Something for the weekend

Folks, the weekend is here!  
It has been a testing one and I predict next week to be similiar, with the saving grace that the children are on Easter break.




If you are looking for something to read this weekend.......

Janice Horton is celebrating her 1st Blogiversary here  and to celebrate her 5 star read
Reaching for the Stars  is FREE this weekend, here and in the USA.






I have downloaded Sealed with a Kiss, a short story by Fiona Walker is available at 99p here,   ahead of the release of The Love Letter by Fiona Walker very soon.   More about that here on the blog soon. 




My purchase of The Sugar Girls by Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi dropped into my Kindle mailbox overnight.  The story of the girls in the Tate & Lyle sugar factory - East End of London.
I pre-ordered this after hearing about it through the lovely Sharon at Jera's Jamboree


Happy reading, folks!




DizzyC

Blog Tour: Excerpt & Giveaway -- The Galahad Legacy

I'm extremely excited to be part of the blog tour for the release of The Galahad Legacy, the sixth and final installment in Dom Testa's Galahad series. My stop is #25 on the tour. If you've missed any other stops or would like to catch up, click here.

As an added bonus, be sure to check out the bottom of this post for the chance to win all SIX books in the Galahad series - brought to you by Tor.

Excerpt:

“Did you feel any kind of presence in the darkness?” Lita said. Triana noticed that both Lita and Bon seemed to lean forward with this question.

“No, almost the exact opposite. It felt like I was leaving behind all conscious thought, and plunging into a vacuum of total nothingness. It was terrifying. But the moment I crossed that barrier, the very moment I saw the last image of the stars in my peripheral vision and was about to be swallowed by the blackness, it was as if everything turned inside out. Where it should have been an infinite darkness, suddenly there was an explosion of light.”

“Colors?” Gap asked. “Like a kaleidoscope?”

Please visit Bookworm Lisa for the next excerpt from the second chapter of The Galahad Legacy.


About Dom Testa

DOM TESTA has been a radio show host since 1977. He is currently a co-host of the popular "Dom and Jane Show" on Mix 100 in Denver. A strong advocate of literacy programs for children, Dom began The Big Brain Club to help young people recognize that Smart Is Cool. More information on Dom Testa, his books and educational work can be found here at www.DomTesta.com.

Public Appearances:

• Saturday, April 14th: Murder by the Book, Houston, TX; 11:00 am
• Wednesday, April 18th and Thursday, April 19th: Texas Library Association Annual Conference, Houston, TX; various times
• Friday, April 20th: Barnes & Noble, 1000 Research Drive, Austin, TX; 7:00 pm
• Saturday, April 21st: Barnes & Noble, 15900 La Cantera Parkway, San Antonio, TX; 2:00 pm

Follow Dom:

Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube

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Enter To Win The Entire Galahad Series

One lucky reader of Missy's Reads & Reviews will win the entire Galahad series to add to their library:

• The Comet's Curse
• The Web of Titan
• The Cassini Code
• The Dark Zone
• Cosmic Storm
• The Galahad Legacy

To Enter:

Follow the directions on the Rafflecopter below. There are no strict rules except that the winner must have a US or Canadian address.

The giveaway will stay open until the end of the tour, which is April 11th. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Tour Review: Fractured Light, by Rachel McClellan

Llona Reese is used to living on the run. After the Vykens killed her parents, she knew they would eventually come for her too. But she never felt ready to face them---until now. Defying the Auran Council and everything she's been taught, Llona must learn to use her power over light as a weapon if she wants to survive.

For this review, I thought I would switch things up and start with the bad so I can end with the good. The bad: this story works with some cliches that we've seen from several stories in the past like the fact that the main character has a power but spends most of her time trying to hide it. Then of course, there's the boy who falls in love with the girl that's seemingly perfect for the girl.. yet they cannot be together for one reason or another. Really, that's about it for the bad though... and, to be honest, those things aren't such bad things. Especially since McClellan did such an amazing job putting her own spin on these things.

Aside from this, the story was amazing. I started reading it late one afternoon with the intention of only reading the hour before it was time to go to bed. Instead, I stayed up an extra two hours past my bedtime to finish the book because I could not make myself stop reading it. Nothing worked, of course... I was hooked from the very beginning.

