Gina Hollands is next up with her summer romance and I am already loving the play on words in the title name. Yours Trudy…
Which book do you wish you’d written. 
Bridget Jones’ Diary. A book series and movie deal starring A-listers – which author wouldn’t want that? Sales success aside, this was the first ‘chicklit’ book I read. I was 15 and thought it was incredible!
Which book cover have you looked at and gone that’s amazing.
I love the cover of Jessie Burton’s The Confession. I haven’t read it myself but bought it for a friend on the basis of the cover being beautiful. I’m fickle like that! They say not to judge a book by its cover but it’s human nature to do just that.
Which was the last book that broke your heart.
I’m not good with sad things so try my best to stay away from anything I know is going to be depressing. There’s enough sadness in the world without reading about it, which is why I’d never read a misery memoir. However, I recently read Alison Moore’s He Wants and although it’s not a sad book as such, there was a part in it that stayed with me.
Which book would you rewrite in a different genre.
I like writing across genres. I started with a romance, went on to erotica then went over to sweet romance. My latest book, Yours, Trudy is a romcom, and my next book is going to be a crime. If I fancy writing a genre, I write it! One day I’d also like to write a non-fiction book.
Which book taught you the largest lesson about life.
When you read fiction, you get a sense of what the world looks like through the author’s eyes. That I find interesting. The book that most made me think about ‘life’ was Matt Haig’s Midnight Library, which I couldn’t get enough of, but I think the largest lessons I’ve learned from books have come from non-fiction. Angela Duckworth’s book entitled Grit was an eye-opener.
Which three books would you take on holiday in 2021?
I really hope I do get to go on holiday in 2021! And if I do, I’ll be taking Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, which I’ve been meaning to read for ages; Blood on the Bulb Fields by Judith Cranswick, who I read about in Writing Magazine, and Finding Gina by Lizzie Chantree, which I ordered today because I love to find out what other Ginas are up to!
How many positive words and exclamation marks can you fit into the space of one email?
A lot is the answer, if you’re Trudy Drinkwater. As ‘Head of People Happiness’, her cheery emails are carefully written to boost the morale of her ‘fellow finned friends’ at Pink Fish Web Design. Yay!
But, in reality, there is very little Trudy has to say ‘yay!’ about in her home life. Her marriage is all but over, she’s in a near constant battle to make her two chicken nugget loving teens eat anything vaguely nutritious, and the days when she and her husband were young lovers with big dreams seem very far away.
Can Trudy keep up the chirpy pretense of her day job, or does she really need a new start and a second chance at true happiness?
You can keep up with all things Gina Hollands related
Gina’s books can be found here.
I spoke to Gina when she released her first book “Little Village of Second Chances” as part of the meet the family series that can be found HERE
My career background is in the charity sector, but I gave up work to look after my children. I fit writing around looking after two very energetic boys!
one I railed at a while ago for the simple reason that the heroine’s hair was a different colour on the front to what it was in the story and that irked me. I do dislike the ripped bodice, half naked Highlander ones. And maybe, if I was being truly picky, I’d change Bone China by Laura Purcell – nowhere in the book is a little girl. There is an adult who is treated like a child – but no little girls. But that is, as I say, extremely picky, because the rest of the cover is lovely.
On Christmas day, we fetch my mother in time for lunch and share our meal with my two sons and the eldest’s girlfriend. In the afternoon, my sister and her family join us and they take mom home.
