Category Archives: Novels

One Starry Night by Tilly Tennant #chicklit #giveaway

starry

One Starry Night

by

Tilly Tennant

 

starry

Genre: Chick lit

Release Date: 30th March 2016

Publisher: Lawsome Books

One Starry Night is the fourth and final part of the Once Upon a Winter series:

They say the darkest hour is just before the dawn, and Hannah has never really understood the true meaning of that until now. With Gina’s husband misbehaving, bad news for Mitchell that only Hannah can break and Ross under attack, things seem to be falling apart around her, and how is she supposed to be the rock everyone else needs when she can’t even get her own life in order? It’s going to take a special kind of courage to see this dawn break, but when it does it might just be all the brighter for it. The trouble is, Hannah’s not sure she can be that strong…

BUY LINKS

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

ABOUT TILLY TENNANT

starry

 

Tilly Tennant was born in Dorset, the oldest of four children, but now lives in Staffordshire with a family of her own. After years of dismal and disastrous jobs, including paper plate stacking, shop girl, newspaper promotions and waitressing (she never could carry a bowl of soup without spilling a bit), she decided to indulge her passion for the written word by embarking on a degree in English and creative writing, graduating in 2009 with first class honours. She wrote her first novel in 2007 during her first summer break at university and has not stopped writing since. She also works as a freelance fiction editor, and considers herself very lucky that this enables her to read many wonderful books before the rest of the world gets them.

Hopelessly Devoted to Holden Finn was her debut novel; published in 2014 it was an Amazon bestseller in both the UK and Australia. It was followed by Mishaps and Mistletoe and The Man Who Can’t Be Moved. Find out more about Tilly and how to join her mailing list for news and exclusives at www.tillytennant.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TillyTennant/?ref=hl

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TillyTenWriter

website: www.tillytennant.com

GIVEAWAY

£10 (or equivalent) Amazon Gift Card

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Broken Faces by D M Carr #historicalromance #excerpt #giveaway

broken faces

Broken Faces

by

D M Carr

 

Broken Faces

Genre: Historical Romance

Release Date: 15 December 2015

Publisher: Green Shutter Books

Freddie Chevalier, a wealthy farmer’s son, suffers a life-changing disfigurement in the Great War. He’s in love with his best friend’s fiancé and is determined not to miss out on the excitement of the Great War. Soon his life changes from one of idyllic days spent with his friends, Charles, Meredith and Lexi, staying at the Baldwyn’s ancestral home in Shropshire and working on his father’s farm in Jersey, to one of horror, pain and betrayal.

It doesn’t take long for Freddie to discover that the life he enjoyed before the war has vanished and that he is going to have to find a way to live with the consequences of the choices he and Charles have made.

Broken Faces beat 7000 other entrants to be a runner-up in the Good Housekeeping Magazine Novel Writing Competition (2012) they described DM Carr as as ‘one to watch’, They also added, ‘In Deborah Carr’s Downton-esque tale, Broken Faces, a soldier suffers a life-changing injury in the Great War’. The book also received a special commendation in that year’s Harry Bowling Prize.

 

EXCERPT

Prologue

1918

As the weight of the plaster of Paris slowly increased on his face, he tried to steady his breathing and not give in to claustrophobia. It would be worth it in the end. He concentrated on the gentle American accent of the woman clasping his hand. She had a kind face. Her lack of shock when he’d been unmasked was admirable. Or was it simply she had grown used to seeing men such as he? They told him she was a sculptor. Someone overheard her say she saw beauty in the men she helped and that those men with missing noses and shattered faces were like the sculptures she created.

All he could think about, apart from the suffocating pressure on his nose and mouth, was a poem he’d heard someone recounting back at Les Invalides. Was it by Yeats? He wasn’t sure. He recalled it was about Easter in 1916, but not referring to the Front, even so the words still resonated. How did it go? He couldn’t quite remember. He was now one of the gueules cassées. One of the broken faces and his life would never be the same again.

BUY LINKS

AMAZON US

AMAZON UK

ABOUT D.M. CARR

Broken Faces

D.M. Carr lives in Jersey with her husband and three noisy but adorable rescue dogs. She writes romances for Accent Press under the pseudonym Georgina Troy. Broken Faces is her debut novel in her own name.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/D-M-Carr-568839916628666/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DebsCarr

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3807857-deborah-dm-carr

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deborahcarr9/

Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/117042212386862550212/

Website: https://deborahcarrblog.wordpress.com/broken-faces-by-d-m-carr/

Blog: http://debcarrs-daydreams.blogspot.com/

 

GIVEAWAY

£25 or equivalent Amazon gift voucher

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

Once Upon a Time… It’s Tell a Fairy Tale Day

Once upon a time

there was a day specifically dedicated to telling fairy tales. Today is that day…

Tell A Fairy Tale Day!

