Today it is my pleasure to welcome Cheryl Holt  and her Contemporary Women’s Fiction novel A Summer Wedding at Cross Creek.

Author’s description

From New York Times bestselling author, Cheryl Holt, comes a sparkling, fast-paced novel about the complexity of family—and all the ways they can drive us crazy.

The lavish Layton-Benjamin wedding promises to be an event to remember, and the groom’s wealthy parents have spared no expense to impress their guests by hosting it at the exclusive Cross Creek Inn, a private mountain retreat tucked away in the heart of the Colorado Rockies. But the bride and groom are from completely different backgrounds, and they’ve only known each other for a few months, so it’s been a ‘hurry-up’ engagement that has everyone worried.

 When the groom arrives late and tempers start to flare, it’s clear the wedding is a minefield that has to be carefully navigated. As parents and friends begin taking bets over whether the happy couple will make it to the altar, secrets are revealed, new loves emerge, and true happiness is finally found.

Book your visit to the Cross Creek Inn! A witty, fun summertime story about family, friendship, and finding out what matters most—that only Cheryl Holt could tell.

From a Caterpillar into a Butterfly

When I got the chance to ask author Cheryl Holt anything, I wanted to know more about her characters and specifically about the ones that make a transition from a caterpillar into a butterfly.

Holt is a very experienced author, and I appreciate her guest post because it also includes her take on when a character shouldn’t show growth.

Read on for her fascinating response.

I have been writing novels for twenty-five years now, so I’ve gotten really good at making sure there’s a good character arc for nearly all of my characters.  I like to have all of their issues resolved at the end so, for example, if a character is unhappy and lonely at the beginning of a novel, she will wind up happy and together with someone at the end.

That said, I’m also renowned for writing characters who are driven and determined to achieve a goal, and those people usually don’t change during the story.  They are typically my villains, but I’m hailed as the “International Queen of Villains”, which means I write some of the best (worst) villains in American fiction.  One of the reasons they’re so fun and infuriating is that they don’t ever alter their behavior.  If my villain is seeking revenge at the beginning of the novel, he’ll still be fussy and stewing at the end—even though he’s been thwarted.  He will never relent, and the book wraps up with him trying to figure out how to restart his plot in a more successful way.  That sort of maddening focus is one of the things that makes a good villain.

In my new novel, A Summer Wedding at Cross Creek Inn, I would have to say that the character who makes the biggest transition in the story is the bride’s sister, Rachel.  In the beginning of the book, Rachel is grouchy, testy, and in a permanent bad mood.  She is the sibling who’s always had a chip on her shoulder, who’s always felt as if the other siblings got a bigger slice of life than she did.  She’s permanently convinced that everyone is luckier and happier than she is—even though she could change her life whenever she’s ready.

She’s her sister’s maid-of-honor, but she’s so unhappy it seems like she might deliberately sabotage the wedding in petty, juvenile ways.  But by the end, she turns out to be a champion to her sister, and in the process, she manages to completely change her life and head off in a new direction.

I think she’s fun, and when her life turns around, readers will be cheering for her.

About the Author

CHERYL HOLT is a New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon “Top 100” bestselling author who has published over fifty novels.

She’s also a lawyer and mom, and at age forty, with two babies at home, she started a new career as a commercial fiction writer.  She’d hoped to be a suspense novelist, but couldn’t sell any of her manuscripts, so she ended up taking a detour into romance where she was stunned to discover that she has a knack for writing some of the world’s greatest love stories.

Her books have been released to wide acclaim, and she has won or been nominated for many national awards.  She is considered to be one of the masters of the romance genre.  For many years, she was hailed as “The Queen of Erotic Romance”, and she’s also revered as “The International Queen of Villains.”  She is particularly proud to have been named “Best Storyteller of the Year” by the trade magazine Romantic Times BOOK Reviews.

She lives and writes in Hollywood, California, and she loves to hear from fans.

Find the Author

Visit her website at http://www.cherylholt.com.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialcherylholt/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/theCherylHolt
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/36853.Cheryl_Holt

Buy the Book

Amazon Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QNMMNJW

Yes, there is a giveaway

The author will be awarding autographed print copies of the book (US ONLY) to 10 randomly drawn winners via rafflecopter during the tour.

Enter here to win.

This post is part of a tour sponsored by Goddess Fish. Check out all the other tour stops. If you drop by each of these and comment, you will greatly increase your chances of winning.

My Favorite Excerpt

Sharon…

The view out the window of her suite was spectacular, and Sharon was trying to enjoy it.  She was surrounded by thick, verdant woods, and off in the distance, stark mountain peaks rose, seemingly to the stratosphere.  Even though it was mid-July, they were dotted with snow.

She’d never been what might be described as a mountain person.  Being a typical Californian, one who’d been born and raised in Los Angeles, she’d had her auras read and her chakras aligned and her pores opened.  She was a water person, and she lived on the beach in Malibu where she could stare out at the ocean.

Still though, the Colorado scenery was beautiful, and she had to remember that it was and focus on that fact.  It was awfully quiet though, and the silence would take some getting used to.  In Malibu, with its lone highway that was constantly clogged with cars, there was always a hum of traffic.  It was a regular drone that never ended.

She wondered if the serenity and isolation might gradually drive her crazy, but then, she was staying in Colorado for four short days.  She could endure any torment for four days.  Couldn’t she?

On Sunday morning, after Eric and Jennifer departed on their honeymoon, she would head back to California, and the appalling weekend would be over.

As the mother of the groom, she should have been more excited, but she couldn’t muster the necessary enthusiasm.  Initially, she’d decided she wouldn’t attend, but friends had nagged until she’d changed her mind.  So…here she was, but she wasn’t glad about it, and she had to alter her mood, bury her misgivings, and forge on with a positive attitude.

Thank you!

Cheryl Holt — we appreciate your sharing your book A Summer Wedding at Cross Creek with us! Best of luck with sales, and with all of your future writing.