Today's review is for Sarra Manning's latest book, London Belongs to Us. Recently published by Hot Key Books, London Belongs to Us is an ode to the city of London. A very fun one at that. Read my thought on the book here:

Title: London Belongs to Us

Author: Sarra Manning

Published: June 2nd 2016 by Hot Key Books

Amazon | Amazon UK

Blurb: Seventeen-year-old Sunny's always been a little bit of a pushover. But when she's sent a picture of her boyfriend kissing another girl, she knows she's got to act. What follows is a mad, twelve-hour dash around London - starting at 8pm in Crystal Palace (so far away from civilisation you can't even get the Tube there) then sweeping through Camden, Shoreditch, Soho, Kensington, Notting Hill . . . and ending up at 8am in Alexandra Palace.

Title: Everything Love Is

Author: Claire King

Published: July 28th by Bloomsbury

Amazon | Amazon UK

Today's my stop on the Blog Tour for We'll Always Have Paris by Sue Watson, recently released by Sphere. Last week I interviewed Sue on the blog so if you missed it, have a look at it here. And now, my thoughts on the book: 

Title: We'll Always Have Paris

Author: Sue Watson

Published: June 27th 2016 by Sphere

Amazon| Amazon UK 

Blurb: Does first love deserve a second chance?

When she was almost seventeen, Rosie Draper locked eyes with a charismatic student called Peter during their first week at art college, changing the course of her life forever. Now, on the cusp of sixty-five and recently widowed, Rosie is slowly coming to terms with a new future. And after a chance encounter with Peter, forty-seven years later, they both begin to wonder 'what if'...

About the author:

In the last few months, I've started listening to Audiobooks and I'm really enjoying them. My latest audiobook is A Memory of Violets by Hazel Gaynor, a stunning story about the flower sellers' in London at the beginning of the past century. Have a look at my thoughts about this story: 

Title: A Memory of Violets

Author: Hazel Gaynor

Published: February 12th 2015 by Harper

Amazon | Amazon UK

Blurb: In 1912, twenty-year-old Tilly Harper leaves the peace and beauty of her native Lake District for London, to become assistant housemother at Mr. Shaw’s Home for Watercress and Flower Girls. For years, the home has cared for London’s flower girls—orphaned and crippled children living on the grimy streets and selling posies of violets and watercress to survive.

Soon after she arrives, Tilly discovers a diary written by an orphan named Florrie—a young Irish flower girl who died of a broken heart after she and her sister, Rosie, were separated. Moved by Florrie’s pain and all she endured in her brief life, Tilly sets out to discover what happened to Rosie. But the search will not be easy. Full of twists and surprises, it leads the caring and determined young woman into unexpected places, including the depths of her own heart.

Review: For the last month, I've been listening to the audiobook of A Memory of Violets and enjoying every minute. Not only is the story captivating and beautifully executed but the narration is superb. With a steady pace and so many twits and secrets, A Memory of Violets makes for a great story that will keep you glued to its pages for hours.

The story centers around Tilly Harper, a sweet girl from the Lake District that starts working in a home for flower girls in London. There, she discovers a whole new world and a whole new family as she is welcomed by the girls with open arms. But she also discovers a box full of secrets... the box contains everything that is left of Florrie's life. As Tilly unravels her story, she can't help but try to uncover all the secrets surrounding Florrie and her missing sister.

I think that Hazel Gaynor has the ability to bring a whole era to life and A Memory of Violets is a perfect example of this. With her generous descriptions of the London at the turn of the century, Hazel takes us readers on a travel back in time. If I closed my eyes I could easily picture Florrie and her sister trying to sell posies in Covent Garden and even their fear and desperation when they separated. The setting is definitely a strong point on this novel, but the characters also play a big part in making this story so memorable. It's difficult not to warm to and care for these girls and every one of them steals a tiny bit of your heart.

A Memory of Violets is a stunning and heart-wrenching story that surprised me and took my breath away. Hazel Gaynor is rapidly becoming one of my favourite authors as her stories are truly beautiful. I can't recommend them enough.

Rating: 5 stars

I'm sure you've heard about All Is Not Forgotten. The campaign behind this book has been huge and it's probably going to be one of the psychological thrillers of the year, but is it any good? Yes, it is! Check out my review to know more. Also, I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Wendy Walker for the Blog Tour of this book (check it out here).

