Other brilliant books I read in March…

Seriously though… How are we at the end of March already?! 

This month has been full of some absolute page-turner such as The Glittering Art of Falling Apart, Lover, Missing Pieces, Missing Rose, The Night That Changed Everything, Summer Nights at the Moonlight Hotel, Maestra, Gone Astray and The Way We Were.

And I've also loved…. 

Return to the Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez 

Sunny, former proprietor of the Little Coffee Shop and new owner of the Screaming Peacock vineyard. Can she handle the challenges of life on her own?

Yasmina, the young mother who now runs the cafe, until a terrifying event strikes at the heart of her family and business...

Layla and Kat, Afghan teenagers in America, struggling to make sense of their place in the world...

Zara, about to be forced into a marriage which will have devastating consequences…

These women are about to learn what Halajan, Yazmina's rebellious mother-in-law, has known all along: when the world as you know it disappears, you find a new way to live...

I loved The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul so I was very excited to get my hands on this brilliant sequel.

A great insight into the lives of women in Kabul. An emotional eye-opener and a must read. 

The Bucket List to Mend a Broken Heart by Anna Bell

Abi's barely left her bed since Joseph, the love of her life, dumped her, saying they were incompatible.

When Joseph leaves a box of her possessions on her doorstep, she finds a bucket list of ten things she never knew he wanted to do. What better way to win him back than by completing the list, and proving they're a perfect match?

 But there's just one problem - or rather, ten. Abi's not exactly the outdoorsy type, and she's absolutely terrified of heights - not ideal for a list that includes climbing a mountain, cycling around the Isle of Wight and, last but not least, abseiling down the tallest building in town…

Completing the list is going to need all Abi's courage - and a lot of help from her friends. 

But as she heals her broken heart one task at a time, the newly confident Abi might just have a surprise in store...

I love Anna Bell's warm writing style and you can easily get lost in this. It's laugh out loud in places and a perfect rainy day read. 

Hester and Harriet by Hilary Spiers 

Sisters Hester and Harriet are reluctantly driving to visit relatives when they come across a young woman hiding with her baby in a bus shelter. Seeing the perfect excuse for returning to their own warm hearth, the pair insist on bringing Daria and Milo home with them. 

But with the arrival of a sinister stranger looking for a girl with a baby, followed quickly by their cousins' churlish fifteen-year-old son, Ben, who also appears to be seeking sanctuary, Hester and Harriet's carefully crafted peace and quiet quickly begins to fall apart. And, perhaps, that's exactly what they need...

Hester and Harriet are such brilliant characters that you won't be able to help but love.

This books deals with serious issues but without getting too heavy. It's very witty and a real pleasure of a read. 

*NEW BOOK REVIEW* The Way We Were by Sinéad Moriarty

What would happen if your husband disappeared? You think he’s dead - but in fact he isn’t…

When Alice's husband Ben dies suddenly, her world falls apart. A life without him is unimaginable.

The only thing that keeps her going are her daughters Jools, 15 and Alice, 11. 

Somehow all three of them come through the dark days. In time, it's even possible for Alice to consider marrying again, with the girls' blessing. So when Ben turns up after three years, her world is again turned upside-down. The girls assume that their family can go back to the way they were. Alice is not so sure.

Once more Alice has to find the strength to be the mother her daughters need her to be. But this time what that means is far from clear...

I have SO much love for this book. I loved the characters, I loved the storyline. 

You'd be forgiven for thinking this was going to be 'just another romance story' but it's so much more than that. You have no idea how the story will pan out, right until the end. It's such a clever and interesting plot. 

I'm a huge fan of Sinéad Moriarty's - and this is her best novel yet. 

And Sinéad kindly told me what inspired her to to write The Way We Were…

Back in the late 1980s Brian Keenan and John McCarthy, among others, were kidnapped and taken hostage in Beirut. They remained in captivity for over four years and when they were finally released the two men talked about this incredible friendship that had kept them sane. You could see the deep connection and love between them. To this day they are best friends and the bond between them remains. I was always fascinated by this.