If there was one particular reason I had to give someone to read this book, I would not hesitate in saying Llona herself. Here is a character who, in the true sense of the world, is a real heroine. She's not without her faults, but her strengths far exceed any of those. She's brave, strong and doesn't give up. If there's something she doesn't excel at, she works and works on it until she gets it. And she's a fighter. I'm not just talking about she starts out strong but turns all D-i-D (damsel-in-distress) once a boy enters the picture. She fights beginning, middle and end, even with a hunky Guardian in the picture.

And yes, there's the swoon-worthy male lead who is indeed everything a girl wants in a guy and then some. Unfortunately, there are things keeping the two apart. However, it does lead to some very crazy tension in the book that I definitely thought added another layer to the story.

You can't have a good story without a "bad guy," and Fractured Light definitely included one. I have to admit, I thought I knew but ended up second-guessing myself throughout the entire story. I changed my mind entirely too many times, but it led up to a surprise at the end - which is a nice change from knowing from the very beginning who the obvious villain is.

Fractured Light is definitely a story that keeps you turning pages until the very end. There was some events that unfolded at the very end that makes me probably a little too anxious for the next book, which I look forward to reading as soon as it comes out. If you like paranormal books with some great characters and a nice new mythology spun in, I definitely recommend you pick this one up.

Rating: ★★★★✩
Source: Teen Book Scene

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Title: Fractured Light
Author: Rachel McClellan
Series: Fractured Light, Book One
Publisher: Sweetwater Books
Format: Hardcover, 304 pages
Release Date: February 8, 2012

Purchase Book
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | IndieBound

W.I.P. Wednesday - 28th March

Today, Pauline Barclay is joining me to talk WIP.  
Thank you, Pauline for sharing your WIP progress with us.

Photos courtesy of the author

Pauline's book bio

These last few months have been pretty hectic on the writing front for several reasons, I’m busy trying to market my three published books, which is fun, but also very time consuming. I also run the exciting group Famous Five Plus and In between this, I settle down to write my new book.

I confess to starting a new book and reaching 23,000 words then it stalled. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get beyond a certain point, so I decided to put this WIP to one side for the moment. But fortunately all was not lost, another idea quickly manifested in my head and before I knew it, I had characters already talking to me. And though this may sound ridiculous, I already feel like they are real people who want to tell me their story!

As yet my WIP does not have a title, but my novel is set in the 1960s in the north of England and is an emotional tale of three families. The women from two of the families work part time in a wool mill. I have being researching about the working conditions in those noisy and often dangerous places and have come across some amazing people in doing so and learnt a lot too! Though the story is not about the mills, the areas I cover in the book I want to be as accurate as possible so that the reader feels they are there too. Importantly I want the reader to walk at the side of my characters, feel their love, share their hopes and dreams and when things don’t go to plan, understand their pain.

There is no date for the release of book four, but it is planned that it will be published in 2012. As soon as a date is confirmed, I will let you all know.

If you are interested in reading any of my three published novels: Satchfield Hall, Magnolia House & Sometimes It Happens… please visit my web site www.paulinebarclay.co.uk  where you can read sample chapters or visit any Amazon site, they are all there!

A big thank you, Carol for inviting me to your wonderful blog and thank you all to you lovely visitors for stopping by.

www.paulinebarclay.co.uk

http://paulinembarclay.blogspot.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/paulinembarclay

Twitter: @paulinembarclay

Clockwise Blog Tour Details

From now until April 6th, we will be touring for Elle Strauss' novel, Clockwise. Below, you'll find more information on the book, along with the tour dates and stops. Not only is this a wonderful book, but this tour has a unique spin that I think everyone will love. Every person that follows three easy steps (explained below) will receive a FREE copy of the sequel to Clockwise, which is called Clockwiser.

First, here is a look at how the tour is set up.

