Spotlight & Giveaway: Claiming His Christmas Wife by Dani Collins

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Dani Collins to HJ!

Hi Dani and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Claiming His Christmas Wife!

 
Hi Sara! Hi HJ Readers! Thanks for visiting with me today.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Imogen and Travis were secretly (and very briefly) married four years ago. When they divorced, Imogen took the settlement he’d offered in the prenup. She needed it to save her father’s business, but it left Travis with the belief she only married him for his money.
When the book opens, Imogen’s father has died and she’s dead broke from paying off his debts. She collapses in the street and Travis is called as her next of kin. Once he realizes how destitute she is, he starts looking after her, much to the consternation of both of them.
 

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

Before I had even started this book, I had a line come to me.
“You are the only mistake I’ve ever made.”
I wrote it on a sticky and had it above my desk for months. When I sat down to write this book, I started looking for a way to incorporate it. Travis is a perfectionist and I realized a failed marriage would *kill* him.
So I gave him one. Then I had him say it to Imogen, who has felt like a mistake her whole entire life.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• See above 🙂
• When I first submitted this, I didn’t know when it would come out. I set it in summer. My editor later asked me to change it to a Christmas book which worked out beautifully because Imogen hasn’t had a decent family Christmas since childhood, when her mother and sister were alive. I loved that Travis gives her one.
• Until I started writing this blog post, I didn’t realize that the earlier ‘summer’ version was excerpted on my website. I’ve fixed it now. Thank you again for hosting me here today HJ!
• I don’t want to give too much away, but this one has one of my most favourite epilogues ever.

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

They initially met when Imogen interviews Travis as he’s expanding his architecture business. She’s drawn by his enthusiasm for his new venture. Travis sees a woman with wit and–what he thinks at the time, but later thinks he misread–as unvarnished honesty.
The truth is, she’s quite honest, which he ultimately comes to see again.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

This bit of dialogue is fun:

“This is where you live.” His gaze hit her few other effects: a battered straw basket holding her shampoo, toothbrush and comb, for her trips to the shared bathroom; a towel on the hook behind the door; a windup alarm clock; and a drugstore freebie calendar where she wrote her hours. “The street would be an improvement.”

“I tried sleeping on the street. Turns out they call your ex-husband and he shows up to make you feel bad about yourself.”

His “Not funny” glare was interrupted by a sharp knock and an even sharper, “No drugs, no tricks! Out!”

“Would you go?” she pleaded.

Travis snapped open the door to scowl at her landlord.

“He’s not staying—” she tried to argue, but of course she was on the bed, which looked so very bad.

“We’re leaving,” Travis said, and snapped his fingers at her.

She flopped onto her side with her back to both of them.

“Imogen.”

Oh, she hated her name when it was pronounced like that, as if she was something to be cursed into the next dimension.

“Just go,” she begged.

“I’m taking this,” he said, forcing her to roll over and see he held her red purse.

“Don’t.” She weakly shook her head. “I can’t fight you right now. You know I can’t.” She was done in. Genuinely ready to break down and cry her eyes out.

“Then you should have stayed in hospital. I’ll take you back there now.”

She rolled her back to him again. “Take it, then. I don’t even care anymore.” She really didn’t. All she wanted was to close her eyes and forget she existed.

With a string of curses, he dragged the scratchy gray blanket from her and threw it off the foot of the bed. Then he gathered her up, arms so tense beneath the thick wool that her skin felt bruised where it came in contact with his flexed muscles. He was surprisingly gentle in his fury, though, despite cussing out the landlord so he could get by and carry her down the stairs.

“Travis, stop. I’ll lose all my things.”

“What things? What the hell is going on, Imogen?”

Readers should read this book….

If you love a heroine who is down to absolutely nothing, but still has some fight left in her. Also if you love a couple who are meant for one another, just don’t have the sense to see it.

