Book Review - Autumn Antics by Georgina Troy

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Amazon UK

Title: Autumn Antics

Author: Georgina Troy

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Author supplied copy

Publisher: Green Shutter Books

Publication Date: 25th August 2018

Rating: 5 Stars

Pull on your beanie, the fireworks are about to begin...

Being a part-time hand model can be tricky, especially when you have to deal with prima donnas like Megan Knight, a reality star whose meteoric rise has surprised everyone. Bella is happiest running her tiny antique business from the front room of her cottage on the boardwalk. To ensure she has enough income coming in, she also rents out two of her bedrooms and is hiding a secret crush on one of her lodgers. His name is Jack Collins and he also happens to be her best friend Sacha’s brother.

If life wasn’t complicated enough, her world-travelling mother appears on her doorstep on the same evening that Jack’s ex-fiancée arrives on the boardwalk determined to win him back. Bella has a lot of thinking to do and soon discovers that not all gems sparkle.

It was such a joy to be able to return to Jersey and The Boardwalk by the Sea in this long awaited second book in the series - Autumn Antics.  

Due to the main focus of the book being Bella, it can easily be read as a standalone - although book one features a lot of ice-cream and gelato so I would recommend you read it anyway! All of the characters from the first book are present, in addition to some new ones. 

We get to know Bella very well in this story, she has had a crush on her lodger Jack for many years, but its very complicated.  He has an ex-fiance that keep appearing like a bad penny,  she made a promise to Sacha, Jack's sister that there would never be anything between them.  Yet as a reader you can see they clearly belong together and I spent the whole book hoping they would finally come to their senses. 

I really enjoyed the storyline with Megan Knight too, she is a new reality TV star who behaves like a prima donna, but when she is forced to spend some time in Jersey, Bella and her friends  get to see the real Megan. 

It was Bella and Jack's easy friendship that really appealed to me, they were on the same wavelength, and both care a lot about other people.  Especially their neighbours and the more vulnerable in the community. 

There was plenty of action, great conversations, kind gestures, laughs all set to a stormy Jersey backdrop. I found this to be a very quick and easy book to read, and is easily one of my favourites from Georgina Troy, in addition to being a great second book in the series.  Roll on book 3! 

Thank you to Georgina Troy for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.  

Book Review - Summer Sundaes by Georgina Troy - Blog Tour

Amazon UK

Title: Summer Sundaes

Author: Georgina Troy

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Author supplied review copy

Publisher: Green Shutter Books

Publication Date: 15th July 2017

Rating: 4 Stars

A perfect escapist read for anyone needing a holiday.

When Sacha Collins, cafe owner and sundae-maker extraordinaire, meets Italian archaeologist, Alessandro Salvatore in Rome, she's grateful to him for being her tour guide. Now he’s turned up in the seaside village where she lives, known locally as, The Boardwalk by the Sea and is setting up a gelateria in direct competition to her retro Summer Sundaes Café. 

She's only been running her café for two years since taking over from her father. Until now the only other shops on the boardwalk have been a wool shop, an antique shop and a second-hand book shop. These have helped rather than hindered her custom. How will her creative sundaes made from fresh Jersey ice cream compete with his delicious Italian gelato?

Sacha is worried. Is there enough custom for both businesses to thrive? Who is behind the strange changes being made on the boardwalk? And when the oldest resident on the boardwalk is threatened with eviction can Sacha and Alessandro come together and find a way of helping her?

For a peaceful little boardwalk overlooking one of the quieter beaches on the island, there's an awful lot going on and some of it is going to lead to big changes.

Wipe off your flip flops, it’s going to be a bumpy ride...

I really feel like having an ice-cream sundae, and I know just the place to go for one - the Summer Sundaes cafe, in Jersey in the area known at The Boardwalk by the Sea. On the other hand if you are in the mood for gelato, a new place is opening also on the boardwalk for that. 

The only catch is Sacha the owner of Summer Sundaes and Alessandro who is sorting out the gelateria, who met on Sacha's recent trip to Rome, isn't expecting the competition or the lies to have got them to this point. 

The book starts off in Rome, and I loved the whistle stop tours of the city as Sacha is guided by Alessandro for a couple of days before she and her aunt embark on a med cruise. During the trip in Rome, we see the iconic tourist attractions and also get dazzling descriptions of gorgeous gelato. Plus the fact that the guide is hunky, is always a bonus! 

I loved the setting of this book, in Jersey, and got a real feel for the island, especially when Sacha swaps tour guide roles with Alessandro.  We also get a great idea of the community when all the businesses band together for a great cause. 

