#GuestPost A CORNISH CHRISTMAS AT PEAR TREE FARM by ANGELA BRITNELL #PublicationDay @ChocLituk @AngelaBritnell

Time to hand over the blog again today! And it’s more festive cheer to share with you courtesy of Angela Britnell who is celebrating publication day today of A CORNISH CHRISTMAS AT PEAR TREE FARM!!   Go grab your copy NOW!!!
Over to you Angela….

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Release Day: A Cornish Christmas at Pear Tree Farm by Angela Britnell

I can’t believe it will be Christmas in just a few weeks because it doesn’t seem long since I was here to celebrate the release of my summer book! I’m very happy to be back again to celebrate publication day for the sequel, A Cornish Christmas at Pear Tree Farm!

The new book centres around Ashley and Crispin who meet very briefly in A Cornish Summer at Pear Tree Farm and felt an instant sense of connection, but the timing was wrong for them to explore where that might lead. It seemed cruel not to give them a second chance and so this sequel came to life. When we first meet them again they’re both in a better place emotionally but of course that doesn’t mean things will be smooth sailing for me because quite honestly where would be the fun in that! Most romance readers expect a happy ending and so it’s the journey the couple take together that is crucial to either capturing or losing their interest.

Here’s a brief excerpt with a window into Ashley’s thoughts when she and Crispin come together again in this new book.

Ashley had only met him for a few minutes over a year ago at Ward and Nessa’s engagement party. That was when he’d made the decision to turn himself in, and she recalled feeling a fleeting sense of kinship because she’d been experiencing her own rough time. His rugged good looks had stirred something in her then and were having the same effect now.

Meeting Ashley again rattles Crispin too and we feel his reaction when his old friend Polly is talking about the American woman.

‘She’s a real go-getter. Pear Day was her idea too.’ Polly’s smile broadened. ‘But don’t hate her for that.’

Crispin had the sinking feeling he wouldn’t be capable of hating Ashley for anything. It’d been a long time since he’d allowed himself to be interested in any woman but something about her wouldn’t leave him alone.

So the scene is set and even if you know it isn’t so much ‘will they’ or ‘won’t they’ I hope you’ll come along with them as they search for their own Christmas miracle.

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About the book:

Pairing up at Pear Tree Farm in time for Christmas …

Pear Tree Farm in Cornwall, owned by the kind-hearted Nessa Vivian, is known for taking in lost souls, and ex-soldier Crispin Davies is certainly one of those. But the once sleepy caravan park is now a thriving business, and far from the peace and quiet Crispin was craving, he soon finds himself roped into helping out with a short-notice Christmas festival, organised by Nessa’s force-of-nature sister, Lowena.

But despite Crispin’s initial reluctance, his involvement in the festival serves to throw him together with Ashley Spencer, an American woman and fellow lost soul, who works at the nearby Tregereth House. Could Lowena’s ambitious scheme result in a more hopeful Christmas and New Year for them both – with a few surprises along the way?

Sequel to A Cornish Summer at Pear Tree Farm

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Buying links: 

Kindle: https://amzn.to/3B2ItN9 

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3pxroqN 

Apple Books: https://apple.co/31zUKfS 

Nook: https://bit.ly/3DugtmW

 About the Author: 

Angela was born in St. Stephen, Cornwall, England. After completing her A-Levels she worked as a Naval Secretary. She met her husband, a US Naval Flight Officer while being based at a small NATO Headquarters on the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark. They lived together in Denmark, Sicily, California, southern Maryland and London before settling in Franklin, Tennessee.

Angela took a creative writing course in 2000 and loved it so much that she has barely put her pen down since. She has had short stories and novels published in the US. Her novel Sugar & Spice, won Choc Lit’s Search for an American Star competition and was her UK debut. 

Follow Angela on Twitter @AngelaBritnell Like Angela on Facebook: Angela Britnell

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#GuestPost LAUGHING ALL THE WAY ON THE JINGLE BELLS EXPRESS by BERNI STEVENS #PublicationDay @ChocLituk @Berni_Stevens1

Hello all!! And it’s my absolute pleasure today to be handing over the Blog to the lovely Berni Stevens as she celebrates publication day for LAUGHING ALL THE WAY ON THE JINGLE BELLS EXPRESS!  Go grab your copy NOW!!
Over to you Berni…

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Release Day: Laughing All the Way on the Jingle Bells Express

Christmas 2020, having been cancelled at the very last minute, was hugely disappointing for most of us. Families were unable to spend the festive holiday together, and so many plans were wrecked as the country went into lockdown, for what turned out to be almost six months. Because of that, I wanted my 2021 Christmas book to be light, amusing, and a lot of fun.

