The one with the offers, the event, and the auction

September 26, 2022September 26, 2022 Jessica Redland Author1 Comment

Good morning and welcome to a new week and a new season. It’s autumn! Yay! Autumn is my favourite month. I love the cooler weather, the changing colours, the mix of glorious sunshine and cool crisp days, and the approach of Christmas.

I have lots of news so I thought I’d pull it all together in one blog post so I’d better crack on with it…

THE OFFERS

There are some amazing price reductions on two of the eBooks in the Hedgehog Hollow series right now and some of these are available internationally but, as with any offer, there’s a limited time so do take advantage asap to avoid missing out.

Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow – book 1 in the series – is on the following offers for Kindle:

UK – 99p
Australia – $1.89
USA – $1.99

This book is also in Global Prime Reading so anyone participating in the Prime programme can access it for FREE. It just went in last week and will remain in Prime Reading for at least 12 weeks so we’re pretty much talking the rest of the year.

Chasing Dreams at Hedgehog Hollow – book 5 in the series – is on the following offers for Kindle:

UK – 99p
Australia – $1.89
Canada – $0.99

If you are on Kobo, Apple Books or any other eReader, please do check as I believe the Chasing Dreams offers will apply and the Finding Love ones may well too.

THE EVENT

Tonight (Monday 26th September), I have a Facebook Live with my fabulous editor Nia Beynon. To celebrate the release of Christmas Miracles at Hedgehog Hollow – the final book in the series – we’ll be talking all about the whole series and I’ll be reading from Christmas Miracles.

We have some questions lined up and would love to answer questions from readers who join us. The Live will start at 6pm GMT over on the Book and Tonic Facebook page. You can set yourself a notification here.

I really hope you can join us to celebrate the final release. If you’re unable to join us live, the link above will also take you to the video afterwards. If you can’t join in but you have a question you’d love me to answer in the Live, please DM me on my Jessica Redland Romance Author Facebook page before 5pm today and we’ll squeeze it in.

THE AUCTION

I’m delighted to be taking part in the Children in Read Auction again this year which raises money for the BBC’s Children in Need appeal 2022. You can find the full auction here where there are currently a whopping 517 lots of reading/writing-related prizes to suit all ages and tastes. New lots are being added all the time and the amount bid so far is already approaching £10,000.

I’ve submitted two lots. My first is lot 444 which is all about ‘first in a series’ and is available to UK bidders only. It can be found here. This is a really special lot because the successful bidder will win signed copies of the first book in each of my four series (listed below) and the opportunity to name a character in my fifth series which starts in the summer 2023.

The first in series books are:

Making Wishes at Bay View – book 1 in the Welcome to Whitsborough Bay series
Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop – book 1 in the Christmas on Castle Street series
Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café – book 1 in The Starfish Café series
Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow – book 1 in the Hedgehog Hollow series

The retail value of these books combined is just shy of £43 and it currently has 12 bids on it which have reached £39. As I say, the books will be signed but can be dedicated on request.

What I think will really appeal about this lot is the opportunity to name a character in my brand new series set in the Lake District, the first book of which will be out next summer. This will be an important character but not one of the main two characters as I’ve already named them. It can be a male or female character and a reader could see their name in the book, the name of a loved one or perhaps a name they’ve created. My only stipulations are that it needs to be pronounceable and sensible – no Character McCharacters, no swear words and no innuendos. I also can’t accept a character name I’ve already used for obvious reasons.

My second lot is lot 445 which can be found here. There are currently no bids on it – eek! – but hopefully that will change soon. This is a one-hour Zoom conversation with me and this is offered internationally.

My suggestion is that this may suit either an aspiring writer looking for some advice and guidance on an aspect of writing. As I write contemporary women’s fiction, that’s where my expertise lies but I tutor workshops on writing a series and about creating locations and this is transferrable across all genres.

Alternatively a reader might be interested in talking about the books and asking me questions full of spoilers which would be discouraged in an open forum.

That’s all my news for now. Wishing you a fabulous week.

