Spotlight Book: The Wedding That Changed Everything

I'll be throwing one of my books into the spotlight each month during 2022 and next up is The Wedding That Changed Everything.

Love happens when you least expect it…

Emily Atkinson stopped believing in fairy tales a long time ago! She’s fed up of dating frogs in order to find her very own Prince Charming and is giving up on men entirely…

But then she’s invited to the wedding of the year at the enchanting Durban Castle and realises that perhaps bumping into a real-life knight in shining armour isn’t quite as far away as she thought!

Will Emily survive the wedding and walk away an unscathed singleton – or finally find her own happily-ever-after?

Amazon UK | Amazon US

See more fun facts here

I like to post little 'Book Extras' (like you'd find on a DVD) for my books here on the blog, and for The Wedding That Changed Everything I put together a playlist, created a quiz and put together quick intros to some of the characters you'll meet in the book. I also kept a diary while writing the book, which you can read here

Spotlight Book: The Little Teashop of Broken Hearts

I'll be throwing one of my books into the spotlight each month during 2022 and next up is The Little Teashop of Broken Hearts

Maddie Lamington’s dreams are crumbling around her. If she doesn’t come up with a plan to save her little teashop on Sweet Street soon, it might be too late…

So when she sees how the perfect apple crumble brings together her lonely father and faithful customer Birdie, inspiration strikes: she’ll set up a dating night involving all her sweetest bakes.

Luckily, seriously gorgeous Caleb is on hand to help sprinkle a little magic – and a lot of sugar! Could one night of scrumptious first dates fix Maddie’s heartbreak and save her beloved teashop, too?

Amazon UK | Amazon US

See more fun facts here

I like to post little 'Book Extras' (like you'd find on a DVD) for my books here on the blog, and for The Little Teashop of Broken Hearts I created a Playlist and Pinterest board, put together intros to the Sweet Street team and some of the cafe's regulars, and created a quiz. I also kept a diary of writing the book, which you can see here

As well as the Book Extras here on the blog, there is also a companion ebook quick read, Six Dates which you can read for free when you sign up to my newsletter.

Not only do you get a cute rom com with Six Dates, you also get recipes for some of the delicious treats from The Little Teashop of Broken Hearts.

You can sign up to my newsletter here 

Spotlight Book: A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do

I'll be throwing one of my books into the spotlight each month during 2022 and next up is the second book in the Beginner's Guide series, A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do.

Three women. Three weddings. But who will say I do – and who will say I don’t?

Ruth can’t quite believe she’s managed to snag The One but when he proposes, she can finally accept that she’s found her happily ever after. But when Ruth finds herself booking her dream church for just six weeks away, she starts to panic. You can’t plan a whole wedding at such short notice. Can you?

Trina has only just walked down the aisle, but she’s already starting to question whether they can make their marriage work. Will they survive the honeymoon period, or have they just made a very big – and very expensive – mistake?

Erin has somehow found herself agreeing to be a bridesmaid for the tackiest wedding known to man. With drunk hens, ridiculous outfits and a terrifying wedding planner, just what has Erin signed up for?

Amazon UK | Amazon US | Signed Copies

A Beginner's Guide To Saying I do is the second book in the Beginner's Guide series, which sees Ruth planning her wedding. She had a happy-ever-after at the end of A Beginner's Guide To Salad, but will she get her happier-ever-after this time round?

See more fun facts here

I like to post little 'Book Extras' (like you'd find on a DVD) for my books here on the blog, and for A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do I created a Playlist, made cupcake wedding favours, wrote a genre-swap short story and created a quiz.

Read My Books For Free With Kindle Unlimited

Did you know that you can read eight of my romantic comedies for free with Kindle Unlimited?

There's my Beginner's Guide series, a compilation of rom com short stories and standalone books - and if you don't have Kindle Unlimited you can read them from 99p.

(The availability in Kindle Unlimited can change from time to time, so please do check before you click!)

