Thursday 25 July 2013


 
 
 
 
Dawn Ellis is bored out of her tiny mind. She's come to the conclusion that husband Jim is a boring old fart and more so since his retirement. Dawn feels like she needs to inject a little bit of excitement into their marriage and their sex life. Jim has forgotten the essential ingredients to keeping a woman happy – passion and desire and overall a bit more oomph!
 
 
 
Dawn finds escape from the mundane life she leads through joining a writing group starting to write a book. The heroine in the book is Cinnamon Knight. Cinnamon is the polar opposite of Dawn. She is super sexy, confident and not afraid to kick ass if needed. After getting her heart broken, Cinnamon has turned herself into ‘an avenging angel’, righting the wrongs done to women by men! Cinnamon is everything Dawn is not and Dawn lives her life through Cinnamon. However, soon Cinnamon is not content with being merely the character in Dawn’s book. She becomes Dawns confidant and her advisor. Throughout Dawn’s daily life and her attempts to spice up her love life with Jim, Cinnamon is there trying to steer Dawn in the right direction. However, it doesn’t always work out and soon the lines between fiction and reality become blurred.
 
 
 
Just Add Spice is the type of book that I think everyone will relate to. It’s a book about wanting and actually needing change.  It examines how a person’s needs within a marriage can differ somewhat from what their partner thinks they want. I adored the story within a story. This book is very cleverly written and some of the great one-liners and scenes within the book had me laughing out loud. Put it like this, you’ll never look at a lolly the same way again! I was very drawn to both characters and if I'm honest, I loved Cinnamon because I've been known to exact a bit of revenge myself...........but that's a whole other story!
 
 
Just Add Spice explores the journey that a lot of people find themselves on – that of making some major life changes and deciding that the comfortable life that is oh so easy to fall into, isn’t necessarily the one that satisfies us the most. Whilst Cinnamon is the ‘heroine’ of Dawn’s story, little does Dawn realise that she is actually the heroine of her own story and thus the heroine of the reader. However, change does come at a price as Dawn soon discovers.  I think if we were all totally honest with ourselves we’d admit to all wanting to be a bit more like Cinnamon Knight, or Dawn, or Cinnamon or……………………..
 
 
Just Add Spice is a very enjoyable read that gets across a serious message about love, loss and desire in a humorous and imaginative way. And yes, it’s just a little bit spicy in places and I adored it! Well done to Carol E Wyer whose wonderful writing kept me up late into the night desperate to follow Dawn and Cinnamon’s exploits. A highly recommended read!
 
 
 As part of the Just Add Spice tour there are lots of fab prizes to be won. Click on the rafflecopter link to enter. You can also join in the fun at the Launch Party HERE

 
 
 
Extract
 
Cinnamon Knight ground the stub of her Benson and Hedges’ cigarette into the pavement with the heel of her Prada leather motorcycle boot, where it now joined a small pile of tab ends. Strategically placed in a shop doorway, she watched the top left window of a block of flats opposite. She had been there almost two hours. Rain beat steadily on the pavement, drumming against the gutter with constant thuds, but this did not deter her. Her patience was rewarded as the light blazing from the window was finally extinguished. She sauntered across the road to the BMW parked in front of the block of flats along the kerbside, sandwiched between a Peugeot 205 and a C Class Mercedes.
 
 
Dressed completely in black, face partially obscured by her North Face hooded jacket; she was almost invisible next to the dark car. It took only a minute to fiddle with the lock, open the door, and slide into the car. She lowered herself down in the driver’s seat, casting a cursory glance out of the window. The streets were empty. The weather was on her side and no one was braving the downpour, not even the old man at the end of the road who rarely missed taking his dog out for an evening stroll.
 
 
She leant forward and pulled off the cover below the steering wheel with one deft movement. Extracting the screwdriver from a neat case, she stabbed it into the ignition lock. A quick fiddle, one sharp twist, and the car burst into life; the persistent thudding of the rain against the pavement hid the initial coughing of the engine. She pulled away from the kerb swiftly and headed up the road at speed.
 
Pushing the hood away from her head, she checked her face in the rear-view mirror. That'll teach him to mess about with women, she thought. No one, but no one, messes about with Cinnamon - the rat!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Just Add Spice Blog Tour - 25th July
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

3 Responses so far.

  1. Ah yes, the infamous lolly episode! It made me cringe when I wrote it ;)
    Thank you for not only being part of this blitz tour but this fantastic review. I am filling up again. You have no idea how much a review like this warms me to my very core! (Or, it's my age!) Thank you so much JB. XXX

  2. Haw, haw, no it's not your age, Carol. Fab review, JB! Fab book. Oh, the lolly scene... Picture the wife's face! Loved it. And, yes, I've been known to exact a little revenge, too. Male or female, who doesn't sometimes want to? :) xx

  3. Great post - I've enjoyed reading all the fab reviews for Just Add Spice :)

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