John McCarthy and Jill Morrell’s love story also inspired me.  John McCarthy’s girlfriend, Jill,  campaigned tirelessly to get him released and then when he was released everyone presumed they’d end up together… But in fact they broke up and he married someone else.

I wanted to somehow write a book with the themes of friendship and lost love worked into the storyline and I wanted to explore the power of memory. I also wanted to look at how people change. What happens when the person you know so well is altered by life? When something happens to turn your life upside down and you have to change to survive, can you get back the way you were or are you permanently altered? Is a happy ending possible for these two characters…?

Sinéad with her brilliant 11th novel

Read The Way We Were now...

What does an author keep on their desk….?

When a Lesley Kinnock buys a lottery ticket on a whim, it changes her life more than she could have imagined…

Lesley and her husband Mack are the sudden winners of a 15 million EuroMillions jackpot. They move with their 15-year-old daughter Rosie to an exclusive gated estate in Buckinghamshire, leaving behind their ordinary lives - and friends - as they are catapulted into wealth beyond their wildest dreams. 

But it soon turns into their darkest nightmare when, one beautiful spring afternoon, Lesley returns to their house to find it empty: their daughter Rosie is gone.

DC Maggie Neville is assigned to be Family Liaison Officer to Lesley and Mack, supporting them while quietly trying to investigate the family. And she has a crisis threatening her own life - a secret from the past that could shatter everything she's worked so hard to build. 

As Lesley and Maggie desperately try to find Rosie, their fates hurtle together on a collision course that threatens to end in tragedy. Money can't buy you happiness. The truth could hurt more than a lie. One moment really can change your life forever…

What. A. Thriller. Full of plot twists, Gone Astray really made me question whether winning the Lotto would actually be a good thing… 

It's a page-turning debut from Michelle Davies, full of secrets, revelations and mystery. Utterly brilliant. I can't wait for her next novel!  

And have you ever wondered what an author has on their desk when writing - and what they shouldn't? Michelle spills the beans… 

Michelle at her book launch in Waterstones, Covent Garden 

1. A wireless keyboard – I developed serious neck ache after writing Gone Astray hunched over my laptop, so for my second novel (Wrong Place, out in February 2017) I went old school with a big clunky keyboard. Now I can't write without it.

2. Nigel Clough - the little plastic figurine of former Nottingham Forest player Nigel Clough was given to me for by my first boyfriend while we were training to be journalists. It was meant to be a jokey good luck present but Nige has sat on my desk at every place I've ever worked, even at super-stylish Grazia! I'd be lost without him.

3. Glossy magazines – when I'm not writing books I freelance for women's magazines as a journalist, so invariably my desk is littered with latest issues. I've always been a magazine junkie, right back to when I was a child and my mum bought me Twinkle and Bunty. My daughter, who's six, now reads the CBeebies one - I'm very proud to be passing the baton!

4. My Kindle - every time I write a chapter or edit a section of my novels I download the Word document to my Kindle. I find that reading it back in proper book format makes it easier to spot what sentences jar. But when it comes to the final draft I still print the entire thing out on paper – I need to be able to flick through pages one last time before I'm satisfied it's done.

And the one thing I shouldn't have on my desk...

Cat litter! Right now I'm sharing my office with our new kitten, Lolly Longwhiskers, because we have an older cat, Woody, as well and the two of them need to have their own private space to escape to while they get used to each other (his domain is the kitchen, wise boy). Lolly's litter tray is in a corner of the office, on the floor, far away from my desk, yet somehow she still manages to sending bits of grit flying in my direction. I'm counting the days until she can take her ablutions out into the garden!

Michelle's desk - where the magic happens!

Get Gone Astray here

*NEW BOOK REVIEW* Maestra by L.S.Hilton

Judith Rashleigh works as an assistant in a prestigious London auction house, but her dreams of breaking into the art world have been gradually dulled by the blunt forces of snobbery and corruption. To make ends meet she moonlights as a hostess in one of the West End's less salubrious bars - although her work there pales against her activities on nights off.

