Beginning the day with Jackie Fraser...plus a book giveaway

Today we are pleased to welcome Jackie Fraser to CLC to talk about her latest novel, The Beginning of Everything. We enjoyed getting to know her and we hope you will too. Thanks to Dell Books, we have THREE copies for some lucky readers!

Jackie Fraser is a freelance editor and writer. She's worked for AA Publishing, Watkins, the Good Food Guide, and various self-published writers of fiction, travel and food guides, and self-help books. She reads a lot (no, really), in multiple genres, and is fascinated by the Bronze Age. She likes vintage clothes, antique fairs, and photography. She also likes cats. Visit Jackie on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Synopsis:
After escaping a bad relationship, Jess Cavendish is running and leaving it all behind, carrying just a few treasured belongings in her knapsack. She needs to start over, but that means sleeping where she can and making the most of her slim savings. Luckily, she comes across a recently sold, unoccupied house. It couldn’t hurt to stay there while she saves up enough to get her own place, right?

Gethin Thomas is also looking to move on after the end of a long-term relationship. He’s returned to his hometown, anxious to renovate the fixer-upper he bought and move out of his sister’s cramped guest room. When he walks through the door one morning, he finds Jess, who’s ready to run again, and surprises them both by offering to let her stay. It feels like the right thing to do, but Jess doesn’t want a handout. They strike a bargain: Jess will help with the restoration, furnishing, and decorating in exchange for room and board.

While they peel wallpaper and shop for new furniture, an unexpected friendship develops as they bond over music and food, and slowly open up to each other about their pasts. When it’s time for Gethin to move in, he convinces Jess to be his official housemate and she agrees—so long as he lets her pay rent. The connection between them soon shifts to an attraction that seems both inevitable and overwhelming, and Jess must decide what she wants. With so much hurt in her past, can she risk loving again? She was brave enough to reach for a new life—and now a future she hadn’t even dreamed possible could be just within her grasp.

“A charming book about hope for a new life full of love!”
—Nancy Thayer, New York Times bestselling author of All the Days of Summer

What is a favorite compliment you have received on your writing?
I had a nice one last week actually, when someone said my first novel was ‘quite possibly the loveliest book I’ve ever read’. I mean, wow! Twice I’ve had comments that the book was comforting to people who’d lost their partners, which was very unexpected and surely one of the most amazing things anyone could say about something you’d written. Like all writers I am inclined to remember negative comments more than positive ones, so I only read my four- and five-star reviews. There is nothing more satisfying than when someone ‘gets’ what you’re trying to do with your writing, so any review where the reader is on board with my efforts makes me very happy.

How is Jess similar to or different from you?
Her life has been a lot less settled than mine, so she’s maybe more uncertain or less self-assured than I am (most of the time), but we were definitely similar sorts of teenagers, and we share an interest in gardening. Our families are very different though. We’d get on, I think – I know or have known lots of people a bit like Jess.

If The Beginning of Everything were made into a movie, who would you cast in the lead roles?
This is one of those questions I’m really bad at! I can never think of anyone when people ask this. It would be nice to cast a Welsh actor for Gethin, so maybe Ioan Gruffudd. He’s about the right age and has good hair. Olivia Colman looks good with a crop, and she’s such a brilliant performer she could play anyone, I think she could do Jess justice.

Which TV series are you currently binge watching?
I don’t watch much TV, but I did binge Good Omens 2 recently and I am always up for multiple episodes of What We Do in the Shadows.

What is your favorite autumn activity?
As a recovering goth I love spooky season and am always keen to purchase more unnecessary Halloween nonsense. I also like going out to look at the leaves changing colour, and enjoy the change from sandals to boots. We usually go on holiday in the autumn and the light is always amazing, I love that heavy sunshine you get on clear autumn days.

If we were to visit you right now, what are some places you would take us to see?
Jane Austen used to come to dances in my town and she shopped here as well. That party where she met the man she was engaged to for five minutes is just round the corner. There’s a nice selection of things to look at for Janites, her various homes are not far away and the Hampshire countryside is delightful. Perhaps we could look at her house and then have afternoon tea. If you’re not bothered about Jane Austen, we’re only forty minutes from Stonehenge in one direction, or the delights of London in the other.

Thanks to Jackie for visiting with us and to Dell 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 September 26th at midnight EST.

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