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Release date: March 31, 2017

Publisher: Bookouture 

Genre: Historical Fiction 

Blurb: 

Brighton 1930: Maureen O’Connell is a carefree girl, but her family is on the brink of tragedy, war is looming and life will never be the same again. 

Jack and Nelson have always been dear friends to Maureen. Despite their different backgrounds, they’ve seen each other through thick and thin. 

As Maureen blossoms from a little girl into a young woman, the candle she’s always held for Jack burns bright. But just as she’s found love, war wrenches them apart. The man she cherishes with all her heart is leaving. 

When the bombs start to fall, Maureen and her family find themselves living in the most dangerous of times. With Jack no longer by her side and Nelson at war, Maureen has never felt more alone. Can she look to a brighter future? And will she find the true happiness she’s dreamt of? 

An utterly gripping and heart-wrenching story about the enduring power of love, hope and friendship during the darkest of days. Perfect for fans of Pam Jenoff, Nadine Dorries and Diney Costeloe. 

I’m so happy to welcome you to my stop on the blog tour for When We Danced at the End of the Pier. 

Oh my goodness, this was such a gorgeous read! It was one of those books that truly transports you to a different place and time, I was totally swept away by this lovely story. 

It begins when Maureen is just a young girl, she has a simple life and a loving family who she adores. Her father is battling demons from the war so he cares for her and her sister, Brenda while her mother works to provide for their family. When they move to Brighton she quickly makes friends with three other young people; Jack who also lives on See Saw Lane, Nelson who is Jack’s best friend, and Monica her new best friend. These four had the most touching friendship, it was so sweet. As they grow up together, it seems a war is imminent and though they’re all frightened, they have each other. 

This read like an epic saga, it had bittersweet romances, tragedy, picturesque scenery, family drama, many moments of laughter and so much heartbreak. I don’t often cry when reading but Taylor caused me to shed more than a few tears, it was that moving. It was a captivating read and one that I won’t soon forget. The characters were so full of depth, the sort that burrow into your heart and steal a piece of it by the end. It was spectacular and I would love to see it play out on the big screen, I highly recommend this one to fans of historical fiction. 

Overall rating: 5/5

Thanks to Bookouture for my review copy and to Kim Nash for urging me to read this, I’m so grateful. 

About the Author: 

Sandy Taylor grew up on a council estate near Brighton. There were no books in the house, so Sandy’s love of the written word was nurtured in the little local library. Leaving school at fifteen, Sandy worked in a series of factories before landing a job at Butlins in Minehead. This career change led her to becoming a singer, a stand up comic and eventually a playwright and novelist.

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Release date: March 8, 2017

Genre: Mystery/Suspense 

Blurb:

A Presence of Absence is the first book in The Odense Series. Although this is a solid crime novel, it also begins and ends with grief for many of the characters, personal demons and life decisions.

A gritty murder case gets in the way of the characters’ everyday lives and sends the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen, the Danish city of Odense, into a panic.

British detective Simon Weller escapes the fallout from the recent suicide of his Danish wife, Vibeke and heads out to her home city of Odense. But once there he is paired up with a local detective, Jonas, who is also about to his rock bottom in his home life, and they must overcome their differences and personal problems to try and catch one of the worst serial killers Odense has ever seen. The case takes them back into past decades as history starts catching up with some of the local inhabitants. When Simon realises that his wife’s suicide may not be all it seems and her name appears in the cas, his integrity within the case is compromised, how far will he go to find out the truth of Vibeke’s past and hide it from his already troubled police partner?

Back home in London Simon’s family are struggling with their own web of lies and deceit and the family is falling apart.

With one family hiding a dark secret, the whole case is just about to reach breaking point. 

Review: 

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for A Presence of Absence! 

This is the first book in a new series from authors Surgey and Vestrheim and is a blend of Nordic Noir and classic British crime. I’m always equally fascinated and skeptical when authors team up and write together, I worry that you’ll be able to tell that there are two different people writing the book and that there will be two completely distinct voices. Fortunately they work extremely well together and I wouldn’t have been able to even guess it was written by a duo unless I already knew. 

