Feature | Goodbye April ~ Hello May

Goodness, these weeks are flying by! I can't believe I'm on my second Goodbye ~

Hello post already.

To recap, this is wrap up post of the month just gone and a look at what I have coming up in the next month.

April has been a busy month personally, but book and blog wise I posted six reviews along with various My Book Corner features and a whole bunch of cover reveals and guest posts for blog tours.

Here are the books I've reviewed, please click on the images to read.

March saw Lozza's Book Corner take part in six blog tours covering a mixture of reviews, guest posts and Q&A's. I would also again like to thank Tracey Sinclair, Helena Sheffield, Laurie Ellingham, Victoria Walters and Isabelle Broom for taking part in the My Book Corner feature.

This feature has really taken off in the last month, as I put a pinned tweet up and I'm now scheduled up until the beginning of August with a host of bloggers and authors taking part!

It's been a good month for receiving books too. 

Thanks to some amazing publishers my TBR is never ending and the new titles added are:

eBooks

The Summer We Danced -Fiona Harper

An Autumn Affair & A Summer of Secrets - Both by Alice Ross

The Summer Flings Travel Club - Aimee Duffy

Something Old, Something New - Darcie Boleyn

Summer at the Cornish Cafe - Phillipa Ashley

The Secret of Orchard Cottage - Alex Brown

Cupcakes and Confetti - Jane Linfoot

Paperbacks

The Assistants - Camille Perri

Martini Henry - Sara Crow

Mad Girl -Bryony Gordon

And finally, March saw the blog have a little makeover. 

I'm one of these that are never happy until it's just right and can now say that I love the new header, ratings image and signature to sign my post's off with. I now just need to decide whether to keep the floral background or revert to one that's not so busy - please let me know your thoughts as you are the ones that read the blog after all!

Moving on to the month ahead then..

As a general rule, I love May. I love seeing the blossom on the blossom on the trees and the feeling that the weather is starting to get warmer, but it's also a bitter sweet month for me too.

It's my birthday month and my late Nan's birthday is the day after mine. We always used to have lunch together and then enjoy tea and cake - she was the only other person I knew that put the milk in first and had her tea milky so it was out treat to have together without the rest of the family passing comment!

I'm not sure what I am doing for my actual birthday yet (other than working...boo!) but I am hoping to go away the weekend after to spend some time with my nieces and nephew.

I've kept the diary fairly empty for this month. I'm on a few blog tours and have a couple of cover reveals planned but I'm concentrating on attacking the TBR throughout May.

As well as the books mentioned in the above TBR list, the following three are right at the top!

The One We Fell In Love With - Paige Toon

Always With Love - Giovanna Fletcher

Lovers and Liars - Nigel May

Wishing you all a fabulous month of reading!

My Book Corner | Victoria Walters

It's my pleasure to be joined on the blog by debut author Victoria Walters, who shares with us her Book / Writing corner.

Victoria, thanks for joimg me on the blog today, can yell us about your Book Corner/Writing Space?

I actually need to buy a desk! I feel I am failing as a writer without one. At the moment I either write at the dining room table looking out into the garden or curled up in an armchair. My cat is usually curled up with me. 

Do you have a favourite shelf/collection of books? Or favourite part of your Book Corner?

My favourite shelf has some of my favourite books and special editions that I've collected. My favourite book is Pride and Prejudice do I have several fancy hardbacks of it, and I have my favourite series on there too. 

Do you have any reading/writing habits?

With writing I usually listen to music and I get quite cold writing so I need fluffy socks and a blanket! I like reading in a bubble bath - such a pleasure. 

How do you keep apart, track and control your TBR to read books?

I am not very systematic! I have two bookshelves of books to read and tend to grab the next one that calls out to me unless I've promised to read a particular one next for someone. I get a lot of proofs working for Waterstones and buy far too many myself so the shelves are very crowded. 

Can you provide links to your social media handles please? Please also include any links to purchase books too if wish to be included

Twitter: @Vicky_Walters

Instagram: vickyjwalters 

Blog: http://victoria-writes.com

The Summer I Met You

The Second Love Of My Life

Please click on the book covers to read my reviews.

Blog Tour ~ Guest Post | The Second Love Of My Life ~ Victoria Walters

I'm absolutely delighted to be hosting today's stop on The Second Love Of My Life blog tour. If you haven't heard me banging on about this book - just where have you been? It is so far my book of 2016 and you can read my full review of it here.

Victoria has provided the following guest post for us - thank you!

Music from The Second Love Of My Life

Music has a very special place in my novel The Second Love Of My Life.

