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.

Book News: A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do Paperback

I'm very excited to share the news that A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do is now available as a paperback!

Earlier this year, the paperback of A Beginner's Guide To Salad was published, and I'm so pleased that the follow up, A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do, is now available as a paperback too. And you can treat yourself to a signed copy from my online shop.

If you're a newsletter subscriber, make sure you check your inboxes because there's a giveaway to win a signed copy in my latest email.

As with all my books, you can find 'Book Extras' here on the blog, with quizzes, playlists and more. Click here to see the Book Extras for 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

The Beginner's Guide Series: A New Look & A Giveaway

 

This week, I've been sharing the book makeovers for my Beginner's Guide series. I hope you love the new-look covers as much as I do!

 

Below, you'll find more information about the books, plus find out how to enter my Beginner's Guide giveaway.

 

 

 

 

 

Ruth usually spends Christmas curled up on her parents’ sofa, watching feel-good movies whilst being fed festive food and drink until she can no longer move. But Ruth’s perfect Christmas is shattered when her mum receives a DIY-induced injury and Ruth is forced to take over the preparations.

Shopping. Cooking. A house full of hyped-up kids.

Christmas may no longer be the most wonderful time of the year.

 

 

Amazon UK | Amazon US

 

 

A Beginner's Guide To Christmas is a quick, festive read - and it's FREE!

Click the links above to download your copy.

 

 

 

 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

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

To celebrate the bookish makeovers, I'm running a giveaway over on my Facebook page.

 

Head over to my page and follow the instructions on my pinned post!

 

 

 

 

You can find the terms and conditions here

 

Good luck!

Book Makeover Number Three!

 

Over the past couple of days, I've been revealing the book makeovers for my Beginner's Guide series. If you're a newsletter subscriber, you will have had a sneaky peek at all my new covers already, but if not, here is the final book makeover!

 

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

 

 

What do you think?

I hope you love it as much as I do!

 

To celebrate my bookish makeovers, I'll be running a giveaway over on my Facebook page tomorrow, so do pop over for your chance to win!

 

 

 

DIY Wedding Favour Cupcakes

In A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do, Ruth loves the idea of making her own handmade wedding favours, so I thought I'd share one of the ideas she likes the look of: Love Hearts Cupcakes.

They're easy to make, plus you can customise them to match your own colour scheme. Plus, if you add a tag, you personalise them, even using them as place settings!

The recipe makes 12 cupcakes.

You will need:

125g butter (room temperature)

125g caster sugar

125g self-raising flour

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Icing Sugar

Food colouring (optional)

Flavouring (optional)

Love Hearts Sweets

Other toppings/sprinkles (optional)

Cellophane bags

Curling ribbon

To make:

Pre-heat your oven to 180C and line a 12-hole bun tray with paper cases of your choice.

Cream the butter using an electric whisk. Add the caster sugar and beat until the mixture is pale and fluffy.

Beat the eggs in a separate bowl. Once beaten, add to the sugar and butter mixture a little bit at a time, making sure you beat well each time.

Add the vanilla extract. Sieve in the flour, folding it into the mixture until you can no longer see any flour.

Spoon the mixture into the cake cases, filling them to about two thirds full.

Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes and then cool on a wire rack.

Once the cakes are cool, make up the icing sugar according to the packet. Add the food colouring of your choice (or leave white if you'd prefer). You can also flavour the icing at this point if you'd like to.

Cover the tops of the cakes with the icing sugar, smoothing and spreading with the back of a spoon. Pop a Love Heart sweet in the centre, adding any additional toppings before the icing sets.

Leave to set, then pop each cupcake into a cellophane bag, adding curling ribbon for decoration.

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 

A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do: Take the Quiz!

If you've read A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do, you can now take the quiz over on Goodreads (you can take the test even if you haven't read the book, though you'll have to wing it).

Take the Quiz

How much can you remember? Let us know your score in the comments below, or you can tweet it or post on my Facebook page!

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 

A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do: The Playlist

I always put together a playlist for my books, and for A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do, I decided to focus on Ruth's wedding reception. I've picked the songs she'd choose, so expect lots of cheesy pop in there!

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 

A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do: Fun Facts

Fancy a peek at some of the behind-the-scenes stuff of A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do? Here you go!

Bridesmaids

Apart from Erin, Lindsay’s bridesmaids are inspired by the character names from the film, Bridesmaids.

 Victorious

The names for sisters Trina and Tori were inspired by the sisters in TV show, Victorious which my oldest daughter watched A LOT while I was writing the first draft of the book

 Changing Names

Wedding planner Ingrid’s original name was Greta. I wrote the first draft of A Beginner’s Guide To Saying I Do between drafts of Everything Changes But You, which I realised also had a (different) character called Greta.

Drafts

I wrote the first draft in 2014, the second and third in 2015 and finally worked on the edits in 2016.