Originally, I’d intended to write the sequel to Izzy’s Christmas Star for this Christmas, but the idea for Laughing All the Way popped into my head unannounced one Spring day. So Izzy’s sequel will be in 2022 instead. As a teenager I was a big Agatha Christie fan, and one of my favourite books of hers was And Then There Were None which is loosely based on an old nursery rhyme. Agatha’s book tells of a ‘perfect crime’ – ten people invited to a house party on a desolate island and all ten are found murdered with no way on or off the island. Well obviously, being Christmas, I couldn’t go around bumping off my characters – I was writing a romcom after all. But I did like the idea of an invitation to something, somewhere, and so the idea started to grow …

I’ve been fascinated for some time by the amount of people in all walks of life, who are constantly on their phones – wherever they may be. How they don’t tumble off station platforms, trains, buses and even out of cars, I have no idea. People don’t appear to have conversations any more – well obviously they do on Zoom, Teams, FaceTime and all kinds of social media – but actually face to face in the same room. Even people in restaurants are constantly peering at their phones, taking photos of their food and themselves, rather than actually enjoying each other’s company (And yes, I do it myself sometimes too).

Laughing All the Way is a story about a group of twenty and thirty-somethings who receive an invitation to go on a festive train ride the week before Christmas. If you received such an invitation – would you go? This is their story, and I hope you do laugh all the way through it. And I promise nobody gets murdered.

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About the Book:

If you received a mysterious invitation for a fun-filled festive train ride the week before Christmas, would you go?

When teacher Dee Nicholls receives her invitation, she isn’t sure what to make of it. Surely it’s some kind of joke to get her out of bed early on a weekend? Perhaps a clever festive marketing ploy?

But as the Christmas countdown begins, it becomes clear that Dee isn’t the only “Jingle Bells Express” invitee. There are other people out there who have received the same invitation: Tom the intern, Rachel the aspiring writer, Dylan the musician and his dog Muttley – and they’re not the only ones!

Could the unusual festive journey they eventually take together show them all the true meaning of Christmas, and also that happiness is sometimes right in front of you – if you just take the time to look?

Book links: 

Kindle UK: https://amzn.to/3qPAnpL 

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3HvSp6e 

Apple Books: https://apple.co/3lIGskL 

Google Play: https://bit.ly/3csVZ2L

About the Author:

Berni Stevens lives in a four-hundred-year-old cottage in Hertfordshire, England, with her husband, son and black cat. She trained in graphic design and has worked as a book cover designer for more than twenty years.

Books and art remain her passion, and her love of the paranormal began when she first read Bram Stoker’s Dracula, aged fourteen. She is now on both the committee and the book panel of the Dracula Society, a society for fans of gothic literature and film.

Berni writes contemporary and fantasy romance.

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#GuestPost CHRISTMAS AT SERENITY BAY by HELEN BRIDGETT #PublicationDay @ChocLituk @Helen_Bridgett

Hello!!  Time for another fabulous guest post from the lovely Helen Bridgett today to help celebrate the publication day for CHRISTMAS AT SERENITY BAY!!  Go grab your copy right NOW!!!

Over to you Helen….

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Hi there and thanks for inviting me back to talk about Christmas at Serenity Bay.

What’s the story about? Well, it’s a good old romantic comedy to warm the cockles at Christmas!

In Summer at Serenity Bay, we met our cast of characters for the first time. Chloe, a location scout, had just moved up to the village to help her best friend Rowan develop a wellness retreat. Before long Chloe fell in love with both the village and Andy, the local kayak instructor. So she stayed and is now building a career turning Serenity Bay into a prime location for TV and film shoots.

In this book, Serenity is playing host to the cast and crew of a cozy crime series – The Montgomery Mysteries. It’s a show very much like Midsommer Murders where improbable things happen in a very small place and I have to confess that I had such a laugh writing this novel. There’s a crime solving Labrador for a start! And for Maggie – Serenity’s pub landlady – it’s all so exciting. This is her favourite show on TV so she’s determined to feature somehow. She gets the chance when things start to go wrong on set and Maggie turns amateur sleuth to get to the bottom of it.

As well as dealing with all this in the run up to Christmas, Chloe has another problem – one all women will recognise. She simply cannot think of anything to get her man for Christmas. I’ve certainly been there and the issue is made even worse for Chloe because Andy keeps telling her he’s found something perfect. That’s real pressure for you!

Of course it’s all set on the beautiful Northumberland coastline again and this really is very special at Christmas. The sky is a different, moody shade of blue and the sunrises are simply spectacular. The beaches are quiet and simply wonderful to walk before getting home to a cosy sofa and a mug of hot chocolate. We even take a visit to Holy Island in this novel and if you have never been before, then I would heartily recommend it – just remember to check the tide times.

