Colouring Outside the Lines Amanda Paull | Review & Excerpt
A book blog tour from Rachel’s Random Resources.
Thank you to the author, publisher, & Rachel for providing me the information for this tour.
Book Details
Colouring Outside The Lines by Amanda Paull Series: Cherry Dene #3
Published by Independent on 07/29/2021
Genres: Fiction, British Humor, Contempoary Romance, Humorous, LGBTQ, Romance, Satire
Format: eBook, Paperback
Pages: 239
Meet Katie: she’s about to marry the most wonderful man in the world. The planning is done, the checklist is checked. The future is set.
Having spent her twenties and thirties enjoying life with good friends and building a career she loves, it’s taken Katie until her forties to contemplate settling down. And she couldn’t be more delighted she waited.
So, why is her perfect groom standing gawping at her, wearing mismatched socks and sweating buckets? This can’t bode well.
With her special day in tatters, Katie has a decision to make. Does she snatch back the reins of her old life and tighten her grip even more, or should she take a chance on change? Will she find the key to happiness at a Pilates class in a smelly old hall? Or is the curveball heading her way too huge to handle?
If you like British humour and a flawed protagonist on an emotional journey, you’ll enjoy reading Amanda Paull’s latest novel, Colouring Outside the Lines – a heart-warming tale of shattered dreams, self-discovery, and finding true love where you least expect it.
Source: Amazon Purchase, Kindle Unlimited, Rachel's Random Resources, Received from the author or publisher for review.
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Purchase Links for Colouring Outside the Lines
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My thoughts on Colouring Outside the Lines
Amanda Paull has penned an interesting story for us. At first glance, it’s a romantic comedy. But it’s so much deeper as you delve into the story.
Katie is not your typical likable protagonist. She is in denial about her OCD, she jumps to conclusions entirely too fast, and she has a bit of a persecution issue. Yet, you keep rooting for her to turn it around.
Was she jilted at the altar? Not according to her fiancee. Katie disagrees and decides to go on to the honeymoon cottage then return to work. She faces the aftermath of the failed wedding with her head held high, most of the time.
Between dealing with her parents’ health and marriage issues, trying to figure out her life without Conner, and the myriad of daily problems, her lists, and organization, are failing her.
She turns to her friends, old & new, to help her through panic attacks and re-evaluating her life. Along the way, she gradually learns more about herself, the deep-seated roots of her OCD, and life in general.
Eventually, as we knew it would, she begins to turn her life around and accept that she can’t control everyone and every situation.
The characters are real and entertaining. The pacing is even and doesn’t lag at all. The plot is believable and keeps you reading to the end. Overall, I found Colouring Outside the Lines an enjoyable, quick story to read. This book from Amanda Paull’s Cherry Dene series will appeal to fans of British humor, unreliable protagonists, and self-discovery romance stories. Please note, this book is a stand-alone novel.
I received a copy of the book for the tour. This review is my honest, unbiased opinion.
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About Amanda Paull
Amanda Paull is a writer of humorous romantic short stories and women's fiction.
She grew up in the North East of England and couldn't wait to move away. However, after studying and then living both in England and abroad, she returned to the North East and wouldn't dream of living anywhere else now.
After a short career in teaching, she retrained as a nurse. She recently retired from her post as a Sleep Nurse Specialist and now spends her time writing Women’s Fiction novels and Romantic Comedy short stories.
The inspiration for her stories comes from real life, which she tries to show the funnier side of by embellishing it to the hilt.
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Excerpt from Colouring Outside the Lines
Gina thank you so much for inviting me to post an extract from my new novel, Colouring Outside The Lines on your blog
The extract I have chosen shows the main character, Katie, abseiling down the Tyne Bridge, after her lazy Boss manipulates her into taking his place. This scene didn’t feature in the early drafts of the story, but one day, as my mother was sitting in my garden having a cup of tea, she reminisced about the time she abseiled down the bridge for charity. Unfortunately, due to a misunderstanding, everyone thought she’d lost her nerve, when she hadn’t. Though it wasn’t funny at the time, it really made us laugh and she allowed me to fictionalise it for Katie. I hope this scene gives you a giggle, too.
“… Katie threw the mobile into the glove compartment, locked it, and slammed out of the car. ‘Right, let’s get this bloody thing over.’
Her slot was in fifteen minutes. She calculated that if it was running to time, she could be done and dusted and on her way to South Shields within the hour. Great, she thought, quickening her pace to the registration point. A cheerful young volunteer in a green T-shirt checked off her name from his list and directed her up to section A on the bridge.
