Alba in bookland: Quercus

All I Want for Christmas is a hilarious and heartwarming Christmas romance from Joanna Bolouri, the author of The List, and perfect for fans of Beth O'Leary's The Flatshare, Sophie Cousens' This Time Next Year and Marian Keyes' Grown Ups.

Title: All I Want for Christmas

Author: Joanna Bolouri

Published: October 1st 2020 by Quercus

Amazon | Amazon UK

Blurb: What if the love of your life was your best friend's girl? The sparkling Christmas romance to pick you up this year...

When Nick loses his job and is dumped by his glamorous but demanding girlfriend, he is forced to grudgingly accept work as a Santa at a local Christmas grotto. As his friends are getting married or promoted, Nick spends his days being terrorised by unfriendly elves and cried on by snotty, spoiled children.

Then he meets 4-year-old Alfie. All Alfie wants for Christmas is for his mum, Sarah, to be happy again. Moved by the boy's selfless wish, Nick arranges a date between Sarah and his best friend, Matt. But as Sarah and Alfie become part of all their lives, Nick realises that happiness for Sarah and Matt might mean heartbreak for himself.

Review: What a great story, I absolutely loved All I Want for Christmas. I am a big fan of Joanna Bolouri's books and once again, she has made me fall in love with her characters. I had so much fun with Nick, the main character in this story. After losing his job, he takes a temp job as Santa in a shopping centre and spends his days surrounded by very wild creatures, and I am not talking about deers here! Both his elves and the children are a great source of entertainment for us readers, but for him... not so much.

As you can imagine, the story made me laugh a lot. But it also had more serious notes, especially around single mum, Sarah, and her adorable son, Alfie. I loved them and rooted for them since page one and I really wanted the best for them. The friendship they formed with Nick was heartwarming.

Joanna Bolouri kept me on my toes for most of the story, as I really didn't know which way it was going to go until the very end. And I loved every minute of it!

All I Want for Christmas is a great book: original, fun and with Joanna Bolouri's special witty touch. The characters are spot on and the festive spirit is definitely there. I can only praise this story and I recommend it to absolutely everyone. One not to be missed, just go and get yourself a copy. You are in for a treat!

Rating: 5 stars

I would like to thank the publisher for sending me a copy of this book via NetGalley. This is my honest opinion.

I love Joanna Bolouri's books because her stories are always hilarious and very original. I recently read her latest book, Relight My Fire, and today it's an absolute pleasure to welcome the woman herself in the blog for a bookish Q&A:

Hi Joanna and welcome! First of all, could you tell us a bit about yourself?

Hi, I’m Jo! I’m a Taurus and I recently turned forty which didn’t go well for anyone involved. I’ve been writing books for around five years now and Relight My Fire is my forth novel.

Your new book, Relight My Fire, although it can be read as a stand-alone, catches up with the characters of your fantastic debut The List. For those new to the story, how would you describe Phoebe and Oli?

Phoebe and Oliver are childhood friends who fell in love. They’re a couple who thrive on passion and honesty, but humour is the key to their success. They really make each other laugh.

How did you feel going back to these characters? Is it more difficult to write about known characters or brand-new ones?

I think there’s a certain expectation in place when your return to previous characters, so it can be tricky making sure you stay faithful to what’s already been written. With newer characters, anything is possible.

Can we expect more stories with these characters?

Possibly but right now I’m more interested in creating new characters. I’d never say never but I’m in no rush to write them at the moment.

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

I’d quite like to be Emily from The Most Wonderful Time of the Year because she has a hot, rich, younger boyfriend and I don’t.

How does your writing process go? Do you plan everything first or you just start writing and let your characters talk to you? I have to say your stories always make me laugh out loud, do you also laugh while writing them?

Thank you! My process is one that involves a lot of scribbling in notebooks, pacing and talking to myself before anything actually happens. I always have an idea of where it’s going to go but that often changes the more I write and get to know the characters. I do make myself laugh, sad as it sounds but if I don’t find something funny, I won’t put it in the book.

Could you recommend us a novel that you have read recently and has stayed with you?

I read Wonder by R. J Palacio and I cried lots. It was beautifully written. I also had to stop reading Catherine Isaac’s You Me Everything because it was so good, I wasn’t getting any work done. I find it hard to read another author while I write as it put me off, so it’s top of my list when I’ve finished my next novel.

About the Book:

Title: Relight My Fire

Author: Joanna Bolouri

Published: by Quercus

eBook: March 1st 2018

Paperback: May 31st 2018

Amazon | Amazon UK

Blurb: Phoebe and Oliver are stuck in a rut.

With a five year old daughter and demanding jobs, it's not hard to see why the spark has gone.

Not one for giving up, Phoebe creates a sexy wishlist: a jar where they can ask the other for anything they've ever wanted in bed - or out of it.

But with distractions aplenty - such as, why do all her past lovers think now is a good time to make a reappearance? And, she may be wrong, but is Oli keeping something from her? - will they be able to relight the fire in the bedroom?

From mix tapes to 'sex jars', this is the naughtiest rom com you will ever read. From the bestselling author of The List.

Read my review here!

Make sure to follow the Blog Tour for more interesting content and book reviews!

Today's review is for Relight My Fire by Joanna Bolouri. This is the author's fourth book and it goes back to the characters of her acclaimed debut, The List. Here are my thoughts on this naughty story:

Title: Relight My Fire

Author: Joanna Bolouri

Published: by Quercus

eBook: March 1st 2018

Paperback: May 31st 2018

Amazon | Amazon UK

Blurb: Phoebe and Oliver are stuck in a rut.

With a five year old daughter and demanding jobs, it's not hard to see why the spark has gone.

Not one for giving up, Phoebe creates a sexy wishlist: a jar where they can ask the other for anything they've ever wanted in bed - or out of it.

From mix tapes to 'sex jars', this is the naughtiest rom com you will ever read. From the bestselling author of The List.

Review: I really enjoyed Joanna Bolouri's previous books, her stories are always a bit bonkers but hilarious and they are the perfect antidote after a stressful week. Relight My Fire is no different in this sense, it made me laugh out loud several times and I completely forgot about my life for a while.

This story focuses on Phoebe and Oliver, who starred in Joanna Bolouri's debut The List and shared some crazy sexual adventures back then. Things are not that wild right now though, after a few years together and a daughter, they can't even remember the last time they had proper sexy sex. Not only that, they are distant with each other in their daily life. So Phoebe decides it's time for couple counseling.

As you can imagine, the counseling is not your traditional kind, but quite a creative one, so our main characters embark in a few more sexual adventures. I have to say though that I didn't expected some of the secrets revealed during this process and the story kept my attention completely captured. There were also a couple more plot-lines to complement the main one, so you were never bored with the story and things kept happening.

Relight My Fire is hilarious, rude and highly entertaining. It keeps up with the fun tone of The List but it can still be read as a stand alone. So why not check it out?

Rating: 4 stars

I would like to thank the publisher for sending me a copy of this book via NetGalley. This is my honest opinion.

My next festive book review is for Joanna Bolouri's third book, The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. I'm a big fan of Joanna's work so I was over the moon to get my hands on her latest. Spoiler alert: she did not disappoint at all!

Title: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Author: Joanna Bolouri

Published: October 27th 2016 by Quercus

Amazon | Amazon UK

Blurb: A hilarious and heartwarming Christmas comedy. Perfect for fans of Mhairi McFarlane, Tracy Bloom & Chrissie Manby.

Thirty-eight year old Emily has a satisfying job, fab friends, an amazing car and, most importantly, a wonderful flat, exactly 411 miles away from the judgemental, batshit crazy, interfering family she reluctantly sees twice a year. In fact, the only minor stress in her life is her twenty-something neighbour Evan and his penchant for flirting, loud music and even louder sex... but he's nothing she can't handle.

