I’m on the blog tour for The Heat Is on by Helen Bridgett today and have a great extract to share with you. Huge thanks to Kelly for letting me change my post to an extract rather than a review when two sick children meant reafrea was impossible. It’s so appreciated Kelly!
The Heat Is On will be published in ebook on the 5th July and in paperback on the 2nd August. The ebook is currently available to pre-order for £1.99 and you can pre-order a copy of both here.
Before I share my extract with you here is a little about the book.
Book Synopsis:
‘And have you booked in your vejazzler?’
‘My what?’
‘You can’t roll up with your grey wire wool when he’s expecting rhinestone!’
Angie Shepherd is back and this time she means business!
Life is perfect for Angie Shepherd. Her dreams of becoming an entrepreneur have come true, business is booming, and her best friend Patty is back in town. So when the opportunity of investing in a luxury hotel comes up, it seems like a no-brainer. It’s all going swimmingly until a rival travel agency opens up across the street. Before long, The Mercury Travel Club is undercut, double-crossed and in deep trouble. It’s time for Angie to up the stakes. But with costs mounting up, sales going down, and her personal life suddenly in freefall, can Angie and her friends weather the storm?
Witty and charming in equal measure, this feel-good novel shows that when the going gets tough, the tough definitely get going.
Extract:
Back For Good
‘I’m back.’
My best and oldest friend Patty blasts into the Mercury Travel shop like a rock star exploding onto a stage amidst dry
ice and pyrotechnics. She’s wearing huge oversized sunglasses,so I won’t be surprised if her next words are, ‘Hello Glastonbury.
‘You couldn’t have scared me more if you’d had an axe and
shouted, “Here’s Johnny!”,’ says my business partner Charlie as I scrape him off the walls.
‘You know me – I do like an entrance,’ she replies. ‘What are you all staring at?
Just as we’d been closing up after a busy late-night Thursday, Charlie, Josie and I noticed people in hard hats carrying
clipboards and tape measures arriving at the empty shop across the road. An estate agent – or at least the only one of the group not wearing a hard hat – is now changing the sign from ‘TO
LET’ to ‘TAKEN’.
‘The builders over there,’ I tell Patty, pointing at them.
‘Ooh, yes. Not bad at all, but I am taken,’ she says.
‘We’re talking about the refit, not the workmen,’ I scold.
‘Wondering what it’s going to be.
‘I’m hoping for a gin palace,’ says Josie, our assistant manager.
‘That’s definitely what this town needs.
We all nod at the wise words emanating from this young head.
‘Maybe one with detoxifying doors,’ adds Patty. ‘They’d look
like normal revolving doors but one spin round them and your body is a temple once more. It isn’t unusual for the shops on the high street of this leafy
Manchester suburb to change hands, but normally we’d have heard something about it. Chorlton has extremely efficient jungle drums. However, I’m not even bothered what it might become at this precise moment in time because the idea of detoxifying
doors has me very excited.
‘That would be absolutely brilliant,’ I say. ‘Amazing. Can you imagine? Every new year – no fasting for a month, we’d just take a swing round the doors and our bodies would be pure again. It
would put Gwyneth Paltrow and the rest of the clean–eating brigade out of business but I think everyone else in the world would be delighted.
‘We could get my man Dyson to give up on the vacuum cleaners and invent something women really want. It must be the same technology – sucking the crap out of things,’ adds Josie,
her Aussie accent really going for the word crap. Josie has real disdain for a man with a brain the size of a planet who then uses it to invent cleaning products. She keeps a mental list of things that would be a better use of his intellect. Before today, a cellulite
attachment for the Animal V8 was top of her list.
