Sunday 2 July 2017

Blog Tour and Guest Post - Alice in Theatreland buy Julia Roberts



What They Say:

It’s summer 1976; London is languishing in the sultry heat. Beautiful and talented nineteen-year-old, Alice Abbott, arrives in the city with high hopes of one day seeing her name up in lights but first she must impress Richard, the producer of a new West End show, Theatreland.

Alice is befriended at the audition by the more experienced Gina, who, although burdened by her own dark secrets, is determined to protect the newcomer from the sleaze behind the glamour. She also attracts attention from the male lead in the show, Peter, a former pop star struggling to escape his playboy reputation.

Alice’s star seems to be rising as fast as the temperature until she naively accepts an impromptu dinner invitation from Richard. What happened that night? And how far will Richard go to protect his guilty secret?

Guest Post

Thanks very much Jo for inviting me on to your blog to talk about my latest novel Alice in Theatreland, which is set in the West End theatre world of London in 1976. 
From the audience point of view, stage productions are all glitz and glamour but the reality on the other side of the footlights can be far from the polished productions we all applaud particularly when there is a despicable impresario like Richard involved.
Richard, who we meet in chapter two, is the main villain of the piece, cruel and thoughtless to his wife, Anita, and harbouring a secret desire for innocent young dancers, but there are a few other seriously unpleasant characters.
In the excerpt below, we meet Franco who is the boss of a 'hostess' club, The Ostrich, where Alice's new found friend, Gina, is working while also rehearsing for Theatreland. Gina believes Franco may have mafia connections and is justifiably afraid of him...

I hope that you have enjoyed the excerpt and that you will enjoy reading about all the characters (there are some nice ones too) as much as I enjoyed writing about them. 

Excerpt 

‘My office. Now.’

Gina’s head shot upright from the position where her chin had been resting on her chest. Franco was towering above her, his face like thunder and the podgy, balding American, whose business selling greetings cards had made him a millionaire but not a very interesting one, was drumming his fingers in an aggravated manner on the table. As Gina eased out of the private booth, she could hear Franco apologising profusely and offering the customer a bottle of Moet on the house.

Shit, Gina thought, I’m for it now. Momentarily she debated whether or not to make a run for it but what would be the point? Franco knew where she lived and he would have no hesitation in sending the boys round to rough her up a little. Imagine if I turned up to rehearsals tomorrow with a black eye or worse, she thought. 

Four and a half weeks of burning the candle at both ends had finally caught up with Gina. She was up each morning at 7.30 to get to rehearsals for 9, getting home at 7 for a couple of hours sleep before cabbing it in to the Ostrich Club for 10.30. Even on quiet nights she wasn’t allowed to leave until half past two, which meant crawling in to bed an hour later for four hours sleep before the whole routine started over. 

It was little wonder that she had dozed off as the boring American droned on and on about the global expansion of his company meaning he was constantly travelling away from his wife and family. Earlier in the evening, he had shown her a photo of his wife wearing a swimming costume, crown and a sash with the words Miss Idaho on it. Apparently, that was how they had met. As a successful local businessman, he had been one of the judges in the beauty pageant and the newly-crowned Miss Idaho, who must have been thirty years his junior, had fallen head over heels with the dashing and scintillating Mr “Cards R Us”. It clearly had nothing to do with his millions of dollars, Gina thought, as she perched on the edge of her chair waiting for Franco to finish trying to sort out the mess she had caused.

‘You’ll pay for that bottle of Moet out of your wages,’ Franco said from behind her, his voice laced with ice. ‘I don’t know what’s been wrong with you this past couple of weeks, Gina. You used to be one of my best girls but carry on like this and I’ll have to get rid of you.’

Gina sat perfectly still, not daring to even blink. What did he mean by “get rid of you”? she wondered.



