Blog Tour: Beach Read by Emily Henry

A Moment With… Mary Wood

Published June 2, 2026 | By Laura

I am pleased to be welcoming Mary Wood to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her novel, To Find My Mother.

A HARROWING AND YET UPLIFTING STORY OF SURVIVAL AND LOVE

Best friends Jana and Eva are carefree eight-year-olds in Prague-until Nazi occupation tears their lives apart.

As their mothers are taken away and the girls face the horrors of war, survival becomes all that matters

In Theresienstadt, two desperate women make unimaginable sacrifices to one day find their children.

But will love and hope be enough to help them reunite?

To chat about her writing and experience in both the self and traditional publishing world, it’s over to you, Mary.

Coming Full Circle.

Hello, everyone, it’s great to be here on this lovely blog.

I am the author of THIRTY-SIX published books: My latest being: ‘TO FIND MY MOTHER’ a story set in the holocaust.

After twenty years of trying, my career began with Amazon offering a lifeline to wannabee authors to self-publish, and sell, their books.

I was nervous at first. Self-publishing had previously been known as vanity publishing, and it was said publishers wouldn’t consider your book if you had indulged in this practice.

But I took the plunge when a fellow wannabee author and friend, published on Amazon. One day she contacted and told me I must join; that it was wonderful to be published, and she had just earned £400 for a month’s sales! Wow, did my ears prick up! We were rock-bottom and this was a fortune.

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Book Review: Beach Read by Emily Henry

Published June 14, 2020 | By Laura

I am pleased to be welcoming Emily Henry to Novel Kicks today and the blog tour for her latest novel, Beach Read.

TWO WRITERS, ONE HOLIDAY. A ROMCOM WAITING TO HAPPEN…

January is a hopeless romantic who narrates her life like she’s the lead in a blockbuster movie.
Gus is a serious literary type who thinks true love is a fairy-tale.

But January and Gus have more in common than you’d think:

They’re both broke.
They’ve got crippling writer’s block.
And they need to write bestsellers before summer ends.

The result? A bet to swap genres and see who gets published first.
The risk? In telling each other’s stories, their worlds might be changed entirely…

January has just lost her father, she’s facing a publishing deadline and then she realises that her nemesis, Gus, is her new neighbour.

As they begin to talk and make a bet, they discover things about each other that they wouldn’t have imagined and revelations that will change their lives.

I love this novel and found it so addictive. I couldn’t stop reading and when I wasn’t, I couldn’t wait to get back to it.

Gus and January are enthralling characters and an interesting couple. Both felt so real and normal. They were flawed, layered, unique and each carry their own emotional baggage. I loved them as a potential couple. What actually happens, I am not going to tell.

The plot was compelling and unlike books i’ve read before. However, at the same time, it held the same charm that my favourite romantic comedies hold. In fact, I could see this as a movie. The setting was so vivid and I wanted to jump into the novel.

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