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A Love Story, by Kate in Publicity



This is a picture of my bookshelf, taken last night. I don't really have an organizational system and promise I didn't re-organize it to look more impressive (or I definitely would have replaced that Adriana Trigiani book with David Foster Wallace or something equally highbrow).

Those of you familiar with Overlook's highest-selling titles might realize the books in the middle--the Penny Vincenzi "Spoils of Time" trilogy. I actually applied for this job having read most of Penny's books, and am ridiculously excited to be working on her new one, Forbidden Places, that comes out in October.

But as I pitch these books, I find myself trying to prove that I'm not just being a publicist--these are historical romances that I actually think are fantastic. Sure, they're not the most literary thing we publish here, but they're pretty high-end commercial romance and I love the historical aspects as well.


I kind of want to attach this picture of my much-loved copy of No Angel to the pitches I'm sending out to reviewers, producers, and bloggers. "I'm one of you!" it seems to say. "Once upon a time, I wasn't a publicist. I was just a reader. And look how many times I read this book!"

In my cover letter that I submitted when applying for this job, I mentioned how I recommended these books to all of my girlfriends (after my grandmother recommended them to me. Generations coming together!). The upside? They loved the books too, and are badgering me for advance copies of Forbidden Places. The downside? I have to explain to them that my job is just slightly less glamorous than that of Lady Celia Lytton.

Anyways, I just wanted to share that it's incredibly fun to be a fan of an author and also get to work with her titles--and that this isn't me fluffing Forbidden Places, I actually AM that big of a fan of Penny Vincenzi.

Do you love her, too? Leave a comment, and be sure to pre-order Forbidden Places (or the paperback of Windfall, out this month!)--I think it's the best non-Celia Lytton book yet. And Penny fans know that that is high praise, indeed.

Happy reading!

Another stellar review for Penny Vincenzi's Windfall has arrived: "In London 1935, Cassia Tallow has been married to a practicing doctor Edward for seven years while she has stayed home to raise their three young children. She is somewhat envious of her spouse as she also was trained as a doctor, but he insists she stay at home. Cassia is scrubbing the alter steps when she learns she inherited a fortune from her godmother, Lady Beatty, who drank Champagne with the rich, aristocratic and famous like Edward VIII. With a half a million pounds, Cassia has the means to join the upper crust if she chooses or practice medicine to the neglected working-class women as she once dreamed of; something her husband objects to. However, Cassia soon begins to learn that her liberating windfall may not rightfully belong to her; ethical as always, she investigates with a need to learn the truth. Sometimes the truth will not set you free as Cassia learns that with each revelation comes increasing danger.

This a typical entertaining Penny Vincenzi historical thriller as the ethical heroine tries to do what is right, but finds that dangerous. Cassia makes the story line work as her actions after learning of her WINDFALL place her in opposition with her demanding spouse and to a degree her children, but eventually she goes after what she wants for herself: providing medical care to impoverish women. Fans of the author and those who enjoy a between World Wars English historical will want to read Ms. Vincenzi's blockbuster bonkbuster as the British would say over a cup of Earl Grey. - Midwest Book Review

Booklist takes note of Penny Vincenzi's Windfall: "Cassia Tallow, the independent, only child of a suffragette, wants to be a doctor, but given that she comes of age at the close of World War I, the closest she gets is marrying one. Cassia lives a quiet, pleasant life in West Sussex with her husband and their three children. Until the day she inherits half a million pounds from her sophisticated, slightly eccentric godmother. Suddenly everything is changed; everything is within reach; doors are open to her, and she can do whatever she likes. So Cassia moves to London and splurges on clothes, cars, and anything else she covets that she couldn’t afford before. But while she’s busy jetsetting around London, hanging out with glamorous people, and trying to restart her medical studies, she realizes that she’s hurting her husband and family in more ways than one. Then she begins to wonder where exactly the money she inherited came from. Another stirring novel with an ensemble cast from the prolific and entertaining Vincenzi."

