Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
I am wicked delighted to be featuring a lovely #newtomeauthor today – as I recently had the chance to select quite a few Head of Zeus and Aria Fiction novelists to be spotlighting throughout the Spring months this year – wherein I was rather delighted finding so many keenly interesting stories to start seeking out to read! These are stories which dance between Romance & Women’s Fiction – from Contemporary to Historical settings. Being an avid reader of these genres I couldn’t miss the chance to bring the JOY of discovering these lovely authors to my readers of Jorie Loves A Story!
It is my intention to start requesting these novels via my local library if they are not available in audio formats via Scribd. At the moment my library is experiencing an unprecedented sabbatical on requests which put me in a bit of a pickle as I’m an active patron whose constantly requesting purchases every month – which is why I’m simply saving my queue lists and will turn them in once the services resume. For now at least – I can champion the discoveries and the joy of finding the stories whilst hosting the blog tours!
Why I wanted to host a spotlight & extract
for “The Spitfire Girl: Over and Out”:
As the founder and host of @SatBookChat – I am constantly seeking to find new stories featuring strong women in the centre of Romance & Women’s Fiction. I read an equal amount of Contemporary and Historical stories within these genres of interest whilst encompassing all the lovely sub-niches of their literary styles as well. This New Year 2020 I am also seeking out Feminist Lit which celebrates the kind of stories I am enjoying to discover as well. All of which I try to champion and showcase in the chats I host on Saturdays – wherein writers, readers, book reviewers, book bloggers and the rest of the bookish community on Twitter get to engage with one another. Thereby as a regular reader of these stories I was delighted to find a #newtomeauthor to start seeking out to read!
My first interest in reading and/or listening to an audiobook story about Spitfire Girls was interested by the release by Soraya M. Lane which was “The Spitfire Girls”. You might recall I have previously spotlighted Ms Lane’s novels whilst I also hosted her during #SatBookChat. I was meant to share a review of an mp3 audiobook version of her novel “The Girls of Pearl Harbour” however my personal health during a six month block of time from Autumn 2019 to Spring 2020 prevented me continuing to finish the novel until now. It is one of the stories I have requeued to finish this April.
I decided to see if one of the novels from this series (or the whole series really!) was available via Scribd and I was pleasantly surprised to find the first book “The Spitfire Girl” was listed!
The narrator for this novel is Sarah Ovens.
We first begin by having a smart introduction to the scene as it unfolds – Ellie has just returnt home from work at the airfield – her brother is on a 24 hour pass and her parents are experiencing the rougher edges of a marriage which most likely should have ended in either separation or divorce; theirs was not a happy union. Ellie looked the part with her coveralls and the kind of shine a girl would have working all day – a conflict for her mother who’d prefer a girl who looked less like a bloke and more dainty like herself.
You could feel the disapproving eye in Ellie’s mother – however, the joy for Ellie was the fact her brother was home, the fact he brought a friend notwithstanding and having to change for dinner was as much of a chore for Ellie as it were for her father! They both had a smart exchange before moving into their respective rooms – by the time we rejoined the brother and the mother, the sampler was nearly expiring and I felt it was quite a shame as I was already keenly locked into the drama as it was unfolding! Proving how thankful I am for samplers and how much I truly admire the work of narrators to bring to life the work of an author.
In regards to the narrator directly:
I found Ms Oven’s narration to be a smashingly classic voice for this kind of Saga – there is a particularly familiar intonation by narrators whose voices come from similar regions and as soon as I heard her voice narrating this story, I felt immediately drawn to Ellie and her family! I liked how she altered her voice between the genders – how her voice felt assured as a male and strong as a woman – the men of course in the story have quite a bit to contend with Ellie’s Mum and that of course came through by how she was narrating their parts. Her father seemed resigned to it and her brother was a bit more optimistic but Ellie herself was voiced with resignation at not wanting to humour her Mum; in any capacity! I was jolly happy with the sampler and was keen curious to finish off the story – as you just feel pulled into it!
Did I grab your eye and attention?
Sound like the kind of bookish read you’ve been needing?
Be sure to brew your favourite cuppa and enjoy this extract from the novel.
The Spitfire Girl: Over and Out
Subtitle: Is Ellie ready to fly one last time?
by Fenella J. Miller
All's fair in love and war for First Officer Ellie as she takes to the skies yet again in the final installment of Fenella Miller's Spitfire Girl series.
1943, White Waltham.
As Italy surrenders and victory looms on the horizon, Ellie's doing what she does best – flying. And this time, she's rising to the sky in four-engined Halifaxes. Determined to keep doing her bit, Ellie's successes in the airfield mount but so do tensions with her new beau, Squadron Leader Jack Reynolds.
When Ellie and Jack find their dream home, they discover they've bought more than they bargained for. With a cellar full of secrets, Jack and Ellie must stand united in the face of mystery, war and loss. And as family circumstance threatens to tear them apart, Ellie and Jack are stronger than ever.
Places to find the book:
ASIN: B0844S8B64
Published by Aria Fiction
on 19th March, 2020
The Spitfire Girl series:
The Spitfire Girl (Book One)
The Spitfire Girl in the Skies (Book Two)
A Wedding for the Spitfire Girl (Book Three)
The Spitfire Girl: Over & Out (Book Four) ← final installment!
Published By: Aria Fiction (@Aria_Fiction)
a Digital First imprint of Head of Zeus (@HoZ_Books)
Available Formats: This is a Digital First Release
Converse via: #TheSpitfireGirl, #HistoricalFiction or #HistFic
Enjoy this Extract from “The Spitfire Girl: Over & Out”
Ellie checked that the cottage was immaculate – no dust lurking in any corners or dirt on the floors. Fires were lit in every room, including their bedroom, as she wanted this visit to be special. It had been more than four weeks since they’d spent any longer than an hour or two together and she was desperate to see Jack.
