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

Review - The Ice Cream Girls by Dorothy Koomson

 REVIEWED BY LISA WARD

As teenagers, Poppy Carlisle and Serena Gorrienge both fell in love, with Marcus. Marcus was Serena’s teacher. He was charming and good-looking, but he had a darker more sadistic side, which only revealed itself once they were both smitten. The girls were not friends. In fact they never knew each other until Marcus introduced them. They were fifteen and found themselves completely and utterly head over heels in love with Marcus, who bullied, manipulated and controlled them, until one night they had enough, and fought back. The consequences were devastating.

The only witnesses to the tragic event, the seemingly glamorous girls were arrested, charged and tried. They were vilified in the press. A photograph of the girls, which was taken and staged by Marcus, where they were wearing tiny bikinis and eating ice cream, found its way into the papers and they were given the cruel nickname ‘The Ice Cream Girls’. Following the trial, their lives took very different paths. Poppy was convicted of murder and sent to prison, and Serena was found ‘not guilty’ and released to live her life.

Years later, following her release, Poppy wishes to find out the truth about what really happened that night, but Serena wants the past to remain firmly in the past. As if her past is revealed, it will have a devastating effect on her present.

The story is written from two perspectives, Poppy and Serena’s and takes you on a journey through their lives – both past and present. The book did throw up some questions about their defence and Poppy’s subsequent conviction. Admittedly, I did find it hard to believe that Poppy would have been convicted of murder and Serena would have been found not guilty. Maybe it is the lawyer in me that has all these questions. Why were the hospital admissions not looked into? Why were the neighbours not questioned about seeing the girls arrive regularly at Marcus’ house? Why did the girls’ families let them explain away the bruises and broken bones? Why were Marcus’ previous victims not called to the witness stand? I mean, they did write to Serena. Why was his ex wife not called as a witness?  I know that the main focus of the book was not the trial, but the outcome of the trial showed some serious flaws.

Pure Passion Awards 2011 - The Longlist

The Long List for the Pure Passion Romantic Novel of the Year was released yesterday over on the Romantic Novelists' Association Website.

My money is on Jojo Moyes for The Last Letter From Your Lover which was one of the most engaging, sweepingly romantic and original novels I've read in years.

The shortlist will be announced on Feb 10th 2011. Who do you think will make it? Who do you think will win?

The Long List in alphabetical order is below (I've linked the titles to Amazon so you can read more about each book).

• To Defy a King by Elizabeth Chadwick (Little, Brown - Sphere)
• The Good, the Bad and the Dumped by Jenny Colgan (Little, Brown - Sphere)
• The Golden Prince by Rebecca Dean (HarperCollins)
• Sons & Daughters by Margaret Dickinson (Pan MacMillan)
• Kissing Mr. Wrong by Sarah Duncan (Headline)
• A Perfect Proposal by Katie Fforde (Random House)
• The Jewel of St. Petersburg by Kate Furnivall (Little, Brown - Sphere)
• Amazir by Tom Gamble (Beautiful Books)
• The Island by Elin Hilderbrand (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Queen of New Beginnings by Erica James (Orion)
• The Way to a Woman’s Heart by Christina Jones (Little, Brown - Piatkus)
• I Heart Paris by Lindsey Kelk (HarperCollins)
• His Last Duchess by Gabrielle Kimm (Little, Brown - Sphere)
• Christmas Eve at Friday Harbour by Lisa Kleypas (Little, Brown - Piatkus)
• The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Virgin Widow by Anne O’Brien (Mira)
• Ten Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn (Little, Brown - Piatkus)
• The Search by Nora Roberts (Little, Brown - Piatkus)
• The Legacy by Katherine Webb (Orion)
• Hope Against Hope by Sally Zigmond (Myrmidon)

Visit the RNA Website

Review - Down To Earth by Melanie Rose

REVIEWED BY KIRA SLAUGHTER  

When Michaela Anderson signs up for a charity parachute jump, she gets more than a case of vertigo...

