Title | The Legacy of Lucy Harte
Author | Emma Heatherington
Publisher | HarperImpulse
Purchase | Amazon
'Sometimes time is all we have with the people we love the most. I ask you to slow down in life. To take your time, but don’t waste it….’
Maggie O'Hara knows better than most that life can change in a heartbeat. Eighteen years ago she was given the most precious gift- a second-hand heart, and a second chance at life.
Always thankful, Maggie has never forgotten Lucy Harte – the little girl that saved her life. But as Maggie's own life begins to fall apart, and her heart is broken in love, she loses sight of everything she has to live for…
Until an unexpected letter changes everything and brings Maggie back into the life of Lucy Harte – and a chance for Maggie to get her life back on track once more.
Lucy's final gift to Maggie is much more than the heart that beats inside her. It's a legacy that Maggie must learn to live by. A chance to make her heart skip a beat with every new discovery she makes; a promise to live, laugh, fall in love and heal her broken heart for good.
Because as the keeper of a borrowed heart, Maggie's time is more precious than most and she must make every cherished second count…
Today's post is part of the first blog tour of 2017 for A Page of Fictional Love, and rather than simply review the book (which I will do of course at a later date), with it being right at the start of January we lovely bloggers are each hosting with the theme; New Year, New You. So, each of us are going to share something personal for this year, our New Year New Me plan or resolutions.
New Year, New Me by Dawn-Tracy
Last year was one of the toughest I've ever faced, and was quite an emotional journey. Luckily I had the support of my Mum and my wonderful Partner whom without their support, I'm not sure I would have come out of it quite as happy as I have done.
This year, I feel that I finally have the chance to make an impact with my life. It's the year for a deeper transformation. Of course there are lots of little things I want to change or improve upon in my life, but I guess the main big resolutions this year include;
- Expanding my reading genres more - I already read most genres, but there is always room for more.
- Blogging more often - Last year I feel like I had to literally drag myself to my blog to get a post written, it felt like hard work, so this year I'm making a commitment to blog much more.
- Reach a healthy weight & strong body/mind - I had to take medication for my sciatica, peripheral neuropathy and trapped nerves last year and one of the side effects was that it can cause swelling in the legs, and boy did my thighs take the punishment! So, I'm hoping to trim down my tree-trunk thighs this year and get my body back to the slimmer curvier shape it used to be before my illness. Also, with anxiety and grief taking control of last year, this year I want to ensure I keep my mind calm and manage my emotions better.
- New Job - I'd love to get a better job this year and increase my happiness at work levels. I'm still fully undecided whether I'd like a completely new challenge and go for an accountancy based role, or whether to stick to my primary teaching roles. It will probably be the latter for the first half of the year at first before progressing into something else.
- Travel more - I promised my Auntie years ago that i'd go on Safari in Kenya with her, but sadly this will no longer be able to happen now, but one thing I do want to do this year is travel with my partner more. We're talking about going to Prague, and I quite fancy Amsterdam & Paris too - even if Thailand is more his thing... I'm sure we'll come to a compromise
- Pursue Happiness - I want to become a more happier person than I already am. So, I'm going to focus on doing what makes me happy this year. It might mean ruffling a few feathers by not doing what others want or expect of me a few times, but it's my happiness that matters.
That's it really, of course I have other goals and plans, but they branch out from those key ones I've mentioned. I've learnt that life can be sadly short, so I know the value of making your life count and matter.
What's your legacy going to be?
Please be sure to pop over and visit the other blogs taking part in the tour and show your support, I know everyone would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for stopping by here today, it's really nice to see you. If I haven't said it to you already, Happy New Year xx
With Love + Happiness,
Dawn-Tracy xxx
Dawn-Tracy xxx
Title | The Selection
Author | Kiera Cass
Publisher | HarperCollins Children's Fiction
Source | Review Copy & Purchased Copy
My Rating | 5/5
Thirty-five beautiful girls. Thirty-five beautiful rivals…
It’s the chance of a lifetime and 17-year-old America Singer should feel lucky. She has been chosen for The Selection, a reality TV lottery in which the special few compete for gorgeous Prince Maxon’s love.
