The Secret Supper Club - Guest Post

Hello everyone! 

I am so happy to let you all know that the wonderful Dana Bates has taken the time to write a guest post for my blog! The Secret Supper Club is her debut novel which will appeal to a lot of you readers, especially chick-lit fans! Here, Dana has provided an insight into writing.

"Before I even sat down in front of my computer to write The Secret Supper Club, I knew I wanted to write a story about food. I love food. I’ve always loved food – cooking it, eating it, thinking about it. So combining my two loves – writing and cooking – seemed like a natural fit. Easy, right?

Wrong. Problem #1: I not only wanted to incorporate food into my story, but I also wanted to do it in a way that felt fresh. Every idea I came up with left me feeling…well, less than excited. A chef who…? No. A bakery owner who…? Definitely not. I started one story that had potential, but if I’m being honest, I was never all that excited about the idea.

Then one night, as I lay in bed, an idea popped into my head and wouldn’t go away. I was living in London at the time, away from my home in the States, and that morning I’d read an article online about a woman called “MsMarmitelover” who ran an underground supper club out of her flat. She basically turned her apartment into an unlicensed restaurant, and people from all over would pay to eat there. How cool was that?

The story of MsMarmitelover and her supper club stuck with me all day, and that night in bed, I started thinking about what it would take to run an operation like that. It would be pretty stressful, right? And, since supper clubs aren’t technically legal, what would happen if you got caught? 

The more I thought about running the supper club, the more excited I became, and then I realized, bingo: I had the premise for my book.

With Problem #1 solved, I sat down to write, and about a quarter of the way into the story, I encountered Problem #2: how much food is too much?

The thing is, even though I was passionate about food, I realized not everyone shared my intense and semi-obsessive interest in all things culinary. So I decided to pull back the reins on the food talk. No one but me would want to read about the process of frying risotto balls, right?

Wrong. The biggest criticism by one of my early readers was, “More food, please!!” Wait…other people wanted to read about food as much as I did? Really?

Hearing this was like hitting the jackpot. I dug back into my manuscript and peppered it with food descriptions: carrot cake, brisket, cinnamon buns, risotto balls. When I stopped censoring myself, the story finally came together. I let food become its own character, which is what I’d really wanted from the start. 

That, of course, introduced Problem #3: the need to take numerous writing breaks to snack on muffins and chocolate and cookies because fictional carrot cake does nothing to sate one’s appetite. For the record, I still haven’t solved that problem, and honestly? I’m not sure I ever will. "

Huge thanks to Dana for her post and I hope that you all enjoyed it.

The Secret Supper Club is out tomorrow (6th December) so please be sure to check it out!

The Secret Supper Club

The Secret Supper Club by Dana Bate

Paperback, 480 pages

Expected publication: 6th December 2012 by Canvas

My shelves: adult-fiction, chick-lit, contemporary, read, read-in-2012, realistic-fiction

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

If twenty-six-year-old Hannah Sugarman had her way, she'd be whipping up carrot cakes and running her culinary empire. Instead, she spends her hours cooking up papers on the financial crisis. It doesn't help that no one in her life takes her passion seriously - not even her boyfriend. 

When her relationship implodes, Hannah decides to jump-start her life by hosting a secret supper club out of her landlord's flat. Her underground operation presents some problems. Running an unlicensed restaurant out of someone's home is not, technically speaking, legal. 

As the success of Hannah's supper club grows, so do the number of secrets she is forced to keep. Can Hannah keep her pop-up restaurant underground? When mysterious guests turn up for dinner, can she handle the heat? Or will she have to step out of the kitchen? A charming romantic comedy, The Secret Supper Club is a story about finding yourself, fulfilling your dreams, and falling in love along the way.

The Secret Supper Club (published as The Girls' Guide to Love and Supper Clubs in the USA) is Dana Bate's debut novel. I hadn't read any reviews of this book before I picked it up myself, but I didn't hesitate to accept it for review, the story sounded entertaining and easy to read, which it was.

This is a chick-lit book and will most probably appeal to all chick-lit lovers out there, with a good sense of realism, strong characters and a good dose of romance! From the title of this book, you can tell it's about a Secret Supper Club - something I didn't even know existed before picking this up! If you're a fan of cooking, this should certainly appeal to you. I personally don't cook, but still found the food aspect of this book to be interesting and with the growing UK popularity of cookery programmes, I'd imagine that this will be a huge hit for foodies who want to read some light fiction!

