I’m delighted to be on the blog tour for Wartime Brides & Wedding Cakes today and to be able to share an extract from the book with you.

I loved Heartaches & Christmas Cakes and very much look forward to reading this sequel.

Wartime Brides & Wedding Cakes is available to buy in ebook and paperback here.

Before I share my extract with you here is a little bit more about the book.

Book Description:

January, 1941: As Charlie Barton tiptoes silently out of the house one cold winter morning to go off and fight for his country, his wife Audrey is left to run the family bakery on her own.

Times are tougher than ever, but at the Barton Bakery in Bournemouth, Audrey is determined as always to serve the town with love, loaves and cakes, even as the town is reeling from the struggles of the Blitz.

Audrey’s brother William has returned from battle with serious wounds. His fiancé Elsie is waiting for wedding bells, but William is a changed man, and will her hopes be in vain?

Bakery helper Maggie has her heart set on dashing officer George. But will George still want to marry her when he discovers the truth about her family?

And Lily, Audrey’s stepsister, is struggling to raise her illegitimate baby and facing judgement from many in the town. The man who broke her heart returns with an offer, and Lily faces a hard decision about where her future lies.

When disaster strikes the bakery, Audrey fears that everything she has worked for may be ruined. With her shop threatened and her family in turmoil, can she fight to save everything she holds dear?

Wartime Brides and Wedding Cakes is a romantic and heart-warming tale of cakes and confetti, perfect for fans of Sheila Newberry, Nadine Dorries and Ellie Dean.

Extract:

January 1941

Prologue

Audrey Barton was fast asleep when her husband, Charlie, left. Kitbag slung over his shoulder, he carefully closed the bakery door behind him, quietly slipping from one life into another. The ink-blue sky peppered with stars,Audrey hadn’t stirred when he’d dressed, silently, in the darkness, tying the laces of his heavy leather boots with trembling hands. She had slept on under the rose-print eiderdown, as he propped a handwritten note on the dressing table, glancing back at her dark blonde hair fanned on the pillow and breathing in the fragrance of her Pond’s face cream, locking his wife’s image into his heart.

I can’t say goodbye, he had written.

When Audrey had awoken before dawn that freezing cold morning, to join Charlie in the bakehouse as she did every day, she discovered the note. Pulling her nightgown closer to her body, shivering slightly, she bit down hard on her bottom lip, quickly unfolding the paper to read his troubling words.

‘Charlie Barton!’ she cried, screwing up the note and hurling it across the room. Clenching her jaw and blinking away tears, she quickly processed what he had done. Of course, she knew he was joining up. He’d wanted to join the British Expeditionary Force since Britain declared war against Germany in September 1939, but because he was a baker, his occupation was ‘reserved’, and so he had food production duties at home. After fifteen grim months of war and in the midst of the Blitz, unimaginable calamity across the country and with millions of people’s lives in peril, Charlie had eventually persuaded the authorities to let him enlist, on the proviso that the bakery could continue to run without him. Yes, Audrey knew he was leaving, but he hadn’t told her when. She had planned on organising him a farewell meal with his favourite dishes, herring plate pie and marrow surprise, and on packing him up with all the comforts she could think of: knitted socks, gloves, long johns, balaclava helmet and a gingerbread cake for sustenance.

A kiss at the very least.

‘How could you?’ she muttered, dashing to the window, the gnarled floorboards creaking underfoot. She lifted up the blackout blind and threw open the window, leaning out into the bitingly cold January air, to peer up and down Fisherman’s Road, the street in East Bournemouth where they lived. There was nobody in sight. Whereas once the lamplighter would have been putting out the gas lamps, at this hour, to make way for dawn, the blackout meant the only light was provided by a sliver of moon hanging in the sky like a fingernail clipping, shining onto the deserted, snow-covered street.

Audrey spotted a trail of Charlie-sized footprints in the snow, leading away from the bakery, continuing past the butcher’s and the post office, their blackout blinds still closed. He had gone. Audrey didn’t cry easily, but thismorning, she wept.

‘Oh Charlie,’ she said to nobody, her voice quavering. ‘What kind of husband leaves his wife without saying goodbye? Goodbye might be all we have.’

Tears streamed uncontrollably down her cheeks as her thoughts flew to the argument they’d had the previous night. Heavens, she knew not to go to bed on an argument, yet that’s exactly what she’d done. It had blown up out of nowhere when Audrey had been getting Mary, the eight-year-old evacuee girl billeted with them, ready for bed.

‘Your hair is so soft,’ Audrey had said, brushing the little girl’s hair while sitting in front of the roaring fire, where a line of woollen stockings and gloves dried in the heat from the crackling flames. ‘It feels like rabbit’s ears, or butterfly wings, or the softest velvet you can imagine. Mary, I do believe you have the hair of a princess. You’re a special girl, do you know that?’

She’d noticed Charlie’s face dark as a thundercloud when he’d walked past, heading down to the bakehouse to knock back and prove the dough for the next day’s bread, but it wasn’t until Mary was tucked up in bed and Audrey was elbow-deep in washing up the crockery that he told her what was on his mind.

‘You shouldn’t fill the girl’s head with such fanciful rot,’ he had said, his muscular arms folded across his chest. ‘You’re setting her up for another fall. She’s not a princess but a kiddie with more problems on her shoulders than Winston Churchill. Her brother’s dead, her mother topped herself, she’s got no home to go to and her father’s fighting on the front line, if he’s even alive. Mary needs toughening up, not softening up.’

