Spotlight & Giveaway: The Second Chance Hotel by Sierra Godfrey

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Sierra Godfrey to HJ!

Hi Sierra  and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Second Chance Hotel!

 
Thank you so much for having me!! I adore HJ!!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

The Second Chance Hotel is about Amelia and James, two travelers who have each backpacked through Europe for three months. A small Greek island is their last stop and they meet at a dilapidated hotel. After way too much ouzo one night, they realize they’ve accidentally gotten married AND inherited the hotel they’re staying at. Even worse, they have guests coming. Amelia and James decide to stay and help these guests–and then they’ll hotfoot it off the island. Except of course, there’s a current running between them…not to mention that the hotel employs a lot of people on the island. Suddenly it’s not so easy to leave. And even less easy for Amelia and James to sort out their feelings for each other.
 

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

Yanni straightened his stack of paper by tapping it on the table. He glanced at Amelia. “You need rings.”
“What?” she asked.
“Wedding rings. You must go back to church, have Papas Valopoulos bless rings.” He turned to James. “Where your rings?”
“Why on earth would I have rings? We weren’t getting married!” James yelled, which, on the whole, was not the way Amelia had envisioned starting a marriage.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• The word Asteri means “star” in Greek
• I live in Santorini for a few years as a kid
• There is a situation in the book where bodies that are buried in Greece can only remain buried for a short period of time before the family has to dig them up. Space is a premium on islands and cremation is frowned upon. This is a very real issue in Greece!

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

Our hero, James, is a quiet, nerdy goofball whose pockets are full of random items and who takes quiet pleasure in olive trees and insects. He’s focused, detailed, and exactly the type of guy Amelia has never dated before.

Amelia is impetuous, angry, and flailing–and looking for another start on things in life. She’s also full of love for friends. She has so much passion to give the right person.

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

I definitely always blush when writing sex scenes. Are my parents reading it?? OMG.

He guided her into the bedroom, lowering her onto the bed. The rain slammed against the window. She arched up to meet his skin, thrilling as he gave a little groan into her mouth. He trailed a finger down her shoulder and slid along the length of her, slowly, so that their skin touched in every possible place. His hands slid down, low, between her legs, making sure she was ready. When she was squirming with need—a little mewl might have escaped her, but she would tell no one—he paused.
“James,” she whispered. Chills that had nothing to do with having been in the rain rippled up and down her body.
“Yeah?”
“Stop teasing.”

Readers should read this book….

If you love a getaway, a book about travel, and anything set in Greece, this is for you. If you’ve ever had exasperating family members and impossible job situations or made the wrong choice and hurt friends, this is for you. If you want to be whisked away into the sun and pure blue of the Mediterranean, this is for you!

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

I’m currently at work on a fun enemies-to-lovers story! I can’t say much more but it is HOT.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: One physical copy of The Second Chance Hotel, open to US & Canada only.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made in life? Would you do it again or did it lead to other opportunities?

 
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Excerpt from The Second Chance Hotel:

Amelia Lang was not aiming for Micah’s head when she threw the coffee mug. But if he hadn’t moved, it would have hit him right between the eyes. Instead, it hit the conference room window behind him with a resounding smack. Tea dripped down the spiderweb of cracks in the glass. The mug, Amelia saw with regret, had broken. It was her favorite one, with whimsical travel illustrations and a gilded rim. Too bad about the tea too—it was a fancy French blend that was hard to find.
Those standing in the vicinity watched in shocked silence.
Amelia’s boss, severe on the best of days, looked thunderous. “Amelia. Go sit in my office.”
Micah had the gall to smirk as she passed. She closed her boss’s office door behind her and sank into the guest chair. And then it hit her. She’d thrown a mug at someone’s head. Never mind that it was Micah’s head, and that she, still in the flush of fury, thought he deserved it. She’d never done anything like that. Never gotten into a fist fight, never even shoved anyone. She, who gently escorted spiders out of her house and always held the door open for others.
2 SIERRA GODFREY
Throwing a mug and cracking a window? That was irreversible, evidenced by being sent to sit in her boss’s office like she was five. The minutes ticked away. She wished she was the type to
escape out of the window and briefly considered becoming that person. It looked bad, she could see that. Thirty-two years old, living with her parents again, and about to be fired for throwing a mug at her ex-boyfriend’s head at work. The past week had been a one-way ticket to Failureville.
Finally, after a long stretch that suggested her boss and HR were discussing how to handle her, they came in and closed the door behind them.
“Amelia,” her boss said. “I’m sure you can appreciate the difficult situation we’re in.”
Amelia did not appreciate anything, least of all what Micah said right before the mug left her hand, but she nodded.
“Can you explain what happened?” the HR manager asked.
She considered how much to tell them. It had been a terrible morning. She had left home late, and because she’d been running behind, it was a certainty that a traffic incident on Highway 101, running south out of San Francisco into Silicon Valley, slowed her down further. A car fire, no less. And if you were running late, and there was a car fire on the freeway, it stood to reason that your mobile phone would be dead so you couldn’t call and let people know you’d be late. Amelia didn’t even know where her charger was, because it was that kind of morning.
As a result, she’d missed most of the morning developer meeting. Sliding into the conference room, far from invisible, her boss had pounced on her. In a tone that sounded like he was sucking a lemon, he asked her what the status of the code release was.
“It went out last night, as scheduled,” she said. Obviously the code release had gone out. That was the entire point of her job.
There had been a visible shuffling in the room. Amelia looked around, but no one met her eye. Including Micah, but this was no surprise. They’d broken up last week, and he’d done it in the most craven way possible, trotting out the ol’ I need to work on myself line. She wasn’t heartbroken, not by a long shot, but they were supposed to have gone to Paris in three weeks. Amelia had been looking forward to the trip for months. Now, two non-refundable tickets and a breakup later and they couldn’t even look at each other. Which was a problem considering they worked together.
But there was no reason for the others to avoid her eye. A shiver of horror slid down her spine as she realized that the release had clearly not gone out.
“Apparently there was a problem,” her boss confirmed. “Let’s take this offline. Amelia, meet me in my office in five and we will discuss. Okay, Standup’s over.”
Everyone shot out of the room, causing a brief logjam at the door. No one wanted to be blamed for a failed code release, which would freak out the investors and send everyone panicking. There could be restructurings and layoffs, and Amelia, who was the project manager responsible for code releases, would surely be at the top of the list.
She needed something to do with her hands while her boss told her off, so she made some tea. She was almost to her boss’s office when Micah rounded the corner. A little spike pounded into her chest at the sight of him. She tried not to picture how they would have settled back into their airplane seats in three weeks’ time, getting magazines out for the flight, studying the emergency procedures card, hoping they wouldn’t have to use the instructions. Along with not going to Paris, she’d had to move back in with her parents across the Bay, a fate worse than death. So it was fine that he wasn’t talking to her. She didn’t want to talk to him either.
Except he stopped in the hall as she passed.
“I can’t believe you didn’t get the code out,” he said.
The cheek of him. “I can’t believe you walk around with that
reptile face.” She regretted the words as soon as they were out. They made her sound angry. Which she was, but he didn’t need that satisfaction.
He shook his head as though disappointed by her childishness. “You’re supposed to run the final check before it deploys.”
“I did,” she hissed. Why was he needling her? Unless there was something… “What are you suggesting?”
“I’m suggesting that it’s your job to run the deployment check, and you didn’t.”
