Suzanne lives in Middlesex, England with her husband, two children, a crazy cocker spaniel and a rather aloof cat.
Her writing journey began at the age of twelve when she completed her first novel. She discovered the fantasy genre in her late teens and has never looked back. Giving up work to raise a family gave Suzanne the impetus to take her attempts at novel writing beyond the first draft, and she is lucky enough to have a husband who supports her dream - even if he does occasionally hint that she might think about getting a proper job one day.
Now an author of four novels including the Silent Sea Chronicles trilogy and a Czech translation of her debut fantasy, Visions of Zarua, Suzanne has also turned her hand to short stories. At last count she has 4 books to her name including two feel-good Christmas collections.
She loves gardening and has a Hebe (shrub) fetish. She enjoys cooking with ingredients from the garden and regularly feeds unsuspecting guests vegetable-based cakes.
Suzanne collects books, is interested in history and enjoys wandering around castles and old ruins whilst being immersed in the past. She likes to combine her love of nature and photography on family walks, but most of all she loves to escape with a great film, binge watch TV shows, or soak in a hot bubble bath with an ice cream and a book.
Wow, the start of this book throws you straight in the deep end, and it doesn’t stop as Kate’s life is thrown upside down. I couldn’t stop reading, hoping desperately that Kate would get her happy ever after. The storyline keeps you guessing as she tries to settle into a new community without giving away her past. I loved how everyone came to help her – the sense of community in Starry Cove is strong and I loved the mystery around Piers her love interest. It was a story I would read again and recommend to any romance reader.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my ARC copy.
Life doesn’t always go to plan . . . After a messy breakup and a nightmare boss, Kate swaps the chaos of London for the calm of Starry Cove-the charming seaside village she loved as a child. She arrives hoping for peace and a fresh start. But life has other plans: Kate soon discovers she’s going to be a mother.
As she navigates small-town life (and morning sickness), Kate finds friendship in the ‘coastal girls’-a warm, welcoming group who help her land a job with Piers, the reclusive owner of the local manor. He’s guarded, grumpy and impossible to read… but there’s more to him than meets the eye.
As feelings grow and secrets slowly come to light, Kate must decide if she’s ready to open her heart again-and whether Starry Cove could be the home she’s been searching for all along.
Ok, so I realise my October wrap up is slightly later than planned, but I’m quite proud of what I achieved, so I wanted to share it.
First, the big news:
I’ve just agreed the audiobook for A Little Christmas Magic, and it’s now with ACX for their quality checks before they release it for sale. Colette Davies-Kerwin has done an amazing job bringing the stories to life, and I can’t wait to share the audiobook with everyone. To help with this, I’ve set up two audiobook blog tours in December, so will share more info on those when I can.
I made changes and sent Book 2 in the Mermaid Hotel Series out for its second round of critique feedback. Cristal is a very thorough reader and really challenges me to make the story better, so I’m looking forward to working through her suggestions as they come in. I’ve also entered the first chapter into a competition and have everything crossed that it gets to the shortlist stage.
I finished the latest draft of Book 3 in my Mermaid Hotel Series and sent it to two of my beta readers – we meet next week to discuss their thoughts on the last chapters. I hope they like it!
The story for the Advent Calendar story train is complete, and the post will publish on 8th December. It’s called ‘A Squirrel’s Tale’ and is a little different from my usual stories, so I’m looking forward to sharing that.
Plans for the rest of the year…
November is all about Book 4 and trying to finish the first draft by the end of the year. I’ve been reading through the story so far and trying to make a brief plan of what comes next. I’m aiming for around 1k words a day. If I manage this over November and December, I should reach an end word count of 75k. It would be great to start working on the finished novel over the Christmas break, as it will need a lot of editing!
I also need to start marketing my Mermaid Hotel Series and decide on things like my newsletter – do I try going with a different provider and use a new name? I don’t like Mail Chimp, so it seems like the perfect time to start afresh. If you have any newsletter recommendations, please let me know.
I still need to share my reviews of NetGalley books. I should get onto that ASAP as these were summer books, and now I have several Christmas ones to read and review as well.
I’ve also purchased the new Authorpreneur Academy course from Dave Chesson. I need to work through the modules and get familiar with self publishing again. If I want to make a big splash next year, all the preparation work I do now will hopefully help The Mermaid Hotel Series take off.