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

If you’re in the mood for a holiday romance, please check out my other Christmas title, Wedding at Mistletoe Chalet, a sweet holiday romance.
I just finished up a Harlequin Presents that will be titled The Maid’s Spanish Secret. It comes out late next summer and I’m about to start a related title about that hero’s sister who has a One Night Consequence.
In the spring, please watch for a duet about a pair of cousins searching for their grandmother’s heirloom earrings. Those two are called A Virgin to Redeem the Billionaire and Innocent’s Nine-Month Scandal.
(I seem to have a lot of unplanned pregnancies lately, don’t I?).
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: One print copy of Claiming His Christmas Wife with related titles Bought by Her Italian Boss and Proof of Their Sin. US Only please.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: I have family coming from Australia this year. My sister is bringing her 7 and 5 yo for their first white Christmas. They’re used to having a barbecue at a Christmas. Do you have some great ideas for us to ensure they get the full ‘traditional’ Christmas experience?

 
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Excerpt from Claiming His Christmas Wife:

“Mr. Travis Sanders?”

“Yes,” he confirmed shortly, willing the woman to hurry to the point. His PA had interrupted a high-level meeting with this “extremely important” call. “What is this about?”

“Imogen Gantry. She’s your wife?”

Memory washed through him in a rush of heat and hunger. He tensed against it and glanced around, lowering his voice. That broken teacup had been swept firmly under the rug four years ago.

“We’re divorced. Are you a reporter?”

“I’m trying to locate her next of kin. I’m at…” She mentioned the name of one of New York’s most beleaguered public hospitals.

Whatever old anger had sent him soaring at the mention of his ex-wife exploded in a percussive flash. He was blind. Falling. Wind whistling in his ears. Air moving too fast for him to catch a gulp.

“What happened?” he managed to grit out. He was dimly aware his eyes were closed, but she was right there in front of him, laughing. Her green eyes glimmered with mischief. Her hair was a halo of flames licking at her snowy complexion. She swerved her lashes to cut him a glance. So enchantingly beautiful. Gaze clouding with arousal. Sparking with anger. Looking so wounded and vulnerable that last time he’d seen her, his heart still dipped thinking of it.

He’d quickly learned it was a lie, but that didn’t make any of this easier to accept.

Gone? He couldn’t make it fit in his head. He had told her he never wanted to see her again, but discovered he had secretly believed he would.

From far away, he heard the woman say, “She collapsed on the street. She’s feverish and unconscious. Do you know of any medication we should be aware of? She’s awaiting treatment, but—”

“She’s not dead?”

He heard how that sounded, as if that was the outcome he would have preferred, but leave it to Imogen to set him up to believe one thing, contort his emotions to unbearable degrees, then send him flying in another direction. That betraying, manipulative—if he could get his hands on her, he’d kill her himself.

“And she was taken to that hospital? Why?”

“I believe we were closest. She doesn’t seem to have a phone and yours is the only name I’ve been able to find in her bag. We need guidance on treatment and insurance. Are you able to provide that?”

“Contact her father.” He walked back toward the door to his office, saying to his PA behind her desk, “Look up Imogen Gantry’s father. He’s in publishing. Maybe starts with a W. William?” He hadn’t met the man, only heard her mention him once or twice. Hell, they’d only been married fifteen minutes. He knew next to nothing about her.

“Wallace Gantry?” His PA turned her screen. “He appears to have died a few months ago.” She pointed to the obit notice that said he was predeceased by his wife and eldest daughter, survived by his youngest daughter, Imogen.

Perfect.

He knew better than to let himself get sucked back into her orbit, but what else could he say except, “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

It’s a convenient Christmas arrangement…

Until he wants her—forever!

After their secret marriage ended in heartbreak, billionaire Travis Sanders never wanted to see Imogen again. Yet when Imogen faints in the cold New York snow, Travis is called to her very public rescue! To avoid a media scandal, they must agree to a temporary reconciliation—at least until Christmas. But with their intense heat still burning, Travis is tempted to reclaim his wife—for good!

Enjoy this emotional Christmas-reunion romance!
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Award-winning and USA Today Bestselling author Dani Collins thrives on giving readers emotional, compelling, heart-soaring romance with some laughter and heat thrown in, just like real life. Mostly she writes contemporary romance for Harlequin Presents and Tule’s Montana Born, but her backlist of nearly fifty books also includes self-published erotic romance, romantic comedy, and even an epic medieval fantasy. When she’s not writing—just kidding, she’s always writing. She lives in Christina Lake, BC with her high school sweetheart husband who occasionally coaxes her out of her attic office to visit their grown children.
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