Monday, 13 July 2020

Release Day Spotlight: The Rivals by Vi Keeland



Title: The Rivals
Author: Vi Keeland
Genre: Standalone Contemporary Romance
Release Date: July 13, 2020

Excited about Vi Keeland’s upcoming release, The Rivals? Check out this SNEAK PEEK



The feud between Weston Lockwood and me started at the altar.
Only neither of us attended the wedding, and the nuptials happened decades before either of us was born.
Our grandfathers had been best friends and business partners, at least up until my grandfather’s wedding day—when his bride-to-be blurted out she couldn’t marry him because she was also in love with Weston‘s grandfather.
The two men spent years fighting over Grace Copeland, who also happened to be their third business partner.  But in the end, neither man could steal half of her heart away from the other.
Eventually, they all went their separate ways. Our grandfathers married other women, and the two men became one of the biggest business rivals in history.
Our fathers continued the family tradition of feuding. And then Weston and I did, too.
For the most part, we kept as much distance as possible.
Until the day the woman who started the feud died—and unexpectedly left one of the most valuable hotels in the world to our grandfathers to share.
Now I’m stuck in a hotel with the man I was born to hate, trying to unravel the mess our families inherited.
As usual, it didn’t take long for us to be at each other’s throats.
Weston Lockwood was everything I hated: tall, smart, cocky, and too gorgeous for his own good.  We were fire and ice. 
But that shouldn’t be an issue. Our families were used to being at war. There was just one minor problem, though. Every time Weston and I fought, we somehow wound up in bed.






Vi Keeland is a #1 New York Times, #1 Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author. With millions of books sold, her titles have appeared in over a hundred Bestseller lists and are currently translated in twenty-five languages. She resides in New York with her husband and their three children where she is living out her own happily ever after with the boy she met at age six.




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Author Guest Post and Book Spotlight: Grace & Serenity by Annalisa Crawford



Grace & Serenity by Annalisa Crawford

 THE STORY OF GRACE
When I wrote the first line of Grace & Serenity—this time—it was the culmination of many, many years of trial and error, stopping and starting, re-writing, and hiding it away in a drawer. The original story was developed in 2003.
2003! Wow. What were you doing seventeen years ago?
I was pregnant with my second child, I was working in a library, and I’d had a handful of stories published in small press journals—none of which existed by that point. I hadn’t even started to write my first published book—a novella called Cat & The Dreamer—which was two years away from conception, and nine years away from being published.
How life changes. In my case, in an exceptionally long and drawn-out way. As almost every famous person has said in one form or another (seriously, I Googled extensively), “It took me X years to become an overnight success.”
I’m still working on it.
The thing about being successful is you’re always looking for your Big Break. I’ve had 7, so far.
  • My first short story acceptance
  • My first competition win
  • My first eBook contract
  • Self-publishing my first physical book
  • My first contract for a physical book
  • My first big competition success
  • And now my first novel publication
What keeps me writing? Simply the need to put my words onto paper. Even if I knew no one would ever read them, I would not—could not—stop writing. I’ve had extended breaks in the past. When my kids were little and I was getting only a few hours of sleep a night, and all I could do once they were in bed was sit in front of the TV barely able to comprehend what was going on.
That’s one of the reasons, after writing what amounted to only a vague outline of Grace & Serenity back in 2003, I faltered. A couple of years later I edited it. A couple after that, I rewrote it entirely. And that’s the pattern I followed for several years, interspersed with short stories and other novels, honing my craft, and giving myself a better understanding of how to write Grace’s story.
Originally, the narrative occurred over about fifteen years. With each draft, this timeframe was reduced, until the final version takes place in less than two years—for which I’m sure Grace is forever grateful. I’ve put her through some terrible things, and I don’t think she could have lasted if she’d endured them for years. Some characters vanished; others appeared. But, inevitably, it was cast aside yet again.
Each time I was lured back, it was with a sense of dread that I wouldn’t be done with it this time, either. What finally spurred me on was having it rejected for the final time back in 2016, by the publisher of my short story collection You. I. Us. At that point, I shelved it for good, and moved on. Phew!
But, of course that’s not the end of the story…
Over a year later, on an otherwise normal day, I received an email from the same publisher asking me to resubmit—she hadn’t been able to get Grace out of her head, she said, and she’d love to read it again.
I dusted it off, read it, considered it, and threw it on the floor. After all, this was the manuscript she’d rejected, I needed to make severe changes to spike her interest. I picked up my red pen and started scribbling. Ticks, crossings out, question marks, whole sections circled with spidery lines drawn to indicate its new position. I read the entire thing aloud. I cut the scenes into chunks and laid them out on my living room floor, sellotaping them into a new order. And slowly, the novel that exists today took form.
I hope you enjoy it.

Living on the streets is terrifying and exhausting. Grace’s only comforts are a steady stream of vodka, and a strange little boy who’s following her around.

At nineteen, Grace has already had a child and endured an abusive marriage. But she’s also had her baby abducted by her vengeful husband and been framed as a neglectful mother. Even her own parents doubted her version of the story. So she did the only thing that made sense to her—run away.

The streets are unforgiving. Winter is drawing in. And Grace isn’t prepared for the harsh realities of survival. At her very bleakest, a Good Samaritan swoops into her life and rescues her. With a roof over her head and food in her stomach, she longs to see her baby again.

But nothing ever comes for free.



Amazon UK           Amazon US 

Annalisa Crawford lives in Cornwall UK, with a good supply of moorland and beaches to keep her inspired. She lives with her husband, two sons, and dog.
Crawford writes dark contemporary, character-driven stories, with a hint of the paranormal.
Over the years, she has won several competitions, and had many short stories published in small press journals and online. Highlights include being placed 3rd in the Costa Short Story Award 2015 and being longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and Bath Short Story Award in 2018.




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Location: Sundebru, Norway

Cover Reveal: The Banjo Book Two by Elaine Spires



The Banjo, Book Two by Elaine Spires

The 1970s. Zany fashions brought the Decade That Taste Forgot. Change is in the air. Decimal currency; the Common Market; widespread strikes; the Winter of Discontent; IRA bombings; the sale of Council houses and quickie divorces make their mark on the whole country including the community of the Banjo. The eight households who live in Cromwell Close experience births, deaths, marriages, shocks and surprises but as the 70s become the 80s and beyond Dagenham undergoes great transformation. The once close-knit Community is changing.

Amazon UK           Amazon US 
Publication Date: 21st August
​
Elaine Spires is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter and actress. Extensive travelling and a background in education and tourism perfected Elaine's keen eye for the quirky characteristics of people, captivating the humorous observations she now affectionately shares with the readers of her novels. Elaine has written two books of short stories, two novellas and seven novels, four of which form the Singles Series - Singles’ Holiday, Singles and Spice, Single All The Way and Singles At Sea.  Her latest book, Singles, Set and Match is the fifth and final book in the series.  Her play Stanley Grimshaw Has Left The Building is being staged at the Bridewell Theatre, London in May 2019.  Her short film Only the Lonely, co-written with Veronique Christie and featuring Anna Calder Marshall is currently being in shown in film festivals worldwide and she is currently working on a full length feature film script. Only the Lonely won the Groucho Club Short Film Festival 2019. Elaine recently returned to UK after living in Antigua W.I. She lives in East London.


Twitter: @ElaineSWriter
Instagram: elainespiresauthor


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Location: Sundebru, Norway
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