I always love to promote work that is for a good cause, and an anthology that is selling for charity is definitey a good cause.
One of the Facebook groups I am a member of, The New Romance Cafe, has a short story anthology, in time for Christmas, and all proceeds go to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
If you’re looking for a read of short, sweet romances with a festive twist, then look no further!
SPARKLING ROMANCE WITH A SPRINKLING OF HOLIDAY MAGIC AND A TOUCH OF SASS AND SPICE.
Breast cancer affects one in four women. Here’s your chance to read a swoon-worthy book and help other women at the same time.
Curl up in your comfy chair in front of the fire and know that every book purchased, and every page read raises money for breast cancer research.
This winter romance collection has it all:
Small towns
Multicultural couples
Hawaiian escapes
Hot surfers
Firefighters – ooh!
Delectable bakers and cakees
And a touch of noir
Grab Twelve Days of Kisses for romance with all the feels.
12 Days of Kisses, the latest contemporary anthology of short stories for charity from the authors at The Romance Cafe is now available !
I’d love for you to pop over to my other blog, to read about something really fun that happened to me – it’s Ritu meets Book Club! Click below to read and comment.
It’s a busy month, my birthday, and starting back at school. I am always shattered every evening, so it’ll be interesting to see how many books I manage to read this month… not many…
Christmas Sisters is a wonderful introduction to the characters due to star in a series to be released soon. A woman filled with grief at losing her husband and child, opens her heart and home to a young girl who has been left with no carer, and as she comes to terms with having a new child in her life, she ends up with not one, but four new foster girls. No links to one another, but connection that becomes so strong, they become soul sisters. Looking forward to reading the series, now!
Neena is an immigrant who has moved from her life and family in India to the hustle and bustle of modern USA. This story charts a period in her life where the two cultures clash in many ways, when her father is taken ill, back home, and she has to rush back to support her parents. How do you mesh two cultures together, keeping hold of your roots, as well as embracing the new one you now live in? An interesting story. My only sticking point was that some writing was a little clunky in places, possibly due to language differences, meaning there were moments when certain situations cot lost in translation. However, if you look beyond this, the story has good potential, and makes good points.
I’ve always enjoyed Sarah Morgan’s Christmas inspired stories and this one was no different. One More For Christmas explores the fractured nature of a mother’s relationship with her daughters, where her trying to do the best for them, ends up forcing them apart. Then an accident brings them together, where secrets are unveiled, and in the midst of it all, a romance begins to blossom. A great read for Christmas, with some touching moments,
Releasig 22nd October, 2020
To be published 15th October. I can’t actually put my review up yet, until the publication date… but it’ss GOOD!!
I loved Dawn O’Porter’s So Lucky, so jumped at the chance to read her take on the Lockdown of 2020, and was not disappointed, whatsoever. There were many moments I was nodding my head, agreeing with her thoughts, times I was giggling at her antics, and then, especially as she discussed the loss of her good friend, Caroline Flack, there were moments of deep sadness. Dawn’s experience, regardless of whether she is a celebrity or not, mirrors the emotions of many families, stuck at home, home schooling, dealing with being in a home with the same people for months on end. A great read!
I’ve got to be honest with you. The last few weeks have seen me read less and less, not for want of trying, but because I am exhausted due to the trials and tribulations of this whole Covid-19 craziness. Books that I would usually whizz through, are unable to keep me awake and reading, However, for the first time in around four weeks, I found a book that kept me reading, and I finished it in two sittings. And that book was The Christmas Swap by Sandy Barker. OMG, I LOVED it! It was just the level of lighthearted reading that I needed, with characters that I felt invested in from the beginning. The May Ladies, or rather Jules, Lucy and Chloe, are a trio who met as youngsters and formed a true bond, despite living in totally different continents, America, Australia and England. Their friendship stays strong over the years, with them meeting up regularly. This Christmas, however, they end up swapping their lives, with Jules, the Aussie, ending up in a small village in Oxfordshire, Lucy the English rose, in the snowy depths of America, and Chloe, the American, enjoying a warm Aussie Christmas in Melbourne. A total departure for each of them, and who knew they might just meet some one special in their new Christmas abodes? I loved how Sandy switched slang for the different characters, so you could tell the origins of each character. The chemistry that simmered between certain individuals as they tested their feelings out, and that hint of something physical, without too much graphic detail. A really wonderful read, that promises to take you on a journey of discovery, and a whirlwind tour of the world! Many thanks to NetGalley and One More Chapter for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Released 16th October, 202
See, it was a much quieter reading month for me, due to starting back to school. the first few weeks always drain me totally, and having the builders around doesn’t help! Still, I was always reading, whether it was a page a day, or a chapter.
Last year I was introduced to the debut novel of someone who I have come to view as one of those authors whose books I will put others aside, to read as soon as I can.
Kiley Dunbar’s first book, One Summer’s Night, is a wonderful story, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, and heavily influenced by that famous bard, William Shakespeare. As I read her fourth book, One Winter’s Night, (yes, she’s got that many under her belt since last year’s release!) I realised it was also Shakey-heavy, too, so I decided to be nosy and ask all about her fascination with Shakespeare, and how much he’s influenced her writing, and life, too!
Over to you, Kiley!
I fell in love with Shakespeare’s poetry when I was fourteen and I talked my mum into buying me A Midsummer Night’s Dream, based solely on my lovestruck reaction to its gorgeous cover. I still have that book! (pictured).
That was the summer my parents dug out a small pond in the back garden of their terrace in the coal board village where I grew up. I spent hours that summer sitting by the pond trying to get to grips with the strange language and magical characters. I only understood half of what I read and it took me the whole summer to finish the play.
