Monday 23 December 2013

Review - Trinity by Nigel May

Well, I feel quite exhausted after reading Trinty by Nigel May! 

Rich and gorgeous girls Regan, Nush & Evie were friends at college and vow to be life-long friends but can their friendship survive not just their own insecurities and complicated upbringings but also everything else that is thrown into their colourful, glamorous, fun filled lives and the people in them?

Unputdownable and totally engrossing, so much so that I've hardly moved from my sofa all day. I could very easily have been reading a Jackie Collins bonk-buster rather than a debut novel from a new author.  Nigel May writes with the ease and flow of an author who has been writing over many years honing their skills with each book. 

It was sexy, sassy, action-packed, glamorous, exciting, gripping - there are so many words I could use to describe this brilliant book.  Set in both England and Hollywood, the scenes are set in vibrant, energetic locations which are easily conjured up in your mind. The three main characters are created with the perfect amount of everything. You become so embroiled in their lives that you feel like you know them intimately and understand all their thoughts and emotions! 

Watch out for uber-bitch Clarissa, a character so brilliantly created that I hated her with a passion from the moment I was introduced to her. 

With twists and turns littering the plot with glamour and glitz and murder and mayhem thrown in for good measure, this is a highly entertaining read that to be honest I couldn't get enough of! 

Nigel May is a TV presenter and journalist and regularly presents on UK shopping channels. 

He has written for many of the UK's most successful magazines and newspapers, specialising in showbiz and celebrity, as well as writing on subjects ranging from relationships through to travel. He is also one of the UK's most popular craft personalities, having launched his own successful range, A-May-Zing.

Nigel is the only male writer amongst 44 authors featured in the chart-topping, perfect beach-read anthology of short-stories SUNLOUNGER.

You can follow Nigel on Twitter - www.twitter.com/Nigel_May 

You can find out more about Nigel via his website www.nigelmay.net 

You can buy Trinity at the sites below. 

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trinity-ebook/dp/B00CNW8Z00/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368375306&sr=8-1&keywords=Nigel+May+TRINITY

WH Smith: http://www.whsmith.co.uk/EProducts/Trinity+eBook+KB00106456199

KOBO UK: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Trinity/book-wXPRnpWdO0-m2hngNyiglQ/page1.html?s=FcGZyPRr30mQcbwzAkrlGA&r=1

Nook UK: http://uk.nook.com/ebooks/trinity/2940016785707

Amazon USA: http://www.amazon.com/Trinity-ebook/dp/B00CNW8Z00/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368375409&sr=8-1&keywords=Nigel+May+TRINITY

Barnes And Noble USA: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1115247814?ean=2940016785707

Smashwords USA: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/313264


Friday 20 December 2013

Review - Take Me Home by Daniela Sacerdoti

Wow is the only word I think I can start with.

Take Me Home is the story of Inary who is living in London after being jilted by her ex, and is just a little bit in love with her best friend Alex. She has to return to her native Scotland where her sister is in the final stages of her life and to help the brother she feels resents her for running away. 

How can she cope with the death of her sister and the loss of Alex too after she closed herself off to him so she can never be hurt by anyone again? 

This is one of the most emotional stories I think I've read. I adored reading Watch Over Me by Dani and this was a magnificent and completely perfect second novel which is set in the same village.  

I quickly became completely and utterly immersed in the story and felt like I was part of the scenery. I read a lot through bleary eyes. It was so moving and emotional in parts that I could not breathe! There were other scenes where very interesting things were happening to Inary that I was completely fascinated by and wanted to find out so much more!

Dani is an incredible writer and I hope to be reading many more of her books in the future. She writes in such a compelling way that you cannot wait to find out what happens next even if you know that your heart is going to break in two! 

While it was extremely sad in parts, it was overall marvellously uplifting and certainly left me with peace and hope. 

Just completely beautiful! 


Daniela Sacerdoti was born and raised in Italy but moved to Scotland ten years ago, now living in Glasgow with her husband and sons.  and her love for this country comes through in her writing.  She holds a degree in Classics from the University of Turin and has taught Italian, Latin & Greek.  Writing has always been a big part of her life as her great-uncle was the renowned Italian writer Carlo Levi.  

She admits to stealing time to write when everyone has gone to bed, or before they wake up. She is a Primary teacher, but she chose to be at home with her children. She loves being with her boys, reading anything she can get her hands on and chatting with her girlfriends. But she also adores being on her own, free to daydream and make up stories.






Wednesday 18 December 2013

Review - The Restaurant @ The Mill by Linn B Halton


A beautifully warm and cosy book which was completely adorable.  

Six very different relationships come together with the common link being that they either dine or work at The Restaurant at the Mill.  This is owned by Hilary and Ben who became business partners after Ben approached Hilary when he saw a business opportunity for them to run a fabulous establishment combining his amazing skills as a chef with her front of house professionalism and experience.

We learn about these wonderful individuals and how their relationships develop and intertwine.  The people involved are Hilary and Ben, Charlotte, Grace and Lawrence, Isabel and David, Thomas and  Sadie who works at the restaurant. 

