Romance

Please visit our Book Bulletin 2019 crowdfunding project at CrowdPatch to buy recommendations for our Winter 2019 catalogue and to volunteer your skills, experience and contacts. All funds raised will support not-for-profit Jolabokaflod CIC’s forthcoming programme of events.

Just for Christmas
Scarlett Bailey
(UK: Ebury Press, @PenguinUKBooks, 2018)

When Alex Munro learns that the love of her life is getting married to another woman, all she wants to do is get as far away from her hometown as possible. So she moves to a cosy Cornish cottage, which seems to come complete with the world’s scruffiest dog. She also finds that the whole village is determined to get her involved in the holiday festivities despite her wanting to be alone. But when she meets handsome neighbour, Ruan, Alex realises she doesn’t want to spend Christmas by herself after all. Although, after being left heartbroken by his ex-fiancée, Ruan has no intention of letting anyone get close to him again …

Recommended by:
Adele Blair, Blogger, Kraftireader

Adele started writing her Kraftireader blog in 2014, which shares her love of reading, crafting, recipes, music and shopping bargains. She uses the tagline ‘A book and a tea puts a smile on me’, which she loves for the comforting image it projects of sitting down with your favourite cuppa in a nice quiet corner to read a book. Adele’s preferred book genres are contemporary fiction, romcoms, chick lit, historical romance and family sagas.

The Templar’s Garden
(Chronicles of Divine Love: book 1)
Catherine Alette Clover
(UK: Holywell Press, @HolywellOxford, 2017)

This novel tells the story of young mystic Lady Isabelle d’Albret Courteault as her family is forced to flee the Duchy of English Gascony for a new and unforeseeable life in England. She discovers dark secrets about her family’s chaplain and tutor, secrets that continue to haunt her as her family becomes established as courtiers in King Henry VI’s court …

Recommended by:
Andrew Hayward, Director, Court Publishing Services | Interview: BookMachine

Specialising in general trade publishing, Andrew works with fiction and non-fiction titles, overseeing sales and marketing in the UK and the rest of the world. Court Publishing Services manages a boutique stable of authors as a literary agency. Court has taken on various non-trade publishing projects – including working with the Donmar Warehouse theatre, the Bristol Cancer Help Centre and publishing projects that focus on World War I – and helping to set up the history documentary company, Turning Stones. Andrew has previously worked at Ether Books, The Lutterworth Press, Penguin, Pearson, Constable & Robinson and Summersdale Publishers.

Paradise
AL Kennedy
(UK: Vintage, @vintagebooks, 2015; USA: Vintage, @VintageAnchor, 2006)

Almost forty and with nothing to show for it, Hannah Luckraft is starting to realise that her lifestyle is not sustainable. Her soul is unwell, her family is wounded, her friends are odd, her body is unreliable and her drinking is out of control. Robert, a dissolute dentist, appears to offer a love she can understand, but he may only be one more symptom of her problem. From Scotland to Dublin, from London to Montreal, to Budapest and onwards, Hannah travels in search of the ultimate altered state – her paradise.

Recommended by:
Jessica Norrie, Author | Author website: Jessica Norrie

Jessica is the author of two novels: one published The Infinity Pool (2015: Amazon UK | USA) and another yet-to-be published, The Magic Carpet. She is also an ex-teacher, a textbook author (teaching French) and a translator, working on an eclectic mix of material, from health reports on racehorses to harrowing refugee tales.

Ten Years Later
Lisa Marie Latino
(USA: Long Shot Productions, @LongShotProd, 2016)

When New Jersey-based sports radio producer Carla D’Agostino receives a save-the-date for her ten-year high school reunion, she’s thrown into a tailspin. She’s miserably single, living at home with her old-school Italian-American family, and miles away from her dream job as a sports talk radio host.

She voices her discontent to her closest friends, the stunning Andrea, cheerful Katie, and playboy Dante, and they encourage Carla to stand up and fight for the life she wants.

Inspired by their words, Carla sets her plans in motion. She enlists the help of a personal trainer, tapes a sports commentary demo with Dante for her unconventional WSPS boss Dan, and gets back into the dating game for the first time since her heart was broken by her first love. But the universe has different ideas for Carla than she has for herself …

Recommended by:
Long Shot Productions: at BookExpo America

Long Shot Productions is a full-service video production company based in the New York City metro area. The company specialises in all types of corporate, commercial and entertainment production. It works with clients on every aspect of their vision, from initial planning to the finished product. Their strengths are flexibility, creativity, hard work, enthusiasm and results. Long Shot Productions works professionally, quickly and efficiently. Its team of talented and highly experienced professionals know how to achieve the very best results on time and within budget – every time.

