Today it is my stop on The Things We Do For Love by Alice Peterson blog tour. Alice is one of my top 5 authors so I was thrilled to be asked to be a part of this blog tour and I am pleased to be able to share with you my review for this heart warming book. I am also joined by Alice who has a special Guest Post for us.
Falling
in love with … ouch… your boss…! Or your teacher, or in my case…
In the Things
We Do For Love, I don’t think I’d be giving the game away too much by
saying January finds herself in a hopeless situation: she not only falls in
love with her boss, but she falls in love with her married boss. So it got me thinking about the people I’ve fallen
for, people I really shouldn’t have even noticed in that way. I haven’t found myself in such a tangle as January,
working in an office, seeing my boss every day, emotions becoming more and more
confused, and desperately trying to keep my distance because the last thing I
want to do is break up a relationship. I feel for January. It’s not easy
keeping her distance when she is the boss’s PA and he calls you into his office
every other minute…
My love life hasn’t been nearly as complicated
as January’s but that’s not to say I’ve never fallen for people that I just
shouldn’t have fallen for… I have done so quite a few times, and some
experiences I can’t write about (sorry) because he may well be reading this! So
instead, I am going to take you back in time, to my first crush.
I was twelve years old and had just begun
playing competitive tennis. Mum had arranged a tennis lesson with the
Winchester Club pro, Dave. Up until then I’d had no interest in boys (and
certainly not in men). You should have seen the clothes I wore! Dowdy old kilts
and polo necks, thick tights and shirts buttoned right up to the collar - and
my hair was styled in two fat plaits. The only love of my life was my tennis
racket that I frequently took up to bed with me, along with our family dog,
Gemma. So I didn’t understand quite why I began to feel whatever is was for
Dave, especially when he stood opposite me on the court, hand on his hips,
frowning as he said,
‘You’re too fat and you need to cut your hair!’
From then on, it was true love!
Here was this vision, this man in a turquoise
shell tracksuit and smart trainers, a chain around his wrist, or was it around
his neck, I can’t really remember, except thinking it was so different to my
father! I think he might have even had one ear pierced. It was all so exciting.
My knees gave way and my heart began to pound as we hit some balls across the
net. And then when I served he was standing right behind me, showing me the
shoulder and swing action. It must have been his authority, charisma, charm,
his leadership qualities and the fact that we were working towards the same
goal: me getting to play at Wimbledon. And lastly, his looks might have had
something to do with it. He wasn’t good looking in a conventional way but he
was definitely attractive. He would have been in his early 30s when I first met
him and married, but that didn’t stop me from fantasising about Dave driving me
away in his red sports car and often I imagined what it would feel like to kiss
him (I really hope he’s not reading this!!) Often he was in my diary entries
with hearts around his name. Over the years, up until I was eighteen, I did, of
course, get over my crush and we became good friends on and off the court - no
scandal I’m afraid, and thank goodness too. Rather than falling in love,
instead Dave saw me to the starry heights of becoming one of the top ten best
players in the country, and I will always look back affectionately to those
times.
The
Things We Do For Love
September
10th 2015
Published
by Quercus
Love may hurt, but not loving hurts even more . . .
January Wild loves her daughter, her dog and her childhood home by the sea.
Single parenting is tough, but January has no regrets. She has a job she loves, a happy home and the support of her beloved grandfather. The arrival of a new boss, however, threatens to shake up January's safe world.
Ward Metcalfe loves great sales results and a well-run office.
Everyone at her office agrees: Ward is a soulless, corporate slave driver. Even Spud, the company mascot, dislikes him.
A secret stands between them.
Yet over time January sees there is more to Ward than meets the eye. Rumours circulate.
What exactly is he hiding?
and is January prepared to risk everything to find out?
I can’t tell you how excited I was to start reading Alice
Peterson’s latest release The Things we do for Love. I have adored every single
book this author has delivered and I trust her writing so much that I didn’t
even read the synopsis as I just wanted to full into the storyline straight
away.
Our heroine in this book is January, she is a strong and
courageous character who has a pure heart of gold so she is easy to love. She
has had a very tough life from an early age and yet she still picks herself up and
pushes on with life and seems to overcome each hurdle and finding herself that
little bit stronger but it is clear that she still holds a lot of emotion
inside.
The book jumps back and forth through time which allows us
to really get to know January and see what she has had to go through in life.
We meet her precious little girl Isla who is a wonderful little girl who
unfortunately suffers with Cerebral Palsy which is a big pressure on January
especially having to juggle being a single parent and also a job to pay the
bills it leaves little time for herself or for romance to blossom.
This is such a poignant read that so incredibly beautifully
written. I was so moved by January’s story it was highly emotive and yet in the
same breath I also found the storyline quite uplifting too. The author has
poured her heart into this book and it is felt through every chapter. The topic
of Cerebral Palsy plays a strong part in this storyline and the author tackles
this subject with such tenderness but also with a lot of knowledge surrounding
the condition so it showed that the author undertook plenty of research in this
area.
As well as the storyline pulling on my heartstrings which I
often find when I read an Alice Peterson novel there was also a splash of
romance too and it was great to watch the romance blossom and you can’t help
but wish for January to have a happy ending after all she has been through.
I have enjoyed each and every book by Alice Peterson and
constantly find myself recommending them but my favourite has always been By My
Side and I have a special attachment to that book and I have to say that The
Things We do for Love was the first book of hers to come very close to knocking
this one off of my top spot!
Kindle Paperback
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