Tag Archives: authors

Authors, Book Promo, contemporary romance, Ellie Gray, Novels, Tirgearr Publishing

LOVE ON THE NILE by Ellie Gray #review #excerpt #giveaway

August 5, 2016 Melanie 2 Comments

Love on the Nile

by

Ellie Gray

Contemporary Romance

Release Date:

15^th June 2016

Publisher: Tirgearr Publishing

Natasha embarks upon the holiday of a lifetime with her brother, looking forward to exploring the ancient sites Egypt has to offer. What she hasn’t bargained for is spending her holiday cruising along the Nile with Kyle Richardson, a handsome but moody archaeologist. Despite taking an instant dislike to Kyle, Natasha finds herself increasingly drawn to the man, particularly as his interactions with her brother reveal a gentler, more caring side to his character.

Having lost everyone he has ever loved, Kyle is a loner, believing himself to be cursed. He now spends his life moving around Egypt, ensuring he never lingers anywhere long enough to form meaningful attachments. Despite his better judgement, he finds himself drawn to this feisty young woman, but is afraid of the deeper feelings she stirs in him.

Can his feelings for Natasha convince him that it’s worth taking a risk on love?

Excerpt

“Natasha, darling!” The rather stout woman levered herself from the chair and swiftly crossed the room to throw her arms around her niece.

Breathing in the familiar perfume and leaning into the protective embrace of her aunt, Natasha’s irritation dissipated as quickly as it had appeared, and she closed her eyes against the sudden and unexpected tears of relief at having finally arrived at their destination. “Oh, Aunt Lucy, it’s so good to see you.” Her voice was muffled against Lucy’s shoulder and she took a deep breath before stepping back and smiling. “It’s been so long. I can’t believe we’re actually here at last.”

“It’s wonderful to see you, Natasha. I’ve missed you both so much.” Lucy lifted a hand to cup her niece’s face before turning to Nicky, hands on her ample hips as she scrutinised him critically.

“Oh, you always were like two peas in a pod. And, Nicky, you have grown into a very handsome young man. You have no idea how happy I am that you came.”

“Hello, Aunty Lucy, how are you?” Nicky briefly returned his aunt’s embrace before securing the baseball cap a little tighter on his head and asking the question foremost in his mind. “Can I have something to eat?”

Lucy shook her head with a smile and glanced at the man, who had so far remained silent throughout. “Kyle, this is my nephew Nicky, and my niece Natasha. I’m pleased to see that at least one thing never changes, and that is Nicky’s appetite.”

She caught Nicky’s arm and led him off to the far side of the room. “Come on, I’ve got some of your favourite biscuits over here in this cupboard.”

Natasha could see Kyle watching her younger brother, his eyes narrowed, and she felt the familiar churning in the pit of her stomach, trying to anticipate at what point he would realise Nicky had learning difficulties. Automatically, she tried to deflect that scrutiny, moving further into the room and feeling a sense of relief as Kyle’s gaze immediately swung towards her.

“Natasha Morgan,” she introduced herself, and held out her hand.

“So I gather.” His face was unsmiling and Natasha was uncomfortably aware of her earlier, rather waspish response to what was probably quite a reasonable conversation he had been having with her aunt. He pushed himself out of the chair to tower above her, his hair shining blue-black in the pale moonlight which streamed through the open window. Tall as she was, Natasha had to tilt her head back to meet his startlingly blue eyes. He was younger than she had initially thought, probably in his mid-thirties — just a few years older than herself.

There was a pause before he replied. “Kyle Richardson.”

He took her hand briefly, offering a firm cool handshake, before returning to his chair, long legs stretched out before him and crossed at the ankles.

“I’m sorry you overheard our conversation; I had no idea you were there.”

His voice was deep and husky, and his gaze once again followed her movements as she sank into the seat Lucy had recently vacated.

She nodded and spread her hands expressively, shrugging her slim shoulders. “I’m sorry if I sounded… irritated. It’s been a really long day and I hadn’t expected Aunt Lucy to arrange a personal guide for us. Please, it’s not a problem, we don’t want… we don’t need a guide, and I’m sure you have better things to do with your time.”

Kyle’s mouth twitched as if in amusement at the inadvertent slip of the tongue, but whatever he was about to say was lost as Lucy and Nicky returned, the latter clutching a packet of chocolate-covered biscuits.

“Oh, you’ve introduced yourselves. Excellent.” Lucy beamed at them, clapping her hands together. “I’m sure we’re all going to have a wonderful time together.”

“I was just explaining that Nicky and I are quite happy to find our own way around Egypt,” Natasha cut in quickly. “There is no need for Mr. Richardson to trouble himself.”

“Nonsense,” cried Lucy, fixing Kyle with a rather piercing gaze. “I’m not letting you wriggle out of this one, Kyle. You owe me rather a lot of favours and I am now calling one of them in. Heavens, man, I haven’t seen you in close to two years, and I happen to know for a fact that you haven’t taken a break for longer than that. It’s high time you did.”

Natasha observed this outburst with some surprise, having hardly ever heard her aunt speak so sharply. She risked a glance towards Kyle and saw that he was still reclined in his chair, arms folded over his chest, and a somewhat amused gleam in his blue eyes. He remained silent, obviously expecting Lucy to continue her reprimand.

BUY LINKS

Kindle UK Kindle US

Smashwords Kobo

Nook (Barnes and Noble)

My Review

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This is the first book by Ellie Gray that I’ve read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

In the beginning, Kyle feels like he’s lumbered with being an ‘unofficial’ tour guide and Natasha is resentful to have one. She’s researched her trip of a lifetime and feels she can do it herself.

It doesn’t take long before she’s grateful to have the moody archaeologist there showing her and her younger brother, Nicky, the sites and taking her places that aren’t accessible to most tourists.

Ellie’s descriptions of the ancient sites and the climate made me feel like I was there along with Natasha, Nicky and Kyle.

Definitely a 5 star read!