Monday, March 26 - Tour Details @ Missy's Reads & Reviews
Tuesday, March 27 - Review @ May-Day's Daze
Wednesday, March 28 - Review @ Crazed Bookie
Thursday, March 29 -Review @ Dead Trees and Silver Screens
Friday, March 30 - Review @ Book Briefs
Saturday, March 31 - Review @ To Read or Not To Read
Sunday, April 1 - Review @ Chocolate Coffee BooksMonday, April 2 - Review @ Bookworm1858 & A Word's Worth
Tuesday, April 3 - Review @ Rondo of a Possible World
Wednesday, April 4 - Review @ Missy's Reads & Reviews
Thursday, April 5 -Review @ 21st Century Once Upon A Time
Friday, April 6 - Review @ Curse of the Bibliophile

This tour focuses mostly on Clockwise itself, so there will be a lot of reviews during the tour.

Now, would you like to know how to get a FREE copy of Clockwiser during the tour? There are three very simple steps to follow:

1. "Like" Elle Strauss on Facebook. You can find her Facebook page here.
2. Once you do that, leave a comment on one of the blog tour stops above.
3. Be sure to leave your e-mail address so we can send a copy right to you after the tour!

Easy, right?

Now, a little information on the books!

Casey Donovan has issues: hair, height and uncontrollable trips to the 19th century! And now this --she’s accidentally taken Nate Mackenzie, the cutest boy in the school, back in time. Awkward.

Protocol pressures her to tell their 1860 hosts that he is her brother and when Casey finds she has a handsome, wealthy (and unwanted) suitor, something changes in Nate. Are those romantic sparks or is it just “brotherly” protectiveness?

When they return to the present, things go back to the way they were before: Casey parked on the bottom of the rung of the social ladder and Nate perched high on the very the top. Except this time her heart is broken. Plus, her best friend is mad, her parents are split up, and her younger brother gets escorted home by the police. The only thing that could make life worse is if, by some strange twist of fate, she took Nate back to the past again.

Which of course, she does.

The last year has been smooth sailing for Casey Donovan. She and her boyfriend Nate are doing better than ever, and things at home are good, too. Everything’s been so calm, she hasn’t even “tripped” back to the nineteenth century.

Then the unthinkable happens and she accidentally takes her rebellious brother Tim back in time. It’s 1862 with the Civil War brewing, and for Tim this spells adventure and excitement. Finding himself stuck in the past, he enlists in the Union army, but it doesn’t take long before he discovers real life war is no fun and games.

Casey and Nate race against the clock to find Tim, but the strain wears on their relationship. It doesn’t help that the intriguing new boy next door has his sights on Casey, and isn’t shy to let her know it.

Can Nate and Casey find Tim in time to save him? And is it too late to save their love?

Blog Tour: Q&A with authors Carlyle Clark & Suki Michelle

Today I have authors Carlyle Clark and Suki Michelle on the blog answering some questions about themselves and their book, The Apocalypse Gene.

What are some of your favorite books?

We both love The Poisonwood Bible. A few other favorites Carlyle’s favorites are The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, and Burning Angel by James Lee Burke and Suki loves everything by Stephen King, except for The Long Walk because it was too heart-breaking for her to bear.

How is writing with another author different from writing a story on your own?
It really helped us create an unpredictable story. So far no has said that they were able to guess what was going to happen next. And we also had complementary skill sets so it was relaxing to know that the other person was there to keep us from making mistakes outside of our comfort zone and that freed up both of our creativity.

What attracts you to the Dystopian genre?
Weirdly, we didn’t even know there was such a thing as the Dystopian genre. We were halfway through our book before we even heard of The Hunger Games. In fact, ours is only a sideways Dystopian, in that most take place post-apocalyptic while ours takes place mid-apocalyptic. Anyway, as I said we didn’t know there was such a thing, Suki just got a startling original take on a Pandemic, and we determined the story needed to be told after the disease had done some serious ravaging, but before a total Apocalypse.

If you weren't writing, what would you be doing?
I would be doing stand-up comedy and Suki would be painting, knitting, and riding horses.

If one day you woke up to discover everything in your book was coming true and only you had the power to change it by rewriting the story, would you? How would it be different?
Absolutely, we vastly prefer our world Pandemic-free. That’s a really tough question with a mid-apocalytic book. Guess we would have to try to write a pre-apocalypse story and a race to stop it.