Today I'm delighted to welcome author Sue Watson on the Blog. Sue has just published We'll Always Have Paris with Sphere and to celebrate, today she answers all my bookish questions! Have a look: 

Hi Sue and welcome to Alba in Bookland. Could you tell us a bit about yourself? 

Hi Alba! I’m a writer and mother and wife, a serial procrastinator and consumer of doughnuts. I was once a journalist, then a TV producer with the BBC until I decided I wanted to stay at home each day and make stuff up – and I did. I’m now a full time writer and my latest (7th) novel is ‘We’ll Always have Paris.’

Your new book We'll Always Have Paris is about reconnecting with your first love many years later. What sparkled this idea?

It’s something I’ve wanted to write about for so long. I know several people who’ve met up with partners from their past and the opportunity to relive one’s youth is very tempting. But along with the nostalgia for days gone by, there is often some element of pain that resurfaces too. I wanted to explore this potentially bittersweet experience. 

This story is slightly different than your previous books. Can you tell us why?

This book is slightly different, though it’s still humorous and written with warmth, the book is more emotional, and explores some deeper issues. Also, my heroine is in her 60’s which is different from my usual forty-somethings. I wanted to create a heroine who wasn’t defined by her age and didn’t embrace a future of limitations, but a woman who says okay, so I’m in my sixties – what next? 

I'm always curious to know, what is your approach to writing, are you a plotter or do you let your characters "play"? 

I’m very disorganised (you should see my desk!) so I have to write a detailed synopsis first so my characters don’t take me too far from the original plan. But I’m flexible and I always let my characters play and develop – sometimes they get a little too wild, then my brilliant editor comes in and suggests they all get a grip!

If you could switch places with a character from one of your books, who would it be and why?

It would be Laura from Summer Flings and Dancing Dreams, she is overweight, overage and feels like her life is over – until she discovers Tony and the Argentine Tango. It’s an unconventional relationship – but in his way he’s the love of her life and she is totally transformed by the salsa and the sequins!

What are you working on right now? When can we expect your next book?

I’m really excited about my next book – the working title is ‘The Christmas Cake Café,’ it’s out in October and set in Switzerland. It’s extremely Christmassy, there’s lots of snow, crackling log fires, crazy skiing, and most importantly, there’s plenty of cake!

And now the important questions ;)

Secret guilty pleasure: Big Brother (I know, I know, but I never miss a night in the house – I feel like I’m in there with them, and my characters are sometimes inspired by some of the real characters – I just love it!)

Current book boyfriend: I tend to fall in love with my own heroes – is that cheating? If I’m allowed one from my own ‘stable,’ it has to be Dan from ‘Love, Lies and Lemon Cake.’ He’s a restless, blond Aussie with a wicked sense of humour who’s spontaneous and sexy and … he bakes! What’s not to love?

If you could escape to anywhere in the world right now, where would you go? California – I went there a couple of years ago and would love to live there. I’d have a beach house, probably in Malibu – but I’m not fussy, anywhere along the beautiful west coast from San Francisco to San Diego.

Which book would you take with you? Cathy Bramley’s The Plumberry School of Comfort Food – I’m taking it on holiday and I just know it will be delicious!

And was there a lot of macaroons eating while writing this book? How did you guess? But of course I didn’t enjoy a single one because it was purely for research, I’m prepared to do anything for my readers!

Find out more about Sue Watson and her books on:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/suewatsonwriter

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

Webpage: http://www.suewatsonbooks.com/

About the book: 

Title: We'll Always Have Paris

Author: Sue Watson

Published: June 27th 2016 by Sphere

Amazon | Amazon UK

Title: Sunset in Central Park (From Manhattan With Love #2)

Authors: Sarah Morgan

Published: July 14th 2016 by Mira

Amazon | Amazon UK

Blurb: In the chaos of New York, true love can be hard to find, even when it's been right under your nose all along...

Love has never been a priority for garden designer Frankie Cole. After witnessing the fallout of her parents' divorce, she's seen the devastation an overload of emotion can cause. The only man she feels comfortable with is her friend Matt--but that's strictly platonic. If only she found it easier to ignore the way he makes her heart race...