Linn threw in quite a few very unexpected surprises and links along the way which kept the plot fresh and kept your interest peaked. The characters are wonderfully created and I could picture both the exterior location and the interior look of the Mill and was quite tempted at one point to actually ring the restaurant and book myself a table as I could picture this beautiful setting, cosy atmosphere and wonderful people and I just wanted to dine in this place and be part of the cast. 

I started reading this lovely book on a Sunday morning and literally had to drag myself out of bed that morning as I had lots of important things to do even though I really wanted to cancel them all, tuck myself up on the sofa and continue to read. I was counting down the hours until Sunday evening so I could pick up where I left off and continue with the individual lives that weaved around this wonderful community of people who had become my friends.

Even a couple of days after I finished reading the book  (because I immediately picked up another book of Linn's - The Quintessential Gemini!) I was still thinking about the characters and how their lives will go on from here and what would become of them all. I could have continued to read about them forever.  I could easily have read about each of the characters in their own separate books - when you're ready Linn!

Linn is an author who makes it easy for a reader to create pictures of people and places in their minds, making you feel part of the story somehow or as if you are just sitting on the sidelines watching in.  I feel that this is such a clever skill because as a reader, there is nothing better than feeling the emotions of the characters and knowing what all the places you are reading look like and she does this particularly well. 

Linn B Halton lives in the small Gloucestershire village of Arlingham on the banks of the river severn with her adorable husband and cat with attitude Mr Tiggs! Linn and Lawrence have renovated many houses over the years and she writes romantic fiction with a psychic or astrological theme and many of the paranormal events that feature in her books are real life experiences.


She has written about some of these experiences in Being A Sceptic is Oh So Easy.  

Linn wrote Touched By The Light shortly after the death of her mother and is a big advocate of the saying "seeing is believing!" 
 
 
You can learn more about Linn at her website and also read more about loveahappyending.com
 
 

Saturday 14 December 2013

Guest post - Tilly Tennant

Really pleased to be joined by guest blogger Tilly Tennant today talking about her book Hopelessly Devoted which sounds fab. Without further ado, let me hand you over to Tilly. 

What are the chances?
 
Every generation has their pop heartthrobs. As a little child, I remember the bedroom walls of my teenage aunt being plastered with posters of David Essex and the Bay City Rollers.  She used to tell me that one day she would marry Woody and I actually believed she would! When I got a little older, it was my turn to stare at posters of Morten Harket on my wall and dream of the day when he would realise that he was actually in love with a fifteen year old from Staffordshire, he just didn’t know it because he hadn’t met me.  Of course, this is all pie in the sky (unless you’re one of a very select and rare few throughout pop history), but just imagine if it were possible.  What if you did meet your idol, the subject of your floaty daydreams?  And what it he did fancy you back?
 
To meet her idol is all Bonnie dreams of in Hopelessly Devoted.  The trouble is, she’s in her mid thirties with a teenage daughter of her own, Paige, who also shares the same fantasies of meeting young, gorgeous pop heartthrob, Holden Finn. Bonnie has been let down badly by the men in her life in the past, and pouring all her energies into dreaming of a man she can never have seems a safe bet. After all, Holden will never let her down. Holden will always be the impossible, unreachable image of perfection. So there’s no harm in Bonnie’s little daydreams, surely….
 
Hopelessly Devoted
 
There’s only one man for Bonnie, and that’s Holden Finn. The problem is, Holden Finn a twenty-something pop megastar with his boy band, Every Which Way, who doesn’t even know she exists. Not only that, but half the women of the world want to be Mrs Finn, including Bonnie’s teenage daughter, Paige. But the real men in Bonnie’s life only let her down, and a man you can never have can never let you down… right?  When Paige wins a radio competition to meet Holden and his band, it seems all that is set to change. Bonnie is about to find out that you should be careful what you wish for, and that happiness can come in the most unexpected shape…
 
Hopelessly Devoted is due for release December 2013 but you can get your hands on a free copy by entering the Hopelessly Devoted blog giveaway. Not only that, but you’ll also win an exclusive unreleased Christmas novella, Mishaps and Mistletoe,which is only available by entering the draw.




About Tilly:  
 






Tilly Tennant was born in Dorset but now lives in Staffordshire with her slightly nutty family. Tilly is married to Mr Tennant (not that one, though a girl can dream). After years of dismal and disastrous jobs, including paper plate stacking, shop girl, newspaper promotions and waitressing (she never could carry a bowl of soup without spilling a bit), she decided to indulge her passion for the written word by enrolling on a degree in English and creative writing. She wrote her first novel in 2007 during her first summer break at university and has not stopped writing since. She also works as a freelance editor, and considers herself very lucky that this enables her to read many wonderful books while getting paid for it.
 
Tilly Tennant on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TillyTenWriter
Tilly’s facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TillyTennant
Follow Tilly’s blog http://tillytennant.com/