You Are Viewing 2011 Releases

I am a bit of a sucker for Christmas novels, so when I found out Trisha Ashley was back this winter with a festive book, I couldn’t wait! It’s due out on 27th October! Please be aware this was previously published as “Sweet Nothings”, but has been extensively been reworked by Trisha to include new material. Here’s the synopsis:

“In the West Lancashire village of Middlemoss, Lizzie Pharamond is cooking up a defensive storm of comfort food as she becomes increasingly estranged from her serially unfaithful husband, Tom.
Then fate takes a hand and when Tom is killed in a car accident, Lizzie has to deal with his quarrelling mistresses and devious friends – and to top it all – The Mystery Play steering committee have to find a new Lazarus. Middlemoss is already gearing up for its annual performance due to take place on Boxing Day with Tom’s elderly uncle Roly Pharamond as the Voice of God.

As a distraction, Lizzie’s Christmas Pudding Club is about to have the first meeting of the year to swap baking tips for traditional puddings, cakes and mince pies. Lizzie’s growing rivalry with her husband’s cousin, celebrated cookery writer Nick Pharamond, is coming to boiling point. Having snatched the Best Mince Pie prize away from her at the village show, he is certainly the last man she wants to play Adam to her Eve in the Mystery Play.

Meanwhile, her best friend Annie has developed an unsuitable crush on local resident Rick Rainford, the handsome and charismatic star a popular TV soap. But it becomes clear that Rick is more interested in Lizzie who, desperately in need of comfort, might just be a tiny bit tempted.

The Voice of God will have one or two things to say about these and other village affairs at the Mystery Play, in a performance that will be a hard act to follow next year.”

We know this novel might be totally out of left-field and you’ll all be wondering why we’re featuring a crime novel on the site, but we have good reason because Casey Hill is the pseudonym of none other than the outstanding Chick Lit author Melissa Hill and her husband Kevin! They decided to team up and write a series of crime novels and I must admit, I’m excited. I love crime novels, and I can’t wait for Taboo to be released on 7th July 2011 (and a trade paperback is out at the end of this month). It sounds like a great read and I’m sure you guys will want to check it out because of the Melissa aspect!

Forensic investigator Reilly Steel, Quantico-trained and California-born and bred, imagined Dublin to be a far cry from bustling San Francisco, a sleepy backwater where she can lay past ghosts to rest and start anew. She’s arrived in Ireland to drag the Irish crime lab into the 21st century, plus keep tabs on her Irish-born father who’s increasingly seeking solace in the bottle after a past family tragedy. But a brutal serial killer soon puts paid to that. When a young man and woman are found dead in an apartment, the gunshot wounds on their naked bodies suggest a suicide pact. But Reilly’s instincts are screaming that something’s seriously amiss, and as more bodies are discovered, the team soon realises that a twisted murderer is at work, one who seeks to upset society’s norms in the most sickening way imaginable…

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In Boston in 1903, Dr Ravell is doing great things to help couples struggling to become pregnant create families of their own with his own advanced medical techniques. He is a rising star in the medical world so when Erika Von Kessler and her husband struggle to conceive a baby, they enlist the services of Dr Ravell to try and help them create their own family. However, when his initial treatments fail and Erika enters into a deep depression, Ravell decides to try something completely shocking, something that has to be so secret he has to take it to the grave with him. However, he doesn’t count on he and Erika falling in love from afar and when she travels to Italy to pursue her dream of becoming an Opera singer, the miles don’t seem to matter, when Erika thinks of the doctor, he is with her. Will their love story have a happy ending?

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Chloe and I are both huge fans of Irish author Sheila O’Flanagan, having loved the majority of her novels. Her latest book is called All For You and will be out very soon on July 7th 2011, I can’t wait to read it and I really like the cover (though I stand by the fact that Sheila’s previous covers were fine!). Here’s the synopsis:

TV’s favourite weather forecaster, Lainey is good at making predictions. But what she doesn’t foresee is that her own life is about to hit a stormy patch. With a string of failed relationships behind her, surely history isn’t about to repeat itself with her beloved Ken? To add fuel to the fire, her estranged mother announces that she’s returning to Dublin. Deanna has always been dismissive of Lainey’s choices - particularly in men. And Deanna’s lectures are the last thing Lainey needs now. Yet is there more to her mother than she knows? Uncovering some long-concealed family secrets, Lainey begins to reassess her life. Is the happy-ever-after she’s always dreamed of really what she wants after all?

Sue Watson’s debut novel Fat Girls & Fairy Cakes is due to be published by Rickshaw Publishing on 8th September 2011. I think the book sounds really good although for a second, the cover did make me think this was a book for a teenager, but fear not, it is indeed a Chick Lit novel! Here’s the synopsis:

Can you really make a living from indulging in your dreams? TV Producer Stella Weston is over worked, over weight and under fire. Having battled uphill for years to balance her career with her family life, she is repaid by being put out to pasture on a religious gardening programme complete with a nervous vicar, his nymphomaniac wife, and 22 stone Britney wannabe gardener, Gerald. In the past, comfort has always been found at the bottom of her mixing bowl but when even the most delicious lemon sponge with zesty frosting cannot save the day, Stella decides enough is enough. However, finding the courage to quit is sometimes the easy part. Can you really turn a passion into a profession? Does more time at home actually give you a happier family life? Are men truly from Mars or another universe altogether? Stella has to roll up her sleeves and find out - when the going gets tough, the tough get baking….

Hannah Robinson is just about to open the doors to her new shop Cupcakes on the Corner when out of the blue her boyfriend Patrick announces that he’s leaving her for another woman. Faced with starting a business on her own, Hannah begins to wonder if her life-long dream has just turned into a nightmare. So her best friend Adam sets his birthday as a deadline - seven months to make her shop a success, or walk away from it all. And as Hannah immerses herself in her new business, she soon discovers that she’s too busy to think about Patrick and his now pregnant girlfriend …or to notice an increasingly regular customer who has recently developed a sweet tooth for all things cupcake. But while Hannah is slowly piecing her life back together, family friend Alice’s is falling apart. Her husband Tom’s drinking is getting out of control and things are about to get a whole lot worse. As the seven-month milestone approaches, Hannah must decide her future. And while she’s figuring out what’s really important, it becomes clear to everyone that happiness in life, and in love, is all in the making.

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It’s almost Summer! Can you believe it?! I was recently asked in an interview which Summer reads I was most looking forward to and it got me thinking…what makes a great summer read? Now, I may have an unfair advantage having grown up a short drive from the beach and now living in our current residence only about ten minutes from some gorgeous beaches. Having said that…I think most imply a certain “getaway” feeling. For me, that may happen to be a breezy beach locale or it could be simply a getaway from life in general; something completely different from where I’m at at the moment, either in mindset or location.

At the moment there are quite a few books I’m looking forward to reading this summer, but I thought I’d highlight a few very “Summer-y” looking books you might be adding to your to-be-read pile. Take a look and you tell me…what makes the perfect Summer read for you?

Three days before her drama club’s trip to Italy, Jessa Gardner discovers her boyfriend in the costume barn with another girl. Jessa is left with a care package from her best friend titled “Top Twenty Reasons He’s a Slimy Jerk Bastard,” instructing her to do one un-Jessa-like thing each day of the trip. At turns hilarious and heartwrenching, Instructions for a Broken Heart paints a magical Italy in which Jessa learns she must figure out life-and romance-for herself.

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