#ThrowbackThursdays have been a brilliant way to replace some of our missing Amazon reviews… and give us all another chance to read about these amazing books!

Gerrie Hermann, aspiring rock star from a rich South African family, has an unusual proposal for Sophie Woods when he meets her for the first time in their university canteen.

Strait-laced Sophie has never done anything out of the ordinary in the whole of her 19 years. When she decides to take Gerrie up on his offer she has no idea that her decision is going to affect the rest of her life in ways that she could never have foreseen, even in her wildest dreams.

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Our Review

Would you marry someone simply to help them out of a dilemma?

This is what Sophie Woods, a university student, is about to do, a business arrangement, nothing more. But what happens afterwards is the stuff that dreams, and Hollywood movies are made of. Sophie, young and naïve, has never done anything risky before and has no idea of what fate awaits her.

Gerrie, a South African student, is an aspiring rock star with wealthy parents, who unfortunately don’t approve of his career choice. Gerrie wants to stay in England and the only way he can do that, is to get married.

Sophie falls in love with her new husband, but circumstances conspire to ruin their unexpected happiness and break both their hearts as well. The tension builds unbearably for them and their future outcome looks decidedly bleak.

There doesn’t seem to be an easy solution to their problems and after so long, can there really be a happy ever after?

Excerpt from A Marriage of Convenience

The same wood pigeon is cooing outside my bedroom window that I’m sure has been there since my early teens.  Everything around me is so familiar, yet nothing is the same anymore.  The pink duvet cover adorned with red roses covered me as a girl, but now I am a woman, soon to bring another life into this world. 

I have been so very stupid. I sit up in bed and look at the clock, which shows 08:45.  I pick up my mobile phone from the bedside table, but there’s no message from Gerrie.  Dad will already be on his way down to the canal to take the first group of tourists on a morning boat ride. Mum rattles around downstairs making drinks. It’s time for me to get up and face what the day can throw at me.  I keep waiting to feel sick or faint; isn’t that what all pregnant women do?  However, apart from sore breasts I feel as fit as a fiddle and desperately hungry.  I can hear Mum humming to herself as I pad downstairs and slink into a chair at the kitchen table.  She gives me a smile “Did you sleep okay?”

“Yes thanks.”  I nod. “It’s a relief now I’ve told you everything.”

Mum hands me a cup of steaming coffee. “Of course it is.  We’ll stand by you.  There’s no way I’ll see my daughter or grandchild want for anything.”

I get up and hug my mother, who is already making me a toasted bacon sandwich.  It occurs to me that all the money in the world cannot make up for the love I’ve received over the years from my two wonderful parents.  I am truly lucky.

“Gerrie’s father is a diamond merchant out in South Africa, but he doesn’t approve of me and won’t be giving us a penny.”

 “You don’t need him.” Mum grimaces as she hands me a plate of food. “You can come home any time.  We’ll be pleased to have you and the baby here.”

I make short work of my sandwich and shoo Mum upstairs while I wash up.  After an invigorating shower, I wrap a towel around me and go back into my bedroom to get dressed.  My phone is buzzing away by the bed.  I pick it up. “Hi.”   Gerrie’s accented voice booms down the line. “This is the third time I’ve rung.”

 “I was having a wash.  How’s it going with you?”

There’s a brief silence before he carries on. “I miss you.  Are you coming back?  Sorry I punched the wall.” He sounds like a little boy who has lost his mother in a crowd, but deep down inside I’m still angry.

Biography

Stevie Turner works part-time as a medical secretary in a busy NHS hospital and writes suspense, women’s fiction, and darkly humorous novels in her spare time. She won a New Apple Book Award in 2014 and a Readers’ Favorite Gold Award in 2015 for her book ‘A House Without Windows’, and one of her short stories, ‘Checking Out’, was published in the Creative Writing Institute’s 2016 anthology ‘Explain!’ Her psychological thriller ‘Repent at Leisure’ won third place in the 2016 Drunken Druid Book Award contest.

Stevie lives in the East of England and is married with two sons and four grandchildren. She has also branched out into the world of audiobooks, screenplays, and translations. Most of her novels are now available as audiobooks, and one screenplay, ‘For the Sake of a Child’, won a silver award in the Spring 2017 Depth of Field International Film Festival. ‘A House Without Windows’ caught the attention of a New York media production company in December 2017.

Some of Stevie’s books have been translated into German, Spanish, and Italian.

Stevie can be contacted at the following email address: stevie@stevie-turner-author.co.uk
You can find her blog at the following link: http://www.steviet3.wordpress.com
You can sign up for her newsletter here: https://www.facebook.com/StevieTurnerAuthor/app/100265896690345/