The Vision Board Blog Tour

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Book Details

The Vision Board

Two best friends. Two one-way tickets. And a future that might just surprise them.
Bex and Amy are best friends and total opposites. Bex is cynical, Amy is romantic. Bex is chaotic, Amy is organised. With the prospect of turning 34 just around the corner, neither is where they expected to be at this point in their lives.
Bex is exploring her sexuality and has a string of failed relationships, while Amy is newly single and desperate to fall in love. Armed with a photographic vision board of the future, Bex and Amy put their trust in ‘The Universe’ and fly from London to Bali, then on to Australia in search of adventure, cocktails on the beach and maybe even love.
Almost immediately, Amy finds someone who is the perfect fit for her dream life. While Bex is stuck playing double dates with his best friend, the most pompous man she has ever met, but also one of the hottest. Travelling via white sand beaches, lush rainforests and road trips through idyllic scenery, the images on their vision board begin to transform into reality.
However, people are not always what they seem, and first impressions are not always accurate. Add in a queer, charismatic love interest and a vindictive ex-girlfriend, and the path of true love begins to get a little more complex.
When ‘The Universe’ has its own agenda, is it possible to manifest a happy ever after?
An Enemies to Lovers destination romance with a sprinkling of Pride and Prejudice vibes.

Purchase Link – https://amzn.eu/d/7RHRCoc

Extract:

The main character in the book, Bex, is a struggling actress, but spends much of her time working in a bar. This section is a conversation between her and her friend/workmate Ryan. They are on a quiet shift and have been talking about their mostly unsuccessful love lives and Bex’s forthcoming trip with Amy. Ryan is speaking at the start of the extract.

‘Well, now you mention it, someone promising has popped onto my radar. He’s a bit different to my usual type. Gentle, introverted, rather nerdy. He does something to do with computer coding that I won’t even pretend to understand.’

‘Ooh, he sounds–’

‘Maybe, but we’re not talking about me. This is about you. And I think you’d benefit from a bit of practice before you go off on your Grand Shagging Tour of the Southern Hemisphere.’

There’s a sudden throat-clearing noise, and we both realise a customer is standing at the bar. Goodness knows how long he’s been there. Or how much he’s overheard. ‘I’m sorry, Sir, I took my eye off the ball there for a moment,’ Ryan says with a suggestive grin. The man is probably in his 60s, bald, and extremely clammy. This is either nerves or the thick sweater he’s wearing. I pretend to be hot too, flapping a menu in front of my face. The heating is on in the bar, and even though it’s September, it’s been cold and rainy for weeks, nothing even approaching the Indian Summer promised by the media. Mind you, this is the same media that says we’re heading for the coldest Winter on record. Again. Thank goodness it’s only a few weeks until I escape to some proper sunshine.

‘Is it me, or is it warm today? I swear this weather doesn’t know if it’s coming or going.’ I switch on a fan behind the bar and angle it gently in the customer’s direction. He smiles with a mixture of gratitude and relief.

‘How can I help brighten your afternoon, Sir?’ Ryan asks. ‘Are you here alone or meeting a friend?’

‘As a matter of fact, I’m meeting a lady. It’s a date. I’m a bit nervous to tell you the truth. It’s been a while; I think I need some Dutch courage.’

‘Don’t worry, I’ll look after your every need. On which note, can I interest you in a “Thirst Trap?”’ Ryan winks in the most unsubtle manner possible, and the poor man turns crimson.

‘Err, no. I err … well, I don’t think that’s very appropriate–’

‘Don’t get all excited, it’s not that kind of thirst trap. I was talking about our Cocktail of the Week.’

‘Oh, I see. OK. Sorry, I was–’

‘Dirty mind aye? Well, you’ve come to the right bar,’ Ryan teases and hands him a chalkboard with various drinks listed. The customer looks mortified, so I jump in with a smile, make him a cocktail and get him talking.

[Martin – accountant, enjoys a spot of gardening, wife left him for a younger man she met at her salsa dancing class.]

