Spotlight & Giveaway: Love and Other Conspiracies by Mallory Marlowe

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Mallory Marlowe to HJ!

Hi Mallory and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Love and Other Conspiracies!

 
Hi readers!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Love and Other Conspiracies is the story of a down on her luck producer named Hallie, who is tasked with creating a show to compete in her company’s web series competition. She stumbles across Hayden Hargrove, the handsome host of a paranormal conspiracy theories podcast, on late night TV and knows he’s her key to victory. Sadly, Hayden is not as skilled in front of the camera as he is behind the mic. When Hallie hits him with a dose of her skepticism, their chemistry is off the charts and she hops into Hayden’s co-host chair. Through their hunts for Bigfoot, Mothman, aliens and the truth, the believer and the skeptic might just find love instead.
 

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

“And you should know that of all the ridiculous conspiracy theories and monsters I believe in? I believe in you the most.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• The book was initially set in Boston and The Out There was originally just a podcast. All the locations they visited were vastly different and Hallie was a game developer as opposed to a producer.
• I like to imagine that Hayden attended the “Raid Area 51” event that happened a couple years ago.
• The original title was Hayden and Hallie’s False Flag Operation.
• Hayden has a cat named Cthulhu, who was named after and inspired by a little grey kitten I fostered while I was writing the book. My best friend adopted one of Cthulhu’s siblings and she lives with us now.
• I feel like this book is tonally a combo of Taylor Swift’s evermore and Lover albums.

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

Hallie is initially drawn to Hayden by his nerdy hotness, and his voice. But once she meets him and gets to know him, she’s most attracted to his compassion and warmth. Hayden is captivated by Hallie’s attention-grabbing blue hair and loves how she’s so steadfast in her beliefs.

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

The scene where Hayden first tells her he loves her always gets me misty.

Hayden cracks a smile that makes the tears in his eyes fade away. “You’re not hard to work with or hard to love. Loving you has been the easiest thing I’ve ever done.”
Our eyes meet and I can hardly see him through the sheen of tears blurring my vision. I can only gather the tight and nervous composure and tension in his body, the dorky Bigfoot T-shirt he’s wearing, and the red flannel over his shoulders. But I know him well enough to fill in all the gaps. I know the heavy fear that weighs down the lightest greens in his eyes, and the shake he has in his hands because being this open terrifies him more than our brushes with ghosts do.
But I also know the slight nod of his head to tell me he means everything he says. And the truth is that he loves me. Loves me. Easily, happily, and completely. Just like I feel for him, too.
“What?” I ask, even though it’s a stupid question. I heard him loud and clear.
“I love you so much, Nonbeliever. And you should know that of all the ridiculous conspiracy theories and monsters I believe in? I believe in you the most.”

Readers should read this book….

If they are looking for an offbeat romance between two lonely oddballs, who learn to love and accept themselves, and each other.
If you hardcore shipped Scully and Mulder.
If you love Buzzfeed Unsolved.

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

I am currently editing my second book with Berkley. It ties into the world of Love and Other Conspiracies, but features new characters. It’s been a huge challenge since it involves some mystery solving, but it’s some of the most fun I’ve ever had writing a book. I can’t wait to share more about it!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A print copy of LOVE AND OTHER CONSPIRACIES by Mallory Marlowe.

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Excerpt from Love and Other Conspiracies:

“So, we just sit and look for pants?” I ask.
“We could play I Spy.”
“I spy with my little eye—something green.”
Hayden rolls his eyes. “It’s nature. It’s all green.”
“Sometimes nature is brown.”
“Right. That bush?” He points to the closest bush.
“Damn.”
“You aren’t even trying. I could do better with my glasses off.”
“So take them off,” I laugh.
He does as I ask and passes them to me. I feel like I’m holding such an integral piece of him, like the bad guy in Scooby-Doo holding Velma’s glasses out of reach. I hold the frames up to my eyes and stare out at the land in front of us. The lenses are so thick, and the world blurs to a canvas of muddy blacks and blues and sprays of green. I turn to him. The frames hardly fit on my face, sliding down my nose.
“Jesus, you really can’t see anything, can you?”
“I told you.”
But I can still make out the sharp figure of his body—the dark blues of his jeans and the chestnut browns in his hair. I can still see his coy smile, and—for once—he’s taking advantage of my lack of vision in the same way I always take advantage of his. I can linger on the pinch of dimples in his cheeks or the way his dark eyelashes brush against his skin when he closes his eyes. Right now, the world looks blurry and messy to both of us, but we can both still see what’s important.
And, more than that, I can still hear him breathing like it’s the loudest thing in the world, and as I wiggle closer to him, our legs brush together. Neither of us pulls away. Every touch is an occupational hazard. Washing my hair, sleeping in his bed, curling up beside him, our hands weaving together in the car. Every single touch convinces me that all I want is more.
“Hayden, I . . .”
“I know. It’ll be hard for either of us to spot Nightcrawlers this way.”
The shock of his hands coming to the sides of my face rattles my entire body, and I lean into him, one hand resting on the waffle knit of his Henley. I feel every breath, and I can’t stop myself from curling my fingers around the fabric and pulling him closer. He swallows loud enough for me to hear, and his thumbs brush along my jaw. One of them is dangerously close to my pulse point, and he must know how hard my heart is beating.
He’s so close, and I can hardly look away from his lips. Pressure builds in my chest, like something is sitting on me, smothering me. This is the most dangerous part of a crush—the limbo that hangs between action and inaction, like dry brush in fire conditions. Anything could ignite it and burn right through us.
I’m out of excuses and full of screaming want—for Hayden’s lips, the taste of his mouth and bites of beard and every press of his body. As he removes the glasses from my face, there’s a split second I can see him failing to talk himself out of this. His tongue runs along the inside of his bottom lip. In my head, I see myself sinking my teeth into it, my fingers knotting in his soft waves, kissing the slants of his neck until he moans my name. Then, when he slides his glasses back onto his face, there’s another split second of calm before we shatter the illusions in both of our heads and lean in.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

The hardest thing for a paranormal conspiracy theorist and a web series producer to believe in is finding love in this swoony debut romantic comedy.

Hallie Barrett’s life has imploded after she’s dumped by her hotshot ex, who also happens to be her coworker and the star of the online series she was producing. Without a new show to present for the company competition, she’ll be out of a job. But inspiration can come from the strangest places . . . like the most handsome guy she’s ever seen passionately discussing Bigfoot on a late-night docuseries.

Hayden Hargrove made a name for himself as a cryptid expert on his hit podcast, and is intrigued by the plucky, blue-haired producer who offers him the opportunity to lead his own web show. When the production team sees that Hayden’s solo on-screen presence is bad enough to make a ghost blanch, Hallie jumps on camera too, hitting him (and his cryptids) with a healthy dose of skepticism—and enough chemistry to electrify their show to the top of the competition.

As Hayden and Hallie investigate the unknown, they unearth feelings for each other that shake their beliefs to the core. In their search for Mothman, aliens, and the truth, the most elusive discovery might just be learning to love again.
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Meet the Author:

Mallory Marlowe is an author and video game writer living in Los Angeles, CA. Seriously right-brained since childhood, her love of telling stories began with highly elaborate plots for her Barbie dolls and taking elementary school writing projects too seriously. She studied Writing for Film and TV at Emerson College. When she isn’t writing, she’s likely reading, stuck in L.A. traffic, or fallen down a weird internet rabbit hole. Love and Other Conspiracies is her debut novel.
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