Matt Walker has loved Frankie for years but, sensing how fragile she is beneath her feisty exterior, has always played it cool. But then he uncovers new depths to the girl he's known forever and doesn't want to wait a moment longer. He knows Frankie has secrets and has buried them deep, but can Matt persuade her to trust him with her heart and kiss him under the Manhattan sunset?

Review: We are back in Manhattan for the second book in Sarah Morgan's latest trilogy. I really enjoyed the first book, Sleepless in Manhattan, which focused on Paige and Jake's story and I was looking forward to knowing more about this trio of friends. Sunset in Central Park revolves around Frankie, the apparently toughest of the three friends. 

Already in the first book, I got the feeling that Paige's older and protective brother, Matt, was a bit interested in Frankie and I thought that would be a really interesting story as I immediately liked him. And I was not wrong, their story was so enjoyable and sweet (with a fair bit of hot and cold, to keep you reading non stop) and I think I might have fallen a bit in love with him. He was all in all a good guy with a huge heart. He didn't play games and he was always truthful to himself and his feeling.  I contrast, Frankie was quite a complex character, with a troubled past and more insecurities than you might have thought at the beginning. They complemented each other quite well actually. 

Something I love in this series is the setting. Who wouldn't leave it all behind and take a plane to New York? And Sarah Morgan really brings this city to life in her stories. Plus, in Sunset in Central Park we also travel to our beloved Puffin Island for a few days. This was such a treat for readers of her previous trilogy! I loved this bit of the story and how it helped Frankie too. 

All in all Sunset in Central Park is another fantastically romantic story by Sarah Morgan. I might not have enjoyed it as much as Sleepless in Manhattan but I'm certainly loving this series. And I can't wait to find out Eva's story in the last installment and catch up with the rest of the characters. 

Rating: 4 stars

I would like to thank the publishers for sending me a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Husband and I moved to Munich in January and since then we've been slowly exploring this city and the area around it. We've been to little medieval towns with a lot of charm, to beautiful lakes, to beer festivals and to huge markets and flea markets. So I've decided to share our little adventures with you all.

Ulm is a small town situated on the River Danube. It belongs to the state of Baden-Württemberg and it took a bit more than one hour and a half to get there from Munich. Apparently, Ulm is known for having the church with the tallest steeple in the world (161.53 m or 529.95 ft) and as the birthplace of Albert Einstein. 

We actually didn't know these facts before visiting so when we arrived, we decided to climb to the top of the cathedral (Ulmer Münster) to see the views and get an idea how the town was arranged. We started going up the stairs... and going up... and up... and up... I kid you not, there are 768 steps to get to the top. I repeat, 768. Have you ever climbed 768 steps (as in really high and steep Medieval steps)? I wanted to give up several times but we did manage to get to the top at the end. Yay! And the views were impressing, I even felt a bit dizzy up there as there was not much room. 

The Inspiration Behind Learning to Speak American 

by Colette Dartford

My inspiration for Learning To Speak American was the idyllic Napa Valley in Northern California, where the story is largely set. My husband and I celebrated a wedding anniversary there and fell in love with the beauty of the place and its warm, welcoming people. So much so that when we found a derelict house for sale, we impulsively snapped it up and spent the next two years transforming it into a wonderful contemporary home. It was while we were living there that the idea for my debut novel began to percolate. The hot kiss of sunshine, vineyards decorated with silver streamers that glistened and danced in the light, sylvan hillsides and distant mountains, made me think that if you couldn’t find happiness and healing here, maybe you couldn’t find it anywhere. 

This is the premise of Learning To Speak American. The protagonists, Duncan and Lola Drummond, take an anniversary trip to the Napa Valley to try to mend their broken marriage. They lost their only child two years before and their different ways of dealing with it have driven them apart. Lola is reluctant to travel five thousand miles and endure two weeks of her husband’s undivided attention, but his persistence is rewarded as her veil of sadness finally begins to fall away. When they come across a wooden shack that reminds Lola of a treehouse her father built, Duncan seizes the opportunity and buys it. He hopes a project might help her look to the future rather than remain imprisoned by the past, and that restoring the house might somehow restore their love for one another. 