That’s enough from me. I’ll be back soon with those book reviews and details on the audiobook tours for A Little Christmas Magic.
Ok, so it’s already been a few weeks since my last post, which means I’ve fallen behind on the promise to blog more often. But I am working my way through the other items on my to do list for the last 100 days of 2025, and I also have a great new development to report.
Firstly, September’s challenge – Complete the draft of book 2 in The Mermaid Hotel Series.
I completed this a little late, but sent the book off to my beta reader last week. A win!
October:
Complete the draft of book 3 in The Mermaid Hotel Series. I’m getting on really well with this and have got the word count up to 72.5K. I still have about 60 pages to edit and develop, so I’m hoping to get that up to about 76k by the end of October.
I treated myself to a mini writing retreat and booked into a local hotel, where I wrote in my room until midnight without distraction. In fact, I only stopped to go to the curry house attached to the hotel for dinner. As well as getting lots of words done, it also gave me an appreciation of how the characters in my books might feel booking into a hotel as a solo traveller and dining alone. I also saw firsthand how much of a struggle in must be for the hotel industry to keep afloat with few guests – all invaluable experience for the crafting of my new series set in a Cornish hotel.
I would recommend any writer take a similar retreat to focus and recharge, especially if you have a busy home-life.
I still need to write a story for the Advent Calender Story Train and the deadline is looming, plus a Halloween themed story for the library writing group I attend.
The rest of October will be a busy one, especially now I have made an offer to a narrator to perform A Little Christmas Magic – I will keep you updated on the progress.
I still have lots of words to write today and stories to draft. I hope to be back with some late book reviews on my Netgalley reads and hopefully news on the book covers for my Mermaid Hotel Series.
Lastly, I finally got a new laptop! My old one has had a broken ‘down’ button for the last 2-years and the screen had bubbles and was leaking at the edges. Thanks to the recent Amazon Prime day deal, I’m typing this on my lovely new blue Lenovo IdeaPad. So far I’m very happy with it, though the battery life could be a little better.
It has been almost 10 months since I last posted on my blog, I don’t know how that happened. I also can’t believe we’re almost into October.
Last time I posted about the successes of 2024. I would usually have shared plans for 2025, but somehow didn’t get around to it. I will do a post in the coming days about my plans for the last 100 days of the year – inspired by a online event I will be attending run by London Writers’ Salon on 23rd September.
First on my list will be to blog more!
So, the reason I’ve been MIA is beacuse I’ve been deep in a romance hole, writing the books in my Mermaid Hotel series. I can’t wait to share more details of this over the next few months, but for now I will just say that I plan to start releasing them in 2026.
As I’ve been working on my romance ideas, I’ve been questioning whether I should start a new blog and have a new domain name rather than “Suzanne Rogerson Fantasy Author”.
Fantasy will always be something I come back to, and I class it as my first love, but over the last few years I’ve really loved writing romance and Christmas feel-good stories. I’ve also enjoyed building this blog up and connecting with so many writers and readers over the years, and I wouldn’t want to lose touch by starting out again.
What would you do? Would you carry on with a blog that you’ve established over the past ten years, or start again with a new genre and new direction?
This is just a short post to ease myself in and say hi. I hope to be sharing lots of news and insights into my new series and life as an indie author very soon.
How has the year been treating you? Do you have the rest of 2025 mapped out?
It has become a ritual to look back at the year and check in on my achievements.
It doesn’t feel as if much happened in 2024 as I didn’t meet many of the goals for the year that I set rather optimistically in 2023. However, plenty of other things did happen, so it’s important to focus on the positive.
Writing
I published a new short story collection called A Little Christmas Magic on 28th November 2024.
I also made the decision to make a series of Christmas stories – Winter Warmers. This now includes my previous Christmas collection – A Christmas Wish.
Both books had a book tour on Instagram in December which I enjoyed immensely. There’s nothing better than seeing what reviewers think of the heart-warming stories I’ve created. And it was great to be able to share so many review snippets and posts on Instagram throughout the month. Both were run by Love Books Tours and went very smoothly. Highly recommended service if you are wanting a book tour next year.
