Welcome Rose McClelland, chick-lit & women's fiction author

Today, we have something to smile about. Nope, not sunshine, just a wonderful excerpt from Belfast basedchick-lit and women's fiction author, Rose McClelland.


Last week, Rose celebrated the release of her second ebook, How to Look like You. Like her first novel, the best-selling The Break-Up Test, it has garnered an array of outstanding reviews.


So, I thought I'd give Rose a shout-out here. I hope you enjoy the taster below.

Blurb:
Have you ever had a frenemy? Someone you smile at sweetly but secretly you are filled with jealousy? Meet Chloe and Ella.

While Chloe sees herself as dowdy, quiet and going nowhere, Ella is brimming with talents: acting, singing, and outward-sitting, bronzed boobs.

Yet, Ella envies Chloe’s steady relationship with Aidan, her stick-thin figure and her perfectly poised style. As a result, Ella feels overweight, over-single and over-the-hill.

As Ella begins to work alongside Aidan, she develops feelings she shouldn’t have. When he invites her to join his band, it’s no surprise Chloe reacts by slamming the door off the handle.

Then Chloe begins a strategy of her own: Operation Simon. If she starts to go out more often with the bloke from work, surely Aidan would take notice?

Will Aidan smell Simon’s advances? Will Chloe and Aidan’s shared plans go ahead?

Will Ella become a friend or an enemy?

Find out How To Look Like YOU.

Excerpt:

  Chloe lined four red tea-lights along the window-sill. She placed candles on the coffee table. A low lamp above the television provided a soft orange glow in the corner of the room. Pink fairy-lights curled around the bookcase. A pink fibre-lamp produced dashes of light at a slow, random dance around the edges. The sausage rolls were nearly ready and the sausages were lined up in a steady army along a rectangular glass dish. She opened crisp packets and delicately trickled their contents into round white bowls. Plastic cups were arranged in neat lines on the kitchen worktop ready for the arrival of alcoholic drinks from her guests. The flat was almost ready. 

  “Aidan…?” she called, walking into the living-room where he was sitting at the dining room table, pint of beer at the ready and stacks of CDs in front of him. “Ashtrays or not?”

  He was judging the CDs as though his life depended on it, re-arranging them into appropriate piles for the party. Gentle warm-up acoustic music: for when everyone arrives and has that first drink. Upbeat dance music: for when people are a little tipsy, swinging their hips in a gentle rhythm. Soft rock music: for when people want a bit more oomph to the evening. And back to the gentle acoustic music: for those late night drifters – the ones who will sit it out until the bitter end. 

  Chloe looked at him, deep in thought. A year ago, she would have found this cute. This would have been one of his endearing features: the fact that he had such a passion for music. Now, she found it downright annoying. 

  I have cleaned the flat, tidied up, bought all the party foods, arranged candles and lighting and plastic cups, and even cooked sodding sausages and sausage rolls, and what is your job? Lining up bloody CD’S, that’s what. 

  Chloe didn’t see the point. What party had they ever gone to where it really mattered what music is played? A CD was put on and everyone got so drunk, that the same CD got stuck on repeat, or worse, the CD’s were scattered everywhere. People grabbed any old CD, whacked it on, and then put the previous CD into any old box. So that the next day, a good hour of her time was spent taking the Kylie CD out of the Lily Allen cover, and switching the Jack Johnston CD with the Madonna cover. 

  “Humph?” he grunted at her, not even bothering to make eye contact. 

  It’s his birthday. Be nice.

Website:  http://www.rosiesrag.blogspot.co.uk/

What reviewers said:

"If you love Marian Keyes...you'll love this"

Obsessed with Reading

“Once picking up ‘How to Look Like You’ I had a difficult time putting the book down. To be completely honest I wanted to stay home from work to read!” 

5 Baskets, Forget the Housework, I’m Reading

“I was hooked within the first few pages, as McClelland's seamless story telling ability had me gripped into the complex lives of two girls whose paths intertwine around the life of one man.”

5* Room for Reading

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