Thursday 23 November 2017

Blog Blitz ~ Promo Post | Christmas Secrets in Snowflake Cove ~ Emily Harvale

Due to health reasons my reading has taken a little slide of late, yet I've started Christmas Secrets in Snowflake Cove by Emily Harvale and so far I'm enjoying it so its with apologies that I haven't got a review up in time today - I'm really hoping that it'll be up for you to all read tomorrow. In the meantime below is the gorgeous cover to entice you, along with all the details you need.


Christmas Secrets in Snowflake Cove
Christmas is a time for family and friends, miracles and magic, falling snow and roaring fires, fun,
laughter and festive feasts. In Snowflake Cove, it’s also a time for secrets to be revealed…
Evie Starr is hoping for more than a sprinkling of magic this Christmas. The family-run Snowflake Inn is virtually empty and the Starr’s financial future isn’t looking bright. But Evie’s gran, Jessie has a secret that might help.Enigmatic, Zachary Thorn is every woman’s dream. He’s also ex-SAS, so his secrets are classified. The Christmas Special of his feel-good, TV show is set in Michaelmas Bay –
until a phone call means he’s spending Christmas in nearby Snowflake Cove.Evie’s best friend,
Juniper thinks boyfriend Darren has a secret. Evie knows he does. 

And Evie’s niece, Raven is hiding feelings for Juniper’s brother – who has a secret crush of his own.But the biggest secret in Snowflake Cove is the identity of Raven’s dad.With snow falling thick and fast and secrets being revealed one after another, will everyone be snuggling up by the fire on Christmas Eve, or are some secrets best kept hidden…?

Purchase on Amazon UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B076G4DVZH


Author Bio 
Having lived and worked in London for several years, Emily returned to her home town of Hastings
where she now spends her days writing... and chatting on social media. Emily is a Member of the
SoA, a PAN member of the RWA and a Pro Member of ALLi. She's an Amazon bestseller and a Kindle
All Star. Emily loves writing and her stories are sure to bring a smile to your face and a warmth to
your heart.
Emily says, "I write about friendship, family and falling in love. I believe in happing endings." When
she isn't writing, she can be found enjoying the stunning East Sussex coast and countryside, or in a
wine bar with friends, discussing life, love and the latest TV shows. Chocolate cake is often eaten.
She dislikes housework almost as much as she dislikes anchovies - and will do anything to avoid
both.
Social Media Links – https://www.facebook.com/emilyharvalewriter
https://www.twitter.com/emilyharvale
https://www.instagram.com/emilyharvale


Friday 17 November 2017

Promo Blitz | Ours is the Winter ~ Laurie Ellingham

Happy Publication Day to Laurie Ellingham!
Ours is the Winter is out today - everything you need to know about this gorgeous book is posted below!


Journeying across the Arctic, their pasts are about to catch up with them.
Erica, Molly and Noah are embarking on the challenge of a lifetime, driving Siberian huskies across the frozen wilderness of the Arctic. Cut off from the world and their loved ones and thrown together under gruelling conditions, it isn’t long before the cracks start to show.

Erica has it all. A loving husband, a successful career and the most adorable baby daughter. But Erica has been living a double life, and as she nears her fortieth birthday her lies threaten to come crashing down.

Molly was on her way to stardom. But when her brother died, so did her dreams of becoming an Olympic champion.  Consumed by rage and grief, she has shut out everyone around her, but now she’s about to learn that comfort can come from the most unexpected places.

Noah has a darkness inside him and is hounded by nightmares from his past. Tortured, trapped and struggling to save his fractured relationship, he knows this journey is not going to help, but try telling his girlfriend that.

As their lives and lies become ever more entwined, it becomes clear that in the frozen wilds there is nowhere to hide.

Purchase from Amazon UKhttp://amzn.to/2h9G9ke
Author Bio
Laurie Ellingham lives on the Suffolk/Essex border with her two children, husband, and cockerpoo Rodney. She has a First Class honours degree in Psychology and a background in Public relations, but her main love is writing and disappearing into the fictional world of her characters, preferably with a large coffee and a Twix (or two) to hand.
Follow Laurie Ellingham on..


Thursday 16 November 2017

Blog Tour Review | The Best Little Christmas Shop ~ Maxine Morrey

Today I'm sharing my review of Maxine Morrey's second helping of festive reading for this year -
The Best Little Christmas Shop.

Please make sure to scroll to the bottom as there's a gorgeous giveaway!


