Spotlight & Giveaway: Lights, Camera… Wedding? by Laurel Greer

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Laurel Greer to HJ!

Hi Laurel and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Lights, Camera… Wedding?!

Thank you for having me!
 

To start off, can you please tell us a little bit about this book?:

Get ready for the wedding of the year in Sutter Creek, Montana! Bea Halloran’s man-of-honor has been promoted to groom, and everyone’s trying to figure out why.

Bea’s not telling–she might have been jilted by her fiance, but that’s under wraps. If she breaks her contract to have a sumptuous-yet-rustic Christmas wedding on a reality TV series, she’ll lose her florist business and her reputation. Luckily, her best friend, Brody, is game for anything as long as it doesn’t mean falling in love. All they need to do is pull off a wedding-of-convenience without anyone knowing. But every wedding planning event, moment of Christmas nostalgia, and night shared in a cabin with only one bed pushes them closer to breaking the vows they made to each other long ago: never to cross the friends-only line.
 

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

That’s a tough choice! These two say all sorts of heart-melting things. But if I have to pick one, I’ll go with this one, when Bea is lamenting that she doesn’t think she matters to her family and Brody’s starting to realize just how much Bea means to him:

“Bea. Sweetheart…”

“You don’t need to scramble to fix it,” she said. “I know how people see me.”

“Clearly, you don’t. Because if you said something like that, it means you don’t understand that—” he cradled her cheeks in his hands “—that sometimes…sometimes I think you’re the best part of my life.”

A tiny gasp escaped her lips. Green eyes flew wide open, her long lashes fanning at the corners. “Brody…”

The best part of his life.

He couldn’t take it back.

Not when she needed to know it.

Not when it was true.

What inspired this book?

Lights, Camera…Wedding? is my ninth book for Harlequin Special Edition, and when I was putting the proposal together, I realized I hadn’t yet written one of my favourite tropes to read: fake relationship! I also hadn’t done a marriage or wedding of convenience, so it seemed like it was time.

How did you ‘get to know’ your main characters? Did they ever surprise you?

Bea and Brody’s romance is a standalone, and readers can jump right in without having read any of the other Sutter Creek books. But it is one in a miniseries, specifically following two other books that take place at the wedding lodge run by Bea’s sister Emma and Brody’s cousin Luke. By the time I started writing Lights, Camera… Wedding? I had a lot of pieces that I needed to include – Bea’s history of jumping from job to job, her being engaged to someone she only thought she was in love with, Brody being a retired Olympic rower and having lost his dad in combat, and them being best friends and living in Seattle. It took some brainstorming and some work in the first draft to figure out a way it would all come together! One way they surprised me was I was expecting to have them go back to Seattle for part of the book, but no matter what I tried, they refused. In the end, it was better to keep them in Sutter Creek. It allowed me to see things about their relationships with their families that might not have surfaced otherwise, especially between Brody and his mom, and him coming to terms with how the way his dad’s death devastated his mom made him unwilling to fall in love himself.

What was your favorite scene to write?

The end, but I’m not going to spoil that, of course. A close second was when Bea is at the rowing club watching Brody scull, and discovers high heels and wooden docks don’t mix. After she falls in and Brody pulls her out, he flips into stern mode:

Brody stood, carrying Bea with zero effort. She peeked over his shoulder. His rowing shell floated twenty feet off the dock, next to the tin skiff filled with the TV crew. “Your boat.”

“Travis will deal with it.”

This was ridiculous. “I can walk.”

“You don’t have shoes.” He stormed toward the boathouse. Well, squelched, really.

She tilted her head, so close to his face it was hard to get a read on his expression beyond the granite set of his jaw. “You’re overreacting.”

No response. He strode into the building like he owned the place.

The club director held a change room door open. “All clear, Brody. There are a couple of towels on the counter.”

“Thank you.”

He set Bea down on the pristine floor of an accessible stall and turned on the water. After checking the temperature, he positioned her under the stream from the wide showerhead. Cupping her face with shaking hands, he ran his thumbs along her cheekbones. His hair was plastered to his head and his wet clothes clung to his fit frame.

“W-we need to get warm,” she said. The heat from the shower water soaked into her already-wet hair and clothes, washing away the cold. “Not just me. You went under, too.”

“I wasn’t drowning.”

“Neither was I.”

His mouth was a firm line of “you sure as hell were.”

“Brody, chill.”

“I could not be more chilled right now.”

“Oh, my God, a dad joke? Now?”

“I will say anything if it means I stop reliving your head going under the water and not coming up again, Beatrix.”

What was the most difficult scene to write?

The beginning. All three chapters. It took me a while to realize the wedding of convenience needed to be Bea’s idea from the get-go. I was stuck on Brody coming to Sutter Creek to surprise Bea with the idea, which was fun but didn’t work with the rest of the book. Putting it in Bea’s hands worked much better:

“If this was a blockbuster rom-com, I’d hire an escort to stand in as my groom.” She could see it put to film, her inevitably cast as a manic pixie dream girl, showing up with a delicious Marvel superhero actor on her arm. He’d charm the production team, her family and her—eventually into bed, please and thank you, given she was a sucker for biceps and self-deprecating humor…

Wait.

She whipped her gaze toward Brody, who had a wrist on the steering wheel and a hand on the shifter.

He had biceps and self-deprecating humor. He could charm a production team, and her family already loved him.

And as long as it was clear she didn’t expect him to tumble with her into bed, and his obligations would end the minute the cameras stopped rolling…

A flash of inspiration burned away some of her dread.

“Brody, will you marry me?”

