Thursday, September 26, 2013

Weak at the Knees











Weak at the Knees
By: Jo Kessel

Blurb

“We got so busy living life that we forgot to live our dreams.”
Danni Lewis has been playing it safe for twenty-six years, but her sheltered existence is making her feel old ahead of time. When a sudden death plunges her into a spiral of grief, she throws caution to the wind and runs away to France in search of a new beginning. 
The moment ski instructor Olivier du Pape enters her shattered world she falls hard, in more ways than one.
Their mutual desire is as powerful and seductive as the mountains around them. His dark gypsy looks and piercing blue eyes are irresistible. 
Only she must resist, because he has a wife – and she’d made a pact to never get involved with a married man.
But how do you choose between keeping your word and being true to your soul? 
Weak at the Knees is Jo’s debut novel in the new adult, contemporary romance genre – a story about love, loss and relationships, set between London and the heart of the French Alps.




Buy Links:




Goodreads Link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18195781-weak-at-the-knees






Author Info

Jo Kessel is a journalist, working for the BBC and reporting and presenting for ITV on holiday, consumer and current affairs programs. She writes for several national newspapers in the UK including the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, the Guardian and the Express and was the anonymous author of the Independent’s hit column: Diary of a Primary School Mum.
When Jo was ten years old she wrote a short story about losing a loved one. Her mother and big sister were so moved by the tale that it made them cry. Having reduced them to tears she vowed that the next time she wrote a story it would make them smile instead. Happily she succeeded and with this success grew an addiction for wanting to reach out and touch people with words. Jo lives in London with her husband and three children. She loves traveling and since becoming a mother anything even remotely sad makes her cry. She’s a sucker for a good romance and tearjerker movies are the worst. She’s that woman in the cinema, struggling to muffle audible wails as everyone else turns round to stare.

Author Links Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18195781-weak-at-the-knees Website: http://www.jokessel.com/ Blog: http://www.jokessel.blogspot.co.uk/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kesseljo
@jo_kessel

(Don’t forget the Giveaway- See Below)


Rafflecopter Giveaway (Gift Basket including: a signed book, a signed bookmark, a giant pen from the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, and several French goodies featured in Weak at the Knees including a French manicure kit, an Edith Piaf CD (one of France's greatest international singers), personalized merchandise from Montgenevre, the village in the French Alps where Weak at the Knees is set, as well as  a bottle of Chateauneuf-du-Pape - a gloriously rich (and expensive) red wine produced in the Rhone wine region in southeastern France. It is a wine that should be drunk to celebrate a special occasion.
<a id="rc-521ac4137" class="rafl" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/521ac4137/" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
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Link to Rafflecopter Page: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/NTIxYWM0YzhjYmFkNDc1MDkxYzA3ZDNmMjhhM2RjOjEzNw==/ 



 ONE OF MY OWN WRITING QUIRKS
Walking! If I’m struggling with a plotline or how to map out a scene than I put my walking boots on and go out. I’m very lucky that where I live is on the doorstep of some fabulous parks and woods. There’s nothing like a good old stomp for clearing your head and when I’m working on a storyline I really go into very deep thought – so much so that if someone I know sees me and stops to talk to me, I startle, as if I’ve been woken up from sleepwalking. It really does do the trick though. As I’m walking I map it all out in my head and by the time I get back home I’m ready to put it to paper. I often wish that I took a notebook and pen with me to scrawl my thoughts on as I go, just in case I forget, but I never seem to. Somehow, once I’ve got it planned in my head, it stays there, all the words and dialogue firmly etched in my mind. And the best thing about walking is that the exercise does me the world of good and gets the creative juices flowing. So if I was stuck before I went out, I usually get a double dose of good writing time when I get back.
 
My mother sadly died a couple of years ago and we erected a park bench dedicated to her in these woods. If ever I’m really, really stuck, I go there and sit down to reflect. I don’t ask my mother for help, but somehow, just sitting there I feel a sense of peace wash over me and then, when I get back to my desk, things usually seem a bit clearer in my head. 



 

1 comment:

  1. Thank you so much for hosting me on your fab blog today - it's really appreciated. And perhaps my quirky writing habit will encourage others to get out a bit more and go WALKING!

    ReplyDelete