Swept up in a world of elaborate gowns, glittering jewels and decadent feasts, America is living a new and glamorous life. And the prince takes a special interest in her, much to the outrage of the others.
Rivalry within The Selection is fierce and not all of the girls are prepared to play by the rules. But what they don’t know is that America has a secret – one which could throw the whole competition… and change her life forever.
Dawn-Tracy says;
I don't think I have EVER read a book in such a short amount of time as this one. Many people who read claim to have been sucked into the storyline but I can honestly say that I was well and truly swallowed whole by this book. It captured me so intensely that when I woke up the following day from reading it I just 'felt' like I was actually living in this dystopian world - and I admit, when I came to, I was disappointed that I was not living in this dystopian world and was in fact a human on Earth. In 2016.
This is one of the books of my summer in 2016 and I can't believe that I am still so hyped up about this book that I am reviewing it again. Read my first review of The Selection that I wrote back in August 2016 here . It was my most popular read (according to goodreads with well over 750,000 other readers having enjoyed this book last year).
I'd never read a fantasy novel or in fact a dystopian novel before this one, and wow - what a welcome to the genre I got! I devoured each page within a single day before desperately purchasing books 2, 3, 4, + 5 at around 1am in the morning when I finished reading this one! I became hungry and addicted. And it had nothing to do with The Hunger Games ;)
So what got me so captured, hungry and addicted?
The storyline! The characters are living in a world and society where everyone is assigned a number depending upon their class in society - Ones are the Royal Family, and Seven's and Eights are the lowest class. Prince Maxon is obviously a One, and America Singer is a Seven. America is dating an Eight (Aspen) when the competition to find Prince Maxon's bride, wife and future queen is announced. America enters - not willingly - as her heart is firmly with her Eight even if it does mean lowering herself class wise in society.
When America discovers that she has been selected, she realises that she will have to live at the palace and compete for Prince Maxon's love and hand with 34 other selected. But America has a plan to lose and is so far from caring about the competition she lets Prince Maxon know of her plan to lose.
When America discovers that she has been selected, she realises that she will have to live at the palace and compete for Prince Maxon's love and hand with 34 other selected. But America has a plan to lose and is so far from caring about the competition she lets Prince Maxon know of her plan to lose.
The competition between the girls is fun, yet intense and I loved the drama and girly sisterhood of it all. It was so compelling and addictive I could not put it down. I had a few favourites and didn't care for many of the girls being evicted out of the competition. I loved the glitz and glamour of the ball gowns and the private maids each girl had. It reminded me of the old tv show I used to watch; Ladette to Lady, mixed with Cinderella + the UK's own Royal Love Story with Prince William and Kate with it's own perfectly fantastical twist and take on it all.
The Selection was a perfect read for me, even as a 28 year old (I was 27 when I read it - you know that makes such a HUGE difference ;) ), and any Young Adult you know would love this book especially if they want a hip version of romance.
We can safely say that America doesn't get booted out of the competition - "hello - there are 4 further books!" but the twists and turns in the plot made for very exciting reading, which is why I immediately started book 2 The Elite which I will review in the coming days.
Books are written for entertainment and enjoyment, a way of escaping and relaxing and this book did ALL of those things for me and more. I now have fond memories of Summer 2016 through reading this amazing series of books.
If there was ever going to be a series of books that I re-read time and again, it will most definitely be these ones.
Thank you Kiera Cass for writing such a spectacular series of books that made me question which reality I was living in, that gave me the happiest summer memories ever, and please ... don't stop writing... ever... I can't wait to read more from you. You rescued my love of reading and books at a time in my life when I felt like giving it up.
We can safely say that America doesn't get booted out of the competition - "hello - there are 4 further books!" but the twists and turns in the plot made for very exciting reading, which is why I immediately started book 2 The Elite which I will review in the coming days.
Books are written for entertainment and enjoyment, a way of escaping and relaxing and this book did ALL of those things for me and more. I now have fond memories of Summer 2016 through reading this amazing series of books.
If there was ever going to be a series of books that I re-read time and again, it will most definitely be these ones.
