Tuesday 30 June 2015

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I've Read So Far In 2015 30/6/15

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists over there at The Broke and the Bookish. I'd love to share my lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

An easy one to think of books for but also a really hard one. This one makes me kind of glad that I am behind on my books read for the year so far because that means there are less to choose from! Here goes nothing...

1. The Vintage Guide to Love and Romance by Kirsty Greenwood



2. The Day we Disappeared by Lucy Robinson



3. No-one Has Sex in The Suburbs by Tracy Bloom


4. Three Amazing Things About you by Jill Mansell


5. Letters to the Lost by Iona Grey



6. Always the Bridesmaid by Lindsey Kelk



7. Bossypants by Tina Fey


8. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins


9. The Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan



10. The Girls by Lisa Jewell

As always, these are in no particular order, I'm sure this list will help me when I come to do my top ten of the year. What have been your favourite books so far this year?

Monday 29 June 2015

Afternoon Tea at the Sunflower Cafe by Milly Johnson Yorkshire Launch

Monday June 15th saw the grand launch of Milly Johnson's new novel, Afternoon Tea in the Sunflower Cafe. I was delighted to be able to procure a much sought-after ticket for the event, which was held in Mapplewell, a village just outside Barnsley, Milly's home town. 





There were about 130 of Milly's fans at the event, so she was kept busy signing copies of her new book, as well as some of her previous titles, throughout the evening. The event also included a raffle with an impressive number of prizes (I lost count), proceeds from which benefited Milly's charities, Yorkshire Cat Rescue and The Well. Contributors of prizes were listed in the programme and appear on Milly's blog. 





We were well entertained by a talk from Milly, principally about the background to her new book, including many amusing anecdotes covering diverse subjects from cleaners to husbands. As you might expect, sunflowers were represented everywhere, in the raffle prizes, the super goody bags, the sumptuous afternoon tea served at the end of the evening, and in Milly's lovely outfit. 


All in all, a really enjoyable evening - now to read the book.....



Sunday 28 June 2015

Independent Bookshop Crawl Book Haul

Yesterday the end of independent bookshop week was marked by a bookshop crawl where book lovers visited their favourite independent Bookshops. If you followed this on twitter at all, you'll have seen some people visited so many Bookshops and bought so many books! 

Unfortunately I was only able to visit one bookshop but that was my favourite independent bookshop, Chorleywood Bookshop! 


They had a fab independent bookshop week display inside and out...



The theme of this years indepednt bookshop week was #giveabook so the book that I bought had to be one to give to someone else. Now this week did fall with Father's Day at the start but my dad doesn't really read the books you buy him so instead I took my boyfriend along with me and he chose a book and so did I and I then bought the book and gave it to him! 

He got a book about canals: Great Waterways Journey by Derek Pratt-love the photos on the cover! And I got the fourth in Laura Dockrill's Darcy Burdock series: Oh Obviously! The nice thing about this book is that after I have read it, it will go on my bookshelves at school and so that will also be a book that I'm giving because it will mean that lots of the children I teach will get to read it as well! 


As you can see from the picture, the fab ladies at Chorleywood also gave me lots of IBW swap, bookmarks and the like so these will probably also be passed on! 



Saturday 27 June 2015

Independent Bookshop Week 20-27th June 2015

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As you may or may not know, this week is independent bookshop week. This is a great week of events supporting independent bookshops all over the country and always ends with a bookshop crawl where people go and visit as many independent bookshops as they can over the course of the day. This year that day is Saturday 27th June.

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Last year I only managed to visit one independent bookshop during the week but that was one of my favourite independent bookshop, I've talked about them before, Chorleywood Bookshop.

This bookshop, although it is a little out of the way for me, is a great little find, The shop itself is situated in the heart of the community. There is parking outside and the staff are always so freindly and helpful. The best thing about this bookshop though, is the events that they run. They do the most fantastic author events for kids and adults, having a literary festival for both. I've met authors such as Paula Hawkins, Bill Bryson and David Nicolls because of them.

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Whenever I have an event at school with an author, they are the booksellers I go to to organise the singing afterwards because they are so organised, so good with the children at school and so good with the authors too. They also offer me authors to come and visit school who have contacted them as part of a publicity tour and so we've built up a great relationship over the past few years.

So this saturday, I'm going to try and do a bookshop crawl to Chorleywood Books and buy my book to give to someone. I'm not sure who I'm going to give a book to as yet, because I beleive you need to find the right book to fit the person. I'll do another post to show you what I got and who I gave it to and hopefully give you some pictures of my 'crawl' experience!

