Friday, November 15, 2013

Marry Me - Blog Tour & Giveaway


Marry Me
By: Kristin Wallace


She'd vowed never to fall in love...

Julia Richardson is no fan of weddings. A lifetime of watching her parents treat relationships like the flavor of the month has taught her that love is for fools. Then she learns her former stepsister is having a crisis with her pregnancy. The crisis has Julia returning to the small Southern town – and the family – she’s been avoiding for years. Before she knows it, Julia’s been pressed into service running her former stepsister’s wedding planning business, Marry Me.

Julia doesn’t know a garter from a garden hose, but now she must navigate couples along the bumpy path down the aisle - despite wardrobe malfunctions, killer bees, and plenty of near disasters. In the midst of it all, Julia makes the most unexpected discovery of all…Love, with Seth Graham, the widowed local minister! Julia’s been running from love and everything spiritual for most of her life. It’s not until she finds the courage to stop running that she finds her own “I Do” moment.



Welcome To Covington Falls

A setting of a book can have as much personality as the hero and heroine and the side characters. Covington Falls certainly falls under that category. It’s a fictional, small, Southern town. I love fictional town because you can make them whatever you want. No one is going to question you about a street being wrong or what have you. I wanted to make it a small town setting because there’s an inherent intimacy with them. Neighbors know each other and they’re always in each other’s business. In a big city, that’s not the case. I also liked the idea of a Southern town because things are just different in the South. Quirky should be the South’s middle name.

I love my little, fictional, Southern town. It’s also full of little family legacies. Covington is a family name. It was grandmother’s maiden name on my mom’s side. The town was founded by two families – the Covingtons and the Rices.  Rice is my grandmother’s maiden name on my dad’s side.

Covington Falls is also a place that represents everything my heroine, Julia, both longs for and fears. It’s a place of verandahs and porch swings and white picket fences. Lemonade stands and ice cream trucks that play a tune. It’s welcome mats and the ritual of making tea.

Main Street in “downtown” Covington Falls is the center of everything. It’s where the wedding planning business (MARRY ME) is located. One of the running jokes in this book (and the two subsequent books I’ve written that are set in Covington Falls) is the store window. First Sarah and then later Julia decorate so it looks like a snapshot of a scene. And both add their own personalities to the display, which is fun.



Growing up Kristin devoured books like bags of Dove Dark Chocolate.  Everything from Nancy Drew & Encyclopedia Brown to C.S. Lewis and the  Sweet Valley High series. Later she discovered romance novels. It’s no surprise then that Kristin would one day try her hand at writing them. She writes inspirational romance and women’s fiction filled with love, laughter and a leap of faith. In May 2013, Kristin sold her first novel, MARRY ME, to Astraea Press. Publication date to come!

When she’s not writing her next novel, Kristin works as an advertising copywriter. She also enjoys singing in her church choir and playing flute in a community orchestra.

Connect with the author at:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

42 comments:

  1. Book blurb sounds good! On my TBR list!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awesome giveaway! TY

    ReplyDelete
  3. This book cover looks so pretty!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Summer. I'm very happy with the cover, too. It's super cute and I love that it's so simple and bright. It really stands out.

      Delete
  4. What inspires you when your writing?
    Thank you for the giveaway :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My characters I think. Once they feel "alive" to me I want to get to know them more.

      Delete
  5. Covington Falls sounds like the perfect little town. Being a reader and not a writer, I love when writers create their own small little fictional towns rather than using a big city setting for the most part because it allows the imagination to build the town from scratch along with the writers words which really brings the story to life. I just went and bought this book because it sounds so cute and I want to see how this story will come to life! Thank you for the excerpt and the author "inside look" at the story. Oh, and I would still be reading Sweet Valley High if I could just find my old hidden stash of the series...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for buying Marry Me, Shelly. I hope you enjoy. It's really a sweet, fun book. I love small town settings, too. They're just very intimate and of course since I created it, I can make it whatever I want. Oh...Sweet Valley High books...they were so great. Not sure what I would think if I read one now, but I loved them as a kid.

      Delete
  6. Replies
    1. Thank you Rita. I loved the idea from the beginning. I really torture poor Julia with wedding disasters, but she handles it all...

      Delete
  7. Hi thanks for hosting...questions already! Sorry I'm late!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for stopping by Kristin! I love all the comments and questions you're getting!

      Delete
  8. Replies
    1. Thank you Brandy. I think it's a good read, but I am a bit biased. Enjoy!

      Delete
  9. Cathy French katieoscarlet@columbus.rr.com I like the premise. In my mind, it is those who don't believe in love that find the love of their life.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Your book sounds amazing, can't wait to read it :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sounds like a good read but what caught my attention first was the title and then the cover. I LIKE BOTH!!!! I've added it to my TBR... can't wait to get a chance to read this. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. I adore my cover. I love that my name is so big on the top, lol (actually that IS a good thing because it's easy to read my name when people see the cover as a small thumbnail image on Amazon or wherever. And I loved the play on words with the title. I chose it not because Julia is running a wedding planning business...I also made it the name of the business.

      Delete
  12. This book sounds great! Thanks for the giveaway!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you back. Hope you check out the book and enjoy!

      Delete
  13. Sounds great and definitely a series I would love! Thanks!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Jennifer. And if you like Marry Me, I have two more Covington Falls books coming out next year. Two new couples, but familiar characters appear. First book should be spring 2014 sometime.

      Delete
  14. My pleasure. This looks like a book that I'll have to pick up too :) The cover is great.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I love how you incorporated your family names into the characters. Definitely sounds like a book I need to find time to read.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi...Well my last name is on the cover. Seemed only fair that other family names appear somewhere.

      Delete
  16. Good luck with the book, I hope I win, I am greedy like that ;)

    ReplyDelete
  17. The book sounds wonderful and I really hope I am lucky enough to win this giveaway!!! It sounds awesome and it sounds like something I could read overnight! Thanks! Love the cover as well!!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Sounds like it will be a fun book to read. ...Congrats on your release!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  19. this book is definitely in my tbr!!

    ReplyDelete
  20. This sounds really good. I will put it on my tbr. Thank you

    ReplyDelete
  21. Sounds like a fun read. The cover is very pretty!

    ReplyDelete