Blog Tour: Searching For Steven by Jessica Redland

I am so excited to share Searching For Steven with you. I would like to thank Rachel’s Random Resources and of course the wonderful Jessica Redland for allowing me to be part of such a fabulous tour.

Synopsis

What if you already know your future… but not the path to take you there?

When Sarah Peterson accepts her Auntie Kay’s unexpected offer to take over her florist’s shop, she’s prepared for a change of job, home and lifestyle. What she isn’t prepared for is the discovery of a scarily accurate clairvoyant reading that’s been missing for twelve years. All her predictions have come true, except one: she’s about to meet the man of her dreams. Oh, and his name is Steven. Suddenly Stevens are everywhere. Could it be the window cleaner, the rep, the manager of the coffee shop, or any of the men she’s met online? On top of that, she finds herself quite attracted to a handsome web designer, but his name isn’t even Steven… During this unusual search, will Sarah find her destiny?

Review

Searching For Steven is the first novel in the Whitsborough Bay series by Jessica Redland and follows the story of Sarah Peterson. When we meet Sarah, she is about to celebrate her 29^th Birthday and is hoping that boyfriend Jason may be planning the ‘pop the question’. Jason however has other ideas, instead treating her to a 6-month gym membership complete with her own personal locker!

Fast-forward to the following year as the big 3-0 birthday dawns and Sarah realises she is wasting her time with a loser like Jason and makes the decision to call time on their relationship. Unsure what to do she heads home to Whitsborough Bay for a Weekend visit that turns out to be life changing when her Auntie Kay explains that she would like to gift Sarah her florist shop so that she can go travelling. Having always had a passion and talent for floristry Sarah seizes the opportunity to completely change her life, leaving her marketing job and heartache in London and starting again.

It’s whilst packing for her move that Sarah discovers a cassette tape she thought she had lost twelve years previous. The recording on the tape is of a clairvoyant reading from back in her university days, the only problem being is that Sarah can’t remember a thing about it as she so drunk! Thinking she had lost it in her drunken state and never having an opportunity to listen back to hear what the clairvoyant had predicted for her future she decides to listen to its contents along with her best friends Elise and Clare.

Having appeared like magic the tape reveals some very accurate predictions about Sarah’s life that have already been realised as well as offering some predictions about her future relationships telling her that ‘The One’ will be named Steven. Having always dreamed of finding her soul mate and emulating her parent’s perfect relationship Sarah sets to work determined to find Steven.

Trouble is things are never straight forward and when she meets handsome Nick Derbyshire they make an instant connection; however, she knows she can’t act on her feelings as he isn’t Steven! Add into the mix the return of an old boyfriend to declare his undying love and poor Sarah doesn’t what to do, the only thing she is certain about is that she must find Steven.

This book is a fabulous chick-lit read filled with the perfect mix of love, laughter and tears. Like most books of this genre the storyline was a little predictable at times, however there is a wonderful added twist at the end which I genuinely didn’t see coming, leaving me with a smile on my face! There were times whilst reading I felt like giving Sarah a shake to open her eyes to what she should do yet other times I was as confused as she was about the decisions she should make, this made me want to carry on reading to find out what happened next!

This book is a real feel good read and it’s left me excited to read the rest of this series and see what else is in store for the residents of Whitborough Bay.

About The Author

Jessica had never considered writing as a career until a former manager kept telling her that her business reports read more like stories and she should write a book. She loved writing but had no plot ideas. Then something happened to her that prompted the premise for her debut novel, Searching for Steven. She put fingers to keyboard and soon realised she had a trilogy and a novella!

She lives on the stunning North Yorkshire Coast – the inspiration for the settings in her books – with her husband, daughter, cat, Sprocker Spaniel, and an ever-growing collection of collectible teddy bears. Although if the dog has her way, the collection will be reduced to a pile of stuffing and chewed limbs!

Jessica tries to balance her time – usually unsuccessfully – between being an HR tutor and writing.