Book Review: I Give You My Heart by SarahJane Ford
Alice Richards looked forward to watching the seeds of love she and her husband planted bloom and grow well into their old age. But her plans for the future shrivel up and die when she learns she has an inoperable brain tumour.
Determined that she won’t die in vain, she decides to become an organ donor. With a few precious months left, Alice begins documenting her fairytale romance—from their first meeting to the children they dreamed of having. She’ll pass on every detail to her heart’s next owner… along with careful instructions to send her husband reminders of her undying love. Before her time runs out, Alice must find the perfect candidate to guide her husband through unimaginable grief and hold the memory of their love in her heart.
I Give You My Heart is an emotional romantic fiction novel with an uplifting message. If you like strong-willed women, undying love stories, and honest portrayals of coping with a terminal illness, then you’ll love SarahJane Ford’s heart-warming epic.
An unmissable love story full of warmth, beauty and with a huge, beating heart. Perfect for fans of Cecilia Ahern’s ‘P.S. I Love You’ and Jojo Moyes’ ‘Me Before You’.
I Give You My Heart is told from the point of view of Alice. She has just been told that she has a terminal brain tumour. There is nothing the doctors can do. Alice decides to bring happiness out of the worst time of her life. She decides to donate her organs and give strangers she’s never met the ultimate gift. However, her one stipulation is that she decides who gets her heart and for a very special and unique reason. A small number of elements reminded me of the film, Seven Pounds starring Will Smith. A film I loved.
Alice is one of those characters where you want to jump into the pages and give her a hug. Her situation broke my heart from the moment I began to start reading. What she is going through is like going on an emotional rollercoaster with all of the characters. It’s quite a journey from beginning to end.
by 
Book Review: Odyssey in a Teacup by Paula Houseman
Encounters with a pair of supersized Y-fronts; a humourless schoolmarm with an unfortunate name and monstrous yellow incisors; and a tut-tutting, big-breasted, modern-day gorgon are the norm for Ruth Roth. She’s used to crazy.Her mum squawks like a harpy and her dad has a dodgy moral compass. Add in daily face-offs with a relentlessly bitchy mirror, and Ruth’s home life feels like a Greek tragicomedy.
She hankers for the ordinary. But blah is not a good fit for someone who doesn’t fit in. And isn’t meant to.
Ruth’s vanilla existence is an issue for her besties—her hot-looking, obsessive-compulsive cousin and soul mate (who needs to do everything twice-twice), and her two closest girlfriends.
With their encouragement and a good homoeopathic dose of ancient mythology, Ruth embarks on an odyssey to retrieve her spirit. She’s confronted with her biggest challenge ever, though, when one of these friends sends her spiralling back into a dark place.
The decision she must make can either bring her out or launch the mother of all wars in her world.
Odyssey in a Teacup is told from the point of view of Ruth and this is her story as she tries to navigate herself through the complications of childhood, adolescence, religion, relationships, friendships and family issues.
This novel a coming of age story that is totally unique. Ruth has a very distinct voice and is a character I’ve not come across before.
Her thoughts and feelings toward a number of experiences is explored and it is done with her own sense of humour that had me laughing out loud. She is very relatable. She is maybe the friend you wished you had at school. She’s funny, awkward, intelligent and naive.
Her cousin Ralph is the type of boy I’m sure everyone has met at some point and he is a great partner in crime to Ruth as well as her best friends, Maxi and Vette.
by Book Review: The Gathering by Bernadette Giacomazzo
The Gathering by
The Uprising Series tells the story of three freedom fighters and their friends in high — and low — places that come together to overthrow a vainglorious Emperor and his militaristic Cabal to restore the city, and the way of life, they once knew and loved. In The Gathering, Jamie Ryan has defected from the Cabal and has joined his former brothers-in-arms — Basile Perrinault and Kanoa Shinomura — to form a collective known as The Uprising. When an explosion leads to him crossing paths with Evanora Cunningham — a product of Jamie’s past — he discovers that The Uprising is bigger, and more important, than he thought.
This is book one in the Uprising series and so the author lays a lot of the foundation for the rest of the series but this in no way slows down the pace of the book.
The Gathering focuses mostly around Jamie. Before the Emperor took over, Jamie was in the rock and roll band Faust and they were taking the New York music scene by storm.
Now he has found himself being part of the Uprising against the Emperor whilst unable to escape the memories of the glory days and all the regrets that linger.
Jamie is a very interesting character. He’s very troubled and haunted. He has fled the Cabal (the military police) and is now fighting against the system he was once a part of. He makes a very strong main character and I am intrigued to what happens to him.
by Blog Tour: Friendship Fails of Emma Nash by Chloe Seager
HQ, August 2018
I am happy to be welcoming Chloe Seager to Novel Kicks today and the blog tour for her new novel, Friendship Fails of Emma Nash.
