But I Smile Anyway…

Aren’t you loving these posts? I am!

Oh, how exciting to have another of my wonderful guests come back for a repeat visit! Today the wonderful Kiley Dunbar is here with me to chat about her latest release, The Gingerbread Christmas Village!

Welcome back to But I Smile Anyway, Kiley! How lovely to have you back here with me! We’d better get a drink sorted first, so let me know what you are craving, be it a hot drink or cold… or since we will be chatting Christmas, maybe mulled wine might be more appropriate.

And, I have even baked some gingerbread men as a nod to a certain book. 😊

It’s so nice to be back. Thanks for inviting me. I’m happy with a brew to dunk my gingerbread man in, thanks lovely. Cheers!

Since I saw you last you’ve released the gorgeous Straight As A Jalebi. Congratulations!

Thank you so much, Kiley! I have been so nervous about it, but the release went extremely well.

I think we need an update on all things Kiley, before we start! What have you been up to, since your visit last year?

I’ve been writing non-stop and lecturing at the Manchester Writing School, as well as running my ‘Write Your Romance Novel in 2023 with Kiley Dunbar’ online webinars. It’s been a LOT! Phew! But you know all about it, teaching, writing, blogging and somehow still finding time to read and review!

You need to tell me all about your new garden and writing space! It looks amazing!

Thanks, Ritu! Since we’re not off on holidays this year, I decided to make my garden a relaxing spot where I can take a break. We knocked down two little sheds and revealed a lovely big border where I dug a pond, and we planted trees and shrubs and even some veggies. It’s so nice to sit there on my ridiculously big lounger and watch the fish swimming. There’s a little arbour seating area with a table where I can write on warm days too. It’s added so much to our quality of life. I’m very lucky!

Your writing room always looks so calming! How do you keep your workspace so tidy? Mine ends up cluttered with mugs and paperwork! Haha!

I think it is because I don’t get to use it as much during term time, because of work stress and exhaustion! However, I am a typical Virgo, and I need organisation and calm around me to work well!

Totally not book related, but I love all the pics of your vintage finds that you post. What inspired your love of vintage pieces, be it clothing or accessories?

Oh, I LOVE a rummage in a charity shop or on eBay or Etsy looking for vintage clothes and houseware. I especially love 1980s clothes and accessories, and I share pics of how I style them on my Instagram account @kileydunbarauthor

Are you a magpie for vintage stuff?

I don’t tend to go out looking, however I do like to recycle wonderful things that my mum has squirrelled away! She has some gorgeous Indian outfits that were barely worn, and I used to wear them loads, when I was slightly smaller. (They came from an era when she was slightly smaller too! Probably would fit my daughter, now!)

Now, back to the writing side… You’ve written a few books with Christmas at the core of them. Is Christmas a favourite time of year for you? Can you share a special memory from a Christmas past?

I was brought up in Scotland and my favourite memories of Christmases past are of the heavy snows in the 80s and of spending Christmas day at Gran and Grandads with their Scottish country music records playing and me twirling in my Christmas dresses! And then there was New Year’s Day at my great aunt’s (she was a wonderful home cook), I loved going there. And my birthday is on the 29^th, and wedding anniversary on the 16^th of December, so all our celebrations are at Christmas. It’s a big deal for me. Plus, I just love the darkness! I think it’s my Scandinavian roots! Hehe!

I was lucky enough to read an early copy of The Gingerbread Christmas Village, and I absolutely loved it! But books with food at the heart don’t half make me hungry! Are you a good Gingerbread baker?

I’m not bad but not a gifted baker. I’m better at cakes than biscuits. Luckily there’s a very famous bakery where I live (Chatwins) who make the best gingerbread men! My kids were raised on them!

Mind you, your gingerbread men are giving them a serious run for their money, Ritu. These are delicious! Thank you!

Something I loved about The Gingerbread Christmas Village was that your main character, Margi, was an older woman. The majority of romance novels tend to have younger heroines, and even when there is a second chance romance, they might be in their 30s or 40s, but you chose a woman in her 60s, and portrayed her so well. Sixty is not old at all, and that really echoed positively in me. Why did you choose for her to be a much older woman?

I’m so glad you loved Margi! Yay! Lately, I’ve been thinking so much about ageing, since I stopped dying my hair, letting my greys shine, and since I started HRT. There’s so much we don’t talk about when it comes to ageing, and one of those things is how older people fare romantically. I don’t see why characters in their 20s and 30s should have the monopoly of happy ever afters.

I love this, being a full embracer of the greys, too, and on that HRT journey! yay for more relatable heroines, for us!

Your cast of side characters were, as ever, an entertaining bunch! Do you ever base your characters on people you know?

Never ever! Haha! That wouldn’t be very fair. But I do notice and remember traits, quirks and little habits of speech and behaviour and they all go into my brain’s big writing scrapbook to draw upon when I need them.

As I mentioned above, I have read and reviewed this fantastic book, already, and I will share my review, below, but as always, I must ask you, what can we expect next from Kiley Dunbar?

I was so touched by your review, thank you so much, Ritu!

What’s next? Well, I’m just finishing the fourth ‘Borrow a Bookshop’ novel. So far, it doesn’t even have a title or cover art, but I’ll be able to share that soon enough. Then, after that, there’s a fifth book in the series. I ADORE writing about my Devonshire bookshop Airbnb and could write these stories literally forever!

I am SOOOOO excited, and I cannot wait!

Shall we have another brew and gingerbread man and you can tell me your writing plans for the rest of the year, Ritu? I need a good catch-up on all the gossip!

I’ll never say no to another cuppa, Kiley!

