This is a love story with a difference, starring young couple Poppy Day and her husband Martin Cricket. They lead ordinary lives, have ordinary jobs and share a tiny flat in, what could probably be described as, the rough bit of town ... but they are in love, they have each other, and that is all that matters. Then one day, seemingly without much thought, and with even less warning, Martin Cricket decides to enlist in the British Army, and before either of them have time to think or breathe, Mart is off to Afbloodyghanistan. When he gets captured by the enemy Poppy decides that she has no other option but to take the matter into her own hands.
I've wanted to read this book since seeing author Amanda Prowse on The Wright Show ages ago. She was talking about her life as an army wife, her family, and the struggles that she had initially in getting her writing recognised. Amanda was so positive about all the topics that they covered on the show and, I thought, came across as a genuinely really very nice lady. In fact some of the conversations she had during the phone-ins were so emotional, I'm sure she had one of the callers in tears, and if I remember rightly I wasn't far from it myself!
Poppy Day is the first of Amanda's books that I have read, but it certainly won't be the last. Poppy herself is the perfect modern day heroine, courageous, gutsy but also refreshingly 'normal'. Okay, so she's not quite so normal once she embarks on her 'go big or go home' journey, but underneath it all Poppy is just a big hearted girl, with a strong, even if sometimes misplaced, faith in human nature and an unstoppable urge to get to the person she loves. I mean, who could not root for someone that rocks up at the gate of a fully functioning RAF base with just a spare pair of knickers and a packet of mints in her armoury!
Amanda has also given Poppy a great supporting cast including her beloved nan, sometimes completely scatty, sometimes brilliantly sane, and her friend Jenna who can always be relied on to add a bit of light hearted comic relief in a classic one-liner.
Read it, you'll enjoy it, and even better all royalties from this book go to the Royal British Legion ...
Buy Poppy Day by Amanda Prowse here ...
So ... what to write for my very first blog post?
Well firstly a great big welcome to Love Hearts & Question Marks, my brand new blog ... hooray!
I will be blogging about my writing, competitions I've entered, books I've read, my book wish list (books I want to read but haven't got round to yet!) and anything else that takes my fancy.
I'm going to try to blog regularly about my Work in Progress to record how I am getting on and to (hopefully) watch that word count grow and grow!
I really hope that you might find some of my ramblings interesting and, in the near future, I am aiming to post some of my work on here for you to read and perhaps comment on.
I would love to hear from you, not just on the subject of books but about anything really - Formula One, baking and eating cakes, music, films and telly-wise my faves are Strictly, EastEnders, Holby, The Walking Dead, 24 and Strike Back so, whatever the subject, please do get in touch,
