Blog Tour: It Started With A Tweet, Guest Post from Author Anna Bell

It Started With a Tweet by Anna Bell

Published: 7th December 2017

Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre

Pages: 416

Available on Kindle

Pre-Order from Amazon

Blurb

Daisy Hobson lives her whole life online. But when her social media obsession causes her to make a catastrophic mistake at work, Daisy finds her life going into free-fall . . .

Her sister Rosie thinks she has the answer to all of Daisy's problems - a digital detox in a remote cottage in Cumbria. Soon, too, Daisy a welcome distraction there in Jack, the rugged man-next-door.

But can Daisy, a London girl, ever really settle into life in a tiny, isolated village?

And, more importantly, can she survive without her phone?

Today I'd like to welcome the wonderful Anna Bell to my blog to talk about one aspect of her fabulous new book It Started With A Tweet, out on Thursday. So over to Anna:

Social Media And Me

I adore social media. Being a British expat living in France I love the fact that I feel connected with the UK with a simple swipe. From a work perspective I love that I can talk to readers and other authors. From a personal perspective I love that I can lose hours watching Instagram stories and finding out everything I ever needed to know in an instant.  But I also hate social media. I hate the fact that I am always tempted to check my phone. I hate the fact it can cripple with me anxiety that my life doesn’t look as fun as everyone else’s. And I hate the fact that I ignore people who are actually in the room with me to speak to virtual strangers. I’ve started to wonder is it possible to find a balance between love and hate.

When I started to write my main character Daisy in my latest novel It Started With a Tweet, I was laughing at the way she acted when she was forced offline and the ridiculous lengths she went to find the internet. Only the more I started to write her, the more I started to see myself in her and I began to notice how obsessed with my phone I actually am. I started to track the time I spent on it and was amazed that those little email refreshes here and that scan of Twitter there actually added up to hours during a day.

Shocked to discover my addiction, I was determined to do something about it and I ended up doing a three day digital detox. I prepared myself for tears, tantrums and misery, only they didn’t come. It was as if I knew that I wasn’t allowed it so I didn’t even reach for it. I felt freer than I have in a long, long time and for once I didn’t have major FOMO (fear of missing out) as I wasn’t seeing what everyone else was up to.

Realising that I treated my phone like another person in the room - always giving it priority over everyone and anything else - I decided I needed to change. I’ve

now deleted Facebook off my iPad and phone. I’ve off all my notifications from all my apps and now the only way to know now if someone’s got in contact with me is if I check. I no longer jump to the beat of my phone as it’s pretty much silent all day. I’ve started to tweet more as I’m trying to be more of an active participant rather than just a reader, in the hope that I’ll get more out of it. I’m also trying to wean myself off Instagram stories, as yet with no success - but you’ve got to have one achilles heel, right?

I think writing the novel was great for me to remind me that there’s a world away from my phone. Life goes on whether I’m on or offline and I don’t always have to know what’s happening all the time. My great love affair with social media isn’t over, but like all love affairs I’m beginning to think perhaps it’s healthier not to spend all your time together!

Thank you so much Anna for sharing your social media thoughts with us and look out soon for my review of the hilarious It Started With a Tweet.

Wilde Like Me by Louise Pentland

Wilde Like Me by Louise Pentland

Published: 1st July 2017

Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre

Pages: 400

Available in Hardcover and on Kindle

Order now from Amazon

Rating: 4/5

Blurb

You'll never forget the day you meet Robin Wilde!

Robin Wilde is an awesome single mum. She's great at her job. Her best friend Lacey and bonkers Auntie Kath love her and little Lyla Blue to the moon and back. From the outside, everything looks just fine.

But behind the mask she carefully applies every day, things sometimes feel . . . grey. And lonely.

After 4 years (and 2 months and 24 days!) of single-mum-dom, it's time for Robin Wilde to Change. Her. Life!

A little courage, creativity and help from the wonderful women around her go a long way. And Robin is about to embark on quite an adventure . . .

