Guest Post: Holly Gilliatt 'Til St Patricks Day

Last week I brought you news of a fab box set of four books. You may remember that I reviewed one of these books last year and also did an interview with the author. I will be having a post from each of the four authors from the Boxset over the coming weeks and we are kicking off with Holly Gilliatt, author of 'Til St Patricks Day.

Thanks so much for having me on Fabulous Book Fiend! I’m thrilled to be sharing this boxed set with your readers. Four great books for under a buck—it doesn’t get much better than that.

My book that’s included in the Love Finds a Way boxed set is ’Til St. Patrick’s Day.Here’s the blurb:

For three best friends, one winter changes everything.

Chronically optimistic Jayne is surprised she's still single at twenty-eight. But as always for Jayne, there's hope. This time his name is Gray—a successful, gorgeous marketing VP that she can't believe is going out with her. She's never given up on the belief that the right man for her is out there. Maybe Gray could be the one...if she just works hard enough to make it happen.

Her cynical friend Karen is suspicious of Jayne's new guy with his model looks and over-inflated ego. She's concerned for Jayne, but has her own relationship to worry about. Not that anything's wrong with her boyfriend. He's actually perfect for her, which is why she's terrified. Not sure she can ever fully trust a man again, she considers bailing on yet another relationship.

Claudia is always there for her friends, mothering them like the children she craves to have. Happily married, Claudia anxiously awaits the day her husband finally agrees it's time to start a family.

'Til St. Patrick's Day explores the depths of friendship and what happens when love doesn't go according to plan.

This women’s fiction book is full of humor and reminds me of the romantic comedy movies that I love. It was actually inspired by a John Mayer song called St. Patrick’s Day. If you don’t know it, you should give it a listen. It’s a soft, melancholy tune that theorizes if you start dating someone in the fall, you’ll stay together through the holidays and your romance will be safe—at least ’til St. Patrick’s Day.

So that got my mind to thinking (which can sometimes be a scary thing!)…if a woman started dating a guy in the fall, and maybe he was a little reluctant, could she convince him that she was “the one” before St. Pat’s Day? That was the impetus for the book, and resulted in the uber-optimistic Jayne, willing to work hard to make her new man Mr. Right. Then I added her two best friends, Karen and Claudia, with relationship issues of their own. In the end, this book is really as much about their friendship as it is about their romantic relationships. And I just love it when art inspires art, like in this case where a song gave me the germ of an idea that I ran with.

If you like ’Til St. Patrick’s Day, you’ll be happy to know that although it was originallyconceived as a single book, we decided each of the women needed their own book, centeredaround them. So the St. Louis Sisters series will be releasing book #2 this July! Entitled Dreams, Interrupted, this second book centers around Karen. She is without a doubt the most fun character I’ve ever written and I can’t wait for everyone to see what the girls are up to.

What I’m writing now is book #3 and it doesn’t even have a title yet. This last book in the series shows us more of Claudia’s journey. I don’t want to give away much, but I’ll let you know that the three women go in on a venture together.

Speaking of sequels, the exciting thing about the Love Finds a Way boxed set is that each of the books has a sequel available. So if you love the stories and hate to see them end, you can always download the next book and spend more time with those characters. The other three writers in the boxed set—Margaret Etheridge, Karen Booth and Karen Stivali—are all gifted writers with wonderful books, and they’re even more fun in real life! Fabulous Book Fiend is featuring them over the next three weeks so you’ll get to learn more about them, too. 

Thanks again for having me and go buy the boxed set now—this introductory price won’t last long!

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Book Covers I'd Frame As Pieces of Art 6/5/14

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!

It's an interesting one this week. I might want to frame book cover because they are purely beautiful or I might want to frame them because of what they meant to me. I think I might have a mix of both in this list and it is definitely not in any particular order....

The Geography of you and Me. When I received this book, I said the cover would be great as a tattoo so definitely wall art material for me! 

The Dead Wife's Handbook. I think one of the reasons I've been avoiding reading this book is so that it can stay sitting pretty on my bookshelf. I haven't read it but I have fallen in love with the cover and would look amazing as some art in my bedroom! 

The list of My Desires. I can't believe I don't own this cover yet! I have quite a lot of button artwork in my home already so this would be a welcome addition to the crowd! 

Any of the special edition picador 40th anniversary covers of their titles-these are just lush! 

Any of Jenny Colgan's new covers. These would go right with the other wall art in my house and these are also much loved titles! 

The Emergence of Judy Taylor. I marvelled over this cover and these swallows would look great on the wall! 

It Felt Like A Kiss. I love this cover and would love it as wall or body art! 

Another lush cover and a good book too, In Bloom! 