Christmas at Serenity Bay gives you two gentle mysteries to solve, a good laugh and a sprinkling of romance. I think it has that feel-good factor we’re all looking for at the end of the year and I do hope you enjoy it.

Merry Christmas everyone !

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About the Book:

A peaceful Christmas in Serenity Bay? Think again!

Chloe Walsh’s skills as location manager for the beautiful seaside village she calls home have come up trumps again, and Serenity Bay is now the setting for cosy crime drama The Montgomery Mysteries, starring amateur sleuth Dominic Montgomery and his crime-solving dog, Agatha.

But Chloe is in a race against time. Filming has to finish before the village Midwinter Festival but schedules are tight – and a mystery saboteur is intent on slowing things down even further. Not only is Chloe facing problems with the shoot, she also has some personal conundrums to solve – a diva actor has commandeered her flat, her mum is having a late mid-life crisis, plus she has no idea what to buy for her Christmas-obsessed boyfriend!

Can Chloe sort out her life and save Christmas for an entire village?

Book 2 – Serenity Bay. Book 1 – Christmas at Serenity Bay.

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About the Author:

Helen Bridgett lives in the North East of England. Outside of writing feel good fiction, Helen loves the great outdoors and having a good laugh with friends over a glass of wine. Helen lives with her husband and their chocolate Labrador, Angus; all three can often be found walking the Northumberland coastline that inspired Summer at Serenity Bay.

Helen writes romantic comedies and chilling thrillers.

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Buying Links: 

Kindle: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Christmas-Serenity-Bay-heartwarming-feel-good-ebook/dp/B09HSK6RVB 

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/christmas-at-serenity-bay 

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/gb/book/christmas-at-serenity-bay/id1588910305 

Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/christmas-at-serenity-bay-helen-bridgett/1140290516?ean=2940162530916

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#GuestPost STRICTLY CHRISTMAS SPIRIT by HELEN BUCKLEY #PublicationDay @ChocLituk @HelenCBuckley

Hello!  Happy Tuesday and Happy Publication Day to STRICTLY CHRISTMAS SPIRIT by  HELEN BUCKLEY!  What a cover!! That glitterball!! I want one!!  
So it’s a pleasure to hand over the blog today to Helen as she shares some thoughts with you all!

Over to you Helen…..

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Release Day: Strictly Christmas Spirit by Helen Buckley

When I was younger, I was obsessed with celebrity gossip. I loved reality TV, and spent hours poring over gossip magazines with friends. I started out with J17 and Smash Hits, devouring information about the bands and singers I loved. Then I moved on to Cosmopolitan, Heat, Now!, Grazia, and Glamour, soaking up the fashion commentary and the celebrity interviews.

But the snippets of information in the glossy pages never felt quite enough for me. I wanted to know more. What was it really like being a famous person? What were they like, and what was the reality behind the headlines?

I have never been famous and I don’t know anyone famous so my guess is as good as yours. But my overactive imagination, coupled with my love of all things romance, led to my Spotlight Series – a series of standalone contemporary romances about love and fame.

All those years spent reading gossip magazines and watching reality TV fed in to the dramatic, thrilling stories I wanted to write. So far I’ve taken inspiration from Dancing on Ice, I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, and Strictly Come Dancing to create my Spotlight Series.

Ironically, the time I now spend writing means I barely have time to watch any reality TV, but I try to keep up when I can and often you’ll find me commenting about various aspects of reality TV shows on my blog at buckleybooks.org

Some people might think it strange, to take inspiration from TV shows to write books. But these TV shows bring joy to millions of people every week. I’m just trying to capture a little bit of their magic, drama, and excitement, and put it into book form, with my own unique twist and characters (always fictional!) to root for.

I hope that people will enjoy the stories I write as much as the shows they love to watch on telly.

             Helen’s latest ‘Spotlight’ series book, Strictly Christmas Spirit, is out now!

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About the book:

From disco balls to Christmas baubles …

Ex-dancer Emily Williams turned her back on the sparkle of popular dancing show Strictly Dancing with Celebs to help those in need. Now the only dancing she does is teaching lonely pensioners to waltz, and the closest she gets to disco balls is making baubles with the homeless people in her Christmas crafts class.

She’s certainly not star-struck when Hollywood heart-throb Blake Harris is sent to her at short notice for community service, and has no desire to babysit the arrogant actor with his bad boy antics and selfish ways. Christmas might be a time for miracles, but Blake seems to be a lost cause.

But Emily’s reasons for abandoning her dancing passion means she understands the Hollywood wild child more than she’d like to admit. Could their time together, coupled with a dash of Christmas spirit, lead to a miracle change of heart for them both?

Book 3 in Helen’s Spotlight series but they can all be read as standalone stories.

