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    2010 Snippets - what's out next year?

    Posted on Saturday, October 17th, 2009 by Chloe

    We’ve already managed to post a lot of 2010 releases already, and you can see a constantly updated calendar of all the expected books on our dedicated Release Dates Page whenever you fancy. More and more books are being listed for release in 2010, and here are some of the latest ones we’ve found (all titles and release dates are subject to change):

    Adele Parks is back in July 2010 with her next book Men I’ve Loved Before. No synopsis is available yet but it’s due out on 24th July 2010.

    The brilliant Martina Reilly has her next book A Moment Like Forever due out October 7th 2010 which is almost a whole year away! When the synopsis and cover are available, we’ll post them.

    Jo Rees is back next year with her second book Forbidden Pleasures. I loved her first book Platinum, and can’t wait for this next book which is due out 13th May 2010.

    I recently read and loved Nina Bell‘s book Sisters In Law, and she already has her next book up on Amazon. Lovers and Liars is due out on 16th September 2010.

    Elizabeth Buchan has her next book The Book of Hours out on 4th March 2010, but no synopsis yet.

    There are also confirmed releases of books by Wendy Holden, Katie Fforde, Kirsty Crawford, Cally Taylor, Annie Sanders, Alexandra Potter, Lisa Jewell, Louise Bagshawe, and Katy Regan which are all untitled as of yet, but we’ll let you know the titles as soon as we do!

    For all our other 2010 release posts, see our Release Dates page which has links to posts about the individual books including synopsis info and covers where possible. You can also click the ‘2010 releases‘ tag at the bottom of each post which will bring up all the 2010 release posts.

    What books are you looking forward to in 2010?

    Posted in 2010 releases | 3 Comments »

    Book Review: Checkout by Anna Sam

    Posted on Saturday, October 17th, 2009 by Leah

    anna sam checkout life on the tillsCheckout: A Life on the Tills is the memoir of Anna Sam, who worked in a French supermarket for 8 years.

    After a while she decided to start a blog telling people about her working days as a check-out girl. (You can see her blog here, it’s in French though: http://caissierenofutur.over-blog.com/).

    She gained quite a following and ended up with a book deal. Enter: Checkout: A Life on the Tills.

    (more…)

    Posted in 2009 Releases, Book Reviews, Rating: 4/5 | 1 Comment »

    Book Review: I Remember You by Harriet Evans

    Posted on Friday, October 16th, 2009 by Leah

    harriet evans i remember you new2Tess Tennant and Adam Smith have known each other since birth. They grew up together as best friends and everyone in Langford expected them to end up together. Until one day, Adam’s mother Philippa drops dead. Tess goes off to London whilst Adam remains in Langford working in a pub.

    Years later though Tess returns but her friendship with Adam is completely different to how it was. It all comes to a head when Tess takes a class trip to Rome and by the time Tess returns, Adam has gone.

    What went on between Adam and Tess to cause their friendship to fall so dramatically?

    (more…)

    Posted in 2009 Releases, Book News, Rating: 1/5 | 7 Comments »

    Read the first chapter of The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes

    Posted on Friday, October 16th, 2009 by Chloe

    If you can’t wait until the 30th October for the release of Marian Keyes’ latest book The Brightest Star in the Sky, you can have a little read now courtesy of Penguin Tasters. The first chapter is available in PDF format so you need Adobe Acrobat to read it but it’s well worth it from what I’ve read. Have a read then come back and let us know what you think of the sneak peek!

    Read the first chapter of Marian Keyes’ The Brightest Star in the Sky

    Direct link: http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/downloadextracts/PT_Brightest_Star.pdf

    Posted in Book Extract | No Comments »

    Cally Taylor Guest Post: On The Road to Writing

    Posted on Friday, October 16th, 2009 by Leah

    callytaylor5Cally Taylor mentioned on her blog a while ago that she would love to do a virtual blog tour to coincide with the release of her debut novel Heaven Can Wait. We jumped at the chance to be part of that tour and we’re pleased to announce we are the first stop. You can read Cally’s blog here: Writing About Writing. Now I’ll hand over to Cally who is going to tell you all just what it was like to become a published author.

