Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Serena Bell to HJ!
Hi Serena and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, So True!
Hi, Sara! And hi to all the Harlequin Junkie readers! I love you guys — thank you so much for all the support over the years.
To start off, can you please tell us a little bit about this book?:
Thank you for having me. I always look forward to stopping by here!
So True is the second book in my Tierney Bay series, a standalone steamy contemporary about getting a second chance with your first love—which is pretty much my favorite trope in the whole world. In this book, you’ll meet the oldest Campbell sister, Chiara (pronounced kee-AH-ra). Chiara has spent a lot of her life trying to be the person her late father wanted her to be—and she’s about to take a job that will finally, finally get her there. Which, of course, is when Jax, her first love and high school boyfriend, steps back into her life. He crushed her heart ten years ago when he walked away without a goodbye, and the last thing she needs right now is to be in close quarters with him. Unfortunately, his brother left her in charge of his (failing) board game store when he went into the hospital—and Jax is hell-bent on saving the store, starting with some much-needed renovations. So not just close quarters, but a tool belt and the occasional shirtless carpentry moment… Chiara has a lot of self-control, but not that much. And Jax has some troubling secrets …
Please share your favorite lines or quote(s) from this book:
“She thought of Jax—hair always roughed up, flannel shirts and torn jeans. Honest as they came—blunt, even. If Jax were sculpture, he’d be something someone hand-carved for you. The guys she dated now, they were a lot smoother around the edges.”
What inspired this book?
As I mentioned, I really love first love-second chances books. I read a couple this year that reminded me of how much I love this trope, and that got me wanting to write one.
I think anyone who knows me knows how much I love the Oregon coast. Even when my family lived on the East coast, we tried to spend a month a year on the Oregon coast, and now that we live in the Pacific Northwest, we visit whenever we can. The beach and beach towns have always been a huge inspiration to me.
Then there’s board-gaming. When my son was barely old enough to play board games, I taught him how to play by setting a spot up across from me for him and then helping him pick his moves. We played like that for a long time, until he started to get opinionated enough to make all his own moves—and now, of course, at fourteen, he kicks my butt routinely. I also have an all-women’s game night (the Nerdy Girl Gamers) when Covid isn’t forcing us to play via Zoom (which we’re still doing!). Board games have made an appearance in some of my other books, but in this one, I get to live out my fantasy about running a board game shop on the Oregon coast …
How did you ‘get to know’ your main characters? Did they ever surprise you?
It took me forever to “find” Chiara and Jax for this story. I wrote two complete drafts, which barely resemble each other. I finally found Jax once I figured out that his relationship with his brother, Evan, is the central guiding force in his life. And once I figured out who Jax was, and the kind of deep familial love he craves but won’t let himself have, I knew exactly who Chiara was to him, and vice versa. And yes — my characters surprise me all the time. It’s what I love most about writing.
What was your favorite scene to write?
The scene where Chiara first ropes Jax into playing board games with her … As soon as I realized this book had a board game store in it, I knew this scene would happen, and I started looking forward to it.
“You need to teach me Terraforming Mars,” Jax said.
Chiara side-eyed him. “You can’t handle Terraforming Mars.”
“Try me.”
So she got out the game. Once again, he was a quick study.
“You don’t have to let me win,” he said, right around the time the oxygen level on Mars maxed out.
She scowled at him. “I’m not letting you win.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Go to hell, Walker.”
“I don’t need to go to hell,” he said. “I own the red planet!” Then he sobered up. “I’m sorry. I’m being a terrible winner.”
That made her laugh. “Can I tell you something?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“I don’t care if I win.”
“You don’t—you don’t what?”
She shrugged. “I don’t care if I win. I just like playing.”
“Who doesn’t care if they win?”
“I don’t. I like everything about playing. I like the cards and the game art and the little pieces and setting up and putting things away. I just like games.”
He stared at her until the intensity of his gaze made her face hot and she had to look away.