Points of View

While the book covers the POV of Ruth, Erin and Trina, the first draft covered Ruth, Erin and Jared’s POV. It didn’t feel right so I ended up cutting Jared’s chapters (around 1/3 of the book) and bringing Trina in.

[I'll be sharing a deleted scene from Jared's POV in my September newsletter - subscribe here if you fancy a peek!]

Trina

Trina was a minor character who popped up only a handful of times, along with her sister, Tori. But she kept jumping up and down and trying to get my attention. When I knew I had to rewrite 1/3 of the book, I knew I wanted to fully explore Trina’s story.

Working Title

The working title was A Beginner’s Guide To Weddings.

  

Recurring Places

Libby’s wedding dress boutique is located in Hartfield Hill, which is the setting of The Mince Pie Mix-Up, as well as some of my short stories. 

Recurring Characters

Karaoke host Keith Barry can also be found in Everything Changes But You.

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 

A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do: Which Character Are You?

I've put together a little quiz so you can find out which character from A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do you're most like!

Tick either A, B, C or D and then tot them up at the end to see which letter you agreed with most to find your character. Let us know your results in the comments below :)

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 

Publication Day: A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do

 

Amazon UK | Amazon US

 

Happy Publication Day to... me! My seventh book is now out in the wild (aka Amazon) and I couldn't be happier that she's now out there. I've been waiting a long time to share this story and I hope you enjoy catching up with Ruth and her friends as much as I did! The response from early readers has been fantastic - which is always a relief!

 

You can buy the book for £1.99 - or FREE if you're a Kindle Unlimited subscriber.

 

Over the next few weeks I'll be posting 'Book Extras' - quizzes, fun facts, playlists and more - so do pop back to have a look at those. If there are any book extras you'd like to see, let me know in the comments below and I'll do my best to accommodate :)

 

Later, I'll be posting a giveaway over on Twitter and Facebook to win some A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do goodies (plus chocolate and sweets) so keep an eye out for that! My newsletter will also be going out around lunchtime, with another giveaway themed around the book - if you haven't subscribed to my newsletter you can do that here

 

 

 

A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do is the second book in the Beginner's Guide series. If you haven't read the first instalment yet, now is the perfect time as the book is currently just 99p - but only for a limited time.

 

 

Amazon UK | Amazon US



An Intro To A Beginner's Guide To Saying I Do

The second book in the Beginner's Guide series is out next week, so I thought I'd introduce you to some of the characters. You may be familiar with some of them if you've read A Beginner's Guide To Christmas (short story) or A Beginner's Guide To Salad, but there are also some new characters to get to know in the follow up!

Ruth

Yep, Ruth is back! We couldn't have a Beginner's Guide book without her, could we?

In the past, Ruth has struggled with finding Mr Right but, two years on from A Beginner's Guide To Salad, she's all loved up and about to start planning her wedding. Ruth can't wait to get married - and she doesn't have to wait long as her wedding is in just six weeks. Ruth is a bit clueless when it comes to planning a wedding, so can she put together her dream Big Day in such a short space of time?

Ruth is still the woman I adored in A Beginner's Guide To Salad - she's still a massive fan of cheesy pop, she still likes to skive off from work whenever possible, and she's still surrounded by a group of fab friends (and Theo). I've loved catching up with her and seeing what she's up to a couple of years later, and I hope you will too!

Erin

 

Commitment-phobe Erin has finally found someone to settle down with, but she isn't interested in getting married, especially when she finds herself caught up in his sister's wedding plans. Lindsay and her wedding planner are organising the biggest, gaudiest wedding and Erin has somehow ended up agreeing to be one of many bridesmaids.

 

Erin can't see the appeal of all the fuss and faffing that goes with wedding planning - how will she survive the dress fittings and hair and make up rehearsals and, worst of all, the hen weekend from (Erin's idea of) hell?

 

Ruth's best friend has mellowed a bit over the past couple of years, but she still hasn't lost her edge. She's grown up a lot, but she's still feisty and set in her ways. We get to know more about Erin this time round and I enjoyed digger a bit deeper and finding out what makes Erin tick.

 

Quinn

 

Quinn is Erin's opposite in her views of love and marriage. She believes in the magic of fairy tales and can't wait to find The One, so she can settle down and live happily ever after. Unfortunately, she's hasn't always been lucky in love, but she's still young and her perfect match is out there somewhere - she just has to stop looking in all the wrong places.

 

We've met Quinn before - though only briefly. Over the past couple of years, her friendship with Ruth has blossomed and she's now firmly one of the gang.

 

Trina

 

Ruth's cousin Trina has just walked down the aisle and married the man of her dreams, but already things are starting to go wrong. Her new sister-in-law hates her and did Rory always have these workaholic tendencies? Trina is determined to make her marriage work and not end up with multiple divorces like her mother.

 

Trina is a brand new addition to the Beginner's Guide series and I've loved getting to know her. She's sweet and naïve, which doesn't always work in her favour. Will she get her happily ever after?

 

 

 

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

 

 

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?

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

 

 

Amazon UK | Amazon US