Lucy Mitchell's Blog, page 17

#BookReview Waiting To Begin @MrsAmandaProwse #SummerReads

This book did the impossible – it left me speechless. For a few days after finishing it I had to sit still and find some words which would be fitting enough to talk about this epic book. This story will consume you, it will tug on all of your heartstrings and will leave you feeling like you’ve experienced something. You know when you leave the cinema after watching a great film and you can’t think about anything else for days – this is how you will feel with this book.

If you are longing for a powerful story which will be on your mind for days after you finish it – please read this.

Waiting to Begin

From the bestselling author of The Girl in the Corner comes a story that asks: what would you risk for a shot at happiness?

1984: Bessie is a confident sixteen-year-old girl with the world at her feet, dreaming of what life will bring and what she’ll bring to this life. Then everything comes crashing down. Her bright and trusting smile is lost, banished by shame—and a secret she’ll carry with her for the rest of her life.

2021: The last thirty-seven years have not been easy for Bess. At fifty-three she is visibly weary, and her marriage to Mario is in tatters. Watching her son in newlywed bliss—the hope, the trust, the joy—Bess knows it is time to face her own demons, and try to save her relationship. But she’ll have to throw off the burden of shame if she is to honour that sixteen-year-old girl whose dreams lie frozen in time.

Can Bess face her past, finally come clean to Mario, and claim the love she has longed to fully experience all these years?

Here’s my review

Amanda Prowse has a fabulous gift – she can make readers of her stories cry, laugh and get so invested with her characters they feel like close friends by the end. I don’t think I have had such an emotional attachment to a female character like the one I had with Bess for a long time. I wanted to reach out and hug teenager Bessie for what she endured. This is a sign of how good this book is – I felt the weight of her secret. We all carry pots of shame from the past around with us and at times they can get so heavy. I could also relate to her in the present day being visibly weary too and trying to make sense of her life, her marriage and her past.

The interactions between Bess and her family are so interesting. Amanda Prowse captures the family dynamics perfectly and you can sense this dark undercurrent of past issues, grievances and resentment bubbling away under the surface.

I loved the story alternating between two timelines of Bess at sixteen and at fifty-three. They just made connect with Bess even more.

I thought Mario, Bess’s husband, was so well written. His character arc was great. By the end I was such a Mario fan. He has some great lines especially where he recognises Bess and he ‘got lost somewhere along the line’, how they are ‘two different people now to the ones who waltzed up the aisle all those years ago’ and when he tells Bess he’s proud of her. Oh, God, Mario – YES!

This story keeps on giving right into the Epilogue. I swear every time I put down my box of tissues, Amanda Prowse had a wicked twinkle in her eye and created some more emotional parts of the story for me.

It was only until the very end I understood the title of this book. Very fitting.

Amanda Prowse – amazing work!

Purchase Link – http://bit.ly/WaitingToBegin_UK

Author Bio – Amanda Prowse is an International Bestselling author whose twenty seven novels and seven novellas have been published in dozens of languages around the world. Published by Lake Union, Amanda is the most prolific writer of bestselling contemporary fiction in the UK today; her titles also consistently score the highest online review approval ratings across several genres. Her books, including the chart topping No.1 titles ‘What Have I Done?’, ‘Perfect Daughter’, ‘My Husband’s Wife’, ‘The Girl in the Corner’, ‘The Things I Know’ and ‘The Day She Came Back’ have sold millions of copies across the globe.

A popular TV and radio personality, Amanda is a regular panellist on Channel 5’s ‘The Jeremy Vine Show’ and numerous daytime ITV programmes. She also makes countless guest appearances on BBC national independent Radio stations including LBC and Talk FM, where she is well known for her insightful observations and her infectious humour. Described by the Daily Mail as ‘The queen of family drama’ Amanda’s novel, ‘A Mother’s Story’ won the coveted Sainsbury’s eBook of the year Award while ‘Perfect Daughter’ was selected as a World Book Night title in 2016.

