#BookLove: Kirsty Ferry (@kirsty_ferry)

Welcome back to #BookLove. Today it’s Kirsty Ferry’s turn to take over the blog and help us spread a little book love by sharing a few of her favourite books.

About Kirsty

Kirsty is from the North East of England and won the English Heritage/Belsay Hall National Creative Writing competition in 2009 with the ghostly tale Enchantment. She has also written North East based novels, short stories and articles for magazines such as Weekly News, Peoples Friend, Ghost Voices and It’s Fate.

Her timeslip novel, Some Veil Did Fall, a paranormal romance set in Whitby, was published by Choc Lit in Autumn 2014. This was followed by another Choc Lit timeslip, The Girl in the Painting in February 2016 and The Girl in the Photograph in March 2017. The experience of signing Some Veil Did Fall in a quirky bookshop in the midst of Goth Weekend in Whitby, dressed as a recently undead person was one of the highlights of her writing career so far!

Kirsty’s day-job involves sharing a Georgian building with an eclectic collection of ghosts – which can sometimes prove rather interesting.

                          

About Some Veil Did Fall

What if you recalled memories from a life that wasn’t yours, from a life before …?

When Becky steps into Jonathon Nelson’s atmospheric photography studio in Whitby, she is simply a freelance journalist in search of a story. But as soon as she puts on the beautiful Victorian dress and poses for a photograph, she becomes somebody quite different …

From that moment on, Becky is overcome with visions and flashbacks from a life that isn’t her own – some disturbing and filled with fear.

As she and Jon begin to unravel the tragic mystery behind her strange experiences, the natural affinity they have for each other continues to grow and leads them to question … have they met somewhere before? Perhaps not just in this life but in another?

About The Girl In The Painting

What if you thought you knew a secret that could change history?

Whilst standing engrossed in her favourite Pre-Raphaelite painting – Millais’s Ophelia – Cori catches the eye of Tate gallery worker, Simon, who is immediately struck by her resemblance to the red-haired beauty in the famous artwork.he attraction is mutual, but Cori has other things on her mind.

She has recently acquired the diary of Daisy, a Victorian woman with a shocking secret. As Cori reads, it soon becomes apparent that Daisy will stop at nothing to be heard, even outside of the pages of her diary…

Will Simon stick around when life becomes increasingly spooky for Cori, as she moves ever closer to uncovering the truth about Daisy’s connection to the girl in her favourite painting?

About The Girl In The Photograph

What if the past was trying to teach you a lesson?

Staying alone in the shadow of an abandoned manor house in Yorkshire would be madness to some, but art enthusiast Lissy de Luca can’t wait. Lissy has her reasons for seeking isolation, and she wants to study the Staithes Group – an artists’ commune active at the turn of the twentieth century.

Lissy is fascinated by the imposing Sea Scarr Hall – but the deeper she delves, the stranger things get. A lonely figure patrols the cove at night, whilst a hidden painting leads to a chilling realisation. And then there’s the photograph of the girl; so beautiful she could be a mermaid … and so familiar.

As Lissy further immerses herself, she comes to an eerie conclusion: The occupants of Sea Scarr Hall are long gone, but they have a message for her – and they’re going to make sure she gets it.

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 You can follow Kirsty on her Website, Facebook and Twitter.

Her three novels are available to purchase here.

Childhood Sweetheart
Favourite book from childhood

Green Smoke by Rosemary Manning. It’s about a dragon who lives on the coast of Cornwall. He’s called R. Dragon and was friends with a little girl called Susan. I took it out of the school library constantly. I even considered stealing it, but didn’t, because I was a good girl – and also a school librarian!

First love
The first book you fell in love with

Thornyhold by Mary Stewart. Captivating. Still love it even after so many readings.

Biggest book crush
The book character you’re totally in love with

Ahhh I love Gilbert Blythe from Anne of Green Gables! I’m so pleased he and Anne got together.

Weirdest book crush
Well… duh

Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights. It’s a bit weird to like someone who is intrinsically evil, but it’s so clear how much he loves Cathy that you come to understand his motives– I first read the book as an impressionable teenager and I still love his speeches. Can’t beat a good old fashioned, brooding Byronic hero!

Hardest break up
The book you didn’t want to end

Oddly, it’s an historical book – because I knew what would happen, and didn’t want it to! I had to force myself to keep reading it: Innocent Traitor, by Alison Weir. It’s the story of Lady Jane Grey, the nine-day queen. It’s told in first-person, so you absolutely travel the journey with the poor girl. “I am now a condemned traitor . . . I am to die when I have hardly begun to live.” She was 16 years old. Brutal.

The one that got away
The book in your TBR or wish list that you regret not having started yet.

Well I’m delighted to say I don’t have that problem! I did have it, as I was doing a Masters Degree last year and barely read anything for pleasure. It was so stressful looking at the bank of books by my bed, just waiting to be discovered! However, I finished the course in the summer, and from then went hell for leather through the pile. Hurrah!

Secret love
Guilty Reading pleasure

I’ve read nearly all of the JR Ward Black Dagger Brotherhood books – for shame! I started them after finishing my literature degree and just wanted something easy I didn’t have to think about. They hit the spot!

Love one, love them all
Favourite series or genre

Urgh – so many….what to choose….I think I’d have to go for something like Susanna Kearsley or Victoria Holt or Mary Stewart. A good romantic mystery; but with Kearsley and Stewart you do sometimes get a supernatural element as well. Perfect.

Your latest squeeze
Favourite read of the last 12 months

Silent Melody by Mary Balogh. I read it, then realised it was the second in a series. I bought the first one, Heartless, finished it, then immediately started Silent Melody again.

Blind date for a friend
If you were to set a friend up with a blind date (book) which one would it be?

I’d have to consider the friend – some of my friends like literary stuff and others like easy-reading and ne’er the twain shall meet. However, the two friends I’m thinking of here (who are probably the furthest apart on the “what-to-read” spectrum!) both love Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. And another friend told me, shockingly, that she hasn’t read it but wants to. I think, therefore, that I would pick Wuthering Heights for it’s blanket appeal, it’s classic-ness and it’s diversity. And for Heathcliff’s speeches, naturally.

Greatest love of all
Favourite book of all time.

Has to be Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

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Some great and some classic choices there I think you’ll all agreed. Oh my life. Anne Of Green Gables! I lost count of how many times the TV adaptation played in our house because my sister loved it so much. Thanks Kirsty.

So what do you reckon folks? Do you agree? Any of these on your all time list. Was Heathcliff your secret crush too? Tall, dark and mysterious. Join me next week when I’ll be sharing the #BookLove with Rachel Emms and Sam from Clues and Reviews.

Have a wonderful day of bookish delight all

JL