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

Best New Books for April

We’re pretty big fans of April – delicate bluebells and cheerful daffodils peeking out to see the sun, bounding spring lambs and chocolate eggs galore at Easter. What’s not to love? April is also an excellent month for books. Here are ten we’re especially excited about curling up with.

Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid (March 27)

Yes, it’s technically a late March book, but you know how behind you can get when your ‘to be read’ pile is well-stocked. A modern re-imagining of the Jane Austen classic by bestselling crime author Val McDermid, Northanger Abbey focusses on avid bookworm and Twilight fan Cat who, in all of her 17 years, has never left her small Dorset village. It’s a constant source of disappointment to Cat that her life does not more closely resemble her books (sound familiar?) and she yearns for the romance and excitement of her fantasy novels. Little does she known that, with an invite to the Edinburgh Festival from her wealthy neighbours, her own adventure is about to begin. We’re intrigued.

Cavendon Hall by Barbara Taylor Bradford (April 1)

A glorious, sweeping family saga full of loyalty, passion, secrets and intrigue from bestselling author Barbara Taylor Bradford is just what we needed to quell our Downton Abbey withdrawal. Fortunately, Cavendon Hall is out tomorrow. Opening on the eve of the First World War, this gorgeous new novel is set around a stately home, Cavendon Hall, its owners – the aristocratic Ingham family – and the Swann family who serve them.

The Book That Changed My Life: Lucy Atkins chooses The Collins Robert Bilingual Dictionary

Lucy Atkins is an author and journalist. Her first novel, The Missing One, was published in January. She tells Novelicious the very personal reason why The Collins Robert Bilingual Dictionary changed her life. 

This is going to sound a little odd, but the one book that has changed the course of my life is The Collins Robert Bilingual Dictionary.

My French is appalling, I am not a linguist. In fact, I have no particular interest in languages and I’m definitely not a dictionary obsessive. But that red, white and blue jacketed tome is my most important book. When I look up the verb To Ride, I find the names of all my childhood pets, including the hamsters. Under ‘round’ there’s my name; turn to ‘run’ there’s my sister; and to ‘sibling’ – my brother.  Why? Because my mother is a lexicographer and the Collins Robert was the first dictionary she wrote – a huge success, still used widely, thirty-five years on.

Novelicious Picks...Our Treasured Signed Books

There is nothing better in the Land of Reading than a lovely book you can treasure, to re-read whenever the whim takes you, to dip in and out of. Nothing better. Oh, except, that is, for a book that has also been signed by the author.

These signed books can take a very special place on any bookshelf. Well, they do on mine. They'll be stroked and opened just to look at the author's scrawl and, if you're very lucky, the personal message they've written there. My very first signed book was Knock and Wait by Gwen Grant – a children's book about a girl who is sent away to an open-air hospital after being poorly. Gwen Grant visited our local library and it was amazing. I've never forgotten meeting my first real-life author.

I asked my Novelicious colleagues if they had a signed book they treasured. I have to say, I was very jealous of Susan's children who met Julia Donaldson and are now in possession of signed Gruffalo books.

1. One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern – Our newest Novelicious recruit, Emma, (hello Emma!) has a signed copy of this novel. Emma was lucky enough to meet Cecelia at an author Q&A event, where she found the author to be incredibly inspiring – not just with Emma's own writing – but with life in general. And because Emma was one of the first people to tweet Cecelia when she joined Twitter, Cecelia knew who Emma was – making the inscription in the book even more special. The novel is about Kitty. When her career implodes, she researches a list of one hundred names her late mentor and boss left her.

Write Your Novel – Being Professional

If you want to make the move from writing as a hobby to writing as a profession, you need to act, well, professionally. Right now. Not 'when you've made it' or 'when you hear back from Agent X' or, even, 'one day'.

If you are serious about getting published (whether traditionally or by going it alone), you have to make a plan and the very first item on that list should be 'fake it until you make it'. Or words to that effect, at any rate.

What do I mean by acting professionally? Well, imagine you make your living by writing and publishing books. Imagine that the publishing professionals you wish to work with (now and in the future) and every potential reader of your work are watching your every move. They're not, of course, but the point is that they could be.

Review – Tomorrow There Will be Apricots by Jessica Soffer

Reviewed by Susan Lobban

This is the story of two women in New York, both looking for something they have lost. Teenage Lorca is desperate to regain her mother’s love and aging Victoria stews in her apartment, alone, without any family remaining.

