Showing posts with label Giveaway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Giveaway. Show all posts

Friday, 10 May 2019

Blog Tour: Beauty Sleep by Kathryn Evans

Hello everyone and welcome to my stop on the Beauty Sleep blog tour! I'm excited to be kicking off the tour by bringing to you today an interview with the author Kathryn Evans and to be giving you the chance to win a copy of the book!


Hi Kathryn, welcome to the blog! Can you tell us a little bit about Beauty Sleep and what sparked the idea behind it?

The very first idea was an image that came to me of a girl waking up in a high tech room and having no idea where she was or why. I guess fairy tales are so deeply embedded in my subconscious, I was thinking about a modern sleeping beauty without even realising it.

In Beauty Sleep, Laura is cryogenically frozen. How much research did you have to do on cryogenics for this book?

Quite a bit – I wanted it to be convincing. I read a lot about the theory but also the human stories behind it. While I was writing the early drafts, there was a very sad story in the news about a 14 year old girl who wanted to be cryogenically preserved and had to go to court to win that right. She did, and I think it will have eased her pain towards the end of her life. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/nov/18/teenage-girls-wish-for-preservation-after-death-agreed-to-by-court

But there was also a story about a women who died in a cryo-chamber used for ‘cold therapy.’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11987722/Coroner-finds-woman-who-died-trapped-inside-cryotherapy-chamber-suffocated.html

I also visited an ice chamber in a spa – it wasn’t for me!

What does your typical writing day look like? 

Pretty much every day is a writing day. My life is quite busy because we run a small farm growing fruit plants. I’m usually at my desk by about 8.30 but I tend to work at one thing in short intense bursts of 20 minutes to an hour at a time. Unless I have a tight deadline, I alternate farm work, volunteer work for SCBWI (I manage the finances), writing, editing, interviews and domestic stuff. My daughter usually rings daily too and we often chat for about an hour! Then in the evenings I have fencing training or dancing and I always finish the day by reading in bed.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

Read and write every day. Learn your craft – there are some excellent organisations that run courses and some brilliant books and websites on writing. I blog for one called Notes From The Slushpile. If you can join a writing community, online or in real life, it’ll help a lot. My friends from Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators have been my loudest champions and biggest supporters. It took me fifteen years to get a publishing deal, it’s nice to have some pals around when you’re dealing with a lot of rejection! It’s also a real joy to see your friends succeed – it gives you hope!

What books would you recommend to fans looking for similar stories to your own? 

I’ve been waiting for the Black Mirror anthology to come out but it’s still not available! Teri Terry writes excellent thrillers with a sci-fi edge – her book Mind Games is one of my favourites. Christopher Edge writes for younger people but I still love his take on science fiction. For a more apocalyptic take on the genre, try Eugene Lambert’s The Sign Of One. Obviously The Hunger Games and Divergent And Scott Westerfield’s Uglies series. And the classics! I was such a fan of John Wyndham, HG Wells, Margaret Atwood, Aldous Huxley – I could recommend books forever and a day.

Can you tell us a bit about what you're working on next? 

There’s always a heart in my stories – More of Me is about searching for your own identity and growing up, Beauty Sleep is about modern society but also about dealing with loss – my new book is about equality – or the lack of it. I think that’s all I can say about it, I’m editing it with my agent at the moment so it still feels a bit fragile – but it’s very much in my style, a strangely original thriller with a sci-fi edge.

And lastly what three words best describe Beauty Sleep?

Exciting, Emotional, Enchanting. 


For your chance to win a copy of the book enter over on Twitter


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Friday, 29 June 2018

The Death of Mrs Westaway Blog Tour

Hello everyone and welcome to my stop on The Death of Mrs Westaway blog tour! The Death of Mrs Westaway is one of my favourite reads of 2018. If you like bleak family dramas with an Agatha Christie style mystery running through it then you are going to love this book! Today I've had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Ruth Ware for my stop on the tour and I'm also giving one of you lucky lot the chance to win a signed copy of The Death of Mrs Westaway and a special set of signed tarot cards to go with it!


Hi Ruth, welcome to the blog! Can you tell us a little bit about The Death of Mrs Westaway and what sparked the idea behind it? 
The Death of Mrs Westaway is about a tarot reader, Hal Westaway, who receives a letter telling her that she has inherited a substantial bequest from her grandmother Hester. There is just one problem - Hal’s grandparents died many years ago, and this woman is a total stranger to her. However she sets out to collect the bequest anyway.

I’m not sure where exactly the idea for the novel came from, but the character of Hal is easier to pin down - having written three books where the main character was someone who stumbles into events through no fault of their own, I wanted to do something very different for my fourth. So I came up with the idea of a girl who sets out to commit a crime, and in doing so sets the whole complicated mechanism of the plot in motion.

What can fans of your previous books expect from this one?
I hope they’ll find some similar pleasures - a twisty plot, an atmospheric setting, and a dogged and determined main character. But it’s a little bit different too. It’s a little bit darker, a little bit more gothic than some of my previous books. And although my love of Christie is still there, students of literature will probably be able to see a strong influence from Daphne du Maurier in the settings and some of the characters.

Tarot cards play a huge role in The Death of Mrs Westaway, have you ever had a tarot card reading?
I have now - but I only went for one about halfway through writing the book. Prior to that I’d never had a tarot reading, and before I started researching for the book, I knew almost nothing about the meaning of the cards. I am not sure why I’d never tried it - I’m not a very superstitious person, and I suppose I was worried about being sucked into something embarrassing or some kind of con. Actually it was very entertaining!