Would you say this book showcases your writing style or is it a departure for you?

A showcase, for sure! Lights, Camera… Wedding? is the kind of steamy-sweet smalltown romance I love to write. It’s full of laughter and mishaps, family drama, and endearing characters. And the best part, of course, with Bea and Brody ultimately finding both healing and the courage to love wholeheartedly.

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

That it takes courage and effort to love and be loved, but it’s worth putting in that work and being brave. And hopefully some laughs and even a few tears–I always aim for my books to be an escape and to provide readers with a world they can fall into.

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

I have a few projects on the go. I’m writing a trilogy in a new location for Harlequin Special Edition that will come out in 2023-24. Love at Hideaway Wharf is a miniseries located on a small (fictitious) island in Washington’s San Juan Islands. I’m so excited to bring readers to the west coast — I can’t think of a more romantic setting than the wild and rugged Salish Sea. The first in that series is an MM romance about a burned-out, ocean-phobic chef having to learn how to scuba dive to fulfil the terms of his sister’s will. But diving in deep with his sexy divemaster means finding not only the courage to face his fears, but a home and family, too. For the other two books in the series, the divemaster’s best friends will each get their own storyline (both MF romance). My other project involves shared world, F1 racing, MM romance shenanigans.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: Two winners will receive signed print copies of the Sutter Creek wedding lodge trilogy: Twelve Dates of Christmas; What to Expect When She’s Expecting; and Lights, Camera… Wedding? US/Canada only.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Would you want to star on a reality TV show? If so, what theme/kind? If not, what would you dislike about it?

 
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Excerpt from Lights, Camera… Wedding?:

Was he really going to do this? Accept his best friend’s proposal?

He swallowed, expecting a thunderclap from the heavens, scolding him for being absurd—or at least a jolt of nerves, a zap from his own conscience—but nothing happened. “Seems like the exact time to be serious. With the financial concerns you mentioned, you’re in a pour-on-the-gas-in-the-final-five-hundred-meters situation. The desperation zone. So yeah, if it keeps you out of debt and salvages your pride, I’ll be your husband-to-be for a couple of weeks.”

In the corner of his vision, he saw her jaw drop. He shot her a smile and turned down the next cross street, away from the freeway exit.

“Wait, where are we going?”

“Back to your shop to fetch your extra suitcases and boxes.”

“Wait, no.” She gripped his arm. “A fiancé doesn’t do me much good. The show isn’t DIY Engagement. It’s DIY I Do. A key part of that is the I do. We can’t pretend to get married, Brody.”

“But—” There had to be a way.

“No, no ‘but.’ This show is about actual weddings. The license, the guests, the officiant—there’s no way to fake all that.”

Brody winced. “Good point. I didn’t think it through past ‘pretend.’”

“I don’t think you thought it through at all. Because the contract costs are still going to exist when we don’t go through with a wedding.” Tears glittered in her eyes. “I need to put on my adulting pants this time. Spend some time being single, do some soul-searching about how I misread my feelings for Jason so badly. And then figure out a way to pay for my half of the wedding expenses without leaning on my family. No one is taking on my debt this time.”

“You and Emma both took the risk on the show as a promotional opportunity, though.”

“No, she took a risk on me. If anyone’s business is going to flounder because of this, it’s going to be mine.” She frowned. “No one will be shocked if I go under yet again.”

“You’re not losing your shop.”

“You say that as if there’s a choice. If I have a huge sum to pay back, I won’t be able to afford the rent.”

“Bea…”

Lifting her chin, she wiped at a damp cheek with the back of her hand. “Turn the car around, Brody. What’s one more unfinished project, one more career to toss on the funeral pyre?” She shook her head. “Why can’t I make anything stick?”

He ignored her command. He’d get her to see this was actually possible.

“Maybe sticking to something as the sole measure of success is unfair,” he said, voice rougher than he’d intended.

Because for all that Bea had her ephemeral moments, she brought joy into the world. Her kind of creative energy was vital.

“You—the man who reached the pinnacle of rowing and now helps others do the same—you are going to tell me sticking with something is overrated?”

He had done that. Not only had he dedicated his life to rowing, but he’d done it at the expense of almost everything else. Aside from his small number of friendships and his bonds with the few family members he had left, he’d shoved everything to the back burner during his training. It had given him a great excuse whenever his grandfather bugged him about not having a relationship that lasted longer than the life span of a housefly.

Through it all, Bea had been there for him. Flying to his regattas, propping him up during injuries, believing in him at his lowest moments.

He’d thought there wasn’t a way to repay her for that, but maybe there was.

“You could make this stick, Bea. Let’s do it for real.” He cleared his throat, the words foreign on his tongue. “Get married.”

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Her man of honor has just been promoted to groom in USA TODAY bestselling author Laurel Greer’s latest Sutter Creek, Montana romance!

A pretend wedding should be easy.
So why do her groom’s kisses mean faking it is impossible?

Fledgling florist Bea Halloran has banked her reputation and love life on her upcoming reality TV Christmas wedding. When her fiancé walks out, she is terrified her business will go belly-up. But Bea’s best friend, Brody Emerson, steps in as the fake groom, relieving her…and making her feel passion she barely recognizes. And Brody’s smoldering glances and knee-weakening kisses might just put their platonic vows to the test…

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Meet the Author:

USA Today bestselling author Laurel Greer loves writing about all the ways love can change people for the better, especially when messy families and charming small towns are involved. She lives outside of Vancouver, BC with her law-talking husband and two daughters and is never far from a cup of tea, a good book, or the ocean—preferably all three.
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