Thank you Kiera Cass for writing such a spectacular series of books that made me question which reality I was living in, that gave me the happiest summer memories ever, and please ... don't stop writing... ever... I can't wait to read more from you. You rescued my love of reading and books at a time in my life when I felt like giving it up.
Happy New Year my lovelies!
Everyone is talking about goals right now, and whilst it can be so annoying when endless social media feeds are full of goals and #goaldigger hashtags, I kind of LOVE goals. See "Woman On A Mission - Make Dreams Happen" for more goaldigger, happiness, and success posts!
Today, I thought I'd jump back into my blog that got awfully neglected last year due to many personal reasons. Onwards and Upwards as they say.
So, as you can see from my banner that's been in place for a while now, I am expanding the content here at A Page of Fictional Love from just books (and the whole range of genres I now cover), to lifestyle AND Crafts. The crafts will largely be crochet related. But it's the goals we're interested in so let's jump into those;
Books
- Read 70+ books in 2017
- Review at least 4 books a month
- Expand my reading genres
- Have Author's Guest Post & Q&A sessions Monthly
- Regular Book Post posts
Lifestyle
- Blog at least 4 posts a month in this topic area
- Share my Steps to Happiness Journey to promote Happiness & Positivity
- Include posts on; Home Making, Gardening, DIY, Life In General, Hauls
Crafts
- Share my latest Crochet projects
- Share my Crochet Mood Blanket Journey
- Document the new crochet skills & patterns I learn
- Learn new Crafts by expanding my creativity
- Post at least 1x a month on this topic
Blog Goals In General
I also have some general goals in mind for this blog but I'm not ready to share those yet as I like to keep some goals in my inner incubator until they are manifesting in their fullness (and to be honest it keeps my blog from becoming cloned).
I can say that the goals I have in general do include getting my blog reach up and more popular. I'm so proud to have reached over 20,000 views, and I want to double this at least this year, and with your help I know it can be done!
Goals is a topic I'll revisit and review over the year, so be ready for things to change, adapt and grow as the year goes by. I am so excited for the coming year in terms of this blog, and where I know it is going, and the books I'm going to read and share with you all, the lifestyle updates and tips I'll share, and finally the crochet and craft projects that I will be sharing for the first time on this blog!
What goals have you set yourself this year?
Here's to an amazing 2017, for you and I,
With love + happiness,
Dawn-Tracy
Dawn-Tracy
xxx
Title | Love You To Death
Author | Caroline Mitchell
Publisher | Bookouture
Source | Review Copy
My Rating | 5/5
BLURB
‘I’m not your mother. You’re a monster. I don’t want you’
Women who gave a child up for adoption are being killed. A knock at their front door begins a nightmare from which they will never wake up.
For Detective Ruby Preston and her team, it is a race against time to connect the dots before the killer can strike again. But when Ruby receives a sinister email, the case takes a terrifying personal twist.
Could the clues to the identity of the killer lie in Ruby’s own past?
Who can she trust with her secrets?
And could Ruby be next?
Love You to Death is a serial killer thriller packed with twists.
What Dawn-Tracy Thinks
I have been witnessing great things said about Caroline Mitchell yet I'd not read any of her work. I've read a couple of crime authors; Angela Marsons, Robert Bryzna, Kerry Wilkinson (All Bookouture authors), but I was lacking one in my collection. Fear of missing out (FOMO - is real you know), I decided that I wanted to dip my toe into her crime thrilling world and WOW was I rewarded for facing my fear.
Never before has a Crime Thriller had me so intricately hooked upon every single word and caused me to lay awake at 2-3am in bed just desperate to read more, but that is exactly what Caroline has achieved in Love You To Death. It's a storyline I've not had the pleasure of reading anywhere else before, so the fact that it had me tied to my bed, bound by the pages and words of this mind blowing story is a testament to the sheer impact this book will have upon you.
My initial response to having finished this book was posted on my twitter feed to Caroline and Bookouture was as follows;
"OMFG
just finished reading #LoveYouToDeath by @Caroline_writes ... What the hell do I do now I've finished?? 
