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Q&A With Author Katherine Center

February 7, 2022

My introduction for this amazing lady wouldn’t do her justice, so I’m going to let her bio speak for itself!👇🏻

BookPage calls Katherine Center “the reigning queen of comfort reads.” She is the New York Times bestselling author of eight books, including How to Walk Away, Things You Save in a Fire, and her newest, What You Wish For. The movie adaptation of her novel The Lost Husband (starring Josh Duhamel) hit #1 on Netflix and her novel Happiness for Beginners is in production now as a Netflix original starring Ellie Kemper. Katherine writes laugh-and-cry books about how life knocks us down—and how we get back up. She’s been compared to both Jane Austen and Nora Ephron, and the Dallas Morning News calls her stories, “satisfying in the most soul-nourishing way.” Her books have made countless Best-Of lists, including RealSimple’s Best Books of 2020, Amazon’s Top 100 Books of 2019, Goodreads’ Best Books of the Year, and many more. Katherine lives in her hometown of Houston, Texas, with her husband, two kids, and their fluffy-but-fierce dog.

Hi Katherine! I can’t tell you how excited I am to talk with you on my blog! Your books are some of the most beautiful stories I’ve ever read, heart-wrenching but equally inspiring. How to Walk Away and Things You Save in a Fire have stayed with me on so many levels. What led you to this particular niche in your writing?

I really love stories about how people get back up after life has knocked them down. Those moments, those really hard life moments that just crack us open . . . they’re so hard—but they also give us these rare opportunities to grow and change and redefine our lives. I’m interested in how people get through those hard times—but also in what they learn from them and how they grow from them. So I think I found my way to these kinds of stories because that’s what I’m interested in, myself, personally, just as a human: How we do it. How we rise to life’s challenges and cope with humor and grace. But not only just how we cope, but how we also appreciate life’s beauty and joy. Because we kind of always have to do both at the same time—and that’s not easy. I’m just endlessly fascinated by it all.

What is the most fulfilling thing about being an author?

Getting to think about stories all the time. Getting to study them and figure out how they work. Getting to pay attention to what I myself love and long for in stories—and then trying to figure out how to do that for other people. There’s a great quote from Julia Child: “Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.” That’s me. I never, ever get bored with stories. I’ll be studying them my whole life long.

What does your day look like when you are in the middle of writing a book?

When I’m writing the first draft of a book—sort of building the scaffolding of the story—it takes huge, vast amounts of concentration. I need long stretches of time—days!—when I can get lost in the story and think about nothing else. I’ll go out of town (to Galveston Island) for 4 or 5 days at a time and do a big chunk of writing (50-100 pages), and then come home and read them over and mess with them and let them settle. Then a few weeks later, I go again and do the next section. This rhythm works for me—pushing forward and then settling for a while. That’s always the hardest part: figuring out what the story IS. Once I know what it is, telling it is pretty easy.

Tell us about your book cover designs! They are always so bright and positive and keep with the same theme. I know immediately if it’s one of your books without looking at the title or author!

I got so lucky with them, didn’t I?! I hit the jackpot when Macmillan, my publisher, asked the brilliant designer Olga Grlic to design my covers. That red cover with the flowers for How to Walk Away is the cover that started it all, and I feel like it captured something about my soul. I know the covers won’t always be exactly the same—they’ll have to grow and evolve, but I hope we’ll always keep some version of flowers.

Do you have a favorite book that you’ve written that holds a special place in your heart?

I love them all in different ways. How to Walk Away was my first book to ever hit the New York Times bestseller list. The Lost Husband was my first book to ever get turned into a movie (Hi, Josh Duhamel!). Things You Save in a Fire was a book I wrote with a ton of input from my (volunteer firefighter) husband, and so that one will always be close to my heart.

Your books are becoming movies!!! First The Lost Husband, now Happiness for Beginners, and possibly Things You Save In a Fire?! How has this experience been for you and to what extent are you able to be involved in the process?