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Friday 26 June 2015

Harper Impulse/Mills & Boon/Carina Summer Blogger Party

On Saturday, I was lucky enough to be invited to the rather impressive news building (yes I know I seem to always be visiting there-I'm very spoilt) for a fabulous blogger party hosted by Harper Impulse, Carina and Mills and Boon. I was so excited because I love so many authors that these publishers have and the publicists themselves are all amazing too!

Now I was pretty bad at taking pictures on the day-I'm sorry. But I did get a very impressive goody bag so you'll have lots of pictures of that and also there's a giveaway at the bottom so click down to get yourself some Harper goodies!

There were lots of other lovely bloggers there as well as the fabulous authors and a very exciting collection of fizz and cake. I enjoyed some mini flapjacks and strawberries along with my pink fizz as well as some awesome views over London, even in the rain, it was rather breathtaking!

We enjoyed a speech from the publishers and then we were free to mingle with authors such as Lucy Holiday, Jenny Oliver, Carmel Harrington, Bella Osborne, Erin Lawless, Eva Woods, Sarah Morgan, Alexandra Brown and Haley Hill. It was fab to chat to all of them. Their new books (most of which are pictured below) sound amazing and Carmel and Jenny are both working in Christmas novels-eep!

Below are the four books I was able to get signed, very exciting! The Vintage Summer Wedding by Jenny Oliver, Somewhere Only we Know by Erin Lawless, It Started at Sunset Cottage by Bella Osborne and The Life you Left by Carmel Harrington!



I also received, in my goody bag, It's got to be perfect by Haley Hill, Some Kind of Wonderful by Sarah Morgan, The Thiry List by Eva Woods and Coming Home by Annabel Kantarina!



The goody bag itself was fabulous, definitely one I will be sporting on a regular basis! It also contained  a t-shirt, some fab postcards, a notebook and some magnetic sticky notes for the moment inspiration hits!


I'm also very excited to find that we had an exciting chapter sampler for Anouska Knight's Letting You Go, all bound up with some fabulous velvet ribbon-excited to get a sample of this one!



And now for the giveaway! I have a copy of The Vintage Summer Wedding by Jenny Oliver (perfect summer reading material) to giveaway plus this amazing Harper Impulse T-shirt which I will post out to the lucky winner. All you need to do to enter is either leave me a comment below or tweet me with your favourite summer read! I'll announce the winner next Friday-Uk Only-Good luck!


Thank you so much to the Harper Collins team for the invite and to all the lovely authors for being so friendly and willing to chat-it was an amazing day!



Thursday 25 June 2015

Blog Tour: Guest Post From the author of The Dress, Kate Kerrigan

I'm very lucky to have ANOTHER guest post on the blog today. I am kicking off the blog tour for The Dress by Kate Kerrigan, which is published by Head of Zeus and comes out on ebook in July and in hardback in September. Just look at this lush cover! The book sounds fab and will definitely be on my summer reading list. I was curious to hear what Kate's writing progress what for the epic sounding novel and you can read all about that below. I'll leave you with the blurb and there's also a rafflecopter link at the bottom so you can enter to win yourselves a proof copy and get to read it early!

Lily Fitzpatrick loves vintage - clothes, shoes, handbags, accessories - things made all the more precious because once they were owned and loved by another woman.  Thousands follow her vintage fashion blog and her daily #WhatLilyWears Instagram feed.

But this passion for the beautiful clothes of the past is about to have unforeseen consequences, when Lily stumbles upon the story of a 1950s New York beauty, who was not only everything Lily longs to be, but also shares Lily’s surname.

Joy Fitzpatrick was a legend.  But what was the famous dress which she once commissioned - said to be so original that nothing in couture would ever match it again?  What happened to it - and why did Joy Fitzpatrick suddenly disappear from New York high society?

The Dress interweaves the dramatic story of Joy, the beautiful but tortured socialite and that of Lily - determined to uncover the truth and, if possible, to bring back to life the legendary dress itself.



I can honestly say I have never had such fun researching a novel.

I used work as an editor on women’s magazines and so fashion was a big part of my life as a young woman. I thought I had forgotten everything but when I started to write about my fashion blogger Lily it all came flooding back. Much of the stuff I write about with Lily - I have experienced myself, including that wonderful trip to Miami! 

