Just The Way You Are Blog Tour Guest Post: Best Friends, by Lynsey James

Blurb: Dear Ava,

How do you start writing a letter to someone, six years after breaking their heart?

Ava is unlucky in love as well as in life. The new office bitch has landed the dating column Ava wanted, and she can’t remember the last time she had a second date. It’s a good thing she has best friends Max and Gwen to pick up the pieces.

Deep down, Ava knows the reason why one date never turns into two – she’s in love with someone else. Someone she’s never even met

It all started six years ago, with a letter from a secret admirer, Mr Writer…but then they suddenly stopped and Ava was heartbroken.

Now the letters have started again and Ava knows it could mean winning back the dating column at work. This time she’s determined to unmask Mr Writer…and find out once and for all if he’s Mr Right or Mr Very Definitely Wrong!

Today I’m thrilled to welcome the wonderful Lynsey James onto the Book Nook, with a fabulous guest post for you all about best friends. Enjoy! xxx

Harper Impulse Fortnight: Guest Post, Giveaway & Excerpt, by Lisa Fox

Unfortunately, I had an absolute nightmare with my internet connection over the last few days, so no blog posts scheduled properly and my drafts were deleted. Therefore, while Harper Impulse Fortnight ended yesterday, I must apologise for the delay in introducing my last wonderful guest, Harper Impulse author, Lisa Fox.  (Check out Books With Bunny for more about Harper Impulse Fortnight, or the #HIfortnight hashtag on Twitter!)

Harper Impulse Fortnight Guest Post: Writer’s Space by Lynn Marie Hulsman

As part of Harper Impulse Fortnight, I’m thrilled to host Lynn Marie Hulsman, Harper Impulse author, on the Book Nook today, talking about writer’s space. (Check out Books With Bunny for more about Harper Impulse Fortnight, or follow the #HIfortnight hashtag on Twitter!)

Rebecca Raisin Valentines Interview

Rebecca Raisin is joining me today for a love-themed interview as part of my Valentines celebrations! Rebecca’s Gingerbread Cafe books are some of the loveliest, sweetest books I read last year, and I can’t wait for her to release Secrets at the Maple Syrup Farm next month!

• What’s your dream date?
  Hmmm, good question! I adore Paris, so when I think of a dream date it would have to be there! A stroll along the cobbled streets, a meander around the iconic bookshop Shakespeare and Co, before dinner somewhere romantic, and maybe a show? Just being in Paris would be gorgeous!
• What’s the worst/most embarrassing date you’ve ever been on?
  When Ashley met me at a hotel in the City I stepped out of the elevator and strode to the busy bar where he was waiting. As I walked in, the skirt I was wearing, sort of a fancy sarong, came untied so I was standing with just my knickers on. Not cool. Not cool at all!
• What’s your favourite Valentine’s gift you’ve ever received?
  A memorable one was Ash coming home with some gorgeous presents, and said to get dressed up because we were going out for dinner. Once I was all ready to go I walked outside to find a sparkly silver limousine parked there! We were driven up to King’s Park where you can see the view of the city at night-time and of course there was some nice cold bubbles on hand to toast with! It was a great night!
• What’s your favourite thing about love?
  My favourite thing is having that one person who knows everything about you. They’re the first person you run to when you’re happy, sad, and everything in between. I love that, especially now that I’ve had children, to share that kind of love, like we’re a team, is really special.
• Can you describe what love means to you in three words?
  Love is everything.
• What is your favourite memory of your wedding day OR what would be a detail of your dream wedding?
  We’re happily living in sin, but my dream wedding would be in Vegas, being either married by Dolly Parton herself or an impersonator! I heart Dolly! And it would be so much fun!
• What is your favourite romance novel?
  Chocolat by Joanne Harris…Roux, oh God I loved him!
• Who is your favourite romance author?
  Kristan Higgins
• What is your favourite romantic film?
  Love Actually
• What inspires you to write romantic fiction?
  The happy ever after! I adore that we can write about a world where we get what we want, and while there are ups and downs, love always wins!

      

Secrets at the Maple Syrup Farm is out next month, and you can pre-order now!

Amazon US – Amazon UK – Goodreads

Secrets…we all have them.

Clay’s inheritance of Maple Syrup Farm came at the perfect time. Leaving city life behind he headed for maple-tree surrounded Ashford, Connecticut. Getting the farm in working order again might be back breaking work – but it seems to be the only way for Clay to finally forget about the girl who once broke his heart…

Lucy’s had enough of rules and the stress of planning her life down to the very last detail. Looking for an adventure she stumbles upon Maple Syrup Farm and its gorgeously gruff owner. This could be the perfect place to hide out…!

But the tranquillity and warmth of Maple Tree Farm is enough to heal even the most battered of hearts. There are very few problems in life that can’t be cheered up by maple syrup!

