Spotlight & Giveaway: The Un-Arranged Marriage by Laura Brown

Posted March 25th, 2022 by in Blog, Spotlight / 49 comments

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Laura Brown to HJ!
Spotlight&Giveaway

Hi Laura and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Un-Arranged Marriage!

 
Hi! Thank you for having me!
 

Please summarize the book a la Twitter style for the readers here:

After being un-officially matched at birth by their BFF parents, Shaina and Mark grew to hate each other. When they begrudgingly team up for a competition, they realize hate is bit over-rated, replaced by sizzling chemistry, but they refuse to give in to their parents wishes. If only feelings weren’t involved!
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

The car wouldn’t start.

Mark Goldman sat in his driver’s seat, pressed the start button. No lights, no dings, no motor running. No signs of life. He already had to use his key to unlock his car in the first place, which struck him as unusual, but nothing compared to this.

 

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

  • Hard of hearing heroine
  • Demisexual Hero
  • Lots of fun friendly(ish) competition
  • Hero has a cat who has a cerebellar hypoplasia (an underdeveloped cerebellum)- author’s real cat!
  • Two weddings take place

 

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

Shaina is impressed when Mark starts speaking loud enough for her to hear. He’s always been hot, but learning he’s got a sense of humor crushes her resistance against him.

For Mark, being demisexual means attraction isn’t easy. But getting to know Shaina and her spunk for the first time he finds himself paying more and more attention to her. Unfortunately she’s the last person her wants to develop feelings for.
 

Using just 5 words, how would you describe Hero and Heroine’s love affair?

Maybe I don’t hate you.
 

The First Kiss…

The first kiss happens on a rollercoaster. It’s part of the competition, but Mark’s afraid! In an attempt to calm him down, Shaina kisses him. It works!
 

Without revealing too much, what is your favorite scene in the book?

Part of the competition involves Shaina and Mark being locked into a hotel room made up as an escape room. The attraction is growing and they are handcuffed together to start. They have to build a puzzle to figure out the first clue.

 

He fit in the two pieces, and an image formed. “Showerhead. Those bastards put the key in the bathroom.” He got up, ready to race in there and grab it, only he forgot about the reason for the key in the first place—the handcuffs.

“Wait,” Shaina squealed, as his arm yanked back from her not following him. He turned to see her wobbling on her chair, and he rushed back to help, but now their arms were tangled in weird angles and that only helped her crash to the ground.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” he stammered as he repositioned them so no one popped an arm socket, giving her both his hands to help her stand.

“You got a little too excited there, huh?” She stood in front of him, her warm hands in his, practically brushing her thighs. If either of them merely breathed out, they’d touch.

“I’m sorry,” he said again, probably way too softly, but she was there, right there, and the urge to bend and kiss her grew so strong in him, he would probably need to jump into the shower in a moment. And not for the key.

 

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would be absolutely crucial to include?

Oh, there are so many I’d want in! If I had to pick one, and this is so hard, I’d chose Shaina driving Mark up to New Hampshire. That’s where he finally learns she can’t hear him and sets the potential of their whole relationship into motion.

 

As she began her walk toward the hotel, a hand on her arm stopped her. She turned, locking eyes with Mark. He’d swapped out his sunglasses with his regular black-rimmed pair, and for the first time all day she saw the warmth of his brown eyes.

His Adam’s apple bobbed with a swallow, and then he opened his mouth. “I’m sorry.”

Wow, she heard him. It soothed some of her anger that he tried. This new trick wouldn’t last long, approximately five-point-two seconds in her experience. No one managed to speak loud enough for longer than that.

“I’ll accept that one.” His apology would have been nice back when they were kids, but at least he’d finally managed it. Too bad it wouldn’t last. She continued into the building, wheeling her luggage behind her and carrying her garment bag over her arm, leaving him and the magical speaking moment behind.

 

Readers should read this book …

Readers should read this book because it’s a lot of fun! I wrote this book during the pandemic, and no matter what was going on in my life or the world, this book was there to wrap me up, make me laugh, and forget about everything else for a short time.

 

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

I’m taking a well deserved breather in-between projects at the moment, as I contemplate what I want to dive into next! My next release is currently planned to publish this fall. A CRUISE FLING is another romcom, taking place, you guessed it, on a cruise! Two singles meet and plan for just a week of fun, no more, but things don’t always go as planned!

 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

 

Giveaway: Digital copy of The Un-Arranged Marriage and a $10 Amazon gift card

 

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Shaina and Mark both love competitions and games. Are you competitive? What’s your favorite game?

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 
 

Excerpt from The Un-Arranged Marriage:

Then the door opened and there she stood, wrapped in a towel, and he plumb forgot how to form words. She stared at him, and he tried to say something intelligent, but opening his mouth awarded him only a squeak. Her bare shoulders teased him, all that smooth skin calling to him, the way the towel was knotted near her cleavage, accentuating the dip between the mounds.
She could kill him with a look.

