Monthly Archives: July 2011

Jera’s Jamboree round up July 2011

It’s that time of the month when I share with followers what’s been hot etc – that came around quickly!


Out of twelve books reviewed this month, the top three popular ones are:


Baby Be Mine by Paige Toon (86)

http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?t=jersjam-21&o=2&p=8&l=as1&asins=1849831262&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

The Moon in Leo by Kathleen Herbert (86)

http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?t=jersjam-21&o=2&p=8&l=as1&asins=0956810403&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

Walk the Lines by Mark Mason (78)


http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?t=jersjam-21&o=2&p=8&l=as1&asins=1847946534&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

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Apart from Twitter/Google/Networked Blogs, readers have found their way to Jera’s Jamboree from:


Carole’s Book Corner


Book Chick City  (On My Wishlist)


Loveahappyending

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Jera’s Jamboree has been viewed by book lovers in the following countries:


UK
US
Germany
Canada
Ireland
Australia
Estonia
Spain
India
France

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Jera’s Jamboree has a Facebook page where I post all sorts of book news and book competitions.

Thank you to everyone who is supporting Jera’s Jamboree.  It is very much appreciated :)

The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon

Synopsis from Amazon: 
Macedon. 367 BC. Philip II is bringing war to Persia. Forged in the warrior culture of Macedonia, the time has come for his young son Alexander to take up his inheritance of blood and obedience to the sword. It is a training that has made the boy sadistic; fiercely brilliant, but unstable. A dangerous trait in a king fated to rule the vastest empire of the ancient world. Compelled to teach this startling, precocious, sometimes horrifying child, Aristotle soon realises that what the boy needs most to learn – thrown before his time onto his father’s battlefields – is the lesson of the golden mean, the elusive balance between extremes that Aristotle hopes will mitigate the boy’s will to conquer in this age of fighting heroes…
~~~~~~~~~~~~
This fictional story about factual ancient history gripped me.
Annabel Lyon writes Aristotle’s story in the first person and we start our reading in the present time.  Throughout the book we flashback to an earlier time and then we find ourselves in the present.  At first I found this confusing but once I was into the story, it didn’t affect the flow of my reading.
In the past we find out about Aristotle’s relationship with his father. His father’s absences and lack of understanding about his character make him lonely and afraid. When his father spends time in the village before taking up post of King’s physician Aristotle accompanies him on his medical rounds.  It is here that the gap between their different personalities is very evident. 
When the family move to Pella and live in the royal household, Aristotle’s friendship with Philip develops.  To escape becoming a possible hostage after his father’s death, he is sent to Plato in Athens by his brother-in-law.
During the present time, when Aristotle arrives back to Pella with his wife Pythias, he decides to help Philip’s first-born son Arrhidaeus.  Arrhidaeus was a healthy boy until at age five he contracted, what to me, sounded like meningitis.  Aristotle saw he could be much more and so instead of being neglected, spent time teaching him hygiene, how to eat, draw and play music.  Aristotle becomes the tutor of Alexander and we find out the complete distaste Alexander feels for his brother Arrhidaeus.
It was interesting to read how the author fictionalised Aristotle’s relationship with Alexander - the philosophical discussions/sparring they had and the growing love and respect for each other.  I liked the way the author has Aristotle dealing with another tutor who had the potential to become an enemy.
Being a lover of nature and the seasons I enjoyed when it snowed in Pella and Aristotle found his wife huddled in a room with her veil covering her head (she had never seen snow before).  His wife wanted him to say the snow was a result of something a god had done in anger (the time the story is set in the gods were responsible for everything …………) but he gave a scientific explanation.
I think the author displayed Aristotle’s symptoms of bi-polar illness really well.
In this ancient historical novel there is philosophy, court intrigue, politics, love, family life and religion. 
Fictional interpretations of history intrigue me and this was no exception.