Suffering last minute panic, Michaela’s three colleagues go first. But just as she takes her leap of faith, an almighty gale blows up from nowhere.

When she returns to the ground, she finds the airfield deserted, her car gone and the seasons mysteriously changed. Posters nearby proclaim Michaela to have been missing for the last six and a half years...

Everything about her life is completely different.

But Michaela is determined to find out the truth. Was she kidnapped? Is she now suffering amnesia- or has something even more extraordinary occurred?

With the help of handsome pilot Matt, Michaela sets out to find the truth. And what she discovers rocks everything she has ever believed in to the core...

Before I was sent this book I had only read one of Melanie Rose’s other books, Could it be Magic. I really enjoyed it and found that the magical twist made it entirely different. With this one the theme of the unexplained had me gripped from the very beginning. When you read about the unexplained disappearance of the main character, Michaela, you start to think 'could that happen', and 'has it ever happened before?'.

When the book starts Michaela is just your average girl. She’s in a relationship and living with her boyfriend, who also happens to have a little girl. She works at an insurance firm which is the reason she’s doing this jump in the first place, it’s for charity and her co-workers have been dragged in to doing it as well. As they’re all riding up to the point where they’ll jump from, Michaela gets increasingly nervous, but the comforting words she receives from the gorgeous jump instructor Matt, make her feel a little better.

Michaela is the last person to jump out of the plane and what happens next is so random, yet grabs the reader. When she lands from her jump everything is different; the weather, the airfield and the fact that her car is no longer parked where it should be. At this part of the book I could not stop reading as I wanted to find out what on earth had happened to her. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Michaela, she’s confused and upon stumbling into a nearby pub, she finds posters of herself plastered over the walls, with the words ‘Have you seen this girl?’ If this were a film this would be when the du du duuuuuh music kicks in! It sinks in that Michaela has been missing for the last six and a half years. Her only solution is to call the last person who saw her before she jumped: Matt.

This is where the book gets really interesting, as events from the last six and a half years are explained to Michaela. Her life and the people in it have changed dramatically and she has no idea who she can turn to, as everyone thinks she went missing on purpose. What unfolds now is the perfect mystery, and with some very impressive twists, Down to Earth becomes a brilliant Who? What? Where? mystery that I found hard to put down. Only read this book if you have a clear two days, otherwise you’re never getting anything done!

I’m giving this a 9/10!

Melanie Rose's Website

More About This Book

Novel News - Summer Loving by Allie Spencer

Allie Spencer published her first two (fabulous) books under the Little Black Dress imprint. Her third novel is to be released with Arrow, and It looks like real classic chick lit!

SUMMER LOVING is out in May 2011 (I know it's a while off, but one to pre-order, perhaps??)

The blurb reads...

One villa, four friends, a whole heap of trouble... 

Beth, Ginny, Kirsten and Anna are all set for a holiday of sun, sea and
frolics. The four have been friends since university and now, as Ginny is
about to get married to Tony - Beth’s first love from university - it’s time to
catch up, reminisce, and maybe indulge in a holiday romance or two. But
the bars, clubs and beaches of their imaginings are a far cry from the slow,
quiet pace of life on Liminaki, and with nothing better to do, the girls find
themselves spending far too much time in each other’s company. As the
tension rises, old rivalries are reignited and the truth about their lives begins
to surface. Ginny really isn’t sure about Tony. Tony thinks he still loves
Beth. Beth is falling in love with Greg. Kirsten refuses to tell Jack about her
visa problems ... And Anna is finally convinced she has found true love.
Can it all be sorted out in two short weeks?

Visit the website of Allie Spencer

Find out more about this book!