When Judith stumbles across a conspiracy at her auction house, she is fired before she can expose the fraud. In desperation, she accepts an offer from one of the bar's clients to accompany him to the French Riviera. But when an ill-advised attempt to slip him sedatives has momentous consequences, Judith finds herself fleeing for her life. 

Now alone and in danger, all Judith has to rely on is her consummate ability to fake it amongst the rich and famous - and the inside track on the hugely lucrative art fraud that triggered her dismissal...

Where do you go when you've gone too far?

I'm a bit funny about books that come with a lot of hype surrounding them. Not in a snobbish way. More in a I read them and feel let down kinda way (I think I may be one of the only people not to have enjoyed Girl on The Train...)

So when Maestra landed on my desk with its 'the most shocking thriller you'll read this year' claims and movie rights already being signed up, I have to admit I put it to one side and marked it as 'not one for me.' 

But then I started reading reviews and began to get FOMO. And I felt that if I was really going to be able to say 'it wasn't for me' then I had to least read a few pages. 

So I took it home - and five hours later I'd finished it. Yep. I went from not thinking I'd enjoy it to not wanting to put it down. Gripped from the very first 'c' bomb dropped on page two.  

Packed full of action I think i gave myself RSI from turning the pages so quickly. 

I had been warned it was slightly filthy - and it was (I won't be passing it on to my mum that's for sure.) But it's not filth in a 'we have to put a sex scene on every single page' way that some books (which shall not be named) do, which becomes incredibly tedious, very quickly. 

Judith is a sassy, smart and very dangerous heroine and I couldn't help but really like her. 

So read it before everyone else does because I do think it will be the most talked abut book this year - and with reason. 

My only complaint? That the second instalment isn't coming quick enough…

Try it for yourself 

A PERFECT bank holiday read…

The Queen of romantic fiction herself!

Summer Nights at the Moonlight Hotel by Jane Costello 

Lauren Scott lives in 'The most romantic place in Britain', but her love life is about as successful as her mountain climbing skills. The man she's obsessed over for two years has proposed to someone else - and her only solution is to save up for six months to go travelling, so she never has to set eyes on him again. 

But when her friends sign her up for a dance class - in the same historic hotel where her beloved dad worked and her most precious childhood memories were formed - Lauren makes a horrifying discovery. It's been sold to a faceless budget chain, which has depressing plans in store. Worse, the entrepreneur behind it all turns out to be among a group of guys her friend Cate roped in to join the very same salsa class they've signed up for.... 

 

Jane Costello is the QUEEN of the romance novel – and this is her best book yet. 

Funny and full of charm with super likeable characters, the moment you pick up Summer Nights at the Moonlight Hotel you'll want to cancel all your plans and turn off your phone so you can finish it in one sitting. 

I learnt two things when reading Jane's latest novel - 

1) That I REALLY need to go to the Lake District ASAP 

2) I absolutely won't be signing up for salsa lessons… 

But what did Jane learn while writing Summer Nights at the Moonlight Hotel? She reveals her six things below…

1. Salsa dancing is a lot harder than it looks

Salsa is for everyone, right? Wrong, as I discovered when I dragged my husband to a class with me for ten weeks to research the dance scenes in the book. In fairness, our enthusiasm was hopelessly ill-matched; I had dreams of us as the next Baby and Johnny, burning up every dance floor we’d grace forever more. And he . . . well he didn’t. We quickly discovered that salsa far from easy, that dislocating both knees once a week doesn’t look especially pretty – and that if you don’t take any of it seriously it’s extremely good fun.

2. The Lake District is heaven on earth.

I kind of knew this already if I’m honest. I bought a little holiday home between Bowness and Ambleside a few years ago, which means I’m now lucky enough to visit at least 10 times a year. But the book only served to underline just how much I adore the place. It was the perfect setting to write a novel – sweeping mountains, sparkling lakes and lots of men in climbing gear.

