Spotlight & Giveaway: Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Jesse Q. Sutanto to HJ!

Hi Jesse and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block!

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

A trophy wife in her 60s realizes that there is more to life than being a trophy wife.
 

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

“It’s impossible to be overbearing in full-body Chanel; it gets too warm.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

It takes place at a culinary school, and I had to do sooo much research into culinary schools. Everything I learnt was so unbelievably exciting! I couldn’t wait to share it with the world.

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

I was raised in a very traditional culture where girls were expected to become trophy wives. It took a long time for me to unlearn that, and once I did, I couldn’t wait to share the lessons I learned with the world. Mebel is me if I hadn’t come to the realization in my late teens, and instead came to that realization in my sixties.

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

Ahh so many! But let me share this one: “Well, maybe life can shove it. Maybe it’s time for Mebel to let loose and have a bloody orgams, damn it. Okay, maybe not a bloody one, that sounds rather dangerous, and like something that would hurt her back.

Whatever it is, Mebel turns to Alain and says, “Okay. Let’s do it. Let’s have the sex.”

Alain’s face breaks into a smile so wide the corners of his eyes crinkle. He clinks his glass to hers. “Wonderful. Let’s have the sex.”

Readers should read this book….

if they want to feel like there is more to life than the one that’s been prescribed to them.

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

I am currently working on the most challenging project of my career–the sequel to my epic fantasy. Next up in my publishing schedule is Ms. Mebel, and I cannot wait for her to be unleashed into the world!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: 1 US-only giveaway copy of Jesse Q. Sutanto’s MS. MEBEL GOES BACK TO THE CHOPPING BLOCK

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Raffle form and Leave a comment with your thoughts on the book…

Book Info:

A nearly divorced trophy wife enrolls in culinary school to win back her husband, only to find a fresh start in the unlikeliest of places in this new novel from the USA Today bestselling author of Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.

Retirement should mean long-awaited trips to the sapphire waters of Santorini or careening down a sand dune in Dubai. For sixty-three-year-old Mebel, retirement means her husband of more than forty years announcing that he’s leaving her for their private chef. Mebel isn’t sure who’s the bigger loss.

Not to worry, Mebel has the perfect plan: she’s going to win back her husband. No one knows what he needs better than her—after all, she’s been anticipating his needs their whole marriage. And if he wants a wife who can cook (why else would he leave her for a chef?), she will simply go to cooking school. And where better to learn to cook for your husband than France, the most romantic country in the world?

However, Mebel quickly learns that she has mistakenly enrolled in a culinary school not in glamorous Paris but rather in England—and in some small village outside of Oxford no less. Despite the less-than-warm welcome from her much younger classmates, Mebel manages to befriend Gemma, the breakout star of the program. And this unlikely friendship starts to show Mebel that maybe there’s more to her than being the perfect trophy wife…
 
 

Meet the Author:

Jesse Q. Sutanto is the award-winning, USA Today bestselling author of the Aunties and Vera Wong series along with several stand-alone thrillers. She grew up shuttling back and forth between Indonesia, Singapore, and Oxford, and considers all three places her home. She has a master’s degree from Oxford University and a bachelor’s from the University of California, Berkeley. Jesse currently lives in Jakarta with her husband and two young daughters.