Legacy Launch Party And Fabulous Karl Lagerfeld Tote Bag Giveaway...

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to join with Hannah Fielding in her Legacy Launch Party

1st -21st August 2016

Hannah is launching Legacy, the third and final book in the 

Andalusian Nights Trilogy

Synopsis

A troubled young journalist finds her loyalties tested when love and desire unearth dark secrets from the past.

Spring, 2010. When Luna Ward, a science journalist from New York, travels halfway across the world to work undercover at an alternative health clinic in Cadiz, her ordered life is thrown into turmoil. 

The doctor she is to investigate, the controversial Rodrigo Rueda de Calderon, is not what she expected. With his wild gypsy looks and devilish sense of humour, he is intent upon drawing her to him. But how can she surrender to a passion that threatens all reason; and how could he ever learn to trust her when he discovers her true identity? Then Luna finds that Ruy is carrying a corrosive secret of his own…

Luna’s native Spanish blood begins to fire in this land of exotic legends, flamboyant gypsies and seductive flamenco guitars, as dazzling Cadiz weaves its own magic on her heart. Can Luna and Ruy’s love survive their families’ legacy of feuding and tragedy, and rise like the phoenix from the ashes of the past? 

Legacy is a story of truth, dreams and desire. But in a world of secrets you need to be careful what you wish for...

More about Hannah

Hannah Fielding is an incurable romantic. The seeds for her writing career were sown in early childhood, spent in Egypt, when she came to an agreement with her governess Zula: for each fairy story Zula told, Hannah would invent and relate one of her own. Years later – following a degree in French literature, several years of travelling in Europe, falling in love with an Englishman, the arrival of two beautiful children and a career in property development – Hannah decided after so many years of yearning to write that the time was now. Today, she lives the dream: writing full time at her homes in Kent, England, and the South of France, where she dreams up romances overlooking breath-taking views of the Mediterranean.

Hannah is a multi-award-winning novelist, and to date she has published five novels: Burning Embers, ‘romance like Hollywood used to make’, set in Kenya; The Echoes of Love, ‘an epic love story that is beautifully told’ set in Italy; and the Andalusian Nights Trilogy – Indiscretion, Masquerade and Legacy – her fieriest novels yet, set in sunny, sultry Spain.

Website

Twitter @fieldinghannah

Facebook

Goodreads

Amazon UK

There is also an amazing opportunity to win this Karl Lagerfeld Tote Bag

**Just enter this giveaway to be in win a chance of winning **

a Rafflecopter giveaway

~**Good Luck**~ 

Blog Tour ~ The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be part of 

The Summer That Melted Everything 

Blog Tour

..."The heat came with the devil..."

Hi Tiffany - a very warm welcome to Jaffareadstoo and thank you for spending time with us today

Photo credit:Jennifer McDaniel 2016

Tell us a little about Tiffany McDaniel, author

I’m an Ohio poet and novelist who wishes I could ride the back of Moby Dick across the great Atlantic, make a web with Charlotte, and shoot the breeze (but no mockingbirds) with Atticus Finch. 

 

How long have you been writing and what got you started?

As a child, writing was the first thing I remember doing without any external influence or direction. Writing is something I am drawn to do as naturally as I am drawn to take breath for life. Without writing, I am lost. I can’t find my way home to infinity. I’m let loose like a ghost out of flesh, raging against the land that will not have me. The skies that will not fly me. Writing is my safety on the other side of the fall. I don’t exist without it. 

 

What inspired you to write The Summer That Melted Everything and what can you tell us about it that won’t give too much away?

Scribe
11 August 2016

The Summer that Melted Everything is about an eighty-four-year-old man named Fielding Bliss, who is looking back on his life during one summer in 1984 when he was thirteen-years-old and his father, Autopsy Bliss, invited the devil to their small town called Breathed, Ohio. Who answers the invitation ends up being a boy in overalls and bruises. This boy’s arrival comes the first day of a hell-hot heat-wave that carries through the entire course of the summer. This is not just a story about the heat, but a story of everything that melted in that heat. Family, friendships, innocence, and even lives. Puddles of all of these things melted down. That is what this story is. A man trying to survive ferrying these puddles, which to him have become oceans he must cross to once again find the bliss of his name.

Are you a plotter...or ...a start writing and see where it takes you sort of writer?

