Sincerely BookAngels: Books and the City Showcase 2023

On Tuesday 15th November 2022, Simon & Schuster UK opened their doors once more after two years. Sara-Jade Virtue and the Team invited bloggers, librarians and booksellers along to celebrate their fabulous books which are due to be published next year.

As the evenings usually go so quickly Linda Hill and I decided to meet up earlier so we could have a catch up beforehand and we were joined by the lovely Joanne from PortobelloBookBlog who was attending her first TeamBATC showcase. After delicious pastel de natas with raspberries in we made our way to S&S headquarters.

Linda and Joanne

As always the welcome from SJ and the team was warm and lovely and we were led into the room which was filled with goody bags, cocktails, nibbles and fizz and stacks of books with signs telling us to help ourselves.

Once we were settled down, Clare Hey presented Sara-Jade with a beautiful bouquet and a personalised card from the BATC team to congratulate her on her recent Romantic Novelists' Association's win for Publisher and or Editor of the Year 2022. We were then introduced to all the wonderful authors, three of whom were joining us via zoom along with many more bloggers.

After each author read from their books we had a q and a session with prizes given for the best questions, one via zoom and one in the room.

Lucy Vine surrounded by tulips

Lauren Bravo and Rebecca Ryan (L-R)

All of the books sound amazing and I can't wait to read them all, all I can say is all of you book lovers out there are in for a treat, with something for everybody.

Jackie Fraser (1st Left) and Eva Verde (2nd Left) reading from their books.

As ever the night goes far too quickly and we are soon racing down Grey's Inn road to get to our trains but not before quick catch ups with our lovely blogger friends including, Kirsty, Hayley, Catriona, Laura and Maureen and a delicious book themed cupcake.

I started reading Lucy Vine's book, Seven Exes on the way home and already wish that it was on the telly as it is hilarious.

Thanks so much SJ and the Books and the City Team for such an amazing event.

Please see below for the wonderful authors and their amazing books. Click on the titles to order/Pre-order.

In Bloom by Eva Verde

This book is so new that there is no information available yet but while we're waiting here's Eva's previous book Lives Like Mine

Lives Like Mine by Eva Verde

Mother... To three small children, their heritage dual like hers.

Daughter... To a mother who immigrated to make a better life but has been rejected by her chosen country.

Wife... To a man who loves her but who will not defend her to his intolerant family.

Woman…Whose roles now define her and trap her in a life she no longer recognises…

Meet Monica, the flawed heroine at the heart of LIVES LIKE MINE.

With her three children in school, Monica finds herself wondering if this is all there is. Despite all the effort and the smiles, in the mirror she sees a woman hollowed out from putting everyone else first, tolerating her in-laws’ intolerance, and wondering if she has a right to complain when she’s living the life that she has created for herself.

Then along comes Joe, a catalyst for change in the guise of a flirtatious parent on the school run. Though the sudden spark of their affair is hedonistic and oh so cathartic, Joe soon offers a friendship that shows Monica how to resurrect and honour the parts of her identity that she has long suppressed. He is able to do for Monica what Dan has never managed to, enabling her both to face up to a past of guilty secrets and family estrangements, and to redefine her future.

Seven Exes by Lucy Vine

Esther is out with her two friends, bemoaning her lack of relationship, when she finds a magazine from the noughties. Seeking comfort – and a laugh – she turns to the dating advice only to find an article that feels a little too close to home. According to the journalist, there are seven people a woman will date before finding the one:

The First Love, The Work Mistake, The Friend with Benefits, The Overlap, The Missed Chance, The Bastard and The Serious One.

Her friends laugh but Esther realises each of her exes fits these roles perfectly. Deciding that she’s mistaken her true love in the reject pile she decides to contact each of her exes to find out which is the one that got away...

Maybe Tomorrow by Penny Parkes

What a difference a year could make…

Jamie Matson had once enjoyed a wonderful life working alongside her best friend, organising adventures for single-parent families, and her son Bo’s artistic flair a source of pride rather than concern.

She hadn’t been prepared to lose her business, her home, and her friend. Not all in one dreadful year. And now she finds herself reeling - rebuilding her world, with Bo at its heart - swallowing her pride and asking for help.

Jamie certainly hadn’t expected to find such hope and camaraderie in the queue at her local Food Bank - thrown together with an unlikely and colourful group of people - all of them struggling to get by, yet still determined to reclaim their lost careers and agency over their lives. Even if just choosing their own groceries again is a goal they can all share.

As their friendships flourish, they quickly find it’s easier to be objective about each other than about themselves, and decide that - when you’re all out of options - it’s okay to bend the rules a little and create your own.

