Author Helen Matthews has been working on her tale of Mina, a woman desperately seeking love and seeing an invitation to a prestigious wedding as a gateway to happily ever after, for around a decade.

“Saving Mina has been a long time coming. I started writing this probably around ten years ago. I’d write it at night when my children were in bed. It’s been a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine for a very long time.”

“I was working full time when this started, and I had three children”, Helen explains.

Prior to moving to Chew Magna in 2010, Helen was working in Bristol as an English teacher.

Helen studied English Literature at university and wrote a collection of short stories for her dissertation, writing books was always the plan.

Helen decided to self-publish her book via Amazon, and has received rave reviews since the books’ release in January.

“People are coming up to me in the locality, who i didn’t even know knew about the book, and giving me positive feedback. Its like a snowball effect.”

“Since I’ve done it, the reviews have been amazing”.

“When i finished the book, I was really pleased with it”.

Talking more of the inspiration behind her release, Helen said, “I worked with a girl once who sort of inspired the start of this book; she spent a whole month’s salary on an outfit for a wedding she was attending to try and bag herself a man. Her friend had told her that there would be some eligible bachelors at this wedding and she was trying to look her absolute best to impress; that’s who inspired the main character, Mina”.

Mina is in her early 20s, working in a London comprehensive school and looking for something a bit more exciting. Helen describes the start as something similar to a chick flick, but readers are taken on an emotional journey through the course of the story.

Saving Mina takes readers on a compelling journey through the life of the protaganist, following Mina’s persuit of love, developing into a journey of self-discovery and personal growth.

Helen explains that it’s a publication which she is proud of, “Mina and myself have been on this journey for a very long time together, so she means quite a lot to me”.

The book can be purchased through Amazon and is available in both Kindle and paperback editions. For more information or to purchase the book, which is currently available at adiscounted price, visit: https://amzn.eu/d/hN5bBsM