Spotlight & Giveaway: One on One by Jamie Harrow

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Jamie Harrow to HJ!

Hi Jamie and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, One on One!

 
Hi, readers! I’m thrilled to be here.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

One on One is about Annie Radford, who reluctantly returns to the university she attended eight years after graduating to work as a video producer for the school’s basketball team. She finds herself working side-by-side (and butting heads) with Ben Callahan, the annoyingly attractive guy she interned for the team with back when they were students. Annie and Ben think they know each other based on who they used to be, but they’re both wrong.

To make matters worse, the team has been mediocre for so long that budget cuts are coming if they don’t win a championship, and one of them will likely be laid off. But if they can find a way to trust one another, they might be able to save both their jobs, win a title, and build something special together.
 

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

His knees nudge my thigh as he turns to face me, his mouth tilting into a curious smile. His shirtsleeves are rolled up. Does he normally wear his sleeves rolled up? My proximity to him is forcing me to pay attention to his forearms. They’re nicely toned, thanks to years of dribbling basketballs and opening jars for little old ladies, probably.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• I chose a sporty setting for the book because sports have always been a huge part of my life. I grew up with a dad who was a basketball coach and attended a basketball-obsessed college. When I was young, I wanted to be a sportswriter when I grew up!
• There’s a subplot in the book in which the characters attend a weekly watch party for a reality TV show and play an elaborate game where they get points for making accurate predictions about what’s going to happen on the show. This was partly inspired by the reality TV watch parties I used to have with friends during law school.
• Much of the book takes place in the suburbs of Philadelphia (which is why there are multiple references to soft pretzels, my favorite Philly food!). But I chose to set the Final Four in New Orleans, one of my favorite cities.

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

Competence. Even when they’re not getting along, they secretly admire each other for how good they are at their jobs. Then, as they start to warm up to one another, they have complementary flirting styles, which is so important! They’re both competitive and enjoy a little trash talk. Annie likes to give Ben a hard time, and he gets a kick out of it.
 

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

I love the scene where Annie shows up at Ben’s apartment unannounced in an attempt to kiss him for the first time and accidentally crashes his mom’s birthday dinner. She has no idea what she’s getting herself into, and he’s so entertained by how awkward she feels.

I step onto the small porch, comb my fingers through my hair, and ring the bell.

There’s a brief silence, and then somebody comes hurtling down the stairs, hollering, “I got it!” The voice sounds female. Shit, this must not be Ben’s apartment after all. The girl flings the door open. “Hi.”

She’s a teenager, with long dark curly hair poking out of the hood of an oversized sweatshirt. “Sorry,” I say, making a guilty face. “I think I have the wrong place.”

“Is it the food?” A fiftyish woman with a short version of the same dark hair appears at the top of the stairs, peering down at us. A crooked tiara sits on her head.

“No, she’s lost,” the girl says.

“Who are you looking for?” the woman asks. “Maybe Ben knows them.” She pokes her head around the corner, out of sight. “Ben!” she yells.

Oh, no.

A dog barks. “Sasha, calm down,” the woman says.

“I’ll just go,” I mumble, trying to slink away into the darkness.

“Radford?” Too late. I close my eyes, freezing with my back to Ben and his entire fucking family.

Readers should read this book….

If they like: sports, or the magic of a shared interest that brings people together; roasting as a love language; flirty competition; stories about grief; toxic workplace stories or stories about being a woman in a male-dominated profession; swoony slow burns; explorations of trust; second chances.
 

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

I’m working on my second book. It’s about a burned-out online cycling instructor who has a meltdown on the bike and decides to recover by taking a cross-country road trip. She’s envisioning a relaxing journey through America’s most peaceful scenery. But then a semi-estranged friend she used to have feelings for asks for a ride part of the way, and everything goes wrong, and the trip turns into a tour of the country’s biggest party spots. It’s called FUN AT PARTIES.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A print copy of ONE ON ONE by Jamie Harrow

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: In One on One, Annie loves basketball because it’s how she connects with other people. What hobby or interest do you like to share with other people?

 
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Excerpt from One on One:

“Did you spend the entire morning showing Lufton how you edit hype videos?”

Not the question I expected. But instead of relief, irritation spikes inside me. The nerve he has. Like I needed to clear it with him first. That’s not how this works. But heaven forbid I interact with the student managers, and they (gasp!) grow to like me. “Yeah,” I say. “He’s been asking me about it for weeks. But I promise, he still loves you more than me.”

His forehead wrinkles. “Uh, okay. I wanted to say . . . that was cool. You made his day.”

I’m dumbfounded. “Thanks,” I say slowly. “These kids work hard and don’t get paid. I want them to learn something.”

He rubs his chin. “I want that too.” He’s looking at me thoughtfully, his expression less guarded than usual. I let him. We used to be those kids. We should agree on this. We should agree on a lot of things.

The faint smell of his soap lingers in the air. Sometimes he goes to the gym around five, showers, and comes back to the office to do more work. It’s a nice, clean scent, I’ll admit it. Everything smells good after spending half the day in an old gym surrounded by sweaty athletes.

I resist the impulse to step farther into his office. Even being this close gives me an electric-fence feeling. The boundary is invisible, but it’s there. My eyes land on a framed photo on his desk in the spouse-and-kids spot, a college-age Ben standing at center court with Maynard. It looks like senior night. I wasn’t there, so I can’t say for sure.

My tongue is stuck in my throat. “Nice picture,” I can’t help saying, as I fold my arms and squeeze them against my body.

“Thanks.”

“Do you still talk to him?”

His eyes flick to mine. “You don’t?”

“I don’t know why I would.”

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

They call it March Madness for a reason: Anything can happen on the way to a national championship.

Eight years after graduation, Annie Radford is not happy to be back at her alma mater in her old job with the Ardwyn Tigers’ basketball team. Worse, her coworker from back in college, Ben Callahan, is still on the Tigers staff, and he’s annoyingly wholesome, hot, and clinging to a grudge against Annie for abandoning him and the team their senior year.

But as Ardwyn becomes the season’s Cinderella Story, things start heating up between Annie and Ben, too. And while neither of them can deny this could be something special, Annie’s afraid to tell Ben the truth about why she left basketball—the thing she loves most—in the first place. She’ll have to learn to trust him if they have a shot at being together.

In addition to being funny, romantic, and sexy, One on One examines the pressure put on college athletes, challenges the sexism in the world of sports, and exposes the dangers in whole communities idolizing the big men on campus. For readers of The Hating Game and The Ex Talk, a workplace, enemies-to-lovers debut for anyone yearning for a courtside romance, perfect for anyone who can’t get enough sports rom-coms.
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Jamie Harrow grew up on the sidelines of a basketball court since her father was a longtime coach. She wrote a sports column for The Villanovan, the student paper at her basketball-obsessed college. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and lives in New Jersey with her family.
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