So, my plans are that I need to get WORDS written over this summer break, for book three which is due out in June next year! It is going to be my tightest turnaround, so I have tried to factor in writing time over the Summer break, and I have signed up for Anita Faulkner’s Autumn Writer’s retreat, in September, which is a virtual weekend filled with encouragement! So, the hope is to get the manuscript finished before the end of year in order for the pre-reading and editing to get done!

Thank you so much for coming over again, Kiley. It has been a pleasure! 🥰

Thank you Ritu. 😊

Now, as I mentioned before, I was lucky enough to read an ARC of The Gingerbread Christmas Village, so let me share the blurb and my review.

The Blurb

Everyone deserves a Christmas treat…

The annual Wheaton gingerbread exhibit (a model village made of gingerbread) and grotto has been an important part of the sleepy Cotswold hamlet’s Christmas celebrations for decades. For years the gingerbread exhibition drew visitors from across the region and each year the model town grew more elaborate and ambitious but recently, interest has been dwindling.

The gingerbread grotto needs to be rehomed or close forever.

Sixty-four-year-old Margi, the event’s founder, has had enough of village life (and its total lack of eligible men) and is planning to sell up and head to Birmingham to live closer to her niece. She has lost her spark and her Christmas spirit and decides this will be her last gingerbread village, but despairs when she finds her only support is her old friend, Izzy, her niece Lucy from Birmingham, and Fern, the shy young farmer’s daughter.

Oh, and Patrick, the gorgeous, reliable school caretaker.

As if this wasn’t enough, Lucy is determined to get her out dating again and persuades her to try some online dating apps but Margi’s had her heart broken too many times and wonders if she has just missed her chance.

Can they save the Gingerbread Grotto and can Margi get her old spark and her Christmas spirit back?

A cosy, totally feelgood seasonal read that will have you smiling. The perfect read to snuggle up and have you feeling festive! Fans of Jenny Colgan and Trisha Ashley will love this book. 

Buy it here! https://geni.us/3APDxAR

My Review

The Gingerbread Christmas Village: A totally uplifting and romantic seasonal read by Kiley Dunbar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love diving into Kiley Dunbar’s books, and I was looking forward to this latest one, and it didn’t disappoint.
Margi, our main character, is a 64-year-old woman who is in a bit of a dilemma in life. She feels like the laughingstock of Wheaton Village after a messed up shortest-ever marriage the previous year and wants to start afresh. Only she has a huge responsibility on her shoulders, in the form of a gingerbread village that she creates annually with the help of some friends. It is a tradition started by her mother and one she can’t bear to stop. However, circumstances seem to be pushing her in the direction of ending it.
I am not going to regurgitate the story as my review, as that won’t be fair on any prospective readers.
What I will say is that if you want a feel-good romance with heart, and a HEA, then Kiley Dunbar is definitely the author to turn to.
Kiley has also written a slightly different character as her main one, this time, in the form of an older woman, not quite in her twilight years but feeling past it.
Women in their 60s are not perceived as how they were a couple of decades ago. They aren’t all automatically a part of the blue rinse brigade and only fit for knitting, tea and low walks with zimmer frames. Margi, I feel, thinks she is not worthy of another shot at happiness, especially with someone younger than her, and I loved the morphing of her thinking towards the end of the book. (Even though doubt is never far away.)
And all the reading about gingerbread made me crave some, in the middle of the summer, too! I’d love to see a gingerbread village like the one Margi’s mum and then Margi created.
A wonderful festive read!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Hera Books for an ARC.

And here’s a little about Kiley and her other books.

Kiley Dunbar writes heart-warming, escapist, romantic fiction set in beautiful places.

One Winter’s Night is shortlisted for the RNA Romantic Comedy Novel Award 2021.

CHRISTMAS AT THE BORROW A BOOKSHOP COMING SOON

Take your pick from Kiley’s six novels (for author’s accompanying content/trigger warnings go to kileydunbar.co.uk):

Matchmaking at Port Willow (NEW FOR SEPT 2021) Beatrice is back in this sequel to Summer at the Highland Coral Beach, and she’s loved up and wanting other inn guests to experience the same magic she did last summer. Low-tech dating profiles, empty-nesters on a second honeymoon, and a lonely New Yorker in exile. With added puppies and Heiland Coos.

The Borrow a Bookshop Holiday (May 2021) Jude rents a tumbledown bookshop by the sea in Clove Lore, Devon, for a fortnight. When fellow bookseller-holidaymaker Elliot turns up unannounced, she discovers she’s not the only one running away from real life. Only one bed, bookselling and blossoming romance.

One Winter’s Night (September 2020) Return to Stratford-upon-Avon for a winter full of adventure, romance and family drama. Mystery, new neighbours, and a show-stopping theatrical procession. The sequel to One Summer’s Night.

Summer at the Highland Coral Beach (2020), the first in the Port Willow Bay Series, takes you on an impromptu crafting holiday in the Scottish Highlands and reminds us that after the storm comes the rainbow. Crafts, ceilidhs, coral bays and gentle recovery.

Christmas at Frozen Falls (2019) will fly you to snowy, remote Finnish Lapland over Christmas where Sylvie Magnussen is getting a second chance at love with an old flame – sexy Stellan Virtanen – the one who got away – well, he ran away actually, and Sylvie never understood why. Hot kisses in a cold climate, Northern lights and a stunning resort setting.

One Summer’s Night (2019) whisks you away on a working staycation in beautiful Stratford-upon-Avon during a sultry heatwave summer. A starting-over story, handsome actors, backstage passes, and a whole lot of drama in the Heart of England.

Twitter: @KileyDunbar

‘Kiley Dunbar Author Book Page’ on Facebook

Website and newsletter: www.kileydunbar.co.uk

Instagram: @kileydunbarauthor