Buying links: 

Kindle: https://amzn.to/3jqLu3O 

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3m0ukvI 

Apple Books: https://apple.co/3nh3AGP

About the Author: 

Helen Buckley lives in Bedfordshire with her husband and two sons. After working in the charity sector in the UK and abroad, she turned her hand to writing and her first novel, Star in the Shadows, was published in 2019. She writes any moment that she can, enthralled by stories of fame, romance and happy ever afters. Apart from being addicted to writing and enjoying soft play with her sons, she’s an avid reader, action-movie fan and chocolate addict.

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#GuestPost CHRISTMAS OF NEW BEGINNINGS by KIRSTY FERRY #PublicationDay @ChocLituk @RubyFiction @kirsty_ferry

It’s beginning to feel a lot like … CHRISTMAS!! Hope you’re ready!!  And I’m excited today to be handing over the Blog to the lovely Kirsty Ferry, so she can share some thoughts about her newest book, CHRISTMAS OF NEW BEGINNINGS, on Publication Day!! 
Go grab your copy NOW! And get those festive songs playing!!
Over to you Kirsty..

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RELEASE DAY: Christmas of New Beginnings by Kirsty Ferry

My new book, Christmas of New Beginnings, is new in a couple of ways. It’s the first book in a new series, it’s my first venture into Ruby Fiction, the sister imprint of Choc Lit, and it’s the first romantic comedy I’ve written in first person, entirely from the heroine’s point of view. The heroine in this case is Cerys, who relocates to Padcock, a charming village in the South Downs, and she tells her story over a series of Christmases where we trace her relationship with Sam, the owner of the local pub. We are also introduced to Edie, Cerys’ best friend, who we will meet again in the second book of the series which is due out Summer 2022.

I’d run out of series to write a Christmas book on for this year, as I think I’ve done one for each series now, so I was excited to start something new instead. I wrote the book in the winter lockdowns of 2020 and early 2021, so, as you can imagine, it was sometimes quite difficult to stay upbeat and cheerful while writing; but the good thing was that writing it and escaping to Padcock was a form of self-care and I began to enjoy my forays into Padcock. All the more important, as Christmas 2020 was so disappointing for so many people, I tried to make the Christmases Cerys experienced in Padcock festive and sociable, filled with friends and family. There is no inkling of anything lockdown-related in my book, and deliberately so.

The lovely thing I discovered about writing in first person point of view is that you can really get into the mind of the character and explore all their quirks, flaws and strengths. You can also create an “unreliable narrator”, which is maybe a bit literary and a bit clever for me, but the fun thing with the first person point of view process is that the readers experience everything through the eyes of the narrator and hopefully cheer them on, flaws and all!

I really enjoyed creating the village of Padcock. In my head, as I was writing, I was walking around the streets and knew exactly where everything was and had a real sense of the place. Padcock is very loosely based on Lacock, in Wiltshire. Lacock village is more or less owned by the National Trust and used a location for many television programmes and films. It also has a wonderful stately home called Lacock Abbey which was the home of Henry Fox Talbot who was a photography pioneer. There is a really interesting museum of photography there, and if you, like me, are interested in vintage photos, it’s well worth a visit.

I do hope you enjoy our first visit to Padcock in Christmas of New Beginnings – and that you’ll come back and visit Padcock again next year!

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ABOUT THE BOOK

Not all festive wishes come true right away – sometimes it takes five Christmases …

Folk singer Cerys Davies left Wales for the South Downs village of Padcock at Christmas, desperate for a new beginning. And she ends up having plenty of those: opening a new craft shop-tea room, helping set up the village’s first festive craft fair, and, of course, falling desperately in love with Lovely Sam, the owner of the local pub. It’s just too bad he’s firmly in the clutches of Awful Belinda …

Perhaps Cerys has to learn that some new beginnings take a while to … well, begin! But with a bit of patience, some mild espionage, a generous sprinkling of festive magic and a flock of pub-crashing sheep, could her fifth Christmas in Padcock lead to her best new beginning yet?

Buying links: 

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Christmas-New-Beginnings-warming-uplifting-ebook/dp/B09G38ZTV3/

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/gb/book/christmas-of-new-beginnings/id1586450033

 Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/christmas-of-new-beginnings

 Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/christmas-of-new-beginnings-kirsty-ferry/1140157522

About the author:

Kirsty Ferry is from the North East of England and lives there with her husband and son. She won the English Heritage/Belsay Hall National Creative Writing competition and has had articles and short stories published in various magazines. Her work also appears in several anthologies, incorporating such diverse themes as vampires, crime, angels and more.

Kirsty loves writing ghostly mysteries and interweaving fact and fiction. The research is almost as much fun as writing the book itself, and if she can add a wonderful setting and a dollop of history, that’s even better.

