Simona's Corner of Dreams: Karen Aldous

Monday, 19 June 2017

Under a Tuscan Sky – by Karen Aldous

Original Cover

My own copy

The blurb:

Escape to Tuscany this summer with Karen Aldous’s brilliantly uplifting read. Perfect for fans of Erica James and Cathy Kelly.

A summer she’ll never forget…

When Olivia Montague’s grandmother passes away, she decides it’s finally time to make some changes in her own life. So she breaks up with her ‘going nowhere’ boyfriend and embarks on a journey to her Nonna’s home in Tuscany.

Until now, Olivia has always believed that she’s incapable of love, after being abandoned by her parents as a baby. But with each day spent at the gorgeous villa nestled in the rolling Italian hills, she feels her heart begin to flutter…

And when handsome antiques dealer Hugh St. James arrives on the scene, she realises things might be about to change forever!

My Opinion:

*Book provided by the publisher on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

The title of this book just screamed out to me! I’m 3/8 Italian and I used to spend two weeks in wonderful Tuscany every year when I was a child. Naturally, I was really excited about this book.

When Olivia Montague steps of the plane in Tuscany, I felt at home from the start. Of course that’s also thanks to Karen Aldous and her lovely description of the scenery, I fell in love with the area all over again.

Let go back to the start though: When Olivia’s grandmother dies she is devastated. She wants to change something in her life, so she breaks up with her current boyfriend and goes to see her Nonna’s home in Tuscany. She spends time at her grandmother’s house and discovers a lot about her family. She believes, she was abandoned by her parents as a child and now learns the truth, it’s a big shock to her! She actually has more family in beautiful Tuscany.

On the flight down she meets Alberto and the like each other from the start. However, there is also the antiques dealer Hugh St. James. Both men are really handsome and Olivia is very confused. That’s actually the part of the book I didn’t really like. I felt like her feelings developed way to quickly, in a non authentic way and also her relationship with both men didn’t develop in the right pace. That disturbed me a bit, because I actually really liked Olivia as a character.

She is full of passion and love and I loved following her around. She was finally able to discover the truth about her past and her family and that was very fascinating and interesting. Karen Aldous captured that tension beautifully, I was hooked!

The book has great messages about second chances, family and love and the were all wonderfully integrated in this storyline. This is a great summer book and I enjoyed every second of this story!

Rating:

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06Y5D5N1M/ref=x_gr_w_bb?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_bb_uk-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35151194-under-a-tuscan-sky?ac=1&from_search=true

About Karen Aldous: Karen Aldous enjoys village life on the edge of the north-downs in Kent with easy access to the buzz of London. Not only does she love the passive pleasures of reading and writing, she also craves the more active pursuits with her family and friends such as walking, cycling and skiing especially when they involve food and wine!

Karen gets much of her inspiration from her travels and if she had to choose, France, Greece, Switzerland, Italy and the USA would be her favourites. However, wherever she goes, she discovers a new character emerges in 'Karen's World'. She likes to write about strong independent women who can direct their own lives - but struggle to control them! And, of course there's always a gorgeous hunk or two!

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

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/karenAldous_

Giveaway (UK Only)

1^st prize: £10 Amazon voucher, eCopy of Under a Tuscan Sky & a signed notebook

2^nd & 3^rd prize: eCopy of Under a Tuscan Sky & a signed notebook

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday, 22 July 2016

The Story Behind Your Book - One Moment at Sunrise by Karen Aldous

Inspiration for One Moment at Sunrise - written by Karen Aldous

My inspiration for writing was originally just enjoying moving my pencil or pen as a child,

but then reading, escaping to another world, listening to voices of characters, gave me an instinctive drive to want to create my own. Loving romance, drama and exotic locations, I read Victoria Hislop’s The Island, and that story ignited a deeper understanding of what it was I wanted to achieve. It had all the above and something more, for me, originality. The idea that the author had discovered a place and a snippet of history, so accessible, yet so new to me, fascinated me. I then understood the exact direction I wanted my writing to go. My latest book, One Moment at Sunrise, published in ebook in April this year, by CarinaUK/HarperCollins, I feel has those similar elements.

This novel was conceived on arrival at a traditional double-fronted French villa, blue shutters, a central sweeping staircase, cool marble flooring, high ceilings, contemporary décor with tasteful furnishings, French doors leading to a vine-covered terrace and the crystal-clear waters of a pool and overlooking the most magnificent canal ever built! This was the moment the inspiration struck. My character appeared before my eyes; wheeling a bike in through metal gates, her cheeks pink, her forehead etched with an inscrutable frown as her head hung low. As she peered around the echoing walls inside her home, her eyes appeared hostile, lacklustre, and her mouth sloping downwards. Why? She lived in this stunning villa, had a gorgeous little girl, and her man - so what was wrong? Why was she so swarmed in darkness?

Cycling under dappled light of the trees, along gently rippling waters and admiring the ripening vineyards bursting with fruit under a Mediterranean sun, I listened to Evie as I cycled along the Canal-du-Midi. Her voice revealed what was troubling her and I immediately fell in love with her and sympathised with her situation. Frequently, I would stop on the banks of the canal to open my pad so that her words and my thoughts could tumble on to the page; her story gradually deepening and at the same time, ideas forming. The setting provided such an abundance of inspiration and although my real villa wasn’t beside the Canal du Midi, it was actually in a village several kilometres away, it was fitting that Evie lived and breathed the canal and to set her story there.

It was after a visit to Bezier and seeing the statue of Jean-Paul Riquet that further stimulus encouraged me. I began to explore the man, the visionary and the history of the Canal-du-Midi in more depth. From a snippet I read, I found my character had more in common with some of the canal’s past characters too. From my research, I discovered just how instrumental Pyrenean peasant women were in building this monumental canal and I was moved by the fact that they failed to ever receive recognition for their contribution. So not only did I have Evie’s story, I felt I also had their story which had to be told and so I developed the plot to include them.

This blend of past and present gives me such a stir because the common theme is disempowerment; strong, intelligent women who had so much capacity and talent as individuals becoming so overruled, isolated and quite possibly like Evie, immersed in a self-fulfilling prophecy of self-doubt. We can never know how these peasant women felt about their names eradicated from the payroll four hundred years ago, but we can help bring their story out for further discussion, and praise.

One of the reasons I love being a fiction writer is because anything is possible; if it doesn’t exist, you can invent it, if you need to find out more, you research, then you can explore. My job is to make it real for the reader. I let my characters speak to me, tell me their problems, then I can help them and discover something unique or at least interesting for the readers. Like many of my contemporaries, writers of women’s fiction, my motivation for my characters, is not just about finding romance and living happy ever after, I wish my characters to travel the journey, discover something about themselves as well as others and the world around them so they become strong independent women who find fulfilment in some form for themselves.