Don’t You Forget About Me
Mhairi McFarlane
(UK: HarperCollins, @HarperCollinsUK, 2019; USA: William Morrow Paperbacks, @HarperCollins, 2019)

It began with four words – ‘I love your laugh. x’ – but that was twelve years ago. It really began the day Georgina was fired from ‘The Worst Restaurant in Sheffield’ (© Tripadvisor) and found ‘The Worst Boyfriend in the World’ (© Georgina’s best friends) in bed with someone else.

So when her new boss, Lucas McCarthy, turns out to be the boy who wrote those words to her all that time ago, it feels like the start of something … The only problem? … He doesn’t seem to remember Georgina – at all .…

Recommended by:
HarperCollins: at The Book Marketing Society

With a heritage stretching back 200 years, HarperCollins is one of the world’s foremost book publishers, with a catalogue ranging from cutting-edge contemporary fiction to award-winning apps and everything in-between. William Collins & Sons was founded in Glasgow in 1819, first publishing Bibles, atlases and dictionaries, but later growing to release works from some of history’s great authors, such as CS Lewis, Agatha Christie and JRR Tolkien.

Me Before You
(Me Before You: book 1)
Jojo Moyes
(UK: Penguin, @PenguinUKBooks, 2012; USA: Penguin, @penguinusa, 2013)

They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose … Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life – steady boyfriend, close family – who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex-Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair-bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life – big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel – and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is … Will is acerbic, moody, bossy – but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living …

Recommended by:
Adele Blair, Blogger, Kraftireader

The Flatshare
Beth O’Leary
(UK: Quercus, @QuercusBooks, 2019; USA: Flatiron Books, @Flatironbooks, 2019)

Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast …. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash … Their friends think they’re crazy, but it’s the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat whilst Tiffy’s at work in the day and she has the run of the place the rest of the time.

But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven’t met yet, they’re about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window ….

Recommended by:
Quercus: at The British Book Awards

Objective, transparent and independently judged by leading book trade figures, The British Book Awards (aka The Nibbies) have championed the best of the book trade since 1990. Alongside trade accolades such as publisher of the year and book retailer of the year, The British Book Awards announces individual books of the year in eight categories: an overall Book of the Year is then chosen from the individual winners. The Nibbies was launched by Fred Newman, founder and editor of Publishing News, and taken over by The Bookseller in 2017.

Fudge Berries and Frog’s Knickers
Lynda Renham
(UK: Raucous Publishing, n/a, 2015)

Poppy Wellesley is rich. In fact Poppy Wellesley is very rich, so when her fortunes change from riches to rags Poppy has to start a whole new life. Put yourself in her Guccis as she swaps her penthouse apartment for a run-down houseboat on Regent’s Canal. Meet her dippy friend Chelsea, the infamous Jack Diamond and her hunky boat neighbour, Taylor. Will Poppy hold on to her millionaire fiancé or will Pug-face Pandora steal him from her? Can she avoid the advances from Balls (Lord Balthazar Wyndham-Price) or does she find true love on the canal?

Recommended by:
Adele Blair, Blogger, Kraftireader

Redeeming Love
Francine Rivers
(UK: Lion Fiction, @LionHudson, 2013; USA: Multnomah, @WaterBrookPress, 2005)

California’s gold country, 1850. A time when men sold their souls for a bag of gold and women sold their bodies for a place to sleep. Angel expects nothing from men but betrayal. Sold into prostitution as a child, she survives by keeping her hatred alive. What she hates most are the men who use her, leaving her empty and dead inside. Then she meets Michael Hosea, a man who seeks his Father’s heart in everything …

Michael obeys God’s call to marry Angel and to love her unconditionally. Slowly, day by day, he defies Angel’s every bitter expectation, until despite her resistance, her frozen heart begins to thaw. But with her unexpected softening comes overwhelming feelings of unworthiness and fear. So Angel runs – back to the darkness, away from her husband’s pursuing love, terrified of the truth she no longer can deny. Her final healing must come from the One who loves her even more than Michael does … the One who will never let her go.

Recommended by:
Ruth Jackson, Editor, YCW (Youth and Children’s Work) and Head, Youth Apologetics, Premier

Prior to joining Premier, Oxford University graduate Ruth Jackson worked at the BBC and the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics (OCCA). She now edits Premier’s YCW magazine and heads up the company’s youth apologetics arm (profile). In her spare time Ruth plays bass in an all-girl rock ’n’ roll band called The Daisy Chains. YCW is a monthly magazine sold at good Christian bookshops and available by subscription from Premier.

