As a part of the blog tour for 'It Felt Like a Kiss', I got the great opportunity to do a short interview with Sarra Manning!
1) Can you tell us something about your new novel, ‘It Felt Like a Kiss’?
It’s my fourth grown up novel and tells the story of Ellie Cohen, who’s one of those girls who seems to have life figured out. She’s got her dream job in an art gallery, has good friends, a really close family and a hip London lifestyle. Not so figured out is her lovelife – she’s always falling for fixer uppers and once she’s fixed them up, they leave her – and the mega famous rockstar dad who doesn’t even acknowledge her existence. Then one of her fixer uppers sells Ellie out to the papers and her life starts to fall apart. Enter David Gold, a high-flying, kind of ruthless lawyer sent by her father to manage the crisis and Ellie and that’s when all Ellie’s problems really start.
2) Where did you find the inspiration for ‘It Felt Like a Kiss’? Is it in any way based on your own personal experiences?
Like most of my novels, it started with a tiny thought about the girls I know who always went out with guys that needed mending and snowballed from there. And I always, always remember that when Paul McCartney was found to have a secret lovechild one of the headlines was Macca’s Bastard, which shocked me. I have a similar headline in the book and had to fight to keep it in there as everyone thought it was too unrealistic. The thing is that I work on an idea in my head for months and months, so it’s just layer upon layer of little thoughts and little things I’ve remembered that I knit together to make a book. It was also really lovely to write about being part of a North London Jewish family and a lot of that side of the novel was based on my own family and the families of my Jewish friends.
3) Ellie is a lovely and relatable heroine. How did you come up with her as a character and will we perhaps see her again in the future...?
3) Ellie is a lovely and relatable heroine. How did you come up with her as a character and will we perhaps see her again in the future...?
I knew quite early on that she was going to be one of those perfect haired, perfect dressed girls who works in Vaughn’s gallery in my novel, Unsticky, who intimidated Grace with their poshness, but again, I usually create characters over time; what they look like, how they dress, what they keep under their beds, what they like to do on a Sunday night. They rarely pop into my head fully-formed and it’s not until I start writing that I really figure out who they are, but with Ellie I did use Pinterest to build up a picture of her and actually pinned specific dresses and items that I mentioned in the novel on a board that summed her up at a glance. And no, I doubt I’ll write Ellie again. She’s gone from my head now!
4) There’s a great mix of characters in the novel. Which character did you most enjoy writing about and why?
I really loved revisiting Grace and Vaughn from Unsticky in this book. Especially Vaughn, as he was Ellie’s boss so he cropped up quite a bit. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that my editor made me cut down some scenes with Vaughn in them because he was hogging the limelight a little too much!
5) Can you perhaps tell us something about your future plans as an author? Are you already working on a next novel?
I have a new YA novel out in May called The Worst Girlfriend In The World. Apart from that I’ve been writing a new grown-up book, which is set in the present day and during World War Two. It’s about two women who run away to London seventy years apart, quite dark in places, kind of funny in other places and is a story I’ve wanted to write for years. I definitely see It Felt Like A Kiss as the end of a particular chapter – the last of my four loosely connected Skirtverse novels - and have a ton of ideas for books that I can’t wait to write.
6) Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?
If it’s not bad blogging etiquette, I just wrote some tips for the Reading In The Sunshine blog.
7) What is the last book you read that you’d like to recommend to others?
I really loved Anna Hope’s debut novel, Wake, about three woman trying to pick up the pieces of their lives after the devastation of World War One. It’s beautifully written and really sums up the feel and mood of London at that time.
8) And last but not least, if you had to describe ‘It Felt Like a Kiss’ in just three words, which words would you pick?
This is the hardest question in the world. I don’t think I could describe anything in only three words, that’s why I write such long novels! Sexy, stylish, spirited. Cool, quirky, romantic. Worth every penny. No, I can’t do it!
This is truly a great review Jody! I didn't know that Sarra Manning had published another book, so to see this pop up on my reading list was a fantastic surprise! This book sounds great - I'm intrigued and cannot wait until I'll be able to read it! When I was starting high school, I read Sarra Manning's 'Diary of a Crush' trilogy and I fell in love with them. I have yet to read Adorkable as I only just recently found out about it's existence. I would love to win this giveaway because, (if I remember correctly), Sarra Manning's writing is just the right amount of lightness whilst still being plot driven.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the chance to win this giveway!
How in love am I with this review? And kind of intensifies my desire to get this book!! I'd love a copy of this book because Sarra is probably my favourite British chick lit author and I'm already looking forward to swoon over Ellie and David's love life and to be completely honest, the Vaughn cameos! I need them! The humor, the wit, no one does it better than Ms Manning.
ReplyDeleteLove the cover and the review of this. I actually haven't read any of Sarra's Adult novels but loved Guitar Girl and The Diary of a Crush Books. This sounds like my kind of book. Thanks for the giveaway! Can't wait to read this.
ReplyDeleteThe cover alone would make you want to pick up this book to read. I've never read anything by Sara Manning and always love to find new authors, this book sounds amazing. Thanks for the giveaway.
ReplyDeleteI love the look of this book and by the sound of your review it is as good as it looks :) Thanks for the chance to win a copy x Kayleigh x
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