Posts in the Female Fiction category

16 May
2013

Meet Giovanna Fletcher…

Hello Tesco Books Blog readers,

I’m thrilled to be able to share with you some exclusive video footage of me chatting about my debut novel, Billy and Me, which is out 23^rd May 2013. It’s all about Sophie, a small-town girl, who falls in love with Billy Buskin, one of the world’s biggest film stars. Sophie then has to learn to adjust to a life in the spotlight and to confront her own past which she’s tried so long to hide from.

I’ve loved every step along the path to becoming a published author and can’t wait to see Billy and Me in the flesh on the shelves! I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Love, Gi x

Buy Billy and Me in store from 23rd May 2013!

10 May
2013

Charlaine Harris is back with Sookie Stackhouse!

Charlaine Harris

Author Guest Posts, Crime, Thriller & Adventure, Female Fiction

Hello Tesco Books Blog readers,

For the past fourteen years, I’ve lived with a young woman named Sookie Stackhouse. She has become as familiar to me as the back of my own hand. It feels almost incredible to remember that after I wrote the first chapter of her story in 1999, my agent, Joshua Bilmes, had a hard time finding a home for Sookie.

When I began the Sookie books, my daughter was eight years old. Now she’s graduating from college. That fact, more than any other time marker, shocks me into the realization that I’ve been detailing Sookie’s adventures for a very long time . . . and my most profound gratitude must go to you, the readers, for your devotion to and investment in these characters I dreamed up.

Thanks for sticking with me through the books that succeeded and the books that fell a bit short of my aspirations. I have always tried to give you my best; to me, that’s part of the unwritten contract between writer and reader. I appreciate the incredible emotional response you have given me in return and I hope you enjoy this final novel, Dead Ever After, in the Sookie Stackhouse series.

Love, Charlaine x

Buy Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris in store now!

And join us on Twitter later today for some #FreeReadsFriday action where we’ll be giving you the chance to win the True Blood box set!

9 May
2013

Lisa Jewell tells us the story behind her new paperback Before I Met You

Lisa Jewell

Author Guest Posts, Female Fiction

I do love a good dual time frame novel; it’s one of my favourite formats for a book. But I had no idea when I sat down to write Before I Met You that that’s what I would end up writing. The book started off as a retro romance.

I fell in love with my husband in 1995, slap-bang in the middle of Blur vs Oasis, Trainspotting and combat trousers. London was very much the backdrop to our romance and I wanted to write a proper Britpop Soho love story, oozing with 90′s nostalgia. But sometimes books have minds of their own and this one decided about a quarter of the way through that it wanted to be much more than a romance.

And so I looked afresh at what I’d already written and saw a whole new storyline staring me in the face. Betty Dean, my 90′s heroine, has come to London fresh from Guernsey where she has spent the last four years caring for Arlette, her glamorous but ancient grandmother, until her death. Suddenly I envisaged Arlette as a beautiful young thing, in feathers and bugle beads, having her own coming of age adventure in London during the glorious, bohemian 20′s. I added a mysterious beneficiary called Clara Pickle into the mix and set them both loose.

Writing about the 1920’s was a real departure for me, my first foray into writing in period. It was such a joy to write about London during this period of rebirth and change, conjuring up the glamour of the smoky jazz clubs and the grime of post-war Soho. Both Betty and Arlette get involved with famous musicians of their eras, find jobs in London landmarks and have adventures and challenges along the way.

But everything that Betty learns about Arlette comes as a huge surprise. Because as far as Betty and the rest of her family had been aware, Arlette had never left the island of Guernsey. The real theme of the book, I suppose, is the secrets that people take to the grave with them. How well do we really know the people we love and care about? And what, in fact, were they doing before we met them?…

To celebrate the release of my new book, Tesco is giving you the chance to win a signed advance copy of my next novel, The House We Grew Up In!

To be in with a chance of winning, simply complete the sentence ‘Before I Met …’ about someone you know and the affect they have had on your life in the comments section below!

Get your copy of Before I Met You in store now!

8 May
2013

Books We Love – Round 1

Victoria Laws

Books We Love, Crime, Thriller & Adventure, Female Fiction

The last two weeks I have been working my way through the Books We Love List. My social life has taken a dive, my child has gone feral and the house is a mess, but it has been worth it because I have read some of the best fiction I have ever come across.

