Spotlight & Giveaway: A Spell for Midwinter’s Heart by Morgan Lockhart

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Morgan Lockhart to HJ!

Hi Morgan and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, A Spell for Midwinter’s Heart!

Thank you for having me, HJ!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

A magic-averse witch returns home for Yule for the first time in many years in order to help her coven save their small town’s winter holiday festival from corporate buyout. Along the way she is forced to collaborate with her old high school rival, who also has an interest in saving the festival, and he starts awakening things inside her she has felt disconnecting from–including her magic.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

“She’d been aware of something then, something she’d let herself lose sight of. Grand designs to save the world fell apart so easily, but small, concrete actions to protect who and what you love? That was magic.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

The town of Elk Ridge is loosely based on Leavenworth, Washington, which is a major destination at the holidays here.

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

When they’re first reunited, Rowan is caught off-guard by all the little things Gavin remembers about her, and instantly feels seen in a way she isn’t used to. She’s become so used to hiding herself, and the way he sees right to the heart of her is equal parts terrifying, thrilling, and hot.
Not to mention–he looks great with the prematurely salt and pepper hair that was the result of one of her spells back in high school.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

I absolutely felt everything writing their first kiss scene, which is pretty much my favorite scene in any romance. That first release of all that delicious tension you’ve built, which if you’ve been doing it right, is like releasing a valve and all that steam just shoots out. (Also: it was a great excuse to go get inspired rewatching and rereading my favorite first kisses.)

“You said . . . you wanted to be sure,” she ventured. “A kiss told you all that?”
“Yes. Let’s be clear, though. I didn’t kiss her.”
She turned up her nose. “I thought we went over this already?”
His fingers had drifted under the cuff of her sweater and reached the soft skin of her wrist, tripping over exposed veins. The touch left her aware of every bundle of nerve endings and passage of blood as they lit up, primed for sensation.
“I was holding back.” His voice was low, his words purposeful. “That isn’t how I kiss when I mean it.”

Readers should read this book….

If you like stories of second chances at love and life, cozy winter atmospheres, the holidays, and a bit of magic.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I’m working on another story that features the witches of Elk Ridge, but that’s as much as I can say about that for now!
 
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A print copy of A SPELL FOR MIDWINTER’S HEART by Morgan Lockhart

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What are some of your favorite things about the holidays?

 
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Excerpt from A Spell for Midwinter’s Heart:

“Canceled?”
They had canceled her connecting flight—the only plane that would get her to Elk Ridge before the Solstice. It had still been active on the departures board all of fifteen minutes ago when she disembarked her plane from Orange County.
A surge of people had already queued behind the customer service desk, forming an impossibly long line, and everyone else was on their cell phone, trying to mitigate the damage to their night. Rowan pulled out her own phone and collapsed back against the wall, letting out an audible groan.
“My thoughts exactly,” muttered a baritone voice.
The distinctive-looking man beside her lounged against a wall display covered in boughs of holly. Though he was roughly her age, there were streaks of silver in his tidily coifed jet black hair. And even though it had been years since last she’d set eyes on him, recognition hit with a surprising jitter in her stomach.
“Gavin McCreery?”
At the sound of his name, the man looked up from his phone, deeply set brown eyes catching her own. His eyes widened and his lips parted, and for a moment, she felt exposed. Her breath caught in her chest.
Then it passed. His face was neutral again as he said, “Rowan Midwinter?”
So it was Gavin. She shifted her gaze from his eyes back up to his hair, forcing herself to face the reminder of what happened when she magicked mad.
Gavin had won a debate championship after preparing extensively with a private tutor his father had hired to coach him. She’d gone home in a fury at the unfairness of it, and then channeled that toward the first thing that came to mind when she thought of Gavin: the head of thick, silky hair she imagined he spent a lot of time preening over.
“May hairs of black be hairs of gray before the sun sets on this day.”
She’d chanted the words while burning a few of those dark hairs into the flame of a plump white candle.
Rowan hadn’t expected it to work, but the next day Gavin had come to school with threads of silver in his hair. She’d never figured out how to reverse it, and she was too ashamed of what she’d done to ask the coven for help.
The joke was on her, though—it suited him. Very well.
On top of that, the day after his hair changed, Rowan had woken up with a head of snow-white hair. The rule of three made manifest.
Whatever energy you put into the world returns to you threefold.
Not always literal, but in this case, very much so. And so once a month, for every month since, she’d had to dye it to cover the evidence of her shame. A bottle of her trusty “For Auburn Waves of Mane” rolled around in her backpack at that very moment. She’d reached the end of her current cycle and had a fresh dye planned for later that night. That was, if this flight cancellation didn’t strand her somewhere without a shower.
“It’s me,” she said, clearing her throat. “Good old Rowan Midwinter.”
“It is, but something’s different,” Gavin returned, narrowing his eyes.
Unexpected heat flushed up the back of Rowan’s neck as he scanned her toe to crown. She cleared her throat again. “Um, the years of aging I haven’t somehow avoided?”
“No, something more specific . . .” He looked a moment more, and her cheeks went pink under his scrutiny. Then he nodded, as if having solved a perplexing problem. “Your hair.”
Her breath caught in her throat. Had the change started early? She glanced at the clock. It was ten o’clock. She should have had a few more hours.
“My hair . . . ?”
“It’s darker. I remember it being more of a, mmm . . .” He swirled his fingers around, looking for the word. “Dark blond? Light brown?”
Rowan released her breath. While at first she’d done her best to replicate her natural hair color, eventually she’d started dyeing it the dark auburn she’d always wished she’d gotten from her mother.
“Oh, yeah. Felt like adding a little extra . . .” She waved her hands in a flourish and struck a pose. “Drama in my life.”

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

In this holiday romance with an enchanting twist, a magic-averse witch returns home to save her small town’s beloved winter festival in time for the holidays with the help of her estranged coven and distractingly handsome childhood rival.

Rowan Midwinter has sworn off magic after a spell gone wrong back in high school, so she’s not exactly thrilled when she’s guilted into returning to her quaint mountain hometown for the holiday season. But it’s already Yule and much-needed snow still hasn’t fallen, so Rowan decides she can put up with her former coven and unwanted memories if it means saving the town’s beloved winter festival from the megacorporation threatening to buy it out.

But Rowan’s plans to save the beloved tradition and make it through the holiday magic-free go awry when Gavin McCreery, prodigal son of the festival’s landlord, insists on helping, and their unwanted chemistry keeps setting off holiday lights…literally.

As the end of the festive season draws closer and Rowan realizes what is truly at stake, she must reconnect with what she tried to leave behind, overcome the fear of her power, and let her heart lead the way.
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Meet the Author:

Morgan Lockhart hails from the Pacific Northwest, where she currently lives with her family, including her partner, two children, and a pack of fur babies. Growing up in the woods of Washington State, Morgan has always been telling and consuming stories in all shapes and sizes. She roamed her way to California, where she graduated with highest honors from the creative writing department at UC San Diego. Her path forked into video games then, as she put off her final trimester of college to work on her first video game. A Spell for Midwinter’s Heart is her first novel.
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