One of my favourite books and a gorgeous cover too-Fairytale of New York! 

Finally this beauty, another one with a beautiful skyline of London. My So Called Afterlife. 

There are so many more I could include but these are just a selection of the kind of artwork I would like hanging in my house! 

Bout of Books Readathon 12th-18th May

This is my sign up post for the Bout of Books 10 readathon!

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 12th and runs through Sunday, May 18th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 10 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. 

This is a really busy week at work for me so I'm hoping to use the readathon as escapism. I'm going to have to be realistic though in that I'm not going to be able to read tooooo many books.

I definitely want to have a good crack at my rereads during the readathon. So I want to read Forever by Judy Blume and also That Fault In Our Stars By John Green.

I have a few audiobooks waiting to be listened to as well but I think the one I will go for is The Last Little Blue envelope by Maureen Johnson.

I have a few books waiting to be reviewed as well so I might get around to these. I've got You're the one That I Want by Giovanna Fletcher, The Travelling Tea Shop by Belinda Jones & Another Night Abother Day by Sarah Rayner. These are very much maybes on the pile.

So altogether I'm pledging to read 2 physical books & one audiobook during the readathon & anything else is a bonus.

I will do a wrap up post to let you know how I got on & let me know if you'd like a page count alongside that as well!  

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.

I've been pretty good of late with not buying or downloading books. I did return something to the library this week and requested a book which they haven't got in yet. Whilst I was there I visited he sale books section where the books are 5p and picked up a copy of The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson. I've been looking at this book for a long time, so when I saw it sitting there for 5p, how could I turn it down? 

I also received some gorgeous books as presents from the states. I'm very very lucky because they're both special editions. They are Wonder by RJ Palacio and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Although I've read both of these, I will be reading them again because of the lovely new copies I have! 

I got some awesome book post this week as well, including chocolate! I received The Atlas Of Us by Tracy Buchanan. Thank you to Avon for that.

I also won a giveaway from Fiona at eventide reads' book tube channel. I can't wait to start reading Half Bad by Sally Green EVERYBODY'S been talking about it!

Laura Dockrill, author of Darcy Burdock came to visit my school this week & I got a copy of her second Book Hi So Much, which I also got signed! 

What did you get this week?

May I Read That Again?

Ok so last month I told you what an epic failure I was at the whole author marathoning in March. I only managed to marathon one of the authors I'd intended to and ended up marathoning another author that was completely unexpected.

Well April was pretty much the same. I intended on marathoning the authors I'd missed the last month, but really ended up reading authors in time for reviews. 

I read The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E Smith

Amelia Grey's Fireside Dream by Abby Clements; 

Ivy Lane by Cathy Bramley; 

A Hundred Pieces of Me by Lucy Dillon; 

The List by Joanna Bolouri; 

The French For Always by Fiona Valpy

Darcy Burdock by Lauran Dockrill

Finding Mr Rochester by Trisha Ashley

love in Sight by Holly Gilliatt

Trouble by Non Pratt

Buzzing Easter Bunnies by Nick Spalding

Carry You by Beth Thomas 

Secrets of The Lighthouse by Santa Montefiore

Things we Never Say by Sheila O'Flanagan

Most of these were read in my Easter holidays and you will notice-no authors with the same name there, fail on the marathoning front! 

So I decided on a new challenge for May.... You might have seen a clue in the post title...

That's right, May is going to be the month I actually re-read some of my books that I've been wanting to re-read for a while now. I have specific books in mind because I want to reread them for a reason. I'm not going to aim for too many because I still have a lot of review books and other books I want to get to but I really want to read these books as well...

The first is Forever by Judy Blume. I'm actually going to review this for Kirsty's blog over at Love of A Good Book. This was one of my favourite books I read as a child and I can't wait to sit down with it again! 

Secondly I want to re-read The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. Mostly this is because I want to read it again before the movie comes out but also because I was bought this gorgeous silver collectors edition and so I want to actually read it. 

The third book I would really really like to re-read this month is Fairytale of New York by Miranda Dickinson. I go on about this book so so much because its another of my all time favourites. Miranda's next book is a sort of sequel to this book and so I feel I need to read this again before diving into her new one later on in the year. I was in a bit of a rubbish place when I read this book and it really lifted me at the time, so it would be wonderful to read it now I'm much happier in my life! 

I'm only going to commit to re-reading three books because there are tons of other books coming out in May that I know I'm going to be reading and we have test week at school so I know that will keep me really busy, I think three is a realistic number to choose. 

I'll keep you posted as to how I get on and keep your eyes on the blog for reviews, updates and interviews from all those books and authors being published this month! 

