Spotlight & Giveaway: A Lot Like Christmas by Jennifer Snow

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Jennifer Snow to HJ!

Hi Jennifer and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, A Lot Like Christmas!

 
Hi! Thanks so much for having me here today!
 

Please summarize the book a la Twitter style for the readers here:

This Christmas season love comes where you least expect it for a bakery owner, plagued by a ‘good luck charm curse’ and a doctor looking to heal.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

“Be honest, you at least spit in the frosting, right?”
Jessica Connolly placed the bride-and-groom topper on the white-and-silver, tastefully Christmas-themed, three-layer cake and stood back to admire her work. “The only joy in all of this is that they will never know.” She winked at her best friend, Whitney, as she carefully boxed up the forty-hour labor of love.
Later that day, her beautiful creation would be enjoyed at ex-boyfriend number three’s wedding. Three weddings in the same year for three guys she’d had relationships with. Unbelievable.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• The heroine thinks she’s cursed as some sort of ‘good luck charm’ for men to find their happily ever after AFTER dating her!
• The character of Mitch is based on a real life doctor/hero I know.
• This story has been optioned for a Christmas 2022 TV movie and I’m writing the script!

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

Mitch is attracted to Jessica because she’s upbeat and positive and full of optimism despite her ‘good luck charm’ curse. In his slight depressing state after a trip overseas with Doctors Without Borders, she exactly what he needs to survive the holidays in his hometown.
Jessica is attracted to Mitch because of his kind, generous heart and she’s intrigued by his travels, as she’s never been outside her small hometown of Blue Moon Bay.
 

Using just 5 words, how would you describe Hero and Heroine’s love affair?

Sexy, steamy, stormy, fun and heartwarming.
 

The First Kiss…

As soon as he put the car in park in her driveway two hours later, she was moving toward him. “I’m sorry, I’m not waiting on you any longer,” she said before her mouth crushed his.
Surprise had him hesitating only for a fraction of a second before his arms went around her waist and he pulled her closer. Her arms circled his neck and she pressed her chest higher into his, closing the gap between their bodies. The smell of her soft, gingerbread-scented body lotion tantalized his senses and made his mouth water. He wasn’t normally a fan of gingerbread, but right now, given the chance, he’d lick her entire body.
Her lips were warm, soft, and full, everything he’d thought they’d be. Inviting, intoxicating kisses full of desire had his body awakening in ways it hadn’t in quite some time. His grip on her tightened and he deepened the kiss, slipping his tongue between her lips. She moaned softly against his mouth. He was a goner.
Her hands tangled in the back of his hair as she draped one leg over his, bringing her body even closer. She held him in place, kissing him harder, and her confidence and assertiveness in that moment blew him away. Such a contrast to the sweet, cute woman he’d met in the bakery only two days before.
Her contradictory qualities captivated him. How many more sides were there to Jess? He wanted to know them all.
His hands slid up the side of her slowly, until he felt the edge of her underwire under her shirt. He paused, torturously close to her breasts. He wouldn’t go any further. This was a first kiss…
But then she reached for his hand and placed it over her breast, and he pretty much fell in love despite his claims that he wouldn’t. He massaged the beautiful mound gently until they were both panting with desire.
She reluctantly pulled away and her eyes opened and met his. “Too fast,” she said, catching her breath.
He lowered his hand back to her waist, forcing his own body to simmer down. The evidence of her effect on him was impossible to conceal. He cleared his throat and nodded. “Definitely too fast.”
She frowned. “Yeah?”
He laughed and touched her flushed cheek. “I don’t know. You’re in control here, Jess.” He’d take her that very moment right there in the car if it was up to him. But their pace would always be her call.
“Wonderful, now I want you even more,” she said with a strangled-sounding laugh full of desperate desire he could totally relate to.
“There’s no rush.” Despite her words, he knew she wasn’t fully ready to take things further. Which he was completely okay with. Her pace. Her rules.
She sighed as she slowly slid her leg off of his and moved back into the passenger seat. He held onto her hand and kissed it, savoring the feel of her warm flesh against his lips. He glanced up at her, and her expression full of emotion and obvious attraction was one that should have terrified him, but it didn’t.

Without revealing too much, what is your favorite scene in the book?

My favorite scene is one of the opening scenes when the heroine attends a wedding and learns of this ‘good luck charm’ rumor that circulating about her. Can’t give a snippet or it will be too much of a spoiler for this incredibly fun scene!

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would be absolutely crucial to include?

It has been! The book was optioned a month ago by Brain Power Studio and I’ve been hired to write the script adaptation. The movie will only be loosely based on the book, focusing on the ‘good luck charm’ element. It’s going to be such a fun adaptation to write.
One crucial scene will be the opening scene listed above. Can’t add a snippet or it will ruin the fun of reading it lol!

