Category: publication day

A belated Happy New Year and thank you for an amazing start to A Breath of Fresh Air’s journey

Jessica Redland Author13 Comments

Happy New Year! Considering it’ll be February a week today, I’m a bit late in saying that but this is actually my first blog post of the year so better late than never!

I had a new book out a fortnight ago and I’d have normally penned a publication day post but I was so deep in my editing cave (translation: so far behind on my deadline) that I didn’t have the time to write one.

Anyway, wishing you all the best and hope January has treated you well so far – especially as it seems to have been roughly 78 days long already! I’ve had a bit of a mixed month so this is another long blog post looking at the positives and the challenges. Make a cuppa, grab what’s left of the festive chocolates/biscuits, and put your feet up…

THE POSITIVES

Yesterday (24th January) was the two-week anniversary from when A Breath of Fresh Air was released and, although I don’t know any sales figures (we get them a few months in arrears), several amazing things have happened to make this – my 22nd novel – my most successful release so far.

Apple Books UK Chart Position – On publication day, A Breath of Fresh Air stormed the Apple chart, topping the Fiction & Literature category chart and hitting the #5 position in the overall chart. To my knowledge, I haven’t had a higher publication day position on Apple Books so thank you very much to anyone listening on Apple Books

Kindle UK Top 100 – A Breath of Fresh Air reached #75 on publication day. I was so delighted with this as my last two releases hadn’t done this which panicked me a bit as that broke a long run of Top 100 chartings. So it was a relief to be back in the Top 100. I anticipated a dip from there as publication day is usually the peak but, a few days later, it reached #39 and #1 in several categories. Woo hoo!

Just over a fortnight on, it is still in the Kindle UK Top 100. The charts do move around across the day and it has been kicked out a few times but has always been in the Top 100 at some point every day. At the time of writing this blog post, it’s at #92 and it was in the 80s earlier today.

Bookstat eBook Chart – The positive early sales earned A Breath of Fresh Air a place in the top 10 at #7. I love this chart because most of the book charts are compiled from paperback sales so my books (and those of other digital lead or digital first publishers) don’t appear in them. This chart is based on eBook sales, audiobooks and online paperback sales. I’ve featured in it several times but my last Top 10 charting was in July 2022 when Chasing Dreams at Hedgehog Hollow was released so it was great to be back in there.

Audible UK Top 40 – A couple of days after publication, the audiobook hit #34 and has stayed in the Top 200 for most of the past two weeks which is lovely.

But the real biggie – and the reason I’m posting this today – is the speed at which reviews/ratings have been coming in on Amazon…

Reviews/Ratings Milestones – Within three days of release, A Breath of Fresh Air had already passed 100 reviews (achieved 121). Up until that point, the fastest book for gathering reviews had been the third Hedgehog Hollow book – Family Secrets at Hedgehog Hollow. I hadn’t actually kept track of how quickly that book hit 100 but it reached 300 on its one-week anniversary.  ABOFA hit 313 reviews at five days.

I was really interested to see whether reviews for ABOFA would tail off, leaving HH3 as the speediest to 1,000 (1,002 attained on the three-week anniversary) but that hasn’t been the case. Yesterday, on ABOFA’s two-week anniversary, it hit 975 and, today, it has reached 1,045 so well ahead of those hedgehogs!

It’s so flattering knowing that readers are devouring the book so soon after release date and that they’re sharing quickly how much they’ve loved it. Well, most of them are. I’ll come back to the negative comments later.

It took me years before my debut book reached 100 reviews/ratings and I never dreamed back then that my books would become so popular that one would gather 1,000 in just over a fortnight. Wow!

Blog Tour – The two week blog tour for A Breath of Fresh Air has now ended. As always, a huge thank you to Rachel Gilbey of Rachel’s Random Resources for organising the tour and for the amazing bloggers/reviewers who took part and shared their thoughts.

Some of those involved have been supporting me for a long time and I’m so very grateful for that, others have discovered me more recently and there were some reading one of my books for the first time on this tour… who thankfully loved it. Phew!

Bloggers/reviewers are not paid beyond being gifted a copy of the eBook. They therefore do this because they love reading and are passionate about sharing the books they’ve loved with others. Thank you to everyone who took part as you are absolute superstars and I’m so grateful for everything you do. I’ve shared the comments from the blog tour throughout this post.

Thanks also to the lovely reviewers not on the blog tour who still read/listened to A Breath of Fresh Air close to publication and shared lovely thoughts, including Fiona Jenkins. Really appreciate it.

My favourite reviews are the ones where they share that there’s a part of the story which has particularly spoken to them, whether that’s because it resonated personally with them or simply that they loved that specific element. Spoiler-free, of course! I love reading about how the reviewer feels about the book – connections to characters who feel like friends and/or being transported to the setting. Reviews like this make me so happy and give me a warm and fuzzy feeling as I can tell the reader has really connected with the book.

THE CHALLENGES

I’m sticking with the publication of A Breath of Fresh Air for the start of this section. This is the second book in what is intended to be a long series – hoping for 12-15 books as long as readers are still loving the stories and my characters still have engaging tales they want me to tell.

Because it’s a series, there are some things that readers can expect:

  1. A familiar setting which will grow as the series progresses and I introduce more parts of Willowdale Hall and the village of Willowdale
  2. A cast of characters who will also grow because each book will focus on the story of a different character and, in doing so, we get to know their friends and family
  3. Questions raised/storylines touched upon which carry across future books – a bit like threads pulling the whole series together

It is possible to write a series where the books work completely as standalones throughout and can be read in any order, but they’re not the norm and they’re not the type of series I write. Most series build in the way I’ve described above and that’s why readers love them – that feeling of getting more familiar with the setting and the characters and seeing all those threads connecting across the different books.

A Breath of Fresh Air is Rosie’s story. She lives and works in the grounds of Willowdale Hall and, when something happens to her boss causing his estranged son, Oliver, to return to Willowdale Hall, Rosie’s future is thrown into disarray. During the story, various secrets are uncovered and there are some discoveries made but not resolved. I appreciate I’m about to be quite cryptic but I don’t want to give any spoilers here for anyone who hasn’t read the book yet, but there is a point towards the end where the main characters accept that they aren’t going to find the answer to a particular question, which is disappointing for them but something they need to accept. One of the characters wishes that they could solve the mystery. This is an actual conversation about this which happens in the book. This is me clearly telling the reader that it’s not going to be wrapped up in this book but that it’s not the end of it – it will be resolved at some point in the future. After all, why plant something that will never be revealed? That would be mean.

