Book Review: The Cottage in Sweet Meadow Park by Liz Davies
I’m very pleased to be welcoming Liz Davis to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her book, The Cottage in Sweet Meadow Park.
Enjoy a stroll in the park with this uplifting story of love, friendship and following your dreams.
When Molly Brown buys a derelict cottage in the middle of a rundown park, she hopes to return both the cottage and the park to their former glory. However, Molly soon begins to wonder whether she’s bitten off more than she can chew, especially when the good-looking guy from the council refuses to help.
In his role as Parks and Highways Officer, Jack Feathers doesn’t want to waste public funds on an overgrown, unloved park, no matter how gorgeous Molly is. But when he finds himself needing somewhere to live, Molly makes him an offer he can’t refuse – to move into her spare room, rent-free.
The catch? He has to help bring the park back to life.
It seems to be an ideal solution, until… Molly falls for Jack, the park is vandalised, and she realises he is still in love with his ex.
And soon Molly begins to regret letting Jack into her home, her life and her heart.
*****
Molly Brown has always harboured a dream and that is to live in the cottage within the grounds of Sweet Meadow Park. With the house very run down, she knows she has her work cut out. She isn’t just going to transform the house, she’s going to take on the park beyond too.
When she meets Jack, she doesn’t like him at first. However, when circumstances change and he ends up being her lodger, will it just be the house being transformed or her whole life?
I was very excited to be taking part in another blog tour with Liz Davis and going by the cover alone (which is so pretty,) I couldn’t wait to get started.
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Book Extract: How To Start A Riot In A Brothel In Thailand By Ordering A Beer And Other Lesser Known Travel Tips by Simon Yeats
I’m pleased to be welcoming Simon Yeats to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for his book, How To Start A Riot In A Brothel In Thailand By Ordering A Beer And Other Lesser Known Travel Tips.
Book 1 of a hilarious series of travel misadventures and dubious personal introspection by Australian author Simon Yeats, who from an early age learned that the best way to approach the misfortunes of this world is to laugh about it.
Simon shares his comedic insights into the unusual and uproarious elements of living life as an Aussie ex-pat and having a sense of Wanderlust as pervasive as the Spanish Flu in 1918.
From how to keep yourself entertained when unwittingly forced to watch 11 hours of live sumo wrestling in Japan, to surviving heartbreak in India at the hands of a French flight attendant, to 48 hours spent in Nepal that qualify as the funniest most gut wrenching travel experience since Captain Bligh was set adrift in the Pacific, to his unsuccessful attempts at avoiding going to a brothel in Thailand.
Simon Yeats has gone into the world and experienced all the out of the ordinary moments for you to sit back and enjoy the experience without the need to break a leg or rupture a pancreas.
There’s a chance to win a set of all Three Books in Simon Yeats Lesser Known travel tips series in paperback and one set in ePub format below but first Simon has shared an extract from How To Start A Riot In A Brothel In Thailand By Ordering A Beer And Other Lesser Known Travel Tips. We hope you enjoy.
Content warning: Language
*****beginning of extract*****
If there is any unfulfilled wish in my life, and there is still a chance it could be fulfilled, it is this. This wish is for my old all boys’ high school in Brisbane to invite me to come and speak at the end-of-year graduation ceremony. Speech night, as we call it in Australia.
At these events, every guest speaker in history has droned on for 45 minutes about their achievements and accomplishments in business and how the current crop of graduating seniors is now ready to step out into the world and work their fingers to the bone to reach that same level of success in their lives.
I do not know why we did not just video tape the guy who spoke in my graduating year and replay that speech on a big screen every November after. It is always the same story. The same message. The same, do the same as every person who has gone before you has done.
But I am thinking of being a little different.
Prior to my speech, in front of alumni, parents, and students of my alma mater, the headmaster would cordially introduce me.
“I would like to introduce a former pupil who has gone on to achieve exactly zero success in his particular field of endeavor but who has graciously agreed to address us all tonight,” the headmaster would announce eloquently.
by Book Extract: Floored by Chrissie Harrison
I’m so pleased to be welcoming Chrissie Harrison to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for Floored.
FLOORED is a charming romantic comedy guaranteed to give you a lift.
Hannah and Drew work in the same office.
Hannah and Drew use the same elevator.
Hannah and Drew aren’t looking for love.
They haven’t even met.
Yet something is happening…
Amiable TV production accountant Drew has turned his back on love after the death of his fiancée, an incident which cemented his longstanding elevatophobia. When Drew moves towns and jobs for a fresh start, he hears a voice in the office lift telling him to “be careful”.
Is it his fevered imagination, the ghost of his fiancée, or someone playing a cruel prank? Quickly, he becomes desperate, foolish… and unexpectedly smitten.
Sweet and sassy Hannah wouldn’t mind finding love, but keeps choosing the wrong boyfriends. Her innate social anxiety, deepened by bad experiences with a preying boss, is a huge barrier to dating anyone new.
Yet, to expose her boss’ antics, she needs to be lucky as well as smart. However, talking to a sweet but hapless co-worker isn’t the answer… is it? After all, she could never imagine meeting him in person.
When Drew discovers the adorable girl behind the voice, a relationship blossoms alongside a shared determination to bring justice to their workplace, risking everything.
