Spotlight & Giveaway: The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Karen Hamilton to HJ!

Hi Karen and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Perfect Girlfriend!

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Thanks so much! The Perfect Girlfriend tells the story of Juliette, who is determined to win back her ex, an airline pilot named Nate, no matter the cost.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

Prologue:

Looking down, there are two pairs of feet dangling. My shoes are daisy-edged, white-and-yellow sandals. His are a muddy brown with Velcro straps and a navy tractor on each side.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• I was a flight attendant myself for over 20-years
• In a writing class I took I was assigned to ‘stalk’ someone for two hours and then write a short story about it
• There is a spin-chilling book trailer that I completely recommend viewing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRICGVp2RqU

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 other characters are all initially unaware how much intensity lurks beneath the surface in Juliette, but you can tell from their reactions as it dawns on them. Juliette is incredibly lonely, despite driving everyone away.

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

Ooh, there are so many I’d love to see but perhaps one of the Vegas ones as Juliette does her utmost to act nonchalant to reel in an unsuspecting Nate. There is a scene where they are having dinner at the Venetian, Juliette is biding her time before she pounces but no one quite knows what her dubious plans are yet.

‘I dread to think what the bill will be like,’ says Nate.
‘Don’t. The whole evening is on me. As a thank you.’
‘A thank you?’
‘Yes, you were very decent when we split up, paying the rent and making sure I’d be alright. I’m sorry again that I took it so badly. I was in a confused place back then. Now that my life is back on track, I can look back and see how I could’ve handled things differently.’
‘Well. Likewise. Water under the bridge.’
We both laugh, given our surroundings.

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

How our actions impact others.

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

My second book is a psychological thriller about a woman who takes over her deceased friend’s life, only to discover that she didn’t know her friend as well as she thought.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: Print copy of THE PERFECT GIRLFRIEND by Karen Hamilton (US/CAN)

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Excerpt from The Perfect Girlfriend:

Ribbons of anxiety knotted together, kneading my insides and evoking the familiar feeling of injustice. It wasn’t fair, I’d been the perfect girlfriend. He couldn’t do this to me. My dreams were slipping out of reach and I wanted to claw them back. However, in the midst of all this was a moment of stark clarity. If this did have something to do with another woman, if Nate was lying and he is seeing Amy, then she’d better be afraid, very afraid.
Because I knew that if I found out that someone else was the cause of my broken dreams, I’d have no qualms about breaking theirs.
Anger is no use at present, not whilst I’m here, in paradise.
The sun drops. Billy Ocean’s ‘Caribbean Queen’ blares
from the loudspeakers attached to the side of the thatched bar hut. Cocktails are mixed, drinks are flowing. I inhale the smell of the sea and sun cream.
Laughter. Happiness. Fun.
This is what I wanted to do with Nate.
Travel.
I need a moment alone, so I return to the sun lounger, put my phone in my bag and remove my sunglasses. I dive into the warm pool, then I float like a starfish. Water muffles sound. I love the sense of isolation and numbness, the sense of being alone and cut off from a distorted world.
One of the few good things to come out of my years at boarding school was that I was forced to learn to swim.
Three weeks after Nate and I split up, I bumped into a couple we’d chatted to in the pub once or twice.
They appeared surprised when I broke the news of Nate’s decision.
‘But you seemed so happy,” said the woman. “You were planning a holiday, weren’t you?”
“Yes. To Bali.”
I’d spent hours online, choosing the perfect place. Couples massages, romantic walks, secluded beaches. Yoga and medi¬tation. It would have been an ideal opportunity for Nate to explore the ‘meaning of life’ that he now appears to be search¬ing for. His fear-of-commitment wobble would have been done and dusted in a fortnight.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “He must be mad to let you go. We had such a laugh with you two. I thought he adored you.”
I shrugged. “I have to respect his feelings. There’s noth¬ing else I can do.”
But it felt reassuring to know that I wasn’t the only one who had been blind.
And I wasn’t completely blind, not really, because he didn’t act like he’d totally fallen out of love with me. We’d slept to¬gether once more before I’d moved out.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Juliette loves Nate.

She will follow him anywhere. She’s even become a flight attendant for his airline, so she can keep a closer eye on him.

They are meant to be.

The fact that Nate broke up with her six months ago means nothing. Because Juliette has a plan to win him back.

She is the perfect girlfriend. And she’ll make sure no one stops her from getting exactly what she wants.

True love hurts, but Juliette knows it’s worth all the pain…

Book Links: Amazon | B&N | Indie Bound |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Karen Hamilton spent her childhood in Angola, Zimbabwe, Belgium and Italy and worked as a flight attendant for many years. Karen is a recent graduate of the Faber Academy and, having now put down roots in Hampshire to raise her young family with her husband, she satisfies her wanderlust by exploring the world through her writing. The Perfect Girlfriend is her first novel.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KJHAuthor