“Nothing had changed since six p.m. yesterday.” As soon as she said the words, she knew. Micah had stuck something in the code after hours, knowing her parents’ house had terrible Wi-Fi because they refused to upgrade their equipment or plan—it was like living in prehistoric dialup times—and she wouldn’t be able to check after hours. But she had made sure the code was solid before leaving work.
“Your job is to perform a check right before deployment, not leave it the day before and call it good.” He blinked and squinted all at once, which looked like a facial tic, but Amelia knew better. It was the same squint he’d used when he was breaking up with her or when he was lying. She’s seen that blink-squint a lot in the past few months.
She knew he’d crashed the release on purpose.
Two years with this horrific assface, one living with him. She’d supported him as he took classes to advance at his job, supported him as—wait. Wait, wait. That was it. She’d taken a full-stack engineering certification course a few months ago, passing with flying colors. She was proud of it, because it was damned hard. Not that she wanted to become a developer—God, no—but it leant her a deeper understanding of their work and put her in a prime spot for a promotion. Micah, who suffered from a light case of techbro-ism, had decided he needed the certification too. Except he’d failed the final. And he worked as a developer.
She was sure he’d broken up with her as a result. Not that he’d said that—never—but his I need space to work on me line was suspiciously timed with news that he’d failed the course. Now he was sticking pieces of crap in the code and crashing her on purpose. No one would believe her, of course, and it would be easy for him to make it seem like she was a hysterical, spurned ex. She squeezed the handle of her mug to tamp down the anger.
Their boss’s door flew open behind them. “Amelia. Let’s go. I need to know what happened with this deployment.”
“It’s pretty obvious what happened,” Micah said loudly, verging on yelling. His eyes were on Amelia’s, glittery and mean. “Amelia went home last night and assumed the code was fine. She didn’t bother running the final check, so if someone added a piece of code, she wouldn’t have known. And it crashed. She always makes developers here feel rushed because she wants to get home to dinner.”
***
“That’s when the mug left my hand,” Amelia told the HR manager now.
“Amelia, we cannot tolerate acts of violence in the workplace,” the HR manager replied. She pushed over a folder. “Effectively immediately, your employment here at Swinck Software is terminated.”
Amelia cringed. “Micah sabotaged me. He let his personal bias affect the work here.” Even to her ears it sounded desperate.
Her boss and the HR manager exchanged a look. To her surprise, a different folder was pulled out.
“We will offer you a small severance in exchange for you signing a paper saying you will not file suit,” the HR manager said. This suggested they might be somewhat familiar with the situation between her and Micah and that they clearly saw the sexism that ran amok at Swinck despite their official policy oppos-
ing it. She signed the paper anyway.
Security walked Amelia out to the parking lot.
In the sanctuary of her car, she let out a breath and took stock.
For the millionth time, she wondered if she would have broken up with Micah anyway as soon as they were back from Paris. Part of her had been waiting for the trip to happen to see how she felt about him. She had vague fantasies of ditching him in one of the gardens in Versailles, hiding out in Le Petit Trianon until he gave up and went away. It was ridiculous, of course. She should have just dumped him and gone on her own.
And in fact, now she could.
The tickets were still valid, since they were non-refundable. She could probably change the flight to a sooner date for a small fee and jet off to Europe by her glorious self, unrestricted by work obligations and unfettered by Micah’s whining about French culture, which surely would have been plentiful. The man did not like crepes, which was reason enough to be rid of him.
She clicked around her phone, and in less time than seemed believable, she found two flight options: one for a few hours from now, and one for tomorrow morning. Both had available seats. She chose the one for tomorrow. She stared at the Swinck parking lot, hardly daring to believe that throwing a mug at someone’s head had worked out for the best.
An incoming text buzzed her phone. Her best friend Ella’s characteristic to-the-point words greeted her: Celia just texted me that you were escorted out of work. Call me????? Celia was a mutual friend, and one of the few female developers at Swinck.
Amelia dialed her as she pulled out of the parking lot. “Celia is right, Ells. I was fired.”
“What happened?”
Amelia sighed, letting out some of the upset. “I threw a mug at Micah’s head.”
There was a long silence on the line. And then, “Shit.”
“It’s actually fine.” Amelia came to a stoplight before the freeway entrance, hoping it was the last time she’d ever make this commute home. The light turned green. Traffic was clear now—it always was when you didn’t have to be anywhere on time—and she merged onto the freeway with nary a brake light. “It made me realize I’d been holding myself back in a lot of ways.”
“So you threw a mug at his face? I’m not saying he didn’t deserve it. But that’s—a lot.”