Your books are constantly compared to Agatha Christie's work, does she influence your writing style?
Not my writing style, I don’t think. But definitely my plotting. I strive to do what she does so well - arm the reader with all the information they need to solve the plot, but still surprise them.

What’s been your best moment as an author so far?
Oh wow, gosh. There are so many! Probably finding out that Reese Witherspoon had read and loved my first book.

What does your typical writing day look like?
I have school age kids so I get up, get them ready for school and walk the little one to class. Then I get home about 9.30 and (try to) write until I leave to pick them up around 3. I say “try to” because I have good days and bad days. Some days I sit right down and write all the way through until pick up. Other days there’s an awful lot of dallying on social media…

Do you have any advice for aspiring thriller/mystery writers?
Just read lots in the genre I think, and pay attention to what you enjoy and how the writers pull the wool over your eyes.

What books would you recommend to fans looking for stories similar to your own? 
I love Erin Kelly, Megan Abbott, Sarah Vaughan, AJ Finn, SJ Watson, Lisa Jewell…

Can you tell us a bit about what you’re working on next? 
Book five, obviously!

And lastly, what three words best describe The Death of Mrs Westaway? 
Dark, gothic, twisty!


If you'd like the chance to win a signed copy of The Death of Mrs Westaway and tarot cards head on over to Twitter to enter! 


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Friday, 11 May 2018

Ace of Shades Blog Tour

Hello everyone and welcome to my stop on the Ace of Shades blog tour! Today I'm hosting an extract from the book and a chance for you to win a copy over on Twitter!




Intrigued? Don't miss your chance to win! 


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Friday, 16 March 2018

Blog Tour: The House of Hopes and Dreams Extract and Giveaway!

Hi guys! Today I'm very excited to be hosting my blog tour stop for Trisha Ashley's brand new novel The House of Hopes and Dreams. I have an extract from the book to share with you and if it leaves you wanting to read more then you're in luck as I have 3 copies of the book available to win over on Twitter!





Intrigued? Don't miss your chance to win The House of Hopes and Dreams! 


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Friday, 23 February 2018

Blog Tour: Review for Bring Me Back by B.A. Paris and Giveaway

Bring Me Back by B.A. Paris 
Publisher: HQ
Release: 8th March 2018
Genre: Thriller
Source: Copy received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review



 Synopsis:
"A young British couple are driving through France on holiday when they stop for gas. He runs in to pay, she stays in the car. When he returns her car door has been left open, but she's not inside. No one ever sees her again.

Ten years later he's engaged to be married; he's happy, and his past is only a tiny part of his life now. Until he comes home from work and finds his new wife-to-be is sitting on their sofa. She's turning something over in her fingers, holding it up to the light. Something that would have no worth to anyone else, something only he and she would know about because his future wife is the sister of his missing first love.

As more and more questions are raised, their relationship becomes strained. Has his first love somehow come back to him after all this time? Or is the person who took her playing games with his mind?"

Review 
B.A. Paris is one of my favourite psychological thriller authors, she puts her characters in these impossible situations and I can never turn the pages fast enough as I’m desperate to see how the story will unfold.

This time in Bring Me Back we’re following Finn whose girlfriend Layla went missing 12 years ago whilst the couple were on holiday in France. On their journey home Finn pulls their car into a rest stop but once he returns from the bathroom Layla has vanished, never to be found.

Now in the present-day Finn is engaged to be married to Layla’s sister, Ellen. Not long after their engagement Finn comes home to find Ellen clutching a Russian doll a symbol that holds huge significance between Layla and Ellen and their past. As more Russian dolls are left for them and Finn starts to receive emails from somebody claiming to be Layla the past comes rushing back to haunt them. Is Layla still alive? And if she is what really happened to her that day in France all those years ago?

Once again B.A. Paris had me absolutely absorbed in her writing. Right from the start you know that Finn is a suspicious character and that we’re not getting the whole truth from him but you’re never sure how much he is to blame for what happened to Layla. I loved playing detective and trying to guess what happened back then and if Layla truly is alive and well in the present day.

I also loved the role that the Russian dolls had to play in this book. It gave the story a distinctly horror-esque vibe that you don’t often see in thrillers, adding another chilling piece to this complex puzzle.

I have to say that I did have some mixed feelings on the ending to this one. I found that I had to suspend belief a little too much for my liking but it’s also an ending that got me thinking and discussing the situation with my friends to see what they’d do and I love when a book leaves you thinking long after you finish it.

Overall Bring Me Back is another gripping domestic noir from B.A. Paris and I’m already eagerly anticipating her next book.


As part of the blog tour I'm giving away a copy of Bring Me Back! 
Make sure you enter over on Twitter 



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Friday, 19 January 2018

Q&A With Non Pratt and Second Best Friend Giveaway!

Hello everyone! I hope you've all had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend? I'm so excited to be welcoming one of my favourite UKYA authors Non Pratt onto the blog! Today we're chatting about her brand new book Second Best Friend, writing advice, and dealing with insecurity. I'm also giving one of you lucky lot the chance to win a copy of Second Best Friend over on Twitter!


Q1.) Hi Non, welcome to the blog! I absolutely loved Second Best Friend, what sparked the idea behind it? 
Friendship is a constant theme in all my books, but I’d not yet explored the concept of rivalry and the insecurity that can arise from admiring your best friend so much that you make the mistake of thinking they’re better than you. I thought it was time to write about it!