I really enjoyed meeting the people that worked in Sacha's cafe, as well as her best friends which I suspect will be the focus for the next books in this series. 

Besides the stunning cover for Summer Sundaes, you have a really simple and pleasing to read book, that has a few surprises up its sleeve, and I really liked the writing style of Georgina Troy. I could really believe the characters and am already looking forward to the next book in the series. 

Thank you so much to Georgina Troy for this copy of the book which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily. 

About Georgina Troy

Georgina Troy is the pseudonym of author Deborah Carr. Her first book, A Jersey Kiss was a finalist in the Contemporary Romance Category of the Romantic Novel of the Year Awards 2016 (RoNAs) and finalist in the Joan Hessayon Award for New Writers 2015.

Her WW1 historical romance, Broken Faces, written in her own name, Deborah Carr, was runner-up in the Good Housekeeping Novel Writing Competition 2012. She lives on the island of Jersey with her husband, two children and three rescue dogs. Her books are published by Accent Press and Green Shutter Books. Georgina is a member of The Blonde Plotters.

Georgina’s new series, The Boardwalk by the Sea, includes four standalone novels about friends, Sacha, Bella, Lexi and Jools. Each book is set in a different season. The girls live on or near a small seaside village known locally as The Boardwalk by the Sea and all of them make an appearance in the books throughout the series but each book will focus on one of the friends.

Summer Sundaes (book 1)

Autumn Antics (book 2) - due Spring 2018

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GeorginaTroyAuthor/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/GeorginaTroy

Goodreads Author Page:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7224225.Georgina_Troy

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ofbooksandbeaches/

Google+  https://plus.google.com/117042212386862550212

Website:  http://www.deborahcarr.org/

COMPETITION

A character in Autumn Antics (book 2) named after someone the winner nominates, i.e themself/family member.

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Book Review - A Jersey Affair by Georgina Troy - Rachel Reads Randomly Book #17

Amazon UK

Title:  A Jersey Affair (The Jersey Scene Book 2)

Author: Georgina Troy

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Purchased

Publisher: Accent Press

Publication Date: 17th March 2015

Rating: 4 Stars

When shoe designer Paige Bingham is jilted at the altar, she decides to enjoy her honeymoon-for-one in Sorrento. 

What she doesn't expect is to meet mysterious entrepreneur, Sebastian Fielding, when she arrives. 
He helps ease the sting of rejection as he introduces her to the ancient sites he knows and loves. 
Unfortunately, soon after Paige returns home to Jersey, she discovers that Sebastian's company is taking over the struggling store where her business is based... 

How can Paige stop her fledgling business from going under? And what can she do to fight the gossip now that the paparazzi have published their untruths about 'A Jersey Affair'?

I can't help feel that its a bit weird that I had a far better sense and liking for Sorrento which wasn't the main location for the book, then I did about Jersey, where the rest of the story is set, and the island that lends its name to the title of the book. 

I loved the opening in Sorrento and Paige's initial meeting and outings with Sebastian Fielding. Paige was in Sorrento, by herself on what should have been her honeymoon, and is also a talented shoe-designer who has a concession in a big department store back in Jersey. Sebastian however is working for  a company that is taking over the department store, and means that Paige could lose her outlet and possibly business. 

Paige lives next door to her best friend Olly, who is going out with her sister Clem. We see a lot of the Clem and Olly storyline, and get to know them really well, in addition to Paige and Sebastian. 

Sebastian is a bit of a minor celebrity, or at least a person of interest to the press, and Paige is very concerned, on discovering this information about the potential press intrusion if she had a relationship with Sebastian. 

I really enjoyed the story, although in places I felt it was a bit sluggish, overall there were far more positives. As I got to know Sebastian more, I was liking him more and more. He is certainly a character with hidden depths, and is also determined to do what he wants. 

A Jersey Affair works easily as a standalone, as it focuses on completely different characters to the first book. I definitely preferred A Jersey Affair to A Jersey Kiss, and can't help but think that was Georgina Troy writes more in this series, the writing and stories will just get better and better. 

Thank you to everyone who voted this week, it was very close, and I am pleased that A Jersey Affair was the winner. It may have taken me years before I found the time to read it, despite liking the first book in the series, so this was just the push I needed.  Please do all take a look at the vote this week, and also check out my running giveaways as they include book 3 in the Jersey Scene series - A Jersey Dreamboat. 

