Today we hear from Bookbabbler Sarah, and review our ‘author in residence’s new book, Jessie Hearts NYC, out this month. We’re also offering 5 Bookbabblers a chance to win a copy for themselves – read on….!

Jessie Hearts NYC by Keris Stainton 

Jessie’s just arrived in New York, hoping to forget about her awful ex.New Yorker Finn is in love with his best friend’s girlfriend.They might be perfect together, but in a city of eight million people, will they find each other?

Jessie hearts NYC is Keris Stainton’s second novel, following on from her 2010 debut with ‘Della says OMG!’.

I don’t usually judge books by their cover, but you cannot help but be impressed by the fabulous gold cover on Jessie hearts NYC which instantly grabbed my attention.

The novel follows Jessie and her best friend Emma who go to New York to visit Jessie’s mother during the summer holidays. Hoping to get over her ex-boyfriend Jessie does not expect to find romance in the big apple. Finn is from New York and is in love with his best friend’s girlfriend and under a lot of pressure from his parents. Jessie and Finn seem to meet, but not become acquainted for much of the book. I felt that fate was a really big part of the story and it works well with the way that the story is told in two voices, alternating between Jessie and Finn.

One strong element in the story was also the relationship between Jessie and her estranged mother Natalie. Jessie seems closer to her father and almost wary of her mother. It is interesting to see the relationship develop and change throughout the story.

I enjoyed this book so much and thought that it was particularly evident that Keris Stainton loves New York and has meticulously researched her book. Just reading this made me want to go to the city again and the author provides us with lists of places to visit. I also loved the fact that lots of links were made between films and locations in New York, it is a fun element that makes the reader feel that they’re really in the city.

Gripping and exciting, Jessie Hearts NYC is a perfect summer read!

Thanks, Sarah! So if you fancy getting your hands on this ‘perfect summer read’, comment on this post, ‘like’ it on Facebook or retweet it, and we’ll pick out 5 winners (UK only) on Sunday at 7pm – good luck all!

Keris Stainton’s new book, Jessie Hearts NYC, is out to buy this month, so she’s sharing with us her favourite NYC books…

Top 5 Children’s Books set in New York

Eloise by Kay Thompson

Eloise lives with her nanny at The Plaza Hotel in New York. The daughter of rich parents, she is left daily to her own devices. She knows everything about The Plaza and everyone in it. Henry James would want to study her, and Queen Victoria would recognise her as an equal.

I thought I’d start with a classic. Eloise lives in The Plaza Hotel. She spends a lot of time running around the hotel, causing trouble. She has a pug named Weenie and a turtle named Skipperdee. She is awesome, obviously.

Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems

This funny story tells how Trixie and Knuffel Bunny’s trip to the laundromat with Dad goes terribly wrong when Trixie realizes some bunny’s been left behind…! Her attempts to alert Dad all the way home are unsuccessful, until Mum points out that Knuffel Bunny is missing and the family hotfoot it back to the laundromat. Fortunately, KB is safe, if a little wet…

I adore Mo Willems books and fortunately so do my children. Knuffle Bunny – about a toddler who leave her favourite toy at the laundrette – was the first we ever read and I must admit I was attracted to it by its gorgeous illustrations. The illustrations are on photographs of Park Slope, Brooklyn (where Willems lives) and Trixie, the toddler, is based on Willems’ own daughter.

From the Mixed up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler by E L Konigsburg

Claudia and Jamie run away from home and wind up living at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There they are privy to the introduction of a new statue and immediately are suspicious of its authenticity. 1968 Newbery Medal; Library of Congress Children’s Book of the Year; ALA Notable Children’s Book.

11-year-old Claudia and her younger brother Jamie run away to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Eloise made me want to live in a hotel and this book made me want to live in a museum.

A Walk in New York by Salvatore Rubbino

A boy, his father and their dog wander in midtown Manhattan, taking in some of New York’s most famous landmarks and well-known streets, meeting New Yorkers and discovering how the iconic city looks, sounds, smells, tastes and feels…

A friend bought this for me for my 40th birthday and it probably is more suitable for me than for either of my young sons. There’s no story as such, it’s just a boy and his dad exploring New York with accompanying facts and figures (like ‘More hot dogs are eaten in New York than anywhere else in the USA’) and gorgeous retro illustrations.

The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden

After Chester, a cricket, arrives in the Times Square subway station, he takes up residence in a newsstand. Between escapades in New York City, Chester and four new friends manage to bring success to the almost bankrupt newsstand.