Review: Darcy Burdock by Laura Dockrill

Introducing Darcy Burdock, a new, cool, all-conquering girl character with a fresh and distinctive take on the world.

Ten-year-old Darcy is one of life's noticers. Curious, smart-as-a-whip, funny and fiercely loyal, she sees the extraordinary in the everyday and the wonder in the world around her.

Written and illustrated by Laura Dockrill: author, poet & performer – think Lady Gaga meets Mother Goose.

Review: wow! Just wow! Such a super fun, children friendly, adult friendly book! I loved this book from cover to cover, having read the majority of it out loud to a group of eleven year olds! We were all laughing at points and on many occasions I had to wait for their hilarity to dissolve before continuing with the story! Darcy Burdock is an amazing character and such a fun character because she is just like them. She is a girl so the girls can identify with her clothing and her hair issues and yet she is a tomboy who wants to go on adventures and stands up to bullies to the tomboys and the adventurous boys could also identify with her! She is the oldest of three and has problems with her siblings and yet she plays at being characters as if she was an only child-something I could identify with! 

The storyline is this is wonderful because it is in little short bursts, really suiting readers of this age groups and yet each chunk is in depth enough that they cry out when you have to stop reading because it is the end of the day, such a page turner! The story of Darcy herself is interspersed with stories written by Darcy and poems written by Darcy which are completely off the wall and fabulous and also give you an insight into what is going on inside Darcy's head! They're funny but they also have a really strong message of family values and doing the right thing and are about Darcy growing up and how she handles that, something which is a key theme for children leaving primary school and moving on to different secondary schools! 

Overall I just can't find fault with this book, it is realistic yet fun, childish and yet grown up and having met the author, there is so much of her in there, you can tell that she had a lot of fun writing it. I would recommend this book to anyone. Anyone at all wanting to be entertained and read something completely different from the norm. This should be your next read whether you are an adult, a child, an adult with children or a child with adults, you will have so much fun and learn about things like mermaids, super heros and what it's like to be an eleven year old! 

Review: Things We Never Say by Sheila O'Flanagan

The irresistible new novel from No. 1 bestselling author Sheila O'Flanagan. Abbey Andersen is the last person to go looking for change. Yes, it's tough that she barely sees her mother these days - but in San Francisco she has great friends, a steady relationship and a job she enjoys. When Abbey is contacted by Irish lawyer Ryan Gilligan she learns in an instant everything she believed about her roots is a lie. She must travel to Dublin to find out more - but she's scarcely off the plane when she's plunged into a new crisis. One that will change everything not just for Abbey but for the family in Ireland who had no idea that she even existed. Now Abbey has to make a choice that will affect everyone she knows. How can she be sure she makes the right one? And can life ever be quite the same again?

Review: I found this book to be really compelling from the outset and actually read this alongside my mum so we could discuss it and predict what was going to happen next. I actually find the storyline to be quite shocking, how greedy people can be and how unaccepting of change too. It was something quite different to the storylines I usually experience and that was definitely a good thing for me. In terms of pace, it was a bit of a rollercoater, sometimes moving super quick and being a real page turner, but there were other moments where it seemed a little relative and that slowed it down for me a bit. Thankfully this all balanced out to give a good pace overall and entertained me over a couple of days. 

I actually really didn't like the characters in this book. Now this didn't pose a problem to me because I still wanted to find out how they all fared and how each of their stories wrapped up, but I think it was obviously excellent story writing on the part of this author, to write character that I had such an aversion to, it's much better than being apathetic towards a character and have no feelings at all evoked! I found every member of the family involved in this book in Ireland to be greedy and selfish. They had passion and drive, but only if it bettered themselves and their aspirations of what a 'good life' should be. There was the daughter of the family who wasn't entirely dislikalble, but even she got my back up at points. 

Abbey who travels from the states to Ireland, although not selfish, was rather bland. She seemed to have strong points of view on some things but seemed weak willed with other decisions she had to make. This inconsistency made me dislike her, but I had to find out what was going to happen to her. Her mother had a similar character. She has some secrets herself which make for interesting reading, but overall she was just a bit too wishy washy for me. Do not fear though because there is a rather hunky Irish lawyer in the novel who was worth reading on for. He was really fun to read and I was rooting for good things to happen the entire way through. 

I really enjoyed the dual setting of Ireland and San Francisco, although the description of Ireland was a little less than I was hoping for, perhaps there were more scenes in San Francisco initially that were cut out and so that is why they are both described less than expected. Overall I definitely enjoyed reading this book and fans of Sheila O'Flanagan won't be disappointed. If this is your first novel by this author then it can definitely be read without reading any of her previous novels but there are some really good novels in her collection that you should elfin timely check out too.