Novelicious.com | The Women's Fiction Blog for Readers and Writers

Fantastic Writer Blog - Gemma Burgess

I'm currently in the middle of Gemma's brilliantly funny debut - THE DATING DETOX and wanted to bring your attention to her blog. Gemma often writes posts about the journey of writing, and also includes novel excerpts on the site. As well as being personable and funny, the blog is a feast of hints and tips for all you aspiring writers out there.

Take a look at Gemma's blog

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Writers' Tuesday - Confessions of a Wannabe Chick Lit Author - I Need a Hero!

Hello, writer peeps!  Once again we have our brilliant regular column by our secret writer, Emily Tootsweet. Enjoy!

Confessions of a Wannabe Chick Lit Author by Emily Tootsweet

I Need a Hero

No, don’t worry - I’m not going to start singing the Bonnie Tyler classic. This column is based on probably the best part of Chick Lit in my eyes - the Hero.
 
When I’m writing the hero in my novels I always like to make the reader fall for him almost as much as the main character does. I’ve read plenty of books where I’ve fallen for the guy in the story just as the character falls too. I know that might sound a bit sad, but to me, that makes a good book. It’s all about the ‘happily ever after’ and I think every reader wants a bit of what the character gets. The hero is often the baddie at the beginning - the person she’s least likely to fall for but the most likely all at the same time and you nearly always guess who the hero will be right from the very start. Some say that makes Chick Lit predictable and boring but it’s not like that - it’s the journey the two characters take to get their ‘happily ever after’. You know the two of them will end up together, you just don’t know HOW!
 
In my first novel, I threw the two characters together near the beginning but ripped them apart again through various consequences. I was able to build a rapport between the two before cruelly separating them. And the story then develops into how the two meet again, thanks to fate and little nudges in the right directions. I based my hero on many different men I’d come into contact with - I took personality traits from guys I worked with and some male friends; I got the hero’s appearance from guys I’d see walking around during my many ‘people watching’ exercises.
 
When it came to turning him into the man of my readers dreams, I thought about what I wanted in a man, I asked my mates what they wanted too and I got a snap shot into how to make the perfect man. But as all us ladies know, the perfect man doesn’t exist so I added flaws. The hero can’t be Mr Perfect. He needs to be fanciable but realistic. He needs to be believable. So he might look like Brad Pitt but have the personality of a wet fish or he might have the best personality in the world but look like he’s been 10 rounds with Mike Tyson - okay, so that’s slightly exaggerated but you get the gist. It all depends on what the story calls for.
 
When I think about my hero in novel 1 I think I might have made him too perfect. I might have to edit him slightly. Or add a few more flaws. I can't have him being too perfect!
 
Yours,
Emily Tootsweet :o)

Review - Luxury by Jessica Ruston

REVIEWED BY 
DEBS CARR

 

Logan Barnes, son of wealthy but disinterested parents becomes friendly with Johnny Stokes, whose home life seems to be the epitome of his own. When Johnny’s parents and disabled brother are killed in an accident, Logan’s parents become his guardian.  The boys qualify for Harvard, where they meet and share rooms with Nicolo Flores, a boy who has secretly worked to make enough money to cover his college fees. The three become inseparable, taking a summer trip to L’Isle des Violettes, an island that Logan has dreamed of all his life, and a place where the three vow to make their fortunes.

 

Nicolo meets and falls in love with Maryanne, a troubled girl with her own personal demons and a deprived past from which she’s desperate to escape. He keeps her to himself and together they plan for their future, that is, until Logan sees her for the first time and decides she is the woman he is going to marry.

 

Nicolo’s world is turned upside down when he finds Maryanne and Logan together. He can’t believe that the two people closest to him have betrayed him, and when Logan and Johnny agree to buy Nicolo off, he has no choice but to walk away and watch from a distance as his former friends build up a fortune that should also have been his. Vowing to exact his revenge on the man he holds responsible for taking away his dreams, Nicolo sets in motion events that shatter many lives.