Review

I was sent a sampler of Wilde Like Me by Louise Pentland from the publishers and after reading it I was desperate to read the rest of Robin’s story, luckily for me I was then sent the full copy to review but this is one of those books I think every woman should read.

Robin has been a single mum to Lyla for just over four years and on the outside she appears to have everything sorted. She’s an amazing mum to Lyla, great at her job as a make-up artist and loved by those closest to her, best friend Lacey and Auntie Kath. But on the inside Robin is struggling with life and on many days she feels grey and alone. She struggles to connect with fellow school mums, goes from one dating disaster to the next and fights to find anything in her cluttered up house.  One day Robin decides enough is enough and it’s time to get her life back on track. As Robin starts to grab life with both hands things start to happen and maybe….just maybe Robin can have the life she longs for.

I loved Robin from page one of this book she’s full of sass and attitude and such overwhelming love for daughter Lyla that you just can’t help but cheer for her. I could totally identify with her moments of uncertainty about her life, we’ve all been through rough times and what I loved about Robin was she never gave up.

I wasn’t totally convinced by her whole concept of needing a man to feel complete, especially some of the men which meets for dates, but towards the end of the novel she loses this notion and realises she’s great on her own.

I found this book extremely light-hearted and full of fun even though there are some more serious themes making appearances.  One of my favourite scenes involved Robin’s daughter Lyla playing on her phone and having a go on Tinder, so funny to read how mortified Robin is. Another of my favourite scenes involved the Easter Bonnet completion at school. I just loved the reactions of most of the characters in this scene, just brilliant.

I have not encountered Louise Pentland in the world of YouTube so have no pre-conceptions of her as an author. I really enjoyed reading Wilde Like Me for the light-hearted and inspiring book its meant to be. For me it would make the ideal relaxation read, perfect for a beach holiday. I’d love to read more of Robin’s story whether it mirrors Louise’s own life or not.

Thank you to Emily at Bonnier Zaffre for sending me a copy to review.

Blog Tour : Invisible Women by Sarah Long

Invisible Women by Sarah Long

Published: 20th April 2017

Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre

Available on Kindle

Pre-Order now from Amazon

Blurb

Isn't it about time we talked about YOU?

Tessa, Sandra and Harriet have been best friends through first crushes, careers, marriage and the trials of motherhood. After twenty years of taking care of everyone else's every need, they've found themselves hitting the big 5-0 and suddenly asking themselves: 'what about me?!'

Sandra has a sordid secret, and Harriet is landed with her ailing mother-in-law. Tessa is looking for something to fill the gaping hole left by her youngest daughter's departure for uni, where it seems she's now engaged in all sorts of unsavoury activities, if Tessa's obsessive late-night Facebook stalking is anything to go by.

When Tessa impulsively responds to an online message from an old flame, she soon finds herself waiting at Heathrow Airport for The One That Got Away.

But what will the plane from New York bring her? The man of her dreams, or a whole heap of trouble?

And could this be the long-awaited moment for Tessa to seize her life, for herself, with both hands?

Today I'd like to give a warm welcome to Sarah Long who is going to talk about the invisibility of middle-aged women, whom characters in her new book Invisible Women are based. So over to Sarah:

The Invisibility of Middle-Aged Women

That moment when you walk past a building site and nobody wolf-whistles at you. Young women will say, I should hope not, Neanderthal sexual harassment. Older women may say, with a twinge of regret, oh yes, I remember that. When the polite nod replaced the hungry stare. You’d reached a certain age and turned into their mother, you were no longer an object of lust.

Nobody laments the demise of the caveman, but most women will say they miss the attention when they morph into middle age. The loudest complaints come from TV presenters and actors. Their success depends on their looks - unlike their male counterparts who are not obliged to look cute or hot -  and so they are quietly sidelined in favour of younger models. 