Review - Want To Know A Secret by Sue Moorcroft

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR

 
Diane Jenner is at her modest home preparing a meal to celebrate her Silver Wedding Anniversary for her hard-working husband’s return from work. Instead of seeing him walking through her front door, she meets two policemen who have come to advise her that her husband, Gareth has been involved in a helicopter crash. Having no clue why her husband could possibly have been in a helicopter, Diane feels comforted by the thought that the police must have made a mistake. It’s only when she arrives at the hospital she discovers that not only were they right, but that her husband has an entirely secret life apart from the one they’d been sharing for so long.

 James North comforts his distraught daughter at the hospital. He’s waiting for news about his wife’s condition and can’t help suspecting that alcohol has something to do with her crashing the helicopter. When Diane arrives he slowly realizes that she is not the woman her husband has made her out to be. James has more than enough trouble in his life, from his exuberant wife and troubled daughter, to his kindly father-in-law and the last thing he expects is to be attracted to an angry, confused woman who has inadvertently entered his life and is expecting answers to so many questions.

Natalie Goldberg - Writing Down The Bones

I love this encouraging video about being a writer. Natalie Goldberg's book was mentioned by Trisha Ashley in her top 5 writing tips!

Let us know what you think!

 

Natalie's Author Page Natalie' Facebook Fan Page Natalie's Website

My Writing Room - Sasha Wagstaff

Taking inspiration from The Guardian's 'Writers' Rooms', Sky Arts' 'The Write Place' and Book Chick City's excellent 'Where Stories Are Made'; My Writing Room is a fabulous fortnightly event, in which some of our favourite authors show us where the writerly magic happens, and tell us a little about their writing life.

This week we are pleased to bring you the Writing Room of Sasha Wagstaff, author of CHANGING GROOMS and WICKED GAMES.

My Writing Room by Sasha Wagstaff

As soon as I left my banking job to focus on writing properly, me and my husband converted a spare room in our house into a stylish office. We bought a lovely, high-level desk and a huge, comfy chair I could sit in cross-legged and I stacked the shelves with novels by my favourite authors. I finished the room off with a small television and some gorgeous Mucha prints I’d bought in Prague.

However, as soon as I secured my book deal with Headline, I fell pregnant and discovered I had a condition which gave me terrible back pain. I could no longer use my beautiful office because my desk was too high and my chair was too soft so I moved my lap top downstairs to our dining room. I sat on a rigid chair which supported my back and tucked my growing bump under the dining room table. This worked well for most of my pregnancy as the kitchen was only a short waddle away and when I got tired, I could move to the lounge and have a cat nap.

After Phoebe was born, my husband had commandeered the office upstairs so when it was time to fire up the lap top again, I continued to work at the dining room table, with Phoebe asleep or playing nearby. When my office was finally free again, I found, to my surprise, that I had grown rather attached to my sunny spot in the dining room and I didn’t want to move back into my stylish office, after all. So my lap top and printer now live on our dining room table...not ideal, maybe, but it works for me!

There is a box behind my lap top which contains baby name books which I use when I develop characters and also book ideas: magazine articles about interesting people, exciting jobs or maybe just a place in the world I might want to set part of a novel in. On the wall above me is a photo of our wedding with messages from friends and family around it, which always makes me smile and on my desk, I have my calendar of ‘The Secret’, the ‘World’s Greatest Mummy’ mug mat Phoebe bought me for Mother’s Day and also, generous supplies of hand cream and lip balm, because for some reason, I use them constantly when I’m writing! My mouse mat is Audrey Hepburn’s ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’, which is one of my favourite films and my pink blingy mouse is very girly but I love it.

So this is where I work...it’s a light and airy spot with a lovely view of the garden. I have the TV on low for background noise and our three cats usually curl up nearby. I genuinely find it the most peaceful place in the house to write my novels.

Visit Sasha's Website!

 

Novelicious chats to...Melanie Rose

 Melanie is the author of three novels COULD IT BE MAGIC, COMING HOME and DOWN TO EARTH. Enjoy her interview!

1.Can you tell us a little about your average writing day?