Things are never that simple of course, and the Drummonds face many challenges in their search for redemption. But one thing is certain – if I had never lived in the Napa Valley, I would never have written this book.

Colette Dartford

July 2016

Get it now on Amazon | Amazon UK

About the author:

Learning to Speak American, is Colette Dartford’s debut novel and is based on her experience of renovating a derelict house in California’s Napa Valley. Having bought and renovated the house, Colette lived there with her husband for many years before moving back to the UK. Colette wrote the book in California where it was a quarterfinalist in Amazon’s first novel award. Before becoming a writer, Colette worked as a Political Research Consultant in public policy for many years and has an MPhil in Political Science. Her second novel, The Sinners, will be published by Bonnier in 2017.

Follow all the stops on the Blog Tour for more fantastic content and reviews:

                

1) Hi Wendy and welcome to Alba in Bookland. First, can you tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is Wendy Walker and I live in Connecticut, which is just northeast of New York City. I went to college at Brown University and law school at Georgetown University. I spent one year at the London School of Economics and I got to travel all around Europe. I have had many jobs from waitressing to investment banking at Goldman Sachs, to commercial litigation and now family law. I have three teenage sons and a large extended family. 

After I had my first son eighteen years ago, I decided to stay home to raise my children until they were all in school. I felt lucky to be able to do that and so I took the job very seriously! But after about a year, I started to feel unfulfilled so I started to write whenever I had free time (which was not very often!). I had two more children in five years and all the while I kept writing. I even wrote in the back of my minivan while waiting for them at pre-school! I felt like a time scavenger, especially after I found an agent who thought she could sell my work. Of course, life is never that straight forward! It was a long road and 17 years getting to the writing and publication of All Is Not Forgotten. During that time, I published other novels, edited, and eventually went back to work as a lawyer (after 14 years away from the field). The work I found was in the area of family law and it was a wonderful fit for my life experience. I practiced for five years, eventually opening up my own practice which focuses on consulting.

I am currently writing almost full time- but my doors are still open and I still have a few clients.

2) All Is Not Forgotten is about a teenage girl whose memory of a violent assault is medically erased with a drug and its consequences in her life. I found this idea very original and controversial. Where did your inspiration for it come from?

I read an article years ago about the emerging theories in memory science and the treatment of PTSD with drugs that can lessen the emotional impact of a trauma memory. I thought at the time that this could lead to significant moral, ethical and legal questions if such techniques were offered to victims of crime. When I decided to write a psychological thriller in 2015, I thought this concept would offer readers a great deal of substance. I started to do research and discovered that this area of memory science had just exploded and that drugs were now being developed with the hope of mitigating, reconsolidating and even erasing trauma memories. I developed the characters and plot in a way that I hoped would explore this fascinating topic.

3) How did you research this? 

Much of my initial research was done reading articles and research papers available on the Internet. There was an incredible amount of information, from detailed articles summarizing the research findings to the actual findings as they were reported in various science and medical peer journals. I then had relevant parts of the manuscript reviewed by neuroscientist Dr. Efrat Ginot, PhD, who was finishing her book The Neuroscience of the Unconscious: Integrating Brain and Mind in Psychotherapy, and Dr. Felicia Rozek, PhD, who is a practicing therapist with experience with children and adult trauma. 

4) What difficulties did you face getting inside Jenny Kramer's head to tell her story?

Really, it was not difficult. I think the teenage years are so fraught with anxiety and anticipation and big decisions and social conflict, that we all remember what it felt like. I was able to get inside her head on this basic level, and from there it was a matter of drawing on empathy (which is a major theme in the novel). I think if we imagine what it would feel like to be in someone else’s shoes, and then draw from our own painful experiences, we can come pretty close to understanding the emotions of others. I also read a lot of material from rape victims and therapists discussing their treatment so I could better understand the emotional torment that is specific to sexual assault. I wanted to be as authentic as I could on this issue, while also keeping in mind that Jenny did not remember what happened to her so her journey would be different in that respect. 

5) If you found yourself in a similar situation, would you choose to remember or to forget?

I think I would choose to remember. But I would also take full advantage of the wonderful treatments that can mitigate the emotional pain that is attached to the factual memory.