Big hugs
Jessica xx

The one where it’s publication day for Spring Tides at The Starfish Café

April 5, 2022 Jessica Redland Author4 Comments

Happy publication day to me! Spring Tides at The Starfish Café – book 2 in the series – is out today. Yay!

A huge thank you to everyone who has pre-ordered it on eBook or audio formats, or has purchased it today. That’s so kind of you. Happy reading/listening!

I love this story and hope readers and listeners will too. Anyone who read the acknowledgements in the back of book 1 – Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café – will know that part of this story was originally in that book. I submitted it thinking something wasn’t quite right but couldn’t pinpoint what. Thankfully my amazing editor, Nia, could and it was that I had two stories in one book but didn’t have the word count to do justice to either of them. So Snowflakes focuses purely on Hollie and Jake meeting and their tragic backstories, and Spring Tides is about their developing relationship with the storyline removed from Snowflakes and a couple of new characters.

Spring Tides at The Starfish Café embarks on a 15-day / 45 stop blog tour from today. That’s epic! Thank you so much to the amazing bloggers/reviewers who’ve signed up and the amazing Rachel Gilbey of Rachel’s Random Resources for organising it. Thanks also to the reviewers who aren’t on the tour but have already or will share their reviews.

One of my Boldwood buddies, the lovely crime author Mary Grand, asked me this week whether I still get nervous about publication day now that I’ve written so many books. The answer is yes! This is my 15th release through Boldwood Books but it’s actually my 28th publication day, having had nine indie release days and four with my original publisher. I’m into more of a rhythm about what to expect but the nerves are always there, bubbling away beneath the surface, typically triggered by my pesky imposter syndrome: What if this is the book readers/listeners hate? What if this is the one where they realise I can’t write?

I’ve been working hard on my imposter syndrome and I don’t feel quite so worried with this release. It helps that there’ve been so many lovely reviews from ARCs (Advance Reader Copies). There have, of course, been some who haven’t enjoyed it – there always are – but it’s overwhelmingly been positively received.

Today I’ll be mostly sharing on social media and responding to the lovely comments that come through. The lovely Fiona Jenkins and Sue Baker are hosting a publication party over on Heidi Swain and Friends – A Facebook Book Club – which is very kind and generous of them. My friends over on The Friendly Book Community have a publication day interview with me and there’s lots more going on. Thank you to everyone who gets involved and makes this day so special.

On Thursday this week, I have a very exciting event planned. I’m going to be joined by members of the RNLI – specifically Scarborough Lifeboat Station – for a Facebook Live. It’s at 6pm on the Book and Tonic Facebook Page and will be available to watch afterwards if anyone can’t join us live. If you can join us live, though, there’ll be an opportunity to ask questions. The crew are so inspirational and I’m so looking forward to chatting with them.

In related news, I was so excited to see Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café reach a whopping review milestone yesterday of 4,000 reviews/ratings over on Amazon. This is my most-reviewed book now, despite it being one of the most recent releases. It hit 4k yesterday, just in time for publication day so what a lovely way to celebrate.

If you haven’t already read Snowflakes, you can grab it for free if you’re in Prime Reading or Kindle Unlimited globally, and it’s only 99p (or equivalent internationally) for the eBook so this is a great opportunity to discover Hollie and Jake’s origin stories before reading Spring Tides. You can read Spring Tides as a standalone book and I do inject some of the backstory so readers aren’t lost but you’ll get a much richer experience if you’ve read the full series.

And, finally, I’m delighted to announce that book 3 – Summer Nights at The Starfish Café – is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Please don’t get annoyed with me but there’s a year to wait for this one. It’s out on 3rd April 2023 and you can pre-order it for Kindle here. The reason for the year is I have the Hedgehog Hollow series to finish first (two books out in June and September) and there’s either going to be a Castle Street standalone book out in January or the start of a new series. Spring Tides doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, though, so hopefully readers/listeners will forgive me for the year and remember that many authors only write one book a year and some even write one every two years.

Big publication day hugs
Jessica xx

I’m in conversation with Jo Bartlett tonight

July 1, 2021July 1, 2021 Jessica Redland AuthorLeave a comment

Today is the publication day for the second book in the fabulous Cornish Midwives series by Jo Bartlett: A Summer Wedding for the Cornish Midwife. Huge congratulations, Jo.

