Spotlight & Giveaway: Mrs. Nash’s Ashes by Sarah Adler

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Sarah Adler to HJ!

Hi Sarah and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Mrs. Nash’s Ashes!

 
Hello! Thanks so much for having me.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Mrs. Nash’s Ashes is the story of a former child actress on a mission to deliver three tablespoons of her elderly best friend’s remains to the woman she fell in love with during World War II. But when flights are canceled, she’s forced to road trip from DC to Key West with her ex’s grumpy grad school rival. Hijinks, of course, ensue.
 

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

Such a hard question! But I’m really proud of the opening lines:

Rose McIntyre Nash died peacefully in her sleep at age ninety-eight, and now I carry part of her with me wherever I go. I do not mean that figuratively.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• I got the idea for this book because of a happy collision of two very different things occupying my brain at the time. First, I heard a radio interview with a musician who talked about how, when his mother passed away, he took her ashes on tour with him and would sprinkle some on every stage he played. I could not stop thinking about that! I mean, the logistics of it! And second, I kept trying to challenge myself to visualize what a modern take on the 1934 classic screwball comedy film It Happened One Night would look like. I suppose it was only a matter of time until those things combined and I had my premise.
• Mrs. Nash’s Ashes mentions a lot of music, and it’s because I was spending a lot of evenings writing outside at my local coffee shop (even though it was dark and way too cold), where they tend to play a lot of the best stuff from the ’70s and ’80s. Since all road trips need a great playlist, it felt only natural to grab inspiration from my surroundings and make Millie as obsessed with old school soft rock as I am.

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

Millie has reached a point in her life where she is fully okay with being herself, no matter how other people feel about it. Hollis understands this about her from the very start. I think as someone who is much more closed off, Millie’s openness fascinates and frustrates him in equal measure. Millie feels similarly about Hollis. Right away, she understands he’s a secret cinnamon roll hiding in a burnt toast costume, and she’s determined to figure out what it takes to scrape away the charred outside to find his warm, ooey gooey middle. It’s very much a case of opposites attract for both of them.

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

When I wrote it and every single time I’ve reread it since, this passage where Millie’s fantasizing about Hollis in a pie-eating competition makes me absolutely lose it. It’s so goofy, but I love it for that very reason.

I’m sitting in the front row to cheer him on, and he gives me a look that says ‘imagine if this pie were you.’ Then he takes it in his hands, and licks over the lattice crust without breaking eye contact, and he’s already lagging extremely behind the other contestants, but he doesn’t care, because he knows just how easy it is for me to imagine his tongue is caressing my lattice crust and—

Readers should read this book….

If they’re looking for a laugh-out-loud road trip romance that might also tug on their heartstrings but will ultimately leave them feeling lighter than when they started.

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

My second novel is tentatively scheduled for Spring 2024 and is an enemies-to-lovers romcom featuring a fake spirit medium, a hot farmer, and a ghost. I’m extremely excited to share more about it soon!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: One finished copy of Mrs. Nash’s Ashes to a US resident, 18+.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What would be on your road trip playlist?

 
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Book Info:

A starry-eyed romantic, a cynical writer, and (the ashes of) an elderly woman take the road trip of a lifetime that just might upend everything they believe about true love.

Millicent Watts-Cohen is on a mission. When she promised her elderly best friend that she’d reunite her with the woman she fell in love with nearly eighty years ago, she never imagined that would mean traveling from D.C. to Key West with three tablespoons of Mrs. Nash’s remains in her backpack. But Millie’s determined to give her friend a symbolic happily-ever-after, before it’s (really) too late—and hopefully reassure herself of love’s lasting power in the process.

She just didn’t expect to have a living travel companion.

After a computer glitch grounds flights, Millie is forced to catch a ride with Hollis Hollenbeck, an also-stranded acquaintance from her ex’s MFA program. Hollis certainly does not believe in happily-ever-afters—symbolic or otherwise—and makes it quite clear that he can’t fathom Millie’s plan ending well for anyone.

But as they contend with peculiar bed-and-breakfasts, unusual small-town festivals, and deer with a death wish, Millie begins to suspect that her reluctant travel partner might enjoy her company more than he lets on. Because for someone who supposedly doesn’t share her views on romance, Hollis sure is becoming invested in the success of their journey. And the closer they get to their destination, the more Millie has to admit that maybe this trip isn’t just about Mrs. Nash’s love story after all—maybe it’s also about her own.
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Meet the Author:

Sarah Adler writes romantic comedies about lovable weirdos finding their happily ever afters. She lives in Maryland with her husband and daughter and spends an inordinate amount of her time yelling at her mischievous cat to stop opening the kitchen cabinets. Mrs. Nash’s Ashes is her debut novel.
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