Spotlight & Giveaway: All Gowned Up by Jen Haymore

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Jen Haymore to HJ!

Hi Jen and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, All Gowned Up!

Hi! Thanks for having me!
 

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

An aristocratic boy falls for a seamstress’s apprentice in a sweet and swoony story of forbidden love and found families.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

London, Spring, 1817

Emerald

“What do you think you are doing?”

I jolted out of my daydream and looked up, blinking. Mrs. Fitzgibbons snatched the pale pink silk from my hands and studied my work before turning her cold eyes back on me. “What is this?”

I winced. The seam was a disaster. But I hadn’t eaten since an ungodly hour long before dawn, and it had been easy to fall into another daydream about my father, this one—thanks to my empty belly—involving food.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• This is my first published young adult book, but since the beginning of my career, I’ve always wanted to write YA!
• I went to England and visited all the London locations in this book before I wrote it, including Will’s house on Hill Street, and the dressmaker’s shop on Curzon Street,
• I love how the book cover captures the characters of Emerald and Will and their dreamy relationship so perfectly. The cover artists at Entangled Teen are amazing!
• I used real fashion plates from the Regency era to portray the dresses Emerald wears throughout the story.
• Emerald has been a character in my head for many years, and I’ve written several books since I first dreamed up her story.
• I’m so thrilled I could finally bring her to life!

What first attracts your main characters to each other?

Will doesn’t reveal his emotions to anyone, but Emerald makes him feel like he can be himself.
Emerald is poor and a girl, while Will is a rich boy, yet he treats her like an equal.
 

Using just 5 words, how would you describe your main characters”love affair?

Deep, sweet, strong, swoony, and impossible.
 

The First Kiss…

Keeping his eyes locked on mine, he reached up and touched my cheek with his bare fingertip and then swiped it over my cheekbone to tuck a curl behind my ear. I watched him, unmoving, breathless, anticipation prickling every inch of my skin.

Ever so slowly, he slipped his arm below his coat and my cape and around my waist until his warm palm lay flat on my back, urging me toward him, which was exactly where I wanted to be. Moving closer, I reached up to press a hand against the fabric of his collar, my fingers brushing the silky edge of his cravat.

Something at the outer fringes of my mind nudged at me. Told me this was a very bad idea.
But stopping was the very last thing I wanted.

His face came closer, tilting slightly so our noses didn’t bump. Then he kissed me in a light touch that curled my toes and sent a tingling heat shivering through my body.

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

That would be the scene where everyone discovers Emerald’s real identity for the first time….

We lined up behind a couple I didn’t know. Before Ben released my arm to take his place across from me, he leaned forward. “Why aren’t you a good dancer, Miss…Southern?” Again with the pause between the “Miss” and my fake last name. It seemed ominous rather than forgetful.

Still, I forced a smile. “My father is more interested in the study of scripture than dancing,” I explained.

“Ah. I see. Your father, who is a…priest, was it?”

“A rector, yes.”

Finally, he stepped back from me, and the music began. This dance was livelier than the last, the moves faster, and beads of sweat prickled on my temples as I studied the couple ahead of us.
Too soon, it was our turn.

I stepped forward, palms out to meet Ben’s. He clasped my hands, and as we started to turn, he murmured, “I keep thinking…it’s not really Miss Southern, is it? Miss DIXON sounds better to me.”

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

Emerald and Will waltzing in a field of bluebells….

Will and I were waltzing again, and I was immediately consumed by how he swept me almost literally off my feet. My old dream of a dazzling prince twirling me around a glittering ballroom was coming true, but this was even better. Will was more handsome than the faceless prince I’d imagined. Dancing in a field surrounded by bluebells that shimmered and waved in the afternoon breeze made me feel like I was floating through the air.

I could have continued waltzing with him for hours and hours, but he finally drew us to a stop. I looked up at him, breathless, and he gazed down at me.

We stared at each other, flushed and smiling. Then he touched my cheek gently and whispered, “I think you’re ready for the ball.”