Never heard of it before? Well, you can read more about it here. The stories can cover everything from Grimm to urban legends.

Scottish legends, myths, and mystery are found in A Shadow in the Past, so what better time to celebrate it?

time

Even the cover exudes fairytale mystery. Once upon a time…

Nineteen-year-old Sarah Shand finds herself thrust back into the past. There she struggles to keep her real identity from a society that finds her comments and ideas strange and her speech and actions forward, unlike Victorian women. When Sarah verbally confronts confining social practices, including arranged marriages, powerful enemies commit her to a lunatic asylum. After falling in love with the handsome Laird of Weetshill, Robert Robertson, she must decide whether to find her way back to her own time or to remain in the past with him.

 

If you have a favourite fairy tale, leave a comment telling which one it is.

 

 

 

 

Reflections by Eleanor Smythe #contemporary #whodunnit #giveaway

reflections

Reflections

by

Eleanor Smythe

 

reflections

Genre: Contemporary fiction, Whodunnit.

Release Date: 1st December 2015

Sally must deal with the grief of losing her father, a man she knew very little about. After the funeral, she takes time out to be alone and reflect on her life.

To find out the truth about him, she first has to make amends with her estranged mother and half-sisters, who she hasn’t spoken to for almost twenty years.

In the meantime, Mr Leriche from Interpol opens a fascinating old case file, about a stolen painting potentially worth millions. Before long Sally finds herself in the middle of a criminal investigation. Having discovered she is the sole beneficiary of her father’s estate, she must decide whether to develop the business or walk away.

Reflections is an emotional journey.

BUY LINKS

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

ABOUT ELEANOR SMYTHE

reflections

Eleanor Smythe was born in the east end of London but struggles to call it home as she moved away in her teens, and continued to live in various parts of the UK. After raising four sons, she went on to obtain a degree in Occupational Therapy. Although she took the opportunity to work in various medical settings, her greatest passion was working with clients within the community, where she claims real life takes place.

Now retired and living primarily in Portugal Eleanor has more time to pursue her love of writing. Always intrigued by the way in which individuals cope with life’s challenges and how they overcome the twists and turns of life, her stories embrace inner emotional turmoil that her characters might feel. They are brought to life by showing humour, tragedy, conflict, betrayal and emotions that many of us face daily.

Her debut book, The Other Side of Town continues to receive positive reviews while her second book, Reflections, was recently released.

Eleanor and her husband’s love of travel has led to the recent acquisition of ‘Dolly the Camper Van’. Dolly will enable them to pursue their individual hobbies of fishing and writing in new and exciting environments. Eleanor will be blogging about their adventures as well as inviting others to share their own.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/authoreleanorsmith

Twitter: Http://Twitter@authoreleanor1

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/Chrissy-Smith

Google+ authoreleanorsmythe@gmail.com

websites:www.eleanorsmythe.blogspot.com

GIVEAWAY

£25 Amazon gift voucher (or equivalent)
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Between Friends by Jenny Harper #contemporary #romantic

friends

Between Friends

by

Jenny Harper

 

friends

Genre: Contemporary Women’s Fiction
Release Date: 11 February 2016
Publisher: Accent Press

They thought he belonged safely in the past. His return threatens everything.

Marta, Carrie and Jane have been friends since they were at school in Edinburgh. Now one is bringing up her family, another is desperately trying for children of her own, and the third is focused on her career – and each takes the support of the others as a given.
But when generous Marta offers out-of-luck actor Tom temporary shelter, her act of kindness sets in motion a tsunami of destruction. Marta’s marriage comes under threat. Timid Jane is haunted by the secret she has been hiding since she last saw Tom. And ambitious Carrie finds herself at the mercy of a man who can ruin her career.

Only by pulling together can the friends rid themselves of this menace. But is Tom too clever at sowing mistrust?

BUY LINKS

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

ABOUT JENNY HARPER

friends

Jenny Harper lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, though she was born in India and grew up in England. She has been a non-fiction editor, a journalist and a businesswoman and has written a children’s novel and several books about Scotland, as well as four full length novels and a novella in The Heartlands series (set in Hailesbank), and two short stories that have appeared in anthologies. Between Friends is her fifth full length novel.

Jenny writes contemporary women’s fiction with bite – complex characters facing serious issues.