Amanda’s ambition is to create stories that keep people from turning the bedside lamp off at night, great characters that ensure you take every step with them and tales that fill your head so you can’t possibly read another book until the memory fades…

Praise for Amanda Prowse:

‘A powerful and emotional work of fiction’ – Piers Morgan
‘Deeply moving and emotional, Amanda Prowse handles her explosive subjects with delicate skill’ – Daily Mail
‘Uplifting and positive, but you will still need a box of tissues’ – Hello!
‘A gut-wrenching and absolutely brilliant read’ – The Irish Sun
‘You’ll fall in love with this…’ – Cosmopolitan
‘Deeply moving and eye opening. Powerful and emotional drama that packs a real punch.’ – Heat
‘Magical’ – Now magazine

Social Media Links –
Say hello on Twitter: @MrsAmandaProwse
Friend me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AmandaProwseAuthor
Tag me on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/MrsAmandaProwse
Visit my Amazon Author Page: Amanda Prowse Author
Check out my website: http://www.amandaprowse.com

#BookReview The Summer Island Festival @RachelBWriter

We need books like this one to get our summer vibe going!

The Summer Island Festival

When Willow walks out on her own wedding, there’s only one place she can go…
Growing up in the island village of Seaview, Willow always dreamed of a bigger life. Then her childhood sweetheart Luc betrayed her and she ran, resolving never to look back.

Now, twelve years on, her glamorous London life is a mess and the island is her only option.

But she’s not the only one back for the summer. Luc is now a world-famous heartthrob musician, and he’s finally come home to headline the Isle of Wight’s annual music festival.

As Willow untangles her messy past, she stumbles on a secret that could destroy her family, the island’s fragile community – and her second chance at love…

Purchase Links

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Summer-Island-Festival-Burton/dp/1800246064
US – https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Island-Festival-Burton/dp/1800246064

Here’s my review

I was truly captivated by this book from the first page. All of the characters are written with so much depth and they all have good backstories. I’ve been so engrossed in the lives of Willow and Luc I know I am going to miss them.

I loved the story threads of Willow in the present day but also of her mum, Cathy, in the 80s. You always get more than a romance with Rachel Burton’s books which I love. With this book you get also get family secrets, an insight into guitars and characters discovering their true path in life.

The romance was lovely

This book has a wonderful summer vibe to it that seems to leap off the pages. I quite fancy a summer festival now.

A fabulous summer read!

Author Bio –
Rachel Burton has been making up stories for as long as she can remember and always dreamed of being a writer until life somehow got in the way. After reading for a degree in Classics and another in English Literature she accidentally fell into a career in law, but eventually managed to write her first book on her lunch breaks.

She has spent most of her life between Cambridge and London but now lives in Yorkshire with her husband and their three cats. She loves yoga, ice hockey, tea, The Beatles, dresses with pockets and very tall romantic heroes.

Find her on Twitter & Instagram as @RachelBWriter or follow her blog at rachelburtonwrites.com. She is always happy to talk books, writing, music, cats and how the weather in Yorkshire is rubbish. She is mostly dreaming of her next holiday….

Social Media Links – Twitter: @rachelbwriter ; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rachelburton74/ ; website: rachelburtonwrites.com

Why Writing a book is Like Taking a Road Trip #MondayBlogs

I’m halfway through writing a book and I can’t help thinking this process feels like a road trip.

Here are the similarities:

Stage 1 – Everything is going to be just fine…

This is the start of the road trip / writing a book. Delusion sets in as you say everything is going to be just fine. You’ve done this journey before. You know the pitfalls, the bumps in the road, the frustration and the emotional highs and lows.

You’ve also spent ages planning this particular journey / novel, which is new for you. Normally you just have a good idea of where you are starting, where you need to get to and a vague idea of stuff in between. A proper plan is bound to make things easier.

You will have a selection of road trip accessories; water bottles, waterproofs and a variety of chewy, filling inducing, sweets. Your novel writing accessories will consist of a dedicated writing playlist, some lucky underwear, a new, but empty, notebook and you will have promised yourself to reduce your social media time. Seriously- what can go wrong?

