Spotlight & Giveaway: Home for Christmas by Courtney Cole

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Courtney Cole to HJ!

Hi Courtney and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Home for Christmas!

 
Thanks for having me!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Have you ever wondered what your grandmother was like when she was your age?

Piper McCauley doesn’t have to. In a weird twist of time, she gets lost in a snowstorm and is transported to 1944, where she spends the holidays with her ancestors– and gets to know her own grandmother as a girl her age.

As they experience winter in the Alaskan wilderness, they come together in ways that Piper had never imagined… showing what family really means. She also meets a war-torn soldier, who even while he is troubled from the war, he still manages a twinkle in his eye.

Home for Christmas will make your heart warm, will make you laugh, and maybe make you cry just a little. It’s everything a Christmas story should be… or so the early reviewers have told me. 😉 I hope you love it!
 

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

Ummmmm.. I can’t choose! There’s too many!

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

I wrote this book because I miss my grandparents. My grandmother was a real life Rosie the Riveter and my granddad fought in the war. I’ve heard so many stories about the rations, the simpler way of life… that it rang nostalgic for me this year and I knew I had to turn them into a story.

Some interesting things I learned….

• People did have to ration their bath water to reduce fuel costs.
• Shampoo and personal hygiene items were rationed, too!
• Hitler really did dislike red lipstick, so American women took to wearing it as an act of defiance. The
• Marines even had an official red lipstick color: Montezuma Red.

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

I think an example is in order to answer this…. 😉

He eyes me curiously as he joins me. “Did Mrs. McC call you Piper?” he asks, his eyes twinkling.
“Yes,” I nod. “I know. It’s strange.”
“Not strange,” he says slowly. “Unusual. And interesting. Which I get a feeling suits you just fine.”
His tone of voice and handsome face make my cheeks flush. And suddenly, in this warm small space, in the proximity of this handsome man with sparkling eyes and is, by all appearances, some sort of war hero who recently lost his parents, my ovaries decide to betray me, and they flutter wildly to get my attention.
The problem is, when they do, it’s like sensory overload, and the room spins, my cheeks get hot, and the last things I remember are Lane’s green eyes gleaming with concern, and his strong arms darting out immediately to catch me before I fall to the ground. ‘

Or… how about this?

“You sound pretty sure of yourself.”
“I am,” he agrees. “A person has got to be, don’t you think?”
It’s a sexy trait, I decide. He’s self-assured, but not cocky. He’s… capable. Talking to him, I have no doubt that he’ll do whatever he sets out to do, and more than likely, he’ll do it with his own two hands. It’s admirable, and a very different attitude than men from my own generation.
It’s refreshing.

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

There are so many! This one is one of my faves….

“Ace,” he half-sighs, half-groans, and he reaches for me, pulling me close. He kisses me softly, his lips pressing ever-so-lightly into mine.
“Ahem,” Sophie clears her throat, her head poked out her bedroom door. I yank away from Lane.
“Sorry, Sophie. We were just saying goodnight.”
“Use your words, not your lips,” she advises, before she closes her door again.
“I mean, technically, you need your lips to speak,” I say quietly. Lane smiles.
“Don’t tempt me, Pip,” he murmurs. I nod.
“Good night, Lane.”
“Goodnight, Ace.”
I step inside the bedroom, close the door, and then lean on it, with my hand on my heart and my back to the wood.
From the bed, Marina watches me and laughs.
“You’ve got it bad, girl.”
“I know. It hit me suddenly, like someone took a ball bat to my head.”
“Lands, what a charming comparison,” she shudders.
“I mean, there was chemistry there from the first moment, obviously,” I say, moving to the bed. “But yesterday, it just hit me hard. I knew I was falling, and then it just happened. I fell.”
I sigh, and collapse on the bed, and Marina laughs again.
“I’m happy for you both, Pippie.”
I do a snow angel on the bed, and we collapse into giggles when I almost knock her off on accident.
“You’re a mess,” she tells me.
“I know.”

Readers should read this book….

If they love the magic of the season, if they ever wondered what life was like in 1944, if they’ve ever wondered what their grandparents were like when they were young… or… if you just love Christmas. Also… there’s a baby Reindeer named Nugget….

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

I am working on my next Christmas book– A Christmas Wish. It will be out next October!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A print copy of HOME FOR CHRISTMAS By Courtney Cole

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What is your best Christmas tradition?