Review - The Music in her Mind - Robert Gilkes

• 
  
• Publisher: Winged Lion Books (Mar 2012)
• ISBN-13: 978-0957095205

Kindle ASIN: B007NMEKFO

Photo Courtesy of publisher/agent

The Blurb

A historical novel set between 1939 and 1950, the Second World War and Stalins forced marches to Siberian labour camps. It is the story of a French Cellist and the love affair which kept her alive through the terrors of this time. 

  

Lara, a cellist and Alex's story begins before the war, when they meet in Paris and fall in love.  

During the last days of the  war Alex has to accept the surrender of Lara and her father and many more Cossacks.  They are reunited in these horrific circumstances at a POW camp.

Can Alex protect his love and her father from the same fate that the other prisoners face or will they be handed over to the Russians?

Alex is caught up in the double agent, double dealings and he has to make decisions to try to secure the release of Lara and her father.  The dramatic and sometimes unthinkable tension surrounding Lara's fate takes the reader right up until the last chapter.

I have read many WW2 historical romances, but none as passionate and at the same time so traumatic.  This beautiful love story is set in the most horrific of settings during WW2 - the labour camps. 

Robert Gilkes certainly knows how to write a passionate love story.

4 out of 5 for me!  I really enjoyed it!

Review copy

Guest Author - Robert Gilkes

Today I have the honour and pleasure of introducing Robert Gilkes, Author of The Music in her Mind

Photos courtesy of the publisher

Ever since I was a boy of ten years old I wanted to write: at that age, in between wanting to explore the Hadramaut in the desert of the Yemen and to become a Jesuit monk, I wrote short stories and poetry.  All I can remember from those efforts was using and re-using an image of the winter branches of a tree combing the winds.  In my Grammar school in Wales this interest was channeled into essays for History and English.  These efforts that were so 'literary' that on one occasion they earned zero out ten, with the schoolmaster announcing to the class that he could not make head not tail of what I was on about.  A couple of incidents like that were enough to persuade me to use my imagination to create fiction, not history essays.  This passion for words, for the beauty of communication, of sharing has grown with me through three score years and ten.

In my business life, words were also a crucial tool.  After three years at Oxford and two at Cambridge I began working in Botswana, in southern Africa, for what was by then the rump of the former British Colonial Office, first as a District Officer in Ngamiland around the Okavango Swamp and then as District Commissioner for the Kalahari desert.  A lot of my time was spent preparing remote tribes for Independence from the UK.  I did not last long in the Kalahari where the people were Bushmen and Hottentots, who were, to my batchelor eyes, not a fair exchange for the Swinging Sixties girls of Kensington.

I then became an early IBM computer salesman when the first computers were being installed.  Four or five years later I told my closest friend that I would one day write a novel; it took another twenty years to arrive.  In the interim years I became CEO of a series of high-technology companies, coming to specialise in turning around failing companies to re-launch them, often into new markets.  The fascinating part of this was the combination of building new teams and constructing a focusing mission - a blend of listening to understand and communicating to lead - words, words, words.

  

When I look at the structure of the stories I write, I can see that the communication is very visual, almost 'filmic' to use an ugly word, a series of interconnected images of the characters interacting with the physical world around them.  Perhaps for that reason the first book, CROFT, was twice optioned by Hollywood producers, but nothing came of this.

Passion - for life, love

THE MUSIC IN HER MIND is fiction based on a real event.  Many years ago I came across 'The Minister and the Massacres' by Nikolai Tolstoy.  It is the history of a shameful event at the end of the second World War when tens of thousands of Cossack soldiers, their families and children surrendered to the British Army and camped by the River Drau.  Acting under orders that were said to come indirectly from Harold Macmillan, the British brutally dispatched them in railway cattle trucks (just as the Nazis did with the Jews) to Stalin's KGB.  Hundreds were immediately executed by the KGB and the rest sent on a forced march, thousands of miles to Siberian labour camps.

Unlike most modern novels where there is often a clear-cut positive or negative resolution, I see love as part of a living journey of emotion which evolves much as landscape changes through the window of a moving train.  What is past is not lost; it remains forever in your experience, but out of sight.  Anya, the cellist in THE MUSIC IN HER MIND, has the remarkable gift of remembering in her mind every piece of music she has ever played.

