Acquired Book By: I am a regular reviewer for ChocLitUK, where I hand select which books in either their backlist and/or current releases I would like to read next for my #ChocLitSaturdays blog feature. As of June 2016, I became a member of the ChocLit Stars Team in tandem with being on the Cover Reveal Team which I joined in May 2016. I reference the Stars as this is a lovely new reader contribution team of sending feedback to the publisher ahead of new book releases. As always, even if I’m involved with a publisher in this sort of fashion, each review is never influenced by that participation and will always be my honest impression as I read the story. Whether the author is one I have previously read or never had the pleasure to read until the book greets my shelf.
I received a complimentary copy of “Only True in Fairy Tales” from ChocLit in exchange for an honest review! I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
#MidnightChocLit No.5: a New Year’s treat of a quirky magical story
read by a girl who LOVES Fantasy & Magical Bits & Bobbles
Even my resident dragon is eagerly spying a snippet of this novella as a wicked good #nextread of his own! Astride his back is one of my favourite “Mum gifts” as when I was feeling especially poorly after foot surgery (in my late teens) she found a way to lift my spirits by giving me this beautifully lovely Angel Bear! The wings are so iridescent as much as the lovely star she’s holding, too! Hence why I thought it was rather a fitting shot – my Angel Bear holds a star, my dragon wants to snag this read for himself and all my #currentreads are ‘photo diving’ into the shot via the corner of one of my bookcases!
It should be known – when I started off as a book blogger, I had several bookcases stuffed to the gills with books from my personal library; although not the full collection; not even by half. I’ve been collecting books since I was knee high to a grasshopper, so you can well imagine the collection a bookish soul such as myself might acquire? However, 15 months ago I had to scale back my shelves and pack away most of my dearly beloved bookish friends til a new day when they meet each other again in the future; thus, I have two bookcases now: one for reviewing & one for my personal library selections.
There are seven ‘shelves’ if you count the fact I’m using the top shelf of the case itself as an ‘overflow’ area (laughs): the bottom is actually ‘spare space’ where I stored the one series I anguishing couldn’t finish collecting from Guideposts because despite being a subscriber to said series and told I’d get all the books; they quit printing the series and all of us were left with a non-completed set! The series is Mysteries of Sparrow Island and I think it will take me most of my life to find copies of this beautiful series readers have discarded as I have a nearly full set myself! I believe this is a full list of the series – my own copy a lovely clerk at Guideposts faxed to me years ago in an ill-attempt to secure the rest of series for me was found on one of my favourite sites for scouting out Cosy Mysteries! I promptly cancelled my second subscription for the Church Choir Mysteries and discarded all hope of picking up their other series as what is the point if they can just quit their subscriptions up out of the blue?! I digress.
The two shelves up from Sparrow Island are my ‘re-reads’ of review books I dearly want to re-soak inside and re-appreciate as soon as time and life allow me the pleasure of their returned company! The next two shelves are ‘current review books’ in-part as I have housed a lot of my ChocLit novels & novellas tucked into one half of one of the shelves (the other half of my ChocLit novels are on my second bookcase; those I never pack away!) and my Julie Lessman Library (feat. the Daughters of Boston series; 3x trilogies, plus a prequel), my Brenda S. Anderson Library (feat. the Coming Home series), my Dee Henderson books (starting with Full Disclosure; her previous series are packed) and my growing collection of stories by the lovelies of Southern Belle View (i.e. Lisa Wingate & Beth Webb Hart).
The top shelf (in theory, if you discount the upper shelf!) is housing my Science Fiction & Fantasy #currentreads (i.e. leftover from #RRSciFiMonth and being feat. in #SciFiExperience this January), my Ghost Harrison collection (by Heather Graham) and an assorted array of Suspense & Mystery novels I intend to finally dig inside in 2017 (either before or during October!). Which brings me to the upper shelf – two stacks deep occupy my #BacklogueReads (see this Riffle List), the middle stack are more Sci-Fi & Fantasy books and the last stack are books I’ve gathered to send-off to a dear friend who used to be a book blogger.