    A lot of my childhood memories are hazy but one thing I do remember very clearly is learning to read; the big, bold text and brightly coloured illustrations in the Peter and Jane books I read with my parents are still clear in my mind and if I close my eyes tightly I’m instantly transported into the magical world of Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree. As a child I thought authors were magicians – how else could they create such vivid images and adventures in my head? – and I desperately wanted to be one.

    When I was eight I wrote a ‘book’ called The Evil Weed about…well…an evil weed who bullied a group of flower friends. They got their revenge on him by pouring tar onto a road and getting him stuck. By the end of the story he was very repentant, wanted to be their friend and they all lived happily ever after. After I’d finished writing my story I drew ‘illustrations’ on the back of each page, hole-punched the whole lot, bound it with wool and sent it off to Penguin Publishers. I was convinced it was the best story ever and was a bit shocked when, two months letter, my first ever rejection letter dropped through my letterbox.Heaven MMP CS12.indd

    I had a couple of false starts with novels before I wrote “Heaven Can Wait”. I started one – a story about a man who questions what ‘sane’ is when a friend of his ends up in a psychiatric unit - when I lived in London in my twenties but ditched it after about 5,000 words (I’d never been in a psychiatric unit so had no idea what I was on about!) I started another one in my early thirties – about a young girl, sent off to boarding school after her OCD-suffering mum kills herself (I blame my Psychology degree for my obsession with mental illness!) – but abandoned that too, this time after 50,000 words.

    I’ll finish a novel one day, I told myself. There’s plenty of time.

    In the summer of 2006 I realised that wasn’t always true. One of my best friends from school died suddenly and unexpectedly and her death made me re-evaluate my life. Becoming a published author was my dream and if I didn’t write my novel no one else would. In early 2007 I started to write the novel that was to become “Heaven Can Wait”. I wrote nearly every night, driven to actually finish this time, and three months and three weeks later I completed the first draft. The sense of accomplishment I felt was huge. I’d done it! I’d actually written a novel!

    But now what?

    I had no idea if anyone would actually want to publish a supernatural romantic-comedy about a woman who dies the night before her wedding and tries to come back as a ghost (I certainly hadn’t seen anything like it on the tables in Waterstones!) so I came up with a plan - I’d send it off to a few agents and, if no one wanted it, I’d self-publish and donate the copies to charity shops so that maybe someone, somewhere, might pull it off the shelf and read it. That, I realised, was what I wanted more than anything else - to give someone else the same pleasure and escapism books had always given me.

    I was extraordinarily lucky. The second agent I approached showed an interest and, about eighteen months after I finished the first draft, I signed with Madeleine Buston at the Darley Anderson Literary Agency. In October 2008 Maddie told me she’d secured a two book deal with Orion (publishers of Ian Rankin, Maeve Binchey and Kate Harrison). I couldn’t believe it! People were actually going to read my book! For weeks after I signed the contract I’d have a small heart attack whenever I received an email from my agent or editor – I kept expecting them to tell me that, actually, they’d made a mistake and I wasn’t going to be published after all.

    I won’t believe it’s really happening until I can hold a copy of my book in my hands, I told myself over and over again. Not until then.meandmybook

    On Thursday 1st October 2009 my doorbell rang. I hurried down the stairs, expecting to find the gasman or a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses behind the front door. Instead a delivery man greeted me with a smile and handed me a huge parcel. I can’t remember ordering something this massive from Amazon I thought as I signed for it then carried it up the stairs to the living room. It was only when I realised it wasn’t an Amazon box that the penny dropped. I held my breath as I opened it and peered inside. My book! Twenty-five copies of my book…with a beautiful, beautiful cover, the title in a gorgeous, gold curly font and… my words inside.

