Spotlight & Giveaway: The Second You’re Single by Cara Tanamachi

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Cara Tanamachi’s new release: THE SECOND YOU’RE SINGLE

Cheerfully irreverent, bitingly funny, and filled with romantic charm, Cara Tanamachi’s The Second You’re Single is all about navigating the most romantic month of the year, and how love always seems to arrive when you least expect it.

Freelance writer Sora Reid believes in inertia. She’s the odd one out in a close-knit family of go-getters, including her Japanese-American mom, who hints about her need to lose weight, and her soon-to-be married, overachieving younger sister, who needs her to have a date for the wedding, since a wedding party couples’ dance with their Scottish great uncle Bob simply won’t do. For Sora, minimal input, minimal expectations is the way to go. She’d rather stay at home with her insufferable neighbor and her adorable pitbull.

The one thing that disrupts her inertia: an intense dislike for Valentine’s Day. What is it with the commercial love machine? Why do we pin our hopes on one romantic day, when staying home with a package of bacon and a bottle of tequila would be way better? Sora’s been betrayed and disappointed more than once and her heart is starting to feel like her Grandma Mitsuye’s antique Japanese ceramic bowl, with its many gold-filled cracks.

When her pledge to stay single in February inspires readers to #gosolo, Sora has a responsibility to empower her readers. But relationships aren’t built to last, so it shouldn’t be that hard. Right?

Enter Jack Mann. A muscle-bound baker who looks like he lifts logs on the weekends, Sora hasn’t thought of Jack since they were in elementary school together. When they see each other at the local grocery store and the attraction hits hard, Sora knows she has to shut it down, quick. She can’t #gosolo AND get the guy. She can’t let down her readers. And relationships always end, so why should Jack be any different–even though he’s confounding all her long-held expectations of love?

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from The Second You’re Single 

From The Second You’re Single by Cara Tanamachi. Copyright © 2023 by the
author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

TWO
SORA

This year, I want bacon to be my valentine. I’d rather
have a heart attack than a broken heart.
—SOLO FEBRUARY CHALLENGE

As I’m walking up to the big-shouldered man who seems equal parts sexy former professional
athlete and Cake Boss, I notice his brown wavy hair is stuffed beneath a white baker’s cap, and it still
doesn’t in any way make him look ridiculous. He looks like he’s burst life-size from a package of Brawny
paper towels—manly, strong, and a good listener, eager to counsel a 1960s housewife on her marital
troubles. In fact, he’s surrounded by a decent crowd of people, all eager to taste his wares. He carefully
doles out small desserts, one by one, and I take my place in line.
He hands the elderly woman a mini torte and she thanks him with a nod and then moves on. He
glances up at me and I see the biggest, brownest, most puppy doggiest eyes of all time. Damn, he has
nice eyes. Playful. Smart. Sexy. Eyes always get me. Forget butts and chests and six-pack abs—give me a
good set of irises, and I’m done for. And then it comes, the crooked half smile and dimple, the way a
male model might smile at himself in the mirror in a razor commercial. Hell, yes. You smile, honey. You
are the best a man can get.
When I pull up my cart next to his table, he says, “Oh, hi,” in a tone that seems to imply what he
really means: Oh, hi, you’ve got a fine ass even in those stained sweatpants. Why don’t you bring that
unwashed body over here and we can really get dirty? But I’m probably imagining it.
“Want to try a raspberry delight?” he asks, and picks up a tiny little torte on a small white lace
paper doily. I glance at the tiny cake, no bigger than a quarter.
“Can I have three?” I joke, but he glances once to the right and then to the left, and sneaks me
four. I fall in love with him a little then, as I pop the first one in my mouth whole, and experience an
instant burst of raspberry vanilla-cream goodness that feels like a hug from inside my mouth. I moan a
little, unable to help myself. This is the best damn thing I’ve had in my mouth in months, and that
includes bacon and Dan’s overly aggressive tongue. “Oh my God, I just came a little,” I exclaim, which I
realize too late sounds completely inappropriate. The beefy baker just throws his head back and laughs,
big and hearty, from his gut.
“Well, then, you must have another.” Sexy Beardstache Baker nudges one more toward me. He
watches me as I devour it. He’s studying my mouth intently, and I get the decided vibe that he’s straight.
“You might need another one even.”

“Careful. I’ll eat them all if you let me.” I sure am bold with my flirting when I’ve sworn off men
for a month. Also, I’m pretty sure he’s out of my league anyway, and I have no shot at getting those
beefy shoulders into my bed and giving him the reverse cowgirl of a lifetime. I crane my neck to glance
up at his face and his beardstache, which makes him look just a little bit dangerous. Even through the
flannel and apron, I can tell he’s got big, thick, muscular arms, and the tiniest hint of a beer belly. Not
gross big, just a slight, comforting pudge. I don’t date men who won’t eat carbs. I don’t trust them.
“I knew there was a reason I liked you.” He grins, and I wonder how he knew: from the k-r-ot
sweatshirt? From my shameless flirting? From the fact that I’m eating mini tortes like a whale chomping
down fish in a 1998 SeaWorld show? “It was nice that you helped that lady.”
I’d already forgotten my Good Samaritan works in the butter aisle. “Oh, that? It’s nothing.” If
you like that, I’ll carry her on my shoulders through the store. Then she can reach anything she wants,
and she won’t have to worry about her bad knees.
“And you’re an animal person.” He nods at the tons of dog treats in my cart.
“They’re for my adopted pit-mix, Larry.”
“Rescue dog mom, too? That earns you another sample.” He hands me one. I swallow it nearly
whole. He pretends to be impressed. “You’re not worried about choking?” he asks me.
“I don’t have a gag reflex.” I realize, after I say this, I sound like I’m promoting new content on
an amateur porn app.
“That’s quite a skill set.” He raises his eyebrows, impressed.
I shrug. “It’s my superpower,” I say. “That and making bacon disappear.”
He glances at my cart and laughs a little. We both share extended eye contact. Then it suddenly
hits me. Is this my . . . meet-cute? Have I fallen into an adorable rom-com? Even though I’m wearing
stained yoga pants with a hole at the knee and my all-natural, aluminum-free deodorant gave out hours
ago? Could it possibly be?
But then someone approaches my left flank.
“Sora?” I hear my name and I freeze, no doubt my eyes communicating sheer panic to Possible
Soul Mate, because his eyebrows raise in surprise. I turn, slowly, because I don’t want to see the man
attached to the voice. Please don’t be who I think it is. Please, if there’s a God at all, please, don’t let it
be . . .
It is.
My ex-husband, Marley.

From The Second You’re Single by Cara Tanamachi. Copyright © 2023 by the
author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

Excerpt. ©CARA TANAMACHI. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
 
 

Giveaway: 2 copies of THE SECOND YOU’RE SINGLE for 2 Us-entrants

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Meet the Author:

Cara Tanamachi lives near Chicago with her husband and five children (two by biology and three by marriage), and their 85-pound Goldendoodle, Theodore. Raised near Dallas, Texas by her Japanese-American dad and her English-Scottish American mom, she was the oldest of two children (the debate still rages whether she or her brother are currently the family favorite). The University of Pennsylvania (Go Quakers!) grad worked as a newspaper reporter, and then published many novels under the name, Cara Lockwood. A former single mom, she spent eight years dating (hilariously and awkwardly) before finding the love of her life on Bumble (yes, Bumble!). She believes we all could use a little more happily ever after.
 
Buy: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250842268/thesecondyouresingle