     

Rebecca writes romantic comedies for Carina UK.

Connect With Rebecca

Twitter – Facebook – Goodreads – Website – Amazon UK – Amazon US

Jenny Hale Valentines Interview

The gorgeous Jenny Hale is on the Book Nook today. If you follow my blog you may know I have a slight obsession with Jenny and her books, which are the most beautiful, wonderful, loveliest, just PERFECT romances ever so, yeah, you need to go read them. Now. Or maybe after you read Jenny’s interview, I guess…

• What’s your dream date?
  I’m really happy anywhere, but my favorite place to go would be a city that I don’t get to visit much, or a pub. Or both! I prefer a quieter atmosphere versus loud bars or dancing. I like to be in a place where I can spend long hours talking to the person I’m with.
• What’s the worst/most embarrassing date you’ve ever been on?
  I’ve never had one, thank goodness! All good dates here!
• What’s your favourite Valentine’s gift you’ve ever received?
  I was in college, and the man who is now my husband surprised me by taking me to Charlottesville, Virginia to go to a nice dinner, and then we did a pub crawl–just the two of us–around town, sampling different beers. (I have a particular fondness for beer and he knew that.) When we got back to the hotel where we were staying, I remember he was upset because there were supposed to be roses waiting for me and they hadn’t been delivered. I didn’t care at all because I was just as happy knowing he’d thought to do it than actually receiving the flowers. Maybe somebody else got a gorgeous surprise vase of roses that night. Who knows?
• What’s your favourite thing about love?
  My favorite thing about love is the excitement of it. Sure, it’s fun in the beginning, but that thrill does last with the right person. Even after fourteen years of marriage, I’m excited when my husband comes home, and I can’t wait to see him.
• Can you describe what love means to you in three words/one sentence? (Take your pick, I’ll delete as appropriate.)
  Love means being with someone who knows me better than I know myself, and loves what he knows.
• What is your favourite memory of your wedding day OR what would be a detail of your dream wedding?
  For the reception, all my family and friends were together in an old plantation-style house with candles lit, fresh Christmas greenery on all the railings, and fires in the fireplaces. That ambience, with all my favorite people there, is a good memory.
• What is your favourite romance novel?
  Oof. There are so many! I prefer romances that have other pieces to the story. I love the fun romances in Jill Mansell’s novels and I also really love anything by Harriet Evans.
• What is your favourite romantic film?
  Again, any/all. If I had to pick, my favorites are Sweet Home Alabama, Notting Hill, Sleepless in Seattle, and Love Actually. (I’m already feeling anxious having to narrow it down to four, don’t make me pick just one.) 🙂
• What inspires you to write romantic fiction?
  I think we all can relate to the feelings we get around someone we love, and that journey–for everyone–is a story in itself. I enjoy telling about the journey, and exploring all the emotions that come along with that journey.

I would just like to take this moment to point out that Jenny and I totally have the same favourite films, and this further reiterates my beliefs that we should be BFFs and watch chick flicks together. #JustSaying

If you need any more convincing to read Jenny’s books (you shouldn’t, just trust me) then you can here me gush even more in my reviews for Love Me For Me and A Christmas to Remember.

   

Jenny’s Bio

When I graduated college, one of my friends said, “Look out for this one; she’s going to be an author one day.” Despite being an avid reader and a natural storyteller, it wasn’t until that very moment that the idea of writing novels occurred to me.

Sometimes our friends can see the things that we can’t.

While I didn’t start straight away, that comment sowed a seed and several years, two children, and hundreds of thousands of words later, I completed a novel that I felt was worthy of publication. The result is Coming Home for Christmas, a heart-warming story about friends, family, and the magic of love at Christmas.

I released my second book, Love Me for Me, this past summer, and my next novel, A Christmas to Remember is out now.

When I’m not writing, I’m a District Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages, a mother of two boys, and a wife to a very supportive husband.

Connect with Jenny

Twitter – Facebook – Goodreads – Website

Holly Martin Valentines Interview

I’m thrilled to welcome Holly Martin onto the Book Nook as part of my Valentines feature! Holly’s gorgeous book One Hundred Proposals was one of the best books I read last year, and now one of my favourite romances. The Christmas sequel was equally gorgeous, so I definitely recommend them both!

Today, she has very kindly agreed to answer some love-themed questions here on the Book Nook, so huge thanks & warm welcome to the lovely Holly Martin!

• What’s your dream date?
  I think something fun, like sledging or bowling or ice skating, maybe something a bit different than just a meal in a pub, although those are good dates too when there’s time for talking.
• What’s the worst/most embarrassing date you’ve ever been on?
  I’m a big spiller, i always knock drinks over or spill food over myself.  I once had a first date where I ordered a BLT that had so much mayo and sauce on it, that as I was biting into it, sauce was dripping all down my hands, over the table. I gave up eating in the end, but the damage had already been done and I never saw him again.
  