Another classic that I was obsessed with as a child. It made me yearn to go to New York… and live in an abandoned drain pipe in the Times Square subway station. I was a weird kid.

Thanks, Keris. To find out more about Keris, check out her website here, and you can buy these reads, along with Keris’ new book, Jessie Hearts NYC, here..

Keris Stainton’s with us this month, so we put a few of our questions to her….

A little intro to Keris, please?

Hello! My second novel Jessie Hearts NYC has just come out. My first – Della Says: OMG! – came out last year. I live in Lancashire with my husband and two sons. I’m a Twitterholic.

How did you ‘become’ a writer?

I think I was always a writer, really – I’ve loved writing for as long as I can remember – but it didn’t occur to me to try to write a novel until I was in my mid-twenties. And as soon as I thought of it, I couldn’t believe it hadn’t occurred to me sooner. It still took me ten years to finish a novel though.

Whose books do you like to read?

My favourite teen author is Meg Cabot – I think the Princess Diaries series is just pure joy. I’ve just started reading Summer in the City, the second book in Candace Bushnell’s “Carrie Diaries” series and I’m loving it so far. I also read a lot of picture books to my children and I’m mad about Mo Willems’ books. We didn’t think he could beat the Pigeon books, but I think the Elephant & Piggie books are even better.

Tell us about Jessie Hearts NYC

A reviewer has just described it as “a love letter to New York” and that really is how I see it. But apart from that, it’s about Jessie, who goes to spend summer in New York with her mother who moved out there after Jessie’s parents divorced, and American Finn, who thinks he’s in love with his best friend’s girlfriend. I started writing it for National Novel Writing Month and Jessie and Finn were only supposed to have a chapter each, but I couldn’t stop thinking about them so I scrapped all the other characters and wrote Jessie and Finn’s stories instead.

What are you working on now?

I’m not actually writing anything at the moment. I’m doing a bit of research for what I hope will be my next book and trying not to get sucked in to researching the book after that!

Share with us 3 of your passions

My main passion at the moment is a US TV show called Friday Night Lights. It’s about American football so I didn’t think it would be my kind of thing at all, but I’m obsessed with it. I’m basically just getting through each day to get to the next episode.

I’m passionate about my children. They’re incredibly sweet and funny and inspiring and they both love books, which is great news. It does, however, mean that I buy too many and we’re running out of room.

Twitter. I was a very early adopter, which is most unlike me, and I just love it. There’s such a wide variety of people all up for chatting on pretty much any topic you can think of. It’s brilliant for watching terrible TV shows with (it makes The Apprentice almost bearable), plus it’s educational, inspiring and great for book research. I’d be lost without it, quite honestly.

Thanks, Keris! You can find Keris on Twitter here, and her website’s here. You can buy her books here now..

Keris Stainton, author of Della Says OMG, shared her idea with us here:

‘If I could go to any fictional place, it would be…’

…The Magic Faraway Tree

I was obsessed with Enid Blyton books when I was little and I collect them now I’m, er, bigger. I loved the Malory Towers series and the famous boarding school is probably the second fictional place I’d choose to go, but I have to pick the Magic Faraway Tree first and I’ll tell you why:

I want to eat Pop Biscuits, Google Buns and Toffee Shocks.

I want to meet Silky and the Saucepan Man and Moonface.

I want to slide down the Slippery Slip and give my cushion to a squirrel.

And if those things aren’t exciting enough, there’s also the ever-changing Lands at the top of the tree! The Land of Do-As-You-Please. The Land of Take-What-You-Want (I’ll have an iPad). The Land of Toys. The Land of Goodies (plum pies, cakes and treacle). The Land of Dreams. Even The Land of Medicines so if I was ill I could make myself better. What more could anyone need?

I re-read the first book in the series recently and while I was surprised that the storytelling wasn’t as good as I remembered, it still felt entirely magical. I credit Enid Blyton with giving me a love of reading, which (eventually) turned me into a writer. I wonder if she hangs out in The Enchanted Wood… I’d love to thank her

Thanks, Keris. We’d like to hear where Bookbabblers would go to, if they could, too. We’ll also be asking other authors this question, so watch this space.

You can buy Della says OMG below, check out Keris’ website here and follow her on Twitter here. Keris is also on the Bookbabblers parent review panel, so we’ll be hearing more from her soon.