Spotlight & Giveaway: The Me I Used to Be by Jennifer Ryan

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome romance author Jennifer Ryan to HJ!

Hi Jennifer and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Me I Used to Be!

Tell us about the book with this fun little challenge using the title of the book:

Since the title is so long, I’ll try this with each word…
THE arrest I never saw coming made
ME who I am now.
I was
USED by those I trusted
TO break the law, but I’ll
BE the one to take the guilty down and reclaim my life.

Please share the opening lines of this book:

Evangeline Austen walked into the small room with an inmate number – not her name – on her shirt. The one she’d been given four years and twenty-seven days ago. Her canvas shoes – no laces, for safety reasons – squeaked on the worn linoleum during the short trek from the door to the single chair in front of the panel’s long table.

Please tell us a little about the characters in your book.

Evangeline is the youngest of three kids. When she returns home, it’s to a cold welcome. Her mother accuses her of killing her father, her brothers want her to stay out of their business, and her grandmother seems to be the only sympathetic ear, though she’s hiding a secret – just like Evangeline.
Chris is a cop who believes in doing the right thing, especially when it comes to his job. He knew something wasn’t right about Evangeline’s arrest, but his hands were tied when she didn’t trust him to help her. He’s been drawn to Evangeline for a long time. Now that she’s home, he wants her to know that he’s been waiting for her, but first he needs to clear her name – even if that means putting her in harm’s way. This time, he won’t let anything happen to her.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• The opening scene was inspired by the Ocean’s 8 trailer where Sandra Bullock’s character is sitting in a chair before the parole board telling them everything they want to hear while in her mind she’s plotting what she’s really going to do when she gets out of jail. In Evangeline’s case, she’s telling the panel how remorseful she is, but in her mind, she’s thinking about all the time she’s lost and how her life has changed because she’s innocent – even if she did plead guilty.
• The book is set in the beautiful Napa Valley. Evangeline spends some time working at a Winery.
• She falls in love with the cop who arrested her – turns out he had a crush on her, too, and has been waiting for her to get out so he could make things right.

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

Back in the day, Chris was drawn to Evangeline because she was kind, sweet, and fun. He thought she deserved better than his best friend, and he wanted to be the guy who treated her right. Now that she’s back, he’s in awe of her strength, perseverance, and dedication to her family. And he still wants to be the one who gives her everything she needs.
Evangeline thought Chris didn’t like her and went out of his way to arrest her. But once she sets aside her resentments and hurt, she looks deeper and opens her heart and realizes all he’s ever tried to do is help her. It’s his kindness, and especially his unwavering belief in her, that draws her in. He becomes her quiet place to fall when the chaos of her life becomes too much.

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

For chemistry, there’s nothing like a sexy kiss, and Chris delivers…

Chris rose from the rocking chair and stood in front of her, not more than a foot separating them. “Every risk you take knots my stomach and makes me crazy worried about you. I watched the two of you from outside the restaurant. Every time he touched you, I wanted to kill him. I saw you smile and laugh, and even though I know it’s all for show, it took me back to when you were with him and I wanted you with me.”
It took every ounce of courage she possessed to be bold. “I’m with you right now.” She closed the gap between them by half and put her hand on his chest. She stared up into his hungry green eyes and dipped her gaze to his mouth. “All I want is for you to kiss me again.”
He cupped her face, his fingers warm against her skin. “Is that all you want?”
“It’s a good place to start.” She went up on tiptoe as he pulled her in and pressed his lips to hers in a soft caress that was warm and soft and undemanding.
He took his time kissing her again and again in soft sweeps and different angles. She sighed with pleasure so pure, it spread to every part of her. He sank into her, wrapping one arm around her shoulders, the other around her waist, his big hand on her ass as he pulled her snug against his hard body. His tongue swept against hers with the surprising taste of spearmint.
They lost themselves in each other and the intimate moment.
She let herself go and feel.
Safe. Excited. Alive. Free.

If you could have given your characters one piece of advice before the opening pages of the book, what – would it be and why?

Nothing comes easy, but the hard work will be worth it.

What are you currently working on? What are your up-coming releases?*

I’m currently writing my next women’s fiction novel – the follow up to The Me I Used to Be – SILVA SISTERS SECRETS. I am so excited that the 2nd book in my Wild Rose Ranch series – RESTLESS RANCHER – comes out November 12.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: Print copies of THE ME I USED TO BE and DIRTY LITTLE SECRET (U.S. mailing address only)

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Would you take the blame for something you didn’t do to save someone you love from suffering the consequences of something much worse?