Stage 2 – This is ACE!

You have started your road trip / writing your book and life feels ACE. Euphoria builds inside you as you clock the first stage of your journey or the first ten thousand words. Everything is brilliant – your road trip and your draft novel. The sun is out, the wind is in your hair, your lucky underwear is on and the words are gushing, This is all next level stuff and is as good as a romantic takeaway with your beloved, discovering a dress with pockets and an uneaten Easter Egg at the back of the cupboard.

Stage 3 – What the hell am I doing?

This is where things get tough and you start to question why you are embarking on a road trip with faulty air con, a car radio which struggles to find a station and a creaking noise which is getting louder.

From a novel writing perspective once you get past ten thousand words you begin to question everything. Why are you continuing to write a story which is making you grimace? You also find yourself saying – is that a growing sense of unease I’m feeling at twelve thousand words?

Stage 4 – Why do I always run into problems at the same places?

Despite planning the hell out of your road trip and your novel you still find yourself running into issues at the same places. Your car will once again choose not to breakdown by a picturesque spot yards from a car garage, but instead will opt for the middle of nowhere. You will get lost on the same stretch of road, struggle to find a toilet an hour later and have the same heated argument with your loved one on the same bit of motorway.

In novel writing land you will find yourself moaning with frustration. Despite an extensive novel plan you still get writer’s block at seventeen thousand words, you have the same emotional breakdown at twenty seven thousand words, by thirty five thousand you still hate your damn story , at forty eight thousand you find yourself once again browsing ghost writers and at fifty thousand words you are still beside yourself with novel writing hysteria. This is when you shriek – why the hell did I think a novel plan would make my life easier?

Stage 5 – No – I’m definitely NOT there yet!

This is that stage of the journey where you either have people in the car who constantly ask – are we there yet? Or you find yourself asking the same thing. A road sign with your destination and 100 miles soon answers your question. This also happens on a novel writing journey. I always find myself looking hopeful at my word count of 28,456 and thinking – am I finished yet? You will also find helpful loved ones will keep asking you (can feel like every five minutes) – have you finished that novel yet?

Stage 6 – Excitement

At midway the excitement returns. Whoop whoop you are halfway to your destination and finishing your novel. The sun returns to your world. Embrace it because it doesn’t always last for very long.

Stage 7 – The long stare of hopelessness

You still have miles to go on your road trip and you have many chapters left on your novel. You have lost interest with the view outside your car window, playing ‘spot the yellow car’ has lost its appeal and that spicy food you had at the last service station is playing havoc with your guts. From a novel writing perspective you will have lost interest in writing altogether. You will be sat staring into space with a little bit of dribble trickling down your chin. Everything will feel hopeless. Even Twitter will be quiet.

Stage 8 – Destination reached / draft novel completed

Yay – it’s over. You have completed your road trip and written a draft of your novel. This is a great stage for reflecting and thinking about what you could have done differently. Any good ideas for changing your route or processes will be written down somewhere and then lost. This means you can do all of the above again sometime soon.

Have a good day x

#BookReview A Summer of Second Chances

Calling all fans of the second chance romance trope – you should read this book, A Summer of Second Chances, by Carol Thomas. It has all the ingredients for a great summer read – former childhood sweethearts meeting up again years later, a local village in need of rejuvenation, a chocolate Labrador, a handsome new Lord and some long buried secrets.

Here’s the blurb:

Does first love deserve a second chance?

Ava Flynn sometimes feels like the clothes donated to her charity shop have seen more life than her, but ‘maximum dedication for a minimal wage’ is what it takes to keep her mother’s beloved wildlife charity, All Critters Great and Small, running – especially in the village of Dapplebury, where business is certainly not booming.

But when Ava’s first love, Henry Bramlington, returns to the village, suddenly life becomes a little too eventful. Henry escaped Dapplebury many years before, but now he has the power to make or break the village he left behind – All Critters Great and Small included. Can Ava trust the boy who ran away to give both her and her charity a second chance?