 

Nicolo and Logan are two men who know what they want and are determined to get it. Over the years each has their score to settle against the other and becomes consumed by the need to do so. Nicolo uses other people, both innocent and not so innocent, as pawns against Logan. They in turn get caught up in the repercussions of their actions and ultimately end up exacting their own vengeance against both men.

 

This cleverly constructed book with each of the characters’ stories interwoven neatly through the main plot takes you through the lives of spoilt, wealthy families, whose actions have created pain and loss for those closest to them. The extent of their destructive behaviour filters through to people they hadn’t even considered, but who will be the ones to determine whether Nicolo and Logan fail to seek the result they’ve been working so aggressively towards.

 

I loved the different world this book created and was absorbed by each character’s anguish and need to achieve their personal goals. I could see this book being made into a film, as the story takes you from the formation of Logan and Nicolo’s dreams to the catastrophic ending, and ultimately to the last page when one final twist is revealed.

 

An absorbing 9/10

 

BUY THIS BOOK!

 

VISIT JESSICA'S SITE!

LBD Review - Trick or Treat by Sally Anne Morris

 REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR 

 

 

Lucy Diamond, daughter of an adventurous earth-hugging mother, best friend of the handsomest gay man in the universe, Nigel, and the badly behaved Jojo Gray has always been able to smell things others haven’t, played with imaginary friends, and fear places others deem perfectly fine. Now she can see and argue with dead people, and as if that wasn’t awkward enough, especially on a first date, he wants her to do something for him.

 

One day whilst travelling on the tube she is visited by Jonathan Rayburn, an attractive man in a trench coat, with an insistent nature and an urgent request for Lucy to help him get a message to his girlfriend. The only problem with this is that Jonathan is dead and apart from appearing in the most unexpected places, and most inconvenient times, she isn’t exactly sure how she is supposed to do what he needs her to.

 

This book made me laugh and cry - not a good thing when you’re at the hairdressers, although I did gather myself before anyone noticed, I think – and although I enjoyed it from the beginning, the second half of the book was better than the first, and brilliantly written.

 

The characters are well rounded and Lucy’s relationship with Nigel is complex, but nicely thought out. I especially enjoyed Lucy’s grandmother, as so many of the things she came out with made me laugh, and her hero, Simon, who has a few surprises up his sleeve, was gorgeous as well as mysterious.

 

I defy anyone to read this book and not enjoy it, and the only reason I didn’t give Trick or Treat a rating of five, was because I would have preferred Simon to be introduced earlier, as the chemistry between him and Lucy was excellent, and it’s also probably why I enjoyed the second half of the book more than the first.

 

8/10

Novel News - The Love Verb by Jane Green

I've never, in all my time as a reader, been disappointed with a Jane Green novel. They're always so warmhearted and fun. The Love Verb which is released on the 10th June this year sounds great, and the cover is lovely and delicate too!

Love is not an abstract idea. It is not saying 'I'm here for you, let me know if you need me'. It's making the decision, when someone close to you is in trouble, about what you will DO to fix as much as you can for them. It's a ‘doing' thing. A verb. For Callie, love is about looking after her family – her husband and two children – and their beautiful home. For Steff, Callie’s younger sister, love is about experiencing all that life has to offer without having to ever settle down. For Lila, Callie’s best friend, love is about finding a soulmate. And when she meets divorced father-of-two Eddie, she knows her search is over. For Walter and Honor, Callie and Steff’s divorced parents, love is about caring for the daughters they share. Then Callie gets some life-changing news. And suddenly the whole family is about to understand what ‘love' really, really means....

You can pre- order this book by clicking here! 

LBD Review - Blue Remembered Heels by Nell Dixon

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR

 

Having survived a strict upbringing with their Aunty Beatrice, conwomen Abbey Gifford and her beautiful sister Charlie are determined to make a living duping rich men in order to support themselves and their shy, but technically minded, younger brother Kit. 