 
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Excerpt from The Me I Used to Be:

Chris appeared beside her. “Let me take a look at that.” Without permission, he pulled up her torn dress and inspected the blooming bruise and cut that bled down her leg.
She didn’t feel the pain until he pointed out the wound. But that’s not what held everyone’s attention. It’s not what Chris’s fingers skimmed over.
She brushed his hand away and pushed her dress down her leg and used the ruined material to wipe the blood. “It’s fine. It’s nothing.”
A crowd of onlookers stood around her. She crossed her arms and stepped back, only to come up short when Chris put his hand on her back to keep her from tripping over a flat grave marker.
“What happened to you?” Charlie eyed her, along with his wife, her mother, and Joey and the few remaining mourners who hadn’t made it to their cars.
“Nothing. Let’s head back to the house.”
Her mother stepped forward. “That wasn’t nothing. That’s why you limp?”
Evangeline felt trapped surrounded by so many people. She looked left and right to find an escape but all she found were more people, their eyes locked on her.
Chris hooked his hand around her forearm and applied gentle pressure to let her know he was there. Strangely it grounded her. “That’s a stab wound from the first time she was attacked in prison. It tore through a muscle and nicked the artery. She nearly bled out.”
A gasp went up from the crowd.
“The first time you were attacked?” Charlie hefted up Will, but kept his gaze on her, waiting for an answer.
She didn’t give them one. She pulled free of Chris’s light hold and pushed past Joey and walked away from everyone. She didn’t really have a destination in mind, she just wanted away from all the prying eyes and questions she didn’t want to answer. She couldn’t outrun her nightmares, but she could get away from them.
Chris caught up to her. “Hold up. Come with me.”
She turned on him. “Just because you got me out doesn’t mean I have to do every damn thing you say. I’m not an inmate anymore.” She took two more steps, then turned on him. “Why the hell did you tell them that?”
Chris stopped short of her. “Because it’s the truth and they should know what happened to you in there.”
“Why? What purpose does that serve? You think they care? They don’t. My own mother can’t stand the sight of me. She thinks I killed my father. Charlie wouldn’t even look at me today. He didn’t say a word to me until I saved his kid from getting run over.”
“I know. I’m sorry. You scared the shit out of me. That was one of the bravest things I’ve ever seen.”
She dismissed him and the awe she heard in his voice. “For a second he remembered I’m his sister. Then you had to ruin it and remind him I’m nothing but an ex-con he doesn’t want anywhere near his family.”
“Nothing changes the fact you’re his sister. They don’t understand how someone they loved, who for the most part never did anything wrong in her life, ended up in prison.”
“You put me there!”
Chris shook his head. “No, I didn’t.”
Irritating man.
“Right. It was me. I took responsibility and paid my debt. But my entire family looks at me like they don’t know me because of that one fucking thing.”
“It didn’t make sense to them. If they didn’t know you were involved in that, what else didn’t they know?”
She opened her mouth, then clamped it shut on the words she hadn’t spoken four years ago when he arrested her and she couldn’t bring herself to say now.
“Right. Exactly. You refuse to explain or talk about it, so they’re left to wonder what really happened. How deep were you involved? Who was in on it with you? Why did the girl who had a great family, school, a boyfriend, friends, and every opportunity available to her break the law and end up behind bars without so much as speaking one word in her defense. You just said, ‘I did it,’ and took the punishment. Why?” His gaze bore into her. “I’ve been asking that question every day since that night.”
Evangeline stared at Chris, his gaze sharp and direct, daring her to hear what he didn’t say and to finally speak up for herself.
She wiped her skirt over her leg and the fresh trickle of blood running down her thigh.
Chris sighed out his frustration, took her arm again, and steered her over to the back of his SUV. He pulled up the back door, nudged her to sit, and took out the large white medical kit. “Stubborn as always.”
“You know, I didn’t ask for your help.”
He put his hand on her shoulder to keep her from getting up and walking away. His determined gaze met hers. “Maybe if you had, I could have helped you.”

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Evangeline Austin returns home, disgraced and destitute. Sentenced to jail for a crime she didn’t commit, she’s shocked to discover her father has left her a inheritance—the struggling family ranch. Her brothers want to sell, their wives want a piece of the pie, and Evangeline surprises herself when she decides to make the ranch successful once more.

Curiously, the one person on her side seems to be Chris Chambers—the cop who sent her away four years ago. Now, Evangeline needs to come to terms with the secrets that put her in prison, and the legacy of land, of family, and of home that she’s come to love.

Book Links: Amazon | B&N | Goodreads
 
 

Meet the Author:

Jennifer Ryan is the New York Times & USA Today bestselling author of The Hunted, McBride, and Montana Men series. She writes suspenseful contemporary romances with outrageous plot twists, deeply emotional love stories, high stakes and higher drama. Her stories are filled with love, family, friendship, and the happily-ever-after we all hope to find. Jennifer lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and three children. When she finally leaves those fictional worlds, you’ll find her in the garden, playing in the dirt and daydreaming about people who live only in her head, until she puts them on paper.
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