This week, Harper Collins has kindly arranged for me to do a blog tour, which means that every day this week I'll be featuring on one of the book bloggers' blogs! (Cannot think how to rephrase that sentence with no repetition!).

Today, it's the lovely Kirsty from The Love of A Good Book. Read her review, and my Q&A, here

Yesterday (Tuesday), another great review from Reading in the Sunshine! 'This really is summer in a book!'

Today you can read my top five writing tips on Bookbabblers. Oh and - yay! - another fab review! 

Harper Collins recently asked me to write about my five favourite holiday destinations, for their Facebook page. This was my response:

Ibiza
Well, it had to be, didn’t it?! The beaches, the beach bars, the sunny, laid-back, anything goes attitude. The stunning, unspoilt countryside in the north of the island. Ibiza Town at night, with its bars and boutiques and outdoor restaurants, all lit up and packed with happy, laughing faces.  There’s a certain magic to the White Isle, and when I get there I never want to leave.

Palolem, Goa                   
Palolem (literally ‘Paradise’) beach in South Goa is a beautiful crescent of golden sand backed by elegantly swaying coconut palms. High rises are banned so it’s all simple wooden huts, which are rebuilt every year after the monsoon.  The sea is clear, with phosphorescence at night, the fish curries mouth-watering, and lying in a hammock under the sub-Continental sun with a book and mango lassi has to be one of life’s greatest pleasures.

Tuscany
Rolling hills, tall, almost military rows of midnight green cypresses, golden vineyards and silvery olive groves – the Tuscan countryside is quite simply breathtaking. And then there are the cities! Lovely Medieval Siena, exquisite Florence, pretty Fiesole with its unparalleled views down to the Duomo, Renaissance art … oh and don’t get me started on the food! Just heavenly.

The Greek islands
I taught English in Athens for a year after university and every weekend I’d escape to one of the islands, enchanted by the colours – the blue and white painted monasteries under an equally azure sky, vivid purply pink bougainvillea climbing pristine snowy walls. I was also captivated by the clarity of the Aegean sea, the traditional villages, the ancient ruins – and, of course, the tavernas. 

Tulum, Mexico
Last year my husband and I stayed at a place called Papaya Playa in Tulum, on the Mayan Riviera. It was all eco, boho, and possibly a little pretentious, but so, so beautiful! Wooden cabanas and outdoor showers are scattered between sandy paths and palm trees, all surrounding a fantastic open air bar which serves the most delectable modern Mexican cuisine (and Margaritas aplenty!). The sand is dazzlingly white and the sea a turquoise merging into indigo that has to be seen to be believed.

Loathe as I am to be partisan, New York Nights, about Poppy organising her GBFs' joint stag do, is my favourite of all these four short stories. Apart from anything else, it was a hell of a lot of fun to research Studio 54 (couldn't get the uplifting disco music out of my head for days afterwards!). Add into the mix matching Andy Warhols, a dance floor 4-inches deep in gold glitter and a foul-mouthed supermodel, and - well, you'll just have to download it now to see the outcome...

Check out my latest interview with the W6 Book Cafe about my inspiration for A Girl Called Summer - along with some dreamy photos!

Well, Bella and Andy had to go somewhere with their baby, so I chose my favourite place on earth – Ibiza. I’ve known and loved the island for years, and Andy (yes, that is my husband’s name!) and I spent our honeymoon there. We were staying close to San Carlos in the North East – exactly the location of Bella and Andy’s dilapidated old finca.  Most days we had our first lunch, which comprised jamon serrano, olives, bread and a bottle of rose, at Bar Anita, while pondering which of the many beautiful beaches on which to enjoy our second lunch – which generally involved seafood, more wine and swimming in the unfeasibly clear, clean water. Heaven on earth.

Summer is based on a girl we met on a beach in Goa – her hippy parents actually do run a place called the Art Resort - and she was so pretty, friendly and unpretentious that I wanted to make a proper character out of her.

Then I needed a complete contrast to Summer, so I came up with Tamara. I didn’t like her at all when I started writing her, but you know what? You can’t really hate your characters if you want them to find happiness! I found myself getting fonder and fonder of her as I wrote her.

I’d introduced both Jack and Lars in Vanity and thought that they each deserved a love story of their own – I hope I’ve done them justice!

It seemed only natural that Poppy, Damian, Ben and Natalia would by now be living it up in LA – enormously rich, successful and having the time of their lives. It was nice to have them as a foil to some of the more traumatic elements of the story – and besides, they’d all had their own dramas in my previous books.

The finca is pure house porn – I’ve always wanted to do up an old place and make it my own. I lived in a 13th century hermitage in Majorca until I was five. Dad had a pool built (they chucked me in when I was 6 months old) so the idea of living as ex-pats in the Balearics must have come somewhere from there.

I also spent a lot of my childhood and teenage years in the South of France, so that’s the St Tropez scenes accounted for. Funnily enough, I don’t count any A-List movie stars among my closest friends, so I guess the research is a combination of an idyllic youth frolicking on stunning beaches – and an unhealthy obsession with celebrity gossip magazines!

I've written four short stories about the four main female protagonists in A Girl Called Summer, and the first one, LA Nights, is out today, at only 99p! It introduces a new character, former wild child Tamara Gold, who's trying to make a good impression on her potential new in-laws. Her fiance, dreamy Hollywood heartthrob Jack Meadows, proposed to her on the set of a remake of Antony & Cleopatra. His father, Filthy Meadows, is a legendary rock star; his ex-groupie mother, Heather, doesn't believe anybody is good enough for her son.

What could possibly go wrong?