 

All goes well until Abbey is struck by lightening, putting the end to her ability to tell lies. Not a good thing when your livelihood depends on you weaving fictitious details about yourself.  Despite her best efforts she is unable to lie to anyone who asks her a question, and gorgeous Detective Mike Flynn who is on their trail, has no hesitation in asking her plenty of them.

 

Certain they are in danger now that dangerous crook, Freddie has promised revenge having realized they have conned him out of £30,000, Mike Flynn does his best to keep up with them, despite their constant moving from place to place and Charlie’s determination to keep her family one step ahead of everyone.

 

Being uncharacteristically honest is not Abbey’s only dilemma. She has been experiencing flashbacks, taking her to the night their mother disappeared seventeen years before leaving them with nothing but a tin of simple mementos and the memory of her walking away in her blue high heels.  Wondering what could have happened to their mother, Abbey decides to use her expertise and Mike’s connections to try and trace her last movements, hoping to find some answers to enable the three of them to put her memory to rest once and for all.

 

Even her sister Charlie finds their latest mark, a handsome professional footballer called Philippe, who also happens to be a devout Catholic with an over protective mother, a little harder on her conscience than previous ones. Will the thought of their stash of money and jewels be enough to keep Charlie focused on the job, or will Freddie’s henchmen find the siblings first putting an end to all their plans?

 

I loved this book. It’s well written and faced paced. I wasn’t sure about the concept of the heroine being struck by lightening and then having to be honest to everyone, but it worked well with the story. All Abbey Gifford wants is for her and her siblings to be able to live a normal life, and as the drama increases through the book, you begin to wonder how it can possibly happen. The ending is satisfying and everything is nicely brought to its conclusion making this a thoroughly enjoyable read.

 

Rating: 8/10

 

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT NELL

 

 Buy Blue Remembered Heels

YA News - Swapped by a Kiss by Luisa Plaja

A couple of weeks ago I reviewed Luisa's debut novel SPLIT BY A KISS and absolutely loved it.

 I'm now super excited because the sequel, SWAPPED BY A KISS  is coming out in April of this year!! This book focuses on Rachel, Jo's goth friend from the first book. Can't wait!

Rachel hates her life and everyone in it - she even has suspicions that her on/off boyfriend David might not be entirely trustworthy. However, when David invites her to a music festival in England featuring their friend's band, she jumps at the chance for an overseas adventure. Hoping to surprise David, Rachel arrives at the festival early, where she runs into a nasty surprise of her own - she sees David kissing their friend Jo. Distraught, Rachel runs off, wishing she could leave her life behind...the next thing she knows, she's back with David. But not as herself...She's now in Jo's body! Can she keep the swap a secret from David until she can work out exactly what's going on and get her revenge? Over the course of a very weird weekend, Rachel puts herself in someone else's shoes and finds that her own maybe weren't as uncomfortable as she'd always thought. But can she ever be herself again?

PRE ORDER THIS BOOK!

VISIT LUISA'S WEBSITE!

YA Video - A Day in the Life of Meg Cabot

I love this!

Brilliant Jane Costello Video about Writing a Book

 
I can't seem to get the video to embed on this page, so this is just a direction to the Liverpool Daily Post website, where reporter Ben Schofield interviews Jane Costello about her writing process, her journey to getting published and her new book, My Single Friend.

 This vid is a must-watch for anyone interested in or currently writing a book. Jane gives an honest and down to earth account of her writing life and it really is one of the best author interviews i've come across in a long time.

To watch the video click here

Visit Jane's website!

Buy My Single Friend

Confessions of a Wannabe Chick Lit Author - It's All About Style, Darling!

Here we are on week 5 of our fantastic regular column by our secret writer, Emily Tootsweet. Emily is really enjoying all the feedback and comments from you lovely readers so keep em' coming! 

Enjoy, writerly types...

Confessions of a Wannabe Chick Lit Author by Emily Tootsweet

It’s all about style, darling!
 