For me, it’s one created when my husband and I were first married, and we didn’t have much money. We each wrote a Christmas letter to the other since we didn’t have money for gifts. We told each other why we loved the other, how grateful we are, etc. We liked it so much, that we still do it to this day… although nowadays, we make sure we each have a pile of shiny gifts to unwrap, too. 🙂
 

Excerpt from Home for Christmas:

“I live nearby,” I tell them. “I can call for a ride when we get there. Do you have signal?”
“Signal?” Dale asks. “We’ve got a radio, if you need it. Short-wave only, of course.”
“Why only short-wave?” I ask as we turn to hike.
“Because of the war,” he says slowly. “Long-range radios are banned. We’ve really got to get you warmed up, you’re not thinking clearly. You’ll have to tell us what you’re doing out here alone. It’s not safe.”
“I know,” I insist. “I live here. Great Expectations Lodge. Do you know it?”
They’re silent, all four of them, as they eye me.
“She needs to be looked at,” Dale tells them, and they all nod. They pull me along, as we climb down. I take in their bulky canvas overcoats, and wonder where they’re from.
“Why are y’all out here?” I ask, trying to ignore the cold nipping my face.
“Hunting,” one of them tells me.
“This is private property,” I tell them. “I mean, thank you for pulling me out of the snow. But most of this mountain belongs to Great Expectations.”
“Well, you’re lucky we heard you,” Dale says to me, unconcerned. “Or you’d be in a spot of trouble right about now.”
I scan the area, and don’t see a trace of Dan. “I can’t imagine where Dan went,” I mutter. “He wouldn’t have just left me.”
“Ma’am, we didn’t see anyone else, and we’ve been out for hours.”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” I mumble.
“No, ma’am, it sure doesn’t,” one man agrees. I glance at him, and they all just seem bewildered.
“Haven’t you ever seen a woman out in the snow before?” I joke. But they all shake their heads seriously.
“No,” they all agree.
“You gentlemen should get out more,” I advise.
We continue walking, and it’s not long before we crest the clearing to the Lodge. They all walk toward the doors, and as we get closer, I realize that it looks like the Lodge. But it’s different.
I stop. The logs seem new, The wrap-around porch isn’t here, and the bobcat isn’t poking around the corner. Also… the sign.
The big wooden sign looms in front, painted in bright blue. Great Expectations. Rooms for rent.
Rooms for rent?
I’d think I was in the wrong place, but this is the lodge, it’s just… different.
“I don’t understand,” I whisper, staring at the carved wooden doors. Those are custom to Great Expectations and we’ve had them for over a hundred years. They look brand new now.
“You must’ve hit your head pretty hard,” Dale says, taking my elbow. “Let’s get you out of the cold and something hot to drink.”
I don’t argue and follow behind as the man leads me into my own house.
Only… it’s not.
I gaze about the foyer, and I don’t recognize it. There are black and white photographs framed over the fireplace, the furniture is… old-fashioned, yet new, and the woman walking in our direction in the dress and apron is someone I’ve never met in my life, even though she seems vaguely familiar.
“Dale, what in the world?” she exclaims, and she grabs me gently, patting my cheeks with her hands. “Can you hear me, dear?” she asks, her nose in my face.
“Yes,” I tell her. “I’m fine. Just cold.”
“Well, I imagine you are,” she tells me. “Marina!” she calls over her shoulder, before turning back to me. “My daughter looks almost your age. We can borrow some of her dry clothing while we heat you up.”
Marina?
As in….
My grandmother appears behind the woman, only it can’t be my grandmother because this girl is around my age, and…. she looks like every picture I’ve ever seen of Gran from when she was young.
Maybe I do have frostbite. Of the brain.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

rom New York Times bestselling author Courtney Cole, the Magic of the Christmas Season sends a woman back in time to the 1940s where she meets her own grandmother and learns the true meaning of family and the holiday.

Piper McCaulley doesn’t know which way is up or down. Her gran, her last remaining family, died two weeks before Christmas, leaving Piper to reevaluate her life. Did she really want to stay chained to the family business just to hang on to this old house? She didn’t care that her great-great-great grandpa had built it with his own hands. How could she make huge life decisions if she’d never even been outside of Alaska?

She needs to leave the snowy wilderness that’s her backyard and see the world, and since her gran left her a battered old compass, Piper takes this a secret message from her beloved grandmother: to follow her heart.

But before she is even a foot outside the door, Piper finds herself caught in a blizzard and wakes up in 1945 in the original home that her ancestors had built—a time when her gran was just a girl Piper’s age. Once she has gotten over the shock, Piper has the joy of getting to know her grandmother in a whole new way, a way that sheds light on everything Piper had come to know and not know about her own past.

Over the course of one magical holiday season, Piper must go on a journey through time to learn the meaning of real love, home, and how a family legacy can connect one another forever.
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Meet the Author:

Courtney Cole is a New York Times bestselling author of over twenty novels. She enjoys eating reader emotions for breakfast, wearing cashmere socks (when she’s not barefoot) and collecting hula girls.

An optimist, Pacman champion, trophy wife, and fierce mama, her motto is to live with grace. She believes in the power of blonde hair dye and red lipstick, and feels that a well-timed smile can change the world.
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