Simon is grieving after he lost his wife when she committed suicide and he left his job as a police detective in England. He moves to Odense on a whim to live in the town his beloved grew up in hoping to be able to come to terms with his loss. Jonas lives in Odense and is also a police officer, but instead of climbing the ranks after several years, he’s relegated to being a traffic cop. When Simon accepts a job and is partnered up with Jonas, these two unsteady new partners must find a way to solve a murder staged as suicide with dark links to an old, unknown case. 

Earlier I spoke of a blending of genres and with Simon as a English detective and Jonas as a Danish police officer, you can see how things fit together. There was a fairly large cast of secondary characters that were all well drawn, and despite their seeming insignificance to the plot, they all added something to the story in the end. Everyone had an interesting backstory of some sort and the characterization was excellent overall. The prologue and epilogue were both very strong and though the case was solved in the end, the epilogue was fantastic and left things wide open for the planned sequel. 

 This was really atmospheric, the farmland of Odense was well represented and easy for me to imagine and I was reminded of Ragnar Jonasson’s Ari Thor series as well as Sara Blaedel’s writing style. If you’re a fan of either of those two or of Nordic Noir in general you may like this one. 

Overall rating: 4/5

Thanks to the authors for my review copy. 

About the Authors: 

Sarah Surgey is a 36 year old British feature writer for various magazines. She lives in the UK with her husband and 4 daughters.

She has had an interest in all things Nordic for many years and has written about many genres within this subject for publication. Although British, she has Danish family and enjoys exploring Denmark and its culture whenever the opportunity arrives.

Sarah was brought up with crime books and inevitably has always had crime story scenarios going around inside her head. After interviewing many famous authors for different magazines within the Nordic literary circle and always knowing the answer to her question of “why did you start writing?” she felt now was her time to get her stories out there, for people to read!

Emma Vestrheim is the owner and editor-in-chief of Cinema Scandinavia, a Nordic film and television journal that analyses popular Nordic titles. Part of her work includes working with directors, actors and filmmakers, and her numerous interviews with the biggest names in Nordic film and television have given her a privileged access to what makes Nordic narratives so successful. Cinema Scandinavia publishes bimonthly and is available in major Nordic film libraries.

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Release date: March 21, 2017

Genre: Romantic Comedy 

Blurb: 

She’s a work in progress . . .

Bailey Meredith has had it. As an assistant at a prestigious interior design firm, she’s tired of making coffee and filing invoices. She’ll do just about anything to get out from under the paperwork and into the field for real experience. Then she sees an ad for a job that seems too good to be true. 

He’s a fixer upper . . .

Wilder Aldrich knew she would be perfect for the crew the moment he saw her. His hit home improvement show only hired the best, and Bailey had potential written all over her. It isn’t just her imaginative creativity and unmatched work ethic that grabs his attention. There’s just something about her. 

With chemistry on screen, it’s only a matter of time before sparks fly behind the scenes as well. But with Bailey’s jaded views on romance and a big secret that could destroy Wilder and everyone he cares about, are either of them willing to risk it all for love?

I’m so happy to be one of the stops on the blog tour for Playing House! This was such a cute, fun read, perfect for fans of those fixer upper type reality TV shows, I loved it. I’m sharing an excerpt today to whet your appetite then my review will follow. There’s also a giveaway linked at the very end you can enter! 

Excerpt: 

Keeping a close distance, she followed Waverly up the cracked path to the house. Bailey took quick mental notes of her surroundings. The exterior needed a lot of work. The sagging roof missing gutters made her think they’d find the inside in similar disarray. They stepped through the front door, nearly tripping over Wilder Aldrich, who was measuring the entryway.

 

“Hey!” He sprang to his feet and out of their way. “What did I tell you about waiting until I gave you the all clear?”

 

“You were taking for-frickin’-ever, and some of us were freezing our tits off.” She pursed her lips and took on a warrior stance, seemingly daring him to say something else.

 

Conceding victory to her, Wilder turned and flashed an apologetic grin at Bailey. “Hey.” He offered a hand. Warmth permeated through the thin material of her glove. “Welcome to Casa de Waverly.”