Uplifting, inspirational and life affirming – these titles will make you laugh, cry and look at life through different eyes. Below are a selection of my favourites. I am sure you will enjoy them as much as I have…

GONE GIRL - The book the best dressed sun lounger will be wearing this summer.

The cleverest book I have read for a long time – I was hooked from the first page. A wife goes missing on her fifth wedding anniversary and all the evidence is pointing towards the seemingly perfect husband… but everything is not as it seems. Or is it? Always a step ahead of you, with a great twist in the middle and an unexpected conclusion it had me regretting I read it so quickly. It will make you question everything you ever thought you knew about relationships – trust, attraction and the lengths people will go to to get revenge.

THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS - The book that will stay with you….

Long after you have turned the final page. This is a story of how love and desperation can lead the most logical people to make the wrong decision for the right reason. Set in the years following the First World War, a remote community in Western Australia are struggling to adjust to life after bereavement and injury. The isolation appeals to a surviving soldier Tom, who takes the position of a lighthouse keeper on a nearby island where he and his wife Isabel are the only inhabitants. The loving but childless couple one day find a boat with a dead man and a live baby and make a decision that will have tragic consequences. Beautifully written, with characters who come to life on the pages, inspiring thoughts of empathy, sadness and hope, it shows that the tragic legacy of war lingers long after peace.

TIGERS IN RED WEATHER - The book that will take you back in time.

East Coast glamour and Hollywood in post war America. It is 1945 and cousins, glamorous Nick and gentle Helena are on the cusp of new beginnings – Nick with her husband returned from the war, war widow Helena about to be remarried. But nothing is how it seems… Told through five characters the book flits back and forward in time over 3 decades with secrets, lies and sinister happenings spilling from every page. With touches of “Valley of the Dolls” and “The Beautiful and the Damned” this original and evocative debut is the perfect summer read.

THE GIRL THAT FELL FROM THE SKY - The book that will make you believe the true nature of courage!

In the second World War Special Operations parachuted 39 women into occupied France to carry out special missions. This is the story of Marian, a young half French girl who is recruited for a very particular reason – all linking to an old family friend and nuclear research. Love, betrayal and longing is exquisitely portrayed and the bravery of the events is truly inspirational.

THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY - The book that will take you on a journey…

With Harold, a seemingly unremarkable man whose past haunts both him, and the reader, every step of the way. On hearing the news that his former colleague Queenie lies dying of cancer in Berwick, Harold sets out on a walk from his home in South Devon to reach her before the worst. Inspired by a girl working at a petrol station, Harold believes that his faith in the walk will sustain Queenie until he can arrive, and assuage his guilty conscience. This unlikely tale explores the crippling flaws of human nature, the raw strength of love… and the durability of yachting shoes.

This is just a handful of the fantastic books that are on Book We Love List, if you like the sounds of any of these then head over to Tesco Direct now and get your copy for just £2.95! Whilst you’re there check out the rest of the great books on our book club list. Happy Reading!

7 May
2013

Fern Britton – learning life’s lessons in idyllic Cornwall

Fern Britton

Author Guest Posts, Female Fiction

Hello Tesco Books Blog Readers,

I can remember when I walked into my local Tesco store and saw copies of my book on the shelves for the first time. I had a bit of a moment, as you can imagine. All the hours I’d spent sitting here at my computer, living with my characters and developing their lives for them, had been for this. My characters were my friends – I’d laughed with them, got angry with them and cried for them. Then the time came to let them out into the real world to be judged by real people. You! I was so nervous. It was like another birth … but without the painkillers. It felt so good as sales grew and I started to hear back from you about what you liked and didn’t like. You are very powerful you know!

Anyway, here I am now with my third novel in print, The Holiday Home. Although the story centres around a beautiful house on a beach in Cornwall, it is essentially about the family dynamics between sisters, children, parents, in-laws – and the temptations of the flesh! I have been asked if it is anything like my family and I can assure you it’s not, but all families will recognise the tensions of living with people you love but don’t always understand. I set the action in Cornwall because I wanted the characters to be relaxed and on holiday. When their guard is down they don’t see the obvious.

