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Claiming Victory: A Romantic Comedy (The Dartmouth Diaries Book 1) Kindle Edition
Beverley Watts (Author) See search results for this author |
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- Kindle Edition
£0.00 This title and over 1 million more are available with Kindle Unlimited £1.99 to buy - Hardcover
£15.25 - Paperback
£7.07
At thirty two, Victory Shackleford is arguably overweight, undeniably frumpish and the love of her life is a dog. She still lives at home with her father - an eccentric retired Admiral who she considers reckless, irresponsible, and totally incapable of looking after himself. Her father on the other hand thinks Victory is a boring nagging harpy with no imagination or sense of adventure and what’s more, he’s determined to get her married off.
Unfortunately there’s no one in the picturesque yachting town of Dartmouth that Tory is remotely interested in, despite her father’s best efforts. But all that is about to change when she discovers that her madcap father has rented out their house as a location shoot for the biggest Hollywood blockbuster of the year. As cast and crew descend, Tory’s humdrum orderly existence is turned completely upside down, especially as the lead actor has just been voted the sexiest man on the planet…
Full of romantic humour, Claiming Victory is a must for fans of funny love stories.
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication date9 Dec. 2014
- File size1022 KB
Product details
- ASIN : B00QUAB6KW
- Publisher : BaR Publishing (9 Dec. 2014)
- Language : English
- File size : 1022 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 200 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: 432 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 24 in General Humourous Fiction
- 32 in Humour
- 47 in Humorous Fiction
- Customer reviews:
About the author

Beverley and her husband live in an apartment overlooking the sea on the beautiful English Riviera.
Between them they have 3 adult children and two gorgeous grandchildren plus a menagerie of animals including 4 dogs -2 Romanian rescues of indeterminate breed called Florence and Trixie, a neurotic 'Chorkie' named Pepé and a ‘Chichon’ named Dotty who was the inspiration for Dotty in The Dartmouth Diaries.
Beverley spent 8 years teaching English as a Foreign Language to International Military Students in Britannia Royal Naval College which is the premier officer training establishment for the Royal Navy in the UK. She says that in the whole 8 years there was never a dull moment and many of her wonderful experiences at the College were not only memorable but were most definitely 'the stuff of fiction'
An avid reader and writer since childhood, she always determined that on leaving she would write a book. Her debut novel An Officer And A Gentleman Wanted is very loosely based on her adventures at the College.
Beverley has written a series of romantic comedies entitled The Dartmouth Diaries. Claiming Victory - Book One, Sweet Victory - Book Two, All For Victory - Book Three and Chasing Victory Book Four, are available on Amazon. Book Five - A Late Victory is coming soon.
The first three books of her Admiral Shackleford Cozy Mystery series - A Murderous Valentine, a Murderous Marriage and A Murderous Season - are also available on Amazon. Book Four - A Murderous Paradise is coming soon.
Beverley has now embarked on a new series of Regency Romantic Comedies entitled The Shackleford Sisters. Book One - Grace, Book Two - Temperance, Book Three - Faith and Book Four - Hope are available on Amazon and Book Five - Patience is available for pre-order...
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 September 2020
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By Michelle McLaughlin on 28 September 2020

Enjoyed the way you got a hint of what he was thinking in his emails to his sister.
At one point they close the gallery at 5, walk home, and then it's 4.30, this sort of thing really bugs me, but a 'normal' person probably wouldn't even notice it.
It's funny, hilariously so at times I was laughing out loud with tears rolling down my face.
The Admiral has decided that his bossy daughter Victory Brittannia Shackleford needs a man, after all she's nearly thirty three and even though 'She might have an arse the size of an aircraft hanger' she's not all bad and the Admiral is still a man in his 'prime' with a girlfriend, so the scene is set and not one to do things half measure he sets his sights on the worlds most famous actor.
'So , let me get this straight Sir. Your plan is to somehow get Noah Westbrook, the most famous actor on the entire planet to fall in love with your daughter Victory, who we both love dearly, but - and please don't take offence Sir - who you yourself admit is built generously across the aft, and whose face is unlikely to launch the Dartmouth ferry, let alone a thousand ships.'
'Well admittedly, I've not worked out the finer details, but that's about the sum of it.'
If you like humour with your romance then it's really worth giving this a go.
## My dad is an 85 year old Yorkshire man very set in his ways, a few years ago I gave him my old kindle and I now put crime thrillers and westerns on for him, he loves it especially being able to change the print size anyway I put this book on for him I did warn him, repeatedly that it was primarily a romance since that's not his genre at all but I thought he might like the Admiral, I didn't expect him to read the whole book just the first part but he surprised me not only did he read it all, first romance ever apparently but he loved it, thought it was hilarious...so there you go.
As for the heroine, Victory (32 going on 16) is a bit too gauche for my liking and constantly finds herself in embarrassing predicaments to which she reacts like a teenager would. I quite like the fact that she is a little overweight (though of course she lost weight in the end - doesn't love do that to everyone?) - but would have liked her to be more mature and self-confident. "You'd think that at thirty two years old, she'd have more sense," Victory tells her dog. Well yes, I certainly would. She, of course, has her two stereotypically ideal BFFs - Kate, unattached despite being allegedly gorgeous, and so devoted that she literally shuts up shop at a moment's notice to chauffeur Victory up to London; and the obligatory gay male friend who takes an interest in styling her - oh you know the sort, we've all watched Bridget Jones, surely?
It seems this author has certainly heard of it as one real howler proves. When Noah (Hollywood A-lister who naturally falls for our plump 'plain Jane') dons his Regency costume for his role in the film, being shot at the Admiralty, Victory tells him he looks like Mark Darcy! Now would that be the Mark Darcy in Bridget Jones (not a Regency costume in sight), or Fitzwilliam Darcy in Pride and Prejudice? The same actor played both, so maybe it's Colin Firth he looks like? Not that our hero knows the difference either. There are a few other issues screaming out for careful proof-reading, which the author really should take the time to do to add that final polish it deserves ('admiral aplomb', 'Greenwich meantime' etc).
It took me a while to warm to the three different narrative viewpoints; I'm not sure how much they add to the story, but at least they offer a little variety to the first person (largely present tense) narrative from the self-deprecating heroine. However I didn't find Noah's emails to his sister very convincing and would have liked to know him better as he is quite intriguing.
Negatives aside, however, Claiming Victory is a cosy and enjoyable romp and I'm always glad to find new British authors to champion. I only wish this author had had the confidence to stick to British words and spellings throughout this charming and very British romantic comedy. I hope she will do so in her next book, which I look forward to reading.
I loved the Bridget Jones feel to the heroine, and the relationship she has with her dog.
The story made me laugh out loud and it had a happy ending, but it is book one of a series should you want to continue.