Blog Tour for Create Your Own Calm by Meera Lee Patel

 This is such a beautiful little book. Just the right size to tuck in your bag and take with you when you are out and about.

It combines inspiring quotes with engaging journal prompts with the most beautiful watercolour illustrations. In fact some of the illustrations deserve to be framed and put up on the wall.

I have never suffered with anxiety until recently with Covid and lockdown. Sitting down with this book and slowly working through the prompts gives you some me time and space to think about you and what is going on around you.

Thank you to the author and to the publisher for my own copy of this book (which I will keep and refer back to)

Blog Tour for No Room At The Little Cornish Inn by Nancy Barone

 

Publication date: 5^th November 2020

 

About the book 

 Rosie Anderson was hoping to whisk her young son Danny away for a lovely Christmas with family, far from the hustle and bustle of her life in London. But then her boss at the head office – aka Susan the Sacker – suddenly assigns her to go in incognito and save a tiny inn in Cornwall from being closed permanently. Rosie doesn't know why The Old Bell Inn is performing so badly but it's on her to sort it out! 

Hours in the car later, Rosie arrives at the inn to find she's been double booked – there are no rooms left. And she isn't there for more than a minute before she's butting heads with the manager, Irishman Mitchell Fitzpatrick. He seems to dislike her on sight, so it's confusing that he seems to get on so well with Danny... But if he's as terrible as his reputation, Rosie will have to be the one to fire him.

This really isn't the Christmas Rosie was dreaming of. But maybe, just maybe, it could be a whole lot more...

A sweet and uplifting Christmas romance, No Room at the Little Cornish Inn is perfect for fans of Philippa Ashley, Holly Martin and Jenny Hale.

 What Did I Think

Love finding a new author - and even better when they have other books to read too.

This is the perfect book to be reading at this time of year - to cozy up with and escape for a short while.

It is a tale of new beginnings in unexpected places. Rosie's plans for Christmas are turned upside down by her employer and her and her son end up at the inn in the title with the intention of having to carry out an under cover investigation as to why the pub is failing. I don't want to give any of the plot away but it is a cute story full of character and charm.

This is the first book I have read by Nancy but it will not be the last. A perfect piece of escapsim.

About the author 

Nancy Barone Wythe grew up in Canada, but at the age of 12 her family moved to Italy. Catapulted into a world where her only contact with the English language was her old Judy Blume books, Nancy became an avid reader and a die-hard romantic. Nancy stayed in Italy and, despite being surrounded by handsome Italian men, she married an even more handsome Brit. They now live in Sicily where she teaches English. Nancy is a member of the RWA and a keen supporter of the Women’s Fiction Festival at Matera where she meets up once a year with writing friends from all over the globe.

Follow Nancy:   

Twitter: @NancyNBW

Instagram: @nancybaronewythe

 

Pre-order links:

 

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3b2IhlI

Kobo: https://bit.ly/31vpyMp

Google Play: https://bit.ly/3gskT28

iBooks: https://apple.co/3jhOnl6

 

Blog Tour for A Painter in Penang by Clare Flynn

 

I was please to be asked to join in with this blog tour - gave me a chance to read my first book by this author.

About the book:

Sixteen-year-old Jasmine Barrington hates everything about living in Kenya and longs to return to the island of Penang in British colonial Malaya where she was born. Expulsion from her Nairobi convent school offers a welcome escape – the chance to stay with her parents’ friends, Mary and Reggie Hyde-Underwood on their Penang rubber estate.

But this is 1948 and communist insurgents are embarking on a reign of terror in what becomes the Malayan Emergency. Jasmine unearths a shocking secret as her own life is put in danger. Throughout the turmoil, her one constant is her passion for painting.

What did I think:

I didn't realise when I started reading this book that it wa the 3rd book in a series. If I had had the time I think I might have left this one and started with the first book.

Saying that it does work as a standalone novel - some of the characters are the same but from what I can gather each book centres around a different family member.

The story transports you to a faraway place and in the midst of this current pandemic where you cannot travel very far at all I have to say was very welcome. I know nothing about Penang or it's history.

The main character in this book id 16 year old Jasmine - the painter in the title - she is in school in Kenya but deeply unhappy and wanting to return to Malaya. Her mother arranges for her to return and live with a family friend. But this is 1948 and communist insurgents embark on a reign of terror.

This book is part a history lesson, part coming of age story all set against the backdrop of a tropical paradise being torn apart by civil war.

I will certainly be going back  to read the first two books in the series - The Pearl of Penang and Prisoner From Penang.

About The Author:

Historical novelist Clare Flynn is a former global marketing director and business owner. She now lives in Eastbourne on the south coast of England and most of her time these days is spent writing her novels – when she's not gazing out of her windows at the sea.

Clare is the author of eleven novels and a short story collection. Her books deal with displacement – her characters are wrenched away from their comfortable existences and forced to face new challenges – often in outposts of an empire which largely disappeared after WW2.

Her latest novel, A Painter in Penang, was published on 6th Octoberl 2020. It is set in Malaysia in 1948 during the Malayan Emergency.

Clare's novels often feature places she knows well and she does extensive research to build the period and geographic flavour of her books. A Greater World - 1920s Australia; Kurinji Flowers – pre-Independence India; Letters from a Patchwork Quilt – nineteenth century industrial England and the USA; The Green Ribbons – the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century in rural England, The Chalky Sea - World War II England (and Canada) and its sequels The Alien Corn and The Frozen River - post WW2 Canada. She has also published a collection of short stories - both historical and contemporary, A Fine Pair of Shoes and Other Stories.

To buy your copy - https://amzn.to/3iyTFYD