Readers should read this book …

because it’s a feel-good story of two people finding love despite the world telling them how impossible a future is between them.

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

I’m working on the sequel to ALL GOWNED UP–Emerald’s sister’s story!

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A Barnes and Noble gift certificate for $10.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What is your favorite historical TV show or movie?

 
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Excerpt from All Gowned Up:

“My lord,” she said. “Good evening.”

Pleasure flushed through me. “What are you doing here?”

A vulnerable look crossed over her face, or maybe I was only imagining it, as part of her face was shadowed beneath the hood of a cloak that looked far less warm than the one I’d loaned her for the masquerade. “I tried knocking on your front door, but that was probably foolish. Your butler turned me away. He said you weren’t home.”

Monroe. My blood went cold. “What, exactly, did he say?”

“When I asked to see you, he said you had gone for the evening. But from the way he said it”—she shrugged—“I could tell it wasn’t true.”

I ground my molars together. Monroe hadn’t let her in because he didn’t approve of “people like her” boldly knocking at the door and asking to see me. He was such a bastard. I’d take him to task for his behavior, but he’d probably complain to my father, which I really didn’t need. “I’m sorry.”

“I understand. Anyhow, you and your friends were talking at the masquerade about meeting tonight, so I supposed you’d emerge sooner or later.” She shivered and huddled deeper into her insufficient cloak.

“You’re cold.” I’d buy her a coat, I decided. A thousand coats.

But….no.

I wasn’t going to “buy” Emerald Dixon.

I would prefer she was warm, though.

Shrugging off my heavy overcoat, I drew her to a stop and laid it over her shoulders. She met my eyes with her sparkling golden-brown gaze, but her expression was soft.

“I just wanted to thank you,” she said. “I could never have hoped to learn more about the duke and Kate if not for you, and I am more grateful than you’ll ever know. And here you’ve gone and…” She wrapped the warm wool around her. “…given me your coat. And now you’re the one who’s cold.”
I shrugged, suddenly feeling self-conscious. And anything but cold. “It’s nothing.”

“Not to me.” Her caramel eyes looked huge and fathomless in the dim light cast by the streetlamp. “To me, it’s everything.”

We stared at each other for a long moment, that charge surging through me, stronger than ever. I looked down at her hands clasped together in front of her. Her gloves, with lines of stitching making it clear they had been mended many times, looked hardly capable of covering her fingers, much less keeping them warm.

“Will I see you again?” My voice was gruff.

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

She’s not exactly a lady…

Seventeen-year-old Emerald Dixon is the worst seamstress in London. Officially.

It’s not exactly her fault. No matter how hard she tries, she’s lacking the skills that she’s “supposed” to have. Sewing? Nope. Needlework? Absolutely not. Instead, her mind keeps drifting off into daydreams—ones filled with fantastical lands, high society balls, and dancing with dashing young men. And above all, trying to find the father she’s never known.

But when her skipping stone hits an attractive young earl, the gilded doors to society are suddenly opened to Emerald…if she has the courage to enter.

The Earl of Townsend, eighteen-year-old Will Granville, knows how it feels to be trapped in your own life. His life is a non-stop reminder that he will never fill his father’s shoes—or become the marquess he’s expected to become. But by helping Emerald go undercover into society, he has a chance to get to know the curly-haired beauty he can’t stop daydreaming about…and avoid the growing complications of his own life.

Of course, infiltrating the very crème de la crème of London society isn’t exactly easy, and Emerald and Will are already in over their heads. Because this glittering, opulent world has more secrets than either of them could ever know.

And a single stolen kiss could send the whole fragile façade crashing down around them…
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Goodreads |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Jen Haymore writes YA and adult novels, all of them containing a healthy dose of romance and happily ever afters. She lives in California with her partner, kids, two mischievous cats, and the household queen: a spoiled and extremely naughty husky. She loves the ocean, traveling, hanging out with her family, and falling into magical worlds made up of words.
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