As long as he didn’t keep on about her moving to his pool or starting a family, things should be fine. There was something really important she had to discuss with him. It was about her horrible grandfather who had gatecrashed their wedding last year. Mother had refused to contact him so no one knew the reason for his unwelcome appearance.
She’d managed to get half a dozen eggs, a jug of cream, a fresh loaf and a few ounces of butter from the farm as well as her usual milk. She’d saved her coupons for weeks and had used them to buy a piece of mutton and a few ounces of currents. She’d added root vegetables to the meat – there was no shortage of these – and the casserole had been cooking all day in the slow oven on the range whilst she was at work.
Dessert would be a real luxury – bread-and-butter pudding with real custard, not Bird’s Eye powder mixed with milk and water. The table was laid with a pretty cloth that had once belonged to her grandmother and she’d used the best crockery.
Jack had told her not to wait for him as he didn’t know when his taxi would arrive. Amanda’s bike had been given to him when she moved out and it was left at the ferry pool for anyone to use as long as it was there when he wanted it. Ellie just put a note on the noticeboard in the Mess as soon as she knew he was coming and, so far, it had worked really well and the bicycle had always been waiting for him.
When she’d first seen him pedalling along one-handed she’d been impressed, but now she was used to him being able to do most things that an able-bodied man could. A wave of heat engulfed her. She couldn’t imagine that even with two hands their lovemaking could be improved. That was one area of their marriage that was absolutely perfect.
She glanced at the clock ticking noisily on the kitchen windowsill. It had been dark for half an hour so he should be here any moment. He didn’t need to bring spare clothes with him as he kept most of his belongings at the cottage. Instead of her moving to his pool maybe Margaret, and Rosemary Lees, second in command, could be persuaded to take him on at Hamble – having just one man amongst all the women shouldn’t make any difference to how the pool worked.
There was a clatter outside the front door. He was dumping his bike against the wall. She quickly removed her apron, checked in the mirror that her hair was tidy, her lipstick not smudged, and then headed down the passageway to greet him.
The front door was unlocked and it opened with a bang. ‘Sorry, darling, it’s bloody windy out there and it tore it out of my hand.’ He was looking somewhat dishevelled and from the amount of mud on his uniform greatcoat she guessed he’d taken a tumble.
‘Are you all right? Have you got any cuts and bruises that I need to attend to?’
‘All tickety-boo – soft landing, luckily.’ He slammed the door shut, bolted it and then turned to her. His smile said it all. She flew into his arms and was crushed to his chest. A very satisfactory five minutes later she wriggled free.
‘There’s lashings of hot water if you want a bath before tea.’
The audiobook sampler was focused on the first installment of this series whereas the extract I am sharing with you, dear hearts, is focused on the conclusion of the series! If you choose to pull open the sampler yourself after reading this extract you’ll have a proper sense of the personality of Ellie whilst I am hopeful the combination of the two might convince you to read this series as much as it has convinced me!
This extract seems to pick up the thread of where the sampler left off – how Ellie was determined not to marry for love but to marry for a different reason – she had seen what becomes of a marriage built on love – the sad bit there, is having experienced how love can distance itself from her parents, Ellie wasn’t given a very optimistic view of how a marriage could survive on the strength of love. In this exchange, we see how she’s handling married life – the concerns of the household and welcoming her husband back home. I am unsure the time exchanges or how Ellie has to deal with the changing tides of the war itself – as she’s clearly not working at this junction.
“The Spitfire Girl” (books one & four) speak a bit about the shifting tides of her life – I look forward to seeing how the pieces align and shift forward as the story takes shape round my headphones listening to the narrator reveal the story to me as I make my way through the first installment. Until then, I feel like this series has a wicked good start and will be a series I will love seeking out installment to installment. A true to host this blog tour and give my readers a chance to get to know a #newtomeauthor I am thankful to have found!
About Fenella J. Miller
Fenella J Miller was born in the Isle of Man. Her father was a Yorkshire man and her mother the daughter of a Rajah. She has worked as a nanny, cleaner, field worker, hotelier, chef, secondary and primary teacher and is now a full time writer. She has over thirty eight Regency romantic adventures published plus four Jane Austen variations, three Victorian sagas and seven WW2 family sagas. She lives in a pretty, riverside village in Essex with her husband and British Shorthair cat. She has two adult children and three grandchildren.
Follow this Blog Tour:
NOTE: Similar to blog tours wherein I feature book reviews, book spotlights (with or without extracts), book announcements (or Cover Reveals) – I may elect to feature an author, editor, narrator, publisher or other creative person connected to the book, audiobook, Indie film project or otherwise creative publishing medium being featured wherein the supplemental content on my blog is never compensated monetarily nor am I ever obligated to feature this kind of content. I provide (98.5%) of all questions and guest topics regularly featured on Jorie Loves A Story. I receive direct responses back to those enquiries by publicists, literary agents, authors, blog tour companies, etc of whom I am working with to bring these supplemental features and showcases to my blog. I am naturally curious about the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of stories and the writers who pen them: I have a heap of joy bringing this content to my readers. Whenever there is a conflict of connection I do disclose those connections per post and disclose the connection as it applies.
{SOURCES: Book cover for “Spitfire Girl: Over and Out”, book synopsis, author photograph of Fenella J. Miller, author biography and the blog tour banners were all provided by Head of Zeus and used with permission. Post dividers and My Thoughts badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Stories in the Spotlight banner and the Comment Box Banner.}
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