#FridayFiveChallenge

This fun feature is a mini workshop invented by Rosie Amber. We look at book covers just from their thumbnail pictures at online selling book sites and make quick fire buying decisions. We look from a READERS Point of View and this exercise is very EYE OPENING.

To join in with the #FridayFiveChallenge please read the rules at the bottom of the page.

This week I browsed under the keyword Magic and I came across three books by Meena Van Praag including The House at the End of Hope Street.  

After Alba Ashby suffers the Worst Events of Her Life, she finds herself at the door of 11 Hope Street, Cambridge. There, a beautiful older woman named Peggy invites Alba to stay, on the house’s usual conditions: she’ll have 99 nights, and no more, to turn her life around. Once inside, Alba sees that 11 Hope Street is no ordinary place. Past residents include Virginia Woolf, Dorothy Parker, and Agatha Christie, who all stayed there when they, too, had lost hope. With the house’s help, Alba decides to risk everything – and embarks on a journey that may even save her life.

There’s a suggestion of the sort of book which Cecelia Ahern writes and I always enjoy the magic she includes in her plots but let’s turn to the reviews of The House at the End of Hope Street.

Both lyrical and literary, with an engrossing plot peopled with characters you can’t help but root for, The House at the End of Hope Street is a beautiful and spirit-lifting book. Who wouldn’t want to live in a house where shelves magically fill with books, closets magically fill with clothes, and hot chocolate has healing properties?

And from a male reviewer this was added:-

In a world where warmth, unselfishness and a touch of everyday magic are in such woefully short supply it was a genuine and (yes…for a bloke, unexpected) pleasure to follow the diverse and constantly surprising, romantic adventures of a motley band of women (of all ages), all resident in a very odd Cambridge house, each with her own over-stuffed bag of quirks, foible and failings and each seeking the missing piece to her own hitherto private, emotional jigsaw. This is essentially a book about friendship, the resilience of the human spirit and the redemptive power of love in all its guises. All that plus deep secrets and dark chocolate.

The Kindle edition is priced at £2.63 So shall I BUY or will I PASS?

I can’t resist, I’m going to BUY.

What have others chosen this week?

Rosie has found a travel guide to Utah

Shelley is looking at a new release with a warming cover

Cathy is feeling icy cold

Barb is tracing the Rivers of London supernaturally

So now it’s your turn.

Get yourself a cuppa and give yourself 5 minutes.

In today’s online shopping age, readers often base their buying decisions from small postage stamp size book covers (Thumb-nails), a quick glance at the book description and the review. How much time do they really spend making that buying decision?

AUTHORS – You often only have seconds to get a reader to buy your book, is your book cover and book bio up to it?

Rosie’s Friday Five Challenge is this….. IN ONLY FIVE MINUTES….

1) Go to any online book supplier.

2) Randomly choose a category.

3) Speed through the book covers, choose one which has instantly appeal.

4) Read the book Bio/ Description for this book, and any other details.

5) If there are reviews, check out a couple,

6) Make an instant decision, would you BUY or PASS?