Brooke Burroughs' incredible journey...plus a book giveaway

Today we are featuring Brooke Burroughs at CLC, to celebrate the recent publication of her debut novel, The Marriage Code, which is based on her real-life experience of living in India. This will appeal to fans of 90 Day Fiancé, but also anyone who wants a good romantic comedy. Thanks to Amazon Publishing, we have one copy for a lucky reader!

 

Brooke Burroughs has worked in the IT industry for over ten years, and has been writing her entire life. During her three years living in India, she met her husband and had to navigate feeling like an outsider in a traditional, Indian family. It was during this experience that she had the idea of writing a story about falling in love with not only a person, but with a family and a culture. 

Visit Brooke online:

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram

Synopsis:

Emma has always lived her life according to a plan. But after turning down her boyfriend’s proposal, everything starts to crumble. In an effort to save the one thing she cares about—her job—she must recruit her colleague, Rishi, to be on her development team…only she may or may not have received the position he was promised. (She did.)

Rishi cannot believe that he got passed over for promotion. To make matters worse, not only does his job require him to return home to Bangalore with his nemesis, Emma, but his parents now expect him to choose a bride and get married. So, when Emma makes him an offer—join her team, and she’ll write an algorithm to find him the perfect bride—he reluctantly accepts.

Neither of them expect her marriage code to work so well—or to fall for one another—which leads Emma and Rishi to wonder if leaving fate up to formulas is really an equation for lasting love. (Courtesy of Amazon.)

In one sentence, what was the road to publishing like for you?
Five years, two laptops, and lots of coffee.

What was the biggest reward and biggest challenge with writing The Marriage Code?
The biggest reward was to be able to write a novel inspired by my own real life adventure moving to India and falling in love, but that might have been the biggest challenge too. Fictionalizing a story that was so close to me was really hard at times, especially when developing the characters. Real life often doesn’t have the drama and high stakes that fiction does, and I wanted to develop characters that had their own challenges and journeys to take that weren’t mine or my husband’s.

If The Marriage Code were made into a movie, who would you cast in the lead roles?
When I wrote it, I always pictured Emma Stone and a thirty year old Saif Ali Khan as Emma and Rishi, the two lead characters. But since I can’t go back in time, I would cast Shahid Kapoor today alongside Emma Stone. I think he would make a super cute Rishi.

What is the last movie you saw that you would recommend?
I love going to the movies, and finding really funny (and sometimes odd) films. One that I saw this year was Extra Ordinary, a funny, weird, and likely low budget Irish movie with a really good cast about a driving instructor who has supernatural abilities and reluctantly must save a possessed girl. It is probably not for everyone though. When in doubt I always recommend one of my all-time favorite comedies, Spy.

What is the funniest thing that happened to you while you were living in India?
Aside from a lot of monkey incidents, this story I can laugh about now although it was slightly mortifying at the time. I had been living in India for three weeks when it was my birthday. A friend from work suggested I go to this fantastic restaurant in Bangalore to celebrate and said I had to try their gulab jamun for dessert. (I’d never had it before, but now I know they’re delicious, and the name loosely translates to a rose water delicacy.) Determined as I was to memorize the name (to note, I’m normally terrible at memorizing anything) I didn’t write it down. So as the suited-up server asked me what I’d like for dessert, in this restaurant with fancy chandeliers and napkins that felt like silk, I fumbled, because of course I couldn’t remember and said “Aloo Jamal”, which roughly translates to “potato plus some guy named Jamal.” He made me repeat it like three times before he gave up and just brought me a menu, as my friends found glee in my humiliation.

If we were to travel to India, what are some must-see places you would want us to check out?
The north and south feel like two different countries to me, and sometimes even each state feels like a different country, so I could write an entire essay about my must-see places. But, if I had to narrow it down, my top three are: Rajasthan, and specifically Jaipur and Udaipur, to visit the old forts and palaces because the architecture and art is amazing. Unique. Stunning! Another is Kerala because of the culture and coast—Rishi and Emma go there in The Marriage Code and it’s because it’s gorgeous with its backwaters, forests, and tea plantations. The third is probably Assam, which is so far northeast it’s in between Bhutan and Bangladesh. We went there last year, stayed in a village and went on a safari riding elephants through the swamp to see rhinos. It was magical in a very different, down-to-earth kind of way.

Thanks to Brooke for visiting with us and to Amazon 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 January 11th at midnight EST.