Giveaway: Win a copy of A Hundred Pieces of Me by Lucy Dillon

One of the books that has been sat waiting patiently on my Kindle for me to read was A Hundred Pieces of Me by Lucy Dillon and having recently finished reading it I'm kicking myself that I did not read it sooner!

As well as receiving an ecopy of the book I was also sent a paperback copy so I've decided to offer it up as a giveaway prize for one of my followers to round off this publisher feature week.

Letters from the only man she's ever truly loved.
A keepsake of the father she never really knew.
A blue glass vase that catches the light on a grey day.

Guest Book Review: Louise Walters - Mrs Sinclair's Suitcase

Reviewed by Danielle Pullen

Forgive me, Dorothea, for I cannot forgive you. What you do, to this child, to this child's mother, it is wrong...

Roberta likes to collect the letters and postcards she finds in second-hand books. When her father gives her some of her grandmother's belongings, she finds a baffling letter from the grandfather she never knew - dated after he supposedly died in the war.

Dorothy is unhappily married to Albert, who is away at war. When an aeroplane crashes in the field behind her house she meets Squadron Leader Jan Pietrykowski, and as their bond deepens she dares to hope she might find happiness. But fate has other plans for them both, and soon she is hiding a secret so momentous that its shockwaves will touch her granddaughter many years later...

Amazon links: Kindle or Hardcover

Guest Post: Robert Bruce: Man vs Myth by Robyn Young

Today I have something a little different for you, a fascinating guest piece by historical fiction author Robyn Young about Robert Bruce who her Insurrection trilogy revolves around. 

For all his power on the stage of history; for the prominent role he played and his impact on a nation – a nation that, this month at Bannockburn, will celebrate one of his greatest victories seven hundred years on – Robert Bruce remains an enigma.

There are many gaps in our knowledge of him, long periods of silence in the records, which are also littered with contradictions and discrepancies. We still don’t, for certain, where he was born. Writtle in Essex, where his family owned lands, has claimed him as their son, as has Turnberry in Scotland. It is an appropriate split given Robert’s early career during the Wars of Independence, shifting his allegiance back and forth between Scotland and England, fighting at various moments alongside both William Wallace and Edward I. His early life is virtually unknown and can only be glimpsed by looking through the murky windows of what we know about the childhoods of the nobility during this era. We don’t know what his relationships with his family were like – his mother and father, his four brothers and five sisters, his powerful grandfather, who competed for the throne in the wake of the death of King Alexander III. We can only read between the lines to get the merest sense of what they might have been like – the potential fractures, the possible connections. 

Books Read: Christina Hopkinson - The A-List Family

Imagine a world where your bikini body has to last all year.

Where paparazzi turn up for the school run.

Where EVERYBODY knows your name, and your eight-year-old daughter's.

Welcome to everyday life in an A-List Family.

Newly employed to look after the daughter of a super-rich and famous power couple, Anna is about to find out what life is really like behind the closed doors of celebrity. And soon she starts to wonder: once you're in, can you get out?

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Guest Book Review: Antonia Hodgson - The Devil in the Marshalsea

Reviewed by Louise Wykes

London, 1727 - and Tom Hawkins is about to fall from his heaven of card games, brothels and coffee-houses into the hell of a debtors' prison.

The Marshalsea is a savage world of its own, with simple rules: those with family or friends who can lend them a little money may survive in relative comfort. Those with none will starve in squalor and disease. And those who try to escape will suffer a gruesome fate at the hands of the gaol's rutheless governor and his cronies.

The trouble is, Tom Hawkins has never been good at following rules - even simple ones. And the recent grisly murder of a debtor, Captain Roberts, has brought further terror to the gaol. While the Captain's beautiful widow cries for justice, the finger of suspicion points only one way: to the sly, enigmatic figure of Samuel Fleet.

Some call Fleet a devil, a man to avoid at all costs. But Tom Hawkins is sharing his cell. Soon, Tom's choice is clear: get to the truth of the murder - or be the next to die.

Amazon links: Kindle or Hardback 

Guest Post: Creating characters – a snapshot of literary life being formed by Julia Stagg

Today as part of this feature week I'm delighted to welcome back to the blog Julia Stagg, author of the Fogas Chronicles, the latest of which A Fête to Remember is published as a paperback on 3rd July.  Julia has very kindly written an interesting piece for us about creating characters so enjoy...

Anyone who’s read any of the Fogas Chronicles will know my books are filled with characters and I’m often asked how they come to life. The answer isn’t a simple one. Because for me, the process of giving birth to a new fictional entity seems to be different every time.

Take for example, Fabian Servat, who arrives in book two of the Fogas Chronicles (The Parisian’s Return). He was actually conceived two years before he made it onto the page. In fact, he was the catalyst that triggered the series. Out riding my bike on a beautifully sunny day in the Pyrenees where I lived at the time, I passed a field that contained a sturdy, cantankerous Limousin bull. Struck by the attitude of the beast, I remember thinking that I wouldn’t want to confront him, especially wearing a flimsy armour of lycra. And there, before my eyes, Fabian was born. I could see him in the field, a gangling, awkward man, thin frame dressed in cycling kit as he flapped his hands ineffectively at the angry bovine that was getting ready to charge.

