Helena Halme's Blog, page 10
October 25, 2018
The Christmas Heart is published today!
I can’t quite believe the day is finally here when my eighth book, The Christmas Heart is published!
The Final Book in The Nordic Heart Series?
I wrote this story in January, right after a research trip (read ‘holiday’) to Åre ski resort in Sweden over the New Year.
My back was hurting quite a lot at the time, so I couldn’t ski and ended up walking around the resort on my own while others enjoyed the pistes. That was when I cooked up this little story for Kaisa and her old flame, Tom.
I had decided that The True Heart would be the final book in The NordicHeart Series, but many of my readers felt Kaisa deserved one more chance at happiness. Well, I agreed, and began plotting a contemporary tale for her, but didn’t really know where I’d set it, or who would be the subject of her infatuation.
Last October, after I’d appeared at the Helsinki Book Fair, I had an evening reminiscing about old times (and flames) with a friend (I have to admit, this did involve a few glasses of champagne). All that chat made me wonder what would happen to Kaisa if she bumped into one of the boys she flirted with at university. And which romantic location would I choose for such a rendezvous?
It was the snow-capped Swedish Alps and the stark beauty of Jämtland that finally made me settle on Åre as the location. I’d already decided on the plot for the story and had even started writing it, so when I saw how well it would play out in the Swedish ski resort, I began visiting the various apres-ski bars, hotels and restaurants that the scenes between Kaisa and Tom would take place.
The result is The Christmas Heart, finally out today!
I hope you enjoy the story as much as I loved researching and writing it.
Tall, dark and handsome, Tom is out to have some fun. Kaisa doesn’t think she’ll ever fall in love again. But when the two meet on the beautiful snow-capped Swedish Alps, sparks fly.
With his beloved mother passed, Tom leaves his ex in Milan and looks forward to an uncomplicated Christmas skiing in Sweden.
When her daughter announces she’s going backpacking to the Far East, Kaisa decides to take a rare winter break over the holidays with her best friend Tuuli. Meeting Tom in an apres-ski bar makes Kaisa’s heart beat a little faster, but she knows an affair with him will go nowhere. Years ago, they had a disastrous date, which neither of them wishes to revisit. Yet, as Tom showers Kaisa with his attentions, she cannot resist his intense eyes and passionate kisses.
Can Kaisa trust this European Casanova, and her own sudden infatuation?
The Christmas Heart is a seasonal story of grown-up love and the final book in the acclaimed Nordic Heart series, but can also be read as a stand-alone story.
Pre-order Offer Extended
Call me crazy, but I’ve decided to extend the 99p/99c offer for The Christmas Heart until Thursday 1st November. If you haven’t had a chance to pre-order the book yet, this is your opportunity to get this feel-good holiday romance for less than – well, less than almost anything, really! But hurry, the book will revert to its usual price of $3.99 on 2.11.18.
The ebook is available from most online stores including Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, GooglePlay and Barnes&Noble.
What the early readers thought of The Christmas Heart
I thoroughly enjoyed the characters and the setting.
The book was engaging and you can easily relate to the characters.
I liked the lesson in the story as well – we all deserve a second/third chance and it is better to live for the moment and see what happens …
____________________________
I loved this book.
The characters are wonderful.
I loved reading about a mature woman …
____________________________
Kudos for giving a mature woman an active life and a sex drive!
____________________________
I loved the setting of the story. A winter ski resort is always magical, and to read about one in Sweden is fascinating.
____________________________
I adored this new book, it’ll be another 5-star review from me!
Bookshop Launch
I’m so delighted to announce that there will be a launch for The Christmas Heart at West End Lane Books ! Join me at in West Hampstead on 8th November at 7.30pm. (See Facebook for more information.)
There will be drinks, bookish talk and seasonal merriment in this, my favourite London indie bookshop.
The event is free but to avoid disappointment book your place now on info@welbooks.co.uk or phone 020 7431 3770.
The Finnish Church in London
Copies of The Christmas Heart will also be on sale at the annual Christmas Fair at the Finnish Church, 33 Albion Street, London SE16 7HZ on 21-25 November. I will be at the fair most days, so please come and say hello, if you are visiting!
