Spotlight & Giveaway: You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle

Posted April 3rd, 2020 by in Blog, Spotlight / 42 comments

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

Hi Sarah and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, You Deserve Each Other!

 
Hey, readers! Thanks so much for stopping by to hear about my romcom debut. The publication of this book is a dream come true and I can’t wait for it to be out in the world!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

You Deserve Each Other is a lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romcom about an engaged couple, Naomi and Nicholas, who have been faking being happy with each other. Neither of them want to call off the wedding, which is three months away, because whoever does will have to pay back Nicholas’s atrocious parents for lavish wedding costs.

When Naomi realizes that Nicholas isn’t exactly over the moon about her, either, she schemes to get on his nerves as much as possible in the hopes that he’ll dump her and she can fly away free. Nicholas is just as stubborn and petty as she is, giving as good as he gets. But amid all the pranking and deliberately annoying each other, they stop faking who they are and find out that the person they’ve been battling might actually be their perfect match.
 

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

“Self-absorbed?” I repeat in my highest register. What absolute slander! “Do you have any idea how many Livestrong bracelets I’ve owned? Oh, and I’ve stopped killing all those bees! What have you ever done?”

 

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

  • I’d originally planned for Nicholas and Naomi to break up in chapter four and for a different character to be the hero Naomi ended up with. The chemistry between Naomi and Nicholas completely took me by surprise and the story went in a much different direction! Sometimes characters just do what they want.
  • The mother-in-law in this book, Deborah Rose, is the Absolute Worst. Naturally, this means that I had SO much fun writing her! Some inspirations for Deborah’s characterization were Lucille Bluth from Arrested Development and Marie Barone from Everybody Loves Raymond.
  • There’s a particular joke Nicholas makes to Naomi often, which she hates. Whenever she says “Oh my god” he always responds with “Yes?” This is something my husband does, and when I told him I was using it in the book he was very pleased with himself.

 

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

First attraction is the root of my hero and heroine’s trouble. After they first meet, they show each other only the most polished parts of themselves and never let their guards down. Their relationship begins to deteriorate as a result. Once the characters eventually begin to let their true selves show and understand each other’s love language, they’re attracted to the way the other person can sense what they need, and the understanding they find in each other, as well as a shared sense of humor.

 

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

I cackled out loud a lot while writing this book. Here’s a snippet of one of my favorite scenes:

“Fine.” He relents, performing another inventory of our fridge. “I’ll fix something for myself, then.”

“So will I.” I open the cupboards and hope to god there’s an entire Thanksgiving meal up there. “For myself.”

He gets out bread crumbs and eggs. I’ve seen this pattern before: he’s making mozzarella sticks. They sound amazing.

My first thought is to make spaghetti. He doesn’t like my spaghetti? Then I’ll cook enough for a banquet and let it overflow from every Tupperware container we own.

Nicholas watches me retrieve a box of spaghetti noodles. “I see you’re still mad about the spaghetti thing.”

“Not mad.” Just holding on to it forever.

“Sure, sure.” He smiles, because the idea of successfully pissing me off makes him just as gleeful as I’m going to feel when he realizes I ate all the mozzarella cheese.

 

Readers should read this book….

Readers should read his book because the world is on fire and I promise that for a few hours, you will forget that and have some laughs and swoons. Also, I think most people who have ever been in a relationship will find themselves relating to Naomi and Nicholas’s high and low points.

 

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

I am currently about to begin revisions on my second book, to be published by Putnam in spring 2021! I won’t share any details just yet, so be on the lookout for more info this summer.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

 

Giveaway: A finished copy of YOU DESERVE EACH OTHER (US Only)

 

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What’s the pettiest thing you’ve done to get back at someone?

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 
 

Excerpt from You Deserve Each Other:

He looks sideways at me and my stomach drops. “Come here,” he says, extending a hand.

I walk over so slowly that he laughs. I marvel at the impossible softness of the sound, coming from him, directed at me; the quirk of his lips, the warm fire in his eyes. When my hand slides into his, I’ve never been so aware of another person’s physicality. All of my senses spike, picking out his details, the way he feels, smells, his body heat. He takes up the entire room.

Breathing becomes an effort.

The hand he doesn’t have laced through my fingers lightly grips my waist. The top of my head rests perfectly beneath his jaw, which makes leaning against his chest irresistible. I didn’t think we were the kind of couple that danced in a kitchen in the middle of the woods, but it turns out that’s exactly the kind of couple we are. Two months ago, we would have done something like this only if other people were watching. Putting on a show.

I never want this dance to end. He won’t let me press myself against him so that I can hide my face, gently tugging back every time I try to disappear. He tilts my head up and gazes right on through me to what lies inside. His eyes are bluer than a lake and they’re gleaming with happiness. It dawns on me that I haven’t seen him genuinely happy in forever. I’ve been so concentrated on my own unhappiness that I haven’t noticed his. I’ve been fooling myself by thinking he’s been content all along. How arrogant, to assume he was content with me when I so obviously wasn’t content with him.

Our past is a string of disconnected memories I can teleport across. All of the golden, feel-good, light-as-air memories have been going dark, which has allowed the bitter poison ones to dominate the spotlight. But when Nicholas stares into my eyes like this, a few of those positive memories twinkle back to life and take the stage. When his palm slides over my cheek, fingers disappearing into my hair, it cauterizes a wound on my heart that’s been festering untended.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

When your nemesis also happens to be your fiancé, happily ever after becomes a lot more complicated in this wickedly funny, lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy debut!

