Competitions: September’s Which Book is This Anyway Winner
It’s time to announce the winner of our Which Book is This Anyway book competition for September.
Many of us judge books by their covers and make our choices based on that and the accompanying blurb. Our competition adds a little mystery.
The prize for this competition is a book but the identity of that book will not be revealed until the lucky winner receives it. It could be a recent new release or a well-known classic. Who knows? We may reveal the genre but the book title is a surprise. It’s like having a blind date with a book.
All we revealed about September’s choice is this book includes a murder mystery. Continue reading
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Writing Room: Seeing Things Differently
Tuesday 29th September 2015: A Different Perspective.
Today’s prompt:
Today, it’s all about looking at the well-known stories and seeing them a different way. Place a famous nursery rhyme or fairy-tale into a modern-day setting. What if Jack didn’t fall by accident but Jill pushed him over a cliff? What if Cinderella was the one stopping her step sisters from going to the launch of a new nightclub where the famous young owner would be attending? What if Ariel was trying to bribe herself off an island where she was being held prisoner? There are many possibilities.
by My Favourite Fictional Characters…
Which fictional character would you like to meet and which fictional character is your favourite is a question I ask authors a lot and it got me thinking about my own favourites. I wanted to share some of my favourite characters. I have many and so it was hard to pick a few.
Ron Weasley (Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling.)
I could not have a character favourites list without Ron being mentioned. He is my favourite Harry Potter character. He is so well written. His lines and humour are brilliant and is made all the better by Rupert Grint’s facial expressions. Harry is the main character but he is so much stronger when he is with his friends. Ron is very loyal. I can relate to him. He’s not always very confident. He’s the youngest son (I am the youngest in my family) and he does sometimes struggle with faith in himself.
Penguin, 1999
Ralph (Ralph’s Party by Lisa Jewell.)
Ralph’s Party is in my top five favourite books (I have mentioned it recently.) Ralph is one of my favourite heroes. He is very shy, unassuming and lives in Smith’s (his best friend) shadow a little bit.
I really warmed to him as a character when I was reading the book and he is such a contrast to the more confident and slightly cocky Smith. He seems a lovely, gentle man. He’s uncomplicated.
Ebenezer Scrooge (A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.)
by Book Review: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Orion, February 2012
It’s 1999 and for the staff of one newspaper office, the internet is still a novelty. By day, two young women, Beth and Jennifer, spend their hours emailing each other, discussing in hilarious detail every aspect of their lives, from love troubles to family dramas. And by night, Lincoln, a shy, lonely IT guy spends his hours reading every exchange.
At first their emails offer a welcome diversion, but as Lincoln unwittingly becomes drawn into their lives, the more he reads, the more he finds himself falling for one of them. By the time Lincoln realizes just how head-over-heels he really is, it’s way too late to introduce himself. What would he say to her? ‘Hi, I’m the guy who reads your e-mails – and also, I think I love you’.
After a series of close encounters, Lincoln decides it’s time to muster the courage to follow his heart, and find out whether there really is such a thing as love before first-sight.
Attachments was a book I had been looking forward to reading. I had heard great things about it. It was my introduction to Rainbow Rowell.
Lincoln works nights at a newspaper. He spends his shifts monitoring the e-mails of his colleagues in a time where e-mail was still pretty new to offices. The e-mail exchanges between two of his colleagues catches his eye and soon he feels as though he knows Beth and Jennifer. He even starts to fall in love with one of them.
by My Favourite Book Covers
Orion, January 2015.
If you’re a frequent visitor to Novel Kicks then you will know that I have a thing for book covers. It is bordering on obsession if I am honest. It was a little hard to pick but here are a few of my favourite book covers…
That Part was True by Deborah Mckinlay.
I think this is one of my favourite covers ever. I read this at the beginning of the year and loved it. Eve writes to Jackson to praise a scene from one of his books and they discover a mutual love of cookery and food. They are soon exchanging letters.
The plot was great. It’s a gentle kind of book. I completely adored this cover. The blue cover and the decoration is so beautiful I almost didn’t want to read it because I didn’t want to ruin the cover.
Penguin, 2008.
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen.
This particular cover was re-released as part of Penguin’s hardback clothbound classics series and was designed by Coralie Pickford-Smith.
The story of Pride and Prejudice is so well known. Lizzie and Darcy’s story will always be one of my favourites. There has also been so many editions of this book but I think that this cover is one of my favourites. It’s so pretty.
by Book Club