On 2nd December 2018, I will be reading and signing copies of The Christmas Heart at the church at
1pm. More details on the event Facebook page here.
Here is the link to my latest the book at 99c/99p again – don’t forget this is a very limited offer which ends on 2 November 2018.
Happy reading!
The post The Christmas Heart is published today! appeared first on Helena Halme Author.
October 23, 2018
The Christmas Heart Characters: Tuuli
As the launch date for The Christmas Heart approaches, I thought I’d let you know a little more about Tuuli, one of the characters in the book.
Friend from University
Kaisa met Tuuli on the very first day that she entered the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki. The two young women immediately became firm friends. Kaisa recognised in Tuuli some of the apprehension she herself felt about starting university, while at the same time she saw that Tuuli had a confidence that she lacked. ‘Nothing seemed to faze her,’ Kaisa muses in The English Heart, the first of The Nordic Heart series of books.
Always by Kaisa’s side
Although they had only known each other for a matter of weeks, when Kaisa received an invitation to the British Embassy cocktail party, she immediately decided to ask Tuuli to accompany her. So when Kaisa met Peter, a British naval officer, an encounter that would shape the whole of her life, Tuuli was there. Again, when ‘The Englishman’ as Tuuli dubbed Peter, wrote to Kaisa for the first time, Kaisa shared the news with her best friend. Months and months later, when Peter was visiting Kaisa in Helsinki and he decided to pop the question during a lavish university ball, Tuuli was the first person Kaisa confided in.
A Feminist with a Broken Heart?
Whether it was Tuuli’s upbringing by her highly cultured parents, both teachers, or the reaction her beauty solicited from men, but from the very beginning, Kaisa could tell Tuuli was a fierce feminist. This was something both young women had in common, although, while Kaisa fell in and out of love, Tuuli concentrated on her career in banking. Kaisa always thought Tuuli had her heart broken at the same time as Peter had stolen hers. While Peter was proposing marriage at the university ball to Kaisa, Tuuli found out her boyfriend was cheating on her.
Suddenly Kaisa remembered Tuuli had dragged her to the ladies’ for a reason. ‘What’s the matter?’
‘He’s dancing with another girl!’
‘Who?’
Her friend shot Kaisa an accusing glance, ‘The Incredible Hulk. I saw them smooching before and just now I saw him kiss her. On the mouth!’
Tuuli’s new boyfriend had an incredibly strong physique, and with his spiky dark hair he looked just like the cartoon character. The Hulk was her partner at the ball. Kaisa knew she was really smitten with him, although she said she no longer believed in love.
‘The worst of it is, I know her,’ Tuuli said between short sobs. Kaisa couldn’t believe her eyes. She’d never seen her friend so upset about anything. Especially not about men. ‘We went to school together,’ Tuuli continued, after she’d blown her nose, ‘but she didn’t get into Hanken. No brains.’
Kaisa hugged her friend. ‘She’s a bitch.’
Tuuli nodded and took a deep breath in. ‘They can both go to hell. I was getting bored with the Hulk anyway.’
– The English Heart
Later on, Kaisa came to realise that Tuuli had a completely different attitude to love and marriage. When Kaisa was considering Peter’s marriage proposal, Tuuli gave her a book to read. A Proper Marriage by Doris Lessing became a firm favourite of Kaisa’s and she decided to refuse Peter. Or rather, she hoped to postpone the wedding. She explained she needed to finish her studies before marrying, something Tuuli had made her promise, while the two were fixing their make-up in the shiny, marble-laden ladies’ loos at the university ball.
Tuuli and Ricky
True to her convictions, Tuuli didn’t marry. In The Good Heart, Book 3 in the series, we see Tuuli reconnect with Ricky, an old flame from university, and in The Christmas Heart, we find out that they have been together for thirty years. But there is no marriage and no shared home.
‘We have the perfect relationship,’ Tuuli once told Kaisa when they’d had a few too many glasses of champagne. ‘If either of us wants to go with someone else, we can. How would a ring and a ceremony change that? If you don’t want to be in a relationship, you leave, whatever your legal status, don’t you?’