I never outline or pre-plan the story. For me, each new word I type and each new page I write evolves the story. I always say I’m even surprised as the author at what the story develops into. I meet the characters along the way. The story is not fully revealed to me until I type the last word of the last chapter. When you plan out a story too much, it almost becomes domesticated. I want a wild story I can take into the jungle with me. 

What were the challenges you faced whilst writing this novel?

Writing for me is the easy part. I can’t say there were any challenges writing this novel, or writing in general. The thing that has been challenging is getting published. I wrote my first novel when I was eighteen-years-old. I wouldn’t get a publishing contract until I was twenty-nine. It’s a narrative many authors have. Years of struggling to get a foot in the publishing door. For me it was eleven years of rejection and fear I’d never be published. That was challenging. Finding the will to continue on. The hope that one day I would be a published author. 

What do you hope that readers will take away from The Summer That Melted Everything?

To separate oneself from herd mentality and always preserve your individual thought. To not allow that thought to rot by ignorance or fear. To understand that we have to love and respect one another in this world if we are to have any peace. That we will never win the battle, if we are doing nothing more than stabbing each other to death with swords.

How can readers discover more about you and your work?

I’m not on social media, but readers can jump on to my website at www.tiffanymcdaniel.com

Readers can also connect with me directly through my website. That connection to readers is very important to me. As I’ve said, they’re the ones who determine an author’s entire career. How can I not give them some of my time, when they’ve given me some of their time reading my book?

About the Author

An Ohio native, Tiffany McDaniel’s writing is inspired by the rolling hills and buckeye woods of the land she knows. She is also a poet, playwright, screenwriter, and artist. The Summer that Melted Everything is her first novel.

Find out more about Tiffany on her Website

Follow the Blog Tour on Twitter #DevilAutopsy

Amazon UK

My thanks to Tiffany for her insightful answers to my questions about

 The Summer that Melted Everything 

and also to Sophie at Scribe for the invitation to be part of the tour.

Blog  Tour runs 8th - 14th August so please visit the other stops for more exciting content.

~***~

The author in my spotlight is ....Martine Bailey

I am delighted to welcome to Jaffareadstoo the best selling author of 

An Appetite for Violets and The Penny Heart

Martine Bailey

Hi Martine and a very warm welcome to Jaffareadstoo and thanks for being our author in the spotlight today...

Where did you get the first flash of inspiration for -The Penny Heart?

Hi Jo. Well it's a bit of a story as in 2011 my son Chris and his partner were caught up in the Christchurch earthquake. Though they were thankfully unharmed, my husband and I flew out there to see them and have a long working holiday. For our first year, we house-swapped on New Zealand's East Cape, with an ocean view of the Pacific. One day I was walking on the empty beach and thought about life across the Tasman Sea in Botany Bay in Australia, where the British had set up a prison colony in 1788. Meanwhile, my husband was teaching Maori students, descendants of the original inhabitants of my new hometown. I had already glimpsed their strong traditions of singing, tattooing and celebration, and explored the remains of some stockaded fortresses on our street.

I then discovered Penny Heart convict tokens or 'leaden hearts', made by British convicts and now collectors' pieces in Australian museums. They were smoothed copper pennies engraved with messages for loved ones about to be transported from Britain on the Georgian equivalent of a trip to the moon – with just as little prospect of returning home. 

Many Penny Hearts have messages like 'When this you see, remember me,' but as well as pain at separation, some communicate real anger and defiance. The women's images particularly intrigued me: one shows a woman releasing a dove towards a transport ship, beside an anchor of hope and reads 'I Love till death, shall stop my breath'. 

In The Penny Heart, my character Mary, has a penny token engraved at Newgate prison with a rhyme that is part promise, part threat:

Though chains hold me fast,

As the years pass away,

I swear on this heart

To find you one day

Without giving too much away – what can you tell us about the story?

It is the story of two women with hugely different backgrounds and characters whose lives collide as a result of the Penny Heart. It is partly told by Grace, a sensitive and artistic young wife who finds herself at isolated Delafosse Hall, horribly attracted to her indifferent and selfish husband. The other main character is Peg, her housekeeper, a clever cook and - the reader realises - an escaped convict and talented confidence trickster. I wanted to look at a mistress and servant relationship from a darker perspective than in An Appetite for Violets, and take envy and revenge as far as I could go. 