It’s so amazing, I can hardly even describe it. I love movies, so it’s just like some kind of crazy magic to watch my stories come to life in this whole new way. I recently got to visit the Happiness for Beginners movie set and attend the wedding of one of my own main characters! The movies are of course often quite different from what I saw in my head when I was writing—but in some ways, they’re better. That kiss O’Connor gives Libby at the famers market in The Lost Husband movie? Better. I can’t take credit for that overalls-pull! That was director Vicky Wight, who is clearly a kissing genius. I was there on the day they filmed that kiss, and it just blew my mind to think that a kiss I wrote for two imaginary people in my head was now, like, happening in the real world with real people. It’s thrilling beyond description.

What are you currently reading/watching?

I just finished reading an advance copy of Christina Lauren’s new book, Something Wilder, and I also just finished Emily Henry’s next-summer book, Book Lovers. Both were absolutely delicious and so much fun to read. Those writers are both new discoveries for me in the last year or so, and I’m in love.

What’s your favorite way to unwind?

I’m a big fan of unwinding! I dance around in the kitchen a lot when I’m making dinner. I sing at the top of my lungs in the car. I walk the dog after dinner with my husband. I take a lot of bubble baths and read yummy novels cover to cover. I curl up with fuzzy blankets and Korean rom-com TV shows online with subtitles. Korean dramas were my best discovery during the pandemic. So swoony and fun to watch!

Where is your favorite place to travel?

So many! I love road trips. I love little New England towns. I love Europe and the UK. I’d love to go the Fjords. My mom’s family is from Germany, and I’ve never been there, so that’s a definite goal. I’ve been to Japan, but I’d love to see more of Asia. Korea’s on my list big time! And my best friend from college lives in New Zealand, so I’ll be heading that way at some point.

Do you have any family traditions you look forward to every year?

We spend Thanksgiving out at my grandparents’ ranch in Texas every year. It’s usually at least 20 people—my sisters and their husbands and any other extended family and friends we can gather. November is usually cool and lovely in Texas, so we build fires and walk the gravel roads and feast and fall asleep on the sofa. It’s just so fun for us all to be together.

What do you do to celebrate when you finish writing a book?

It always feels very celebratory to print out the final pages of one of those big, beautiful beasts. It’s like, it’s finally real. I print them out and then put them in a big old binder and carry them around for a while. That said, “done” is a slippery concept! Almost as soon as I’m printing it out, I’m circling back to make more changes and make it better.

And Finally! Will you please tell us more about your newest book, The Bodyguard?! It’s one of my (and many others) most anticipated reads this summer!

Oh, I’m so in love with it. It’s a classic rom-com. Usually, I think of my books as kind of half tragedy and half comedy—like, there’s almost always some big, hard life event that the main character has to struggle with and figure out, and there’s also always a fun love story. So it’s a balance between darkness and light. But with this story—which I was writing in 2020 and 2021—I decided I just wanted as much light as possible. There’s some struggle here, and some darkness, and some things to for the main characters to figure out, because you have to have some ballast in a story, but I knew from the beginning that I wanted this story to be as joyful and fun and bantery and swoony and playful as possible. And it IS. It was how I made my own sunshine during the pandemic. I just put these two main characters out on a ranch together . . . and then I just let them tease each other and joke around and banter and fight and fall in love. Man, it was fun. It was exactly what I needed!

You guys! How great is she???!!! Singing the praises of her cover designer and fellow authors-such a phenomenal writer, down to earth, and just all around so sweet to chat with. I want to give a shout out to Josh Duhamel too (Hey Josh!) because I just know he’s reading my blog 😂. Thank you SO MUCH Katherine for taking the time to do this chat with me. Readers!!! GO pre-order The Bodyguard now! It will be released on 7/19/22 and you won’t want to miss it! To learn more about Katherine, her books, and her movies you can check out her blog or Instagram.