Q2.) What advice would you give to anyone who, like Jade, feels like a second best friend?
We all feel like that sometimes – don’t we? BUT if all of us feel this way, then your best friend is sitting there wishing she could be just as brilliant as you. It’s all relative! Which means that whole concept of ‘best’ is completely ridiculous in this context. Don’t strive to be the best of all people, just strive the best of yourself – it’s the only thing you can be. (And go easy on yourself if you make mistakes. That’s part of being human too.)

Q3.) What Hogwarts houses would Jade and Becky be in? 
Jade is ambitious and in this story we see a little more of her manipulative side. She’s so set on winning that she’s prepared to do whatever it takes to get there, which is a very Slytherin trait - having said that, she’s also a little rash, so there’s a splash of Gryffindor in there too. Becky’s a Ravenclaw through and through. She enjoys studying and knowledge and she works hard to achieve those ends.

 Q4.) Barrington Stoke is a publisher that makes reading more accessible to young people, do you have any tips on how to get a non-reader reading?
The first thing I’d do is to try not to focus on the idea of someone being a ‘non-reader’. You don’t have to think of yourself as a reader to actually be one – maybe you read loads on online or in magazines or a computer game. We consume words outside of books too. If you want to entice someone towards books, find out what they like. If they’re into sports then an interesting autobiography or fact book might be more up their street. Cartoons? Try a graphic novel. Film and TV? Try a script. The most important thing to do isn’t to give them something you love, but something they will love. I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve seen recommending Harry Potter for dyslexic readers – those books are densely typeset and have tons of unfamiliar words (spells aren’t part of our Muggle vernacular), just because you gobbled them up doesn’t automatically make them a safe bet for others.

Q5.) This is your second short story for Barrington Stoke, is writing a short story harder or easier than writing a full-length novel? 
Both. It’s easier in that I’m more focused and don’t end up writing 3 x more words than necessary, but because I’m not allowed to fart around in infinite different ways, I also get a bit bored, which can be hard to overcome!

Q6.) Do you have any advice for aspiring YA writers? 
My advice is to listen only to the advice that works for you. If you write like me then I advise you don’t worry too much about mapping out every chapter before you draft, rather that you have a good idea of where to start and where to end. You can prep all the Post-its you want, but you’ll only get to know your characters through writing about them. For YA specifically, it’s more important to develop a distinctive voice than a distinctive plot. You can write almost any storyline a million different ways, so give your reader a reason to listen to how you do it.

Q7.) What’s been your best author moment so far? 
I thought it would be the writing, or maybe finding my books in the shop, but it isn’t. On my desk there’s a letter from a librarian – not addressed to me, but to my publisher, thanking them for setting up a visit to her school. In it, she speaks of challenging students who enjoyed the talk, a new reader who was brave enough to ask a question and how Trouble is the longest book some of them have ever read to the end. Nothing has ever been better than that letter.

Q8.) What books would you recommend to fans looking for stories similar to your own? 
Maybe try Holly Bourne, Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison, or Lisa Williamson – I wouldn’t say our stories are similar, but I think if you like anything I’ve written, you’d like their writing too! In terms of friendship books, I love Radio Silence by Alice Oseman and I’m really looking forward to Goodbye, Perfect by Sara Barnard.

Q9.) Can you tell us a bit about what you’re working on next? 
The project that will have my attention this month is Floored – this is a collaborative novel that I’m working on with Sara Barnard, Holly Bourne, Tanya Byrne, Mel Salisbury, Lisa Williamson and Ellie Wood. I adore their work and it’s been brilliant drafting together and we’re just tightening everything up in the edit. The book takes six teens who’ve never met until the first chapter, when they witness an event that brings them back together, one way or another, on the same day for the next few years of their life.

Q10.) And lastly, what three words best describe Second Best Friend? 
Dangerous insecurity spiral.

Don't miss your chance to win Second Best Friend over on Twitter!

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Thursday, 5 October 2017

A Shiver of Snow and Sky Blog Tour

Hello everyone and welcome to my stop on the A Shiver of Snow and Sky blog tour! I had the pleasure of reading this magical book the other week and I absolutely loved it. Lisa Lueddecke's writing completely sweeps you away to an icy land where warnings are painted red in the skies so I'm very excited to be hosting a fantastic guest post from Lisa on magical world-building today and I have 3 copies of the book to give away to three of my lucky readers over on Twitter!


Magical World-Building by Lisa Lueddecke

If there is one part of writing I am here for, it’s the world-building. With A Shiver of Snow and Sky, I had elements of the world long before any of the story came to me, but because the world was so concrete and realized, the story fell seamlessly into place. I always knew that the northern lights would play a huge role, and I always knew that I wanted the sky to speak to those on the island, and so the rest of the story just followed, like it had existed all along and was just waiting for me to find it. That was very much the sense I got while writing this story: that I was discovering something that had always existed in my mind, and it was very exciting.

When I’m creating a fantasy world, I tend to picture landscapes, settings, and jot down notes on the imagery. Sometimes I scroll through pages and pages of pins on Pinterest, or do image searches for relevant words, or just free write in a notebook for a while to brainstorm ideas. For A Shiver of Snow and Sky, I wrote down a list of words that would complement the world (and I still have the list.) This was what I wrote down.