Her eyebrows rose, clearly waiting for him to say something that resembled intelligent human interaction, but he could barely feel anything but the blood coursing through his veins.
“Better let you come in and gather your thoughts, then,” she said, opening the door wider, letting him enter her domain.

The door closed with a loud click. They were alone together—truly alone—for the first time since that kiss. Shaina moved farther into her room, enchanting him with the sway of her hips covered in the plush towel and the length of her bare legs. Did she have any ice? Because he needed some down his pants to get his brain some blood to function with.

Shaina came back, fiddling with her ears, and he realized she was putting on her hearing aids. For him. Because even if he had managed to speak earlier, she wouldn’t have heard. That helped get some cognitive blood flow running again.

“Not that I think you actually said anything earlier, but I figured I’d need these. What’s up?”

She stood there in a towel, acting casual, and he still felt like his blood vessels might burst. “Don’t you want to get dressed?”

Shaina glanced down at her towel. It covered her. But his imagination had taken the reins and headed down a dark, dirty path. He could reach out, grasp that knot, tug her to him, and let the towel fall to the ground as he got his mouth on her. “Is this going to be long? Because we females
each have our own system, and mine is hair, then makeup, then dress, and I haven’t quite finished with the hair yet.”

Her hair was held back by some clip, and he didn’t know if that was part of her end game or not, but he said the first thing that came to mind, thinking of her naked face and nearly naked body. “You’re beautiful.”

She grinned. “Thank you, I got that impression earlier when you pushed me against a wall. But I have only a half hour and a lot to do, so…”

She didn’t seem as affected as he was, but he still couldn’t think straight, or clearly, or about anything that didn’t involve her lips. He stepped toward her. “I needed to…wanted to, kiss you again. Before. May I?”

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Their mothers are the worst matchmakers…

Mark Goldman has never gotten along with Shaina Fogel. Ever. Even when they were in diapers, their bestie mothers wanted them to grow up and get married. Not happening. Mark prefers his quiet, reserved life. But a family wedding is about to change everything Mark thought he knew about his archnemesis.

A week of wedding events with Mark Goldman? Shaina would rather have a week of root canals. Maybe the guy is hot, but for their entire lives, he’s never once acknowledged the fact that she’s hard of hearing. So it comes as a massive surprise when she discovers that Mr. High-and-Mighty and Annoyingly Sexy simply didn’t know. And now she needs his help.

When it’s revealed that the weeklong wedding events are actually a weeklong competition—for a dream vacation—Mark and Shaina do the unthinkable: work together. And the second the animosity begins to fade, something even more electric takes its place. Only now it’s not just an attraction between enemies. And nothing could be worse than the fact that their mothers might have had it right…
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Goodreads |
 
 

Meet the Author:

After spending her childhood coming up with new episodes to her favorite sitcoms instead of sleeping, Laura Brown decided to try her hand at writing and never looked back. A hopeless romantic, she married her high school sweetheart. They live in Massachusetts with their three cats and kid. Laura’s been hard of hearing her entire life but didn’t start learning ASL until college, when her disability morphed from an inconvenience to a positive part of her identity. At home the closed captioning is always on, lights flash with the doorbell, and hearing aids are sometimes optional.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | | Instagram |

 
 
 

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49 Responses to “Spotlight & Giveaway: The Un-Arranged Marriage by Laura Brown”

  3. Nicole (Nicky) Ortiz

    I am
    Anything that has to do with Trivia especially movie trivia
    Thanks for the chance!

  8. Jennifer Shiflett

    I’m not really competitive, but I love playing Monopoly with my family.

  10. Glenda M

    I’m not really competitive. In part because I grew up with people who took it too far especially with trash talking.

  15. Sue Galuska

    Yes, very! I love any game. My current favorite right now would be Euchre.

  18. Kathleen O

    It depends on what I am playing. My family is very competitive when playing Trivial Pursuit or a card game, but it’s all in a fun way.

  21. Eva Millien

    Sounds like a delightful read for me to enjoy, thanks for sharing it with me! I’m not very competitive but I do like to play games just for fun! I like board games and card games, outdoor games not so much, – too hot! Have a terrific TGIF!

  30. Kim

    I’m not competitive at all. I love playing Uno with my youngest. She’s pretty brutal.

  31. Patricia B.

    I enjoy playing games but am really not very competitive. I like to win, but really just like to play. I enjoy Scrabble, Sequence, and a variety of others.

  32. Bonnie

    I am not very competitive, but I do enjoy playing word games like Scrabble.

  33. Janie McGaugh

    I used to be pretty competitive, but I’ve become much less so over the years. I enjoy Trivia Pursuit, Fan Tan and The Great Dalmuti.

  34. Erica

    I’m not too competitive unless I’m playing against the right person. My favorite game is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

  39. Lilah Chavez

    I’m so competitive! Ill fight tooth and nail.. Hair pulling and all.
    Ill play any game .. But I will say I am a sore loser. I love hitting the pinata though.

  44. Brianna KETCHUM

    I love playing uno or call.of duty!! And i can be very competitive but not in a horrible way.