Stay tuned for more fun Q&A’s!

XOXO,

Kristyn

Q & A with Author Maddie Dawson

December 13, 2021

Have you met Maddie Dawson yet?! If you haven’t then you’re in for a treat! She is the author of 10 novels- the most recent being The Magic of Found Objects. I first found out about Maddie’s books when I signed up to do a book tour for A Happy Catastrophe a couple of years ago. When I started reading, I quickly realized it was the follow-up book to Matchmaking for Beginners and decided to stop and read that one first. I’m so glad I did, because it became one of my all time favorite reads! Maddie has this extraordinary way of writing and creating characters that will worm their way into your heart and stay there.💕

1. I fell in love with your writing when I read Matchmaking for Beginners! The magic, the quirky characters, the charm, and the messiness that is life and love. I followed that up with A Happy Catastrophe & The Magic of Found Objects, which I loved equally as much! How do you come up with the originality of your stories?

Wow, thank you so much for such kind words! I wish there was a simple answer to your very intriguing question. Where do stories come from? To be perfectly honest, they seem to spring from out of nowhere (and never when I’m sitting at the laptop with my fingers on the keyboard, waiting patiently.) Nope, they come when I’m falling asleep or driving in the car or getting ready to give a talk on some other subject altogether—and BAM! There’s suddenly a story tugging at my brain, and refusing to let go. Usually it starts with a character who has a “what if” question. For Matchmaking for Beginners, the question was, “What if your whole life could change if you just trusted one unlikely person and let yourself follow your heart?”

2. I hear that you come from a long line of story tellers. When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

Ha! I think I was born knowing I wanted to tell stories. I talked very early, apparently, and at the age of four, my mother said, I talked incessantly about my life in the Navy. Yep, the Navy. No one in our family had been in the Navy, and as far as she knew, I’d never even heard of the Navy. But there I was, correcting the way she vacuumed the floor or planted flowers in the garden. “That’s not how we did it in the Navy!” I’d say. At six, I wrote my first story when my mother wouldn’t give me money for the Good Humor truck, and I went door to door until I sold it to the neighbors for twenty-five cents—enough to buy myself and my sister a popsicle. THAT may be when I decided I wanted to be a writer: it looked like a sure-fire way to have ice cream for the rest of my life!

3. You have some amazing character names in your books- Marnie, Blix, Phronsie, Tenaj. How did you come up with these?

Thank you for saying this. I love naming characters. It’s one of my favorite things—and is also possibly (besides ice cream acquisition) one of the best reasons for becoming a writer. After all, in your regular life, how often do you get to name things? Sure, if you have kids and pets, you get a few chances (but even then you have to negotiate with another person usually.) Quite often the characters themselves sort of “tell” me their names, and I just go along. The name always suits their personality, at least in my head.

4. What is your favorite type of scene to write?

I love all of it! Mostly I love to write scenes where there is growing intensity between the characters and plenty of humor. I love scenes that express their personalities, and make me laugh.

5. How many books have you written? Do you tend to stick to writing the same genre?

I’ve written ten novels (just finished the tenth one yesterday!) and three books of non-fiction.

6. Who is your biggest cheerleader while you are writing your books?

I’m so lucky to have a community of writer friends, and we all hold each other up while we’re writing. It’s so handy to be able to pick up the phone and groan in a certain way and have the person on the other end know instantly that this means you’ve lost the plot and need a new motivation for the main character. (This is different from the moan you do when your computer has crashed and you just lost the first four chapters.) Family members try to be sympathetic—they really do—but often they can’t help saying things like, “Just think up a new plot!”

6. What are you currently reading/listening to/watching?

I’m reading about four different books just now, because for some reason I need to have a book to read in every room of the house. One is The Museum of Broken Relationships: Modern Love in 203 Everyday Objects by Olinka Vistica and Drazen Grubisic; Safekeeping: Some True Stories from a Life, by Abigail Thomas; The Accidental Tourist, by Anne Tyler (for the fifth time!), and Untamed, by Glennon Doyle. As for television, I just finished watching Ted Lasso and Hacks, both of which made me a better person.