Whilst you are writing you must live with your characters. How do you feel about them when the book is finished? Are they what you expected them to be?

Yes, I did live with my characters all through my twenty months in the Antipodes and beyond. My two women characters both developed and mostly I was surprised and pleased with the way they turned out. Grace, the mistress of Delafosse Hall, was harder for me to write as she starts out as terribly naive and gullible. Mary arrived almost fully formed in my head, as highly motivated and very dangerous. I see part of my job in writing novels as taking emotions to extremes, and this involved racking up the tension in a series of confrontations until only one woman could succeed. Now the book is finished I'm surprised at how hugely both women grew from my first sketches, and what an emotional rollercoaster it was.

Ocean View
New Zealand

Which character in the story did you identify with the most?

Superficially, I'm more like Grace – quiet and artistic. But then again I'm more determined than people would ever think, and very interested in justice and fairness, and sympathise with the underdog. Both of them have their troubles but clearly the balance of fate weighs more heavily against Mary, as she is poor and parentless in a brutal society. I had to draw on different parts of my personality to write them both, but like many readers, I truly admire Mary's courage and pluck. One of the questions in my Reading Group Guide is about how readers feel about the ending. More than one murder has been committed, but whether justice has been done remains a matter of debate. 

Your writing is very atmospheric – how do you ‘set the scene’ in your novels and how much research did you need to do in order to bring the place and people to life?

I love research about the way people used to live, old country houses, fashion, and everything from servant hiring fairs to elegant York Assemblies. I find it very useful to literally 'set the scene' by choosing a location and then sketch room plans, and make a pin board or use Pinterest. Delafosse Hall, the dilapidated manor where much of the action takes place, is based on a once abandoned Jacobean house called Plas Teg, near where I live on the Welsh border. 

Plas Teg
The inspiration for Delafosse Hall

The opportunities to shop in the 1790s surprised me, that women like Grace could choose furniture, wallpaper and fabrics at home from pattern books of beautiful objects. A star day for me was going to Berrington Hall, which contains many of the National Trust's historic costumes and gasping over the beautiful silks and embroideries. 

At the other end of the social scale, I'm also addicted to reading criminal trials, especially when I can catch people's voices in authentic transcripts. For example, the inquest and letters from Australia at the end of the book are loosely based on reports in The Times from that period.

And finally …can you share with us anything about your next writing project?

My current work in progress is an intricate murder mystery set in an English village. My research so far has sent me looking at the impact the seasons, traditions and rituals of country life. To get into the mood I recently went to the Acton Scott Museum, where the BBC's Victorian Farm was filmed. I had a lovely time pretending to be a 'Farmer's Wife', dressing up and making butter, feeding lambs and sewing around the table. When my worldly heroine is stranded in the village after a robbery, she combines forces with a mysterious hack writer and together they solve a series of riddles and enigmas. I am loving writing it.

The Penny Heart is a Sunday Times Summer Read and is available from Hodder Books in paperback from the 28 July 2016. It is also published by St Martin’s Press in the US as A Taste For Nightshade. 

More about The Author

Visit Martine's website

Follow on Twitter  @MartineBailey #ThePennyHeart

Find on Facebook

 Martine is offering one lucky winner the chance to win a signed copy of The Penny Heart in this fabulous giveaway

Open to UK residents only

Giveaway ends 15th August ~ Good Luck

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Huge thanks to Martine for spending time with us today and for her generous giveaway. It's been great fun learning more about the inspiration for The Penny Heart.



You can see my review of this fabulous story here.

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Sunday WW1 Remembered. with guest uuthor Terri Nixon

As part of my ongoing tribute during this centenary of WW1, I am delighted to feature the work of some excellent authors who have written about The Great War.

Today I am delighted to introduce historical fiction writer

Terri Nixon

Hi Terri and a very warm welcome to Jaffareadstoo...

Researching a Woman’s War

Many thanks for inviting me onto your blog today. I’d like to talk a little bit about the research that goes into writing the war from a working woman’s point of view.

My character’s chosen path through the conflict was never in doubt; even when she was a secondary character in book one (Maid of Oaklands Manor) Evie had already shown a most unladylike fondness for fast cars, and a family friend had insisted on making sure she knew how to fix them under any conditions.