What they say:

‘An engaging and delightful read. Jenny Harper is a most gifted storyteller.’  Alexander McCall Smith

‘Page turning and thoroughly entertaining. I loved it!’ Katie Fforde

‘The most beautiful love story that I have read in a long while. Amazon review of People We Love

‘This was a fun, heart-warming but also emotional story that had me thinking about the characters long after I’d finished it.’ Amazon review of Maximum Exposure

‘Ms. Harper has created a fully populated, very human and recognizable world.’ Amazon review of Face the Wind and Fly

‘There is everything I like about a novel in her writing: family, relationships, current affairs … things the author seems well versed in. I loved the Scottish settings, and could visualise many of the locations in the book …’ Amazon review of Loving Susie

Webpage http://jennyharperauthor.co.uk/

Twitter https://twitter.com/harper_jenny

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

Google + https://plus.google.com/+JennyHarperauthor/posts

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/15692421-jenny-harper

Riffle https://read.rifflebooks.com/profiles/151045

Amazon Author Page http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B00HXIE2Q0

GIVEAWAY

Brooch and paperback (1st prize)
2x ebooks (2ND PRIZE)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Coffee, Tea, the Caribbean & Me by Caroline James #romcom #womensfiction

caribbean

Coffee, Tea, the Caribbean & Me

by

Caroline James

 

caribbean

Published by Ramjam Publishing Company
February 12th 2016
Women’s Romantic Fiction
ISBN Paperback: 978-0-9573782-8-5
ISBN Kindle: 978-0-9573782-9-2

 

A romantic comedy – the sequel to Coffee, Tea, The Gypsy & Me, which shot to #3 on Amazon and was E-book of the Week in the Sun.

Continuing the Coffee, Tea… series, join Jo and Hattie as they romp into their middle years and prove that anything is possible!

Coffee Tea The Caribbean & Me was a top ten finalist at The Write Stuff – London Book Fair 2015. The judge’s comments included, “Caroline is a natural story-teller with a gift for humour in her writing.”

Coffee Tea The Caribbean & Me, is a a story about friendship and that there is hope in middle years, romance can happen and life really does begin again.

Set in Cumbria, London and beautiful Barbados.

‘The time to be happy is now…’

Jo remembers her late husband’s words but is struggling to face the lonely future that lies ahead. A heartbroken widow, the love of her life, husband Romany John, has died suddenly and Jo finds herself alone with ghostly memories at Kirkton House – a Cumbrian Manor that until recently, she ran as a thriving hotel. Her two sons have moved away; Jimmy to run a bar in Barbados and Zach, to London to pursue a career as a celebrity chef. Middle-age and widowhood loom frighteningly and Jo determines to sell up and start again, despite protestations from colourful friend, Hattie and erstwhile admirer Pete Parks. Hattie convinces Jo to postpone any life-changing decisions by enjoying a Caribbean holiday in Barbados and their holiday sets off a course of events that brings mayhem and madness to Jo and her family.

Confused and anxious for her future, can life really begin again for Jo? Is there hope in middle years and can romance happen?

caribbean

myBook.to/CoffeeTeaTheCaribbean

ABOUT CAROLINE JAMES

 

CARIBBEAN

Caroline James was born in Cheshire and wanted to be a writer from an early age. She trained, however, in the catering trade and worked and travelled both at home and abroad. Caroline’s debut novel, Coffee Tea The Gypsy & Me shot to #3 on Amazon and was E-book of the Week in The Sun newspaper. Her second novel, So, You Think You’re A Celebrity… Chef? has been described as wickedly funny: ‘AbFab meets MasterChef in a Soap…’ The manuscript for Coffee Tea The Caribbean & Me was a Top Ten Finalist at The Write Stuff, London Book Fair 2015 and the judge’s comments included: “Caroline is a natural story-teller with a gift for humour in her writing.” Her next novel, Coffee Tea The Boomers & Me will be published autumn 2016.

Caroline has owned and run many catering related businesses and cookery is a passion alongside her writing, combining the two with her love of the hospitality industry and romantic fiction. As a media agent, Caroline represented many well-known celebrity chefs and is currently writing a TV script and accompanying book about the life of a well-known chef. She has published short stories and is a member of the RNA and The Society of Authors. Caroline writes articles on food and celebrity based interviews and is Feature Editor for an online lifestyle magazine. When she’s not running her hospitality business and writing, Caroline can generally be found with her nose in a book and her hand in a box of chocolates, she also likes to climb mountains and contemplate life.

CARIBBEAN

www.carolinejamesauthor.co.uk

E: caroline@carolinejamesauthor.co.uk

Twitter: @CarolineJames12

GIVEAWAY

1st Prize – A copy of the book – UK winner (paperback) / Outside UK (ecopy)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

It’s Read in the Bathtub Day!