The first book in the series – The Cornish Midwife – is Jo’s first release with Boldwood Books and is performing exceptionally well, still sitting high in the Kindle Top 100 two and a half months on from release, having racked up a Top 10 position. So exciting!

Book 2 looks set to follow. At the time of writing, it’s already #8 in the Apple UK Romance category chart and just outside the Top 300 overall Kindle chart but will rise as the day goes on as it’s usually later in the day when a book gets its highest publication day position on Kindle.

The series – which is planned at seven books – tells the story of the midwives based at the community midwifery unit in the fictional Cornish village of Port Agnes and the books are lovely, warm stories about love, friendship, family and community in a stunning setting. I’ve put blurbs and links below my signature.

I’ve read both and absolutely loved them. This is a quote from me about the first:

‘I love second chance stories. I love returning home stories. So a book combining both is an absolute winner for me. The Cornish Midwife is simply gorgeous. Stunning setting, wonderful characters, and oozing with warmth. A triumph from Jo Bartlett and a cracking start to what promises to be a fabulous series’

I don’t normally celebrate publication days of other authors on my blog (as I’d never get any writing done if I did!) but there’s a special reason for this one. It’s because Jo and I have a joint event planned today…

I’m very excited to be ‘in conversation’ with Jo tonight on a Facebook Live. The session will be hosted on Book and Tonic’s Facebook page which you can find here and will start at 6pm GMT this evening (Thursday 1st July) and last up to an hour.

I’ll be asking Jo questions about her writing journey and the series itself but it will be more of a conversation than an interview so I’ll be sharing some snippets too.

I’m really looking forward to this as, not only are Jo and I publishing buddies, we’re friends in real life. As to how we know each other, all will be revealed during our conversation so I hope you can join us.

We’ll be inviting questions from the ‘audience’ during the Facebook Live and anyone who asks a question then will be put into a draw to win a copy of the paperback of A Summer Wedding for the Cornish Midwife.

If you can’t attend live, then you will be able to catch up on the recording on Book and Tonic’s Facebook page, although wouldn’t be able to ask questions/go into the draw.

We’ll be reuniting on Monday 6th September where the roles will be reversed and Jo will be question-master, helping me celebrate the publication of Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café. The book itself is out on 31st August but we’re waiting until after the distraction of the school holidays to host the Live.

Really hope you can join us tonight. Happy publication day to Jo!

Big hugs
Jessica xx

THE CORNISH MIDWIFE

A fresh start…

Midwife Ella Mehenick left the small Cornish town of Port Agnes for London and never looked back. But when her seemingly perfect life crashes down around her, there’s only one place she can heal her battered heart – the place she once called home.

A new arrival…

Ella is quickly welcomed into the small community midwife team and loves her new job caring for mums and their precious babies – it’s what she does best! But being back also means facing ex-flame Dan Ferguson…the first man to break her heart.

A second chance at love?

Dan is still as gorgeous as ever, but he’s never forgiven Ella for leaving. And now she’s back it’s clear that there is unfinished business between them. As Ella settles into her new/old life, she can’t stop the memories of how she once loved Dan so completely – and maybe never stopped.

Maybe coming home to Cornwall is Ella’s chance to love again…

Meet The Cornish Midwives of Port Agnes- where community, friendship and love are always delivered.

An uplifting and escapist read, perfect for fans of Christie Barlow, Jessica Redland and Holly Martin!

This book was previously published as Return to Port Agnes.

You can buy it here on Kindle UK but it’s also available as an eBook for Apple and Kobo, as a physical audio, for download, to stream on Spotify and as paperback, hardback and large print formats. It’s also available for free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

A SUMMER WEDDING FOR THE CORNISH MIDWIFE

It’s wedding day in Port Agnes!

The venue is booked, the dress is picked, and Senior Midwife Anna Jones only has to say ‘I Do!’ to the man she loves! Theirs might have been a whirlwind romance, but Brae Penrose is everything Anna dreamed her husband would be and she can’t wait to start a new life with him…and if they are lucky, maybe even a family of their own.

