Thanks to Fiction Addiction Book Tours for sending me the details of this Book Tour.......
The Biggest Lie
The Hague, Holland 1976
After a procession of hapless relationships, 23 year-old Lana Milton finds herself recklessly falling for a man who should be out of bounds, but despite fighting with her emotions the affair begins, an affair which can only cause pain and heartache; not only to Lana but - more importantly - to the innocent party.
After a procession of hapless relationships, 23 year-old Lana Milton finds herself recklessly falling for a man who should be out of bounds, but despite fighting with her emotions the affair begins, an affair which can only cause pain and heartache; not only to Lana but - more importantly - to the innocent party.
Coming face to face with the one
person she is hurting the most, Lana has to make a decision which breaks her
heart. She knows that she is the only one to make the choice, something she can
only do by lying, a lie which betrays the truth. Lana’s distortion of the truth
closes the door on the only real love she has known.
In life’s ups and downs even her
best friend Tess, is not what she seems. Tess turns on her, leaving her and
their friendship in tatters.
From Holland, Lana moves on to a
new start in London where she meets rich, tormented Howard Marshall. Howard is
frustratingly aware that his love for Lana is not reciprocated. Slowly,
over-time his attempts to control her with his furtive mind-games and
calculated derisory tactics only serve to curtail the chance of her ever loving
him back in return.
After nearly 20 years of
manipulation, Howard’s desperate struggle to break the woman he loves finally
backfires when Lana, now middle-aged and fuelled with the still-burning embers
of her long-ago love, confronts Howard. She stands up to his bullying and
devious malicious ways, her anger fills her with a renewed strength in which
she finds the courage to leave him to start her life yet again.
Now in her late fifties and living
in a calm, non-disruptive world close to her family, Lana is content and yearns
for nothing more in life.
But fate has other ideas as it
smashes through the door to bring her life around, full circle.
The Biggest Lie – a tale of love,
friendship, hope and strength is set in the era of glitter-ball discos which
grows to maturity in the 21st century. Proof, that it’s never too late for
anything...
The
BIGGEST LIE is Available from Amazon
UK, Amazon
US and from Smashwords.
Excerpt
Lana played
with the front door key in her hand; did she really want to go in? No, she felt
ill at ease going in to her own home. How silly, she thought to herself as she
mechanically unlocked the door and went in to the small hallway. She bent down
to pick up a pile of free newspapers and flyers which no-one else had bothered
to clear up. As she turned her body sideways to get up the stairs, passing the
bikes suspended from the walls, she stuffed them in to a brightly painted
basket hanging on the front of one of the bikes. She could hear the television
coming from the ground floor flat, they had it easy, lugging heavy shopping up
these stairs had become a dreaded task; Lana would have loved to have a flat at
street level. The smell of something delicious bubbling on the hob came closer
as she got to the first floor, obviously not wafting down from her flat, if
only she could make a detour through that door… The stairs became steeper and
narrower as she began the climb up to the attic. She could hear the muffled
sound of men’s voices mingled with the sound of Simon & Garfunkel coming
from the stereo on the other side of the door. Lana threw her coat over the
bannister and went in to the bathroom. A dash of lipstick and swish of mascara
magically wiped away the tired end of the day look, she fluffed her short hair
with her fingers trying to replicate that Farrah Fawcett bounce, but today, her
hair flicked up and stuck out waywardly of its own accord, it couldn’t be tamed
into a sophisticated aura of splendour, so she shrugged her shoulders and let
it be. Lana took a deep breath before opening the door and entering the living
room. ‘Hi,’ she smiled at the three of them, each with a bottle of Amstel lager
in their hand, she moved quickly through into the kitchen before they could
respond or include her in their dreary chitchat. No roasting meaty smells
emitted from their kitchen. ‘I thought you said you’d done the cooking…‘
Lana could feel her heart thumping, she raised her hand and placed it on her
chest, the tremors banging against her palm, it must be from climbing those
stairs… ‘I have!’ Tess replied resentfully, ‘there’s no way you could have made
that roast in time,’ she glanced up at the clock, silently blaming Lana for not
being there to help but feeling relieved and more confident in the situation
now that her friend was now at home, ‘you’ll have to do it tomorrow though,
before the meat spoils.’ Lana ignored her comment, sometimes, actually, more
times than she cared to think about, she held her tongue when Tess spoke to her
like that, demanding that she jump and dance to her tune. ‘I’ve made the trifle
and here,’ Tess lifted the lid from a pan to reveal tinned tomato soup which
had been bubbling on the stove for so long the edges around the pan had become
thick and dark in colour. ‘I don’t like tomato soup,’ Lana said as Tess
replaced the lid. ‘I know you don’t but you’re going to have to eat it or go
without.’ ‘I’ll go without.’ She said happily. ‘So, is that it? Is that dinner?