I was also very lucky to have a close friend who is a textile and fashion designer, Louise Brennan. Lou has a library of absolutely beautiful volumes of fashion history and books that I was able to refer to. When it came to the point of me designing the actual address of the books title, I began to struggle. So I phone Lou and said ‘Help! I have just described ‘the most beautiful dress ever made’ but reading the text over it sounds ugly! Can you help me get a picture of it in my head?’ Lou then came up an absolutely beautiful sketch for me to work from. I was so excited by it, that I sent it on off to my editor, who in turn got so excited that she passed it on to the art department at Head of Zeus, my publishing house. That first drawing, the picture that Lou drew up immediately after reading my early description of Joy’s dress, ended up on the front cover of the book itself. It’s been so exciting for me to have what was essentially a piece of research for me, become such an integral part of the finished book.

All the best,
Kate

Thanks so much Emily for stopping by the blog today. If you fancy winning a fab proof of this book-which isn't out until September-just click the link below...



Wednesday 24 June 2015

Guest Post: Tracy Bloom on writing No-One a Ever Has Sex in The Suburbs

It's very exciting for me today because, to celebrate the release of her latest novel, I have Tracy Bloom on the blog. She has written about writing No-One Ever Has Sex in The Suburbs, which is the sequel to No-One Ever Has Sex on A Tuesday. This is a great book and Tracy has written a great post as well. The Book came out yesterday and you can read my review from Monday (I loved it!)



When I wrote NO-ONE EVER HAS SEX ON A TUESDAY, I had no idea if it would get published let alone become a no1 bestselling e-book so to be writing a follow up because readers have asked for it is quite frankly an unbelievably amazing outcome.

However I was very aware that with that comes enormous responsibility. People have bought into these characters I’ve created so whatever happens next has to be true to them whilst just as gripping as what happened in the first book.
Fortunately when I started writing I discovered I had two things on my side. Ben and Katy’s relationship wasalways complex from the start, what with the age difference and with neither of them overly keen oncommitment. The likelihood was always going to be thatlife wasn’t going to run smoothly post the arrival of a baby and their decision to get married.  I soon realised it was obvious what they would do next. They would have to swap roles given the difference in their earning power but this relatively unusual situation would create as many problems as it would solve.

Then I discovered something else. Katy and Ben’s best mates, Daniel and Braindead just wrote themselves.Perhaps subconsciously I’d developed two characters that infact I would like to be friends with. Both entirely different but both very funny and brutally honest in their own way. Writing them was truly like catching up with the long lost pals where you just slip into your old ways and carry on where you left off. It was a revelation and really drove home the importance of developing strong characters from the outset.

My other concern was making sure that you could enjoy this book without having to read the first one. I found that actually it was fun working out how to introduce these people in a way that would grab new readers whilst reminding existing readers what was it about them that appealed to them in the first place.

Of course as with any book it didn’t always run smoothly.  Always about half way through a book I have a crisis of confidence, especially with this one given it had to live up to high expectations. But I battled past that and now it’s out there and so far it’s getting a great reaction. If all goes well then I’d very much like to find out what happens next and maybe write another one. But I think I’ll write about someone else first. Leave them all be. I think they’ve all been through enough for for a while!


Thanks to Tracy for the great post and now you should all go and get yourself better aquatinted with Ben and Katy and Braindead! 

Blog Tour: interview with Emma Hamilton author of The Greedily YoursSeries

There's a new series coming out readers, series klaxon! This one sounds fab and it's released twice a week so we don't even have to wait too long for the next book. This fab series is about a food blogger and is released every Monday and Thursday, want to read the blurb?

Mia Maxwell loves food. She loves it so much that she’s made it her career.
Everything in Mia’s life appears to be perfect. By day, she runs a food PR consultancy and by night she’s a busy food blogger, delving into new recipes and sharing delicious meals she’s enjoyed. Her boyfriend Paul is always whisking her away on fantastic holidays around the globe, helping her forget his daily comments about her weight and his businesslike approach to their life together. After all, no relationship is perfect, is it?
When Mia’s work takes her down to the countryside of Cornwall to manage a local food festival run by the kindly Lord Trelawney, she takes an instant dislike to his grumpy son Tom, who makes his aversion to ‘pushy Londoners’ very clear. But as the festival gets underway, Mia is surprised to find that he shares her passion for food and cooking. As her time in Cornwall turns out to be far more eventful than she could have imagined, Mia has no idea that her whole life is about to be cast adrift…

And the cover?

