Archive for January, 2011

Jemima Hutton is a talented jewellery designer with a dark past, but after being dumped by her only buyer, she has no idea how she’s going to carry on making money. Until she walks into Ben Davies’ guitar shop and her offers to carry her belt buckles as long as they sell.

Jemima is intrigued by Ben, who shies away from people, and when she learns he was once part of uber-successful band Willow Down, she can’t help but wonder why he quit in the middle of their American tour. But if Jemima wants Ben to open up to her, she’s going to have to open up about her secrets, too. As they tiptoe around each other, could they finally have each met someone they’re able to fully open up to or will it be over before it’s even begun?
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This week sees the publication of Jessica Ruston’s second novel To Touch The Stars, and as well as hosting an exclusive extract from the book, and a review later in the week, we’ve also been lucky enough for Jessica to write us a piece for the website called “A Writer’s Week”! It’s a great read, and we hope you enjoy it! Our thanks go to Jessica for taking the time to write this for us.

“One of the best things about writing for a living is that every week is different. But, to give you a taster of what it’s like, here’s a sample peek at what my diary might look like when I’m publishing a new novel.

Sunday

Prepare for the week ahead. Make a CD of music to take on a local community radio show I’m appearing on in the morning. Check that I have my Sat Nav and the address of the school where it’s broadcast. I also write a couple of feature pitches to send to off editors the next day. In the afternoon, I check in on my student forum – I’m teaching an online novel writing course – reply to some queries, and send off their marked homework assignments from last week. Then I catch up on the week’s tv on my laptop – The Good Wife, One Born Every Minute and My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding are all faves.

Monday

Appearance on the radio show is postponed at the last minute, so I have a free morning. Write a few thousand words of my work in progress (novel #3, which is currently untitled) and then go to the gym. In the afternoon it’s a bit of admin – double-checking that my tax payment all went through ok and filing receipts. In the evening, I meet up with my agent for a quick drink and a catch up, before going with him to a ‘media night’ held by my publishers. This is where they gather a group of their authors and a selection of magazine and newspaper journalists together for drinks. They’re a great idea – it’s a relaxed and fun way to meet the people who might review your book or commission a feature, and I spend the evening chatting with editors about my latest novel and what I’m working on next over a few drinks.

Tuesday

Up early to work on the novel – I write best when I get a good chunk done first thing in the morning, before I’m properly awake, so I creep out of my bedroom at about half five to get my three thousand word target done before anyone else is awake. It takes me a bit longer than usual today, as I didn’t get to bed until quite late, wired from the drinks party. I’m also doing a short journalism correspondence course at the moment, so in the afternoon I read over the course notes and do the homework assignment for that.

Wednesday

Day before publication so, after my morning words are written, I spend quite a lot of time obsessively checking Amazon to see if people are ordering my book. Eventually I drag myself away to the gym and run some errands as a distraction. I spend the afternoon doing research – reading and talking to a couple of friends who are helping me – for novel 3, which gives me lots of new ideas.

Thursday

Publication day – very exciting. The morning is spent writing, then racing around making sure everything is ready for the drinks party I’m having later. A few people phone to check the address or say they can’t come after all while I’m in the hairdresser. I meet my publicist at the venue a little before the start time to sign some copies of my book and make sure the room is set up ok. She’s done a brilliant job putting blown-up images of the cover on large cards around the room.

Friday

No words this morning as I only got an hour or so’s sleep following the party – it’s always the same, I get overexcited and then can’t switch off! It was a fabulous night, and I feel very lucky to have so many great friends, both in publishing and not, to support me. Spend the day on a bit of an exhausted high, answering emails, chatting on Twitter (I’m addicted!) and gossiping with friends about the night’s events, and doing some reading.

Saturday

Write early – I’m keen to get back into the swing of it after publication day excitement, and then do an email interview for a blog. Write a couple of feature pitches, and do some work on a TV idea that I’m developing. Have an email conversation about a radio proposal that I’ve been working on, with a great writer who is mentoring me in this field. Manage to get to a yoga class in the afternoon, before updating my website with some photos from the launch party, and then going out for dinner with my husband in the evening. Lovely end to a busy week!”

