Month: November 2021

In the Spotlight – Lizzie Chantree

Posted on | by Rosie Travers | Leave a Comment on In the Spotlight – Lizzie Chantree

Today, I’d like turn the spotlight on international best-selling author Lizzie Chantree. I’m always happy to share exciting book news, and Lizzie’s eighth novel, The Woman Who Felt Invisible, is published this week. I first me Lizzie back in 2018 when we had books with the same publisher. Lizzie is a prolific and inspirational writer, totally supportive to her fellow authors and always willing to hand out help and advice. She’s very active on social media and I’m totally in awe of her commitment and energy!

Lizzie started her own business at the age of 18 and became one of Fair Play London and The Patent Office’s British Female Inventors of the Year in 2000. She discovered her love of writing fiction when her children were little and now works as a business mentor and runs a popular networking hour on social media, where creatives can support to each other. Unsurprisingly, Lizzie writes stories about about women with unusual and adventurous businesses, who are far stronger than they realise. Her novels are full of friendship and laughter. She lives with her family on the coast in Essex.

Her new book, The Woman Who Felt Invisible, is an exciting, romantic story of love and new beginnings. Learning to love herself and be content on her own is the first step. But will Olivia be able to leave her past behind, follow her heart and find lasting happiness?

Blurb

Working as a stationery supervisor and a sitter to a pair of internet famous, delinquent dogs, wasn’t how former cyber-specialist, Olivia, imagined her life turning out.  Working in a tiny cubicle with a decrepit computer and being overlooked had suited her for a while, but now she’s fed up, lonely and determined to make the world ‘see’ her again. Old school friend, Darius, wants to fill Olivia’s days with romance, but their love of technology has taken them on very different paths. Gorgeous undercover policeman Gabe, is steadfast in finding out if Olivia was part of an online scam, but something doesn’t feel right and he suspects someone else was manipulating her life. 

Can love blossom from the most deceptive of starts? And can someone who feels lost, find a way to flourish against all odds?

Excerpt

This was it. This was Olivia Tenby’s life, now. This was how low she had come. At the age of forty-one, she was sweating her guts out in a house that felt like a furnace, babysitting two delinquent Labradoodle dogs called Bertie and Belle, while their owners swanned around getting even richer somewhere else. Wiping her palms across her face, feeling glad she’d discarded her top so that she couldn’t drip on it, she pressed a button. Music blared out of speakers set into the ceiling. This house had everything – lights that came on when you spoke to them, a vacuum cleaner that tripped you over while it scurried along the floor of its own accord, and a fridge that dispensed perfectly shaped ice cubes into crystal glasses.

Olivia looked around furtively for a moment, and then laughed and decided to go for it. Her job as dog sitter extraordinaire had begun two weeks ago. She’d been told to entertain the excitable animals in any way she could think of, as they were naughty and destroyed everything while the owners were out – which they always were. Olivia hadn’t even met them, which was baffling. They left her notes with instructions on how to stop the dogs eating the walls and making a mess of the thick pile carpets. She actually quite liked the job, it was as easy as walking in a straight line. Then she thought about how wobbly she always was after three vodka and cokes, and quickly pushed that picture aside. The dogs were bored and, although her job included giving the house a cursory swipe with a duster, it was always immaculate when she arrived. Something was a bit weird, though, as the place was incredibly hot. The dogs liked to slobber all over her, making her even hotter. So she’d taken to stripping off as soon as she sat down with the pooches, otherwise she’d probably pass out and be found weeks later, mummified in dog hair.

Book links: Lizzie Chantree.

Universal book buy link: The little ice cream shop: viewbook.at/IceCreamShopByTheSea

Universal book buy link: Networking for writers: viewbook.at/NetworkingForWriters

Universal book buy link: If you love me, I’m yours: viewbook.at/IfYouLoveMe-ImYours

Universal book buy link: Ninja School Mum: viewbook.at/NinjaSchoolMumRomance

Universal book buy link: Babe Driven: viewbook.at/BabeDriven

Universal book buy link: Love’s Child: viewBook.at/Amazon-LovesChild

Universal book buy link: Finding Gina: viewbook.at/FindingGina

Shh… It’s Our Secret: https://www.bhcpress.com/Books_Chantree_Shh_Its_Our_Secret.html
The woman who felt invisible: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09J98F32J