As a huge fan of chick lit, I have a vast collection of books in the genre. I have my big favourites and my not-so-big favourites but I love my collection to bits. So much so I’m a bit obsessive. I can’t have a book with a bent/creased spine or folded pages - to me, that’s just wrong! Use a bookmark - it's what they were invented for.
 
Anyway, I like reading chick lit so writing it seemed to be the next thing to do. Basically I write chick lit exactly how I like to read it - if that makes any sense. Every writer has their own style and I’m in the process of trying to get my own up and running. I would love to be the next Sophie Kinsella but I just don’t think I have what it takes to use ’her’ style. When I first started on my first novel, I wanted to write like her but the more I wrote the more I realised it just wasn’t me. I couldn’t do quirky however hard I tried. I’m not saying there’s no funny bits in my first novel, I’d like to think there’s plenty but I just can’t seem to do quirky and light hearted.
 
My first novel is based heavily on emotions. I try to tug on readers heart strings and get them to feel for the characters - for example, a character gets dumped in a pretty horrendous manner. I wrote my socks off for that part, making sure the reader could step inside the shoes of that character. I wanted the readers to remember when they themselves were dumped and could share what the character was going through. I seem to touch on semi-serious subjects and that doesn’t link well with the quirky, light hearted style of Kinsella.
 
And when I look at my second novel, that steps away from the quirky light hearted style of Kinsella too and continues with the semi-serious topics. However, I also find in this particular novel that I’ve decided to be a bit more risky with the more ‘romantic’ scenes. I’ve just got to remember that I’m writing chick lit and not erotic fiction - leave something for the readers’ imaginations! ;o)
 
So I would say I’m still trying to find my feet, style wise. What is my writing style? What sub-genre of chick lit am I writing? I guess I’m writing a bit of everything, hence the six or seven different books, and whatever gets accepted by an agent will be my style and genre. But I wonder if I should give quirky and light hearted another go? Is that the most popular sub-genre of chick lit? Or do readers like a bit of serious stuff every so often? And what about the more ‘romantic’ scenes - is less more? Lots of questions and not many answers…. Writing isn’t something you learn over night… it just goes to show that you can write for years and years and yet you’re still learning and trying to find your own way and style.
 
Yours,
Emily Tootsweet :o)

Novelicious Undiscovered - Real Wild One by Caroline Frear

Hello and welcome to another Writer's Tuesday and another excerpt from an (as yet) unpublished writer. This week's fantastic excerpt comes from Caroline Frear. Enjoy!

ABOUT CAROLINE

About me!  Well, I'm 31, massively in love and I wile away my daylight hours working as a Recruitment Consultant in the City which is a thankless and horrible profession at the moment but it provides me with lots of material! Being paid to interview people for a living certainly helps the budding writer!  I started writing in earnest earlier this year when I suddenly hit on the idea that if I left one recruitment firm and went to a competitor, I'd immediately be put on 6 weeks garden leave and that would give me enough time to at least start the story that's been living in my head for the past 18 months.  I definitely broke the back of it in those 6 weeks and also developed a physical dependancy on Loose Women so strong that shock of going back to work nearly killed me!  So I'm back at the grindstone now and hoping for a bout of swine flu so I can lay low at home for another while and carry on with the writing.
 
I'm having a ball with the story and I'm following the advice of all the good'uns to write what I'd like to read and therefore my heroine/s eat scotch eggs and pork scratchings, pick their toenails in the bath and depsite their best attempts not to, resent their friends successes and good fortune.
 
My skin is as thick as it is pale so I invite everyone to do their worst, hold no punches and criticise away!  I haven't shown anyone yet, absolutely no one, so it would be fab just to know that it's basically ok (although I'd much prefer you say it's 'fabulous', 'ground-breaking' , ' awe-inspiring'.....yeah well, you gotta have a dream :)

EXCERPT OF REAL WILD ONE BY CAROLINE FREEAR

Chapter 1

It’s quite fitting that Aiden and I began our unholy alliance on St Paddy’s Day.  A day traditionally associated with decadence, silliness and much, much booze has spawned a relationship that seems to be following along a very similar vein.

