Blog Tour: It Started With Paris by Cathy Kelly – Review
It all started with Paris. At the top of the Eiffel Tower, a young man proposes to his girlfriend, cheered on by delighted tourists. In that second, everything changes, not just for the happy couple, but for the family and friends awaiting their return in Bridgeport, Ireland…
Leila’s been nursing a badly broken heart since her love-rat husband just upped and left her one morning, but she’s determined to put on a brave face for the bride.
Vonnie, a widow and exceptional cake-maker, is just daring to let love back into her life, although someone seems determined to stop it.
And Grace, a divorced head teacher, finds the impending wedding of her son means that she’s spending more time with her ex-husband. After all those years apart, is it possible she’s made a mistake?
With her warmth and insight, Cathy Kelly weaves a delightful tale spinning out from a once-in-a-lifetime moment, drawing together a terrific cast of characters who feel like old friends.
(Published by Orion on 9th October 2014.)
It Started With Paris begins with a couple, Michael and Katy getting engaged at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It then looks at how their engagement affects the people around them – focusing on three women in particular; Grace (a head teacher and Michael’s mother.) Grace is still great friends with her ex, Stephen.
Leila is a twenty-nine year old who is divorced and whose mother is in hospital following a car accident and finally Vonnie, who has come to Ireland following the death of her husband.
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Blog Tour: It Started With Paris by Cathy Kelly
We are so happy to be welcoming Cathy Kelly to our blog today and her blog tour for her new novel, It Started With Paris (released by Orion on 9th October.)
Hello Cathy. Thank you so much for joining us. Can you tell us a little about your new book, It Started with Paris and how the idea originated?
Hello! I begin to think about one book when I’m half-way through another one and during the writing of The Honey Queen, I began to think the classic writer thing of ‘what if…?’ In this case, it was what if I wrote about women who had gone through divorce or were alone through widowhood and looked at how their lives had changed and how they found love again. So then I came up with lovely 29-year-old Leila, who has a glam job in the film industry and was married to love rat Tynan, who got up one morning and walked out – for someone with legs up to her armpits. Nightmare, right? Then there’s Grace, in her fifties, who is divorced and has a really civilized relationship with her ex, so that they spend a lot of time together when their son gets engaged and Grace looks at her ex (who is happily with another woman now) and wonders: ‘Did we split up without trying hard enough?”
And finally, there’s American mum-of-one, Vonnie, who lost her husband tragically, came to Ireland so she’d be able to live without expecting to see him all the time, and she falls in love with a man who was married – and whose ex-wife is not so happy with it all. Basically, the book is about how life is never black and white, how relationships are wonderful and sometimes difficult, and hopefully, there’s plenty of humour and hope.
Do you have any writing rituals?
A very strong cup of coffee with a decreasing amount of sugar. I am trying so hard to give it up because it’s so bad for you – wrinkles, inflammation, the list goes on – but I LOVE it. I bring my sons to school, come home, stick on the washing, do my emails, then make a decent cup of coffee and write.
by Author Interview: Nell Dixon
Nell is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. Her books include Christmas Ever After, The New Bay Series and Radio Gaga. We chat to Nell about her books, fictional characters and theme songs.
Can you tell us a little about the books you write and about your latest book, Sophie’s Choice?
I write contemporary women’s fiction with a dash of humour and a pinch of suspense. Sophie’s Choice is the first in the Ever After series. Christmas Ever After – the second book, was written as a stand alone but readers begged for Sophie’s love story so I gave in. Book 3 in the series will be out before Christmas and is called It Happened at Midnight and is the final one in the trilogy.
How much planning do you do before starting a book? Do you edit as you go?
I do very little planning. I have the characters in my head and I know what their problems are but the rest just writes itself. I don’t edit as I go. I wait till the story is completely done before I start to tinker with it.
What’s different with writing a book for a series and writing a ‘stand alone’ novel?
It’s hard writing series or linked books. You have to remember every detail from what’s gone before and ensure characters that have continuing storylines are still developing and keeping to their original concepts. Plus, you need to keep your timelines straight. Sophie’s Choice happens five years before Christmas Ever After. What advice would you give to someone thinking of writing a series of books? Keep a series’bible’ so you don’t have to keep looking back through your storylines to check your facts.
by Writing Room: It’s Not The End.
Writing Room is our online writing group.
We post a prompt. Once you’ve written your piece, post it in the comments box below. Anyone is welcome to take part and it’s an opportunity to post work plus give and gain feedback.
Today’s prompt: This is not the end….
I have read many novels where I have got to the end and I have felt sad that it’s over. I have grown so fond of the characters that I want to know what happens to them beyond the end. Until recently, I had wondered what would become of Bridget and Mark, what happens to Harry between school and the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, how would Jem and Ralph get on after Ralph’s Party ended.
by Book News: Marian Keyes
Eeek! We are so excited for the imminent arrival of the latest novel from Marian Keyes. The Woman Who Stole My Life is due for release by Michael Joseph on 6th November (so just under a month to wait,) and it sounds great.
It’s available to pre-order in hardback and e-book.
Who else is excited? We are.
About the book:
‘Name: Stella Sweeney.
Height: average.
Recent life events: dramatic.’
One day, sitting in traffic, married Dublin mum Stella Sweeney attempts a good deed. The resulting car crash changes her life.
For she meets a man who wants her telephone number (for the insurance, it turns out). That’s okay. She doesn’t really like him much anyway (his Range Rover totally banjaxed her car).
by Book Club