The MUSIC IN HER MIND is in part the story of how a beautiful young cellist lives through this tragedy.  Yet it is not a sad story.  A theme in both CROFT and in this new novel is how love can become a power for great good, enabling the lover to face and survive terrible evil and the threat of death.  For some, love is the hint that some form of god may exist.

Kindle - Romance freebie (for limited time)

Knox Publishing have announced that........

Photo courtesy of publisher

'Vengeance  Thwarted', the first novel in Prue Phillipson's Restoration trilogy 'The Hordens of Horden Hall', will be available as a free download in the Amazon Kindle store today and Saturday.


 Here is the book blurb:


 What if the one you love is also the one you are sworn to kill?

 Northumberland, 1640. Arabella 'Bel' Horden is a mischievous,  pugnacious thirteen-year-old. The youngest daughter of a Northumbrian  squire and magistrate, she is wracked by guilt after a careless haystack 
 fire leads to the wrongful hanging of an English army deserter. Sent to  boarding school in Yorkshire after another unbecoming act of  disobedience, Bel blossoms into a beautiful and quick-witted young 
 woman. Nathaniel 'Nat' Wilson is ill with fever when his twin brother,  Daniel, is falsely accused and hung for the fire started by Bel.  Accursed by his mother for the tragedy, he is reluctantly sworn to  vengeance against the Horden family. A peace-loving boy, Nat temporarily  escapes his mother's maddened demands through pursuit of his studies in  Cambridge. Years after the violence that first juxtaposed their lives,  Bel and Nat's paths finally cross when Nat arrives in Northumberland to  discover what he can of the Horden family and their role in his  brother's unfortunate death. As a second Scots invasion sends the land  into chaos, will love triumph as vengeance is thwarted?
 
 Amazon.com - 
http://www.amazon.com/Vengeance-Thwarted-ebook/dp/B00557T7VG/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&qid=1332408739&sr=8-19
 
 Amazon.co.uk - 
 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vengeance-Thwarted-ebook/dp/B00557T7VG/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1332408787&sr=8-16

Versatile Blogger Award

Thank you to the lovely Kate at Me My Books and I for giving me this award

The rules of the award are:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award (done)

2. Share seven things about yourself (see below)

3. Send it on to fifteen other bloggers that you really like and let them know you have awarded it to them (see below)

Seven things about myself:

1. I am left-handed, and thumb through magazines, books etc from the back to the front.
2. Favourite flower scent is freesia. Reminds me of family weddings, as a child, when I was bridesmaid.
3. I do not like nuts, but do enjoy praline chocolate
4. I cannot swim.  I did not want my children to be like me and so I took a part time job to pay for swimming lessons for them when they were 5 and 3 years old. Little one will start swimming this year.
5. I try to beat my daughter's Just Dance high scores when no-one else is around.  They would never catch me actually dancing with the Wii.
6. I am a nightmare at remembering folks names.  When introduced to someone new, I put all my thoughts into working them out and forget to make a mental note of their name.
7. I met my husband to be in 2005 but we did not have a first date until 2006.  (We met New Year's Eve)

I would like to award The Versatile Blogger Award to all my blog followers.

We have a great community and all share the credit for it.  Please take this award and pass it on.

DizzyC

W.I.P. Wednesday - 21st March

Today's WIP Wednesday is featuring Chicki Brown.

Thank you, Chicki for joining me today.

Photo courtesy of the author

Chicki Brown is an author I met on the fabulous Facebook group Post ChickLit Book Group. 
(What do you mean, you are not a member, yet!It is for readers and authors who love women's fiction for those who remember the 80's fashions the 1st time around)


Over to you, Chicki.......

The idea for my new WIP, Ain’t Too Proud to Beg came from readers that had contacted me saying they loved Vaughn Breland, a secondary character in Hollywood Swinging. Vaughn is a gorgeous, fast living, wisecracking actor who has sworn to remain eternally single. He is never at a loss for female companionship and his love life is so extreme, even his best friend wonders if Vaughn is a sex addict.