7. I always hate getting asked this question because I can never decide, but I’ll ask anyway…What’s your favorite book/ or who is your favorite author?

Ha! NO ONE likes this question, because it’s constantly changing—with moods, with time in life, even with wind currents. Over time, though, I guess I’d say mostly my favorite author is Alice Munro, who has such a fantastic body of work. Her short stories have stayed in my head over many, many years, and I’m always wanting to go back and admire how she manages to create such depth and such feeling with just a few lovely brushstrokes.

8. How do you celebrate when you finish a writing a book?!

Champagne? Beating a drum outside at midnight? Nope, I’m afraid not. When I finish writing a book, I find that I’m kind of pensive for a few days. It’s an ending, after all. The characters are packing up their suitcases and we are bidding each other farewell. I thank them for moving into my head and telling me the story, and they thank me for trying to get it all down while they dictated it. Sometimes there are a few hard feelings we have to work on: I think they could have been more forthcoming at times, and also could have respected my sleep schedule, even when they had a brand new idea to tell me (couldn’t it have waited for morning, Phronsie??) And they always think I maybe left out some details they thought were important but which had to get dashed due to length. It takes a while for the dust to settle and for me to really feel the exhilaration of I’M DONE! I’M DONE!! For me, the true celebration comes when the galleys arrive in the mail—touching and turning the real pages of the book does something to my heart that I can’t quite put into words. It’s like magic.

9. Tell us all about your latest release The Magic of Found Objects, and PLEASE let us know how gnomes came to play a role in this book, I can’t see one without thinking of you and this story!

Ah! The Magic of Found Objects, my pandemic book, is still one of my favorites. It’s the story that answers the question: What if you get to be in your late thirties and your dating life sucks, and your best friend says, “Let’s get married even though we’re not in love!”? That’s what happens to Phronsie Linnelle, for whom nothing in life is exactly clear-cut. As soon as she makes up her mind to make her parents happy and accept the proposal of this childhood friend whom she talks to every single day, she meets a much younger new guy at work, a guy who collects gnomes, wears sandals to work, and calls everybody “dude.” Clearly not what anybody had in mind. When she looks back at her childhood—raised by two very different moms, her biological mom who’s a hippie artist and her stepmother, who’s more practical and stable and dependable—it becomes clear she has to go deep to figure out who she really is in order to know what to do.

The gnomes! Ahhh, the gnomes! My friends Beth and Bill have a whole colony of gnomes living at their house, and as soon as I “met” these little guys, I knew I had to have them in a book. I gave them to Adam, the young guy in my book, and he immediately placed them in his office windowsill and bought them a tractor.

9. Also, readers want to know-(and by readers, I mean ME) Do you have something new in the works for us?!

I do! I do! (jumping up and down here) I have a book that I just finished—Snap Out of It—which is a comic novel about a middle-aged, three-times-married, fun-loving woman who’s happily given up on love and now just wants to help other people steer clear of romantic agony, so she dresses up in a bunny costume and goes to their houses, where she helps them get rid of all the reminders of lost love so they can move on. When her business takes off and becomes a national phenomenon, all is well until love starts breaking out all around her. It’s coming out in January of 2023.

Thank you so much Maddie for participating in my Q&A and for all of the thought that clearly went into your answers-I can’t wait for Snap Out of It! I hope you all enjoyed getting to know Maddie as much as I did! She’s such a delightful person and if you haven’t yet, I hope you get the chance to check out her books. 💕 Here are links to a few of them below:

Matchmaking for Beginners

A Happy Catastrophe

The Magic of Found objects

Follow Maddie on IG & Twitter, or check out her website!

