Here's to Happy Endings...

There's nothing better on these bright summer days than a happy ending, so I've chosen a very special book to review for my last blog post this summer: Miss Moonshine's Emporium of Happy Endings.  The idea came from Yorkshire author Helena Fairfax who, along with eight author friends,  decided to write an anthology based loosely on the picturesque town of Hebden Bridge in the Calderdale Valley, where they regularly meet.

Says Helena 'The idea for Miss Moonshine came as we were all talking as a group. We were looking for one central idea to tie all the stories together - something that would work both for the historical fiction writers and the contemporary. There are lots of lovely old buildings in Hebden Bridge, and so we gradually pieced together our picture of a shop, based on a real 18th century building in the town - a former chapel, now an art gallery. The shop needed a shopkeeper, and Miss Moonshine gradually came to us. Now we think of Miss Moonshine as real, and we've all become very fond of her!'

Having recently finished the book, I must confess to feeling quite fond of the mysterious old lady myself! The reason?  Miss Moonshine manages to move through time with the most amazing agility, despite rarely leaving her  mysterious shop full of unfathomable things. She turns sadness into happiness, despair into delight  and tragedy into triumph without ever seeming to move a finger. And how does she work this magic? Even the authors don't know for sure...

The real triumph of this anthology is the way the authors have come together with one thought in mind - to seamlessly join their stories into an exceptionally good read, leaving the reader wondering what exactly is going to happen next. It's romantic escapism at its very best.

So here are the authors, in alphabetical order.

Mary Jayne Baker

Mary Jayne Baker is a novelist from Bingley, West Yorkshire. Since her debut in 2016, she has published four romantic comedies with two publishers, HarperImpulse and Mirror Books. Her latest, A Bicycle Made for Two – set in Yorkshire against the backdrop of the 2014 Tour de France – was published in April 2018. Find out more about Mary Jayne

Sophie Claire

Sophie Claire writes emotional stories set in England and in sunny Provence, where she spent her summers as a child.

Previously, she worked in marketing and proofreading academic papers, but now she’s delighted to spend her days dreaming up heartwarming contemporary romance stories set in beautiful places. Find out more about Sophie

Jacqui Cooper

Living on the edge of the Yorkshire moors, Jacqui Cooper doesn’t have to look far for inspiration for her writing. Her short stories regularly appear in popular women’s magazines, including Woman’s Weekly, The People’s Friend and Take a Break. Writing has always been her dream and she is thrilled to now be able to do it full time.

Helena Fairfax

Helena Fairfax is a freelance editor and author. Her novels have been shortlisted for several awards, including the Exeter Novel Prize and the Global Ebook Awards. Helena lives in an old mill village on the edge of the Yorkshire moors with her husband and their rescue dog, Lexi. Find out more about Helena

Kate Field

Kate Field writes contemporary women’s fiction, mainly set in her favourite county of Lancashire, where she lives with her husband, daughter, and hyperactive cat.

Kate’s debut novel, The Magic of Ramblings, won the Romantic Novelists’ Association Joan Hessayon Award for new writers. Find out more about Kate

Melinda Hammond

Melinda Hammond lives in the Pennines, where she weaves her stories full of romance and adventure. Since her first book was published by Robert Hale in 1983, she has had around 50 historical novels published. She won the Singletitles.com Reviewers' Award in 2005 for Dance for a Diamond and her novel Gentlemen in Question was a Historical Novel Society Editors' Choice in 2006. Writing as Sarah Mallory, she has won the prestigious RoNA Rose Award from the Romantic Novelists Association in 2012 and 2013.

You can find her on her website, www.melindahammond.com; Twitter @SarahMRomance, Facebook Melinda SarahMallory Hammond

Marie Laval

Originally from Lyon, Marie Laval now lives in the beautiful Rossendale Valley in Lancashire, and writes contemporary and historical romance with a French twist. Her latest romantic comedy, bestseller Little Pink Taxi, is published by Choc Lit.   Find out more about Marie

 

Helen Pollard

As a child, Helen Pollard had a vivid imagination fuelled by her love of reading, so she started to create her own stories in a notebook. She still prefers fictional worlds to real life, believes characterisation is the key to a successful book, and enjoys infusing her writing with humour and heart. Helen is a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association and The Society of Authors.

You can find her online at: http://facebook.com/HelenPollardWrites 

http://twitter.com/helenpollard147  viewauthor.at/HelenPollardAmazon

 

Angela Wren

Angela Wren is an actor and director at a theatre in Yorkshire, UK.  She loves stories, reading and writes the Jacques Forêt crime novels set in the Cévennes in south-central France.  Her short stories vary between romance, memoir, mystery and historical.  Angela has had two one-act plays recorded for local radio.

Website : http://www.angelawren.co.uk/

Miss Moonshine’s Emporium of Happy Endings

Sometimes what you need is right there waiting for you...
Miss Moonshine’s Wonderful Emporium has stood in the pretty Yorkshire town of Haven Bridge for as long as anyone can remember. With her ever-changing stock, Miss Moonshine has a rare gift for providing exactly what her customers need: a fire opal necklace that provides a glimpse of a different life; a novel whose phantom doodler casts a spell over the reader; a music box whose song links love affairs across the generations. One thing is for certain: after visiting Miss Moonshine’s quirky shop, life is never the same again...

Miss Moonshine's Emporium of Happy Endings is available from Amazon in print and as an ebook. Buy link: http://mybook.to/MissMoonshine

 

A final note from me. After eight years, endless posts on every topic you can think of and tens of thousands of  hits from all over the world, it's time for me to  take a break. And what better place for me to do it than in the land of happy endings?

Au revoir and thanks to everyone for your loyal  support.

Marilyn 
A Guernsey girl living a long way from home.

 

ROMANTIC ENGLISHMEN ARE STILL ALIVE AND LIVING IN YORKSHIRE

I was thrilled recently when local authors Helena Fairfax and Marie Laval asked  if I would join them for a Coffee and Romance book-signing at the Old Gate, Hebden Bridge, one of Yorkshire's prettiest towns. We arrived on a dull but dry day and set up our stall.

The slow trickle of customers soon turned into a stream on  what everyone agreed was the wettest day of the year.  And that was when the camaraderie kicked in.  No amount of rain could daunt the late arrivals who, despite being  soaked to the skin, added to the party atmosphere.

'Which book should I buy for my girlfriend?' asked one man who soon came back with his mates to look at the historical and contemporary  novels on display.  They generously chose books for their wives and girlfriends - their their mums and sisters too.

Which brings me to the purpose of this short post: thanks guys. It was a pleasure  to meet you all. Romantic Englishmen are very much alive and living in Yorkshire.

Marie, Marilyn and Helena - photo taken by a customer

Fame at last in the Ladies!

A man braves the rain.