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

Amelia Thorne Valentines Feature

A big, warm welcome to Amelia Thorne who is joining me on the Book Nook for Valentines Day – an extra special day for Amelia as it also sees the release of her new book, Tied Up With Love. Today she’s written an interview with Izzy and Ethan, the lead characters. This interview takes place after the book, so it’s a bit of a spoiler interview, but I think we already know when to expect a happy ending in chick lit!

Love, Always magazine interviews Ethan Chase and Izzy Franklin

How did you two meet?
Both look at each other and laugh
Izzy: Well, Ethan kidnapped me.
Ethan: Technically, I didn’t kidnap you, my brothers did.
Izzy: It’s your company, you need to take responsibility for your actions.
Ethan, laughing and shaking his head: My company kidnapped her by mistake. We offer a kidnapping service to couples who want to spice up their sex life. Izzy was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Izzy: And once he explained his error I then blackmailed him into giving me a job.

Sounds like you two didn’t have the most conventional start to a relationship?
Ethan: Nothing about our relationship was conventional, we never dated, I never bought her gifts…
Izzy: That’s not true, you bought me a kitten after my cat died.
Ethan: That’s true, I wanted to make you smile, but we weren’t in a relationship then.
Izzy: We danced in a rooftop bar under the stars. That was very romantic.
Ethan: Yes, one of my favourite moments, but we weren’t even together then.
Izzy: And you looked after me when I was sick.
Ethan: I just wanted to make sure you were ok.

So there was some romance in the early days of your relationship, was it love at first sight?
Izzy: No
Ethan: Yes.
Izzy, laughing. You’re such a liar, you couldn’t stand me when I first started working for you.
Ethan: I was in love with you but I didn’t want to be, I may have been a bit difficult to work with at the start when I tried to push you away.
Izzy: He was grumpy, moody, found fault in everything I did.
Ethan: Don’t tell me you weren’t in love with me. She declared her undying love for me two days after we first got together.
Izzy: I fell in love with you after one day of working with you, despite all the grumpiness.
Ethan: One day? (Smiles and takes her hand)
Izzy: Yes, I think when you showed me round the house, I knew then that I was falling for you.
Ethan: That night, when you came to my house for dinner, I think I fell for you too.

Once you fell for each other, was it all plain sailing after that?
Izzy, laughing: He tied me up four, no five times before we got married.
Ethan, laughing: You make me sound really kinky, it was all to do with work, well most of them.
Izzy: He broke up with me twice.
Ethan: You’re not painting me in a good light here.
Izzy: He did rescue me from a real kidnapping.
Ethan: Yes I was very heroic.
Izzy giggles.

Sounds like it was quite an adventure?
Ethan: I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Izzy smiling: Me neither.

How long have you been married?
Ethan: A little over a year.

Can you tell us what you love about the other person?
Izzy leans into Ethan’s side and he puts his arm round her.
Ethan: I love that she fell in love with me even with all my faults, that she saw a good in me that I didn’t even see in myself. I love her feistiness. I love her kindness and that she loves my family almost as much as I do. I love her passion and her ideas to improve our company. She makes me smile, a lot and I love that. And her kisses, I love kissing her very much.
Izzy smiles. I love that he saw past my scars and fell in love with the person on the inside, I love how safe I feel with him. I love how much he makes me laugh. I love… making love to him. And I love how he is the father of my unborn child.

Ethan’s face drops: You’re pregnant?
Izzy nods: We’re pregnant.
Ethan grins: We’re going to be parents. I’m going to be a dad?
Izzy nods, smiling and crying.
Ethan: And you decide to tell me here?
Izzy, laughing: Why did you think I was so keen to come to the interview?
Ethan laughs and rests his hand on her stomach: We’re going to have a baby.
Ethan kisses her and our interviewer diplomatically leaves them to celebrate alone.

From everyone here at Love, Always magazine, Congratulations Ethan and Izzy xx

      

Tied Up With Love is out today!

Amazon US – Amazon UK – Goodreads

      

Amelia’s Bio

Amelia is a writer of sexy chick lit with Carina. Her twitter profile mysteriously tells us she may have a secret identity. Intriguing!

Connect With Amelia

Twitter – Goodreads

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: 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

 

Guest Post: Halloween Memories, by S. L. Bynum

Since it’s Halloween weekend, I thought I’d share some of my favorite moments from past Halloweens so people can learn more about me.

Guest Post: 8 Magical Questions for World-Building in Fiction, by Sasha Leigh

Magic is common in novels. Fantasy isn’t just for sci-fi fanatics who love quoting Spock anymore. It isn’t just vampires, witches, demons, and gods/goddesses, but whole new worlds. Places where it would be weird if you didn’t see a unicorn walking down the street because the myths we grew up hearing stories of are so believable, they are real to readers. Superheroes, angels, demons . . . anything goes.

So how does an author make this so believable?

I Am Ella. Buy Me. Blog Tour: A Day in the Life of Ella David, by Joan Ellis

Guest author blog: Rebecca Raisin on her dream bookshop, and win £100 of National Book Tokens!

Guest author blog: Rebecca Raisin’s dream bookshop sounds so cosy, I’d never want to leave it!