“I know.” She trusted Ella’s opinion. They had been friends since high school, their friendship cemented when their controlling mothers picked them up from swim meets and, with uncanny timing, berated their daughters at the same time for not placing first. Amelia and Ella had supported each other ever since, through things like Ella fighting her strict Chinese parents on everything from attending Chinese classes after a full day of high school, to Amelia struggling with her mother’s constant attempts at coercion for Amelia to go to the college her mother wanted.
“I know it’s bad and I’m shocked by what I did,” Amelia contin- ued. She did feel shocked, but it was beginning to wear off. Now she felt exhilarated about that trip to Paris, and excited that it was going to work out. “So I’m taking some time off. Taking a little time out.”
“What does that mean, taking time out?” Ella asked. “You were fired, right?”
“Yes.” Amelia’s mind was racing. A freeway sign announcing the exit for the airport loomed overhead. She’d have to drive back over to the East Bay to pack for tomorrow, and her mother would interrogate her as to why she was home early. When she heard Amelia was fired, it would be hand-wringing and screeching and general mayhem and Amelia could not. It would be so much easier to bypass all that and leave now on that flight today. What did she even need?
Because here was the thing: in the backseat was her broth- er’s old backpack—the one he’d used to hike in Lassen in high school—currently filled with a bunch of clothes that she hadn’t yet taken into her parents’ house to wash after leaving her and Micah’s apartment. Crucially, there was also something in one of the many utility pockets of the backpack: her passport.
“Amelia?” Ella said. “Are you listening to me? What made you throw the mug?”
“Micah stuck a piece of code in the release and crashed it, knowing I’d signed off on the final the evening before.” The exit sign for the airport screamed at her, her heart racing. Should she do it?
Ella sighed. “He’s an ass. But babes, you should have seen this coming.”
Amelia frowned. “Are you saying this is my fault for not predicting he’d do this?”
“I’m just saying that the two of you ended badly, and I know how much you wanted to go on that trip you’d planned. And we also know Micah is a childish loser, so the fact that this all happened isn’t overly surprising.”
Amelia felt a stab of hurt. “Okay, but I did not expect him to sabotage me professionally.”
“It sounds like you did that yourself by throwing the mug.”
The seed of hurt bloomed into a full-petaled flower now. Get off the freeway or keep driving? Either way, she was leaving. It was a matter of listening to her mother or not.
She chose not and took the exit. “Maybe you’re trying to be supportive here, but I’m not hearing it.”
“Look, I get it. He was a terrible boyfriend. He was constantly staying late at work to play foosball and Call of Duty with the other techdouches. He never did laundry and always left you to do the washing up. He never wanted any of your friends to come over, saying it was his sacred space or some nonsense, and what about the time he spent thousands of dollars setting up a saltwater aquarium that took up a whole wall, but you weren’t allowed to spend a few hundred on a new sofa when the old one was covered in stains and smelled like feet?”
“Okay, Ells, it sounds like you’re angrier at him than I am.” Amelia veered toward the sign that said Long Term Parking.
“You should be angry!” Ella yelled.
“I was! I threw a mug at his face. Sorry I missed too.” Amelia slowed the car and took the ticket from the machine at the gate. “But all is well. I’m still going to Europe.”
“What?”
“I’m still doing it.” Amelia’s voice sounded calm to her. “Now, in fact. I’m here at the airport.”
“What do you mean, you’re there at the airport? Did you plan this?”
“No. But I have a backpack full of clothes in my car and my passport. I got a severance check that’s direct deposited into my account. I’m going and I feel great about it.”
There was a long silence, which did not come off as supportive or encouraging. And then, “Amelia. I am getting married in three weeks.”
Amelia felt her eyes go wide. In the melee of getting fired, the swirl of horror that she’d thrown a heavy object at someone’s face, and the sweet temptation of going to Paris anyway, she had neglected to remember that Ella was getting married and that Amelia was the maid of honor. Amelia wondered if she’d been lobotomized sometime in the night. It would explain her choices today, including forgetting her best friend’s wedding.
“How long are you planning to be gone?” Ella asked. “Because there’s the bachelorette party, and my aunt is throwing me that shower, and I still have my final dress fitting.”
Amelia pulled into a parking spot. The initial plan had been to go immediately following Ella’s wedding. If she went now, it would be longer than three weeks. Why not stay months? Three, even. Three was arbitrary, but she didn’t have a job to come back to and it seemed like a good, long time to figure things out.
“Say something, Amelia.” A note of hysteria had entered Ella’s voice.
“Um, I’m trying to think.” Amelia turned off the car.
“What is there to think about? If you’re gone for a few days, I mean, maybe okay, but—”
“I can’t stay in Europe for a few days,” Amelia said. “People do it all the time.”