The Books:

The Little Bed & Breakfast by the Sea

One summer can change everything…

Mae has no time for men in her life! Local vet Alfie might be totally gorgeous but she’s far too busy looking after her young daughter and running her little bed & breakfast by the sea.

Willow is in the middle of building her dream home with her husband, Ethan, when disaster strikes. And with every month that passes she secretly worries that her happy ever after will never come true…

Melody only intended to stay in the bustling seaside town for a few days. But when she meets Hugo – the charming man in the ice cream van – she decides to stay a little longer.

It seems the little bed & breakfast is full of surprises!

Amazon

A Beginner's Guide To Salad

Ruth loves nothing more than curling up in front of the telly with a family-sized bar of chocolate. She doesn’t do diets and she certainly doesn’t do exercise. But all that changes when she’s invited to her school reunion.

Bullied at school for being overweight, Ruth’s first reaction is to rip the invitation into a million pieces. But then Ruth hatches a plan. She’ll lose the weight and arrive at the reunion looking gorgeous and glamorous, leaving her old classmates in awe. Especially her former crush, Zack O’Connell.

With the help of her friends and a new, unbelievably hot colleague, Ruth begins her transformation. With six months until the reunion, losing weight will be a piece of cake, right?

Amazon

A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do

Three women. Three weddings. But who will say I do – and who will say I don’t?

Ruth can’t quite believe she’s managed to snag The One but when he proposes, she can finally accept that she’s found her happily ever after. But when Ruth finds herself booking her dream church for just six weeks away, she starts to panic. You can’t plan a whole wedding at such short notice. Can you?

Trina has only just walked down the aisle, but she’s already starting to question whether they can make their marriage work. Will they survive the honeymoon period, or have they just made a very big – and very expensive – mistake?

Erin has somehow found herself agreeing to be a bridesmaid for the tackiest wedding known to man. With drunk hens, ridiculous outfits and a terrifying wedding planner, just what has Erin signed up for?

Amazon

A Beginner's Guide To Family Life

You can choose your friends, but you're pretty much stuck with your family.

Ruth has everything she never dared to hope for: a husband who adores her, a beautiful home, and a job she can just about tolerate. And now she's having a baby. But having zero experience with babies and a pregnancy that isn't quite as blooming as the magazines claim it should be, how will she cope with this stage of her life?

Quinn loves her family, but she sometimes wishes there weren't quite so many of them living under the same roof. But is she ready to fly the nest and build a whole new one with her boyfriend?

Richard's life is pretty great, until a visitor arrives on his doorstep and turns his whole world upside down.

Three friends.

Three families.

A whole lot of drama.

Amazon

Everything Changes But You

Be careful what you wish for...

Ally Richmond is dreading turning thirty and bidding farewell to her youth. And when her husband says he wants to start a family, she begins to panic.

Is this all that life has to offer from now on? Popping out babies and growing old gracefully? She wants a life crammed with glamour and spontaneous adventure, not one full of dirty nappies and night feeds.

When Ally makes a silly birthday wish for a new, exciting life, her wish is granted.

But when Ally is presented with the freedom and opportunities she craves, she soon realises this new life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and that there really is no place like home. But can she find her way back - or is she stuck in this new reality forever?

Amazon

The Wedding Date

Will you…date me?

Delilah James, singleton and smoothie-addict, has six months to find a date for her oldest friend’s wedding. Oh, and to prove to her ex, best man Ben, that she has totally moved on since he dumped her out-of-the-blue nine months, eight days and seventeen hours ago…

So, with her two BFFs playing Cupid, Delilah launches herself into the high-tech, fast-paced and frankly terrifying world of dating. Luckily there’s the hot new guy at work, Adam Sinclair, to practice her flirting on – even if, as a colleague, he’s strictly off-limits!

Yet time’s running out and date after disastrous date forces Delilah to tell a little white lie – and invent a fake boyfriend! But will her secret crush on Adam ruin everything? Does she even care about Ben anymore? And is it too late to untangle her web of lies and take a real date to the wedding…?