In a last ditch attempt to stop her mother sending her to boarding school, Lorca is certain that if she can recreate a beloved Middle Eastern meal her chef mother once ate during a happy time, she will change her mind. Victoria and her husband, meanwhile, used to put cooking and food before all else and, now Victoria is all alone after the passing of Joseph, she wonders whether solace can be found in recipes once again.

In their search for fulfillment the two women are brought together. But cooking up a storm in the kitchen brings the teenager and widow together in more ways than they could ever imagine.

Lorca is a troubled 15 year old who is mostly ignored by her extremely focused chef mother. The only glimmer of interest she receives is when she cooks something impressive. Unfortunately, displays of motherly love are few and far between and Lorca has turned to self harm over the years, which soothes her anguish and helps her deal with her feelings of loneliness and inadequacy. I found this uncomfortable to read and was disheartened to find that it never really abated despite the growing relationship with mentor and friend Victoria.

Motivation Monday – Stuck

If you’re here this early, you must be on the hunt for a good, motivating writing prompt, right? You’re in luck (brownie points for being eager beavers, too).

You’ve been running some late night errands at the shopping centre in town. As lights are dimmed and shop front shutters are pulled closed, you scurry into the the last lift down to the underground car park. Between floors, the lift jolts to an abrupt stop and the lights fizzle out with a crack. You remain calm, but the seven other people in the lift with you begin to panic.

Write the ensuing dialogue and your observations of the characters around you.

Fancy a more competitive writing prompt? The winner of the monthly Novelicious Pinterest Prompt is published in our monthly newsletter, read by lots of industry professionals. Why not give that a try?

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My Book Deal Moment by Mary Fitzgerald

I’d been writing stories for years, loving the exercise of imagining a character and then discovering what this hero or heroine would do when I began to write their story. Fascinatingly, they started to live their own lives, go in ways I hadn’t planned and do stupid or heroic deeds, which only occurred as I got to know them better. It had become an addiction and I wrote every day but, despite writing so much and working to improve my skills, my novels were constantly rejected by both publishers and agents. Nobody wanted to know.

Then one of my daughters suggested I self published my novels as eBooks. One by one they went onto Kindle and, after a few weeks, I began to get reviews. And good reviews. I was thrilled. People who didn’t know me, weren’t friends or members of my family, had actually read and liked my novels. I felt like a writer and that nothing could be better, or so I thought.

It was an email. An email which appeared quite unexpectedly one day, nestling amongst the holiday offers, seed catalogues and messages from two of my children announcing that they and their families were coming for the weekend. In my haste to plan food and beds I almost skipped over it.

Five Adorable Bookish Key Rings

Spare a thought for your key ring. It's loyal, it just hangs there, minding your keys, not asking for anything at all. It's time to show the most underrated of our accessories some literary love. We've scoured the internet for the nicest, book-inspired key rings.

1. This quote from J.R.R. Tolkien is very popular and understandably so. It's inscribed here on a hammered copper rectangle by A Twist of Whimsy on Etsy. The copper has been given a patina to make it look worn and aged and a protective coating to maintain its appearance.The key ring is handmade to order and costs around £14.  

This Week In Books – Our Favourite Links of the Week

Must every YA heroine be petite and scrawny when male leads, by contrast, are more often described using language that would typically indicate power, asks The Atlantic. They have a point.

Stephen King’s The Shining has been adapted for stage. That trailer. Gulp.

Friday Book Giveaway! The Missing One by Lucy Atkins

A tense, thrilling novel about a family divided by secrets, and the lengths a mother will go to protect her child, we have three copies of The Missing One by Lucy Atkins to give away this gorgeous Friday. We do love a good, atmospheric cover on a weekend read.

The loss of her mother has left Kali McKenzie with too many unanswered questions. But while clearing out Elena's art studio, she finds a drawer packed with postcards, each bearing an identical one-line message a Canadian gallery owner called Susannah Gillespie: thinking of you. Who is this woman and what does she know about Elena's hidden past?

Review – Melting Ms Frost by Kat Black

Reviewed by Kirsty Nicole Pole

Sometimes passion is the only thing that can melt the ice and boy, does this book have a lot of it.

