Spotlight & Giveaway: The Year of What If by Phaedra Patrick

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Phaedra Patrick to HJ!

Hi Phaedra and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Year of What If!

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

When dating expert Carla Carter visits a fortune teller several weeks before her wedding, she’s astonished to learn that her fiancé, Tom, isn’t the man she’s supposed to marry. Instead, the man with the key to her heart is apparently someone she met during her gap year travels around Europe, twenty-one years ago. Fearful that a relationship curse within her family is about to strike again, Carla sets off to revisit her exes in Barcelona, Sardinia, Amsterdam, Paris and Portugal, to find her special someone. But who will it be, and can Carla re-write her entire family history, forever?
 

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

Here’s an excerpt from Carla Carter’s diary, written when she’s twenty-one, which captures the essence of the story:
“I just feel like there’s something or someone out there, beckoning me. Call it intuition or a sixth sense, but I have to explore what it is and throw caution to the wind for once. I think it’s what Mum would have wanted.
And who knows? Maybe there is a special person waiting for me so I can prove our family curse wrong, once and for all.
Wish me luck!”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• A fortune teller once told me that I was going to be a writer and sell lots of books.
• It took me many hours to work out Carla’s route around Europe, to ensure she visited countries and ex-boyfriends in a way that made logistical sense.
• Myrtle, the fortune teller in the book, is based on a lady I saw working at a local flea market. She had very black hair, lots of silver jewellery and wore running shoes.
• I taught myself to read tarot cards in order to write the book.
• The seaside town of Silverpool is a fictitious place, based on Blackpool in the UK.
• When Rockstar Adam removes his wig in Portugal it’s inspired by a video I once saw of Robert Smith from The Cure taking off his wig at the end of a concert.
• My working title for the book was The Fortune Family, because the heart of the story is about the bonds and superstitions within a family that inspire my heroine to unravel a long-term family curse and to find her true love. Learning about superstitions and the history of clairvoyance was my favourite part of writing this book.

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

When Carla traces the ex-boyfriends she met during her gap year, twenty-one years ago, she’s attracted to each of them in different ways – for their intellect, or zest for life, or glamour, or caring nature. Each of the men helps Carla to learn something new about herself, too.

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

I love the scene where Carla’s gran and sister drag her to see a fortune teller before her wedding day, only to find her two aunts waiting in the fortune teller’s hut, too. Carla’s entire family is superstitious, whereas she’s the only logical one. This part of the scene makes me laugh….

“It’s good to find out what the future holds, before you get married,” Carla’s gran said sagely.
“This place looks cool.” Jess lowered her phone.
Carla dug a hand into her hair. “How many times have I told you both that Tom is my perfect partner? Why do I have to visit a stranger, who will make up a story about my future, to prove it to you?”
“Myrtle’s not a stranger,” Lucinda said. “She’s your second-cousin, twice removed.”
Carla sighed. It was easy to lose track of her long list of relatives. The majority of them were female and highly superstitious, and she wondered how they were breeding without many men in the picture. There must have been some point in their family history where their beliefs had become habit and then culture, until they’d been assumed as facts and part of everyday life.

Readers should read this book….

They’re looking for a warm-hearted story about family, romance and finding yourself, featuring gorgeous European scenery, superstitions, an intriguing mystery and lots of fun and emotion.

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

The Year of What If will be published by Park Row Books in June 2024 (if you’re reading this, it’s now available!), and I’m currently writing my eighth novel (currently untitled). It will be about a jaded woman who wishes she could go back in time, to the perfect life she once had as a popular actress in an iconic coffee commercial. And then somehow her wish come true…
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: 2 Print Copies of The Year of What If by Phaedra Patrick to US based winners

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Do you, your family and friends have any superstitions that you always carry out? Perhaps you refuse to walk under ladders, avoid black cats, or knock on wood for good luck . . . or something a little more bizarre.