I adore Cornwall and throughout my life I have lived, worked and holidayed there. My twenties were spent working for Westward Television and BBC South West so I did an awful lot of growing up there too. My first house was in a beautiful village, just above the banks of the River Tamar. I rented part of an old farm house and the farmer and his wife, Tom and Chris, looked after me like parents. In daffodil season I would sometimes help to bunch up the daffs in their garage and put them in their boxes ready to be sent ‘up country’ to the flower markets. Each morning, in summer, Tom would leave a punnet of his homegrown strawberries on my doorstep. Chris would spend long back-breaking days in the fields picking those strawberries and getting them ready for sale. She always wore her lipstick, rouge and an enormous straw hat to keep the sun off her perfect skin. On my bike I would cycle down to the river and read a book in the long grass, listening as the salmon leapt for flies. Happy memories.

Later I bought my own house in the village. A little two-up-two-down with a wonky roof and no bathroom; not much of a kitchen either! But I saved up and with the help of a local builder, Terry, created a cottage I was proud of. Behind an old Victorian fireplace, I even found an old Clome (bread) oven set into the wall.

I hope that The Holiday Home will give you a taste of a very special county and maybe you’ll come and visit. I’ll buy you a cuppa!

Lots of love

Fern xx

Buy The Holiday Home by Fern Britton online and in store from the 9th May!

25 Apr
2013

Sophie Kinsella has answered your questions….

Robert Chase

Competitions, Female Fiction

Today is a big day for all Sophie Kinsella fans with the publication in hardback of her new novel Wedding Night and the paperback of the bestselling hardback I’ve Got Your Number.

Sophie kindly answered 10 of your questions and the lucky winners have a signed copy of Wedding Night and a paperback copy of I’ve Got Your Number heading their way right now! For now, enjoy what Sophie had to say!

1. It’s not easy to write comic fiction – but your books always manage to make me giggle. What’s the secret to laugh-out-loud scenes in a novel?

Thank you! I think you have to trust your instincts and write what you yourself would find funny, rather than trying to second-guess your readers. I think timing is crucial. And I work on scenes over and over, till they feel exactly right.

2. My favourite ever books of yours are the Shopaholic series. Nothing makes me laugh as much (often out loud!) Love Becky Bloomwood, and was wondering how you came up with the character – are there bits of you in there – or a friend? I’m sure there is a small bit of me!

Thank you, I appreciate it! Becky started off as a combination of me and my sister and various friends – but she soon turned into her own character, and now I almost feel as though she is a real person. A lot of people say they are Becky, even men!

3. Do you ever considering writing any darker books or books of a different genre? Not that I would want you to as I love all of your books!

I once thought I’d like to write a thriller. I came up with a plot involving lots of grisly deaths, wrote a few chapters and showed it to my agent. She said, ‘the plot is fine, but the people are all far too nice and jolly, they need to be dark and gritty.’ I decided that dark and gritty wasn’t really me and I’ve never tried a thriller since!

4. Do you base your characters on people that you know or are they complete works of fiction? Which character/s are you most fond of?

I don’t deliberately take people from real life, but of course I’m influenced by them. I would say I’m fond of all my characters – they all have different great characteristics. If I had to choose one at gun-point it would be Becky, simply because I have spent the most time with her.

5. Who is your favourite character/heroine from your standalone books? I adore Emma from Can You Keep A Secret, as i can really identify with her (as a lot of readers probably can lol)

Oh, I really can’t pick one! The others would feel hurt!

6. What would your ideal occupation be if you weren’t a successful author, and is there anything in life that you would like to accomplish.

I would have loved to be an internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter (if I had a voice transplant.) Or maybe a kindergarten teacher. There are so many things in life I’d like to accomplish I don’t know where to start! For example, a big one: I would like to travel more. And a small one: I don’t know how to do a French plait. I have recently had a daughter, so I’d better learn!

7. A bit random, but what is your favourite cheese?

Ooh, good question. Depends on my mood but I think I’ll say goat’s cheese.

8. What did you want to do when you were still at school?

My one ambition was to be in the musical Annie. Sadly it never came true! Then I wanted to be a ballerina. Also did not come true.

