A Moment With… Gina Cheyne
I am very excited to be welcoming Gina Cheyne to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her book, Twenty-Six Years Living a Lie.
Twenty-Six Years Living a Lie
In 1997, high in the alpine resort of Tignes, Cecily celebrates her third wedding anniversary with a night of passion. But in the morning her happiness turns to misery and shock when she find her husband Nick dead in the bed beside her, the victim of a sudden heart attack.
Six weeks later, Cecily learns she is pregnant.
Twenty-six years later, her son Charlie takes a DNA test alongside his uncle Adam, Nick’s identical twin. The results shatter everything he thought he knew: Charlie is not related to Adam. If Nick wasn’t his father, then who was?
Cecily insists she was faithful, and the timing points only to that single night in Tignes. Desperate for answers, she turns to the SeeMs Detective Agency. Could someone have entered her room that night without her knowing? And if so—who? And why?
As the detectives dig deeper, they uncover a web of conflicting memories, buried secrets, and dangerous lies. Slowly they discover other people are in danger and if they don’t find out very soon what really happened in that wonderful night in Tignes two, or maybe more, lives will be lost.
To talk about the themes of Twenty-Six Years Living a Lie, it’s over to you, Gina.
This book is first of all a whodunnit, although it is who fathered Charlie, rather than who killed his father, (father died of a heart attack) but it has other themes in its writing.
Sometimes when you are writing a novel these themes jump out at you when you aren’t expecting them. I was planning to write a straight whodunnit inspired by a dark night in the ski resort of Tignes in the French Alps. So dark was the night that I thought someone could climb over the balcony, and enter my bed. We could share a night of passion, and I would never know it was not my husband! However, other things wanted to be heard in the story.
Firstly, the theme of knowing yourself. We think we know other people and ourselves very well, but do we? Cecily has idolised her dead first husband and thinks of her second husband as merely security and the father of her other children. But, as the story progresses it is obvious that he is much more than that. He has a depth of kindness and insight she did not understand until everything goes wrong.
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A Moment With… Olivia Lockhart
It’s exciting to be welcoming Olivia Lockhart to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her book, No More Tomorrows.
Two eras. One aching heart.
1917 – At Cambridge University, American scholar Harry Turchin never expects to lose himself to desire. But Annie Mackenzie—soft-spoken, grieving, and luminous—claims his heart from their very first kiss. Their love is swift, fierce, and intoxicating. Married just days before Harry is sent to war, their passion is ripped apart when the trenches claim everything he knows, and Harry is thrown into a future that should not exist.
1967 – The free-spirited sixties are alive with rhythm, rebellion, and possibility. Harry awakens to a world he doesn’t recognise—and to Annalise Taylor, as bold and captivating as the era itself. Brilliant, independent, and achingly alive, she rouses a desire he thought belonged solely to the past.
Caught between the love he was ripped away from and the passion he cannot resist, Harry is torn between two women, two lives, and two versions of forever. Because time will not bend twice … Or will it?
Sweeping from the blood-soaked battlefields of World War One to the fevered nights of the swinging sixties, No More Tomorrows is a sensual time-slip romance about desire, devotion, and the devastating power of love that refuses to be bound by time.
To talk about the concept of No More Tomorrows, it’s over to you, Olivia.
Some of the best ideas for a book start with a little bit of scepticism.
That was certainly true for No More Tomorrows. Before we started writing it, I had never read a time-slip romance and hadn’t given the genre much thought at all. The idea actually came from my co-author, and when he first suggested it, I wasn’t entirely convinced.
But once we began writing, I quickly realised how much fun the concept could be.
by A Moment With… Laura Briggs
I’m so pleased to be welcoming Laura Briggs back to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her latest novel, Sugar and Spice at the Pumpkin Corner Café.
The perfect new cozy-up-with-a-pumpkin-spice-latte read that’s meant for fans of Laurie Gilmore and Rebecca Raisin!
Professional pastry chef Blaire Reese is blindsided when her beloved Aunt Rachel dies, leaving her the Sugar and Spice Pastry Cafe in Willow Grove. Returning to her hometown, Blaire discovers her beloved family business is in trouble, and—to make things worse—its most-cherished recipe is missing.
Her first love and former summer crush, Evan Hadley, is also back in town, having traded a corporate career to help manage his family’s Heath Acre Farm, famous for its autumn Hay Daze corn maze. Grown up – and with rugged good looks – he’s only charming when he wants to be. Like when he’s not tangling with someone over business matters, the way he is with Blaire after she cancels a large order for organic pumpkins.
Her sunshine is disappearing under his grumpy storm clouds, until he accidentally learns the truth about her situation. Now, he offers to help save her aunt’s legacy and her family’s pastry cafe. As they work together in secret, the ingredients for a very different recipe develop— one simmering with romance—but an unexpected turn of events melts their growing attraction into a mess.