Like the signs calling her to the airport, Amelia had to make a choice. Only this sign said Piss off your best friend possibly forever, next left and below that, Or go to Europe and figure shit out, right lane only.
Thing was, she might not get this chance again. If she waited until after the wedding, her mother most surely would talk her out of going, and she’d get trapped into looking for another job. She’d forget. Momentum would be lost. She had to go now. She and Ella had been friends for years. They could weather this. It was only a wedding.
“I’m sorry,” Amelia said.
“You did not just say that.”
Amelia got out of the car and rummaged in the backseat. Yes!
Passport in the pocket. And enough underwear in the bag to last a week at least. Even better were the four dresses she’d bought for the trip, which she’d shoved in the backpack and had not wanted to look at after Micah had broken up with her.
“Amelia,” Ella hissed. “Are you seriously getting on a flight? Are you really doing this?”
“I’m here at the airport,” Amelia said. She picked up loose change from her car’s console, grabbed her extra sunglasses, and hefted the backpack onto her shoulders. “I have to do this.”
“You don’t. You’re being selfish and dramatic.”
Amelia sensed a dent occurring in their friendship. She might not agree with Ella, but she could see that leaving now was hurtful. For that, Amelia was sorry, but she had to leave. Now. “Ella. I know it’s your wedding. And I know you’re upset—”
“This is the shittiest thing you’ve ever done,” Ella yelled. “It’s my wedding, Amelia!”
Amelia walked toward the sky tram that would take her from the long term parking lot to the international terminal. Her body tingled with a mixture of feelings: excitement, fear, and worry.
“Listen. I’ll call you as soon as I land, okay?” Amelia said. “We can talk about it and maybe work something—”
“There’s nothing to work out.” Ella’s voice was tight and seething. “Don’t bother calling. At all. Ever.”
The call ended.
Amelia climbed aboard the tram, feeling numb. She was still wondering if this was the right choice when it deposited her at the international terminal. Before today, there were plenty of reasons not to fly to Paris on a whim, but now there was only one: Ella’s wedding. And it just wasn’t a big enough reason. Didn’t fifty percent of marriages end in divorce anyway? Would Ella even forgive her at this point, if she stayed? The answer was unclear. Amelia felt bad about that, but surely Ella would come to understand in time how important it was for her to go.
The busy chaos of the airport swirled around her. How nice it would be to lose herself in a crowd, sleep in new places, and become someone new.
“Men do this kind of thing all the time,” Amelia said aloud as she headed to the ticket counter to get her ticket changed one last time. “They’re called brave and adventurous.” As though to prove the point, a tall, blond, very handsome man walked by and gave her such a nice, interested smile that she almost buckled. Surely that was the weight of the backpack. Pleased, she stepped into the ticket line.
When she got back, she and Ella could talk things through. She would explain that she had to go, that she was at a rare cross- roads and unlikely to get this chance again. Upon her return, she’d get a new job—a better one—and an apartment. She would come back stronger and better—an Amelia who made wise decisions, thought before she leaped, who knew exactly where she was going and who always landed solidly on her feet.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Amelia Lang’s life is kind of a mess. She’s stuck living at home with her narcissistic mother. Her tech bro ex-boyfriend deliberately sabotages her at work, and she gets fired after throwing a mug at his head (it’s okay! She missed.) Then she has a major falling out with her best friend. So Amelia does what Amelia does best: She runs away.

After traveling around Europe for three months, she settles on a small Greek island to reset her life and figure out what’s next. But after too much retsina, she gets tricked into marrying James, another guest at the hotel, who is perfectly nice—but perfectly boring. To top it off, they are gifted the very hotel they’re staying in—a hotel they don’t want that is in desperate need of some TLC. They agree to keep the hotel open through the busy summer season for the sake of the island’s quirky but well-meaning residents, after which Amelia plans to return home to start rebuilding her disastrous life.

Amelia and James must work together to determine how to get out of their situation—easier said than done for Amelia, who’s started to feel a strong spark of attraction for James. But Amelia is sure her real life is waiting for her back in San Francisco. Is it time for Amelia to return home or could this be the second chance at a new life she didn’t know she wanted?
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Meet the Author:

Sierra Godfrey is the author of A Very Typical Family and The Second Chance Hotel (Sourcebooks). She was born in Santa Cruz, California and has lived many places, including Santorini, Greece. She loves hiking, watching soothing British farmland shows, and thinking of stories about messy families. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family, which includes a dog, two cats, and a turtle, all of which seemed like a good idea at the time.
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