A great notice in Publishers Weekly for Penny Vincenzi 's Windfall: "The British have coined a term for the kind of novels Vincenzi writes: bonkbusters. Her most recent one to appear stateside is a prime example: fast-paced, well written and full of sex. It’s set in 1930s London, where the very rich drink champagne with Edward VIII and the Mountbattens, while the poor have too many babies, nonexistent health care and can only afford to follow the antics of their royal family on the radio. Cassia Tallow, trained as a doctor but playing wife and mother when we first meet her, inherits a fortune from her glamorous godmother. The windfall thrusts Cassia back into a world of high society, high fashion and old lovers. It also gives her the opportunity to go back to practicing medicine and ministering to working-class women, which her husband has prevented her from doing. But when Cassia begins to suspect that the money may not be rightfully hers, she goes to dangerous lengths to find the truth. Once again, Vincenzi delivers grade-A entertainment."

Penny Vincenzi has just released a new novel The Best of Times, published by our friends at Doubleday, that is sure to be a summer bestseller. One of Britian's best-loved and most popular authors since her first novel was published in 1989, Penny Vincenzi has sold over four million books worldwide. Introduced to American readers by The Overlook Press, Penny's beloved backlist titles continue to find new readers. Coming this Fall from Overlook is Windfall, and a new paperback, An Outrageous Affair. For summer reading, we recommend Penny's classic Lytton family trilogy - "The Spoils of Time" - beginning with No Angel, followed by Something Dangerous and Into Temptation.

More praise for Penny Vincenzi in Booklist: "The author of No Angel (2003) and Sheer Abandon (2007) offers another sprawling saga, this one centered around a spirited English-woman and her two daughters. Caroline Miller falls hard for dashing American soldier Brendan FitzPatrick, but his disappearance during World War II leads her to give up the baby she conceived shortly before he shipped out. By the time Brendan returns, Caroline has married another man and is expecting a child with him. Caroline refuses to leave her husband, but she implores Brendan to reclaim their baby. He does, naming her Fleur and taking her back to New York with him, while Caroline raises her other daughter, Chloe, in England. When they reach adulthood, the girls’ fates intertwine in unexpected ways when Chloe’s husband appears to be tied to the scandalous death of Fleur’s beloved father. Fans of Barbara Taylor Bradford’s multigenerational stories will likely flock to An Outrageous Affair; the mystery will likely keep them turning the pages."

Janet Maslin of The New York Times includes Penny Vincenzi on her list of best chick-lit reading for the beach this summer: "Snobbery, treachery and status seeking are, of course, staples of the beach-book world. Penny Vincenzi, an accomplished if long-winded British writer whose style Publishers Weekly has called “chickensian,” has a particular affinity for all of the above.

Overlook has brought American readers five glittering epics by Penny Vincenzi, and the sixth will arrive in October with the long awaited publication of An Outrageous Affair. A number-one bestseller in Britain, this delicious page-turner is considered one of Penny's great family dramas.

Publishers Weekly reviews the forthcoming novel from Penny Vincenzi, An Outrageous Affair in this week's issue: "The latest sexy, overblown saga from Vincenzi’s British backlist tracks Lady Caroline Hunterton over 30 years, from the thick of WWII to the height of the counterculture. Her story is framed by an about-to-be-published tell-all from elusive yellow journalist Magnus Phillips, whose book unearths Caroline’s tragic and scandalous past, threatening everything she holds dear, especially the memory of Brendan FitzPatrick, her first love, and their daughter, Fleur. . . .Vincenzi provides plenty of heat and intrigue, and although a significant number of the multiple twists are expected, Vincenzi gives the sprawling whole enough oomph to carry one all the way through." An Outrageous Affair will be available in bookstores in October.

Penny Vincenzi will appear Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, CA on Monday, May 19, at 7pm. Vroman's was recently chosen as Bookseller of the Year by Publishers Weekly! Penny is on tour in America for the paperback release of Sheer Abandon, but is also signing copies of all her books, including Overlook bestsellers such as Almost a Crime, The Dilemma, No Angel, and Something Dangerous.