‘Sounds gruesome,’ says Patty, ‘but if this is was Dragon’s Den I’d definitely be in. Now who wants to make me a cup of tea? Patty breaks our fantasy and heads into the kitchen. As it’s past closing time, Josie signals that she’ll head home. She knows that with Patty on the premises, it could be hours before she escapes if she doesn’t go now. I lock the shop door and join my best friend. I watch with amusement as she makes herself
completely at home boiling the kettle and grabbing some mugs as if we’d invited her to – not that she ever waits for an invitation. Patty has been singing in an eighties tribute group on the cruise ships for over six months ago now, and it shows. She’s definitely
rounder and her skin has the glow of a person who is both content and very well fed.
‘Where’ve you hidden the bikkies?’ asks Patty pulling open every cupboard. ‘It would be afternoon tea time if we were still aboard,’ she continues as I hand her the hidden stash of chocolate digestives. ‘Mind you, I could probably do with losing a couple of pounds now.’
‘You’re still gorgeous,’ says Charlie.
‘You’re right and at least there’s more to hold onto.’ Patty simultaneously sinks her teeth into the biscuit and her butt into the chair. One or maybe both results in a loud sigh of pleasure
and relief. I can’t help but smile at the sight of her making herself comfy. We’ve known each other since we trained to be air stewardesses more than thirty (ouch!) years ago. She’s the blonde to my brunette, the Cagney to my Lacey and often the pain to
my pleasure. There’s never a dull moment with Patty, even if you want one. Last year, when I was at rock bottom because of the divorce, Charlie saved my sanity by keeping me focused on the business while Patty did everything she could to distract me from the pain. I have missed this woman so much and am suddenly overwhelmed with the sheer joy of seeing her again. I give her a big kiss on the top of her head and wrap my arms
around her as tightly as I can. ‘It is so good to have you back. I thought you’d be sailing the seas for ever.’ Patty clamps the digestive between her teeth, gets up and hugs me back, one of her all-consuming unabashed hugs. It feels
just as good as it looks, so Charlie gets up and joins in. Who doesn’t need a hug every now and then?
‘It was really great fun,’ Patty replies when she releases us from her grip. She swallows the biscuit then continues. ‘And I’m glad I did it but you can’t do it for ever. Even I can’t spend my entire life dressed up as Cyndi Lauper. I think only the woman herself would be happy with that. No my darlings, it is time for
a new adventure. ‘Any idea what that’ll be?’ asks Charlie. Patty shakes her head. ‘I’ve no idea. To be honest, I was quite fired up about coming home and doing something new but now I’m here, with the exception of seeing my most fabulous friends again obviously, it feels a bit flat. The room goes quiet. Patty was marvellous up onstage and I can imagine her genuinely missing all that applause. Reality doesn’t tend to come with adulation, except on reality shows and they’re not really real.
‘Well, we can certainly do something about that.’ Charlie claps his hands banishing the contemplative silence. ‘Come to dinner at mine this Saturday night. Peter and I will host a reunion for our nearest and dearest. Is Dr Lurve on shore, too? Patty laughs at the nickname she gave her partner when she first met him. Jack was the ship’s doctor who tended Patty when she took a fall on the dance floor. She likes to tell us she was under him for weeks after that. Seeing her looking like her old
self again brings a sense of relief to the room. I love my friend’s ability to just cheer up everyone with one dirty laugh.
‘Don’t worry,’ she says, ‘I haven’t left him behind. How could I deprive any man of all this now he’s used to it? Actually, we’ve both decided this is it, we’re leaving the cruises and joining you landlubbers permanently.’ ‘Is he looking for something new, too?’ Charlie asks, but Patty shakes her head.
About The Author:
Helen Bridgett was born in the North-East and now lives in Manchester having stopped off at a few places in between. Following a career in Marketing, Helen took an MA in TV and Radio Scriptwriting and created short films before writing her first novel. She loves nothing more than a glass of wine and witty banter with friends; her love of dialogue feeds into her work and has given her the perfect excuse to eavesdrop on conversations. Helen lives with her husband and their chocolate Labrador, Angus; all three can often be found wandering the Cumbrian hills or in country pubs.
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Over The Rainbow Blog 
Just about to start reading this 😄
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