Blog tour: Life's a beach and then.... by Julia Roberts

 Blurb: 

"Holly Wilson has landed a dream job but there is one proviso… she must keep it secret, and that means telling lies. Holly hates telling lies.

Her latest assignment has brought her to the paradise island of Mauritius where she meets a British couple, Robert and Rosemary, who share a tragic secret of their own.

The moment they introduce Holly to handsome writer, Philippe, she begins to fall in love, something she hasn’t allowed herself to do for twenty years.

But Philippe has not been completely honest either and when Holly stumbles across the truth, she feels totally betrayed."

My review: 

The story begins in Maritiaus, following the main character Holly as she reviews the hotel for her blog. The description of the location is brilliant - there is great attention to detail and you can tell Julia has personal experience of being there, you really do feel immersed into that environment. During Holly's trip we also meet Rosemary and Robert, a lovely couple who are enjoying one of the last holidays they can have because of Rose's illness. They are a really sweet couple, particularly the way Robert cares so dearly for his wife, and I loved following them on their journey.  My favourite character was Holly's son, Harry. He is a student and is wonderful - very level-headed and easy-going, I loved finding out more about him during the second part of the story, and hope the second book of this series will follow him more. 

I want to be as completely honest as possible when it comes to reviews and so I will say that if I'm honest, the storyline didn't grip me or pull me in as much as I thought it would. The pace of the story is hindered by a lot of description which is sometimes too much. Instead of getting to know a characters thoughts and emotions, you instead get a lot of detailed description about other things that aren't always needed. For me, the storyline was fairly predictable with no twist or turns and I didn't get to relate to the characters as much as I'd have liked to. 

However, don't let that put you off as there are some really great aspects to the book and it is definitely worth a read. I particularly enjoyed the latter half of the story as it is quicker-paced and more entertaining, but I also enjoyed the Mauritius location - it made me crave a luxurious holiday in a 5* resort! 

It will be interesting to see how this works as a series and how the story will develop with book 2. 

Links: 

Julia QVC Blog 

Link to Julia's Previous Book

Twitter

Facebook

Book Amazon Link 

Following the launch of her first book, Julia needed a well-deserved break and booked a holiday to Mauritius. Her children, now adults, had bought her a notebook with words on the cover that read 'Hold on people…  I’m having an Idea'. On the first morning of her holiday, Julia had just that – the idea for her first novel. 

Over the course of the ten days she was in Mauritius, she scribbled copious notes, thoughts and ideas. When she arrived home, she started writing.

Life’s a Beach is part one of the Liberty Sands trilogy.  Julia has already started writing book two, If He Really Loved Me… , which she hopes to finish in the Autumn.

Blog Tour organised by Jenny in Neverland: 

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jennymarston_xo

Blog: www.jennyinneverland.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/jennyinneverland 

Blog tour: A Way From Heart to Heart by Helena Fairfax

A WAY FROM HEART TO HEART BY HELENA FAIRFAX

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: 18^th November 2014

Publisher:  Accent Press

A story of friendship, loss, and the human heart’s enduring capacity for love…

After the death of her husband in Afghanistan, Kate Hemingway’s world collapses around her. Her free time is spent with a charity for teenage girls, helping them mend their broken lives - which is ironic, since her own life is fractured beyond repair.

Reserved, upper-class journalist Paul Farrell is everything Kate and her teenage charges aren’t.  But when Paul agrees to help Kate with her charity, he makes a stunning revelation that changes everything, and leaves Kate torn.

Can she risk her son’s happiness as well as her own?

My review: 

I was first drawn into this book from the wonderful cover - isn't it pretty? Once I started, I was pleased I'd picked it up as it is a great, emotional storyline that I really enjoyed. 

The book begins with a gripping, emotional prologue that shows the main character, Kate,  finding out about the death of her husband while in Afghanistan. After this, time skips forward a few years to show her still dealing with the aftermath of his death, while bringing up their young son, George. 

Her husbands best friend, Paul was always pretty frosty towards Kate, but kept a strong bond with George after his Dad's death and we start to see their friendship develop as they get to know each other. I really enjoyed exploring their relationship and following them on their journeys with one another, and in their lives. I don't want to give too much away but there were parts that had me growling in frustration and others cheering with happiness.

This is a well-written, entertaining story that follows two characters on a really emotional journey that I thoroughly enjoyed. 

About Helena Fairfax

Helena Fairfax was born in Uganda and came to England as a child. She's grown used to the cold now, and these days she lives in an old Victorian mill town in Yorkshire. After many years working in factories and dark, satanic mills, Helena began writing full-time. Her first novel, The Silk Romance, was a contender for the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme Award and a runner-up in the Global Ebook Awards, and her work in progress has been shortlisted for the Exeter Novel Prize 2015. When not writing, she walks the Yorkshire moors every day with her rescue dog, and finds this wild landscape the perfect place to dream up her stories.