– The Christmas Heart
The Christmas Heart is out on Thursday, 25th October. If you’d like to pre-order the book, it’s now just 99c/99p until the launch date. But, hurry, the offer ends in two days’ time when the ebook price goes up to $3.99.
The post The Christmas Heart Characters: Tuuli appeared first on Helena Halme Author.
October 4, 2018
Exclusive First Chapter From The Christmas Heart
I know, I know, it’s not even close, and I’m already talking about my seasonal book, The Chrismas Heart. But, you know, the early bird gets the worm. 
September 28, 2018
The Christmas Heart Characters: Tom
Kaisa Meets Tom
For those of you who are new to
The Nordic Heart Series
, Finnish Kaisa is the main character in all the books. Throughout the four novels, we follow her life for a period of ten years after she meets and falls head over heels in love with an English Naval Officer, Peter.But Kaisa also meets Tom, a tall, dark-haired ‘Rich Boy’, in the first book in the series. Tom is a fellow student at Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, with a reputation of being a bit of a womanizer. When first approached by Tom, Kaisa ignores his advances, but cannot but feel flattered by the efforts he makes to charm her.
A few years later, in the mid-eighties, the two bump into each other again in Helsinki where Kaisa has returned, believing her relationship with Peter has ended. This scene is from The Good Heart, Book 3 in the series.
Inside the Fazer café, while waiting to be seated, Kaisa stopped to dig out her purse from her handbag, to make sure she had enough money to pay. When she looked up, she saw the smiling face of a man looking down at her.
‘Hello,’ Tom said, ‘lost something?’
Kaisa had forgotten how tall Tom was. The guy was positively towering over her. His eyes were dark and his light brown hair was a little shorter, and tidier, than she remembered. He was wearing an expensive-looking dark grey overcoat, which was open, revealing a suit underneath.
‘No,’ Kaisa felt suddenly as flustered as she had at Hanken when the two of them had played their cat and mouse game. ‘This is ridiculous, pull yourself together,’ Kaisa thought, straightening up.
If you haven’t read The Good Heart, I won’t reveal to you what happens next, but I can tell you that these two meet a third time in the snow-peaked Swedish Alps in The Christmas Heart.
Sparks Fly Some Thirty Years Later
It is now 2017 and Kaisa is on holiday with her best friend Tuuli and her partner, Ricky. Once again sparks fly when Tom and Kaisa set eyes on each other. Here is an exclusive sneak peek from the book, the moment when they meet after so many years.
It was only when Kaisa looked over Ricky’s shoulder, still in his friendly, but tight embrace, that she saw him. Her breath caught in her throat and she pulled herself away.
Tom came forward and offered Kaisa his hand.
‘Hi, it’s been a long time,’ Tom said and grinned like a naughty schoolboy.
Kaisa took the proffered hand and felt his strong fingers around her own. Their eyes met. Kaisa’s mind went to the first time she’d ever seen him, in the Hanken Student’s Union Bar where he had so obviously hit on her, giving her the once over, lingering on Kaisa’s hips, breasts and lips for far too long.
Kaisa regarded the now fully grown-up man in front of her. Tom’s tidy beard (just a five-clock shadow, really) was almost white with the frost on it. It looked as if he’d just stepped inside the restaurant. His body was radiating cold air. He too was wearing an all-in-one snowsuit, but his was light grey with red stripes on the sides. His light brown hair was a little silvery around the temples, but he had the same haircut with a floppy fringe that he’d worn at university.
‘Yes,’ she managed to finally stutter.
Very much like Kaisa, Tom has lived abroad but has recently returned to Helsinki from Milan where his late mother was born. He is ‘tanned in that central European way that no Finn ever managed however much self-tanning lotion they applied’, with a wide smile revealing sparkling white teeth. Kaisa sees nothing much has changed; Tom is the same wealthy boy she knew from before, with just possibly a few more wrinkles and a little more sense than he had as a young man.
‘What’s wrong with a bit of fun on holiday?’ she thinks but as Tom showers her with his attentions, can she resist falling in love with this charming European Casanova?
Can she finally trust him?