Naomi Westfield has the perfect fiancé: Nicholas Rose holds doors open for her, remembers her restaurant orders, and comes from the kind of upstanding society family any bride would love to be a part of. They never fight. They’re preparing for their lavish wedding that’s three months away. And she is miserably and utterly sick of him.

Naomi wants out, but there’s a catch: whoever ends the engagement will have to foot the nonrefundable wedding bill. When Naomi discovers that Nicholas, too, has been feigning contentment, the two of them go head-to-head in a battle of pranks, sabotage, and all-out emotional warfare.

But with the countdown looming to the wedding that may or may not come to pass, Naomi finds her resolve slipping. Because now that they have nothing to lose, they’re finally being themselves–and having fun with the last person they expect: each other.

“This book is masterful comedy plus tenderness, unique voice plus rich characters. Nicholas! Swoon! We are in love.” – Christina Lauren, author of The Honey-Don’t List

“Laugh-out-loud funny and heartfelt, You Deserve Each Other is one of my favorite books of the year.” – Jennifer L. Armentrout, author of Wait For You

“Packed with emotion, humor, and sexy tension, this book is a welcome punch straight to the feels.” – Lyssa Kay Adams, author of The Bromance Book Club
Book Links: Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo | Google |
 
 

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.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | GoodReads |
 
 
Bonus Twitter Giveaway: I’m giving away a finished copy of You Deserve Each Other over on my Twitter at http://twitter.com/witchofthewords which will begin April 3 and ends April 6.
I will also mail some fun swag to readers who contact me on Twitter or Instagram (sarah_hogle) on April 7, my publication day, with a picture of their proof of purchase. (US only)
 
 
 

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42 Responses to “Spotlight & Giveaway: You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle”

  1. erahime

    Someone left something out and I didn’t put it away because said person should have done it.

  5. Sheila Bonuso

    I think of lot of petty things to do but usually don’t do then. Sometimes it is just enough to think about them.

  7. Janine

    I really can’t think of anything petty that I did to get back at someone unless you consider something like the time I had an argument with my husband and didn’t want to cook dinner that night and made him go buy something.

  9. Karina Angeles

    Make out with her boyfriend when I knew she was coming over. We totally got caught. She hates me now. I achieved my goal. They broke up.

  10. Cheryl Hart

    I usually let things go – but only think of petty things I could’ve said or done but didn’t.

  12. dbranigan

    I am sure I did things when I was younger, but honestly I don’t remember. I hit a point where I just didn’t care that much about people and their ways.

  14. Kim

    Being mad at my husband, I purposely went out to get something to eat and didn’t bring him back anything.

  15. Pammie R.

    I was picked on so much in school that such things just wash off me like water off a duck’s back.

  16. Lacey Thach

    When I lived in an apartment and my housemate would stay up late with music playing loudly, I’d get up early and clang around with dishes. Only happened a few times though, thankfully.

  19. Cheryl C.

    The only thing I can think of is not putting away something that my husband was supposed to take care of. It drove me nuts.

  23. Nancy Payette

    Written an anoymous letter to a guy I dated that I had found out was a womanizer telling him what a big loser he was. Left him wondering which one of the women he treated badly had sent it. :/

  24. Jana Leah

    I can’t think of anything. I hope that means I’ve never done anything that petty.

  29. erinf1

    when I moved out, I took all of the major household items: dishes, towels, sheets, and even the trash can. I bought them, so I didn’t feel any guilt. His bad luck that he let me throw out the old stuff. he didn’t realize until I was gone and I got a very angry voicemail. That was soooo rewarding. Thanks for sharing! This sounds so cute!

  31. [email protected]

    My daughter asked us to move four hours away from home to keep the grandchildren .We did and after a year there I had a bad car wreck was in a hospital bed at her house.She wouldn’t help me at all.The children and my husband did.We finally left her house and moved into our own.Then they packed up and moved were we originally lived across the street from the mother in law .Wouldn’t let us see the children at all.The in-laws had never been around the kids or kept them any.She left owing a big power bill in my name it got put on my bill so I sued her in small claims court and got it.Two years later the children were acting out at school cause they wanted to see us.She told my step mom to see if I would call them and I did .I didnt ever move back .

  32. Shannon Capelle

    I broke my sisters michael jackson cds because she stole some money from my wallet

  34. Ina

    I’m sure I’ve done many more petty things, but the first one that comes to mind is purposely taking 10 times to complete a task when someone keeps nagging you to hurry up, for no reason. I’ve done this a few times

  35. hendeis

    I really can’t remember anything. I do remember thinking, “No, don’t.. that’s so petty,” while at work, but I try not to carry through.

  36. Terrill R.

    I never returned a piece of jewelry to someone who had let me borrow it and broke up with me before he had gotten it back.

  39. Vicki Clevinger

    I can’t think of anything right off hand, although I might have thought of something at the time

  41. Delia Chavez

    I cant think of anything I usually just cut the people out of my life lol

  42. Patricia B.

    To get even, I usually get back at them by being super sweet and nice. The old “Kill them with kindness” routine.