 It took just 45 minutes to get from the initial ‘How do you do?’ to the more honest ‘How do you want me?’  - a question that Aiden expertly answered by bending me over the fire stairs at the back of The Merry Kerryman.  

I’m not exactly proud of my behaviour but neither am I ashamed. It wasn’t sordid or seedy.  It was just two people instantly recognising that they could mercifully skip all that courting malarkey, the bit where you dance around each other like two Mills & Boon protagonists desperately trying to prove your honourable intentions while your loins are screaming at you to get a bloody wriggle on.   Aiden and I, being possessed of horny bodies and sound minds, cut quickly to the chase as it just seemed like the most natural and normal thing to do.  This randy lunatic is my soulmate, I’m sure of it.

Quite simply, I am demented with lust.  Absolutely demented.  Beside myself with longing.  Driven mad with the unflinching need to feel his flesh against mine.  It never goes away, not even when I sleep.  It ferments in my stomach like a late night curry, waking me during the night and leaving me queasy and exhausted the next day. In the same way that grief or shock can sucker-punch you to the point that you can’t even remember your own name, as a woman in lust, I’m not fairing much better.  I feel permanently drained and yet never more alive, totally numb but sensitive to every colour and sound that surrounds me.  I’m a walking contradiction and a walking hard-on and quite frankly I’m finding this physical epiphany really quite knackering.  I’m totally worn out from shagging, screwing, spooning, sucking, screaming, squatting, swallowing and a whole host of other ‘ings’ that I could think of if I wasn’t so dog-tired.  

I ‘m neither use nor ornament to anyone.  I can’t even cope with the most basic of tasks. Paying credit card bills, peeling carrots, painting toenails, checking lottery numbers, you name it, if it doesn’t involve a partially clothed Aiden Costello  then I have no inclination or motivation to involve myself.  In the past two weeks, I’ve forgotten Christy’s birthday (which may be reluctantly forgiven but never forgotten), I’ve gone nearly 24hrs without eating a morsel of food - this from a woman who was once the scourge of the ‘all you can eat buffet’ and last night, I didn’t even flare up at the words ‘replacement bus service’ when I stumbled, delirious and intimately bruised into Waterloo station.  It’s like I’m incapable of feeling any emotion, good or bad, unless he’s near me.  Unless he’s inside me.

Novel News - The Only Way is Up by Carole Matthews

I do love a Carole Matthews book. Pure, unadulterated chick lit, they never fail to brighten my day! I love the concept of THE ONLY WAY IS UP which is due out in September of this year.

The synopsis reads...

Lily and Laurence Lamont-Jones have it all: lavish holidays in exotic locations, a top private school for their children, Hettie and Hugo, and a beautiful Buckinghamshire home with horses and stables. But their perfect world is about to be turned upside down.  Laurence has lost his job and, on their return from holiday, they find their house and all their belongings have been repossessed.  Forced to live in a council house on one of Milton Keynes's roughest estates, the Lamont-Joneses are about to discover how the other half live.  And with the help of true friends, a little luck and a lot of determination they learn that when you've reached rock bottom the only way is up...

What do you think?

To pre-order this book click here!

Review - The More You Ignore Me by Jo Brand

REVIEWED BY LAURA STANNING

I have to confess, I wasn’t really expecting to like this book.  I’m not a big fan of Jo Brand as a comedian and I was expecting something possibly entertaining, equally possibly something pretty crude. What I got was a sweet, sensitive book, beautifully written, which makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time. 