We haven't got an image for Maybe Tomorrow yet so here are the details for Home, instead.

Home by Penny Parkes

A gripping and heartfelt story about overcoming the past and finding where you belong.

Anna Wilson travels the world as a professional housesitter – stepping into other people’s lives - caring for their homes, pets and sometimes even neighbours. Living vicariously.

But all Anna has ever really wanted is a home of her own – a proper one, filled with family and love and happy memories. If only she knew where to start.

Growing up in foster care, she always envied her friends their secure and carefree lives, their certainty and confidence. And, while those same friends may have become her family of choice, Anna is still stuck in that nomadic cycle, looking for answers, trying to find the courage to put down roots and find a place to call home.

Compelling, rich and evocative, Home is Anna’s journey to discovering that it isn’t where you settle down that matters, but the people you have around you when you do.

The House That Made Us by Alice Kavanaugh

One Day meets Up: The House That Made Us is a love story – and a life story – told through a series of photographs and based on a true story.

When Mac and Marie marry and find a home of their own, Mac takes a snap of themselves outside their newbuild bungalow, the garden bare and the paint on the front door still wet. It becomes a tradition, this snap, and slowly the photographs build into an album of a fifty-year partnership.

Every year they take a photo and though things change around them – the garden matures, the fashions change, they grow older – the one constant is their love. Every year, come rain, come shine, from the Seventies through the decades, every photo tells the story of their love.

Until the last photo, where the couple becomes one, and their story comes to an end…

The Daughter-in-Law by Fanny Blake

When Hope’s only son Paul met and married Elodie, Hope was delighted that he had found love and was settling down to make his own family. Hope has loved bringing up her own child, and is happy to step in and help out now and again – but is always worried about overstepping the line between grandmother and mother.

Elodie was hoping that having children with Paul would fulfil her as much as her busy job as a barrister has. But the reality is far from her dream. And with her mother-in-law Hope constantly poking her nose in where it’s not wanted, she finds herself frustrated and alone.

Both women could be each other’s greatest ally, but both have secrets that could ruin their relationship. Secrets neither wants Paul to uncover…

Preloved by Lauren Bravo

Gwen’s life has stalled. She’s in her mid-thirties, perpetually single, her friends are busy procreating in the country and conversations with her parents seem to revolve entirely around herbaceous borders and the council’s wheelie-bin timetable. Above all she’s lonely. But then, isn’t everyone?

When Gwen’s made redundant from a job she drifted into a decade ago and never left, she realises it’s time to make a change. Over what might be the best – and most solitary – meal she’s ever eaten, Gwen vows to find something meaningful to do with her life, reconnect with her family and friends – and finally book herself a dentist appointment.

Her search for meaning soon leads her to volunteer in a local charity shop where she both literally and metaphorically unloads her emotional baggage. With the help of the weird and wonderful people she meets in the shop and the donated items bursting with untold stories that pass through its doors, Gwen must finally address the events and choices that led her to this point and find a way to move forward with bravery, humanity and more regular dental care.

Brimming with life, love and the stories bound up in even the most everyday items, Preloved is a tale about friendship, loss, being true to oneself no matter the expectations – and the enduring power and joy of charity shops.

The Forgotten Garden by Sharon Gosling

Successful landscape architect Luisa MacGregor has finally got the green light to go ahead with a charity project she’s been working on for years: taking parcels of land in deprived areas and building gardens that can involve the community.

Arriving in a rundown seaside town on the north-west coast of Cumbria, she realises that her work is going to be cut out for her. But, along with Cas, a local PE teacher, and Harper, a teen whose life has taken a wrong turn, she is determined to get the garden up and running.

So when the community comes together and the garden starts to grow, she feels her luck might have changed. Can she grow good things on this rocky ground? And might love blossom along the way…?

The Book Lover's Retreat by Heidi Swain

Sometimes a book grabs you by the heart and grows to mean everything to you. That’s what Hope Falls is to friends Emily, Rachel and Tori. So, when they get the chance to spend a whole summer at the cottage in Lakeside where the film adaptation was located, they know it is going to be the holiday of a lifetime.

Spending six weeks away will give them a chance to re-evaluate their life choices. For Emily to decide which way her career will go – the safe route, or the more risky creative option? And for Rachel to decide whether to move in with her partner Jeremy. Then Tori has to drop out at the last moment, and her space is offered to another Hope Falls afficionado, Alex.

But when Alex turns out not to be who they expected, the holiday takes an unforeseen turn. And as the summer develops, so does their friendship. Could this be where they uncover their future selves, find love in all its forms and where their lives will change course forever…?