3. Writing doesn’t always have to be hard.

Contrary to popular belief that the authors of popular fiction ‘churn them out’, the reality is that most authors, including very successful ones, find writing a novel extremely difficult. As Dorothy Parker said, ‘I hate writing. I love having written.’ That’s me all over – there are times, especially when I’m completing a first draft, when I’m an anxious, perfectionist wreck of a human being who’ll have sleepless nights because I just can’t find a decent resolution to one of my story lines. Well, writing Summer Nights at the Moonlight Hotel wasn’t like that AT ALL. It was a revelation, a joy from start to finish, and possibly the most enjoyable writing experiences I’ve ever had. I think it’s wishful thinking to hope they’ll all be like that from now on.

4. Good friends are wondrous things.

I reflected a lot on friendship when I was writing the book. I love my friends and just can’t imagine life without the handful of women I’ve been closest to in my adult life. They’ve been just as brilliant partying on a Saturday night during the good times as they have been when things have got tough. I won’t say too much, but there’s a dilemma in the book in which one of our heroine’s friendships is really is tested to the limit. It really made me wonder what decision I would make in that position (and I like to think it’d be the right one!)

5. Outdoor pursuits are not for the faint-hearted.

The Lake District is famous for lots of things – beautiful old inns, Beatrix Potter,  rambling towns with limewashed cottages and breath-taking views. But I just couldn’t write a book set in a place best known for its lakes and mountains without getting up close and personal with nature.  Like many people who live within the national park, a number of my characters either have jobs that involve regularly being up on the fells, or simply spend a lot of time exploring them  because there’s nothing like the feeling of being up at the top of a mountain, breathing in the clean air.  I did a fair bit of exploring while I was writing this book – and even had a go at something called ‘ghyll scrambling’, which involves climbing a mountain, then scrambling and sliding down via a waterfall, sometimes ending up fully submerged in freezing water. My kids had a whale of a time. I, on the other hand, have only just regained the feeling in my toes.

6. You can write a sex scene that’s also funny.

Writers love a challenge, and I did wonder whether this one could ever hope to work. Could you really have a heroine getting it on with someone she’s been crazy about for years . . . and still make it hilarious? I’ll await my readers’ verdict on this one, but I really do hope I managed it in what turned out to be my favourite scene in the book.  Of course, it helps if you throw in a pair of Marigolds, a urine sample and a cartwheeling dog in the background on Britain’s Got Talent . . .

So if you have some downtime this rainy bank holiday weekend, grab yourself a copy and lock yourself away with an Easter egg or two. 

And I can confirm the sex scene is LOL… 

Music to write a brilliant book to…

The Night That Changed Everything by Laura Tait and Jimmy Rice 

Rebecca is the only girl she knows who didn't cry at the end of Titanic. Ben is the only man he knows who did. Rebecca’s untidy but Ben doesn’t mind picking up her pieces. Ben is laid back by Rebecca keeps him on his toes. They're a perfect match.

Nothing can come between them. Or so they think.

When a throwaway comment reveals a secret from the past, their love story is rewritten.

Can they recover from the night that changed everything? And how do you forgive when you can’t forget?

You know those rare books that you simply can't put down - but at the same time you really don't want to finish either because it's just TOO GOOD and it's giving you ALL THE FEELS? The Night That Changed Everything is one of those books. 

Told in alternate chapters by the brilliant Laura and Jimmy, they have taken your average, sweet chick-lit plot and put it on a roller coaster with lots of loops the loops. They have turned a rom-com on its head creating an anti-fairytale where you witness a break-up, warts and all. 

The Night That Changed Everything is funny. No it's hilarious. But it's also incredibly sad and will most certainly make you shout: 'NO, THAT DID NOT JUST HAPPEN' more than once. And the ending? Yeah. You won't see that coming… 

It's firmly on my 'Brilliant Books of 2016' list and I really can't stop raving about it to anyone who needs a book recomendation. 

And what would be on the playlist for writing such a brilliant book? Laura and Jimmy have kindly shared the six must-have songs. Over to them… 

We’re both pretty into our music, and always have the radio on in the background when we get together to plan stories, so choosing just six songs for this has been tough. We spent more time on this than we did writing our latest book. Almost.

