Samantha Sotto's great escape, plus a book giveaway

**Giveaway is now closed**

Samantha Sotto fell in love with Europe’s cobbled streets and damp castles when she moved to the Netherlands as a teenager. Since then, she has spent nights huddled next to her backpack on a Greek beach, honeymooned in Paris, and attended business meetings in Dusseldorf in the pleasant company of a corporate credit card. Her debut novel, "Before Ever After" (reviewed here) was inspired by her experiences living, studying and traveling through Europe. She's also a big fan of Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres. Samantha is here today to talk about escaping. And since this book takes place in various European cities (and Shelley is from the US), we are offering one copy of "Before Ever After" to share with a lucky reader anywhere in the world!

Visit Samantha on Facebook and Twitter and check out her blog.

Check out the trailer for "Before Ever After." It fits the mood of the story.



The Great Escape
By Samantha Sotto

Do you ever have days when you wish you could just drop everything, hop on the next plane and get as far away as you can? I have. In fact, on one such day, I did just that. I sold my car, bought a ticket to Spain, and went backpacking around Europe with my best friend. We didn’t have a plan – only a Eurail pass and a plane ticket that said that we needed to be in Athens in a month’s time.

I think every woman, feels the need to put some distance between herself and the everyday. Whether it’s an afternoon at the spa, a hike, or a trip to the mall, these little getaways allow us to regroup and recharge. (Or sometimes we just need to buy shoes -which, in my book, is a perfectly legitimate excuse to sneak out for some “me time” too). The bottom line is, escape can be good for a gal’s sole, er, soul.

Shelley, one the main characters in my novel, "Before Ever After," is no exception. In her case, her journey, takes her a bit farther from her neighborhood mall. She peels off a leaflet for an offbeat European tour from the heel of her shoe and alters the course of her life forever. She hops into a van, meets the man who would make her a widow, and travels across the back roads of Europe and time to discover an ancient secret.

Like Shelley, none of us can know where our little getaways and detours will take us and I suppose that’s the whole point of taking them. A new experience is the one sure way to get ourselves to look up from the floor and see what’s really going on around us. And if we find out that we have no clue where we are, that’s even better. This is the one time you don’t want a GPS. There may not be an ancient secret at the end of our journey, but getting lost does have another, more important reward: it allows us take a long and hard look at our inner compass and find our way back home. (Stopping by Jimmy Choo on your way back is optional.)

Thanks to Samantha for allowing us to escape into her world and to the Crown Publishing Group (a division of Random House) for sharing the book for our giveaway.

How to win "Before Ever After":
Please comment below with your e-mail address.
(Please note: Entries without an e-mail address will NOT be counted. You can use AT and DOT to avoid spam. Or provide a link to your facebook page or blog if you can receive messages there.)

Bonus entries (can be listed all in one post):
1. Please tell us: What is your favorite way to escape?
2. Follow this blog and post a comment saying you are a follower (if you already follow, that's fine too).
3. Post this contest on Facebook or Twitter or in your blog, and leave a comment saying where you've posted it.
4. Join Chick Lit Central on Facebook. Edit settings if you don't want to receive a lot of messages at your e-mail account. Please read our posting guidelines, as well. (If you're already a member, let us know that too.)
5. Add a friend to our Facebook group. (Tell us who you added.) Be sure to remind them to edit their settings.

Giveaway ends September 12th at midnight EST.