Alba in bookland: Bookland

Today I am very happy to welcome Erin Lawless to my blog. Erin is the author of The Best Thing I Never Had and has just published Somewhere Only We Know. To celebrate it, she stopped by to talk about her own Bookland, the bookish place where she would like to live. Erin, all yours:

I absolutely love an immersive book world. I've had all the dreams about getting my Hogwarts acceptance letter and heading off to Diagon Alley for my stuff. I would have loved to drink sweet tea on a porch in Bon Temps (the sexy vampires of course not hurting). I could definitely see myself shopping for hats and fripperies in one of Jane Austen's books (as long as I'm rich and attractive, and end up with the rich and attractive husband, obviously).

My ultimate book world however would have to be Tamora Pierce's Tortall series. A beautifully imagined quasi-medieval fantasy world with knights, castles, magic, beasts and absolutely kickass women, these books meant a lot to me growing up and I'm still escaping to Tortall fifteen years later!

You can connect with Erin on:

Twitter, Facebook or on her webpage.

And don't miss her latest book Somewhere Only We Know:

Boy meets girl…

Alex Bradley can't help but feel that life is rather passing him by. And not just life – promotions, invitations, romance; the girl he loves only has eyes for his flatmate and his 9-5 job as the Immigration department skivvy is slowly numbing his soul. Until he meets Nadia.

Girl meets boy…

Nadia Osipova is running out of time. With no money, no lawyer and a totally fictitious boyfriend, she’s got one last summer and one last appeal before the British government deport her back home.

Girl gets deported?

It's going to be a bumpy ride, one she's dragging her new friend Alex along for. As Nadia races through a list of all her favourite London adventures, for what may be the last time, Alex can’t help but start to see the city, and his life, through Nadia’s eyes. From hazy summer days on the Common and heady nights in Soho’s basement bars, to twilight walks along the Southbank, will Alex realise what he’s got before it’s too late? Funny, addictive and always honest, this is a love letter to London, friendship and the unexpected from the author of the bestselling The Best Thing I Never Had.

Out in ebook June 11th and paperback July 16th.

Get it on Amazon UK

Today I am very happy to welcome Aven Ellis to my blog. Aven is the author of amazing stories like Connectivity, Waiting for Prince Harry or Surviving the Rachel and a lovely friend of mine. Now, she is going to talk about her own Bookland, the place where she gets lost in her books and travel far far away. Aven, all yours:

Aven in Bookland (Cookbook Land, that is.)

When the lovely Alba first asked me to write a post on my idea of a visit to my favorite novel, I immediately knew what I wanted to write about, but I didn’t want to visit a novel...

I wanted to visit my cookbook collection.

I know, as an author you were expecting me to tell you what novels I’d love to live in, but cooking is a huge passion of mine. I cook almost every single day. I devour recipes on Pinterest, in magazines, blog sites but I love nothing more than finding a treasured cookbook, one with recipes I will use over and over, ones with sticky pages from being splattered on, one that helps me cook well for my family and provide healthy meals for my table.

I’m obsessed with them. Whenever I see one of my favorite chefs has a new cookbook out, I get super geeked out and preorder it immediately. So who are my preorders, no questions asked? Bobby Flay. I have found multiple recipes out of each cookbook of his that are incredible. I also love Giada De Laurentiis. Her cookbooks are beautiful, and again, I always find something delicious to make in them.

What are my favorite cookbooks, the ones I can’t live without and are my Holy Grail of cookbooks? Both books by Gwyneth Paltrow: My Father’s Daughter and It’s All Good. They are full of healthy foods, interesting flavors, and the recipes are easy to make. I love her soups-her tomato soup is perfection, and so is her butternut squash soup, her gazpacho...okay I’ll stop there but I’m a huge fan of these books.

Since I’ve tried to cut back on grains, Danielle Walker’s Against All Grain is a huge player in my weekly menu planning. In fact, we’re having her flank steak this week. The barbecue sauce is incredible, as are her salad recipes.

And I can’t leave out Gordon Ramsay. Gordon Ramsay’s Healthy Appetite is full of delicious-and healthy-recipes. Another favorite Gordon book is Gordon Ramsay’s Home Cooking: Everything You Need to know to make Fabulous Food. This one is worth it for the smoky pork sliders with barbecue sauce alone.

