Fiona Valpy's Blog, page 2

Christmas!

“What??” I hear you cry. ”Christmas ALREADY???! It’s only October…” But I hope you will forgive me for mentioning the ‘C’ word before you’ve even started planning your Hallowe’en outfit, as I’m writing to let you know that my new book is out today.
 
Reviewers on Goodreads have said ”The story is so heartfelt and enveloping, I loved every moment of it. I would recommend this book to everyone” and “By the end of this book I was positively ravenous. Some of the French food sounded absolutely delicious!” So if that’s whetted your appetite for a little festive reading, you can find it now at all online bookstores, including Amazon, Kobo, iBookstore and Barnes & Noble.
 
And if it’s not exactly your tasse de thé, please bear it in mind when it comes to buying Christmas presents for your book-loving friends or for Christmas stocking fillers as, in the spirit of Christmas giving, I’m donating 10% of the royalties I receive from sales of this book to the charity Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders: http://www.msf.org), who do such courageous work around the world where it’s desperately needed. I’ll be posting more information about this on my website and my Facebook page.
 
A huge MERCI to all who buy the book (it’s available in both paperback and e-book form), and if you enjoy it and you’re feeling REALLY kind then I should be so grateful if you could find a moment to post a review on Amazon.  My first two books have become Amazon bestsellers, thanks to the support of lovely people like you!

With love,
Fiona xx
 
Here are links to the book on Amazon:



eBOOK
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/French-Christmas-Fiona-Valpy-ebook/dp/B00NBCC2WS

Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/French-Christmas-Fiona-Valpy-ebook/dp/B00NBCC2WS 
 
PAPERBACK
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-French-Christmas-Fiona-Valpy/dp/1909490644
 
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/The-French-Christmas-Fiona-Valpy/dp/1909490644

The post Christmas! appeared first on Fiona Valpy author website.

Cover reveal! The French for Christmas

Today we’re very excited to reveal the cover for the third book in ‘The French for…’ series. Publication date is Friday 3rd October: add it to your Christmas wish-list now!

Evie used to LOVE Christmas, but this year she can’t wait for the tinsel and presents to be a distant memory.

When her best friends offer the use of their cottage in the beautiful French countryside, Evie jumps at the chance.  With her soon-to-be-ex-husband, celebrity chef Will Brooke, plastered over the news with his latest ‘love interest’, leaving the country seems like the perfect plan.

Armed with her French grandmother’s tattered notebook of recipes, Evie is determined to ignore Christmas altogether and bake herself back to happiness.  And when Evie meets her next-door neighbour – the très gorgeous doctor Didier she finds a very willing taste- tester.  But is it possible that he could be interested in more than just her Tarte Tatin?

With snow falling, a special Réveillon dinner and a little Christmas magic in the air, could Didier even be the one to thaw Evie’s heart?  Or will a visit from the ghost of Christmas past change everything?

Available to pre-order here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/French-Christmas-Fiona-Valpy-ebook/dp/B00NBCC2WS

http://www.amazon.com/French-Christmas-Fiona-Valpy-ebook/dp/B00NBCC2WS

And you can find it on Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23159443-the-french-for-christmas

The post Cover reveal! The French for Christmas appeared first on Fiona Valpy author website.

Happy Bastille Day!

Join Gina for a memorable Bastille Night’s celebrations in The French for Love…

“Chattering and laughing, the crowd flows through the gap at the end of the square and regroups where the hillside falls away steeply to the darkened valley floor below. I try to manoeuvre so that several other members of our party are between me and Nigel, but he’s sticking to me like glue (‘sticking’ being the operative word), persistently edging rather too far into my personal space. I catch sight of the Thibaults over to our right. Pierre has lifted Nathalie onto his shoulders so she can see and she’s giggling and holding on tight to his dark curls. Cédric, standing next to them, catches my eye and raises a hand in faint salute, but he’s unsmiling now, his face expressionless. Luc has joined a gang of young boys who are buzzing with excitement at the front of the crowd. They are repeatedly shooed back by the mayor, although it’s like trying to herd a swarm of flies.

“The first rocket explodes above us and all faces turn to the starlit sky. All except one, that is. Out of the corner of my eye, in the flashes of coloured light that illuminate the scene, I’m acutely aware that Cédric is watching me, rather than the fireworks… “

The post Happy Bastille Day! appeared first on Fiona Valpy author website.

Save the Date! 25th April 2014

Spring is just around the corner, the blossom is coming out on the trees, and the birds and the bees are going into overdrive: it must be Wedding Season!

You couldn’t ask for a more perfect setting – an ancient chateau in a beautiful garden, filled with French sunshine and joie de vivre. But when it comes to the business of getting hitched, Sara Cox is about to discover that ‘hitch’ is the operative word.

You are cordially invited to celebrate a marriage of colourful characters and fairy-tale romance

at: Amazon and all other online booksellers

on: 25th April 2014

The post Save the Date! 25th April 2014 appeared first on Fiona Valpy author website.

Close Encounters of the Romantic Kind

Happy Valentine’s Day! Wishing you close encounters of the romantic kind…

From The French for Love, Chapter One:

Lost in my thoughts, I nearly miss the turning into the lane between the vines. I swerve at the last moment, just making the turn.

And then have to stand on the brakes with all my force as the car comes face-to-face with a dark blue pickup that’s coming down the narrow lane towards me. My tyres screech and skid on a patch of loose gravel and, as if in slow motion, the back end of the car slides gracefully into the ditch. The engine stalls and I sit in sudden silence, shaking all over at my narrow miss. So near and yet so far – I’m only a few yards from the driveway to Liz’s house and here I am, disastrously stuck in what I can only wish was a proverbial rut but sadly and incredibly annoyingly turns out to be a real one.