The Christmas Heart is out on 25 October 2018. It’s now on pre-order at a special launch price of just $0.99. You can order your copy here.
The post The Christmas Heart Characters: Tom appeared first on Helena Halme Author.
September 13, 2018
Helena’s Best Reads: The Rest of Their Lives by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent
To be honest, it was the cover of this novel, The Rest of Their Lives by French author Jean-Paul Didierlaurent, that attracted me to the book. Even I’m occasionally (=very often) drawn towards bubblegum colours. I also love European literature, and this quirky novel did definitely not disappoint me. It has the perfect ingredients to be one of Helena’s Best Reads.
Complex Characters
The main characters of the book are both complex, with interesting backgrounds and jobs that are literary gold to any author or reader.
Manelle is a home help to the elderly. Her clients vary from the bad-tempered and cynical Marcel Mauvinier, to the old lovebirds, Madame and Monsieur Fournier, who after fifty-eight years of marriage “stay afloat by clinging to each other”. There’s also Manelle’s favourite client, always smiling, chef-gourmand Samuel, who showers her carer with the sweetest of endearments, and who –in spite of his 82 years – has become a firm friend to the lonely young woman.
On the other hand, Ambroise, “saddled with the same name as the famous father of modern surgery”, has opted for a career in embalming, deeply disappointing his ambitious Nobel-laureate father. His unusual profession, as well as making dating difficult, gives the book a brilliant twist – and the reader a fascinating insight into what happens to the deceased after they have passed, and before being laid to rest.
Charming Love Story
Although one of the major characters in this book is Death with a capital ‘D’, it is also fundamentally about life and love. As soon as we meet the two main characters, you pray that they will meet. However, the author takes his time in allowing the reader the satisfaction of a love story. Half-way through the novel, I was yearning for a coming together of these two so obviously matched lovers, although I was also fascinated by the stories of the many minor characters. When, finally, Manelle and Ambroise meet, sparks do satisfyingly fly, yet the author does not let the love story dominate the narrative. As you read on, you come to realise that the novel is mainly about how the various characters interact. As well as romantic love, the story is about family, friendship and living life to the full.
Surprising Twist
One of the downsides of being an author is that you quite often guess the ending of any book you’re reading. Even those that promise “a twist that you’ll never see coming”. So it was refreshing that I really didn’t guess how this lovely, life-affirming story would end. Of course, I will not share the twist with you, but hope you will enjoy this novel as much as I did!
The Rest of Their Lives by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent
Available from Amazon and other good bookshops
Excellent Translation
In reviewing international fiction, the translators are often ignored, so I wanted to mention the excellent translation of this novel by Ros Schwartz. My French isn’t adequate enough to be able to read something like this novel in its original language, but I felt that the translator had retained some of the original Gallic style in the story. Reading the first words, I felt I’d entered the world of classic French films such as Amelie or Jules et Jim. The sentence structure, and the word choice, although grammatically correct, took me to a French fiction book, rather than an English-language novel. I have no idea how translators achieve this effect, so I take my hat off to all talented wordsmiths like Ros Schwartz. Without you we’d never be able to enjoy foreign fiction.
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August 16, 2018
Do You Judge a Book by its Cover?
I find book covers highly interesting. (I would, wouldn’t I?)
I’ve just come back from Finland and whenever I’m there, I always spend as much time as possible in bookshops. What strikes me often is how different book covers in Finland (and in the Nordic countries in general) are, compared to the ones sold here in the UK and in the US.
Finns Love Books
Books in Finland are much more expensive, and hardbacks are still popular. In 2016, Finland was named the world’s most literate nation, with the UK coming in 17th, behind countries including the US, Canada and Australia. (According to an article in The Guardian)
Finland topped a table of world literacy in a study conducted by John Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University in New Britain. The research looked at literacy achievement tests and also at what it called “literate behaviour characteristics” – everything from numbers of libraries and newspapers to years of schooling and computer availability.
The Nordic countries dominated the top of the charts, with Finland in first place and Norway in second, and Iceland, Denmark and Sweden rounding out the top five.
No Amazon
People in the Nordic countries still prefer physical books, rather than ebooks. Over 20 million books are sold in Finland every year. That’s an average of four books per person, including children. Each Finn also borrows more than a dozen books from the library every year. (Source: ThisIsFinland).
This may be explained by the fact that Amazon hasn’t yet established a local online store in the Nordics, although it’s rumoured to do so soon. Consequently, ebook sales are still low (one ebook per person per year), although – perhaps explained by an ageing population – audiobook sales are rising year on year.
Book Covers Are Serious
It’s therefore interesting to note that the covers for the same titles in Finland (and in the Nordic countries in general) are completely different from the ones sold in the UK and the US. Rather than entice the reader to pick up a book with sweet wrapper -like colours and images, the covers in Finland seem to appeal to the serious side of the Finnish psyche.
Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels
To see how different the covers are, here’s an example. Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, two of which are included in the top ten fiction books sold according to Akateeminen Kirjakauppa in Helsinki this month (August 2018), have completely different covers in Finland. Look at how abstract the images are, and how the name of the author is displayed with large letters, leaving very little room for the titles.
Compare this to the most commonly used covers for the book series sold in the UK and the US. See how the colours used are pastel, and how the images tell you what the story is about. You get the sense of romance, but also of times gone past, and of melancholy. These covers are like sweet wrappers.
It could be that translated books in the English speaking market are harder to sell (Ferrante writes in Italian), therefore the book covers need to appeal to a wider audience, whereas in Finland translated books account for at least 50% of the market (for obvious reasons).
Or it cloud be that reading, in general, isn’t a national past time in the UK and the US as it is in Finland and the other Nordic countries, where literacy levels are high. Perhaps book covers have to work harder in the English-speaking marketplace, competing with film, TV, gaming and social media?
Choosing My Own Book Covers
I find looking at different book covers highly interesting. It may be that this is because I am just in the process of choosing the cover for my next novel which is the first one in a new series.
My (Finnish) instinct for my new series covers is to go for abstract ones like Elena Ferrante’s novels above, but I fear my books would just not stand out on the Amazon virtual shelves with dark images like that.
If you’d like to be included in the cover choosing process, join my Launch Team – it’s open for membership for another week until 20 August 2018. You will also get a free copy of anything I publish in the future, news and other offers from me. Tap here to join.
The post Do You Judge a Book by its Cover? appeared first on Helena Halme Author.
July 26, 2018
Five Books for a Heatwave
A heatwave can be a terrible experience as we’ve recently witnessed with the tragic loss of life in Japan and in Greece where wildfires have raged killing at least 80 people. Heatwaves also make people a little mad, something which provides perfect fodder for authors wishing to create a spectacular backdrop to a love story, family drama or a tale of crime and passion.
Here are five books where the heatwave is one of the characters in the story.
Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell
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The start of this novel is so evocative of the time and place, that I was gripped from the very start. Here’s the blurb:
It’s J uly 1976. In London, it hasn’t rained for months, gardens are filled with aphids, water comes from a standpipe, and Robert Riordan tells his wife Gretta that he’s going around the corner to buy a newspaper. He doesn’t come back. The search for Robert brings Gretta’s children – two estranged sisters and a brother on the brink of divorce – back home, each with different ideas as to where their father might have gone. None of them suspects that their mother might have an explanation that even now she cannot share.
Warning: if you start this book, you will be up all night to finish it.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams
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Weirdly, I’ve never read this book, something which I will definitely need to rectify. I have, however, seen the famous film with Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman in the lead, and loved the palpable sexual tension between the characters, intensified by the sultry heat of the American Deep South. Here’s the blurb:
‘Big Daddy’ Pollitt, the richest cotton planter in the Mississippi Delta, is about to celebrate his sixty-fifth birthday. His two sons have returned home for the occasion: Gooper, his wife and children, Brick, an ageing football hero who has turned to drink, and his feisty wife Maggie. As the hot summer evening unfolds, the veneer of happy family life and Southern gentility gradually slips away as unpleasant truths emerge and greed, lies, jealousy and suppressed sexuality threaten to reach boiling point. Made into a film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a masterly portrayal of family tensions and individuals trapped in prisons of their own making.