ABOUT ELLIE GRAY

Ellie is a contemporary romance author and lives in the beautiful East Riding of Yorkshire with her partner, David, and two children, Joe and Abbie.

Love on the Nile will be her second novel published with the lovely Tirgearr Publishing – her debut novel, Beauty and the Recluse was released in February 2016.

A proud member of the Romantic Novelist Association, Ellie currently works full-time in public services and is studying for an MSc in Public Management, although she hopes one day to be able to write full time.
A few random pieces of information about Ellie:
• Favourite TV shows – The Walking Dead, The X-Files, Nashville, Dr. Who, The Great British Bake-off!
• Favourite Music – I’m an 80’s girl!, country, sixties, Elvis, classical (when I’m writing)
• Favourite Food – Indian, tapas, crisps, cheese
• Favourite Drink – black coffee – copious amounts when I’m writing, Sauvignon blanc when I’m not.

Facebook: Ellie Gray Author

Twitter: @elliegray58

Goodreads: Ellie Gray Author on Goodreads

Instagram: Ellie Gray Author on Instagram

Google+ Ellie Gray Author on Google Plus

LinkedIn: Ellie Gray Author on LinkedIn

websites: https://elliegrayauthor.wordpress.com

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Book Promo, contemporary fiction, Kate Frost, Lemon Tree Press, Novels

BENEATH THE APPLE BLOSSOM by Kate Frost #guestpost #giveaway

August 4, 2016 Melanie 2 Comments

Beneath the Apple Blossom

by

Kate Frost

Genre: Contemporary women’s fiction

Release Date: 04/08/16

Publisher: Lemon Tree Press

Four women, linked by blood ties, friendship, betrayal, loss and hope, struggle with the choices they’ve made and the hand that life’s dealt them.

All Pippa’s ever wanted is marriage and kids, but at thirty-four and about to embark on IVF, her dream of having a family is far from certain. Her younger sister Georgie has the opposite problem, juggling her career, her lover, a young daughter and a husband who wants baby number two.

Pippa’s best friend Sienna has a successful career in the film world, and despite her boyfriend pressurising her to settle down, a baby is the last thing she wants. Happily married Connie shares the trauma of fertility treatment with Pippa, but underestimates the impact being unable to conceive will have on her and her marriage.

As their lives collide in a way they could never have predicted, will any of them get to see their hopes realised?

EXTRACT

Connie stopped and looked around. She had wandered a little way off the path and was in a small grassy clearing surrounded by trees heavy with spring leaves and blossom. Not in the mood for making small talk with a stranger, she chose a spot in semi-shade out of sight of the path, leant back against the slender tree trunk and closed her eyes. A slight breeze caressed her face and every so often she got the wonderful sensation of sunlight on her. She took a deep breath and drank in the scent of damp grass and spring flowers – fresh, sweet and alive – then opened her eyes to the canopy of white against the blue sky. The apple tree was bursting with blossom like masses of white teardrops.

She had everything to live for even if it didn’t feel like it right now. Life was a journey, and the best journeys were the ones that couldn’t be predicted before setting off, or that weren’t an easy ride to reach the destination. Right then, on a perfect spring day beneath the apple blossom, she made a pact with herself to keep loving life whatever was thrown at her. She may have suffered yet more disappointment but she could still see beauty in the world and feel at peace.

BUY LINKS

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

Top Tips to Get a Book Publication-Ready

There’s no definitive way to become a bestselling or successful author, whether traditionally or indie published, but there are sure-fire ways to give yourself the best chance. I self-published my first book, The Butterfly Storm, in the summer of 2013 on Kindle only. Three years later, after learning a huge amount through trial and error, reading plenty, becoming a member of the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) and becoming friends with lots of other writers, I’ve just published my second women’s fiction novel, Beneath the Apple Blossom, as an ebook and in paperback.

Whether you measure publishing success by the number of books sold, the amount of (good) reviews an author has or if it’s been a bestseller on Amazon, here are my top tips to ensure a book is as good as it can be before making it available to the world.

Edit, edit, edit. This includes self-editing numerous times (and I suggest leaving your novel for as long as you can bear so you can read through it with a fresh pair of eyes), getting beta readers to give you feedback before hiring an editor and then a proof reader. Despite Beneath the Apple Blossom going through all of that I still managed to find a spelling error when proofing the paperback. Reading your novel in different formats can help, as well as reading it out loud.
Believe in yourself. Most writers doubt themselves – it comes with the territory with every rejection or bad review knocking confidence. But alongside every rejection letter or one star review there will be praise and a glowing endorsement from someone who loved your book. I keep a hardback notebook where I write snippets from reviews or small extracts I’m particularly proud of from my stories and novels that I can look at on those days when doubt creeps in. Connecting with other writers via Twitter, Facebook or indeed in real life is also invaluable to share the ups and downs of a writing life.
Invest in your book. This is a biggie but also the one that feels the riskiest, investing money on editing, proof reading, cover design, plus ebook and/or paperback formatting if you need to, can feel like a gamble but is worth it to end up with a professional novel you can be proud of. Of course there are no guarantees – I’d more than made my money back on what I’d invested in The Butterfly Storm three months after it was published and so I’ve reinvested some of that money in Beneath the Apple Blossom in the hope of having the same kind of success.
Don’t underestimate the time it takes to publish a book. I know there are lots of authors who manage to get a book written and published in a matter of months (if not weeks). I’m not one of them. I hope to get quicker, both at the writing and publication stage, and I think that will come with practise and the more I publish. Editing, lining up reviewers, launching, marketing, all the while trying to write the next book takes time, particularly if you want to do it well. Giving yourself a deadline and having a detailed publication plan is an invaluable way of getting things done.
Have a marketing plan. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? With my debut novel I organised a mini blog tour, put some posts up on Facebook and Twitter on launch day but that was about it. No surprise then that apart from launch day where I sold a fair few copies (to friends and family), The Butterfly Storm speedily headed back down Amazon’s Kindle chart. That was until I did a five-day free promotion two months later where 20,000 books were downloaded and the knock-on effect resulted in approximately 3,000 copies being sold in just three weeks. I have no idea how Beneath the Apple Blossom will do, but I do have a proper marketing plan in place this time with reviewers lined up weeks before publication day, a blog tour and a Facebook party organised, plus ideas for social media and local press. My marketing plan goes beyond launch day and I’m thinking ahead and planning what to do in the coming weeks and months to hopefully keep the momentum going.