 
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Excerpt from The Year of What If:

Carla Carter’s Diary
Twenty-one years ago
Dear Diary,
Happy birthday to me! So, this is it. I’m twenty-one today and I’m feeling excited and sort of mature and, to be honest, also a bit scared. My birthday’s fallen on Friday the thirteenth this year, something Gran has surely noticed. She’s going to be on edge all day, expecting the house to be struck by lightning or for my can¬dles to set fire to her curtains. I seriously doubt she’ll be expecting the big news I’m going to share with her after my birthday tea, the decision I’ve been deliberating over for months.
My birthday presents felt extra lucky this morning. Gran gave me a tiny glass eye on a silver necklace, telling me, “If someone or something is jealous or wants to harm you, the eye will reflect or distract them.” It sounds useful, if highly unlikely. The pendant belonged to my mum, and I saw tears in Gran’s eyes when she fastened it around my neck. It’s really tough for her with Mum
and Granddad gone, and hard for my little sis, too, which makes what I’m about to tell them both even more difficult.
Jess has been teasing me about getting old. I suppose an eight-year gap between sisters seems pretty wide when you’re only thirteen. She bought me the cutest little brass paperweight in the shape of a four-leaf clover, and I already know my aunts Mimi and Evelyn will insist on reading my tea leaves.
Gran and Jess are putting the finishing touches on my cake in the kitchen. It’s my favorite, sponge filled with jam and but¬tercream, and the house smells of vanilla and strawberry. I don’t believe in premonitions but I already know what Gran will say when I go back downstairs. “If you blow out all twenty-one can¬dles at once, you’ll be married within the year. Miss any and the number left is the number of years until your wedding day.”
I’ll try not to roll my eyes. The older Gran gets, the more she believes in this kind of stuff. Mimi and Evelyn are the same, for¬ever reminding me and Jess about an old curse that claims women in our family are destined to be unlucky in love. When I blow out my candles, I’ll try to emit the tiniest puff of air, to leave them all alight. That way I won’t walk down the aisle until I’m forty-two!
Why would I even think about marriage at my age anyway? Life is short, and losing Mum is proof of that. She was the only one in my family who didn’t care if she opened an umbrella in-doors. “Act now, think later,” she used to tell me.
I can’t believe she’s been gone for eleven years, and the longer she isn’t here, the more I miss her. The more I want to be like her.
So, I’ve made up my mind to do just that.
Dear Diary, I’ve decided to drop out of university to go trav¬eling for a year.
There, I’ve put it in writing now, so have got to do it.
Yes, I’ve completed two years of my business studies degree. Yes, I’m scoring A’s and have made some great friends. Yes, I know I’m usually Miss Cautious and that Jess really misses me when I’m away at university, but she isn’t a kid any longer and there will never be a perfect time for me to go traveling. I just feel like there’s something or someone out there, beckoning me. Call it intuition or a sixth sense, but I have to explore what it is and throw caution to the wind for once. I think it’s what Mum would have wanted.
And who knows? Maybe there is a special person waiting for me so I can prove our family curse wrong, once and for all.
Wish me luck!
***

One
Fortune
Present day
There was always a foot-high pile of statistics reports on Carla Carter’s desk and dozens of thank-you cards and wedding invi¬tations pinned to her office walls. All the bouquets sent to her by happy clients made her office look and smell like a flower shop, and she loved to nurture the blooms, trimming the stems and changing their water each day. It was a great feeling when she opened cards from couples that said, “We’re such a great match, thanks to you.”
The old saying goes that you can’t choose your family, but Carla thought that actually you could. If you were looking to meet someone special, hoping a relationship might lead to marriage, weren’t you technically auditioning that person to be part of your family or perhaps wanting to start a new one? Therefore, wasn’t it foolish to select a partner based on their blue eyes making your heart skip a beat, or because you both loved watching old movies on rainy Sunday afternoons? Surely, there had to be more substance and certainty to such matters.
People made plans and decisions each day of their lives— where to go on holiday, what college course to take, even whether to have ketchup or mustard on a hot dog. However, love was something often left to chance. Was it really likely you’d meet your ideal match while reaching for a can of soup in the supermarket or when ordering a glass of Merlot in a busy bar?
Someone who made you sing like a Disney princess while hanging out your washing was all very well, but you could spend weeks, months and even years getting to know someone, only to discover they were still hung up on an ex, believed in UFOs or were related to a serial killer.
When Carla had married her first husband, Aaron, love (or was it lust?) had skewed her sensibilities, making her jump into marriage feetfirst. And then look what had happened. Her sub-sequent, devastating divorce appeared to validate her family curse even more. From then on, Carla had made it her mis¬sion in life to help prevent others from going through a similar energy-sapping, emotion-wrenching, soul-sucking, crushing experience.
And that was why she’d set up her matchmaking agency, Logical Love.
Her business ethos was framed and displayed on her office wall.
Logical Love
Meet your match, scientifically
We’re a different kind of matchmaking agency, helping you to find your perfect partner in a logical way. We don’t believe in swiping a screen to dismiss someone within seconds. Instead, we employ a much more in-depth approach. You’re likely to be pragmatic, maybe even a little jaded, and your head probably rules your heart.