You can read more about Aristotle on Wikipedia. 
You can read more about Annabel Lyon on her blog.  
I would like to thank Atlantic Books for sending me The Golden Mean to review.

About the author

Annabel Lyon is the author of two short story collections, Oxygen, and The Best Thing for You. She lives in British Columbia with her husband and two children. The Golden Mean is her first novel.

The Golden Mean is published in paperback by Atlantic Books 1 August 2011


http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?t=jersjam-21&o=2&p=8&l=as1&asins=1848875312&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

On My Wishlist (#2)

This has been on my wishlist only since May :)  It was one of the International Chick Lit Month spotlighted books.  I just love the sound of this book and the reviews on Amazon are fabulous.  

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Gallery Press; Original edition (26 Oct 2010)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1439107238
  • ISBN-13: 978-1439107232

Holly Maguire’s grandmother Camilla was the Love Goddess of Blue Crab Island, Maine–a Milanese fortune-teller who could predict the right man for you, and whose Italian cooking was rumored to save marriages. Holly has been waiting years for her unlikely fortune: her true love will like sa cordula, an unappetizing old-world delicacy. But Holly can’t make a decent marinara sauce, let alone sa cordula. Maybe that’s why the man she hopes to marry breaks her heart. So when Holly inherits Camilla’s Cucinotta, she’s determined to forget about fortunes and love and become an Italian cooking teacher worthy of her grandmother’s legacy. But Holly’s four students are seeking much more than how to make Camilla’s chicken alla Milanese. Simon, a single father, hopes to cook his way back into his daughter’s heart. Juliet, Holly’s childhood friend, hides a painful secret. Tamara, a serial dater, can’t find the love she longs for. And twelve-year-old Mia thinks learning to cook will stop her dad, Liam, from marrying his phony lasagna-queen girlfriend. As the class gathers each week, adding Camilla’s essential ingredients of wishes and memories in every pot and pan, unexpected friendships and romances are formed–and tested. Especially when Holly falls hard for Liam . . . and learns a thing or two about finding her own recipe for happiness.




I recently saw this review on OneMorePage‘s blog so this is a recent addition to my wish list!  Love that it is part memoir and of course I love reading about historical events.

  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (18 July 2011)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1408801256
  • ISBN-13: 978-1408801253

In 1943 Emma Smith joined the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company under their wartime scheme of employing women to replace the boaters. She set out with two friends on a big adventure: three eighteen-year-olds, freed from a middle-class background, precipitated into the boating fraternity. They learn how to handle a pair of seventy-two foot-long canal boats, how to carry a cargo of steel north from London to Birmingham and coal from Coventry; how to splice ropes, bail out bilge water, keep the engine ticking over and steer through tunnels. They live off kedgeree and fried bread and jam, adopt a kitten, lose their bicycles, laugh and quarrel and get progressively dirtier and tougher as the weeks go by. “Maidens’ Trip” is a classic memoir of the growth to maturity of three young women in the exceptional circumstances of Britain at war.

What’s on your wishlist?  Comments always welcomed



Sophie’s Turn by Nicky Wells

SySophies_Turn.inddnopsis from Amazon:

This honest, funny and sometimes bitter-sweet novel tells the story of one woman’s entanglement with a rock star.

Slapper. Slut. Adulteress. These are hardly words that Sophie Penhalligan would normally use to describe herself. And yet this is exactly how she is behaving, all things considered, even if she isn’t quite married to Tim yet. Aged nineteen, she travelled halfway across the country to honour an invitation by her favourite rock band, Tusk, to join them for the last gig of their tour. And now her past is coming to tempt her… How could Tim ever stand a chance against Dan, the charming, handsome lead-singer? How could she?