• What’s your favourite Valentines gift you’ve ever received?
  It was a ring, it wasn’t anything flash or expensive, it was just something i had said i’d liked weeks before and he bought it for me.
  
• What’s your favourite thing about love?
  Those wonderful butterfly moments, when you can’t stop smiling, even something as simple as a text can light up your whole day
  
• Can you describe what love means to you in three words?
  Heartpounding, glorious bliss.
  
• What is your favourite memory of your wedding day OR what would be a detail of your dream wedding?
  I’m not married but I have attended many wonderful weddings. One of my favourites was my two best friends who got married in a tiny castle in Wales. They had hired the whole place so we were the only ones there apart from the staff, we had every room to ourselves and we all stayed over there after. There was only about 40 guests and it was really sweet and intimate made all the more special because they were and still are clearly head over heels in love with each other.
• What is your favourite romance novel?
  Waiting for Prince Harry by Aven Ellis, there was something about Harrison that I absolutely fell in love with.
  
• Who is your favourite romance author?
  So many, Aven Ellis writes the most gorgeous addictive stories, I love Jill Mansell too.
  
• What is your favourite romantic film?
  Bridget Jones is fantastic and funny, The Holiday and Love Actually are super romantic. One of my favourite romantic films is The Truth About Cats and Dogs, i can relate with the girl in that film so much.
  
• What inspires you to write romantic fiction?
  I love a happy ending and that ridiculously sublime head over heels kind of love, i could write about that kind of love all day long.

    

 Holly’s Bio

I live in sunny Bedfordshire in a house with round windows. I studied media at university which led to a very glitzy career as a hotel receptionist followed by a even more glamorous two years working in a bank. The moment that one of my colleagues received the much coveted carriage clock for fifteen years service was the moment when I knew I had to escape. I quit my job and returned to university to train to be a teacher. Three years later, I emerged wide eyed and terrified that I now had responsibility for the development of thirty young minds. I taught for four years before History Off The Page came to my school to do a Tudor day. I now drive round the country in my little white van, dressing up as a Viking one day and an Egyptian High Priestess the next.

I love to write. The characters do exactly what I want them to do, most of the time. Sometimes they do seem to go off and do their own thing without my permission. It is complete escapism into a world where I have full control.

I’ve been writing for four years now, every spare second I have, I’m scribbling ideas in a notebook or typing a scene on my laptop. I have written three romantic fiction books. Changing Casanova and The Chainsaw Masquerade were recently shortlisted for the Festival of Romance New Talent Award. My short story, One Hundred Proposals, won the Belinda Jones Travel Club short story competition and was published in the Sunlounger anthology.

Connect with Holly

Twitter – Facebook – Goodreads – Blog

Christmas Corner Guest Post: What Christmas Means to Me, by Rebecca Raisin

Thank you for inviting me here today, Paris!

What Christmas means to me…

It’s no secret Christmas is my favourite time of year! Hence writing books centred on that time! There’s something completely magical about the season, and it’s even better celebrating it from October onwards…

Christmas Corner Guest Post: What Christmas Means to Me, by Jenny Hale

When I think of Christmastime, I think of friends and family. They’re all around me during this season. Christmas Eve church services, big dinners with grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, making and receiving treats for our neighbors, decorating with my children—I am surrounded by loved ones. For me, it’s the people in my life that make this season special. I have a million different memories of Christmas, but I thought I’d share a few of the good ones—the ones that shaped my view of the holiday!

Christmas Corner Guest Post: My Best Christmas, by Jennifer Joyce

My best Christmas took place in 2011 when we went to New York. I’d wanted to go to New York – especially at Christmas – since I watched Home Alone 2 as a child, so it was amazing to actually go. I couldn’t believe I was actually there until we stood in Times Square and saw the view I’d seen on TV and films so many times!

We spent a week there and did the usual touristy things, like going up the Empire State Building and sampling American pancakes and cheesecake but we also got to take our daughters (who were 8 and 3 at the time) to see Santa at Macy’s, which was even more magical than I could ever have imagined. We also got to see the gorgeous festive windows displays and the gigantic tree at Rockefeller Center. Christmas Day was spent in Central Park, starting with a horse and carriage ride before we went to the zoo.

On our last night in New York, my oldest daughter and I went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway, which was brilliant. We had such an amazing time in New York and as we brought some Christmas decorations home with us, we have a reminder of our best Christmas when we put them up each year.

***

Meet Jennifer

Jennifer is a writer of romantic comedies who lives in Manchester with her husband and their two daughters. When she’s not disappearing into her own fictional worlds, she can be found reviewing books on her blog or over on Novelicious as part of the Alternative Thursday team. You can read her Novelicious reviews here.

