Spotlight & Giveaway: It’s Raining Men by Julie Hammerle

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Julie Hammerle to HJ!

Hi Julie and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, It’s Raining Men!

 
Hi! I’m so glad to be here! Thank you for having me.
 

Please summarize the book a la Twitter style for the readers here:

I got sad and over-served after my BFF announced her surprise engagement. Now I’m looking to settle down with one of the guys who answered my drunken proposal text. AITA?
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

“Okay, what’s wrong?” Gayle Gale asked after I’d finished listening to her heart and lungs.
“Well, your chest sounds good, but your blood pressure is higher than I’d like it to be.” I wrapped my stethoscope around my neck.
“I was talking about you, Annie, not me. What’s with the weepy eyes?”
I asked all the patients in my concierge practice to call me Annie. I found it lowered the doctor-patient barrier in our relationship, making them more likely to contact me with potentially serious symptoms.
It also, unfortunately, had the side effect of encouraging them to ask me about my personal life.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• The chapter titles are all trivia team names.
• A good chunk of the book takes place in the Chicago neighborhood where I grew up–Edison Park.
• The original title for this book was THE BACKUP WIFE.
• Annie’s original name was Mallory, and I’m glad I changed it. I’ve read at least two books recently with a MC named Mallory 🙂
• I, like Annie, take pub quizzes way too seriously.

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

Since this is actually a love…quadrangle, Darius is attracted to Annie because of her no-nonsense professionalism, Dax likes that she’s kind of a secret mess underneath the high-powered job and nice clothes, and Rob loves that they have a deep history together.

Annie likes that Darius is a foxy, sophisticated professional, she thinks Dax is a straight-up fox, and she feels at home with Rob…who’s also pretty foxy, too.
 

Using just 5 words, how would you describe Hero and Heroine’s love affair?

Making out on a piano.
 

The First Kiss…

My body ached in a way normally reserved for Timothy Olyphant. Right, wrong, or foolish, I needed his hands on me tonight.
“I want you to kiss me.” There—I said it.
His thumb traced my lower lip, and my groin sent out an SOS signal to the rest of my body. “You don’t want that.”
“Yes, I do.”
“If I kiss you, then what?” His eyes focused on my lips.
“Then…we high five and go our separate ways.”

Without revealing too much, what is your favorite scene in the book?

The dog washing scene! 🙂

When I moved around to Joanne’s front, Dax and I were suddenly face-to-face. I softly and gently soaped up Joanne’s head. “Good,” he said, “easy.” His warm breath hit my cheek, sending waves of heat to my core. Carried away by my body’s response to his calming whispers, I kept rubbing and rubbing and rubbing the top of her head.
“I think you got it,” Dax said.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would be absolutely crucial to include?

All of them, lol! But seriously, I loved writing the scene where Darius interviews Annie.

I nodded, swallowing, trying to quickly dissolve the dry knot that had developed in my throat. I was going to blow this. I was about to make a fool of myself on national television. Okay, not “national” television, but WTS was a superstation, right? People from here to Nebraska would tune in to watch me make a jackass of myself.
Very cool and exciting. Thank you for goading me into this, Gayle Gale.
I felt my lips pull into something I hoped resembled a smile.
Darius leaned across the desk. “Just act natural,” he whispered.
There was that word again.
“Pretend we’re just two people having a conversation.”
His warm smile did ease my nerves a bit. The gorgeous man was right. I’d do fine. This was just a simple chat on a topic I knew well.

Readers should read this book …

if they’re looking for a fun, lighthearted read about people fumbling through their lives who seemingly have it all together on the surface.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

I’m working on another 40+ romance for Entangled Publishing, which should be out either the end of this year or early 2022.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: $10 Amazon gift card & a backlist eBook title (winner’s choice)

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Excerpt from It’s Raining Men:

When the door had closed behind my friends, I finally fully exhaled the breath that’d been stuck in my chest for hours and headed up to the bar. I parked myself in front of the new redheaded bartender. “Hi,” I said. “What’s your name?”
“Peter.” He shot me a sweet, gap-toothed grin on his pale, freckly face. He looked like Opie on The Andy Griffith Show, and not much older. Peter was even younger than Dax—maybe fresh out of college. He probably saw me and wondered how many grandchildren I had.
“I’m Annie.”
“Nice to meet you, Annie.” He flashed me a kind smile. “What can I get you?” He wiped down the counter in front of me.
Sucking in my bottom lip, I scanned the shelf of liquor behind him. I’d already had my allotted drink tonight. I had to stay in peak shape in case any of my patients needed me. But, hell, what was one more? I never did this kind of thing, and what were the chances that someone would need me tonight of all nights? “Give me a shot of something, please.”
“Tequila?” he said.
“Sure, because no one’s ever made a bad decision on tequila.”
Peter set a glass and a lime in front of me, and Dax, who had been listening in, pushed a shaker of salt my way.
I wet my wrist, poured on some salt, and licked that off. Then I held up the shot as a toast and downed it, finishing up the ritual with a lime. Damn, that tasted like regret. “Another one,” I told Peter.
He obliged.
“So, your friend’s getting married,” Dax said, coming up next to Peter.
“I suppose so.” I drained another shot and twirled my index finger in the air, indicating I’d like another round.
Instead Dax set a glass of water in front of me. Buzzkill.
“You like the guy?” Peter asked.
I rolled my eyes. “No, but what does that matter?”
“Seems cool to me,” Dax said, as if anyone had asked his opinion. “Knows his stuff about wine.”
“Yeah, because that’s what truly matters.”
Dax, probably realizing his rookie mistake of wandering into this conversation, turned away and focused on glasses that needed wiping.
As I downed my third shot in short succession, the guilt started settling in. I was too responsible not to worry about the ramifications of my actions. I was the good girl, the A-student. I didn’t shirk my responsibilities. I pulled out my phone and texted my assistant Tina. Hey! Sorry this is last minute. Are you available to take calls from patients tonight? My BFF got (ring emoji) and we’re (celebration emoji) (champagne toast emoji).
OMG, she wrote back almost immediately. Forward everything to me. I’m just (squirrel emoji) (fish emoji) (guy dancing emoji). No problem!
I had no idea what any of those emojis meant, but I wasn’t about to question it.
Tonight I, a single woman nearing her forties who had just gotten very disappointing news, would doff her doctor hat and behave irresponsibly for once in her life.
“My friend kept her new fiancé a secret for three months,” I told Peter. “Three months.” I scoffed. “Though she told our other friend about him.”
He frowned. “Why do you think she did that?”
“I honestly don’t know.” I glanced at the door, holding out hope that Kelly would rush back into the bar to admit she was wrong—that she hadn’t meant anything by telling Yessi and not me. “She and I… We were supposed to grow old together, to travel the world after we retired. I even brought that up this week with her. I feel like a fool. She had so many opportunities, but she never mentioned she’d met someone.”
“You’re mad she told your friend and not you.” A little wrinkle appeared between Peter’s eyes, like he, the new guy here, was trying to catch up to my little personal soap opera.
“Yeah, Peter.” He didn’t get it. He probably lived in a one-bedroom apartment with his six best pals. He had a good ten to fifteen years before he knew how it felt to be the one left behind.
Dax wordlessly set one of his stellar old-fashioneds in front of me, wiped his hands, and walked away.
With stinging eyes, I squeaked out a “thank you.” My throat had closed up.

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Don’t drink and text.

Even on the cusp of forty, I had to learn that the hard way. After discovering my best friend, who I was supposed to grow old and single with, got engaged, I drowned my loneliness in one too many Old Fashioneds and woke up with thirty-nine responses from every available man in my phone. Yup, I even texted my plumber…and he turned me down.

Apparently, my liquor-infused text said that while I don’t need a man, maybe I’d be down for a constant sidekick for movies, plus-one invites, and dinner on the table after my grueling shifts as a concierge doctor―till death do us part…and was anyone in?

Through the absolute mortification of thirty-seven rejections, shockingly, I realize two men have said yes. Behind Bachelor Door #1 is Rob, my old high school crush: the comfortable, dependable boy-next-door. Behind Bachelor Door #2 is Darius, the exciting, flashy news reporter about to hit it big. Does this mean I’ll have to get out of my yoga pants and actually go on dates now?

Dax, the local bartender who got me into this disaster in the first place―remember the Old Fashioneds?―can’t believe I’ve given up on finding true love. What does a tattooed, broody twentysomething know about carving out a future for yourself, anyway?

Too bad the further into this hot mess I get, the less I know about who I am. And I’m going to have to figure out exactly what I need if I ever want to find a true happily ever after.
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Meet the Author:

USA Today best-selling, RITA nominated author, Julie Hammerle (she/her) writes romantic comedies for adults and teens. Before settling down to write “for real,” she studied opera, taught Latin, and held her real estate license for one hot minute. Currently, when not writing, she ropes people into conversations about Game of Thrones and makes excuses to avoid the gym. Her favorite YA-centric TV shows include 90210 (original spice), Felicity, and Freaks and Geeks. Her music playlist reads like a 1997 Lilith Fair set list.

She lives in Chicago with her husband and her two kids and a dog.
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