I enjoy reading Ingrid’s blog at http://ingridmichaelsromance.blogspot.co.uk, and so was keen to read some of her writing. I picked Giovanna’s Dilemma for my first read because the romantic cover drew me in, and I was intrigued by the blurb: When JP takes Karen out to celebrate their four-month dating anniversary,
My August competition is now closed. Thank you for your entries; I will contact each winner individually. Hannah x
The Zetland Arms Pub, at the end of the shingle beach near Deal. We often go there for lunch. They serve excellent seafood and locally caught fish. On a clear day you can see the ferries to France.
Do you believe in love at first sight? If you do, you’re in good company: a recent survey (http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/relationships/love-250110.html) found that 65 per cent of British men and 45 per cent of British women believe in love at first sight. Why the difference? I suspect it is because men are
The following review appeared in the What’s On supplement this weekend across Kent newspapers: This debut novel from the Egyptian writer who made Kent her home is set on the plantations of 1970s Kenya, where a mysterious love affair grips a young beautiful photographer. Coral Sinclair returns to her family
I recently ran a question survey via SurveyMonkey and Goodreads to discover people’s ‘most romantics’. For the ‘Most romantic season’ question, the clear favourite was autumn (43%), followed by spring (31%), and then summer (15%) and winter (11%). Given the current season and the glorious weather that many of us
You may associate the flatbread chapati with India, but in fact it is a staple in Kenya. There, the flatbread is made by hand and used as both meal accompaniment and utensil for eating, as people scoop up their vegetable and meat dishes with the chapati. In Burning Embers, set
A book title containing the word ‘Darcy’ is certainly going to catch my attention, Pride and Prejudice being one of my favourite classic romance novels. Hence I decided to give this novel a try, and I was pleased I did because it was a fun, diverting, romantic read. The action
If you’ve been following book news in the past week you’ll have read about erotic romance ebook publisher Total-E-Bound’s new initiative: giving classic romance novels an ‘erotic makeover’. Inspired by the success of the Fifty Shades series, the publisher has decided to add some spice to several classic titles. The
The conservation area of a local town, Deal, in Kent, which used to be a smugglers’ haunt in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
I recently ran a question survey via SurveyMonkey and Goodreads to discover people’s ‘most romantics’. For the ‘Most romantic film’ question I offered a choice of the following (plus respondents could note down a different film if preferred): An Affair to Remember Titanic Dirty Dancing Gone with the Wind Casablanca
I think one would find it hard to find a person on the planet who does not love elephants. The French poet Paul Éluard – one of the founders of the surrealist movement – said ‘Elephants are contagious’, and I think he was right. Their size, their beauty, their slow,
I really enjoy fiction that weaves itself into history or mythology, especially when it links to places I have visited, or would like to visit. So I was keen to read this book, Shades of Atlantis by Carol Oates, which ties into the mystical Hill of Tara – the seat
When deciding on a title for your novel, the challenge is to find one that fits the book and conveys its essence, while ensuring it is sufficiently original not to conflict with another work. As in Burning Embers, I usually have a title in mind from early on in the
Bales of hay in the summer; an authentic Kentish sight. I love it.
Although I now call England my home and list the Brontë sisters and Jane Austen among my favourite authors, for the first twenty or so years of my life, I read almost exclusively French books. At my convent school, Notre Dame de Sion, the nuns gave me a thorough grounding
With my new book entitled Masquerade, I read plenty of poetry on this theme while writing the book. Here’s one I love, by American poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox (who penned the famous adage: ‘Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone.’): Look in the eyes of
From the blurb: Raised in a poor yet genteel household, Rachel Woodley is working in France as a governess when she receives news that her mother has died, suddenly. Grief-stricken, she returns to the small town in England where she was raised to clear out the cottage…and finds a cutting
Welcome to my blog, and thank you for visiting! When it came to deciding which book/movie to focus on for this hop, the choice was easy for me: I have loved Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind and its film adaption all of my life. Here’s why: It’s the Great
Being a writer means immersing yourself in story worlds. Living and breathing the characters’ lives. Knowing those characters. Loving those characters. When I am writing a novel, I am at one with it, lost in it. Blissfully happy. Then comes that pivotal word: ‘END’. I busy myself with the business
I’ve teamed up with The Sun UK to offer a four-day holiday in Andalucía, setting for my latest novels Masquerade and Indiscretion, staying in Seville’s exclusive boutique hotel, Corral Del Rey. To enter, all you need do is join Sun +, and you can access Sun Perks and http://perks.thesun.co.uk/public-perks/andalucia-holiday.
Pablo Picasso is generally regarded as one of the most important artists of the twentieth century. A painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, poet and playwright, he was instrumental in the development of various new artistic styles and the Cubist movement. He was an extremely prolific artist (he produces 1,885 paintings alone), and – unusually
Did you know that in apartheid South Africa Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was banned? That in the Soviet Union Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four was forbidden? That in Hunan, China, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll was not permitted reading material? And that to this day, a large number of petitions are put forward
What is a romance novel without a dash of danger? A sudden threat thrust into the story forces emotions to the fore, thereby challenging the characters and eliciting new and revealing reactions. When I was writing Masquerade, I wanted to give a strong sense of the Spanish setting in the
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