Heat Wave by Penelope Lively
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I discovered Penelope Lively when I was commuting between Portsmouth and my BBC job in Caversham in the late 1980s, and have since bought and read all of her books. This novel I remember being very atmospheric but quite sad. Here’s the blurb:
Pauline is spending the summer at World’s End, a cottage somewhere in the middle of England. This year the adjoining cottage is occupied by her daughter Teresa and baby grandson Luke; and, of course, Maurice, the man Teresa married. As the hot months unfold, Maurice grows ever more involved in the book he is writing – and with his female copy editor – and Pauline can only watch in dismay and anger as her daughter repeats her own mistakes in love. The heat and tension will lead to a violent, startling climax.
In Heat Wave , Penelope Lively gives us a moving portrayal of a fragile family damaged and defined by adultery, and the lengths to which a mother will go to protect the ones she loves.
Hampstead Fever by Carol Cooper
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Carol Cooper is an author friend of mine. She’s a GP who writes sexy romances set in London. The plot of Hampstead Fever takes place during a heatwave in the city where 30-somethings try to find love – or keep it alive – while passions arise in the sweltering temperatures. Here’s the blurb:
In a London heatwave, emotions reach boiling point…
It’s a sizzling hot summer and trouble is brewing. The lives of six Londoners overlap and entangle as each of them searches for love, sex, money, or just a truce between squabbling children.
Like “Love, Actually,” but set in Hampstead in midsummer, this is a slice of contemporary urban life to make you laugh, cry, and nod in recognition.
Read my review of Hampstead Fever here.
The Stars Are on Fire by Anita Shreve
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I absolutely adored this novel by the hugely successful US author Anita Shreve, which is set during a continued heatwave and drought in post-war Maine. Here’s the blurb:
Hot breath on Grace’s face. Claire is screaming, and Grace is on her feet. As she lifts her daughter, a wall of fire fills the window. Perhaps a quarter of a mile back, if even that. Where’s Gene? Didn’t he come home?
1947. Fires are racing along the coast of Maine after a summer-long drought, ravaging thousands of acres, causing unprecedented confusion and fear.
Five months pregnant, Grace Holland is left alone to protect her two toddlers when her difficult and unpredictable husband Gene joins the volunteers fighting to bring the fire under control. Along with her best friend, Rosie, and Rosie’s two young children, the women watch in horror as their houses go up in flames, then walk into the ocean as a last resort. They spend the night frantically trying to save their children. When dawn comes, they have miraculously survived, but their lives are forever changed: homeless, penniless, and left to face an uncertain future.
As Grace awaits news of her husband’s fate, she is thrust into a new world in which she must make a life on her own, beginning with absolutely nothing; she must find work, a home, a way to provide for her children. In the midst of devastating loss, Grace discovers glorious new freedoms – joys and triumphs she could never have expected her narrow life with Gene could contain – and her spirit soars. And then the unthinkable happens, and Grace’s bravery is tested as never before.
I hope you can keep cool while devouring these hot reads in this current heatwave, which seems to have engulfed most of the globe.
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The post Five Books for a Heatwave appeared first on Helena Halme Author.
July 3, 2018
The Nordic Heart Series $0.99 Limited Offer!
Whoop, whoop it’s limited offer time! The Nordic Heart Series promotion is here.
From today until 15th July the Kindle copy of the box set, including the four novels in The Nordic Heart Series, is on a limited offer of just $0.99 (£0.99/0.99)!
That’s less than a cup of coffee …
The Blurb
She has her life planned out. He lets the wind guide his sails. As the Cold War heats up, can they keep love alive on either side of the iron curtain?
Finland, 1980. Kaisa has never been a risk taker. After graduation, she plans to marry the dependable older man who paid for her classes and kept a roof over her head. But when she accepts an invitation to a party at the British Embassy, a handsome naval officer makes her want to throw caution to the wind. She surprises herself when they share a passionate kiss under the stars and promise to see each other again. But how could she possibly give up her sure-thing relationship for a man she barely knows?