When starting this story, I knew I would have to knock Vaughn down a few pegs in order for him to begin to see women as more than conquests, but I didn’t want this to be a Hollywood story. With that in mind, I decided to have the sexy Mr. Breland demolish his $250,000 Lamborghini on the way to a meeting at the Telluride, Colorado vacation home of a movie industry bigwig. When the story opens, Vaughn has lost his beloved car, his latest movie role, the use of his legs and possibly his fabulous good looks. He is depressed and mad at the world, then he meets Trenyce, his new physical therapist. Trenyce, a single mother on a beautiful three-year-old, gives him a new outlook on life.

Currently I am only 11,500 words into this manuscript and hope to have the first draft done by the end of May. With rewrites, my editor’s revisions. a beta read from my critique partner and more revisions, it looks as if Ain’t Too Proud to Beg will have an August or September release.

Website:  http://www.chicki663.webs.com
Blog: http://sisterscribbler.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/@Chicki663
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/chicki.brown

NEW LAYOUT! folks, please let me know what you think. Is it easier to read?

Mothering Sunday - Guest Author - Amanda Egan

It is Mothering Sunday here in the UK

Happy Mother's Day to all mums and special thoughts for those of you who are missing your mum.

Today, Amanda Egan - Mummy Misfit author explains the meaning of MUM

MUMS

The Oxford English Dictionary tells us that the definition of the word ‘mother’ is:

Noun - a woman in relation to a child or children to whom she has given birth.

Sounds so simple doesn’t it?

And yet we all know that there’s a whole lot more to it than that.  Being a mum is a lifetime commitment.  I’m 48, my mum is 84 and I still need her in my life.  My son is 16 and it’s still me he comes to when things are tough or he’s not feeling well.  It’s Dad for maths homework and killing zombies on the Playstation.

As our mothers get older our relationships change - the edges begin to blur.  Who’s caring for whom?  It’s tricky.  She’s still our mum but the balance changes as we begin to take on more of the duties that would usually fall to her - the cherishing and the nurturing.

And I truly cherish every minute I spend with my mum.  She may drive me mad with her constant requests to order trousers from M&S (which will then be returned) or moaning about next door’s cat, but she’s my mum and it’s all part and parcel of her.  I’m sure she gets fed up with me too - keeping her updated with book sales or conversations I’ve had on Twitter - but that’s what a friendship is all about.

Because she is my friend.  If something exciting happens, she’s the first person I’ll pick up the phone to.  If I’m fed up, I’ll offload to her.  She doesn’t live with me but at the end of every day we share a glass of wine and a catch-up.

And why do I see her every day?  Firstly because I want to but also because she’s lonely.  Her husband, all of her friends and both of her sisters have passed away - the downside of being a healthy octogenarian, you get left alone.  I reorganise my days to make sure that I can be with her for at least a few hours.  Because if I didn’t, she wouldn’t see a living soul from one day to the next.

I know that there are many elderly people who lead solitary lives but I’m in a position to make sure that my mum doesn’t have to.  Why would I not?

I also know that there are lots of activities for pensioners to take part in but she doesn’t want to and I accept that.  Bingo and day-trips aren’t for everyone.  We are not all the same. I’d like to think that I’ll make it to 84 and be active and sociable but none of us know, do we?

If I’m not, I’d like to know I had a friend - some company.

So I’ll continue to be there for my mum, to be her support and just generally to thank her for doing a great job of the hardest profession in the world.

Motherhood.

So this mother’s day and every day, treat your mum to the love she deserves.

Amanda Egan is the author of two novels “Diary of a Mummy Misfit” and “The Darker Side of Mummy Misfit” available on Kindle at Amazon and in paperback at Lulu.

She can be followed on Twitter @mummy_misfit

Her Wednesday blog can be found at Diary of a Mummy Misfit Blogspot

She is currently editing her 3^rd novel - unrelated to the Misfit books.

Review - The Darker Side of Mummy Misfit - Amanda Egan

• Format: Kindle Edition
• Publisher: Amanda Egan (13 Dec 2011)
• ASIN: B006M483JI

The blurb

THE SEQUEL TO 'DIARY OF A MUMMY MISFIT'

Think you knew Mummy Misfit?

Well, you might be in for a surprise.

After a year of struggling with school fees, trying to become pregnant and feeling like she didn’t belong amongst the prep-school ‘Meemies’, Libby is back.

Only this time, she’s got it all.

But how long can it last and will she ever be truly happy?


