Spotlight & Giveaway: Heart Marks the Spot by Libby Hubscher

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Libby Hubscher to HJ!

Hi Libby and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Heart Marks the Spot!

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Heart Marks the Spot is the story of a relentless treasure hunter (Stella Moore) who meets her favorite writer (Huck Sullivan) by chance while on a hunt in Iceland. She’s searching for ancient relics and he’s struggling with writer’s block and looking for inspiration. He joins the search, and they grow close. Just as it seems that they’ve found what they’ve been searching for as well as a new relationship…everything falls apart. A year later, Stella’s hot on the trail of a fabled treasure and Huck has a new bestseller, featuring a heroine who bears a remarkable resemblance to Stella. Neither can move on. When Huck joins the new expedition, they both have to work together to uncover the priceless treasure and in the process discover the truth about what happened then and regain the love they lost.
 

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

You wrote some really incredible erotic fan fiction of us, didn’t you?
I spent two paragraphs on these lips, and it’s the best fucking thing I’ve ever written.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• This book was inspired by my obsession with the shows Castle and Outer Banks, but didn’t start to take shape until I went on a trip to Iceland and found myself mesmerized by the waterfalls and thinking of all the places a person could hide a treasure.
• Stella eats my favorite meal in Key West.
• Huck struggles with writer’s block – something I faced when I was writing the first draft of this book.

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

Huck is drawn to Stella’s unique energy, enthusiasm for treasure hunting, and story telling. Stella loves Huck’s writing and has been harboring a bit of a crush on her favorite writer, but his glacier blue eyes don’t hurt when she first meets him.

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

This is my spiciest book – so there was definitely more blushing while writing than with my other novels. There’s a scene in Key West where Stella and Huck turn up the heat in a pool that comes to mind.

Is the water boiling now? I pull away for a second to look at her before I lean in to nip at her neck. She’s so fucking beautiful, I might break into a million pieces in this pool. Her friend will have to drain the water to find all the shards, like a shattered champagne flute. Stella digs her nails into my back, pulling me close, closer.

Readers should read this book….

If they love travel and adventure, second chance romances, hopeless romantics, and found families.

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

I’m currently taking a bit of a break and waiting for inspiration to strike.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: One finished copy of HEART MARKS THE SPOT by Libby Hubscher.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Which do you think is more likely – finding treasure or finding happily ever after? And why?

 
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Excerpt from Heart Marks the Spot:

“At the risk of being incredibly vulnerable, I was prepared for a lot of things on this trip. Not this,
though.” She looks right through me at this, and I quickly add, “The feeling like I’m moving when I’m on dry land was not on my bingo card.”
“It takes some people longer to get their land legs back,” she says. She reaches down and picks up a white oyster shell, turning it over in her hands before she tosses it into the water. “I think I know exactly how to fix it, though.”
“Yeah?”
She nods. “Are you okay to walk down a bit farther?”
“I think so, just as long as I don’t look down again. My balance is way off.”
“We can take care of that.”
“That’s great news.”
“This should work . . . as long as you trust me,” she says.
We reach the end of the walkway. I had trusted her from the moment we’d met, and I still did. “Of course. I do. I trust you. Just please, make this—”
It happens in an instant. She’s reaching for me. My mind races. Maybe there’s a chance that she still feels something between us like what we had in Iceland, maybe I want that too. I could tell her the truth and we could move past this. Start again. It’s probably a huge mistake, but isn’t that what living is? And I don’t know what to do or how to feel, but if she wants me, she can have me. She never stopped having me. And then, there’s a surprising impact on my torso; I’m sailing through the air, my arms flailing, and I hit the water.
I sputter to the surface just in time to see an entire flock of egrets take to the sky, startled by my
splash or the rich sound of Stella’s hysterical laughter. “What the fuck—”
“If you still have your sea legs, the only way to feel better is to go back to the water,” she calls from the boardwalk.
“You could’ve warned me,” I call. “What if I were a bad swimmer?”
“You seem to be doing fine.”
There’s not one iota of my body that can be mad at her. She’s unabashed, delighted with herself. That triumphant smile, and the way she’s casually reaching for the hem of her dress has me in a total freaking chokehold. I feel light-headed and lighter, like maybe I’ve overestimated the damage I caused her. Because she’s laughing, shimmying that sundress over her head, stepping out of her boots, standing above me in her underwear. I only have an instant to admire her figure, the gently curving silhouette I still long to run my hands over in languid strokes and that lacy lingerie that forces me to sink back into my memory. She doesn’t give me a chance to go further. In two steps, she’s airborne, knees tucked, arcing over me in a perfect cannonball that sends a jet of water into my face when she lands. She swims back to me in smooth strokes until we’re only inches away from each other. Beneath the surface, our hands accidentally graze as we tread water. This could be the Blue Lagoon.
“Feel better?” she asks. She slicks her wet hair back with her hands.
“Not quite,” I say. I put my hands on her head and give her one massive dunk. When she comes up
for air, she flashes a dramatic angry face and sends a wall of water into my laughing mouth and eyes with single graceful swoop of her arm. She’s laughing too, squealing as we splash each other. I bob gently, warring with her, and forget that the world was moving earlier when it was supposed to stand still. I forget that I’m not happy.
I forget that we didn’t work out because I did what I always do and ruined everything.
In this moment, with Stella, I forget everything.
I even fail to recall that the salt water down here this time of year can be teeming with jellyfish.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

A treasure hunter and the bestselling adventure novelist who broke her heart after one successful expedition reunite for a summer to search for lost riches.

Treasure hunter Stella Moore dreams of having it all—wealth, love, and a flourishing career—but knows she’ll never be that lucky. Every summer she and her childhood friends travel to search for hidden treasure, but she can barely manage her bills, let alone a relationship. Then, a chance encounter with alluring novelist Huck Sullivan during an expedition in Iceland has Stella thinking maybe her fortune has changed.

After his last book bombed, Huck hasn’t written a word. Joining Stella and her crew on an adventure seems like the perfect distraction from his problems, and when the crew finally uncovers hidden treasure, he is certain that he’s found more than just inspiration for his next novel. Huck and Stella’s undeniable connection gives way to an unforgettable night on a black sand beach.

After Huck disappears without a goodbye, Stella vows to put the heartbreak behind her—but that’s easier said than done when, a year later, every bookstore has a life-size cutout of her ex-lover next to stacks of his latest record-breaking bestseller. Good thing it’s time for another summer treasure hunt. Stella throws herself into mapping the path to a shipwreck off Key West, but the last thing she expects is an extra crew member showing up in search of material for a sequel and a second chance.

Stella and Huck are prepared for storms, sharks, sea sickness, even a tentative truce. But facing the feelings they buried and confronting the devastating truth about why Huck left is the only way to find what their hearts have been searching for all along.
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Meet the Author:

Libby Hubscher is an author of romantic dramedies and a scientist. She studied biology at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine and holds a doctor of philosophy in molecular toxicology from North Carolina State University. Her work has appeared online and in textbooks, scientific journals, and literary journals. In 2018, her short story “The Unwelcome Guest” was long-listed for the Wigleaf Top 50. She lives near Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband, two kids, and a menagerie of pets.
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