Review: 'Waiting for Summer (Part 2)' by Anna-Maria Athanasiou (2014)

In Cyprus, after the worst nine months of Sylvie Sapphiris's life, summer has arrived at last, and with it an unexpected, ecstatic change in Sylvie's circumstances. But with all the odds stacked against her new life, can it last?
Sylvie embarks on her planned trip to Athens. A city which holds bittersweet memories. Can Sylvie shake off her past and move into a new future with this incredible man?
After a showdown with her furious former suitor, Sylvie finds herself on the point of sacrificing her future happiness to keep the peace. Sylvie's world is turned upside down again. Distraught and devastated she's left wondering if she'll ever find true love and happiness again. A love she once thought was possible. But fate has one final card to play...
Yesterday I posted an interview with author Anna-Maria Athanasiou in which she told us more about her debut novel ‘Waiting for Summer’, which was released in 2013 and which I got the chance to read and review earlier this year (click here to read my review). In June 2014, publisher Austin Macauley released the sequel ‘Waiting for Summer – Book Two’ and I was once again lucky enough to receive a review copy. I really enjoyed the first book and looked forward to once again visiting the familiar group of characters and reading more about Sylvie’s life! A warning to those of you who still need to read the first book, this review might contain some spoilers!
After a really difficult time in which several unexpected things rocked her life to the core, forty-four-year-old Sylvie Sapphiris has found love again and she hopes things will finally settle down. However, the man she has chosen and fallen for comes with his own baggage and difficulties. Not only is he a lot younger than she is, but they also both know their families will find it hard to accept the two of them as a couple. After an amazing week in Athens together, it’s time for Sylvie to go back home to Cyprus and face the music. Yet, things are about to get even more complicated when Sylvie is confronted with an unexpected surprise, and she starts to wonder whether she will really be able to find the happiness and peace she has been searching for once again.
‘Waiting for Summer – Book Two’ picks up right where book one ended; Sylvie and her new man are enjoying a secret week away together in Athens, where Sylvie has to be for a business deal. I was really looking forward to seeing what would happen to Sylvie, especially after everything she had been through. I have to admit, the book started a bit slow, in my personal opinion, and it took me quite a bit of time to get into the story. At first not much seemed to happen except for just a lot of steamy sex scenes, but no real storyline. However, as soon as Sylvie returned home from her trip this changed and it started to feel like the first book of the series: entertaining and captivating, making me want to continue reading to see what would happen.
Anna-Maria Athanasiou really has her own writing style which is really easy to get into and comfortable to read. She has created a great group of well-drawn and different characters and I was happy to see certain characters playing a bigger role in this second part of the series, such as Sylvie’s sons Marcus and Alex. Next to that, the book has a wonderful scene setting, making me long for a holiday to the sunny island of Cyprus! If you decide to pick up this novel, I’d definitely like to advise you to read the first part of the series first. This provides you with more background information to enjoy this story even more. While I do personally think the sequel does not live up to the first book, ‘Waiting for Summer – Book Two’ is an enjoyable romance and erotic read which I’m sure many people will enjoy, and I am curious to read more of the author’s work in the future!

Rating:7/10

  For more information about this book: Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Goodreads

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Interview with author Anna-Maria Athanasiou!

Today I'm really excited to share my interview with author Anna-Maria Athanasiou with all of you! A few weeks ago I reviewed Anna-Maria's debut novel 'Waiting for Summer', a women's fiction book I really enjoyed (click here to read my review). Tomorrow I will post my review of the sequel, 'Waiting for Summer - Part 2', but for now have a look at where Anna-Maria got the inspiration for her novel, what her future plans as an author are and what some of her personal favourite books are. Enjoy! :) 

Can you tell us something about your novel, ‘Waiting for Summer’? I've always had a very active imagination. From an early age I would play out scenarios out in my head, this didn't change even as I got older. About ten years ago the idea for the first chapter came to me and before I knew it I had a whole story rattling around in my head. In September of 2011 I decided to start writing it down. I've never written before and have no literary background whatsoever. I wrote randomly, as the ideas came to me, on scraps of paper in the car and on receipts I found in my bag. Eventually I got myself more organised and carried a notebook around with me. This small idea ended up being a nine hundred page novel, which was then split into two Books. 
When I'd started it I didn't even think I'd finish it and because of that, I didn't tell anyone I was writing until I was at least half way through. I only confided in a couple of close friends and family. I didn't even tell my husband until it was practically finished. It took me roughly fourteen months to complete, writing very early in the morning and when there was no one in the house. 
Where did you get the inspiration for your novel? Is it in any way based on your own personal experiences? The idea for the story came to me when I was changing the time on my husband's phone. A number of innocent messages beeped through and I thought, what if? I wanted to write a story that was centred around an older woman, in her forties. Sylvie also has two sons, which I also have and a lot of her thoughts and tastes are definitely me! But that's where the similarities and personal experiences end. 
I wanted all the characters to be real, like someone you might know, almost ordinary. And more than anything I wanted for them to be believable. The story itself is total fiction but the themes that run throughout it, I think, all of us have either been touched by or had experience of. Infidelity, self doubt, fear of getting old and a sense of loss. The book is based in Cyprus, which is where I live now, so all the locations are real. I personally love Summer and it was really a no brainer for me to base a story that had Summer central to the plot. I used the seasons to reflect the emotions Sylvie was experiencing and as well as the mood of each part.
Can you tell us a bit more about the main character, Sylvie? I love Sylvie! She's the kind of person I aspire to be. She's fiercely loyal always putting her family first and incredibly kind. She's loving, a hopeless romantic,  witty and doesn't take herself seriously. When I spoke to friends of mine that were of a similar age who'd read the book, they all said exactly the same thing to me. They could totally relate to Sylvie and her insecurities. I wanted Sylvie to be as real as possible so the reader could see her as someone they could easily know or even recognise something of themselves in her.