 My average writing day often begins in the middle of the night! Having brought up four sons, I’m used to waking in the early hours when the house is quiet and writing from 1.30 to around 3.30am before going back to bed for a couple of hours of much needed sleep. During the day I write when I have a spare minute and am fortunate that I can usually get straight into character and pick up where I left off.

  2. When you are writing, do you use any celebrities or people you know as inspiration?

 When I’m writing I do use character traits from people I know and sometimes my heroes are based on a gorgeous celebrity figure. But I never use all of a real person – just some of their more interesting traits. My characters can be a mix of several different people and sometimes they are completely fictitious, although they are all totally real to me.

  3. What is your favourite Women’s Fiction book of all time and why?

 It is so hard to name my favourite women’s fiction book of all time, when there have been so many great books and amazing writers. If I absolutely had to choose it would be Little Women by Louisa M Alcott. I read it many times when I was growing up and because I’m one of three girls I identified with the characters which seemed to be based on my own mother, me and my sisters. I was Jo, the aspiring writer, of course – who ended up with all those sons.  Maybe I’m a reincarnation of Louisa!

  4. What is your writing process? Do you plan first of dive in? How many drafts do you do?

My writing process is a little haphazard. I have an idea and then swirl it round in my mind for days, sometimes weeks or even months, inventing characters that take on a life of their own. When the characters seem totally real and I’ve begun having conversations with them in my head, I begin writing, putting them into whatever situation I’ve dreamt up and seeing what happens. The characters seem to write the books for me.

Novel News - Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan

This is probably the book I'm most looking forward to reading in 2011. Not only is it written by my fave - Jenny Colgan, but it's about cakes. Plus the cover is just gorgeous.

This book will be released on the 14th April 2011 and the blurb reads;

Ever dreamed of starting over? Issy Randall can bake. No, more than that - Issy can create stunning, mouth-wateringly divine cakes. After a childhood spent in her beloved Grampa Joe's bakery she has undoubtedly inherited his talent. So when she's made redundant from her safe but dull City job, Issy decides to seize the moment and open up her own cafe. It should be a piece of cake, right? Wrong. As her friends point out, she has trouble remembering where she left her house keys, let alone trying to run her own business. But Issy is determined. Armed with recipes posted to her from Grampa, and with her local bank manager fighting her corner, Issy attempts to prove everyone wrong. Following your dreams is never easy and this is no exception. Can Issy do it?

Visit Jenny Colgan's Website

Find out more about Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe

LBD Review - Just Say Yes by Phillipa Ashley

REVIEWED BY KIRA SLAUGHTER

When Lucy’s brand-new boyfriend and extremely popular winner of reality TV show Hot Shots, Nick Laurentis, proposes to her live on air she’s stunned- into silence. Every girl loves a romantic gesture, but she’s just not ready for that kind of commitment. With the press hounding her as the one who callously broke Nick’s heart, Lucy flees her London flat to seek refuge in an isolated Cornwall cottage. But if she’s hoping for the simple life she’s in for a shock...

This is the third book of Phillipa Ashley’s I’ve read and I can understand why she won an RNA New Writers award for her first book ‘Decent Exposure’. The stories she writes are fun and light-hearted and the characters even more so.

Just Say Yes focuses on Lucy, a girl who has become a public hate figure for turning down a proposal live on TV. Wanting to get away from everything she goes to Cornwall with her friend Fiona and her dog Hengist. When she realises that she’s not being followed by the paparazzi, she settles into village life and meets the locals, and in particular one very gorgeous local! 

As with all good chick lit you obviously need a male lead, the romantic hero that swoops in and sweeps our main girl off her feet. And as luck would have it this book delivers a hero in the shape of Josh (who in my head resembles Wentworth Miller going by Ashley’s description, which immediately gets my vote!) He’s not a hero as such but he is the owner of four cottages similar to the one our heroine is residing in. They meet each other after a very amusing incident when he catches Lucy coming out of the shower. From then on they continue to bump into each other, and as with her previous books Ashley builds the sexual tension up to such a point that it made me want to scream ‘Just get together, goddammit!’

