Book Review: From London With Love by Jemma Forte

Everyone wants to be famous, don't they? Not Jessica Granger. Her father was the movie star who played the world's favourite James Bond and, worse, her mother was voted sexiest-ever Bond Girl for her role as Heavenly Melons. Like it or not, fame is in her blood. But Jessica dearly wants to be someone in her own right. So she flees Hollywood for London, seeking independence in a city where nobody knows her name. But when she finds a job as a celebrity booker on a chat show she realizes the more friends she makes, the harder it is to keep up the lies about who she is. And when Jessica falls for Paul, a writer on the show, her life as a double agent causes double trouble. With the truth of her past about to explode into her new world, can Jessica convince Paul she's the real deal? Or maybe a sprinkling of the old 007 magic will spice up her love life?

This is author Jemma Forte's second novel, and although I haven't read her first, Me and Miss M,I've heard it is good so I was really looking forward to reading this one. The cover for this book is just gorgeous, so pink and feminine yet the black works well against that as a contrast and gives it a funky and fresh look. It has to be said that I also love books which make me laugh, I think comedy is very important, and Forte is apparently great at making readers laugh, the reviews on Amazon made me feel very positive overall about reading this book! I couldn't wait to get stuck in and luckily, it didn't disappoint!

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Author Interview: Jemma Forte

Author Jemma Forte is back this year with her second novel From London With Love, and a great one it is too. I'll be reviewing it on the site this afternoon, but until then, have a read of this interview Jemma kindly offered to do with me! I had the chance to ask her a few questions about her new book, and about herself too, so get to know a bit about Jemma, and come back soon to read my review of From London With Love! Enjoy!

Q1. Please tell us briefly about your new book 'From London With Love'.

From London with Love is about Jessica Granger, whose father, actor Edward Granger played the part of James Bond back in the 80's. Her mother was famous Bond girl Heavenly Melons so Jessica has grown up in the shadow of her parent's celebrity. Desperate for independence and the freedom to figure out what it is she wants to do with her life, away from people's pre conceptions, she leaves LA and comes to London. It's not long before she finds a job as an assistant at the BBC and falls for Paul, a writer on the show. However, life soon starts to grow rather complicated for Jessica.

Q2. The book is about living a secret life in a new place - where did you get this idea from, and is Jessica Granger/Bender based on anyone in real life?

Jessica is one of my completely made up characters. I say that because there often are characters who are inspired by people I know. I've pinched her name though. My sister's called Jessica.

With regard to the idea, when pondering what to write for my second book, I thought fairly early on that it would be really interesting to explore the idea of what it would be like to have a famous parent. Would it be a help or a hindrance? Would people make assumptions about you and assume you had everything really easy? In order to make it really interesting though, I felt it was important that my heroine had no interest whatsoever in exploiting who she was. No interest in following in her parent's footsteps in the slightest. Quite the opposite in fact. When I finally thought of making the famous parent James Bond, the rest of the plot just fell into place and the book was a joy to write. It also immediately gained so much potential for comedy.

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Book Review: All For You by Sheila O'Flanagan

As TV's favourite weather forecaster, Lainey is good at making predictions. But what she doesn't foresee is that her own life is about to hit a stormy patch. With a string of failed relationships behind her, surely history isn't about to repeat itself with her beloved Ken? To add fuel to the fire, her estranged mother announces that she's returning to Dublin. Deanna has always been dismissive of Lainey's choices - particularly in men. And Deanna's lectures are the last thing Lainey needs now. Yet is there more to her mother than she knows? Uncovering some long-concealed family secrets, Lainey begins to reassess her life. Is the happy-ever-after she's always dreamed of really what she wants after all?

I haven't read a Sheila O'Flanagan novel for a good few years, aside from a Christmas short story collection so I was quite excited to be reviewing her new release 'All For You'. I have to admit I'm not the hugest fan of the book cover, I don't think it really reflects the story inside very well and seems a bit too generic for me. However, I do think the brighter colours are quite welcome and update Sheila's books quite well. It's a big hardback book, at over 500 pages it isn't a short read but it is a good one.

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Author Interview: Louise Douglas

Today I am pleased to welcome the lovely Louise Douglas to the site for an author interview! Louise is the author of new release The Secrets Between Us, as well as two previous fantastic novels, one of which won the RNA People's Choice Award in 2010, and has been very successful. I adored Louise's new book, and was really pleased to be given the opportunity to interview Louise. So here we go, enjoy!

Q1. Please tell us about your new novel 'The Secrets Between Us'.

 It’s about a young woman called Sarah who meets, an enigmatic man, Alexander at a time when she’s vulnerable and low. He tells her that his wife, Genevieve has left him and that he’s struggling to cope with their young son alone, so, to the horror of her family and friends, she moves to the other side of the country to help him look after the house and child. As she effectively begins to live Genevieve’s life, she becomes fascinated with her, but at the same time doubts about Alexander emerge and she has to question if he’s telling the truth, and if she can trust him at all. 