Amazon

The 12 Christmases of You & Me

What if you could go back in time and fix the biggest mistake of your life?

Two years ago, Maisie’s best friend walked out of her life and she hasn’t heard from him since. When she wakes up in 1994, she naturally assumes she’s dreaming. But when she finds herself in the past again the next night and her actions in the dream alter her present-day life, she begins to wonder if she’s somehow hopping back in time. And if she is time-travelling, can she save her friendship with Jonas?

When Maisie is forced to relive Christmases of the past, will she face up to her mistakes, or make them all over again?

The 12 Christmases of You & Me is a magical tale of friendship, first loves, and learning to live in the present.

Amazon

The Perfect Winter Weekend

From heartwarming Valentine's Day romance, Halloween fun and winter meet-cutes, the bite-sized stories from rom com author Jennifer Joyce will fill you with joy.

The ten short stories include:

The Unvalentine

Thinking About You

Lost & Found

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Stuck With You

The Perfect Winter Weekend

Road Trip

The Snowman

Winter One-derland

Meet Me on the Bridge

Amazon

Happy Reading! :)

Free Short Story To Get You In The Mood For Valentine's Day

My latest newsletter will be going out on Friday and it includes a fun short romantic comedy, which I hope you'll enjoy.

As well as the short story, I'll be sharing a couple of book bargains, plus you can enter my subscriber-exclusive giveaway for the chance to win a copy of one of my books (and the winner gets to choose which one!)

If you haven't subscribed to my newsletter yet and don't want to miss out, you can sign up here - it's quick, easy and free, and you'll receive my free ebook quick read, Six Dates, which is only available to subscribers!

Spotlight Book: The Accidental Life Swap

I'll be throwing one of my books into the spotlight each month during 2022 and next up is The Accidental Life Swap

Rebecca Riley has always been a bit of a pushover. When her glamorous boss, Vanessa, asks her to jump, she doesn’t just ask how high… she asks if her boss would like her to grab a coffee on the way back down!

So whilst overseeing the renovation of Vanessa’s beautiful countryside home, the last thing Rebecca ever expected was to be mistaken for her boss – or that she would even consider going along with it! Far away from the bustling city and her boss’s demanding ways, could she pretend to be Vanessa and swap lives, just for a little while?

Amazon UK | Amazon US

See more fun facts here

I like to post little 'Book Extras' (like you'd find on a DVD) for my books here on the blog, and for The Accidental Life Swap I created a Playlist, put together quick intros to some of the characters you'll meet in the book, blogged about my favourite board games and false identity in films, and posted the book in pictures.

Five Writing Tips

Last week, I shared my writing goals for 2022 and I thought I'd follow that up with five writing tips that I've learned along the way while writing 15 books, which I'm sure I'll be putting into practice over the next year!

I first discovered this method of writing back in 2017. It was the school summer holidays and I was in a bit of a writing slump, so getting the words down was tough. But I found setting a 15 minute timer and only having to write during that short burst (with no distractions or looking up stuff on Google) really helpful. Having only 15 minutes to write feels less daunting and it takes the pressure off.

I've used this method loads of times since and I usually get around 400 words down. I then repeat the timer a few times during the day and I end up clocking up a decent word count for the day.

You can see my original blog post about it here

I find the Read Aloud function on Word really helpful when it comes to the latter stages of a book. Our brains can trick us into reading what we think is supposed to be on the screen, but having a voice reading out what I've written helps to make any mistakes jump out. 

I blogged about the Read Aloud function here

Having trouble thinking of names for your characters? I put together a list of five fun ways to name characters to stop you from staring at your laptop in frustration.

So you have names for your characters, but what makes them tick?

I shared three ways to get to know your characters while planning my twelfth book.

I like setting myself goals when writing - even if they're only loose 'work on Book 15 during January' types ones. It helps to keep me on track and stops me getting too lazy.

