My life is one of two halves; I spent the first half living in the industrial West Midlands, at school and then training to become a doctor, and the second half living in rural bliss in the southwest of England. For the day job, I’m an anesthesiologist, but my true passion, thanks to my mother being an English teacher, is reading romance and writing my own. I am well-travelled and spend a quarter of each year in France, so my books often have characters from all over Europe as well as characters working in the medical profession or overcoming/ living with a variety of health conditions.
This is a first love, second chance romance set in the 1990s in the industrial heart of England. It is a story of two boys, one from the wrong side of the tracks, one from the aspirational middle classes, whose paths are already carved in stone, who fall head-first into friendship and indie music and first-time fumbling and hormones and feelings-too-big-for-their-bodies and most of all, love.
Separated by a horrific event, it is not until many years later a circumstance reunites them. Despite having experienced very different lives, the spark between them remains. As they feel their way back to each other, rekindling their youthful romance and exploring the baggage accumulated by both of them, they both realise the love they shared never died.
I loved this book because it slams you in the gut, and I spent the entire time raging, crying, laughing, and loving Peter as he negotiates his first love. I loved the stellar writing, the character growth, the evocative music, and how it made me lunge for the next in the series.
Peter Mandel is an 18-year-old private school senior who’s passionate about photography and bent on keeping his attractions secret. Enter Adam Algedi, a charming, worldly guy who doesn't do labels, but does want to do Peter.
Swept away on a journey of first love and intimate discovery, Peter hopes for a future where he won't have to hide his truth. But as the web of lies he and Adam weave grows relentlessly tangled, can Peter find the confidence to do the right thing? Or will his crush on Daniel, a college acquaintance, put him on a different path?
I loved the uniqueness of this book, centred around the novelty of email in 1999. I love the idea of a nerdy guy whose job it is to read other folks' emails as he struggles with young adulthood approaching the dreaded Y2K. I loved how his POV is beautifully interspersed with cute epistolary exchanges.
From the award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wayward Son, Fangirl, Carry On, and Landline comes a hilarious and heartfelt novel about an office romance that blossoms one email at a time....
Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.
Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now—reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to…
I loved this book because it’s tough, hard, and very, very real. I think it is a timeless reminder that AIDS has no cure and that in the 1990s, HIV was a death sentence. I love this author’s gritty writing; he’s a gay survivor of that era who never pulls his punches.
Winner of the 2013 EPIC eBook Award for Best Contemporary RomanceIt's 1991, and Dan Calzolaio has just moved to Florida with his lover, Mark, having fled Chicago and Mark's addictions to begin a new life on the Gulf Coast. Volunteering for the Tampa AIDS Alliance is just one part of that new beginning, and that's how Dan meets his new buddy, Adam.Adam Schmidt is not at all what Dan expected. The guy is an original - witty, wry, and sarcastic with a fondness for a smart black dress, Barbra Streisand, and a good mai tai. Adam doesn't let his imminent…
As a Brit, I love books set in the US; I love exploring our cultural differences. This one is an angsty emotional journey with a very strong female character, which isn’t always successfully pulled off in romance novels. Love isn’t always rainbows and sunshine, and I think this is one of those stories reminding us that it needs to be worked at.
Twenty-one year old Laura Sedgwick is a rebel without a cause. Her only plans for life are to make no plans She revels in her fascination of the unexpected as she navigates her way through mid-nineties' Dallas nightlife. One very bad night brings her face to face with the one man likely to change her mind about…well...everything.
Twenty-three year old Seth Whitaker has every intention of seeing through with his well mapped out life. He is a hard working over-achiever that has no intentions of slowing his pace for anyone. With a fierce…
Yes, I know, we’ve all seen the movie, but the book is even better! I love everything essentially British about this: the men in her life, of course, but her flat, the dinner parties, the way everyone was obsessed with their weight (not always in a good way). But most of all, I love how Bridget was a heroine of her time.
A dazzlingly urban satire on modern relationships? An ironic, tragic insight into the demise of the nuclear family? Or the confused ramblings of a pissed thirty-something?
As Bridget documents her struggles through the social minefield of her thirties and tries to weigh up the eternal question (Daniel Cleaver or Mark Darcy?), she turns for support to four indispensable friends: Shazzer, Jude, Tom and a bottle of chardonnay.
Welcome to Bridget's first diary: mercilessly funny, endlessly touching and utterly addictive.
Helen Fielding's first Bridget Jones novel, Bridget Jones's Diary, sparked a phenomenon that has seen…
Maximilian Tundra is about to have an existential crisis of cosmic proportions.
When a physical duplicate of him appears in his living room, wearing a tight-fitting silver lamé unitard and speaking with an English accent, Max knows something bad is about to happen. Bad doesn’t cover it. Max discovers he’s the only human being who can prevent the end of the world, and not just on his planet! In the multiverse, infinite Earths will be destroyed.
★★★★★ "Funny, yet deep, this is definitely worth venturing into the multiverse for."
Amazing Stories says: "Snarky as Pratchet, insightful as Stephenson, as full of scathing social commentary as Swift or Voltaire, and weirdly reminiscent of LeGuin, Alpha Max is the only multiverse novel you need this month, or maybe ever."
Maximilian Tundra is about to have an existential crisis of cosmic proportions.
When a physical duplicate of him appears in his living room, wearing a tight-fitting silver lamé unitard and speaking with an English accent, Max knows something bad is about to happen. Bad doesn’t cover it. Max discovers…
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