I've already reviewed this one for you but I'm really looking forward to episode 4 which by my calculation is out tomorrow, YEY! 

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And now here's the lovely Emma Hamilton answering all of my probing questions... Don't forget to follow the link at the end to buy! 

First question-bit of a cliche-how did you get into writing?

I’ve kind of always enjoyed writing since I was a child.  I became a journalist so in that way I’ve been writing professionally for about 17 years but this is the first piece of fiction I’ve had published. I got into that through editing for the publisher, Bastei Luebbe.  I wanted to write for them, so I sent in some samples of my work and bits and pieces I had written and then a synopsis for what became Greedily Yoursand luckily for me it took off.

Do you write full time & if so, have you always done this?

I have been juggling Greedily Yours for the last year with my day job of freelance journalism.  So I’m always writing but for different people and in different forms. So I don’t get to sit all day and just write fiction from home which would be brilliant; but I also wonder whether I don’t need a bit of both to find inspiration for the fiction. So maybe it’s just right as it is.

Do you have a particular writing style or genre that you prefer?

I like writing both fact and fiction but I don’t know if I could do lots of different writing styles within fiction yet.  I think I favour romantic comedy as a style to read and write but actually comedy is really hard to pull off.  Authors like Sophie Kinsella make it read effortlessly and I’m laughing out loud all the way through but I found it really hard to maintain anything approaching that kind of style in this book, even though I’d love to be able to do it like her.

How do you develop your characters as you write, are any of them based on real people?

The central characters kind of came to me before I started the book, when I was in the process of convincing Bastei Luebbeto let me write the series.  They partly developed themselves as they really did evolve as I started to write them -they would appear to want to say or do things even if I hadn’t planned for them to do that.  Then I planned the other characters out around them, thinking about their back stories, what their relationships had been like, who they were friends with etc.  Lizzie for instance, Mia’s friend, just grew and grew as she was such a brilliant character in herself to write, much more sensible than Mia or me.  They are all fictional but inevitably there are certain foibles that I have lifted from people I have met along the way and quite a lot of the characters have bits of me in too because sometimes the line between what they are thinking and doing and what I would do gets a bit blurred so without meaning to, you refract yourself in lots of different ways in an attempt to make them more authentic.

What was the inspiration behind this series?

I knew that Bastei Luebbe were looking to write a romantic series about food bloggers.  I love food and cooking and romance and so I really wanted to be the one to write the series.  I took that as a starting point and as I was cycling to work one morning, I started to think about the idea and how it might work and that’s when Mia popped into my head, although she was initially called Hannah.  I imagined a woman in London who ran a blog in her spare time and who was incorrigibly romantic and it just took off from there.  The scenery along my bike ride is rural and green and lovely and it just reminded me of Cornwall and so the idea to set it between London and Cornwall was born.  

What is your writing process-do you map it out first? Write a bit at a time?
I had fairly fast deadlines with this series; one episode a month, so I mapped out the whole series first to try and make sure that the characters would go on a journey and evolve. I also mapped out all their biographies and relationships and drew up pictures in my head of how 
each character looks. After that I set to.  I worked out how many words I needed ideally to hit per day that I had allotted for writing each month and I tried my best to stick to that so that I could hit the deadlines.  Sometimes I had to work at weekends, in the evening after work or most often early mornings before work to get it done.  Sometimes I would get stuck at a particular point and need a day of messing around surfing the internet to think through how to get to the next point.  Other times an idea would come to me whilst running or walking and then I’d rush to get back so that I could start writing.  But mostly it was done a bit at a time throughout the month.

How much of you is reflected in your writing?

I think probably quite a lot of a younger me is reflected in my writing; I certainly drew on my own experiences and biography for the book. Perhaps that’s the case for all first books, I’m not sure but I think it was the case here.

What kind of research did you do before/during writing this series?

I researched as I went to check up on things but it helped that I had been to all the places I was writing about.  Then I would look at pictures of the places that I was writing about that day again, or read bits of history or geography or accounts of a certain place to refresh my memory.  Sometimes I would listen to music from the place to get inspired or to take me back to the time when I was there, as some of it was a fairly long time ago.

How much attention do you pay to the reviews that you get?