If I had to choose for my child … I honestly do not know. I think that is what makes this topic so compelling.

6) All Is Not Forgotten has all the ingredients of the perfect Psychological Thriller: tense and fast-paced with an unreliable narrator. Could you tell our readers what else this book has that makes it stand apart from the crowd?

What is different about this novel, I think, is that, first, it deals with a very real world controversial issue. I believe that we will be faced with decisions about treating our traumas and being able to choose, not only to lessen their emotional impact, but to forget or alter their facts. Every one of us can imagine having to make this choice – either for ourselves or for a loved one, a child.

Second – All Is Not Forgotten has many subplots that are highly relatable to our everyday lives. There is the Good Charlotte/Bad Charlotte theme. The dynamic between Charlotte and Tom and how it plays out in their marriage. The issues around parenting and the things we would do to protect our children. And the friendship between Jenny and Sean and how people who have suffered in the same way have a bond that transcends gender, age and pretty much everything else. All of these issues are things people face in their own lives and I think that makes this book thought provoking as well as entertaining.

And third – the structure of All Is Not Forgotten is unique. I designed it to move in different directions, backwards and forwards and sideways, but in a fluid, conversational way. It was my goal to grab the reader, make him or her stop everything else, put away computers and phones and televisions, and focus on the characters and the story and emotions they contain. I think we are moving, as a world culture, toward more complex and non-linear forms of entertainment. Because of the overwhelming amount of devices and applications, we often have numerous inputs running all at once. We can follow them all if they are simple and moving in a straight line. But I think this takes away from the pleasure of certain types of entertainment, such as television drama, film and books. Most of us want to be so engrossed in a story that we live and breathe it and forget our own lives. Entertainment is about escaping and feeling things we don’t normally feel. To that end, I was very much inspired by some of the newer films and television dramas that have captivated audiences with their multidimensional deliveries. We see the plot from years ahead, and years behind. We see the characters in the past and present and future. And we have to piece together the plot using the clues given to us. This forces us to be engrossed and occupies every part of our brains and in the end we do escape because we cannot follow the story if we don’t give it our full attention. I know something is good when I have to shut my computer screen (and with it facebook, twitter and my three email accounts!). All Is Not Forgotten attempts to create that feeling of total escape by telling the story in a way that is new, but that feels as seamless as an engrossing conversation with a friend.

7) About your writing process: Are you a plot planner or do you prefer to just write and see what happens?

I am a plot planner for sure! For All Is Not Forgotten, I had different colour note cards for each plot line. I kept them in order and then layered them into each chapter. When I read through the first draft, I kept a list of facts that each character learned or revealed and I wrote down numbers next to them as they occurred in the book. I also went back into the manuscript several times to layer in more pieces of the back story for each character to add substance and depth. Their stories consumed my mind entirely for many weeks and new ideas would come throughout the day and night. I would write them down and then go back in and add them when I had time. 

8) You began your writing career writing Women’s Fiction – what compelled you to switch across to the genre of Psychological Thrillers? 

My first two published novels were called Four Wives (2008) and Social Lives (2009). These books were in the genre of women’s fiction and involved stories of women in wealthy suburbs struggling with their identities, marriages, children, and former lives. I have lived in suburban Connecticut most of my life, both as a child and a grown woman, and I find it fascinating! Here, many women quit their highly skilled jobs to take care of homes and families while their husbands work long hours and travel for jobs in finance. This always made me think about Betty Friedan and her seminal work, The Feminine Mystique. I built my plots around these themes of economic dependency and the division of labour within families where both partners are highly skilled and educated.

After I started practicing law again, I never gave up the dream of making a career as a writer. I used to tell my boys that it was important to always have a dream, but to also be responsible. I did not stop working as a lawyer. But I also managed to keep writing! I signed with a new agent and she loved my concept of a psychological thriller based on memory science. I was a bit nervous about switching genres, but I had always enjoyed suspense and thrillers and I was very interested in this story concept, so I dusted it off and wrote All Is Not Forgotten. It was great advice and I am so glad that my children may get to see my dream come true (fingers crossed) so that they will believe what I told them about having dreams and never giving up – even if you have to keep your day job!

9) Finally, can you tell us what you’re working on now?