In the original draft of the book, I did attempt to include the resolution but it was too rushed. I didn’t have the word count available to give it the justice it deserved and readers wouldn’t have been happy with it for that reason. I’ve always worked with the If you’re going to do something, do it well ethos and, for me, wrapping up something so significant in a chapter or two wasn’t living by that ethos. It wasn’t delivering a quality product. So I didn’t wrap it up and my characters have the conversation I’ve mentioned.

It’s very common with series to have connections to the next book at the end. This might be a pre-order link, a blurb, a teaser or even a first chapter. I don’t have first chapters in mine because they aren’t written far enough in advance to include them, but I saw an opportunity for a teaser for what was coming up in book 3 which I ran by my editor. She loved it so it became the epilogue.

The word ‘epilogue’ comes from the Greek word epilogos which means ‘concluding word’ and is therefore only ever found at the end of a novel. In my genre, it can often be used to finalise the down-the-line happy ever after which happens after the happy ending in the book e.g. couple get together at the end of the book and the epilogue shows their wedding day or they get married and the epilogue shows them welcoming their first child. Or the heroine sets up a business and we see a year on how well it’s doing. I could keep going through examples but I’m sure you get the picture because you’ll be very familiar with this.

Another purpose of an epilogue is to set up the possibility of a sequel, hinting to what is to come and often including a twist or cliffhanger to entice the reader into instantly craving for the next instalment.

You already know why I’m telling you all this, don’t you? Yes, the abuse has started again about using cliffhangers. I had it after New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow in 2021 where there was a little teaser cliffhanger and I had it big-time after Family Secrets at Hedgehog Hollow later that year where there was a whopper of a one. In both cases, the story being told had been told. I left NOTHING hanging with respect to the story in each book, but I added in a teaser chapter at the end about what lay ahead in the next book. The reactions at the time ranged from humorous comments of ‘Nooooo! You can’t do that!’ – just like we shout at the TV when our favourite TV series ends on a cliffhanger – through to 1-star rants. I was accused of all sorts from completely ruining the book to being devious to being a terrible writer and it did hurt. A lot. Especially when my only ‘crime’ was to use a common literary device. Is enticing a reader with the next book really that bad a thing?

I didn’t have cliffhangers in the rest of the Hedgehog Hollow series, but mainly because the storyline didn’t warrant them. If it had, I’d have still done it because I am always authentic to the story I’m telling.

As publication day for A Breath of Fresh Air approached, I started to get nervous about the epilogue. I’d already had some awful negative comments about it in early reviews to the point where I’d asked my publisher if we could add a sentence underneath the epilogue heading to say it contained a cliffhanger and not to read it if cliffhangers induced anger (although I’d have worded it more diplomatically than that!) My publisher said no. As with the Hedgehog Hollow books, there were far more excited responses about the teaser and I had, as already explained, made it clear earlier in the book that the issue was unresolved so readers were surely going to realise it would be a continued thread into book 3.

So publication day came out and it wasn’t long before the 1-star negative reviews came in about the epilogue. There were accusations of it ending abruptly or not being finished at all and one reviewer claiming this has never happened in other books. I find that hard to believe that as there are plenty of cliffhangers out there in books.

It didn’t end with the reviews. There were comments on the socials and I’ve even had direct messages from readers telling me how disappointed they were. Ouch! I picked up one of these messages over the weekend. I’d found out that morning that my lovely auntie had passed away and I clicked into the DM thinking it would be a nice comment to give me some comfort on a sad day. Exactly the opposite. So that was fun. I don’t think those who DM me have any malicious intentions and I suspect it’s often just blurting out a reaction but I do sometimes wish social media had that filter (most of us) apply face to face, thinking about how the words could hurt before blurting them out.

Although I couldn’t add a warning in the book itself, I did as much as I could to warn people to step away from the epilogue if they hated cliffhangers. I mentioned it in my publication day video, I posted it all over the socials, and I even made a warning sign! That said, I do appreciate not everyone follows me on social media and that those who do won’t see all posts so I was never going to be able to warn everyone. Although there is a school of thought that says why should I give a warning. Teasers are commonplace in books.

The funny thing about all of this is that, in The Start of Something Wonderful, I have an issue unresolved, just like in this one – who or what the green man was. While I had some readers mention that they were intrigued about this in reviews, nobody docked stars for it being unanswered, nobody left me negative reviews and nobody DM’d me to tell me how disappointed they were. The only difference between The Start of Something Wonderful and A Breath of Fresh Air is that I didn’t put a teaser at the end of book one to suggest that we’d find out who the green man was in book 2. I put a teaser at the end of book 2 telling readers that a character had found the answer (without revealing what they’d actually discovered) and lots of readers get upset with me because I didn’t tell them what the character had found out. So I go back to point 3 from earlier in what a reader can expect from a series: threads which continue as the series develops. This is one of those, as was the green man.

I’ve never hidden the fact that I write in series so I don’t understand why anyone would think I’d just leave it like that and never return to it. ALL my books are part of a series and even the few that are more standalone are part of a world I’ve created (e.g. Whitsborough Bay or more specifically Castle Street) and have character cameos and connections with other books, so absolutely nothing I’ve written so far is purely standalone. That said, ALL my books do tell complete stories. When we get to the end (or certainly the end before any epilogue), the story or part of story being told in that book has been told.

My acknowledgements at the end of the A Breath of Fresh Air make it clear that there is a book 3 coming out as a Christmas release, although I do appreciate these aren’t available on the audio recordings.

In my early reviews, one of the 1-star comments accused me of adopting a ‘tacky tactic’ to get readers to buy the next book in the series. I’m bewildered by the suggestion that authors shouldn’t want to entice readers to buy more books. Does an author write a series because they hope that readers will go on to buy future books? Of course they do. Authors have many reasons why they write but the ultimate one is that this is a career (hopefully). They want to sell the books and make an income so they can pay their mortgage/rent, their bills and hopefully have some nice things like holidays and new clothes. We’re no different from plumbers, bank managers, nurses, teachers, engineers or any other person out there works. We need an income to live off and we do that by selling books and by finding readers who will buy our next book, and our next, and our next… And just to be clear on this, a series writer is no different from an author who writes standalones. The latter is also hoping the reader will love the book they’ve just read and go on to read the next one… and the next… even though it isn’t connected.

I think the negative reactions have hit me harder this month because, well, it’s January and as I said at the start, it does seem to go on forever, doesn’t it? I’ve had a bereavement (RIP Auntie Mary xx) and I’ve also been struggling with my writing mojo although that’s something that’s been building for a while. The last few months of last year were a huge battle for me and I’ve had to think long and hard about how this year would look as an author because I couldn’t do another year like last. I hit December drained and burnt out and, for a while there, could happily have never written another word so I knew something had to change.

