Welcome to my weekly roundup of my year long challenge to do one Good deed a day for a year. This challenge began back in April 2013 and is still going strong, I’m now entering my 52nd week. My inspiration came from reading “A Year of Doing Good” by Judith O’Reilly. Here is what I’ve been up to this week.
April 13th – Still going strong promoting #OperationMallory to help a fellow author out who has Cancer, see my post and PLEASE share as much as you can, or even better, buy his books. http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-55W
Posted reviews for Johnny Nothing by Ian Probert, my review will appear on the blog in a few weeks time a long with an author interview for you.
April 14th – Picked up lots of litter on my way to the post box. Am talking to author June Kearns about reading and reviewing a couple of books for her. Finished reading and wrote a review for Personal Alchemy: The Missing Ingredient For Law Of Attraction Success by Michelle Martin Dobbins.
April 15th – Had a wonderful delivery of 4 books in the post today, it felt like Christmas! So what will I be reading and reviewing for you? Tall, Dark and Kilted and Boot Camp Bride by Lizzie Lamb. The 20’s Girl and An Englishwoman’s Guide To The Cowboy by June Kearns.
Just hand delivered a birthday card and present and on my way back picked up litter.
April 16th – I woke up this morning and realised that I’VE DONE IT, I’ve completed a Year of Good Deeds! Blow up the balloons, pop the Champagne, how great is that? I am writing a big post to release on Sunday all about my year.
Helped out fellow author Sean Flynn with a bit of advice after he’d had a 1* abrasive review. Suggested he didn’t dive in with a rebellious reply, reminding him that he’d never win the argument, and just to let it go no matter how annoying. You’re never going to write a book that everyone will enjoy. He’d had plenty of good reviews, so I told him to hold his head up and move onwards and upwards.
Agreed to read and review two more books; Secrets of the Unaltered by Leti Del Mar , this is the second book in the series, I’d previously read and reviewed her first one, so I’m looking forward to this book. Also Irish Inheritance by Paula Martin. I love a book which has Irish mysteries in it, I’m sure there’s a bit of Irish blood flowing through my veins, although I’m hard pushed to find it on the family tree at the moment.
April 17th – Book review requests coming along like buses at the moment, all or nothing! I’m going to be reading and reviewing the first book in The Georgie Connelly series, Business as Usual by E.L Lindley, I’m super excited about this after featuring them under letter G of my tour. I’ve read some other books by this author and thoroughly enjoyed them all. I’m also equally excited to be getting my hands on the very latest book by Terry Tyler called Kings and Queens. (Due out very shortly)
Invited friends to join us at the park for some cricket. Looks like I’ll be getting my hands on some more books by author Cynthia Harrison too. It’s all happening!
April 18th – Hubby’s birthday today, so we are entertaining the in-laws with high tea (written especially to make certain readers salivate) Have finished reading Tall, Dark and Kilted and Boot Camp Bride by Lizzie Lamb and written my review. Went to the local market and bough some delicious homemade cakes for later.
April 19th – Kids sporting events clashing meant I was on cricket practise duty. Alternatively froze and boiled as the sun played cat and mouse with the clouds. Picked up litter. Got home to find some more books have been delivered for review. Today I’ve got The Hollow Heart and A Change of Heart both by Adrienne Vaughan.
Don’t forget to come and read my celebration post too.
Thanks to everyone who has followed and supported me during my year long challenge.
With a thunderstorm replacing the forecasted warm sunshine, Travis’s day started badly. He hoped a trip to Blackpool, with his friend Dave, would lift his spirits. He would be wrong. After encountering “Uncle Fester”, a naked gardener wielding a rake, and an incontinent dog, he should have turned the car around and gone home. Instead, Dave suggests a visit to the pub, where teetotaller Travis discovers a taste for alcohol. If the opposite of serendipity existed, this would be it. An hour later, someone calls Dave an ambulance. Things go downhill from there. Subsequently arrested for breaking and entering whilst wearing gorilla suits (and who knew that would be illegal), they have to convince the police they have been witness to the murder of a beautiful woman. Or have they? Or could it be, like the police suggest, a bad case of Beer Goggles. Beer Goggles is an epic(hangover) tale of (half)wit(s) and (Dutch)courage, where, thanks to the delights of alcohol, nothing is quite what it appears and where the wrong decision could cost Travis and Dave their lives. If you like a good romp as much as you love a good yarn, Beer Goggles should be your tipple of choice. Enjoy responsibly! 
If Maureen were real, I would advise you to avoid her like the plague. She somehow attracts disaster and farce in equal measure wherever she goes.
Village Books is a local institution…which is good, because most of the staff probably belong in one. There’s the manager, Dante Andolini, who’s hiding more than just his hypochondria from his overbearing mother…Sebastian Donleavy, whose hedonistic lifestyle is two rails short of being on the rails…Aldous Swinghammer, whose philosophical eccentricities have not been the biggest hit with the ladies…Ebeneezer Chipping, whose crotchety exterior hides a burning passion for the Spanish émigré next door…Mina Bovary, whose crazy husband may have just gone AWOL with an arsenal of fragmentary explosive devices…and the store’s long-suffering assistant manager, who is spinning his wheels in retail while he waits for something better to come along. That something better may be new assistant manager Leah Dashwood, an aspiring actress with an ambitious plan to transform the store and its staff in a way that will turn their carefully disordered world on its head. Will the store survive? Will it be bought over by its evil corporate competition? All questions will be answered (but not necessarily in that order) in this hilarious debut novel. 
Make a Joyful Noise is the sparkling tale of a choir preparing for a very special Christmas performance of “Belshazzar’s Feast”. We meet a host of characters who are mercilessly sent up by the author: Lucy the staggeringly trusting young music teacher, Tristan the lecherous and vain anti-hero, Miss Greymitt the ageing and slightly confused choir pianist, Claire the shameless and scheming temptress, and singers with nothing but resonance between their ears. Just as all does not run smoothly for King Belshazzar in Walton’s music, so the characters in the novel suffer from hopeless yearnings, romantic misunderstandings and the unfortunate consequences of their own misguided actions. All is sharply and wittily observed in a delightful mix of romance, music and humour. 
Rosie Amber 