Her books, A Beginner’s Guide To Salad and festive short story A Beginner’s Guide To Christmas are available now.

Blog: Jennifer Joyce Writes

Twitter: @Writer_Jenn

Facebook: Jennifer Joyce Writes

Goodreads: Jennifer Joyce

Thank you so much for sharing your best Christmas with us, Jennifer. It sounds like a truly magical one.

Christmas Corner Guest Post: My Best Christmas, by Evelyn Chong

I am very happy to be a part of Paris’s Christmas Corner project and I am sharing about My Best Christmas. Christmas for me is a million things, various definitions. However, Christmas usually only meant one single thing when I was a child – celebrating at my parents’ fave hotel and seeing my relatives. I loved and missed those days, don’t get me wrong. I have celebrated nineteen Christmasses so far and if I were to choose the best, I would go for the most recent one. Not just the best Christmas but the best holiday ever.

It’s my best not because it happened only last year but it was the best Christmas ever. It was a Christmas which I will always remember as the funnest holiday before I turn twenty, the last chance to do something crazy and reckless and truly let my hair down, forget about all the stress and put a proper smile on the faces I love. It was also the Christmas that we deviated from the hotel lounge tradition. Late December 2013, my parents, my younger brother and I ended up going to Singapore for three days.

I’ve always loved going to Singapore, the food are great, the place is clean and everything is wonderful. Nowhere fancy or snowy and no chance of a White Christmas, but yet I still think of this holiday a lot. It wasn’t a planned trip, out of the blue because my dad finally decided to take a break and go for a proper holiday. The hotel was fabulous and it’s the most Christmassy hotel ever!

I loved the food there and the pool was great. There was a tiny miserable part, I booked breakfast for only one person instead of four and we couldn’t add. I was enveloped with guilt and ended up at the breakfast café alone. So I guess, instead of blabbing about the horrible first morning, I should focus on the beauty of that Christmas.

We had only three days and Singapore wasn’t new to us and it wasn’t my first Christmas there. I was in Singapore in 1999, checking out the Looney Tunes statues. So we decided to do what was usual to us. We ate ice creams at malls, macaroons (first Laduree boutique in South East Asia), visited Universal Studios Singapore (the queue for tickets was bloody long!), shopped for gifts, splashed water in the pool till it hurts (just me and my brother) and took hell lot of pictures.

 

Not a huge fan of theme parks, all I did in USS was taking photos and buying souvenirs. My brother enjoyed the rides that I hated. Brr. I loved the kiddy feeling that gripped my heart when I was there but not the heart attacks from the roller-coasters. I took a couple of photos, only a few left as one memory card went nuts. I enjoyed the Sesame Street merchandise store so so much! Tried on the headbands there and if I was given a choice, I’d stay there till forever. Hehe.

 

        We went to a mall with the most gorgeous Christmas trees! Not just the trees were gorgeous, they have the best macaroon boutique there! And did I mention the giant snow globe?

There was a Tiffany & Co. tree, huge and complete with cute tiny blue boxes. My dad is a camera shy man but a fabulous photographer, so the photographs are precious to me. We took a proper family Christmas photo there! I loved the Laduree Christmas Tree that’s made of macaroons! It’s pink but wasn’t as enormous as the Tiffany’s. You have to see the photos! The photos are rare!

I was so lucky enough that the Chanel The Little Black Jacket exhibition (held at the ArtScience Museum, Marina Bay Sands) was open to all. That’s where some great photographs by Karl Lagerfeld were displayed.

So, I went with my mom as the men decided to walk around. Some books about Chanel were on sale but pretty pricey. The overall space layout was pretty simple. A stack of books in the middle of the hall and posters everywhere.

 

All black and white and I saw pictures of Alexa Chung, Keira K and a few others. It was really an eye opening experience.

I know other girls went to Disney, New York and all sorts of exotic destinations, but I’m glad I experienced a very familial Christmas in a place that feels like home. Though there’s no mention of pressie, my family has given me the best Christmas present anyone could ever ask for.

Until next Christmas! xx

 

***

Meet Evelyn

Evelyn is the owner of Eve’s Chick Lit Reviews from sunshiny land, Malaysia. She is currently chasing her dreams and doing an English & Public Relations degree programme. She loves blogging and reading chick lit novels. When she’s not busy hiding behind a good book, she might be playing an instrument with six strings. She is probably busy writing or designing Christmas cards as we speak. Other than that, she could be found in malls or hiding in a book store seeking for new colour pens, watching movies or maybe, drinking strong coffee or tea with family and close friends.

 

Blog: Eve’s Chick Lit Reviews

Twitter: @ChickLitterEve

Goodreads: Evelyn

Thanks so much for coming on the blog today, Evelyn, your best Christmas sounds like it was absolutely amazing! Xx