Audrey had stopped pot washing and stared for a moment at the shelves in front of her. The jewel-coloured bottles and jars of rosehip syrup, pickled cucumbers, apple chutney and carrot jam she’d made in the summer months in preparation for winter blurred in front of her eyes. Placing the dishcloth down on the Belfast sink, she had turned to face her husband, hands on her hips.

‘That girl has seen enough sadness to last her two lifetimes,’ she said coolly. ‘I will do everything in my power to raise a smile on her sorry little face and give her a taste of what childhood should be. There can be no denyingthat the horrors she’s seen are unimaginable to us, Charlie.’

‘Not for long,’ he had challenged, raising his chin. ‘I’ll be going out to the front line with my eyes wide open. I’m prepared for anything, nothing can shock me.’

Suddenly weary, Audrey shook her head. ‘I don’t know what’s got into you, Charlie Barton,’ she said, ‘but the man I married was not bloodthirsty, or begging for a fight. You should open your eyes to what’s around you. Folk are managing to put a smile on their faces, like a sticking plaster, but families are being pulled apart; husbands, sons and brothers dead before they’ve even started their lives. Millions of children just like Mary have been evacuated hundreds of miles away from home, not knowing if they’ll see their parents again. What the world needs is more simple kindliness and common humanity.’

‘You think I don’t know that?’ he said, incredulous. ‘Are you suggesting I don’t go and fight for our country?’

Unsure of quite what she was saying, Audrey sighed. She knew, deep down, that Charlie had a heart of gold and had married him because of his dependability, kind nature and strength. She shook her head.

‘No, I’m not saying that,’ she said, her shoulders sagging. ‘Nothing I can say will stop you wanting to fight, even though this bakery and the neighbourhood depends on you for bread in a time when people are having to forgo foods other than what is absolutely necessary. It’s like you’ve been somewhere else since the war started. You might as well have already gone!’

Audrey knew she was treading on thin ice, but she couldn’t help herself. The prospect of Charlie leaving the bakery – leaving and potentially never returning – was hanging over them both and tearing her apart. She knew she was being unfair. She knew that Charlie wanted to defend his country against Hitler and the potential threat of invasion, to help put a stop to the horrific pain and suffering that people across the globe had so far endured, but the fear of losing him deeply affected her. Though she would never admit as much, when she met and married him seven years ago, he had, in some ways, rescued her. Their marriage, the bakery and his extended family had plucked her from the lonely road she was travelling, giving her direction and strength. Without him, would she fall apart?

‘You don’t understand,’ said Charlie, but she turned her back on him and plunged her hands back into the soapy water.

No, you don’t understand, she thought.

‘I should get this done,’ she sighed, her cheeks burning. She felt Charlie’s eyes boring a hole into her back for a long moment, but she didn’t turn to face him, much to her deepest regret.

Now, he was gone. She stared at her wedding band and rotated it slowly around her finger, the gold bright and smooth to touch. Her thoughts went back to their happy wedding day and she glanced at the photograph on the dressing table of the two of them about to cut their wedding cake. She had baked and intricately iced the rich, fruity celebration cake herself, carefully positioning the hand-painted bride and groom wedding cake topper she kept, to this day, wrapped in tissue paper in her jewellery box. Averting her gaze, she tried to work out what to do. Should she follow the footprints in the snow to try to find Charlie? Or should she respect his wishes and not say goodbye?

Realising he had probably left hours earlier and as through the window a flurry of light snow began to fall and cover his footprints, she wiped her eyes and quickly dressed in her bakery overalls, pinning back her hair and fixing the bakery cap on the top of her head. She pushed her feet into her wooden clogs and looked in the mirror at her twenty-seven-year-old self. Slim in build and naturally pretty, Charlie used to say her blue eyes changed shade depending on her mood. This morning they were dark and gloomy as the bottom of the sea. Her beloved Charlie was joining the thousands of other men away from home, who might never return.

I can’t say goodbye.

Pushing back her shoulders, standing tall, Audrey took a deep breath and raised her chin. The faint noise of the clattering of loaf tins came from the bakehouse, where she knew Charlie must have arranged for his Uncle John to step in and take over his baking duties. In a time of rationing, when shipping losses meant that food imports had radically fallen, bread was an essential part of everyone’s diet and, as the local family bakery, the neighbourhood depended on Barton’s bread. She thought of their small but spotless shop downstairs, the shelves waiting to be filled with warm golden loaves and counter goods, to satisfy empty bellies. The locals said the smell of Barton’s bread was so good it was impossible to walk past without coming in. Offering everyday comfort and sustenance in an uncertain, tense and dangerous time; she would never, ever, let her customers down.

Giving her reflection a long, hard stare before turning away, she picked up Charlie’s screwed-up note and placed it in the dressing table drawer for safekeeping.

The lengthy list of what needed doing that morning pressed on her mind. She would need to open up the shop in a matter of hours and paint on a smile for her customers. There were hotel orders to fulfil and a celebration cake to be baked. Life must go on. Today, she would show fortitude and strength, however heavy her heart.

About The Author:

Amy Miller lives in Dorset with her husband and two children. New to saga, she has previously written women’s fiction under a different name.

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I’m on the blog tour for The Hope And Anchor by Julia Kite today and am excited to be sharing a guest post from the author with you.

The Hope And Anchor is available to buy in ebook and paperback here.

Before I share the guest post with you, here is a little about the book.