I also like to mark milestones - the start of a new book, 10,000 words, The End, etc - as I find these help to keep me motivated.

I blogged about setting goals and marking milestones here

I hope you find my writing tips useful. If you have any tips of your own, feel free to share them in the comments below :)

The Fear and The Self-Doubt of Writing

There was a lot of fear the first time I filled in Amazon's KDP sections to self-publish my first novel, A Beginner's Guide To Salad. What if I'd messed up the ebook formatting and people bought a mushed-up mess of a book? Worse, what if I hadn't messed up the formatting and people read the book but hated it. Even worse than that: what if nobody bought the book at all?

Mixed in with The Fear was The Self-Doubt, which was pointing out - rather loudly - that I'd be better off not putting myself out there at all. I feared failing as a writer, but there would be no chance of failing if I didn't publish my book.

But there would also be no chance of success. Nobody could read the book and Ruth's story would have to be shelved and I really, really wanted her story to be out there. I'd loved writing the book. Loved getting to know the characters. And I wanted others to love them too, and they wouldn't if they remained stuck on my laptop forever.

So I published the book. Six people bought copies that first day. I thought that would probably be it, but slowly, the numbers rose. People left reviews and while not every book is going to hit every reader, the feedback suggested they'd enjoyed it on the whole. It's eight years to the day since I tapped on the publish button and there are 142 ratings on Amazon, with 87% being five or four stars. I've since published the paperback as well as releasing two more books in the Beginner's Guide series. And my writing hasn't stopped there: I've been published by HarperCollins and have self-published two more books outside of the Beginner's Guide series plus a short story compilation. I'm currently working on Book 15.

There are days when there is still the fear and the self-doubt about my writing, but I don't let them win and I definitely don't feel like a failure.

My Writing Goals 2022

 

Last year, I set myself 5 writing goals for the year and it went so well, I've decided to set myself five more for this year.

I'm being kind to myself this year and have kept my goals quite simple and lowkey. I'm not putting too much pressure on myself as I find this can be counterproductive. I want to enjoy my writing and feeling stressed about it trying to meet self-imposed goals doesn't allow this. If I reach my goals - great! If I don't, I'll have something to aim for next year.

So here are my goals for the next twelve months:

I've already started working on Draft 2 of Book 15 and I'm really enjoying it, which is a good start to the year. Book 13 is a festive story, so I'm hoping to publish that later in the year and I'll also be taking part in Nanowrimo in November. In between now and Nano, I want to write at least two short stories, which I'll send out in my newsletters, so make sure you've subscribed if you'd like to read them :)

I will keep you updated on my progress here on the blog. Wish me luck!

Have you set yourself any writing or reading goals this year? Let us know in the comments.

Spotlight Book: A Beginner's Guide To Salad

I'll be throwing one of my books into the spotlight each month during 2022 and first up is my debut novel, A Beginner's Guide To Salad.

Ruth loves nothing more than curling up in front of the telly with a family-sized bar of chocolate. She doesn’t do diets and she certainly doesn’t do exercise. But all that changes when she’s invited to her school reunion.

Bullied at school for being overweight, Ruth’s first reaction is to rip the invitation into a million pieces. But then Ruth hatches a plan. She’ll lose the weight and arrive at the reunion looking gorgeous and glamorous, leaving her old classmates in awe. Especially her former crush, Zack O’Connell.

With the help of her friends and a new, unbelievably hot colleague, Ruth begins her transformation. With six months until the reunion, losing weight will be a piece of cake, right?

Amazon UK | Amazon US | Signed Copies

A Beginner's Guide To Salad is the first book in the Beginner's Guide series (though there is also a short festive ebook, A Beginner's Guide To Christmas, that is set before and is a quick intro to some of the characters. You can get it for free here)

See more fun facts here

I like to post little 'Book Extras' (like you'd find on a DVD) for my books here on the blog, and for A Beginner's Guide To Salad I created a Playlist, wrote a genre-swap short story and put together quick intros to some of the characters you'll meet in the book.