Author Links:

Website 

Facebook 

Goodreads  

Twitter 

GIVEAWAY:

Signed paperback copy of the book (uk only)

Or

Ecopy of the book (International)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Buy links:

Amazon

B&N

iTunes

Recipe: bookish burgers

For dinner last week the other half and I indulged in some mid-week burgers. They're fairly simple to make but can be just as delicious as some of the burgers you can get at high street restaurants if you take the time with the little extras. I thought I'd share with you our recipe. 

The mince

First of all, I shaped the mince into burger patties. I put the mince in the bowl with a pinch of salt and pepper, a finely chopped red chilli. I then mixed it together with my hands. Some recipes tell you to add some oil or even an egg to the mixture to keep it bound together, but I found if you kneed together well enough at this stage you don't need those extras. 

Once the mince was mixed together, I formed it into three patties (I have a constantly hungry OH so one for me, two for him!) and popped them on the tray while I heated some oil into the griddle pan. 

Potatoes 

I made some wedges to go with them. I opted for sweet potatoe and the OH had normal potatoes. To make the wedges I peeled the sweet potatoe skin off (but left the others with skin on them) and then chopped into wedges. I sprayed an oven tray with 1 cal spray, put on the wedges and then sprayed the top of the wedges again with the oil. Then they are ready for the oven - about 25 mins at 190 degrees. 

Onions 

To make the burgers a bit more special, we decided to add some fried onions and cheese on top. 

To make the onions, I put a few spoons of oil in the bottom of a pan and added in the chopped onions when the oil was hot. I stirred for a few moments before turning up the heat and adding a pinch of sugar and a glug of balsamic vinegar. Carry on cooking at a high temperature for a minute or so with the ingredients, then turn the heat down low and let the onions sweat it out while you cook the burgers. 

Then start on the burgers. Make sure the griddle pan is really hot before putting the burgers on. Cook them on a medium heat for a few minutes each side until they're cooked how you like them. 

I chopped up some cheddar cheese and once the burgers were cooked, placed it on top of the patties ready for the oven. When the wedges are almost done, put the burgers in the oven to melt the cheese - this should only take a few minutes. 

When the cheese has melted everything should be ready to serve up! 

I added jalapeños and the onions onto the OH's portion and gherkin, onions and tomato onto mine. 

Serve up and enjoy! 

Guest post: Erin Lawless

Today I'm delighted to hand over this post to Erin Lawless, to talk about her writing and publishing journey. So without further ado, here's Erin! 

"I LOVED the book," the email claimed. Good start. "But," the sentence continued (the literally dreaded but) "I'm not sure who your market is. The book is almost too many things…"

The email from the prospective agent went on to suggest I rework the book into a BDSM erotica and think about resubmitting.

This is a completely true story.

It was 2012 and I had just finished writing my first novel. After a lifetime of fanfiction, blog posts and questionable short story writing, I had managed it, all 105,000 glorious words. Seven characters, spanning seven years, I had literally slaved over it, and was torn between wanting to make every single person in the world read it and deleting the document in a full-on panic. I settled for the middle ground, sending the PDF out to ten or so friends and acquaintances who had volunteered to be brutally honest. And they all liked it. "I was worried I'd hate it, and it would be awkward," admitted one. "But it was actually really good!"

Buoyed by that confidence builder I sprang into action, buying the requisite copy of the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook and researching the process from inspiration to publication. First, I needed an agent and so off went fifteen or so carefully cultivated and personalised submission letters – and my fingers very firmly crossed themselves. Months passed. I continued polishing my manuscript, checking my inbox constantly, ticking off the responses as they came in. I only had six responses and every single one of them said that book was good but that it was too cerebral to be a romance, too romantic to be considered general fiction, too X to be Y…

But I still really wanted to tell Adam and Harriet's story. So I shelved my dizzy plans for traditional publication and set about doing what I do well – sorting it out myself. I titled the book Little White Lies, pulled together an awful cover on Paint, whacked it up on Amazon and wished it well, my sweet, sad, cerebral romance.

By early 2013 I was knee-deep in a historical novella when I noticed a call out on Twitter from HarperCollins for a focus group of readers to attend their offices later that week to discuss a proposed new romance imprint. It was nearby, boasted free sandwiches and tea and I'd always wanted to see the inside of HarperCollins (high up on if not the pole position on my list of dream publishers) so I agreed to go along. Hours later, I walked out of HC Towers full of excitement about this imprint – it sounded fresh, innovative – I wanted to be a part of it.

