LOVE BYTE Dating Competition

Andy Hunter is a single father trying to balance the demands of a 2-year-old daughter, an interfering but well-meaning mother-in-law and a job he is always in danger of losing. So, when he receives a series of delayed emails from his late wife Lindsay telling him to date, it seems like a good idea. With Lindsay’s emails spurring him on, Andy weaves a path of disharmony and chaos amongst his close friends and family, but soon discovers he is not cut out for modern dating. Filled with laugh-out-loud situations and moments of soul-searching, this heart-warming, moving romantic comedy set in Edinburgh, is a bittersweet tale of second chances and self-discovery.

In Love Byte, Andy Hunter goes on some pretty horrendous dates that will make you laugh and cringe in equal measure.

For your chance to win a copy of this new romantic comedy, just tweet your worst date using the hashtag #lovebytedating. (UK only)

Competition for library lovers: Win Broken Places by Wendy Perriam

We here at Robert Hale Ltd LOVE libraries. They are magical places that transport us into the wonderful world of books.

We were delighted then when our author Wendy Perriam wrote a book about a librarian.

For your chance to win a copy of Wendy’s book Broken Places for yourself, simply tell us why you love your library or librarian, either in the comments or by tweeting us at @roberthalebooks.

You may love Eric – or want to shake him! Passionately idealistic about his work as a librarian, he’s also ruefully aware that he’s not exactly Superman. Forced to hide his mysterious background and his mortifying fears, he’s a man with secrets – withheld even from close friends. His once homely wife, now a fashionista, has abandoned him, to live in Seattle with a high-powered corporate kingpin, taking their only child, a moody minx-in-waiting, about to turn thirteen.

Yet, against the odds, Eric sets out to prove himself – indeed, even to find a soul-mate. Whether braving ‘Choco-Love’ Speed-Dating; running Wandsworth Prison readers’ groups; attending an American Church that champions the Gospel of Prosperity, or rescuing his daughter from near-rape – he finally comes to epitomize the truth of Hemingway’s words: The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.

Shortlisted for the MIND Book of the Year, Broken Places combines laugh-out-loud comedy with an examination of fear: the most common – and most frequently concealed – of all our human emotions.

Praise for Wendy Perriam:

‘…one of Perriam’s strengths as a novelist … is to confront the fault-lines in human experience and roll about in them…’ – The Camden Review

‘Broken Places is a great and adventurous read. The main theme of the novel – that life is fundamentally unfair – is explored with verve, energy, relish and humour. Perriam can be very, very funny’ – Fay Weldon

‘Perriam writes brilliantly about fear and grief, and the lives of children in care, but she is also savagely, hilariously funny about everything to do with sex.’ – The Times

Happy reading!

This competition closes at midnight GMT on 31st March 2014 and is open to UK residents only.

COMPETITION: Win ‘Broken Places’ by Wendy Perriam

Wendy Perriam’s insightful book Broken Places, released last year in hardback, is out next week in paperback format. Broken Places is the story of Eric the librarian as he battles to overcome his anxieties and reach the fabled ‘happy place’ he’s read about so often in books.

To be one of the first to get their hands on this gorgeous new edition, just tell us in the comments below what book you would put on your library shelves first… if you had one all to yourself!

Broken Places Official Blurb

You may love Eric – or want to shake him! Passionately idealistic about his work as a librarian, he’s also ruefully aware that he’s not exactly Superman. Forced to hide his mysterious background and his mortifying fears, he’s a man with secrets – withheld even from close friends. His once homely wife, now a fashionista, has abandoned him, to live in Seattle with a high-powered corporate kingpin, taking their only child, a moody minx-in-waiting, about to turn thirteen.

Yet, against the odds, Eric sets out to prove himself – indeed, even to find a soul-mate. Whether braving ‘Choco-Love’ Speed-Dating; running Wandsworth Prison readers’ groups; attending an American Church that champions the Gospel of Prosperity, or rescuing his daughter from near-rape – he finally comes to epitomize the truth of Hemingway’s words: The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.

Shortlisted for the MIND Book of the Year, Broken Places combines laugh-out-loud comedy with an examination of fear: the most common – and most frequently concealed – of all our human emotions.

Praise for the Author:

‘Broken Places is a great and adventurous read. The main theme of the novel – that life is fundamentally unfair – is explored with verve, energy, relish and humour. Perriam can be very, very funny’ – Fay Weldon

‘Perriam writes brilliantly about fear and grief, and the lives of children in care, but she is also savagely, hilariously funny about everything to do with sex.’ – The Times

Wendy Perriam‘s novel Broken Places and collection of short stories I’m on the Train! are scheduled for release 30 April 2012. Both are available to pre-order now.

Check out Wendy Perriam‘s website at http://www.wendyperriam.com/

This competition is available to UK entrants only and will close at midnight on Monday 30 April 2012.

COMPETITION: Win ‘England’s Janissary’ by Peter James Cottrell

England’s Janissary by Peter James Cottrell PLOT – SYNOPSIS

Kevin Flynn thought soldiering would be a great adventure but on the bloody killing fields of The Somme it became a nightmare. Disillusioned by war, he is unprepared for the bitter troubles dividing his home in Ireland, a squalid back street feud he neither understands nor cares for. Drifting into the ranks of the Royal Irish Constabulary and posted to a quiet rural backwater the peace is shattered by the IRA. Sucked into a world where the stench of death is inescapable and divided loyalties turn old friends into enemies, Flynn must decide what he is prepared to do to save the woman he loves from the vengeance of the men who revile him as a traitor, one of England’s Janissaries.

To be in with a chance to win this new work of fiction from Peter James Cottrell, check out our interview with the man himself and fill in the missing text below.

“Don’t write history with a bit of a story, tell a story with ___________”

a) feeling

b) historical background

c) great characters

Send your answer to publicity@halebooks.com. A winner will be chosen at random on Wednesday 7th March.