A Wedding in Cornwall 

(Books 7—12)

by Laura Briggs

Goodreads  / Amazon 

The last six novellas in the UK bestselling series A WEDDING IN CORNWALL are now available in one collection! Join American event planner Julianne in her final set of adventures ‘across the pond’ in beautiful Cornwall. From celebrity sightings to a local talent show, from a charming village fete to a secret Cornish garden, there’s never a dull moment for Julianne and her Poldark-esque true love Matthew in the quaint village of Ceffylgwyn.

This collection contains A Romance in Cornwall, A Star in Cornwall, A Sewing Circle in Cornwall, A Talent Show in Cornwall, An American in Cornwall, and A Garden in Cornwall. Exclusive bonus materials include a sneak peek of the author’s all-new 2019 Cornish romance series!

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Book 7 – A Romance in Cornwall

The catch in her voice gave her away. I couldn’t help but smile. It was proof how far Kitty had come that we hugged goodbye, a brief one, but a warm one. She was far from the prickly girl who had stormed out of my office two years ago, when I suggested she was a diamond in the rough, who would have died rather than admit how much she wanted that job at the manor.

I was thinking it could be fun to be a writer. All that money and loads of spare time when your book is finished. No more dusting knickknacks and cleaning drapes for me.

He’s a dishy one, as sweet as chocolate and as brainy as Sherlock. Many a heart was broken in the village when he finally fell in love. If I’d been ten years younger, I’d have chased him up the nearest tree in haste to catch him.

“She hasn’t been out in the daylight for two days now,” said Dovie, keeping her voice low in the Fisherman’s Rest. “Only comes out in the evenings. Like a vampire, she is. I’d no idea writers were like that.”

Book 8 – A Star in Cornwall

His glance landed on the fabric pieces in my hands, and the tangle of sewing supplies that appeared to be having a terrible brawl amongst themselves in my workbasket. 

How such a stupid argument could turn into such a personal philosophical dilemma was staggering my imagination at this point.

Your own head can be your worst enemy when you’ve let one little mistake become a chain reaction of them, after all.

I knew Michael was wrong. Never trust the opinion of somebody whose tattoos look like a Russian prisoner’s.

Book 10 – A Talent Show in Cornwall

Colin was the ‘serious musician’ type, who seemed in his own world while playing, as if the guitar and his body had melded together and every molecule of his being was focused on the mellow, complex riff serenading the mostly-unappreciative patrons of the bar. Excepting, of course, the female ones.

I call it shyness — but others tended to call it rudeness, since Nikki was ‘different’ and among the typical number of teenagers set apart by their peers to be socially ostracized and mocked. 

… he didn’t even have the decency to tell me first when he took the job on that drilling crew… I had to hear about it from Jenny Bryce’s niece, who looked proper smug about telling me … stupid little cow, crushing on someone like him. He’s ten years older than her.

Never a ‘congratulations, Kitty’ or ‘oh, joy, my daughter’s getting married’ just a ‘what’s all this about?” Like you caught me stealing sweets from the grocer’s jar.

I felt a sudden rush of indignation and anger that the sneer in their voices could make me see her that way, bringing me back to my school days of popularity versus obscurity. 

It was like a scene out of a movie — things that never happen to real people, those impetuous moments of passion that evade real life for ninety-nine percent of us. From the corner of my eye, I saw Rosie’s jaw drop, as mine was doing the same.

Author Bio –

Laura Briggs is the author of several lighthearted romance novels and novellas, including the bestselling Amazon UK series A Wedding in Cornwall. She has a fondness for vintage-style dresses (especially ones with polka dots), and reads everything from Jane Austen to modern-day mysteries. When she’s not writing, she enjoys spending time with family, caring for her pets, going to movies and plays, and trying new restaurants.

Social Media Links –

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PaperDollWrites

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

Website: https://paperdollwrites.blogspot.com/

Giveaway to Win A Wedding in Cornwall 

3 different prizes (Open Internationally)

1^st Name Drawn will win – A paperback copy of the anthology to be shipped to the winner by the author via Amazon

2^nd Name Drawn will win – A digital/eBook copy of the anthology to be sent via email

3^rd Name Drawn will win – A Smashwords coupon code good for a free download of 1 ‘Surprise eBook’ from the Cornwall series of novellas

*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome.  Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will be passed to the giveaway organizer and used only for the fulfillment of the prize, after which time I will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

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I Give You My Heart

by SarahJane Ford

Goodreads

Amazon US / UK  / B&N

𝗔 𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘀. 𝗔 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲-𝘀𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲. 𝗔 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁.