Music has a very special place in my heart so it felt natural to try to incorporate it in the story. I created a playlist early on as I wrote the first draft and I just knew the book had a certain sound to it.

The music went so well with what I was writing, I decided to slip in the names of artists and bands from the playlist in to the actual novel to link the two.

 I love country music myself. It started when I accidentally discovered Taylor Swift on YouTube back when she was on her first album and I fell in love with the genre because of how they tell stories in their songs.

We maybe don’t play it as much here compared to America so it was online that I found most of my favourite artists.

Some of the songs on the playlist go so well with the story it’s a tad spooky. Some of them I already owned but some I stumbled on as I was writing the book. I wrote the line “they say that everyone is famous in a small town” and discovered the Miranda Lambert song ‘”Famous in A Small town”, which went straight on the playlist.

Other songs I already loved and fitted the book perfectly – one of my favourites LeAnn Rimes had so many songs that matched the story, such as “Some People” and “I Want To With You”. I ordered the playlist to follow the storyline of the book and there are key moments that go with a song, for example, when Rose leaves Talting to go to an art retreat “Old Faces” by Laura Doggett worked so well or when Rose is thinking about her husband – “I Miss You” by Kacey Musgraves.

Hopefully it also stands on its own as a collection of great songs too. I knew that the Carrie Underwood song “Thank God For Hometowns” had to finish off the soundtrack. It just sums up the town the book is set in Talting and how Rose learns to love living there again.

 Hopefully everyone will enjoy the playlist as well as the book and I would love it if someone discovered their new favourite song because of The Second Love Of My Life!

Thank you again to Victoria and France Gough for providing the above content - I hope you approve of the GIF and video clips ;-)

The Second Love Of My Life is available to by now, be sure to grab yourself a copy. Don't forget to check out Victoria's short story prequel, The Summer I Met You too!

                            

Review | The Second Love Of My Life ~ Victoria Walters

Published by Headline

7th April 2016

Pre-Order HERE

Victoria Walters' debut novel is a powerful tale of love, grief and survival, perfect for fans of Cecelia Ahern, Lucy Dillon and Miranda Dickinson.

In the small Cornish town of Talting, everyone is known for something.

Up to the age of twenty-four, artist Rose Walker was known for lots of things: her infectious positivity; her unique artistic talent; her second-to-none cookery skills; and, of course, her devotion to childhood sweetheart and husband Lucas.

But, two years ago, all of that changed in one, unthinkable moment. Now, Rose is known for being a young woman who became a widow aged just twenty-four.

Rose knows that life must - should - go on. But the prospect of trying to carve out a future for herself is one she can still barely entertain. Until a newcomer, Robert Green, arrives in Talting for the summer...

Can Rose allow herself the chance to love again?

Get lost in Victoria Walters' immensely touching début novel, and discover a world that will capture your imagination and heart.

Where on earth do I start with this review? I'm just going to apologise now as I've written the below words three times already and I really don't think my review has done the book justice. Its definitely one not to be missed on your summer holidays this year!

The Second Love Of My Life is a gorgeous début novel from Victoria Walters, I was briefly introduced to her writing and the settings of this book in her short story prequel, The Summer I Met You, which was quite frankly was bloomin' amazing - check out my review for that, here.

The Second Love Of My Life though, was on a completely different level. It absolutely blew me away...

Rose is struggling. Not only with her art work but its fair to say life in general. She was happily married to Lucas, her childhood sweetheart, but tragic circumstances took him away from her.

To begin with we aren't sure what really happened to Lucas but an incident at Rose's work soon makes it clear - but that is just one small element of the story. Other elements include Rose's relationship with her best friend Emma and her husband John, and how Rose deal's with things happening in their life that she feels should be happening with her and Lucas. There's also her parents in law whom are grieving in their own way and the book looks at how relationships continue as life paths change - Rose really is a remarkable character.

Rose's world takes another unexpected turn when Robert comes into her home town of Talting. He is interested in buying her old art work, and there is instantly a little spark between the pair with is quickly replaced on Rose's part with guilt. However they spend more and more time together but no sooner as a force pulls them closer, one pulls them back - if it wasn't her guilt it was Robert closing up - this left me as the reader pondering over what this man's story was or what he was up to...

I didn't have too long to wait and I was quite shocked at the outcome of his background which happens around the middle of the book  - yes I know I'm being utterly vague but that's just tough as I completely urge you to read this book and will go as far as to say this could be the book of 2016 for me!

The Second Love Of My Life completely played with my emotions. It made me cry on more than one occasion and after my tweet in the pic below, I felt it was going to be a really soppy read. 