Although a Secret Supper Club and cookery is the main theme of this book, it's certainly not overwhelming - it's balanced out with other aspects of, our main character, Hannah's life, from her difficult work situation to her relationships. Overall, I thought that the book was balanced well but I must admit that I did become a little bored when Hannah's job was the main focus and because of this, I felt the book dragging quite a bit - simply because I wasn't interested in her job or the logistics surrounding it, it was rather mundane. I liked reading about the organisation of the Supper Clubs and the 'mystery' surrounding them (Who would turn up? Would all go to plan?) and I found myself wanting to rush through parts just to get to read about another Supper Club dinner!

I really liked Hannah and reading about her friendships and relationships. Hannah felt like such a genuine person, so real and easy to connect to. I wasn't expecting so many smiles from this book, but her attitude made me laugh quite a few times - she really felt like an awesome person to 'know'. The highlight of this book for me was reading about her relationships with Joshua and Blake, but Blake in particular as we discovered how opposed he is to Supper Clubs! As Hannah felt so real, it wasn't difficult to sympathise with her, worry with her and be happy with her too. The other characters we are introduced to are also very well developed and tangible.

I thought that the idea of this book was a good one and though sometimes a little silly (in a good way!) at times, it did seem realistic for the most part. Hannah really made this book a hit for me and her strange situations made me smile. I enjoyed reading about Hannah and her relationships most of all. If you're a bit of a 'foodie', I think you'd enjoy this even more than I did - there is even bonus material including recipes from the book! If you just like watching the odd cookery programme, I'm sure you'll enjoy this too. For a reasonably quick and easy read, this is recommended. 

Come back to Stepping Out of the Page on 5th December for an exclusive guest post from the author of this book, Dana Bate!

666 Park Avenue (666 Park Avenue #1)

666 Park Avenue (666 Park Avenue #1) by Gabriella Pierce

Paperback, 336 pages

Published 2nd August 2012 by Constable & Robinson

My shelves: adult-fiction, arc-or-review, better-than-expected, books-i-own, chick-lit, cover-appeal, currently-reading, magic, magical-realism, read-in-2012, series-or-companions

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

Jane thought she was living a fairy tale. Now she has to contend with burgeoning magical powers and a soon-to-be mother-in-law who is a witch ... literally Welcome to New York City, where the socialites are witches.

Jane Boyle has been living a fairy tale. When her boyfriend Malcolm proposes, Jane can't believe her luck and decides to leave her Paris-based job as a fledgling architect and make a new start with him in New York. But when Malcolm introduces Jane to the esteemed Doran clan, one of Manhattan's most feared and revered families, Jane's fairy tale takes a darker turn. Now Jane must struggle with newfound magical abilities and the threat of those who will stop at nothing to get them.

Welcome to 666 Park Avenue...

Buy this book:

The Book Depository / Amazon (US/INT) / Amazon UK

My thanks go to Constable & Robinson for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

Before I was asked if I'd like a copy of 666 Park Avenue for review, I had never heard of the book. Thankfully, I was introduced to this very interesting, contemporary book series and I'm happy to see more people reading it. This book deserves a whole load of popularity - it's fun, it's captivating and it's truly addictive! This is a new, exciting trilogy and is definitely something to keep your eye on!

The first instalment in this trilogy introduces us to Jane Boyle, a young woman living in France who is quickly swept off her feet by a very well-off american man named Malcolm Doran. Unfortunately, not everything is as perfect as it first appears - when visiting her caring grandmother to tell her the news, she discovers her dead, leaving behind only a note and a powerful ring which opens up a world of magic and witchcraft. When Jane and Malcolm arrive in New York City, lots of strange things begin to happen and she realises that she's not the only one who holds supernatural powers. It was very interesting to see  how things unfolded in this book and the discoveries were fascinating. I also really enjoyed seeing how Jane adapted to her new-found powers. Though this an easy to read, chick-lit type book, I thought that the magical plot was very impressive.