Alice Richards looked forward to watching the seeds of love she and her husband planted bloom and grow well into their old age. But her plans for the future shrivel up and die when she learns she has an inoperable brain tumor.

Determined that she won’t die in vain, she decides to become an organ donor. With a few precious months left, Alice begins documenting her fairytale romance—from their first meeting to the children they dreamed of having. She’ll pass on every detail to her heart’s next owner… along with careful instructions to send her husband reminders of her undying love. Before her time runs out, Alice must find the perfect candidate to guide her husband through unimaginable grief and hold the memory of their love in her heart.

I Give You My Heart is an emotional romantic fiction novel with an uplifting message. If you like strong-willed women, undying love stories, and honest portrayals of coping with a terminal illness, then you’ll love SarahJane Ford’s heart-warming epic.

An unmissable love story full of warmth, beauty and with a huge, beating heart. Perfect for fans of Cecilia Ahern’s ‘P.S. I Love You’ and Jojo Moyes’ ‘Me Before You’.

My Rating:  

Favorite Quotes:

He moved words around his mouth, silently, testing how they tasted before releasing them into the air.

I wondered when you were going to bring up your eyebrows, Al. What has happened to them? Did two caterpillars go to sleep on your face and you just didn’t notice?

She’d be the one on the front row of the nativity play clapping her hands red, her camera blinding all the children the whole way through the play, making her little darling feel like the next Leonardo DiCaprio while donning the back half of a donkey suit. She was the best.

Because she has to be perfect, you know? This is Alex we’re talking about. I mean I was thinking looks of Julia Roberts, spirit of Mother Theresa, sense of humour of Steve Martin, heart of, well, me.

Well, before I went into that operating theatre, I couldn’t draw so much as a stick man. When I came to, the first thing I asked is, could you pass me my pencils? Since then I’ve hardly been able to stop my hands. My new heart tells them and then they do it… I go in as a lifetime loser at Pictionary and come out as the next Rembrandt.

My Review:

Despite the expected seriousness of the underlying premise featuring a terminally ill main character, this brilliantly written first person POV narrative was a pleasantly insightful, thoughtful, and witty read.   After the twenty-six-year-old character of Alice was given the life-shattering news of an inoperable brain tumor, she set about filling her last months on earth with enjoying as many pleasant moments as she could with her loved ones while organizing a plan and writing a personal letter for every possible organ recipient.

I adored these captivating characters; their stories made my coronary muscle sigh and sing, as well as squeezed and tugged at the poor old thing. There were a few spots that burned my eyes and put hot rocks in my throat, but the vast majority of the book was artful storytelling that was lushly detailed with vivid and amusing observations and oh so many thoughtful touches. The character of Alice was determined to make a difference by donating as many organs and bits and pieces of her body as was possible, but she had a particular plan for the recipient of her heart. She set about writing a detailed instruction manual and was rather bossy in filling it not only with her personal history and special memories with her husband, but with detailed plans, suggestions, and specific requirements for the recipient of her heart to fulfill in hopes of easing her beloved husband back from the grief of her passing. I am fascinated with the idea of cellular memory and relished this thread throughout her storylines. I have a feeling the sweetness of this story will stay with me for quite some time.   To use a phrase from my ever-expanding Brit Vocab list – it worked a treat.

Author Bio 

SarahJane is the debut author of ‘I Give You My Heart’ which is due to be published on September 1st, 2018.

SarahJane was born in Scotland but grew up in the Cheshire countryside, which is home to her. After a few years living in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, where she went to secondary school, she has now settled back in Cheshire in a quirky flat surrounded by trees, birds and rolling fields.

A marketing professional since finishing her formal education SarahJane is delighted to be following her writing dream. She still works part-time as a Marketing Manager, whilst furiously penning her second novel.

Harboring an adventurous spirit, SarahJane loves to travel, be surrounded by the wilderness or be riding Cornish waves.

SarahJane loves to read (ideally by the sea!). She was raised on the greatest love stories, which is where her romantic soul comes from. She is in love with love…Mr. Darcy’s brooding looks in Pride and Prejudice; Julia Roberts and Richard Gere’s arresting chemistry in Runaway Bride; the intensely emotional Titanic; going weak at the knees for Danny Zuko in Grease; Cecilia Ahern’s heartbreaking P.S. I Love You and Patrick Swayze’s mega moves in Dirty Dancing.