The Nothing Girl
(Frogmorton Farm: book 1)
Jodi Taylor
(UK: Accent Press, @AccentPress, 2014)

Getting a life isn’t always easy. And hanging on to it is even harder … Known as ‘The Nothing Girl’ because of her severe stutter and chronically low self-confidence, Jenny Dove is only just prevented from ending it all by the sudden appearance of Thomas, a mystical golden horse only she can see. Under his guidance, Jenny unexpectedly acquires a husband – the charming and chaotic Russell Checkland – and for her, nothing will ever be the same again. With over-protective relatives on one hand and the world’s most erratic spouse on the other, Jenny needs to become Someone. And fast!

Recommended by:
Fabiana Hercheui, Author and Company Secretary, Flare Construction Ltd | Author website: FA Hershey
Fabiana says: ‘Fantastic storytelling – loveable characters’

Fabiana writes fiction and YA Fiction under the pseudonym FA Hershey. She always has a book in hand and would love to have more time to spend reading. She also love writing, having many ideas waiting to be taken to the next level and developed into a proper story. She has a soft spot for the magical, unexplained, mysterious and dystopian (rather than utopian) worlds. Young adult fiction, for her, is a pleasure to write. She also serves on the board of Flare Construction, a family-run construction company.

The Something Girl
(Frogmorton Farm: book 2)
Jodi Taylor
(UK: Accent Press, @AccentPress, 2017)

The Nothing Girl has grown up … It’s life as usual at Frogmorton Farm – which is to say that events have passed the merely eccentric and are now galloping headlong towards the completely bizarre. Once again Jenny struggles to stay afloat in the stormy seas of matrimony with her husband, Russell Checkland, together with an unlikely mix of Patagonian Attack Chickens, Jack the Sad Donkey, and Mrs Crisp’s mysterious boyfriend. The old favourites are still around, of course. There’s Marilyn the Omnivorous Donkey, Russell’s ex-girlfriend Don’t Call Me Franny, and the neurotic Boxer, currently failing to deal with butterfly trauma. So nothing much is new … except for the mysterious figure dogging Jenny’s steps and who, if she didn’t know better, she would swear was her sinister cousin, Christopher, last seen being hurled from the house by her wayward husband. He couldn’t possibly be stupid enough to come back and try again … Could he?

Recommended by:
Fabiana Hercheui, Author and Company Secretary, Flare Construction Ltd | Author website: FA Hershey
Fabiana says: ‘Fantastic storytelling – loveable characters’

Lucky in Love
Kasie West
(USA: Scholastic Inc., @Scholastic, 2018)

Maddie’s not impulsive. She’s all about hard work and planning ahead. But one night, on a whim, she buys a lottery ticket and – to her astonishment – she wins!

In a flash, Maddie’s life is unrecognisable. No more stressing about college scholarships. Suddenly, she’s talking about renting a yacht. Being in the spotlight at school is fun … until rumours start flying and random people ask her for loans. Now, Maddie isn’t sure who she can trust.

Except for Seth Nguyen, her funny, charming coworker at the local zoo. Seth doesn’t seem aware of Maddie’s big news. For some reason, she doesn’t want to tell him. But what will happen if he learns her secret?

Recommended by:
Scholastic Inc.: at BookExpo America

Scholastic was founded in 1920 as a single classroom magazine. Today, Scholastic books and educational materials are in tens of thousands of schools and tens of millions of homes worldwide, helping to Open a World of Possible for children across the globe.

The Passion
Jeanette Winterson
(UK: Vintage, @vintagebooks, 2014; USA: Grove Press, @groveatlantic, 1997)

Henri had a passion for Napoleon – and Napoleon had a passion for chicken. From Boulogne to Moscow Henri butchered for his Emperor and never killed a single man.

Meanwhile, in Venice, the city of chance and disguises, Villanelle was born with the webbed feet of her boatman father – but in the casinos she gambled her heart and lost.

As the soldier-chef’s love for Napoleon turns to hate he finds the Venetian beauty, and together they flee to the canals of darkness.

Recommended by:
Eleni Skarpari, Songwriter, Singer, Actress | Artist website: Echo Wants Her Voice Back

Echo Wants Her Voice Back is London-based singer/songwriter Eleni Skarpari. Described as ‘Folk Noir’, she made her first performances at SXSW (March 2016) and Fengaros Festival in Cyprus (July 2016), following the successful crowdfunding and release of her debut EP. Check out her singles ‘I Knew I’d Find You‘ and ‘Quicksand‘. Follow her on social media for details about upcoming shows (Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube)

	Christopher Norris on Secret Santa 2022
	Bronwyn on Secret Santa 2022
	Richard on Let’s get the Icelanders…

Please visit our Book Bulletin 2019 crowdfunding project at CrowdPatch to buy recommendations for our Winter 2019 catalogue and to volunteer your skills, experience and contacts. All funds raised will support not-for-profit Jolabokaflod CIC’s forthcoming programme of events.

Share this:

Like this: