I am thrilled to be on this blog tour.
Dying to tell you the plot:
As 56 year old Eve buries her husband, Rob, she realises she doesn’t love him and hasn’t for many years.
And because he did virtually everything for her she now doesn’t know how to deal with their mail, let alone put the heating back on.
But as she starts to take stock of her life, she finds a letter from him. This letter pierces her soul as she remembers why she stopped loving him. It also heals a growing rift between Eve and her daughter, Emily. However, Eve also senses Rob hasn’t left her yet.
So she embarks on what she sees is her ‘second chance’ at their relationship, even chatting to him in the street, causing stares. But when she unexpectedly meets a new potential partner, she holds him at arm’s length because ‘it wouldn’t be fair on Rob’.
And so begins Eve’s transitional journey to find a new life for herself – on her own terms. As well as someone she can fall in love with . . .
Bobs and Books honest review:
Firstly, how utterly lovely to see a book set in the South West of the UK. I particularly loved the descriptions of Bath, having not long explored those tourist hotspots myself.
Eve is adorable and I felt like the book was telling the story as if you were stranger chatting to her on the bus, or a train- or maybe a plane when she's brave enough. I found her mutterings to her dead husband quite endearing.
Emily, Tim and Vicky make a great supporting cast with their quirks and support very entertaining.
Eve's journey in this book is admirable. She really seems to embrace life. When her past does meet her present and future it touches on a really sensitive subject and this is handled so well by the author.
My only slight reservation with this book is that I struggle to see Eve as in her 50s, I feel like she comes across much older, but that is probably due to her past.
Ah-may-zing.
About the author: This is me, Jane Gilley
My first foray into writing came when I wrote a poem at 7:
Night is drawing in
And the day has lost its din
And while we sleep
The animals creep
And hunt for food
In their hungry mood
I couldn’t stop writing when I was a nipper. I wrote wherever my pen could make its mark and especially at the back of my school exercise books. The lady who taught maths, in junior school, even asked if I wanted more paper to write on!
But life has a way of taking over and guiding you down its own path. Hence my initial foray into writing was dampened by society’s usual requirements of getting married and working to pay the mortgage, whereby I simply didn’t have the time to sit, tapping away at my computer to my heart’s content. But when I managed to start writing again in 2008; when publishers were telling me they didn’t want any more animal fiction, I self-published 6 children’s books – 5 animal adventures, which I sold at Durrell’s Jersey Zoo – and I had a book signing at Waterstones with a novella for young girls, Maisie’s Dream.
With my children’s books localised French / Jersey themes, I was invited by 3 of the primary schools here and on the tiny channel island of Herm to give talks to the school children, about where I found the inspiration for my stories.
Since becoming self-employed, I’ve been able to step back and concentrate on writing adult fiction. Avon, Harper Collins published my debut book, The Woman Who Kept Everything – about an elderly lady who rediscovers what life has to offer after an electrical fault in her house threatens a fire, followed by The Afternoon Tea Club – about 4 very different people who meet at a community afternoon tea club and put their worlds to right, after becoming friends.
During 2020 and with PLENTY of time to spare, I wrote 3 new books, which I self-published on Kindle – under adult fiction:
The Making of Robert Moony – an unusual, funny, heart-felt tale about a 27 yr old bullied man who finally finds love and acceptance in life, after he is kidnapped by mistake
County Lines Road – about 2 teenagers whose lives are turned upside down when a joyride goes horribly wrong and they are dragged away to a gang-house by drugs dealers and have to find a way to escape as well as protecting their families from the gang’s threat of retaliation.
Being In Love With You - A touching story about a widow rebuilding her life, on her own terms . . .
All my books are always quirky, uplifting tales about new beginnings and have happy endings!