Spotlight & Giveaway: The Gift At Sugar Sand Inn by Leigh Duncan

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Leigh Duncan to HJ!

Hi Leigh and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Gift At Sugar Sand Inn!

 
Hey Sara! Hey Everyone! I’m thrilled to be here in The Spotlight today! Thanks for having me!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

The Gift At Sugar Sand Inn kicks off the Sugar Sand Beach series, five very sweet, heartwarming women’s fiction novels about facing all that life dishes out with the help of good friends. Each of the women in this series has reached a crossroads of sorts–Michelle is a recent widow, Reggie’s husband just walked out on their marriage, Nina faces a major crisis at work, and Erin, well, our world-traveler has grown tired of living out of a duffle bag. When Michelle receives an unexpected inheritance, these four best friends band together for a second chance at all life has to offer.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

Light played across Michelle Robertson’s eyelids. Despite the thick drapes she’d chosen for their room-darkening features, a beam of bright sunlight streamed through a small gap in the panels. She must not have closed the curtains all the way last night. She batted at the glare that hit her square in the eyes. When that failed, she pulled the covers over her head. No luck. Not even the best Egyptian cotton sheets could block the sun.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• First off, the cover–isn’t it absolutely gorgeous? I love it, partly because my designer did such an excellent job of capturing the feel I was going for, but also because the 125 year old Queen Ann-style house belongs to my Aunt Betty! I fell in love with her home the first time I saw it and I’ve wanted to use it on the cover of a book for years. But it wasn’t until this series that the story and the house came together.
• The setting–where else would you rather escape to than a beach house? Throw in white sugar sand beaches and a small town filled with interesting characters, and Sugar Sand Beach is the one place you’ll never want to leave.
• The plot–what could be more fun than four women who band together? Through the bond of friendship, Michelle, Reggie, Nina and Erin don’t just face the challenges thrown at them, they overcome them in a spectacular fashion!

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

The Gift At Sugar Sand Inn opens a year after Michelle’s husband passed away. She’s been sort of lost, barely putting one foot in front of the other this past year, and I love how she decides that the time has come to pull herself together and move on with her life. Of course, just when she’s coming out of the fog, life throws her a couple of curve balls. How her friends help her find the inner strength she needs to face those challenges surprised me as I wrote the book.

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

The scene where Michelle, Reggie, Nina and Erin go out to dinner, definitely. The others are soooo protective of Michelle when two strangers approach their table:

“Sounds interesting.” Rob traded a smug look with his wing man, who’d proven himself an equal-opportunity voyeur and was busy chatting up both Michelle and Nina. At Jim’s subtle nod, Rob sent a pointed glance toward the serving station along the far wall. “Let us buy your table a round of drinks. We’ll have the waiter bring over a couple of chairs and join you.”
“I don’t think so, Rob.” Erin dropped all trace of her Southern accent.
“No?” His gaze circled the table, lingering a moment on each of the women. “You don’t mind, do you, girls?” He beckoned a server.
Across the busy restaurant, their waiter took a step toward their table before he spotted Erin’s raised palm. The man executed an about-face that would have made a drill sergeant proud and returned to the station, where he wisely busied himself folding napkins.
Meanwhile, Jim grabbed a chair from the empty table next door. As he wedged it into position on the corner, his smile widened. “Four beautiful women out on the town. This must be some kind of occasion. What are we celebrating?”
“The anniversary of my husband’s death,” Michelle said, calmly lobbing a bomb into the middle of whatever the two men had in mind.
Jim was the first to recover. “I’m so sorry for your loss,” he said after stumbling a bit. “Has he, um, has it been long?”
“A year today,” Nina put in. She cupped her hand protectively over Michelle’s.
“So you can see why we’d rather be alone,” Erin added.
“But thank you for your interest.” Reggie held up her wineglass in a mock toast. “It’s been…interesting.” Making it clear with her tone and her posture that whatever Jim and Rob were selling, no one at this table was buying.

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

Oh! I could make a list, but I think the one thing that shines clearest in this series is the importance of friendships.

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

This past year, I’ve been writing, writing, writing and have six brand new, full-length books releasing this year!
March 23rd, The Gift At Sugar Sand Inn, Book 1 in the Sugar Sand Beach series
April 20th, A Waterfront Wedding, Book 3 in the Heart’s Landing series from Hallmark
May 14th, The Secret At Sugar Sand Inn, Book 2 in the Sugar Sand Beach series
August 13th, The Cafe At Sugar Sand Inn, Book 3 in the Sugar Sand Beach series
October 15th, The Reunion At Sugar Sand Inn, Book 4 in the Sugar Sand Beach series
and finally
November 19th, Christmas At Sugar Sand Inn, Book 5 in the Sugar Sand Beach series.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: 2 e-copies of The Gift At Sugar Sand Inn

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Do you have a best friend? Has this person ever proven they’ll always be in your corner, and how?

 
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Excerpt from The Gift At Sugar Sand Inn:

Later that evening in the same scene as above, Reggie is shocked when Michelle comes clean about the dire situation she’s found herself in after her husband’s death:

Diagonally across the table, Michelle rested folded hands on the tabletop. “Now that it’s finally quiet enough to hear ourselves think, I have some news.” She squeezed her fingers tightly. “I’m not sure if I can get through this, so just let me put it out there before we start talking about it.”
Reggie tensed. Concern stirred in her gut. Her mouth went dry. Michelle had to be talking about the problem Erin had hinted at earlier in the evening. Once again, she studied the woman she’d known practically her entire life. Michelle wasn’t sick, was she? Terrible possibilities raced through her mind. She swallowed hard and whispered a silent prayer that everything would be all right.
“I’m putting the house on the market.”
“You—why?” Reggie sputtered in sync with Nina’s shocked gasp. She swung toward Erin, but her sister’s blank expression gave nothing away.
Michelle held up a hand. “I didn’t tell you earlier because I didn’t want to put a damper on the evening. But I don’t have a choice. I have to sell it. Allen and I poured everything we had into his new start-up. When he died, so did any hope of recouping that investment. The only thing left was a small insurance policy. I’ve been living off that, but the money’s almost gone. I have enough to make it for another couple of months, and that’s it.”
“Where will you go? You’re not—you’re not moving out of the area, are you?” Despite her best efforts, tears welled in Reggie’s eyes.
“Right now, anything’s possible,” Michelle answered. “I’d like to stay close—I grew up in Fairfax. My friends are here.” She smiled, her focus shifting to Erin. “Most of them, anyway.” When Erin shrugged, she continued. “But I don’t know if I’ll be able to afford to live here.” She took a deep breath and spoke as if she were in a confessional. “There’s not a whole lot of equity in the house. I’ll use whatever I get from it to get a smaller place. Probably an apartment. No matter what, I’ll need to find a job. Which won’t be easy.”
Reggie added her two cents to a chorus of protests.
Michelle shook her head. “If you know an employer who’s looking for a middle-aged woman who’s spent the last twenty-five years raising a family and doesn’t have a single reference, let me know,” she said, chuckling. She unclenched her fingers. “Whatev. The job thing—that’s still a little farther down the road. Right now, my main focus is on getting the house ready to put on the market. It needs a boatload of repairs. We put some things off, thinking we’d tackle them once the new business got off the ground. And frankly, I’ve let things slide this past year. But it’s Catch-22. Every dime I spend on repairs should increase the value of the house. The more I take out of my savings to cover things like new paint and getting the driveway pressure-washed, the more I’ll need to take the first offer that comes along or risk losing everything. My handyman is supposed to come on Monday to get started.”
“Not Timmy!” Reggie protested. The man had been overcharging Michelle for shoddy work for years now. Personally, she would have fired him long ago.
“I don’t know anyone else to call,” Michelle said softly.
That did it. They couldn’t let their friend throw her money away. “You mentioned paint and pressure-washing. What else needs to be done?”
“I have a list.”
“Of course, you do.” Michelle was the kind of person who put “get in the car” on her list just for the pleasure of marking the item off her list when she ran errands on a Saturday morning.
“Let me see it.” Reggie held out her hand.
“I don’t have it with me. It’s back at the house.” Michelle frowned.
“Well, give us the highlights, then. What are the biggest jobs?”
“Okay.” Michelle ticked items off on her fingers. “The mantel in the living room has to be refinished. The pool needs to be prepped for summer. There’s a leak in the overhang over the kitchen door. We probably ought to repaint the living room some nice, neutral color. All the shrubs should be cut back, trimmed, or whatever people do to shrubs this time of year.”
“I’m not hearing anything major here.”
“No,” Michelle admitted. “It’s all pretty basic Harry-Homemaker stuff. There’s just, well, there’s a lot of it. I took three pages of notes. I think I could handle most of it myself if I had enough time. Trouble is, I need to get the house on the market ASAP. Before I run out of money and the bank forecloses.”
Reggie let her gaze circle the table until she came to Erin. How much help they’d be to Michelle depended on how long her sister planned to be in town. When Erin gave a barely perceptible nod, she nudged the girl beside her. “You in?”
“I’m in,” Nina nodded.
“What’s going on?” Michelle asked.
As the self-appointed spokesperson for the group, Reggie fielded the question. “You might still need that handyman. But before you spend any money, let’s see how much we can accomplish this weekend.”
“You?” Michelle’s face registered surprise mingled with the tiniest amount of hope. “I can’t ask you to do that. What about your own jobs? And Sam? Wouldn’t you rather be home with him?”
“Oh, please,” Reggie said. “Sam’s so busy at work, he won’t even miss me.” Which was especially true now. “If I get an early start tomorrow, I can handle all the outside stuff—trim the bushes, mulch, do whatever yard work you need—this weekend.”
“I have to go in tomorrow, but I’ll take Saturday off—I have plenty of vacation on the books. And the restaurant is dark on Sundays, so I’m all yours,” Nina put in. “I’m pretty handy with paint.” She moved an imaginary brush through the air.
Erin shrugged. “No one knew I was even coming here, so I don’t have any plans.” She tapped her finger to her chin. “Oh, and I can swing a hammer with the best of them. When you travel as much as I do, something’s always breaking down. You learn to be self-sufficient.”
Michelle’s eyes welled. Someone handed her a tissue. “You guys. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”
“Repay nothing,” Reggie assured her. “That’s what friends are for.”

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Escape to Sugar Sand Beach with Michelle Robinson and her best friends for a second chance at all life has to offer.
At forty-five, Michelle has a great life. A husband who loves her. Two children on the fast track to success. A beautiful home in the rolling hills of Virginia. And three of the best friends a girl could ever want.
But with the sudden death of Michelle’s husband of twenty-five years, her life turns upside down.
Forced to sell their forever home and at odds with her children, Michelle faces a bleak future. Until an unexpected inheritance starts her on a path paved with bright possibilities.
Join Michelle, Reggie, Nina and Erin as they journey to Sugar Sand Beach, where fresh opportunities for life, love and happiness are as limitless as the blue Florida skies.

Book Links: Amazon |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Leigh Duncan is the award-winning author of more than two dozen novels, novellas and short stories. Though she started writing fiction at the tender age of six, she didn’t get serious about writing a novel until her 40th birthday, and she offers all would-be authors this piece of advice: Don’t wait so long!

Leigh sold her first, full-length novel in 2010. In 2017, she was thrilled when Hallmark Publishing chose her as the lead author for their new line of romances and cozy mysteries. A National Readers’ Choice Award winner, an Amazon best-selling author and recently named a National Best-Selling author by Publisher’s Weekly, Leigh lives on Florida’s East Coast where she writes women’s fiction and sweet, contemporary romance with a dash of Southern sass.
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