This Winner Takes It All!

 

My hope is that this story will snuggle up with you in your magical me-time -moments’ unwinding at the weekend or as part of the mid-week madness that is real life.  You will make some fab-u-lous fictional friends who will linger longer in your company well after the book has finished.

The all-important blurb:

More than just a holiday romance?

Her daughter, her job and divorcing her untrustworthy ex are Leah’s main priorities. She isn’t really bothered that her life might be missing a few things. But after winning a prestigious travel blogger award, she’s inundated with offers to review glamorous holiday destinations. Lying around drinking exotic cocktails and being paid for it! What could be better?

Perhaps a romantic trip to idyllic Greece to find the one man who might make Leah risk her heart again…

Enjoy Mrs W’s 5* Review of A Greek Affair written by Linn B. Halton and published by the team at Harper Collins 2019. Purchase your own copy here: http://smarturl.it/AGreekAffair

We meet Leah at one of the most shocking moments of her life so far – it’s the strangest moment to meet someone and to begin with you want to turn your face away – to shield any embarrassment of an extra onlooker from Leah – to give her a bit of privacy. But somehow, from the very first page – you just can’t. You care about this woman too much. You can’t turn your back on her, walk out the door- you want to stay and see what she does next. We have a bird’s eye view of what feels like a special story and we want to see our girl come out with a victory. We are the spectators of the show – and so we stay low, hunker down and silently will her on with every turn of the page.

The lines of a James Blunt song float through my mind, getting stronger and stronger, with every paragraph, every chapter, louder and louder with every line as we draw closer to Leah and her Bonfire heart. As we find out more about the intervening years between the moment of impact and where we pick up her story, we know that Leah is a fighter and the grin slowly, but ever so surely sweeps across our face.

And I’ve been looking at the stars
For a long, long time
I’ve been putting out fires
All my life

Days like these lead to…
Nights like this lead to
Love like ours.
You light the spark in my bonfire heart.
People like us—we don’t
Need that much, just some-
One that starts,
Starts the spark in our bonfire hearts

(James Blunt)

But who is the stranger of who her heart speaks? is there a lover that she silently seeks? Is it the love that she thought was of her life – Antonio? No, sadly he has only left her reeling, left her thinking that she is ‘lacking in some way’, he has not sparked her soul, he has not ignited a romantic passion, just a fierceness that turned her into a soul-shining survivor.

Leah’s future is ‘Rosie’ – she and her little lovely girl have taken one another’s hands and taken those baby steps forward – and surely the tight little team of two deserve themselves some happy.

‘Not all ruins are ancient’ muses Leah when she looks around a property on one of her travel tours- and the same can be said of our heroine. She feels like she has been living in the ruins of her past life, she feels pretty much like a shell of her former self, but we know, we just can see, that she has ‘a lot of redeeming features’ and we so want her to have more than one day in the sun.

Leah is full of positive energy – buoyed by the love of her parents and her greatest friends, both old and new. She lives her life and realises a true treasure along the way that ‘life can only be lived one day at a time, and its about making sure each one really matters.’ Leah leads her own life. She makes moves to step out of the ‘expectations that we feel are placed upon us.’ The Greek gods above ‘may throw a dice, their minds as cold as ice’ and the likes of us ‘way down here, may lose someone dear’ but Leah proves to us that the ‘game is on again, a lover or a friend?’ Who knows? Will the ‘Winner’ ‘take it all’. For me Leah is a true winner – she gets knocked down for sure – but she gets back up again, with an even stronger love for life in her heart, a greater zest and spring in her step and a passion for living. The ‘gods’ may have wanted to crush her spirit – but This Greek Affair turns the tables on those gods- and true love prevails.

Coffee Cup Conversations and Teapot Talking Points:

If you and I dear reader were sitting down together today, settled in at a table overlooking the Parthenon, having both read the book, here are a few of the points we could mull over together.

Did Leah’s story of survival resonate with any moments in your life?

I myself was encouraged by Leah’s example. It’s true that sometimes, as she says ‘it means letting go of one dream and chasing another’ I have had to do this. Only recently I was mourning that loss a little and feeling the pinch of pain as the embers of a dream finally seemed to go out.  But Leah doesn’t lay down and die- she keeps up her fight, she accepts that life is about change, but she keeps on chasing her arrow. Life can change – in the blink of an eye – in a telephone call – but Leah’s story is ultimately one of hope – corners can be turned – Life can suddenly change for the better too – 24 little hours can bring good news as well as bad.

Is there a song that stokes your heart and helps to fire up your fight song?

Music can change our mood quicker than almost anything else. Is there a song that you listen to that instantly perks you up, turns you around and turns you into a true blue version of yourself? For me most songs by ABBA will have that effect. I can’t sing Super Trouper and not strike a power pose – you simply can’t be blue when there are some strains of ‘YOUR’ song coming through. Why not make a pep you up playlist to carry you into the new year.

What makes your soul shine?

Leah creates a profession for herself as a travel blogger. I enjoyed taking a sabbatical year, a year of living creatively last year. I absolutely loved finding out for sure what really made me tick and what really mattered to me. We honestly only get one life and NOW is now – it’s a gift – that’s why it’s called the present! So I truly believe that we can and must re-imagine our lives daily, so that we are living out as much of our inner essence and our creative self as we can – whether that is letting the light in on an old hobby or finding and exploring something new. Igniting our souls is what makes us feel truly alive. There is literally no point climbing the ladder, if it is against the wrong wall! Not all changes have to be huge – it’s the little baby steps towards living out our true selves that can make us feel really and truly the best.

Now, if you are anything like me, you will love getting to know the author: Linn B. Halton

From interior designer to author, Linn B. Halton – who also writes under the pen name of Lucy Coleman – says ‘it’s been a fantastic journey!’

Linn is the bestselling author of more than a dozen novels and is excited to be writing for both Aria Fiction (Head of Zeus) and Harper Impulse (Harper Collins); she’s represented by Sara Keane of the Keane Kataria Literary Agency.

When she’s not writing, or spending time with the family, she’s either upcycling furniture or working in the garden.

Linn won the 2013 UK Festival of Romance: Innovation in Romantic Fiction award; her novels have been short-listed in the UK’s Festival of Romance and the eFestival of Words Book Awards.

Living in Coed Duon in the Welsh Valleys with her ‘rock’, Lawrence, and gorgeous Bengal cat Ziggy, she freely admits she’s an eternal romantic.

Linn is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and writes feel-good, uplifting novels about life, love and relationships.

Linn is generously including this wonderful Giveaway:  Win Rose wine and chocolates to tuck into as you enjoy the story for yourself. (UK only)

*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome.  Please enter using the Rafflecopter box link below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then the author reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time the author will delete the data.  The author is not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/33c69494173/?   

 

I LOVE to interact and keep in touch with writers – either to share my thoughts on the book or to ask questions, but mainly just to hang out with people who love writing and reading and soul-surfing as much as I do.

Website: http://linnbhalton.co.uk/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/LinnBHaltonAuthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LinnBHalton

 

 

So, dear reader, whilst you enjoy this empowering tale of a life gently turning towards the sun, I’m off to get my hands on another book to take us into the lighter evenings.

Upward!