Would You Buy Or Pass? #FridayFiveChallenge Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by @ThereseFowler

Welcome to my Friday Five Challenge

Get yourself a cuppa and give yourself 5 minutes.

In today’s online shopping age, readers often base their buying decisions from small postage stamp size book covers (Thumb-nails), a quick glance at the book description and the review. How much time do they really spend making that buying decision?

AUTHORS – You often only have seconds to get a reader to buy your book, is your book cover and book bio up to it?

My Friday Five Challenge is this….. IN ONLY FIVE MINUTES….

1) Go to any online book supplier,

2) Randomly choose a category,

3) Speed through the book covers, choose one which has instantly appealed to your eye,

4) Read the book Bio/ Description for this book,

5) If there are reviews, check out a couple,

6) Make an instant decision, would you BUY or PASS?

(then write a little analysis about your decision)

This week I wanted to be inspired by a historical female heroine, I searched the sub-heading of biographies, checked out a couple of books and found mine listed under “Customers who bought this item also bought” section.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Book Description

‘Sometimes’, said Scott, ‘I don’t know whether Zelda and I are real or whether we are characters from one of my own novels.’ Before F. Scott Fitzgerald was a literary darling, before he’d even begun to imagine The Great Gatsby or Benjamin Button, he was a young WWI army lieutenant who fell hard for a spirited Southern belle named Zelda Sayre. The life he and Zelda would lead together in New York, Long Island, Paris, Hollywood and the French Riviera made them legends, even in their own time. Set amidst the glamour of the Jazz Age and The Lost Generation’s vivid world abroad, Z vividly brings Zelda and Scott’s romantic, tumultuous, extraordinary journey to life. Zelda was the embodiment of the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties. She was vibrant, headstrong, complicated and misunderstood. Z is the irresistibly rich, romantic and tumultuous story of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald, set in seductive settings. Filled with larger-than-life characters such as Ernest Hemingway, Sara and Gerald Murphy and Gertrude Stein, we watch the evolution of this iconic woman as she lived large and ached to find her own identity in the shadow of her celebrated husband.

Price: Kindle £1.49 /$2.31

Number of reviews; 47 in the UK / 605 in the US

I checked out a couple of the reviews, lots like the book, but there are also some who didn’t think it was a true likeness of the characters real life.

With the clock ticking, would I BUY or PASS?……..BUY

Analysis

The book cover was an immediate hit, it spoke FLAPPER girl to me with just the hat. A huge Z on the cover – well that is the book title, it was spot on for the job. The book description pulled me in, I read The Great Gatsby twice, saw the film, I loved another book written about the era, (The 20’s Girl and All that Jazz by June Kearns) so I am intrigued to know more. It obviously has a huge following in America due to the characters and the setting. The price is an added bonus, I don’t like to spend too much on a kindle book, so this week I would definitely BUY this book.

A little extra, here is another book cover for the book, I like the first one best, for me the flapper girl sells it.

Links to other #FridayFiveChallengers

Shelley chose Steampunk – http://shelleywilsonauthor.com/2015/07/17/buy-or-pass-time-to-put-steampunk-through-the-fridayfivechallenge/

Cathy chose Travel and Holidays – https://betweenthelinesbookblog.wordpress.com/2015/07/17/friday-five-challenge-a-la-mod-by-ian-moore/

Liz is checking out books about Cornwall – https://lizannelloyd.wordpress.com/2015/07/17/friday-five-challenge-6/

Terry Chose to investigate “August” – http://terrytyler59.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/would-you-buy-or-pass-8.html

Barb is doing everything she can to get Wi-Fi out in rural Spain just to stay in touch – do read this it’s FUN – http://barbtaub.com/2015/07/17/the-f-bomb-cheating-and-fridayfivechallenge-from-rosieamber1/#like-6930

 

 

Romancing September #RomancingSeptember – Day 10

Welcome to Day 10 of Romancing September Across The World Tour. Today our guest is June Kearns. Catch up with more from June in a few hours with the second part of our tour when Stephanie chats to her.

The 20’sGirl,The Ghost and All That Jazz – June Kearns

Where is your home town?

I grew up in Buckinghamshire, but now live in Leicester in the UK.

How long have you been writing romance? 

Since winning a national magazine competition in the 70s, for the first chapter of a romantic novel. My interest in reading it, started at 13 when I came across Jane Eyre, and realised that heroines didn’t have to be beautiful!

What is your favourite sub-genre of romance?

I haven’t got a special favourite. Sometimes, I’m attracted by a period or event, but it’s usually the characters, sparky dialogue and story-telling that hook me in.

When and where is your book set? 

The 20s Girl is set partly in the English Shires, and partly in south-west Texas.

What did Gerry’s aunt leave her? 

To her absolute astonishment, Gerry’s flapper of an aunt, Leonie, left her a half-share in a cattle ranch in south-west Texas.

How long would it take to get to Texas from England in the 1920s?

Hard to say, exactly – certainly weeks and weeks, depending on weather conditions and time of year. Gerry crossed from Liverpool to New York on a Cunarder, with the Atlantic in a very bad mood. Then, hundreds of miles with different railroad companies to get to south-west Texas.

Was Gerry welcomed with open arms to the ranch?

Not exactly! In the Texan’s own words: “The last thing on God’s earth that I need now, is some English lady bountiful, looking for excitement in her boring, small-town life, coming to meet the natives.”

Why was there a lack of eligible men in England in the 1920s?

It was a sad combination of the Great War, where a generation of young men was so cruelly wiped out, and the septic flu epidemic.

When I started writing, I read “Singled Out” by Virginia Nicholson about the sad plight of all those women in England at the time, with almost no hope of finding a husband.

Tell us what you are working on at the moment.

Book Three is set in 1960s London – a sort of hist/fic/romcom! – involving a girl struggling keep her crumbling family home together, while being pursued by a Canadian photographer looking for rolls of film taken by the girl’s mother, during D-Day landings.

Where can readers find out more about you?

 My website is: www.junekearns.com

The website I share with three other writers: www.newromantics4.com

Find a copy of The 20’s Girl, the Ghost and All That Jazz, here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Find out more about June from Stephanie Hurt’s blog and all our Romance writers http://stephanie-hurt.com/

 

Letter T on The A to Z April Challenge 2014

Today it’s letter T on the A to Z Challenge. My book is “The 20’s Girl, The Ghost and All That Jazz” by June Kearns. Genre: Romance

Book Title: The 20’s Girl, the ghost, and all that jazz

Book Description:

1924. The English Shires after the Great War – all crumbling country houses and no men.

When her jazzing flapper of an aunt dies, Gerardina Mary Chiledexter inherits some silver-topped scent bottles, a wardrobe of love-affair clothes, and astonishingly, a half-share in a million-acre cattle ranch in south-west Texas.

Haunted by a psychic cat, and the ghost voice of her aunt, Gerry feels driven to go and see this for herself.

Against a backdrop of big sky, cattle barons and oil wells, she is soon engaged in a game of power, pride and attraction with the Texan who owns the other half.

Available from Amazon in both paperback and Kindle viewbook.at/The20sGirlKindle

Author Sites: website: www.junekearns.com

Twitter: @june_kearns

 Blog: www.newromantics4.com

Facebook: June Kearns

I shall be reviewing this book here on the blog in June along with a guest author interview.

Here are some randomly selected links to other bloggers who are taking up the challenge, please find time to visit them too.

http://inkwellandpaper.wordpress.com/

http://darkcreekfarm.com/blog/

http://www.alexanazzaro.com/category/blog/

http://valeriestorey.blogspot.co.uk/

During the challenge we are asking people to comment on as many blogs as possible, all supportive comments are much appreciated, thank you.