WIN! A Signed Copy of The Way to a Woman's Heart by Christina Jones

To tie in with our fabulous interview with Christina Jones, the lovely lady herself is offering one of our readers a fantastic signed copy of her novel!

The blurb of the book reads...

Cooking seemed like the perfect distraction - until a delicious chef was thrown in the mix ...Escaping from corporate city life into the heart of the Berkshire countryside, Ella Maloney hopes to find rural tranquillity and a chance to sort out the problems in her long-term relationship. On arriving, she realises tranquillity is in short supply, but welcomes the distraction her chaotic new life offers - until she meets devastatingly gorgeous, but equally attached, chef Ash Lawrence, and realises that he's maybe one distraction too many. And when Ella's favourite top-rated TV cookery programme - Dewberry's Dinners - comes looking for a venue to film their latest show, she pulls out all the culinary stops in an attempt to keep her mind on the task in hand (and not on the sexy Ash), but it's hard to keep your head when all around you people are losing theirs ...

Sounds brill, no?

All you have to do to win a copy of the book is leave a comment below, telling us about the most delicious meal you've ever had! The competition will be open until Sunday 12th December and a winner will be chosen at random. (UK ONLY)

Good luck!

 

Novelicious chats to...Christina Jones

INTERVIEW BY DEBS CARR

 Christina, thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions for Novelicious. I’ve read and enjoyed all your previous books and can’t wait to read The Way To A Woman’s Heart, published
in hardcover on 4^th November and paperback on 3^rd February 2011. Actually, I’ve already taken a sneaky peak and am already on page 35 and loving it.

 1. I thoroughly enjoy revisiting the previous familiar characters and villages in your books and noticed that your heroine Ella Maloney, having left her corporate lifestyle behind, takes up a job on a farm situated somewhere between Lovers Knot and Fiddlesticks. If it’s like visiting old friends for me, as a reader, it must feel like that too for you. Do you find it difficult it come up with a fresh idea for each new book?

 Thank you so much for saying that you like the continuity in the books – it’s a huge relief, because sometimes I think I’m just being self-indulgent. And yes, all my characters are my friends. To me, the villages and the characters in my books are real – I know they’re all living out there in some parallel universe – which is why I can’t let them go. And no, I don’t (or I haven’t yet – am now touching wood) have problems with ideas for new books, because all these people are living inside my head and I find new things for them to do, and new people for them to fall in love with, really quite easy. I know why they’re all in one place (in The Way To A Woman’s Heart, all the characters, except Poll and Ella, have lost their homes for various reasons) then I just think of a new theme (as in cookery in The Way To A Woman’s Heart – er – real cookery this time, not the magical recipes that were in Hubble Bubble) and let them run riot… At the moment I’ve got ideas for the next twelve books – is that showing off? Yes, sorry, I thought it might be,,,

 2. Do you do much plotting for a book before you start writing, and if not, how do you go about writing your books?

 Er – no, sorry - I’ve never plotted in my life! Each time I start a new novel, the characters are already fully-formed, and once I’ve got the book’s theme established then I just make it all up as I go along. If I had to plan or plot it would kill the magic of writing for me and make it seem like work – and I’m very lazy! So, I just let it all unfold in my head as I’m writing so it’s like reading a new story, or seeing a film, and I get caught up in the tale. Does that make sense? Sorry, I thought not!  I’m not sure how I write really, but it’s always the same method – okay, with The Way To A Woman’s Heart I knew I wanted all my characters to be living in the same house for similar reasons and to be linked by their love of cooking and one television cookery programme in particular, but they’re all poles apart in age and lifestyle which leads to the various conflicts. And that’s about as much as I knew when I started – I knew who the characters were, that it would end happily, and that there would be all sorts of problems along the way, but what would happen in the middle and how it would be resolved was a mystery to me. It’s always a mystery to me, actually…

 
3. I always know that when I open one of your books I’m going to be transported to a place filled with larger than life characters, a heroine I can empathize with and a hero to die for. How do you manage to come up with new characters, as yours all seem so fully thought out and rounded?

