Today! Blog-Tour: The Last Will and Testament of Daphné Le Marche

It's my turn to introduce you to the The Last Will and Testament of Daphné Le Marche by Kate Forster. A glamorous company, a secret recipe and plenty of family secrets will keep you on your toes in this beauty extravaganza of a read.

About the author
Kate lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband, two children and two dogs, and can be found nursing a laptop, surrounded by magazines and watching trash TV or French films.

Connect with Kate Forster at kateforster.com. Follow @Kateforster and @HQStories and look out for #DaphneLeMarche on Twitter.

Buy The Last Will and Testament of Daphné Le Marche

About the book
Paris, 1956. Eighteen year old Daphné may be from a tiny French village, but she knows she’s destined for more. Stepping off a bus into bustling Paris with a suitcase full of her home-made beauty products, she’s ready to do whatever it takes to claim her stake in the world.

London, 2016. Scandalous love affairs and an iconic cosmetics brand have kept Daphné Le Marche in spotlight – but her darkest secrets have never come to light. Now, in her London penthouse, enveloped in her rich signature scent, the Grande Dame of glamour has died.

But not even those closest to her could have been prepared for what came next.
The Last Will and Testament of Daphné Le Marche is a sweeping story of heartbreak, scandal and the importance of keeping it in all the family…

Review
This is the equivalent of Dynasty in a modern story of family dynamics, secrets and power struggles. The matriarch of a beauty company is contemplating her entire life as she gets closer to death's door.

Inspired by the thought she might be able to rectify some of the wrongs of the past with one simple gesture, she decides to make some last minute changes to her will. Forcing her family to work together to resolve their differences.

Everything leads back to the choices Daphné made many years ago. A simple country girl looking for an opportunity to make her way in the world. She finds love, disappointment and heartbreak during her rise to fame.

The Le Marche family isn't really so different from any other family. Everyone has secrets that should stay buried. Some of them more serious than others. Perhaps even the kind that may make someone believe they have no other way out than to die or disappear completely. There is a reason they are buried in the first place.

The story wanders from present to past, so the reader can follow Daphné as a young woman and then again just before her death. The repercussions of her actions ripple through the years and time, like a bomb blast. Perhaps being honest would have been the better policy.

Forster likes to let the reader believe in an achievable happy ending. That despite all of the twisted lies and negative feelings there may just be a way back to normality and happiness.

Buy The Last Will and Testament of Daphné Le Marche at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Read Picture Perfect by Kate Forster.

Don't Miss the Blog-Tour: The Last Will and Testament of Daphné Le Marche

You don't want to miss out on this book of delights with a story as wildly extravagant as the title. Click the links below to follow the tour and read what my fellow bloggers have to say about The Last Will and Testament of Daphné Le Marche.

Follow @KateForster and @HQStories and look out for #DaphneLeMarche on Twitter.

8th Sep at shazsbookblog.blogspot.co.uk
9th Sep at kellysbookcorner.blogspot.co.uk
10th Sep at nayusreadingcorner.blogspot.co.uk
11th Sep at bookreferees.org
12th Sep at onmybookshelfsite.wordpress.com
13th Sep at withloveforbooks.com
14th Sep at girlvsbooks.wordpress,com
15th Sep at kraftireader.wordpress.com
16th Sep at bookishjottings.wordpress.com
17th Sep at mmcheryl.wordpress.com
18th Sep at spoonfulofhappyendings.blogspot.co.uk

I hope you will join me here on the 17th for my review of The Last Will and Testament of Daphné Le Marche!

Picture Perfect by Kate Forster

This most certainly has shades of Lace by Shirley Conran, a book turned into a TV mini series ( not sure if anyone knows or remembers it, because it aired in 1984).

Picture Perfect has the same kind of Hollywood flare that Lace had, and that one would expect from a Jackie Collins novel.

The reader follows the story of two best friends,  who are drawn to each other in an attempt to find some sort of comfort and support. They are both children in dysfunctional family situations, suffering abuse and neglect, and with no obvious way out.

One of them winds up pregnant, and that sets a series of events in motion, which will have an impact on both of them in the future.

In the midst of this brassy, emotional and glitzy story there is also an intricate look at the relationship between birth mother, adoptive mother and child.

Adopted children, who don't know anything about their birth parents, often feel as if something is missing. There is this need to know and need for closure. This is how and why Shay's daughter ends up looking for her birth mother. Kept in the dark by her adoptive parents, she is on a mission to find the woman who couldn't keep her.

I liked the way Forster handled the whole 'coming back for you' aspect of the story. Instead of adults filled with selfishness and interested in their own gratification, Forster has created characters, who choose in the best interest of the child.

Simultaneously the reader is treated to a whirlwind combination of relationships and romances. The thrill of young love, the complicated love between a loner and a player, and the erratic romance between a widower and a hardcore cynic.

P.S: I have to admit to getting a little teary-eyed about the dog, it was such an endearing sub-plot.

Buy Picture Perfect at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Read The Last Will and Testament of Daphne Le Marche by Kate Forster.