Giveaway + Blog Tour: Wight Mischief by J.L. Merrow

Welcome JL Merrow who's stopped by the clubhouse today to talk about her romantic suspense novel Wight Mischief that's been re-released by Dreamspinner Press and she's talking Isle of Wight! Be sure to leave a comment to be entered in the giveaway below. Good luck!

A New Atlantis?

Hi, I’m JL Merrow, and I’m delighted to be here today as part of the blog tour to celebrate the release of Wight Mischief, a romantic suspense novel set on the island I grew up on, the Isle of Wight.

Living on the edge of a cliff, with an uninterrupted view over the wide ocean—what could be better than that?

Until, that is, you wake up the morning after a storm and find out the bottom of your garden is now resting in pieces several hundred feet below.

Cliff erosion is a real problem in coastal areas of the UK. In Wight Mischief, Will and Marcus visit a former holiday camp that’s slowly falling into the sea. This is based on an actual derelict holiday camp I visited when I was researching for the book, although I’ve taken some liberties with its exact location. I was able to look directly into holiday chalets whose front wall had taken the plunge, while tattered curtains in 1970s designs fluttered forlornly in the sea breeze. Just yards away, campers got on with their holidays, oblivious to this poignant memento mori.

Theme park Blackgang Chine, another real location in Wight Mischief, has suffered from a good deal of erosion since it opened in 1843. The chine (or ravine) that gave the park its name has long since disappeared, and the attraction itself has repeatedly had to move inland to avoid falling beneath the waves.

Most cliff erosion takes place gradually, over the years, but storms or tidal surges can have a dramatic effect, sometimes literally overnight. The island isn’t the only area at risk. In 2013, three Norfolk homes were completely washed into the sea in one night, and four others in the same road seriously undermined as their residents scrambled to save what they could.

While erosion has always been a fact of life, rising sea levels due to climate change have upped the pace significantly. The Environment Agency estimates that 7,000 UK homes will be lost to the sea in the next century.

On the Isle of Wight, erosion rates have been measured at up to 5 feet a year. So is the island about to vanish, Atlantis-like, beneath the waves?  Well, hopefully not—major studies have been undertaken into the pattern of erosion, and sea defences are being strengthened. And to put that erosion rate into perspective, as the Island has a north/south diameter of just over 13 miles, I calculate it’d take around 7,000 years to disappear—and that’s if erosion rates were the same on all sides, which they aren’t.

But if you’re planning an island holiday, perhaps take it sooner rather than later. ;)

Wight Mischief

A ghost of a chance at love.

Personal trainer Will Golding has been looking forward to a getaway with his best friend, Baz, a journalist researching a book on ghosts. But on the first day of their camping trip on the Isle of Wight, Will takes a walk on a secluded beach and spies a beautiful young man skinny-dipping by moonlight.  Ethereally pale, he’s too perfect to be real—or is he?

Lonely author Marcus Devereux is just as entranced by the tall athlete he encounters on the beach, but he’s spent the years since his parents’ violent death building a wall around his heart, and the thought of letting Will scale it is terrifying. Marcus’s albinism gives him his otherworldly appearance and leaves him reluctant to go out in daylight, his reclusiveness encouraged by his guardian—who warns him to stay away from Will and Baz.

The attraction between Will and Marcus can’t be denied—but neither can the danger of the secrets haunting Marcus’s past, as one “accident” after another strikes Will and Baz. If they don’t watch their step, they could end up added to the island’s ghostly population.

Available in ebook and paperback from Dreamspinner Press

Wight Mischief was previously published by Samhain, but has been completely re-edited and given a lovely new cover for this second edition by Dreamspinner Press.

Author Bio:

JL Merrow is that rare beast, an English person who refuses to drink tea.  She read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, where she learned many things, chief amongst which was that she never wanted to see the inside of a lab ever again. 

She writes (mostly) contemporary gay romance and mysteries, and is frequently accused of humour.  Two of her novels have won Rainbow Awards for Romantic Comedy (Slam!, 2013 and Spun!, 2017) and several of her books have been EPIC Awards finalists, including Muscling Through, Relief Valve (the Plumber’s Mate Mysteries) and To Love a Traitor.

JL Merrow is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, International Thriller Writers, Verulam Writers and the UK GLBTQ Fiction Meet organising team.

Find JL Merrow online at: https://jlmerrow.com/, on Twitter as @jlmerrow, and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jl.merrow

Question: Would you live on the edge of a cliff? If not, where’s your ideal home?

Giveaway: I’m offering a prize of a $10 Dreamspinner Press gift certificate to one lucky commenter on the tour, who will be randomly chosen on Friday 15^th June. Good luck!