Written by Sharley ScottI loved it! 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
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As well as my review, I have snagged an interview with the author herself, Sharley Scott, and you'll find this towards the bottom of this post.
The blurb:
Katie has learned the hard way that a seaside idyll is never what it seems. She and Jason have worked hard at their marriage, but now she has other issues to tackle.
While her new cleaner has proved to be a godsend, she comes with a complicated love life. Then there’s Katie and Jason’s daughters, Emily and Lucy, whose boomerang visits definitely have an ulterior motive.
And what about the threatening man opposite who has taken an intense dislike to Shona, the madcap owner of the adjoining B&B. Shona’s life has always been chaotic, but now it’s verging on disaster.
As the season moves on and guests come and go, Katie fears her daughters have been keeping secrets of their own, while Shona’s troubles come to a head.
When the B&Bers are behaving madly, anything can happen. Can Katie weather the storm?
In this story, a new family arrives in the street, moving into the run-down cottage opposite the guesthouse. There is nothing remarkable about the older woman and younger couple who have taken on the lease, but Shona immediately labels the family as 'trouble'. They are soon joined by, presumably the husband, the aptly-named Stinky Smith, an unsavoury character with a malevolent streak. He targets Shona - big mistake matey - but it appears Shona has friends she didn't know about, and his stay in the cottage is short-lived.
There is the usual assortment of weird and wonderful guests at the guesthouse, some leaving their mark longer than others... But all making me very glad it is Katie sorting them out and not me.
As I am interested in finding out about my family tree, I particularly enjoyed the story line involving Carl and his great-grandfather's connection to the guesthouse. Although, whilst reading about Carl, I did wonder whether his strange activities were more nefarious than they actually turned out to be.
Ms Scott's characters feel very real and are lovably flawed. I am particularly fond of Katie and Shona who feel like old friends to me, and was delighted to find that a lot of this story involves Shona in one way or another. Whilst Shona can be a handful, her heart is in the right place.
I absolutely adore Ms Scott's witty writing style and sense of humour. I laughed out loud at the incident with Shona and the cows, and again when Jason disgustedly showed Katie the state of one of the guest towels. I also smiled as I recalled why Shona had been banned from the book club - but still didn't know because nobody was brave enough to tell her!
My favourite line, ‘No Jeremys will be harmed in the teaching of this lesson’ - you just know that there is scope for this - is delivered by Shona to Katie to allay her fears, as Shona induces Kim's nephew Jeremy to rectify his bad workmanship at their guesthouse.
B&Bers Behaving Madly at a Devon Seaside Guesthouse is a funny and entertaining story that I thoroughly enjoyed reading, and one which I would wholeheartedly recommend. It can be read as a standalone, but I would suggest reading Bedlam & Breakfast: At a Devon Seaside Guesthouse first to fully appreciate this story. I now eagerly await book three in this series.
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Thank you so much Sharley, for joining me here today, to answer a few questions for us.
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Q1. What inspired you to write Bedlam & Breakfast at a Devon Seaside Guesthouse and what comes after B&Bers Behaving Badly at a Devon Seaside Guesthouse?
Although Bedlam & Breakfast is fictional, it was inspired by a few guests behaving badly. The taxi incident did take place and I was forced from my bed to answer the door to an irate taxi driver holding a lad who’d fallen asleep in the back of his taxi, after his friend ran off to evade payment. The rest didn’t happen but was inspired by what I would have liked to have done when the lads refused to get up the next morning and leave.
Most of the incidents at our B&B happened in the first year, when we were still naïve yet resilient enough to be able to deal with them. Our returning guests are such wonderful people that I wouldn’t want to write about them. But I couldn’t either, as lovely and kind doesn’t make for an interesting read. But we still get the odd one of two new guests behaving badly, so they do risk triggering an idea for another episode in the book.
Q2. Who is your favourite character in Bedlam & Breakfast at a Devon Seaside Guesthouse and why?
My favourite is Shona, for the simple fact that she inspires fun story lines. I can get away with so much when writing about her.
Q3. Is Shona still your favourite in B&Bers Behaving Badly at a Devon Seaside Guesthouse?
Yes. Two episodes in that book have happened to me – the ‘coffee over the bookcase’ and the ‘running with cows’ incidents – but they were typical of Shona’s character, so I fitted them into her story lines.
In real life I didn’t laugh when the cows finally ran past me. I was simply thankful they had.