The heroines of my novel INVISIBLE WOMEN  are not actors or TV presenters. They are examples of a rather outdated breed, the well-to-do housewife. In fact they refer to themselves as members of the dinosaur club, well aware that it is no longer quite the thing for an educated woman to live off her husband. The lack of a role outside the home reinforces their sense of not being noticed as they grow older, of not counting in a world that increasingly applauds the shouty ones, the sexy ones, the ones with beach-ready bodies.

You’ve only got to read the style advice meted out to middle aged women to get the underlying message. There’s a lot of talk about ‘appropriate’ styles: you can wear mini skirts but only with thick tights; cream is kinder than white against older skin, don’t be a ‘cougar’, don’t wear ‘mum jeans’, whatever the hell they are.   In other words, you’ve had it, you’re ridiculous unless you melt quietly into the background and let the young ones take centre stage.

Bollocks to that. I think we should take our lead from earlier role models. Great old operatic divas with heaving bosoms spilling out of their bodices. Terrifying matriarchs striking fear into whoever crossed their path. Margaret Thatcher would have hand-bagged anyone who told her not to wear those pussycat bows, Bette Davis ruling the roost in All About Eve. The more inappropriate, the better, in my opinion.  

The women in my novel are all emerging from their domestic cocoon to realise it is time to be noticed. Two of them are being particularly noticed by men who are not their husbands. It’s not quite the wolf whistles from the building site – we have moved on, after all – but it’s the kind of attention that forces them out of the shadows and on to the centre stage of their own lives.

INVISIBLE WOMEN by Sarah Long is published by Bonnier Zaffre

 

Island of Secrets by Patricia Wilson

Island of Secrets by Patricia Wilson

Published: 9th March 2017 (ebook)

Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre

Pages: 400

Available on Kindle

Order now from Amazon

Rating: 4/5

Blurb

Can you escape your past in paradise?

'The story started at dawn on the fourteenth of September, 1943 . . .'

All her life, London-born Angelika has been intrigued by her mother's secret past. Now planning her wedding, she feels she must visit the remote Crete village her mother grew up in.

Angie's estranged elderly grandmother, Maria, is dying. She welcomes Angie with open arms - it's time to unburden herself, and tell the story she'll otherwise take to her grave.

It's the story of the Nazi occupation of Crete during the Second World War, of horror, of courage and of the lengths to which a mother will go to protect her children. And it's the story of bitter secrets that broke a family apart, and of three enchanting women who come together to heal wounds that have damaged two generations.

Review
Island of Secrets is the debut novel by Patricia Wilson which is set mostly in the Crete village of Amiras, where Patricia once lived. The novel is based on real stories from real women who lived through the unease of the Nazi occupation of the island in1943.

The story tells the history of three generations of women from one family. Angelika is planning her wedding and longs for her mother Poppy to be reunited with her Creteian relatives whom she fled from many years ago. With Poppy unwilling to reveal the secrets of her past to her daughter, Angelika sets out on a pilgrimage to Crete to meet her relatives and to try and heals the wounds in the family. When Angie meets her maternal grandmother Maria she begins to find out the family history as Maria begins to divulge the secrets she would have otherwise taken to the grave.

I found this an incredibly moving story to read, in parts I was in tears as Maria retold her story, the horror and fear which she felt was portrayed in such detail, I was hooked. Patricia Wilson has done a brilliant job in creating vivid and sometimes horrific scenes which have truly brought this story to life for me and are sure to pull at your heart strings as they did mine.

Books with a duel narrative are a particular favourite of mine when the past mixes with the present and Island of Secrets has done this wonderfully. The narrative takes two forms as Maria tells her story of the past and Angelika makes her own discoveries in the present, both strands intertwine perfectly to create a cohesive and compelling story. I loved how the towards the end there were many surprising twists, the last third of the book I couldn’t put down as I was desperate to work out all the mysteries which had come to light.

