Melanie Murphy Reveals Cover For Debut Novel

Melanie revealed the cover of her debut novel, If Only.

If Only will be released 6 June 2019. Melanie Murphy describes her first fiction book as being “contemporary fiction with a sprinkle of magic”. Viewers of Melanie have followed her writing process over the last year in her monthly vlogs.

View this post on Instagram

✨ #ifonlybook2019 HAS A COVER! My debut novel. AHH! You can preorder this beauty before it comes out in a few weeks, link in my bio! It’s contemporary fiction with a sprinkle of magic…I find that fairytale helps me to find human truth – fantasy helps me to arrive at realism – I’ve always been drawn to it and I wanted to weave it into a ‘real world’ story! ✨ “She was supposed to be invincible. A constant. One of the four legs holding up the table that is me. Granny gathered her thoughts, drinking more wine. ‘This is goin’ to sound a bit mad, Erin. Drink up and bear with me.’ ‘Granny, I don’t want any wine.’ ‘Well, ye will in a minute.’ She opened the cardboard box to reveal a pendant – a black stone wrapped in copper wires that were tightly shaped into a bare-looking tree. Slowly and carefully, she took it out and held it up to show me how long the chain was. By firelight it looked age-old, but at the same time like something you’d see hanging in a trinket shop while on holiday in the south of Spain. ‘A tree of life necklace? You and your trees!’ I laughed. I didn’t want to sound unappreciative, so I continued, ‘It’s, eh, really pretty.’ That was a lie. It was ugly, clunky and old fashioned, unlike any of the minimal rose-gold chains I usually wore. ‘This is a family heirloom, passed down by the women in our family for generations,’ she said, displaying the stone part preciously against a veiny, wrinkled hand. ‘My ma, Mary, gave it to me on me thirtieth birthday. She received it from her ma when she turned thirty, and so on!’ She was much too excited to be talking about a pendant. Her voice was animated, as though she’d rehearsed this a thousand times…” #coverreveal #writingcommunity #bookstagram #authorsofinstagram

A post shared by Melanie Murphy (@melaniiemurphy) on Apr 26, 2019 at 4:34am PDT

In Melanie’s Instagram post she also shared an excerpt from the book:

“She was supposed to be invincible. A constant. One of the four legs holding up the table that is me. Granny gathered her thoughts, drinking more wine…”

Reactions from viewers were positive to the eagerly anticipated cover reveal.

My pastel obsession has been SO validated 🍃💚🌸 so proud of you! Cants what to get my hands on it 🤓📚

— Katie 🌹 Belle (@tolhobbit) April 26, 2019

You can preorder If Only now here.

Want more?

Tickets for Ruckus Retreat 2019 are now available to buy! Read more about the event here.

Nicole Woodward has announced a Mental Health Read-a-thon. Find out more about it here.

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