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 
Julia Roberts’ passion for writing began when, at the age of ten, after winning second prize in a short story-writing competition, she announced that she wanted to write a book. After a small gap of forty-seven years, and a career in the entertainment industry, Julia finally fulfilled her dream in 2013 when her first book, a memoir entitled One Hundred Lengths of the Pool, was published by Preface Publishing. Two weeks later she had the idea for her first novel, Life’s a Beach and Then…, book one in the Liberty Sands Trilogy, which was released in May 2015.
Julia still works full-time as a Presenter for the TV channel QVC, where she has recently celebrated her twenty-third anniversary.
She now lives in Ascot with her partner of thirty-nine years and occasionally one or other of her adult children and their respective cats.

You can find out more about Julia and her upcoming books on her Facebook page www.facebook.com/JuliaRobertsTV and her website www.juliarobertsauthor.com
You can also follow her on Twitter @JuliaRobertsTV

By Julia Roberts
Life’s a Beach and Then… (Liberty Sands trilogy, book one)
If He Really Loved Me… (Liberty Sands trilogy, book two)
It’s Never Too Late to Say… (Liberty Sands trilogy, book three)
Time for a Short Story
The Shadow of Her Smile (free short story on www.juliarobertsauthor.com)
One Hundred Lengths of the Pool

  Links
  
   
Amazon

short link


 

Saturday 1 July 2017

Blog Blitz and Review - Summer at Buttercup Beach By Holly Martin

What They Say:

Pull up a deck chair and bask in the beautiful sunshine on Buttercup Beach. The sand is warm, the sea is sparkling blue and romance is sizzling in the air…
For two years Freya Greene has hidden the fact that she’s totally and utterly in love with her best friend Rome Lancaster. It’s not been easy – they work together in his glasswork business, she lives above his workshop and, he’s completely gorgeous. But Rome has never shown any sign of returning those feelings. Until now…
Lately, they’ve shared affectionate touches and words heavy with meaning. Yet Freya knows Rome has a damaged heart. After losing his fiancĂ© in a tragic accident, he’s not allowed himself to fall in love.
Freya has already had her heart broken by a man who couldn’t let go of a past love. Can she risk it happening again? Rome and Freya have a friendship that could blossom into something more. Are they both brave enough to take that chance?
Fall in love on Hope Island with the perfect romantic story to escape into this summer. For fans of Miranda Dickinson, Sarah Morgan and Jane Costello.

What I Say:
I would like to thank Holly Martin and Bookouture for approving me to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I have to say Holly has done it again with her lovely sweeping story of love and heartbreak showing the way for a heart to heal after tragedy.

I fell in love with Freya and Rome is Holly's previous book but this can be read as a stand alone without needing to know anything from the first book as Holly keeps the reader informed every step of the way.

There is also plenty of laughs along the way, which is the highlight of all Holly's stories and she doesn't over do the descriptive writing but gives you just enough to pull you in and want to find out more.

Rome is another of Holly's hot heroes who had me swooning in parts and my heartbreaking in others as he struggled with his feelings.  Freya is a lovely character and I really did feel for her.



About The Author
Holly Martin

Holly lives in a little white cottage by the sea. She studied media at university which led to a very glitzy career as a hotel receptionist followed by an even more glamorous two years working in a bank. The moment that one of her colleagues received the much-coveted carriage clock for fifteen years’ service was the moment when she knew she had to escape. She quit her job and returned to university to train to be a teacher. Three years later, she emerged wide-eyed and terrified that she now had responsibility for the development of thirty young minds. She taught for four years and then escaped the classroom to teach history workshops, dressing up as a Viking one day and an Egyptian High Priestess the next. But the long journeys around the UK and many hours sat on the M25 gave her a lot of time to plan out her stories and she now writes full time, doing what she loves.

Holly has been writing for 8 years. She was shortlisted for the New Talent Award at the Festival of Romance. Her short story won the Sunlounger competition and was published in the Sunlounger anthology. She won the Carina Valentine’s competition at the Festival of Romance 2013 with her novel The Guestbook. She was shortlisted for Best Romantic Read, Best eBook and Innovation in Romantic Fiction at the Festival of Romance 2014. She is the bestselling author of 18 books

Follow her on Twitter @HollyMAuthor