Don’t worry, we’re exactly the same!
Through our comprehensive range of questions and unique al¬gorithms, we help to take away the uncertainty of finding your soulmate, making it more practical to meet your right match. Love can become a decision rather than a chemical reaction.
Join us—you’re in safe hands.
Carla was living proof that her business model worked. She and her fiancé, Tom, had met through the agency, scoring an overall suitability factor of eighty-four percent. It was one of the highest figures ever recorded at Logical Love and she was delighted (and somewhat relieved) that her search for Mr. Right was over. In one month’s time, she’d become Mrs. Carla Tay¬lor, finally putting an end to her family’s jinx/spell/hex (or whatever it was her gran, sister and aunties believed in) forever.
She smiled as she sat down in her office chair, perusing a list of that week’s love matches, when her sister barged into her office.
“You’ve got mail,” Jess sang, tossing two pink envelopes in front of her.
Carla liked her desk to be neat at all times, and she never opened her post until after she’d dealt with her emails. “You should learn to knock,” she said, promptly moving the two en¬velopes to her in tray.
Jess shrugged. “It’s not like you’re in a meeting or anything.”
“We’re at work. We should try to keep things professional.”
Jess performed an eye roll. “Come on, we’re sisters. Lighten up.”
Since she’d founded the agency ten years ago, Logical Love had flourished and Carla now employed a team of sixteen peo¬ple, including Jess as her customer data manager, and her gran, Lucinda, in a part-time accounts position. She treated them ex¬actly the same as her other employees, and their hard work and support meant she couldn’t be accused of nepotism.

Jess nudged the in tray with her backside as she sat down on the corner of Carla’s desk. She picked up the two envelopes again and waved them in the air. “They look like invitations, if you ask me.”
Carla pursed her lips, really wanting to check her clients’ matches. They made her feel like a mother hen proudly sur¬veying her chicks, but to satisfy her sister’s curiosity she opened one of the envelopes.
A thank-you card said Love is the greatest science in the universe and had chemical symbols on the front. A photo inside showed a man and woman in their late thirties, both wearing space helmets at Cape Canaveral. They’d met through the agency and had attended a rocket launch while on their honeymoon.
“Aw, cute,” Jess said, peering over her shoulder. “Another success story, though I’d prefer a nice beach break.”
Carla nodded in agreement and pinned the card to her cork¬board. She and Tom had agreed to defer their own honeymoon until they both had more space in their busy schedules. Today was the first of May and she’d already attended eight of her clients’ weddings or engagement parties this year, so far. She always took the same gift to each, a red heart-shaped casserole dish with a lid to encourage couples to cook and eat together.
“Open your other card.” Jess bounced on her heels.
Carla reached up to touch her eye-pendant necklace, some¬thing she did when she felt anxious. She eased out a card and admired the horseshoe graphic and the word Lucky in shiny pink lettering.
“It’s from me and Gran,” Jess blurted.
Carla frowned at her sister, wondering why she’d present her with a card when they worked in the same office together. Their apartments were only a couple of miles apart and they both dined with their gran a couple of evenings a week.
She flipped open the card and read the message.

