Carole Matthews is the new woman in gold...plus a book giveaway

We're pleased to have Carole Matthews back at CLC today to celebrate the publication of the fourth (but hopefully not the last) book in her "Chocolate Lovers'" series, The Chocolate Lovers' Wedding. She's also our first author interview for our "Fashion, Style, and Beauty" month. It's fitting, as she once dreamed of being a hairdresser and later worked as a shop assistant and a beauty therapist. When she was working in a completely mad holistic clinic, she first thought 'one day I should write a book about this.' We're awaiting the day when she will finally do that!

Carole has one copy of The Chocolate Lovers' Wedding for a lucky reader anywhere in the world! While it could be read independently of the others, the first three are so great that you should definitely check them out!

Visit Carole at her website, Facebook and Twitter.

The ladies of The Chocolate Lovers' Club should be gearing up for the wedding of the year but life keeps getting in the way . . .

Lucy is worried about her financial situation and it keeps distracting her. Should she accept an offer of help from an untrustworthy source?

Nadia may have a real chance at finding love but other areas of her life aren't so rosy. Something needs to change - but what?

Autumn can't wait to meet someone she hasn't seen in a very long time. She's full of hope for the future but then things don't exactly go to plan . . .

Chantal has been through so much and she's finally starting to feel settled. The last thing she needs is the kind of bad news that could change her life all over again.

And yet, despite all the ups and downs, the Chocolate Lovers' ladies know they can get through it all as long as they have each other. They're not going to let anything get in the way of their happy-ever-afters in . . . The Chocolate Lovers' Wedding. (Synopsis courtesy of Amazon.)

*What is your must-have beauty product?
Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation. It does what it says on the tin and stays in place all day. I was a beauty therapist in a former life and am used to putting on a good layer of make up every morning! Even when I’m at my desk with no one else around, I still have my full war paint on every day. I feel undressed without it.

*What is your favorite fashion magazine?
I read one in the UK called Woman & Home – it is for the more… ahem… mature lady. I like that it deals with what I call ‘sensible fashion’ – clothes that you can actually imagine wearing. They don’t use stick think models either, but real women of a certain age.

*What is your favorite thing about your appearance?
Eyes. I have very blue eyes and get lots of nice compliments about them.

*What is the most stylish outfit you own?
Last year I had a very special party thrown by my publisher to celebrate my 25th novel, The Christmas Party. I bought a very nice red dress and took it to a tailoring service to be shortened slightly and they completely ruined it! I had a mass panic as I only had a couple of days before the event and wanted to wear something really special. I ordered a dress online, at a very reasonable price, kept my fingers crossed and prayed. I was astonished how lovely it was when it arrived. It’s gold, sequined all over and is really weighty. It’s fits like a glove and makes me feel like a million dollars.

Me with my lovely publishing team

Since your latest Chocolate Lovers' book is about a wedding...

*Share a picture of the most beautiful wedding dress you've ever seen.
I saw an ivory silk tea dress by a company called Fairy Gothmother and it gave me the inspiration for the wedding dress in The Chocolate Lovers’ Wedding. It’s so beautiful and if I was tempted to get married again (3rd time lucky!), this is the sort of gown that I’d love to wear.

*Tell us about the craziest bridesmaid dress you ever had to wear. 
The weirdest or more inappropriate bridesmaid's dress that I ever wore was for a winter wedding in January. It was lilac chiffon with a low neck, a low back and no sleeves and was slit to the thigh. Unfortunately, the bride asked us not to wear wraps to spoil the photographs. We were all frozen! In the pictures we were all the bridesmaids are nearly as blue as the dresses and we all look in pain. I think wraps would have been a good idea!

Thanks to Carole for chatting with us and sharing her book with our readers.

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.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Open worldwide. Giveaway ends January 12th at midnight EST.