As you can see this small slice of my bookish life, I’m a girl who *devours!* literature in all it’s splendor of genre & thematic glory! I borrow quite a heap from my local library, too, per annum which rounds out the books not yet on my personal shelves but one day shall be! I segued away from my prompt though – as I was keen on saying, I love Magical Realism stories – including lighter fares of where the modern world enters into the Fantastical with little nudges, pushes and jolts. I love how Fantasy can be re-invented, re-bent and re-shaped per each writer’s vision of how a fantastical ‘something’ can be inclusive to a story-line, even if that particular story-line isn’t entirely Fantastically spun!
A bit like how one of my favourite films starring Sean Patrick Flanery (see also this Review) was the quirky Contemporary Rom Simply Irresistible. To this day, I have no clue how my tweets about his debut novel rang in so many favourites and re-tweets; my Twitter blinked into oblivion back then! Ironically or not, this particular film was his least favourite and it’s my personal favourite aside from his Young Indy films as he plays such a horrid bloke in The Dead Zone! He does redeem himself a bit though with a Contemporary Rom lead in a Hallmark Channel film – interestingly enough.
Ergo when the premise of this lovely novella mentioned ‘fairy tale’ truths – I was curiously drawn to wonder – was there a bit of magic spun into this tale or was it a play on words to where ‘as you least expect it, life shall surprise you’. Either way – if there is a spot of the magical or if it’s merely an uplift of hope for what hasn’t yet happened but will unexpectedly take the character unawares into a bit of blissitude, the story definitely caught my eye as soon as I turnt over the cover & read the blurb!
IF your just joining me for #MidnightChocLit and want to know why I conceived this wicked #awesomesauce of a readathon – please direct your attention to #MidnightChocLit No.1: You’re the One that I Want.
Join me whilst I read *six!* ChocLit novellas Christmas Week & New Year’s – as we read through the holidays with a ‘pocket of ChocLit’ in our hands! Remember: I’m tweeting LIVE as I read ahead of posting these reviews! Tweet me your reactions & add your commentary on the posts!
Only True in Fairy Tales
Subtitle: It's never too late to believe in fairy tales
It’s never too late to believe in fairy tales…
Eloise Blake has been fascinated by Prospect House, the shadowy romantic Gothic house opposite, ever since she moved to the village of Hookfield.
When its new owner turns out to be best-selling crime author, Ross Farrell, whose work is grounded in gritty reality rather than happy endings, Eloise is determined to concentrate on her tapestry design business and her rescue dog, Gracie.
She’s already given up on knights in shining armour and happy ever afters. Love, she thinks, is only true in fairy tales – even when Ross keeps appearing just when she needs help most. But is he the Prince Charming she thought didn’t exist – or is he a beast in disguise?
Places to find the book:
Book Page on World Weaver Press
ISBN: 978-1781893562
on 4th November, 2016
Pages: 112
Published by: ChocLitUK (@ChocLituk)
Available Formats: Pocket Paperback + Ebook and Audiobook
Converse via: #Contemporary #Romance + #ChocLit
OR #PocketChocLit (Jorie’s idea!)
Put some ChocLit,
in your pocket!
#PocketChocLit
(little rhyme I came up with to celebrate these editions!)
About Christine Stovell
Winning a tin of chocolate in a national essay competition at primary school inspired Christine Stovell to become a writer! After graduating from University of East Anglia, she took various jobs in the public sector writing research papers and policy notes by day and filling up her spare drawers with embryonic novels by night.
Losing her dad to cancer made her realise that if she was ever going to get a novel published she had to put her writing first. Setting off, with her husband, from a sleepy seaside resort on the east coast in a vintage wooden boat to sail halfway round Britain provided the inspiration for her debut novel Turning the Tide and Follow a Star. Turning The Tide was a top 100 Bestseller with Amazon Kindle and spent months in the Top 10 Chart for Adult Contemporary Romance. Christine has also published numerous short stories and articles. Christine lives in Wales. Christine novels include: Turning The Tide, Move Over Darling and Follow a Star (July 2014).
Photo Credit: Tim Jones
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- #WYChristmasReadathon
Grand Designs
Blueprint for Love
Finding Father Christmas | Engaging Father Christmas
My Underground American Dream