Thank you Jessica!

Lucy Diamond is back this summer with her brand new book The Beach Cafe, and it sounds like a brilliant read! It’s out on June 17th so we’ve got a bit of a wait, but I know it’ll be worth it. I love the gorgeous blue cover, it’s very eye-catching and screams summer to me! Here’s the synopsis:

“Evie Flynn has always been the black sheep of her family - a dreamer and a drifter, unlike her over-achieving elder sisters. She’s tried making a name for herself as an actress, a photographer and a singer, but nothing has ever worked out. Now she’s stuck in temp hell, with a sensible, pension-planning boyfriend. Somehow life seems to be passing her by.

February is a pretty good month for new book releases here in the United States and though I may be a bit late this year I’m going to start highlighting them each month. Another thing that I’ve learned over time is that in the US books generally come out in Hardback first and then Paperback. Because of this and because many of our readers would rather read the paperback version I thought I’d share two sections so that you know what to look for when you head out to your local bookstore.

Let me know what you think and if there are any changes or additions you’d like me to make and I’ll keep you posted. So, without further hesitation, February’s US book releases…

Hardback
The Other Life by Ellen Meister - February 17, 2026
If you could return to the road not taken, would you?

Happily married and pregnant, Quinn Braverman has an ominous secret. Every time she makes a major life decision, she knows an alternate reality exists in which she made the opposite choice-not only that, she knows how to cross over. But even in her darkest moments-like her mother’s suicide-Quinn hasn’t been tempted to slip through…until she receives devastating news about the baby she’s carrying.

The grief lures her to peek across the portal, and before she knows it she’s in the midst of the other life: the life in which she married another man, and is childless. The life in which her mother is still very much alive.

Quinn is forced to make a heartbreaking choice. Will she stay with the family she loves and her severely disabled child? Or will an easier life-and the primal need to be with her mother-win out?

I Think I Love You by Allison Pearson - February 08, 2026
1974, Wales. Thirteen-year-old Petra and her best friend, Sharon, are in love with David Cassidy and obsessed with The Ultimate David Cassidy Quiz, a contest whose winners will be flown to America to meet their teen idol. 1998, London. Petra is pushing forty and on the brink of divorce. While cleaning out her mother’s closet, she finds a dusty letter—a letter her mother had intercepted—declaring her the winner of the contest she and Sharon had labored over with such agony and bliss. Twenty-four years later, twenty pounds heavier, the girls reunite for an all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas to meet their teen idol at last, middle age—theirs and his—be damned.

Poignant, hilarious, joyful, profoundly moving and uplifting, I Think I Love You captures what girls learn about love through the universal experience of worshipping a teen dream. It will resonate with readers everywhere.

The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels-A Love Story by Ree Drummond - February 01, 2026
“That’s when I saw him—the cowboy—across the smoky room.”

I’ll never forget that night. It was like a romance novel, an old Broadway musical, and a John Wayne western rolled into one. Out for a quick drink with friends, I wasn’t looking to meet anyone, let alone a tall, rugged cowboy who lived on a cattle ranch miles away from my cultured, corporate hometown. But before I knew it, I’d been struck with a lightning bolt . . . and I was completely powerless to stop it.

Read along as I recount the rip-roaring details of my unlikely romance with a chaps-wearing cowboy, from the early days of our courtship (complete with cows, horses, prairie fire, and passion) all the way through the first year of our marriage, which would be filled with more challenge and strife—and manure—than I ever could have expected.
This isn’t just my love story; it’s a universal tale of passion, romance, and all-encompassing love that sweeps us off our feet.
It’s the story of a cowboy.
And Wranglers.
And chaps.
And the girl who fell in love with them.

Radio Shangri-La:What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth by Lisa Napoli - February 08, 2026
Lisa Napoli was in the grip of a crisis, dissatisfied with her life and her work as a radio journalist. When a chance encounter with a handsome stranger presented her with an opportunity to move halfway around the world, Lisa left behind cosmopolitan Los Angeles for a new adventure in the ancient Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan—said to be one of the happiest places on earth.