There’s a great cast of supporting characters in the novel as well. Which character did you most enjoy writing? I have to pick just one?! After Sylvie the next main character that I created was Julian, Sylvie's husband's friend. I just loved this guy, he was just so flawed yet still likeable. I enjoyed writing his inner struggles and his humour, often directed at himself. He's someone you shouldn't really like because he makes mistakes in his personal life continuously, but for some reason you want him to get it right, for his sake. 
Honestly though, I really enjoyed writing all the different characters. They're all so real to me I actually feel that they are people I know, rather than created!
Did you do any particular research for parts of the book? The locations in Cyprus were well known to me so there was no added research needed. In the second book, 'Waiting for Summer Book Two', which has a few chapters in different countries, I had to do a fair amount of research to ensure the detail was accurate.  I have to say I enjoyed it immensely.    Can you perhaps tell us something about your future plans? Are you perhaps already working on a next novel? Yes I am. In fact as I was finishing 'Waiting for Summer', I already had the idea for my next novel. I'm roughly half way through it. At first I thought it would be a shorter story, but it looks like it will be another nine hundred pages! It's taking longer than I thought, purely because I seem to have less time and there's more research needed.
Do you have any tips for aspiring writers? I'm not entirely sure if I'm qualified to give tips, but all I would say is; If you have an idea or a story, or even just a thought, write it down. Write everything down and don't worry if you never use it. At some point it'll feel right to put them altogether. Once you've written even a small amount, ask someone you trust to give you their brutally honest opinion, then you'll know if you're on the right track.
What is the last book you read that you’d like to recommend to others? I'm normally reading or re reading books. If I've enjoyed a book, I read it again immediately. And then I'll dip into it periodically while I'm reading something else. I've recently finished the second of a two book series called The Cold Series by Eliza Lloyd. The first book is 'Best Served Cold' and the second 'On Thin Ice'. They're a bit more rauncier than mine and I thoroughly enjoyed them.
Which book could you not live without? My first though is that I couldn't live without my receipe book! It's a tattered old note book filled with family and my own receipes and I cannot live with out it! From a literary point of view though I couldn't be without 1984 by George Orwell. I haven't read it for a very long time because it disturbs me, but it was the book that sparked my interest in books and I need to have it close by. Amongst all the horror that he writes about there are some incredibly moving, intimate and romantic parts that made an enormous impression on me. 
Thanks so much, Anna-Maria!

Review: 'Because You Are Mine' by Beth Kery (2013)

When they met, the instant attraction was unmistakable…a purely, exquisitely physical charge. 

Succumbing to their desires is the easy part. But when passion opens the door to an intimacy neither has known, can a man known for being unbendable learn to love?

When the ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ trilogy by E.L. James topped the book charts all over the world in 2012, I got curious and wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I had never read any erotic romance fiction before, so it was something completely new (and I have to admit, slightly scary) to me. The tale of Christian Grey and Ana Steele definitely held my interest; otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to read all three books. But to say I absolutely loved the novels and couldn’t wait to sneak in a few pages of reading after a long working day... No, not really. So, when I received a review copy from Headline of Beth Kery’s ‘Because You Are Mine’ and I read the blurb, I wasn’t too sure whether this book would be for me. However, I wanted to give the genre another chance, so with a large cup of tea and a blanket ready on the couch, I dove in. 

‘Because You Are Mine’ tells the story of thirty-something wealthy businessman Ian Noble and twenty-three year-old artist Francesca Noble. Francesca is an Arts student who has won a competition to create the centrepiece painting for the lobby of Noble’s new office building in Chicago. During a party held in her honour, she meets Ian Noble for the first time and from the start there is something between them. Francesca is immediately fascinated by Ian and the attraction appears to be mutual. Ian helps Francesca to discover her sexuality, but it doesn’t take long before Francesca longs for more. She wants to break through Ian’s walls, but is he ready for this and does he want the kind of intimacy Francesca is looking for?

The storyline of this novel seemed very familiar: a dominant, rich, handsome alpha male falls for a younger, slightly shy, virgin whom he teaches about sexuality. This is apparently seen as a ‘winning formula’ within the world of erotic romance fiction (so I’ve read), which is probably why it reminded me so much of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey.’ A bit too much, to my personal opinion. I really missed the chemistry between the two main characters, Ian and Francesca. I liked Francesca at the beginning of the novel; she seemed to be a strong young woman, opinionated, and not someone to simply play around with. However, as the story progressed, Francesca became more and more submissive. I know this is part of the novel and the relation Ian and Francesca have with one another, but I thought it was a waste Francesca seemed to transform into someone completely different. I really missed the development of the characters throughout the novel, and felt like not much was going on or actually changing.

While ‘Because You Are Mine’ was published as one novel in 2013, it had already been released as 8 separate parts at the end of 2012. I didn’t notice that the author originally wrote this story as several parts; it definitely fit the form of a longer novel. I also really liked Beth Kery’s writing; it was easy to read and seemed to be of a certain kind of quality which I sometimes miss in these kind of novels. Yet, while I was working my way through the book, I wasn’t once really grabbed by the story. It didn’t bother me to read it, but I also wasn’t sad when it all came to an end. I am sure there are people out there, particularly fans of erotic romance fiction, who will be able to really appreciate and love this novel, but it wasn’t one I think I will pick up again.

Rating:

6,5/10