@bookouture 
"So what caused this reaction in me?
Love You To Death is the first introductory book to DS Ruby Preston who is one of my new sheroes in the crime world - I think if she teamed up with badass DI Kim Stone (courtesy of Angela Marsons) there would be a whole new genre of wonder-woman heroes (Bookouture, we can do this can't we? We can get two fabulous authors team up for a ONE OFF special book can't we? - Do I need to get a campaign set up?) shaping up the crime thrilling fictional world.
I love Ruby because she is the girl who made a choice to better herself, she lived right next door to the criminal underground - literally - and happened to fall in love with their son, Nathan Crosby, and we see the delicateness of their fierce, protective love for one another throughout this book. It has a kind of Romeo and Juliet theme going in that it's a forbidden love, but as anyone who has ever been in love will say, sometimes you can't help who you fall in love with. Their bond is joined forevermore with the daughter, Lucy they had adopted.
But aside from her love life, Ruby has to contend with a serial killer named "Lucy" who is killing women who had their daughter's adopted. Is it the Lucy? Why is she doing this? Is it some sort of revenge? All Ruby can focus on is trying to save the next victim, and the victim after her and her daughter.
Ruby makes a deal with the devil aka Lenny Crosby (Nathan's brother) and asks him to hunt down her Lucy - she needs to know if it's her, but she should have known it would come at a cost, and a whole load of manipulation from the Crosby family - interfering "Mother-in-Laws" ring any bells?
Then she has her colleagues on her back or stabbing her in it! Can she trust anyone and if she can, just who has her back and who is the snake in the grass?
The twists and turns in this book are far to many to mention, but each grips you in and not once did I know who the killer was until the very end and the shock was explosive!
I'm glad Caroline left book 1 on a hook of how Ruby and Nathan's relationship and the revelation about their daughter hanging in the balance. I can't wait to pick up book 2 which Caroline has assured me today that is currently being edited!!!
OMG please don't make us wait much longer for book 2! This was incredibly twisted and tormenting with a satisfying breath of fresh crime thrilling air!
Title | The Cat of Yule Cottage
Author | Lili Hayward
Publisher | Hodder
Pages | 208 Pages
Purchase | Amazon
A magical tale of Christmas and cats, perfect for everyone who loves A Street Cat Named Bob and Alfie the Doorstep Cat.
It's nearly Christmas, and Jessamine Pike needs a serious life overhaul.
Jess moves into Enysyule, a centuries-old cottage in Cornwall, and begins the process of renovating the rundown house by day and finishing her novel by night, planning to have both finished in time for the holidays. She's got good company: a beautiful, arrogant tomcat stalks around like he owns the place, and seems very skeptical of Jess' tenancy.
But there's magic in the air... Local legends tell of a spirit that inhabits the area, and an ancient standing stone that keeps watch over the valley. As Christmas comes closer and closer, Jess uncovers treasures from Enysyule's past, and becomes involved in a fight for its future.
For Jess has stumbled into a story that's been going on for five hundred years. A story about land, love, friendship, the Yuletide... and one remarkable cat.
Guest Post
Dear Reader,
Today I have something rather wonderful for you to kick off my December posts and festivities here at A Page of Fictional Love. I am rather fond of books, crochet and cats as many of you will know of my beautiful fur baby; Magick, which is why this post is so extra special for me today.
In celebration of the publication of; The Cat of Yule COttage (the title is simply so dreamy!), I am handing over my blog to author Lili Hayward for the day as she shares with you her rather fun post 'Cats vs. Dogs'. It brought smiles and giggles to my face as I read it, and I hope it does for you too. Enjoy!
Today I have something rather wonderful for you to kick off my December posts and festivities here at A Page of Fictional Love. I am rather fond of books, crochet and cats as many of you will know of my beautiful fur baby; Magick, which is why this post is so extra special for me today.
In celebration of the publication of; The Cat of Yule COttage (the title is simply so dreamy!), I am handing over my blog to author Lili Hayward for the day as she shares with you her rather fun post 'Cats vs. Dogs'. It brought smiles and giggles to my face as I read it, and I hope it does for you too. Enjoy!
