Spotlight & Giveaway: LOVE AT FIRST SET by Jennifer Dugan

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Jennifer Dugan to HJ!

Hi Jennifer and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, LOVE AT FIRST SET!

 
Hello! Thank you so much for having me!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

When gym check-in girl Lizzie is dragged as a plus-one to her best friend’s sister’s wedding—who also happens to be her horrible bosses’ daughter—she’s only hoping for a little extra facetime with the people in charge of the promotion that will finally help her get started on opening her own gym.

What she isn’t expecting is to accidentally ruin the wedding thanks to a bathroom hype session, some stolen shrimp, and a beautiful crying woman who she definitely did not realize was Cara, the sister in question.

When Cara reappears a few weeks later, the secrets—and tension—continue to mount, as the women cannot stay away from each other even though Lizzie’s career, and future, depend on it. What happens when the person you can’t have might just be The One?
 

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

I know what this is for her, what I am: a vacation from real life. I’m the fun story she’ll tell her girlfriends in the city. The one she’ll think about when she’s old and married and stuck babysitting grandkids. The women in my family don’t get happily ever afters—just ask my mom—and I’m not about to start expecting one now.

So, I try to just live in the moment, to let it happen. To not get attached.

But she makes that easy to forget sometimes, like right now . . . when she’s making sure I’m watching her at the squat rack. And, oh, I’m definitely watching.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

You don’t have to be obsessed with fitness to love this book—there are a lot of reasons Lizzie dreams of opening her own gym, and physical health is just one of them. The gym became her only safe spot during a turbulent childhood, and she dreams of one day opening her own inclusive space that can serve as a safe oasis for people of all different ages, abilities, and goals.

There’s a little something for everyone in this one— it’s a tropey romcom full of banter, sure, but there’s also some heavier topics like complicated family dynamics and economic disparity, some laugh out loud scenes full of awkward joy like the shrimp stealing meet cute, and, of course, a bit of spice to top it off.

I’ve been publishing in YA since 2019, but I could not get these very adult characters with very adult problems out of my head. I became obsessed with Lizzie and her story, no matter how hard I tried not to be. It was her insistence on being written that finally convinced me to take the plunge and try my hand at writing adult. It’s been a blast finding my footing and getting to play in a whole new “writing sandbox,” and I’m so excited that this story with be my adult debut.

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

There is a lot of tension between the women right from the start, it’s no secret that they’re physically attracted to each other from the jump. The emotional intimacy takes a bit to develop, as they slowly let their guards down. Lizzie loves the way Cara accepts her for who she is and pushes her to chase her dreams, Cara loves how Lizzie refuses to let her settle and is always looking out for her… and is also hilarious to boot.

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

“Let me see if I got everything: you got drunk at an open bar, robbed a shrimp waitress, and then tried to kidnap the bride’s parents?”
I tilt my head. “It was less of a kidnapping and more of a hostage situation, to be fair.”
A smile spreads across her face. “Right, yeah. To be fair.”
“And I did try to put some of the shrimp back.”
“You didn’t!” she yelps, absolutely horrified.
“Yeah, that was the waitress’s reaction too. Thus, the whole hiding-them-in-my-purse thing. Destroy the evidence and all that.”
“Okay.” She laughs. “Thank you. I needed that.” She hops off the counter like she’s going to leave, and I reach for her arm without thinking. Her skin is warm and soft in the palm of my hand.
“Your turn, remember?”
“Wow, you really do work out,” she says, looking at where my hand meets her forearm. I let her go, embarrassed.
“Sorry, I—”
“No, fair is fair. This is what I get for hoping you were too drunk to remember.”
“Never. Now, your sob story,” I say, tapping her cheek, which is thankfully dry again. No more tears tonight, not on my watch. “Go.”

It was hard to decide which part of this scene to share because altogether it is the most fun and ridiculous meet cute I’ve ever written! I love it so much, I even turned it into a mini print to give away as a thank you to readers for preorders and at events. Because of course Lizzie would end up in a bathroom with a purse full of stolen shrimp, how wouldn’t she? And of course Cara would find that interesting instead of off-putting—and distracting enough to make her stop crying. Admitting you just accidentally pulled off a shrimp heist to cheer up a random stranger you encountered in a bar bathroom may not be the ideal way to meet the future love of your life, but it could have gone worse. (Maybe)

Readers should read this book….

If they’re looking for a fun rom com with some meatier issues, enjoy awkward and messy moments as the women learn how to love both themselves and each other.

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

My very next release is later this summer, back on the YA side, it’s a psychological thriller called The Last Girls Standing about two girls who survive a summer camp slasher. It’s a big departure from my usual work. But! Next year I’m back with a very spicy adult romance set on a horse farm and I cannot WAIT to be able to start shouting to everyone about it.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A print copy of LOVE AT FIRST SET by Jennifer Dugan

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done for love? (I’m dying to know if anybody can top Lizzie’s shrimp stealing incident.)

 
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Book Info:

The gym is Lizzie’s life—it’s her passion, her job, and the only place that’s ever felt like home. Unfortunately, her bosses consider her a glorified check-in girl at best, and the gym punching bag at worst.

When their son, Lizzie’s best friend, James, begs her to be his plus one at his perfect sister Cara’s wedding, things go wrong immediately, and culminate in Lizzie giving a drunken pep talk to a hot stranger in the women’s bathroom—except that stranger is actually the bride-to-be, and Lizzie has accidentally convinced her to ditch her groom.

Now, newly directionless Cara is on a quest to find herself, and Lizzie—desperate to make sure her bosses never find out her role in this fiasco—gets strong-armed by James into “entertaining” her. Cara doesn’t have to know it’s a setup; it’ll just be a quick fling before she sobers up and goes back to her real life. After all, how could someone like Cara fall for someone like Lizzie, with no career and no future?

But the more Lizzie gets to know Cara, the more she likes her, and the bigger the potential disaster if any of her rapidly multiplying secrets get out. Because now it’s not just Lizzie’s job and entire future on the line, but also the girl of her dreams.
Book Links:  Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Jennifer Dugan is the author of the young adult novels Melt With You, Some Girls Do, Verona Comics, and Hot Dog Girl. She is also the author of the YA graphic novel Coven. She lives in upstate New York with her family. Love at First Set is her debut adult romance novel.
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