Emma's Review: A Beautiful Rival by Gill Paul

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

The world is at war, but on the gilded streets of Fifth Avenue, New York, a battle of a different kind is brewing…

New York, 1915.

Elizabeth Arden has been New York’s golden girl since her beauty salon opened its famous red door five years prior. Against all odds, she’s built an empire.

Enter Helena Rubinstein: ruthless, revolutionary – and the rival Elizabeth didn’t bargain for.

With both women determined to succeed – no matter the personal cost – a battle of beauty is born. And as the stakes increase, so do the methods: poaching employees, planting spies, copying products, hiring ex-husbands.

But as each woman climbs higher, so too does what she stands to lose.

Because the greater the height, the harder the fall…

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: The Manhattan Girls by Gill Paul

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

NEW YORK CITY, 1921

An impossible dream. 
The war is over, the twenties are roaring, but in the depths of the city that never sleeps, Dorothy Parker is struggling to make her mark in a man’s world.

A broken woman. 
She’s penniless, she’s unemployed and her marriage is on the rocks when she starts a bridge group with three extraordinary women – but will they be able to save her from herself?

A fight for survival. 
When tragedy strikes, and everything Dorothy holds dear is threatened, it’s up to Peggy, Winifred and Jane to help her confront the truth before it’s too late. Because the stakes may be life or death…

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Giveaway: Win a copy of The Second Marriage by Gill Paul

Today it's the penultimate day on the blog tour for Gill Paul's latest novel The Second Marriage, a fictional historical romance featuring two iconic ladies Jackie Kennedy and Maria Callas. 

Sadly due to an unforeseen family emergency Emma has been unable to review today as planned, she's a huge fan of Gill's historical novels so I know she was looking forward to reading this one, so her review will follow at a later date. Instead I have decided to run a giveaway offering followers of the blog the chance to win an ecopy of the book (sadly open to UK residents only due to the restrictions on the Gift an eBook option on Amazon).  

JACKIE

When her first marriage ends in tragedy, Jackie Kennedy fears she’ll never love again. But all that changes when she encounters…

ARI

Successful and charming, Ari Onassis is a man who promises her the world. Yet soon after they marry, Jackie learns that his heart also belongs to another…

MARIA

A beautiful, famed singer, Maria Callas is in love with Jackie’s new husband – and she isn’t going to give up.

Emma's Review: The Lost Daughter by Gill Paul

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

1918
With the country they once ruled turned against them, the future of Russia's imperial family hangs in the balance. When middle daughter Maria Romanova captivates two of the guards, it will lead to a fateful choice between right and wrong.

Fifty-five years later . . .
Val rushes to her father's side when she hears of his troubling end-of-life confession: 'I didn't want to kill her.' As she unravels the secrets behind her mother's disappearance when she was twelve years old, she finds herself caught up in one of the world's greatest mysteries.

Amazon Affiliate Links: Kindle or Paperback

Author Interview: Emma interviews Gill Paul

Today I'm handing the blog over to Emma to interview bestselling author Gill Paul about her latest book Another Woman's Husband which Emma recently reviewed here.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your writing journey? 
Another Woman’s Husband is my seventh published novel. I feel incredibly, unbelievably lucky to find myself in this position, but it took a lot of trial and error to get here. I started and abandoned loads of novels in my twenties and early thirties before joining an excellent creative writing group called WritingSpace, run by a woman called Carol Cornish. The novel I wrote under her guidance became the first one to be published. It wasn’t plain sailing, though, because my first two novels didn’t sell very well so I didn’t get a deal for a third. I wrote non-fiction for a while before I had the idea for my Titanic novel Women and Children First and managed to get a deal from Avon, which took me back into fiction again. Champagne corks were pinging around that day, let me tell you!

The publication of Another Woman's Husband is very timely considering it is the anniversary year of Princess Diana's death. Did you feel the weight of expectation when writing the book as Diana meant so much to so many people?
I was concerned not to cause distress to any friends or relatives of Diana’s. Her death is so recent that she is in the living memory of many, and that puts additional pressure on anyone writing about her. I decided not to make her a character in the novel as such, but to write about the historical phenomenon of the public reaction to her death. One character, Alex, is a TV producer who is researching the conspiracy theories around it, while his fiancé Rachel thinks the poor woman should be left in peace and can’t understand the mass public grieving.

Emma's Review: Another Woman's Husband by Gill Paul

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Two women who challenged the Crown.
Divided by time. Bound by a secret...

1911
At the age of fifteen, carefree Mary Kirk and indomitable Wallis Warfield meet at summer camp. Their friendship will survive heartbreaks, separation and the demands of the British Crown until it is shattered by one unforgivable betrayal.