Will Blaire save the beloved cafe and find the lost recipe that means so much to the pastry café’s customers? And can she save this last chance at love with the first boy she ever kissed?
Sugar and Spice at the Pumpkin Corner Café invites readers to dive into its cozy autumn escape this fall—for fans of grumpy x sunshine, small town romance, Gilmore Girls, pumpkin lattes, sugar and spice and everything else that’s nice about this magical season!
To talk to us about her book and her love for Autumn, it’s over to Laura.
I’m thrilled for this opportunity to share about my cozy new autumn romance Sugar and Spice at the Pumpkin Corner Café with everyone at Novel Kicks today!
by A Moment With… Rachel Debrave
It’s so wonderful to be welcoming Rachel Debrave to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her book, Too Much to Hope For.
Scarlett Hope has found a surprising rhythm at Haddon House. Just months into life with Laird Edward Cameron-Reid, their chemistry is electric, and the future feels full of promise – but something inside her is stirring. She’s traded city charm for estate calm yet still feels caught between worlds.
Then Harry shows up. A famous music producer – and a blast from Scarlett’s past – he’s in town to film with a renowned band. His arrival is magnetic, disruptive, and the last thing she ever expected. Scarlett loves Edward, but Harry’s presence reawakens the version of herself she thought she’d left behind.
When Edward’s daughter announces she’s pregnant and moves in full-time, the pressure only grows. And when Scarlett meets Sophie, a young woman struggling to make a home for her unborn child, one small act of kindness turns into something far bigger – a project that might just change everything. But as tragedy strikes, Scarlett faces a deeper choice – not between two men, but between who she was and who she’s becoming.
Too Much to Hope For is a high spice, emotionally layered story of love, legacy, and identity – about staying rooted in love while growing into something more. Perfect for readers who loved the emotional fire of A New Hope in the Highlands, the small-town heart of Things We Never Got Over, and the soul-deep reckoning of After I Do.
Without further ado, it’s over to Rachel.
When Chemistry Isn’t Enough – Writing Spice Without Losing The Story.
Readers and writers talk a lot about “spice” at the moment. How much is too much. Whether it’s necessary. Whether it adds anything at all. As both a reader and a writer of romance, I find the conversation fascinating – and occasionally a little heated.
Because for me, the question isn’t really about how explicit something is. It’s about whether it matters.
I love chemistry. There’s nothing quite like that first charged exchange between two characters who just click. The dialogue sharpens. The air shifts. You can feel the pull before either of them admits it.
But chemistry on its own is easy.
What’s harder – and far more interesting – is asking what that chemistry is doing.
There’s a lot of conversation about ‘spice’ versus ‘smut’. I find it fascinating – and sometimes a little puritanical and/or judgemental – on either side of the fence. Some readers want closed-door romance. Others want very explicit, on-the-page intimacy. Neither is wrong, and let’s not yuk someone’s yum (as the cool kids are calling it!). But for me, the real question isn’t how graphic something is – it’s whether it means something.
by A Moment With… Elaine Spires
We are saying hello to Wednesday and welcoming Elaine Spires as she brings the blog tour for her book, A Body in the Banjo to Novel Kicks.
It’s November 1958 and Dagenham is excitedly awaiting Bonfire Night. Cissie Partridge isn’t too keen on fireworks but she generously donates to the local children doing Penny for the guy. Cissie is content with her lot. She loves her husband Harold.
She shops, she cooks, she reads at every opportunity and she volunteers at the Dockland Settlement. Observant and sharp, she gets on with all her neighbours.
Then, one morning, she finds a body…
To tell us about more about The Body in the Banjo’s main character, Cissie, it’s over to you, Elaine.
Mrs Cissie Partridge
As a writer I have often struggled to classify my novels. Romance? Well… there is romance in them but they certainly don’t fall into the typical enemies-to-lovers or friends-to-lovers formats of most romantic novels. Contemporary Fiction? Some are. Sagas? Sort of. Women’s Fiction? Getting warmer! All of my books feature strong women. But all the years I have been writing there was one genre that I’d always wanted to attempt: cozy mysteries.
When I went to live in Spain as a 19-year-old holiday rep — or courier as we were known in those days — clients would often offer me their paperbacks when they were leaving. I’ve always been a voracious reader and I was extremely grateful for their generosity. Thus I discovered so many authors, Jackie Collins, Harold Robbins, Sidney Sheldon, Mario Puzo, Alistair Maclean to mention just a few. However, there was one author’s name I was always delighted to see on my gifted books: Agatha Christie.
I devoured her books and fell into every trap, followed every red herring as the Queen of Whodunnits totally blindsided me. I never once guessed who the murderer was. I’ve also watched all the TV Miss Marples over the years, my favourite being Geraldine McEwan and I must have seen every episode of David Suchet as Poirot a dozen times. From time to time over the years I would ask myself “Can I write a murder mystery?”
by Book Club