Book Description:

In the depths of winter in West London, Neely Sharpe’s life is turned upside down: not only has her career reached a dead end, but her girlfriend, Angela, has vanished. In desperation, Neely scours the city to try and find out what has happened, travelling from London’s pubs and snowy streets, down to the depths of the sewers. As her hunt continues, networks of friends, family, and old adversaries become entangled and she ends up delving into Angela’s past. Nothing could prepare her for what she will discover about the hidden life of the woman she loves. The Hope & Anchor is an atmospheric debut novel which captures the dreams London holds for its natives and newcomers alike, and investigates what happens when the dreamers finally have to wake up.

Guest Post by Julia Kite:

I became a writer by reading. Having taught myself how to read as a young child by memorising a calendar given to me in a curry house, I started as I meant to go on, and began writing stories very early as well. I was absorbing the work of so many writers that it seemed natural to try it myself. I would get bored in school, and I would simply start coming up with characters and plots. I suppose my teachers never stopped me because at least I was quiet and not disrupting anything. It seemed a very inconspicuous hobby.

Writing was how I made my world more interesting. By creating situations unlike my own, people unlike myself, I could explore far beyond my own experience. I’ve always been wary of fiction that is thinly-veiled autobiography, and I dislike it because it makes it difficult to critique someone’s writing when you know it’s their real life and they’re going to take any negative comments personally. That being said, if something interesting happens to you, then you might as well take advantage of it. When strange or heartbreaking things have happened to me, I have told myself, with varying degrees of success, “Take it on the chin for now, and put it in a book someday.” Not word-for-word, of course, but they can become the seeds to plot points or character features.

Neely, the protagonist of The Hope and Anchor, is a failed academic. That’s my greatest similarity with her: One day, we discovered our brains and effort wouldn’t necessarily get us where we wanted, and it tore apart our entire self-concept. When I began writing this book, I wasn’t in the greatest place in my life – in fact, I was questioning whether I would ever achieve anything I could consider success. Unfortunately, when you’re already feeling rotten, trying to break into literary fiction is probably the worst thing you can do for your mental health other than indulge in some heavy substances. The process of querying agents and being rejected again and again, often with no feedback, can do a number even on somebody whose life is otherwise pretty peachy. It’s one thing to tell an aspiring author to develop a thick skin – far easier said than done when you already feel really to break at the slightest touch!

I credit my writing group with helping me to persevere, and helping me to edit and refineThe Hope and Anchor. If you’re serious about writing, you must have a community of people who can commiserate when necessary, but then push you to get out of your self-pity and hone your craft. Tough love is, after all, still love. As a group, our struggles and our triumphs became collective. These were people I could trust to be honest, but never cruel. I was lucky that this group came about from a group of graduates of the same university I attended, and we had a dedicated space to meet every month, but to be honest, you don’t even need to get together in person to have this kind of support network. Even a virtual community, swapping manuscripts online, can be tremendously useful. After all, if you’re going to be a successful writer, you need to get your work into the hands of strangers who don’t know anything about your or your motivations, because only they can judge whether your work stands on its own merits.

And after all – what’s the worst than can happen to you? Criticism? A bad review? Those are great problems to have, because at least it means your book is being read, being considered. Back when I was a schoolgirl writing those stories in my notebooks, I guarded them fiercely, refusing to let even my closest friends read them. I feared being laughed at, ridiculed, you name it, because my writing meant so much to me, even then. And that’s only natural. But staying in your comfort zone means you miss out on the opportunities for the thrills while you’re guarding against the disappointments.

In order to get anywhere with writing, I had to get over my ego. I had to grow up a bit, really. And I’m glad I did, because in the process, I made Neely a more well-rounded character, too – someone who gets over herself enough to show strength in the face of a tragedy greater than anything she could have imagined. Now that my book is out in the world, being read, being evaluated, I know it’s not going to be everybody’s cup of tea. The first review I got on Goodreads was negative: “Not for me.” But that’s alright. At least someone gave me the gift of spending her time with my book. At least this complete stranger read enough of it to know it wasn’tfor her. I’m grateful to every single person who reads even part of my book, because they make all the time, effort, and rejection worthwhile. They make this book real. They give me what I always wanted: to be an author.

About The Author:

Julia Kite lives in Manhattan, and calls New York City and London home. She is a graduate of Columbia University and the London School of Economics. Obsessed with cities and the people in them, she started her career researching housing and urban regeneration, and she now directs policy and research for a transportation improvement organisation. Before she began working to make New York City’s streets better for cyclists, she was taking long rides along the Grand Union Canal in West London. She is a member of the Columbia Fiction Foundry, an alumna of quiz shows The Chase and Jeopardy, an urban wildlife rehabilitator, a keen amateur baker, and the owner of an opinionated parrot. The Hope and Anchor is her first novel, a work of fiction about a very real place she holds dear.

Website | Twitter | Unbound book page

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I’m very excited to be on the blog tour for The Absent Man by Robert Enright today.  I loved Robert’s first book, Doorways which rates as one of my top books ever.

The Absent Man is available to buy in paperback and ebook now here.

Robert was kind enough to answer some questions for me today, which I will share with you below but first here is a little about Robert’s new book.

Book Description:

BERMUDA JONES AND ARGYLE ARE BACK IN THE THRILLING SEQUEL TO DOORWAYS Something is killing… A woman is found dead in her flat on a freezing night in Glasgow, her heart ripped from her chest. With no signs of a weapon or forced entry. Hours later, her heart is delivered to the Necropolis on the outskirts of town. Six months after stopping the terrifying Barnaby atop Big Ben, Bermuda finds himself on the hunt for a killer in a city he doesn’t know with a police force that doesn’t want him. With no links between the victims and the death toll rising, Bermuda has to face a sceptical detective, a seemingly distracted Argyle and an unknown horror that stalks from the shadows. All in the name of answering one question… Who is The Absent Man? The Absent Man is an urban fantasy thriller that revisits The Otherside and will have you on the edge of your seat.