1997
Rachel's romantic break in Paris with her fiancé ends in tragedy when the car ahead crashes. Inside was Princess Diana. Back in Brighton, Rachel is haunted by the accident, and intrigued to learn the princess had visited the last home of Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, only hours before the crash. Soon, the discovery of a long-forgotten link to Wallis Simpson leads Rachel to the truth behind a scandal that shook the world...

Amazon Links: Kindle or Hardcover

Emma's Review: The Secret Wife by Gill Paul

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Love. Guilt. Heartbreak.

1914

Russia is on the brink of collapse, and the Romanov family faces a terrifyingly uncertain future. Grand Duchess Tatiana has fallen in love with cavalry officer Dmitri, but events take a catastrophic turn, placing their romance – and their lives – in danger . . .

2016

Kitty Fisher escapes to her great-grandfather’s remote cabin in America, after a devastating revelation makes her flee London. There, on the shores of Lake Akanabee, she discovers the spectacular jewelled pendant that will lead her to a long-buried family secret . . .

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback 

Guest Book Review: Gill Paul - No Place for a Lady

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

IN WARTIME, THE RULES OF LOVE CHANGE … 

1854. Britain is fighting a gruesome war. 

There has been no news of Lucy Gray since she eloped with handsome and impetuous Captain Charlie Harvington and embarked with him to the Crimea. 

Dorothea Gray will risk anything to heal the rift with her little sister and bring her home safe. She determines to join Florence Nightingale and the other courageous women travelling to the battlefield hospitals as nurses. 

She will not rest until she finds her sister.

Lucy, however, is on a very different journey, a journey through tragedy, trauma and true love. 

But neither sister is prepared for the challenges they will face, the passion they will each taste and the simple fact that they might never see one another again …

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Author Interview: Gill Paul

Today it's my pleasure to welcome Gill Paul to the blog to talk about her latest book No Place for a Lady, published as an eBook this Thursday and as a paperback next month.  Emma's review of No Place For A Lady will be uploaded this afternoon but first she asked Gill a few questions about the book and her writing so enjoy.

IN WARTIME, THE RULES OF LOVE CHANGE … 

1854. Britain is fighting a gruesome war. 

There has been no news of Lucy Gray since she eloped with handsome and impetuous Captain Charlie Harvington and embarked with him to the Crimea. 

Dorothea Gray will risk anything to heal the rift with her little sister and bring her home safe. She determines to join Florence Nightingale and the other courageous women travelling to the battlefield hospitals as nurses. 

She will not rest until she finds her sister. 

Lucy, however, is on a very different journey, a journey through tragedy, trauma and true love. 

But neither sister is prepared for the challenges they will face, the passion they will each taste and the simple fact that they might never see one another again… 

Can you give us a brief outline of your latest novel No Place for a Lady?
I like throwing my characters in at the deep end, so I’ve put two middle-class English ladies, Lucy and Dorothea, in the midst of the brutal Crimean War of 1854-6. They are sisters, who have fallen out after Lucy married a handsome cavalry captain, Charlie, so that she could accompany him to the war. Terrified for Lucy’s safety, Dorothea volunteers to work out there as a nurse, hoping to find and protect her much younger sister. Of course, neither has any idea how awful it will prove to be, or quite how much danger they will be in.

How much research had you to do into the Crimea and the war before you could start writing the novel?
I have to admit that I knew hardly anything about the Crimean War two  years ago, so the answer is LOTS. I started by reading all the first-hand accounts of women who were there, then moved on to general histories, and just kept reading until I felt I wasn’t learning anything new any more – which took about six months.

Were there any interesting or unusual facts you discovered during your research?
Loads. Perhaps one of the most surprising things is that the hospital Florence Nightingale established in Constantinople had a much higher death rate than any other hospitals out there. We think of her as the person who introduced the concept of cleanliness and order to hospital wards, but in February 1855, a staggering 52% of men admitted to her hospital died, much to her despair. When a Sanitary Commission was sent out from England to investigate, they found that the hospital was situated on an open cesspool with the remains of a decomposing horse in the waterpipe. Not ideal for men with hideous open wounds…

Guest Book Review: Gill Paul - The Affair

Reviewed by Lisa Bentley

Rome 1961. As the camera rolls on the film set of Cleopatra, the Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton love affair is about to capture the world’s attention.

When Diana Bailey arrives on set to begin work as a historical advisor, tensions are running high. The film is in financial crisis and a media storm is brewing over the Taylor-Burton relationship.

As Diana adjusts to a new life away from her troubled marriage, she strikes up a close friendship with Helen, a young make-up artist, and seeks solace in Ernesto, a charismatic member of the film crew. But Helen is harbouring a dark secret of her own, one that will affect Diana in more ways than she could ever imagine…