And on that cliffhanger, I’m going to sign off this post as it’s way longer than I originally intended. I’ll be back within the next week or so with more about the battle and the changes needed but if you love my books, don’t panic, I’m still writing! And please don’t lynch me for leaving this blog post on a cliffhanger!

Thank you to all the amazingly supportive readers out there. You know who you are. An author pours their heart into what they do and the kindness and enthusiasm that so many of you show is such a gift.

Big hugs
Jessica xx

The one where I spent a fabulous Easter in the Lake District – Part 2

Jessica Redland AuthorLeave a comment

Welcome back to the second part of my Easter break blog. In the last post, I talked about my epic trek up Blencathra, the descent of which broke me. The following day, I managed a wander into Keswick – shuffling rather than walking – to look round the gift shops while every single part of me ached. It was a fairly relaxing low-key day but we had another walk planned for the Wednesday.

When we’d visited the Tourist Information Office and found out about the Festival of Lights, we also learned about the Keswick to Threlkeld walk along the old railway line so decided to give it a try, especially as being a former railway line meant it was going to be flat. I definitely wasn’t ready for another hill!

The weather wasn’t the best – cool, dull, with scattered showers, but it was a lovely walk. Starting from Fitz Park and finishing at the village of Threlkeld beneath Blencathra, it’s a 5.5km walk (3.5 miles) each way although there are variations making it longer/more challenging.

The route is for walkers and cyclists and is a smooth path throughout so would suit wheelchair/mobility scooter users. It’s nice and varied, going through woodland, passing fields, running alongside and over the River Greta, with bridges, tunnels and a couple of waterfalls. I loved the wooden seats at various points, some adult-sized and some lower for children, to take in the views.

Despite being the Easter holidays, it wasn’t particularly busy – the weather probably putting many off – so it was a lovely peaceful walk.

I confess that my muscles were really aching by the time we got to the end and an incline into Threlkeld village and I was also really cold at this point but didn’t have any more layers with me. I was looking forward to some lunch and warming up in the village hall. Unfortunately, we hesitated too long at the entrance as to whether to go inside with the dog or keep her outside on the terrace with her being wet. A couple behind us snuck past us… and nabbed the last table inside so that was the decision made. You snooze, you lose!

The café at the village halls set up as a community interest project owned by the charity who owns and manages the village hall. The staff were really friendly and there looked to be a delicious array of cakes. I went for a hot chocolate and a pancake and bacon stack planning to return for cake, but I was full after them so didn’t get to sample the baked goods.

I quite like a circular route and, as there were signs for Castlerigg Stone Circle, I suggested we go back via there instead of the way we’d come. I didn’t really think this decision through as it meant a lot of walking uphill, but it was through lovely countryside.

I love the stone circle and it’s fabulous that you can move among the stones, but it never ceases to amaze me how oblivious people can be when they’re at a public place like this. Everyone wants to take photos and you know that you’re going to need to be very patient and very lucky to catch even a section of the stones with no people in the frame, but I was amazed to see a cyclist wearing bright colours ride into the middle of the circle, prop his bike up against one stone, then plonk himself in front of another and whip out a sketch pad, right at the point when several people were trying to take photos. I’m happy for him that he’ll have got himself a lovely sketch, but did he really need to have his bike in everyone else’s shots instead of securing it to the fence?

Anyway, with some patience, hubby managed to get a couple of lovely partial pics without other people in and we treated ourselves to an ice cream for the journey home because we were very thirsty and decided that ice cream was going to solve that as well as drive the daughter mad because she’d stayed at the cottage (allegedly to revise) instead of getting some fresh air.

As you know, I love bears. There’s a man in Portinscale who carves wooden bears and there were quite a few on our walk in gardens and outside businesses which I loved seeing.

We reckon our whole walk was a little over 8 miles and I was particularly proud of managing that two days after Blencathra, although it was good to get back to the holiday cottage and sit down for a bit!

The following day – Thursday 6th April – was publication day for Summer Nights at The Starfish Café. I wanted to visit Hill Top in Near Sawrey – the first of many farms Beatrix Potter bought in the National Park. I’ve been several times before but this was very much a research visit because the first book in my Escape to the Lakes series, The Start of Something Wonderful – features Hill Top. I’d picked up a lot of information from the guide book I’d bought on a previous visit, but had a few details I wanted to check for accuracy.

As we were the first in, I couldn’t resist a quick pose in the entrance with my book before the rest of the visitors arrived.

Beatrix Potter and her husband William Heelis set up their marital home elsewhere in Near Sawrey in a beautiful house called Castle Cottage, just a short walk from Hill Top so Beatrix Potter could visit each day and do her writing and drawing there.

We drove to the village of Hawkshead for some lunch and were amazed by how quiet it was there, despite the sun now being out. At the recommendation of a local who was out cleaning her car, we took a visit to the church – St Michael and All Angels Church. We’ve never been there before but it had a beautiful graveyard, stunning views across the village and countryside beyond, and lots of pretty daffodils. Wordsworth would have been impressed.

We caught the ferry across to Windermere and returned to the holiday cottage ready for a celebratory meal in our favourite pub, The Royal Oak. But there was time for a quick photoshoot in Fitz Park first.

Thank you to everyone who helped make publication day really special with all the lovely congratulations messages. It was amazing to have another Top 100 entry. I will never take those for granted and am surprised and thrilled every time it happens.

That brings me to the end of the first week but I have more to tell you with week 2 so watch this space for another post coming soon. In the meantime, I don’t normally like to do teasers but this is too good an opportunity to miss as tomorrow I have two exciting pieces of news to share with you so they’ll come first and I’ll return to my Lakes visit shortly after that.

Big hugs
Jessica xx

The one where Summer Nights at The Starfish Café is published and I have loads more to tell you

Jessica Redland Author3 Comments

Today is the day when the third and final part of The Starfish Café series – Summer Nights at The Starfish Café – goes out into the world. It’s available on all formats – eBook on all platforms, paperback, hardback, large print, physical audio, audio download and audio streaming.

Book 2 – Spring Tides at The Starfish Café – celebrated its first book birthday yesterday so it’s almost exactly a year since readers visited this gorgeous café on a clifftop outside Whitsborough Bay above a seal haven, spending time with Hollie, Jake, Pickle the dog and the lovely café regulars. I certainly enjoyed writing about them again and hope readers love being back with them.

Running alongside Hollie and Jake’s story is that of Kerry, a single mum of four primary school aged children, who works in the café. She did appear in book 2 but her part was deliberately brief, ready for her big storyline in book 3. Kerry’s is a story of a difficult summer when a letter arrives from someone she never expected to see again, throwing her plans for the summer into disarray. Hollie and Jake’s story is an emotional one so do have those tissues ready as their summer is going to be bumpy.