9. What was your favourite book as a child?

The one which really captured my imagination was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I read it in one sitting, on Christmas morning.

10. Which novel was the most challenging to write?

Twenties Girl, for sure. I had never written a ghost book before and it’s trickier than you think! But it was also a very rewarding book to write.

Get your hands on Sophie Kinsella books online and in store now!

24 Apr
2013

Pasta-mad Stella Newman tells about her new book, Leftovers

Stella Newman

Author Guest Posts, Female Fiction

Hello Tesco books blog readers!

I love food. I mean I really love food. I love thinking about it, talking about it, cooking it and most of all eating it. From a perfectly simple crumpet, dripping with butter and honey to help sweeten a Monday morning, to an all-the-trimmings Sunday roast with extra crispy crunchy potatoes – I see food as a reliable source of pleasure in a universe where not everything is so reliable.

Food plays a large part in my books. The heroine of my first novel, Pear-shaped, was a pudding developer for a supermarket – now there’s a dream job if ever there was one! But having extensively researched the creamiest vanilla custards, the fudgiest chocolate brownies and the lushest cheesecakes, my thoughts on book two turned to savoury. So while my new novel, Leftovers, has its fair share of sweet treats, the focus this time was on pasta.

I’m sure I should have been born Italian. I could happily eat pasta three times a day. Hidden in my parents’ photo albums is a really embarrassing picture of me on my 13^th birthday, sitting burnt-nosed on holiday in Italy, with a bowl of spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce in front of me, a candle in it. That photo was taken at 8am, and that spaghetti was the best breakfast I’ve ever eaten.

The heroine in Leftovers lives a life that may be familiar to many of us: things have not worked out the way they were supposed to. Her line-manager makes David Brent look like a dream boss; her last relationship ended in disappointment and sadness; and every time she goes on Facebook it seems that the whole world is having more fun than her. ‘Loneliness’ as a subject matter doesn’t sound very glamorous – it isn’t, and yet it’s an emotion that most of us feel at some time in our lives. I wanted to write about it in a way that was realistic, entertaining, and ultimately hopeful. And while pasta alone isn’t the answer to all of life’s problems, a bowl of carbonara, with crispy bacon bits and beautiful creamy sauce coating long strands of spaghetti, shared with a friend, is certainly a good start.

16 Apr
2013

Santa tells us about her new book, The Summer House

Santa Montefiore

Author Guest Posts, Female Fiction

Hello Tesco Books Blog readers,

Summer houses, or ‘follies’ as they are often called, have always intrigued and fascinated me. They are secret, secluded places where the imagination can be let loose.

My parents have a rambling old Jacobean house in Hampshire, which my grandfather bought just after the war. In the garden, there is a green clapboard summer house on wheels, which can be turned to face the sun. As children we used it as a merry-go-round, a school for our toys and for playing Little House on the Prairie (complete with American accents!). That little house nurtured my imagination and I lived many different lives within it. Real life was much less interesting. In the summer house I could be whoever I wanted to be – And I was never me!

The grand stone follies, like the one in my novel, The Summer House, are the grown-up versions of my little green one. Follies were built to celebrate beauty and nurture love. Designed in the classical style, they were positioned beside magnificent lakes or on hills, with splendid views that pulled at the heart. For beauty inspires love; when we gaze at a magnificent sunset and feel the deep stirring of something powerful and sad within us, it is simply the yearning for love. These follies were meant to be romantic. They were meant to be whimsical. They were most certainly designed to encourage fantasy…

For me, they are the keepers of secrets. If only the walls could talk! How fabulous to think that while they were used for taking tea and watching the sunset, after dark they became a rendezvous point for many a forbidden love. They have watched desperate lovers planning their flight, naïve lovers dreaming impossible dreams, adulterous lovers stealing passionate moments together and the countless confessions that beauty inspires by opening hearts to honesty and truth.

Follies are silent witnesses, which is what makes them so fascinating. And though I included a folly in my novel, I never expected it to take over. But follies are like that – they allow the imagination to flow, and mine needs very little encouragement!

The Summer House is a novel about love in the biggest sense. Love in all its many forms. And in the very centre of it all stands the stone folly, which quietly observes the loves and losses of those passing through it. Within its four walls, life is condensed down to a bare essential, to the only thing that truly matters: love.