Martin gets through his “Thirst Trap” in record time and orders a double shot of Whiskey. ‘It’s my own fault, I suppose,’ he tells me. ‘The wife wanted me to go to the classes with her. Said we needed to get the spark back, what with things having gone a bit south in the bedroom department, you know how it is.’ I nod, even though I don’t know. ‘But dancing’s not for me, love, not with my dodgy back and my tendency to sweat.’ I smile sympathetically and move the fan a little closer to him.

‘Well. Onwards and upwards, Martin,’ I say, removing both the shot glass and cocktail glass. ‘Let’s slow it down a little, shall we. Don’t want too many drinks before your lady gets here.’ I hand him a glass of iced water with an encouraging smile. I feel as nervous as he looks, and it’s not even my date. A smartly dressed woman arrives shortly afterwards. She’s wearing a stylish coat, belted at the waist, and has grey hair cut into a neat bob. She smiles toward us reticently, so I wave her over.

‘You must be Linda,’ I say. ‘Come and meet Martin. He’s only just arrived himself.’

Martin persuades Linda to try the ‘Thirst Trap,’ so I make a couple more, settle them at a little table tucked away in a corner and resume my chat with Ryan.

‘For your information,’ I tell him haughtily, ‘this is not a “Shagging Tour.” It’s some much-needed time out. An escape from reality. Amy and I are simply going to have a few adventures and see where life takes us.’

‘Bull. Shit. One whiff of sun cream and a few too many cocktails and the pair of you will be tarting about the place like a couple of rabid Cougars. I can see you now, seducing all those unsuspecting young backpackers.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

‘Seriously, Hun. This is good timing for you – I feel it in my bones. People away from home are more carefree and willing to let go of their normal patterns. You never know, you might even open up and let someone get close to you for a change. I know you’d love to find someone and settle down. This tough, independent, I’m-better-off-single thing you’ve got going on isn’t fooling me for one second.’ I’m about to protest, but perhaps he’s right. Have I had enough of being alone? I’m just thinking that Ryan can be genuinely sweet and sensitive, when he ruins everything by adding, ‘It’s not fooling me, because you are not that good an actress, darling. Trust me.’

Author Bio

Siobhan Murphy is a writer and photographer based in the UK. She writes (and reads) both light-hearted romantic comedies and contemporary women’s fiction/Bookclub fiction.

Her writing hours are sponsored by Earl Grey tea, chocolate bars several glasses of wine. When she is not writing, reading, or working in her photography day job, her hobbies are eating haribo sweets, talking nonsense and walking into rooms wondering why she is there.

She loves to travel, laugh at the absurdity of life, and enjoy a glass of wine with good friends. She loves a good TV binge session, especially shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Virgin River, Emily in Paris, or This is Us. She can be an emotional wreck who often runs out of tissues and when she was a child, her dad had to constantly reassure her that programmes on the TV weren’t real. The upside of this is that she can legitimately class her habit of binge-watching RomCom films as ‘research.’

Siobhan loves to escape into books and live in other worlds. Like most writers, she has been an avid reader from the second she hurtled into the world (well perhaps a little bit after that). Over the years she’s drifted around the world in search of adventure, hoping to figure out what to do with her life. She is not sure if she has the answer yet but writing certainly comes close. Though she suspects her long-suffering family, and her liver might not agree.

She’s impulsive and easily bored, so she’s turned her hand to many jobs over the years. She’s worked in places as diverse as the High Commission in Nairobi; a market stall selling cheese in the UK and an 80ft racing yacht in Australia. Been a secondary school English teacher and a Barista with no discernible talent for making coffee. She’s done admin work for a number of businesses but discovered that offices aren’t really for her. Her favourite job was as a bookseller for Waterstones, she loved recommending books to customers and applying those 3 for 2 stickers that people find so hard to remove. For the last 19 years she’s been a professional photographer, taking portraits of humans – often the really, really small ones.