Release Day Author Spotlight: Farrah Rochon
October 11, 2019
Hey Hey Hey,
Happy Friday, folks! 😎 I’ve got a special treat for you. A release day post featuring none other than Farrah Rochon! Yesterday, she had an exclusive cover reveal on Book Riot for her upcoming novel, The Boyfriend Project (check out the cover and read the first chapter here). Today, she’s re-releasing an anthology of holiday novellas initially published by Harlequin Kimani Romance. *in my Rihanna voice* Farrah out here doing big tings! Get to know a little more about this superstar and read an excerpt!
I always find author interviews kind of boring. We only get to see one side of an author, the polite side. If you had an evil doppelganger, what detail about you would they enjoy revealing to the public that people would find surprising and possibly questionable?
My doppelganger would reveal that I’m not as sweet as I appear. Of course, my age is starting to reveal that more and more everyday.
Finish this sentence: I have the power to _______.
Say no without apologizing.
Who is the most supportive person in your life when it comes to your writing?
I have four—my critique group. We’ve been together for 17 years and I can always count on them.
What musician do you find yourself listening to the most right now?
Does the original Broadway cast of Dear Evan Hansen count as “a” musician? *Harper interjecting here* SURE DOES! #nojudgment
What’s your favorite book that’s an emotional roller coaster?
Judith McNaught’s Whitney, My Love.
Would you rather have a rewind button or a pause button in your life?
Depends on where I am. I’d love to press pause whenever I’m on vacation. When I’m not on vacation, I want to rewind back to a time when I was on vacation.
As a child, what’s the first movie you remember going to see in the theater?
Song of the South (yikes!)
Would you rather only be able to have sex in five minute increments for the rest of your life, or… only be able to have sex for five hour increments?
Minutes. Who has that kind of time? *Me rn @ this answer: 😂*
If you had superpowers, would you prefer to be a shape-shifter or a mind reader?
Shape-shifter! Because then I can be a fly on the wall of all the places I’ve wanted to be a fly on the wall.
What do you enjoy so much that it makes you happy just to think about?
Relaxing on a Disney Cruise ship.
**Bonus Question**
Ever tried BDSM? If not, would you?
Nope, not answering that. Refer to answer #2. *insert sweet smile* 😊
Excerpt from Tuscan Nights, in the Christmas Kisses anthology:
Chapter One
Aiden Williams buried his chin deeper into his wool scarf as he shifted from one foot to the other on the cobblestones in front of Forno Leoncini. Cursing himself for leaving his gloves in the car, he blew into his cupped hands before shoving them in the pockets of his corduroys.
What had previously been a light snowfall had gained strength over the last few minutes, the thick flakes swirling around him as the wind kicked up. He knew he couldn’t stand out here forever, but he wasn’t ready to make his presence known. Not yet.
Despite the cold, his skin grew hot as he peered through the bakery’s garland-framed windowpane. His eyes focused on the woman standing before a rectangular stone table, her flour-covered fist punching a ball of dough. The last time he’d seen her in the flesh, she was standing in a church vestibule, wearing a wedding gown, preparing to marry his older brother, Cameron.
Three years later, Aiden was still conflicted over how he felt about Cameron being a no-show for his own wedding. On the one hand, he was grateful he had not been forced to endure years of seeing Nyla and his brother living as man and wife. Aiden doubted he would have been able to stomach it, knowing that she was only pretending.
Yet Cameron’s decision to stand her up at the altar had been the catalyst that prompted Nyla’s hasty move to Europe. She’d left Atlanta a week after the aborted nuptials and had not been back since.
But here she was, a mere twenty feet away. And she was as sexy as ever. More gorgeous than he remembered, if that was even possible.
Aiden turned up his coat collar as the snow began to fall in earnest. Uncertainty, entwined with a heavy dose of nervousness, kept him rooted where he stood, just outside the warm glow cast by the bakery’s interior lights. He was unsure how Nyla would react to him tracking her down to this small town tucked away in the hills of the Siena region in Tuscany.
He’d debated the entire drive here whether to contact her but decided against giving Nyla any notice. Aiden was convinced she’d make an excuse for why he shouldn’t come, just as she had done the previous three times he’d suggested they meet in the month since he’d been in Zurich, Switzerland, consulting on an IT project for a worldwide banking giant.
No, he wasn’t giving her a chance to back out this time. He’d come too far to find her—he’d crossed a damn ocean—a job he only accepted because it brought him to Europe.
Yet Aiden still couldn’t bring himself to take these last few steps. Because worse than having Nyla make excuses about why she couldn’t see him would be to have her flat-out reject him to his face.
His gut clenched with a sharp ache. Nyla wouldn’t do that.
Even though she had.
Aiden mentally blocked the words she’d spoken the last time he saw her face-to-face, as he had more times than he could count over the past three years. He never believed them anyway. Guilt and fear had forced her to say the things she’d said that day. He knew what was in Nyla’s heart.
Which was why, when she mentioned on Facebook that she would be spending Christmas alone, he canceled his nonstop flight to Atlanta and rented a car instead. He’d made the six-and-a-half-hour drive from Zurich to San Gimignano, Italy, in just under eight hours. If not for the snow, which he’d never driven in before, and the road signs written in a language he didn’t understand, he would have been here much sooner.
Once he’d made the decision to finally go to her, Aiden couldn’t get here fast enough. Now he just needed to take this final step.
Not yet.
His eyes remained focused on Nyla as she labored over the dough, punching it down, flipping it over and reshaping it. Memories of the countless hours he’d spent perched on the kitchen counter at his parents’ home, or—later, as they became closer—at Nyla’s house in Kirkwood, watching her do this very same thing, had his chest tightening with a mercifully sweet ache.
His favorite fantasy of all time was imagining Nyla coming to him, sweaty from the kitchen heat, with that sexy smile that used to curve up the corner of her mouth. She would crook her finger and he would obey. He would take her then and there, on the kitchen table, up against the counter. Anywhere he damn well pleased.
Aiden shut his eyes against the onslaught of wanting that crashed through him.
Why had he let her pretend that the attraction between them was one-sided? Why had he let her get away without fighting for her?
None of that mattered anymore. She was here now, and Aiden wasn’t letting her get away.
He straightened his spine.
He hadn’t come all this way to stare at Nyla through a window. He’d come with one goal in mind, to convince her that he was the Williams brother she should have been with all along.
“You can do this,” he whispered.
He had to do this. He was tired of living without her.
Aiden sucked in a deep breath of the frigid air, opened the bakery’s front door and walked inside.
Bio:
USA Today Bestselling author Farrah Rochon hails from a small town just west of New Orleans. She has garnered much acclaim for her Holmes Brothers, New York Sabers, Bayou Dreams and Moments in Maplesville series. The two-time RITA® Award finalist has also been nominated for an RT BOOKReviews Reviewers Choice Award, and in 2015 received the Emma Award for Author of the Year.
When she is not writing in her favorite coffee shop, Farrah spends most of her time reading, cooking, traveling the world, visiting Walt Disney World, and catching her favorite Broadway shows.
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