    I went onto Twitter and shared my delight with my online friends.

    “I’ve wanted to be an author since I was EIGHT YEARS OLD,” I typed. “And now I am.”

    And then I started to cry.

    Posted in Author Article, Blog Tour | 6 Comments »

    Book News: The Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman

    Posted on Friday, October 16th, 2009 by Chloe

    ann pearlman the cookie clubAnn Pearlman’s debut fiction novel, The Cookie Club, is due out on 7th January 2010 and follows her Pulitzer-prize nominated non-fiction memoir Infidelity. The Cookie Club is her first fictional novel, and has been released in the US under the title of The Christmas Cookie Club, but as it’s not due out here until after Christmas, it’s been retitled. I love the sound of it, and fans of Kate Jacobs “Friday Night Knitting Club” will like this too! Here’s the synopsis:

    On the first Monday of December, every year, twelve friends gather in the evening with batches of homemade cookies wrapped in beautiful packages. They drink wine, they eat and they take turns telling the story of the cookies they have baked.

    Somehow these stories are always emblematic of the year that has just passed, as complicated and rich as our own lives. Lives full of sisterly love and conflict, yearning for babies and grandchildren, passion and disillusionment with men, a secret decade long affair, the loss of a job, the death of a child …

    These women are as imperfect as real women, made heroic by their ability to resolve conflict, to endure and support each other. The Cookie Club is as involving, heartwarming and uplifting a story as you’ll ever read.

    Posted in 2010 releases, Book News | No Comments »

    Book Review: Coming Home by Patricia Scanlan

    Posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 by Chloe

    ** Read our exclusive interview with Patricia Scanlan here **

    patricia scanlan coming homeAlison Dunwoody thought she had it all - a great job, good salary and a great life in New York City. But when the recession hits, Alison is shocked to find that she’s lost her job. She’s too embarassed to tell her family, and instead decides to fly home to Ireland and have Christmas with her parents, sister and 3 gorgeous nieces.

    Alison loves the feeling of being back home, but misses her new friend Jack from New York - he knows about her job loss and she can confide in him. Will Alison be able to keep her secret away from her family for her holiday? Or is Coming Home exactly what Alison needs to make her feel happy again?

    (more…)

    Posted in 2009 Releases, Book Reviews, Rating: 5/5 | No Comments »

    Author of the Week: Alison Kervin

    Posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 by Leah

    alisonkervinAlison Kervin is a relatively new author, with only three books to her name, but she’s already a favourite of mine. She introduced us to the WAGtastic Tracie Martin (of The WAGs Diary and A WAG Abroad), who could give Rebecca Bloomwood a run for her money regarding how dippy she is. Alison also introduced us to the loveable Kelly Monsoon in Celebrity Bride. You can see my review of Celebrity Bride here.

    As well as writing fiction, Alison also writes non-fiction biographies and used to be the Chief Sports Interviewer for The Daily Telegraph. Alison has also written for numerous other newspapers and publications and even won the 2006 Sports Journalist of the Year award for her interviews in The Daily Telegraph. To learn more about Alison, visit her website.

    As I said before, Tracie Martin is one of the most enjoyable characters in chick lit. Yes she’s dippy and very WAGtastic but she’s also incredibly likeable. She features in both A WAGs Diary and A WAG Abroad, both of which I adored. Alison said in her interview with us that she’d love to bring Tracie back for a final book so here’s hoping. Alison’s latest book, Celebrity Bride, featured the fab Kelly Monsoon who will also be coming back for a second book due for release on 24th June next year. Alison mentioned in an email it was tentatively titled Hollywood Royalty and I’m already excited for it. I’d wholly recommend new readers to Alison start with A WAGs Diary. I was hooked immediately and plan to re-read it soon.

    alison kervin the wags diaryalison kervin a wag abroadalison kervin celebrity bride

    Posted in Author of the Week | 10 Comments »

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