Here’s my review:

I loved the All Critters Great and Small Charity shop. It was perfect for providing comedy given some of the bizarre items people were donating and the ‘interesting’ window displays, it gave the reader a great insight into running a charity shop and it was useful in that it helped the reader build a picture of Ava’s late mum.

There is a wonderful theme of community spirit interwoven into this story. The village of Dapplebury needs to be revitalised and everyone pulls together to make this happen. I loved the array of side characters who all work or live in Dapplebury. The author created the community spirit really well.

The romance was great with lots of obstacles thrown in the way of Ava and Henry. I thought the author did a great job of teasing her readers with lots of will they get together or won’t’ they?

Overall a lovely summer read.

Purchase Link – getbook.at/SOSCAmazon

Author Bio – Carol Thomas lives on the south coast of England with her husband, four children and lively Labrador. She has been a primary school teacher for over twenty years and has a passion for reading, writing and people watching. When she is not in school, chasing after her children, or stopping her dog from eating things he shouldn’t, she can be found loitering in cafes drinking too much tea and working on her next book.

Social Media Links –
http://carol-thomas.co.uk
http://facebook.com/carolthomasauthor
http://twitter.com/carol_thomas2
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/carol_thomas2/
https://www.instagram.com/carol_thomas2/
http://carol-thomas.co.uk/blog

Don’t miss my writing themed blog post on Monday!

#BookReview Real Men Knit @KwanaWrites #WhatToRead #Romance

You always remember the books which get you through the difficult times in your life. They become little beacons of light as you lose yourself in their fictional world in a bid to escape your own pain. Well, this book, Real Men Knit, by Kwana Jackson has been my beacon of light. It brought me so much comfort in a hospital cafe last week. I do hope Kwana reads this review so I can thank her for writing such an uplifting and fabulous book. I got myself so tangled up in this heartwarming story about Kerry, Mama Joy’s knitting shop, wools, blends, needles, school children eager to knit and the gorgeous Jesse strong, one of Joy’s adopted sons.

Here’s the blurb:

Kerry Fuller has worked at Joy Strong’s knitting shop – Strong Knits – for years. And she’s had a secret crush on Joy’s son, heartbreaker Jesse Strong, for even longer. When Joy unexpectedly passes away, Jesse vows that he will keep the shop open, no matter what. And with no idea of where to start, he reaches out to Kerry for help.

Soon Kerry is teaching Jesse all the knitty-gritty parts of the business – all the while trying to keep her heart from getting broken. The longer they spend together, the closer they become. But Kerry doesn’t believe their relationship can last longer than she can knit one, purl one. It’s up to Jesse to prove her wrong…

Here’s my review:

As I read this book it was clear Mama Joy’s passing had left a crater sized hole in the lives of those who loved her; her four adopted sons, her local community and Kerry, her loyal apprentice in her shop Strong Knits. Mama Joy had been such a positive force in the lives of so many and her yarn shop was this place of knitting serenity for her customers, it gave them peace and calm in their times of chaos. So, from early on I was a supporter of keeping Mama Joy’s legacy alive.

Kerry was adorable. I loved her humour and sharp wit. She had me giggling a lot especially over her long term crush – Jesse Strong – who at the start likes the ladies and this annoys her. Oh my goodness there are some fabulous lines in this book. I also loved Kerry’s determination to keep everyone knitting, her extensive shop knowledge which she acquired through years of watching Joy and her efforts to stop Joy’s sons from squabbling.

The co-workers to lovers romance trope is one of my favourites and this was done so well in this book. Kerry does have her work cut out with Jesse. Teaching him how to run a knitting shop whilst at the same time trying to keep a lid on her simmering love for him is quite a challenge.

Jesse is a great character. Underneath that handsome player exterior was someone who cared deeply for Kerry. I also thought his efforts to keep his mama’s knitting shop going were heroic.

This is an uplifting read about falling in love one stitch at a time but it is also about a family and a community trying to make sense of the world after a devastating loss.