In the second book, A Rose in Flanders Fields, we pick up Evie’s story. When war breaks out, and Evie’s new husband joins up, aristocratic Evie sets off to become an ambulance driver with the Red Cross. But she soon falls foul of the strict regime, and she and her friend Boxy (Barbara) decide to set up their own, independent ambulance station, funded by any means at their disposal, and as close to the lines as they could get away with.

The research required for a life such as this was something that I’d woefully underestimated before I began. I’d read Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth, and gleaned a basic understanding of the conditions of a well-run Red Cross field hospital from that, but it wasn’t until I then picked up Lady Dorothie Feilding’s amazing book: Lady Under Fire on the Western Front that the real research glanced up, saw me looking, and yanked me in. Her courage,  humour, and her brisk, no-nonsense tone, all awed and fascinated me, and I read it through twice more without a break. An incredible woman with an astonishing story to tell.

From Lady Dorothie I moved on to Elsie and Mairi Go to War, by Diane Atkinson. Here’s where I learned more about the independent side of things; these two women (Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm) raised money themselves to fund the ambulances they took back to the Front with them, and everything else they needed. They had their own station and worked to their own strengths. Their personal stories were fascinating too, and although it would be nice to see it as a story of everlasting friendship, there was real conflict between the women who worked in such close confines, beneath the ever-present canopy of extreme danger.    

Although my research was focused as much on ambulance drivers as possible, I read voraciously throughout this time, from every female point of view I could find. Lyn McDonald’s The Roses of No Man’s Land was another treasure trove, and I understand this was the inspiration behind Sarah Phelps’s highly popular BBC drama: The Crimson Field. Packed to the rafters with first-hand accounts from all angles; home life, hospital procedure, high-ranked medical staff, and their attitudes to the VADs sent to do menial tasks under them… Any one of these books, or the others I read during this time, would have provided me with the conditions under which Evie and Boxy worked, so I could give their life an authentic feel.

Thanks to the wealth of available information, more than ever before, as the centenary commemorations continue, I could draw on actual battles and the layouts of field hospitals for when the action took place in the trenches, and real military maneouvres provided the perfect situation in which to place Evie’s husband. I was able to ensure as early on as halfway through book one that I’d enlisted him in the correct battalion to place him where I needed him to be by the end of book two.

But it wasn’t until I found one particular book, one that left me even more wrung out and emotionally drained than all the rest, that I realised what I’d been missing. Not the detail, not the facts, or even the good, solid story (it’s published as fiction, but that’s a thin veneer) but the bitter taste of honesty. A book that I found by chance, tucked away somewhere in a dusty corner of a market stall: Not So Quiet, by Helen Zenna Smith.

By the time I’d finished reading this harsh, not to say brutal story, I finally understood Evie’s confused attitude to her work, and how and why it was hidden, only semi-successfully, beneath the old gung-ho attitude of many of her class. I understood both her desperation to be out of the war, and her hopeless need to be back in the thick of it. I understood her grief, and her revulsion, and how it conflicted with her desire to ease pain wherever she saw it. I finally knew why she had chosen that path, and I wanted her to guide me down it.

Although I came to know Evie through the absorption of another character, I felt her grow into an altogether more hopeful figure than that of ‘Nellie,’ in Not So Quiet . There are so many positive –  I hesitate to say “uplifting,”– stories, and so many times when someone seemingly insignificant has made a huge difference to one or several lives. These people deserve to have their stories, not only remembered, and honoured, but most importantly understood. And now I think I understand.

Reading List:

Testament of Youth – Vera Brittain.

Lady Under Fire on the Western Front – Lady Dorothie Feilding.

Elsie and Mairi Go to War – Diane Atkinson

The Roses of No Man’s Land – Lyn McDonald

Not So Quiet – Helen Zenna Smith. 

More about the Author and her work can be found here

Terri at Amazon UK

Twitter: @TerriNixon

Terri on Facebook

Blog post: Invisible Research.

Huge thanks to Terri for this fascinating guest post today. 

It's been really interesting to learn more about Women at War. You have certainly given us much to consider and lots of lovely books to discover.

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Top Blogs.....

Jaffareadstoo is so excited to feature on I Love Books.uk as one of the

  Top Blogs of the Week

You will find links to my review of Flowers of Flanders by Ros Rendle 

and Sacrifice by Hanna Winter and also to lots of other exciting book content.

