Blog Tour: Red Rose, White Rose by Joanna Hickson – Review
Harper, December 2014
In fifteenth century England the Neville family rules the north with an iron fist. Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland, a giant of a man and a staunch Lancastrian, cunningly consolidates power by negotiating brilliant marriages for his children. The last betrothal he arranges before he dies is between his youngest daughter, nine-year-old Cicely, and his ward Richard, the thirteen-year-old Duke of York, England’s richest heir.
Told through the eyes of Cicely and her half-brother Cuthbert, Red Rose, White Rose is the story of one of the most powerful women in England during one of its most turbulent periods. Born of Lancaster and married to York, the willowy and wayward Cicely treads a hazardous path through love, loss and imprisonment and between the violent factions of Lancaster and York, as the Wars of the Roses tear England’s ruling families apart.
Red Rose, While Rose is told from two points of view – Cicely who ends up married to The Duke of York, Richard (who is not the easiest man to live with,) and Cuthbert, her illegitimate half-brother. I liked the fact that there were two points of view as it gave me an insight into both sides. Cicely on her own would only have been able to take the story so far and so Cuthbert gives us an insight into the time on the battlefields – information Cicely would have no knowledge of as her story is from the domestic side.
I love it when fiction is mixed in with fact. Cuthbert is fictional but I found that I really liked his character and I connected with him in a way that I didn’t quite with other characters. He felt very real in my mind and the author has done such a great job giving him a voice. I found his situation interesting. He is seen to be accepted into Cicely’s immediate family but has to fight for his legitimacy as far as everyone else is concerned.
The two points of view also gave a very interesting account of how different it was for men and woman but in my opinion, it also shows how much importance the women’s behaviour had on their husbands and how they were forced to make difficult choices once married.
by 
Quick Spotlight: Map My Heart by Dom & Ink
It’s so near to Christmas now. I can’t believe we are only two weeks away. I am forever on the look out for great christmas presents for the writers in my life and I think this would make a great gift.
It’s called Map My Heart. I am loving this book. It is a relationship journal, similar to The Art of Getting Started. I am getting a slight obsession with these interactive books.. can you tell?
It’s from Huck & Pucker and it’s currently only £5 inc post and packing so it’s a bargain (until 12th December 2014.)
This book is about relationships. It’s about how people meet, fall in love, break up, wallow, and then pull themselves together again for round number two. It’s about dating and rejection and all the joy and the crap that goes with it. It will make you laugh and think, pour out your innermost thoughts and doodle away your angst. It will be your best friend and your counsellor; you can’t drink cheap wine with it but you can scrawl swear words on it and rip it up, should you feel the urge. In short, this book will make you feel better when your heart is being battered and bashed on the rollercoaster of love.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Christmas Lunch
Friday 5th December 2014: Christmas Lunch.
Fiction Friday is our weekly prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.
Today’s prompt: You have a mix of people coming to dinner. Whether some if all of them know one another is up to you but write about the meal. What happens?
by Book Review: Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern
Harper, film tie-in edition, October 2014.
Sometimes fate just can’t stop meddling…
Best friends since forever, Rosie and Alex have shared their hopes, dreams, awkward moments – and firsts. But their bond is threatened when Alex’s family move to America. They stay in touch, but misunderstandings, circumstances and sheer bad luck seem to be conspiring to keep them apart. Can they gamble everything – even their friendship – on true love?
(Warning: review may contain spoilers.)
I remember reading this when it first came out in 2004 (released as Where Rainbows End.) I had been a huge fan of P.S I Love You previously so it wasn’t surprising that I would read Cecelia’s second novel. I loved it and since then, it’s been my favourite of her novels.
As it had been ten years since I’d first read it, I decided to give it a re-read when it was released with a new title (Love, Rosie,) and cover to tie in with the release of the film. I actually saw the film which then made me want to re-read the book. The film was great (Sam Claflin was perfect as Alex especially,) but the film only spans a small amount of their lives (until they are in their 30’s,) whereas the book spans from childhood until their 50’s which felt more realistic. I know you can’t fit everything into a film and it’s hard to age the actors but the book captures their lost love perfectly.
What I love about Rosie Dunne is that she is ordinary. She has dreams, plans and an idea of what her life was going to be like and then it suddenly throws her a curve ball she wasn’t expecting and she has to remap her life around it whilst her best friend is on the other side of the world living the life she could no longer have but somehow, through everything, they manage to sort themselves out in the end.
by Carla Curuso’s Five Writing Tips
Carla Curuso lives in Adelaide and as well as being the author of Catch of the Day, Mommy Blogger and Unlucky for Some, she is also involved in the Adelaide Chick-Lit Book Club and the Life, Love & Laugh blog. Her novel, A Pretty Mess is available on Amazon and Pretty Famous will be available on 1st February 2015.
Carla shares her five writing tips…
1. Don’t follow trends.
2. Be yourself and find your own unique voice.
3. Write every day – it’s the best way to keep ‘inside the head’ of a story/character and stay excited by it. Even if you only write 300-600 words a day, it’s amazing how the word count builds up overtime. I find I can only write in a few-hour blocks anyway, then I’m not inspired anymore! It’s a marathon not a sprint. Plus, you’ll have a better story if you have ‘creative thinking time’ in between, pushing the novel in different directions you might not have thought of earlier.
4. Write the kind of book you’d feel excited to pick up from a shelf. (Sophie Kinsella said something like that and it’s so true!)
5. Write your ‘own’ story. Your life experience might seem boring to you, as compared to, say, Gwyneth Paltrow’s life, but it’s actually a goldmine. Nobody has experienced exactly the same kind of things as you have – the people you’ve met, the places you’ve been, the emotions you’ve felt. Draw on it and you’ll write authentically and keep people captivated!
Read our interview with Carla.
Find Carla at www.carlacaruso.com.au and information about her latest works at http://www.harpercollins.com.au
The Adelaide Chick-Lit Book Club is on Facebook and the Life, Love and Laughs blog can be found at http://www.lifeluvnlaughs.blogspot.com.au/
by Book Club