Aside from writing, I attended several writing events in 2024. There was a weekend event just outside of Stratford Upon Avon hosted by Alison May and Janet Gover. A whole weekend of food, writing workshops and talking writing with fellow writers. Plus some excellent 1-2-1’s that helped me move my ideas forward. I would recommend both Janet and Alison for the services they offer to writers, and they also run the Debut Author Club together.
The Romantic Novelist Association conference was held 10 minutes for my home at The Royal Holloway College, so I couldn’t resist attending the whole weekend event. At times I found it a struggle socially as I didn’t know anyone, but it was a wonderful opportunity to mix with both aspiring and published writers. The workshops were great as well.
I kept up with my monthly writing sessions at my local library, and attended several author events in libraries and Waterstones.
The not so successful side of 2024….
Fantasy genre
I made the decision to park my new fantasy series Starlight Prophecy for a while. I need to go back to the planning stage and really get to know the world and the history before I commit to working on the half completed trilogy.
I also toyed with the idea of writing a collection of short stories in the world of my Silent Sea Chronicles, but I think it’s a hard one to pull off. I want to provide extra content for readers who’ve enjoyed the series and also entice new readers without giving too much of the various storylines away. Maybe I will revisit this idea in 2025.
Romance genre
I’ve made great headway with The Mermaid Hotel Series (news I will share in a New Year’s post). However, 2024 has seen a lot of work editing and re-editing the story, reshaping major points of the character arcs etc. I’m almost happy with the way it is now, so I’ll share more about that very soon.
Reading
I met my Goodreads goal of 24 books. That seems like a sensible amount, though of course I’d love the time to read more. I did not however get around to reviewing many books, which I am not pleased about. I enjoying reviewing books on my blog and see it as a way to score some good karma points! Hopefully people will review my books more in 2025. Fingers crossed!
I would love to put a post together celebrating my favourite reads of 2024, but will have to see if time allows.
Other
I love the little graphic I made to show off my books. It will need to be changed soon because it is very festive, but I will enjoy it for now.
And that is about it for 2024. It’s had its ups and downs, but I’m confident 2025 will be a bigger and better year!
Aw, what a wonderful heartwarming set of Christmassy short stories! A family’s cat goes missing before Christmas; a woman struggles to afford her Christmas shopping; a man delivering a last minute order on Christmas Eve finds himself lost, these are just some of the scenarios that begin this brilliant set of short stories.
I loved Bella and Jack’s story, from the moment they meet over a falling Christmas tree in a church, right up to the last page. It was a very entertaining read for any time of year.
Bella was a great character to follow. She has a big heart and puts family above everything else. This causes a few issues in her life, the biggest losing touch with Jack after a magical few hours together. I was desperate to read on to see if the couple would get their happy ever after.
I enjoyed being back at Halleybrook, and getting little glimpses into characters lives from the previous books in the series. This can be read as a standalone without an issues, though I highly recommend all the books, whichever order you read them. Oh, and I just found out last night that Claire’s book ‘Clues to You’ won the book bloggers novel of the year 2024 competition. I loved that story and think you should definitely check out all of Claire Huston’s books.
Fleeing her heartache and horrendous job, Bella stumbles upon a December wedding in the beautiful village of Haileybrook and the spirit of the season moves her to act as a fake date to handsome stranger Jack.
Jack and Bella hit it off, but Bella has to leave in a hurry and their magical evening soon becomes nothing more than a blissful memory.
A year later, Bella is returning to Haileybrook, seeking a fresh start and a quieter life. With a new job close to her cosy cottage home, a peaceful Christmas is surely only days away.
But it’s not long before family surprises, small-town feuds and romantic drama disrupt Bella’s plans, and she has to wonder if being alone is what she really wants for Christmas …
This standalone festive romance is set in the village of Haileybrook. The Haileybrook stories can be read in any order.