So when Harper Impulse was opened for business later that year I dusted off my manuscript and submitted, still agentless, apologetic, eternally hopeful. By August I was signed to a two-book deal. And on 5^th December 2013 the renewed, revamped, reworked Little White Lies was reborn as The Best Thing I Never Had. No BDSM necessary. 

In the last eighteen months Best Thing has had a torrid love affair with digital bestseller charts across all platforms, in several countries. I sat next to a stranger at a hen do dinner only to find she'd just finished reading it the night before, not knowing she'd be shortly sitting down to a curry with the author! It's been absolutely amazing – and something I clearly could not have done without the amazeballs team at Harper Impulse having my back. Knowing that I have shared – and continue to share – Adam and Harriet's story fills me up with pride every single day.

My second contemporary romance for the imprint is due out June 11^th. Somewhere Only We Know might look like your typical boy-meets-girl story, but when that boy works for Immigration and that girl is a Russian national about to be deported, the tale is anything but typical. I'm so excited to start sharing a new story – Alex and Nadia's – another lovingly crafted "cerebral romance".

And I'm also reasonably smug to report that at least three of the literary agents who rejected me back in 2012 are currently following me on Twitter. 

*****
Erin's latest novel- Somewhere only we know, is available from 11th June. You can preorder here

Book review: Evil Games by Angela Marsons

"When a rapist is found mutilated in a brutal attack, Detective Kim Stone and her team are called in to bring a swift resolution. But, as more vengeful killings come to light, it soon becomes clear that there is someone far more sinister at work. 

With the investigation quickly gathering momentum, Kim finds herself exposed to great danger and in the sights of a lethal individual undertaking their own twisted experiment. 

Up against a sociopath who seems to know her every weakness, for Detective Stone, each move she makes could be deadly. As the body count starts to mount, Kim will have to dig deeper than ever before to stop the killing.

 And this time - it’s personal."

Well, she's done it again. Angela Marsons has created yet another brilliantly written, gripping story that had me hooked from beginning to end. After the HUGE success of Silent Scream (the first novel in the DCI Kim Stone Series) Evil Games had a lot to live up to. But boy did it.

Like Silent Scream, the story flits between the narrative of the two main characters: DCI Kim Stone and Alex - the 'bad guy' for this story. Both these characters are absolutely remarkable and I loved reading about them, for very different reasons.

As an audience we already became acquainted with DCI Kim Stone in Silent Scream, and I loved her character as much in Evil Games as I did in the debut. She remains a gritty, hard-faced and, at times, difficult woman that is not to be messed with. I loved seeing her friendship with her colleague Byrant further develop- he is one of the few people she slightly opens up to and I enjoyed seeing a lighter side to Kim. She is still a work-a-holic, living and breathing the investigation at hand until it is resolved. Her strong work ethic warmed me to her as despite her abrupt nature you know she's doing things for the right reasons and I was rooting for her from the very start, willing her to solve the crime and cotton on that Alex isn't quite as picture-prefect as she appears.

That's brought me nicely on to Alex. What a unique, unusual antagonist to have in a story. Portrayed as a picture-prefect psychiatrist, Alex appears to be a completely normal, albeit glamorous, woman. What people don't realise is she is a twisted person with an interesting motive behind her selection of patients, choosing them specifically to work into her rather evil plan. I don't want to say too much else as it'll ruin it, but I thought Alex was a refreshing character that, although clearly the 'bad guy', isn't the usual, obvious murderer you'd expect in this kind of story. (Hopefully that should make more sense once you've read the book!)

The story develops at a fast pace and is gripping throughout, leading up to a huge conclusion that had me reeling for a few days. As with most stories, there is a big build up towards a final explosive conflict between the main characters and my, oh my, is that what happens. I won't say much more but the final few pages had me reading as fast as I could to find out what happens and it is so worth it. A satisfying ending with the only disappointment being that I'd finished! (boo).

I find it remarkable that an author can jump onto the crime-writing scene and provide an outstanding debut as well as an equally as brilliant sequel in the same year (well - half a year to be exact!). Angela is truly fantastic and I am so, so pleased she is firmly on the crime (writing) scene. She is a true expert at creating tension, providing just the right level of detail and creating characters that jump off a page. Angela firmly deserves all the success she has achieved with Silent Scream so far, and I'm sure that Evil Games will follow on and be a big success.  

If you haven't already gathered from this gushing review, I'd highly HIGHLY recommend this book. Just free up some time to read it as once you begin, you won't want to stop until you've read the very last word.

Now to start the wait for the third book in the series.....

Links:
Buy Evil Games 
Buy Silent Scream
My review of Silent Scream 
Author website 
Angela Marsons twitter