Blogiversary Guest Post: Jennifer Gilby Roberts in Bookland + Giveaway

We moved house in the summer and our new house has no shelves. The pictures from when the previous owner was still living there show no freestanding bookcases either, so clearly she was not a kindred spirit. When we finally get some money together, I am installing a lot of them. I'm planning a whole open wall around the door to the living room. At some point, we will also turn the storeroom and part of the sunroom into an office and that will be lined with shelves. (I'd love one of those 'secret passage' doors that's actually a moving bookcase, but sadly I don't think it's going to work in this house.)

The future bookcase site (some imagination required)

For your reading pleasure, we currently have three sofas. Two are actually sofa beds – one which is not very comfortable and one which was lovely until I washed the cushion covers (what was I thinking?). Either they shrank or the toddler broke something while jumping on it, and now the cushions keep collapsing into the base. But my sister-in-law is getting a new sofa, so we should be getting her old one to destroy very soon. We did have a rather nice padded rocking chair, but the toddler tended to use it more like a rocking horse and we really didn't want to take her to Accident & Emergency again.

 My book haven. The tiles are going, but the turquoise bath is staying (so there).

The bath is now my favourite place to read, since there I don't have Peppa Pig or Wheeler Dealers in the background. I haven’t dared take the kindle in, although I have chanced the odd library book (shh!). I've discovered that a bath is 20000-25000 words long at my reading pace. Fortunately, one of my current favourite writers (Julia Quinn) has done several books of novellas and one of these stories is the perfect length. Obviously, I will have to buy Cathy Bramley’s serials next, as they are about the same. I bet you never thought of putting “ideal bath length” in your descriptions, huh Cathy?

Expect little, forgive much?

After a whirlwind courtship, Brittany Beresford married her Prince Charming and looked forward to living happily ever after. Five years later, she’s been reduced to a not-quite-desperate housewife, with a husband who spends more time flossing his teeth than holding meaningful conversations with her.

She braves his disapproval and turns working mother and, other than feeling far more drawn to a handsome baker she works with than him, things seem to be looking up. But then she discovers that his “hobbies” include something even worse than golf - and he expects her to put up and shut up.

Fairy tale illusions shattered, but still believing marriage is for life and wanting the best for her son, Brittany has a choice to make: should she follow her heart, or her conscience?