Yes there were emotional, hang on I need tissue moments but equally there were parts within the book I felt like I really connected with the story too,  I had to pause reading to take a moment and process it. It's made me think on things that have happened personally within my life, things I'm forever beating myself up over or blaming myself for, but Rose's story has shown me that we get a second chance in life and it should be lived fully as some things can't be changed.

I loved seeing Rose find herself again - not just in her love and work life but with her friends too - its hard to grasp when your grieving how the lives of others continue forwards.

The Second Love Of My Life was in no way a depressive book though - there were some really touching moments and Roberts clumsiness brought humour to the story, but there was also a real lightness to the book which kept the story interesting and fresh.

It was a real life affirming and uplifting novel. 
A novel of moving on and dealing with grief, learning to live and love again. 
A novel of appreciating what you have and learning to live for the moment.

Victoria Walter's has a delightful writing style. There was so much written on the pages yet the words, which were told by Rose in the first person, flowed beautifully.

There were a lovely set of characters, each with a special link to Rose, but whom came with realistic and true challenges to people grieving and moving on.

The Second Love Of My Life was also brilliantly descriptive. There was a particular part in the book where I can a 'lightbulb' moment - I'm the first to admit I'm a sucker for pretty book covers, and this one is no exception, however at this one point of the book, Rose's art work is being described and as I was reading it, not only could I picture the paining on the canvas, but I could see the book cover unfold and I was finding myself thinking 'ah that's why there's trees and birds'

There are pretty book covers and then there are pretty book covers that completely relate to the story, and this is one of them.

For me, the whole book was a joy to read and took me on a complete rollercoaster of a ride. It shattered my heart then just as I was mending, Victoria threw another curve ball to shatter it once more. As Rose was building her life up, I felt I was passing her the bricks.
Even though its a work of fiction, it was true to life too - we are often thrown curve ball's or dealt a rough hands which sometime's feel like they are on repeat every time we pick ourselves up and Victoria reflected on this in her story with Rose.

For anyone that actually reads my reviews (thank you!) you will know that I adore a good epilogue - this didn't fail me one bit and I enjoyed the fact it was set quite a while later...

Honestly, I just cannot praise this book enough!

I've no doubt that anyone who picks up The Second Love Of My Life won't enjoy it or get something positive out of it. It's just one of them books that will stay with you for a while, and for that reason there is no other rating I can give other than the top one of being placed on my 

extra special books page.

I would like to thank Victoria and Frances at Headline for providing an ARC of 

The Second Love Of My Life 

via NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

Review | The Summer I Met You ~ Victoria Walters

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Kindle

It wasn't love at first sight. It was a summer of love...

When Emma leaves her Cornish hometown of Talting for a summer in Devon, the last thing she dreams of is falling in love.

But sometimes the people who affect us the most come along when we least expect it.

As the summer comes to the end, will it herald the start of something that could last for ever?

Oh my... this book...

OK I'm calling it a book but in reality its a short story, so short in fact that it took me just 50 minutes to read it. It might be short but it is ever so sweet.

Firstly I guess it's wise to point out that The Summer I Met You is a prequel short story to Victoria Walters' full début novel, The Second Love of My Life, which is published exactly ONE week today - April 7th. 

The Summer I Met You introduces us to some of the characters I'm sure will pop up in The Second Love of My Life, but primarily focuses on Emma and John and is told in the first person from Emma's perspective. 

Emma has had her heart broken before and so understandably is wary of meeting someone new. Her main goal this summer is to spend time with her cousins Amy and Lucy and to have fun celebrating Amy's birthday - so with that in mid she packs up her car and leaves her beloved home in the Cornish village of Talting and heads to Devon.

The last thing Emma expected to do was save someone's life on the first day... or save that life with the help of John. Instantly the pair are attracted to each other and but with Emma leaving in six weeks to return to Cornwall and John leaving to pursue his studies and life in London, the pair are left facing the prospect of a 'holiday romance'. It quickly becomes clear it is more than that and decisions are left to be made. The story cleverly and fluently alternates between Now and Then chapters - the Now being Emma arriving back to Cornwall after her summer away and the Then telling us the story of how her and John met.

The Summer I Met You is a glorious short story of love and friendship and gives an insight to the settings of The Second Love of My Life too. Victoria's writing style completely captivated me and has left me with a need to read the full book - lucky me having an advance copy to go and devour right now!!

From the synopsis, I believe The Summer I Met You can be read as a standalone but why would you do that when its only 99p and is utterly delicious? Plus... Just look at the cover, isn't it beautiful and summery? How can you resist?!

If I was you I would grab a copy of The Summer I Met You now and whilst it's downloading to your devices, pre -order The Second Love of My Life, which you can locate here.