Q & A with Jenny Proctor

November 15, 2021

Hey everyone! I wanted to introduce you to a new favorite author of mine. Everyone knows I adore romcoms and I recently came across Jenny Proctor’s latest book, Love Off-Limits. I had the opportunity to read and review it, so I did (You can find my review here). And she’s now she’s stuck with me as huge fan (sorry for all the messages Jenny!). Haha ok…but really, she was so sweet to be a part of my newly launched author Q&A and I enjoyed getting to know her better! Hope you enjoy!

Xoxo,

Kristyn

1. When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I was well into adulthood before I gave writing a second thought. Back in 2006, I was a stay-at-home mom with three little kids and a fourth on the way, and a friend suggested that I start a blog. I took her advice and started writing about my kids, and eventually, people I didn’t know started reading and commenting. That felt so foreign to me…that anyone would be interested in words that I’d written. The more I wrote, the more I liked the creativity of crafting words that meant something to people. I enrolled in a distance learning creative writing class from the university I’d attended, and that sparked my interest in writing fiction. The first novel I wrote ended up getting picked up by a small press in 2011 and…ten years later, here I am.

2. How many books have you written? Do you have a favorite?

I’ve published ten novels—four with a traditional publisher, and six indie, as well as five novellas. It’s so hard to pick a favorite! Normally, it’s whichever I’m currently working on. But if I absolutely had to choose, I think I’d say it’s a tie between Love Off-Limits, which I just published, and Love at First Note. It might be a setting thing—both those books are primarily set in Western NC, and though I don’t live there now, it’s where I grew up, and a big part of my heart is still there.

3. It took me forever to decide on names for my kids, so how do you decide on names for the characters in your book?!

Sometimes it’s totally random. Sometimes the character will pop into my head with a name already, but most frequently, I’ll call my sister and say, “Okay, I need a name for someone with these character traits…” and then she’ll name them for me.

4. Do real life people ever play a role in your book?….Do they know?

It’s impossible not to have some of my own real life experiences filter into my writing, so I’d say for sure there are influences, but I’ve never specifically crafted a character to be like someone that I know. Maybe a character will offer wisdom that someone has offered me before, for example, but that’s about it.

5. I’m always curious how authors approach their writing. What comes first for you….plot or characters?

It’s happened both ways for me, but usually I have a basic premise first and then build the characters from there. I do love to write interconnected stories though, creating love stories for secondary characters in previous novels, so in those instances, I start with characters and build a love story based on their personality/preferences. Sometimes I start with nothing more than a single scene, a meet cute, maybe, and everything evolves from that.

6. What is your favorite type of scene to write?

I actually really love to write kissing scenes, which I know isn’t a popular opinion among romance novelists. But more than that, I love to write scenes were I’m building emotional tension—where the stakes are high, and people are filled with longing for someone they don’t think they’re going to end up with. I love that feeling of impossibility, you know? When it just doesn’t seem like it’s going to work out. I try really hard to make those moments believable. There must be more than just a simple misunderstanding to keep my protagonists apart!

7. When I sit down to read, I need a blanket, a pillow to prop up my book, and silence. Do you have any quirky habits when you sit down to write?

I like to listen to music to block out distractions, but definitely nothing with words. William Joseph is probably who I listen to the most when I’m writing. He’s a pianist (Actually, he’s the pianist that inspired Elliott in Love at First Note!) and I definitely feel like his music puts me in the right creative mindset to…well, create.

8. What are you currently reading/listening to/watching?

Currently reading Royally Rearranged by Emma St. Clair and Mother, May I by Joshilyn Jackson. And an as yet unpublished manuscript from one of my editing clients. Not listening to anything on Audible presently, but the last thing I finished was Becoming by Michelle Obama. Which was totally brilliant. Currently watching Madam Secretary because I have a huge crush on Tim Daly, Only Murders in the Building because so many friends have recommended it, and Ted Lasso because it’s so unbelievably brilliant.

9. What is one word someone would use to sum you up?

Only one word? That’s hard. I’d say…optimistic, probably? I’m very good at rolling with the punches and making the best of any situation. Sometimes it gets me in trouble. Because my first inclination is always to say, “It’ll be fine. Yes. I’ll figure it out.” And sometimes what I need to say is, “Wait, stop, I cannot figure this out. My answer is no.” It’s all about balance, I think. But generally I go through life much like a golden retriever puppy. I love everyone. And want everyone to love me. And can be happy almost anywhere.

10. It has got to be the most amazing feeling to finish a book! How do you celebrate?

I get a pedicure!

11. And finally, tell us all about your most recent book!

Love Off-Limits is the third book in my Some Kind of Love romcom series. It’s mostly set in Western North Carolina, deep in the mountains, and is full of farm animals and farm life. Tyler is a minor character from a previous book, so it was really fun to get to know him and write his happily ever after. It was also fun to write the immediate, intense chemistry that Tyler and Olivia have. First kisses don’t often happen in chapter three so that was a fun change.

The thing I love most about this book though is it introduces the setting and several characters that are going to make up my next series. Olivia, Tyler’s love interest, has four older brothers. Once I wrap up the final book in the Some Kind of Love series, I’ll get right to work on the Hawthorne Brothers series—one book for each brother. I’m so, so excited about it.

Thank you so much Jenny for making the time to chat! I look forward to your final book in the Some Kind of Love series and so excited for you to launch a book about Olivia’s brothers!

Click here to check out Jenny’s instagram and books!

November 1, 2021

delightfullybooked

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Kristyn | ✝️ 📚 ☕️ 🍩 🏃‍♀️🇺🇸

delightfullybooked

The top of my bookshelf has been feeling a bit left out lately, so here ya go! 🫶🏻

Some of my absolute faves!

How’s summer going so far?

Bookstagram | Bookshelf | Rom-com books | Reader | Authors of Instagram

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Jun 22

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The top of my bookshelf has been feeling a bit left out lately, so here ya go! 🫶🏻

Some of my absolute faves!

How’s summer going so far?

Bookstagram | Bookshelf | Rom-com books | Reader | Authors of Instagram

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delightfullybooked

Look 👀 what dropped in my Kindle today!

I can’t believe it’s already release day for @marilee.loves.to.write and her debut, A Courtship of Conspiracies!

I’m glad she kept this a secret for as long as she did and already had the ball rolling when she announced she was moving from Bookstagrammer 👉🏻 author! That way, I didn’t have to wait too long to get my hands on it.

So proud of you, Marilee 🩷 Can’t wait to dive in!

Description:
James Campbell, Earl of Brenton, is an agent of the Crown hunting a killer. Driven by grief and a relentless need for justice, he has followed a trail from the country’s darkest corners to the most powerful circles of high society. After a string of reckless choices, James must prove his steadiness by securing the marriage society expects. It should be a simple matter of duty…until the captivating woman in question proves to have a talent for finding trouble and unsettling his carefully laid plans.

Lady Katherine Sutherland has spent her life balancing society’s rigid expectations with a guarded secret of her own. When a startling discovery draws her into a web of treason, Kate finds herself on a collision course with the very man she is expected to marry—the one man capable of uncovering the truth she has spent years hiding.

As a deadly conspiracy closes in and an unseen enemy tracks their every move, James and Kate must decide what they are willing to risk for the truth, for the Crown, and for each other. In a game of shifting loyalties and precarious alliances, falling in love may be the riskiest move of all.

A Courtship of Conspiracies begins a new Regency spy romance series, full of intrigue, danger, and all the swoon without the spice.

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Jun 18

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Look 👀 what dropped in my Kindle today!

I can’t believe it’s already release day for @marilee.loves.to.write and her debut, A Courtship of Conspiracies!