 Barren 
Biting 
Bleak 
Crackling 
Crisp 
Crunchy 
Fluffy 
Foggy 
Frosty 
Gray 
Isolated 
Leafless 
Lonely 
Misty 
Nippy 
Numb 
Overcast 
Evergreen 
Mittens 
Gust 
Shawl 
Quilt 
Layers 
Tea 
Knit 
Bundled 
Bare 
Spice 
Blue 

I knew early on that the world the book was set in would be every bit as big a character as the actual characters, and it would be the first one I’d need to fully understand before I could move on. I think the setting-as-a-character thing is true of all fantasy, if not all books! If readers can’t believe in the world you’ve created, it leaves room for them to not believe in your book. Writing down that list of random, wintry words helped me to set the tone for the book I wanted to write, even if I didn’t expressly use them in the story. It’s also very important to fully understand the parameters of the world you’re creating, because it will set the standard by which you mean to continue. If your world has rules regarding magic, for example, you need to either remember not to break those rules, or understand how those rules can be broken. (Breaking those rules does not have to ruin anything; it can be an important plot point, if you have a firm understanding of how to pull it off!)

Magic in world-building does not limit itself to books with systems for using magic, such as Harry Potter, but worlds that contain magical or fantasy elements that need to be outlined and understood. Without going into too much detail for those who haven’t read the book yet, much of that for me was based around my use of the northern lights as a voice of the Goddess, whereas much of the day to day world in which the characters lived could be explained away as an old Norse village, or similar. The most important thing for me to get right in writing this book, and which I sincerely hope I did, was to create a world in which, while daily life might seem simple and normal, there was the idea that anything could happen, and anything was possible. Whether that was through references to their superstitions or campfire tales, I wanted the world to feel richer than what they saw and lived every day, because as a reader, having that feeling that anything can happen is something that keeps me turning the pages of any book. If there’s more than meets the eye, more to discover, and more to learn, you will have my undivided attention!

In closing, I believe that building a magical world is all about layering: start with something simple, like a basic setting, and add to that slowly, fleshing out the bones. I started with the idea of a wintry island, then layered in the idea of the northern lights, the villagers’ superstitions, stories about the mountains, and I just kept going until I had a whole world (and I’m still building it!) I think I’ll always feel like I have more to add to the world, but I’m happy with what I’ve done so far, and I’m so excited to be back on the island working on the next book.

For your chance to win a copy of A Shiver of Snow and Sky head on over to Twitter to enter! 


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Monday, 11 September 2017

Things A Bright Girl Can Do Blog Tour

Hello everyone and welcome to my stop on the Things A Bright Girl Can Do blog tour. Today I have an epic giveaway for you! One of my lucky readers will win a copy of Things A Bright Girl Can Do, plus a china Votes for Women mug, poster, badge and postcard. But first, in case this book isn't on your radar yet here's a little bit more about it...


"Through rallies and marches, in polite drawing rooms and freezing prison cells and the poverty-stricken slums of the East End, three courageous young women join the fight for the vote. 

 Evelyn is seventeen, and though she is rich and clever, she may never be allowed to follow her older brother to university. Enraged that she is expected to marry her childhood sweetheart rather than be educated, she joins the Suffragettes, and vows to pay the ultimate price for women's freedom. 

 May is fifteen, and already sworn to the cause, though she and her fellow Suffragists refuse violence. When she meets Nell, a girl who's grown up in hardship, she sees a kindred spirit. Together and in love, the two girls start to dream of a world where all kinds of women have their place. 

 But the fight for freedom will challenge Evelyn, May and Nell more than they ever could believe. As war looms, just how much are they willing to sacrifice?" 

 For your chance to win this fab prize head on over to Twitter to enter!


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Tuesday, 15 August 2017

Editing Emma Blog Tour

Hello everyone and welcome to my stop on the Editing Emma blog tour! Today I have a brilliant guest post from Chloe Seager on growing up online and I'm giving 3 of my lucky readers the chance to win a copy of the book over on Twitter.


Online Pressures For This Generation by Chloe Seager

When I was a teenager, I don’t think I realised just how new or strange a thing social media really was. I was part of the first generation who grew up with it, and everything in my life being public seemed pretty normal to me. I remember my Mum being totally scandalised by pictures of me and my friends in bikinis ‘on the internet?!’ and shaking her head at our constant selfie-sharing. But looking back, I think I’ve gained some perspective on what a strange thing it actually can be, and what kind of additional pressures social media put on my teenage years. 

Genuinely, I went through a phase where I almost felt like things weren’t real unless they were put online. Like, if we didn’t get a photo of our evening out…did it even happen? I also went through a phase where if I had a terrible time, I would think to myself, ‘it’s ok, at least I got some pictures that look like I’m having a good time.’ Looking back, these aren’t particularly healthy thoughts for a young person to be having. What kind of value system is that? One where I comfort my lonely, sad self with the image of myself seeming happy and fulfilled? In many ways, I think I could even look at pictures of times that were truly awful and convince myself I was having fun…which is even more bizarre than convincing other people.

Thinking about it, though, it’s not all that surprising. When you’re fourteen years old and everything in your life starts getting uploaded, to start defining yourself by that content almost seems inevitable… or at least, for the lines to blur. Even if I knew logically that other people weren’t always as they appeared in their content - I got told it time and time again, and I knew that I myself wasn’t always completely truthful - all these smiling, shining pictures of other people did (and still do) make it hard sometimes. And probably for some people more than me, who was lucky enough to have a decent group of pals. A friend I met in adult life said before social media came along, she might have been at home alone on a Friday night…but no one would know about it. She knew on a vague level that other people were probably out having fun, but didn’t have to get smacked in the face with it. But once Facebook happened, not only did she know for sure that she was never invited to parties, but it was also suddenly like everyone else could see her own lack of social life. ‘Why are there never any pictures of you?’ they would ask. It highlighted how left out she was at school in a very public domain, to the point where she considered taking dressed-up selfies that made her look like she was going out. (She didn’t do this in the end, and deleted her social media instead).