I also have inherited cookbooks from my grandmother Addie, who loved to entertain and cook. She did something super handy in them-she put notes on top if the recipe was V.G (Very good) or V.G for Company . Other recipes got a check mark and an O.K next to it. And my favorites-the ones that got a big NO. One that did get a V.G-and I kid you not, this is the name-was “Better than Robert Redford Cake.” How funny is that?

So there’s my journey through cookbook land. These books are my passion, and I love spending time with them. There’s a reason why MK in Connectivity loved cooking, Kylie in Waiting for Prince Harry loved baking, and Kenley is a Confection Consultant in The Definition of Icing. It’s a way of extending my cooking passion into my writing. And I’m sure you’ll be seeing more characters cooking in my pages very soon.

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Thank you Aven for sharing your own Cookbookland with us! Who wouldn't want to get lost in some of these amazing recipes too?

You can connect with Aven on Twitter and on Facebook

And Aven's new book, The Definition of Icing is out next week. If you loved Waiting for Prince Harry (if you haven't read it yet, I don't know what you are waiting for), then you'll love this one too as the Dallas Demons are back!

Blurb: Kenley Hunter finally has everything sorted out. Fresh from studying chocolate making in Europe, she'sgambling everything on her new business, Confection Consultations.

All Kenley wants in life is people to take her seriously, to see the person on the inside rather than the blonde beauty on the outside. While pursuing her passion of chocolate, Kenley discovered people seek her knowledge. They see past the exterior and fall for the chocolate delights in front of them.

So with work as her focus, Kenley is ready to start her career in Dallas. Men are out of her recipe, because she fears that once they get past her looks, they’ll be disappointed in what they find. Kenley decides she's all about the chocolate now.

Or is she?

Because a chance meeting with new Dallas Demon hockey star Nate Johansson might change everything. Sent to Dallas in a blockbuster trade, Nate is somewhere he doesn't want to be, for reasons that have caused him heartbreak on multiple levels. Nate knows he will never trust a woman again after what happened to him in Minnesota.

But when he meets a woman with an intriguing name and a passion for chocolate, Nate isn't so sure about

his theory. And he might just learn a definition of icing other than the one used in hockey with Kenley as his guide...

Pre-order now on Amazon

Pre-order now Amazon UK

Today I am very happy to welcome Simona Elena to my blog. Simona is behind the beautiful blog Sky's Book Corner and a lovely friend of mine. Now, she is going to talk about her own Bookland, the place where she gets lost in their books and travel far far away. Simona, all yours:

First of all I’d like to thank Alba for inviting me to write this post. I love the idea and I had a lot of fun writing it.

When I’m in my bookland, I’m in a totally new world. A world full of wonderful characters and stories. I love diving into these stories and being part of the character’s journey. I can relax and I can forget real life for a while. My favourite place to do that is on my bed, cuddled up in a warm blanket and most of time there is a coffee or tea very close. In spring and summer I like reading outside in the garden, it’s so refreshing. My bookshelf is also just behind my bed and I love looking at my collection! It’s so colourful and sparkly. I could look at them the whole day. Unfortunately, my bookshelf is full now, I really don’t know where to put them anymore and I will continue buying books ;)

Now, I’d love to life in a book, well several books actually, I try not to make this too long. The first book is Harry Potter, I love this magical world and it would be awesome to live in it. Perform magic, playing quidditch, visting Hogsmead, taking the Hogwarts Express or exploring Diagon Alley.

The next “books” I’d love to live in is the Dallas Demons series by Aven Ellis. Waiting For Prince Harry was published last year and the second one The Definition of Icing is coming out in May. More books are already in progress ;) I love hockey and these books are full of it and there are a lot of amazing characters, would love to be their friend ;) and maybe date a hockey player…

A must is also Rebecca Raisin’s Gingerbread Café series. It’s set in such a cute little town called Ashford and all the people and characters there are so sweet and caring. I’d go to this café everyday and hang out with Sarah at her bookshop ;).

