I’ve always been a big reader, and it is rare for me to have fewer than four books cued up on my bedside table ready for me to get stuck into.
My literary tastes are wide and diverse- I adore Terry Pratchett. I love Scarlett Thomas, Katie Fforde, Judy Astley and Lisa Jewell. I can’t miss a Colin Dexter or an Elizabeth George, and Arianna Franklin’s work fascinates me- and all for very different reasons.
Sometimes though, rather than tackling a brand new read, you just need some book chocolate. A story, which perhaps you’ve read twenty times before, but which is guaranteed to make you feel better. A book to curl up with on a cold winter day, after a bad day, or when you just need to read something that you don’t have to think about, because you already know everything is going to be okay!
My number one- “Oh hell it’s been a crap day I need to feel better book”- is The Rose Revived by Katie Fforde. My copy is in a pretty poor state of repair, and several of the pages are stuck back in with sellotape! I know exactly what is going to happen- and I love that fact. I love that I can read the pages with the feeling that I’m indulging in a coffee and an extra bar of chocolate with friends.
When I was a child my book equivalent of a comfy pair of slippers was Winnie-The-Pooh, and as a teenager it was The Hooded Man (Robin of Sherwood) by Anthony Horowitz (a fact that won’t surprise you in light of my current WIP- Romancing Robin Hood!!)
When I decided to take the leap from writing erotica to contemporary romance, my main aim was to produce a book that would make people feel better. To write a story that would sit on a bookshelf, ready to be pulled out in a ‘I need cheering up’ emergency- but without being twee!
So you can imagine how delighted I was when I braved a look at Another Cup of Coffee on Amazon the other day to find this comment nestled inside a 5 star review- “…its like a hug in a book…” (The full review is available here- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Another-Cup-Of-Coffee-contemporary-ebook/dp/B00EVYZC7M/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1390980980&sr=1-1&keywords=another+cup+of+coffee )
Whether any copy of Another Cup of Coffee will ever get into such a loved mess as my volume of The Rose Revived remains to be seen- but I hope so!!
Do you have a favourite book to cheer you up, or relax you after a tough day? I’d love to hear about it.
Happy Reading
Jenny xx