What was the most difficult scene to write?
It was really tough for me to write the dark moment of this book. There are a lot of different threads that come together there, and at first I was trying to throw all of them at the characters at once, and they just—rebelled, I guess. Eventually I figured out how to do it, but it didn’t come easily! I won’t include any of that scene, because it’s a big ol’ spoiler.
Would you say this book showcases your writing style or is it a departure for you?
It’s pretty typical of my books. In terms of heat and humor, it’s right in the middle of the pack—but it delivers lots of big emotions and plenty of feels.
What do you want people to take away from reading this book?
One thing I think is hard for so many people—so many—is believing we’re worthy of love. And that’s something both Chiara and Jax struggle with in their own ways. If there’s anything I want people to take away from this book, it’s that loving isn’t something you have to earn or deserve. It’s there for you, all the time, if you open yourself to it.
What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?
I’m working on the third book in the Tierney Bay series, SO GOOD. It’s Mason Campbell’s story—he’s the younger of the two Campbell brothers, and he’s my favorite kind of hero, a man of very few words (but extremely decisive action—in bed). SO GOOD should be out late winter/early spring of 2021. At the end of September 2o20 (in about five weeks), I’ll be part of an anthology of short rom com stories, called Jingle Balls. There are so many great authors in this anthology—it’s been a total delight to work with them. All the proceeds from the anthology benefit the Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation.
Thanks for blogging at HJ!
Giveaway: One copy of SO CLOSE (first in series), signed, paperback, US only.
One copy of SO TRUE (new release), signed, paperback, US only.
Two ebook copies of SO CLOSE (first in series), two winners who can download a book from Book Funnel.
Two ebook copies of SO TRUE (new release), two winners who can download a book from Book Funnel.
To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Tell me about your favorite board game, and who you like to play it with. That second part is really the most important part of the question!
Excerpt from So True:
Jax was at Meeples when she got there the next morning—and on a ladder. Her gaze climbed the rungs; he was standing three-quarters of the way up. It was a good look for him. He had a spectacular ass. It should be illegal, or at least a controlled substance, especially in those well-worn jeans. With the small hole at the base of the pocket, through which she could see a flash of gray.
He’d been a boxer-briefs guy, as a teenager. Was that one of those things that stayed consistent throughout life?
Why was she thinking about his underwear?
Any minute, she’d start thinking about what was under his underwear. And shit, now she was. Well-formed, smooth, soft as velvet under her hand, but steel to the core. And he’d felt so good inside her, the one time she’d gotten to actually experience it.
Gah!
It took her a minute, because of the distraction, to understand what he was actually doing. He was hanging a new sign. It was made of wood and said MEEPLES in big, burned-in letters. On either side of the shop’s name, there were game pieces—a chess queen, a checkers piece, a simple pawn, and one of the meeple people she’d showed him.
It was fantastic. And it felt like he’d taken her vision and made it even better.
They’d been like that, in high school. When she’d drawn, and he’d leaned over her shoulder and dreamed up the story with her. She sometimes felt like he was inside her head, following the story as the film played out on the screen in her mind.
He must have felt her eyes on his work—or his ass—because he looked down and smiled at her. “You like it?” he asked.
“I love it,” she said.
That made his smile even bigger. And Jax, full-on smiling, was something to see. He had smile wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, an almost-dimple in one cheek, and very white, slightly crooked teeth, every one of which was familiar to her: the slightly canted front tooth, one vampirish canine, and the just-a-little-bit crowded bottom teeth that made him look impish.
Damn him, his illegal ass, and his impish teeth. Also, his perfect sign.
He came down the ladder and stood next to her. “I did it last night.”
She wanted to hug him, but resisted the urge. That way lay…madness. “It’s really, really great,” she said. “It looks just like I would have imagined. But better.”
His face got very serious all of a sudden, and he was looking at her in a way that made her feel like she needed to get out of there immediately.
“Gotta get to work,” she said, sliding under the ladder and into the shop.