My debut novel did well. It got to number one during a five day free book promotion, became a bestseller in literary fiction and women’s literary fiction Kindle categories and featured on Amazon’s Movers and Shakers chart more than once. Hopefully I’ll be able to build on that success with Beneath the Apple Blossom. Time will tell but I’m confident I’ve given it the best chance possible.

ABOUT KATE FROST

Kate Frost

Kate Frost is a writer and author with a MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University where she has also taught the lifewriting course to Creative Writing undergraduates. Alongside writing articles and short stories for magazines such as New Welsh Review, The London Magazine and QWF, Kate has worked in a bookshop, a cinema, as ground staff at Edgebaston Tennis Tournament and as a Supporting Artist in the films Vanity Fair, King Arthur and The Duchess.

Kate’s debut novel, The Butterfly Storm, was published in 2013 and featured on Amazon’s Movers and Shakers chart. Beneath the Apple Blossom is the first book in a series and Kate also plans to release the first in a time travel adventure trilogy for children by the end of 2016.

Kate lives in Bristol with her husband, her young son and their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and fits in writing and publishing books around looking after – and being amused by – an energetic toddler.

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kactus77

Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7131734.Kate_Frost

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

Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/104783514144778238847/about/p/pub

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-frost-29976041?trk=hp-identity-name

Blog: http://kate-frost.co.uk/index.php/blog/

Website: http://kate-frost.co.uk/

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PAPERBACK COPY OF THE BOOK

(open internationally)

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Authors, Blog Tour, Book Promo, Choc Lit, contemporary romance, Kathryn Freeman, Novels

BEFORE YOU by Kathryn Freeman #giveaway

August 1, 2016 Melanie Leave a comment

Before You

by

Kathryn Freeman

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: 7^th June 2016

Publisher: Choc Lit

When life in the fast lane threatens to implode …

Melanie Hunt’s job working for the Delta racing team means she is constantly rubbing shoulders with Formula One superstars in glamorous locations like Monte Carlo. But she has already learned that keeping a professional distance is crucial if she doesn’t want to get hurt.

New Delta team driver Aiden Foster lives his life like he drives his cars – fast and hard. But, no matter how successful he is, it seems he always falls short of his championship-winning father’s legacy. If he could just stay focused, he could finally make that win.

Resolve begins to slip as Melanie and Aiden find themselves drawn to each other –with nowhere to hide as racing season begins. But when a troubled young boy goes missing, everything is thrown into turmoil, including Aiden’s championship dream.

BUY LINKS

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

ABOUT KATHRYN FREEMAN

Kathryn Freeman

I was born in Wallingford but have spent most of my life living in a village outside Windsor. A former pharmacist, I’m now a medical writer who also loves to write romance. Some days a racing heart is a medical condition, others it’s the reaction to a hunky hero…

I’ve two teenage boys and a husband who asks every Valentine’s Day whether he has to bother buying a card again this year (yes, he does) so the romance in my life is all in my head. Then again, my husband’s unstinting support of my career change goes to prove that love isn’t always about hearts and flowers – and heroes can come in many disguises.

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

Twitter: @kathrynfreeman1

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7373990.Kathryn_Freeman

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathryn-freeman-2962209

Website: http://kathrynfreeman.co.uk

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A paperback copy of Search for the Truth (open internationally)

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Authors, Domestic noir, giveaway, Guest Post, Honno Press, Novels, The Unravelling, Thorne Moore

THE UNRAVELLING by Thorne Moore #guestpost #giveaway

July 28, 2016 Melanie 3 Comments

The Unravelling

by

Thorne Moore

unravelling

Genre: Domestic noir

Release Date: 21 July 2016

Publisher: Honno Press

From the Top Ten Bestselling Author of A Time for Silence

The Unravelling

When they were ten everybody wanted to be Serena’s friend, to find themselves one of the inner circle. But doing so meant proving your worth, and doing that often had consequences it’s not nice to think about – not even thirty-five years later.

Karen Rothwell is randomly reminded of an incident in her childhood which just as suddenly becomes an obsession. It takes her on a journey into a land of secrets and lies; it means finding that gang of girls from Marsh Green Junior School and most importantly of all finding Serena Whinn.

Praise for Thorne Moore’s novels

‘A true page turner’– www.gwales.com

‘The most chilling part of Thorne Moore’s skill is the way that she represents evil’ – Helen Tozer, sideline jelly

BUY LINKS

**********

Things I learned when writing this book

I learned that I have the potential to be a really bad driver. I think I am a moderately good driver (I am too modest to put it higher than that), but my main character, Karen Rothwell, is bad. The sort of driver who’d make you slam on the brakes and take the next turn onto a different route. I found it extraordinarily easy to get inside her head and perceive such obstacles as roundabouts and motorway junctions as problems best approached with the eyes shut. So easy that I worry I might be tempted to do so, just for the hell of it.

I learned that I am old. You know old people say “I can remember everything that happened fifty years ago, but I can’t remember what I had for breakfast today.” That is me, with this book. My main character, Karen Rothwell, is my age, because I thought that would make it easier, getting the details of her childhood right. In 1965, she’s ten, going on 11, in the fourth year of junior school, just as I was. It isn’t a date I dared mess with, because a few years later, everything would have been different. This was before 1967, before Sgt Pepper, before beads and kaftans and women’s lib. The Beatles may have been a big thing, but they were still in nice smart suits.