You will find more details about Book D and Byker Press on their website  

 which is stuffed full of the best news, views and interviews form the world of books

For more details  Click here

You can find Byker Books on Twitter @EdBykerBooks and on  Facebook

Tweet using the #BookD hashtag

~***~

Blog Tour ~ Sacrifice by Hanna Winter

Jaffareadstoo is excited to be part of the Sacrifice Blog Tour

Bonnier Publishing

Here's the blurb..

He must kill her. Hunt her down. Destroy her . . .

In her very first case, criminal psychologist Lena Peters is confronted with a killer on a murderous vendetta. And though she is unaware, Lena will play a prominent role in his deadly mission. Lena knows what makes killers tick and all about obsession, for she has been close to the edge herself. But soon she will become the hunted…

My thoughts about Sacrifice..

The suspenseful ending of the book certainly lends itself to a continuation.

Best Read with...

Lena Peters is a criminal psychologist who has been drafted into an ongoing investigation into finding a serial killer who seems to be targeting young women and killing them in the most macabre way. In order to justify her presence within the investigative team, Lena must first try to find her own place within it, which, at first, seems a little awkward.

This is the first book in a proposed series, so there is bound to be a certain amount of scene setting, and as with any new psychological crime story it takes a little while to get to know and understand the characters. However,  once I started to become more involved in the plot, I found that the story became interesting, and the short chapters certainly help to maintain the overall energy of the novel.

Overall, I think that the author has started off the series nicely with a story which is both suspenseful and intriguing. It's always interesting to have another look at how a criminal psychologist works and I am sure that Lena Peters will grow in strength as she starts to become involved in other stories. The ending of Sacrifice lends itself to a continuation.

Best read with …a glass of whisky and a cuddle for Napoleon the cat.

About the Author

Hanna Winter is the pseudonym for Eva Rehberger who is a hugely successful catwalk and fashion model in her native Germany. Hanna Winter's first thriller, THE CHILDREN'S TRAIL (2010), became an instant bestseller and Sacrifice has sold over 30,000 copies in Germany since first publication in 2012 – this is the first time it’s been available in English. The ebook of Sacrifce is just published and the paperback is due to be published on the 17th November 2016. The former German model has since published six novels under several pen names. Sacrifice has been received with critical acclaim.

Amazon UK

Thanks to the publishers for the invitation to be part of this blog tour.



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Blog Tour ~ Beneath the Apple Blossom by Kate Frost

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be hosting the very first day of the

Beneath the Apple Blossom Blog tour 

I'm delighted that the author has allowed me to share a tantalising extract 

from Beneath the Apple Blossom

Here's the  Cover Blurb

Four women, linked by blood ties, friendship, betrayal, loss and hope, struggle with the choices they’ve made and the hand that life’s dealt them.

All Pippa’s ever wanted is marriage and kids, but at thirty-four and about to embark on IVF, her dream of having a family is far from certain. Her younger sister Georgie has the opposite problem, juggling her career, her lover, a young daughter and a husband who wants baby number two.

Pippa’s best friend Sienna has a successful career in the film world, and despite her boyfriend pressurising her to settle down, a baby is the last thing she wants. Happily married Connie shares the trauma of fertility treatment with Pippa, but underestimates the impact being unable to conceive will have on her and her marriage.

As their lives collide in a way they could never have predicted, will any of them get to see their hopes realised? 

Lemon Tree Press
 August 2016
The Hopeful Years #1

With Beneath the Apple Blossom being told from the point of view of four different women, it was difficult to find an extract that both made sense out of context and that didn’t give away too much of the plot. Hopefully I got it right with the following piece, which is from the point of view of Connie, a married thirty-six year-old longing to have a baby. She’s just met Pippa, another thirty-something woman struggling with infertility and a failed first cycle of IVF. 

The drive to her parents’ house in Cheltenham took over an hour and a half because Connie opted for the longer yet scenic route past Westonbirt Arboretum and through Tetbury rather than along the M4 and straight up the M5. She liked having the time to think and what better place to be alone with her thoughts than on a drive through beautiful countryside. It was good to have met someone going through the same thing; however much she didn’t wish her misery on anyone else, it was refreshing to have someone who understood the uncontrollable feelings of jealousy, resentment and even rage – all feelings she needed to get under control before walking through the front door of her parents’ house. The thought of seeing her brother with his new baby erased the optimism she’d felt talking to Pippa, and so before reaching Cheltenham and facing her family, she decided to stop at the arboretum. 