Her day job involves sharing a building with an eclectic collection of ghosts, which can often prove rather interesting.

Kirsty writes for both Choc Lit and Ruby Fiction.

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#GuestPost WRONG SORT OF GIRL by HELEN BRIDGETT #PublicationDay @ChocLituk

Hello and thanks for joining me at Books & Me today! And I’m very happy to be handing over the blog today  to the lovely Helen Bridgett to help celebrate publication day for WRONG SORT OF GIRL!!!  Go get your copy ASAP!!!

Over to you Helen….

Wrong Sort of Girl by Helen Bridgett

I read across many genres so it seemed fairly natural for me to write both rom-com and crime fiction. At the end of the day, both genres are often about a woman who finds herself in a difficult situation and has to work out how to deal with it. Whether you’re reading Serenity Bay or either of my Professor Maxie Reddick novels, I hope you can relate to the main protagonist and see yourself in some of their actions.

In my crime novels – One by One and Wrong Sort of Girl – the heroine isn’t a policewoman but she does work closely with them and knows their procedures. She’s a professor of Criminology and in each case used her knowledge of that subject to help identify the culprit. I have to confess that I have loved researching all of the topics that are covered in Criminology and there are days when I forget that I actually have to get on with writing the book itself!

In Wrong Sort of Girl, I cover a subject called unconscious bias – how we all make decisions about someone purely on their appearance and how this impacts the justice system. The missing girl in this novel – Kelly – loves to party. She’s wild, tattooed, pierced and simply wouldn’t look good on the front pages of the newspapers. But she’s also a loving, successful young woman and Professor Reddick is determined to remind the general public of this and equally determined to find her. It’s set in the week before Christmas and in researching the book, I was fascinated and horrified to find out how many people actually do go missing at this time of year.

Professor Reddick has a cast of characters helping her to find Kelly including Kelly’s gorgeous but fiery Spanish boyfriend. We also see the return of DS Andrew Dawson who tries to keep Professor Reddick out of trouble – good luck with that!

Wrong Sort of Girl will get you thinking and will keep you on your toes as, alongside the professor, you try to work out what has happened to Kelly.

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ABOUT THE BOOK

A young woman has gone missing. It’s nearly Christmas. Why does hardly anyone seem to care?

Kelly Ingles’ case should have been one to tug on the public’s heartstrings: a young woman missing in the run-up to Christmas.

But Kelly wasn’t perfect – she liked to party, enjoyed a drink, didn’t always make the best decisions. And when evidence of her drunken antics appears online, it becomes clear that Kelly might not just have been in the wrong place at the wrong time; she might also be the wrong sort of girl to encourage public sympathy.

It’s a case that’s right up Maxie Reddick’s street. As a criminology professor, she’s made it her mission to challenge unconscious biases within the criminal justice system – the sort of biases that cause girls like Kelly to slip through the cracks.

But can she get the police and public on board before it’s too late?

Buying links: 

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wrong-Sort-Girl-completely-Professor-ebook/dp/B09FM1GC4P 

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/wrong-sort-of-girl/id1584824924 

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/wrong-sort-of-girl

 Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wrong-sort-of-girl-helen-bridgett/1140139387

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Helen Bridgett lives in the North East of England. Outside of writing feel good fiction, Helen loves the great outdoors and having a good laugh with friends over a glass of wine. Helen lives with her husband and their chocolate Labrador, Angus; all three can often be found walking the Northumberland coastline that inspired Summer at Serenity Bay.

Helen writes romantic comedies and chilling thrillers.

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#GuestPost RECIPE FOR MR PERFECT by ANNI ROSE #PublicationDay @ChocLituk @AnniRoseAuthor

Hello and Happy Tuesday!!  And it’s also Happy Publication Day for this fabulous book  – RECIPE FOR MR PERFECT by ANNI ROSE – so it’s my pleasure to be handing over the blog today to the lovely Anni to share more news about her and the book!
Over to you Anni

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RELEASE DAY: Recipe for Mr Perfect by Anni Rose

Born and raised in Berkshire, I emigrated to Wiltshire six years ago, where I now live with my husband, sister, two dogs, a cat and Midge, the grey speckled hen.

As a child, I loved writing fiction, producing reams of stories, thankfully lost over the years, although recently when we cleared my mother’s house out, ‘The attack of the Killer Tomatoes’ did resurface.

On leaving school, the need to earn a living sort of got in the way of any creative ambitions and I became an accountant where my only published work apart from regular financial reports was the employees’ handbook.

A local writing course and an encouraging group of writing friends re-ignited the fiction flame many years later and I went on to win or be short listed in several writing competitions. I had short stories published in Writers Forum, My Weekly and Sophie King’s ‘How to Write your Life Story’.