A few minutes later he came in. “I finished the plan for the checkout counter, too.”
“Did you sleep?”
“Not much.”
Funny. She hadn’t slept much either. Partly because she’d also had a game-store fire lit under her. She’d spent hours strategizing events for the store, for Labor Day weekend, for this fall. She’d made a plan to publicize them with social media and the North Coast Gazette—Willa, her reunion committee friend, was the newspaper’s editor and would help.
But even after she’d gone to bed, she’d tossed and turned, unable to get herself the right temperature. Finally, after midnight, she’d given in and employed the single best, tried-and-true method, Mr. Buzz.
It was possible, although she wouldn’t admit it even if you tortured her, that she had fantasized about Jax.
“Where’d Terraforming Mars go?” she asked.
“I put it away.”
She tried, she really tried, but she couldn’t stop herself from crossing the room to the bookshelf that was serving as a demo shelf.
“Really,” he said. It wasn’t a question. “You’re going to check to make sure I put it away right.”
“It’s not you,” she said. “I would check if anyone had put it away right.”
“Evan?”
“Not Evan. But he’s a gamer.”
She took the box out and set it on the table. “There are extra plastic bags,” she said. “That’s usually a sign that you didn’t separate out everything I would separate out.”
He was shaking his head, but also smiling. “Seriously, Campbell, you know you have a problem, right?”
She glared at him and sorted the resource cubes into three piles—gold, silver, and copper—and put each in its own plastic bag. Then she separated the oceans from the greenery and the cities. She put the flat stuff in the box first, then the cards, then the plastic bags full of pieces.
“Feel better?” he asked, smirking.
“I’ll have you know,” she said, mock-primly, “that in the scheme of gamers, I don’t even register on the neurotic game-piece management front.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I’m finding that hard to believe.”
“No, seriously. There are gamers who build insert trays out of cardboard or balsa wood—hand built, custom-built—for each of their games.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Swear to God. And there’s a whole cottage industry for 3D printing—and sometimes even machining—better game pieces. Like upgrades.” She got out her phone and showed him, on Etsy. “Look at these. Aren’t they adorable?” She’d been coveting the Terraforming Mars pieces for a long time—plastic hexes to replace her cardboard ones, with teeny-tiny trees and teeny-tiny buildings.
“Adorable,” he said dryly, but when she looked up, his eyes were on her. He had an expression on his face that made her shove her phone in her pocket and put a couple of feet between them.
Her heart was beating too fast. She hurried behind the counter and began setting up for the day, jiggling the mouse to bring the computer to life and initializing the card reader.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Book Info:
A passionate first love. A deep betrayal. One last chance to make it right.
Jax Walker left Chiara Campbell behind without a word, but he’s never forgotten how it felt to love that fiercely. Not that it matters—he can never go back to Tierney Bay, because the secret he’s keeping would tear them both apart.
Chiara has written Jax out of her life and her memory—until he shows up at the shop where she works. All the hurt she thought she’d buried is still there, and so is her fiery attraction to him. The more Chiara and Jax work together to save the shop, the more she wants things she can’t have.
She knows she’s going to get her heart broken again. She knows it’s going to hurt like hell.
And she’s pretty sure that when he kisses her, she’ll kiss him right back.
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Kobo | Google |
Meet the Author:
USA Today bestselling author Serena Bell writes contemporary romance with heat, heart, and humor. A former journalist, Serena has always believed that everyone has an amazing story to tell if you listen carefully, and you can often find her scribbling in her tiny garret office, mainlining chocolate and bringing to life the tales in her head.
Serena’s books have earned many honors, including a RITA finalist spot, an RT Reviewers’ Choice Award, Apple Books Best Book of the Month, and Amazon Best Book of the Year for Romance.
When not writing, Serena loves to spend time with her college-sweetheart husband and two hilarious kiddos—all of whom are incredibly tolerant not just of Serena’s imaginary friends but also of how often she changes her hobbies and how passionately she embraces the new ones. These days, it’s stand-up paddle boarding, board-gaming, meditation, and long walks with good friends.
