Wednesday 8 April 2020

#PublicationDayPush A Train from Penzance to Paris by Laura Briggs


Today it's the Publication Day Push  for A Train from Penzance to Paris by Laura Briggs.
About the Author
Laura Briggs is the author of several feel-good romance reads, including the Top 100 Amazon UK seller 'A Wedding in Cornwall'. She has a fondness for vintage style dresses (especially ones with polka dots), and reads everything from Jane Austen to modern day mysteries. When she's not writing, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, caring for her pets, gardening, and seeing the occasional movie or play.

Follow @PaperDollWrites on Twitter, on Facebookon Goodreads, on Amazon, Visit paperdollwrites.blogspot.com, Buy A Train from Penzance to Paris


About the book
When Maisie accepts a celebrated author’s invitation to mentor her, she finds herself leaving Cornwall behind on train tracks bound for the glitter city of Paris. Instead of making beds and serving coffee at the Penmarrow hotel in Cornwall, she’s making notes on her manuscript while sitting in a French cafe, meeting famous writers at private dinner parties, and trying to ferret the secrets behind the author’s unfinished future novel. It’s glamorous, it’s breathtaking … but it’s also an ocean channel away from the place that she loves, and, more importantly, the person to whom she just recently confessed her deepest feelings. Separated from Sidney by distance and circumstances, Maisie fears that their connection will be lost despite her words to him – and maybe because of those words, and the ones she didn’t allow him to say in return.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of things in her new life trying to distract her – the professional editor hired to critique her novel, the eager young literary agent who sees pie-in-the-sky potential for Maisie’s talent, but Maisie finds solace in the eclectic group of amateur writers into whose midst she finds herself by accident. Their critique and advice is fast becoming as important as the editors – maybe even more important than the published author Maisie believed held the keys to refining her skill.

But it’s missing Sidney that fills Maisie’s thoughts the most, along with her life back in Port Hewer, and she can’t stop wondering whether his feelings are the same as her own. His unspoken answer has become one of the most important pieces of her life, even as she struggles to match the pace of her new life and keep her dreams in sight. And when she unwittingly becomes privy to a seeming literary conspiracy, she must decide what to do in light of its truth – and decide what’s most important in her quest to become a professional writer.

Review
In this book I think Maisie drifts away from the Maisie we met in the previous books. This is book five in the A Little Hotel in Cornwall series and can be read as a standalone novel, but I would recommend reading the others to get the full gist of the characters and their stories.

Maisie is living the life of luxury after meeting the famous author Allie, who opens the doors to many different worlds and opportunities to her. Travel, luxury and more importantly very good contacts in the publishing world. People who can help her get a foot on the ladder when it comes to publishing her first novel.

It's part five of a chick-lit series which wanders into a more serious tone.

This is more a trip of self discovery, whereas the earlier books are charming and more romcom in substance, perhaps even purely a story about publishing a book. I miss the Maisie who was up for a challenge and happy to get involved in everyone's business. Kind, quirky and looking for fulfillment. This Maisie is obsessed to the point of everyone else, especially everyone at home, having to take third place. We see a more driven character, but not always in a good way.  And the story takes on a one-dimensional feel.

I thought Briggs made an interesting point about editing and changing your written work based on expert opinions. When major points are being changed is it still the story you wrote? If, aside from structural and technical edits, so much is changed by others that you don't recognise your story or the entire gist of it is now the idea that has sprung forth from someone else - is it really still your work?

Interesting points to make in a world full of opportunities for both traditional and indie published authors.

Buy A Train from Penzance to Paris at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publication date 8 April 2020. Buy at Amazon com.

Read my review of The Cornish Secret of Summer's Promise and A Wedding in Cornwall by Laura Briggs.
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