This book also gave me hope.

Click here to find out more:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

USA Today bestselling author and native New Yorker, Kwana Jackson aka K.M Jackson spent her formative years on the A train where she had two dreams: (1) to be a fashion designer and (2) to be a writer. After spending more than ten years designing women’s sportswear for various fashion houses, Kwana took a leap of faith and decided to pursue her other dream of being a writer. A longtime advocate of equality and diversity in romance (#WeNeedDiverseRomance), Kwana is the mother of twins and currently lives in a suburb of New York with her husband. When not writing she can be found on Twitter @kwanawrites, on Facebook at facebook.com/KmJacksonAuthor, and on her website at http://www.kmjackson.com.

#bookPromo #BookTour A Song Unsung @FiBee49 #WhattoRead

If you fancy reading A-coming-of-age story with a mystery at its heart – this book,A Song Unsung by Fiona Cane might be for you. This is Fiona’s fifth novel, and is about an impressionable teenage girl who falls under the spell of a beautiful woman with a mysterious past.

The Blurb:

Soho 1958. Martha Palmer, an aspiring singer working in a coffee shop, is desperately short of cash. She’s been scouted by a photographer. The money’s good. But there’s a catch …

Sussex 1976. Nothing much happens in fourteen-year-old Natasha James’ life. Her mother has taken to her bed and her father, the local doctor, is preoccupied with his patients. But when the magnetic Martha Palmer moves into her village, Natasha is drawn into a glittery world of extravagant parties, steeped in the embroidered rhythms of jazz.

But who is the mysterious Martha Palmer? And why is she the keeper of so many secrets? Desperate to fill in the gaps of Martha’s past, Natasha uncovers a heart-breaking love story, the truth of which threatens to destroy all that she holds dear.

A Song Unsung is available from Amazon: Fiona Cane at Amazon

To listen to the playlist: A Song Unsung Soundtrack – Spotify

You can follow Fiona on:

Facebook: Fiona Cane FacebookInstagram: fionacanewritesTwitter.com: FiBee49 Fiona Cane Goodreads

What inspired Fiona to set one of the storylines in Soho? Check out this YouTube video:

I’ve not been able to finish this book due to my father’s illness. However I didn’t want to let Fiona down. Fiona – if you are reading this, I am very sorry. What I have read so far has been great. I hope this blog promotion will help you in some way.

#Writers – Don’t stress Over Your Writing – The Future You Will Sort it!

Here’s a secret about writing which I have discovered – some stories you write will not turn out the way you expected them to because they are meant to be improved and perfected by the future you.

The future you will one day turn the story you are struggling with into something better.

The future you will be better equipped to deal with that troublesome character in your romance novel.

The future you will do big things with that draft book you have just shoved into drawer.

Sometimes we just need to get things down on paper, so that in the future we will have something to mould, sculpt and shape.

We put so much pressure on ourselves to make our stories work right now and if they don’t work today, we quickly shelve them.

We forget that in the future we might be better equipped to tackle our novel writing issues.

Don’t despair if the sight of your draft novel makes you cry. The future you will be ready and waiting to correct that pile of literary wrongs.

The tricky part with this idea, is working on something, right now, which isn’t making your pulse race. Writing is hard at the best of times, but working on a story which feels like you are wading through mud, well….that can be soul destroying.

Things can get so bad you start considering shelving all your words and starting another story.

In this situation, I ask you to stop for a moment and consider this:

Your future self will not thank you for giving up like this. They will have nothing to work with.How do you know your future self won’t do amazing things with this story?

So, here’s what you do.

Finish difficult draft, add post it note to the front and scribble, ‘Dear Future Me, here’s a little something I made earlier for you, enjoy xxx’

Stick in folder, smile and walk away. The future you will sort that out later.

Look at the future you as an extra writing resource!

Thinking like this has changed my entire outlook on writing. I love the future Lucy Mitchell.