I really liked Jane - it was easy to relate with her and to sympathise with her. I think that most people will find it easy to put themselves in her shoes whilst reading this book. I did find her to be a little bit of a pushover at times, but thankfully she did stand up for herself at points. I can't really blame her for being a pushover when it came to her mother-in-law to be, Lynne, though as she was really quite terrifying! The Doran family are an extremely complicated bunch, and I can't wait to get to learn even more about them in the next two books. I really loved meeting all of the members of their clan (however awful they were!) and seeing how they interacted with both Jane and each other member of the family. Without giving too much away, I particularly loved  reading about the issues of Malcolm and his siblings. 

This was different to many other paranormal books that I've read. This book is aimed towards the adult market, rather than young adult but it could be easily be enjoyed by either of these age groups. Though 666 Park Avenue certainly does have a main paranormal element to it, it is also a quite contemporary book and will be enjoyed by those who like chick-lit. I think that this would be an ideal book to give to someone who usually reads realistic fiction but who is willing to give paranormal a try, or vice versa. I think that it's fantastic that there's a book to bridge this gap. I really enjoyed this book and I am very excited to progress onto the second in this trilogy!

French Lessons

French Lessons by Ellen Sussman

Paperback, 242 pages

Expected Publication: 5th July 2012 Canvas

My shelves: adult-fiction, arc-or-review, better-than-expected, books-i-own, chick-lit, cover-appeal, cultural, read-in-2012, realistic-fiction, to-be-reviewed

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

A single day in Paris changes the lives of three Americans as they each set off to explore the city with a French tutor, learning about language, love, and loss as their lives intersect in surprising ways.

Josie, Riley, and Jeremy have come to the City of Light for different reasons: Josie, a young high school teacher, arrives in hopes of healing a broken heart. Riley, a spirited but lonely expat housewife, struggles to feel connected to her husband and her new country. And Jeremy, the reserved husband of a renowned actress, is accompanying his wife on a film shoot, yet he feels distant from her world.

As they meet with their tutors—Josie with Nico, a sensitive poet; Riley with Phillippe, a shameless flirt; and Jeremy with the consummately beautiful Chantal—each succumbs to unexpected passion and unpredictable adventures. Yet as they traverse Paris’s grand boulevards and intimate, winding streets, they uncover surprising secrets about one another—and come to understand long-buried truths about themselves.

Buy this book:

The Book Depository / Amazon (US/INT) / Amazon UK

My thanks go to Canvas for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely love France, especially the beautiful city of Paris, and so when I was asked to participate in a blog tour for French Lessons, I jumped at the chance! Whilst the majority of books I read are aimed towards young adults, I certainly am not opposed to reading adult fiction and this made a nice change for me.

On initial inspection of this book, I thought that it'd be a quick, fun piece of chick-lit - but how wrong was I! This book will fit into the chick-lit genre, but it felt like so much more. The novel is surprisingly sophisticated and definitely has a certain edge to it over other similar novels. The format of this book is different to the norm and it really made it stand out to me. Though this is the first book by Ellen Sussman that I have read, I'm sure it won't be the last - her writing is unique and it is clear that she has talent.

 The story is split into separate parts, revolving around three french tutors and their adult students. Nico tutors Josie, Phillippe tutors Riley and Chantal tutors Jeremy. There are three separate stories which explore the relationships of the couples as they travel through the city - we even get to see little maps of the places they go, alongside fantastic illustrations, which was a fantastic extra touch! There is not much of a plot as such, but rather the book is made interesting by the characters which it introduces us to and everything weaves together perfectly. 

When we're first introduced to the tutors, I instantly had the desire to learn more about them and I really wanted to delve deep into the story! My favourite pairing, by far, was Nico and Josie - it was really interesting to read about both of their stories and to see how they interacted. If the whole book had been about that one couple, I definitely wouldn't have been disappointed! However, we were also introduced to Phillippe who tutored Riley. When we first saw Phillippe quite briefly, I thought that he'd be my sure favourite, but unfortunately as we got to learn more about him, he quickly became my least favourite character - though this is not to say that he didn't fit in with the story. His personality worked perfectly in allowing the story to progress. The final story between Chantal and Jeremy felt the most developed and natural to me - although it wasn't very long, the emotions, connections and memories of the characters seemed very complex.

All in all, this book wasn't what I expected - it certainly exceeded expectations. This is a cultured, refined, sensual (sometimes verging on erotic) story that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to adult readers, in particular those who want to read some lovely wring and escape into the city of love.