Last but not least, there is the Heart of Montana series by Katy Regnery. She’s my queen of Romance and these books are just fabulous. There is so much heart in the stories, the characters are wonderful and the landscape sounds amazing.

I could go on here, but I will stop now... Hope you enjoyed the journey into my bookland, how does yours look like?!

Love, Simona xxx

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Thank you Simona for sharing your own Bookland with us! Who wouldn't want to get lost in some of these amazing worlds too?

You can connect with Simona on Twitter and on Facebook

And don't forget to check out her blog, Sky's Book Corner, for all things bookish!

Today I am very happy to welcome Samantha Napier to my blog. Samantha is the author of Dating the Alphabet, published by HarperCollins Australia and sounds like a fab read. Now, she is going to talk about her own Bookland, the place where she gets lost in their books and travel far far away. Samantha, all yours:

Like most women everywhere I juggle many things mother, wife, job and now writer so to find time to read a book means I have to find a place where I can have some peace but also be close enough to the action to keep some control.

My giant hammock in our garden is the perfect place to sneak away and read. Maybe because at the moment, the days are longer, the weather warmer and there is some spare time because my book is written, I find myself sneaking off more and more to the hammock to read a few chapters.

I’m not sure where I’m going to go when the weather turns cold, maybe my family won’t notice my hammock in the middle of the lounge room!

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Thank you Samantha for sharing your own Bookland with us! Who wouldn't want a hammock like that on their garden?

You can connect with Samantha Napier on Twitter and on Facebook

About the book:

From Archie to Zolon, Ramona is determined to find a happy ending to her fairytale. Ramona Rawlings is going to make dating fun again. Armed with an alphabet poster, post-it notes and her best friend Emma, Ramona is going to date the alphabet - from A to Z, Archie to Zolon and everything in between. Throw in the chaos of managing a theatre restaurant with a roster full of strong personalities, unfulfilled dreams and lustful hook ups and Ramona's world is turned upside-down. In between Evan the arrogant, Ivan the emotionally stunted and Glen the racist, Ramona discovers what she really wants: to be a good friend, to emotionally connect with a man and to replace her vodka-tonics with kale smoothies. But how many frogs will she have to kiss before she finds her fairytale?

Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon AU

My little book blog is one! I still can't believe how amazing this year has been. To celebrate it, I have asked some of my lovely bookish friends to talk about their own booklands, the place where they get lost in their books and travel far far away!

My first guest is the lovely Charlotte, from the fantastic blog Best Chick Lit. She, Nikki and Lizzie run Candlelit Author Services, where they help authors any way they can and run some amazing blog tours. It's always a pleasure hosting one of her tours for me, so go have a look at their web. But now, it's Charlotte's time to talk:

First off, congrats to Alba on her first blogiversary! Secondly thank you for having me take part in your celebrations...

My bookland is my width-challenged office. I’ve been a freelance web content writer for about the last 4-5 years now and when I branched into offering author services with Nikki and Lizzie, my need for an office spiraled out of control. Apart from a very modest bookcase, I had nowhere to store the many books I begun receiving every week. From that, along with the reams of paperwork I accrue and the need to have a little solitude, my Harry Potter-type cupboard/office was born.

My husband, bless him, spent an entire weekend cleaning and decorating the space, so it would be ready in time for Mother’s Day. The result? Painted in pastel pink, with a desk, two white boards, six bookshelves and lots of girly touches, it’s my book heaven.

At not even a meter wide yet 4 meters long, my office spans around just over half of the entire front width of my house. Plus, with the main hot water pipes running through it, it’s toasty warm whenever the heating is on. Unfortunately, it’s too narrow for a comfy reading chair but one day I hope to fashion some sort of cushioned drop-down seat on one of the walls and then I shall never leave!

For now though, I sit for hours talking to authors, working with them, brainstorming with Nikki and Lizzie, gazing at the hoards of paperbacks donning my walls and generally getting thoroughly overexcited about the written word, all from the comfort of my own personal little bookland.

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Thanks Charlotte for sharing your personal bookland with us! Nikki and Lizzie will also share their own booklands soon so stay tuned. In the meanwhile, enter this fantastic giveaway organised by these lovely girls:

You can win: