Spotlight & Giveaway: The Corner of Heartbreak and Forever by Addison Cole

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Addison Cole to HJ!

Hi Addison and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Corner of Heartbreak and Forever!

 
Thank you so much for having me!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

On the surface, The Corner of Heartbreak and Forever is a second-chance romance, but readers are swept into family entanglements and painful pasts, and taken on a journey of discovery, uncovering the true meaning of bloodlines, birthrights, and forever love.

The Corner of Heartbreak and Forever is about a woman, Grace Montgomery, who heads to her small hometown of Oak Falls, Virginia when she needs a break from her big-city life as a Manhattan producer. She is dreading the family drama that goes along with visiting her six sisters and brother, but she’s promised one of her sisters she would teach a screenplay writing class in her bookstore, and there’s nothing Grace won’t do for her siblings. While there, she sees Reed Cross, the man she’d secretly loved and left years ago. There are a lot of unresolved feelings for both of them, and while Grace thinks she can keep her distance, Reed has no intentions of letting her go again. But when Reed’s past unexpectedly collides with is present, It rocks him to his core. He’s faced with decisions he’s never imagined having to make, and before he can find his future with Grace, he must first come to grips with his past.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

“OUCH!”
Brindle? Grace blinked awake at the sound of whispers in the dark room. It took her a moment to remember she was in her childhood bedroom at her parents’ home in Oak Falls, Virginia, and not in her Manhattan loft. She narrowed her eyes, trying to decipher which of her five sisters were intent on waking her up at…She glanced at the clock. Four thirty in the morning?

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• After first meeting the Montgomerys (in my head), I waited years to write the series in order to fit it into my publication schedule.
• I adore writing big families, and this was my first time writing a female dominated family. I LOVE it!
• While writing this book I ate three eclairs. Read the book and see if you can guess why.
• Music plays a huge part of my writing, and some of the songs that I listen to while writing end up ini the books. See if you can pick them out.
• The Corner of Heartbreak and Forever includes golden nuggets from the Ladies Who Write. See if you can find them!

Please tell us a little about the characters in your book. As you wrote your protagonist was there anything about them that surprised you?

They were secret high school sweethearts. Grace was a cheerleader and Reed played on the rival team. As teenagers it was purely physical when Reed spotted Grace across the field, she’d challenged him with her glare, as if she were playing on the rival team. He’d taken her up on that challenge in a hot minute! When they meet again, they realize there’s much more to them than even they realized. They’d both thought they’d moved on, and maybe they had in their careers, but in love, they’d almost been standing still not ready to move on from each other. He likes her serious side, but also, he is the only one who can bring out the wild “Gracie” in her. And she gives him the support and love he has always craved. They make an incredible match.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

I’d use the scene where they see each other face to face for the first time after a decade. They are sizing each other up, while fighting their attraction to one another.

Here is a snippet:
Pushing thoughts of the past aside seemed a constant battle, and once again he tried to do just that and focus on the job at hand. He’d already removed a good bit of the decking to check out the joists and get a handle on the extent of the damage and was knee-deep in debris when he heard the sliding doors open. He wiped his brow, expecting to see Cade or Marilynn, the owners of the house. His eyes caught on a pair of gorgeous long legs and traveled north, over silky pajamas skimming a scorching-hot curvaceous figure. His gaze slowed at full breasts peeking out from beneath tumbles of thick dark hair, awakening every nerve in his body. Nerves that had been unexcitable for months.

The woman cleared her throat, startling him from his reverie, and his gaze darted up to her face. His heart nearly stopped at the familiar mossy-green eyes staring back at him. His body turned cold with shock, and just as quickly his teeth ground together as his mind spiraled back to their senior year in high school, when Grace Montgomery had been his. Memories of sneaking out after dark, sharing secrets, holding hands, and loving each other fiercely rushed forth—followed by the hurt of her choosing New York over him.

His eyes narrowed despite the unexpected arousal simmering beneath his skin.

“Grace…” Even after a decade her name tasted sinfully good rolling off his tongue.

Her hand slid from the doorknob, hanging limply by her side. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came. A long moment later, “Reed,” slipped from her lips like the secret he’d once been.

