Stuff the Turkey

by Tara Ford

Festive Flaws and Fairy Lights - Book 1 Susie Satchel has it all. A new job, her own flat and a long-term boyfriend. She’s even got a new hair-style and a pair of to-die-for boots to wear as the festive period approaches. She is going to live her dream this year and have the best Christmas ever, if it’s the last thing she does. Cosy, quiet and sparkly are her three favourite words for the holidays and she is determined to make sure that her Christmas is just that. However, it seems that the great universe has other ideas for Susie as things don’t quite go as planned – starting with the work’s Christmas do which, to the amusement of others, turns into a farce at her expense. Will Susie get through Christmas with a smile on her face or will her world, including the Christmas tree, come tumbling down around her?

317 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 10, 2016

About the author

Tara Ford lives in Hampshire, UK with her husband, children, a naughty husky, quite a few well protected koi carp and a very frustrated heron. When she's not busily tapping away at the keyboard, she likes to pretend she can cook or she'll wander into her garden to poke and prod at the plants and flowers, for just long enough to fool the neighbours into thinking that she knows what she's doing.
Failing all of the above, Tara likes to spend time procrastinating while the dinner burns and the flowers wither and die.

You can visit Tara's website at - http://taraford.weebly.com/ or her Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/Tara.Ford.Au...

A few words from the author...

I have spent the last thirty years waiting to write my first book. Why so long, I hear you ask? Well you know how it is, you get an idea in your head, mull it over for a while, get married, rekindle the dream momentarily, have children and then wake up thirty years down the line and think - Gosh! Where did that time go?
My novel writing dream manifested itself when I was fifteen years old. I had been set some English homework to write an essay about something which I cannot remember now. What I do remember is the trouble I got into when I handed my completed, labour of love, story in. It may seem odd that I got into trouble for handing in homework when these days it is a godsend to get children to even think about doing any homework but there was a slight problem... The problem was that I had written a love story which was rather explicit. Firstly, it was completely unsuitable for a fifteen year old to write and secondly, it was deemed extremely unsuitable material for school work.
Sadly, my essay was discarded and I was duly punished for the crime, although my teacher did take me aside and admit, that the story had been well written, the content was good and I should think about writing more stories. The deep burning desire has stayed with me ever since, although the genre I like to write now is not anything like fifty shades of grey, but more like women's contemporary fiction/humour.

Reviews

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Susie Satchel is either the luckiest or unluckiest woman on the planet, depending on how you look at it. In this novel we follow her through a series of adventures, some funny but some extremely sad.

When you look at the cover and the title and even when you first start reading it, it's easy to think that it will be just a fun chick-lit read, but "Stuff the Turkey" is so much more than that. It is a rollercoaster ride of emotional highs and lows. It's well-observed and the characters are very believable.

When the book starts, Susie is in a steady relationship and is very happy after starting a new job as a teaching assistant. When her colleagues play a practical joke on her she is left humiliated, but she does her best to see the funny side.

Christmas proves to be life-changing for Susie in more ways than one. "Stuff the Turkey" is written in the first person, so sometimes it did feel a bit like reading someone's diary or journal. It's a bit like a modern Bridget Jones.

The novel is fast-paced and kept me interested. I'd love to see it on the big screen as a romantic comedy.

The ending isn't really an ending, and I was pleased about that. I'm looking forward to reading more about Susie Satchel's adventures in the future.

[Joan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I saw the cover and the listing on Amazon under Literary Humour and thought this would be a light, funny read. It isn't.

It isn't funny to have a lover die in front of you after being run over by a drunken driver. Who the fuck thinks that is amusing? It was just bloody awful. And what is worst is that there was absolutely no REASON for putting it into the story. What IS it with authors who seem to think death in all its blood and agony and heartbreak is 'humorous'? This is the second book I have read this week which is 'supposed' to be funny but instead involves someone dying in a particularly horrible way.

[Stacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once again this was a new author to me, but I was in the mood for a funny festive read, and that was mostly what I got. I have to say it was a bit deeper than I expected but it didn't take away from the humour or the rest of the story.

Susie Satchel is the main character and she's a bit ditzy, but that's what made her so likeable! The turkey jokes begin when she's fooled into wearing a turkey costume to her work Xmas party... Other than that she's looking forward to Christmas but it doesn't quite go as planned.

She has a bit of rough time and the story was rather quite sad in places, but Ford managed to bring humour in at the right times. Especially with the situations Susie seemed to get herself in to! I would have preferred it to be set more over Christmas, and some of the scenes were a bit rushed and jumpy for me. Other than that, I enjoyed the story to get me in the festive mood.

3.5*