Review & Giveaway: 336 hours by Rachel Cathan

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Genre: ‘Based on the author’s true life experiences, 336 Hours is a humorous and poignant diary about one woman’s quest to be a mother.’

Release Date: 13th February 2017
Publisher: SilverWood Books

The next 336 hours will be tough. No, the next 336 hours will be really tough…

I feel like an Olympian, waiting to see whether the years of hard work, sacrifice and dedication are finally going to pay off, or whether my body is about to fail me at the last hurdle and make me wonder why I ever hoped I could win.

My best friend is pregnant, my single friends are planning their pregnancies and, after five long years of tests and investigations, I’m coming to the end of my third – and supposedly final – IVF treatment. There are 336 hours to survive before I’ll know if I get to join the motherhood club. That’s 224 waking hours of pure psychological torture. 112 sleeping hours to stare at the ceiling and wonder, what the hell am I going to do with my life if it turns out I can’t have kids?

Based on the author’s true life experiences, 336 Hours is a humorous and poignant diary about one woman’s quest to be a mother.

My thoughts

The author has written a story, her story, in a humoured way but with an everyday struggling subject for most women. There were moments where I laughed out loud, had tears in my eyes… as I was one of those ‘lucky ones’ to get pregnant without going through the IVF system. Howevee I was tols that was the only way to conceive for me due to medical reasons so I could relate in ways a lot to her writing.

All the assumptions are there too – you are married 5 years… where are our grandkids… people expect so much and expect people to go through the norm it is unreal.

Rachel has captured all her insecurities during the book really well and real but with a healthy dose of humour. I think this is a must read for any woman who is trying to break from the norm about kids or who are struggling to do so.

I can highly recommend this book and I will mention this to many of my friends as a must read.

Extract

I can’t pretend to have a clue what she means, of course. I don’t know what it’s like to have little people shouting, ‘Mummy! Mummy! MUUMMEEE!’ all day long, to never be able to go for a wee on your own, to make spaghetti bolognese and then watch your dinner dates tip it straight over their heads, to stay up all night comforting a teething toddler, to spend hours coercing and pleading with very small people to put shoes and coats on so you can at last leave the fucking house.

But I want to know this life. Because that stuff gives you stories, first-hand experiences, and the right to exchange knowing smiles of solidarity with other frazzled parents as you all manoeuvre your wayward shopping trolleys around the aisles of Tesco.

And it comes with other stuff, too: the good stuff.

BUY LINK

AMAZON UK – AMAZON US – Silverwood Books


ABOUT RACHEL CATHAN

 wp-image-88309157jpg.jpgRACHEL CATHAN is a writer from Bedfordshire. In 2001, a mutual friend introduced her to a part-time pub DJ in Southend-on-Sea. A month later, they had moved in together, around seven years later they tied the knot, and a little while after that – just like so many couples before them – they made the exciting and terrifying decision to start a family. And then, like a growing number of couples today, well…not a lot happened.

Throughout the subsequent years of fertility investigations and failed treatments, Rachel kept a diary of her experiences, and it’s from these first- hand encounters in the world of infertility and IVF that her first book, 336 Hours has been adapted.

Facebook – Twitter – Goodreads Author Page – Blog – Website

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Giveaway

Win 2 ebooks with a rafflecopter competition – click here

Promo Post + Giveaway: Paradise Prison by Faith Morti

Hello and welcome to an awesome promo post for Paradise Prison by Faith Mortimer. When I read about this book, I just knew I had to be part of the Promo tour – Let me know in the comments below what you think of this book. 🙂

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Genre: Psychological Thriller
Release Date:
7th January 2017
Series: Dark Minds #4
Publisher: Topsails Charter
Buy links: AMAZON UK – AMAZON US

Synopsis

Following an almighty row, Gillian stands up to her abusive boyfriend. The consequences are horrendous and far-reaching.

Terrified, she flees her home, seeking anonymity abroad while coming to terms with the outcome of her actions.

In Portugal, Gillian meets Harry, a yachtsman. Needing crew for his Atlantic Ocean-crossing she applies for the job. Half-way into the journey, after confessing to her crime, Harry offers her refuge on an uninhabited island in the Caribbean which he says he owns.

Confused and depressed, Gillian imagines this is the answer to her problems. She needs time to lie low and consider her options; confront the authorities or live in obscurity? Harry is offering the perfect hiding place…or is he?

When things start going horribly wrong, she asks herself if she is alone on the island. But maybe the biggest question of all is why she gets the gut feeling Harry wants to keep her there at all costs?What happens when she says … no.

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About the Author

faithbook2Faith is a British author dividing her time between Hampshire, England & Cyprus. Since 2005 she turned her hobby of writing into a career. During childhood, she dreamed of writing novels which readers would love, & spent many hours writing short stories which she read to her sisters. Born in Manchester & educated in Singapore, Malaya & Hampshire, England. Amazon Top #14 author rank for mystery, #27 mystery, thriller & suspense, #55 literature & fiction #5 bestselling author on Nook Books. Faith’s books have made the Kindle Top 100 Paid List numerous times.