1965 was really the tail end of the 1950s. Children hadn’t yet been liberated into jeans and T-shirts. Little girls wore cotton frocks and ankle socks in summer, long socks, kilts and cardies in winter. Little boys wore pullovers and short trousers. Everyone had scabby knees. We had little bottles of milk at school playtime and cabbage for dinner. People lived in council houses and travelled on buses. They shopped at local butchers and greengrocers and made phone calls in red phone boxes, remembering to push Button A. You could get a decent bar of chocolate for 3d, and swings were set in concrete that could break your nose, and made of proper solid wood that could knock your teeth out. None of this health and safety nonsense.

We walked to school every morning. I’m not sure even the teachers bothered to drive, although one did have a bubble car. My routes, and there were several, led through an estate that was in transition. Among the streets of council houses, prefabs were coming down to make way for tower blocks because nobody had yet realised that the British don’t do high-rise living. A motorway was being built alongside the school playing field. Underneath it all was the ghost of what had been there just a decade or two before: farmhouses and fields and woods and streams. A few massive trees lingered. There was a huge wild cherry which stood opposite my house, until continuous lopping away to make room for buses made it give up the ghost. Roads were named after farms that no longer existed. Brooks, reduced to drainage ditches, appeared and disappeared among the houses. And there was a lane, one of my routes home, unpaved, muddy and overhung with trees, just wide enough for the horse and cart that would once have used it.

Karen’s flashbacks, in the book, refer to that era and I could conjure up every detail of it, with no trouble at all. It’s all in my DNA. But much of the action is also set at the turn of this century, the Millennium or thereabouts, and that is only 16 years ago, so I should be able to remember it as well, if not better, than the 1960s, but I couldn’t. I had to research it. It’s not the events of the time that evade me. They are easy enough to recall. It’s the technology. We have the internet now. We had it then too, of course. Our houses rang with weird sci-fi dialling tones as we plugged our modems into our phone lines and waited to see if the thing would ever connect. On our new and improved Windows 98, we hastily searched for what we wanted on Yahoo, and God help us if our chosen site had pictures, because they would take forever to load, and we were worried about the phone bill. And we’d better be quick because someone else wanted to use the phone.

Not that we had that much to look at, when we were connected. There was a site called Amazon, which sold books, just books, and a new search engine had appeared, called Google, but Facebook and Twitter were not yet even gleams in the milkman’s eye. Not much point in relying on the internet until broadband was introduced. That was in 2000 but it was several years before it really caught on. Since when, it has become so essential, many of us can’t imagine life without it.

Like mobile phones. Of course people had mobile phones in 2000. Some of them, anyway, and they were no longer the huge bricks flaunted by the yuppies of the 80s. They were smaller bricks, and unless you were young and frivolous, you kept them switched off, for emergencies, for fear of running the batteries down. If you were of a certain age, (over 20) you would quiver hopelessly at the thought of texting.

Books, in 2000, came in two formats. Hardback and paperback.

Sat Navs? If you wanted to get from A to B you consulted your AA Atlas.

It can come as a shock to realise how much our personal worlds have changed in less than 20 years. It was only as I wrote The Unravelling, that I fully appreciated it. Must be getting old.

At least I do still remember what I had for breakfast this morning. Yoghurt. Or was that yesterday?

I learned that sometimes I need someone to say yes very loudly, straight at me, in order to drown out the voice in my head that keeps saying no, no, no, no. I began writing The Unravelling about 30 years ago. And stopped. I began it again about 20 years ago and stopped again. And 15 and 12 and 10 and 8. I think I have one of those early drafts still on an Amstrad word processor disc, no longer readable. An early draft of the first two or three chapters, that is, because each time I started, even though I knew who the characters would be and where they should be going, I just came to a full stop and moved on to something completely different. Then the editor of my last book asked me if I were working on anything else. I mentioned the idea of The Unravelling. She said good! Write it. So I did.

**********

ABOUT THORNE MOORE

unravelling

Thorne Moore was born in Luton but has lived in in the back of beyond in north Pembrokeshire for 32 years. She has degrees in History and Law, worked in a library and ran a family restaurant as well as a miniature furniture craft business, which is still in Production, but she now concentrates on writing psychological crime mysteries.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thorne.moore.7

Twitter: @ThorneMoore

Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6562052.Thorne_Moore

Blog: http://thornemoore.blogspot.co.uk/

Website: thornemoore.co.uk

**********

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Book Promo, cover reveal, Janet K Brown, Pen-L Publishing

Cover Reveal ~ WORTH FORGIVING by Janet K. Brown

July 27, 2016 Melanie 2 Comments

Worth Forgiving

by

Janet K. Brown

Second in the Wharton Rock Worth Series

Prejudice and mistrust hinders an ex-con, drug addict’s new beginning. Could it be she’s not Worth Forgiving?

The state of Texas releases from prison Katie Smith. Full of optimism, she sets out to get a job, rent her own place, and make a home for her eight-year-old daughter, but Katie gave away her daughter three years ago. She could use a friend, but her past choices threaten to doom her to continued failure.

Larry Pullman graduated from seminary with high marks, but the fact that he has no wife makes finding a preaching job almost impossible. It doesn’t help that running from God as a teenager gave him a past that he can’t undo. All he needs is an ex-con, drug addict messing up his life, but then why did God lead him to her? Or did He?

Isn’t it enough that Lacey Chandler gave her sister’s daughter a home? Does that mean she has to clean up Katie’s messes forever?

worth forgiving

About Janet K. Brown

janet k brown

Janet K. Brown lives in Wichita Falls, Texas with her husband, Charles.

Worth Forgiving, an inspirational women’s fiction, is the second in her Wharton Rock series. Her only non-fiction is Divine Dining: 365 Devotions to Guide You to Healthier Weight and Abundant Wellness.

Worth Forgiving marks Brown’s fourth book. Who knew she had a penchant for teens and ghosts? She released her debut novel, an inspirational young adult, Victoria and the Ghost, in July, 2012.

