Pretending to Dance

 by

 Diane Chamberlain
 Blog Tour

When the pretending ends, the lying begins . . . Molly Arnette is good at keeping secrets. As she and her husband try to adopt a baby, she worries that the truth she's kept hidden about her North Carolina childhood will rise to the surface and destroy not only her chance at adoption, but her marriage as well. Molly ran away from her family twenty years ago after a shocking event left her devastated and distrustful of those she loved. Now, as she tries to find a way to make peace with her past and embrace a healthy future, she discovers that even she doesn't know the truth of what happened in her family of pretenders.

Pretending to Dance by Diane Chamberlain, the bestselling author of The Silent Sister, is a fascinating and deftly-woven novel, that reveals the devastating power of secrets.

Review

I have to hold my hands up here and say that I have never read a Diane Chamberlain book before, so when I was asked to review this one, I had to give it a go!

The story starts with Molly and Aiden, who are a married couple unable to have a child of their own, so are going down the "open adoption" route. Obviously they need to answer questions regarding their families and their past, so when a possible birth mother becomes available Molly goes into panic mode as she is hiding a secret about her family back in Morrison Ridge! Don't you just love a family with secrets!!

The book goes backwards and forwards from when Molly was 14 years old and entering puberty and lets us into the close relationship she has with her paraplegic father Graham, who is suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. He is a therapist and deals with young adults practising the art of "pretend therapy".

Molly becomes friendly with a girl called Stacey and as you can imagine with any 14 year old girls, they become interested in boys! I thought the way the author made Molly very naive and a bit immature during this time was spot on, as we have all been like this and been smitten with a boy and thought we were being very grown up, when in fact, we were not!

There were some twists and turns throughout this book and I must admit, it did keep me on the edge of my seat (without being scary or frightening). Molly's family are not all that they seem and what happens when she is 14 affects her life as an adult. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely be reading more from this author!

Thank you to Francesca at Pan Macmillan for sending me a copy of this book for review. 

The Vintage Guide to Love and Romance by Kirsty Greenwood – Guest review by Julie Williams

I signed up to the Readathon Hospitals Fundraising Event arranged by Jennifer Marston where participants initially had to vote which book they wanted to read. The clear winner was this book , (although I have to admit it wasn't the one that I voted for!) 

The challenge was to read and review it in 24 hours on 4^th October 2015. Unfortunately it took me slightly longer due to other commitments.

As I am not a Blogger, Julie (Boon's Bookcase) has kindly let me review this on her blog.

As I love Chick Lit I was more than happy to download onto my kindle and get stuck in!

This is an easy read as it is quite funny with not too many but interesting characters.

Jess Beam is the central character who is the 'party girl' of Manchester but has huge commitment issues. All that changes when her life is suddenly turned upside down and she moves in with her Grandmother and she discovers the truth about her parents lives through hidden diaries.

I am pleased that Jess does overcome her relationship issues and the ability to care for others. As I don't want to give anything away you will have to read this book yourself and discover just how she gets on!!

Thank you to Julie Williams for being a Guest Reviewer for this book.

A Parcel for Anna Browne by Miranda Dickinson Blog Tour

Today it's my turn to host the Blog Tour for A Parcel for Anna Browne and today is a special day as it's publication day!!

I have chosen to give you an excerpt of the first chapter from this book, as I must confess, I haven't finished it yet! I hope it gives you a taster of Miranda's 7th book and having read all of her others, I hope this one proves to be just as good as the others!

Enjoy Chapter One of A Parcel for Anna Browne...........

The UPS deliveryman waited in line, checking his watch. It had been a long day already and he still had two hours of his shift remaining. Traffic was backed up two miles out of the city on the main arteries and it was only going to get worse as the weekend rush began. He would be late – as he was nearly every Friday evening. His wife would not be happy. Neither would his kid, waiting for Daddy to come home and try out his new football in the back garden. Like he’d promised . . .

Ahead of him a line of three people waited not so patiently to receive security passes. They were red-faced and rude, loudly voicing their annoyance as a young receptionist did her best to remain affable. Too many people in this city were willing to engage their mouths before their brains, the deliveryman concluded. God forbid he should ever have to work in a city building. Trapped inside steel walls, breathing everyone else’s recycled air, office politics as unforgiving as the air con – that wasn’t the life for him. Visiting them on his round was bad enough. The sense of relief he felt climbing back into his delivery van confirmed the rightness of his career choice. At least he could drive away from places like these, even if it was to visit identical buildings somewhere else in the city.