Sadly the book tour for A Little Christmas Magic has come to an end, but I’ve loved reading what the reviewers think of my festive stories. As always I’ve shared some extracts. You can click on the links to read each review on Instagram.
booklover.kez ‘The 8 stories are filled with sweet characters, and explore the kindness of strangers, new ventures in life, friends reconnecting, unexpected romance, and people coming together in times of need. It’s filled with emotion and empathy, and each story feels relatable and endearing, and some will definitely make you teary.’
bookish.browns.books ‘It’s the perfect read if you’re looking for a quick escape into festive settings, especially curled up on the sofa with a cosy blanket and a hot drink! It’s sure to add some extra “Ho Ho Ho” to the season!’
ericas_bookreviews ‘It’s impossible to pick a favourite as I loved them all but Poppy’s Christmas Wish was so sweet & a reminder of how much our pets become part of the family & Last Minute Dash was just so heartwarming, tear jerking & the best reminder that Christmas is not about material things but memories, moments, presence & just being there.’
bluefairybugsbooks ‘My favourite was Driving Home for Christmas, I loved the mysterious cottage in the woods, and the inhabitants who seemed to disappear.’
rozannereviews ‘Each story is well written and deserving of a place in the collection. I loved the first story as I’m a huge cat fan, although my boys are not allowed outside! I also really liked driving home for Christmas and the last train home. These were the standouts for me, but each story was enjoyable.’
betweenkirstyscovers ‘This book was such a beautiful winter heart warmer. There is something for everyone to share the love at Christmas. From pets to helping others for me this really made me feel the true meaning of Christmas.’
claires_booknook ‘This is a gorgeous collection of 8 stories all with a heartwarming Christmas theme. I really enjoyed all of them and it was hard to pick a favourite. Although I’m glad to see that the mermaid hotel will be made into a series in 2025.’
ukbook_reviewer ‘⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I really enjoyed this Christmas themed short story collection. I have not read a Christmas short story book before & I was pleasantly surprised how invested I was in the stories and how much emotion can be projected (given the length of them).’
catreader18 ‘This book is perfect to carry the Christmas spirit with you all year!’
lisa_reads_alot ‘Poignant and sweet each story about helping others, family and friends and sometimes just taking a chance.’
And that’s a wrap!
I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have.
I would like to thank all 25 reviewers and also Lovebookstours for organising everything. It was very short notice as the book was only published at the end of November and I’m grateful Kelly and the team could fit me in.
I’d love to know what you think of my short stories, or perhaps you have a friend or family member in need of A Little Christmas Magic.
I’m back with my favourite thing – more quotes from reviewers!
This is a continuation of the book tour taking place on Instagram for A Little Christmas Magic.
Day 3 reviews
planteachread ‘…It brings so much to the table and at the heart of the stories a connection between people, brought to the fore at Christmas time. A couple of stories brought me to tears, which is pretty impressive for a tale told on a few pages…’
CosyMidlifeBookNook ‘This festive collection is a delight! …it feels like unwrapping a bookish gift wrapped in a big red bow. In just 80 pages, you’ll find heartwarming tales of missing pets, the kindness of strangers, overcoming trauma, and a father racing home for Christmas. Each story tugged at my heartstrings and left me satisfied.’
Plumbobmummy ‘They are uplifting stories that capture how Christmas is truly a time when people come together as a community and help others. Some of the stories deal with current topics and feel relevant to us all. My favourite short story in the book is Last Minute Dash about a mum struggling to pay for her food shopping on top of Christmas – something I’m sure many people will be struggling with this year.’
Katieluvstoread ‘This is the second collection of short stories that I have read by this author and I loved them all. This one had all of the fur babies that my little heart could take and making sure they were all included in the Christmas cheer. I want more and could have read longer versions of the stories as well. I will be adding this author to an auto read list for me.’
Day 4
Dorianhellfire ‘Here’s another wonderful collection of holiday shorts to uplift us and bring in the spirit of Christmas. Tales to show that people can come together as family and as a community.’
nadz_sargent ‘Another brilliant set of little tales of love, compassion and community. Neighbourly spirit was strong in a couple of these and served to remind us to check on those around us.’
book_a_holic_17 ‘I loved the different themes within this collection – although all festive – each one showed what the festive period really means to different people in different situations – reminding us to think of others at this time of year too.’
Day 5
bookswithstacie ‘I can’t choose my favourite but the cat one, I loved I have a cat myself and if she ever went missing I would cry. Whichever story becomes your favourite you’ll find that they all pull on your heart strings. Perfect for Christmas lovers.’
I’ve be sharing more snippets at the weekend. Please take a look at the reviews above and if you’re looking for a way to get festive, you could try one of the Winter Warmers collection.
Suzanne Rogerson Fantasy Author 