But as the big day approaches disaster strikes, and their perfect day looks destined not to happen at all. Anna’s certain it’s a sign to slow things down.

The other midwives won’t hear of Anna and Brae postponing their big day, but can they and the community of Port Agnes pull together to make sure the Penrose summer wedding goes off without a hitch?

Meet The Cornish Midwives of Port Agnes- where community, friendship and love are always delivered.

An uplifting and escapist read, perfect for fans of Christie Barlow, Jessica Redland and Holly Martin!

This book was previously published as Christmas with the Cornish Midwives.

Celebrating Publication Day for Family Secrets at Hedgehog Hollow

May 5, 2021 Jessica Redland AuthorLeave a comment

Yesterday (4th May) was the publication day for the third book in the Hedgehog Hollow series: Family Secrets at Hedgehog Hollow. Woo hoo!

When I was a struggling indie author, publication day was a fairly ‘normal’ day. I’d post about it on social media and a few family members and friends would congratulate me, then I’d get on with my day to day work. I might nip go out for lunch with the hubby or maybe even an evening meal to celebrate but it was fairly low key because so few readers had discovered my work. I didn’t excitedly watch the charts because there wasn’t an impressive chart entry moment.

Since joining the amazing Boldwood Books, this has completely changed. Publication days are now an excited frenzy of activity on social media, responding to loads of gorgeous congratulations messages, and the start of a blog tour. I’ve learned not to attempt to write or edit as there’s too much else going on but I did slip in an appointment with the hairdresser yesterday and that was a mistake in terms of time but, my goodness, how nice was it to have my hair cut and professionally coloured for the first time since December 2019!

I debuted it during a Facebook Live with my fabulous editor Nia Beynon last night. If you weren’t able join the Live, you can catch up with it here. Thank you to all those who joined us on the evening and for the lovely comments and questions.

It was the perfect opportunity to also debut my new hedgehog print dress (awww) and show off a couple of my soft friends. Thank you to my friend Nic for the lovely knitted sparkly hedgehog, Erin.

The blog tour has started and the reviews yesterday along with the first review I’ve seen posted today are absolutely gorgeous. I also had two lovely reviews from bloggers not on the tour. Thank you to everyone who has signed up. I’m excited and a little trepidatious (is that a word?!) to hear all the comments.

I wrote a post for Boldwood’s blog about one of the themes of this book – forgiveness – which you can find here and I wrote a post for my own blog about the risks of writing about an unlikable character which you can find here.

Fabulous publication day biscuits arrived from my publisher. I love these. It’s so adorable seeing my book in biscuit format. They’re made by a company called Enchanting Bakes if you want to check them out. Amazingly they are still unopened but I suspect they won’t last beyond the morning!

We unveiled the winner of the ‘Name the Hedgehog’ competition for Family Secrets at Hedgehog Hollow. A draw was made from those who’d signed up to my newsletter and the winner, Kaye, chose Prickles as the name. As we did with the amazing Snoop Hoggy Hog who appears in New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow, my hubby created a cartoon of Prickles. We saw him as a cheeky Yorkshire chappie in a flat cap, drinking his Yorkshire Tea, standing in the meadow at Hedgehog Hollow. Isn’t he fabulous?

We’ll be running another competition to name a hedgehog for book 4 so watch out for details of that late next month.

Speaking of book 4, we revealed yesterday in the Facebook Live that book 4 will be called A Wedding at Hedgehog Hollow. We don’t have the blurb or cover yet but it’s available for pre-order now right here! It can only appear as a pre-order for Kindle this far in advance but it will be available for pre-order on Kobo and Apple nearer the release date. It’s out in January 2022.

Finally, let’s talk about those hedgehogs scampering up the charts! I knew I’d had a large number of pre-orders for this book – way bigger than anything I’ve experienced before – so I was hoping I might end up with a Top 100 on Amazon. The chart is meant to update hourly but that doesn’t seem to happen and yesterday it was super slow at moving. I made it to #77 by the end of the day and the full impact or those pre-orders was finally shown this morning at #38. I can’t quite believe that. Hubby had asked me what I would be happy with. Obviously I’m happy with it all and I had anticipated perhaps Top 100 on the back of pre-orders but had hoped maybe 70s. A dream would be Top 50 but I genuinely didn’t think that would happen … yet those hedgehogs went one better with Top 40! So proud!