Will their daring plan succeed or will it jeopardize the happiness they’ve found with each other?
If you’re in the UK, there’s a chance to win a copy of Floored below. Chrissie has also shared an extract with us today. We hope you enjoy.
Content warning: Mention of Drugs.
*****beginning of extract*****
Our sweet but hapless MC, Drew, has been hearing a voice in the office lift. Desperate to discover who’s behind it, he goes to subtly quiz the CEO Kevin’s PA, Lotus.
He has a crazy notion that Lotus fancies him – crazy because she’s out of his league. However, she is the best candidate, and Drew is oddly protective of her, especially as the CEO seems to be suspected of sexual harassment around the building.
*****
At ten thirty, Drew strolled down one floor to Kevin Yates’ office like he didn’t have a care in the world. Inside, he was a bag of nerves.
Yates wasn’t really a “management by visibility” CEO. He was more of a “Friday is for golf” guy. Thanks to that stellar dedication to helming Park Productions, Lotus should be alone in the CEO’s anteroom.
She was. He took a deep breath. In for a penny.
by Book Review: Murder on the Dancefloor by Katie Marsh
I’m pleased to be welcoming Katie Marsh to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her novel, Murder on the Dancefloor.
They DID promise her a killer hen weekend…
Jeanie’s getting married, and – despite her completely impossible four sisters – her best friends Clio and Amber are determined to give her a bachelorette weekend to remember. They’re in matching pink T-shirts and the drinks are flowing…
But the night turns out to be unforgettable for all the wrong reasons when a girl turns up dead on the dancefloor. And – even though she’s a stranger – she is wearing one of Jeanie’s hen T-shirts.
Who is she? And why are the police convinced that the hens are involved? Can the newly-formed Bad Girls Detective Agency solve the murder? And in time to get Jeanie up the aisle?
Unputdownable mystery set on the English coast – perfect for fans of The Thursday Murder Club, Bad Sisters and How to Kill Your Family.
*****
The premise of this novel really appealed to me so I was excited to be invited onto the blog tour for Murder on the Dancefloor, the latest novel in The Bad Girls Detective Agency series.
I haven’t read book one in the series but I found that this didn’t hinder my enjoyment of this novel. Enough background is given on both plot and characters.
The three main ladies are brilliant and I loved their dynamic and chemistry. My heart did go out to Jeanie and I so desperately wanted everything to be OK for her. Amber is a strong woman as is Clio. She just has to believe in herself. The supporting characters were also great and the author manages to develop all them well through the book.
by Book Extract: In the Shadow of War by Adrienne Chinn
Please join me in welcoming Adrienne Chinn to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her novel, In the Shadow of War.
One war may be over, but their fight for survival continues…
For sisters Etta, Jessie and Celie Fry, the Great War and the hardships of the years that followed have taken a heavy toll.
Determined to leave her painful past behind her, Etta heads to the bright lights of Hollywood whilst Jessie, determined to train as a doctor and use her skills to help others, is hampered by the men who dominate her profession. On the vast, empty plains of the Canadian prairies, Celie and her small family stand on the brink of losing everything.
As whispers of a new war make their way to each sister, each must face the possibility of the unthinkable happening again…
Adrienne has shared an extract from her novel with us today. We hope you enjoy it.
*****beginning of extract*****
The following excerpt from In the Shadow of War, takes place in July 1936 in Barcelona, Spain, where middle Fry sister, Dr Jessie Fry Khalid, has joined her journalist friend, Ruth Bellico, for a short holiday before continuing on to London to join her daughter, Shani, at her mother’s. The People’s Olympiad is about to begin, and tourists and journalists have arrived in the city to attend, oblivious to the storm of war about to break throughout the country.
*****
Hotel Colon, Plaça de Catalunya, Barcelona
Late that night, after an evening wandering with Ruth down the long pedestrian street of La Rambla past shops and buildings festooned with the red flags of the socialists, the red and black flags of the anarchists, and posters announcing the Olympiad, and chatting with tourists in the queues for the food stalls hawking golden tortilla de patatas, crunchy croquettes with creamy centres, or plates of crispy fried potatoes topped with spicy tomato sauce or garlic mayonnaise, Jessie stirs sleeplessly in the comfortable bed in her hotel room. She kicks off the sheet and wanders over to the glazed doors which she has left open in the hope of catching a breeze to cool the oppressive heat.
The night is moonless, and stars glitter in the black sky. In the plaza below, there is silence, the tourists sleeping off the evening’s beers, cavas, vermouths and sangrias. Despite the buzz of excitement in the air, she couldn’t help but notice the way La Rambla split the city in two – the medieval Gothic Quarter on the east side, with its towering churches and elegant hotels, restaurants, shops and clubs; and the shacks and tenements of the working class section of El Raval on the west side.
The tourists and athletes carried a thrum of excitement with them, but beyond that, leftist street corner orators espoused their beliefs, while locals debated the reports and rumours filtering into the city from the south. She’d experienced that same nervous energy before on the streets of Cairo. It had always been the precursor to violence. That energy was like a djinni released from a magic lamp. Once it had escaped, there was no getting it back in the lamp.
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by Book Club