This is a terrific year for Penny Vincenzi fans. In June, Doubleday is bringing out An Absolute Scandal, another blockbuster novel set in the boom-and-bust years of the 1980s. And in October, Overlook will publish An Outrageous Affair, a mesmerizing page-turner that will delight new and old fans alike.

Any of Penny Vincenzi's novels offer romantic reading for Valentine's Day, and the new paperback edition of Almost A Crime is perfect place to start. Last year's The Dilemma is also a great page-turner - Penny's debut novel published in 1996 and only brought to American readers by The Overlook Press in 2007. This October, Overlook will publish An Outrageous Affair, perhaps her most sensational family saga yet. This tale moves from wartime England to fifties Hollywood, from glitzy Madison Avenue to London's theatrical aristocracy.

From the website Bookreporter.com comes a terrific review of Penny Vincenzi's The Dilemma: "The Overlook Press was the first American publisher to introduce the novels of Penny Vincenzi, a bestselling author in her native England, to American audiences. Although U.S. readers have yet to give Vincenzi the attention she deserves, her most recent novels have garnered the attention of a major U.S. publisher, Doubleday. Overlook Press, however, has continued its efforts to bring Vincenzi's backlist to American readers, and their latest endeavor is to release Vincenzi's debut novel (originally published in 1996) to the United States for the first time . . . The Dilemma is Vincenzi's debut novel, and readers already familiar with her subsequent fiction will notice how many elements of her successful novelistic formula have their genesis here. The quickly-shifting plotlines, the burgeoning cast of dozens of characters whose disparate lives soon become entangled for better or for worse, the oblique references to economic and political issues --- all these hallmarks of Vincenzi's more recent novels can be seen in The Dilemma, which is a hugely entertaining and even captivating read. Once American fans discover Vincenzi, they'll want to read everything she's written, and reading her debut is the perfect way to trace how Vincenzi skillfully developed the fiction-writing techniques that have served her so well in her many bestselling novels to date."

Penny Vincenzi's The Dilemma has finally reached American shores (and bookstores), and it's currently on top of the Overlook bestseller list!

Congrats, Penny. Sheer Abandon gets well-reviewed in The New York Times today. Her next book, The Dilemma, will be released by The Overlook Press this Fall along with the paperback of Almost a Crime. The books of the Lytton Family Trilogy Into Temptation, No Angel and Something Dangerous are all the summer reading you will need.

Philippia Stockley gives great notice to Penny Vincenzi's Almost a Crime in The Washington Post.

"Almost a Crime," an absolute page-turner, is cut from the usual pattern but opens in the 1990s, before the death of Princess Diana, whose presence flickers through the story. Wealthy, handsome couple Octavia and Tom Fleming are the toast of lunching London. Octavia, who has a new baby, runs a successful charity public relations company, while elegant, dark Tom ("His suits were all hand-tailored, and his shoes were handmade") is a political spin doctor. They are the couple who have it all -- one of the first in a long line of extended cliches. But soon Octavia finds a lacy vintage handkerchief in the laundry basket. Tom is having an affair.

Halley Bondy gives notice to Penny Vincenzi's ALMOST A CRIME in the Sunday NEW YORK DAILY NEWS!

ALMOST A CRIME by Penny Vincenzi (Overlook, $27.95) In Vincenzi's thriller, British couple Tom and Octavia Fleming seemingly enjoy the perfect life of power, riches and glamour until Tom, also a father of three, has an affair with his wife's best friend. His father-in-law vows to drive Tom out of business, while Octavia set outs to exact her own revenge. Then Tom's mistress turns on him when he ends the affair. It's all very heated, and sexually charged, especially coming on the heels of Vincenzi's Lytton Family trilogy ("Something Dangerous," "No Angel" and "Into Temptation").