Spotlight & Giveaway: Emma of 83rd Street by Emily Harding & Audrey Bellezza

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Emily Harding & Audrey Bellezza to HJ!

Hi Emily & Audrey and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Emma of 83rd Street!

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

The elevator pitch we’ve been using is that we’ve given Jane Austen’s Emma the ultimate makeover in modern-day Manhattan.
 

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

Audrey: One of my absolute favorite lines in the book is when Emma’s dad, Mr. Woodhouse says, “Who is hooking up on the roof?” You think he’s shocked by the idea of people having sex on a roof deck but then he continues with, “It’s freezing out!” Because of course he’s more concerned about the temperature. That line always makes me laugh.

Emily: I think all of Mr. Woodhouse’s lines are my favorite. He was so much fun to write.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

It was born out of complete and utter desperation! We were about four months into the pandemic, and both of us were stuck at home, trying to maintain our careers while homeschooling our kids. One night we were texting over a glass of wine (or two), thinking up ways to stay sane, and came up with the idea of writing something together. A modern retelling of one of our favorite books in our favorite city felt like an obvious choice.

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

This is probably the same thing for both Emma and Knightley, even though they realize it at different times. Obviously, they’re both attractive and this leads to attraction, but more than that, they are the only two people who don’t look at the other through rose-tinted glasses. They never have. And while they’ve found that annoying their entire lives, over the course of the book they begin to learn that this isn’t a bad thing. In fact, being vulnerable and seen, and still being loved, is the best thing ever. It is also very, very hot.

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

Emily: So many! Part of what made writing this book so much fun was creating those scenes together, finding ways to make each other laugh and blush and cry. I have a few favorites, but I don’t want to give too much away so I’ll pick one that happens early on, when Emma takes her friend Nadine to her favorite salon. At the end of the appointment, the salon owner admits that he’s looking for a new receptionist and Emma tries to subtly imply that Nadine could be the perfect candidate. The conversation that ensues was so much fun to write and is still one of my favorites in the whole book.

Audrey: Oh, that scene is so fantastic. It’s definitely one of my absolute favorite moments! Actually, everything Nadine says makes me chuckle. I’ll pick something early on as well. Knightley and Emma have this palpable chemistry from the very beginning, and I adore any scene when it’s just the two of them trying to figure each other out. They all make me blush–in the best way! In the first several chapters, Emma and Knightley are at a wedding and their banter is flirtatious but also restrained. It sets up the slow burn of their relationship and everything that is to come. I just love how it all turned out.

Readers should read this book….

…If you want a book you can’t put down. If you love a slow-burn romance with just the right amount of heat, and if you want to laugh with relatable characters that will surprise and delight you. At its heart, this is still the same romantic comedy that we all know and love, but there are new twists and turns that make the journey exciting, hilarious, and unpredictable.

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

Good question! We’d love to keep exploring the world of Jane Austen for as long as we can, and we’re working on a couple of ideas…stay tuned.
 
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A Print copy of Emma of 83rd Street by Emily Harding & Audrey Bellezza

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Book Info:

In this witty and romantic debut novel, Jane Austen’s Emma meets the misadventures of Manhattan’s modern dating scene as two lifelong friends discover that, in the search for love, you sometimes don’t have to look any further than your own backyard.

Beautiful, clever, and rich, Emma Woodhouse has lived twenty-three years in her tight-knit Upper East Side neighborhood with very little to distress or vex her…that is, until her budding matchmaking hobby results in her sister’s marriage—and subsequent move downtown. Now, with her sister gone and all her friends traveling abroad, Emma must start her final year of grad school grappling with an entirely new emotion: boredom. So when she meets Nadine, a wide-eyed Ohio transplant with a heart of gold and drugstore blonde highlights to match, Emma not only sees a potential new friend but a new project. If only her overbearing neighbor George Knightley would get out of her way.

Handsome, smart, and successful, the only thing that frustrates Knightley more than a corked whiskey is his childhood friend, Emma. Whether it’s her shopping sprees between classes or her revolving door of ill-conceived hobbies, he is only too happy to lecture her on all the finer points of adulthood she’s so hell-bent on ignoring. But despite his gripes—and much to his own chagrin—Knightley can’t help but notice that the girl next door is a woman now…one who he suddenly can’t get out of his head.

As Emma’s best laid plans collide with everyone from hipster baristas to meddling family members to flaky playboy millionaires, these two friends slowly realize their need to always be right has been usurped by a new need entirely, and it’s not long before they discover that even the most familiar stories still have some surprises.
Book Links:  Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Audrey Bellezza is a two-time Emmy-nominated TV producer who has spent over twenty years writing, developing, and executive producing nonfiction television shows for a number of networks and streaming platforms. Audrey lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children.

Emily Harding is a writer and TV producer whose work has appeared on numerous networks and websites. When not hunched over her computer perfecting on her bad posture, she can be found losing another game of Monopoly to her husband and two kids.
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