Janet and her husband love to travel with their RV, work in their church, and visit their three daughters, two sons-in-law and three perfect grandchildren.

Janet teaches workshops on writing, weight loss, and the historical settings of her teen books. The author uses her platform of recovering compulsive overeater to weave stories of hope for addiction, compulsion, or impossible situations.

Find her at:

website: http://www.janetkbrown.com
on Twitter: @janetkbrowntx
and on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Janet-K-Brown-Author/143915285641707

If you like the book, please consider leaving a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or even word of mouth. It’s the best compliment you can give an author.

Christina Courtenay, Guest Post, Novels, Pia Fenton, YA fiction

NEW ENGLAND DREAMS by Pia Fenton #guestpost #excerpt #giveaway

July 27, 2016 Melanie 2 Comments

New England Dreams

by

Pia Fenton

New England

Genre: YA contemporary romance (US high school setting, UK heroine)

Release Date: 25^th July 2016

Book 4 of the Northbrooke High series (can be read as a standalone)

When opposites attract, can dreams come true?

Staying in New England for a few months is just what Sienna Randall needs after all the family problems she’s been dealing with at home in London. Romance is the last thing she’s expecting, so it’s a total surprise when she ends up kissing a guy she meets on the flight.

Kyle Everett is Sienna’s complete opposite – he’s clean-cut and preppy, she has piercings and pink dreads. But he can’t resist making out with her. He is, after all, Northbrooke High’s number one player. Except Sienna’s different from other girls. He’s definitely expecting to see her again – until they’re separated by irate airline officials before he can get her number.

Then fate throws them together once more, but when Sienna turns up in Kyle’s home room, neither admits to having met before. The chemistry between them is still there though – should they let it have free rein or should the attraction stay in their dreams?

EXTRACT

Kyle smiled and changed the subject. ‘You got any more piercings then? You know, hidden ones?’ He wiggled his eyebrows at her and it looked so stupid she couldn’t help but smile back.

‘None of your business,’ she told him.

‘Oh, so you do? Now I’m curious.’

‘I do not. And even if I did, I wouldn’t show you.’

‘Oh, yeah? Hmm. So tell me, how does it feel to kiss with snake bites?’ He was suddenly staring at her mouth intently and Sienna felt a shiver run through her. God, but he was hot. Seriously hot. And he was so close. She was very tempted to just reach over and grab him.

And why not? No one would ever know.

She shook herself mentally, but some devil made her smile again. She looked up at him from under her lashes, the way she’d seen other girls do when they were flirting. She’d never managed it because she was too shy, but for some reason, she had no trouble doing it now. ‘You tell me,’ she said, the challenge clear in her voice.

His eyes opened wide and he drew in a sharp breath. Then he grinned. ‘Okay, you’re on.’

The next thing she knew, he had bent his head slightly to the side and captured her mouth with his in a long, slow kiss that almost melted her bones. He ran his tongue over the snake bites, nipping at one playfully, then kissed her again, properly, deeply. When he stopped he brought up a hand to cup her cheek. ‘I like it,’ he whispered. ‘A lot.’

So did Sienna, but she didn’t get a chance to reply, because he started kissing her again and this time he didn’t stop. Which was just as well, since she didn’t want him to. In fact, she didn’t come to her senses until some air steward pulled Kyle off her and she realised with flaming cheeks they’d ended up lying across all four middle seats, making out thirty thousand feet up in the sky.

‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ the crewman hissed, looking from one to the other.

Sienna wondered the same thing. She must have lost her mind.

BUY LINKS

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

**********

Have you ever …

… done something really crazy? And then wondered afterwards what on earth you were thinking and if you’d lost your mind? That’s what the heroine of my new YA book, New England Dreams, does. She’s on her way to the US for some time out from family problems, when she happens to be sitting next to this really hot guy her own age. They have zero in common – he’s clean-cut, she’s grungy with piercings – but there is plenty of attraction between them so she ends up making out with him. And then wondering what the heck she’s done when the airline staff aren’t too happy about it!

I think we all do crazy things sometimes – being impulsive is human nature after all. We don’t all think before we act. And although we try to repress it, the temptation to try something just once, or to just say ‘to hell with it, I’m going for it’ is often impossible to resist. I’m no exception and here are some of the idiotic and/or impulsive things I’ve done so far in my life:-

Ridden on back of a motorcycle with a guy who was driving at over 200 km/hr (that’s about 125 mph in English terms) – although it was exhilarating, I did start to get a bit scared towards the end before he listened to me and started slowing down!
Dived off a pier into shallow water – yeah, this was probably THE stupidest thing I’ve ever done. I didn’t check how deep the water was, just assumed that because it was the end of a pier there would be lots, but actually I was lucky I didn’t break my neck! Ended up with a scraped nose and forehead, which made me seriously think I have a guardian angel (and I didn’t believe in those before that)
Tried taking snuff – the Swedish variety, which is like a huge wad of tobacco you stick inside your upper lip. Makes you feel really sick and dizzy. So never doing that again!
Tried smoking a cigar – ditto! (How can people seriously enjoy that??)
Kissed a stranger on an airplane – yes, confession time, that plot line came from a real life experience, but sadly for me I never saw the guy again although he did write to me twice (as he lived in Alaska and I lived in Sweden at the time, there wasn’t much chance of long-term romance)
Locked someone else’s door so they couldn’t get into their own house – I was only five, and was in someone’s house with my mum, and for some reason decided to lock the front door which meant the husband couldn’t get in. He stood outside shouting at me (no one else heard him or the bell) and I was too scared to open the door LOL – got told off royally when my mum found out
Bribed a friend’s brother to take me to prom – desperate times call for desperate measures, right? Not my finest moment, but hey, I got to go to the prom and we had fun
Jumped off the 10 metre diving board – I consider this crazy even though I know lots of people do it, but for someone like me who is terrified of heights, it was tantamount to insane. I had to do it for a swimming diploma I was doing, without the jump everything else I’d done would be null and void, so I did but … never again, I’m telling you! Never!
Broken my little toe (the same one) twice in one week – not so much crazy as careless perhaps? But although I am a klutz, I think this counts as too stupid for words, even for me
Touched a hot iron to see how much it hurt – uhm, yeah, what can I say – I was, like, four years old maybe? And a bit too curious for my own good …

Okay, so those are my confessions – how about yours? What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done? I’d love to know!

