A Moment With…Alice May
I’m so pleased to be welcoming Alice May to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her book, The Mid-life Trials of Annabeth Hope.
Two very different worlds are about to collide.
Feisty country girl Annabeth Hope has sworn off men since her ex abandoned her. Juggling three resentful step-teens, a hyperactive toddler, a smallholding, and a herd of rescued llamas, she has her hands full.
With the roof about to collapse on her crumbling New Forest home, she is desperate to find a way to hold her patchwork family together. The last thing she needs is an attractive distraction moving in next door.
Burnt-out inner-city doctor Rick Mahon has left London and his medical career behind in a moment of professional crisis. A malpractice lawsuit is on the horizon, and the cancel culture mob are snapping at his heels. His plan to stay under the radar is thrown off course when he meets his new neighbour and sparks start to fly.
Annabeth and Rick couldn’t be more different, but maybe they hold the key to each other’s happiness…
Alice joins us today to chat about inspiration and people watching so without further ado, it’s over to you.
I love writing family dynamics. Finding the inspiration to write teen characters can be tricky, especially when you are trying to replicate their interactions with the adults in their lives. When I worked as a school librarian, it was interesting that pupils using the library often forgot that I was there. While I quietly moved around the room emptying the returns box and filing books back onto shelves, teenagers would chat openly with their friends about things they would never share in front of an adult. I wasn’t deliberately eavesdropping, but it was impossible to do my job without hearing what was being shared quite openly around me. Snippets of random conversations triggered ideas, situations and character quirks that went on to influence my writing.
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Book Review: The Winter Runaway by Katie Flynn
Can you ever escape your past?
Tammy and her mother, Grace, are desperate to escape Tammy’s violent bully of a father.
When an unforeseen tragedy strikes, mother and daughter must flee Scotland in the dead of night, forced to leave behind everything they know and love – including one another.
Under new identities, Tammy and Grace must start afresh. Tammy joins the services, where she meets a dashing officer who begins to break her guard down.
But can the course of love ever run smooth with Tammy unable to reveal her true self?
The Winter Runaway is the first instalment in the brand-new Runaway’s trilogy from the beloved bestselling author.
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It’s 1940 in Clydebank. Grace and Tammy Blackwell have more to worry about than the war. Dennis Blackwell thinks nothing of harming his wife and daughter on a daily basis. With the encouragement of Rory, Tammy’s boyfriend, they decide it’s time to leave. However, before they can, something happens that changes their lives forever but the two women never lose hope of seeing each other again.
I was very excited to be invited onto the blog tour for A Winter Runaway, the latest novel from Katie Flynn and is due to be released on 24th October. Having not read anything from this author before, I was intrigued and couldn’t wait to get started.
by Book Extract: The Wedding Engagement by Zoe Allison
Please join me in welcoming Zoe Allison to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her book, The Wedding Engagement.
It’s not supposed to be her love story…
Planning a wedding with the man you’re secretly in love with… what could go wrong?
Liv Holland has a secret: she’s been crushing on Arran Adebayo, her brother’s best friend, for years. They’re ‘just friends’ but she can’t help the butterflies in her stomach whenever she’s around him.
When they’re asked to help plan festivities for Liv’s brother’s wedding, Liv and Arran can no longer deny the sparks between them. But with both having their own chequered romantic history, risking everything for love could mean losing each other forever…
As the wedding bells ring, will Liv and Arran finally find their own happy ever after?
Zoe has shared an extract with us today. We hope you enjoy it.
*****beginning of extract*****
Arran has just made an SOS call to Liv to ask if she can collect his son, Jayce, from his street dancing class. Arran’s ex, Jess, was meant to pick up their son but she was waylaid. Unfortunately Arran couldn’t get back home in time for the class finish because he was out of town buying paint supplies for his art studio. Liv collected Jayce and took him for a milkshake and is just driving to Arran’s house to drop Jayce off.
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‘And then what happened?’ Liv asked, maintaining a serious expression as Jayce carried on with his tall tale.