Libby is back for another look into her diary.

Libby and her family are no longer having to make ends meet as they have money.  But does money buy happiness?  Libby is finding it difficult to shake her penny pinching ways and there are more problems for Libby on the way.

Best friend Nic and his civil partner are taking their partnership to the next level and are blissfully happy.

Pritesh has a new love interest which is a complete surprise and is sure to bring some excitement to the school gate gossip.

A couple of new mummies arrive in the playground and the playground 'click' soon get their claws into them.  Will they survive?

With a new school year, the CCL committee, playground mummies to deal with and a baby on the way, Libby has plenty to write about in her diary.

Not for those who are offended by the use of colourful language, Libby not only has her say with her own brand of humour but she deals with some very real and challenging parenting and relationship issues.

Amanda Egan has written a sequel to Mummy Misfit diaries that is even better!

I found this follow up more emotional and filled with grittier issues.

4.5 out of 5 for me!  I loved it!

Review - Recipes for Disaster - Sheryl Browne

• Format: Kindle Edition
• Publisher: Safkhet Soul; 1 edition (24 Jan 2012)
• ASIN: B0071PNTPU
• 
  

The blurb

She's a single. He's a widower. She wants him. He wants her. She wants to impress. So does he. There's just one catch – she can't cook. To get him, she needs to get past the big fish – his mother. Lucky her, she's got an Ace up her sleeve and all she's got to do is impress this one time. Bad luck, though, her new guy can't cook either, her dog Rambo is on the loose and now they've got to pull off the big lunch at the club. Will it be a match made in heaven? Will they be able to pull off a culinary miracle? Will their combined efforts result in love at first bite? Or is it simply a Recipe for Disaster?

Lisa has a new boyfriend, Adam, a police officer.  Adam comes with an over-protective mother who cannot remember Lisa's name. Well she cannot compare to Adam's late wife Melissa,  who was an excellant cook.


Adam and his mother believe Lisa is a great cook after a misunderstanding. Lisa believes she needs to keep up the charade to compare with Adam's great cooking skills and those of his late wife. Adam doesn't want Lisa to know he cannot cook to her standards.  A recipe for disaster!


Lisa agrees to cater for the Golf club function to impress Adam's mother or is that Adam?   Can she pull it off?  Maybe with the help of best friend, Becky, who seems to be distracted by a rather delicious photographer!


An unusual recipe book with a hot and steamy rom com in between the recipes.
All the recipes are clearly laid out with full instructions. Measurements are in cups, measuring cups can be bought in the shops.
I laughed out loud and had the family thinking I was losing the plot!


4.5 out of 5 for me.  I loved it! 

Romance on kindle - Free for limited period

Knox Publishing are offering this novel free on Amazon from today for 2 days.  Grab it while you can!

Photo courtesy of Knox Publishing

• Format: Kindle Edition
• Publisher: Knox Robinson Publishing (6 Mar 2012)
• ASIN: B007I8RSXO

1898 Yorkshire - Aurora Pettigrew has it all, a loving family, a nice home, a comfortable life. She’s waiting for the right man to offer her marriage, and the man for her is Reid Sinclair, heir to the Sinclair fortune and the love of her life.

But, Reid’s mother, Julia, is against the match and her ruthlessness unearths a family secret that will tear Aurora’s world apart.

Unwilling to bring shame on her family and needing answers to the allegations brought to light by Reid’s mother, Aurora begins a long journey away from home. She leaves behind all that is familiar and safe to enter a world of mean streets and poor working class.

Living in the tenements of York, surrounded by people of a class she’d never mixed with before, Aurora struggles to come to terms with the way her life has changed. By chance, she reconnects with a man from her past and before he leaves with the army to war in South Africa, he offers her security through marriage.

Aurora knows she should be happy, but the memory of her love for Reid threatens her future.

When tragedy strikes, can Aurora find the strength to accept her life and forget the past?

Calling Historical Fiction Fans

I found a link to this on a couple of  historical fiction blogs I follow (Reading the Past, Historical Tapestry),

Mary Tod, historical fiction writer, has put together a survey to find out what readers are reading and what they want.

Please follow the link to help Mary
 Historical Fiction Survey

You can find out more about Mary Tod here


carol