Q2. I found Sarah to be a great narrator, and sympathised with her throughout the book. You wrote the book with her first person narrative, do you find this is easiest to get way to get into your character, and did you find it easy to build up the tension of the Alexander/Genevieve story as you wrote without giving anything away to your readers?

 Thanks Chloe, and yes, I definitely like writing first person best! I enjoyed seeing things through Sarah’s eyes and finding out about Genevieve with her. Because quite a lot depends on Sarah’s interpretation of the situation, it would have been far more difficult to write this story third person. 

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Book Review: The Secrets Between Us by Louise Douglas

A chance encounter: When Sarah meets dark, brooding Alex,she grasps his offer of a new life miles away from her own. They’ve both recently escaped broken relationships, and need to start again. Why not do it together?

A perfect life: But when Sarah gets to the tiny village of Burrington Stoke, something doesn’t add up. Alex’s beautiful wife Genevieve was charming, talented, and adored by all who knew her. And apparently, she and Alex had a successful marriage complete with a gorgeous son, Jamie. Why would Genevieve walk out on her perfect life? And why has no one heard from her since she did so?

A web of lies: Genevieve’s family and all her friends think that Alex knows more about her disappearance than he’s letting on. But Sarah’s fallen in love with him and just knows he couldn’t have anything to hide. Or could he?

I have read and loved Louise Douglas' previous two novels, so when I was given the chance to review her new, I was thrilled. I have to say I was shocked at the change in cover from the first two novels, which had gorgeous covers and looked very pretty. This one is a complete change, with a much darker appearance, with a solitary figure on the front representing our main character within the book. It has been likened to Daphne Du Maurier's "Rebecca", a book I haven't read but after looking at the synopsis on Amazon, I can see how Douglas has drawn inspiration from this novel, and other classics too. At over 450 pages, its a big chunk of a book but worth every single page, it's a fabulous read.

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Book Review: Freeing Grace by Charity Norman

When baby Grace's mother is killed in a tragic accident just a short while after giving birth, Grace is put into the system to become adopted. Soon, she is matched with David and Leila, a couple who can't have their own children and are desperate to become parents. However, Grace's biological Matt, a young school boy who isn't deemed suitable to look after his own daughter by the social care system, is desperate to keep his daughter. However, in order to be able to keep his daughter, he has to get his mother back from Africa and back into her unhappy marriage with her husband Perry. Matt's family enlist the help of their friend Jake to bring back Deborah and help save Grace once and for all. But David and Leila are desperate and don't want to give up Grace without a fight. It's up to the courts to decide who is best to look after Grace - her dad and biological family, or adoptive parents who are desperate for a child - how can they ever choose?

I didn't know anything about this book until I was sent an email about it from the publishers asking me if we would be interested in reviewing it on the site. I thought the premise sounded really interesting so decided to give it a go. It's Charity Norman's debut novel, and is certainly a book that is going to cause the reader to think about some issues which are quite difficult... is a child always better off with their biological family, no matter the cost? I thought it was pretty clear cut in my head but as the book progresses, Norman weaves a fantastic tale that has readers guessing which way it will go up until the last page. I have to mention the book cover too, its nice and under-stated, and portrays the story within well, but I have to say it isn't a cover that would normally intrigue me... luckily the synopsis managed that by itself!

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Book Review: The Mistress's Revenge by Tamar Cohen

Sally Islip has been having an affair with Clive, a friend of the family for over 5 years now, and is well and truly in love with him. So when Clive suddenly decides that their affair has to end, and that he is now going to be the perfect husband to long-suffering wife Susan. Sally isn't unhappy, and quickly her life begins to unravel as she struggles to adjust to life without Clive. So Sally decides to start keeping an eye on Clive and his family... walking past their family home to popping in the cafe where she knows his son Liam works. Then she starts following Susan and her daughter Emily on Facebook, all because she's a family friend of course, nothing sinister. But when Clive starts to turn on Sally, threatening her and telling her to back off and leave his family alone, Sally decides that she has to up her action and doesn't take heed to what Clive is saying, she's convinced revenge is the only way to get over Clive. Will the mistress get her revenge, or will it all end in tears?

This is author Tamar Cohen's debut novel and I'll be honest and say it isn't one that particularly interested me. However, I was sent a copy to review and decided to give it a go. The turquoise cover with the red roses is quite striking and is actually quite fantastic, and it would certainly intrigue me to pick up the book off a shelf. According to a few comments on Amazon, it's been billed as a modern day Fatal Attraction set in the 'Facebook era', something I can't really corroborate having never seen that film, but I did like the premise of it, and wondered how the author would go about constructing a story based on the revenge of a mistress without making her hated by the reader.
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