Monday 9 February 2015

Book Blitz: Valentine’s on Primrose Hill by Nikki Moore - Extract

Valentine’s on Primrose Hill
Released 9th February
#LoveLondon Series; eBook 3 (Short Story)
by Nikki Moore
Read this exciting romance series set in London...


What’s it about?
For Georgiana Dunn, life changed forever in the devastating moment that the lorry hit her car.
Scarred and scared, she's not left the house properly in months. Then her mum buys her a puppy, forcing her to face the world again, walking on London's beautiful Primrose Hill. But that doesn't mean she's looking forward to Valentine's Day.
Leo devotes himself to working with children with special educational needs. In fact, he does very little else, and his friends are always telling him to get a (love) life. So when they challenge him to find a date for Valentine's Day, and he meets a lovely but lost girl who looks like she could use a friend, he thinks he's found the perfect solution.
But life has a way of being less than perfect … Will he be left standing on his own on the most romantic day of the year?
Get it from Amazon for only 99p! http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00PFBTMQ2
Praise for the #LoveLondon series...

Skating at Somerset House
A warm hearted winter tale that had me engaged from the very beginning. I genuinely cannot wait to read the rest’ LJ Bentley, Amazon
 ‘Sexy, fun and everything you need in one neat, gorgeous package. This is a winner for me.’ Chicks That Read.
This is going to be a fabulous series, I can feel it!Simona Elena, Sky’s Book Corner.

New Year at The Ritz
This is a lovely read that delivers more than you'd expect from such a short story. Nikki has written a book that not only delivers on the romantic front, after all, every girl wants a happy ending, especially at New Year. But, she also made me smile, ahhh a lot and got me thinking.’ Dawn Crooks, Crooks on Books
A sweet and flirty short story, I really enjoyed it. I can’t wait to see what Nikki comes up with for the next book in the series.’ Simona Elena, Sky’s Book Corner.



The full #LoveLondon series published by HarperImpulse;
Skating at Somerset House (Short Story); Out Now http://amzn.to/1JPMgO8
New Year at The Ritz (Short Story); Out Now; http://amzn.to/1DlhM2E
Valentine's on Primrose Hill (Short Story); 9 February 2015 http://amzn.to/1vbm2CP
Cocktails in Chelsea (Short Story); March 2015 (Link coming soon)
Strawberries at Wimbledon (Short Story); April 2015 Pre-order http://amzn.to/1za5v1N
Picnics in Hyde Park, (Novel); Ebook May 2015 Pre-order http://amzn.to/1A3VTXN
  
Extract
Leo Miller still wasn’t sure how he’d ended up standing alone on Primrose Hill on the most romantic day of the year, both hoping and dreading his Valentine would show up. The girl he’d thought would be a friend but had turned out to be so much more. The girl he owed the truth to, instead of the version she thought she knew.
If she came.
He stood at the top of the panoramic park, the London skyline sandwiched between a bright blue sky and leafy trees. Rolling green grass flowed below him, intersected by numerous paths lined with Victorian-looking lamps. He could make out all the main landmarks in the distance, no longer needing the long, narrow metal plaque on the circular brow of the hill to read the city. He’d brought too many classes here over the last five years to show them the glorious sights of their capital. He knew this skyline off by heart. 
Left to right was the spire of St Mark’s Church, the high-rise, closely huddled towers of Canary Wharf, the dark curved outline of The Gherkin and lower crouching St Paul’s Cathedral, the soaring sharp-edged Shard. Further over was the pinnacle of the BT Tower (plumper at the top), the rounded upper half of the London Eye wheel then over to Westminster and the Houses of Parliament, Crystal Palace Tower and smaller, tucked away on the edge, Westminster Cathedral.
Shoving his freezing hands into his coat pockets, he shivered in the crisp February sunshine. It was a beautiful Saturday, though cold, and gusts of wind shook the last of the leaves that had somehow survived autumn and winter from the trees. Hard to believe it would be spring soon. Happy, noisy families with pushchairs and plump, eager toddlers on reins panted their way up the concrete paths, and dog walkers rambled across the amazingly healthy green grass, some of them throwing tennis balls for their canine friends.  A couple wandered past hand in hand, bundled up in scarves and woolly hats but not looking like they felt the frigid temperature at all, too wrapped up in each other. Cars zipped past, making their way in and out of Camden Town. At the bottom of the hill was Primrose Hill Bridge, spanning Regent’s Canal. If she didn’t come he’d walk down there, take a tube to Oxford Street and distract himself by trekking around the shops. There were electronic gadgets he wanted to look at for the children he taught, things that would help extend their learning.
He checked his watch. Five to twelve. He’d asked to meet at noon, but had wanted to get here early.
As bitter as the weather was, he’d prepared a mini-hamper filled with champagne and gourmet foods, had thought they could sit on one of the benches and share a feast and the view, the backdrop they’d met against. It was probably a crazy idea given the near sub-zero temperatures but he’d thought it would be romantic and had limited the madness by also bringing a rucksack stuffed with two blankets, some hand warmers, and two bobble hats as well as panda ear-muffs for comedy value. He’d once joked he’d need to wear them to block out her constant chatter, a tongue-in-cheek comment given how hard it could  be to get her to open up. Still, with time and patience, he’d got to know her over the past four weeks.
And when you dug under that shy, sometimes fragile exterior, once she forgot what had happened to her, how she now looked or thought she looked, her smile could light up the whole park. You could see shades of the intelligent, outgoing girl she’d been before and would be again. Since that first meeting he’d known what she needed, apart from a friend. To see and believe that although she might never be the same person as before the accident, she’d become someone stronger and more capable because of what she’d been through. And that whatever she might think or feel, she was still attractive to the opposite sex; love wasn’t something that was forever out of reach if she didn’t want it to be. Hopefully he’d been showing her those things over the last month. What he hadn’t realised until it was too late was that she’d been unwittingly showing him something along the way too.
How to fall in love.

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