This position has put the hedgehogs at #11 in the Hot New Releases chart and #1 in the same chart in several categories.

Family Secrets at Hedgehog Hollow is sporting #1 Best Seller tags in the UK, Australia, Canada and USA which is such a thrill and it was up to #59 in Australia yesterday. Even more fabulous was that 9 out of my 10 released books had a #1 Best Seller flag at the same time. Wow! Six of them are currently sporting one in the UK.

I’ve just checked the USA chart and am astonished to be a little outside the top 1,000 (#1,259) which is such a thrill knowing how enormous the US market is. And the hedgehogs have cracked the top 1,000 in Canada at #785 just now.

Over on Apple, they made it to #43 in the overall chart yesterday and #9 in the category chart of ‘Fiction and Literature’. They’re on the home page of Kobo too as ‘New and Notable’!

My huge apologies to anyone who is wanting to obtain the paperback version or get it from Audible. Amazon are showing the paperback as ‘currently unavailable’ despite it being a print on demand book and very much available. This is an error on their part and my publishers are working hard to rectify it but they’ve had this with another paperback recently and it did take a week so thank you for your patience. It is showing available for order on Waterstones website here. It doesn’t appear to be on Barnes and Noble yet either but should do soon. It can also be ordered from bookshops, as can any of my paperbacks.

As for Audible, it only appeared yesterday afternoon but it appeared as a pre-order with delivery in a weeks’ time. My publisher is also working with them to rectify this and we are hopeful it will properly be available today or tomorrow. Fingers crossed. Thank you so much for your patience if you’re waiting for either of these formats.

I’ll end by saying a huge THANK YOU to all the amazing readers who pre-ordered Family Secrets at Hedgehog Hollow, making these amazing chart positions possible. THANK YOU to all those who bought or borrowed on publication day. I’m so grateful to everyone who has shared or commented on social media or sent me a private message wishing me a happy publication day and/or telling me how much they’ve loved reading it. It is such a thrill that readers have devoured the book in a day with some even saying they couldn’t sleep until they’d finished it. Wow! That just blows me away!

If you haven’t delved into the Hedgehog Hollow series already, I do strongly recommend starting at the beginning as, although the story in each book is complete, there are themes that carry across the series and threads that further develop. It’s a richer reading experience for starting at the beginning and the great news is that, if you read eBooks, the first two – Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow and New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow – are both still on offer. But grab them fast as the prices will go up soon. Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow is also in Prime Reading but won’t be for much longer and ALL my books (this series and the Whitsborough Bay stories) are in Kindle Unlimited.

Hope you all have a fabulous week. The hedgehogs and I send you our love and gratitude.

Big hedge-hugs
Jessica xx

All I felt was love…

March 12, 2021 Jessica Redland Author2 Comments

Yesterday was the publication day for All You Need Is Love and, I have to say, all I felt was love all day. How amazing are the reading and writing community?

It was my busiest publication day yet with so many lovely comments on social media to read and respond to and lots of activities going on so Ive just got a quick round up, a few links and some photos…

There were biscuits…

My fabulous publisher, Boldwood Books, always send a wonderful publication day gift and this time it was biscuits with book covers and congratulations messages on them. They didn’t last long! I was under strict instructions from my daughter to save her one of the book cover ones and I had a text from her on the bus to school this morning saying she’d been in such a rush, she forgot to pick it up to take it to school. She has been warned I might have the munchies later!

There was cake…

It was hubby’s birthday yesterday so we had birthday cake too. Mmmm. I completely forgot to take a photo of that, though.

There were books…

My paperbacks arrived. I always look forward to the books coming as it’s such an amazing moment to see them, stroke them and, yes, sniff them. But I’d particularly been excited about the arrival of All You Needs Is Love because of those gorgeous sunset colours and it didn’t disappoint at all. So vibrant! My daughter has announced it’s her favourite cover and it might just be mine too as those colours are simply stunning.