When Peter Williams pictured his future, he saw a rising in the ranks and an endless trip around the world. When he meets the strong-willed Kaisa in Helsinki, his passion for the sea takes a serious turn. Not even the excitement of hunting down Russian submarines can compare to the thrill of his lips on hers. But despite his growing feelings, his commanding officers won’t tolerate him pursuing a woman from a Soviet-friendly nation.
Both torn between impossible choices, Kaisa and Peter must search their souls for the right answer. With the Cold War heating up between them, can two star-crossed lovers find their courage or will their relationship sink on the high seas?
The Nordic Heart is a breathtaking contemporary women’s fiction series with an undercurrent of romance. If you like vivid historical details, star-crossed chemistry, and complex characters, then you’ll love Helena Halme’s tale of a Cold War relationship.
Four full-length novels NOW just $0.99
The Nordic Heart Box Set contains all the four novels in this bittersweet Cold War love story between the Finnish student, Kaisa, and the dashing British Navy Officer, Peter:
The English Heart: Can their love go the distance?
The Faithful Heart: Is there a happy ever after?
The Good Heart: Can they love again?
The True Heart: Can love conquer all?
From the Editor
“I have loved this series. As well as capturing the essence of romantic love, family relationships, and friendship, it is a brilliant evocation of times and places, pulling you from Soviet-dominated Finland in the late 1970s to London in the 80s and 90s, much of which I recognize myself.”
Limited Offer Ends 15 July 2018
This is a very limited offer! The Kindle version of The Nordic Heart Box Set retails at $8.99. During the promotion (1-15.07.18), it’s just $0.99 (£0.99/0.99€).
That’s nearly a 90% discount!
If you haven’t yet read the books in The Nordic Heart Series, this is your chance to grab the 4 novels for under a Dollar (Pound, Euro).
But hurry, the price reverts back to $8.99 midnight 15 July 2018.
Buy The Nordic Heart Box Set to experience a vibrant tale of courage and love in the face of war today!
Tap here to buy on Amazon.com
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June 29, 2018
Five Reasons Why Authors Should Attend Live Conferences and Seminars
Authors spend most of their time at a desk be it in a coffee house, an office (oh, the luxury!) or at home. It’s quite a solitary profession, something which I’ve had real difficulty to come to terms with since I turned full-time author two years ago. Attending author events has helped me a lot with the sense of seclusion, but there are other reasons authors should attend live seminars and conferences on subjects other than writing.
1. Networking
Networking is an obvious benefit of ‘getting out there’. Whenever I attend an event, I see a small hike in my book sales that same night or the next day. I always carry lots of business cards (with my book covers plus a QR code for speedy shopping), and I usually tell everyone I am an author and what kinds of books I write.
Networking is also useful for my mentoring business: many of my clients have come directly, or indirectly, out of events I’ve attended.
2. Learning
Seminars and conferences are great places to learn about a subject that you need more training for. I am really looking forward to Janet Murray’s Media Live Conference next week. I am hoping to meet a lot of marketing professionals, learn about effective PR, social media marketing and hopefully get to know what commissioning journalists for newspapers, magazines, radio and TV are looking for today. I’m aiming to come home from the two-day conference with some names and business cards of people I can work with, as well as those that I can contact for possible coverage when I’m planning my next book launch (which, fingers crossed, should be late September).
3. Collaboration
Real life networking can also be useful to find like-minded authors or marketing and other professionals to collaborate with. During my time as an indie author, I have made solid business connections at events with various people, some of whom I now consider my friends. For example, I met Yen Ooi of CreateThinkDo at an event at Foyles Bookstore in London. A few years later, she contacted me to ask me if I’d like to become CTD Fellow. Having known about the effectiveness of this marketing analysis and strategy builder for creatives, I said, after careful consideration and training, ‘Yes’. (To find out more about CreateThinkDo, go here.)
4. Inspiration
I cannot emphasize enough how much inspiration for writing and marketing getting out of the house (office/coffee shop), gives me. Especially if it’s at an event that has this mission statement at its core:
Driven Woman is a network for women with ideas and ambition who want to achieve their goals.