As Katie set off up the bank, she heard a group of people making whooping noises and chorus, ‘Go on, Matron.’ She glanced up and felt her insides plummet at the sight of Laura, standing at point B on the bridge, looking lithe and confident as she waved down to them. They were holding a massive banner with ‘St Mary’s Critical Care Unit’ painted across it in bright colours. So, thought Katie bitterly, not only was Laura a nurse, but she was also a matron, to boot. In Critical Care, no less. She heard her mother’s impressed voice rattle through her head. ‘Ooh, she could get into the US, no bother. I’m surprised the US hasn’t head-hunted her. See, Katie, you should have been a nurse.’
What irritated her even more than Laura’s perfect rappel down was her safety helmet. Naturally, it was different to the rest – mint green, with her name across the front in a fun, bubblegum pink font. ‘Of course, she’s got her own helmet,’ Katie muttered, scarpering up to the top of the bridge before Laura could spot her.
‘Watch it, you’re in the way,’ said a man in a black beret, who had aimed a camera at Laura just as Katie inadvertently ran in front of him.
‘Sorry, sorry,’ she said, dipping down into a crouching retreat before scuttling back up behind him. ‘Wouldn’t do to obscure his view of blooming Laura,’ she fumed under her breath.
At the top, a Macmillan volunteer asked Katie a series of safety questions, went through the instructions, and then helped her into a harness and triple-checked all the devices, knots, and ropes. Though she hadn’t abseiled since the summer camp she hadn’t wanted to go on, she recalled the importance of setting up certain bits according to whether you were right or left-handed.
‘Shouldn’t the rappel device be on the opposite side?’ Katie asked.
The guy gave her a patronizing smile. ‘No, don’t you worry, it’s fine.’
‘Okay, if you say so,’ she said, assuming equipment must have changed over the years and that it no longer mattered.
He gave a couple of cords a last pull. ‘Right, you’re set to go.’
Katie climbed over the side and was surprised to feel a frisson of excitement. She’d been so cheesed off about having to do this in the first place that she’d forgotten she enjoyed abseiling. Especially that feeling of safely free-falling through the air.
‘On rappel,’ shouted the guy to another volunteer who was holding the rope at the bottom.
‘Great,’ she said, buzzing with anticipation. Katie gripped the cord in her right hand, planted her feet on the side of the bridge and leaned back, a beaming smile stretching the corners of her mouth. She was going to enjoy this.
‘Stop, hang on. Stop!’ shouted the guy at the top. ‘You’re holding it with the wrong hand.’
‘No, I’m not. Look, thumb to bum,’ she said, miming the start-stop action.
‘Yes, but that sides only for right-handed people. You need to hold it with your other hand.’
‘I am right-handed.’
‘Oh, I thought you said left.’ He made an exaggerated arm crossing motion as he called down to the guy on the ground to abandon proceedings.
‘Aw,’ roared the crowd.
‘Hop back over.’
As Katie went to climb over the side, the crowd watched in silence.
A lone voice declared, ‘She’s bottled it.’
‘Never mind, pet, at least you gave it a go,’ someone called up from the ground.
‘No, I haven’t,’ Katie shouted with her best look-I’m-not-scared wave to the crowd. ‘The cord’s on the wrong –’
A juggernaut rumbled across the bridge with a supportive, if ear-piercing, beep, beep, beep, beep, beeeeeeep, drowning out her attempt to explain.
She gave up and scrambled back over the side, much more clumsily than she would have liked, given that hundreds of eyes were now firmly fixed on her. ‘I don’t blooming-well believe this,’ she muttered.
Five minutes later, she was once more leaning away from the bridge, this time with the rope on the correct side. She walked the first few steps into the descent.
‘Go on, Katie, you can do it,’ shouted Laura from the ground.
She wobbled. Damn, she’s seen me.
‘Ka-tie, Ka-tie,’ shouted Laura’s nurses.
Bloody hell. Shut up. Go away.
‘You’re doing great, Katie,’ shouted – Connor?
‘What the heck?’ she said, her head jerking around. Katie gasped. Connor was standing with Laura and her crowd. She went into a head spin. Was he dating her? Was that what he wanted to speak to her about? Surely not. He wouldn’t do that, would he? ‘You cowardly two-timing rat. And you, you man-stealing –’
‘You okay?’ asked the Macmillan guy. He was leaning over the side looking at her, concern etched across his face.
Katie shot him a fake enthusiastic grin. ‘Yes, I’m absolutely fine. Hunky-dory.’ Well, if Connor was dating Laura, the pair of them could rot in hell.
She gave a big push-off and shot through the air, to massive applause and cheers from the crowd.
In spite of the circumstances, Katie felt absolutely fantastic. ‘Weeee,’ she cried, zipping through the air, all thoughts of Connor and Laura extinguished from her mind. ‘Yee-haa! Whoop-eeeeeee!’ …”
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