Do you like to read in the bathtub?

 

Visitor7 [CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

A Shadow in the Past…

When a contemporary teen is catapulted back in time to the Victorian era, she becomes A Shadow in the Past…

Nineteen-year-old Sarah Shand finds herself in Victorian Era Aberdeenshire, Scotland and has no idea how she got there. Her last memory is of being at the stone circle on the family farm in the year 2010.

Despite having difficulty coming to terms with her situation, Sarah quickly learns she must keep her true identity a secret. Still, she feels stifled by the Victorians’ confining social practices, including arranged marriages between wealthy and influential families, and confronts them head-on then suffers the consequences.

When Sarah realizes she has fallen in love with the handsome Laird of Weetshill, she faces an agonizing decision. Does she try to find her way back to 2010 or remain in the past with the man she loves?

BUY LINKS

amazon

kobo

Books a Million

Barnes & Noble

Diesel

So why not buy yourself a book (preferably one of mine), run a bubble bath and pour yourself a glass of wine (or your tipple of choice) and escape for some self-indulgence.

bathtub
Bathtub caddy with reading rack from Oh the Things You Can Buy

Just don’t fall asleep in the tub. And if you’re going to read using your kindle, kobo, nook, iPad or another electronic e-reader, put it in a sealable plastic bag to protect it if you don’t have a caddy with a book rest. Water and electronic devices don’t mix.

A Little Sugar, A Lot of Love by Linn B Halton ~ BOOK PROMO & EXCERPT

sugar

A LITTLE SUGAR, A LOT OF LOVE

BY LINN B. HALTON

sugar

Genre: Chick Lit
Release Date: 15 January 2016
Publisher: Choc Lit

A Little Sugar, A Lot of Love

Life isn’t all love and cupcakes …

Katie has had her fair share of bad luck, but when she finally realises her dream of opening a bakery it seems things can only get better.

But the reality of running a business hits Katie hard and whilst her partner, Steve, tries to help she begins to sense that the situation is driving them further apart. Could Katie be set to lose her relationship and her dream job?

Then, one winter’s day, a man walks into her shop – and, in the space of that moment, the course of Katie’s life is changed.

But nobody finds happiness in the blink of an eye. Sometimes it takes two Christmases, three birthdays and a whole lot of cake to get there …

Previously released as Sweet Occasions by the author. Revised and edited by Choc Lit December 2015.

sugar

BUY LINKS

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

EXCERPT:

Grandma Grace peers at me with interest over the top of her glasses, taking the box from my hands and placing it on the side. She wraps her arms around as much of me as she can reach, being at least a foot shorter, and gives me a fierce hug.

‘Thank you, my dear, but the only present I wanted was to see you standing here in one piece. It’s such a long journey and the weather! That rain is relentless, so many places are flooded. To think of you at the side of the road worried me to death and I will admit to saying a few little prayers as one hour turned into two, then three …’

She raises her eyebrow sternly, but it’s a brief moment before those twinkly blue eyes are full of love and laughter again.

‘My boy is here and that’s all that counts.’

‘Grandma, I haven’t been a boy for many years,’ I retort, softly, as she releases me with a tender pat on my back. She might be in her twilight years but her spirit is strong and her mind as sharp as ever. We all thought she’d fade away when Pop died, but the truth is he’s the one who would have faded if she had gone first.

‘You will always be a boy to me. Now, tell me more about this guardian angel of yours.’

While the tea is brewing and the cake is sliced, I hang around the kitchen as I did when I was growing up. Grandma Grace was always easy to talk to; she seemed to understand even when the words wouldn’t come. Her instincts filled in the gaps at times when even I couldn’t make sense of what was going on inside my head. After this failed relationship I began to despair of ever finding someone special.

‘You can’t hurry love,’ she’d told me. ‘It takes time to find your soulmate and in the process you change and grow. That’s why young love often withers, as Pop would have said. Two people either change and grow together, or they grow apart. Love is about sustaining what comes after that first hormonal rush.’

‘But that wasn’t the case for the two of you,’ I remember pointing out.

‘There has to be an exception to every rule,’ she’d replied, with a wicked smile. ‘We were lucky. Fate was kind to us. But with hindsight, we were too young and naive to understand that until much later in life. Don’t fret, Adam, there’s a wonderful young woman out there for you when the time is right.’

Sadly, when I reached that point it too turned out to be yet another huge failure. This time the consequences had been more painful than I could ever have imagined. Kelly was everything I thought I wanted in a woman and, after adjusting to the shock of an unplanned pregnancy, she was a fantastic mother. With hindsight I can see now that parenthood came too early in our relationship, we hardly knew each other. Suddenly I was a family man and yet, surprisingly, the role seemed to come naturally to me. I loved Sunday mornings the best. When a little head would appear on the pillow next to me at some unearthly hour and a warm little hand would wind its way around my neck.