I’ve been a member of the DrivenWoman Network for three years now, and the help and support that this group of women has given me is really immeasurable. Their annual conference, The Festival of Doers, is just an amazing day, where you get inspired to live the life you want and reach the goals you’ve set for yourself. Or, find what it is you want or the goals you have but didn’t even realise. DrivenWoman has its first international conference in Zurich later this year, and I am hugely tempted to go, especially as I’ve never visited this beautiful and historic city.
5. Support
Going to seminars and conferences can give you that much-needed support, or validation that what you are doing is the right thing for you. Or confirmation that, even if the journey sometimes feels very hard indeed, you’re going in the right direction and that it’ll be worth it in the end!
Before I even became a self-published author, I joined a very special organisation, the inauguration of which I witnessed at the London Book Fair in 2011. Had I not attended this annual Fair, I’m convinced it would have taken me much longer to get where I am today.
Over the years, The Alliance of Independent Authors has given me a huge amount of support, informed me about the book industry, provided discounts for services, given me numerous friends and introduced me to various colleagues amongst the indie community. I really, truly, don’t think that could be a published author and a successful mentor if it wasn’t for ALLi.
If you’re thinking about becoming a published author, or if you already have some books out there, join ALLi now. You will not regret it!
If you see me at a conference or seminar, come and say hello!
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The post Five Reasons Why Authors Should Attend Live Conferences and Seminars appeared first on Helena Halme Author.
June 26, 2018
High Risk by Simona Ahrnstedt
High Risk by Simona Ahrnstedt is a story of journalist Ambra Vinter and her famous step-sister, pop singer Jill Lopez. Both women are scarred by their childhoods spent in various foster families in Sweden.
Nordic Noir or Nordic Romance?
[image error]To be honest, I’m in two minds about this book. While reading High Risk, I kept wondering if this is a pure romance or a Nordic Noir mystery. The plot about the Laestadian couple who mistreat children in their care is so dark, that it really belongs in another kind of book. Even the prologue takes us right into Ambra’s spine-chilling experiences with a strict religious sect in the worst of her foster homes, which indicates that this is the main thread of the story.
However, High Stakes is really the story about Ambra Vinter’s relationship with Tom Lexington, an ex-soldier and international security expert.
Hunky, Tortured Ex-soldier And A Beautiful Journalist With A Mission
[image error][image error]Much of the novel is taken up with the infatuation between the hunky Tom and the beautiful Ambra, doomed from the start because of Ambra’s lack of self-confidence and Tom’s PTSD caused by a mission gone wrong in Chad. To add to the complications, Tom is still holding onto a previous serious relationship.
Although lonely, Ambra’s focus in life is to uncover truths and to protect the weak, rather than to find a man of her dreams. Her job as a journalist at one of the main Swedish newspapers, Aftonbladet, doesn’t always allow her to fulfil this ambition, which is one of the biggest frustrations in her life. Ordered to cover a ‘soft’ story just before Christmas in Kiruna, the Northern Swedish town where she suffered the worst abuse with a Laestadian foster family, she reluctantly agrees.
In her former hometown, she meets Tom, and there’s an immediate, mutual, attraction.
Tom Lexington is suffering severe bouts of PTSD and although he flirts with Ambra, he cannot trust his own feelings. Before his secret mission, he was happily living together with another woman and wants nothing more than to have the beautiful Ellinor back. The only problem is, she’s moved on and is now living with a new man in Kiruna.
A Second Love Story To Boot
High Stakes also tells the parallel story of Ambra’s step-sister, the stunningly beautiful celebrity singer-songwriter, Jill Lopez. Jill too is damaged by her childhood experiences of abandonment and has an inability to commit to a man. Until that is, she meets Mattias, Tom’s old Special Forces friend.
I found the introduction of a second lovey story to the book a little unnecessary. There is enough plot with Tom’s secret missions and former life as a Special Forces soldier, as well as Ambra’s childhood tragedies, without having to add to it. We really do not need another complicated relationship with another damaged woman and another hunky, emotionally stunted soldier in the same novel. As friends of the two main characters, Jill and Mattias worked well, but they didn’t need to have a romantic connection as well. In addition, the novel is a whopping 545 pages, so this second storyline isn’t needed to bulk up the book. (Tom is bulky enough, anyway 