The Best Little Christmas Shop
Maxine Morrey
HQ Digital
November 2017
Rating 5/5


              
Come home for Christmas to the Best Little Christmas Shop – the snowiest, cosiest place you can be!
Home for the holidays…
Icing gingerbread men, arranging handmade toys and making up countless Christmas wreaths in her family’s cosy little Christmas shop isn’t usually globe-trotter Lexi’s idea of fun. But it’s all that’s keeping her mind off romance. And, with a broken engagement under her belt, she’s planning to stay well clear of that for the foreseeable future…until gorgeous single dad Cal Martin walks through the door!
Christmas takes on a whole new meaning as Lexi begins to see it through Cal’s adorable five-year-old son’s eyes. But, finding herself getting dangerously close to the mistletoe with Cal, Lexi knows she needs to back off. She’s sworn off love, and little George needs a stability she can’t provide. One day she’ll decide whether to settle down again – just not yet.
But The Best Little Christmas Shop in this sleepy, snow-covered village has another surprise in store…

                 
I was a little apprehensive on opening up The Best Little Christmas Shop by Maxine Morrey as her alternative book this festive season, The Christmas Holiday, was completely up there as a perfect book for me and I didn't know if she could do it again having the two novels out so close together.


Part of me wishes I'd read The Best Little Christmas Shop earlier, the other part of me is glad I kept it until I did as it came just as my reading was taking a dip but the way Maxine writes literally pulls you in and submerges you like a great big warm blanket on a cold snowy day.

In The Best Little Christmas Shop we meet Lexi  who has returned to her family home after a troubling past year - she's lost her job and called off her engagement.
Her family own and run the Four Seasons shop which specialises in seasonal goods and they are deep in festive decorations. It is here in the shop that we first meet Cal and his son George who instantly took a shine to Lexi and will certainly pull on your heartstrings throughout the story. 
There is an instant attraction between Lexi and Cal and I love the way Maxine compels their dialogue - I felt like a gooseberry at times as I  felt I was there in the room with them and as with any good romance there is the drama of the will they/ won't they scenario and I felt the raw pain Lexi was feeling along with the heart ache Cal expressed at the same time as grinning at love being in the air! 

The Best Little Christmas Shop was full of warmth and had the right balance of drama and sub plots. Mixed with the festive elements, and magical snowy scenes makes this the ideal book to snuggle up with this year.


              

Giveaway – UK Only


Win –

Signed copy of The Christmas Project
The Best Little Christmas Shop notebook
Box of mini gingerbread men
A chocolate teddy bear





Review | Some Kind of Wonderful ~ Giovanna Fletcher


Some Kind of Wonderful
Giovanna Fletcher
Penguin - Michael Joseph
November 2017
Rating 4/5


             

Lizzy and Ian have been a couple since their first day at university. Now, after celebrating a decade together, everyone thinks they're about to get engaged. A romantic escape to Dubai is the perfect moment, but instead of the proposal Lizzy hopes for, Ian reveals he's not sure he even wants her anymore.
 Lizzy is heartbroken. But through the tears, she realises this is her chance to seize the opportunities she missed as Ian's other half. But what does she want? How much of her is really Lizzy, and how much was Ian's influence? Determined to discover who she is at heart, Lizzy sets out to rediscover the girl she was before - and in the meantime, have a little fun . . .

                
Ah, how nice is it to have Gi back writing fiction? It seems like ages ago I last read something from Giovanna Fletcher, so I was eager to get stuck in to Some Kind of Wonderful as soon as I was approved for an advanced copy.

Some Kind of Wonderful is written in the first person so Lizzie herself tells her story and the book starts off with her and her partner of 10 years, Ian, enjoying a luxurious holiday in Dubai.
From the outset, there are a lot of difference's between the couple but Lizzie's love for Ian is second to none, unfortunately it soon becomes clear during a very romantic dinner on the beach that Ian's feelings don't quite match Lizzies, and even though he has the ring in his hand ready to ask that all important question Lizzie is desperate to hear, she ends up flying home - minus an engagement ring and minus a boyfriend.

Moving back to her childhood home and living with her Mum and Stepdad isn't exactly how Lizzie planned to spend the rest of the year but as she embarks on trying to mend her heart, she also works discovering who the real Lizzie is and what she is meant to be doing with her life.

Giovanna writes with such warmth and humour it's easy to get lost in her novels, for me though Some Kind of Wonderful lacked just a little bit of oomph in the middle - I sped through the beginning and the ending but I felt like I was waiting for something to happen in between which didn't come.

Don't get me wrong, Some Kind of Wonderful is a great read - it had me laughing and welling up in equal measures and had some great sub plots (Lizzie's sisters wedding and her Dad's secret spring to mind) and secondary characters (Connie is a hoot!) and of course Gi's signature reference to a certain Billy Buskin (Billy & Me - what a book!) - but I just lost my way a little in the middle of the book.

Despite this, I truly feel that Some Kind of Wonderful will make a fabulous gift to yourself this Christmas ;-)

                 


Tuesday 14 November 2017

Blog Tour Q&A | Christmas at the Candied Apple Cafe - Katherine Garbera

Today I'm delighted to bring you an exclusive Q&A session with Katherine Garbera as part of her blog tour with Rachels Random Resources for her latest novel, 
Christmas at the Candied Apple Cafe.