Keep writing and smiling x

#BookReview The Other Times of Caroline Tangent

I bet the author of this fabulous story enjoyed the research part of the book writing process. Can you imagine the music joy which must have come from researching time travel and iconic music concerts and festivals in history? As someone who has recently reverted back to vinyl and is busy working her way through an old record collection this book was the perfect accompaniment.

Here’s the blurb:

If you could travel back in time to see any concert, who would you go to see?

Caroline Tangent’s husband, Jon has invented a time machine so they can visit iconic gigs in history: Woodstock, David Bowie, Edith Piaf in 1930’s Paris – an inexhaustible bucket-list. But they can’t tell anyone they’re doing so.

As their trips to the past continue, they begin to realise how it could change a devastating moment from their own past. But for Caroline, it’s clear they don’t want the same outcome.

Until, on one trip, one of them does something unthinkable which will change both their lives forever.

For fans of Matt Haig, Claire North and Audrey Niffenegger.

Here’s my review:

What a premise! All I could say when I read the blurb was – ‘WOW.’

This book is fascinating. If you have wondered what it was like to go to a music festival in the 70s, a concert in the 30’s or see The Beetles live in a pub in Liverpool this book will take you there complete with a guide on fashion at the time. I loved how Jon and Caroline trawled E-Bay for clothing prior to each trip back in time.

Time travel doesn’t always run smoothly for Jon and Caroline. There are a few hazards to time travel which I had never given much thought to and as I read this book my brain was boggling. There is also the idea that they could potentially use it to fix a past mistake.

It is a captivating read and it makes you think about what lengths you would go to change past events in your life.

In terms of plot twists this author knows what he’s doing. I don’t want to give the game away and this is one of the frustrating things about book reviews, I went to talk about it but at same time I don’t want to spoil it. Just prepare yourself…

This book has come into my life at the right time. Like people entering your life I strongly believe books and stories come to us when we need them. Someone very close to me is terribly poorly and they are a huge music fan. This book has been a form of therapy for me.

The Writing Competition That Changed My World In Unexpected Ways #AmWriting

If you follow me on twitter you will know of my pinned tweet. It is about how I got through to the final round of the Penguin Michael Joseph Christmas Love Story Competition and my strong urges to cartwheel with joy on zoom calls at work.

According to the competition FAQs last week was when the winner was going to be notified. At the start of last week I knew of just 4 other writers who, like me, had got through to the next round. I wasn’t looking forward to a tense, nail biting and lonely week which would mostly be spent watching my email with hawk-like eyes, jumping everytime my phone rang, eating far too many penquin biscuits and overthinking every possible competition outcome.

Well, my week did include all of the above (especially the penguin biscuit binge) but it wasn’t a lonely week and it did change my writing world in unexpected ways.

I think it was Audrey Niven, on Twitter who kickstarted things at the start of the week. She tweeted about wishing all the Penquin finalists lots of luck. Then the magic started. Fellow finalists joined in by liking her tweet and by the end of Monday there was a small gang of us on Twitter all sharing writer love and support with each other. By Tuesday our gang had grown some more as a few more finalists had found us. We all started tweeting funny snippets from our days and what we were doing to distract ourselves from the competition waiting game. By Wednesday we had grown from a small gang to a collective and this was when ideas were shared on what we could call ouselves. Bettina Hunt suggested the Penguin Collective and a Twitter list was created by Amy Gaffney. Everytime another finalist made their way onto Twitter and found us we’d all welcome them in.

It was a very different writing competition experience for me. We all tweeted and laughed our way through the week talking about the anxious wait, how we felt like we were in the Big Brother House (Lily Joseph), how some of us had turned to playing Europe’s pop classic, The Final Countdown (Jake G Godfrey) to get through, how some of us were busy ordering Penguin biscuits (Sarah Shard) how we were all looking forward to cracking open the wine on Friday at 6pm and how lucky we were to find each other. There were so many funny tweets over the course of the week, from Jenny Bromham’s thought provoking GIF ‘one more dawn’, Donna Dobbs’s hiring of a geeky IT student, Joanna Knowles Author’s tweet about how she was starting to waddle like a penguin, Rebecca Duval’s obsessive email refreshes, Hayley-Jenifer’s Benedict Cumberbatch’s GIF and Jackie Morrison’s caravan holiday which was spent checking for a phone signal. As you can imagine when Sarah Louise Robinson started a Facebook group for us we all flapped our penguin wings and waddled over there too. It wasn’t just laughter, there were also ideas from Kimberly Adams, Sarah Shard and Amy Gaffney on how we could work together in the future.