ABOUT PIA FENTON

Pia Fenton (who also writes as Christina Courtenay) is a chocoholic and confirmed couch potato, allergic to exercise of any kind (except maybe swimming). Although born in England, she has a Swedish mother and was brought up in Sweden so she was a bit of a mixed up kid. When she was a teenager, she moved with her family to Japan. From there she had the opportunity to travel in the Far East and other parts of the world, which was great fun. She also got to go to an American high school in Tokyo, together with kids of 138 other nationalities, and had the best time of her life!
Pia loves: reading and writing (YA obviously, but also anything historical, time slip and paranormal), dogs, genealogy, listening to rock music and doing various craft projects very badly. (It’s the trying that counts, right?)
Pia’s first YA novel New England Rocks (published by Choc Lit, Aug 2013) was short listed for The Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Award for Best Romantic Young Adult novel 2014. She’s also won some awards for her adult historical books.

Pia Fenton (who also writes as Christina Courtenay) is a chocoholic and confirmed couch potato, allergic to exercise of any kind (except maybe swimming). Although born in England, she has a Swedish mother and was brought up in Sweden so she was a bit of a mixed up kid. When she was a teenager, she moved with her family to Japan. From there she had the opportunity to travel in the Far East and other parts of the world, which was great fun. She also got to go to an American high school in Tokyo, together with kids of 138 other nationalities, and had the best time of her life!

Pia loves: reading and writing (YA obviously, but also anything historical, time slip and paranormal), dogs, genealogy, listening to rock music and doing various craft projects very badly. (It’s the trying that counts, right?)

Pia’s first YA novel New England Rocks (published by Choc Lit, Aug 2013) was short listed for The Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Award for Best Romantic Young Adult novel 2014. She’s also won some awards for her adult historical books.

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PiaCCourtenay

group twitter https://twitter.com/paisleypiranhas )

Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4112359.Christina_Courtenay

Instagram: paisleypiranha

Blogs: http://christinacourtenay.com/?page_id=278

https://paisleypiranha.wordpress.com/

Websites: http://christinacourtenay.com/

https://sites.google.com/site/paisleypiranha/

Pinterest: https://uk.pinterest.com/piacourtenay/

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Accent Press, Authors, Book Promo, chick lit, Georgina Troy, Novels

A JERSEY BOMBSHELL by Georgina Troy #giveaway

July 19, 2016 Melanie 2 Comments

A Jersey Bombshell

by

Georgina Troy

jersey

Genre: Chicklit

Release Date: 17 June 2016

Publisher: Accent Press

Book 4 of The Jersey Scene series (can be read as a standalone)

Gabriel has returned to the island of Jersey after ten years abroad to help his aging showbiz parents revive their failing Art Deco hotel. This proves to be something of a challenge, especially as his singer father and actress mother are more concerned with staying in the limelight than keeping track of the cash-flow. Gabriel isn’t going anywhere fast …

Meanwhile, he’s stunned to find that the hotel’s new receptionist is the girl he fell in love with years earlier in Vietnam, and someone who is tied to Jersey is the last thing she needs …

ADD TO GOODREADS

BUY LINKS

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

ABOUT GEORGINA TROY

JERSEY

Georgina Troy lives in Jersey, an island fifteen miles off the coast of France. She’s a hopeless romantic and enjoys spending time day-dreaming about heroes on one of the nearby beaches with her three rescue dogs. When Georgina realised that no one else was writing books about the beautiful wind-swept beaches and intriguing inhabitants of her island home, she decided she had to provide some.

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/georginatroy

Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7224225.Georgina_Troy

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

Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/1/107875573365392188870/posts

LinkedIn: https://je.linkedin.com/in/deborah-carr-2b086015

Blog: http://georginatroy.blogspot.com/

Website: http://www.georginatroy.co.uk/

GIVEAWAY

$25 or equivalent Amazon gift voucher. Open Internationally

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cover reveal, I Need a Doctor, Janey Travis, Novel covers, Novels, Thornhill Print

I NEED A DOCTOR by Janey Travis #CoverReveal

July 2, 2016 Melanie Leave a comment

janey

I Need a Doctor

by

Janey Travis

janey

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Release Date: 15^th July 2016

Publisher: Thornhill Print

Beauty and fame… a blessing or a curse?

Story synopsis: Loveless fashion model Nola Nichols thinks being beautiful is a curse; that is until she is cursed and her looks begin to fade just a week before the most important photo shoot of her career. In her attempts to get un-cursed, she finds herself taking part in a rather unconventional funeral, reveals one or two unrests in her own past, and falls madly in love with a doctor. Erm… that would be a witch doctor, right…?

BUY LINKS

The Book will be available at the Pre-Order Price
Amazon – Kobo – iBooks, etc.

The special price is 99p or $1.40.

What the Readers say:

“Just the right sprinkling of romance and humour.” Brook Cottage Books

“A very enjoyable and clever plot. Different, fresh and enjoyable.” Jenny in Neverland

“I couldn’t help but like Nola even though at times she is a proper diva.” Comet Babe’s Books

“I love all the quirky characters in the story and just the pure madness and fun of it all!” Books4U

“A nice balance of humour, sweet romance, morals and a spooky side!” The Little Reader Library

“A Five Star Read – I really enjoyed the light-hearted tone.” Love Reading Love Books

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ABOUT JANEY TRAVIS

janey

Janey Travis is currently travelling around the world chasing the sun while blogging, tweeting, writing fun-to-read novels and travel magazine features. Look out for her new light-hearted romantic comedy novel I Need a Doctor. You can catch up with her on Twitter: @janey_travis on Facebook: janeytravisbooks.