Long isolated from industrialization and just beginning to open its doors to the modern world, Bhutan is a deeply spiritual place, devoted to environmental conservation and committed to the happiness of its people—in fact, Bhutan measures its success in Gross National Happiness rather than in GNP. In a country without a single traffic light, its citizens are believed to be among the most content in the world. To Lisa, it seemed to be a place that offered the opposite of her fast-paced life in the United States, where the noisy din of sound-bite news and cell phones dominate our days, and meaningful conversation is a rare commodity; where everyone is plugged in digitally, yet rarely connects with the people around them.

Thousands of miles away from everything and everyone she knows, Lisa creates a new community for herself. As she helps to start Bhutan’s first youth-oriented radio station, Kuzoo FM, she must come to terms with her conflicting feelings about the impact of the medium on a country that had been shielded from its effects. Immersing herself in Bhutan’s rapidly changing culture, Lisa realizes that her own perspective on life is changing as well—and that she is discovering the sense of purpose and joy that she has been yearning for.

The View from Here by Deborah Mckinlay - February 01, 2026
When Frances was twenty-two, she was drifting, scraping by giving English lessons in Mexico, when she met up with a glamorous group of vacationing Americans staying in a mansion on a private beach. Two decades later in rural England, she discovers a love letter from a younger woman addressed to her husband almost at the same time as she learns that she’s facing a life-threatening illness.

As her contented existence begins to unravel and she tries to decide how and if she will confront her husband about his infidelity, Frances finds herself haunted by the memory of her heady desert encounter with the charmed circle of the Severance family. That summer in 1976 seemed, until now, like another lifetime. As she recalls this long buried episode from her past, she is forced to face for the first time her own role in an illicit romance and the betrayal and tragedy that marked its ending.

Paperback

Skipping a Beat: A Novel by Sarah Pekkanen - February 22, 2026
Julia and Michael meet in high school in their small, poverty-stricken West Virginia hometown. Both products of
difficult childhoods — Julia’s father is a compulsive gambler and Michael’s mother abandoned his family when he was
a young boy – they find a sense of safety and mutual understanding in each other. Shortly after graduation they flee West Virginia to start afresh. Now thirty-somethings, they are living a rarified life in their multi-million-dollar,Washington D.C. home. From the outside it all looks perfect – Julia has become a highly sought-after party planner, while Michael has launched a wildly successful flavored water company that he sold for $70 million.
But one day Michael stands up at the head of the table in his company’s boardroom — then silently crashes to the floor. More than four minutes later, a portable defibrillator manages to jump-start his heart. Yet what happened to Michael during those lost minutes forever changes him. Money is meaningless to him now - and he wants to give it all away to charity. A prenuptial agreement that Julia insisted upon back when Michael’s company was still struggling means she
has no claim to his fortune, and now she must decide: should she walk away from the man she once adored, but who
truthfully became a stranger to her long before his near-death experience - or should she give in to her husband’s pleas for a second chance and a promise of a poorer but happier life?

Born Under a Lucky Moon by Dana Precious - February 08, 2026
Born Under a Lucky Moon is the tale of two very important (but distant) years in the lives of Jeannie Thompson and her (embarrassing, crazy) colorful family members to whom “things” just seem to happen.

From the Great Lakes of Michigan to Los Angeles and back again, it is a story of surprise marriages, a renegade granny, a sprinkler system cursed by the gods, and myriad other factors Jeannie blames for her full-tilt, out-of-control existence. But it’s also about good surprises—like an unexpected proposal that might just open Jeannie’s eyes to her real place among the people she loves most in the world . . . the same ones she ran far away from to begin with.

Haunting Jasmine by Anjali Banerjee - February 01, 2026
A call from the past brings divorcee Jasmine Mistry home to Shelter Island to run her beloved aunt’s bookstore, which has always been rumored to be haunted. With that knowledge, Jasmine embarks on a mystical journey, urged along by her quirky family, and guided by the highly emotional spirits of long-dead authors. Surprisingly, she finds herself moved to heal her broken heart when she falls unexpectedly in love with an enigmatic young stranger.