Q&A with Robert Enright:

1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Sure. I am a 31 year old North Londoner now living in Chesham, Bucks with my awesome fiancée. I have been writing for a long old time but in the last few years I have really started to invest my time and energy into making it as an author. I have a very large family and my two older brothers both run their own respective businesses, which really inspires me to turn this self-publishing author malarkey into a real business!

2. What do you do when you are not writing?

I play a few odd video games. One of them is called ‘The Binding of Isaac’, a twisted tale of a baby hiding from his murderous mother in the basement (this is not a lie!) I also binge watch Netflix with Sophie and I have recently upped my fitness regime as I recently ran a half marathon so am trying to maintain my exercising!

3.  Do you have a day job as well? 

I do. I work as a HR System Manager for a private hospital on Harley Street in London.

4. When did you first start writing and when did you finish your first book?

I started writing when I was about 16/17 and designed some comics. (Some cooler than others) Then I dabbled with a few screen plays – the first of which was a romantic comedy about a guy who becomes cupid!! Then I wrote One by One as a screenplay then developed that into my first novel which launched in 2015. Then late last year, it was re-released by Britain’s Next Best Seller.

5. How did you choose the genre you write in?

I didn’t really. I enjoy crime and scif-fi, along with comic books and I think that really shines through in what I write. My books have been described as ‘cinematic’ and I think that’s because I write similar to what I enjoy reading! Also, I’m pretty geeky, so building a whole hidden world with monsters and swords etc was pretty cool!

6. Where do you get your ideas?

Random places. Doorways never intended to have another world in it. ‘The Otherside’ and Argyle were both added as I developed the original idea, which was about a PI who could see random clues when he took a strange medicine to cure his medical condition. So it just developed and developed and once I stumbled onto the idea, I just ran with it and I still love developing the story arc.

7. Do you ever experience writer’s block?

I did before I decided to leave my publisher. I just wasn’t enjoying how it was going and felt that I wasn’t doing what I should have been. Once I got the rights to Doorways back and cancelled the contract for this book, the words came back and I finished the book pretty quickly!

8. Do you work with an outline, or just write?

Oh I’m a planner. I have notepads of all my character bio’s and full novel plans that have about 3 or 4 bullet points per chapter, so I know how and when certain plot points happen. These inevitably change during the writing process, but I like knowing that the structre is solid before I commit to it.

9. Is there any particular author or book that influenced you in any way either growing up or as an adult?

As an adult, The Passage Trilogy by Justin Cronin is still the masterpiece. It is so good and people need to read it and read it now (or after The Absent Man!). As a teenager, Garth Ennis’s run on The Punisher in the 00’s is still the best series of comic books I have ever read and is massively inspiring to me.

10. Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first book published?

I self published my first book and did very little promotion as I had no contacts or idea of how it all worked. But I still went ahead and did it. I had my friends edit it, my brother design me a cover and I set out to get just one 5 star review from someone I didn’t know.
Now, I am loving having such great connection with authors and book bloggers, and I have had some wonderful discussions with readers! It’s amazing what can happen if you just stick at it.

11. Is anything in your book based on real life experiences or purely all imagination?

My book is about a murderous creature from another world that is ripping out the hearts of women. Sadly, this doesn’t happen in my life. I do like to inject some of my humour of my views of on certain things throughout the book, but I don’t base much of my fiction on my own experiences.

12. What was your hardest scene to write?

In The Absent Man, the hardest scene to write was Sam McAllister’s backstory. It is pretty heart breaking and wasn’t a nice task. But I think it really is worth it and I am glad with how well her character is being received.

13. How did you come up with the title?

I’m not too sure. I think it was a joke between myself and my older brother and then as the story took shape, the sinister title really worked!

14. What project are you working on now?

I am just completing a prequel novella titled ‘BERMUDA’ which documents how Bermuda Jones joined the BTCO, met Argyle and also his first case!

15. What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? & What has been the best compliment?

Toughest criticism I have had was a few negative reviews where people give you proper feedback. It’s good but can be hard to read, especially when you pour 6 months of your life into something and someone tears it apart in a paragraph. But constructive criticism is great for authors! 1 star and 1 line reviews are hilarious!
Best compliment I had is a very talented author told me that he wished he had written One by One. Which is just an incredible thing to hear!

16. Is there anything that you would like to say to your readers and fans?

I don’t have fans but to anyone who reads this and/or any of my books, just know that all of your support is so appreciated. I cherish every single person who invests their time in my writing and if they enjoy it, then I am happy to bring that.
Thank you all. From the bottom of my heart!
Rob

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions.  I wish you all the luck with The Absent Man.

About The Author:

Robert Enright was born and raised in North London and resides in Chesham, Buckinghamshire. Working as a HR System Manager by day, he spends his evenings and weekends writing (or binge watching TV with his fiancé).

Robert first self published One by One in March 2016 and saw it published by Britain’s Next Best Seller in October 2017.

In early 2018, DOORWAYS will be re-released as an e-book, paperback and audio book under Robert Enright’s management. The sequel, THE ABSENT MAN will also be released in early 2018. The third in the series, WORLDS APART, is set for a late 2018 launch. A prequel, titled BERMUDA, is in the works for a 2018 launch also.