Social Media Links – www.facebook.com/sarahjanefordauthor/

Website: www.sarahjaneford.com

Giveaway 

Win signed hardback of I Give You My Heart with a personalized message

(UK Only)

*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome.  Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will be passed to the giveaway organizer and used only for the fulfillment of the prize, after which time I will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

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Evie’s Little Black Book

by Hannah Pearl 

Goodreads

Amazon US / UK  

Is hunting down every man you’ve kissed the answer to finding Mr. Right?

When Evie is invited to the wedding of the guy she’d fancied throughout her teens, it’s the final straw. What’s wrong with her and why can’t she keep a man? 

In between consoling herself with ice cream and chocolate, and sobbing her heart out to her cousin Chamaine, Evie has a brainwave – and it all centers around her ‘little black book’ (well, more floral patterned notebook really) – which contains the details of every man she’s ever kissed or dated. Perhaps the cure for her disastrous love life has been nestled within its pages all along … 

Does Evie’s little black book really hold the answers, or will she learn that exes are exes for a reason? 

My Rating:  

Favorite Quotes:

‘What you need next,’ she declared, ‘is new underwear. I always feel better when I’m wearing really sexy knickers.’ She pulled the top of her pants up over her trousers to show me. I could see what looked like a piece of leopard print string, and I presumed her taste in underwear was a little skimpier than mine. An elderly gentleman on the next table choked on his tea.

‘I like a lot of different types of women.’ That was an understatement. I suspected that Matt and George had very few types of women they didn’t like. ‘But you know what I find most attractive of all in women?’ he asked me. I shook my head, wondering whether he’d be offended if I’d answered with my first response of a vagina and a pulse.

If you want people to notice you, you have to show them that you have something worth noticing.

I wasn’t a pretty crier. My nose was running and I was taking big, heaving gulps of air every few seconds to power the tears. Jake walked to the cupboard, opened it and handed me a huge bar of Dairy Milk. ‘I’m sure Bea won’t mind you raiding her stash,’ he said. ‘This seems like an emergency.’

My Review:

This was a slow moving yet thoughtful and often humorous read that chronicled a woman’s efforts to examine her past to recoup and repair her tattered identity by reaching back to examine what had transpired during and after her previous crushes, attractions, and relationships with men. Much of the narrative is interior as she works through her memories and observations of the past while also dealing with the present and meeting new and more interesting people while learning to trust again. The writing was insightful and observant with frequent lashings of slyly amusing dry wit.

Ms. Pearl had obviously done her research and compiled the easiest and clearest representation of how an intelligent woman would allow herself to be treated in such a heinous and dastardly manner. She nimbly captured the subtleness and myriad nuances of how a woman could gradually be stripped of her identity and self-confidence and allow and even expect mistreatment and subjugation. Evie wasn’t merely trying to understand what went wrong with her previous relationships, she was trying to find who she had been as she had lost herself and no longer trusted her own judgment, and rightly so, she had been decimated. And thanks to Ms. Pearl, my Brit Vocab List now includes stonking – which Mr. Google tells me is something remarkably large or exciting, I like that.   In an effort to utilize a fraction of my newly acquired knowledge I will close this review with a small sampling of what I have gleaned from my sloney and swot reading list… Bloody Nora, I’m not telling porkies when I say my personally culled Brit list is mahoosive and stonking.

Author Bio –

Hannah Pearl was born in East London. She is married with two children and now lives in Cambridge.

She has previously worked as a Criminology researcher at a university in Leicester, as a Development Worker with various charities and even pulled a few pints in her time.

In 2015 she was struck down by Labrynthitis, which left her feeling dizzy and virtually housebound. She has since been diagnosed with ME. Reading has allowed Hannah to escape from the reality of feeling ill. She read upwards of three hundred books during the first year of her illness. When her burgeoning ereader addiction grew to be too expensive, she decided to have a go at writing. In 2017 she won Simon and Schuster’s Books and the City #heatseeker short story competition, in partnership with Heat magazine, for her short story The Last Good Day.

Hannah is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association.

Blog – dizzygirlwrites.wordpress.com 

Twitter – https://twitter.com/HannahPearl_1

Giveaway

 Win 2 x set of floral notebook, pen, book locket necklace and chocolate (Open Internationally)

*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome.  Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will be passed to the giveaway organizer and used only for the fulfillment of the prize, after which time I will delete the data.  I am not responsible for dispatch or delivery of the prize.

a Rafflecopter giveaway