Spotlight & Giveaway: The Lucky Escape by Laura Jane Williams

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Laura Jane Williams to HJ!

Hi Laura and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Lucky Escape!

 
Thanks so much for having me! Hi!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

It’s a book about a lucky escape to the sun, but also the lucky escape of a relationship that was never right… and everything that comes next. Annie’s life gets burnt to the ground when she gets stood up on her wedding day, but then she’s offered this amazing chance to decide how she wants to move forward. Who is she? What does she actually want? How does she want to feel? Plus, who is this incredibly handsome blast from the past…?
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

I was having the best morning of my life.
‘Annie-Doo, you look like a . . . model. No. Wait. Better than that. A supermodel,’ my little sister Freddie declared, as my BFF Adzo – a name that she once told me means ‘on Monday born’ in Ghana – put the finishing touches to my lip liner.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

I wrote it during the height of the pandemic, when my only job was to stay the heck home! So this was my way of having an adventure, just from my sofa. I often wrote in a t-shirt and my underwear because there was a heatwave, and since it’s set in Australia mostly had a glass of Aussie SSB to hand! In its own way, it was a really fun experience. I couldn’t physically go anywhere, so I travelled in my mind and on the page.
 

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

It’s a sort of oft-theorised thing in writing that authors tell the same story again and again, and if I think about the thing that fascinates me most it’s the notion of having a do-over. The biggest frustration in my life is not being able to start again with the benefit of hindsight, and my characters definitely feel this too! The fun thing about writing Annie, though, is that she came as close to a “do-over” as a person can reasonably get, so it was amazing to spend months with a character really sitting with fundamental questions about where they are and where they’d like to go. So nothing surprised me, per se, but I did love being on that journey with her! I got to live vicariously.
 

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

Oh, the scene I call #WillyGate for sure! It’s the most comical bit in the book, with naked bodies and misunderstandings that genuinely had me laughing as I wrote it. I’d kill to see that acted in real life!

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

I think that bending to the will of others can eventually mean something has to break. We think of that as a bad thing, and normally do everything we can to avoid it; that admitting to wanting something different to what we have is a character flaw or failure. But it isn’t! Starting over at any point takes a bravery only a few people have, which is why so many of us don’t dare. Annie does, though. She’s amazing!
 

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

I’m currently working on my next novel – but have two more projects coming out before then. I’ve written a novella called The Wrong Suitcase, set in an Italian castle and its really, really fun, and in 2022 my full-length novel One Night With You is out, which is essentially about a one night stand and everything that comes after…
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: 3 Finished copies of The Lucky Escape by Laura Jane Williams, US-winners only

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: If you could have a “do-over” – bearing in mind it often involves something painful before it can be fun – would you take it?

 
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Excerpt from The Lucky Escape:

‘What do you mean he’s not coming?’
‘Urm . . .’ Happy stalled, uncomfortably. ‘He messaged me. And it seems he’s had . . . a change of heart.’
All I could do was parrot back what she’d said to me. I couldn’t form my own words.
‘A change of heart.’
Her eyes were wide but got wider still, willing me to understand. But I didn’t.
‘I did try to call . . .’ she pressed.
She gave an apologetic smile to my dad and sister and Adzo, whose whole body had frozen, like if she moved an inch the world would come crashing down. Only her eyes moved, switching between me and the wedding planner. I’m not even sure she was breathing.
Alexander wasn’t coming.
It was my wedding day, and the sky was blue and my dad was by my side and the wedding planner, who had a smear of pinky lipstick on her front tooth that made me instinctively run my tongue against my own in case I did too, had just told me my fiancé had texted (texted!) to say the wedding was off.
‘Sorry. I’m just trying to . . . get a handle on all . . . this.’ I gestured to the air in front of me. ‘Just to confirm – did you try to call me, or did he?’
My eyes were itchy, my thoughts pulled through treacle. I blinked quickly. Happy didn’t blink at all as she measured out her words.
‘Me,’ she said. ‘I called him to begin with, but when he didn’t pick up I called you. Of course, you didn’t answer either.’ She paused, deliberating over what to say. ‘I’m so sorry, Annie.’
‘Can I see your phone?’ I requested, my words clipped. I needed proof. ‘The message?’ My voice sounded far away. I was moving my mouth, but everything was happening at the opposite end of a very long tunnel.
I sensed Dad move to say something, but he thought better of it. Instead, he put his arm around Freddie. She stared at me, her bright eyes darting between us adults, reaching up to take Adzo’s hand. The look on Adzo’s face made me feel sick.
‘Please,’ I added. My voice was squeaky and high. Strained. I took a breath and forced a smile at Freddie, trying to tell her not to panic. She scowled. She knew what today meant, and had been so excited that I was excited.
Happy smiled back painfully, her face a portrait of compassion. She must have got it all wrong though, I reasoned. She must have got confused, must have misread his message. Alexander wouldn’t simply not turn up on our wedding day. That would be an awful thing to do. Unforgivable. Of course he was coming. We were engaged. People were waiting. I’d not eaten a full meal in six months, was fake-tanned to within an inch of my life, and had already ordered the “Mr and Mrs Mackenzie” thank-you cards.
The moment we’d got engaged flashed into my mind. He’d asked on Christmas morning, right when we woke up, the box having appeared on my bedside table at some point in the night.
‘What do you reckon?’ he’d asked, smirking, his lean naked torso stretched out as he lay on his side. All I’d done in reply was scream, slipping the ring immediately onto my finger, forgetting that was something he was supposed to do for me. I’d never thought it was possible to want to faint from happiness until that point, but wearing it made me more delighted, more ecstatic, more everything than I’d ever been in my life. That ring cemented my future.
‘I’m guessing that’s a yes?’ he’d said, and I promptly burst into tears, nodding and making so much noise that his mum had knocked on the bedroom door of the shared holiday cottage we were in to see if everything was all right.
Happy unlocked her iPhone and pulled up a text thread. My hand was shaking as I took it, my mouth as dry as the desert. I focused.
Happy, you’ve been amazing in sorting out today but I’m not coming. I can’t do it. Please tell Annie I’m sorry. I’ll be sure to settle your invoice in full by the end of next week. Thanks for everything. I trust you can handle the guests. Alexander.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

One cancelled wedding
When the day finally comes for Annie to marry Alexander, the last thing she expects is to be left standing at the altar. She was so sure he was Mr Right. Now, she has no idea how she could have got it so wrong.
One unexpected encounter
After a chance meeting with Patrick, an old friend who reminds her of who she used to be, Annie takes a vow of her own: she’ll say yes to every opportunity that comes her way from now on.
One spare ticket for the honeymoon
Could a spontaneous trip with Patrick be the way to mend Annie’s heart? She’s about to find out as she embarks on her honeymoon – with a man who’s not her husband…

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Meet the Author:

Laura Jane Williams is a writer whose work has appeared everywhere from the Guardian to Buzzfeed, Stylist, Closer, the Metro and the Telegraph. She is Grazia’s former dating columnist, and the author of two previous works of non-fiction: Ice Cream for Breakfast and Becoming, as well as bestselling novels Our Stop and The Love Square.
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