Yes! I am working on my next psychological thriller. Here is a little bit about it:

Five years ago, two sisters disappeared into the night. Now, one has returned to tell the dark story of years spent on an Island off the coast of Maine. As the FBI searches for the Island and the sister who did not make it out, we learn about the twisted past the girls endured in their own home before they left - and the truth about where they have been comes under scrutiny. Through the voice of our narrator, the sister who has returned, and the testimony of the Bureau’s forensic psychologist, the stories of past and present converge in an unexpected ending.

Like All Is Not Forgotten, this novel has an original narration structure and complex plot that is intended to capture the reader’s attention from the start and not let go until the entire story is told!


Blurb: In the small, affluent town of Fairview, Connecticut everything seems picture perfect.

Until one night when young Jenny Kramer is attacked at a local party. In the hours immediately after, she is given a controversial drug to medically erase her memory of the violent assault. But, in the weeks and months that follow, as she heals from her physical wounds, and with no factual recall of the attack, Jenny struggles with her raging emotional memory. Her father, Tom, becomes obsessed with his inability to find her attacker and seek justice while her mother, Charlotte, prefers to pretend this horrific event did not touch her perfect country club world.

As they seek help for their daughter, the fault lines within their marriage and their close-knit community emerge from the shadows where they have been hidden for years, and the relentless quest to find the monster who invaded their town - or perhaps lives among them - drive this psychological thriller to a shocking and unexpected conclusion.

                                     

                   

Chapter One

‘So, what do you do with your spare time, Melody?’
    I look my date square in his pretty brown eyes and lie to him. ‘Oh, you know. The usual.’ I shrug to convey how incredibly normal I am. ‘I read a lot . . . Go to the movies. That kind of thing.’ 

    I watch Lenny digest my words, and breathe a sigh of relief when his eyes brighten.

    ‘Which genre?’

   ‘Movies or books?’ I ask, stalling for time because, in truth, I don’t get much in the way of spare time to do either.

    ‘Movies. Action or romance? No, let me guess.’ He narrows his eyes and studies me intently. ‘You look like a sucker for a rom-com.’

    ‘Do I?’ I’m genuinely surprised. I’m five foot three and look more like Wednesday Addams than a Disney princess. Maybe Wednesday Addams is over-egging it, but you get the idea; I’m brunette and my dress sense errs on the side of edgy. I don’t think anyone has ever looked at me and thought whimsy. Maybe Lenny sees something everyone else has missed, me included. I quite like that idea, mainly because everyone who knows my family has a head full of preconceptions about me, based on the fact that my family are all crackers.

    ‘Four Weddings?’ He shrugs hopefully.

    I nod, not mentioning that the only part of that particular movie I enjoyed was the funeral.

    ‘The Holiday?’

    Again, I try to look interested and hold my tongue, because I’m sure he doesn’t want to hear that I’d rather stick needles in my eyes than ever watch an over-optimistic Kate Winslet drag some old guy around a swimming pool again.

     I’m relieved when the bill arrives and we can get out of there, because so far Lenny has turned out to be a pretty stellar guy and somehow I’ve managed to convince him that I walk on the right side of the tracks. Maybe this time, things will be different.

    Lenny pulls his dull, salesman’s saloon into the cobbled cartway beside my building and kills the engine. I don’t mind dull. In fact, my life could really use a bit of dull right now, so I shoot him my most seductive smile, cross my fingers that my mother will be in bed, and invite him in for coffee.

    Oh, just when it had all been going so well. Why couldn’t I have just given him a goodnight kiss, with maybe the smallest hint of tongue as a promise, then sent him on his way? He’d have called for a second date, I’m sure of it.

    But no. I got greedy, pulled him by the hand through the dark back door, placing my finger against my lips to signal he should be quiet as we tip-toed past my mother’s apartment and up the old wooden staircase to my place.

    He rests his hand on my waist as I turn the key, and a small thrill shoots down my back. Look at me, winning at this being-an-adult thing today! Dinner with an attractive man, sparkling conversation, and now back to mine for coffee . . . and maybe even a little fooling around. It’s not that I’m a virgin or anything, but it would be fair to call my love life patchy of late. By ‘of late’ I mean the last two years, ever since Leo Dark and I called things off. Well, by Leo and I, I mean Leo called things off, citing conflict of interests. Ha. Given that he was referring to the fact that my mad-as-a-bag-of-cats family are the only other psychics in town besides him, he was, at least in part, right. 

