Category: Book news

As the summer draws to a close, we’re paying our last visit behind the scenes. I hope readers have enjoyed these insights into how a writer’s mind works. For the season finale, I’m delighted to welcome Ruby Basu with the backstory to her latest novel, The Love Arrangement.

Thank you for having me on your blog and giving me the opportunity to tell you about the inspiration for my latest book, The Love Arrangement.

Like many authors, I can get ideas for books from anywhere. Something I’ve read, something I’ve heard or just an image that pops into my head – all sparking a ‘what if’ question which then leads to characters, plots and settings. But the process for The Love Arrangement was completely different. This story began with a trope.

I love reading or watching stories where the couple pretends to be in a relationship. The fake dating trope is often coupled with either friends-to-lovers or enemies-to-lovers and it can bring in so many other tropes like the forced proximity or only one bed. There’s so much to love about it. I really wanted to write a book based on a fake relationship.

But of course, it’s not enough to have the trope. You need the plot, the conflicts and the character growth as well.

All my books feature at least one British Indian protagonist, so my mind immediately went to Indian weddings. As someone who had four wedding receptions (one in England and three in India), I wanted to reflect the vibrant, colourful, multi-day events in my book. That inevitably turned my thoughts to settings because if you’re going to feature a wedding why not have a destination wedding?

As I thought about what other events my fake couple could attend as part of their arrangement, I wanted to include some British activities and what is more quintessentially British than a garden party?

Once I had these events ready, Annika and Rav’s backstory, conflicts and character arcs flowed organically and the story came alive.

I’m not sure I would deliberately work from a trope to create a book again, but the development of The Love Arrangement proves that stories really can come from anywhere.

Blurb

Independent and free-spirted Annika has no plans to settle down anytime soon… if only her parents felt the same way. But when her father unexpectedly falls ill, she’ll do anything to make things better. Even if it means suddenly blurting out she has a boyfriend.

The only issue is, he doesn’t exist.

Then, by chance, she bumps into handsome entrepreneur Rav, and she can’t believe her luck. He’s single, sworn off relationships and looking for a date to attend work events with. He’s the perfect solution to her troubles. Or is he?

Because there’s just one slight catch – he also happens to be her childhood nemesis.

It was only ever supposed to be a simple, temporary arrangement. Nothing more. Certainly love was never part of the terms and conditions. But Annika’s about to discover that some deals are made to be broken…

Buying Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ebook/dp/B0B3STGBKK/

Author Bio

Ruby lives in the beautiful Chilterns with her husband, two children, and the cutest dog in the world. She worked for many years as a lawyer and policy lead in the Civil Service.

As the second of four children, Ruby connected strongly with Little Women’s Jo March and was scribbling down stories from a young age. A huge fan of romantic movies, Star Wars, and Marvel, she loves creating new characters and worlds while waiting for her superpowers to develop.

She is the author of The Twelve Wishes of Christmas and Baby Surprise for the Millionaire. Her latest book, The Love Arrangement, was published in eBook on 17 August and will be out in paperback and audiobook on 13 October.

Website https://www.rubybasu.com

Twitter – @writerrb01 or @RubyBasu_Author (promo account)

Ruby Basu | Facebook

Instagram – AuthorRubyBasu

TikTok – AuthorRubyBasu

Many thanks to Ruby for taking part. A case of four weddings and a book! There must be a film adaptation in there somewhere….

Thanks to all the authors who have taken part over the summer. I’ll be going quiet on the blogging front over the winter as I need to get some serious writing done!

This week I’m delighted to welcome Fiona Woodifield to my blog. Fiona’s latest novel is the second in a series set around a dating agency inspired by a famous author. Intrigued? Read on…

I have always been a compulsive writer, ever since as a child I realised that someone had to write all those glorious books I loved escaping into. On holidays, I would write in notebooks and diaries, my first story aged ten was very short, written in a Beatrix Potter notebook of course and was entitled Cormorant Island. After this I spent too many years writing essays and studying to write for pleasure. But once again in my twenties, I was back to penning children’s stories in a notebook. When I had my own children I started coming up with more ideas for books, some for adult stories and I wrote it all down in different random notebooks and left them round the house.

