Spotlight & Giveaway: Puck Proposal by Delancey Stewart

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Delancey Stewart to HJ!

Hi Delancey and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Puck Proposal!

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Puck Proposal is a steamy, small town, pro hockey romcom focused on a young goalie and the girl he’s always loved. She was his best friend from childhood, but they were from totally different worlds. When she runs away from her own wedding, realizing she was about to make the biggest mistake of her life, she doesn’t think too long before realizing where to run to. This is a second-chance, runaway bride, marriage of convenience, he falls first book that will give you all the feels!
 

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

John’s size and stature made both men look little, like early attempts at men that had been abandoned once the sculptor had created John.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

I didn’t intend to write about John Samuels. He was the backup goalie for the hero in Grumpy Goalie, the previous book in the series. I was going to let him season because her was too young, too new… but he had a story and he wouldn’t leave me alone until I told it!

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

They meet in elementary school, and she had his heart from the get-go, just because she was kind to him. But what sealed it was that she was gorgeous and she also kicked his butt repeatedly at running races.
For her, he was a safe place. Someone who didn’t need her to be anyone but who she was on the inside.

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

I don’t want to ruin it… but there is a point where they each realize what the other thought or wanted back in high school – something they weren’t at all sure of at the time. *sniff*

Readers should read this book….

If they love band-of-brothers and found family books, if they enjoy a book that can make them laugh AND cry, and if character development is just as important to them as spicy scenes!

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

I’m keeping that under wraps for now, but there will be more Wilcox Wombats books in the future!
 
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: I have two sets of the print versions of the Wilcox Wombats series (book 1: Wedding Winger & book 2: Grumpy Goalie & book 3: Puck Proposal). (US only – winners should specify if they want the photo covers or discreet versions!)

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Was there ever a crush in your past that you think might still make your heart zing if you were to see him or her again?

 
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Excerpt from Puck Proposal:

I walked slowly back out to the kitchen and picked up my water, downing it in one long swallow as my mind worked through the last hour.

Hank appeared from the living room and plopped down in front of me, letting out a mewl and putting one paw on my shoe. His way of asking for attention. I leaned down and scooped him up, nestling him against my chest and fondling his soft ears while I thought.

Josephine Baxter was suddenly at my house. In my shower. 
I wasn’t at all disappointed about it—my best friend was still the prettiest girl I’d ever seen, and the second I’d locked eyes with her I’d felt that same protective instinct spring to life inside me. I just didn’t know why she was here, or for how long. But I’d find out pretty soon, I guessed.

While she showered, I pulled a few things from the refrigerator, putting together a plate of cheese and crackers, salami, some olives and some pickles. I had no idea when she’d eaten last—despite her eternal beauty, Joey had looked a little worse for wear and could probably use some calories.

As I was staring into the freezer trying to figure out if I had any actual food that could be combined into a halfway appropriate dinner, I heard the guest room door click open again. I shut the freezer and turned, and felt my eyes grow wide as every cell in my body suddenly sprang to attention.

Joey stood in my living room in only a towel. Her tanned arms clutched the top to her chest, and miles of long, gorgeous leg showed beneath the too-short hem. My heart rate ticked up and I swallowed hard.

I made a mental note, somewhere in the far, deep reaches of my brain that were still operating in the face of all that skin, to buy bigger bath towels for the guest room. What was scarcely covering Joey’s body might have been supposed to be an oversized hand towel, now that I got a good look at it.

“I…uh, I don’t have any other clothes,” Joey said, her voice a little shaky. 
I ripped my eyes from the spot where the towel threatened to slip down the swell of her breasts and tried to look nonchalant. “Oh!”

I walked toward her, but she was blocking my path to the back of the house. 
”I can get you some…” I moved to the right, but Joey moved at the same time. We both reversed directions, still blocking each other. It was like the uncomfortable dance you did with strangers on the sidewalk, when neither of you could seem to choose the right way to go.

“I’ll just, uh…” I reached out both hands, grasping Joey’s warm shoulders, and urged her gently to one side. “I’ll just get you some things,” I said, slipping past her to get to my own room at the end of the hall. 
The Wombats T-shirt would certainly be too big, and so would the shorts, but hopefully they’d work for now. I handed them to her, and she clutched them against the towel that was threatening to slip. I did my best to keep my eyes high. “These are the best I’ve got for now,” I told her.

“This is perfect. Thank you, Sammy.” 
As she disappeared back into the guest room, her voice replayed in my head. It was different, I thought. Joey had been on top of the world in high school, master of her universe. But this version of my best friend sounded timid, uncertain. Not Joey-like at all. What had happened in these last five years to change her?

When she emerged again from the guest room, her hair in a knot atop her head and her body swallowed by my clothes, I had to push down the misplaced pride I felt seeing her in my stuff. She was not here for me. Something was clearly going on with Joey, and for whatever reason, this was the only place she’d had to go. I shoved away the attraction and desire I felt, just as I’d had to do every day back in school.

“Better?” I asked, thinking silently that the Wombats shirt looked much better on her than it ever had on me.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

My hockey career is on fire, so when my best friend from high school (and the girl I’d always want) shows up on my doorstep in trouble, I have a choice: turn her away (not likely!) or propose.

Back then, Josephine Baxter was the unattainable debutante who took pity on the kid from the wrong side of town.

We were unlikely best friends. And she was the girl I’d never have. At least not like that.

Five years later, Joey shows up on my doorstep on the same day she’s supposed to be getting married with a plea for help.

Of course, I take her in. And when her tight-laced, controlling parents show up, demanding she return and go through with the wedding?

I tell them we’re engaged.

She’s the girl I always wanted, the one who was always out of my league.

And now that she’s here, wearing my ring and sleeping in my bed? It feels like destiny. But we both know it can’t last.

Because guys like me never end up with the girl.

Puck Proposal is a full-length, standalone hockey romcom in the Wilcox Wombats series.
Book Links:  Amazon |
 
 

Meet the Author:

I’m USA Today Bestselling author Delancey Stewart. My contemporary romances run the gamut of settings and setups, but they always deliver humor, heart and heat. It’s a guarantee.

I write from my home in Denver, CO, where I manage a household full of boys and men. Okay, only one man. The hubs. But two boys. I mean, three if you count the hubs. (You see why I do words and not numbers. I was told there’d be no math in this bio. Someone lied.)

I grew up in California and have had more jobs than anyone on earth (personal trainer, pharmaceutical rep, copywriter, tech writer, marketing director, wine seller, elementary school teacher… I’m not kidding. The list. It goes on.) But the one I love the most is writing, in part because I get to meet people who love books and stories as much as I do! Please don’t hesitate to get in touch to say hello, and don’t forget to join my newsletter!

Get a free story from me by joining my weekly email here: https://www.subscribepage.com/delanceystewart
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