Q4. Was Bedlam & Breakfast at a Devon Seaside Guesthouse the first story you had published?
I’ve been writing domestic thrillers since 2006 and one inspired interest from a senior commissioning agent who told me to contact her when I got an agent. I didn’t get an agent. After agents and several digi-publishers turned down Bedlam & Breakfast, I decided to try self-publishing. It took me twelve years before I felt confident enough in my writing to self-publish my first book, so I didn’t expect to know all about marketing and publicity in a few weeks. However, Bedlam & Breakfast did better than I had anticipated and I’ve had such positive feedback from many lovely readers.
Q5. Do you have another story planned or in progress? When can we expect to see that?
I do plan to write a third book in the Devon Seaside Guesthouse series, but not yet. Currently, I am nearing the end of a romantic comedy which I have provisionally titled The Two Faces of Maddie Moss. I love the characters in this one.
Q6. Which writers have influenced you?
The writers who have influenced me are the ones who have been with me on my writing journey. We started out on WriteWords, a writing forum which is, sadly, no longer as busy as it used to be. Many of my writing peers have been traditionally published while some, like me, have self-published. It’s been great to see the many successes.
Q7. What do you like to do when you’re not planning or writing your next book?
I run a guesthouse that is not as large as the one featured in Bedlam & Breakfast, but it’s still hard work. We go for months on end without a day off but, even though it becomes relentless, I do find time to write while waiting for guests to arrive or later in the evening. We enjoy walking and socialising with friends. This winter I’ve taken up keep-fit and singing – neither of which I am good at – and I hope to have time to continue with these activities during the peak season too.
Q8. What do you like most about being an author?
The writing community is made up of truly lovely and giving people. Like Deborah, who spends her free time writing this blog and helping other authors with the #DectheShelves challenge.
Q9. Do you have a specific routine for writing? Is there a special place or particular tool you use?
I don’t have any routine. If I had one, it would last five minutes. If I have a free half hour, I try not to be enticed by Facebook but to write. I am not always successful.
Q10. What advice do you have for other independently published authors?
The worst thing that happened to me was the six one-star reviews in a week within months of publishing Bedlam & Breakfast. I’d broken the top #100 in the UK kindle chart and then I had three one-star reviews in one day, with the others appearing over the following days! I’d just had four and five-star reviews before then, so I was shocked and was close to pulling my book from Amazon. Then one of the reviewers mentioned that the book wasn’t a romance and I’d labelled it as such. I removed that label and, while I’ll never know if it was a coincidence, the one-star reviews ceased. Of course, I had more later on, but not on that level.
It was at this point that Deborah, who I hadn’t met previously, wrote to say that she loved my book. I cannot thank her enough for her constructive and calm advice.
So my advice is to take care with labelling and marketing your books. I thought Bedlam & Breakfast could be a romance as the protagonists saved their marriage, but I didn’t know the genre as well as I should have done.
And value book bloggers. They are fantastic people who are there to support authors.
| Author Bio – Sharley Scott |
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While 'Bedlam & Breakfast at a Devon Seaside Guesthouse' is fictional, I am a guesthouse owner. Thankfully, we have been blessed with lots of amazing and kind-hearted guests, who are nothing like some of the characters featured in this novel and the subsequent books in the series. I would be a lot greyer if they were. Likewise, Jason is quite different to my husband, who I sometimes nickname Victor Meldrew. He is lovely though and has a fab sense of humour, although some of his dryness has rubbed off on Jason. Bedlam & Breakfast is set in South Devon, in the fictional town of Torringham, which is loosely based on Brixham. If you've been to Brixham you may recognise some of the local features, including the seals, fishing industry and the fantastic lifeboat crew, but the businesses, people and a number of settings are fictionalised. The same applies to the B&B owners featured. Many guesthouse owners undertake work when they move into a property and our current B&B was not an exception. While, thankfully, our previous owners were nothing like Jim and Maureen, this also means we don’t get to live next door to the fabulous Shona and Kim. But we do have many lovely B&B friends. B&Bers are a wonderful and hardworking bunch, although the ones we know have a penchant for parties in the low season. That's why I had to end Bedlam & Breakfast at a party. |
| Social Media Links – | |
| Web site | https://sharleyscott.wordpress.com/ |
| Facebook Author Page | https://www.facebook.com/SharleyScott3 |
| X | https://twitter.com/SharleyScott |
| Goodreads | Sharley Scott |
| https://www.instagram.com/sharleyscott/ | |
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