Spotlight & Giveaway: Do I Know You? by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka to HJ!

Hi Emily and Austin and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Do I Know You?!

 
Hello, HJ readers! We’re happy to be here!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

DO I KNOW YOU? follows a married couple, Graham and Eliza, who are celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary at a romantic inn in northern California—the only problem is, they’re in a rut in their relationship. When a hotel guest mistakes them as strangers, Graham and Eliza embark on an elaborate role-playing game, pretending to be completely different people who have never met, in order to ignite their spark again. In their game, they face their insecurities and fall in love with each other all over again.
 

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

One of our favorite scenes to write was the scene where they are accidentally introduced like they are strangers. They shake hands and…

“Graham reaches forward slowly, taking my hand in his like he wasn’t the one who once slid onto my fourth finger the ring glittering there now, His eyes remain on mine. I see something new unfurling in them. It’s something unexpected, something charged, something no less intense for how unreadable it is. Sound without syllables, color without shape.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• We actually celebrated our second wedding anniversary at the hotel that served as the setting inspiration for DO I KNOW YOU? It’s called Post Ranch Inn.
• When we pitched the book, our editor commented that it was like “The Piña Colada Song,” which is now its unofficial anthem to us.

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

Since this is a marriage-in-trouble trope, our characters have been together for years, but when they start to pretend to be strangers, they feel free from the expectations they’ve placed on themselves after being together for a long period of time. It allows them to explore sides of themselves they thought were closed off. It’s this new confidence and freedom that attracts them to each other all over again.

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

Oh, so many. Whenever there is a spicy scene, we can’t bear to write it together out of second-hand embarrassment, even though we ARE married, and we write every other scene together.

For instance, the scene where Eliza and Graham first have sex as their role-playing personas…

“Do you like it?” I rasp.

His expression flashes desperately. He nods, his throat bobbing.

I don’t even know myself right now. The guttural Eliza cooing to the man in front of her while pressure pounds between her legs isn’t just in control of Graham—which she is, I know from the ship-wrecked look in his eyes—she’s in control of me.

I love her. I unleash her.

“Then undress me,” I say.

The invitation consumes him…

You’ll have to check out the book to read on while we close our eyes!

Readers should read this book….

If you’re a fan of marriage-in-trouble stories, second-chance romances, or even just wish there were more stories about people after they’ve said “I do.”

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

Right now we are editing out next romance, which comes out in 2024. It’s called THE BREAKUP TOUR, and it’s about a Taylor-Swift-inspired heroine who writes a hit album about all her breakups, including the boyfriend from college who she never got over, and who is now joining her on tour.

We also have YA romcom coming out in April of 2023 called NEVER VACATION WITH YOUR EX, which is about a girl who recently dated and broke up with the son of her family’s closest friends, who now must go on a joint family vacation with him to Malibu, California.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A print copy of DO I KNOW YOU? Open internationally

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: If you were to pretend to be someone else, what would your pretend job be?

 
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Excerpt from Do I Know You?:

Reaching the bar, I pass my glass over. I haven’t waited long when I feel Graham come up beside me. “Didn’t think I’d see you tonight,” I say, keeping the way my pulse picks up out of my voice.

“Disappointed?” he asks, and dear god, did he just wink?

I study him, the way he leans on the bar, the slant of shoulders. He’s carrying himself differently. It’s slight, but it’s there, the way he takes up just a little more space. It would be a truism to say, no, I’m definitely not disappointed. “You sound like you lead a pretty interesting life,” I reply instead, still using the voice I put on for most of the romance novels I perform, which I knew Graham would notice. Right now, it secures this conversation within our game, the next scene in our intricate performance.

“You could say that.” Graham smirks. He knows exactly what he’s doing—leaving me to make conversation if I want to keep talking to him.

Which I do.

“What about the investment banker cliches?” I ask, in the way this Eliza would, half judgmentally amused and half innocently courageous. “Snorting illicit substances off of scantily clad women in limos? You’ve done that, I’m guessing?”

He forces out his next words. “Oh, yeah. I’ve definitely done that. Bunch of times.”

He’s fire-engine red. I laugh into my drink.

It is, I notice immediately, exactly the window Graham needed to recover. His posture somehow straightens while relaxing, and his lips flicker with a smile. “What about you?” he asks.

“What about me?”

The smile forms. “Are you the type of woman who’d take a total stranger to bed?” His voice is confident, calm, and even.

Now it’s my turn to fight my blush. My turn to lose. I square my shoulders to his, and his gaze dips for a moment to my chest, which is now under his eyes.

Watching him war with the impulse, I let myself hope what I wouldn’t before. Graham is enjoying this game, even if he’s not eager to show it.

The subtext of his question is hot between us. It’s enough to hold us apart from the rest of the room, from the sea of singles making conversation over cocktails. The high tables, the warm hotel lighting, the well-dressed clamor—they cease to exist. The world becomes me and Graham and the strip of bar separating us.

I set my drink down. “Not a total stranger,” I say.

Graham’s jaw tightens at my double meaning. Of course, he’s not a total stranger. Not at all. When his eyes dip once more, he’s no longer in a rush. If my blush was heat before, now it’s flame.

Nevertheless, I keep my posture straight, my chin haughtily high.

“Good to know,” he says.

I hide the new current of confusion joining with everything else coursing through me. Which Graham is the one saying he’s a total stranger to me—the charming caricature in front of me, or the man whose bed I share? Or, normally share.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

When a couple starts to feel like they’re married to a stranger, a flirtatious game of pretend becomes the spark they need to reignite their relationship.

Eliza and Graham are anticipating an anything-but-sexy, weeklong getaway to celebrate their five-year anniversary. Nestled on the Northern California coastline, the resort prides itself on being a destination for those in love and those looking to find it. For Eliza and Graham, it might as well be a vacation with a roommate.

When a well-meaning guest mistakes Eliza and Graham for being single and introduces them at the hotel bar, they don’t correct him. Suddenly, they’re pretending to be perfect strangers and it’s unexpectedly…fun? Eliza and Graham find themselves flirting like it’s their first date, and waiting with butterflies in their stomach for the other to text back.

Everyone at the retreat can sense the electric chemistry between Eliza and Graham’s alter egos. But when their scintillating game of roleplaying ends, will they still feel the heat?
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Meet the Author:

Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka met and fell in love in high school. Austin went on to graduate from Harvard, while Emily graduated from Princeton. Together, they are the authors of The Roughest Draft and Do I Know You? as well as several novels about romance for teens. Now married, they live in Los Angeles, where they continue to take daily inspiration from their own love story.
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