 Thank you again – you’re lovely! I suppose it’s because my characters are as real to me as my friends, family and neighbours – people I see every day. They all live with me all the time, and their character traits, voices, behaviour are just them… I mean, I never have to think about how they’re going to behave or look – they just do and are. They just seem to step out of my head and on to the page as if they have a life of their own, which they do – well, to me anyway. Hopefully they come to life in the books because they seem like real people – with all the flaws and insecurities and problems that real life throws at them. Oh, and they’re usually funny – because people are funny, aren’t they? Especially the ones who think they aren’t….

 4. Ash Lawrence is a chef and although I haven’t met him yet, I can’t wait to do so, as I know he’ll be fabulous. Can you tell us if his character is inspired by anyone in particular, and if so, who it is?

 Well, Ash certainly isn’t based on any of the current celeb chefs! I can’t cook/won’t cook and also hate blokes with oversized egos – so a shouty, big-headed chef who thinks drizzling an artistic stack of coddled samphire with a pomegranate pomade and a gnat’s entrails jus makes him God’s gift would NOT make a good hero in my opinion. Ash (like all my heroes) is creative and gentle, totally unaware of his deliciousness, and not particularly confident. He’s a great chef who has no idea just how great he really is. Ash, like all my characters, is a person in his own right – I never base the appearance of any of my characters on real people. Physically I suppose he just slots nicely into the rom-com mould – being tall, dark and drop-dead-gorgeously handsome (I have had short red-haired heroes and medium height ash-blond ones – but most of them seem to toe the rom-com party line) – but even this physical gorgeousness is tested to the limit in The Way To A Woman’s Heart because he has to – er – no – you’ll have to read the book to find out.

Top Ten - Our Top Ten Blogs for Writers

Our selection of must visit blogs for all you need to know on the craft of writing and the business of getting published...

1. Bubblecow - Fantastic articles on getting published, plus writing links from around the web. A twitter must follow @bubblecow . Also offers a manuscript editing service.

2. How Publishing Really Works - Does what it says on the tin! Focus on the business of getting your book published.

3. Julie Cohen - The blog of Romantic Comedy writer,Julie Cohen, is a fabulous hive of information on the process of writing a novel. Stand-out posts on Character Arcs and Novel Revision

4. Writers and Artists - A blog covering every aspect of the writing process. Updated frequently and blogged by industry insiders.

5. Strictly Writing - Written by a group of aspiring and published authors, this blog covers all elements of the writing craft

6. Sarah Duncan's Blog - We've mentioned this one before - A published author, Sarah Duncan teaches Creative Writing at the Universities of Oxford and Bristol. Lots of original thoughts and tips on the craft of writing a book.

7. Help! I Need a Publisher! Prolific writer Nicola Morgan "offers crabbitly honest expertise to writers with talent and a burning need to be published.". This blog is so good that it has inspired a book, WRITE TO BE PUBLISHED due out in June 2011.

8. Slush Pile Hell - This blog will definitely make you feel better about the fact that you would NEVER send a query like some of those featured on this site. Good for chuckles and feeling smug.

9. Daily Writing Tips - A popular blog with daily posts on grammar, spelling, punctuation and vocabulary.

10. Nathan Bransford - The online home of literary agent -turned author Nathan Bransford has a huge archive of excellent advice on getting published.

Tell us your favourite blogs for writers so that we can add them to future lists!

My Writing Room - Ali McNamara

The lovely Ali McNamara shows us around her writing room!

This video is part of a fantastic series that features highlights of Ali's journey towards publication. You can find the rest of those videos here!

Enjoy...