The inspiration for The Jane Austen Dating Agency series came to me quite suddenly one Sunday morning when I was resting in bed as you do, and I suddenly thought I wonder what would happen if Jane Austen characters from different novels were able to meet each other. It was a small leap from this initial pondering, to the idea that they could potentially date; just imagine Lady Catherine de Bourgh from Pride and Prejudice dating Sir Walter Elliot from Persuasion! This comic match made me chuckle and I suddenly had an idea for a Jane Austen themed dating agency.

This story was the one I simply had to write. I jumped out of bed at stupid o’clock, much to my husband’s consternation and started jotting down my ideas. So my debut novel was born.

A Wedding at the Jane Austen Dating Agency is the sequel to my debut novel, The Jane Austen Dating Agency, but can easily be read as a stand alone. The sequel charts Sophie’s continued adventures with The Jane Austen Dating Agency and her mishaps whilst trying to follow her romantic dreams and find herself a real Regency hero.

Blurb

Sophie Johnson appears to be living her best life. She has landed her dream job as Managing Director of The Jane Austen Dating Agency and is dating the world’s most desirable man, Darcy Drummond.

But all is not as it seems. The relationship with Darcy is failing to live up to expectations and his awful mother is determined to cause trouble. To add to Sophie’s problems, the agency is struggling to attract enough eligible men, she has a Regency wedding to plan and then there’s the amusing and disturbingly cute Henry Baxter who is making it hard for her to concentrate.

The problem is Sophie wants it all, but in trying to manage everything, she’s in danger of losing what matters most.

Can she keep the dating agency afloat and find her own happy ever after? Or is business and romance an impossible combination?

Author Amazon Page https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fiona-Woodifield/e/B084HHPB95/

Author Bio

Fiona has always been a compulsive writer, scribbling things down in brightly decorated notebooks and on random bits of paper, which she likes to leave all around the house. More years ago than she cares to remember, she gained a BA in Combined Arts at Durham University, then took an MA in English at the University of Oxford Brookes. Since then she has worked in various roles, including a stint at Vogue as well as bringing up her challenging, but lovely daughters. In her spare time, she enjoys dancing as though no one’s watching (especially zumba), walking her dogs/writing companions and visiting stately homes, pretending she lives there of course.

Fiona has written for various magazines. Her first novel, The Jane Austen Dating Agency was published in February 2020. The Jane Austen Dating Agency was shortlisted for The Joan Hessayon Award by the Romantic Novelists Association. Fiona’s Lockdown love story, Love in Lockdown was published by Avon later that year. Her latest novel, A Wedding at the Jane Austen Dating Agency was released last August.

Author Website www.fionawoodifield.co.uk

Many thanks to Fiona for sharing her story. I think Jane Austen would highly approve of a dating agency in her name!

Today, I’m delighted to welcome Lynne Shelby back to my blog to talk about the spark of inspiration which ignited her latest novel, Rome For the Summer.

Sometimes the idea for a book can come to you when you least expect it. 

The first faint spark of an idea for the story that was to become my new novel, Rome For The Summer, came to me when me and my husband were heading back to our hotel in Rome after a day’s sight-seeing. As we walked past the Spanish Steps, I overheard a conversation between two girls – one American, one Italian – the American telling the Italian girl that the ‘the job will only be for six months.’ I still have the notes I wrote that day as soon as we reached our hotel: ‘American in Rome. Why? Tourist? What is the job? Is she working in Rome for six months? Or going back to the States to work for six months? Does she have an Italian boyfriend who she’s leaving? Or is there an American boyfriend pining for her return?’  

I didn’t come up with the answers to those questions immediately – and in any case, I was writing another novel at the time – but some months later, back in England, I happened to fall into conversation with a woman sitting at the next table in a restaurant who turned out to be a professor of literature from an American university with an extremely interesting reason for visiting Europe. This gave me the answers to what the American girl could be doing in Rome, and sparked off my ideas for both the plot of Rome For The Summer, which is set in 2016, and the sub-plot, which is set two hundred years earlier. The American girl became my English heroine, Kate, and the Italian girl became her English colleague, but the inspiration for the book was a conversation heard quite by chance several years earlier.  

Blurb

Kate Harper has always loved the painting that has hung in her parents dining room for years, never suspecting that it is worth a fortune. When her art dealer boyfriend cheats her family out of the proceeds of the painting’s sale, she is left devastated and alone. 

