Linda's Books

STAR GAZING - An award-winning novel

Blind since birth, widowed in her twenties, now lonely in her forties, Marianne Fraser lives in Edinburgh in elegant, angry anonymity with her sister, Louisa. Marianne’s passionate nature finds solace and expression in music, a love she finds she shares with Keir, a man she encounters on her doorstep one winter’s night.

Keir makes no concession to her condition. He is abrupt to the point of rudeness, yet oddly kind. But can Marianne trust her feelings for this reclusive stranger who wants to take a blind woman to his island home on Skye, to ‘show’ her the stars?



In 2010 STAR GAZING topped Woman's Weekly's reader poll for "Favourite Romantic Novel 1960-2010". Katie Fforde presented Linda with a trophy at a champagne breakfast organised by the Romantic Novelists' Association.

STAR GAZING was also short-listed for the Romantic Novel of the Year Award 2009, presented by the Romantic Novelists' Association. For more details about the award see the RNA's website.

STAR GAZING was also short-listed in 2009 for the first Robin
Jenkins Literary Award which is sponsored by Forestry Commission Scotland and promotes writing inspired by Scotland's landscape.


STAR GAZING will be published by Piatkus as an e-book June 16th, priced £4.99.



Praise for STAR GAZING...

"This was a joy to read from the first page to the last... Romantic and quirky and beautifully written."
www.LoveReading.co.uk



"Touching and perceptive."
Emma Lee-Potter writing in the Daily Express



"A thoughtful yet romantic read... A good book for a group as there would be much to discuss."
NewBooks magazine



"This wonderful novel is by turns passionate, funny and truly moving - a compulsive page-turner to the very end."
Candis magazine



"Linda Gillard is an original and versatile author. Always challenging, I never know what to expect
from her novels - except a gripping investigation of the twists of human life and love. All this, and
heroes to die for."
Gillian Philip, author of FIREBRAND (Strident) and CROSSING THE LINE (Bloomsbury)

UNTYING THE KNOT - Linda's latest novel 

A ruined castle...
A ruined marriage...
Two shattered lives...
When love is not enough, who pays the price?



A wife is meant to stand by her man. An army wife particularly. But Fay didn't. She walked away - from Magnus, her traumatised war hero husband and from the home he was restoring: Tullibardine Tower, a ruinous 16th century tower house on a Perthshire hillside.

Now their daughter Emily is marrying someone she shouldn't.

And so is Magnus...

"Everyone makes mistakes, but I sometimes think I’ve made more than most. Marrying Magnus was one of them. But the biggest mistake I ever made was divorcing him."




 

HOUSE OF SILENCE - A Kindle best-seller 

"My friends describe me as frighteningly sensible, not at all the sort of woman who would fall for an actor. And his home. And his family."

Orphaned by drink, drugs and rock n’ roll, Gwen Rowland is invited to spend Christmas at her boyfriend Alfie's family home, Creake Hall - a ramshackle Tudor manor in Norfolk. She's excited about the prospect of a proper holiday with a proper family, but soon after she arrives, Gwen senses something isn't quite right. Alfie acts strangely toward his family and is reluctant to talk about the past. His mother, a celebrated children's author, keeps to her room, living in a twilight world, unable to distinguish between past and present, fact and fiction. And then there's the enigma of an old family photograph...

When Gwen discovers fragments of forgotten family letters sewn into an old patchwork quilt, she starts to piece together the jigsaw of the past and realises there's more to the family history than she's been told. It seems there are things people don’t want her to know.

And one of those people is Alfie…



Praise for HOUSE OF SILENCE...

“A story layered deep in pretence and secrecy, HOUSE OF SILENCE provides readers with the
puzzle-solving pleasure of golden age detective fiction, complete with letter fragments from the
past and the gothic backdrop of Creake Hall. The writing is sharp and crisp, with an edge of
dark humour. Unwinding through the narrative like a chain is the hold that the dead have
upon the living. I loved it.”
Rosy Thornton (THE TAPESTY OF LOVE and CROSSED WIRES)



"If you like dysfunctional Christmases, snowy gardens, peculiar mothers, gothic houses, mystery photos,
a bit of quilting, attractive Polish gardeners who play the cello, or any combination of the above, get downloading!"
From a review at Harriet Devine's Blog



"HOUSE OF SILENCE is one of those books you'll put everything else on hold for."
From a review at Cornflower Books



"Gillard's consistently smart writing and fully-fleshed characters are the only recommendation I need to read anything she writes."
From a review at Bookharbinger book blog


 

Rose Leonard is on the run from her life.