I’m glad she kept this a secret for as long as she did and already had the ball rolling when she announced she was moving from Bookstagrammer 👉🏻 author! That way, I didn’t have to wait too long to get my hands on it.

So proud of you, Marilee 🩷 Can’t wait to dive in!

Description:
James Campbell, Earl of Brenton, is an agent of the Crown hunting a killer. Driven by grief and a relentless need for justice, he has followed a trail from the country’s darkest corners to the most powerful circles of high society. After a string of reckless choices, James must prove his steadiness by securing the marriage society expects. It should be a simple matter of duty…until the captivating woman in question proves to have a talent for finding trouble and unsettling his carefully laid plans.

Lady Katherine Sutherland has spent her life balancing society’s rigid expectations with a guarded secret of her own. When a startling discovery draws her into a web of treason, Kate finds herself on a collision course with the very man she is expected to marry—the one man capable of uncovering the truth she has spent years hiding.

As a deadly conspiracy closes in and an unseen enemy tracks their every move, James and Kate must decide what they are willing to risk for the truth, for the Crown, and for each other. In a game of shifting loyalties and precarious alliances, falling in love may be the riskiest move of all.

A Courtship of Conspiracies begins a new Regency spy romance series, full of intrigue, danger, and all the swoon without the spice.

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delightfullybooked

EAT THE CAKE by Annie Cathryn will be here before you know it! July 21 is the DAY!

I adore @msanniecathryn and her books! The Friendship Breakup is still one of my faves!

EAT THE CAKE description:
Leah Wright spends her days advising thousands of podcast listeners on how to live their best lives. But since her husband Elliot died, she has been running on autopilot—until a very public on-air meltdown forces her into a mandatory leave of absence. With her career at stake and her sponsors wavering, Leah is finally compelled to confront the silence of her empty home.

Then, the impossible happens.

A bouquet of flowers arrives at her door with a note from Elliot. Hidden among his belongings, Leah discovers an itinerary for the surprise trip to Florence that he never had the chance to give her. Urged by her sister-in-law to find closure, Leah flies to Italy, only to uncover that Elliot has left her one final gift: a scavenger hunt through the winding, sun-drenched streets of the city.

As the clues become more personal, the mystery deepens. How could he have known what she would need to hear months after his death? To find the final message, Leah must stop hiding behind her podcast persona and confront the secret guilt she has been carrying—or risk remaining broken forever.

Review:
This book will break your heart a little, but Annie does an amazing job navigating grief, reconciling the guilt Leah has, and creating a heart-warming adventure to find healing.

What’s your favorite kind of cake? 🎂

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Jun 16

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EAT THE CAKE by Annie Cathryn will be here before you know it! July 21 is the DAY!

I adore @msanniecathryn and her books! The Friendship Breakup is still one of my faves!

EAT THE CAKE description:
Leah Wright spends her days advising thousands of podcast listeners on how to live their best lives. But since her husband Elliot died, she has been running on autopilot—until a very public on-air meltdown forces her into a mandatory leave of absence. With her career at stake and her sponsors wavering, Leah is finally compelled to confront the silence of her empty home.

Then, the impossible happens.

A bouquet of flowers arrives at her door with a note from Elliot. Hidden among his belongings, Leah discovers an itinerary for the surprise trip to Florence that he never had the chance to give her. Urged by her sister-in-law to find closure, Leah flies to Italy, only to uncover that Elliot has left her one final gift: a scavenger hunt through the winding, sun-drenched streets of the city.

As the clues become more personal, the mystery deepens. How could he have known what she would need to hear months after his death? To find the final message, Leah must stop hiding behind her podcast persona and confront the secret guilt she has been carrying—or risk remaining broken forever.

Review:
This book will break your heart a little, but Annie does an amazing job navigating grief, reconciling the guilt Leah has, and creating a heart-warming adventure to find healing.

What’s your favorite kind of cake? 🎂

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