Readers should read this book …

Readers will enjoy this book if they love small town holiday romances with humor, heat and heart! The book is the second book in the series, but can definitely be read as a standalone. However, the other cast of supporting characters all appear in the stories, making for a fun group of friends to revisit.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

I’m currently writing the first book in a new Alaska series, featuring the Coast Guard in a small coastal town that is famous for it’s unique mythology and folklore. And I’m writing the third book in my Housewife Chronicles series for release next March. And I also have multiple film projects in the works! Very busy but I love it!

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: 3 Print copies of A Lot Like Christmas by Jennifer Snow to U.S.-based winners!

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Do you believe in magic, spells, curses or holiday miracles? If so, why?

 
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Excerpt from A Lot Like Christmas:

The Meet-Cute Scene:

The front door opened again and she shut her eyes tight, hoping whoever it was had walked into the wrong store. If that chime over her door jingled once more today, Jessica was going to lose her shit. Had everyone in Blue Moon Bay fallen off their latest health fad diet in the last eight hours?
It had to be the rain.
Rainy days were common this time of year on this part of the coast, and when the skies decided to open, it resulted in dark, overcast downpours that lasted for hours. It was pretty to watch from inside the bakery, but unfortunately, it spurred a need for a sugar fix in the locals and tourists alike. Something to do with a change in barometric pressure…
“Hello?”
The unrecognizable male voice had Jessica counting to ten.
Where the hell were they all coming from? Hadn’t she served everyone within a five-mile radius by now? She’d expected her business to be slow because of the wedding stunt.
“Anyone here?”
“No, I just leave my bakery unattended…hope the Keebler elves sneak in to do all the baking at night,” she muttered, pushing through the screen door that lead to the front of the bakery. “How may I help—” She stopped and her jaw dropped. “Mitch Jameson?”
He hadn’t changed at all in the years since she’d last seen him. If anything, he’d gotten hotter.
Or maybe, as a teenager, she just hadn’t noticed Lia’s older brother in that way.
She sure as hell was noticing him in that way now.
Tall, thin in an “I have muscles under this shirt but I’m not a gym junkie” way, and handsome in the traditional dark hair, dark eyes stereotype, he was definitely the best-looking disturbance so far that day. Or any day in recent memory.
“I’m sorry…you’re…” He glanced at the stack of business cards on the counter. “Jessica?”
She didn’t take offense to him not recognizing her—she’d been a chubby kid, a teenage friend of his sister’s the last time he’d seen her, and he’d already been completing his medical degree. They may have said ten words to each other the entire time she’d hung out with Lia. “Yes,” she said. “Hi… It’s just Jess.”
His dimpled smile and dark-rimmed glasses seemed to contradict each other. Like when Adam Levine tried to downplay his hotness by wearing glasses, the “hot geek” look was definitely working for this guy. She rubbed at her chest beneath. It was really hot in here.
“Hey, do you think I could borrow a small towel…or napkin?” He removed his glasses and ran a hand over his face, and rain dripped from his dark hair. Shorter around the back and sides, longer in the front. It looked soft and thick, the kind of hair that her hands could run through forever. “A paper bag, even?”
“Oh, yes.” She had to quit gawking. It wasn’t as though she’d never seen an attractive guy before. She reached for a clean dishtowel in the drawer and handed it to him. “Here you go.”
“Thank you,” he said, wiping his face and exposed neck in his open-collared blue dress shirt.
He wasn’t dressed for the weather…or for Blue Moon Bay at all, really. In dark, charcoal dress pants and shiny leather shoes, he stuck out among the board-short-wearing crowd of the coast. Even in the rain, the humidity would have made what he was wearing look uncomfortable on anyone else, but Mitch looked cool and relaxed, as though the rolled-up sleeves were the only casualness he needed.
“I was sent to pick up an order for my mom,” he said, looking around.
Her eyes widened. “The Jameson Nightmare Christmas order? That doesn’t need to be ready for another week and a half.” The family always placed a massive Christmas order for their holiday entertaining. Usually, Jessica had until the twentieth, but that year they were celebrating early with Lia on the fifteenth, reducing her deadline to the thirteenth, but that was still ten days away.
“You have a name for it?”
Oops, had she said it out loud?

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

For Jessica Connolly, there is no better place than her coastal hometown of Blue Moon Bay. She has a wonderful family, supportive best friends, and a successful bakery on Main Street. Unfortunately, every time she designs one of her ex-boyfriends’ wedding cakes, she’s reminded just how unlucky she is with love…and that she’s a good luck charm for men to find their happily ever after. With someone else. The minute they break up. So she’s decided to be done with love.

Dr. Mitch Jameson is more comfortable traveling the world with Doctors Without Borders than staying in one place. He just needs to survive the holidays in his small hometown before he can leave again. The beautiful, intriguing bakery owner with an aversion to dating might be just who he needs to occupy his restless heart.

From sipping hot chocolates at the local festival of lights to early morning dessert deliveries, Jessica and Mitch rediscover the spirit of the holidays. But when the 25 days of Christmas are over, will their romance be over, too?
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