Alice is five years old, but already old enough to understand that some monsters aren’t banished by daylight.  Her mother, Gina, suffers from a rare psychiatric condition and, when Alice is five, is sectioned for stalking the weather reporter on the local news.  From then on, Alice only knows her mother as a stranger incarcerated in mental institutions or doped into a trance at home by the drugs the doctors give her.  Alice’s father, Keith, is a kindly man struggling to deal with the disintegration of the woman he loved and a daughter whose feelings he doesn’t really understand.  In a tentative way, Alice aged five is happy enough – she loves her father and has two friends as school, misfits like her, with whom she forms a contented trio. 

Alice at fifteen is more confused; her friendship group is fracturing and she wishes that her mother could be normal and that she could explain to her father how she feels.  The only person to whom she knows she can turn is Morrissey, lead singer of The Smiths.  Alice’s conviction that she has a connection with Morrissey, that only he can understand her, makes you smile at the intensity with which you feel connections as a teenager, and simultaneously hold your breath in hope that her mother’s condition won’t turn out to run through Alice’s blood as well.  Alice sets off to find her hero, never imagining that her quest will bring her closer to her mother than she could ever have imagined, or that the things she finds along the way may prove even more precious.

Doing some research for this review I discovered that Brand was in fact a psychiatric nurse, which explains both the depth of her knowledge about mental illness and her understanding of the way it affects those living with it, be they patient, relative or friend.  Her central characters are highly realistic, despite their idiosyncrasies, and beautifully developed – so much so that a slightly crazy plot becomes eminently believable.  Alice’s growing understanding of mental illness is heart-rending – you long for both her and her family to have the happy ending they all so deserve, and the hope of finding it keeps you turning the pages right to the end.

This is a perfectly balanced book – there are enough moments of humour to stop it being depressing, and enough thoughtfulness to prevent it seeming tasteless.  I loved it.  Hats off to Brand for producing a truly thought-provoking and entertaining novel – a rare combination indeed.

8/10

 

Buy This Book!

Novelicious Chats To... Milly Johnson

I love Milly Johnson's fabulous, down to earth writing and can't wait for her new book A SUMMER FLING to be released on the 29th April - yay!

Enjoy...

1 -  What is your average writing day like?

I start work as soon as the children are in school and the dog is walked – just after 9am.  I ease myself into it by answering emails and then, when I’m in ‘the zone’, I stop periodically for a coffee and a stretch and then at 12am I promise myself ‘I’ll stop for a lunch in a few minutes’ but I get too involved in what I’m doing and before I know it, it’s 3.25pm and time to pick up the children – and I’m starving!   I don’t work when the kids are around and needing my attention, but if they’re at their friends’ houses or ‘doing their own thing’ I’ll pick up where I left off.  I find it very hard to switch off and relax – I’m a workaholic, but I love that.  I always have a notepad around because inspiration can strike at any time.  At the moment I work, on average, three days a week on my  books, two days on being a copywriter for greetings cards.  When I have spare time at the weekend, it’s spent on the books.

 

2  -  In A Spring Affair, you conjured up Tom Broom, the most delicious love interest I have read about in a long time. Is he based on anyone you know?!

 

Alas – no, if only!  Like all my heroes they are fantasy men but I did want my reader to feel they were ‘real’ and not too perfect and ‘attainable’. I have every confidence that there are real Tom Brooms out there.  I like big men though and I want to find them sexy if I’m writing about them – if my hero can’t turn me on, he won’t turn my readers on.

 

3 – Can you tell us about your writing process  - are you a planner or do you dive into the story and hope for the best?

When I wrote book 1, I went back and edited every single word I wrote in the first chapter and it took me a fortnight to finish!  It didn’t help as I ended up scrapping it completely because it didn’t fit in when I’d written the rest of the story.  When I think of an idea for a story, I more or less know the ending and a few key markers along the way, but I try and get the first draft down as quickly as possible to give me a framework – it doesn’t matter too much about detail at this stage.   I head towards a marker but let the story develop a few twists and turns along the way, which is always a fascinating part of writing a book.  Then the fun starts. The editing is the meaty bit and the moment for detail and an accurate time-frame.