Spending the weekend with Rachel Gladstone....plus a book giveaway

Today we are pleased to have Rachel Gladstone visiting us. Her debut, The Weekend Wedding Assistant, published this week. We love the cover and it sounds like an entertaining story. Thanks to Turner Publishing, we have THREE copies for some lucky readers!

Rachel Gladstone is a staff writer for Dish Magazine where she reviews books for her column "All Booked Up" and wrote a TV pilot, Hopeful Times, for Cornerstone Entertainment which is now in pre-production. Rachel has also contributed work to The Nashville Scene, Ourselves, Foundations, GX, The Lipscomb College of Business and Nashville Lifestyles magazines and her blog, The Petty Chronicles, about the funny side of divorce had 30,000 readers on FirstWivesWorld.com and can be viewed at DivorcedMoms.com.

Visit Rachel online:
Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram

Synopsis:
Thirty year-old Nashvillian Julia Holmes is just weeks away from becoming Mrs. Aaron DeMinthe and she has meticulously planned every detail of her big day. The one thing she didn’t plan for is her fiance Aaron’s announcement: he needs to tick something off his bucket list before they tie the knot, and that something is to hike the last leg of the Appalachian Trail. Less than 48 hours later, as he summits Mt. Katahdin, the last mountain of the trek, he’s struck by lightning and killed.

Julia is grief-stricken and inconsolable, despite the fact that she’s surrounded by her best gal pals. Returning to her wedding venue, Whitfield Chapel, in search of closure, she happens upon the Chapel’s Wedding Director, who offhandedly mentions that they’re looking for a Weekend Wedding Assistant. 

Before she can even think about it, Julia takes the job. As she ushers four brides a weekend down the aisle she was supposed to walk down herself, Julia tries to understand why she said “I Do” to a job she never set out to get, in a place she’d only meant to occupy for an afternoon– and wonders if she’ll ever find true love again.

In one sentence, what was the road to publishing like for you?
After pedaling hard and fast in the bike lane of freelancing for years, the journey towards releasing The Weekend Wedding Assistant has been an absolute joy and I’ve savored every moment from the first round of editing to choosing the cover art to holding the first ARC in my hands.

How is your main character, Julia, similar to or different from you?
Julia Holmes is an eternal optimist, as am I. Her irreverent sense of humor is both sword and shield for her when dealing with life’s challenges, and that is definitely my stock-in- trade. We both hate shopping, but her dive into a manic shopping spree which is meant to save her sanity, was something she wholly owned. Julia is younger than I am but she’s the age I will forever be in my head, and she was very indecisive when it came to choosing her life’s path while I came out of the womb singing, tap dancing and ready to rock. She’s certainly been luckier at love than I have, but the eternal optimist in me still believes Mr. Right is right around the corner.

If The Weekend Wedding Assistant were made into a movie, who would you cast in the leading roles?
First of all, your lips to God’s ears! From the moment The Weekend Wedding Assistant downloaded in to my head like a movie, I have wanted other people to see it the way I did. Every time I watch TV or go to the movies I find myself searching for a glimpse of Julia and Linc in the faces of the actors on screen. Those who have come closest to my vision so far are Gillian Jacobs of Community and David Barry who played Lord John Gray in the Outlander series. If either of you happens to be reading this interview, please give me a call!

What is the strangest thing you’ve ever seen at a wedding?
The bride was making her entrance to a Whitney Houston song as she processed down a grand staircase in an historic house. The introduction to the song had just finished when she paused midway and began to sing at the top of her lungs to her waiting groom and dumbfounded guests through a microphone she’d kept hidden in her bouquet. Not only was this completely unexpected but it was especially disturbing because she couldn’t carry a tune, a fact that did nothing to dissuade her from continuing to sing her way to the altar. To add insult to injury, later in the ceremony, it was the groom’s turn to reciprocate and quite unfortunately, he was tone-deaf too! It was all I could do not to burst out laughing or run somewhere and hide until the madness was over. But instead, I stood in the back, nodding and smiling, a supportive wedding planner ‘til the end.

What is the last book you read that you would recommend?
I recently finished reading Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson. It’s hilarious and deep, filled with unforgettable characters and impossible to put down.

What is something new you’d like to do in 2020?
I’d like to be able to hold the feral kitten I rescued 11 weeks ago who is still hiding under the guest room bed. And if I could learn to bake something that was actually edible rather than doubling as material you could use to build a foundation for a house that would be marvelous.

Thanks to Rachel for visiting with us and to Turner Publishing for sharing her 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. 


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Giveaway ends February 18th at midnight EST.