There were other finalists still joining the Pengin Collective on Friday; A Novel, tweet by tweet, Writtenbymisshm, Tallie Samuels, Helen Hawkins, Katy George.

The end of the story is that no one we knew about heard from Penguin Michael Joseph on Friday. Someone probaby has heard and we wish them the best of luck. I also hope they come on my blog and talk about their new book in the future.

For me, that’s okay. I got WAY more from this writing competition than I ever imagined; a story idea validated by Penguin Michael Joseph (which is now at 23k), new romance writer friends in the Penguin Collective group and a lot of happy twitter memories from last week.

As Breea Keenan said, ‘this chat has made my week’ and I couldn’t agree more.

Writing competitions which give you so much more than you expected are priceless.

#BookReview Perfect on Paper @GillPlusFive

If time machines were sold on Amazon I would buy one, grab a copy of this book, Perfect on Paper by Gillian Harvey, and thrust it into the arms of my thirty something younger self. I would then instruct myself to read it and make notes.

Back then I was juggling a demanding career, two small children, a marriage and a home. I set aside 0 time for myself, had no idea who I was turning into and even though I was ticking several ‘adult’ boxes I felt like the character Claire in this book – summed up in one word – meh!

Like Claire I felt invisible, middle aged and was also at my family and my employer’s beck and call. This book was so relatable to what I experienced I did wonder whether the author has the magical ability of looking inside the minds of her readers before she writes a book. I am hoping Gillian reads this review and confirms her telepathic abilities to me.

[image error]

Here’s the bio:

Clare’s life might look ‘perfect on paper’, but she’s ready to shake things up and put herself first for once… A fun and uplifting novel from Gillian Harvey, author of Everything is Fine.

It’s time to shake things up a little…

Clare Bailey’s life is perfect. Successful career, loving husband, two kids and a gorgeous townhouse. At least, that’s how it looks like from the outside.

In fact, she’s never felt more invisible. Her boss barely remembers her name, her husband is distracted by his new TV job and her daughter has never found her more embarrassing!

But when she’s given a chance to turn her life upside-down she wonders whether she should risk everything she loves for a life that’s more than just ‘perfect on paper’…?

Here’s my review:

When I review books on blog tours I set up a notes section on my phone and tap in my thoughts as I go along. Occasionally I copy and paste a good quote for my blog post. With this book I couldn’t tap my thoughts out fast enough. I also copied and pasted about half the book – lol! All highlighted with – mention this.

Gillian Harvey has created a wonderful character with Claire Bailey. I loved her from the start and I could identify with her feeling like she’s ‘holding up her firm when she’s at work and holding up the family when she’s at home.’ I also could relate to her feeling, surplus to requirements and invisible too. I let out a huge ‘YES’ when she said, ‘it just wouldn’t hurt to hear somebody say thanks or pay me a bit of attention once in a while.’ Her character arc over the course of the book was brilliant and her transformation had me cheering from my armchair. I loved how her passion for poetry and taking a different bus started her awakening.

This is an empowering story of someone who is taking back control of their life. I reckon this book could change a few of its readers’ lives.

There’s a serious side to this book which I thought Gillian Harvey tackled really well. It is to do with Claire and her sister, Steph. I don’t want to give the game away but I also identified with this too. So relatable.

I loved this story because it was empowering and uplifting. It is also packed full of excellent life advice and comes with a good helping of Gillian Harvey’s humour.

Read this and remember you are always a different bus journey away from a totally new life.

Think I might write to Amazon about that time machine idea.

[image error]