These days I would describe my writing as modern romantic stories with a healthy dollop of humour thrown in. I’m a member of the Romantic Novelists Association and was delighted to have been signed by Choc Lit Publishing. Recipe for Mr Perfect is the second in the Recipes for Life series with Recipe for Mr Right, my debut novel published in June.

Away from the garden and writing I can usually be found behind a camera, walking the dogs, enjoying one of my husband’s curries or my sister’s bakery treats.

The Recipes for Life Series are all set in the fictional town of Redford. They are stand-alone novels but some of the characters may appear in more than one book. Recipe for Mr Perfect was inspired by the office I worked in, on leaving college. The character of Maggie in Recipe for Mr Perfect is based on a woman I worked with, sadly no longer with us, whose dry sense of humour and cutting remarks kept us going through many long days. If I could wave a wand and bring back just one thing to improve life today, it would be the sense of camaraderie, friendship and laughter that my introduction to office life gave me.

Find out more about Anni here:

Twitter: @AnniRoseAuthor 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/AnniRoseAuthor 

Website: https://anniroseauthor.co.uk

Instagram: anniroseauthor

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About the book:

How do you know if you’ve found Mr Perfect or Mr Perfectly Useless?

Jess Willersey realised things with Martin weren’t perfect, but it’s still a shock when he leaves. Is she destined to a singleton lifestyle with only her cat for company, or could a certain hat-astrophic encounter with a handsome stranger at a rather unusual wedding signal a turning point?

At the same time, Jess’s best friends and work colleagues, Maggie and Sarah, are going through their own personal disasters – from shocking family revelations to dodgy dating app-related drama.

To top it all off, it seems that the handsome stranger won’t remain a stranger – and when Neil Jackson turns up at the friends’ office with yet another bombshell, how long will he stay ‘Mr Perfect’ in Jess’s eyes?

Buying links:

 Kindle: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Recipe-Mr-Perfect-gorgeous-heart-warming-ebook/dp/B09CZGX8SL/ 

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/recipe-for-mr-perfect

 Apple: https://books.apple.com/gb/book/recipe-for-mr-perfect/id1581818897

 Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/recipe-for-mr-perfect-anni-rose/1140033699

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#Guestpost A VILLA IN PORTOFINE by EVONNE WAREHAM #PublicationDay @ChocLituk @evonnewareham

Hello all! Happy Tuesday and welcome to the Blog! It is my absolute pleasure to be handing over the reins today to the lovely EVONNE WAREHAM who is celebrating publication day for A VILLA IN PORTOFINO!  Oh to be sitting in that villa right now!!  I’ve added the links so you can treat yourself to a copy of the book so you can visit the villa that way! 
Over to you Evonne…..

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 A big thank you to Karen for inviting me onto the blog to talk about A Villa in Portofino, my new romantic suspense. It’s hard to believe that this is my sixth book for Choc-LIt and the third in my ‘Riviera’ Series.

I thought it might be fun to interrogate the book with the five classic questions – Who, What, When, Where, Why, although I’ve mixed the order up a little.

Where: I had to start with this one as the book title is a bit of a giveaway. Although the book begins in Bath in Somerset, the action quickly moves on to the Ligurian coast, in Italy. Portofino is a picturesque village and a very up-market resort, with luxury shops and galleries and some very fancy yachts moored in the harbour. The location was actually suggested to me in a readers’ poll, but it proved to be a great choice for locating the spectacular property that my heroine inherits.

When: The book can be read as a stand-alone, but it is book three in my Riviera series, so if you have read the others you will again meet old friends. The events of the book dovetail with some of those in A Wedding on the Riviera, as they take place in the same time frame, but on different sides of the French/Italian border.

Who: Although the book is part of a series, each episode features a new couple with their own love story. In this case my heroine is Megan Morrison, an out of work academic who has just come through a bad break-up when she gets a mysterious letter from a firm of London solicitors…

My hero, Gideon West, is a landscape gardener with a passion for Riviera gardens. On an impromptu research trip to Portofino he is strangely drawn to the overgrown garden of a deserted villa…

What: Megan needs help to make her surprising legacy fit to be the home of her dreams. Gideon seems like an answer to her unexpected difficulties in reclaiming what was once a beautiful garden created by her great-great aunt Olwen. But Gideon has something in his past that he isn’t sharing, and someone else has covetous eyes on the neglected estate…