Over-cooked tomato soup and lumpy sugared trifle?’ ‘Of course not, I knew you
wouldn’t want the starter so, whilst we are having our soup I thought that you
could cook the dinner, which is…cheese omelette, chips and salad, it won’t take
you long. I’ve whisked the eggs for you,’ Tess raised a tea towel from the
large mixing bowl to show her work. Lana felt pissed off with the; for you bit
Tess had tagged on to the end but that was Tess and she had learned not to
respond to such comments, she wouldn’t see her viewpoint on the matter, so,
most of the time Lana said nothing. ‘I’ve also peeled the potatoes,’ another
tea towel was raised to show raw potatoes in a bowl of water. ‘Can you go and
ask them to come to the table and I’ll start to dish the soup up.’ Tess thought
she had it all in hand and that the perfect dinner party was about to take
place. Lana went in to the living room feeling flustered and slightly awkward,
the three of them stopped talking as she went through, she caught the eye of
Joe and felt as though a vacuous planet swirled in her head, it dissipated all
the words in the universe and zapped the language from her memory. If she
closed her eyes she couldn’t even tell you what colour hair or eyes he had…the
shape of his nose…she wouldn’t be able to describe him to the police if he
burgled their flat. Lana’s subconsciousness would not allow any form or image
of him to register his existence within her, he had shot her senses to bits,
her co-ordination and entity were in smithereens and the breath had been sucked
out of her. Nearly two hours of drinking and she was now completely sober. The
one thing Lana knew for certain was; that she was completely out of her depth with
the situation and didn’t have the foggiest idea how to act, or react, to it.
Sean spoke first as he heard the clanking of metal on pot as Tess dished up the
“home cooked” starter, ‘it smells good,’ he said, being polite. ‘Tomato
soup.’ Lana said, her mouth now running away with itself, ‘I’m not sure what
you were expecting,’ she couldn’t help but chuckle at the situation, ‘but a
home-cooked full roast dinner with Yorkshire’s it ain’t!’ ‘It doesn’t matter…’
‘Whatever it is will be great… I’m sure...’ ‘It’s nice to be out of those pokey
rooms we are in…’ All three of them spoke at once as they followed her through
into the kitchen, they eyed the bedside table with its floral cushion and their
relief was visible as Tess directed each of them to a chair, leaving Lana with
the cupboard to sit on. The best way, Lana decided, to cook such a huge
omelette would be in the wok and, as she had no intention of putting on a pan
of oil to fry chips; the smell and the noise would be a hazard to her sanity,
she decided on an alternative. She put the eggs on a low heat, ‘I’m just going
out. Will you keep an eye on the omelette please?’ Lana asked, hoping that at
least one of them would have better culinary skills than Tess. She thought she
heard someone utter “omelette?” in disbelief as she left the kitchen.
She did though; quite clearly hear Joe say to Tess, ‘Where’s she going? Will
she be back?’ To which Tess replied, ‘God only knows. Now eat up whilst it’s
still hot.’
The
omelette turned out to be somewhat better than you’d imagine it would be;
granted, it was a bit tough and dry on the outside but the middle was fluffy
and light and, once it had been tipped out of the wok on to the large serving
platter it looked like a splendid, anaemic Christmas pudding covered with bits
of spam, onion, cheese, chopped tomato and crispy brown bits. Lana proudly held
it aloft and with a loud fanfare from their guests she placed it in the middle
of the dining table; it took all of five seconds before it began to slowly
deflate before their eyes; the mock fanfare faded away as their voices sighed
in unison with a big “Aww!” they watched as the omelette spread itself
out to accommodate all the available space on the platter. ‘Never mind…’everyone
uttered jovially as she tipped the oversized bag of French fries into the
largest mixing bowl they had in the house. Lana had bought far too many chips
from the corner caff but at least they would become bloated from the starch and
feel that they had done a good job of filling them up, give them enough booze
and they will think they’ve dined at the Ritz.
About the Author
I'm
the author of two fictional novels; The Biggest Lie and Luca.
I
was born in York, England in the early 1950s and lived there until the 70s when
I took off to go travelling around Europe. I spent the decade living and
working in Paris - France, Spain and many years in Holland before returning to
England in 1983 where I settled in London before moving to Cambridgeshire where
I now live; close to my niece and her family. I believe that there's still
another location or two I have yet to move on to...
I’m
a nomadic-hippy at heart; my experiences have been a big influence contributing
to the colourful characters and incidents in my books.
JC,
my OH lives in the States, we’re still working out how we will be together but
as I’m a great believer in fate, I don’t worry. After all that we’ve been
through, I know that the time will come. It’s not a problem for us being so far
apart, we’re both secure in our love and I feel him with me constantly. Picking
up the phone to each other is so easy these days with Skype – it’s as simple as
calling your friend in the next town. The miles between us hold no intrusion
into our relationship.
I
like other people cooking for me, JC’s a much better cook than me and I love
being in the kitchen with him, I wash up and make a salad as he cooks the
dinner.
I
get emotional at the most obscure things; when I see horses frollicking around
a field, I well up with emotion…I look at pictures of our beautiful planet and
I feel a strange kind of homesickness...I don’t like vacuuming though, the
noise and the way that tube thing bangs against your leg, how it jams itself
behind doors; I really cannot stand the things.
Gardening’s
another thing I despise, despite my love of nature – I feel that all that
weeding is a waste of time.
I
look forward to the day when I pack up, move to be with JC and I can say,
‘Well, that’s no more mowing for me…’
Author Links
Twitter:
@LisbethFoye
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/LisbethFoyeAuthor
The
author is requesting that reviews are posted on Amazon and Goodreads.
The
overall UK giveaway ties in with the story:
2 x
notebooks
4 x message
plaques/note pegs
4 x message
doves
1 x bird
whistle
1 x stone
engraved with bird paperweight
Many thanks for hosting today Margaret, Much appreciated
ReplyDeleteLisbeth Foye
sounds good
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking part in Lisbeth's tour Margaret.
ReplyDeleteShaz