JIMMY

Enjoy The Silence – Depeche Mode
The second question anyone asks us (after Are you a couple? – to which we simultaneously answer No with screwed up faces) is exactly how we write together. The truth is that we never do – we write separately, but only after several days of hardcore planning at Laura’s house in south-east London. And the soundtrack to these sessions is always Absolute 80s or 90s. This song reminds me of staying up into the early hours discussing plots and characters, fuelled by tea (me) and Malbec (Laura). 

Disco 2000 – Pulp
Okay, I lie a little bit when I say these sessions are hardcore. At least 81 per cent of our time is spent discussing what would be on the soundtrack if our books were ever made into films. Our first book was about meeting up with your childhood sweetheart years down the line and so this song would be perfect for the reunion scene. We both love Pulp and they’re usually on in the car when Laura drives me back to the station, so I also associate this song with several near-death experiences and the words WATCH THE FRIGGING ROAD, LAURA! 

There is a Light That Never Goes Out – The Smiths
If anyone ever asks why I started writing I admit that it was out of boredom and a bit of loneliness. At the time I was living in Liverpool, where I’d moved for work and didn’t really have any mates. It was a real low point in my life and writing helped fill a hole. It didn’t matter that I was staying in on my own on a Saturday night because now I was writing a blog, and then a book. This song was the soundtrack to that period.   

LAURA

Le Pastie De La Bourgeoisie – Belle & Sebastian
I heart Belle & Sebastian, hard. I listen to them a lot while I write – the tunes are catchy and the lyrics are playful, funny, evocative and surprising - often small, character-led stories within themselves. Le Pastie De La Bourgeoisie centres around a timid, insecure girl who loses herself in books, and is probably the only song in the world to reference both Catcher in the Rye and Judy Bloom.  

I Can’t Read You - Daniel Bedingfield
NOW we’re getting rock’n’roll. I still love this tune, and the reason it’s on this list is it relates so much to our books. It’s about liking someone and feeling frustrated that you don’t know how they feel, but at the same time not being the best versions of yourself because our emotions turn us into idiots. The hook of our books is the fact the protagonists can’t read each other, but the reader can read both sides. The lyrics 'Your heart's protecting, I get left behind' could be written about Rebecca by Ben in The Night That Changed Everything, as could 'I wish that you could see a better part of me' in the moment they meet. 

Especially For You – Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue
Initially, I was determined to pick three achingly cool songs that would in turn illustrate how cool I am, but I fear I lost you at Bedingfield, so I might as well go here too. Jason and Kylie – through Scott and Charlene in Neighbours – provided the first love story I remember having a real impact on me, back when an author was just something I wanted to be when I grew up. As far as lyrics go, 'If dreams were wings, you know I would have flown to you' is, admittedly, up there with the worst, but I harbour a real sentimental affection for this song.

Thanks guys! Right I'm off to watch some vintage Neigbours…. 

Grab The Night That Changed Everything here...

Book review: Missing Rose by Linda Newbery

It was the day when everything stopped…

At quarter past two on a hot summer afternoon, Anna’s beautiful, headstrong older sister Rose disappears. And Anna was the last person to see her.

Their parents, Rose’s friends, the police – no-one can find where Rose has gone or who might have taken her.

Twenty years later, Rose is still missing. Anna is the only one who still believes she might be alive, and unable to take control of her own life while her sister’s disappearance remains unsolved, she begins to hunt for the truth herself. But the search for Rose will uncover secrets she is not prepared for…

With compelling characters revealing their stories and secrets in a series of flashbacks, Missing Rose is certainly a page turner. There is never a hint of what happened to Rose so as Anna starts to put the pieces of the puzzle together you can't help but try and guess yourself what might have happened. But as the jigsaw completes it won't be the picture you imagine… 

I love surprise endings, books that make you gasp: 'No WAY' out loud regardless of your surroundings. If you're the same, pop this on your TBR pile. 

Buy it here