Janey also writes bestselling romantic adventure fiction as Janice Horton. Find out more at www.janicehorton.co.uk

Author Links:

Janey Travis on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/janeytravisbooks

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/janey_travis

Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30623638-i-need-a-doctor

Website: (still under construction)

www.janeytravis.co.uk

janey travis

For just a few hours on Saturday 2nd July (morning for US and afternoon for UK) I’m hosting a fun to attend FB Party Event to celebrate my latest rom-com book Pre-Release ‘I Need A Doctor’. It is SIMPLE and FUN to take part – just POST up a picture of your favourite doctor onto the Event Page. Is is Dr Who? Dr George? Dr Dre? or Dr John (Utila folk might choose him!) I’ll be posting too and every guest poster will be entered into a book GIVEAWAY raffle. You can also enter by tweeting your Doctor pic on Twitter using the hashtag ‪#‎INeedADoctor‬. Join the party now by clicking ‘Going’ or ‘Interested’ now or just turn up on the day. All are invited! #INeedADoctor This is the Event Page link:

https://www.facebook.com/events/203245423409326/

Love, Janey xx

Book Promo, Crime/Thriller, L M Krier, Novels

BABY’S GOT BLUE EYES by L M Krier #guestpost #giveaway

July 1, 2016 Melanie Leave a comment

Baby’s Got Blue Eyes

by

L M Krier

blue eyes

Genre: Crime thriller > serial killer

Release Date: Feb 2015

Someone is dumping bodies on DI Ted Darling’s patch and he’s not happy. Ted’s a good solid copper, in an old-fashioned way, with an excellent clear-up rate. He’s not at all like your average cop and has his own unique way of dealing with any prejudice his differences bring him. No heavy drinking, no failed marriage, just a steady, long-term relationship. He and his partner have cats, not kids.

But this serial killer seems to be running effortless rings round Ted and his team. Every promising lead just takes them up another frustrating blind alley.

Then it starts to get personal …

BUY LINK

http://hyperurl.co/kbmj37

**********

Not every writer knows this

Let me begin by saying I can’t tell you how to write. We all do it differently. It would be presumptuous, and wrong, of me to suggest that my way is better than yours. Instead I’d like to share a few practical tips I’ve learnt over the years which have proved useful. Things not everyone knows, specially when they are just getting going in writing.

I started out in the Dark Ages, before computers, training as a journalist in the early 1970s, when everything was on typewriters. If you were lucky, you might have an electric one, although I’ve worked in offices where they were all manual and even, on one small local newspaper, one where journalists had to provide their own typing machine.

When the millennium came around, I decided to retrain as a copywriter/copy editor and that meant also coming to grips with computers for the first time in my life, strange though that may sound.

You all save everything, right?

I thought newspaper deadlines were punishing until I encountered the wonderful world of advertising. As a freelance copywriter, a typical conversation with a client may go something like this:

Client: We need copy for a new catalogue. X patches of X words each. You’ll have the brief by end of play Monday, we need the copy by Friday.

Me: (Picking myself up off the floor having fainted at the impossibility of it) It’s a bit tight, but I’ll be happy to do it for you (mentally doubling the bill). But I must have the brief on Monday.

Monday: No brief, lots of promises. Repeat daily until way past my bedtime on Thursday, when the brief finally arrives. Needless to say, the deadline is still end of play Friday. I do it, because I’m a masochist like that. They don’t like it. They want more ‘blah, blah and blah’ (none of which was in the original brief).

They graciously extend the deadline to Monday. I do it again. They don’t like it. And a couple of times more. Then we get to the bit which is relevant to you as a writer, believe me. After long consideration, they preferred the first version after all. Let’s go with that.

So, here we come to the nub. Did I save the first version, and if so, where the heck is it?

Save everything. Always. Everywhere.

Back in the paper days, a writer would pen something, hate it, screw it up and throw it away. Of course, in time, that would be the version they would decide was the best to date, now lost forever. Now we’ve largely gone paperless, you can save everything you write, and you should do. It’s a valuable learning experience.

Whenever I start a new book (I’ve now written and published nine and jointly written two others) I first create a new folder with the working title. I try to write at least a chapter a day and I save each one as a separate file within that folder. The title will be either the chapter number, if I already know where it’s going to fit in, or a keyword or two, ‘First victim’, ‘Second post-mortem,’ ‘Kick-trick’ (that’s a little peculiarity of my detective). I save everything starting with a date and, because I write a lot, I use the format YY/MM/DD. Every time I make changes, I save again with the current date, and I always begin each writing day by reading and editing what I wrote the day before.

Once I have a few chapters, I start a new file, ‘First draft’, and start to collate them there. From then on, I make all changes on this document, so the individual chapters are still there for me to go back to, should I need to.

Then I save everything. Obsessively. Repeatedly. To USB stick. To external hard drive. Emailed to myself. And to Dropbox. Dropbox is wonderful. You can set it up so that everything you write is automatically saved there without you having to do anything. That way, in theory, you never lose anything you’ve sweated blood to produce.

My house is set up so that, in the event of a fire, even half asleep, I can grab dogs, car keys and external hard drive as I rush out of the front door. My writing is about the only part of my life which is remotely tidy and organised. It’s a method I hope you may find useful.

**********

ABOUT L M KRIER

blue eyes

Retired journalist, freelance copywriter and copy editor Lesley Tither writes under various pen names for different genres. Already well known for travel memoirs as Tottie Limejuice, Lesley also writes crime fiction under the name L M Krier.

Lesley’s first crime thriller, ‘Baby’s Got Blue Eyes’, was published in February 2015, followed by ‘Two Little Boys’ in June 2015. Books 3 and 4 in the DI Ted Darling series, ‘When I’m Old and Grey’ and ‘Shut Up and Drive’ are now available and Book 5 in the series will appear later in 2016.

