Spotlight & Giveaway: The Island Villa by Sarah Morgan

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Sarah Morgan to HJ!

Hi Sarah and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Island Villa!

 
Hi there! Thank you so much for having me here!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Celebrated romance author Catherine Swift has topped the bestseller lists for decades, though her personal story hasn’t been quite so successful. Three failed marriages have left her relationship with her daughters strained, but that’s about to change. Engaged yet again, Catherine is counting on this wedding to be what finally brings them together as a family, and she’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen.

Older daughter Adeline doesn’t know what’s worse—that her mother is getting married a fourth time, or that she’s being guilted into witnessing the train wreck at Catherine’s luxury villa in Corfu. It brings back the pain of her parents’ split, of her mother’s infidelity and the baby that was the result. Not that she blames her half sister, Cassie, but she’s never made an effort to know her, either.

Cassie, on the other hand, is thrilled by her mother’s news and admires Catherine’s resilience. She’s equally excited about meeting the mystery groom, and at the prospect of spending her summer in Corfu, where she can process a secret of her own she’s been keeping from everyone.

Thrown together in the luxury of Catherine’s Mediterranean villa, secrets are revealed, romance blooms in unexpected places and each of them discovers that they don’t know each other, or themselves, as well as they thought.
 

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

“People thought that you fell in love, got married and that was it. They didn’t know that the real story began there.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• This book is set on the Greek Island of Corfu, one of my favourite places. My family and I had many wonderful holidays there, swimming in sparkling seas and eating great food and the local people were so kind.
• There are said to be around 4 million olive trees on Corfu, and the local olive oil is delicious.
• I fell in love with the olive trees when I was staying there and now have four in my garden.

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

Adeline and Stefanos were friends as children and when they’re reunited as adults the attraction is instant and mutual.

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

I loved writing the scene where Adeline finally allows her real self to blossom. Scarred by her parents’ divorce when she was young, she has led a restrained and controlled life, never allowing her emotions to dictate her decisions. But with Stefanos she finds the courage to let those barriers down. It was so hard for her to do that, and writing that scene was a really emotional experience.

“He took her wine glass from her. “Fancy a swim?”
Her heart was pounding. “Now?”
“Why not? I’m encouraging you to be spontaneous.”
She couldn’t quite figure out how to let go of the person she’d become. How to make that shift from cautious to spontaneous.
“If it makes it easier, I’ll go first.” He stripped off his shirt and his shorts and she had a glimpse of bronzed flesh and hard muscle before he plunged into the water.
She stepped back, but not quickly enough and she was showered in droplets. She looked at the pool, and at Stefanos who cut through the water with strong rhythmic strokes. At the end of the pool, he caught the side and looked at her, beckoning her to join him.
She saw the droplets of water clinging to his broad shoulders and the smile that touched his lips and she finally she figured out why she was still holding back.
It wasn’t that she was afraid to be spontaneous. It was because she knew instinctively that this was a man who could snap her heart in two. He had the power to hurt her in a way Mark never had.
But she also knew that if she didn’t join him now, she’d always regret it, and how much worse would it be to spend her life living with regret?

Readers should read this book….

This is the book for a reader who enjoys romance with a side of family drama and friendship all set in the sunny, escapist destination of Greece.

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

I’m finishing off my next book which will be out in the US in September. It’s called The Book Club Hotel (in the UK the title is The Christmas Book Club, and release date is October) and it’s about a group of friends who check in to a cozy Vermont Inn for their annual book club holiday and bring with them plenty of baggage (and not the sort that gets folded into a suitcase!). It has been so much fun to write and I can’t wait to introduce readers to these characters.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: One print copy of The Island Wedding (US only)

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: If you could travel anywhere this summer, where would it be?

 
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Excerpt from The Island Villa:

Three marriages, and each time she’d been sure. What did that say about her? She could be generous and tell herself it said she was an optimist with a huge capacity for love. That she was a person who never gave up, even when life punched her to the floor. Or she could be harsh and admit that she was a bad judge of character. That her creative brain didn’t clock off when she stopped writing and somehow shaped her vision so that she saw what she wanted to see and not what was really there. That she’d fallen in love with her idea of who someone was rather than who they really were.
But her real failing, if it really was a failing, was her desire to be loved. Maybe that was a result of the lack of emotional security in her childhood, or maybe it was something inside her (nature or nurture? It was a question she constantly asked herself when she was creating her characters). But whatever the cause, it was a fact. She wanted to be loved. Truly loved, for herself. And not only romantic love, but the love of friends. And not because she was well known, and not because she was wealthy, but because of who she was as a person.
And it was harder now, of course, because you never knew whether someone’s sudden desire to spend time with you came from the fact that you were sparkling company, or the fact that a friendship with Catherine Swift came with the same perks you’d expect from a five-star hotel.
More and more, she’d found herself envying her characters who were loved unconditionally, although admittedly after navigating challenges so significant and occasionally harrowing that Catherine often felt guilty for making their lives so difficult.
Catherine had endured the harrowing and the difficult, but she hadn’t ended up with the unconditional love. Until now.
She had so much to be grateful for.
She breathed in the scent of orange blossom and fixed her gaze on the dusky pink bougainvillea spilling over terracotta.
Lucky, lucky.
She kept saying it, in the hope that she would start to feel it.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Catherine Swift is a bestselling romance author, but her personal story hasn’t been quite so successful; three failed marriages have left her relationship with her daughters strained. Engaged once again, Catherine is counting on this wedding, at her villa in Corfu, to finally bring the family together.

Adeline can’t believe her mother is getting married for a fourth time, or that she’s expected to attend. It brings back the pain of her mother’s infidelity and the baby who was the result. Not that she blames her half-sister Cassie, but then she’s never tried to know her, either. Cassie, on the other hand, is thrilled by her mother’s news – she’s always admired Catherine’s resilience, and is excited to meet the mystery groom. Cassie also has a secret of her own, and a summer in Corfu will give her the time she needs to process everything.

As the guests arrive on the island, and the big day approaches, Catherine begins to reveal secrets from her past, and suddenly both Cassie and Adeline realise that they don’t know their mother at all . . .
Book Links:

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Meet the Author:

Sarah Morgan is a USA Today and Sunday Times bestselling author of romance and women’s fiction. She has sold over 21 million copies of her books and her trademark humour and warmth have gained her fans across the globe. Sarah lives near London, England and when she isn’t writing or reading, she likes to spend time outdoors hiking or riding her mountain bike.

Join Sarah’s mailing list at www.sarahmorgan.com for all book news.
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