Lily Grace is my sanity, my raison d’être.

 ABOUT LINN B. HALTON

sugar

“I’m a hopeless romantic, self-confessed chocaholic, and lover of coffee. For me, life is about family, friends, and writing. Oh, and the occasional glass of White Grenache…”

An Amazon UK Top 100 best-selling author with A Cottage in the Country in November 2015, Linn’s novels have been short-listed in the UK’s Festival of Romance and the eFestival of Words Book Awards. Linn won the 2013 UK Festival of Romance: Innovation in Romantic Fiction award. Linn writes chick lit, women’s contemporary fiction and psychic romance for Choc Lit, Harper Impulse and Endeavour Press.

Website/blog: http://linnbhalton.co.uk/
Twitter: @LinnBHalton FB: Linn B Halton Author
Amazon: http://smarturl.it/LittleSugarLotOfLove

GIVEAWAY

Contest Open Internationally – No Purchase necessary

1st Prize – £25 Amazon Voucher

2nd Prize – Cupcake themed Swag Bag

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Death Sentence by Sheryl Browne ~ BOOK PROMO

DEATH

DEATH SENTENCE

BY

SHERYL BROWNE

DEATH

Thriller/Psychological thriller/Crime thriller

Release Date: 1st June 2015

Reviewed by a top Amazon Reviewer at Best Selling Thrillers and given a glowing FIVE Stars, Sheryl Browne’s new thriller Death Sentence is now available on Amazon! “This was such an excellent read. I found myself having to force myself to breathe. Well done Sheryl! Once again you’ve produced a book with such an array of plots and yet showing that love is still possible throughout tragedy and conflict”. – Treebeard

*The title of the book, DEATH SENTENCE, was suggested by a chief constable who also offered the author guidance on forensics and police procedure.

Death Sentence – He’s killed your child and kidnapped your wife. What would YOU do?

Detective Inspector Matthew Adams and Patrick Sullivan, drug dealer, pimp, murderer: two men on opposite sides of the law. A history that goes way back. A bully even in his youth, Sullivan had made it his mission in life to make the goody-two-shoes copper’s life a misery. Now Matthew has made it his mission in life to make sure the pimping scum responsible for prostituting young girls, abusing them, and beating them to death, is locked up for life.

When Matthew’s child becomes a casualty of the war between them, does Matthew want justice? Or does he want retribution? When Patrick’s brother is shot down like a dog in a drug bust gone wrong, Patrick wants payback. He wants Matthew. Or the copper loses his pretty, pregnant wife. As far as Patrick is concerned, it’s quid pro quo.

An edge-of-your seat story of revenge.

WATCH THE VIDEO TRAILER! https://youtu.be/5hBOBLTiQxw

BUY LINKS

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About Sheryl Browne

DEATH

Heartache, humour, love, loss & betrayal, Sheryl Browne brings you edgy, sexy, poignant fiction. A member of the Crime Writers’ Association, Romantic Novelists’ Association and shortlisted for the Best Romantic e-book Love Stories Award 2015, Sheryl has seven books published and two short stories in Birmingham City University anthologies

Sheryl’s new contemporary romance novel was recommended to the publisher by the WH Smith Travel fiction buyer. THE REST OF MY LIFE comes to you from award winning Choc Lit.
DEATHAuthor Links

Author Links

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Buy | Buy US | Pinterest

Loveahappyending Lifestyle

Safkhet Publishing | Choc Lit | Romantic Novelists’ Association

 

Giveaway

ECOPY OF DEATH SENTENCE

ECOPY OF THE EDGE OF SANITY

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  death

The 2015 season has ended…

The Merrickville Christmas Craft and Concession Show marked the end of the 2015 season, well for me anyway. There could be others this weekend or next but I’m so far behind in everything, I think I’m ahead… I’m not exaggerating.

December 12th – Community Centre, Merrickville, ON

appearances

My display with multi-coloured battery operated LED lights to make it look festive.

This was my last event of the 2015 season. It’s hard to believe it’s less than two weeks before Christmas. Yikes! Where has the year gone?

It was a good day on the sales front for me starting before the official opening time of the show when I sold 1 copy of A Shadow in the Past. Before the day was finished, I added sales of 1 copy of The Consequences Collection, and 4 copies of Tim’s Magic Christmas.

I’m looking forward to the 2016 season and hope to attend even more events next year.