For more information about Rob and his upcoming books, then feel free to check him out on social media:

Website – https://www.robertenright.co.uk
Twitter – @REnright_Author
Facebook –https://www.facebook.com/robenrightauthor

I’m so excited to be on the blog tour for Alice’s Secret by Lynne Francis and to be able to share an extract with you.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to Sabah from Avon Books for giving me an extract to share rather than a review when family sickness meant I was unable to read the book in time.  My husband, me and two of my kids unfortunately all got ill with a sickness bug one after the other making life quite hectic. I absolutely adore historical fiction especially when it’s a timeslip one so I am truly gutted that I was unable to finish the book on time.  I will hopefully get a chance to finish and review soon.

Alice’s Secret is available to buy now at the bargain price of £1.49 here.

Book Description:

The second saga in Lynne Francis’s wartime trilogy. Prepare to be captured by the story of Alice…

Can uncovering a long forgotten family mystery change your life?

1890 Alice is the sole bread-winner for her family, working at the local cotton mill. But when she suddenly begins to attract the wrong attention, her life begins to spiral out of control…

2018 For Alys, one bad decision after another has left her feeling that her life hasn’t quite turned out the way it should have. But when her aunt is suddenly injured and in need of help baking and running her beloved café, Alys knows a trip to Yorkshire is just the escape she needs.

In lending a hand, Alys stumbles across a long-buried family mystery and quickly finds herself caught up in uncovering the truth of what happened to her great-great-grandmother Alice…

Alys won’t stop until she knows the truth. Will the secrets of her grandmother’s past help her to change her own future?

A beautiful and heart-breaking novel, that brings the past and present together in a gripping story of love, loss and hope. Perfect for fans of Rosie Clarke and Tracy Rees.

Extract:

I’m very pleased to be on the blog tour for The Meal Of Fortune by Philip Brady today.  This book has been receiving lots of positive reviews from my fellow bloggers who have all loved it, do check out their reviews too.  You can find their blog details on the blog tour poster further down this post.

It is therefore very exciting that I am able to offer a UK Giveaway for this book.  I’d like to say a huge thank you to Anne Cater and Philip Brady for letting me host a giveaway rather than a review when family sickness meant I was unable to read the book in time.  My husband, me and two of my kids unfortunately all got ill with a sickness bug one after the other making life quite hectic.

I will tell you more about how to win a copy of this book later on in this post but first here is a bit about the book.

Book Description:

The world of arms dealing, espionage and TV cookery collide in this fast moving comedy caper.

Failing celebrity agent Dermot Jack thinks his luck might have turned when a mysterious Russian oligarch hires him to represent his pop star daughter.

Disaffected MI5 officer Anna Preston is just as happy to be handed the chance to resurrect her own career. Little do they know that their paths are about to cross again after seventeen years as they’re thrown together in a desperate attempt to lure a notorious arms dealer into a highly unusual trap.

Hard enough without having to deal with the lecherous celebrity chef trying to save his daytime TV career or the diminutive mafia enforcer who definitely has his own agenda. Then there’s the very impatient loan shark who ‘just wants his money back’.

And Anna’s bosses are hardly playing it straight either. But one thing’s for sure. There’ll be winners and losers when the Meal of Fortune finally stops spinning. Oh, and another thing, Anna and Dermot are absolutely not about to fall in love again. That’s never going to happen, OK?

UK only Giveaway:

To win a copy of this fabulous sounding book all you have to do is answer this question!

If you were a celebrity chief what would be your signature dish? 

You can either comment on this blog post or on the pinned tweet on my Twitter page.  It doesn’t have to be a posh meal any wacky, inventive meal is great!

About The Author:

Today I’m bringing something a bit different to Over The Rainbow Book Blog, I have a spotlight feature for Reading Between The Lines by Jo Merrett

Reading Between The Lines is available in ebook now at the bargain price of £2.99 here.

Book Description:

Sexy, sassy, saucy…

…and a little bit unsure.

Ballsy reporter, Kate Cleaver, doesn’t just sit back and wait for things to happen. She’s a modern woman with a voracious sexual appetite who takes life – and men – by the balls.

But, like most women, Kate’s not immune to the inevitable hurdles and heartbreak that threaten to derail her carefully lain plans.

The Record is a dozy, weekly rag. It holds little appeal for someone like Kate, with her sights set on the glamour of national journalism. But, before she leaves the council meetings and cat shows behind, there’s one particular exclusive she’s itching to get her hands on:

Chief Reporter, Aidan Tindall.

Reading Between the Lines is a rollercoaster of sexual freedom and angst-ridden rejection, self-doubt and reckless ambition, office flings and 2am gin soaked confessions.

Because what you want in life, isn’t always what you need..

About The Author:

Jo Merrett is a mum of two teens who has a passion for writing erotic romantic fiction.

Married and living in Surrey, UK, she has two cats and when not writing likes to practise hot yoga, run and lift heavy weights.

Favourite authors include Jodi Picoult, Jenny Colgan, Jilly Cooper, Tilly Bagshawe and Louise Bagshawe books. She adores sunny holidays, great food, the odd party, good coffee and spending time with friends and family.

She was a journalist in a previous life.

Social Media Links:

Twitter: @JMerrett87

Facebook: @jomerrettnovelist / @fitnessfoodfictiondotcom

Instagram: @jomerrettnovelist/ @fitnessfoodfiction1615

Website: http://fitnessfoodfictioncoipage.com

I’m excited to be on the blog tour for Among The Branded by Linda Smolkin today.

