Laura Barnard Spotlight!

 Poppy and Jazz have been best friends from the first week of university. Whenever these two get together trouble isn’t far away and things haven’t changed much. When Jazz gets herself into financial trouble Poppy, being a good friend, offers to help. She instead ends up being talked into swapping lives, with Jazz insisting it will be good and help her get over her broken heart.

Poppy is thrown into a new life, full of crazy housemates. There’s fitness freak Izzy, horrendously beautiful bitch Grace and the slightly gorgeous, if not incredibly grumpy Ryan.

Quickly, with the help of Jazz, her life is thrown upside down. Madness ensues and her need to please everyone gets her in more trouble than she could ever imagine.

Before she knows it she’s got a fake boyfriend and is hiding so many secrets she’s scared they’ll spill out any minute. With a bullying boss, a sex crazed colleague, a mental mother and three brothers each with their own dramas, life has gotten pretty difficult for Poppy. And all of this would be much easier, if she could just stop falling over.

Will she get her life back to normal before her brother’s upcoming wedding? And will she want to?

This is one of those really hard reviews for me to write. I have completely mixed emotions about the book itself.

The concept of the book was one that just seemed very not exciting to me personally. The one main thing that kept me going throughout the book was there were plenty of scenes that just kept me laughing because they were just some off the wall things happening. That made the story better for me, reader wise, because it was more fun and entertaining.

Both Poppy and Jazz, I don’t have strong feelings towards either way. They were interesting characters, and being completely opposite made the story and their characters fun. It was great to read and see what kind of trouble the two of them would get into together.

Ryan’s character was one that I didn’t really like him to start with, but he ended up working his way into my good graces to where I was rooting for him and wanted to know more about what his deal is.

With the way the book ends, it is a semi-cliffhanger. I will be sure to read the next book at some point in the future. But for me personally, it isn’t one that I will just want to jump into reading right now.

I would say if you are looking for a book full of humor and that will keep you laughing and turning the pages you should really check this one out.

 Poppy and Jazz’s lives sound perfect on paper. Jazz has a new baby and Poppy’s getting married. But their realities are very different.

Poppy must strive to keep her cool new job with crazy hours, while trying to keep Ryan happy. Before she knows it her wedding has got out of control, thanks to her mother, the runners at work are bullying her, her parents are in financial difficulty and she’s doubting everything and everyone she ever knew.

Meanwhile Jazz is struggling with motherhood, something a credit card won’t fix. Why won’t this baby give her a break? Will Jazz be able to cope before she loses it?

And will Poppy make it down the aisle? Will Ryan even be waiting?

I am not usually a fan of comical romances but this one was rather good.  This book follows The Debt and the Doormat and all of the characters appear in this book as well.  We have Poppy and Jazz, best friends in two different stages of their life.  What impressed me with this author is she took two of the most stressful events in women’s lives and kept it realistic and raw, but did it with such a positive attitude and a touch of humor there was no way to feel down while reading the book.  While the author touches on many of life’s troubles, the two that I think stood out the most to me were motherhood and weddings, both stressful but in this book proof attitude is what makes the difference.

Poppy has an issue with being a doormat to anyone that comes in her life.  She is a people pleaser and often forgets that she has an opinion.  She is now getting ready to be married and there is a wedding to plan.  You know this is going to get interesting when her mother brings the treasured notebook and her ideas of how her daughter’s wedding should be done.  You can imagine the conflict of mother’s wishes versus hers.  I found myself feeling sorry for Poppy and also laughing at how the author wrote this story.  This was seriously a lesson on how to take life as it come with a smile, grain of salt and how you should stand up for yourself when the battle is important. 

Jazz bless her heart is dealing with becoming a new mother.  As if trying to get by on little sleep, learning that life is no longer your own, and watching her best friend deal with the wedding plans, she is also going to face depression.  As most new mothers, Jazz isn’t impressed with how motherhood and childbirth panned out, but she does what she needs to do to make this work.  I often thought during her scenes of that old saying “I laugh because if I don’t I will break down and cry.”

All of the characters in this story are so easy to relate to and brings an inspiring charm to the book.  The author has a writing style that keeps you invested and reading the book goes by very quickly.  I am very happy to say this was one of the most pleasant surprises I have found this year in a book.  I dreaded this book and ended up feeling like it is one I would be honored to have on a shelf in my house to reread at a later time.   

My name is Laura Barnard and I am an author from Hertfordshire, UK.  My first chick-lit novel, The Debt & the Doormat was an Amazon number 1 best-seller and won Best Laugh Out Loud Book of 2013.  It is available via Amazon, Smashwords, iBooks. Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository and many more. 

In my spare time I enjoy drinking my body weight in tea, indulging in cupcakes the size of my face, drooling over hunks like Jamie Dornan, Ryan Gosling and Leo Dicaprio...oh and my husband of course!  I like wearing yoga clothes and reading fitness magazines while I sit on the sofa and eat chocolate.  I'm a real fan of the power nap and of course, READING!

I write not to get rich or famous, but because I LOVE writing.  Even if one person tells me they enjoyed my book it makes the midnight typing worth it!

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