Annabel Frost does not tolerate fools gladly. She is outstanding at her job, managing one of the most popular restaurants in town, and has no patience for time wasters. She’s independent, calm and immaculately turned out. She also has no friends, or family and she tends to spend most of her time alone. To say that she is tightly wound would be an understatement.

Then there’s Aidan Flynn. Irish, charming and slightly cocky, but broodingly sexy with it, Aidan can’t take his eyes off of his new boss. Setting his sights on winning Annabel over and melting her icy exterior, he goes about slowly charming his way into the bed of one of the toughest women in the business. But Annabel isn’t easily won over. Far from it, in fact. When his persuasive Irish lilt and sexy grey gaze do nothing to captivate her attention, Aidan realises that she is hiding something about her past and he’s not going to stop until he finds out what it is.

This book oozes sex. Its characters are sexy, the storyline is sexy and it’s set against the backdrop of the restaurant business. A place where couples go to make steamy eye contact over their glasses of Merlot and footsy is played under every other table. The sexual tension between Annabel and Aidan is palpable from the very first chapter and it continues throughout the book as the pair play cat and mouse with one another. Just as Annabel starts to like Aidan, she is once again reminded of why she can't be with him and the game begins again.

My Writing Room by Keir Alexander

I work in a small study cum spare room in our small house in a village near Hastings. It’s cosy enough and Helly, my wife, made great curtains and decorated it to make it bright and pleasant to work in. That said, I’ve always been able to write anywhere – in cars and on trains, buses and planes. I could do it on a beach, but it wouldn’t go down well with Helly, who already puts up with me ‘going absent’ on her in all kinds of situations. I used to toy with the idea of being sent to prison, where I could not only write in peace, but would acquire excellent credentials. The trouble was, I couldn’t work out a guaranteed victimless crime to get me sent down.

Review – The Bear by Claire Cameron

Reviewed by Susan Lobban

While camping with her family on a remote island, five year old Anna is trying to sleep in her tent despite her little brother Stick’s annoying snuffling. Suddenly she hears her mother’s screams and her father is determined to get them to safety. Daylight breaks and Anna emerges from her hiding place oblivious to what has gone on the night before. Alone in the woods, Anna must look after Stick whilst battling the elements and trying to keep away from the black shadows that appear when they least expect it.

We follow the lost and bewildered children as they stumble around the scary unknown, desperate to be reunited with their parents. Five year old Anna is the narrator of this modern cautionary tale, so while the reader knows what has happened outside the children’s tent that fateful night, Anna does not. When her father races to the tent with frightening haste, Anna thinks she is in trouble and she and her brother must spend the night in the camping cooler, which she does not understand. Throughout the story, we are permanently in Anna’s head and it is a lovely innocent place to be. For instance, when morning arrives, Anna’s father’s leg is lying abandoned at the campfire, but Anna simply wonders why someone would put her father’s shoe on a piece of meat. The little girl finds her brother an annoyance, but even though she does not realize her fate, she knows that she must keep them both safe until adult guidance is restored.

Sally O'Reilly's Top Five Writing Tips

Sally O'Reilly is the author of two contemporary novels and this week it's the publication of her first historical novel, Dark Aemilia. Dark Aemilia is a re-imagining of the life of Aemilia Lanyer, the 'Dark Lady' of Shakespeare's Sonnets and England's first professional female poet. Today, Sally has popped over to give us her top five writing tips.

1. Write first. It doesn’t have to be first thing in the morning – you may need caffeine/a shower/absence of kids before you start. But if you can manage to write while your head is clear and the demands of Actual Life have closed in, you will a. feel better and b. write better. Get the notebook out asap – the washing up can wait.

2. Be old school. I did say notebook, and I did not mean Netbook. No matter how much you love your keyboard, it pays to write by hand at least some of the time. Humans have been making the brain-to-pen link for thousands of years (roughly speaking) and this makes for organic, immediate, natural writing. The trouble with seeing your drafts on a screen is that they look finished. They aren’t. Scrawled drafts are a reminder that everything can be changed, and that each draft is part of a gradual process of discovery.

3. Embrace imperfection. Ernest Hemingway said: ‘Everything in the first draft is shit’ and it is. And so it should be. If drafts are pouring out of you fully formed, then you aren’t accessing that troubled, incoherent inner self who can tell you the best stories. Don’t fret over a first draft – redraft it.