Sophie, now twenty-eight and a budding newspaper journalist, is happily embroiled in a relationship with Tim, her boyfriend of two years. Until recently, she was confident that Tim would eventually propose—probably as soon as he could get his act together. But just as Tim’s persistent inaction is beginning to cast a cloud over their relationship, Dan’s sudden reappearance turns Sophie’s world upside down. Thus unfolds a roller-coaster of events including an ill-fated trip to Paris with Tim, a night of unfulfilled romance with Dan, Sophie and Tim’s engagement party gate-crashed by Dan, and Sophie’s professional secondment to accompany Dan’s band on their revival tour—at Dan’s special request and very much against her will.

And then, one fine day in Paris, Sophie suddenly finds herself engaged to Dan while her erstwhile fiancé Tim is… well, doing whatever it is Tim does back in London. What is she to do now? Who wouldn’t give anything to meet their favourite star, let alone marry him?

Find out how Sophie gets into this impossible situation, and how she turns it around, in Sophie’s Turn, a modern romantic fairy tale.

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Nicky Wells is a self-published author.  When she contacted me to review Sophie’s Turn,  I read the prologue which had me hooked instantly! 

In the prologue, Sophie and Dan are in Paris while the band ‘Tusque’ are on tour and Sophie accepts Dan’s proposal.  There’s only one problem with that …………what about her fiancée Tim back in London?  I wanted to go back to the beginning to find out more about her relationship with Tim and what life was like for her.  What had led her to this point?

In Part One we get to experience Sophie’s relationship with Tim.  Tim is a very solid, dependable man who likes things to be exact and precise.  I think the one thing that explained beautifully about his character (by inference) was in the restaurant when Sophie and Tim were celebrating their two year anniversary – the way he unwrapped his gift in the restaurant – it told me exactly what type of person he was!  We also learn more about the closeness Sophie has with best friend Rachel.  Their friendship is quite central to the story and I loved the way they supported each other and were open and honest. 

Also in Part One we flashback to an earlier time in Sophie’s life – this is when she followed the rock band to Edinburgh for their final gig and her relationship with Dan began.  This worked really well as the author used a trigger to flashback so past and present fitted seamlessly together.

A key point in the story is at the airport – Sophie is flying to Manhattan to attend a conference.  She notices Darren (from ‘Tusk’) and finds out the band are re-forming.  When she’s back home in London, she finds out where they are next doing a gig and invites Tim and Rachel to go with her………………  and so she meets Dan again.

The attraction between Sophie and Dan is sizzling.  There are some heart-thumping scenes between them – you can feel the heat coming off the pages!  There are also some heart-wrenching scenes that may have you crying …………………

I found myself laughing out loud quite often, specifically I would like to mention the hotel room in Paris with Tim when room service arrives and a separate incident at home in London when Tim is gardening in the rain during the night and the police arrive.  I have a smile on my face even now!

Sophie’s Turn is written in such a way that you feel included in her journey.  It is easy to read and will keep your interest. A modern romantic fairytale ……………. but is the ending what you think it is going to be?  I think you will be surprised – I was!

I would like to thank the author for sending me a copy to review.

I have exciting news – Nicky Wells has agreed to do an interview on Jera’s Jamboree and has offered a giveaway of the fabulous ‘Sophie’s Turn’ to one blog reader.  More details coming soon.


Nicky Wells is on Twitter and Facebook.

About the Author:

Nicky Wells is a writer and former business practices researcher.

Born and raised in Germany, she moved to the UK in 1993.  Having completed her studies, Nicky spent six years working for an International Human Resources research firm in London and Washington, DC.  Nicky lives in Bristol with her husband and her two boys and is beginning work on her next novel.

 

 

and the winner is …………………………..

1.  Dizzy C

2.  Lougrahamiiblog

3.  Stewpot

4.  Janice Horton

5.  Amanda

6.  Brigid

7.  Hannah

8.  Linn B Halton

9.  Reabookreview

10.  RedRoses4

                                                         11.  Wendy


Congratulations

Linn B Halton

Thank you to everyone who took part.  Keep looking for the next giveaway.


When Tomorrow Comes by Joanna Lambert

Synopsis from Amazon:
1967: When eighteen-year-old Ella Kendrick moves to the Somerset town of Abbotsbridge to live with her mother Melissa and stepfather Liam she is looking forward to getting to know someone who has been absent from her life for eleven years. Ella is intrigued by this glamorous, fashionable woman and hopes she holds the key to many unanswered questions about her childhood. However, living in the Carpenter household does not turn out to be the idyllic experience Mel has promised her daughter. Scheming and manipulative she has specific plans for Ella. Plans which do not include boyfriend Niall O’Farrell left behind in the village where she grew up with her grandparents, or the university place she hopes for. After Ella loses Niall to her best friend and her career aspirations have been trimmed to a college course, ambitious Mel puts her main plan into action – finding her daughter a wealthy boyfriend. In doing this, she is looking for a marriage which will give her the right connections and help her own social advancement in the town. But Mel’s plan stalls when on a cold January evening, local nightclub owner’s son Matt Benedict unexpectedly walks into Ella’s life. Ella knows she will have to fight to stay with Matt, branded as most unsuitable by her mother; but it is not just Mel she is up against. Matt’s mother Faye has her own reasons for parting them, as does Andy Macayne, the rich, self-indulgent young man Mel hopes her daughter will eventually marry. WHEN TOMORROW COMES is the first book in the Behind Blue Eyes Trilogy. Ella and Matt’s journey is about to begin………
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Although the synopsis starts from 1967, the story begins in a ‘world’ that is the foundation and sets the scene, which starts in 1965.  Ella is sixteen and living in the village Meridan Cross.  Her father died a few years ago, her mother disappeared, so she is being lovingly brought up by her maternal grandparents on their farm.  
We get to experience village life, getting to know all the characters who inhabit the village ……………. and all the gossip.  For the youngsters, their social lives revolve around the farming community ie Young Farmer’s Midsummer Barn Dance.  We become involved in watching Ella’s relationship with Niall develop.  Niall, who is the charismatic older boy and has all the females flirting with him.  There is a tragedy at the train station in Abbotsbridge, a wedding to attend and then Ella moves out to live with her mother Mel and step-father Liam.
The story then involves us in Ella’s life in Abbotsbridge but we also look back to what is happening in the village.  Ella soon faces the truth of how Mel has changed everything about her life.  She accepts college and is determined to be successful.  Emotions become involved through a betrayal and we really get to see the strength of Ella’s character as her life unwinds in the town.
Mel really is ambitious for her daughter but not in a ‘wanting the best’ for Ella …………… but what she wants for herself, to enhance her own reputation.  For all her high and mighty ways she is not liked in Abbotsbridge.  She is likened to Cruella de Ville by Ella’s friend Rachel ………… which is very apt!  I really couldn’t find any redeeming features in her personality.  Ella’s relationship with Mel is offset by Liam, who is something of an ally for her.  A perfect balance in their household.  I found myself feeling really sorry for Liam having had to live with Mel for all those years and could see how escaping off to his study to work was a form of relief!
All the characters are totally believable and have their own problems to deal with, their own journeys to come to terms with.  The scenes are written in such a way that it was so easy to image I was actually there, taking part.
There are references to the fashions of the day – ie clothes, songs, pre-decimalisation and cars.  The huge difference I found is, of course, no mobile phones!  The teenagers have no privacy and parents control who they speak to and when.  So different in today’s world!
The world of both village and city that the author creates in the first of this trilogy was all absorbing for me.  I can’t wait to read the second movement to find out where we will journey to next!
Joanna Lambert is a showcased author on the interactive author/reader project of Loveahappyending.  I am proud to have been accepted as one of her Associate Readers.

http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?t=jersjam-21&o=2&p=8&l=as1&asins=0755204840&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

Always on my Mind by Colette Caddle

Synopsis taken from Simon & Schuster UK:
Old flames, new temptations . . .
With only a few weeks to go until her Dublin wedding, Molly Jackson is happily anticipating married life with Declan, her boyfriend of four years. Her sister Laura has all the arrangements firmly in hand, from the designer dresses to the prestigious venue; and if Molly would have been happier with something a little more low-key, she can hardly complain. She’s got everything she ever wanted: her perfect job, as an agony aunt for online magazine Teenage Kix; Declan, the love of her life; and, in Belle, Oliver, Rory and Laura, a loving and warm, if slightly eccentric family.