Facebook – Twitter – Goodreads Author Page – Google+ – Website

 

Giveaway

1st Prize – Ecopies of all 4 books in the series
2nd Prize – an ecopy of the book

A Rafflecopter Giveaway

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Cover Reveal – Caught Between Two Worlds by June Moodbridge

I love being part of a Cover reveal tour – even more so when it is about a book I can’t wait to read!

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With no further ado please see below the gorgeous Cover for Caught Between Two Worlds by June Moodbridge, Release Date 1st February 2017.

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Synopsis

A vacation on the shores of the Egyptian Red Sea was Veronica Blake’s long lasting dream.

But dreams turn into nightmares. Controlling boyfriend Peter complains and embarrasses her frequently in front of everybody from the start. A trip to the ancient sites turns into a disaster. But the salvation comes in the form of the mysterious Nicholas, a blue-eyed man she remembers from the hotel.

Deep in the Sahara desert Veronica encounters a totally different way of life. She desperately seeks the truth about everything that happened. Alone and afraid of her new written future she finds consolation with Nicholas, the only man she’s left to trust.

Will she ever accept the truth she seeks, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Will she be able to find a way back to the life she was forced to leave behind?

Buy Links: Amazon UKAmazon US

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About the Author

p-rovere-aka-june-moonbridgeJune was born in June and she always loved the moon.

She studied economics, and quickly realised she hated it. She started to write in high school and was criticised by her teacher. Stubborn as she is, that didn’t stop her. Under different pen names, she had stories published in magazines, and then went on to publish three books.

After having two children, and learning that her second child has autism, she married their father and carried on working. Work and family life left her with little free time. But the desire to write didn’t die. When life somehow sorted itself out, she decided to write a novel in English…

For what happened then, re-read the second paragraph, third sentence…

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New addiction – Ultimate Dot to Dot

I thought I share with you my latest addiction…. The Ultimate Dot to Dot by Dr Gareth Moore. Published by Michael O’Mara Books – I think it is AMAZING!

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This is so cool, it is not just a dot to dot from 1 to 999 but I like to compare it with paint or colour by number. Each section of numbers has a colour which represents the colour they recommend you use for that p20161219_101816art of the picture. Plus you have full dots and open dots as I call them. This means that you can start anywhere from an open dot as that is how you are able to get the differences in colour and the shapes and gaps.

 

I love how they come along and how pretty they are – there is a downside to this. The numbers can run up into the 1700’s and it gets a bit difficult to see which dot belongs to which number. You have to look very carefully where the line would be or could be going and what the image would be then you will figure it out.

I hope more of these will come out – I managed to snap this up via Amazon Black Friday Deals and so happy I did this!20161219_101950

 

Have you done any dot to dots and do you like them? Can you recommend more books like this? Just let me know!

Charlene

 

 

Cover Reveal – Penhaligon’s Attic by Terry Nixon

Welcome at the Penhaligon’s Attic by Terri Nixon Cover Reveal tour!!

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Genre: Historical Saga
Release Date: 01 December 2016
Publisher: Piatkus Books
Buy Links: Amazon UK PaperbackAmazon UK E-bookAmazon US E-book

Synopsis

1910. Anna Garvey arrives in Caernoweth, Cornwall with her daughter and a secret. Having come from Ireland to take up an inheritance of the local pub, she and her eighteen year-old daughter Mairead are initially viewed with suspicion by the close-knit community.

Anna soon becomes acquainted with Freya Penhaligon, a vulnerable girl struggling to keep her family business afloat in the wake of her grandmother’s death, and starts to gain the trust of the locals. As their friendship deepens, and Freya is brought out of her shell by the clever and lively Mairead, even Freya’s protective father Matthew begins to thaw.

But when a part of Anna’s past she’d long tried to escape turns up in the town, she is forced to confront the life she left behind – for her sake and her daughter’s too . . .

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About Terri Nixon

signature-pic2Terri was born in Plymouth in 1965. At the age of 9 she moved with her family to Cornwall, to the village featured in Jamaica Inn — North Hill — where she discovered a love of writing that has stayed with her ever since. She also discovered apple-scrumping, and how to jump out of a hayloft without breaking any bones, but no-one’s ever offered to pay her for doing those.

Since publishing in paperback for the first time in 2002, Terri has appeared in both print and online fiction collections, and is proud to have contributed to the Shirley Jackson award-nominated hardback collection: Bound for Evil, by Dead Letter Press.

As a Hybrid author, her first commercially published novel was Maid of Oaklands Manor, published by Piatkus Entice (a digital-first imprint of Little, Brown) in 2013. The paperback is published by Piatkus Books. The two further books in this series: A Rose in Flanders Fields and Daughter of Dark River Farm are published by Carina UK (a digital-first imprint of HarperCollins)

Terri’s self-published Mythic Fiction series set in Cornwall, The Lynher Mill Chronicles, is available in paperback and e-book.

Terri also writes under the name T Nixon, and has contributed to anthologies under the names Terri Pine and Teresa Nixon. She is represented by the Kate Nash Literary Agency. She now lives in Plymouth with her youngest son, and works in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Plymouth University, where she is constantly baffled by the number of students who don’t possess pens.

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Giveaway

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/4be03017205/?

 

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