Taking refuge in a remote island community, she cocoons herself in work, silence and solitude in a house by the sea. But she is haunted by her past, by memories and desires she'd hoped were long dead. Rose must decide whether she has chosen a new life or just a different kind of death. Life and love are offered by new friends, her lonely daughter and most of all Calum, a fragile younger man who has his own demons to exorcise.

But does Rose, with her tenuous hold on life and sanity, have the courage to say yes to life and put her past behind her?



PRAISE FOR EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY...

“Lyrical, intriguing and haunting.” Isla Dewar


“An un-put-downable page-turner” WELL? magazine


"A hymn of praise to the damaged, to the incomplete, a wonderful thing of hope." www.BookCrossing.com


"One of the most outstanding first novels I believe I've ever read."
From a review at The Bluestalking Reader

THE WAVERTON GOOD READ AWARD

EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY was shortlisted for the 2006 Waverton Good Read Award, given by the readers of Waverton village in Cheshire to the best first novel by a UK author.

PURE PASSION

EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY was runner-up for the PURE PASSION award. North West Libraries chose Linda's off-beat love story as one of 20 books on their PURE PASSION - Recommended Reads booklist promoting the best of romantic fiction in its many forms.



EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY is now out of print but will be published as a Kindle e-book in June 2011.
It will be available from Amazon, priced £1.90/$2.99



A LIFETIME BURNING - Linda's controversial second novel for Transita

‘I think I was damned from birth,’ Flora said, staring vacantly into space. ‘Damned by my birth.’

Greedy for experience but determined to be good, Flora Dunbar spends a lifetime seeking love, trying to build a future out of the wreckage of her past - an eccentric childhood spent in the shadow of her musical twin, Rory; early marriage to Hugh, a clergyman twice her age; motherhood, which brings her Theo, the son she cannot love; middle-age, when she finds brief happiness in a scandalous affair with her nephew, Colin.

‘If you asked my sister-in-law why she hated me, she’d say it was because I seduced her precious firstborn, then tossed him onto the sizeable scrap-heap marked “Flora’s ex-lovers”. But she’d be lying. That isn’t why Grace hated me. Ask my brother Rory...’



Praise for A LIFETIME BURNING...

“The emotional power in these novels makes this reviewer reflect on how
Charlotte and Emily Bronte might have written if they were living and writing now.”
Daisy Mackenzie, Northwords Now

"Disturbing themes, sensitively explored … An emotional avalanche.”
Lochcarron Reading Group

"I can heartily recommend Linda Gillard. Her two novels, EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY
and A LIFETIME BURNING are excellent reads."
Adele Geras, author of FACING THE LIGHT and HESTER'S STORY (Orion)

"[Gillard] wrote well in her first novel; she writes even better in her second.
A LIFETIME BURNING is hugely more ambitious."
West Highland Free Press



A LIFETIME BURNING was chosen by Chicago book blogger The Bluestalking Reader as one of
her Top Ten Books of 2006.

"Books that force you to look at things in a different light, and force you out of your comfort zone, do what fiction was meant to do. No light or easy read, not to mention not a comfortable one, A LIFETIME BURNING addresses some very controversial subject matter. Yet, Gillard finds the absolute perfect line to tread, not condoning the actions of the characters but still presenting them as fallible yet worthy human beings. A truly skillful novel, and one that deserves a much wider audience."

www.bluestalking.typepad.com



SIGNED COPIES

EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY and A LIFETIME BURNING are now out of print. If you're unable to find a copy or would like a signed copy, contact Linda at the email address below.

At the moment HOUSE OF SILENCE and UNTYING THE KNOT exist only as Kindle e-books, but the Kindle app can be downloaded free from Amazon and used on PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android and Blackberry.

Linda will also supply signed bookplates featuring the Isle of Skye free of charge on receipt of an s.a.e. Email for further details.



REVIEW COPIES FOR BOOK BLOGGERS

If you review fiction on your Blog and would like a copy of one of Linda's books,
please contact her at

info@lindagillard.co.uk





And finally, to avoid confusion...

Please note that THE BROKEN BOY, a memoir published in the US, is nothing to do with Linda Gillard, the UK author of contemporary fiction. Unfortunately three authors share the same name. (The other writes teaching text books.)