Pictures in the Sky

by Amanda Paull 

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU

She gave up on romance years ago. He’s going through the motions. Their lives change forever when he makes contact out of the blue. 

With her daughter leaving the nest, Michelle Cameron would rather spend her time with good friends, a glass of fizzy and a box set, than with another idiot bloke chipping away at her self-esteem. But when childhood friend Daniel Helmsley gets back in touch, the years roll away on a tide of laughter and friendship, which soon gives way to another roller coaster of love, excitement and panic. Can Michelle let herself trust again? What if Dan is just another idiot bloke, disillusioned with the present and nostalgic for the past?

If you like cozy romance that makes you laugh as well as cry, then you’ll love this feel-good tale of past disappointment, renewed friendship and finding true love. 
Download Amanda Paull’s Pictures in the Sky today to discover if Michelle dares to love again.

‘Your lively style and humor are exactly right for this genre.’ Susan Davis.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Michelle had tried Pilates… but she kept dozing off during mat work, and couldn’t face going back after the snoring episode.

 

She knew she tended to see her glass as half empty, and she really did try to do the half full thing, but sometimes she just felt like she didn’t even have a glass.

 

I’m going to sue Walt Disney… All lies. There are no castles or princes, just hard graft and twats.

 

Audrey also wanted her ashes to be mixed into a firework, to be set off one dark night, with all the family gathered around, gasping in awe and wonder as she soared up in one final blaze of glory. She had cried with laughter at Michelle’s and Gary’s horrified faces. But she was adamant that she wanted to go out with a bang.

 

The men Mingle had matched her with resembled a Crimewatch line-up. It was all very different to the free trial search. That had yielded some tasty-looking men in their forties, with interesting profiles, decent jobs and socially acceptable reasons for being single. They were all looking for monogamous relationships, and none of them looked as if they might play with themselves on a first date in a car park. Not that you could really tell from a dating profile –poor Joan hadn’t suspected anything dodgy about her car park pervert.

 

My Review:

 

I alternated between smirking at Michelle’s comical visualizations and sighing at her ridiculous choices, she was a difficult character for me to like as she was spineless and often exasperated me, yet she also squeezed my heart. Michelle’s biggest problem was being a hopeless turd-magnet with men, although she had lots of issues, lots! She was highly anxious, prone to catastrophizing, always on alert for gloom and doom while visualizing the worst-case scenarios, and with mounting stressors from family and work she was slowly edging into the land of dysfunctional, yet she was also intelligent and witty.

Ms. Paull’s writing was highly descriptive, evoking keen visuals.   I also enjoyed her clever wit and biting humor. She has also greatly expanded my Brit Vocab list with the introductions of blaggard (scoundrel, untrustworthy, contemptible person); quiff (hairstyle brushed upward and backward from the forehead); winklepickers (a style of shoe “reminiscent of medieval footwear” and re-popularized again in the 1950s by British rockers and has a very sharp and long pointed toe); yonks (a very long time); and flapjack (a sweet baked oat bar), although in American flapjacks is another word for pancakes. I’ll pass on the winklepickers but find I now have a taste for flapjacks of both varieties.

 

Author Bio –

Amanda Paull is a writer of humorous romantic fiction. She lives in the North East of England with her husband and works in the public sector. The inspiration for her stories comes from real life, which she tries to show the funnier side of by embellishing to the hilt.

Amanda’s Website: http://www.amandapaull.co.uk

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/Apaullfiction/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Apaullfiction