“Sell the Pig” is the first in a series of travel memoirs describing how Lesley, writing as Tottie Limejuice, decided to make the move from the UK to France to start a new life, taking with her an 89-year-old mother suffering from vascular dementia. The story continues in three further books, ‘Is That Billinge Lump?’, ‘Mother, Was It Worth It?’ and ‘Biff the Useless Mention’. A fifth book in the ‘Sell the Pig’ series is scheduled for release later in 2016.

Her first children’s fiction book, writing as L M Kay, will be published later in 2016. ‘The Dog with the Golden Eyes’ is an exciting children’s crime thriller.

Lesley also writes under the collective pen name of Jilli Lime-Holt, together with authors Jill Pennington and Janet Holt. Their first joint book, Take Three Birds, was published in December 2014.

Lesley is a former journalist, working as both a criminal court and coroner’s court reporter. She also worked as a case tracker for the Crown Prosecution Service, and for a firm investigating irregularities in offshore finance. Her other jobs have included owning and running a holiday riding centre and acting as a ‘charity mugger’, lying in wait to sign up shoppers for a wildlife charity.

Lesley’s interests centre around nature and wildlife and encompass dogs, wild camping and organic gardening. She lives in the Auvergne region of Central France and holds dual French/British nationality. Her current dogs are two rescued border collies.

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tottielimejuice

Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13476159.L_M_Krier

Blog: http://tottielimejuice.com/category/latest-news/

Website: http://tottielimejuice.com/

GIVEAWAY

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Book Promo, Crime/Mystery, Eleanor Raven, Guest Post, Karen Long, Mystery, Novels

THE VAULT by Karen Long #guestpost #giveaway

June 30, 2016 Melanie Leave a comment

vault

The Vault

by

Karen Long

vault

Genre: Mystery / thriller / crime

Eleanor Raven Series: 2

VAULT: A large room or chamber used for storage of valuables, especially an underground one…

In the unrelenting heat of the Toronto summer, a fire at a land-fill site uncovers the remains of a local prostitute. But the post-mortem reveals disturbing details –the body has been preserved and is not who or what it seems.

DI Eleanor Raven is back on duty six months after barely surviving being kidnapped and tortured by a depraved serial killer. Work is her sanctuary but she’s carrying deep scars – mental as well as physical. Where do you go when the place you feel safest is also the place where you are most at risk?

As Eleanor battles her own demons, it looks as though a killer in the city is making a gruesome human collection. And Eleanor’s fight to save the last victim of the Collector becomes a battle to save herself.

Praise for the first novel in the Eleanor Raven series:

Most fictional detectives these days have to have a ‘thing’ to set them apart from the others, and Raven’s is one of the most original for a long time. The plot moves in some unexpected directions, and builds to a genuinely exciting climax. The Safe Word is an impressive, confident debut. Convincing characters and some nice twists make for a compelling, satisfying thriller, and I look forward to seeing what’s next for Eleanor Raven. Killing Time

BUY LINKS

AMAZON UK

AMAZON.COM

**********

Being a writer is one of the most wonderful jobs on the planet. I spend a day with my imagination, don’t have to deal with real world problems and can take a coffee break whenever I please. However, there are good, bad and ugly sides to everything that glistens…

Organised?

As I only have one daughter left at home now and my husband works abroad for most of the year my day starts when the front door slams shut, the dogs and garden birds have been fed and watered and the biohazard that is the kitchen is tidied. I have to be very determined to keep myself on track, as there are so many domestic distractions that break my concentration. I also have to write in total silence (no music or radio) and without anyone else being in the house. If I know someone is popping in for a coffee it can make it impossible to write for the whole day. There’s no sitting in coffee shops and putting out a couple of thousand words for me, sadly!

Methodical?

I see the story I’m writing as a film that can only be played in my head linearly. I can rewind a couple of chapters but invariably I read from start to finish once a week and this can be very time consuming. I really envy writers like Stephen King who have such an organised, methodical and productive approach to writing. My husband, a writer himself, frequently sends me links to pages on ‘The Rigours of Writing’ but I guess there’s just the way that works for you.

Realistic?

A novel always takes longer that you thought to complete. That your choice of language, character and event is frequently not as entertaining, or clear to the reader as you thought it was. That when people pay money to read what you have written they are entitled to an opinion. The most valuable lesson was given to me by a wise bird who said, ‘show don’t tell’ and that is the mantra I run with every time I write. Don’t tell a reader how they should interpret an action or judge a character. That’s their job not yours, so butt out!

Criticism?

I have always held to Oscar Wilde’s belief that the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. So provoking a reaction that merits comment and opinion is, in itself, rather flattering. I have also found that, after shrugging off my initial outrage, most people make very valid comments about my writing. I do believe that you have to be honest with yourself. If a comment reminds you that you had considered that question before, then go back and deal with it. By the same token, just because someone has a thought on a plot point, or character, or line of dialogue it doesn’t mean that they are right. Be flexible but believe in what you wrote. Eventually the sales will tell you if you were right.

**********

ABOUT KAREN LONG

vault

Karen Long was born and raised in the English midlands, educated at Bangor University and taught English and Drama for fifteen years. During her teaching years she studied biology and neurology with the Open University and this interest in medicine, forensics and forensic psychology is reflected in her writing. She is an enthusiastic traveller and has spent time in Toronto, which became the backdrop and inspiration for The Safe Word.

She is a keen amateur naturalist with a deep and abiding love for the crow family. She has dedicated time, love and several fingers in an effort to rehabilitate crows, magpies, rooks and ravens.

Karen is happy to correspond with readers and can be contacted through her website KarenLongWriter.com, where she posts regular blogs.

The Safe Word is Karen’s first novel and was an Amazon bestseller, later joined by the second in the Eleanor Raven series, The Vault. Karen is working on the third novel in the series.

AUTHOR LINKS

All author or review enquires please contact Karen Long’s Personal Assistant J.B. Johnston – brookbooks@hotmail.co.uk

Did you know that Eleanor Raven is also online?

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