Ella Carey always has time for friends...plus a book giveaway

We're pleased to introduce you to Ella Carey today. Thanks to TLC Book Tours, we have one copy of her debut novel, Paris Time Capsule, for a lucky reader in the US or Canada!

Ella Carey is a writer and Francophile who claims Paris as her second home. She has been studying French since the age of five, and she has degrees in music and English. Carey’s work has been published in the Review of Australian Fiction. She lives with her two children and two Italian greyhounds in Australia. Visit Ella at her website, Facebook, and Twitter.

Synopsis of Paris Time Capsule:
New York–based photographer Cat Jordan is ready to begin a new life with her successful, button-down boyfriend. But when she learns that she’s inherited the estate of a complete stranger—a woman named Isabelle de Florian—her life is turned upside down.

Cat arrives in Paris to find that she is now the owner of a perfectly preserved Belle Époque apartment in the ninth arrondissement, and that the Frenchwoman’s family knew nothing about this secret estate. Amid these strange developments, Cat is left with burning questions: Who was Isabelle de Florian? And why did she leave the inheritance to Cat instead of her own family?

As Cat travels France in search of answers, she feels her grasp on her New York life starting to slip. With long-buried secrets coming to light and an attraction to Isabelle de Florian’s grandson growing too intense to ignore, Cat will have to decide what to let go of, and what to claim as her own. (Courtesy of Ella's website.)


Friendship

I have to confess that I love the word friendship. It conjures up all sorts of warm images for me. I have always preferred it to the word ‘relationship,’ which seems to allude to a far murkier sort of connection. Friendship is ultimately a happy word, a word that is classic, that we can return to again and again with a sense of lightness- the same feeling we have when we meet up with a friend.

But what is it that turns this word, and indeed a friend, into a classic?

I have no doubt that friendship starts with some sort of unseen connection, a recognition from the outset that there is something there between you and the other person. I have read that we have a sort of sense with these things, something is triggered within us when we transfer from acquaintance to friend. How, when, why that happens can be a beautiful mystery- but I know that it does. It just exists.

I have many friends with whom I’ve shared fun times, crazy times at university, friends who have shared the ups and downs of adulthood, the raising of children, all the steps along the way.

But let’s take this a step further- let’s come back to the word classic, which means of the first or highest quality- what makes a friend cross the border into this territory? Certainly, it is something very special indeed.

Is it a shared sense of humor? Is it that you laugh at the same things? That can be immensely powerful. I have several close friends who share my quirky sense of humor. I love that our conversations and often texts can go towards all sorts of mad destinations!

Or is it that you have similar interests? Does that make or break a friend? I love my friends who enjoy the same films, books and so on as I do. A real bond can happen when you are both sobbing at the same storyline…

What about developing a friendship over similar life circumstances? What about that. The fact that you both might have children growing up together, meet partners together, or even do something like buy your own first apartments at the same time can give you a real sense of friendship. It’s great. With these friends, you have something to talk about!

All these things are wonderful, and terrific friendships can be formed out of all these circumstances. But what else? There is more. What turns a fun and happy friendship into something else, into something of the highest order, that will probably last a lifetime, that is, in all sense of the word, classic, and that is, undoubtedly of the very highest quality.

I’ve just learned what it is. I’ve just had an experience where I can tell you that friendship is probably the most valued relationship (there it is, that complex old word) that we can ever have in our lives.

I can tell you that the best thing in my life right now are my five oldest and best friends- and I can tell you what has done it- the answer is easy- they have been there for me during a really rough time. And that, quite simply, is what makes them classics. Of the highest quality, of the best class, unchanging.

And that, in life is one of the best things that you can ever have. So, here’s to friends- and if there was a golden measure that could tell us which of our friends are going to become classics, then we would treat them with the utmost care, love and attention from the word go, but in the meantime, go on out there and make lots of friends. Enjoy friendships- because they can become something that can be so much more, so enduring, invaluable.
Xxx


Thanks to Ella for sharing her thoughts on friendship and TLC Book Tours for sharing Paris Time Capsule with our readers. Visit all the blogs participating in this tour for more chances to win!

How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here.

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US/Canada only. Giveaway ends September 21st at midnight EST.