    But enough of Leo and my lamentable love life. Right now, all I want is for Lenny not to know anything at all about my peculiar family, to keep seeing me as a cool, regular, completely normal girl, and then to kiss me.

    ‘You remind me of Clara Oswald,’ Lenny whispers behind me at the top of the stairs. ‘All big brown eyes and clever one-liners. It’s very sexy.’

    Lord, I think he’s just brushed a kiss against the back of my neck! My door sticks sometimes so I shoulder it open, aiming for firm and graceful but, I fear, ending up looking more like a burly police SWAT guy ramming it down. Thankfully, Lenny seems to take it in his stride and follows me into my apartment. Then I flick on the table lamp only to discover that my mother is standing on my coffee table in a too-short, too-sheer, baby-blue negligee with her arms raised towards the ceiling and her head thrown back. 

    ‘Shit!’ Lenny swears down my ear, clearly startled. He isn’t to blame. My mother’s a striking woman, ballerina-tall and slender with silver hair that falls in waves well beyond her shoulder blades. It isn’t grey. It’s been pure silver since the day she was born, and right now she looks as if she’s just been freshly crucified on my coffee table.

    I sigh as I drop my bag down by the lamp. So much for me being normal. 

    ‘Err, mother?’

   Slowly, she takes several heaving breaths and opens her eyes, changing from crazy lady to almost normal human lady. She stares at us.

    ‘For God’s sake, Melody,’ she grumbles, taking her hands from above her head and planting them on her hips. ‘I almost had the connection then. He’s hiding out in the loft, I’m sure of it.’

    I risk a glance over my shoulder at Lenny, who sure isn’t kissing my neck anymore. 

    He lifts his eyebrows at me, a silent ‘what the hell?’ and then looks away when my mother beckons to him like a siren luring a fisherman onto the rocks. 

    ‘Your hand, please, young man.’

    ‘No!’ I almost yell, but Lenny is already across the room with his hand out to help her down. My mother eyes me slyly as she steps from the table, keeping a firm hold of Lenny’s hand.

    ‘Long lifeline,’ she murmurs, tracing her red talon across Lenny’s palm.

    ‘Mother,’ I warn, but my somber, cautionary tone falls on her selectively deaf ears. I expected nothing else, because she’s pulled this trick before. Admittedly, the standing-on-the-table thing is a new twist, but she’s got form in scoping out my prospective boyfriends to make sure they’ll fit in with our screwball family from the outset. Not that her romantic gauge is something to put any stock in; Leo passed her tests with flying colours and look how that ended up. I got my heart broken and he got a spot on morning TV as the resident psychic. Where’s the justice in that? 

    Look, we may as well get the clanky old skeleton out of the family closet early on here, people. It’s going to come out sooner or later, and despite my attempts to pull the wool over Lenny’s eyes, there’s never any running away from this thing for long.

    My name’s Melody Bittersweet, and I see dead people. 

   It’s not only me. I’m just the latest in a long line of Bittersweets to have the gift, or the curse, depending on how you look at it. My family has long since celebrated our weirdness; hence the well-established presence of our family business, Blithe Spirits, on Chapelwick High Street. We’ve likely been here longer than the actual chapel at the far end of the street. That’s probably why, by and large, we’re accepted by the residents of the town, in a ‘they’re a bunch of eccentrics, but they’re our bunch of eccentrics,’ kind of way. What began as a tiny, mullion-windowed, one-room shop has spread out along the entire row over the last two hundred years; we now own a run of three terraced properties haphazardly knocked into one, big, rambling place that is both business and home to not only me, but also to my mother, Silvana, and her mother, Dicey. Gran’s name isn’t actually Dicey, it’s Paradise, officially, but she’s gone by Dicey ever since she met my Grandpa Duke on her fifteenth birthday and he wrote Dicey and Duke inside a chalk heart on the back wall of the building. He may as well have written it on her own racing heart.

    ‘Silvana!’ 