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EC
Is bingo a board game? I mean, it does require a board, right…?
If not, then Candyland with family.
Serena Bell
Absolutely! I would count card games, too, to be honest. Anything that’s fun to play with family and friends …
Debra Guyette
I used to love board games but my brother was so competitive that I no longer play any.
Shannon Capelle
I love Clue and I always play Professor Plum because its a purple piece and love to play with my husband and our four kids!!
Serena Bell
I need to break out our copy of Clue! I haven’t played in eons!
Serena Bell
I definitely find that who I play with influences how much fun it is. Lately I’ve been playing Sunday nights with girlfriends. Even once the pandemic started, we’ve been playing online games and Zoom-ing together. We’re a little more collaborative/cooperative with each other than some opponents I have known ….
Serena Bell
I definitely find that who I play with influences how much fun it is. Lately I’ve been playing Sunday nights with girlfriends. Even once the pandemic started, we’ve been playing online games and Zoom-ing together. We’re a little more collaborative/cooperative with each other than some opponents I have known ….
janinecatmom
I really don’t have a favorite board game. I haven’t played games since I was younger. But my husband and I have gotten into doing jigsaw puzzles lately.
Serena Bell
I love jigsaw puzzles, too. My current favorite is a 1,000-piece one with all the Pixar movies.
dynalroberson
Currently my daughter has gotten on a “Sorry” kick, so we have been playing Sorry a lot…
Serena Bell
My son went on a loooong Sorry kick when he was little. I remember it well, and might never play Sorry again as a result. But it was better than the Candyland kick …
Kathleen O
Trivial Pursuit. Our family loves to play this board game. It’s an annual Christmas Eve tradition with us.
Serena Bell
My husband’s family plays a lot of Trivial Pursuit together. And also Tripoly. Often at Christmas!
isisthe12th
I like to play Monopoly with my husband and kids. Thank you
Serena Bell
Monopoly is always fun. I tell people who love Monopoly to also try Machi Koro. I don’t get a commission for that, but maybe I should. 🙂
Amy R
Tell me about your favorite board game, and who you like to play it with. That second part is really the most important part of the question! I don’t really play board games anymore, I used to play Monopoly with my kids.
Serena Bell
Monopoly was the game I played most as a kid … often it was tricky to talk my parents into it. 🙂
bn100
Monopoly with family
Serena Bell
Monopoly is always a good one. … I just recommended Machi Koro above … but another good one is Suburbia. They both borrow some elements from Monopoly!
Lori R
I don’t have a favorite but I like to play with my family.
Serena Bell
Me too. My son is my favorite opponent. We can’t always talk my daughter into playing, but when we can, she’s so much fun.
Kathleen Bylsma
Scrabble with my late husband, late baby sister and late mother…we had the best time ever…haven’t played since my husband died…
Serena Bell
I’m so sorry for your loss. Sending warm thoughts. Scrabble has always been one of my favorites. I think I like the fact that it’s only partly a word game and there’s also the aspect of trying to figure out the puzzle of how to make the letters give you the most value. Appeals to the right and left brains.
Jana Leah
I don’t really have a favorite board game. My aunt & uncle get pretty much every board game that comes out & we’ll play multiple ones while the family is all together.
Serena Bell
That sounds like a lot of fun!
Joy Avery
Monopoly was always fun but I haven’t played it in a really long time.
Serena Bell
I haven’t either, to be honest; it has been replaced in our house mostly with other games like Machi Koro and Suburbia, among others. I should break it out again!
dbranigan
We enjoy The Grimm Forest among many. We love to take games to the ocean for the week and play with the family.
Serena Bell
I haven’t played that one — will check it out. We do the same when we go to the ocean beach. We try to fit as many games as we can into the trunk once everything else is packed, then make a challenge out of seeing how many we can play …
Tammy H
I guess Monopoly or Life, but our family mostly played cards.