Why: When I first envisaged the book it had a distinctly Gothic overtone but somehow, in the Italian sunshine, things didn’t work out that way! Instead it became a story of family secrets, some deliberately kept, but others simply lost in time and memory, although the book still has its dark side – this is romantic suspense, after all. I was juggling five generations stretching back to the Second World War, and there was a lot of time and space for memory to become clouded and misinformation to be passed around. Megan has a number of mysteries to unravel – the history of the estate, the history of her last family member, an aunt whom she had never met, and the possible link between the estate and some books of poetry that formed the substance of her doctorate. And alongside all this she seems to be falling in love…

So – those are the answers to those five one word questions. I hope that they have intrigued you and made you want to read the book. If you do, I really hope you enjoy it.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Evonne is an award winning Welsh author of romantic suspense – more crime and dead bodies than your average romance. She likes to set her book in her native Wales, or for a touch of glamorous escapism, in favourite holiday destinations in Europe. She is a Doctor of Philosophy and an historian, and a member of both the Romantic Novelists’ Association and the Crime Writers’ Association.

 Twitter https://twitter.com/evonnewareham

 Facebook https://www.facebook.com/evonnewarehamauthor/ 

Website www.evonnewareham.com 

Blog www.evonneonwednesday.blogspot.com

ABOUT THE BOOK

Third in the ‘Riviera’ Series of romantic suspense: love and mayhem in the sunshine of the French and Italian Riviera

From chambermaid to “got it made” … When hotel cleaning temp and poetry academic Megan Morrison finds out she’s inherited an Italian villa and small fortune from her estranged great-great aunt Olwen, she doesn’t quite know how to react. That is, until she travels to Portofino to see Il Giardino delle Rose for herself. Then she knows exactly what she has to do: live there! Enchanted by the beauty of the house and gardens, fascinated by the history, and more than a little intrigued by handsome hired landscape gardener Gideon West, Megan can immediately see the villa’s potential as a dream home. But having long-lost relatives sometimes means long-lost secrets – and it seems that Olwen had plenty of those. Could these secrets and a jealous obsession be powerful enough to drive Megan out of the house that she’s already fallen in love with?

PURCHASE LINKS

 Kindle https://www.amazon.co.uk/Villa-Portofino-Evonne-Wareham-ebook/dp/B09CDPWB98/r?tag=smarturl-gb-21 

Apple https://books.apple.com/gb/book/a-villa-in-portofino/id1580723491?id=1580723491&ign-itsct=books_box_link&ign-itscg=30200 

Barnes and Noble/Nook https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-villa-in-portofino-evonne-wareham/1139997714?ean=2940162375562 

Kobo https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/a-villa-in-portofino

Google playbooks https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Evonne_Wareham_A_Villa_in_Portofino?id=JylAEAAAQBAJ&gl=GB 

Goodreads Reviews https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58773338-a-villa-in-portofino?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=1t6hnjlD7p&rank=6

#BookReview DARE TO KNOW by JAMES KENNEDY

ABOUT THE BOOK

Dark Matter meets Annihilation in this mind-bending and emotional speculative thriller set in a world where the exact moment of your death can be predicted–for a price.

Our narrator is the most talented salesman at Dare to Know, a prestigious and enigmatic company in the death-prediction business. While he has mastered the art of death, the rest of his life is an abject failure. Divorced, estranged from his sons, and broke, he’s driven to violate the cardinal rule of his business by forecasting his own death day. The problem: apparently he died 23 minutes ago.

The only person who can confirm his prediction is Julia, the woman he loved and lost during his rise up the ranks of Dare to Know. As he travels across the country to see her, our narrator is forced to confront his past, the choices he’s made, and the terrifying truth about the company he works for–and his role there.

Highly ambitious and totally immersive, this adrenaline-fueled thriller explores the destructive power of knowledge and collapses the boundaries between reality, myth, and conspiracy as it races toward its stunning conclusion.

PUBLISHED BY QUIRK BOOKS

PURCHASE LINK

Amazon

MY REVIEW

If you  like your books weird, twisty and to be a bit of a mind f***, then this is the book for you!! I loved it! It has the power to entertain, confuse and to make you think…. would you want to know when you were going to die?!

In this book, there’s a group who can predict  your death date and have turned it into a business.  The only rule of the death prediction business is not to calculate your own death date…. the book narrator breaks this rule and is left dealing with the consequences.
It took me a while to get into the style of writing, but once I’d connected with it, I really enjoyed the way the story played out.  The narrator takes you through each stage – as he deals with his disastrous life whilst looking back at those moments in his life that made him who he has become – the school friendships, relationships, his random thoughts and hates.  This is alongside the internal battle he’s having with himself of trying to make sense of it all, and should he do his own death date.  He knows he shouldn’t but just can’t shake the feeling off that he NEEDS to know.

I really enjoyed the frenetic pace of this book – it flits from one thought to another, from the now to the past and you really get a sense of his confused state of mind.  How his arrogance and complacency can be a help and a hindrance!