     Speak of the devil. Does no one go to bed around here? 

    I open my door to find Gran on the threshold with her hand raised, poised to knock. I guess I should be glad she’s slightly more respectably dressed, if a floor-length, purple shot-silk kimono, bearing huge technicolor dragons could be considered as such. Her usually pin-curled gold hair is piled elegantly on her head and she wears a slash of fire-engine-scarlet lipstick for good measure. Most people couldn’t carry the look off, but thanks to her poise, confidence and couldn’t-care-less attitude, Grandma Dicey wears it with artful success. She glides past me without invitation and gazes at my mother and Lenny, who are still hand-in-hand on the rug. God.

    First thing tomorrow morning, I swear, I’m going to look for a new place to live, somewhere, anywhere, that is not in the same building as my mother and my gran. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a charming old place and I love my family dearly. It’s not even as if I don’t have my own space here, because, theoretically at least, I do. Mum and Gran have the ground floor apartment behind Blithe Spirits, and I have the smaller flat upstairs, at the back. In lots of ways this makes me fortunate; I get to have a nice little home of my own and stay close to my family. It would all be fine and dandy, were it not for the fact that my family are officially bonkers and liable to come up and let themselves into my flat – using the spare key I gave them for dire emergencies only – and embarrass the shit out if me. 

    ‘Why is Silvana entertaining a man half her age in your flat?’ Gran looks from me to my mother. ‘You should have said you were expecting company, darling. I’d have gone out.’ She touches her hand lightly against her hair. ‘Put a towel on the doorknob or something, isn’t that the modern way to signal these things? Don’t come a knockin’ if the caravan’s rockin’?’

    She looks spectacularly pleased with herself, and one glance at Lenny tells me that he knows he’s way out of his depth with these two and is in the process of writing me off as the worst date he’s ever had. His eyes slide from me to the door, and I can almost hear him begging me to let him go unharmed.

    ‘He’s not mum’s date, he’s mine. Or else, he was,’ I mutter, and then I’m distracted as a beer-bellied pensioner in a soup-stained shirt slowly materialises through the ceiling, his flannel trousers not quite meeting his bony ankles. Stay with me; I see dead people, remember? As do my mother and my grandmother, who also watch him descend with matching expressions of distaste.

    ‘Finally,’ my mother spits, dropping Lenny’s hand so she can round on the new arrival. ‘Two hours I’ve been chasing you around this bloody building. Your wife wants to know what you’ve done with the housekeeping she’d hidden in the green teapot. She says you better not have lost it on the horses or she’s had it with you.’

    Grandma Dicey rolls her eyes. ‘I rather think she’s had it with him anyway. He’s been dead for six weeks.’

    ‘You’re a fine one to talk, given that you still sleep with your husband twenty years after he died.’ Mother flicks her silver hair sharply. Touché. 

    Lenny whimpers and bolts for my front door, turning back to me just long enough to splutter ‘something’s come up, gotta go,’ before he hoofs it out and down the stairs two at a time.

    I listen to the outside door bang on its hinges and wonder what came up. Probably his dinner.

About the book: 

An absolutely hilarious, totally entertaining, spookily sexy read that you won't be able to put down!

Life’s tricky for Melody Bittersweet. She’s single, she's addicted to sugar and super heroes, her family are officially bonkers and ... she sees dead people. Is it any wonder no-one’s swiping right on Tinder? 

Waking up lonely on her twenty-seventh birthday, Melody finally snaps. She can’t carry on basing all of her life decisions on the advice of her magic 8 ball; things havegot to change. 

Fast forward two months, and she’s now the proud proprietor of her very own ghostbusting agency – kind of like in the movies but without the dodgy white jumpsuits. She’s also flirting with her ex Leo Dark, fraternising with her sexy enemy in alleyways, and she’s somehow ended up with a pug called Lestat. 

Life just went from dull to dynamite and it’s showing no sign of slowing up anytime soon. Melody’s been hired to clear Scarborough House of its incumbent ghosts, there’s the small matter of a murder to solve, and then there are the two very handsome, totally inappropriate men hoping to distract her from the job… 

Welcome to Chapelwick, home of the brand new and hilarious Girls Ghostbusting Agency series, where things really do go bump in the night.