 

Giving him a smug grin, Waverly sipped her coffee and faced Bailey. “Do you have a smart phone?”

 

Bailey stared blankly for a second, still dazzled by seeing Wilder up close. But she quickly snapped to attention and dug her phone out of her coat pocket.

 

“Good,” Waverly said after inspecting it. “While you’re on the job, I’d like you to snap some photos for our social media accounts. I’ll want to vet everything before we post it, but we need to start building the buzz for the next season while we’re filming. In exchange, we’ll cover your phone payments to take care of your data usage. Understood?”

 

“I can do that.”

 

“Good. Now . . .” She pulled out her own phone. It was the latest model that had come out on the market a month ago. With all of its reported bells and whistles, it put Bailey’s poor phone to shame. “I’m going to make a quick call. I’ll be back in a few minutes, and we can get started on,” she gestured around her, “this mess.”

 

She spun on her heel and waltzed out of the room, cooing into the phone.

 

Wilder cleared his throat, and Bailey turned to give him her full attention. She estimated he was only a couple of years older than herself—maybe in his late twenties or early thirties. He looked younger in real life than he did on TV. He was leaner and a little shorter—though she still had to crane her neck a little to meet his gaze.

 

He was also more handsome. Not the GQ model, your tongue-sticks-to-the-top-of-your-mouth kind of sexy. But he was hot in the same way the guy you sat next to in Chemistry was. It was enough to distract you from formulas and Bunsen burners every so often, but not enough that you’d ever set the lab on fire or forget to finish your final exam.

 

So far, he seemed much more serious. Where was the guy who scared Waverly with a stuffed dummy in a closet in the last episode she’d watched before calling an end to the marathon?

 

He was, she realized, studying her every bit as closely, with those hazel eyes speckled with green. Noting that, she didn’t feel quite as rude taking mental notes on the man in front of him.

 

At least she looked good. She’d laid out three outfits that morning in the hotel room. The first was a long, silky turquoise tunic that she’d paired with a pair of black leggings and knee-high boots. It was similar to the clothes Waverly favored on screen—only hers weren’t name-brand knockoffs. Then she had the casual jeans, a gray T-shirt that she could dress-up with a navy blue blazer. And there was option three: dark-wash, fit jeans, a chambray shirt, and a scarf. It was an ensemble that fell somewhere in the middle. It was the one that looked the most like her when she inspected herself in the mirror.

 

It was the one that felt most like her now in the middle of the foyer.

 

She wondered what he saw when he looked at her. Did he see a confident young woman ready to tackle major projects adeptly? Or did he see someone who was desperate to create, no matter what happened? Both were correct, but which one shone through right now?

 

Like a light switch, that triggered something in her. She offered her hand again. “We haven’t officially met. I’m Bailey Meredith.”

Review: 

My husband and I are in the process of building a house right now and to say he’s obsessed with HGTV is putting it mildly. He always has it on when we’re home and though I didn’t see the appeal of these types of shows at first, they’ve admittedly grown on me. There’s something so satisfying about seeing a whole remodel or renovation being completed in thirty minutes, even if I know it’s unrealistic. Getting to see behind the scenes of a home improvement show AND adding in funny romance was like a match made in heaven for me. 

Bailey was just a doll, the perfect lead character for a rom com, and I would totally watch the movie version of Playing House. She’s passionate about interior design and when the opportunity to work as an assistant designer on one of the top rated shows for the Design Network arises, she’s pretty excited. Waverly and Wilder are the couple behind an uber successful TV series, they have an adorable four year old daughter, Virginia and seem to be living a dream life. But not is all as it seems, and Bailey soon finds out that besides clever editing and sneaky reshoots, Waverly and Wilder are keeping some pretty big personal secrets as well.

This one was just a ball of fun and had such a great energy. Wilder and Bailey had indisputable chemistry despite some complications and reservations on both ends. Wilder oozed sex appeal, as a Texas native he had the whole gentlemanly, southern charm routine nailed. Besides those two, there was a great supporting cast of likable characters. Paige is Bailey’s older sister, Felix is one of the crew, Renée is the shows producer, and then Waverly and little Virginia round it all out. They all brought something unique to the table and I would love to see more of any of them and am hoping the author has plans to turn this into a series? If you’re looking for a sexy, flirty read with a few surprises thrown in along the way, look no further. 