It’s always interesting seeing comments from early reviewers who haven’t read the first two books and, while some will say that they managed to follow the story, several comment that they didn’t feel they knew the characters that well or that they feel they’d have enjoyed it more if they’d read the previous books. We know! This is why we did specifically put guidance with the blurb for early reviewers not to read the book if they hadn’t read the others but I guess not everyone reads this important information which is put there to help them with their reading decisions.

Anyway, I personally do not recommend this book be read as a standalone. Why would anyone want to dive in at book three of three? It’s a much richer reading experience to have been there at the start with book 1- Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café – when Hollie and Jake (and Pickle) first meet and to go with them on their journey than to join them at the conclusion. If you haven’t already read this first book and are put off thinking that it’s April and you don’t fancy reading a Christmas book, please don’t be. Although Christmas features in the story, it is not a Christmas book which is why the word ‘Christmas’ deliberately doesn’t appear in the title. It’s a book set in winter i.e. a seasonal book and can be enjoyed at any time of the year.

Spring Tides is on a 99p eBook offer so do take advantage of that. You can get all three for less than £7 which is sooooo cheap for hours and hours and hours of entertainment.

Summer Nights at The Starfish Café is embarking on a blog tour as usual and I’m excited about reading all the reviews across a whopping 16 days with 48 stops. An enormous thank you to Rachel Gilbey from Rachel’s Random Resources for setting it up and to all the amazing bloggers/reviewers who give their time so generously in sharing their thoughts.

If you go over onto Book and Tonic’s Facebook page, there’s lots of special content today. You can enter a competition for a signed paperback copy here. You can also listen to an exclusive audio extract here, see a very short video of me introducing the book here and see my short bloopers reel here.

I also have some amazing news. My fantastic publisher, Boldwood Books, have made the RNLI their charity of the year and will be pledging a donation to help them with their amazing work in saving lives at sea. We can only use specific wording for this which you’ll find in the blurb on Amazon (and at the end of this post) but if I was to say that anyone who has bought or does buy this book in the next calendar year will help influence the size of that donation, you can probably read between the lines as to how this works! So thank you xxx

I’m not in Whitsborough Bay for publication day. I’m actually spending it in the Lake District where my next book – book 20 – is set. We exclusively revealed the name of the first book and the series name to my newsletter subscribers this morning and I’m excited to share that information here today. The first book is called The Start of Something Wonderful and the series is called ‘Escape to the Lakes’.

Format-wise, it’s going to be a little different to my Hedgehog Hollow series and The Starfish Café series, both of which had one consistent protagonist telling her story across all the books, alongside a guest narrator. The Escape to the Lakes series will have a different protagonist each time. There were be lots of connections, for example the best friend of the main character in book 1 will step forward in book 2 to tell her story, but not having a consistent protagonist means it will be easier for readers to dip in as the series develops rather and they will not lose out on any of the story like they would if they dipped in later in the Hedgehog Hollow and The Starfish Café series.

There’s no blurb or cover yet but it’s up for pre-order on Kindle here. It’ll go up on the other platforms nearer the release date of 17th July.

I’m not going to say exactly where I’ve spent today just yet as it’s very relevant to The Start of Something Wonderful so I’ll bring you that detail in later blog posts.

For now, a thank you to everyone for the well wishes and for pre-ordering/buying/downloading/borrowing Summer Nights at The Starfish Café and for helping to make publication day another really special one. Thank you also to the amazing bloggers on the tour.

Big starfish-shaped hugs
Jessica xx

Welcome back to The Starfish Café for a glorious summer, but with a few dark clouds on the horizon…

A new beginning…

As her summer wedding to Jake approaches, Hollie is excited for their new beginning as a family. But when some unexpected news threatens the future she and Jake had hoped for, Hollie will need to find the strength to overcome heartache once more.

A fragile heart….

Single mum, Kerry, loves her job at The Starfish Café, but behind the brave smiles and laughter with customers there is a sadness deep within. So when someone from her past re-appears in her life, Kerry can either hide away or face her demons and try to finally move on from her heartbreak.

A summer to remember…

For Hollie and Kerry it promises to be an emotional rollercoaster of a summer, but the community at The Starfish Café will always be there to help them through – after all, with courage nothing is impossible…

Join top 10 bestseller Jessica Redland for a wonderful summer at the seaside, full of love, friendship and community spirit.

Boldwood Books are proud to support the RNLI. Boldwood Books have pledged a donation to the RNLI in 2023 as part of our support for the work they do saving lives at sea.

The one where it’s audio publication day for Christmas Miracles at Hedgehog Hollow

Jessica Redland AuthorLeave a comment

It’s publication day! Yay! This time it’s still the hedgehogs returning for their sixth instalment but with the audio version.

There isn’t normally a delay between publication formats – releasing a book simultaneously globally in all formats is one of the many amazing things my publisher Boldwood Books do so well. However we needed to have a delay this time around. The fabulous voice actor Emma Swan who has narrated the part of Samantha throughout the series wasn’t available to record the audiobook in time for the 6th September release date due to other commitments. I was given a choice of using a different voice actor or delaying and it was a no-brainer for me. Emma is fantastic and it would be very wrong to change the voice of Samantha on the final book, disorientating listeners and likely getting negative feedback so I held off.

I’m not sure why Audible had a further two-day delay this week to bring out the audio version today instead of Tuesday as planned but the great news is it’s out there now and you can find it on Audible here. I’m delighted to see that it’s already in the Top 500 first thing this morning and should rise higher later today.

Thank you so much to everyone who has been patiently (or perhaps not so patiently!) waiting for the final instalment. I really hope you enjoy listening to Samantha’s final story alongside Fizz’s whose chapters are narrated by Lesley Harcourt.

The Audible Narration add-on for Kindle purchases is also available from today.

Christmas Miracles at Hedgehog Hollow

It’s the countdown to Christmas at Hedgehog Hollow Wildlife Rescue Centre, and everyone is gearing up for a festive season to remember…

It should be the most wonderful time of the year for Samantha and Josh as they prepare for the arrival of their first baby. But life at Hedgehog Hollow rarely goes to plan and the pair are faced with adversaries, old and new, and unexpected challenges to overcome.

Fizz’s job at the heart of the rescue centre is a dream come true but her personal life is more like a nightmare. With her love life a disaster and her past about to dramatically catch up with her, she needs the love and support of her Hedgehog Hollow family more than ever.

As the snow falls over Hedgehog Hollow, will Samantha and Fizz find the Christmas miracle they need to overcome their heartache and find happiness?

Top 10 bestseller Jessica Redland welcomes you back to Hedgehog Hollow this Christmas for the final time in this series for a heartfelt story of love, family, friendship—and hedgehogs of course!