Emily also has a boyfriend called Robert and it's going really well. So well, in fact, that this year Emily is hoping to take him home for Christmas to meet her family. Finally she won't be subject to five days of nosy questions from her parents and pity looks from her younger married siblings.

But when Robert breaks up with her a week before Christmas, Emily is gutted. How on earth is she going to face her family now? Enlisting the help of party boy Evan (in exchange for one month's rent and the use of her convertible) Emily is determined to take Robert home for Christmas come hell or high water, even if it isn't the real Robert...

Review: I absolutely adore Joanna Bolouri's novels. She always manages to create the most amazing stories. Stories I could read for hours and still be left wanting more. And The Most Wonderful Time of the Year is no different. Emily is just hilarious. I want an Emily in my life. I really warmed to her and was rooting for her from page one, especially with such a crazy family.

Her family was actually a great addition to the story. I had so much reading about them. They were not the most supportive and welcoming family but they made for great entertainment. And they actually managed to surprise me more than once.

The whole idea for the book was a bit bonkers: Evan, Emily's younger and definitely sexual active neighbour, pretends to be Emily's boyfriend during their Christmas celebrations. But surprisingly, it worked so well! Evan was fun and a great guy and the more we discovered about him, the more I liked him. His relationship with Emily was never boring, they fought like cat and dog but the chemistry between them was palpable. I never knew which way their interactions would go, something that kept me glued to the pages of the book for hours.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year is a great book: original, fun and with Joanna Bolouri's special witty touch. The characters are spot on and the festive spirit is definitely there. I can only praise this story and I recommend it to absolutely everyone. One not to be missed, just go and get yourself a copy. You are in for a treat!

Rating: 5 stars

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

The next guest on my Historical Fiction Week is Tracy Lee, author of Amy Snow (April, 2015), The Richard & Judy Bestseller, and the recently published Florence Grace (June, 2106). Today she stops by to talk about the inspiration behind her latest book:

My second novel, Florence Grace, published on June 30th, is the tale of headstrong Florrie Buckley, who lives on the wind-blasted moors of Cornwall. When Florrie is fifteen, she discovers that she is related to a wealthy and notorious London family, the Graces. Moving from country to city, from poverty to wealth, Florrie goes to live with her proud and dysfunctional new family, which includes Turlington Grace, a man with many dark secrets of his own.

People often ask me where I get my ideas from and I usually struggle to answer because the answer is so simple I imagine it won’t be satisfying. I ramble on a bit about influences and the subconscious, but mostly, the fact is the ideas just drop into my brain. I don’t really know how or why. Do you remember that game Connect 4? You had to drop plastic disks into slots on a frame and try to get four in a row? Well it’s like that: I’m like the frame, with a head full of blank spaces (a very telling analogy!) and ideas are like the plastic disks. They just drop in. So I thought I’d tell you about when the idea for Florence Grace dropped in.

For my second book, all my lovely publishers asked of me was that it be in the same genre as Amy Snow, ie historical fiction. That gave me an incredibly wide brief. I knew at once what I was going to write. The idea for Florence had been with me since I was in my early twenties. I can remember its conception well - I was working in a tiny medical publishers in Hammmersmith - it was a colourful area then! The lead singer from an 80s pop band worked across the road and one day serenaded me on the pavement. Once there was a burglary further down our street; the robbers escaped over the rooftops and I remember sitting in the office listening to the footsteps thundering overhead. I was forever having to take circuitous routes to the office because roads would be cordoned off with police tape etc.

I was in the office one lunchtime, flicking through a magazine, when a headline about Christy Turlington flashed out at me (this was the mid-90s). Instantly the name Turlington Grace dropped into my brain. And with the name came an image. I could see him, tall and very slim with long dark hair and haunted eyes. The instant this picture had formed before me, a second name dropped into the slot beside it. Florrie Buckley. And instantly I knew that she was a long way away from him, she was in Cornwall. I knew the two of them were very closely bound and that was it. That whole process of name, image, name, circumstance, probably took less than two seconds. Then, I carried on with real life. I went back to reading the magazine, to doing my job and dodging gangsters. I could so easily have forgotten about Florrie and Turlington; no doubt hundreds of briefly glimpsed ideas have been lost over the years.