This is my first published fiction book so I have never had reviews before. I would imagine that everyone wants their book or work to be liked by people and when they don’t then it is upsetting because you have put so much work into writing it.  I read one author on the Bookaholic Confessionsblog who said she always approached reviews with screwed up eyes and I think I would do the same, not really wanting to read them for fear they would be bad. Of course when it is constructive criticism from peers or an editor then it is good to learn how you can improve but I’m a bit scared of how nasty some people can be on the internet, hiding behind domain names and not thinking that there are real people and their feelings behind the words on a page that you may or may not have liked. 


Are friends and family supportive of your writing?

Yes very.

How did you feel leading up to your publication day(s)?

I’m not quite sure what’s going to happen so I’m feeling a bit nervous about the books’ possible reception; but pleased that we’ve got here this far.  Last year, writing one book, let alone a series was just a dream that I hoped I might be able to fulfil one day.

Which other authors inspire you or are there any you particularly enjoy reading?

I love reading so lots of authors have inspired me over the years and lots more I enjoy.  In my type of genre, I think Sophie Kinsella has to be held up as just brilliant because she is so funny, sassy and creates such vivid characters. The level of farce is incredible but she makes it so believable that you start to think that Becky is right to have spent x amount on whatever thing she has just bought which then gets her into trouble.  I love books in general that somehow manage to portray the inner workings of a character’s mind, even the craziest things that you think or the weirdest ways of reasoning something out, when you read a character that has all that going on behind the plot and what she or he is saying and doing in the book then I think the book itself is really successful -Jonathan Franzen and Sarah Moss are brilliant at doing that.

Finally...what are you working on right now?

I’m actually working on the Christmas special for Greedily Yours so that’s a bit weird as I’m sitting in shorts, looking out at a light bright early summer’s evening and thinking about Christmas markets and hot chocolate and wrapping up warm.  But I’m excited about bringing Mia on a year from the end of the eight episodes and adding a little bit more to her journey, and I love Christmas so it’s nice to indulge in thinking about it, even if it is summertime at the moment!

To grab your copy of the first in the series now, click here: http://amzn.to/1FM57p4

Thanks so much to Emma for stopping by today! 


Tuesday 23 June 2015

Top Ten Tuesday: In honor of 5 years of Top Ten Tuesday My Ten FavoriteTop Ten Topics We've Ever Done In The Past 5 Years 23/6/15

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists over there at The Broke and the Bookish. I'd love to share my lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Congratulations to The Broke and The Bookish for five years of Top Ten Tuesdays! I love doing this every week. I feel like it re-focuses my love of books when sometimes I can be feeling despondent with my blog or my reading and it reignites the love of the books I have previously read or want to read!

1. Top ten books I've read so far in_____ I love doing a top ten part way through the year, it gets me excited about all the fabulous books I've still got the read in the rest of the year!

2. Top ten resolutions for_____ Always I good one, its great to looks back at the goals towards the end of the year as well and see how many you've met or worked towards!

3. Top ten reasons I love being a blogger-this one again really re-focused my reading and blogging and reminded me why I take the time to do this. Why the early mornings and late nights are worth it!

4. Top ten popular authors I've never read-this was a great one because I then had something to tick off as I read them (I've done quite a few actually which I'm pretty proud of!)

5. Top ten favourite authors-this was a massively tough one and yes I had 14 not 10, but it was lovely to see the reactions from the authors themselves when they appeared on my list!

6. Top ten gateway books in my reading journey-this was a great reminiscing one. It was fab to think back to the books I read at various stages in my reading life. I think my reading journey, like a good book, has a bit of a three act structure. I'm about to begin another Judy Blume novel and she was a major player in my reading journey so it should come full circle again!

7. Top ten bookish things I'd like to own-I loved doing this one because I was allowed to go on the Internet and look at the bookish things I'm not normally allowed to look at!

8. Top ten covers-always a favourite of mine, I've done a couple of these with different themes and It's really fun looking at the things that so often drive us to buy the books in the first place!

9. Top ten new to me authors read in _____ I really enjoyed doing this one because it made me realise how many new authors I have discovered over the course of a year/ Its great to think how many new authors I've found and loved and the fact that I don't just read the same thing again and again!

19. Freebie weeks-I love these because they allow me to do whatever kind of top ten that I want and there's generally always one lurking around the periphery of my blogger mind so everyone loves being given a bit of freedom now and then.

Again a very happy anniversary to top ten Tuesday-here's to many more! Do you have any faourite top tens? Or can you think of any that I've done that you really enjoyed? I'd love to hear!

Monday 22 June 2015

Review: No-one has Sex in The Suburbs by Tracy Bloom

Ben and Katy haven't had sex since Ben found out about her one-night stand with her childhood sweetheart, Matthew. 

Not only that but the arrival of a new-born baby has blown their relationship apart like a hand grenade. 

Drastic measures are required, so they swap roles hoping that everyone will be happier... Only it’s not as easy as they thought. When a desperate Ben starts secretly accepting help to solve his childcare disasters – from Matthew’s wife – it could mean the end of everything. Can their relationship survive the lies and suspicions and will they ever have sex again?



Review: Just such a good book! I love Tracy Bloom's writing, if you've seen any of my other posts about her books/her, you'll know that she cracks me up, she entertains me and she always writes a good read! This book is no exception, I think it may have even got me out of a bit of an actual reading slump (not listening just reading) that's just how much I enjoyed it and its the fastest I've read a book in a while too!

I love the fact that we are revisiting old characters in this book, its a sequel and I love that. I found myself doing a bit of catching up as I went along so I think it would be really good to marathon these two books together. However, if you don't have time to do that (LIKE ME!) then Tracy does a good job of catching you up as you go along. Remember how sweet Ben and Katy were? Well they're still sweet and lovely in this novel and still doing the things you think about doing and saying but never actually do, which is always amazing to read! I love the real comedy characters in this book as well, Braindead is just amazing and had me in fits of laughter throughout and Daniel is just ace and cutting and camp and everything you want him to be!

In terms of plot in this book, you might think that its just all about babies and if you're not a fan of them you might not fancy it, but the babies in the book just provide pure comedy and so it is so worth every page. There are also issues about relationships and marriage after the baby and when you move to the suburbs (hence the title) and a good storyline about working mothers and the stigma surrounding that-which I loved! The funny bits really will have you laughing out loud at inappropriate times and in inappropriate places but it makes you feel so good!

This book is, once again, set in Leeds which is brilliant! It's always refreshing to read a book not set in London or Cornwall or a major US city these days and I like that I can recognise names and things in the city and that the characters all speak in my accent-yey! Honestly, this book is a great read and will definitely not leave you disappointed! It is funny, well-written and just thoroughly entertaining!

Sunday 21 June 2015

Letterbox Love #9



Welcome to Letterbox Love, this is a UK meme, hosted by the lovely Lynsey at Narratively Speaking and inspired by The Story Siren's In My Mailbox. This post is a means by which to highlight the books we get in the post and beyond, and especially to bring attention to those books which may be sat on our shelves for a little while yet that we love all the same.

Lots of books to show qyou this week. I did a little bit of shopping, was lucky enough to be sent some books and also went to a fabulous blogger event yesterday so lots from these various sources...

Last Sunday I bought Dream a Little Dream by Giovanna Fletcher and Afternoon Tea At The Sunflower Cafe by Milly Johnson. I can't wait to get stuck into these although, like a lot of books on the list today, I may be waiting until I break up for the summer holidays now!



I can't remember if I blogged about this one before but this beautiful hardback copy of The Woman in the Picture by Katharine McMahon was sent to me a couple of weeks ago. The story sounds great too...


Now how sexy is this next book post?


And inside was the fabulous new Jackie Collins Novel The Santangelos. I'm very excited to read this one because I'm going to an event with her in September so I want to be prepared. I think I may need to read the others in the series first though so this is a BIT of a Daunting task...


Now on Saturday I went to a fab blogger event at Harper Impulse (look out for the post all about that soon!) and I got several amazing books. There were tons of awesome authors there and so THESE books I was actually able to get signed! I got The Life You Left by Carmel Harrington, Somewhere Only We Know by Erin lawless, It Started At Sunset Cottage by Bella Osborne and The Vintage Summer Wedding by Jenny Oliver. Jenny Oliver wrote a guest post about weddings on the blog a little while ago but there is another fun fact about this book...


If you look very closely, you will see that I am quoted on the back cover! How cool is that? And Jenny is just as scrumptious as her books, I was able to interview her at the event as well! 


I also got fab copies of Its Got To Be Perfect by Haley Hill, Some Kind Of Wonderful by Sarah Morgan, The Thirty List by Eva Woods and Coming Home by Annabel Kantarina. 



Now some more books I bought. The new Fifty Shades novel is out this week so of Course I bought that. Grey by EL James.


And finally, I bought In The Unlikely Event by Judy Blume on audiobook...


Lots of amazing books there I'm sure you'll agree. Look out for my write up of the Harper Impulse event soon!