Then Declan drops his bombshell: he has to go abroad, on business. The wedding must be postponed. Hurt, and reeling from the shock, Molly is seeing Declan off at the airport when she bumps into Luke Fortune. Luke, her childhood sweetheart, left the country when they were both eighteen. It’s been almost twelve years, and Molly thought she had moved on. But, seeing Luke again, she realises that she has a window of opportunity, while Declan is away, to put a few of the ghosts in her past to rest . . .
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our journey begins on the way to the airport.  Molly is driving Declan, he’s on his way for the interview that will lead him abroad.  At the airport, Molly makes eye-contact with childhood sweetheart Luke and so begins her journey of not only healing her heart from a sad loss but to also finding out where her heart truly belongs.
As we get to find out more about Molly, we also get to know the members who make up her family.  Her father Oliver is still making the most of exploring life and mother Belle is very perceptive and intuitive about her children.  I found the Jackson’s Sunday brunch fascinating – it’s open house and they all get the opportunity to maintain their links.  We get to know more about the people through their interactions with each other.
Molly’s older sister Laura and her family also figure quite strongly in the story.  Laura fell pregnant at 19 and married, the twins Ashling and Adam are now 14.  Life isn’t going exactly in the way she expected.  In both families, Laura is well-known for her nagging and always finding something wrong.  She has a tendency to act superior and although materialistic, we see a slipping of her mask.  We follow Laura as she fights against her feelings, trying to find her way in life.  I loved the sibling relationship between Molly and Laura. 
I have to say that Colette Caddle portrays the angst of teenage years so well -  how Laura’s children interact with her is so spot on!  …………..  as the parent you are seen as the enemy and the author captures this brilliantly. 
It’s not often I read about the male point of view in a story but the author has included this for Laura’s husband Robert – it made him very real and worked well.
Not only do we get involved in the people’s lives already mentioned but Molly’s best friend Ellen and her life is also another plot running alongside.  Ellen is pregnant, the father, Andrew, is not around.  The one and only complaint I have in this story is that I would love to know what unfolds for Ellen, I was so hoping we would get to see something more for her! 
We don’t see much of Declan (as he’s working abroad). We get to know more about the men in her life from conversations Molly has with the important people around her.
Molly’s career was chosen as a result of the sadness she carries in her heart and even though a family member thinks she’s wasting her skills, it is the role of agony aunt on Teenage Kix that is quite pivotal at one point in the story.  Another part of the story that had me gripped!
Not every detail about ‘the ghosts’ in Molly’s past are revealed until we’re near the end.  We are told some things as the story progresses. In fact, I thought my guess was accurate but I didn’t foresee the whole of the experience.  It had me on the edge of my seat.
Another thing that hooked me in Always on my Mind was that each time something started to settle, another thing happened to rock the boat.  This kept me avidly turning the pages, wanting to find out where we were going.  I found this quite emotional and admit to tears in places!
I really didn’t know which man Molly would choose – would it be fiancée Declan, childhood sweetheart Luke ……………or ……….. Gareth?
Always on my Mind is a fabulous story of family, love and friendships.  I was really involved with the characters and reluctantly turned the pages towards the end, as I didn’t want to say goodbye to the characters and their lives.  In my world, there is no higher accolade than that!
I would like to thank the author for choosing me to win this signed copy.
Always on my Mind was published by Simon & Schuster Ltd  in paperback on 7 July 2011.
You can find out more about Colette Caddle on her website.
Colette Caddle is also on Twitter.

http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?t=jersjam-21&o=2&p=8&l=as1&asins=1847399614&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

On My Wishlist (#1)