Social media links:

Website: www.lizziechantree.com

Author page: https://www.viewAuthor.at/LizzieChantree

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lizzie_Chantree

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LizzieChantree/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7391757.Lizzie_Chantree

Wishing Lizzie every success with her new book!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lizzie_chantree/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/LizzieChantree/pins/

FB Groups: https://www.facebook.com/groups/647115202160536/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/lizzie-chantree

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lizziechantreeauthor

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnCop-RlAcGqggZG3JfE-Mw

On Location with Rachel Brimble

Posted on | by Rosie Travers | 2 Comments on On Location with Rachel Brimble

It’s season finale time – and we’re staying in the West Country for our last On Location post of the year. I’m delighted to welcome author Rachel Brimble as my guest to talk about the beautiful city of Bath, the setting for her series of Regency novels.

I was born and bred in the maritime city of Bristol but, in 2001, my husband and I moved to a small market town just a short 30-minute drive from Bath, along with our eldest daughter who was two at the time and our youngest daughter who was happily cooking away in my belly!

Back then, writing was little more than a pipedream that I’d harboured for as long as I can remember but, once we were living so close to Bath it quickly became my one of favourite places to visit and all sorts of story ideas began to float around in my mind.

Not that I did anything about them until a few years to later – I didn’t start writing properly until my youngest started school full-time in 2005. As a voracious reader of historical fiction and romance, as well as an avid watcher of each and every period drama that might grace our TV screens, to be so close to where so many famous scenes have been filmed is a constant thrill.

Bath has been used for BBC adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey, not to mention films such as The Duchess starring Kiera Knightley and Vanity Fair starring Reese Witherspoon. Most recently, of course, it was used in season 1 of the fabulously successful Bridgerton.

One of my favourite places to visit is No 1 Royal Crescent which is open to the public for most of the year. Each room, it fantastic staircase, kitchens and small yard have all been retained as they might have looked during mid-late eighteenth century. I especially enjoy visiting when I am in the process of plotting a new series which I plan to set in Bath. This house has been used several times in my different books albeit in different guises!

Other famous Bath landmarks I have used in my books include Pulteney Bridge, Parade Gardens, Victoria Park, Sally Lunn’s Eating House, the Assembly Rooms, the Pump room and many of the pubs dotted around the city, some of which date back to early fourteenth century. The city is an absolute godsend to me and my work!

Every September (if circumstances allow), Bath hosts the Jane Austen festival will draws Janeites (devotees of Jane Austen) from all over the world. The events I have attended over the years have always been fantastic and vary from tours around the city, to balls, to regency markets and palm-reading. It’s two weeks of Jane Austen and Regency fun which culminates in the grand Regency Parade where hundred of people snake through the city side by side. Actors and the public dress up in Regency costume, including military uniforms, day dresses, ball gowns and clerical dress. It’s a wonderful sight to see and a date for next year’s diary for any Jane Austen fans!

So far, all of my historicals have been set in Bath and Pennington’s department store, which is the focus of the Shop Girl series, was inspired by Jolly’s on Bath’s famous Milsom Street… although Pennington’s is probably five times the size!

As for other real-life places which feature in my latest series, The Ladies of Carson Street, there are too many mentioned in their real or fictional guises to list them all, but Carson Street itself was ignited in my imagination by North Parade, a beautiful row of Georgian townhouses opposite Parade Gardens.

Bath is wonderful and I feel blessed to live so very close and be able to visit whenever I want…

Books 1 & 2 in the Ladies of Carson Street trilogy are available now with book 3 due for release in February 2022. Here are the buy links for A Widow’s Vow and Trouble For The Leading Lady.

mybook.to/widowsvow

mybook.to/leadinglady

You can find out more about Rachel and her writing at https://www.rachelbrimble.com

Many thanks to Rachel for taking part. I’ve visited Bath many times and it has to be one of my favourite cities in the UK. It’s a great way to end the series and I hope everyone has enjoyed reading about the locations I’ve featured over the summer. Hopefully you feel inspired to visit some of these amazing places, even if it’s just through the pages of a book!