Emma Nash is back….and determined to work out the world of friendships and relationships once and for all (…ish).
Now she’s in the sixth form, Emma’s expecting life to be a breeze but when her best friend Steph suddenly has a boyfriend who she’s spending more time with Emma’s not sure what to do with herself.
So Emma’s got a mission in mind: making new friends. Signing up for the school fashion show seems like the perfect opportunity. Although soon, through a series of mishaps that are absolutely not Emma’s fault (well, sort of), her world is teetering on the edge of disaster again.
Would going back to creating a life for herself online reaaaaaallllyyy be so bad?
I have reviewed the book below but first, something a little different.
In the novel, the protagonist Emma tries to make new friends after feeling a little left out of her current friendship circle.
Chloe has suggested that I write about which fictional character I would like to meet.
This question is one I love to ask authors. I find it a fascinating one to ask and no two answers are the same.
The problem is, when I sat down to think about which character I would like to meet, picking one was a lot harder than I thought it would be (sorry to all authors to which I have asked this question.)
All the wonderful books I have read since my childhood, how can I pick just one? When I read, all the characters become as real to me as someone sat next to me.
So… I didn’t. I cheated and picked five, (I know, greedy right.)
Jennifer Ehle, Pride and Prejudice, BBC. 1995.
When I made up my list of five, I started to think of all the different personalities. I imagined us all around the table. Of course, we may disagree but we would all be having a lovely time.
The first fictional character on my list is probably Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. I would maybe sneak Darcy in too. They come as a package deal right?
I would be so excited to be able to have a conversation with the popular Bennett sister. I’d want to know her true feelings about Mr Collins and Lady Catherine and about her life at Pemberley.
Lizzie is such a strong, opinionated and outspoken character, I’d be so interested to know what she’d make of the global political climate, social media etc. What would she make of today’s society? Would she embrace it or find it ‘somewhat savage?’
by Book Extract: Through His Eyes by Emma Dibdin
A huge excited hello to Emma Dibdin. She joins me today with the blog tour for her new novel, Through His Eyes which is due to be released by Head of Zeus on 9th August.
Jessica Harris is a struggling Hollywood reporter hungry for her big break. When her editor asks her to profile movie star Clark Conrad, Jessica is sure her luck is on the turn. Clark is an A-lister with access to everyone. If Jessica can impress him, she’s made it.
When she arrives at Clark’s mansion in the Hollywood Hills, he is just as she always imagined. Charming, handsome yet disarmingly vulnerable. But then things take a darker turn. Clark’s world is not as straightforward as it seems and Jessica’s puff piece soon becomes something much more delicate – and dangerous. As Jessica draws herself deeper into Clark’s inner circle, events begin to spiral out of her control.
Emma and Head of Zeus have kindly shared an extract with us today. Enjoy.
**************start of extract***************
A silence, as Jackie exchanges a glance with the features editor, and I clench my fists under the table. There’s no way they will actually give this to me. It’s way above my pay grade, way above my experience level. How has some veteran profile-writer not already swooped in to take this? An interview with Clark Conrad is like a unicorn sighting in the world of movie journalism, for anyone, even for people who haven’t idolized him since puberty.
‘I’m not sure we should—’ the features editor whose name I can never remember begins, then cuts herself off. ‘Maybe we hold off on making a call on the writer. I have a couple of freelancers I’d like to run it past.’
‘We’re really down to the wire on this,’ Justin says. ‘How fast can you get a freelancer onboard?’
‘I’m a little confused as to why we still don’t have a writer assigned,’ says Jackie softly. She is the kind of woman who never raises her voice, never needs to, because people lean in to catch every word. She turns to the features editor. ‘Eleanor, could you clear this up for me?’
‘We had Jim Rothman assigned, but he pulled out when we told him about all the restrictions on questions, and it’s been hard to—’
‘Okay,’ Jackie interrupts. ‘I don’t need to hear excuses, I need a solution. The interview is happening this week, yes?’
‘Friday,’ Justin confirms
‘All right, Jessica. Let’s give you a shot. Send your notes and your transcript to Eleanor when you’re done, and the two of you can work together on the angle. Do you have any clippings of similar pieces that you’ve done before, anything long-form? In case Clark’s rep asks.’
We both know that this has nothing to do with his rep. They want to vet me, and though there’s a part of me that bristles, I know they’re right to do so. I’m a nobody being handed an absurdly huge assignment.
‘Definitely. I can send you some clips today. I’ve written interviews before.’ This is true, but only with studio executives, indie directors, the odd supporting actor. No one on the level of a Clark Conrad, not even close.
‘She’s a pro,’ Justin says. ‘You don’t need to worry, she’s way overdue for an assignment like this.’I glance gratefully at him.
by Book Club
