Spotlight & Giveaway: The Last Carolina Sister by Michelle Major

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Michelle Major to HJ!

Hi Michelle and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Last Carolina Sister!

 
Thank you! I’m so happy to be here.
 

To start off, can you please tell us a little bit about this book?:

Meredith Ventner is the third sister featured in this series. She runs an animal rescue in Magnolia, North Carolina, and is more comfortable with animals than people most of the time. She’d definitely not planning to fall in love and certainly not with the uptight and injured (if handsome) doctor who moves in next door. But sometimes love finds us when we least expect it…
 

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

She sniffed and tried to turn away, but he held her fast. “It’s so stupid, but I only cry when I’m happy. Happy tears freak people out.”
“I’m not freaked out by you, Meredith.” She amazed and intrigued him with her prickly outer shell that hid so much warmth and heart. He’d never met anyone like her.
“You just don’t know me well enough yet,” she said on a small laugh. “Give it time.”
“I’d like to.” Unable to resist, he leaned in and brushed his mouth over hers. She tasted both sweet like vanilla creamer and salty from the tears. He felt immediately addicted to the combination. She sighed against him, and all of his resolve to keep his distance crumbled like his willpower was nothing more than a child’s sandcastle.

“You’re still doing too much,” she said, but there was no judgment in her tone.
“Probably, but I need to push myself. Makes me feel not so feeble.” She laughed at that. “You are anything but feeble.”
“Weak,” he said instead. “Damaged.”
Her gaze softened. “Aren’t we all?”
“I’ve missed you,” he blurted, then immediately wished he could take back the words. He bent to pick up some of the leftover materials from the garden bed. “Forget that. It’s only been a few days and we don’t owe each other—”
“Me, too.” She stepped closer to him and went up on tiptoes to brush her mouth over his. He breathed in the scent of vanilla lotion and fresh hay.

Meredith squeezed shut her eyes then turned to him. “Why are you here, Ryan?”
He heard the vulnerability in her tone, and it made him know that he had to allow himself to be unguarded as well if this was really going to work. “Magnolia feels like home.”
Her brows drew together as she tried to make sense of that. Before she could respond and before he lost his nerve, he added, “You’re my home, Meredith.”

What inspired this book?

The thing that inspired this book the most was the playlist, which included The Civil Wars’ Dust to Dust, Fleetwood Mac’s Storms, Bonfire Heart by James Blunt and Can I Be Him by James Arthur. I spent countless hours walking the dogs with these songs on repeat to really capture the emotions of Meredith and Ryan.

How did you ‘get to know’ your main characters? Did they ever surprise you?

When I created the character of Meredith Ventner, the only girl raised in a house of boys by a military father, I knew she would be a tough cookie. She also has some issues in her past that have made her wary to trust and let herself be vulnerable. I wanted to give her a way to show her soft side, especially with the hero, and the animal rescue came from that. Definitely some of the details were inspired by my love of animals and experience with personally adopting rescue animals and volunteering.
Ryan Sorensen had a very different life than Meredith, but he has his own demons as a doctor who was injured during a shooting in his urban emergency room. I think the first thing he sees is her firecracker personality and the way she goes full-throttle with her passions. It’s very different from his controlled life as a doctor and his background with a prominent—yet rigid—family. Deep inside, it’s what he craves for himself and that is appealing to him.
As far as surprises, many of Meredith’s issues come from feeling abandoned by her mother. To be the only daughter of a woman who walks away from her family, and then to discover that she was part of the reason, was a devastating blow. Her father and brothers love her, but she never got over losing her mom that way. So a lot of her growth in the story, and through her relationship with Ryan, is finally learning to see herself the way other people see her.

What was your favorite scene to write?

For this book, the first scene of Chapter One was my favorite – it just spilled out and I had such a great sense of who both Meredith and Ryan were as characters from the start. That is a huge gift for an author!

What was the most difficult scene to write?

I think the most difficult was the breakup scene – it’s honestly the hardest to write in almost every book because although we have to put our characters through tough times, it’s not easy. I write chronologically so by the time I get to the black moment, I’ve spent a lot of time with the characters and I’m rooting for them.

Would you say this book showcases your writing style or is it a departure for you?

This book definitely showcases my writing style. I almost always love writing the third book in a series a whole lot – I know the characters so well. This book is emotional, humorous with a great cast of small-town characters and lots of cute animals. It was so much fun.

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

I hope readers finish this book with a true sense of hope. Obviously, I would love there to be some butterflies from the romance and maybe a tear or two with the emotions of the book. But at the end of the story, I want the reader to feel like they’ve gotten to know the characters, like they’d like to spend more time in Magnolia and with a warm and fuzzy feeling about the possibilities of never giving up.

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

The rest of the year will be exciting for me because I get to continue to work in the world of Magnolia. Readers will meet Emma Cantrell in this book, who is the heroine of the first book of the new Magnolia spin-off series, The Carolina Girls. Emma’s book, Wildflower Season, releases in May and the next book in that series comes out in October. And as a bonus, Meredith’s animal rescue plays a part in both of those stories.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: I’d love to give away three autographed print copies as well as personalized key chains from Furever Friends, Meredith’s rescue. U.S. only please.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Tell me if you appreciate a good April Fool’s joke or not? I absolutely hate being fooled – my dad was quite the trickster growing up so I’m always on my guard on April 1st.

