Blog Tour: Whatever Happened To Vicky Hope's Backup man // Guest post by Laura Kemp
10:27
WHO’S WHO IN WHATEVER HAPPENED TO VICKY HOPE’S BACK UP MAN?
Twenty-one and insecure, Vicky Hope comes up with a plan on the eve of travelling the world with her high flying friend, Kat Lloyd: if she isn't married by the time she's thirty, she'll marry her geeky best mate Mikey Murphy.
Fast-forward eight-and-a-bit years, Vicky, now Vee wakes up on her thirtieth birthday in Brighton, expecting a proposal of marriage from her arty boyfriend Jez. Instead he tells her their relationship is over and she has no choice but to return to her parents' home.
Devastated and alone in her childhood bedroom, she decides she has nothing to lose and tracks down her two old mates. With shock, she discovers Mikey, now Murphy, is a successful app designer driven by his tragic upbringing. Kat, or Kate, never made it – but she hides a devastating secret, which threatens the happiness of all three…
VICKY HOPE is boringly normal. Mum does the weekly shop on a Wednesday, Dad drives an executive Ford and Vicky isn’t spectacular at anything. That’s why at the age of twenty-one she wants to escape the Cardiff suburbs - to do something interesting so that she becomes interesting.
By the age of thirty, she’s managed it. Now called Vee, she’s travelled the world, has pink streaks in her hair and lives in trendy Brighton with her artist boyfriend. They’re going to have a Banksy-style wedding where no one’s allowed to smile in the photos…except he has other plans involving another woman. Dumped and heart-broken, Vee realises she put so much into her relationship, there’s nothing else in her life. And she has no choice but to go back to her parents’ home. So lonely, she decides to find the two best friends, Kat and Mikey, from her school days that she’s lost touch with.
MIKEY MURPHY used to be the school weirdo in drainpipe trousers, with a pierced ear, indie haircut and a troubled family. On the night he agrees to be Vicky’s back up man, just to humour her because she’s too awesome to be by herself, he tells her his geeky dream: to leave Cardiff and get a job at Apple. The iPhone has only just been launched and he thinks it’s the future. The problem is though that he doesn’t want to leave his mum and sister to suffer at the hands of his drunken dad. When Vee gets in touch with him, she fears he’ll be broke and trapped in a bedsit. But she finds out that Mikey, now known as Murphy, has made it big. He’s an app developer living it large around the world with two homes, bags of money and women on tap. Yet he still can’t shake off the horrible memory of how things soured with Vicky. When he bumps into her on Barry Island beach, he can’t stand the sight of her - but then, when he sees her chin wobble, he knows he’s done for and he’ll one hundred per cent see her again.
KAT LLOYD was the one destined for a big future. Her pushy mother filled her every spare minute outside of school and she didn’t disappoint when she went to Oxford. But out of her mum’s control, she blossomed and, once she’d achieved a first in maths and lined up a job in the city, she insisted that she’d take six months out to go travelling with Vicky. But instead of having fun, Kat began to unravel. We meet her nearly nine years later in a wedding dress shop trying on a gown under her mother’s savage instruction. She’s Kate now, an estate agent, hiding away in a hamlet in South Wales, engaged to a lovely man but haunted by the past. When Vee gets in touch, she sees it as a chance to make amends. But that’s when the trouble really starts…
Thank you for reading.
Thank you for reading.
Laura Kemp
ABOUT THE BOOK
Blurb
A tender, funny and haunting coming-of-age novel which asks if the past can ever be part of your future.
Twenty-one and insecure, Vicky Hope comes up with a plan on the eve of travelling the world with her high flying friend, Kat Lloyd: if she isn't married by the time she's thirty, she'll marry her geeky best mate Mikey Murphy.
Fast-forward eight-and-a-bit years, Vicky, now Vee wakes up on her thirtieth birthday in Brighton, expecting a proposal of marriage from her arty boyfriend Jez. Instead he tells her their relationship is over and she has no choice but to return to her parents' home.
Devastated and alone in her childhood bedroom, she decides she has nothing to lose and tracks down her two old mates. With shock, she discovers Mikey, now Murphy, is a successful app designer driven by his tragic upbringing. Kat, or Kate, never made it – but she hides a devastating secret, which threatens the happiness of all three.
Links to buy
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2hJG6Xh
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2gHRtkS
iBooks: http://apple.co/2gHVea5
Google Play: http://bit.ly/2htD0I8
Laura’s previous book, THE LATE BLOSSOMING OF FRANKIE GREEN is available now:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2dLKV4N
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2eeITX0
iBooks: http://apple.co/29oe8jt
Google Play: http://bit.ly/2bi0r5oAUTHOR BIO
Laura lives in Penarth, Cardiff with her supportive husband, gorgeous son, playful dog and ancient cat. Writing is compulsive to Laura. With 15 years journalistic experience and several successful books to her name, writing is her escape and her love.
Follow Laura
Website: http://www.laura-kemp.com/
Facebook: @LauraKempBooks
Twitter: @laurajanekemp
Instagram: @laurajanekemp
0 comments