The three main characters in this book are Angelika, Poppy and Maria, all are strong resourceful women. Poppy and Maria have had had periods of great difficulty in their lives but have not given up because of the amount of love they have for their children. Angelika first appears to be a little bit more selfish as she determined to have her Greek relatives at her wedding despite her mother begging her to leave the past alone and she also seems very quick to judge the actions of fiancé Nick in a negative light a little too often. As she hears Maria’s story she begins to realise her faults and begins to be a more thoughtful and empathetic individual. When this change occurs it’s easy to see she has the same love and resourcefulness as Maria and Poppy.

As with most stories featuring Greek families there are many more family members and these all add to the depth of the story. My two favourites were the bubbly and slightly aloof Voula and her grumpy husband Matthia, dialogue between these two often made me smile and brought some lighter moments to this book.

Island of Secrets is a book full of raw emotions, family vendettas, hidden secrets and three very strong women. It’s a book I enjoyed very much and one which fans of Victoria Hislop and Debbie Rix are sure to enjoy.

I’d like to thank the publishers Bonnier Zaffre for recommending this book to me and sending me a copy to review. I look forward to read Patricia Wilson’s next novel sometime in the future.

The Good Girlfriend's Guide to Getting Even by Anna Bell

The Good Girlfriends Guide to Getting Even by Anna Bell

Published: 26th January 2017

Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre

Pages: 432

Available in paperback and on Kindle

Order now from Amazon

Rating: 5/5

Blurb

When Lexi's sport-mad boyfriend Will skips her friend's wedding to watch football - after pretending to have food poisoning - it might just be the final whistle for their relationship.

But fed up of just getting mad, Lexi decides to even the score. And, when a couple of lost tickets and an 'accidentally' broken television lead to them spending extra time together, she's delighted to realise that revenge might be the best thing that's happened to their relationship.

And if her clever acts of sabotage prove to be a popular subject for her blog, what harm can that do? It's not as if he'll ever find out . . .

Review

Having loved Anna’s previous novel The Bucket List to Mend a Broken Heart last year I was really excited to read her new book The Good Girlfriend’s Guide to Getting Even and it did not disappoint, in fact I think it was better than her last book.

Lexi and Will have been together seven years, seven years where Lexi has patiently put up with Will’s extreme love of watching sports, but that’s about to change. On the day of her best friend’s wedding Lexi is optimistic that Will has changed his ways and will go with her without a fuss knowing how special the day is to Lexi. Oh no Will has other ideas, he fakes food poisoning to avoid going to the wedding and instead goes to watch his beloved Southampton play football. When Lexi receives a text showing Will at the game she is furious.

Knowing getting mad with Will will not make her feel better Lexi decides to get even. After a couple of her revenge plans result in bringing her and Will closer together Lexi is over the moon, this is exactly the relationship she wants, so she carries on. When challenged by her writing class Lexi decides there will be no harm in writing about antics in her new blog and loves it when the blog hits keep rising….surely there is no way Will will ever find out right?

The Good Girlfriends Guide to Getting Even may be a book with a very long title but it’s a book I loved. It’s light hearted and full of humour which kept me entertained all the way through.  I loved wondering just what crazy plan Lexi would come up with next and just how far she would push Will to get her revenge.

I liked Lexi as a character as she seemed initially to have good intentions about her plans especially when she got more quality time with Will as a result. I did start to think she was maybe going a little too far and I ended up feeling a bit sorry for Will, he must have been a bit bewildered as to why things kept going wrong with all his sports plans. I enjoyed the rest of the characters in the book which Anna has brought to life so well, my favourite had to be sex-obsessed Cara and her secret slipper wearing boyfriend.

This book was a joy to read and Anna is quickly becoming one of my go to authors when I want a book which will cheer me and leave a smile on my face. If you’re a fan of Sophie Kinsella or Christie Barlow then I’m sure you will enjoy this book.

Thank you so much to the publishers who sent me a copy of this book to review if I chose, it was brilliant.