I was always a dreamy kid but something about the summer moon reflecting in the water and this 400-year-dead beardy English bloke had me reeling. I was a goner.
Cut to Mrs Marr’s English class a few years later and I’m head over heels for Hamlet, outraged by Othello and totalled on Twelfth Night. Thank you Mrs Marr!
In May 1999 I was writing a long letter to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford upon Avon explaining my obsession and asking if they have any summer job vacancies – and they did!
Within weeks I was living in Stratford, working as a tour-guide and seeing every single play at the RST and the Swan. I was in heaven!
And I didn’t want to leave.
So I applied to study at the Shakespeare Institute and, to my amazement, got a place – after a nerve wracking interview. I made Shakespeare-obsessed friends for life there.
A few years, and a lot of studying, later I have been fortunate enough to be able to teach my own Shakespeare courses at a uni in the North of England. Seeing the moment where it finally all made sense for my students was utterly magical!
It felt as though all my teenage summer dreams had come true. Except for one. I wanted to write love stories and comedies of my own.
In March 2019 my debut novel, a rom com, called ‘One Summer’s Night’ came out with Hera Books, inspired by my love of Shaky and (v. v. loosely) based on my first summer in Stratford all these years ago where I met my husband and we got engaged after FOUR days! I know, I’m not exactly risk averse. Now I’m looking forward to sharing the sequel to that novel. It’s called One Winter’s Night and is out on 17th September 2020 and follows the same characters and some new ones through a very romantic, dramatic winter in Shakespeare’s hometown. One of the storylines is a gender-reversed version of Love’s Labour’s Lost, one of my favourite Shakespeare plays.
I hope you love it, Kiley, x
You can download your copy of One Summer’s Night here:
A gorgeously uplifting, romantic read that will warm your heart – take a trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon, where magic happens…
It’s autumn in beautiful Stratford-Upon-Avon and Kelsey Anderson is enjoying her new life in her adopted town. Her Shakespearean tour guide days behind her, she’s now opened her own photography studio and loved up with boyfriend Jonathan – even if a long-distance relationship is sometimes lonely.
When best friend Mirren Imrie moves down from Scotland, Kelsey is delighted to have her friend at her side – and as the nights turn colder, Mirren throws herself into dating, until she finds herself growing closer to sexy journalist, Adrian Armadale. But when Mirren uncovers a long-buried scandal while working at the local newspaper, her big scoop might throw Kelsey’s – and Jonathan’s – life upside down. Will she choose her career over her friends’ happiness?
And when Jonathan returns from America and discovers the secrets Mirren has uncovered about his family, it throws his relationship with Kelsey onto shaky ground. Can they find their way back to love, before it becomes the winter of their discontent?
A romantic, funny and feelgood read that will make you smile from ear to ear. Fans of Milly Johnson, Heidi Swain and Holly Martin will fall in love with this cosy winter read!
Thank you, so much, Kiley, for sharing your love affair with Shakespeare with us all!
And four days! Wowzer! Well, they do say, when you know, you know. 😉
As I mentioned, I was honoured to be able to read an ARC of One Winter’s Night, and it was fabulous! Here’s my review.
I happened upon Kiley Dunbar and her debut last year, and after devouring the first one, I have awaited any other releases with great anticipation, and she’s never failed to satisfy. Hearing that the characters from One Summer Night, Dunbar’s debut were getting another outing in One Winter’s Night, made my summer. I love Shakespeare, Stratford-Upon-Avon is a place we visited plenty when I was growing up, And though I’ve never been, Scotland and its. beauty has always enticed me. One day I will visit. And romance? Well, I love a bit of romance, so, having all these components in a book should be a guaranteed good read, for me, at least. And it surely was! Catching up with Kelsey Anderson, as the Scottish lass comes to grips with settling far south of her home town, in Shakespeare’s land, attempting to set up a business fuelled by her passion for photography, with no good friends or family close by, and the love of her life off acting across the Atlantic was a joy. And I loved the parallel story of Kelsey’s best friend Mirren, the newly single, Scottish journalist who’s finally had enough of the sexist world of broadsheet journalism, and finds herself swearing off men, jacking in her job, and jumping on a train to join her best friend, for a little while, as she straightens her life out. There were a whole host of new characters introduced, including the old soak, propping up the local bar, who ended up being a rather famous actor in his prime, with a hidden secret, and Blythe. Oh, I loved Blythe! Everyone needs a Blythe in their lives. An eccentric elderly woman who was a force to be reckoned with in her prime, on stage, until life threw her some huge curveballs. Blythe may be a bit of a recluse, but she has amassed a veritable smorgasbord of memorabilia and hard-learned wisdom over the years, along with the talent of distilling her own extremely strong flavoured gins. Kelsey’s unusual, initial meeting with Blythe cements a multi-generational friendship that adds another layer to an already wonderful story. So there’s love, heartbreaks, more romance, Shakespeare, family angst, and GIN! What more could a reader want? Absolutely a recommended read. Many thanks to NetGalley and Hera Books for an ARC, in exchange for an honest review.
Now, I 100% recommend you get reading all of Kiley’s books, they are wonderful little nuggets of escapism!
Nothing has changed, as such. I’m still the same me. Or am?
Officially at the halfway point before 40 and 50.
Yes, I’m 45!
I’m off to school, followed by an early exit from work, not for pleasure, but to take Lil Princess to the dentist, to have extractions, readying her for her braces.
I sure know how to live!
There’s not much time for celebration today, and Lil Princess will be feeling sore, so no celebrations today.
But, here’s where you could help me.
I do have a little book on sale… And any books bought would be like a birthday present to me, or even sharing this post!
But I Smile Anyway... 