Cats vs. Dogs
Lili Hayward
Dogs are nice and all that. They have funny faces and are
sometimes useful and good for long walks. But for me, there’s no contest. I am
a fully paid up lifetime member of the Cat Club. Here are six reasons why(and a
liberal smattering of YouTube links):
1. Cats are keen on scientific
education
They regularly offer free anatomy lessons to their owners; without
them, how would you know what a mouse kidney looked like? They're strict on
timetables as well, and will often commence your lessons first thing in the
morning, by leaving a new exhibit (bird foot, decapitated mouse head) on the
rug next to the bed.
2. They encourage philosophical
thinking
And I’m not only talking about Schrödinger... Cats present daily paradoxes and conundrums to
test their owners, such as: My Cat
Refuses the Fancy Food Yet Feasts on Half a Dead Moth: Discuss. Or:The Only Water I Like to Drink is From the
Toilet or Your Glass: true or true?
For extra feline philosophy see Derrida’s cat in his
philosophical work: The
Animal that Therefore I am.
3. They hold down important jobs
Yet still manage to do almost nothing
at the same time. Take Tama, the
calico cat who was made Super Station Master at Kishi Station in Kinokawa,
Japan. Or Tuxedo Stan, who ran for
mayor in Halifax, Canada or El Candigato
Morris in Xalapa, Mexico, whose team pledged he would “rid the city of its corrupt
political rats”, and argued that voting for him was less of a joke than the
election itself.
4. Sometimes they even work for a living
Dogs aren’t the only ones who work. All
over the world, cats occasionally deign to accept employment. Take the
famous Tibs the Great, the Post
Office’s Number One Cat, who kept the HQ free from mice for fourteen years. Or
the many famous Ship Cats, like Able
Seacat Simon and Mrs Chippy. And
as for sniffer dogs, pah! At a police checkpoint in Stavropol, two Russian
cats, Barsik and Rusik, could sniff out smuggled cargos of black-market
sturgeon and caviar with astonishing accuracy, ousting the force’s sniffer dogs.
They were so successful, that eventually, they sadly became victims of a Mafia
hit.
5. They are celebrated in art
Forget “How Much is that Doggy in the
Window”. Cats have been inspiring works of art for thousands of years. Take the 9th
Century Old Irish poem “Pangur Bán”, written by a monk to his cat.
"Pangur" translates as “fuller” (e.g. someone who pounded woolen
cloth for a living: as anyone who owns a cat and has been subject to a vigorous
kneading can testify, it's an apt name) and Bán, meaning “fair” or “white”. And
then there's my personal favourite, Jeoffry the Cat, who kept poet Christopher
Smart company when his family had him incarcerated in an asylum. Smart
dedicated a whole section of his 1762 poem Jubilate Agno to Jeoffry: “For
he is a mixture of gravity and waggery... For by stroking him I have discovered
electricity”. From illuminated manuscripts to the magnificent Japanese Edo-era ukiyo-e woodblock
prints,
artists and cats go together like claws and the bottom of the sofa.
6. They Keep Writers Happy
Every writer needs a cat. Cats have
carefully honed the art of focus training, and frequently test a writer’s
determination to keep writing by time-honoured exercises, such as Walking Across the Keyboard, Sleeping on the Laptop, or Must
Sit on the Lap Now. Sometimes, they'll encourage you to take a break and
stretch your back and neck muscles by mewing loudly and persistently for food.
Writers are often odd creatures, who –
speaking for myself –require bothhours of solitude and sudden bursts of human
interaction. Who can better understand that than a cat? Alan Ginsberg, Joyce
Carol Oates, Mark Twain, Patricia Highsmith, Tove Jansson, Ernest Hemingway,
Neil Gaiman, Doris Lessing, Philip K. Dick, Edgar Allen Poe... Cat-lovers, all
of them. Over and out.
“You
belong to another time. You are lord
of a place bounded like a dream.”
—Jorge Luis
Borges, “To a Cat”
Please consider making a donation to your local animal
rescue centre (such as Cats Protection) this Christmas!
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