‘And then I rescued everyone from the dragon and saved the day,’ he said from the back seat, a proud look on his face when she glanced in the rear-view mirror.
She returned her eyes to the road as she navigated the last turn onto Arran’s driveway. ‘Wow. And this was definitely real, not a dream?’
by Book Extract: Coincidentally in Venice by Kate Zarrelli
I’m happy to be welcoming Kate Zarrelli to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her book, Coincidentally in Venice.
Best friends Ashley and Juliet, who’ve been made redundant from their marketing jobs during Covid, at last get to go to Venice. The long days of lockdown were made a little easier by looking at webcams of the deserted city. One day, Ash spied a man walking his dog in Campo Santa Maria Formosa. What would happen if she were to meet him for real?
Though Jules hits it off with a handsome waiter, and both girls take the opportunity to think through big career changes, things otherwise don’t go quite according to plan. And why is it that boring Joe from Accounts keeps turning up where he’s not supposed to be? Only, whoever falls in love with Venice won’t stay boring for long, and Joe unwittingly finds himself at the centre of a trade in faked artworks.
Coincidentally in Venice is a joyous celebration of love, friendship, vintage clothes to die for, Prosecco and spaghetti alle vongole. Oh, and not to mention a stolen gondola, a dog called Killer, ten thousand fictitious virgins and an old Grateful Dead t-shirt.
Kate has shared an extract with us today. We hope you enjoy.
*****beginning of extract*****
It’s April 2022 and best friends Ashley and Juliet are at last able to take their postponed holiday to Venice. In the silent days of lockdown, both girls had feasted their eyes on webcams of the deserted city. In a lonely square, Ashley had spotted a solitary man exercising his dog. Never one to miss an opportunity, Juliet urged her friend to go to that square to get a look at him close up…
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Close up the waiter really was worth looking at, even with his nose and mouth covered by the regulation mask. He was slender. His sleeves were rolled up, exposing golden skin and silky dark hairs Ash wanted to reach up and stroke. A little badge bore the name Davide. Ash remembered that in Italian every syllable was pronounced. She rehearsed saying it in her head: Dah-vi-deh.
‘Il nome è Ashworth,’ pronounced Juliet carefully.
‘Oh yes. You booked,’ he said, in nearly unaccented English. ‘Your table is here. You’ll find the menu with this Q-R code,’ he added, indicating a laminated little square. ‘Or I could just tell you…’
‘Oh yes, just tell us. It’s so good to deal with a real human. What does vongole veraci mean?’
by Book Extract: The Next Step by B R Maycock
I’m so pleased to be welcoming B R Maycock to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for The Next Step, book three in the Abbeyglen series.
Christmas has been all but forgotten as a negative pregnancy test makes Rachel reconsider her future with Todd. The realisation sends her to the small town of Abbeyglen where the opening of Caulfield’s Café is all anyone’s talking about. But it also has her beginning to see returning colleague at Blackwater Financial Services, the loud, hilarious Owen Larrson in a new light.
Natalie has decided she needs a change. In the midst of Christmas craziness, with the grand opening of the café and the excitement of her two children’s Christmas concert, Natalie can only hope the people of Blackwater Financial Services can help her find the job that will change her life. But as ex-boyfriend Darren returns, she realises luck might not be on her side for a bright Christmas after all
Join two women who are trying to figure out what the rest of their lives hold, in the midst of the mayhem of the most wonderful time of the year in the most wonderful place to be!
B R Maycock has shared an extract with us today. We hope you enjoy.
*****beginning of extract*****
Hi! So this is a little excerpt/ extract from The Next Step and it’s the lovely Natalie Martin, who works in The Abbeyglen Arms, who has just had a day job hunting. Hope you enjoy!!
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‘You’re late, Mammy,’ Katie said, as she walked out of the babysitter’s, gripping her mother’s hand. ‘Today was supposed to be the day you didn’t work.’
by Book Club