Guest Post & Giveaway - Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers’ Scheme by Georgina Troy - RNA Awards Week

I’m often asked by new writers what I think is the best way towards becoming a published author. There are, of course, many ways towards reaching your publishing goal, the route I took however was joining the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers’ Scheme. You can find out more about it on their website here: http://www.romanticnovelistsassociation.org/join/new_writers_scheme 

This scheme is open to 250 unpublished members each year and as part of your membership you can submit a full or partial manuscript – by 31 August each year – for a critique. The readers who write the reports are anonymous published authors. If a book goes through the scheme and is subsequently published the author is entitled to enter the Joan Hessayon New Writers’ Scheme Award - I was lucky enough to be shortlisted for the award in 2015. 

A Jersey Kiss – originally entitled Bea Stings – was submitted for the New Writers’ Scheme (NWS) twice. Both times I received lengthy reports telling me what was good about my book – characters, plot, sub-plots, etc – as well as suggestions for areas of the manuscript that could be improved upon. For example, one of my readers mentioned that I should consider making more of the beautiful island where I lived rather than setting my novel in an imaginary place somewhere along the south coast. It then dawned on me that there were no other romantic novels set in Jersey and that this was the one place where I knew all, or at least a fair sum of, the exquisite coves and corners in the island where scenes could be set. 

So I re-wrote the book, again, and this time made much more of the place where I lived. It also made my book become more alive for me. After that I wrote A Jersey Affair, which had also gone through the NWS as Reading Paige, and set that book in Jersey and also in Sorrento, a place I loved. It was where my husband and I had spent our honeymoon, so already had romantic connotations for me.

Once I signed a publishing contract with Accent Press for my Jersey Scene series, I was no longer eligible to be a member of the NWS and couldn’t submit a manuscript for the excellent critiques I’d received in the past, although now I’m lucky enough to have an editor to work with. When you’re a new writer and finding your way along the writing process it’s incredibly difficult to know if you’re on the right track. I used to wonder how I was supposed to know if what I was writing was complete rubbish, or if there was some of it that was worth keeping and improving upon. With the NWS you have someone who’ll read every word of your manuscript and point out where you’re going wrong, or at least what’s wrong with your novel. They’ll also help you discover what’s good about the book, so that you can improve it and hopefully one day realise your dream and see your novel in print. 

Giveaway to win a paperback copy of A Jersey Dreamboat (Open Internationally)

Georgina Troy is offering one lucky winner a chance to win the newest book in the Jersey Scene series, A Jersey Dreamboat. All the books can be read as stand alones so don't worry if you haven't read the first two. 

Giveaway open everyone, all options are voluntary, but please do what they ask, as I will be verifying the winner. Giveaway closes 23:59 12/3/2016. Winner will be announced on twitter and emailed, and they will need to reply within 7 days, or forfeit the prize, and I will re-draw for a new winner.  Good luck everyone.

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About Georgina Troy

Georgina Troy lives in Jersey, an island fifteen miles off the coast of France. She's a hopeless romantic and when Georgina realised that no one else wrote romances set in her island home with its beautiful wind-swept beaches and intriguing inhabitants, she decided she had to provide some. Her books are published by Accent Press.

Georgina also writes historical romance under the name D M Carr and her book Broken Faces was recently published.

Georgina Troy on Amazon UK

Contact Georgina:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GeorginaTroy 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GeorginaTroyAuthor 

Website: http://www.georginatroy.co.uk/

Blog: http://georginatroy.blogspot.com/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/georginatroy/

Thank you to Georgina for this very informative post, I'm sure that it will help a lot of people, and thank you for the giveaway too.

Congratulations to Georgina Troy on her nomination for the RoNA Contemporary Romantic Novel Award. Which of these books did you love? Which do you think should win the award?

Promo Post - A Jersey Dreamboat by Georgina Troy - Blog Tour

The third instalment of the captivating Jersey Scene series. Izzy and her best friend Jess are badly let down when a Jersey socialite, who has agreed to hire their entire vintage party stock for her upcoming wedding, decides to elope instead - leaving the girls with no bookings and no money. Feeling despondent, the girls try a night out to cheer themselves up, and meet the captivating and aristocratic Ed, who invites the girls on a cruise to Nice on his yacht, together with his two brothers. Romance builds on the luxury trip, but when a last-minute wedding booking is offered, the girls must return to Jersey, and real life has to begin again ...or has it?

Buy Links

AMAZON UK

AMAZON.COM

ACCENT PRESS

ABOUT GEORGINA TROY

Georgina Troy lives on the island of Jersey and when it’s dark she can see the lights in France from her bedroom window. This isn't surprising as Jersey is only fifteen miles off the French coast. She's an impossible romantic and likes nothing more than creating gorgeous heroes. Her books are published by Accent Press.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GeorginaTroy

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/GeorginaTroyAuthor

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=Georgina+Troy

Blog: http://georginatroy.blogspot.com/

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