d be indelicate for me to say! (Although the above kind of already gives it away.) But of course life informs fiction. That’s why we write. 

Guest Book Review: Dinah Jefferies - The Tea Planter's Wife

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Distant and brooding, Laurence spends long days wrapped up in his work, leaving his young bride to explore the plantation alone. It's a place filled with clues to the past - locked doors, a yellowed wedding dress in a dusty trunk, an overgrown grave hidden in the grounds, far too small for an adult...

Gwen soon falls pregnant and her husband is overjoyed, but she has little time to celebrate. In the delivery room the new mother is faced with a terrible choice, one she knows no one in her upper class set will understand - least of all Laurence. Forced to bury a secret at the heart of her marriage, Gwen is more isolated than ever. When the time comes, how will her husband ever understand what she has done?

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