His gut clenched with longing. He couldn’t help but study her—and that angered him as much as it eased the worries about his ability to feel that had plagued him for years. He hadn’t been all in with a woman since Grace, and he’d begun to think he’d exaggerated what he’d felt when they were together. But there was no misreading the heat thrumming through him. She looked incredible, and confused, and as her hand settled on her hip—the hand he remembered all too well digging into his back when they’d made love all those years ago—he realized she also looked angry. Definitely angry.

But still incredible.

In the space of a breath he was fighting the urge to figure out how to spend time with her and recapture the fire between them despite everything she’d put him through.

“Are you done gawking?” she snapped.

“I…Sorry. You caught me off guard. I was expecting to see your parents.” He held her gaze, forcing a smile even though he suddenly felt stuck somewhere between a teenager caught peering through a window, a jealous ex-boyfriend, and a lust-filled man.

She folded her arms over her chest, forcing a barrier between them, and smirked.

Ouch—

At least he hoped it was a smirk rather than a scowl. After the clues he’d missed with his ex-girlfriend, Alina, who had been sleeping with his now ex-business partner, he no longer trusted his instincts where women were concerned. And when it came to Grace Montgomery, he’d never been able to think past the emotions she stirred within him and the future he’d hoped they’d have. She was the tsunami that had obliterated everything else in his world, and as he struggled to find his voice, he fought the urge to tangle his hands in her thick, lustrous hair and remind her of what she’d walked away from.

“I hope you don’t look at my mother like that,” she snapped.

“What? No. C’mon, Grace.” In her eyes he was probably a quintessential jerk, checking her out without any thought to their past. In reality, he’d been taken just as off guard by his leering as she was. “I don’t usually—”

“Don’t usually let your eyes wander?” She scoffed. “Right.”

“Believe it or not, yes,” he said angrily. “Who do you think I’ve become? I didn’t expect you to walk out here at all, much less wearing nearly nothing and…” He tried to figure out what to say next, what to feel…

“Why are you here, Reed?”

He didn’t need this. Not when he had just begun rebuilding his life. After being screwed over by Alina, he’d vowed to stay away from anything that made his head spin, and Grace definitely made his head spin.

He studied her, while trying not to at the same time. The chip on her shoulder was bigger now, overshadowing the sexy smirk on her lips. She’d always exuded confidence, but somehow that, too, seemed more intense. His heart thumped harder with the memory of the first time he’d spotted her standing on the sidelines in her cute cheerleading uniform as he headed out to the football field. She’d challenged him with her glare, as if she were playing on the rival team rather than cheering for them. She’d hated that cheerleading outfit, but man, he’d loved it. And that challenge she’d emitted? He’d taken her up on that in a hot second.

But she’d kicked him to the curb once, he reminded himself. Why was he giving her any consideration at all? He had a job to do, and sure, he’d momentarily lost his footing and checked her out, but it wasn’t like that was a crime. She was hot, and they had history. That’s as far as it goes.

“I asked you why you’re here,” she repeated, her green eyes shooting spears he didn’t deserve.

He stepped closer, curious about how she’d react, and yeah, he just wanted to be near her. “I’m fixing your parents’ porch. Obviously.”

“Not here, Reed. Why are you back in Virginia?”

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

The love that not only exists between Grace and Reed, but the love that exists between the Montgomery family. That who people think you are isn’t always the truth and you never have to feel stuck in a situation that makes you unhappy.

If they love second-chance romances with big families that make you laugh and cry, small-town, close-knit communities, and love stories that captures their heart and never lets go, then this is the book for them!

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

My next Sweet with Heat release is SWEET ESCAPE AT BAYSIDE, releasing March 6th. I’m currently putting the finishing touches on THE ART OF LOVING LACY, which is the fourth title in my Sweet with Heat: Weston Bradens series.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: (1) Print copy of UNRAVELING THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE (US Only)
(5) Digital copies of SWEET LOVE AT BAYSIDE (US/INTL)

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Excerpt from The Corner of Heartbreak and Forever:

It was one thing to deal with family drama from afar, when all it took was a quick excuse to get off the phone, but three weeks? Grace couldn’t even blame her decision on being drunk, since she had been stone-cold sober when her sister Amber had asked her to help bolster her bookstore’s presence by hosting a playwriting course. You made it, Gracie! You’re such an inspiration to everyone here, Amber had pleaded. Besides, Brindle is leaving soon for Paris, and it’s the last time we’ll all be together for months. It’ll be like old times. Grace was living her dream, writing and producing off-Broadway plays, although lately, that’s all the living she was doing, and the diva attitudes of the industry were grating on her last nerve. Besides, how could she say no to Amber, the sweetest sister of them all?
Grace slipped on the hill and caught herself seconds before face-planting in the grass. “Darn it! This is the last thing I want to be doing right now.”
“Shh,” Brindle chided as she reached for Grace’s hand.
Sable ran down the hill annoyingly fast. Holding her black cowgirl hat in place atop her long dark hair with one hand, she reached for Grace with the other and said, “Get up, you big baby.”
“I can’t believe you dragged my butt out of bed for this. What are we? Twelve?” Grace asked in her own harsh whisper.
“Twelve-year-olds don’t sneak out to watch the hottest men in Oak Falls break in horses,” Brindle said as they reached the top of the hill.
“Liar. We’ve been doing it since you were twelve,” Sable reminded her.
“I can’t believe they’re still doing this at this ridiculous hour.” They were the Jericho brothers, and they’d been breaking in horses before dawn since they were teenagers. They claimed it was the only time they had before the heat of the day hit, but Grace thought it had more to do with it feeling more exciting doing it in the dark.
The Jericho brothers were the hottest guys around. Well, at least since Reed Cross left town after high school graduation. Grace tried to tamp down thoughts of the guy who had taken her—and given her his—virginity, and turned her heart inside out. The man she’d turned away in pursuit of her production career, and the person she’d compared every single man to ever since. She refused to let herself go down memory lane.
“I’m exhausted,” Grace complained as they reached the peak of the hill overlooking the Jericho ranch. The Jerichos owned several hundred acres and were very active in the community, opening one of their barns once a month to the community for jam sessions, where anyone who played an instrument could take part. People of all ages came to enjoy the music, dance, and take part in various games like potato sack races, ring toss, and touch football. It was just another of the small-town events that Grace hadn’t regretted leaving behind.
“It’s not like I haven’t seen these guys a million times,” she pleaded. “Besides, Brindle, you’ve slept with Trace more times than you can probably count. It’s not like you haven’t seen him shirtless. Why are we even—”
“Shh!” Brindle and Sable said in unison as they pulled Grace down to her knees.
She followed their gazes to the illuminated riding ring below, where the four Jericho brothers, Trace, Justus, aka “JJ,” Shane, and Jeb, and a handful of other shirtless, jeans-clad guys were milling about. They were always shirtless, because what men weren’t when they were proving they were the manliest of the group?
“Trace and I are over,” Brindle whispered. “For real this time.” She and Trace had been in an on-again-off-again relationship forever. They were a hopeless case of rebellious guy and rebellious girl, up for anything risky. Two people who didn’t have a chance of ever settling down but seemed to fill a need in each other’s lives—or at least in their beds.
“That’s not what Morgyn said.” Sable smirked. Morgyn was a year older than Brindle and just as outgoing.
“Why didn’t you drag her out instead of me?” Grace complained.
“I would have, but she wasn’t home,” Brindle explained.
Grace and her sisters had spent many hours as teenagers lying on this same hill when they should have been sleeping, watching the Jericho brothers and other guys ride wild horses or rope cattle. Pepper and Amber had come with them only twice. Pepper had complained the whole time about it being a waste of brain power, and Amber had been more embarrassed than turned on by the shirtless cock-and-bull show. If only I’d been born shy.
She laughed to herself. Shy? Right. She’d blazed a path in a man’s world. There was no room for shy in her repertoire. And there was no room for this nonsense anymore, either. She pushed up onto her knees. “Brindle, maybe at twenty-four this is still fun, but I’m twenty-eight. I’ve got work to do in the morning, and I’m so far past this it’s not even funny.”
“Geez, Grace! You’ve turned into a workaholic ice queen,” Sable whispered as she yanked Grace back down to her stomach. “And I, your very loving sister who feels the need to keep you young, aim to fix that. Starting now.”
Grace rolled her eyes. “Ice queen? Just because I’ve grown up and don’t find this type of thing fun anymore?” As she said the words the men below walked out of the ring and stood on the outside of the fence, their muscular arms hanging over the top rail.
“Ice queen because you think you’re too good for—” Sable swallowed her words as Trace and JJ pushed open the enormous wooden barn doors and a wild horse blasted into the ring with a shirtless man on its back.
Their gazes snapped to the show below. It wasn’t a Jericho on the back of this horse for its first ride, and despite her protests, Grace squinted into the night to get a better look at the virility before her.
“Dang,” Brindle said in a husky voice.
“Holy cow, that’s hot,” Sable whispered. “See, Gracie? Totally worth it.”
Grace took in the arch of the rider’s shoulders as the horse bucked him forward and back, his thick arms holding tightly to the reins. His wavy brown hair and the square set of his chin sent a shudder of recognition through her.
“Ouch! Grace! You’re digging your nails into me.” Sable pried Grace’s fingers off her forearm.
“Is that…?” Grace choked on the anger and arousal warring inside her. She’d recognize Reed Cross anywhere, even at a distance, after all these years of seeing him only in her dreams. She pushed to her feet, unable to make sense of seeing the forbidden lover she’d risked everything to have—and then cast aside—in Oak Falls, with the guys who’d once hated the sight of him. What on earth was he doing here? The last she’d heard, he’d moved to somewhere in the Midwest after high school.
“Reed…?” His name rolled off her tongue too easily, and she stumbled backward. Memories of being in his arms slammed into her, his gruff voice telling her he wanted her, he loved her. She didn’t want to remember what they’d had, and as her sisters reached for her, trying to pull her back down to the grass, she took off running the way they’d come.
“Gracie, wait!” Sable shouted in a harsh whisper as she and Brindle ran after her.
Grace ran fast and hard, trying to outrun the memories, and knew it was a futile effort, which only upset her even more. She spun on her heels, anger and hurt burning through her. “You didn’t think to warn me?”
“I knew you wouldn’t come,” Sable said.
“Darn right I wouldn’t.” She started down the hill again.
“Wait, Grace!” Brindle grabbed her hand and tried to slow her down, but Grace kept going, dragging her sister with her. “What is going on?” Brindle pleaded. “Why are you so mad?”
Grace slowed, realizing in that moment that Sable had kept her secret for the past decade. That was something she hadn’t expected. Then again, she hadn’t expected to have a visceral, titillating reaction to seeing Reed again, either. She hadn’t expected to ever see him again. Period. He had been the quarterback at their rival high school. Small-town rivalries weren’t taken lightly back then, and she and Reed had been careful never to be seen together for fear of Grace, a cheerleader, being ostracized by her friends. As graduation neared, they both knew Grace wanted to follow her dreams and write and produce plays in the Big Apple. They might have stayed together if Reed had told her that he would be willing to move away from the small town one day, but he’d been adamant about never leaving his family.
At least he had been until she’d ended their relationship to pursue her dreams.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Book Info:

Leaving New York City and returning to her hometown to teach a screenplay writing class seems like just the break Grace Montgomery needs. Until her sisters wake her at four thirty in the morning to watch the hottest guys in town train wild horses and she realizes that escaping her sisters’ drama-filled lives was a lot easier from hundreds of miles away. To make matters worse, she spots the one man she never wanted to see again—ruggedly handsome Reed Cross.

Reed was one of Michigan’s leading historical preservation experts, but on the heels of catching his girlfriend in bed with his business partner, his uncle suffers a heart attack. Reed cuts all ties and returns home to Oak Falls to run his uncle’s business. A chance encounter with Grace, his first love, brings back memories he’s spent years trying to escape.

Grace is bound and determined not to fall under Reed’s spell again—and Reed wants more than another taste of the woman he’s never forgotten. When a midnight party brings them together, passion ignites and old wounds are opened. Grace sets down the ground rules for the next three weeks. No touching, no kissing, and if she has it her way, no breathing, because every breath he takes steals her ability to think. But Reed has other ideas…

The Corner of Heartbreak and Forever is a Sweet with Heat novel and conveys all of the passion you’d expect to find between two people in love without any graphic scenes or harsh language. If you’re looking for a more explicit romance, pick up the steamy edition, Embracing Her Heart, written by New York Times bestselling author Melissa Foster. Addison Cole is Melissa’s sweet-romance pen name.

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Meet the Author:

Addison Cole is the sweet-romance pen name of New York Times and USA Today bestselling and award-winning author Melissa Foster. She writes humorous and emotional sweet contemporary romance. Her books do not include explicit sex scenes or harsh language. Addison spends her summers on Cape Cod, where she dreams up wonderful love stories in her house overlooking Cape Cod Bay.
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