Love at First Flight

7 Day Book Series.
Today I'm welcoming Tess Woods
(And there's a giveaway.)

What does a house or a home mean to characters in a book?
I went outside my four walls and asked my neighbours - authors of Romantic Suspense, Historical & Contemporary Romance and Rural Romance.
Join me and my guests over 7 days and find some wonderful new books. 

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Tess Woods is a health professional who lives in Perth, Australia with one husband, two children, one dog and one cat who rules over all of them. 


Love at First Flight is her first novel for HarperCollins. When she isn't working or being a personal assistant to her kids, Tess enjoys reading and all kinds of grannyish pleasures like knitting, baking, drinking tea, watching Downton Abbey and tending to the veggie patch.

A House is a Home When... with Tess Woods

The Book: Love at First Flight. Tess writes contemporary romantic fiction that pulls at the heartstrings.

Character: Mel Harding, flawed heroine.

Giveaway: Leave a comment and go in to the draw to WIN an eBook copy of Love at First Flight. 
Open internationally to all.

Who is Mel Harding and where does she live?

Character Bio
Mel Harding is a woman torn. What appears to outsiders looking in as a perfect life complete with great career, gorgeous kind husband, adorable children and a comfortable lifestyle is actually killing her soul. Mel has lost the essence of who she is and when she meets Matt aboard a domestic flight, and realises that she has just found her soul mate, years too late, she spirals out of control.

The House
Mel, her husband Adam and their two children live in a massive beautifully cream rendered two-storey home in a tree lined street in Perth’s exclusive Mosman Park. They are driving past it one day when Mel points it out to Adam and calls it a “dream home.” Adam, desperately wanting to please his wife, manages to buy the home for her a mere three weeks later as a surprise. The house wasn’t even on the market at the time! Adam drives Mel past the house once more but this time it is surrounded by a thick pink ribbon that goes all away the around it and a huge sign hanging from the roof that reads “Welcome Home Mel!”. Sadly, none of this is enough for Mel to be happy. 

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I love the sound of the book and can't wait to start reading. Huge congratulations on your debut novel, Tess!
Tess and I both live in Perth, Western Australia (along with many fabulous writers, I might add) and guess what? We haven’t managed to meet face to face yet! But I’m hoping that will change very soon…

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What makes a house a home for Mel?

Mel wants a modest home beside the seaside, not in a swanky riverside suburb. She also wants a house that is not so large that the echoes bounce of the walls whenever she walks across its tiled floors. Mel longs for a cosy and comfortable home but she lives in an ostentatious house that never really feels like home to her. 

Back cover blurb of Love at First Flight by Tess Woods

A family is threatened by an irresistible attraction in this compelling debut that will appeal to fans of Liane Moriarty and Anita Shreve.

Looking back on it now, I can see it was instant. The second we locked eyes. Boom. Just like that. The me I had spent a lifetime perfecting began its disintegration from that moment. And despite the carnage it brought to all our lives, I still don’t regret it. 

What would you risk to be with the love of your life? And what if your soul mate is the one who will destroy you? 

Mel is living the dream. She’s a successful GP, married to a charming anaesthetist and raising a beautiful family in their plush home in Perth. But when she boards a flight to Melbourne, she meets Matt and her picture perfect Stepford life unravels as she falls in love for the first time ever. 

What begins as a flirty conversation between strangers quickly develops into a hot and obsessive affair with disastrous consequences neither Mel nor Matt could have ever seen coming. Mel’s dream life turns into her worst nightmare. 

Love at First Flight will take everything you believe about what true love is and spin it on its head.

Excerpt from Love at First Flight by Tess Woods

But something had changed. I didn’t want to say he was great/we were great/everything was great. Up until yesterday I would have absolutely said that to anyone who asked. But not today.

‘He’s just the same as always,’ I moaned. ‘Same, same. Always happy. Nothing ever changes.’

She laughed. ‘Did you just complain that you guys are always happy? Geez- Louise, bring out the violins. Poor you, suffering through a life of happiness. How do you bear it?’

I rolled my eyes and Sarah sat up a little taller. ‘Hello … Is something going on here?’

I certainly wasn’t going to tell her the whole truth about what had gone down with Matt earlier, but I did need to vent. ‘Adam’s annoying me. I think his obsession with his health is getting worse,’ I told her, which was true. It just wasn’t particularly relevant to why I felt the way I felt today. ‘He’s making us buy all organic food now, Sare, and no bloody gluten. He’s not even gluten intolerant! He’s just into that stupid clean-eating rubbish. He’s planning to do the swim to Rottnest Island again this year too, the lunatic. I mean he’s pushing fifty and he’s up training every single morning. Who does that?’

‘Guys who look as hot as Adam do,’ she said. ‘Mel, he bought you a bloody mansion for your birthday and you don’t want to buy organic food for him?’ Sarah started laughing again. ‘I thought for a second that there something was actually wrong between you, like a real problem.’

Her words made me blush with shame. The house had come complete with a pink ribbon wrapped all the way around its cream rendered walls, and a huge banner hung from the roof that read ‘Welcome Home Mel!’ I had casually pointed the house out to Adam when we drove past it once and said it was my dream home, and then, in one of his grandiose gestures, three weeks later he bought it for me as a surprise. It wasn’t even on the market at the time, but Adam knew how to make things happen.

‘I’m an ungrateful cow, aren’t I?’ I said, twirling the ice in my glass around with a straw.

‘Yep!’ she smiled. ‘I’d be rushing out to buy gluten-free pasta or anything else he asked for if I was married to that movie star you’ve got sharing your bed. Don’t you dare complain about him, Mel! Do you know, I haven’t seen good old Hercules for two whole years,’ she sighed, as she polished off the last of the tiramisu we were sharing. ‘Maybe we’ll all come and visit you guys for a week in the July school holidays so I can get another eyeful of his biceps.’

I smiled and said nothing.

Sarah touched my hand. ‘Meliboots, what is it? You’re being weird. And you’re not laughing at my extremely funny remarks. Is something wrong between you and Adam? You know you can tell me, right?’

I waited and then I said. ‘There’s nothing wrong between us. But there’s something wrong with me. I think I’m bored with him.’

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Click on the book cover to discover more about Tess and where to buy, or click here TessWoods.com.au
Leave a comment to go into the draw to WIN an eBook copy of Love at First Flight.
Open internationally to all - thank you, Tess.
Good Luck!

And pop back tomorrow to see the next of my special guest authors and discover what a house or a home means to a character who is about to hit a steep learning curve. He’s captivated and intrigued - but will he be able to rise to the challenge?

Jennie, in the company of Tess Woods 

Leave a comment here, then visit previous days in this blog series:
Anna Campbell and maybe win a copy of Three Proposals and a Scandal.
Helene Young and maybe win a copy of Northern Heat.
Pamela Cook and maybe win a copy of Close to Home.
Jennie Jones and maybe win a copy of The House at the End of the Street