Serena Bell
My kids and like the Heart-like games, like 99 and Spades and Oh, Heck …
Diana Hardt
Monopoly with my family.
Serena Bell
I’ve been recommending Machi Koro to everyone who mentions Monopoly — wonder if you’d like that one …
Charlotte Litton
Love to play Sorry with the family.
Serena Bell
I played that all the time with my son when he was little — always loved it, although eventually may have played my lifetime’s worth of Sorry games!
Mary C.
Trivial Pursuit – Harry Potter with my nieces and nephews.
Serena Bell
My daughter loves HP Trivial Pursuit; she and a friend are very competitive about their Harry Potter knowledge!
Lori Byrd
Monopoly with my best friend.
Serena Bell
That’s the best way!
erinf1
I liked Monopoly but the way we played as kids involved lots of cheating 🙂 thanks for sharing!
Serena Bell
One person’s cheating is another person’s “rule modification…”
Glenda M
I can’t remember the last board game I played. However, our family often ends up playing Apples to Apples – in a more sarcastic tone than it was originally intended, I think – when we get together. Luckily none of our kid’s girlfriends or boyfriends have been chased off because of the games.
Serena Bell
That sounds super fun, actually. I think if they get chased off because of your A to A sarcasm, maybe they aren’t meant to be? 🙂
Vicki Clevinger
I love to play the game of Life and I play it with my family
Serena Bell
When my kids were little, they modified the game of Life so they could add more “kids” to their cars and called it Crazy life. At 14 and 17 they will still occasionally crack it out and the sound of their laughter fills the house. Makes me so happy!
[email protected]
I used to play monopoly with my brother and sister in law but they passed away .I live in Cullman Alabama so they came out with their version cullmanopoly.I play it with the grandchildren.My husband doesn’t like board games .My son likes to beat me at dominoes.
Serena Bell
I’m sorry for your loss–that is hard. But I’m glad you can play Cullmanopoly with your grandkids! My husband doesn’t like board games either, unfortunately. I have had to find other people to play with. My son beats me at pretty much everything we play–unless there is a really hefty dose of lucky involved. Then I have a chance.
Lilah Chavez
Scrabble…. Just with the fam… They are the only ones that have permission to beat me… I’m a very sore loser
Serena Bell
When my daughter finally beat me at Scrabble she put a sign up on the refrigerator, she was so excited. My husband won’t play me anymore …
Angela Smith
I use to play Monopoly and Sorry with my Mom and my Brother
Serena Bell
Those are both good ones. And family games are so much fun. Although sibling rivalry can be intense …
Anna Nguyen
monopoly with my cousins
Serena Bell
Cousins are the best. I only had one and he was much younger, so watching my own kids with their cousins is a great joy.
Ellen C.
Sorry, Aggravation, Chutes and Ladders All games played with family.
Serena Bell
When I first read this, I thought you were apologizing for loving Aggravation and Chutes and Ladders; then I figured it out. Do you know, I think I have managed NEVER to play Aggravation?? Not sure how that happened.
lovebachbooks
I love playing Scrabble, which is a competitive sport in my family. I also enjoy playing Monopoly.
Serena Bell
Scrabble is so competitive in my family that my husband will no longer play with me and the first time my daughter beat me she put a note up on the refrigerator to crow about it. So I totally get it.
BookLady
I enjoy playing Monopoly with my family.
Serena Bell
Monopoly with family is super fun.
Nancy Payette
Scrabble with my sons.
Serena Bell
My son is my best game opponent …
Terrill R.
I love games and unfortunately, I’m the only one in the family who does. No one else cares about winning, so it’s not fun.
Serena Bell
That was totally true in my family of origin, and my son is really the only one in my household who loves them with me now … I dread when he goes to college! but I have put together a fun group of girlfriend gamers who play with me on Sunday nights, so there’s that!