Among The Branded is available to buy in ebook nowhere.

Book Description:

This is a beautiful and fascinating novel that will keep readers hooked.” San Francisco Book Review

What if a 70-year-old letter from World War II changed the course of your life?

While attending Valor of the ’40s, art director Stephanie Britain stumbles upon a flea market selling letters from the war. She buys a handful, hoping they’ll inspire the redesign for a client’s website at her branding and design firm. At first, she’s drawn by the lost art of penmanship, but soon discovers a hidden treasure nestled inside declarations of love from homesick soldiers.

Stephanie enlists a coworker to translate one and realizes it’s not a love letter after all. When a shocking discovery about a client causes Stephanie to question her principles and dedication to her firm’s business, she’s forced to make a difficult decision—one that could give her peace of mind, yet ruin her career in the process.

Contemporary fiction with a historical touch, AMONG THE BRANDED explores family life, an unexpected friendship, and moral conflicts that make us wonder what’s more important: our livelihood or our beliefs.

My Review:

This was an excellent read that I thoroughly enjoyed.  It’s hard to believe this is the author’s debut book the writing is very assured and the book is plotted brilliantly.

I adored Stephanie’s family and their togetherness.  The everyday moments with them and the banter between them were truly heartwarming and were some of my favourite bits of the book.  I loved how normal they were and how accurately the characters were described.

The relationship the family develop with Izzy was wonderful and I enjoyed watching it develop.  It definitely bought a year to my eye when I realised how much the two helped each other.

It was interesting to learn a bit more about a part of the Holocaust that I hadn’t known about, but equally very harrowing to discover what people had been through. Izzy’s mother’s fear and desperation to help her son was almost palpable and heartbreaking to read about.  Being a mother myself I found some of the descriptions were hard to read about as I wondered what I would do in a similar situation.

I must admit I did wonder if I had been sent the right book to begin with as the book starts at a birthday party with Stephanie dressing up as a dog and meeting her Russian best friend but then it got to meeting Stephanie’s family and I realised that this book was something special.  I only mention this in case others feel the same and want to give up.  Do carry on I promise it’s worth it!

This is Linda’s first book and I’m so excited to read more from her.  Thank you to Anne Cater and the author for my copy of this book and for inviting me onto the blog tour.

About The Author:

Linda Smolkin always wanted to be a writer—ever since she saw her first TV commercial and wondered how to pen those clever ads. She got her degree in journalism and became a copywriter. Linda landed a job at an ad agency, where she worked for several years before joining the nonprofit world. She’s the author of AMONG THE BRANDED and currently working on her second novel. When not in front of the computer, she’s behind the drums (slightly) annoying her husband, son, and their 70-pound dog. For more information, visit her website at lindasmolkin.com and follow her on Twitter @lindasmolkin and Facebook @AuthorLindaSmolkin.

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I’m so excited to be able to share my review of Killed by Thomas Enger today.  This is the first book by this author that I have read and I really look forward to reading the rest in the series.

Killed, and the rest of the Henning Juul’s books, are available to buy in paperback and ebook here.

Book Description:

Crime reporter Henning Juul thought his life was over when his young son was murdered. But that was only the beginning…

Determined to find his son’s killer, Henning doggedly follows an increasingly dangerous trail, where dark hands from the past emerge to threaten everything. His ex-wife Nora is pregnant with another man’s child, his sister Trine is implicated in the fire that killed his son and, with everyone he thought he could trust seemingly hiding something, Henning has nothing to lose … except his own life.

Packed with tension and unexpected twists, Killed is the long-awaited finale of one of the darkest, most chilling and emotive series you may ever read. Someone will be killed. But who?

My Review:

This might sound like a total cliché but this book really did grip me straight away.  The prologue was very intriguing and made me wonder what an earth had happened for Henning to get into such a dire situation and how was he going to get out of it.

There are lot of characters in this book who are all introduced quite quickly which was initially a little confusing as you get your head around who is who.  The author has provided a handy character list at the beginning of the book which is really helpful.  It was very interesting to discover how far the deceit stretched and how many people were involved.  I was on edge every time a new character was introduced, wondering if and how they were involved.  This kept me on my toes and it was great fun trying to work everything out.

My favourite character was the main character Henning.  I really felt for him as he tried to get revenge for his son’s murder, against quite fierce opposition. I liked his detective skills which seemed quite old fashioned at times relying on interviews and clever questioning rather than resorting to violence to get results.  His pain and frustration was evident throughout the book and I really wanted him to succeed and find out who was responsible.

What was very interesting about this book is that the author has given all the criminals quite fascinating back stories and I almost felt sorry for some of them as they are only involved due to being blackmailed or their families being threatened.  I kept hoping that this meant some of the would show no loyalty to ‘Daddy Longlegs’ (great name!) and the others which had me holding my breath during some of their interactions, hoping that this would be the time they’d change alliance.

This is the fifth book in the series but the first I’ve read.  While I think this book can be read as a standalone, as anything you need to know is explained, I think you would have greater understanding and enjoyment if you had read the other books in the series.

If you like multi-layered, enthralling crime/mystery books then you will love this book and the other books in this series.

Huge thanks to Karen for Orenda Books  and Anne Cater for my copy of this book and for inviting me onto the blog tour.