The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen - February 08, 2026
Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life. Such as, why did Dulcie Shelby leave her hometown so suddenly? And why did she vow never to return? But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew - a reclusive, real-life gentle giant - she realizes that mysteries aren’t solved in Mullaby, they’re a way of life: Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor bakes hope in the form of cakes.

Everyone in Mullaby adores Julia Winterson’s cakes - which is a good thing, because Julia can’t seem to stop baking them. She offers them to satisfy the town’s sweet tooth but also in the hope of rekindling the love she fears might be lost forever. Flour, eggs, milk, and sugar … Baking is the only language the proud but vulnerable Julia has to communicate what is truly in her heart. But is it enough to call back to her those she’s hurt in the past?

Can a hummingbird cake really bring back a lost love? Is there really a ghost dancing in Emily’s backyard? The answers are never what you expect. But in this town of lovable misfits, the unexpected fits right in.

Save as Draft by Cavanaugh Lee - February 01, 2026
SAVE AS DRAFT @Readers A love triangle evolving over e-mails, texts, and Facebook messages that makes you wonder if the things we leave unsaid—or rather unsent—could change the story of our lives.
6:59 PM Feb. 14th via twitterfeed

Sent: Monday, February 14, 2026
From: Izabell
To: Reader
Subject: Save as Draft
Are we Facebook friends yet? I’m the wactress (waitress/actress) turned lawyer who lives her life online. (Don’t we all these days?)
Anyway, I’ve got this problem. . . . There’s this guy. His name’s Peter. He’s my best friend and co-worker, and we just started dating, which is potentially a huge mistake. But, that’s not all. There’s this other guy, Marty. I met him on eHarm, and he ran with the bulls in Spain. I can’t get him off my mind. What a mess. I’d love your advice if you can take a second out of your crazy, high-tech life. Shoot me an e-mail. Or text me. Or BB messenger me.
And friend me if you haven’t already! You can find me on Facebook under Save as Draft.
Izabell

Moonface by Angela Balcita - February 01, 2026
“Angela Balcita’s love story takes a couple of artsy wanderers off the road and into the bright, scary world of transplants, dialysis, and neonatal intensive care.” —Marion Winik, author of The Glen Rock Book of the Dead

From the pages of the New York Times’ Modern Love column comes one woman’s moving and uproarious story of how love and laughter rescued her from life-threatening illness. Angela Balcita’s cathartic memoir of finding love while wrestling with kidney failure will strike a chord with anyone yearning for a poignant, true-to-life romance…with a real fairy tale ending.

Dreaming in English by Laura Fitzgerald - February 01, 2026
Knowing she could never be happy in Iran, Tamila Soroush took her mother’s advice to “Go and wake up your luck” and joined her sister in the United States. Now, after a spur-of-the-moment exchange of “I do”s with her true love, Ike Hanson, Tami is eager to start her new life.

But not everyone is pleased with their marriage, and Tami’s happily- ever-after is no sure thing. With an interview with Immigration looming, Tami wonders if she’s got the right stuff when it comes to love, American-style. Maybe her luck is running out. Or maybe she’ll stand up for herself and claim her American dream.

A broken engagement, a broken heart, and endless drafts of unsent emails. A love triangle unfolding in the electronic age illustrates all that can go wrong (and right) by this new form of miscommunication. Told in “electro-epistolary” form, the novel unfolds entirely through emails and text messages. What do these tools of technology mean for love? What happens when age-old courtship rituals fall prey to the ever-changing sensibilities of how we share not only information, but our own hearts?

SAVE AS DRAFT @Readers A love triangle evolving over e-mails, texts, and Facebook messages that makes you wonder if the things we leave unsaid—or rather unsent—could change the story of our lives.
6:59 PM Feb. 14th via twitterfeed

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Save as Draft by Cavanaugh Lee is due out this week! February 1st to be exact. It’s her debut novel and I couldn’t have been more thrilled when I was given the opportunity to review it. Look for a review very soon, but in the meantime I thought this would be the perfect time to offer a giveaway of this fantastic new novel! I’m afraid the competition is open to US/Canada residents only and will end next Saturday at 12pm (mid-day) GMT. Take a look at the synopsis, add it to your Goodreads account if you think it sounds as good as I know it is, and then enter the giveaway!