This is the last in a trilogy from Robin Hobb.  The first one has long been recycled, second has sat on my bookshelf for a long time and this has been on my wishlist since 2007.  One of the reasons why I don’t often read trilogies unless they have been in circulation for a while and can be brought together and in my case, read together!


Renegade’s Magic: Book Three of the Soldier Son Trilogy



  • Hardcover: 624 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Voyager; hardcover edition (2 July 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0007196180
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007196180

In the haunting conclusion of Hobb’s Soldier Son trilogy (after 2006′s Forest Mage), Gernian soldier Nevare Burvelle escapes from prison with some help from his lover, Lisana, who divided his soul so that he could become a Speck mage called Soldier’s Boy. The two personalities now awkwardly time-share Nevare’s body. Using Soldier’s Boy’s powers, Nevare tries to destroy the Gernian road that threatens to ravage the Specks’ forest home, and almost dies from exhaustion. Nursed back to health by Olikea, the Speck woman whose sole duty is to feed him enough to power his magic, Nevare must find a way to keep Gernia from destroying the forest, prevent the Specks from further spreading the plague that has decimated the Gernians and reunite the severed halves of his soul. Hobb’s dreamy prose is sometimes weighed down by a confusing magical system and glacial pacing, but she provides a stunning resolution to this epic fantasy about the importance of environmental and social balance.







More than a love affair that covers both WWI and WWII, this has been on my wishlist since Sept 2010.



Summer House, The

Mary Nichols



  • Paperback: 480 pages
  • Publisher: Allison & Busby; First Thus edition (24 Aug 2009)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 074900732X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0749007324


A secret love that will haunt a family for ever England 1918. Lady Helen believes her parents when they say she will never find a better husband than Richard, but when he returns to the Front, she begins to wonder just who it is she has married. His letters home are cold and distant – and Helen realises that she has made a terrible mistake. Then Oliver Donovan enters her life and they begin an affair that leaves Helen pregnant and alone – she is forced to surrender her precious baby. Over twenty years pass and a second war is ravaging Europe, but that is not the only echo of the past to haunt the present. Laura Drummond is caught in a tragic love affair of her own and when she is forced to leave London during the Blitz, she turns to the mother she never knew. 







Love Joanne Harris’ novels.  Found a website dedicated to this book!  Although this is a children’s book I think it sounds fun.  On my wishlist since 2010.


Runemarks
Joanne Harris

  • Paperback: 528 pages
  • Publisher: Corgi Childrens (4 Sep 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0552555754
  • ISBN-13: 978-0552555753


Maddy Smith is a girl who has got it bad. Born with the runemark of the title on her hand, she is an oddball in her village, befriended only by a mysterious old man called One-Eye, who teaches her all she knows of magic. Unlike ordinary humans, Maddy can see goblins, and knows that where her friend’s glam (magic) is weak, hers is strong, though quite how strong she only discovers when she goes underground and meets a young man who calls himself Lucky. Before long Maddy is coping with the reawakened Sleepers, formerly Norse gods. Together with a pleasingly cynical oracular head called The Whisperer, who has plans of his own, she has to prevent the Nine Worlds from descending into Chaos.Ever since Chocolat, Harris has played with the idea that magic might actually work, and it was only a matter of time before she, like many other adult authors, wrote a book for children. Her enjoyment at being able to go the whole hog is palpable, and her dramatic story rollocks along for 536 pages, with magical transformations, nets of blue fire and a spunky heroine.

Book Giveaway


Paperback: 416 pages

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd (7 July 2011)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1847399614
  • ISBN-13: 978-1847399618