About The Author:

Thomas Enger (b. 1973) is a former journalist. He made his debut with the crime novel Burned (Skinndød) in 2010, which became an international sensation before publication. Burned is the first in a series of 5 books about
the journalist Henning Juul, which delves into the depths of Oslo’s underbelly, skewering the corridors of dirty politics and nailing the fast-moving world of 24-hour news. Rights to the series have been sold to 26 countries to date. In 2013 Enger published his first book for young adults, a dark fantasy thriller called The Evil Legacy, for which he won the U-prize (best book Young Adult). Enger also composes music, and he lives in Oslo.

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I’m on the blog tour for The Prole Soldier today and am excited to share an exclusive extract with you! Thank you to the lovely Caroline form Bits About Books for inviting me onto the blog tour and for providing this extract for me to share.

The Prole soldier is available to buy in ebook now and at £1.99 is an absolute bargain.  You can buy it here.

Before i share the extract with you, here is a little bit about the book.

Book Description:

The Prole Soldier is set in a dystopian near future

Theo lives and works in the Blue Zone of Rainbow City.

He is almost sixteen at which age he will begin four years conscription – military or mines. He wants neither. He hates his life and despises the cruelty, injustice and inequality that prevails.

When the opportunity arises for Theo to be involved in the fight for change he grabs it, knowing that failure will cost him everything.

Exclusive 1st Chapter Extract:

Part 1 – The Blue Zone

Theo ran. Down a narrow moonlit alley. The snow deadened his footfalls. He was leaving a trail, but it couldn’t be avoided. If he kept close to the walls in the darkness his footprints wouldn’t easily be seen. He skidded on ice and collided with a metal drum. He grappled with it. Stopped it falling over, making noise and alerting others to his presence. If he were caught in the Yellow Zone they might not even question him. Scan him, Chip him, leave him for the rats.

He thought he’d heard the whirring of a drone’s motor on the still night air. They weren’t impossible to shake. It would depend on who was operating the remote control – how skilful, experienced and intuitive they were. How knowledgeable they were of the borough. Drones had the ability to deal with a trespasser if they had a clear line of sight and could get close enough. In that respect the maze of streets and blind alleys that characterised the Yellow Zone of Rainbow City worked for Theo as well as against him. Drones, too, didn’t always ask questions.

With the threat of a drone in the area the only thing to do was to hide and wait it out. Depending on whether it had been a drone and it had been on to him, a foot patrol could be along soon, if there was one around. It was not worth gambling otherwise. Theo believed such caution was one of the reasons he was still exploring the Yellow Zone when others who once had were no longer around.

He slipped into an open doorway. A wall of inky blackness confronted him. Flicking on his head torch, he made his way through the pools of standing water and around the scattered debris and piles of rubble that littered the floor, having rained down from the roof of the bombarded structure a long time ago. The crunching of broken masonry under his feet bounced back at him off the walls.

Theo wondered about the building’s original purpose. He was in a large open area. A tall sculpture of a barely clothed woman holding what looked like a bucket above her head provided a focal point. Theo stopped and stared at it for several seconds. The sculpture appeared undamaged but aged. It stood in a tiled recess in the floor. He believed that at one time water would have cascaded down it. Now it was streaked with green slime, grime and bird shit.

He hurried deeper into the darkness of the derelict building. His breath plumed white in the light of his head torch. With his breathing under control, his panic subsided and his composure returned. He found a place to hide and turned off his torch. He waited and listened.

Theo was in the YZ because the business of living, for a prole in Rainbow City, was beyond hard and with no realistic hope of anything better. The potential rewards of scavenging in the Forbidden Zones were not a match for the inherent risks – termination chief among them – but the activity brought intrinsic rewards in the form of thrills and excitement to an otherwise dull, deprived and predictable existence. As well as an abstract feeling of aliveness, there were real things to be found out here. Things to be traded. Things that could make life a little more bearable, a little more comfortable. Opportunities. And maybe one day…

Foot patrols in the YZ were not frequent but the threat of the surveillance drones more than made up for the lack of a physical human presence. It was the drones that concerned Theo the

most. They were difficult to hear and almost impossible to detect at night in the darkness until they were upon you. Technological harbingers of doom.

Satisfied he was alone, he turned his head torch back on and allowed his curiosity to encourage him further into the building. He came to a stairwell. After a moment’s consideration of the possible dangers still lurking outside the building, he descended into the pitch black. He had time.

The air was bitterly cold. Theo shivered as he perspired. The concrete walls and metal treads ran with the water of the thaw. He stopped and listened. Hearing nothing he didn’t expect to, he continued his descent and added the ringing of his heavy boots on the rusting ironwork to the noise of the dripping water and his breathing.

This was not a building Theo had been in before because this was not a borough of the YZ he was familiar with. He leaned over the railings and peered into the depths of abyss-like blackness. For a breath-stilling moment he had the strangest sensation something was down there, staring back at him. His scalp prickled. He shuddered and brushed aside that unhelpful foolishness.

The head torch beam was not strong enough to penetrate the dark at the bottom of the shaft. But there must have been something down there once, he reasoned, or why have a stairwell? More intrigued for what lay ahead and below than concerned for what might be above and behind him, he continued on down in the growing hope of rich pickings.

Theo counted ten full flights of stairs before he reached the bottom. There had been no doorways off the stairwell. The frozen air hurt his lungs. There was at least a foot of trapped water.

The torch beam picked out the rusting closed doors of a freight elevator. Looking around he saw a door in the opposite wall. He stepped into the water and splashed across to it.