The twists were well thought out, and I loved the randomness of his mind!  It’s a book that I raced through and loved the uniqueness of it all!  It makes you think outside of the box and challenges you!

★★★★

My thanks to the team at Black Crow PR for the advanced reader copy in return for a fair and honest review.

#GuestPost HER NANNY’S SECRET by JAN BAYNHAM #PublicationDay @ChocLituk

Delighted to be handing over the Blog today to JAN BAYNHAM to celebrate publication day for HER NANNY’S SECRET!  Go grab your copy NOW!!!
Over to you Jan……

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‘Her Nanny’s Secret’ is my third novel. Excited yet very nervous before publication day, it is a story I loved writing. It has all the features which are becoming my trademark – a dual timeline, contrasting locations, family secrets and forbidden love. In ‘Her Nanny’s Secret’, there is also the theme of social class and the role of women.

The inspiration for the story came to me through a conversation with my cousin after my aunt’s funeral which opened with the words, “You know you could have been a Thomas not an Evans, don’t you? I can tell you now mum’s gone…” Puzzled, I asked her to explain. Apparently, my grandfather was the illegitimate son of a female groom and a wealthy landowner who owned the stables where she worked. The ‘what-ifs’ started in my head. What if you fell for someone from a different social class? What if you had to keep it a secret from everyone close to you for fear of losing your home and your family’s livelihood? I set my story in 1941 when war was raging in Europe. After her youngest brother, Reggie, enlists to fight for King and country, Annie Beynon applies to replace him as a groom at Cefn Court, a large country house. She is faced with opposition from her father and her fellow stable lads.

The boys looked at each other in what Annie soon realised was disbelief, and then looked her up and down.

‘A girl. What use is she going to be?’ said Harry, the tall, gangly one.

‘More work for us, then,’ grumbled Fred.

The novel takes place in two locations I know well. Rural mid-Wales where I was born and grew up was relatively untouched by the horrors of actual war action but for the families whose husbands, lovers and sons died in active service, the grief and sense of loss was very real. I tried to create images of what it would have been like living in a small rural village surrounded by a beautiful natural landscape during wartime and then again in 1963. In contrast, my character, Odile, lived in occupied Northern France,

playing an important role in the French Résistance in 1943. When Annie and Clara visit the same area twenty years later in order to find answers, I was able to draw on what I’d experienced on annual family holidays to France and years of hosting children and adults from our twin-town to try to give authenticity. I hope I’ve done justice to the country I love, its people, culture and language.

‘As they entered the tiny village, a yellow road sign with three flower symbols proudly welcomed the visitor to a Village Fleuri… France was still in a period of reconstruction after the devastation caused by the war, and it was felt that the planting of flowers helped renew and repair communities.’

I do hope readers will enjoy ‘Her Nanny’s Secret’.

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About the book:

How far would you go to save the person you loved the most?

It’s 1941, and Annie Beynon has just become the first stable girl for the most powerful family in her Welsh village. Whilst her gift for working with horses is clear, there are some who are willing to make her life very difficult on the Pryce estate, simply for being a girl.

There are other – secret – ways Annie is defying conventions, too. As the war rages, and when Edmund, the heir to the Pryce fortune, leaves to join the RAF, it seems that it’s only a matter of time before Annie’s secret is exposed. That is, until she makes a shocking decision.

It’s 1963 before Annie is able to face up to the secret she chose to keep over twenty years before. Justifying that decision takes her to Normandy in France, and an outcome she could never have expected …

PURCHASE LINKS

Amazon: https://smarturl.it/u2mmos

Apple: https://books.apple.com/gb/book/her-nannys-secret/id1579873967?

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/her-nanny-s-secret

Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/her-nannys-secret-jan-baynham/1139955323?ean=2940162201946

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Jan_Baynham_Her_Nanny_s_Secret?id=X1s9EAAAQBAJ&gl=GB

About the author:

After retiring from a career in teaching and advisory education, Jan joined a small writing group in a local library where she wrote her first piece of fiction and from then on, she was hooked! She soon went on to take a writing class at the local university and began to submit short stories for publication to a wider audience. Her stories and flash fiction pieces have been longlisted and shortlisted in competitions and several appear in anthologies both online and in print. In October 2019, her first collection of stories was published. Her stories started getting longer and longer so that, following a novel writing course, she began to write her first full-length novel. She loves being able to explore her characters in further depth and delve into their stories. Originally from mid-Wales, Jan lives in Cardiff with her husband. They have three grown up children and four grandchildren, with another little one expected in the summer. Having joined the Romantic Novelists Association in 2016, she values the friendship and support from other members and regularly attends conferences, workshops, talks and get togethers. She is co-organiser of her local RNA Chapter.

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