But, twenty years later, these two characters, those two names were still with me. This meant that I needed to write about them. Their story would have to be told. Of course, I didn’t even know what their story was, so I started writing and then I found out.

Perhaps it’s no wonder that, springing from this crime-infused soil, there is in fact a robbery in the book. It takes place in a cheese shop! Now there’s a tantalising titbit!

***

Thank you Tracy for such an interesting post. I'm always curious to know where and how authors find their inspiration. Florence Grace sounds a really intriguing story, I can't wait to pick it up.

About the book:

Title: Florence Grace

Author: Tracy Rees

Published: June 30th 2016 by Quercus

Amazon | Amazon UK

Blurb: Florrie Buckley is an orphan, living on the wind-blasted moors of Cornwall. It's a hard existence but Florrie is content; she runs wild in the mysterious landscape. She thinks her destiny is set in stone. But when Florrie is fifteen, she inherits a never-imagined secret. She is related to a wealthy and notorious London family, the Graces. Overnight, Florrie's life changes and she moves from country to city, from poverty to wealth. Cut off from everyone she has ever known, Florrie struggles to learn the rules of this strange new world. And then she must try to fathom her destructive pull towards the enigmatic and troubled Turlington Grace, a man with many dark secrets of his own.

Title: I Followed the Rules
Author: Joanna Bolouri
Published: July 2nd 2015 by Quercus
Amazon | Amazon UK

Blurb: Rule 1: Never ask him on a first date. Rule 2: Laugh admiringly at all his jokes. Rule 3: Always leave him wanting more.

. . . wtf?!

Have you heard of The Rules of Engagement? It's a book that promises to teach you to find the man of your dreams in ten easy steps. Unsurprisingly, I don't own a copy. What is it, 1892?

But I'm a journalist, and I've promised to follow it to the letter and write about the results. Nevermind that my friends think I'm insane, I'm stalking men all over town and can't keep my mouth shut at the best of times.

My name is Cat Buchanan. I'm thirty-six years old and live with my daughter in Glasgow. I've been single for six years, but that's about to change. After all, I'm on a deadline.

I Followed the Rules and this is what happened.

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

Review: I really enjoyed Joanna Bolouri's debut, The List. It was such a fun book that had me laughing out loud non-stop for hours! So I started I Followed the Rules with high expectations. When after a couple of pages I was already crying of laughter, I knew I was in for a real treat. And what a treat! I enjoyed I Followed the Rules even more than The List and I couldn't stop grinning while reading it. It is one of those reads that make you feel so good that you go all day round with a huge smile plastered on your face telling everyone who will listen what a fantastic book you are reading.

I Followed the Rules tells the story of Cat Buchanan, a journalist who writes a weekly column about the life of a single mother. But lately, her columns haven't been so witty and fun and her editor wants something more. Enter here: The Rules of Engagement. Cat has to follow the rules to land the perfect fiance while reporting everything to her readers. Obviously, the rules couldn't be more different to Cat's attitude towards dating and flirting with men but she does try her best to follow them, which causes some awkward and equally hilarious situations.

There was not a thing in this novel that I didn't love. Cat was one of the best leading roles I have read in a while. Her jokes and her way of seeing life was just spot on. She is one of those characters you wish they existed in real life and actually were your best friend. And her daughter was a real gem. As were the supporting characters, like Cat's sister and her husband, really caring but a bit too intrusive in Cat's love life. Or Cat's ex, who was about to marry his Gothic girlfriend (this also caused some more hilarious encounters).

I Followed the Rules is a real treat that I highly recommend. Unexpected, quirky and hilarious, I am sure it'll be one of my books of the year. I can assure that will leave you will a content heart and some more eye wrinkles after all the laughing!

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