I think it must be even worse for teenagers now than it was for my generation. I did definitely think about how I was coming off - what with reams of embarrassing photos being uploaded against my will, and thinking ‘I look so ugly there’ and ‘how dare they upload this,’ and obviously using it to look a certain way (a la Emma) e.g. wanting to look like I was having tons of fun even if I wasn’t, or wanting to seem like I was SUPER HAPPY AND FINE to spite an ex boyfriend or a mate I was fighting with. But I do think it’s even more extreme now. Probably the most creative choice I’d ever made on social media was what song to choose for my MySpace profile, and now each and every photo that gets uploaded has a zillion filter choices. It’s a whole different world than it was ten years ago and in general I think the emphasis is now on quality over quantity, which in many ways puts way more focus onto one’s image.

There are benefits to this, though. I asked my boyfriend recently, who never got a FB account as a teenager, but did get Insta later on. He said he didn't like the way Facebook made his whole life public in a way he couldn’t fully control, whereas with Instagram he mainly chooses what to share. In a way I totally understand that… It also gives room for you to be creative and explore your own identity, which is such a huge part of being a teenager. But imagining my teenage self with Instagram, I can see just how incredibly neurotic I would have become. It’s not just ‘here’s me on a night out,’ any more, it’s like… ‘here’s my bedroom,’ ‘here’s my plate of food,’ ‘here’s my everything’ etc etc. I think though the amount of content might have decreased, people expect to share even more aspects of their lives now than ten years ago, and naturally, the need to present oneself a certain way will become more extreme along with it.

I think social media can be wonderful but as with anything, it has its pros and cons. It’s great way for teenagers to connect, but it can also compound loneliness, and exacerbate what can already be an isolating period. It’s a great way to express yourself and be creative, and I think it allows teenagers to be more switched on and worldly than people without it would have been. But then again, figuring out who you’re supposed to be over those years is difficult enough, without doing it in public. It seems like it applies pressure for the decision to be right now, and to be fully formed. Whilst it can give you a boost, it can also make you feel low and leads people into pretending or putting up a front. In the end, I eventually figured out how to use it in a way I was happy with; everyone probably has a different relationship with it and needs to find their own balance. But I don’t envy teenagers (like Emma!) having to go through that. In hindsight, it was such a big part of my own teenage life that I knew I wanted to write about it in Editing Emma.

For your chance to win a copy of Editing Emma head over to Twitter 



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Sunday, 30 July 2017

The Marriage Pact Blog Tour

Hello everyone and welcome to my stop on The Marriage Pact blog tour! Today I am giving 5 of my lucky readers the chance to win a copy of the book. In case this gripping thriller isn't on your radar yet here is a little bit about it...


"It's the perfect wedding gift. Newlyweds Jake and Alice are offered membership of a club which promises members will never divorce. Signing The Pact seems the ideal start to their marriage. Until one of them breaks the rules. Because The Pact is for life. And its members will go to any lengths to ensure nobody leaves..." 

 I'm so excited to read this book that has been praised by authors such as JP Delaney, Lisa Gardner and Gin Phillips.
 For your chance to win a copy of The Marriage Pact head over to Twitter 

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Monday, 24 July 2017

Feminist Fiction On My TBR

With the success of The Handmaid's Tale and in the YA community books such as Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill and Holly Bourne's Spinster Club series I've noticed more feminist fiction being published this year which makes me incredibly excited! I've read a lot of non-fiction on feminism but fiction is my preference and I love that there are more and more stories being published with the subject of feminism at its forefront.

Today I wanted to share with you some of the feminist fiction I have on my TBR pile that I want to get to over the next few months. I hope that it gives you some ideas for feminist books to add to your own reading piles!


The Power by Naomi Alderman 

Like most people, I first heard about The Power when it was nominated for The Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction this year. That and the quote from Margaret Atwood had me sold and I ordered a copy straight away. I find the premise of this one absolutely fascinating - what if the power to hurt was in women's hands? In The Power teenage girls wake up one day to find that they can inflict pain with a flick of their fingers. I've heard nothing but brilliant things about this book and since it went on to win the Bailey's Prize I know I need to get to it soon.


The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood 

This book has been sitting on my shelf for years unread but I started watching the TV series and absolutely adore it so it's going on pause for a while as incentive for me to finally pick up this book because I prefer to read a book before watching the adaptation. The Handmaid's Tale is a modern classic for a reason and I'm excited to finally read it soon and then get back into the show!


Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed 

This book is being pitched as being perfect for fans of The Girls by Emma Cline which was one of my favourite books of last year. It tells the story of a cult founded by ten men years ago when they colonised an island. Girls are wives in training, massively controlled and must reproduce at the first sign of puberty. I think that like The Girls this is going to be a dark and disturbing read. I currently have a giveaway for Gather the Daughters running on my Instagram so if you'd like to be in with a chance of winning go enter here.


Who Runs the World? by Virginia Bergin 

Moving on to some YA! I loved Virginia Bergin's The Rain series and have high hopes for this dystopian read about a world where a virus has wiped out the male population and women are in charge. The idea behind this book sounds so interesting to me and I'm excited to see what Virginia Bergin does with it.


Things a Bright Girl Can Do by Sally Nicholls 

I think that this is one of the books I am the most excited to get to on this pile! Things a Bright Girl Can Do releases in September and follows three courageous teenage girls as they fight for equality and join the Suffragettes. I don't think I've ever read any YA historical feminist fiction and what better place to start than to read about the Suffragettes? This book also has LGBT rep and from the looks of it is going to be absolutely fantastic!


Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu 

Thanks to Zoella picking it for her 2017 book club, everybody is reading Moxie right now! This sounds like an American version of What's a Girl Gotta Do? and follows Viv who begins a girl revolution at her school. I have a feeling that I'm going to love this book as it ticks a lot of boxes for me. It's one that is at the very top of my reading pile!

Which book do you think I should start with? 
And what books are on your feminist fiction TBR pile?

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Friday, 30 June 2017

The Fourth Monkey Blog Tour: Guest Post and Giveaway!

Hello everyone and welcome to my stop on The Fourth Monkey blog tour! Today I have a brilliant guest post from J.D. Barker on how to write a chilling serial killer and I'm giving three of my readers the chance to win a copy of the book over on Twitter!


How JD Barker goes about creating a chilling serial killer 
and what he thinks makes a great villain

Easy peasy –

I’ve known I wanted to write a serial killer thriller for a long time but the story had to be just so. The formula has been done to death and I needed something fresh. Years ago, I decided if I wrote this book, the killer should die at the beginning of the story. That created a few complex problems, the least of which was where to go from there. The story sat patiently waiting in my subconscious until a day back in 2014 when I was in line at the grocery store. There was a rather rotund woman in line ahead of me in one of those electric carts and a boy of about eight years old standing behind me with his father. The boy said something about the woman, I didn’t hear what exactly, then his father leaned down and said, “Speak no evil, son.” As soon as I heard that, a number of thoughts flooded my head – Who says that? What exactly is happening back at their house? By that night, I had the basis for my killer’s childhood and the story found its way to paper quickly.

I’ve always been fascinated with serial killers and the overall psychology behind them. What causes a person to kill? Is that urge hardwired from the moment they’re born or is it somehow a learned behaviour fueled by environment and upbringing? A combination of both? The more I studied, the more I realized that even the experts don’t really know. They love to pretend they do, psychologists love their labels and find peace in the various boxes they feel they can drop people into but that appearance of knowledge is nothing but a mask. I’ve known good people who grew up in bad places and bad people who grew up under the best circumstances. There are a lot of sociopaths out in the world and only a small fraction of them kill, not all killers are sociopaths. The world isn’t black and white but filled with gray and it’s within that gray 4MK was born. My goal was to write a book that not only entertained but blurred the line between innocent and guilty – I hoped people would not only empathize with the victims but also the killer.

What makes a great villain? Showing the good in them. Nobody is purely good or evil, we all just lean one way or the other. A good character should be no different.

 For your chance to win a copy of The Fourth Monkey head over to Twitter 


 Don't miss the rest of the blog tour!


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Friday, 10 March 2017

See How They Lie Extract and Giveaway

Hello everyone! Today I have an extract of the highly anticipated new book from #ZoellaBookClub author Sue Wallman for you and if you like what you read then you're in luck as I have three copies of See How They Lie up for grabs over on Twitter!




 For your chance to win 1/3 copies of See How They Lie head over to Twitter

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Thursday, 16 February 2017

The Breakdown Blog Tour: Q&A with B A Paris and Giveaway

Hello everyone! Today I am very excited to be hosting a stop on the blog tour for The Breakdown the highly anticipated new thriller from B A Paris author of the bestselling Behind Closed Doors. I absolutely loved The Breakdown and if you missed my review yesterday you can check it out here for my full thoughts. Today I have a Q&A with B A Paris to share and I have 3 copies of the book up for grabs over on Twitter.


Q&A with B A Paris 

1) How has your life changed since the release of Behind Closed Doors? Did you ever expect it to be as successful as it was? 
I honestly didn’t have any expectations at all for Behind Closed Doors, all I wanted was to be able to see it on the shelves in a bookshop somewhere. So everything that’s happened this last year has been a wonderful and unexpected surprise. The best thing about its success is that it has bought me the freedom to write, in that I’ve been able to give up most of my teaching. Writing has now become my job.

2) What’s been your best moment as an author so far? 
Being told that HQ/Harper Collins would be publishing my book was a huge moment. Hitting the New York Times bestseller list and receiving the Neilsen Bestseller Award in January for having sold 500,000 copies of Behind Closed Doors were pretty amazing too. But without my lovely agent Camilla Wray none of the others would have happened, so the moment she said she wanted to represent me was definitely the best moment ever.

 3) What can fans of Behind Closed Doors expect from The Breakdown? In what ways are they similar or different?
They are similar in that they are both psychological thrillers with a young woman who is going through a traumatic experience as the main character. They are different in that in Behind Closed Doors we know what is happening to Grace, whereas in The Breakdown, even Cass doesn’t know what is happening to her!

4) What sparked the idea behind The Breakdown?
I was travelling home one afternoon through some woods when the sky suddenly became dark, the skies opened and I found myself in the middle of a huge storm, complete with flash-flooding. It was quite scary and I began to wonder what I would do if it was the middle of the night and I saw someone who had broken down at the side of the road. Would I stop and help them? Or afraid for my own safety, would I drive on? I thought it was an interesting dilemma and The Breakdown was born. 

5) Was writing a second novel harder or easier than writing the first? 
Much harder. With Behind Closed Doors I had nothing to prove and had no particular reader in mind. With The Breakdown, I had everything to prove and had the readers who had enjoyed Behind Closed Doors in mind. I didn’t want to let them down, so the pressure was huge.

6) Do you have any advice for aspiring writers? 
Never, ever give up. Each time I received a rejection letter it made me determined to write a better novel. I allowed myself to feel dejected for about two minutes, then it was back to the drawing board, with a new idea and the conviction that I could do it.

7) What books would you recommend to fans looking for similar stories to your own?
Any novel by Mary Kubica. She has a fourth novel coming out this year and it’s brilliant.

8) Can you tell us a bit about what you’re working on next?
It’s another psychological thriller but I don’t want to say too much about the plot just yet.

 9) And finally, what three words best describe The Breakdown?
A gripping read – I hope!

For your chance to win a copy of The Breakdown head over to Twitter 


 Don't miss the rest of the blog tour!


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Wednesday, 8 February 2017

Who's That Girl? Blog Tour: Q&A with Mhairi McFarlane and Giveaway

Hello everybody and welcome to my stop on the Who's That Girl? blog tour! I'm a huge fan of Mhairi McFarlane and absolutely loved Who's That Girl? when I read it in hardcover last year, if you missed it you can check out my review here. To celebrate the paperback release I have a Q&A with Mhairi herself and am giving you the chance to win a copy of the book over on Twitter.


Q&A with Mhairi McFarlane

1. Who’s That Girl? is your fourth novel what can fans of your previous books expect from this one?
I was talking to a friend the other day who said I dish worse and worse things out to my heroines, so, trauma, it seems! Who’s That Girl? is about 30something Edie, who becomes a social pariah after an incident at a wedding and is thrown out of her Instagrammable London life, back home to Nottingham, where she has to contend with unfiltered reality. Whereupon she meets hot new star, actor Elliot, who’s handling being famous, while Edie is coping with being infamous. Antics ensue.

2. One of my favourite things about your books is your heroines. Which of your characters is the most like you? 
Ooh that’s a good question. Probably Rachel in You Had Me At Hello, if that’s not too obvious an answer. I’m an ex journalist who loves Manchester, and like Rachel, an arch procrastinator who can’t make her mind up about anything. Obviously the plot of that book is not autobiography though! When I wrote it, I was somewhat tired of chick lit heroines being lovely angels who are assailed by bad luck, when lets face it, most of the time, we have a big hand in making our bad luck. So I definitely gave Rachel plenty of my flaws. Her habit of getting out of difficult conversations by making crass jokes…yeah…I didn’t stretch a million miles to write that. Like Rachel, I had a great time at university and made some lifelong friends, too. The idea for that book came from me thinking what a powerful nostalgia those years gave me, and wondering: wow, what if you’d met your love of your life during those years, and not seen him since? Imagine THAT. For me, fiction starts in a truth, a jumping off point for playing the What If? game.

3. What’s been your best moment as an author so far? 
Hmmm let’s see. The funny thing is, you spend so long dreaming of getting a book deal and once you have one, you wait for it to ‘land.’ I’ll be honest, I thought there’d be a key moment – possibly holding a cocktail, on a villa balcony, watching a setting sun – where it’d dawn on me ‘OMG! I AM AUTHOR!’ but it never happened. I still don’t quite believe it and fully expect to wake up and find myself late for a shift on my old job (I still have that anxiety dream.) I can’t pin one best moment, really: a call from my agent to say I’d had a pre publication offer for my first book from Germany was an absolute ‘I don’t believe this happening’ swoon. I ran home and shouted up the stairs to my boyfriend ‘We can get the fridge!!’ (I had an obsession with getting a green Smeg. Yes, I am a dreadful person.) I hope that answer doesn’t make it sound like it was all about money because it absolutely wasn’t, but knowing I had enough funds for a while to call it my official job? That was incredible. And seeing the cover artwork for You Had Me At Hello, with my name on it. My editor emailed me it and I was screaming at the thumbnail photo before I’d even opened it. And then there’s the day you get a box of books…your own book. Best job in the world.

4. You’re known for writing smart, funny women’s fiction are there any authors who influenced your writing style? 
Thank you! Oh God, plenty. Marian Keyes is the don, of course, for humour, storytelling smarts, and that wonderful voice you could read all day and night. Oddly, also, I’d have to say Joss Whedon made all the difference to me. Watching Buffy was when I realised that genre could tell really impactful, adult stories: so many people dismissed Buffy as teen fluff and it was a total Trojan horse for some stunningly inventive, mature ideas. It gave me the confidence to bend a few of chick lit’s unofficial rules.

5. Where do you get the ideas behind your books? 
I start with a challenge or question that interests me. So for example, with Edie in Who’s That Girl, it was, what if someone good at managing her image, found it all crashing down in one day? You know, so much of our self worth is now bound up on these social media sites which we look at constantly on glass computers in our pockets. What if you had all that torn away and had to confront who you were, without all that superficial affirmation? When I plan a book, it doesn’t start with ‘who’s the boy?’ Although that question follows shortly behind…

6. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
I have so much I never know what to pick! The most basic I can find is: never write ‘into the market,’ ie, try to second guess what will sell. Always, always start with the story that grabs your guts and won’t let go. If yours doesn’t do that, scrap it and find the one that does. Enthusiasm is palpable in the writing, and contagious: if you love your book then so will other people. NB: I am talking about the initial concept, NOT the process itself. You will hate your own writing five times a day and tell yourself you’re useless and awful. I’m afraid the self doubt never goes away.

7. What’s the last great book that you read?
Right now I’m reading Sarah Pinborough’s new thriller Behind Her Eyes and it’s a belter. So, so tense! Will be a film I reckon, I’m calling it now.

 8. Can you tell us a bit about what you’re working on next? 
My fifth novel! Readers can expect: a northern city setting. A big shock. Loss. Lots of messy emotion. More social media and mobiles messing up our lives. My first BLONDE heroine, a barmaid with attitude called Georgina. Probably the same amount of swearing. A love interest or two. No spoilers.

Thank you so much for being on the blog today Mhairi!

For your chance to win a copy of Who's That Girl? head over to Twitter 


Don't miss the rest of the blog tour


Who's That Girl? is available to buy in paperback in all good bookshops as of the 9th February

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Wednesday, 1 February 2017

The One Blog Tour: Extract and Giveaway!

Hello everyone and welcome to my stop on The One blog tour! Today I have the first chapter of the book to share with you and if you just can't wait to read more then you're in luck as I have 3 copies to give away to 3 lucky readers!


CHAPTER 1 

 MANDY

Mandy stared at the photograph on her computer screen and held her breath.

The shirtless man had cropped, light brown hair, and posed on a beach with his legs spread apart with the top half of his wetsuit rolled down to his waist. His eyes were the clearest shade of blue. His huge grin contained two perfectly aligned rows of white teeth, and she could almost taste the salt water dripping from his chest and onto the surfboard lying by his feet.

‘Oh my Lord,’ she whispered to herself, and let out a long breath she didn’t realise she’d been holding. She felt her fingertips tingle and her face flush, and wondered how on earth her body would react to him in person if that’s how it responded to just one photograph.

The coffee in her polystyrene cup was cold but she still finished it. She took a screengrab of the photograph and added it to a newly created folder on her desktop entitled ‘Richard Taylor’. She scanned the office to check if anyone was watching what she was up to in her booth, but no one was paying her any attention.

Mandy scrolled down the screen to look at the other photographs in his Facebook album ‘Around the World’. He was certainly well travelled, she noticed, and he had been to places she’d only ever seen on TV or in films. In many pictures he was in bars, trails and temples, posing by landmarks, enjoying golden beaches and choppy waters. He was rarely on his own. She liked that he seemed the gregarious type.

Curious, she looked back further into his timeline, from when he first joined social media as a sixth former and through his three years at university. She even found him attractive as a gawky teenager.

After an hour and a half of gawping at nearly the entirety of the handsome stranger’s history, Mandy made her way to his Twitter feed to see what he felt the need to share with the world. But all he ranted about was Arsenal’s rise and fall in the Premier League, occasionally broken up by retweets of animals falling over or running into stationary objects.

Their interests appeared to differ greatly, and she questioned exactly why they had been Matched and what they might have in common. Then she reminded herself she no longer needed the mindset required for using dating websites and apps; Match Your DNA was based on biology, chemicals and science – none of which she could get her head around. But she trusted it with all her heart, like millions and millions of others did.

Mandy moved on to Richard’s LinkedIn profile, which revealed that since graduating from Worcester University two years earlier, he’d worked as a personal trainer in a town approximately forty miles from hers. No wonder his body appeared so solid, she thought, and she imagined how it might feel on top of hers.

She hadn’t set foot in a gym since her induction a year ago, when her sisters insisted she should stop lamenting her failed marriage and start concentrating on her recovery. They’d whisked her away to a nearby hotel day-spa where she’d been massaged, plucked, waxed, hot-stoned, tanned and massaged again until any thought of her ex had been pummelled out of every back and shoulder knot and each clogged pore of her skin. The gym membership had followed along with a promise that she would keep up with the workout schedule they’d set up for her. Motivating herself to work out regularly had yet to become part of her weekly routine, but she paid for the membership regardless.

She began to imagine what her children with Richard might look like, and if they’d inherit their father’s blue eyes or be brown like hers; whether they’d be dark haired and olive skinned like her or fair and pale like him. She found herself smiling.

‘Who’s that?’

‘Jesus!’ she yelled. The voice had made her jump. ‘You scared me to death.’

‘Well, you shouldn’t have been looking at porn at work then.’ Olivia grinned, and offered her a sweet from a bag of Haribo. Mandy declined with a shake of her head.

‘It wasn’t porn, he’s an old friend.’

‘Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. Keep an eye out for Charlie though, he’s after some sales figures from you.’

Mandy rolled her eyes, then looked at the clock in the corner of her screen. She realised that if she didn’t start doing some work soon she’d end up taking it home with her. She clicked on the little red ‘x’ in the corner and cursed her Hotmail account for assuming the Match Your DNA confirmation email was spam. It had sat in her junk folder for the last six weeks until, by chance, she had discovered it earlier that afternoon.

‘Mandy Taylor, wife of Richard Taylor, pleased to meet you,’ she whispered. She noticed she was absent-mindedly twiddling an invisible ring around her wedding finger.

 Want to keep reading? For your chance to win a copy of The One head over to Twitter! 

 Don't miss the rest of the blog tour


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