Friday, 31 January 2014

Book of the Month: January

 
 
Wake by Anna Hope
 
 
 

Five Days in November, 1920:

As the body of the Unknown Soldier makes its way home from the fields of Northern France, three women are dealing with loss in their own way: Hettie, who dances for sixpence a waltz at the Hammersmith Palais; Evelyn, who toils at a job in the pensions office, and Ada, a housewife who is beset by visions of her dead son. One day a young man comes to her door. He carries with him a wartime mystery that will bind these women together and will both mend and tear their hearts.

A portrait of three intertwining lives caught at the faultline between empire and modernity, Wake captures the beginnings of a new era, and the day the mood of the nation changed for ever.


*     *     *

I was looking forward to reading Wake, but never imagined how quickly it would draw me in - or how quickly I would devour the book. I was instantly hooked and didn't want to put the book down, finishing it within a day. I liked how the story was told over just five days without each day being drawn out. The characters felt very real to me and I warmed to each of them immediately, feeling the emotions and turmoil they were each experiencing.

You can see my full review of Wake next week.

Click here to see all Books of the Month
 

Thursday, 30 January 2014

A Beginner's Guide To Salad & Amazon Voucher Winners

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway or shared it on Twitter and Facebook. Rafflecopter has selected the winners at random and they are:

First Place - ecopy of A Beginner's Guide To Salad, plus Amazon voucher:

Sheena


Runners Up - ecopy of A Beginner's Guide To Salad:

Sharon W &

Michaela B


Congratulations! I hope you enjoy your prizes.

Tuesday, 28 January 2014

A Beginner's Guide To... Ruth



Ruth is the main character from A Beginner's Guide To Salad. She's always been overweight and was bullied as a child because of it. When she receives an invitation to her high school reunion, she’s reluctant to go. Until she hatches a plan to lose weight and shock her former classmates.


Ruth’s parents are Louie and Vera. Her dad is overly enthusiastic about DIY. Her mum is not. Ruth has a brother, Stephen, who lives in New York with his American wife, Aubrey and their three children, Austin, Riley and Ryder.

Ruth works as a PA to Kelvin Shuttleworth, the General Manager of H. Woods Vehicles, a bus and coach manufacturers. She doesn’t always like her job so she takes every opportunity to have a skive and gossip with her friends and colleagues, Erin and Quinn.

In her spare time, Ruth loves nothing more than slouching on the sofa with her housemate and best friend, Billy and a family-sized bar of chocolate.


 
Here a few quick facts about Ruth:



·         Name: Ruth Lynch

·         Age: 28

·         Job: PA

·         Hair colour: Blonde

·         Eye colour: Blue

·         Favourite colour: Anything bright

·         Favourite film: You’ve Got Mail

·         Favourite food: Chocolate

·         Hobbies: watching TV, gossiping and shopping

·       Party trick: Can fit three digestive biscuits in mouth without breaking them


Find out more about the book:
A Beginner's Guide To Salad | Jennifer Joyce



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?

Monday, 27 January 2014

Cover Reveal: The Guestbook by Holly Martin

 
Welcome to Willow Cottage – throw open the shutters, let in the sea breeze and make yourself completely at home. Oh, and please do leave a comment in the Guestbook!

As landlady of Willow Cottage, the young widow Annie Butterworth is always on hand with tea, sympathy or strong Norfolk cider - whatever her colourful array of guests require. A flick through the messages in the leather-bound cottage guestbook gives a tantalizing glimpse into the lives of everyone who passes through her doors.

This includes Annie herself - especially now celebrity crime writer Oliver Black, is back in town. He might grace the covers of gossip magazines with a different glamorous supermodel draped on his arm every week, but to Annie, he’s always just been Olly, the man who Annie shared her first kiss with.

Through the pages of the Guestbook Annie and Olly, along with all the guests that arrive at the seaside retreat, struggle with love, loss, mystery, joy, happiness, guilt…and the odd spot of naked rambling! 

Forget sending postcards saying 'wish you were here' - one visit to Willow Cottage and you’ll wish you could stay forever.



The Guestbook is available on 14th February 2014


Cover Reveal: Millie & the American Proposal by Annabel Scott

Today I'm pleased to be part of the cover reveal for Annabel Scott's Millie & the American Proposal

 
Millie’s boyfriend James gets offered a job in Singapore, he accepts, thinking that she’ll give up her job and go with him. Only Millie gets offered a work secondment to New York which is too good an opportunity to turn down. When she arrives in the city, she soon discovers that she’s not the only one new in town; her ex-boyfriend, Rob, is back, and he’s separated from his wife. It’s time for Millie to work out what she wants from life. She’s got to decide whether she’s Team James or Team Rob as she gets her very own American Proposal.


Millie & the American Proposal is available on 11th February.

Friday, 24 January 2014

Cover Reveal: Hopelessly Devoted To Holden Finn by Tilly Tennant

 
'There’s only one man for Bonnie, and that’s Holden Finn.
 
The problem is that Holden Finn is a twenty-three-year-old pop megastar with his boy band, Every Which Way, and has no idea she exists. Not only that, but half the women in the world want to be Mrs Finn, including Bonnie’s teenage daughter, Paige. The real men in Bonnie’s life do nothing but let her down, but a man you can’t possibly have can never do that… right? She’s safe inside her fantasy bubble.
 
Then Paige wins a radio competition to meet Holden and the band, and Bonnie’s carefully-constructed world starts to unravel. She is about to find out that you should be very, very careful what you wish for …'
 
Please check out the cover reveal video...




About Tilly:

Tilly Tennant was born in Dorset but now lives in Staffordshire with her slightly nutty family. Tilly is married to Mr Tennant (not that one, though a girl can dream). She likes nothing better than curling up in a quiet corner with a glass of wine watching the world go by, but can more usually be found taxiing her daughters to parties or taking them on emergency shopping trips. After a huge list of dismal and disastrous jobs over the years, including paper plate stacking, shop girl, newspaper promotions and waitressing, she began working as a temporary secretary in a hospital to boost her income whilst doing a degree in English and creative writing. This job lasted nine years. Not terribly temporary. But it does mean that she knows just what it’s like to make monumental admin cock-ups, spend the month’s wages in the hospital coffee shop and fall in love with all the doctors. As she’s a smug married, however, it’s fortunate that the doctors in question don’t usually feel the same way.

Tilly is represented by the wonderful, gorgeous Peta Nightingale at LAW.


 

Get in touch with Tilly:

Website:
http://tillytennant.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TillyTenWriter
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7204286.Tilly_Tennant
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TillyTennant?fref=ts

Competition:
WIN a £10 amazon gift voucher by commenting on Tilly's blog with your funniest celebrity crush encounter. Good luck to all who enter!
http://tillytennant.com/



Thursday, 23 January 2014

Giveaway Winners: A Beginner's Guide To Salad + Goodies


Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway or shared it on Twitter and Facebook. Rafflecopter has selected the winners at random and they are:

First Place - ecopy of A Beginner's Guide To Salad, plus goodies

Charlene W

Runners Up - ecopy of A Beginner's Guide To Salad

Kayleigh B &

Lindsay H



Congratulations! I hope you enjoy your prizes.

Don't forget, there is another giveaway still running at the moment to win an Amazon voucher here