International Women’s Day…2023

Happy International Women’s Day

I couldn’t ignore mentioning today and I wouldn’t want to. I’m fully here for a day celebrating women and all we do.

Today and everyday we should be empowering and promoting other women.

I shout for women because I’ve had the privilege of being surrounded by strong women past and present. My Nan and my Auntie Bina were two outstanding women and I hope we continue to make you proud just by being us.

Today I will head to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to cheer on my beloved Spurs. Going to football as a woman has been an experience over the years and from last season I found a glorious group of people who truly make that experience. Today I am only focusing on the ladies from my Spurs family.

Happy International Women’s Day, keep slaying ladies we got this…..I guess it will be the white shirt for the Champions League tonight.

Blog Tour: Belonging – A Trewton Royd Novella By Rhoda Baxter

Blurb: She’s grieving her lost love. He’s searching for his lost niece. Can attraction overcome family loyalty in this enemies to lovers romance?

Hiding away in a tiny Yorkshire village, Harriet is grieving for her lost love. His family won’t talk to her and she can’t move on from from his death. All this changes when his daughter, Niamh, turns up on her doorstep, needing a sympathetic ear.

Tim thinks Harriet broke up his sister’s marriage all those years ago. His sister’s enemies are his enemies. When his niece runs away to Harriet’s house, he knows he has to get her back before his sister finds out. But that means talking with Harriet.

As they work together to console Niamh and get her home safely, Tim and Harriet become increasingly attracted to each other.

But with attraction comes guilt.

Can they overcome their respective loyalties and give in to love?

Purchase Link:

The universal buy link for the book is: www.books2read.com/u/bzPAZq

If you want the direct UK link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Belonging-small-romance-Trewton-Novellas-ebook/dp/B07H4PQKXC

Belonging will be 99p until 5th October and the end of the blog tour.

Review: Firstly I’m sooo sorry that it’s taken me all day to get this sorted. I was in the midst of a Thriller, had babysitting duties and Sunday is my guaranteed me day, when I get to do all my other bits and bobs.

I don’t believe I’ve read anything from Rhoda before this but I truly loved this novella it was full of so much heart.

I know there’s a lot of people who feel that novellas aren’t long enough, well I can safely say she packs so much into Belonging. As the title states it is about belonging but there’s so much more to it we touch on grief, loneliness, families, lies and betrayal to name a few subjects.

This is a story that will stay with you long after the final sentence. I instantly liked Niamh and Tim the family bond they share as Niece and Uncle is heartwarming. Niamh is so young and she’s grieving the loss of her father, I can’t comprehend that pain. The pain at losing my grandparents in my early 30s still hits me like a thunderbolt from time to time so to be a teenager I can’t even begin to understand. What I have learnt is there is no handbook to grief we all do it differently and that’s ok.

There’s so much to Harriet and Mel and I won’t spoil their complex lives to you but in part I adored both fiesty ladies. I’m always in awe of strong women in books and you don’t get stronger than these two.

I love stories that focus on towns that have a real community feel. I adore being a Londoner but we just don’t have that same day to day interaction and I adored seeing Tim change in Yorkshire he mellowed in so many ways and the change in his character was paramount. This also made me think we really all do need to take more time out from the day to day grind. I have been shown that recently, the weather change had left me extremely under the weather I’m such an active person that I don’t do being unwell.

This story heavily focuses on grief and how we all deal with it differently…it was also heartwarming to see grief bring people together for the better. A short story that will leave you entertained, enlightened and reaching to make that call to a friend or love one who you haven’t spoken to in a while. I will definitely pick up another story from Rhoda Baxter but if you want a snapshot into her writing this is a great place to start. We all want to belong – but what are you doing for you?

Take time today even if it’s just five minutes do it your future self will thank you for it.

Be sure to catch the rest of the tour and as I mentioned earlier this novella is 99p until 5th October.

I would like to take the time to thank Rachel for including me in this tour and I’m sorry for the delay…

International Women’s Day 2018

Today is international women’s day and I couldn’t let the day pass without mentioning every single beautiful lady out there. We are all beautiful in our individual ways if we were all the same the world would be a very different and in the most part a boring place.

I personally could feel better in myself but today I am aspiring to give myself the cheer of encouragement and motivation that I would to my girlies. I like to think I’m good at telling my friends don’t be stupid – you’re awesome or it will work out and I’ll be there to help in any way I can. It’s time for me to listen more to my awesome girls and to encourage myself.

I can I will. Go watch me…

I saw a comment mentioned by the lovely Isabella May today saying that she wants to see women stop apologising for eating cake – or anything else of a naughty nature for that matter. It’s true we do justify so much that we do. A little of what you like isn’t bad it’s all about moderation – don’t take away the goodness in the naughty by counting calories and instantly working out how many steps you need. It’s good to have a focus but not to the extent where you are upsetting yourself and depriving yourself of everything. Life is to be lived and we need to make it the best possible one we can for all those gorgeous ladies who came saw and conquered before us.

I’m thankful and grateful for all the inspirational women that have been and are still in my life. To speak of you all individually it would take me days but what I will say is each of you have touched my life in some way and I hope you know that.

The one person I will mention is my Nan June – you are forever missed in my life and each trip away I take I think of you. I loved being able to share my dolphin experience with you via DVD. I just wish you were still here even if you tried to fatten me up each week. Films and milk tray were such a beautiful time we shared and the films you showed me were fantastic. Since you have been gone there’s been a number of things I have seen and hope to see that you would have truly loved.

When I started penning this post I wasn’t sure what route I would take I could talk about many inspirational celeb ladies but I decided to look to those close to me.

Each of my friends and the ladies in my family are inspirational for different reasons and I adore each of you for what you bring to my life. Today maybe a national day to celebrate women but we should celebrate each other and our successes everyday.