There’s a tap on my window. The driver of the pickup has jumped down from his cab and run over. He peers in at me and I have an impression of warm eyes in a deeply tanned face. I roll down the window.

“Excusez-moi madame,” he says, concerned. His French has just a slight twang of the south-west accent that’s so common around here. “Are you alright?”

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I’m shaken, but unhurt. I nod, covered in embarrassment. “Just stuck.” I open the door and try to clamber out but the angle is awkward with the backside of the car in the ditch and the nose in the air, and I miss my footing and almost end up on my own backside, slipping onto my knees and covering my jeans with mud in the process. Not the most dignified of entrances.

“Oopla!” says the man, clutching my arm with a strong hand and helping me back onto my feet. He grins widely, obviously highly amused at my predicament and my increasingly dishevelled state, then hunkers down to get a closer look at the back wheels.

“Don’t worry, I’ll tow you out of there. No damage done, fortunately. You were going far too fast for these small roads. ”

I bristle slightly. Listen mate, I want to say, the last thing I need right now is a lecture from a smug, know-it-all Frenchman. I’ve been travelling for twenty-four hours, have lost my job, my boyfriend, and most of my family, haven’t slept properly in months, have had to up sticks and move so far from my comfort zone that I can’t even remember what my comfort zone looks like any more, and now I and all my worldly goods have ended up in a muddy ditch. So it hasn’t exactly been my day, has it?

But I don’t say this, partly because my French isn’t up to it and partly because I manage to remind myself just in time that he is the one with the tow-rope and the four-wheel drive. And so, unless I want to leave my car stuck here and carry everything I own up the drive to my new home one cardboard box and bin-bagful at a time, I had better be polite.

I smile and manage a faint, “merci monsieur,” as he fixes the rope under the car. I clamber awkwardly back into the driver’s seat and then he carefully edges his pickup back, taking up the slack, and the car rights itself as it regains the road.

The man unhitches the towrope and comes back round to my window, brushing down his dusty green overalls. “There you go. A bit muddy on the derrière, but no harm done.” He grins again, his dark eyes twinkling, and I’m not sure whether he’s talking about me or my car. I re-start my engine but he’s still leaning in at the window, giving me an appraising look. In the midst of my confusion and embarrassment I register that he’s really rather good-looking. Which only makes me blush even harder.

“Yes, well, thanks again.”

“It’s my pleasure. Oh, et bienvenue en France!”

class="alignnone size-full wp-image-100" />

The post Close Encounters of the Romantic Kind appeared first on Fiona Valpy author website.

Merry Christmas

The stockings are ready, the paper chains are hung, and family and friends are arriving from far-flung places. The house is full of laughter and chaos and light – all that Christmas should be! It’s also time to find a quiet moment to pause and look back at a most amazing year: The French for Love has been more of a success than I ever dreamed it could be and there are more exciting developments on the horizon… the next book will be published in the spring, and it looks as though I’m going to have my nose to the grindstone (or rather keyboard) for much of 2014 with a third one in the planning stages too.

Christmas is also a time for giving thanks and I’d like to thank YOU, friends old and new who have supported my writing, posted reviews, got in touch, debated and laughed, and shared feedback and encouragement over the past year. I wish you much joy now and in the year to come. May we always do what we can to create light in the darkness. Merry Christmas.

The post Merry Christmas appeared first on Fiona Valpy author website.

After the Harvest

From The French for Love (chapter 12)

“In the vineyards bordering my garden, now that the fruit has been harvested the leaves turn a glorious gold, a final flourish before the vines transform themselves into black, wizened stumps for the winter. Magpies balance on the wooden posts that support the trellis of fine wires on which the vines are trained. Mostly the birds are in pairs, (oh joy!), but occasionally these coalesce into larger groups, fluttering and squabbling as each tries to assert its territorial rights. Distracted from my reading, I count them over and over again as the birds group and re-group and I try not to think of the photo in the silver frame…”
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]

The post After the Harvest appeared first on Fiona Valpy author website.

A Champagne Moment

It was a beautiful August evening, and Rosetta and Bruce Cantlie’s lovely courtyard garden in their home on the Bergerac waterfront was the perfect setting for last night’s celebration and book-signing of ‘The French for Love’. Six weeks on, the launch has gone well and we toasted its strong showing in the Amazon charts with a glass or two of champagne.

I’m so grateful to Rosetta for organising the evening, and to all the lovely people who came along to have copies of the book signed and help us celebrate.

And to the many who have been asking when the next book will be coming out: it may not look like it here, but I promise I’m working on it!

The post A Champagne Moment appeared first on Fiona Valpy author website.

The French for Love full cover

Today, with just over a month to go until publication, we’re delighted to reveal the full cover for The French for Love. Summer’s on its way: prepare to settle yourself down on a sun-lounger, with a chilled glass of something at your side, and dive on in.

The post The French for Love full cover appeared first on Fiona Valpy author website.

The French for Love cover reveal

Here it is! I love the cover Bookouture have designed for The French for Love: it captures the essence of the book’s setting so beautifully, with its soft stone buildings set amongst the vineyards of the Bordeaux region, the limestone coteaux rising in the distance to hold the farms in the valley below safe in their embrace. Sunshine and good wine, what a great combination!

The post The French for Love cover reveal appeared first on Fiona Valpy author website.