He glanced up at the large atrium, rising six storeys to a domed glass ceiling, the imposing architecture befitting a national newspaper. Marble floors and mahogany fixtures, subtle uplighting and large brushed-steel planters filled with greenery at the feet of a glass lift, which reminded him of a Roald Dahl story he’d read as a boy. It was the kind of building his brother Warren would kill to enter, with his cheap suit and greedy ambition. Not that the dodgy knock-offs his brother peddled were ever likely to get him into this place. Warren could take the mickey out of him all he liked for being a ‘jumped-up postie’, but it meant he could enter fancy city buildings where his brother would never be admitted. That was something. Smiling to himself a little unkindly, the deliveryman stepped forward as the party ahead of him moved on.

The young woman behind the reception desk apologised for his wait. She had a pretty smile, he thought, the kind that transforms a face when it appears.

‘How can I help you today?’

The deliveryman lifted up a package. ‘I have a parcel . . .’ he checked the label, ‘for Anna Browne?’

The woman’s pale-blue eyes widened. ‘Oh. That’s me.’

Her apparent shock made him grin. In a round made up exclusively of business deliveries to corporate offices, it wasn’t often that somebody was surprised to receive a package.

‘You weren’t expecting anything?’

‘No, not at all.’ She leaned forward a little, lowering her voice. ‘I never get parcels – not here or at home,’ she confided, peering at the package.

‘Must be your lucky day, sweetheart,’ the deliveryman smiled, giving her his handheld device and leaning against the desk while she signed. ‘You have a good day.’ He paused while he debated whether or not to say more, and then went ahead. ‘Hope it’s something nice.’



There have been lots of clues about the gifts Anna has been receiving. I came back from a mini break in Suffolk to these charms in the post!

And there have been lots of clues from Miranda herself on Twitter regarding a fabulous Treasure Hunt competition........

This is going to be such an exciting competition with some fab prizes up for grabs! keep your eyes peeled and don't forget to follow Miranda Dickinson on Twitter to find out more!!

It's my turn to host
A Very Big House in The Country

 by Claire Sandy 

Blog Tour

'Holidays are about surviving the gaps between one meal and another.'

For one long hot summer in Devon, three families are sharing one very big house in the country. The Herreras: made up of two tired parents, three grumbling children and one promiscuous dog; the Littles: he's loaded (despite two divorces and five kids), she's gorgeous, but maybe the equation for a truly happy marriage is a bit more complicated than that; and the Browns, who seem oddly jumpy around people, but especially each other.

By the pool, new friendships blossom; at the Aga door, resentments begin to simmer. Secret crushes are formed and secret cigarettes cadged by the teens, as the adults loosen their inhibitions with litres of white wine and start to get perhaps a little too honest ...

Mother hen to all, Evie Herreras has a life-changing announcement to make, one that could rock the foundations of her family. But will someone else beat her to it?

Review

A Very Big House in The Country is the story of three families who have never all been on holiday together before, but decide to hire a large country house in Devon with their children of all ages from babies to teenagers - what could possibly go wrong!!

Evie is married to Mike. I loved Evie, she was so easy going, never got stressed and aspired to be an author of raunchy novels. I must admit, it did make me laugh when she was reading what she had written - very Fifty Shades!! Mike, although a nice character, was very clingy and a bit needy due to his upbringing but they all seemed a really good family. Scarlett is their teenage daughter and so typically hates everything and everyone and doesn't want to be there at all!!

Evie's friends are the Ling-Littles' who are a very dysfunctional family with a baby they don't know how to look after and Clive has a son who is set to cause havoc!

Paula and Jon were the third couple to arrive at the house. Many things are brought out into the open regarding their relationship but Paula was an absolute nervous wreck! But what was so delightful about the author's writing, was that you understood why she was like that towards the end.

I can imagine this book turning into a comedy film as it was so full on and every character was different but as the book went on there were some real twists and turns. There were quite a few very funny situations and calamities, which by the end of the book, left me exhausted!!

Thank you to Francesca at Pan Macmillan for the review copy of this book.