The gorgeous wooden campervan (Thor the campervan in the story) has been well admired. I bought him from my favourite shop in Scarborough: White Beach Designs. The lovely owner, Andie, has a Facebook page if anyone is interested in one (they come in different colours). I do highly recommend the shop for gorgeous handmade jewellery, wooden gifts, pebble art and so much more. You can find the Facebook page here.

There was a party…

Last month I was invited to join a lovely Facebook group called ‘Heidi Swain and Friends’ which is run by Sue and Fiona as a readers’ group/book club for fans of Heidi Swain’s gorgeous books and authors who may also appeal to Heidi’s readers. Heidi very kindly supported Sue and Fiona’s suggestion to host a publication day party for me and they ran a day full of fun questions and quizzes relating to All You Need Is Love. It was fabulous seeing all the interaction from readers and joining in myself. A huge thank you to Heidi, Sue and Fiona. If you’d like to join the group, you can do so here.

I also have a readers’ group of my own on Facebook for discussion about anything related to my books and settings. Thank you to everyone who was so supportive on there and for all the kind messages coming through from those who have already read this book or plan to. If you haven’t already joined Redland’s Readers, you can do so here.

There was a blog tour

My blog tour kicked off yesterday with three lovely reviews. There’ll be 36 stops over 12 days and, as usual, I’ll share a round-up at the end. An enormous thank you to all those who have signed up and those who share their posts. It makes such a difference to get these early reviews and spread the word. Thank you also to those who have read this book under its previous incarnation as Bear With Me for sharing the love for this story.

There were blog posts

I guested on the Boldwood Books blog talking about my own teddy bear shop which inspired part of the story. You can find that post here.

I also guested on the RNA’s blog (Romantic Novelists’ Association) talking about my inspiration for the story and a bit more about my writing. Thank you to Catherine Lawless and the RNA for hosting me. You can find that post here.

There was music

I pulled together a Spotify playlist of songs which link to/inspire All You Need Is Love. You can find that here. They’re roughly presented in the order of relevance to the story so, if you’ve read the book, you can probably guess which part they may relate to. As you’d expect, not all the lyrics are a perfect match but the general vibe is there. Thank you to my editor, Nia, for pulling this together for me. I hope you enjoy listening to it.

There was a video

I created a publication day video about what to expect and explained the difference between plush bears, collectible bears and artist bears (with gorgeous bears to help me) which you can find here.

And the day finished with a Facebook Live

My amazing editor Nia Beynon hosted an ‘in conversation’ on Facebook for an hour and we had some fabulous questions. I also did a reading from All You Need Is Love. Thank you to everyone who joined us live or who has listened to it since. You can catch up with the video here.

Facebook Live Advert – the competition only ran on the evening but you can still watch the video on catch-up

So, as you can see, an extremely busy but lovely day. Thank you to everyone who made it so special and particularly my amazing husband and daughter, Mark and Ashleigh, without whose support I wouldn’t be doing what I do today.

If you’re interested in reading to All You Need Is Love, it’s available as an eBook for Apple, Kindle and Kobo, and in print format as a paperback, hardback and large print. For those who like to listen, it’s available as an audio download or physical copy and will appear on streaming services soon.

Big hugs
Jessica xx

All You Need Is Love

When you’ve loved and lost, how do you find the strength to let love in again?

Jemma thinks she’s found the love of her life. Scott is everything she ever dreamed of and she can’t wait to begin the next stage of their life together. But just as she is heading for her happy ever after, a shock revelation shatters Jemma’s life as she knows it. Left to pick up the pieces, Jemma’s friends and family rally round to help her find the courage to move on.

Sam think he has his future all worked out. A thriving career, lovely home and an amazing fiancée. But when tragedy strikes, he finds himself alone, far from everyone he cares about. Did he do the right thing by running away and trying to rebuild the tatters of his life alone?

This is the story of Jemma and Sam. Two lost souls, desperately trying to find closure and happiness. When a chance meeting brings them together a friendship is formed, but the guards are up.

Will it finally be their turn for a happy ever after? Or will the secrets from their pasts prevent them from moving on?

Escape to Whitsborough Bay for an emotional, uplifting story of love and friendship from top 10 bestseller Jessica Redland.

This book was previously published as Bear With Me.

The one where Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Cafe is published

September 8, 2020 Jessica Redland Author4 Comments

It’s publication day for Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café. Yay! Happy publication day to me!

Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café was previously available under the title of Starry Christmas at The Chocolate Pot Café. Just like my ‘Welcome to Whitsborough Bay’ series which got refreshed and re-released under new titles earlier this year, it’s one of my back catalogue books that my fabulous publishers, Boldwood Books, have acquired and breathed fresh life into.

If you’d like to know more about the changes, you can read my previous blog post about this here.

The prequel, Christmas at Carly’s Cupcakes, was released last month and it didn’t make sense to have a blog tour for both when there was only three weeks separating their publication dates so, instead, we have an enormous 3-week 63-stops ‘Christmas on Castle Street’ tour. Some bloggers will review both – which is why some names appear twice – and some will review just one.

A huge thank you to Boldwood Books, Rachel Gilbey from RachelsRandomResources, the tour organiser, and everyone who is participating. Book bloggers don’t take any payment for reviewing books. They do it because they are passionate about reading and the support they provide in promoting the work of authors is invaluable.

The links and blurbs for both books are at the end of this post.

What am I doing today? I have finally learned that there’s no point trying to write on publication day as there’s so much activity on social media that it’s hard to concentrate so, for the first time ever, I have taken the day off. I still have lots to do. We had some new bedroom furniture delivered yesterday and it’s still in boxes around the house which will get unpacked later, in between me responding to all the lovely congratulations messages and excitedly checking chart positions!

Tonight I’m on a Facebook Live in conversation with my fabulous editor, Nia Beynon. It will be at 7-8pm over on the Book and Tonic Facebook page so hope you can join us.

Have a fabulous day and hope to see you later at the Facebook Live.

Big hugs

Jessica xx

CHRISTMAS AT CARLY’S CUPCAKES

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…
It’s December on Castle Street; the fairy lights are twinkling, snow has settled and the festive season is in full swing.

For Carly, the owner of Carly’s Cupcakes, it’s the busiest time of year getting everyone’s Christmas treats ready on time. However with her clumsy sister, Bethany, as a co-worker, it’s proving a difficult task. They say you shouldn’t mix work with family. Maybe they have a point…

As Christmas approaches, Carly is also eagerly awaiting the return of her best friend to Whitborough Bay. Liam has no idea he’s been the object of her affection since their schooldays. After years of pining after him, can Carly pluck up the courage to finally tell him how she really feels by 25th December?

Could a little festive magic make all of Carly’s wishes come true this Christmas…?

A heartwarming, short festive story of friendship and family from bestseller Jessica Redland. You can find out what happens to Carly next through exploring her best friend Tara’s story in Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café.

This is a new and updated version of Christmas at Carly’s Cupcakes which has been previously published.

You can buy it here.

STARRY SKIES OVER THE CHOCOLATE POT CAFE

Cosy up with a mug of hot chocolate for some festive sparkle from bestseller Jessica Redland.

Everyone is getting into the festive spirit on Castle Street – snow is falling, fairy lights are glistening and Christmas shopping is underway.

But for Tara Porter, owner of thriving cafe, The Chocolate Pot, this is the most difficult time of the year. From the outside, Tara is a successful businesswoman and pillar of the community. Behind closed doors, she is lonely.

With a lifetime of secrets weighing on her shoulders, she has retreated from all friends, family and romance, and shut her real self away from the world. Afterall, if you don’t let them in, they can’t hurt you. She’s learnt that the hard way.

But as the weight of her past becomes heavier and an unexpected new neighbour moves onto the street – threatening the future of her cafe – Tara begins to realise that maybe it’s time to finally let people back in and confront her history. It could just change her life forever…

Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café was originally released as Christmas at The Chocolate Pot Café. Now re-released with a new title and new cover, this version has been freshly edited and features several new chapters.