Dappled sunlight filtered through leafy branches and cast comforting warmth on the twig and leaf-strewn ground. It was too beautiful a day to be having negative thoughts, yet even the sight of a forest of acers in a blaze of deep red, fresh green and buttercup yellow did little to lift her spirits. She trudged on, forcing one foot in front of the other, determined to pound away the melancholy gripping her like a vice. 

It was peaceful and she was glad there weren’t many people about – fewer and fewer the further she walked away from the cafe and shop. She pulled a bottle of water from her bag and immediately wished it was spiked with vodka – anything to numb the pain. She’d been good for too long, drinking decaf tea and coffee, abstaining from alcohol, taking pre-pregnancy vitamins, and all for what? Nothing she’d done had actually helped her to have a baby. How many young women got knocked up after an alcohol or even a drug-fuelled evening out? Maybe a night of drunken sex with Felix was exactly what was needed. Everything had become so clinical and all the fun of trying to get pregnant had disappeared a long time ago – as soon as needles, scans and low mobility had been mentioned. 

Connie stopped and looked around. She had wandered a little way off the path and was in a small grassy clearing surrounded by trees heavy with spring leaves and blossom. Not in the mood for making small talk with a stranger, she chose a spot in semi-shade out of sight of the path, leant back against the slender tree trunk and closed her eyes. A slight breeze caressed her face and every so often she got the wonderful sensation of sunlight on her. She took a deep breath and drank in the scent of damp grass and spring flowers – fresh, sweet and alive – then opened her eyes to a canopy of white against the blue sky. The apple tree was bursting with blossom like masses of white teardrops. 

She had everything to live for even if it didn’t feel like it right now. Life was a journey, and the best journeys were the ones that couldn’t be predicted before setting off, or that weren’t an easy ride to reach the destination. Right then, on a perfect spring day beneath the apple blossom, she made a pact with herself to keep loving life whatever was thrown at her. She may have suffered yet more disappointment but she could still see beauty in the world and feel at peace, enjoy the simple things in life: sunshine, the English countryside, a good book, a glass of wine… 

Connie smiled as she took a sip of her water and picked up a fallen apple blossom. Sod it, she’d open a bottle of red tonight and have a glass or three. Onwards and upwards, that’s what her aunt would tell her. In fact, she’d phone her aunt when she got back home; it had been a while since they’d spoken, with Connie being too wrapped up in her own life. She and Felix would move on from this failed cycle and try again, see if they’d have more luck the second time.

©Kate Frost

About the author

Kate Frost lives in Bristol with her husband, an energetic toddler who loves waking up before 5am, and their cute and chilled out Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. When she’s not yelling ‘slow down’ to said toddler or being used as a climbing frame, Kate writes women’s and children’s fiction. Her debut novel, The Butterfly Storm, was published in 2013, her second contemporary women’s fiction novel, Beneath the Apple Blossom, has just been released, and her first children’s book, Time Shifters: Into the Past, an exciting time travel adventure and the first of a trilogy, will be published in October 2016.

You can connect with the author on her website and Facebook
Follow on Twitter @Kactus77

Book Launch

Amazon UK


Huge thanks to Kate for sharing this extract and for the invitation to be part of this exciting Blog Tour. Tour runs 5th - 17th August. Do visit the other tour hosts for more exciting content.

My thoughts about Beneath the Apple Blossom..

Beneath the Apple Blossom is, in many ways, a very modern story which highlights the predicament of four very different women who try to juggle work, relationships and the pressure of commitment. It’s also about the anguish of infertility and the effect this has on a relationship, particularly when things don’t go as planned.

I enjoyed reading the story from the different viewpoints of Pippa, Georgie, Sienna and Connie and even though all of their stories are quite different, there is a common theme which runs throughout and which pulls the focus of the book together. The author has done a good job of combining their stories together, whilst at the same time keeping their individual stories entirely unique. I liked a couple of the women more than others, but I think highlighting their faults and foibles makes them believable and this is what makes the story work so well.

The author writes convincingly about the emotional cost of motherhood, about the worries of infertility, the temptation of infidelity, and ultimately of the heart-breaking choices that some women have to make in order to be happy with themselves.

Best read with …Slow roasted belly pork and a pineapple juice..

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