Above the door was a faded sign: ErgoCryo. It meant nothing to Theo. He tried the door. It was locked. He took the stubby iron bar from his pack and prised it open. The old rotting wood of the frame splintered easily. Theo pulled on the door against the resistance of the water and submerged rubble.

He waited while the water from the bottom of the stairwell washed into the room. There was a familiar noise coming from inside, barely audible. It reminded him of the humming of electrical circuits in the factory where he worked. He had to be mistaken. There couldn’t be anything still receiving electrical power in the YZ. It was probably just a draft moaning through an air vent, he thought.

He stepped inside. The air in the room felt warmer than outside. To test his theory about a power supply he flicked the light switch on the wall just inside the door. The sound of long dormant circuitry and old light bulbs waking up widened Theo’s eyes. The lighting stuttered and then slowly, one by one, the long tubes overhead noisily flickered into life and into the distance. He shut the door behind him to seal in the light.

A huge cavernous space stretched out before him. A subterranean vastness. It was not empty. In neat rows as far as Theo could see was a forest of upright tubes. Each tube was about three metres tall and a metre in diameter. Electrical cables stuck out from the tops. The cables ran into channelling in the roof space above. There were small panels with little lights glowing on most of the tubes. He flicked the overhead lights off. The lights on the panels remained on. Theo believed that explained the humming he’d heard. He turned the lights back on. He guessed there must be dozens of the cylinders. He went to the nearest one.

Cut into the tube at head height was a small transparent rectangle. Theo put his face to it. He instantly recoiled, calling out in fright. Backing away his heel caught on something. He stumbled and fell to the wet floor horrified and gasping for air.

Ooh sounds so good doesn’t it? I can’t wait to read the rest of this book and hope you enjoyed it too!

About The Author:

Crime writing author Oliver Tidy has had a life-long love affair with books. He dreams of one day writing something that he could find in a beautifully-jacketed hard-cover or paperback copy on a shelf in a book shop.

He found the time and opportunity to finally indulge his writing ambition after moving abroad to teach English as a foreign language to young learners eight years ago.

Impatient for success and an income that would enable him to stay at home all day in his pyjamas he discovered self-publishing. He gave it go. By and large readers have been kind to him. Kind enough that now, after moving back to the UK to his beloved Romney Marsh, Oliver is a full-time writer. Mostly in his pyjamas.

Oliver Tidy has fourteen books in three series, a couple of stand-alone novels and a couple of short story collections. Among his books are The Romney and Marsh Files (British police procedurals set in Dover) and the Booker & Cash novels, a series of private detective tales set in the south of England and published by Bloodhound Books.

For more on Oliver Tidy and his books, check out his website: https://olivertidy.com/

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I’m very pleased to finally be able to share my review of this absolutely brilliant book.  I’m a huge fan of Jane Fallon and was very excited to receive an early copy of Faking Friends.

Faking Friends is available to buy in ebook and paperback here.

It would make a fantastic Mother’s Day present if anyone is still looking for an idea!

Book Description:

Best friend, soulmate, confidante . . . backstabber.

Amy thought she knew everything there was to know about her best friend Melissa. Then again, Amy also thought she was on the verge of the wedding of her dreams to her long-distance fiancé.

Until she pays a surprise trip home to London. Jack is out, but it’s clear another woman has been making herself at home in their flat.

There’s something about her stuff that feels oddly familiar . . . and then it hits Amy. The Other Woman is Melissa.

Amy has lost her home, her fiancé and her best friend in one disastrous weekend – but instead of falling apart, she’s determined to get her own back.

Piecing her life back together won’t be half as fun as dismantling theirs, after all.

My Review:

Ooh I do love a Jane Fallon book.  I think it’s the wonderful scenarios she describes that you wish you were brave enough to do.  I mean how many of us would love to get revenge on someone who has wronged us? I know I would and in her books Jane gives you the chance to live out these fantasies through her characters which is so much fun to read about! I so enjoyed reading about Amy’s sneaky plans of revenge on her former boyfriend and best friend.  There is something addictive about Jane Fallon’s storytelling that hooks the reader in and makes it very hard to put the book down.  Throughout the book I felt like I was a fly on the wall, watching all the action unfold and enjoying all the caos that resulted.

I did like the main character Amy.  Yes she could be a bit of a bitch with her catty descriptions and observations of people.  However these were normally quite funny and did have me laughing out loud at times.  It was great to see her go on a real journey throughout the book as she rebuilds her life and discovers more about who she is.  She deals with the shock of betrayal really well and with a lot of strengths that was great to read about and made me admire her attitude.

Melissa and Jack were two characters I loved to hate.  Loyalty is very important to me and they annoyed me with their deception of Any, a person they were meant to love and the fact that they lied about what was happening to her face.  It was great fun watching their lives unfold and I felt that they deserved everything they got!

The ending was brilliant and a really fitting way to end the book.  It was great to read how much Amy’s life had changed, for the better, and how far she had come.  I was very pleased things worked out the way they did and closed the book with a happy sigh!

I have read nearly ever book that Jane Fallon has written, she is one of my favourite authors and I look forward to reading more from her in the future.  If you love fun, addictive and thrilling books then you will love Faking Friends.

Huge thanks to Gaby Young from Michael At Joseph publishers for my copy of this book.  As you can tell I absolutely loved it and thoroughly recommend.

About The Author:

Jane Fallon is the multi-award-winning television producer behind shows such as This Life, Teachers and 20 Things to Do Before You’re 30. Her books include Getting Rid of Matthew, Got You Back, Foursome, The Ugly Sister, Skeletons, Strictly Between Us and My Sweet Revenge.