There's also a giveaway at the end of the post so make sure you keep scrolling!


Christmas at the Candied Apple Cafe
Katherine Garbera
Harper Impulse
December 2017


             

There’s nothing so magical as Christmas in New York…
Santa is coming to New York!
Snow is falling, excitement is high and the delicious scent of chocolate drifts along Fifth
Avenue Рthe Candied Apple Caf̩ is ready for Christmas! And no one is busier than publicist
Iona Summerlin. With so much to do, she doesn’t have time to think about men, dating, or
the fact her last boyfriend ditched her for her brother… Relationships are off the menu!
Hotel boss Mads Eriksson is not looking forward to the first Christmas since losing his wife.
His six-year- old daughter Sofia has lost her belief in Christmas magic along with her mother,
and he has no idea what to do. But an unusually festive business meeting at the Candied
Apple – and meeting the beautiful Iona – starts to defrost Mads’ frozen heart, and suddenly
life seems full of light and sparkle again.
If only they dare to believe, maybe all their Christmas dreams will come true!


Thank you to Katherine for taking the time to do a Q & A with Lozza's Book Corner.

How do you come up with your heroes?
I always start with what I find attractive in a guy. I like them strong, a little-bit alpha,
and determined to have the woman they want no matter the cost. Because family is
at the core of every story I write I sometimes am mean and make the hero feel
responsible for the loss of his family—trying to give him an extra barrier to overcome
while he is falling for the heroine.

How has Pinterest influenced your writing?
1) I love to find photos that really capture the emotion of my characters and
then I pin them to the board.
2) Then I add in quotes that capture what I think of as the core of my
characters.
3) I think Eve already covered this, but good-looking, hot guys. 
4) I love finding places that I didn’t know existed. Like for Whiskey River we
found fields of lavender in Texas even though normally you think of fields
of bluebells in Texas. 

How do you get the ideas for your stories?
The ideas for my stories come from everywhere. Usually from a combination of
interesting news stories I’ve read, conversations with my hubby and kids, movies I
watch, TV shows…pretty much everywhere. I have written a lot of books and so
sometimes people are surprised I still have stories to tell, but I don’t think I’ve even
come close to telling them all.
I’m also really nosey about people so I will watch them from behind my dark
sunglasses and try to figure out why they are doing whatever they are doing. I have
spent hours just watching people and being inspired by my version of their lives. 

Where do you work?
I work wherever I can. I have an office which I use most every day for my daily page
count, I either sit at my desk or in my big comfy chair. I’ve been using an app for the
iPad called Hanx Writer (it’s named after the actor Tom Hanks). The app turns my
iPad into a typewriter with the old typewriter sounds. I love it!
Sometimes I really need to get out of my regular space, especially if I’m distracted by
a new book being released and then I go to the café and write. I find that I’m
unwilling to sit on Facebook or play games when I think someone else might see me!

Describe your office
I have a huge counter top that I used as my desk. It’s set to my height and I have
two monitors on it. On my desk are post-it notes from my husband and my kids.
One reminds me to “stay fresh”—not sure what that means, but I do try! I also have
stuff my friends have given me over the years and little figurines I collect. Above my
monitor on the wall I have a quote by Carl Sandberg “Nothing happens unless first a
dream” and an affirmation.

I have a bookcase to the left of where I sit that is jammed full of my favorite books on
writing (Stephen King’s On Writing and Dwight Swain’s Techniques of the Selling
Writer) and then my binders where I keep everything that is involved in my story.
The synopsis, the letters from my editor, my research and then when it’s released
reader letters.

What is the "best thing about writing"?
Truth? It’s that I get to make up stories for a living. That’s it for me. I’ve always
loved telling stories and the fact that I get paid to do it makes me very happy.
Readers who take the time to write to me and let me know how my books helped
them or cheered them up make all those hours by myself in my office worth it. I also
really love that I am can call myself a writer. They are the most fascinating people
I’ve ever met and I like being part of that group.

When and how did you get the idea for the Candied Apple Cafe?
Like most of ideas this one came while I was eating chocolate. 
 For Christmas I
always start with family because it’s so central to my life and I like to create conflict
for my characters from that. Usually that means killing off someone important to my
protagonist so they have mixed feelings about the holidays.

Why did you choose to set the story in New York?
I love Manhattan. I wanted to explore the hidden neighbourhoods that exist within a
big bustling city and show the bonds between family and friends there. Also, all of
my picture perfect Christmas images involve New York City.


Giveaway

Giveaway - Win 5 x Signed Copies of Summer in Manhattan
5 lucky winners will win a copy of Summer in Manhattan, Katherine Garbera’s previous book
for Harper Impulse.