Overall rating: 4/5

Thanks to the author for my review copy. 

About the Author: 

Laura Chapman is the author of First & Goal, Going for Two, Three & Out, The Marrying Type, and Playing House. A native Nebraskan, she loves football, Netflix marathons, and her cats, Jane and Bingley. She loves talking to readers. You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can also get the latest news from her website, blog, and monthly newsletter. 
***Giveaway***

This month, during the Playing House blog tour, you can enter the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win one of 1 free Audible copy each of The Marrying Type, First & Goal, Going for Two or 1 $20 Amazon gift card. Enter here. 

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Release date: March 22, 2017

Publisher: Bookouture 

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Blurb: 

Poppy Bloom has a Life Plan: PhD in psychology, research job at her university, and a life of domestic bliss with handsome boyfriend Gregory. 

But then she finishes her PhD with no job offer, no relationship, and nowhere to live. Being unemployed and living back at her mum’s house in her vampire-themed childhood bedroom was definitely not the plan. 

Poppy is back to square one and miserable, so when she runs into childhood friend Leanne she jumps at the opportunity to catch up. The chance to run into Leanne’s gorgeous brother Tom is just a bonus… 

Soon Poppy’s scored an internship at a radio station, a boyfriend, and a whole netball team of friends: things are on the up. 

But life has a way of tripping you up when you least expect it, and Poppy soon has to decide where her priorities lie… With new friends, a new career and a new romance, can Poppy keep everyone happy, or is everything about to tumble down around her? 

Review: 

I’m so pleased to be a stop on the blog tour for Don’t Stop Me Now! 

What a delightful little surprise this book was! I shouldn’t be shocked, Bookouture have never disappointed me before, but when I say I was surprised I mean that this book had an altogether different vibe and overall message than I was expecting, in a very positive and lovely way!

Poppy was such an endearing character, she’s highly intelligent, a total type A personality, and really relatable. Even though she’s extremely smart, she’s not one of those people who is arrogant with it, she’s rather warm and approachable. She’s had her entire life mapped out for years,  but on the day of her graduation, her perfect plans start to fall apart at the seams.  Her boyfriend dumps her for her best friend, she loses her potential (and highly sought after) job, and finds herself almost thirty and living back at home. But instead of wallowing in self pity and binging Netflix and eating Ben & Jerry’s (like many chick lit heroines so often do) she decides to take the opportunity to try some new things and take some risks that may have a huge payoff for her in the end. 

This was such an empowering read! Poppy has the BEST attitude, she was so brave in the face of adversity. She had several setbacks and she would allow herself to be upset for a short period of time, but then she would brush herself off and get back in the game. She tried new things, she let go of her fears, and she ended up learning so much about herself and having plenty of adventures along the way. While there is a bit of romance present it wasn’t heavily featured or the main storyline and I found that refreshing that Poppy focused more on herself and her own life than solely on a man. Yes, love and romance is important to her but it’s not the end all and be all of everything. 

The message was so powerful, it’s about having self confidence and believing in what you can achieve. I think everyone could benefit from hearing that sort of thing from time to time and it made me feel unstoppable and inspired in the end. A portion of the books sales will be donated to mental health charities that help young people and I found that so touching, I think it says so much about the author as a person. 

Overall rating: 4/5

Thanks to Bookouture for my review copy. 

About the Author: 

Colleen Coleman is an Irish-Canadian novelist. She is the winner of the much-coveted Novelicious Undiscovered People’s Choice Award launched to find the next ‘chick-lit star’. She spent over ten years working as a teacher of English and Philosophy before finally taking a deep breath, scrunching her eyes shut, putting her pen to paper and vowing not to lift it again until she wrote the words The End. As a result, her first novel was born. Colleen lives between London, Ireland and Cyprus with her very patient husband and very, very chatty twin daughters. Don’t Stop Me Now is her first book and will be released in March. 

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