SAVE AS DRAFT @Readers A love triangle evolving over e-mails, texts, and Facebook messages that makes you wonder if the things we leave unsaid—or rather unsent—could change the story of our lives.
6:59 PM Feb. 14th via twitterfeed

Sent: Monday, February 14, 2026
From: Izabell
To: Reader
Subject: Save as Draft

Are we Facebook friends yet? I’m the wactress (waitress/actress) turned lawyer who lives her life online. (Don’t we all these days?)
Anyway, I’ve got this problem. . . . There’s this guy. His name’s Peter. He’s my best friend and co-worker, and we just started dating, which is potentially a huge mistake. But, that’s not all. There’s this other guy, Marty. I met him on eHarm, and he ran with the bulls in Spain. I can’t get him off my mind. What a mess. I’d love your advice if you can take a second out of your crazy, high-tech life. Shoot me an e-mail. Or text me. Or BB messenger me.
And friend me if you haven’t already! You can find me on Facebook under Save as Draft.
Izabell

Thank you so much to the publisher, Simon & Schuster, for providing a copy for giveaway!

This giveaway has now closed, thanks to all who participated!

As I mentioned in my Top Ten Most Anticipated Books of 2011, I’m dying to read The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen. I’m not sure whether it was the cover (which is divine), the synopsis, or the book trailer with it’s pictures that reminded me of my youth that got me hooked but no matter, this is one I’ll be reading. The Bird Sisters will be out on April 12, 2026 and I’m hoping it will be in my hot little hands very very soon! Take a look at the synopsis and book trailer below to learn a little more about this fantastic new novel about two sisters…

When a bird flies into a window in Spring Green, Wisconsin, sisters Milly and Twiss get a visit. Twiss listens to the birds’ heartbeats, assessing what she can fix and what she can’t, while Milly listens to the heartaches of the people who’ve brought them. The two sisters have spent their lives nursing people and birds back to health.

But back in the summer of 1947, Milly was known as a great beauty with emerald eyes and Twiss was a brazen wild child who never wore a dress or did what she was told. That was the summer their golf pro father got into an accident that cost him both his swing and his charm, and their mother, the daughter of a wealthy jeweler, finally admitted their hardscrabble lives wouldn’t change. It was the summer their priest, Father Rice, announced that God didn’t exist and ran off to Mexico, and a boy named Asa finally caught Milly’s eye. And most unforgettably, it was the summer their cousin Bett came down from a town called Deadwater and changed the course of their lives forever.

Out February 8th 2011 here in the US, Allison Pearson’s newest novel I Think I Love You has a new cover and a new synopsis. I’m actually quite partial to the US cover actually (which, to be honest, doesn’t happen often), but Chloe was initially quite taken with the UK cover (on the left). For me, it has a lot to do with growing up with a mother who was in love with the Beatles as much as these girls seem to have been with David Cassidy and the cover reminds me of all of those old records we had around the house. I’m eager to read and review I Think I Love You in the very near future. Take a look and tell me what you think…

Wales, 1974. Petra and Sharon, two thirteen-year-old girls, are obsessed with David Cassidy. His fan magazine is their Bible, and some days his letters are the only things that keep them going as they struggle through the humiliating daily rituals of adolescence—confronting their bewildering new bodies, fighting with mothers who don’t understand them at all. Together they tackle the Ultimate David Cassidy Quiz, a contest whose winners will be flown to America to meet Cassidy in person.

London, 1998. Petra is pushing forty, on the brink of divorce, and fighting with her own thirteen-year-old daughter when she discovers a dusty letter in her mother’s closet declaring her the winner of the contest she and Sharon had labored over with such hope and determination. More than twenty years later, twenty pounds heavier, bruised by grief and the disappointments of middle age, Petra reunites with Sharon for an all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas to meet their teen idol at last, and finds her life utterly transformed.

Funny, moving, full of beautiful observations about the awakenings of both youth and middle age, Allison Pearson’s long-awaited new novel will speak across generations to mothers and daughters and women of all ages.

So, what do you think? US cover or the original UK cover?
Make sure to keep your eyes open for my upcoming review, interview and possible giveaway of this newest Allison Pearson novel!