Old flames, new temptations …With only a few weeks to go until her Dublin wedding, Molly Jackson is happily anticipating married life with Declan, her boyfriend of four years. Her sister Laura has all the arrangements firmly in hand, from the designer dresses to the prestigious venue; and if Molly would have been happier with something a little more low-key, she can hardly complain. She’s got everything she ever wanted: her perfect job, as an agony aunt for online magazine Teenage Kix; Declan, the love of her life; and, in Belle, Oliver, Rory and Laura, a loving and warm, if slightly eccentric family. Then Declan drops his bombshell: he has to go abroad, on business. The wedding must be postponed. Hurt, and reeling from the shock, Molly is seeing Declan off at the airport when she bumps into Luke Fortune. Luke, her childhood sweetheart, left the country when they were both eighteen. It’s been almost twelve years, and Molly thought she had moved on. But, seeing Luke again, she realises that she has a window of opportunity, while Declan is away, to put a few of the ghosts in her past to rest.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


I have been lucky enough to receive two copies of Always on My Mind by Colette Caddle (one signed by the author and one from the publisher) – so I have decided to do a giveaway for the unsigned copy  (UK/IRE entries only).


You can read my review here.

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment below. I will be using Random.org to pick a winner.  Please leave some way of contacting you if you are the winner.

I would appreciate a follow on either my blog, Twitter or Facebook blog page (if you don’t already!)

Closing date is midnight 26th July.  

Good luck!
Shaz


The Moon in Leo by Kathleen Herbert

Synopsis from Amazon:

A vivid and scholarly portrait of England in the reign of Charles II. The joy of the Restoration is a fading memory, and conflicts of land ownership and religious toleration are raging. The story is set on the Furness Peninsula in Northern England, now part of Cumbria, and concerns how ordinary folks survive, live and love in times of political upheaval and social conflict. There is a feisty heroine who keeps an eye on how her very own Restoration bawdy comedy is progressing, a chilling villain, a proto-Darcy hero, and a gallery of characters from real history. This is Kathleen Herbert at her rich best: a book which is intelligent, full of humour and above all, deeply humane.
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At the beginning of our journey through life in the 1670’s, we meet our heroine Rosamund.  Having sent out a ‘spiritual call’ for her twin Stephen, she is waiting for him to return from his Grand Tour of Europe.  Her father is an alchemist and we know she is eagerly awaiting her brothers’ return to complete the Sacred Marriage.  As she sees him crossing the dangerous sands in Morecombe Bay, something happens to unsettle her and Stephen’s homecoming is not as joyous as she imagined. 
As they try to get back to the easy relationship of the days before Stephen went away, he makes it clear that he doesn’t want to take part in alchemical experiments – he feels as if he has returned home to a prison.  He talks about the Catholic sights and people he has seen while on his Grand Tour.
Shortly afterwards, they both stay at a family friends home to help entertain guests.  During this time, politics of the day are discussed and Rosamund tries to be a calming influence.  We are introduced to some key characters that play their parts later on in the story and during this time relationships are made.  
We get to experience a falsely accused treason, death, love, magic and some fabulous key characters. 
My favourite character has to be Rosamund.  Rosamund is such a feisty woman – bearing in mind how it was in the time the story is set, she is a woman who does exactly what she believes in.  I watched her grow from someone not quite sure of herself in the world to a woman travelling alone and making life work for her.  I loved her defiance and acceptance.  Having said that Harry (the proto-Darcy hero) wasn’t bad either …………  the best part of the story for me was when Harry was playing the role of travelling doctor ……………………
  
I really enjoyed this story – the way we get to experience how life was lived in the 17th century (the author has painstakingly researched); how the politics of the day are portrayed and the underlying rebellion; the celebrations of the Sabbats (Sabbats are the yearly cycle of the earth’s seasons and would have been important during the time the story is set); the magic; the characters and the setting!
If you like historical fiction, then you will love The Moon in Leo.
I would like to thank the publisher for sending me a copy to review (via an article written by author Isabel Ashdown ‘The Writing Community: How readers and authors can support each other).  
Moon in Leo is published by Trifolium Books UK 14 Feb 2011.
You can find out more about Kathleen Herbert on Trifolium’s blog. 

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