Leah Marie Brown has a book to feast upon...plus a special giveaway

We're pleased to have Leah Brown at CLC to kick off International Chick Lit Month. Our theme for this special month is "Books and Their Impact." Leah is here to tell us the book that made an impact on her life and is happy to offer a $20 gift card to Amazon and a free digital download of Faking It, the first book in her It Girls series. Check out the first three books from her series. Her latest installment is Owning It, which you can learn more about below. It can be read as a stand-alone, but may contain spoilers for some of the other characters featured in this series.

Leah is an American writer with a penchant for Paris and all things pink! Before writing novels, she worked as a print journalist for a Pulitzer prize winning newspaper and served in the United States Air Force as a Radio and Television Broadcaster. An avid traveler, she has had adventures and mishaps from London to Tokyo, which she writes about on her blog, On Life, Love & Accidental Adventures, and in her contemporary romantic series, "The It Girls."  In her free time, she likes to watch movies, read, and snap photographs. You can view her photography by clicking on the Adventures tab on her website or by following her on Instagram. She lives in the shadow of Pike's Peak Mountain with her family and shamefully pampered poodles. She loves to hear from readers, so send her a note! Or connect with her on Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter!

Synopsis:
Delaney Lavender Brooks needs to grow up. At least, according to her parents. After getting evicted from her apartment and wrecking her car, Laney is almost ready to trade in her paintbrushes and surrender to a more sensible 9-to-5 existence. Almost. Until she’s awarded an internship at a prestigious art gallery in Paris. What else can the free-spirited artist do but follow her dreams? Even if her latest attempt at chasing rainbows might cost her a real future . . .


Once in the city of lights, Laney is almost undone by the glaring truth: maybe she isn’t sophisticated or talented enough to make it as an artist—or an independent woman, for that matter. And when she’s hotly pursued by a seductive Frenchman, she has to wonder if she’s about to be a fool for love, too. Soon Laney’s greatest challenge is not proving herself to her parents, but having the courage to live the life—and love—of her dreams...


The Book that "Moved" Me

Reading and traveling are two my favorite pastimes. Both ignite the flame of imagination. Both can have powerful, life-altering effects on a person. Years ago, I read Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast. It was one of those books that not only sparked my imagination (Oh, to live in a garret room in Paris, surviving on crusty bread and cheap, but delicious wine) and made a powerful, transformative impact on my life.

Fresh from World War I’s killing fields, tall, handsome, and hungry to make his mark in the world, Hemingway arrived in Paris with a new bride and a belief that “the most interesting people in the world lived” in France’s capital. Hemingway arrived in search of La Vie de Bohème.

Did he find it?

The answer can be found in A Moveable Feast, his delicious ode to the City of Lights. Sketches from his life in 1920s Paris include a rainy road trip with his booze-fueled bro, F. Scott Fitzgerald, dining on crusty bread and cheap wine with his new wife, Hadley, and borrowing books from Sylvia Beach’s library cum bookstore, Shakespeare and Company. His period in Paris was his most prolific, personally and professionally. He forged lifelong friendships, wrote dozens of political and lifestyle articles, and soaked in enough of La Vie de Bohème to inspire several novels.

A Moveable Feast inspired a reverence for Ernest Hemingway. I admired his courage. I admired his passion. To leave behind all that is familiar and comfortable, to move to a foreign country and endure hardship, all in an effort to broaden your horizons and perfect your craft. It is so bohemian. So…awesome.

When my publisher asked me to write a fourth It Girls novel, I knew I wanted it to be about a bohemian girl who dabbles in art and music. Laney Brooks, a carefree girl who wears unicorn t-shirts, believes in pixie dust, and doesn’t want to grow up. What better place than Paris to send my bohemian heroine? The unsophisticated hipster with the Lucite sunglasses, the ukulele-strumming free spirit, was sure to find herself in countless comedic situations as she navigated her way through the most sophisticated city in the world. My It Girls novels are about women who gain empowerment and personal-clarity through adventure. Nothing reveals character more than a boundary-pushing adventure (Don’t believe me? Read A Moveable Feast and Owning It and I’ll bet you change your mind).

Laney’s boundaries are definitely pushed in Paris. Along the way, she works in a chic art gallery, sings at an impromptu jam session in the hip Oberkampf district, and, of course, falls in love (Paris does that to a girl, though).

Thanks to Leah for visiting with us and sharing a gift card and e-book with our readers.

How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here. 

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Giveaway ends May 9th at midnight EST.