Win: A copy of The Valentine's Card by Juliet Ashton! CLOSED

Posted by Carleen Peters in Book News, Competitions, Sphere

‘You’ll laugh and cry your way through this original and touching love story’
CLOSER (FOUR STARS)

‘A smart, funny and incredibly poignant novel about the power of love, laughter and friendship’
FABULOUS

‘A wonderfully written, enthralling novel that will pull at your heart strings and deepen your laughter lines. ’
Novelicious.com

‘Filled with mystery, intrigue and humour. The Valentine’s Card is definitely my recommended alternative Valentine read’
www.handwrittengirl.com

‘The parallels between this and P.S. I Love You are impossible to ignore, but the story is at the same time quite different (and, in my opinion, much better)…’
www.bookbag.co.uk

Praise is flooding in for The Valentine’s Card, the fabulous first novel from Juliet Ashton and we are so glad to hear that readers are loving this funny and uplifting novel as much as we do!

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, we have six copies of this heart-warming tale of love, laughter, and starting over to giveaway.

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is tell us about THE Valentine's Day experience that changed your life. To get you started Juliet Ashton has written this exclusive article on the Valentine's Day that changed her life.

It's the most romantic day of the year, and that's official. A day when even the most negligent, gormless male must man up and make with the roses. I'm a dyed in the wool romantic, always happy to sprint off on a mini-break, or coo at my beloved over a heart shaped sponge that only took eight hours and numerous swear words to create, but I find Valentine's Day daunting.

It's the pressure. Get it wrong and it will go down in history: couples with grandchildren still shudder at the memory of a 1985 chocolate heart that melted, or a card that didn't arrive on time. If one had the time and inclination to create a graph that showed the numbers of men hyperventilating in the red bra department of major stores, it would spike dramatically in early February.

What would Saint Valentine himself have made of all this? After extensive research (I Googled him) I have to report that there is tantalisingly little information about this beacon of romance. What I could discover was uninspiring – a third century bishop is not my idea of a dream dinner date. Furthermore, it seems that romance is not his only area of heavenly expertise. He's also the patron saint of bee keepers and the plague. Quite the multi-tasker.

I have something to thank Saint Valentine for. Not only do I now earn my living writing books about love in all its multi-coloured plumage (I owe the title of my current book to him, after all) but he procured me my first boyfriend.

John (not his real name) (oh alright I admit it, it is his real name) was head boy. He was captain of the rugby team. He was tipped to go to Oxford. He was tall, blue eyed, already a man, head and shoulders above the tittering boys of my sixth form.

I adored him. From afar. I thought I was being discreet but everybody, from the headmaster to the caretaker's cat, knew of my yearning. And crikey, a schoolgirl can yearn. I was yearning 24/7, with very little time left over for revision.

John didn't seem to notice me. Yearning away like flip, I was comfortable with this. Actually going out with him was too much to ask of the universe.

So I was gobsmacked when, at the Saint Valentine's Day disco, John asked me to dance. Then John kissed me. And John asked me to go to the cinema with him that Saturday.

When I came round, I said 'Yes' and the rest is history. Six weeks of history, to be precise, but a good six weeks, all in all.
I asked him, years later, when we were all grown up and Just Good Friends, why he'd asked me out when we obviously whatsoever had nothing in common and he replied "I loved that valentine's card you sent me. After that, I just had to see if it would work."

"Oh," I said. "I see."

I didn't tell him that I'd never sent him a Valentine's card.

That naughty old saint works overtime …

To enter, send your answers to betweenthesheets@littlebrown.co.uk with the subject line ‘The Valentine's Card competition’ by midnight on Thursday 21st February. Please be sure to include your full name, email address and telephone number in your email and don’t forget to read the full terms and conditions and our privacy policy before entering.

The Valentine's Card is available from all good bookshops now. You can read or listen to an extract from The Valentine's Card here. Find out more about what inspired the novel here. Or find Juliet Ashton on Twitter or Pinterest.