 
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Excerpt from The Last Carolina Sister:

“Hello?” he called as he entered. Meredith must be nearby because under the smell of spring and the dusty-barn scents, he caught whiffs of warm vanilla, which he would forever associate with his temporary neighbor.
“I’m in the office,” she answered. “Hurry!”
The breathless command made the hairs on his arms stand on end. He moved as fast as he could without the help of his cane, then came to an abrupt stop at the open office door.
“Puppies,” he whispered.
Meredith turned her attention to him. Her wide smile and the tears shining in her beautiful green eyes made him feel like he’d just been bathed in some kind of fairy dust. “She just finished,” she said in a hushed tone.
The dog was curled in a corner of the whelping box Meredith had placed along the far wall of the office. Five tiny, wriggling creatures were tucked next to her, and the dog vigorously licked at her pups while they nursed.
“Are they healthy?” He wanted to step forward but felt rooted in place by the odd intimacy of the scene in front of him.
“I think so.” Meredith’s hands were clasped together in front of her in prayer position. “One of the vets is going to stop by in a bit to check on both mama and her pups.”
She straightened and moved toward Ryan, taking his hand and squeezing. “We got her out of there at exactly the right time. Thank you again.”
“You’re crying,” he said, sweeping his thumb across her cheeks. “What’s wrong?”
She sniffed and tried to turn away, but he held her fast. “It’s so stupid, but I only cry when I’m happy. Happy tears freak people out.”
“I’m not freaked out by you, Meredith.” She amazed and intrigued him with her prickly outer shell that hid so much warmth and heart. He’d never met anyone like her.
“You just don’t know me well enough yet,” she said on a small laugh. “Give it time.”
“I’d like to.” Unable to resist, he leaned in and brushed his mouth over hers. She tasted both sweet like vanilla creamer and salty from the tears. He felt immediately addicted to the combination. She sighed against him, and all of his resolve to keep his distance crumbled like his willpower was nothing more than a child’s sandcastle.
He cupped her face in his hands, marveling at how a woman with so many sharp edges could have skin as soft as satin. She didn’t seem sharp in his arms. She seemed warm and pliant, splaying her hands over his chest.
The sensations swirling through him were a cacophony of pleasure, but he didn’t push for more. Oh, he would have liked to. His body screamed at him to lift her in his arms and find the nearest horizontal surface. To snake his fingers up and under the bulky sweater she wore to discover for himself the feel of the rest of her body.
A loud yip sounded out of nowhere, disrupting the quiet and breaking the connection between them. Meredith pulled him into the main barn and shut the office door as her three dogs came barreling toward them.
“How’d you escape?” she asked as she bent to greet the trio.
His mind still reeling from the pleasure of kissing her, Ryan forgot to brace himself for impact. When Buster shoved against him to say hello, he stumbled back a step. After the grueling workout this morning, his muscles were shaky and protested the sudden movement.
A moment later he landed on his butt in the dirt, all three dogs taking his lowered position to their level as an invitation to climb all over him.
“Off,” Meredith commanded. Buster and Marlin immediately moved away. Gracie took the opportunity for a few more sloppy face kisses before settling back on her haunches.
Embarrassment heated Ryan’s cheeks as Meredith held out a hand to help him up. Talk about a mood deflater.
“I’ve got it,” he muttered as he made his way to standing again. “They get overexcited,” she explained, sounding apologetic.

“I’m fine.” He wanted to stalk away but forced himself to pet the dogs like the humiliation of being toppled by one of them was no big deal. How the hell was he supposed to function like a normal man—let alone seduce a woman—if he couldn’t even stay balanced on his own damn feet? The thought that he’d had earlier of carrying her off for some sort of lusty tryst seemed almost comical now. He couldn’t carry his own weight, let alone pick her up.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

In Magnolia, North Carolina, love might be waiting right next door…

Meredith Ventner knows a wounded creature when she sees one. Though her temporary new neighbor may be—on the surface at least—a successful, drop-dead gorgeous doctor, she recognizes the deep hurt Ryan Sorensen is carrying, and it’s catnip to her soul. But even though Meredith is the youngest, scrappiest and single-est of Magnolia’s most famous sisters, she’s committed to expanding the animal shelter on her newly inherited farm. She can’t waste her energy on a man who’s only passing through town.

Ryan is hoping that after a month of small-town living he’ll be healed enough to return to his busy ER. His injured leg isn’t half as painful as his guilt from the tragedy he’s trying to forget. Yet somehow, helping feisty, tenderhearted Meredith care for her menagerie is making him question his career-first priorities. Here in this quirky small town another future is coming into view, but can he change his life, and open his heart, to claim it?

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Meet the Author:

USA Today bestselling author Michelle Major loves stories of new beginnings, second chances and always a happily ever after. An avid hiker and avoider of housework, she lives in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains with her husband, two teenagers and a menagerie of spoiled furbabies. Connect with her at www.michellemajor.com
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