Kate discovers that two hundred years ago, the girl in the painting, Charlotte Browne, ran off to Rome with the artist who painted her portrait, but her eventual fate is unknown. 

Hoping to uncover the mystery of what happened to Charlotte, Kate seizes the chance of a summer job in Rome, where she strikes up a friendship with Jamie Taylor, an English artist. As they explore the city and start to piece together the surprising secrets of Charlotte’s life, Kate finds herself wondering if a summer in Rome can mend a broken heart…   

Rome For The Summer Buy Link: https://smarturl.it/RFTSLS 

Author Bio

Lynne Shelby writes contemporary women’s fiction/romance. Her debut novel, French Kissing, now re-published in e-book as Meet Me In Paris, won the Accent Press and Woman magazine Writing Competition. Her fifth novel, Love On Location, was shortlisted for a Romantic Novelists Association Award. She has done a variety of jobs from stable girl to child actor’s chaperone to legal administrator, but now writes full time. When not writing or reading, Lynne can usually be found at the theatre or exploring a foreign city, writer’s notebook, camera and sketchbook in hand. She lives in London with her husband, and has three adult children who live nearby. 

Website: www.lynneshelby.com 

Twitter: @LynneShelby5 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/LynneShelbyWriter 

Instagram: lynneshelbywriter 

Many thanks to Lynne for taking part. I often think writers’ minds are like sponges, subconsciously soaking up and storing information, only for it to resurface in the pages of a book!

This week I’m delighted to welcome Rebecca Paulinyi, who shares the very personal and unique backstory to her latest novel, At The Stroke of Thirty.

‘At the Stroke of Thirty’ is a very personal book for me. At the age of 29 (although not on the eve of my 30^th birthday, like the main character in the book!) I had a stroke, which was entirely out of the blue. Writing this book was rather cathartic for me, as I included many of my own experiences – as well as giving Macy Maxwell a love story as she recovers from her stroke.

Macy’s feelings are very much based on my own experiences, and how I have recovered from this trauma – but it is still very much a work of fiction, exploring themes of family, friendship, life goals and where you really call home. I also brought my time living in the beautiful Northumberland into this novel, with the beautiful backdrop of places such as Bamburgh Castle weaved into the story.

While I struggled with my stroke during the Covid pandemic, but with family and friends around me at home to support me, Macy realises she has no support system when this catastrophe strikes – and so turns to those she knows she can rely on.

As hard as this book was to write, I think it is probably the one I am proudest of – and it has been great to hear other stroke survivors saying how much they could relate with what I was writing, even though each person’s experience with stroke can be so very different.

In spite of the difficult subject matter, I made sure to fill this story with hope and love and laughter, and the circle of friends Macy meets have inspired a continuation of the series, following the same theme of a life-changing event happening around the big three-oh birthday, and how it can change everything.

Blurb:

Just about to turn thirty, Macy Maxwell is loving her life. A busy social life, interesting work and a decent salary, she thinks she’s got it all figured out. And so what if she thought she’d be married with kids by the time she turned thirty? Life is easy and fun.

And then, the night before her thirtieth birthday, everything changes. A near-fatal stroke leaves Macy re-evaluating everything in her life, as she tries to heal and get back the woman she was before.

Will moving back to rural Northumberland, a stroke support group and a handsome shoulder to cry on help her to find the Macy she was – or help her become the Macy she wants to be?

Buying link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/At-Stroke-Thirty-uplifting-romantic-ebook/dp/B09Q2N5N67/

Author Bio:

Rebecca Paulinyi was born in the South West of England in February 1992. She has been writing since she was a child, starting with short stories and poems that rarely got finished. Her weekly school assignment of writing a diary about the weekend provided a perfect platform to be inventive, with Rebecca’s stories revolving around the aliens living on Planet Odd.

Writing has been her passion for years, and the unfinished stories became full length novels as she became a teenager. At eighteen she left home to go to York University, studying English Language and Linguistics, and following her graduation qualified as a teacher.

Rebecca now writes full time at her home in Bristol, where she lives with her husband, daughter and dog. As well as writing women’s romantic fiction, she also writes historical romances under the pen name ‘Daphne Quinn’.

Website: https://becky-author.onrender.com/

Many thanks to Rebecca for sharing her amazing story.