Big hedge-hugs
Jessica xx

The one where it’s publication day for Christmas Miracles at Hedgehog Hollow

Jessica Redland Author2 Comments

The hedgehogs are back for one final outing of the series. Christmas Miracles at Hedgehog Hollow is out today on paperback, hardback, large print and eBook formats. The audio will follow on 20th September.

Yesterday, I wrote a blog post about a publication day wobble I was having. I’d have had one anyway with it being the final book in a much beloved series which many readers don’t want to end, but a particularly cruel 1-star review on NetGalley (an early reviews site) floored me with its personal attack. I have been so overwhelmed with the outpouring of support I’ve received from readers and authors with comments on the blog itself, my Facebook page and direct messages. It has been humbling and uplifting reading all those messages and I’m so grateful.

I had a lovely message of support from Karen Louise Hollis, book reviewer and author, with a great analogy which she’s given me permission to share. A lot of this reviewer’s comments came from her joining a six-book series at book six. She complained about there being too many characters and too much tragedy happening to them. The thing is, the issues explored were across six main characters in six books and 600,000 words. They weren’t all in one book. Karen says, “Of course if someone comes in at the end, they won’t get the most out of it. It’s like turning up to a party late, finding out your mates have already gone home and you don’t know anyone. You can stay and try to make an effort, chat and get to know someone, or – like your reviewer – turn around, flounce off and moan it was the worst party ever…” Isn’t that just perfect? Thank you Karen. You can find the first book in Karen’s 1980s-based series, Welcome to Whitlock Close here.

Today is a new day and the hedgehogs and I are going to enjoy every minute of it despite the trolls.

A blog tour starts today, organised by the fabulous Rachel Gilbey of Rachel’s Random Resources who celebrated five years of her business this last week. Happy business birthday, Rachel.

Thank you to everyone who has signed up to participate in this tour. Really excited to read all your comments.

How am I spending today? I’ve just been working through all the wonderful messages from readers in response to my blog post yesterday and will be responding to the publication day messages now. I have an Instagram Live with Fiona Jenkins at 1pm over on her Instagram page. It will be between 30-60 mins of chat and we’d love to have questions from anyone who can join us. You can find Fiona’s page here.

Tonight I’m off out for a meal with the hubby and daughter to celebrate publication day. I often have a Facebook Live on the evening with Boldwood Books so don’t get a chance to do this but we’re doing a lunchtime live next week instead – 12noon on Friday 16th September – as we’d like to give readers a chance to read some (or all) of Christmas Miracles first. That will be over on the Book and Tonic Facebook page found here.

Thank you to everyone who has shown the hedgehog love. Much appreciated.

Big hedge-hugs
Jessica xx

The one where I explain why the Hedgehog Hollow series is ending

Jessica Redland Author7 Comments

What a busy day it has been! Not only has it been the publication day of Chasing Dreams at Hedgehog Hollow but we’ve also had a cover reveal for the final book in the series: Christmas Miracles at Hedgehog Hollow. I absolutely love the cover – I mean, what’s not to love about hedgehogs wearing Christmas hats?

Book 6 will be out on 6th September so not long to wait and can be pre-ordered on Kindle UK here. It will go up for pre-order on Audible and other eBook sites nearer the time. A little heads up on the audio version is that, while we aim for all formats to be available on publication day, there will be a slight delay with the audio and it will be available a week to ten days later so please bear with us on that.

I’ve been out for most of the day and have had no WiFi connectivity which has been a bit frustrating so I was able to respond to messages first thing but not since. I hope to catch up tomorrow. Thank you everyone who has wished me publication best wishes and said kind things about the story. I’m so very grateful.

I’m still reeling at the current chart positions too. Chasing Dreams at Hedgehog Hollow is currently #27 in the overall Kindle chart and #42 in the Audible chart. I can’t quite believe it! The only eBook of mine that has reached a higher chart position on Kindle UK is New Beginnings at Seaside Blooms which happened when it went on a Prime deal. This is purely on pre-orders and purchases today and I’m so overwhelmed. Keep having to pinch myself!

So let’s talk about book 6 going up for pre-order and the series ending…

Since book three, I’ve been transparent about the series coming to an end and, after the release if book 4 – A Wedding at Hedgehog Hollow – in January, I’ve been very clear that there would be two more books, both out this year.

It’s so flattering that readers and listeners love Samantha, Josh and all the other characters so much – human and spiky – and want the series to keep going and I’m so grateful for that love and support. There’ve been expressions of disappointment, requests for me to keep writing the series indefinitely and a joke among some lovely fans of the series about staging a protest in my front garden (during which I must feed them biscuits) which has been great fun, making me laugh. What hasn’t been quite so fun are a couple of reviews stating that I’ve let readers down by ending the series. A particular advanced review said very little about the book and was instead a rant about how annoyed they were with me for this being the penultimate book. Eek! That’s a bit harsh! It’s not like I’ve abandoned it mid-series with a gazillion unfinished plot points.

The Hedgehog Hollow series has been exceptionally successful. What started out one book – a blending of an exercise I did on my Masters in Creative Writing with the desire to set something in a hedgehog rescue centre, inspired by my auntie’s work as a hedgehog rescuer – grew into something I don’t think any of us ever imagined. There’s a lot of love out there for hedgehogs. And quite rightly so!

Readers/listeners might therefore think I’m a little bonkers to end a series which is so popular so I thought I’d explain several reasons behind this decision:

Reason 1 – Not staying too long at the party

Anyone who read the acknowledgements at the back of book 3, Family Secrets at Hedgehog Hollow, will know that a couple of early reviews of book 2, New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow completely put me off my stride. Those reviews said I should have stopped at the one book because nothing happened in book 2 and it was all padding. Ouch! That hurt so much that I couldn’t write for several days and had a huge panic about agreeing with my publishers to extend the series.

Thankfully more lovely reviews came in and the pre-orders, sales figures and quality of reviews have shown that, while there will always be some readers who decide they’ve had enough and dip out of a series, the vast majority of my readers have loved all the books and can’t get enough of Hedgehog Hollow.

But there’s always that fear at the back of my mind that, if I keep going on indefinitely, I will hit the point where those ‘should have stopped earlier’ comments are valid criticism and even I agree with them. 

For me, for my amazing cast of characters and for those wonderful hedgehogs, I want the series to end on a high.

Reason 2 – Having enough stories to tell

There’s a large and fascinating cast of characters connected with Hedgehog Hollow and they all have stories to tell but some are more interesting than others so, in creating this series, I’ve needed to think about who has something interesting to say, ensuring the main storyline remains fresh and very different from book to book while keeping some of the series threads and themes going.

Many of the characters are so closely connected to each other that in telling one character’s story, I’ve revealed much of another’s story too, meaning there’s insufficient left to explore in a separate book.

If we take Samantha’s parents, for example – Jonathan and Debs – their lives are so tied in with Samantha’s storyline and much of their backstory has already come out within Samantha’s narration. I did toy with a book where Jonathan was the narrator (then changed my mind) but I was always adamant that Debs wouldn’t narrate one. This is because the relationship between Samantha and Debs is a key thread across the whole series and giving Debs a book would lessen the impact of following that thread through Samantha’s eyes. We’ve already discovered why Debs is the way she is through information shared across the series and we know the relationship history between Debs and Jonathan through other books so, if I told her story (or Jonathan’s) I’d have been regurgitating known information which would take away the excitement of a backstory reveal.

It’s the same with Josh’s parents, Connie and Paul. Enough of their backstory has already been revealed through Josh in New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow and we’ve kept a track of how they’re doing with their new partners throughout the series. They don’t need books of their own. I could write them but the ‘staying too long at the party’ criticism would be deserved if I did.

Reason 3 – Giving Samantha her happy ever after

This is actually the biggest reason for stopping at six books. The way I set up this series was to have Samantha as the narrator all the way through. This makes sense. After all, Samantha is Hedgehog Hollow. She’s the person who set it up, she’s the person who runs it, she’s the connection to all the other characters.

From book 2 onwards, a guest narrator whose life is connected to Samantha’s has told their interlinked story. While the ‘big’ story is usually the one belonging to the guest narrator, Samantha does need to have key things happening in her life to keep her story interesting and not just padding.

SPOILER ALERT – Skip over these next 2 paragraphs if you’ve just started the series

In New Arrivals, we found Samantha struggling to balance the needs of the rescue centre alongside her full-time role as a tutor, resulting in her collapsing at work and accepting she couldn’t do both jobs. In Family Secrets, she started experiencing PTSD episodes as a result of the vendetta from the Grimes family and, in A Wedding, she was planning her wedding while dealing with the theft of the rescue centre’s money and the subsequent arrival of Phoebe and Darcie. 

There have also been three key relationship threads developing across the series – with Josh, her mum and Chloe – where something has changed in each book to move those relationships forward. With Josh, this has been the stages in their relationship, with Debs it has been the gradual thawing of hostilities, and with Chloe this is about Samantha standing up to her during her selfish moments, developing Samantha’s confidence and resilience.

NO SPOILERS FROM NOW…

So there’s always been a conflict/challenge facing Samantha in each book running alongside the ongoing relationship threads.

I sometimes get messages from readers, see comments on social media, and read remarks in reviews telling me to lay off Samantha and asking when I’m going to let her have her happy ever after. I love that readers adore Samantha and want her to be happy but my response is always that, if I give Samantha her HEA, the series ends. Without conflict, there’s no story to tell.

Much as I understand this desire for Samantha to settle down with Josh, have babies, have a calm and quiet life rescuing hedgehogs, no more family conflicts and no more trouble with the Grimes family, do readers really want to read about a ‘normal’ happy life? Of course not! They want to be excited, moved, drawn into a story. And a HEA doesn’t do that.

Which is why the series must end.

My amazing editor, Nia, had also questioned the sense in ending the series when it’s doing so well but, when she read my first draft of Chasing Dreams, the reasons clicked into place for her. She could see what I was saying about how increasingly difficult it would be to have a story for Samantha to tell. I had conflict planned for her in books 5 and 6 but where else would I go beyond that?

There’s conflict I could bring in to keep the series going. I could mess things up for her and Josh. I could introduce a number of scenarios leading to arguments or even a split … but why would I do that? For a start, they are such a well-suited couple. They don’t argue. They’re a partnership, supporting each other through everything so this wouldn’t sit with the relationship I’ve built. I doubt the readers would appreciate it either. Why invest in a couple only for the author to then split them up? And Samantha and Josh certainly wouldn’t thank me for it. One of the things that was really important to me was that, when they got together, it would work for life and I know from reviews that readers have loved how solid they are.

What to expect from the final book

There is one more story I want to tell which is Fizz’s. I loved her from the moment she turned up unexpectedly on the page. With her pink hair and sparkly unicorn T-shirt, she made a strong first impression and I just knew she was going to become a key character.

Running alongside Fizz’s story, Samantha will have one more challenge to overcome before I finally give her a happy ever after.

The final book – Christmas Miracles at Hedgehog Hollow – is available for pre-order on Kindle now and will have conclusions for many of the supporting characters. It will go up for pre-order on Audible and other eBook formats nearer the time and be available as a paperback from publication day. I’ve shared the blurb at the end of this post.

Is that it for Hedgehog Hollow?

The great news is that, although this is the end of the series, it’s not the end of Hedgehog Hollow. I still plan to write a prequel book telling Thomas and Gwendoline’s story which I’m excited to write. This is currently penned in for release in July 2024 on the 4-year anniversary of the release of the first book in the series – Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow – but no definite promises on this just yet. Things can and do change in publishing.

I’m also planning some spin-off books which will tell the stories of people who become connected in some way with Hedgehog Hollow, whether as volunteers or for some other reason. I can’t give too much away as that would give spoilers for what’s coming up in Chasing Dreams and Christmas Miracles but readers will get to catch up with what’s going on at the rescue centre without Samantha being the narrator (and without me having to mess up Samantha’s life!)

I’m really looking forward to writing the first one of these – which I can confirm will be out in January 2023 – and I think readers will be happy with the glimpses into life at Hedgehog Hollow through the eyes of new characters.

So that’s why the series is ending! Would I ever write another Hedgehog Hollow book (other than the prequel)? Never say never but I’m not planning to do so for the moment.

Thank you to everyone who has fallen in love with the series and with hedgehogs. Your support and kind words have meant the world to me. For those who are disappointed, please don’t be sad – feel happy instead that you travelled to Hedgehog Hollow and made new friends and know that there’s more to come from the Yorkshire Wolds, Whitsborough Bay and my new setting in 2023 of the stunning Lake District.

Big hedge-hugs
Jessica xx

It’s the countdown to Christmas at Hedgehog Hollow Wildlife Rescue Centre, and everyone is gearing up for a festive season to remember…

It should be the most wonderful time of the year for Samantha and Josh as they prepare for the arrival of their first baby. But life at Hedgehog Hollow rarely goes to plan and the pair are faced with adversaries, old and new, and unexpected challenges to overcome.

Fizz’s job at the heart of the rescue centre is a dream come true but her personal life is more like a nightmare. With her love life a disaster and her past about to dramatically catch up with her, she needs the love and support of her Hedgehog Hollow family more than ever.

As the snow falls over Hedgehog Hollow, will Samantha and Fizz find the Christmas miracle they need to overcome their heartache and find happiness?

Top 10 bestseller Jessica Redland welcomes you back to Hedgehog Hollow this Christmas for the final time in this series for a heartfelt story of love, family, friendship – and hedgehogs of course!

The one where the hedgehogs go on their fourth blog tour

Jessica Redland Author2 Comments

It’s publication day today for A Wedding at Hedgehog Hollow. Woo hoo! I’m so excited (and also a teeny bit nervous) as those hedgehogs make their way out into the world for the fourth time.

The blog tour kicks off today so an enormous thank you to the fabulous Rachel Gilbey for organising this and to all the amazing bloggers/reviewers who have volunteered to take part and share their views.

Some participants have read some or all of the books and, for others, this will be their first trip to the rescue centre. Early reviews coming in suggest that the book can be read as a standalone which is true. I carefully craft all of my books so that a complete story is being told within that book.

However, nearly all of them say they wish they’d read the others first to get the full feel of all the family dynamics. I’m not geeky enough to number-crunch on it but my first impressions are that this fourth instalment has attracted a huge number of 5-star reviews but a large proportion of the 3 or 4-star ones are from readers who’ve not read the previous books and therefore haven’t had the richer reading experience of following the threads that travel through the series. It’ll be interesting to see if this trend is reflected in the bog tour reviews. Having said that, a 4-star is still amazing. The hedgehogs and I will take that!

You can get hold of A Wedding at Hedgehog Hollow here:

Kindle UK

Kindle USA

It’s also available from today as a paperback, large print, hardback, physical audio, audio download and will soon be available for audio streaming.

Let the fortnight commence…

Big (crossed fingers) hugs
Jessica xx

The one with two weddings

Jessica Redland Author4 Comments

A Wedding at Hedgehog Hollow – the four book in my Hedgehog Hollow series – will be out in the world tomorrow (6th January). Eek!

Those who read Family Secrets at Hedgehog Hollow when it was published at the start of May last year are probably shouting ‘and not a moment too soon!’ because I did leave things on a whopper of a cliff hanger.

Book 4 will pick up where book 3 left off. Actually, it takes us back a few days earlier to ease us into Christmas at Hedgehog Hollow before that cliff hanger throws everything into disarray.

If you’re familiar with my books, you’ll know that they’re always heartwarming, uplifting stories of love, friendship, family and community but they also tackle some pretty tough subjects. A Wedding at Hedgehog Hollow is no exception but rest assured the subject is researched and the story unfolds with my usual sensitivity. I write about life and sometimes bad things happen. I’m not going to shy away from that.

But alongside the new challenges facing my characters, there’s the loveliness of Samantha and Josh’s forthcoming wedding. The book is NOT all about the wedding – I don’t think I could personally write 100,000 words about a wedding – but the wedding does feature throughout as the drama that unfolds at Hedgehog Hollow has an impact on the wedding plans.

Yesterday, I sent hubby up into the attic to retrieve the memory box from our wedding (17 years ago this coming September) and my wedding dress/veil to do a photo shoot. We were broke after the wedding and I couldn’t afford to get my dress cleaned. I knew it had some footprints on the train but I hadn’t realised it was in more of a state than that. Oops! So I couldn’t use the front of the dress for any pics but we were able to use the detailing on the back and my tiara and veil were thankfully still in great condition.

So I thought I’d share some of the pics from our photo shoot with you…

What do you think of my little felt hedgehogs? Samantha and Josh Hedgehog were made by the wonderful Emma Stokes from @chillipepperbyemma You can find her on Instagram here or her Etsy shop here. I’ve got a couple of wonderful garlands from her and various other items related to my books, all beautifully made. I highly recommend her.

The hedgehogs are standing on something very special. This is part of a Cherished Teddies bridal set which I bought as a cake topper for my own wedding day. However, it was a little heavier than I’d imagined and I was worried it might tumble off the cake and smash so it stood beside it instead. Here it is with the teddies on it. How cute is the little bridesmaid? I’ve also taken a pic of the Forever Friends bride and groom which sat on our top table. These came from Bear’s Pad, my own teddy bear shop which I’d opened shortly before I met my husband.

One of my cousins gave us another bride and groom bear as a wedding gift and a friend bought me a bride so they had to feature in the photo shoot too!

My husband, Mark, has given me the go ahead to share some of our wedding photos on here. It was the most amazing day. After a dark day of pretty much non-stop torrential rain, the sun came out and the sky was blue (thank you, Grandma, looking down on us).

My Uncle Stan was our wedding photographer but it was the days before digital so please forgive the quality of the images as they’re scanned into hubby’s iPad using an App but, as the originals are glossy, they’ve scanned in a bit like a photo of a photo.

It’s hard to believe this was so long ago. In many ways it seems like yesterday, although I’m sure many of us feel like that about the passing of time. Since then, we’re both looking older, wider and with greyer hair (less of it in Mark’s case). Several of our guests are sadly no longer with us and the amazing venue where we held our wedding – The George in Piercebridge, Co Durham – went into liquidation pre-Covid. But we still have loads of extremely happy memories.

Will Samantha and Josh get their perfect wedding day like Mark and me? You’ll just have to read A Wedding at Hedgehog Hollow to find out. You can get it on Kindle here and I’ve pasted the blurb below although there are spoilers in it if you haven’t read the previous books.

Big hedge-hugs
Jessica xx

The brand new instalment in Jessica Redland’s bestselling Hedgehog Hollow series!

It’s time for the wedding we’ve all been waiting for…

Life at Hedgehog Hollow is never dull, although Samantha hopes that the new year ahead will be a little less chaotic as she prepares to marry the love of her life, Josh. But disaster strikes when she checks the rescue centre’s bank account after the festive season and discovers it has been emptied. Who would do such a thing, and why? With the future of Hedgehog Hollow now in jeopardy, planning a wedding has lost its shine.

Phoebe is desperate to escape the shadow of her family, infamously known for their attacks on Samantha’s beloved rescue centre. Could the kindness of the Hedgehog Hollow team be the chance she needs for a fresh start, or will her family’s secrets continue to drag her back?

Top 10 bestseller Jessica Redland welcomes you back to glorious Hedgehog Hollow; full of love, family, friendship – and hedgehogs of course!

Celebrating my first foreign translation

Jessica Redland Author4 Comments

I am thrilled that today is publication day for my very first foreign rights deal. Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café has been acquired by Italian publisher Newton Compton and is released today as an eBook and paperback under the title of Festa sotto la neve.   

Isn’t the cover gorgeous?