You can buy it here.

The one where Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow is published

July 3, 2020 Jessica Redland Author3 Comments

My tenth novel, Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow, was published yesterday – Thursday 2nd July – and what a busy day it turned out to be. So busy that I didn’t even get a chance to write a blog post!

The first thing I did when I woke up was log onto Amazon to see my chart position and was thrilled to be #1,891 on the Kindle chart. I hoped to make it inside the Top 1,000 but was both surprised and delighted when I moved up to #557 just after lunch, #324 by mid-afternoon, #295 by teatime and #291 by bedtime. Wow!

I secured two category best seller flags and even pushed my own book off the top spot in one of them!

There was lovely news over on AppleBooks too with a #10 in the Romance chart and #27 in the overall chart.

And then fabulous news later that day with Kobo selecting Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow as one of their books of the month.

And it wasn’t just about chart positions. A blog tour kicked off with three of the most gorgeous five-star reviews (you can click on the blog name if you want to read the full review):

Being Anne said: “The characterisation is exceptional … This whole book entirely enchanted me from beginning to end – I lived every twist and turn of the story, and felt a real sense of loss when I reached the end”

Portobello Book Blog said: “It’s a delightful story of friendship, kindness and love and of being true to yourself. It’s a wonderfully heart-warming story which I recommend if you are looking for a really feel-good read”

Books and Bookends said: “This book just hit me hard in the feelings. There’s some really toxic family dynamics and equally some amazing relationships in this story…. It’s well and truly a feel good story with a gorgeous Yorkshire setting and amazing characters”

Thank you so much to all three of you for such wonderful, heartwarming reviews.

Over on my publisher Boldwood’s blog, I talked about my Auntie Gwen who is a real-life ‘hedgehog lady’. She’s rescued sick, injured and abandoned hedgehogs for forty years and is such an inspiration. You can read the post here.

The day before, I was guest on good friend and super talented author Sharon Booth’s blog talking about the change of setting in this book and why hedgehogs. You can read that post here. Thank you, Sharon, for being a fabulous host.

Boldwood Books hosted a ‘Summer Moment’ on Zoom for all their authors. They’d have organised a summer party under normal circumstances but this was the next best thing and they sent us a bottle of fizz so we could raise a toast. It was lovely to see the faces – albeit it spread across four different screens – and hear the voices of a writing community with whom I’ve engaged with through social media but, in the main, not met or spoken to.

I needed to dip out of that early as I was hosting my first ever Facebook Live on Book and Tonic’s Facebook page. I had so much fun doing that, answering questions submitted beforehand or posed on the evening, and reading Chapter 1 from Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow. I had an awkward moment at the start where I wasn’t sure there was anyone there and, when I knew there was, whether they could hear me so, if you do listen, you might want to skip past the first minute. It does get better after that, I promise! You can connect to the recording here.

Thank you to everyone who made publication day so special and to all those who pre-ordered or have since bought a copy of Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow. It’s available on eBook for AppleBooks, Kindle and Kobo, audio, large print and paperback so something to suit everyone. Here’s the Amazon link if you fancy meeting the hedgehogs.

Wishing you all the best for a great weekend.

Big hugs

Jessica xx

Can love really be found when you stop looking for it…?

As Samantha Wishaw watches the love of her life marry another woman, she’s ready to give up hope of finding her happy ever after.

But when a chance encounter leads Sam to find friendship in Thomas – a lonely, grumpy elderly widower living at derelict Hedgehog Hollow – her life is about to change forever.

Glad to have a distraction from family feuds and match-making, Sam vows to fulfil Thomas and his wife, Gwendoline’s, dreams of restoring Hedgehog Hollow to its former glory, and to open a hedgehog rescue centre.

Throwing herself into the task at hand, little does Sam realise that the keys to love and happiness may also be found at Hedgehog Hollow, when she least expects it…

Escape to Hedgehog Hollow this summer with top 10 bestseller Jessica Redland for the perfect uplifting, feel-good read.

Jessica Redland Author

Welcome to Yorkshire and an uplifting world of love and friendship

Tag: Facebook Live