More Life as a Dog by L.A Davenport

Devon and Hell : Four Seasons By The Sea by Karen Wheeler-Biography/Memoir

Karen  has bought a house in Devon and has been staying in a holiday let until contracts

can be exchanged. She then finds a worrying sign that there may be rats- one of her

major phobias and does everything she can to get out of the transaction but it is too late

and the house is hers. She refuses to stay in the house and whilst looking around for an

alternative, bearing in mind this is the few days before Christmas, luck strikes in the form

of a phone call from her brother who is flying back as he lives abroad. The news is that

their mother has been sectioned. A mother that never loved them and made their lives

rather difficult to say the least. I loved the line “ she is a black belt in verbal abuse” and

sympathised with many of the things Karen had experienced as a child. Despite this

Karen still wanted to right by her mother- something I admired. Meanwhile the house

needs work seemingly one thing after another, a court case is looming and not a word

has been written of her next book which her accountant is pressing her to do as the

finances won’t look after themselves. I really enjoyed this- a look at life with its ups

and downs, sorting out more trash than a dustman whilst being able to still smile

at the world even though wanting to scream and shout. A wonderful highly

enjoyable read with a smile.

For more reviews please see my blog http://nickibookblog.blogspot.co.uk/

or follow me on Twitter@nickisbookblog

Devon and Hell Four Seasons by the Sea ‘If I could describe my reading experience it would be like the first time on a roller coaster,
expecting a dreamy idyllic ride but ending up emotionally charged and exhilarated’ [Review by Amazon Top 500 Reviewer Originalisa] Blurb One woman, one dog and a disastrous move to Devon. Throw in an estranged mother who has just
been diagnosed with dementia and the result is a brilliantly written comic memoir with more
ups and downs than the South West Coastal Path. This is not your usual tale of ‘I moved to a chocolate-box cottage by the sea and lived happily
ever after’. Instead, it is a powerful and gripping story of relocation – and a maternal
relationship – gone wrong. Ultimately this is an uplifting, feel-good story as Karen triumphs over adversity and finds new
peace following the death of her mother. Synopsis After eight years of living in France, Karen Wheeler returns to live by the seaside near Budleigh
Salterton on East Devon’s Jurassic Coast. Plum Tree Cottage, with its full set of cottagey
credentials – climbing roses, old Georgian floorboards and a dove-grey Aga – is a classic
case of love at first sight. But the disasters begin before she has even moved in. Wheeler is left reeling when Plum Tree Cottage reveals a very unwelcome surprise. She
then receives the shocking news that her mother – a cold and cruel woman from whom
she has been estranged for most of her life – has been sectioned. Living the dream by the sea rapidly descends into a living hell with each day bringing a new
onslaught of domestic and mother-related disasters. Convinced that her cottage is unlucky,
Wheeler consults Harsh Jain, a practitioner of vastu shastra – the Hindu equivalent of feng
shui. Back comes a report that would have most people not just moving their gas stove – which
Wheeler discovers is ideally placed for ‘burning up blessings’ – but sticking their head in it.
Harsh predicts that the cottage will bring a host of problems and ‘unwelcome surprises’.
The doom-laden report finishes by warning the author – who is planning to walk the
Jurassic Coast Path – to ‘Please be avoiding high places’. One by one, Harsh Jain’s predictions come true – in surprising detail. Wheeler is forced
to face up to the childhood she has long tried to ignore and is literally taken to a cliff
edge before the book’s end. But then, in a heartwarming twist, she makes a surprising
discovery that changes everything. Author Bio Karen Wheeler is a former journalist and national newspaper fashion editor who has
successfully published five comic travel memoirs about her life in France, starting with
Tout Sweet: Hanging up my High Heels for a New Life in France, which made it to #1 in
Amazon’s travel writing book chart. She wrote for the Financial Times for over fifteen years and is a former fashion editor of
the Mail on Sunday. She studied Modern History at Kings College, London University and
worked briefly at Sotheby's art auctioneers before embarking on a career in fashion journalism. During her career she has interviewed many of fashion's top names including Tom Ford, Karl
Lagerfeld, Giorgio Armani and Calvin Klein. Her work has also appeared frequently in Vogue
Japan, You magazine, the Daily Mail and Sunday Times Style. Originally hailing from the north of England, Karen is one of the many ex-pats now returning
to the UK – as she points out the food is much better here. She has run holiday cottages,
knows the Farrow and Ball colour chart inside out, never turns down a glass of pink
champagne and lives near Budleigh Salterton in East Devon with her boyfriend and her
dog Biff. You can read more about her life at www.toutsweet.net – the blog she started while living
in rural France; and follow her on Twitter at @mimipompom1 Karen has great interview experience and is available to write feature pieces. Earlier this year the Daily Mail published a moving feature on her relationship with her
bipolar mother: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-6676089/Writer-shares-
story-cruel-childhood-reluctant-deathbed-visit.html High quality selection of images available to illustrate her story. Contact her directly at Karenwheeler1@gmail.com Target Market Devon and Hell will appeal to fans of Eleanor Oliphant, as well as the armchair renovators who
enjoy watching Grand Designs, Homes by the Sea and Amazing Spaces and to the large number of Brits who are moving to the coast or
taking ‘staycations’ in the UK. Devon and Hell is set in Lympstone, an aspirational and newly
fashionable area of Devon, which was recently shortlisted in Penelope Keith’s C4 series,
Britain’s Best Villages: Village of the Year 2017 and recently saw the opening of Lympstone Manor, by Michelin-starred chef Michael Caines. Book Format Information Devon and Hell: Four Seasons by the Sea is the omnibus version of a four-part series of mini
e-books, launched earlier this year as Dream Cottage: Four Seasons in Devon and released
in accordance with the seasons. All of the books were designated Amazon ‘Hot New
Releases’ and made it into the top five in travel writing. Devon and Hell: Four Seasons by the Sea will be released in e-book format on 28th October
2019, £9.99, by Sweet Pea Publishing. The print version will be published in October 2020. Full Review by Amazon Top 500 Reviewer Originalisa “Karen Wheeler has written a four-part series guaranteed to grip you to the end.
Reading this seizes the imagination, opens up a sense of wonder and excitement as this
powerful page-turner sucks you in big time. I felt all of my emotions were supercharged
in a way I never truly imagined when I first encountered this fabulously well written
book. If I could describe my reading experience as an analogy it would be like the first
time on a roller coaster, expecting a dreamy idyllic ride but ending up emotionally
charged and exhilarated. Bring on the next three parts!”