Giveaway: Win a signed copy of The Travelling Tea Shop by Belinda Jones

Last week I had an amazing day out in London attending the joint launch party for Belinda Jones' latest novel The Travelling Tea Shop and Sunlounger 2, a fabulous collection of short stories by some of the best fiction writers around which is being published soon.

I had already been planning a giveaway for a copy of The Travelling Tea Shop as part of this Hodder & Stoughton feature week but as I was meeting Belinda in person I was able to get her to sign the book for the lucky winner ;)

A delectable tale of love, friendship and cake...

Laurie loves a challenge. Especially if it involves tea-time and travel. So when British baking treasure Pamela Lambert-Leigh needs a guide on a research trip for her new cookbook, she jumps at the chance.

Guest Book Review: Nick Spalding - Love... Under Different Skies

Reviewed by Janine Cobain

Sometimes, the hardest part of staying together is keeping a straight face...

Ever wish you could leave all your problems behind and make a fresh start somewhere else? Trade the stresses and strains of everyday life for your own slice of sun-kissed paradise on the other side of the world?

Jamie and Laura Newman certainly have. 

When Jamie's spectacular meltdown at work results in him being handed his P45, and Laura finds her working days end up with her rugby tackling defenceless pensioners in the high street, a move ten thousand miles away sounds ideal. After all, it might mend some of the cracks that have appeared in their marriage over the past few months...

So when Laura is offered a new job in Australia, the Newman family think their dreams have come true. But as the old saying goes - be careful what you wish for, you might just get it. As the hapless couple soon find out, problems have a way of following you, no matter how far you go to avoid them. 

Can love survive under different skies?

 Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback  

Books Read: Ali Knight: Until Death

Marriage is a prison for Kelly. Her controlling and manipulative husband Christos videos her in the house, has her followed and tracks her every move. She may be desperate to leave, but she's not stupid. If she runs, he'll make sure she never sees her children again.

Christos has a mistress, Sylvie, keen to pander to his every whim and even keener to step into Kelly's shoes, should she ever vacate them.

Kelly thinks it's stalemate for their twisted threesome, but one of Christos's container ships is about to dock in London with a secret cargo that will change all their lives forever.

If Kelly is to escape, it will be in a way she never imagined, and people will get hurt...

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Author Interview: Ali Knight

This morning as part of the feature week I'm delighted to welcome Ali Knight to have a chat about her latest book Until Death which was published last month and I'll be reviewing later.

Can you tell us a little bit about your latest book Until Death?
It’s about a mother who’s desperate to leave a bad marriage, a mistress who’s very keen to take her place, and a husband who will stop at nothing to get exactly what he wants. It deals with the violent emotions that are triggered by rejection, it’s about how we recover from the mistakes we make in life and how far people will go to create their happy ever after. It deals with identity, love and loss, with plenty of twists, surprises and action along the way. 

Where did the inspiration come from to write about a wife trapped in a loveless marriage by a controlling husband? 
It’s NOT based on my own marriage! My ideas come from anywhere and everywhere. Writing about the dark side of marriage was something I wanted to do, and I was keen to explore a setting (in this case a penthouse flat above St Pancras Station where a lot of the action in the book takes place) that was confined and claustrophobic. It’s a great contrast to the freedom and activity of the city below.

Guest Book Review: Martine Bailey - An Appetite for Violets

Reviewed by Sarah Brew

That's how it is for us servants. No one pays you much heed; mostly you're invisible as furniture. Yet you overhear a conversation here, and add a little gossip there. A writing desk lies open and you cannot help but read a paper. Then you find something, something you should not have found.

Irrepressible Biddy Leigh, under-cook at the foreboding Mawton Hall, only wants to marry her childhood sweetheart and set up her own tavern. But when her elderly master marries the young Lady Carinna, Biddy is unwittingly swept up in a world of scheming, secrets and lies. 

Forced to accompany her new mistress to Italy, Biddy takes with her an old household book of recipes, The Cook's Jewel, in which she records her observations. When she finds herself embroiled in a murderous conspiracy, Biddy realises that the secrets she holds could be the key to her survival - or her downfall...

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Debut Spotlight: Martine Bailey

Today is the start of another publisher feature week, this time for Hodder & Stoughton, where the intention is to try and catch up with some of the outstanding reviews of books that they have sent me as well as including features with some of their authors.

First up is a debut spotlight with one of their newest authors Martine Bailey whose first novel An Appetite for Violets was published last Thursday, followed by a guest review later today for the book.

Inspired by eighteenth-century household books of recipes, An Appetite for Violets allowed Martine to indulge in her obsessions with food, history and travel. As an amateur cook, Martine won the Merchant Gourmet Recipe Challenge and was a former UK Dessert Champion, cooking at Le Meurice in Paris. In pursuit of authenticity she has studied with food historian Ivan Day and experienced Georgian food and fashion at firsthand with an historic re-enactment society.

Martine lives in Cheshire, England after recently returning from a 20-month stay in New Zealand. She is married with one son and is currently writing a second historical novel.

That's how it is for us servants. No one pays you much heed; mostly you're invisible as furniture. Yet you overhear a conversation here, and add a little gossip there. A writing desk lies open and you cannot help but read a paper. Then you find something, something you should not have found. 

Irrepressible Biddy Leigh, undercook at the forbidding Mawton Hall,can't wait to settle down with her sweetheart and set up her own tavern. But when her elderly master marries the young, enigmatic Lady Carinna, Biddy is unwittingly swept up in a world of scheming, secrets and lies.