Spotlight & Giveaway: Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Sarah Hogle to HJ!

Hi Sarah and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Twice Shy!

 
Hey, readers! Thank you so much for stopping by to read about my second novel!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Twice Shy is about Maybell, a lonely woman working a thankless job alongside a coworker who recently catfished her. She escapes her life by daydreaming about a better one. When her great-aunt Violet dies and leaves her estate, Falling Stars, to Maybell, she jumps at the chance to have a fresh start at life in the home where she once spent a happy summer as a child. But when she arrives, not only does she discover that the once-magnificent house is in shambles, but she has to share it with Wesley Koehler, the grouchy groundskeeper who seems to want nothing to do with her. The two of them argue over what they want to do with the house and property, but while fixing it up together, Maybell finds out that there might be more than meets the eye to Wesley.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

I am up in the clouds now, drumming my fingernails on a countertop. Outside the window, in an ever-swirling fog, there’s a pink neon sign that spins at an all-the-time-in-the-world tilt, which reads: MAYBELL’S COFFEE SHOP AU. Beneath, with one of the letters blinking out: Open 24 hours.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• The heroine loves to bake donuts because I wrote this book while on a Great British Baking Show binge.
• The book involves anxiety and panic attacks, which I wanted to write about because I myself have anxiety and sometimes get panic attacks.
• The setting is Top of the World, Tennessee, in the Smoky Mountains. I’ve never been there and I’ve fictionalized the area to suit the purposes of this book, but it has a magical sound to it and I’d love to visit someday.
• A few songs from my Twice Shy playlist:
  Helium by Glass Animals (a daydream-y song that I listened to whenever I wrote about Maybell’s imaginary cafe)
  Social Cues by Cage the Elephant (captures Wesley’s social anxiety)
  Dynamite by BTS (I listened to this while writing their first date scene)
  Everywhere by Fleetwood Mac (Fleetwood Mac is significant to Maybell)
  Ivy by Taylor Swift (there’s a particular line in Ivy that goes very well with Twice Shy)

Please tell us a little about the characters in your book. As you wrote your protagonist was there anything about them that surprised you?

Maybell has had a rough life. She grew up with a mother who wasn’t very responsible or dependable, and who moved around a lot. Due to that instability, Maybell created an imaginary coffee shop to mentally visit, and has turned to it for comfort throughout adulthood. She’s also been pretty unlucky in love. But despite the rough hand she’s been dealt, she’s a determined optimist who’s never lost hope for a brighter tomorrow. Wesley has severe social anxiety and has been content to sequester himself in Violet’s groundskeeper’s cabin, interacting with people as little as possible. When Maybell unexpectedly arrives and he learns that he has to share the estate with her, as well as LIVE with her, his small, comfortable life is thrown out the window. He tries to mask his anxiety by behaving like a grouch, pushing Maybell away, but a funny thing happens: she finds out who he really is and she doesn’t behave the way he thinks she will. She responds with gentleness. Then when Wesley discovers some of Maybell’s struggles, he responds with gentleness in kind. They’re opposites, but they become wonderful pillars of support and understanding for each other.

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

I would use the scene where Wesley’s in the tree and Maybell is telling him about her coffee shop AU, because there’s a sprinkle of magic in it, and this is the moment in the story where the two of them realize the other person is safe and they become friends.

“Look at that.” He flourishes a hand, too. “Sweet tea just appeared on the menu.”
Wesley is playing with me?
My grin widens. “It did not.”
“Right above the macchiatos. Don’t you see it?” He is watching me with a very serious expression. Neon pink from that revolving sign in a faraway land casts out its light all the way to here, glowing upon his cheeks. I’ve seen this expression on him before, but I didn’t knw the difference between his nice serious and his intimidating serious. “The customer’s always right.”
“So they are. Go ahead and have your sweet tea.” I hear a clink as the mug is put down on the counter. The jukebox comes alive, unspooling nature sounds: whistling birds, a babbling creek.

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

Comfort and a smile. This book is meant to feel like a warm hug. The romance is very sweet, and the characters take care of each other. Really, all I want is to make readers smile and feel good for a little bit.

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

I’m currently working on another romcom. I won’t share details because nothing is certain yet, but crossing my fingers that someday you get to read it!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A print copy of  TWICE SHY by Sarah Hogle. (US only)  

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: If you inherited an enormous house in the Smokies, what would you do with it?

 
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Excerpt from Twice Shy:

“Are you about done down there? You’re going to want to see this, I’m telling you.”
“Just a sec.” I climb onto the chair and stretch, hanging a particularly handsome ornament as high up as I can manage. It’s a glass sphere the size of a softball, splotched with gold shimmer. A plaid bow rests inside, the same ribbon that Violet used to bind her stacks of letters—
“Wait a minute.”
“I’ve been waiting for seventeen of them.”
“There’s a paper in this ornament.” I jump down, wriggle the top off, and shake it until a rolled-up piece of paper slides out. “Like a message in a bottle.” The ribbon’s stiff, permanently crimped after I loosen the tie, smooth the paper against my knee. “I think it’s a map.”
“Of what?”
“Not sure.”
I’ve got to show him this. Hard to believe I was tired earlier—I’m wired now, thundering up the staircase two steps at a time, crashing into a brick wall that’s been unexpectedly erected on the second floor.
The bricks are softer than they look, absorbing my muffled “Oof.” And an “Mmpphhhhh,” which might or might not be caused by how good it smells.
“Sorry.” The brick wall grows arms, gingerly tipping me back with the tips of its fingers. Has Wesley always been this tall? From down here, the top of his head is in the stars. I’d have to break my vertebrae to see his face.
He takes a blundering step away, raking a hand through his hair. “Can I…see it?”
Instead of handing the map over, I scoot next to him so that we pore over it side by side. “I’m pretty sure these are trees.” I point at a jumble of broccoli florets drawn in blue pen.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Hogle’s excellent sophomore novel (after You Deserve Each Other) is an endearing take on the enemies-to-lovers trope….Readers are sure to be enchanted by this couple and their deeply felt struggle to open their hearts.
Publisher’s Weekly Starred Review

Book Links: Amazon | B&N |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Sarah Hogle is a mom of three who enjoys trashy TV and provoking her husband for attention. Her Dream is to live in a falling-apart castle in a forest that is probably cursed. You Deserve Each Other is her debut novel.
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