Novel Spotlight: If I Say Yes by Brandy Jellum
About the Book Elizabeth Lewis was the child of Hollywood’s darling couple, until her father murdered her mother. Six years later, she has traded her flashy,…
Debut Authors and Titles – March 2012
Debut Authors and Titles – March 2012
Title: Losing Clementine
Author: Ashley Ream
Release Date: March 6
Synopsis: In thirty days Clementine Pritchard will be finished with her last painting and her life.
World-renowned artist and sharp-tongued wit Clementine Pritchard has decided that she’s done. After flushing away a medicine cabinet full of prescriptions, she gives herself thirty days to tie up loose ends—finish one last painting, make nice with her ex-husband, and find a home for her cat. Clementine plans to spend the month she has left in a swirl of art-world parties, manic work sessions, and outrageous acts—but what she doesn’t expect is to uncover secrets surrounding the tragedy that befell her mother and sister. In an ending no one sees coming, will we lose Clementine or will we find her?
A bold debut from an exciting new voice, Losing Clementine is a wonderfully entertaining and poignant novel about unanticipated self-discovery that features one of the most irresistible, if deeply flawed, characters to grace contemporary fiction in years.
Title: How to Eat a Cupcake
Author: Meg Donohue
Release Date: March 13
Synopsis: Free-spirited Annie Quintana and sophisticated Julia St. Clair come from two different worlds. Yet, as the daughter of the St. Clairs’ housekeeper, Annie grew up in Julia’s San Francisco mansion and they forged a bond that only two little girls oblivious to class differences could—until a life-altering betrayal destroyed their friendship.
A decade later, Annie bakes to fill the void left in her heart by her mother’s death, and a painful secret jeopardizes Julia’s engagement to the man she loves. A chance reunion prompts the unlikely duo to open a cupcakery, but when a mysterious saboteur opens up old wounds, they must finally face the truth about their past or risk losing everything.
Title: A Surrey State of Affairs
Author: Ceri Radford
Release Date: March 29
Synopsis: Constance Harding’s comfortable corner of the Home Counties is her own little piece of heaven. Her time is spent party-planning (disastrous), matchmaking for her startlingly well-dressed son Rupert (catastrophic), and dreaming of the hat aisles at John Lewis. But she’s about to learn that her perfect home conceals scandal that would make the vicar blush. Her Lithuanian housekeeper’s polyester underwear keeps appearing in her husband’s study, her parrot has gained a troubling new vocabulary and her daughter is turning into a Lycra-clad gap-year strumpet. As her family falls apart, Constance embarks on an extraordinary journey. From tripping in Ibiza to riding with a handsome Argentinean gaucho whose only English words are ‘Britney’ and ‘Spears’, Constance discovers a wider world she thought it was too late to find …
Guest Post by Samantha March : Reviews
No one writes a book hoping everyone will hate it. At least, I’m 99% positive on that. But what does a bad review do to an author’s spirits? When Destined to Fail went on sale in October, I was truly petrified. I remember when the first review popped up on Amazon. Four stars. Good review. Reader connected with the book. I cried. Of course I cried. Years of hard work and determination and endless typing and editing and frustrations over characters and scenes and nightmares of red pens had all culminated to that moment. My book was being read and getting reviews.
The next five reviews on Amazon were all four stars. Then reviews started going up on GoodReads. Four stars. A five star! (Yes, I nearly fell over when I saw my first five star rating.) Book bloggers were posting their reviews, and the feedback was overwhelmingly good. While I was ecstatic about this, I knew a bad review was out there lurking. It had to be. I never expected everyone to love or even like my book. It just wouldn’t be possible.
Then came the two star. A short little blurb on Amazon that said there were too many heavy topics and my main character was “contradictory.” Not much more was said – only six lines, so I really didn’t know what to take away from the review. It wasn’t really constructive feedback in my opinion, because it was so short and didn’t explain why they thought this. But hey, that’s okay. And you know what? It really was okay. I honestly expected myself to have a meltdown when the first “bad” review came in. I thought I would cry and yell and tell myself I would never write again (okay, maybe not that last one, but you see what I mean). But…I didn’t. I was strangely calm. So strangely calm I wondered if perhaps I was getting sick. Or if I didn’t read the review properly. Or something – anything!
I think I had prepared myself enough that when a negative review was posted, I knew it was coming. It’s a part of life for people to disagree with others and not like everything, even if others do. And another thing – I realize that my book has some pretty controversial subjects in there. It’s not light, it’s not fluff. Serious issues are spoken about, serious decisions are made by the characters. If everyone had a positive reaction to the book, I would think something was seriously weird.
I won’t mind if people give their feedback saying it wasn’t their cup of tea, or they didn’t expect something with a pink cover to be so serious. I will also be happy if people have a strong reaction to the book, whether good or bad. Even if it is bad, it means my story said something to them. It touched them in some way. I have read books before that I didn’t particularly enjoy, but some of those same books have characters that haunt me. That I can’t help but tell everyone about. Because I want others to read it and let me know what they think. If some readers have this reaction, great. Maybe it will get more people to read Destined to Fail and they will enjoy it. Who knows?
I will never be able to write a book that is aimed just at pleasing people. Who can? I want to write what I want to write, and I will do just that. Some books might be deeper women’s fiction. Some might be lighter chick lit. I have on my writer’s bucket list (post about this to come soon) to write a mystery and a book with a magical element.
My journey as an author has only just begun. Feedback, reviews, and ratings will always be there. Whether positive, negative, or just in between, I will embrace the comments and enjoy knowing that my book is being read. Because no one writes a book without wanting readers.