I hope you enjoy my new book!
Santa x

Get your copy of The Summer House in store and online from 25th April!

10 Apr
2013

Hello from Marian Keyes…

Marian Keyes

Author Guest Posts, Female Fiction

This week we caught up with internationally bestselling author Marian Keyes to ask her a few questions ahead of the publication of her new paperback, The Mystery of Mercy Close!

1. We all really enjoyed the concept of a shovel list. Are any of the things on Helen’s shovel list also on your own?

I always thought I was fairly intolerant, until I met Helen Walsh. There are some things on her shovel list that I have on mine – for example, the smell of boiled eggs – but she’s far worse than me. We both drive a Fiat 500 but whereas she insists on the colour black for everything, my car is light blue. Like Helen I can’t abide ‘spiritual’ carry-on – mindfulness, yoga, all that – especially when it’s suggested as a cure for depression. And young men who wear their jeans so low-slung that their bums are on display – they are TOP of my shovel list!

2. The boyband in the book are a stereotypical aging boy-band. Were any of the members or the band itself based on an actual boy-band?

Even if I had based Laddz on a real group, I wouldn’t say, what with the fear of being sued and all that. But luckily, boy-bands seem to deliberately organise themselves so that there’s something for everyone, so it meant I had lots of different types of characters to work with and that was fun.

3. How did you come up with the names for the paint colours and was this idea based on someone’s house you’d seen?

I honestly have no idea why I came up with the paint colours. I wasn’t inspired by anyone’s house. But so many paint names are aspirational and over-positive – Sunburst, Ocean Blue, Leaf Green – that the contrary part of me wanted to create paint names that no-one in their right mind would yearn for. It became a game for me, coming up with the most off-putting ones. I think my favourite is 40 Days In the Wilderness.

4. Have we seen the last of the Walsh family or will they be back?

We definitely haven’t seen the last of the Walsh family. I’m too fond of them to let them go. I’m not sure yet how I’ll go about writing about them but I’d love to write another Helen novel. Also Mammy Walsh and Daddy Walsh might have stories to tell.

5. Tell us, what is a Marian Moment?

Well, if you watch the video I’ve made for you, it will explain all! But basically, a Marian Moment is a happy moment, anything that makes you feel special or relaxed. You know, eating chocolate with your feet up or soaking in a bubble bath. I really want all the Tesco Books blog readers to join in as well. So go and have one and tell me all about it on Twitter using the hash tag #marianmoment. I can’t wait to read them!

Buy The Mystery of Mercy Close in store as part of the paperback chart from 11th April!

8 Apr
2013

Jane Costello and The Wish List

Jane Costello

Author Guest Posts, Female Fiction

Hello Tesco Books Blog readers!

If ever there was a twenty-first-century phenomenon it’s the bucket list.

While Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson might not have been the first to compose theirs, there’s no doubt that my mother’s generation was more preoccupied with getting the dinner on the table each night than ticking off a list that included Go Cliff Diving and Attend Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

These days, they’re everywhere. Type into Google ‘Things to do before you die’ and suggestions appear in their thousands, ranging from the energetic (learn to surf; complete a skydive) to the materialistic (fly first class; own a walk-in wardrobe).

Then there’s the romantic (kiss in the rain), the linguistic (half the world, it appears, wants to learn Japanese) and the downright random (text a stranger ‘I hid the body’ and see what happens. Not one I’d endorse personally, I should add).

The essence of a good bucket list is supposed to be encouraging a life well-lived, rather than a masterclass in one-up-manship – a happy equilibrium of wild adventures and simple pleasures. Which must reflect poorly on me because my first draft required the sort of capital that would threaten Richard Branson with a CCJ.

It was because of the increasing omnipresence of bucket lists that I decided to write my latest novel, about one woman’s determination to tackle a set of personal aspirations she’d laid out fifteen years earlier as a teenager.

That and the fact that as I approach my own milestone birthday next year (forty… oh, I know, impossible to believe, eh?), I found my thoughts turning to those things I’d hoped to have accomplished by now.

The list started off vast, until I realized that, wild adventures or not, I’d never manage a single one if I didn’t inject a touch of realism.