Invitation
Dear Carla
Friday, May 1st, 5:30–11:00 p.m.
Be ready!
Carla glanced at the date on her watch. “That’s today…” she said, her stomach beginning a churn of worry. “Be ready for what, exactly?”
“For a family get-together before your wedding.” The ex¬citement in Jess’s voice shone through. “Your bachelorette party, one of your last nights of freedom…”
Carla swallowed uncomfortably. As soon as she and Tom had become engaged, her relatives started to swamp her with well-meaning advice, such as popping a coin in her shoe when she walked down the aisle, for good luck and prosperity, and not to wear pearls on her wedding day because they represented tears.
She’d suspected they’d plan something to celebrate her mar¬riage and had caught them whispering together a few times. When her gran pursed her lips and whistled in a mock-inno¬cent fashion, it had made Carla wince.
Sharing superstitions was like a currency among her relatives, and the narrative often changed as the stories were passed along the family grapevine. She and Tom had planned their small, sophisticated wedding in fine detail, and their invitations even featured a list of FAQs, so her relatives would be clear about what would happen on the day and when. Her aunt Mimi once showed up to a cousin’s wedding dressed as Catwoman because she’d heard the reception was fancy dress, and Carla didn’t want to risk a repeat performance.
“Please tell me what you’ve planned,” she pleaded with Jess. “You know I don’t like surprises.” To be truthful, they made her feel a little motion sick and she definitely didn’t share her sister’s fear of missing out on anything.
“It’s a secret,” Jess said. “We’re taking you somewhere ex¬citing and, um, insightful. Don’t you want to have some fun before you get married?”
Carla tried not to worry about the words we’re taking you. It was easy to picture Jess, Gran, Mimi and Evelyn joining hands together around a huge cauldron, plotting her fate. Was there anything more annoying than people with a secret who told you they had one then refused to share it? Especially if they were your own family.
“How about going to an escape room or a murder-mystery evening?” she said, offering up something she’d actually enjoy. “I love things that involve skill and teamwork. Doing some¬thing this evening isn’t ideal for me…”
Jess pulled a face at her. “Are you sure you’re really my sis¬ter?” she asked. “The one who dropped out of uni to go trav¬eling when she was twenty-one? What happened to your sense of adventure?”
Although Carla knew she was joking, Jess’s words still stung. Certainty in her life was like a safety blanket she didn’t like to cast off. “Adventure doesn’t pay the bills,” she murmured. And it led me into a failed marriage, she thought to herself.
The two sisters glanced at each other warily, as if sensing a widening chasm between them. Carla often thought if she ap¬plied the Logical Love algorithms to her own family members, her match statistics wouldn’t be very high, especially with Jess. “I have some fresh data to analyze,” she said, picking up her report again.
“We’ll see you outside at five thirty.” Jess coolly turned on her heel.
Carla wasn’t sure what her sister muttered when she slammed the office door shut, but it sounded like, “You’re too bloody particular.” The cards on the corkboard fluttered and then stilled in the momentary draft.
“Particular can mean anything from distinct to specific to extra¬special,” Carla called after her. “All three are positive.”

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Can the future be rewritten?

On the verge of her second marriage, Carla Carter knows she’s finally found the one. She and her fiancé, Tom, met through Logical Love, a dating agency she founded for the pragmatically minded, and she’s confident that, together, they will dispel an old family curse claiming Carter women are unlucky in love.

For peace of mind, Carla’s family insists she visit a fortune teller before she ties the knot. Except the tarot unexpectedly reveals that the love of Carla’s life is not Tom, but one of the several men she briefly dated during her European gap year—twenty-one years ago. Only weeks away from her big day, Carla sets off across Europe to track down her exes from that unforgettable year, desperate to prove the fortune teller wrong. From Spain to Portugal, Italy to France, will one be her perfect match? And can a face from her past help Carla rewrite her entire family history—forever?
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Meet the Author:

Phaedra Patrick is the bestselling author of several novels, including The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper, which has been translated into twenty-five languages worldwide. Her second novel, Rise and Shine Benedict Stone, was made into a Hallmark movie. An award-winning short story writer, she previously studied art and marketing and has worked as a stained glass artist, film festival organizer and communications manager. Phaedra lives in Saddleworth, UK, with her family.
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