I don’t speak any Italian so I asked Google translate to help me out and came up with ‘Party in the snow’ which is a little different to the original. Spotting a couple of promotional posts and copying them into Google translate, I also had ‘Party on the snow’ and ‘Party under the snow’ coming up. Which was it? Probably none of them!

I contacted friend and author Isabella Tartaruga who is Italian and she kindly advised me that ‘festa’ does indeed mean party but it also translates as holiday as in festive season as in Christmas although Natale is the actual word for Christmas. Therefore, in this context, the title translates as ‘A holiday under the snow’ or ‘A snowy holiday’. Aw, isn’t that lovely?

The tagline of La magia del Natale, alla fine, conquista tutti… means ‘the magic of Christmas will eventually conquer all’.

Newton Compton describe it as Il libro perfetto per rifugiarsi sotto le coperte e aspettare Natale which translates as the perfect book to take refuge under the covers and wait for Christmas.

A huge thank you to Newton Compton for taking on this book. I’m keeping everything crossed that it will do well and that they might be inspired to take on some of my other titles. 

Although the title and cover is different, the story will be exactly the same – just translated into Italian. I’m really looking forward to getting my paperback version so I can see what The Chocolate Pot is in Italian. You can order direct from Newton Compton here or find the listing on Amazon here.

If you have friends/family living in Italy, please do pass this on. If anyone sees a paperback out in the wild, I would be so thrilled to see a shelfie.

Big Italian hugs

Jessica xx

Publication Day for Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café and belated Happy Birthday to The Secret to Happiness

Jessica Redland AuthorLeave a comment

Ooh, I’m so late with these! I’ve returned from a wonderful week in the Lake District (post and pics to follow soon) and I meant to write and schedule three posts before I went away – one to celebrate publication day, one to reflect on August, and one to celebrate a book birthday – but time escaped me and none of them got written.

With no WiFi at our holiday cottage, I had to leave it so I’ve combined two of them and decided not to do the reflections posts anymore. Instead, I’ll post more regularly but shorter posts. Me? Short posts? Well, I’ll try!

Firstly, publication day. My 13th novel, Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café, came out on Tuesday 31st August and gathered a category bestseller flag on day one which was lovely. Less than a week after release, it has 69 reviews (at the time of writing this), 85% of which are 5-star which is amazing.

It’s on a super-lengthy amazing blog tour and the feedback so far has been so touching with a mix of regular reviewers and newbies reading my work for the first time. Thank you to everyone taking part.

I may have caused a tissue shortage in the country (and possibly other countries – Belgium has been cited!) as this book is a weepie. It is NOT a light Christmassy rom-com and it doesn’t claim anywhere to be one as you’ll be able to tell from reading the blurb (see below).

I never intentionally set out to write a story that will make readers cry but this was the story that these characters needed to tell and, while there will always be a few critics who call it ‘depressing’, I am blessed with so many amazing readers who completely get the story, who love the light that appears among the tragedy, and who feel the hopeful and uplifting message.

“With courage, nothing is impossible” (Sir William Hillary, RNLI Founder) is a theme throughout. Hollie and Jake have had tragic pasts, but the beauty of this story is how they find their way forward … with the help of the most gorgeous dog who readers have fallen in love with.

Hot on the heels of publication day, I’m celebrating a book birthday.

Friday 3rd September was TWO YEARS since The Secret to Happiness was published by Boldwood Books. And what an amazing two years that has been! (Blurb below too)

This was a book I submitted when I knew I was failing to make an impact as an indie author. I did have some regular readers but I only sold a handful of eBooks a week and there was no way I’d was ever even going to come close to being able to write full-time; my absolute dream.

A few rejections of the manuscript floored me and I had to as myself some tough questions about whether I really was good enough to make it as an author. I could have easily given up at that point but writing is part of who I am and I couldn’t let go.

Around that time, I saw an advert for a newly-formed company called Boldwood Books and thought, “maybe one last try”. Thankfully they loved it and took me on. Boldwood found me my readers and my readers have loved Whitsborough Bay and Hedgehog Hollow and have made my dreams come true. I’m so incredibly grateful to you all.

It’s particularly appropriate that I’ve ended up posting about these two events together because, almost exactly a year from publication of my first Boldwood release, Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café is not only my 13th release but also the start of a brand new 12-book publishing deal with Boldwood Books.

The books in my first contract were a mix of new books (The Secret to Happiness and the three books so far in Hedgehog Hollow series) and re-edited versions of my backlist. Starting with Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café, everything I release from now on will be brand new, never been released before, which is really exciting for me and my readers.

Thank you to everyone who has bought/downloaded/borrowed either of these stories – and any of my others – and shared lovely feedback about them. I cannot thank Boldwood Books enough for taking me on and my amazing editor Nia Beynon for her continued enthusiasm, belief and expertise which help shape each of these stories into the final versions the readers/listeners fall in love with.

Wishing you an amazing start to September.

Big hugs
Jessica xx

Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café is available as an eBook on all platforms, a paperback, a large print, a hardback, as a physical audio, for audio download and audio streaming. Please contact me if you’d like a signed copy of the paperback.

Here’s the blurb:

Welcome to The Starfish Café – where you will find stunning views, delicious food and lifelong friendships.

Two broken hearts.

Since she inherited The Starfish Café, Hollie has poured her heart into the business, striving to keep her mother’s traditions and warm-hearted spirit alive. But behind closed doors Hollie is searching for true happiness as she grieves the tragic loss of her family who were once the beating heart of the café…

An unexpected meeting.

Jake lives by two rules: don’t let anyone get close and don’t talk about what happened. Little does he know that a chance meeting at The Starfish Café, facilitated by a fluffy lost dog, is about to turn his world upside down…

The chance to love again.

Can Hollie and Jake break down the barriers that have been holding them back from finding love and happiness, before Christmas comes around? After all, with courage, nothing is impossible…

The Secret to Happiness is available as an eBook on all platforms, a paperback, a large print, as a physical audio, for audio download and audio streaming. Please contact me if you’d like a signed copy of the paperback.

Here’s the blurb:

Everyone deserves a chance at happiness…

Danniella is running from her past, so when she arrives at the beautiful seaside resort of Whitsborough Bay, the last thing on her mind is making friends. After all, they might find out her secrets…

Alison is fun, caring and doesn’t take herself too seriously. But beneath the front, she is a lost soul, stuck in a terrible relationship, with body confidence issues and no family to support her. All she really needs is a friend.

Karen’s romance has taken a back seat to her fitness business. But she doesn’t want to give up on love quite yet. If only those mysterious texts would stop coming through …

When the women meet at their local bootcamp, a deep friendship blossoms. And soon they realise that the secret to happiness is where they least expected to find it…