• Blog

    How to Bake the Perfect Wedding Cake – Release Blitz

    December 28, 2019

    9/29/2015

    How to Bake the Perfect Wedding Cake Release Blitz Promo Banner
    Gina HenningTitle: How to Bake the Perfect Wedding Cake
    Author: Gina Henning
    Series: Home for the Holidays #4
    Release Date: September 25, 2015
    Genres: Chick Lit/Women’s Fiction
    Publisher: Carina UK

    Summary
    A three-tiered cake. A groom to take. Here comes the bride!
    After an explosive 4th of July, Lauren Hauser is glad to finally be home with gorgeous fiancé Jack by her side. With only three months to go till their wedding, Lauren needs to get planning. But she can’t even choose a wedding dress, let alone a maid of honour!
    And with her job drastically taking a turn for the worse, the wedding quickly approaching and a blast from the past causing problems, Lauren feels like she’s losing the bridal battle.
    At least baking their perfect wedding cake together is something she and Jack, as award-winning bakers, are excited about! But when a surprise wedding gift arrives earlier than expected, suddenly Lauren must take back control of her job, her life and her wedding – before she says ‘I do’!
    Don’t miss the brilliant fourth book in the Home for the Holidays series from Gina Henning.

    ​The Home for the Holidays series:
    Book 1 – How to Bake the Perfect Pecan Pie
    Book 2 – How to Bake the Perfect Christmas Cake
    Book 3 – How to Bake the Perfect Apple Pie
    Book 4 – How to Bake the Perfect Wedding Cake

    Goodreads Link
    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26812406-how-to-bake-the-perfect-wedding-cake

    Buy Links
    Amazon US: http://amzn.com/B013L2OI1U
    Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B013L2OI1U

    Author Biography
    Gina Henning currently resides where bluebonnets line the highways in the spring, but she prefers the rock flower anemone from under the sea. Above the ocean’s surface Gina likes to dance with her three boys and travel to exotic places like the grocery store with her husband. Her pooch Schatzi is a mix between German Shepherd and possibly pig. One of Gina’s favorite pastimes is running. She recently completed her one-and-done marathon. At the end of the day her glass of wine is always half-full.

    Social Networking Links
    Website: ginahenning.com
    Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/photo/author/8034504.Gina_Henning
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GinaHenningAuthor/
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/henningland
    Amazon Author: http://www.amazon.com/Gina-Henning/e/B00MLSEU14/

    How to Bake the Perfect Wedding Cake - Cover

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  • Blog

    Here Comes the Bride Blog Hop

    December 28, 2019

    9/28/2015

    Here Comes the Bride Blog Hop - Promo Banner
    Welcome to the Here Comes The Bride Blog Hop
    Hearts Afire
    here we are on the first hop of the Here Comes The Bride Blog Hop. Please stop by all of the stops on the hop this week (details at the bottom) and be sure to enter our competition to win copies of ebooks from all five authors on the hop.

    ***

    Character interview with Cassie Callahan from Hearts Afire.

    Let’s find out a little bit about Cassie and her wedding day.
    Were you nervous on the big day?
    Actually I really wasn’t nervous at all, I thought I was marrying someone who really got me. I guess that shows what I knew because my fiancé called to say he’d changed his mind on the morning of the wedding and he wasn’t coming.

    Then I was more mad than nervous.

    Did anything go wrong?
    You heard what I just said right? I was jilted on the day of my wedding. Still that actually wasn’t the worst thing that happened that day, believe it or not. I’m a caterer so I decided to cater my own wedding (okay in hindsight maybe not a great idea) and in all the fuss my sister left the stove on and the kitchen caught fire so the fire brigade turned up. I think the real question should be – did anything go right that day?

    Be honest were you a total bridezilla? (Or do you have a Bridezilla story?)
    It turned out was not even a little bit bridezilla, in fact my fiancé chose my wedding dress – maybe he was a groomzilla. Is that a thing? It should be. I am a caterer so I have dealt with my fair share of highly string brides so I think that made me extra anxious about not being one.

    Bridesmaids, how many is too many?
    Well I was only having two, my sister (more about her later) and my best friend Miranda. I think even one bad bridesmaid is one bridesmaid too many. I never wanted to be like Julia Roberts in Steel Magnolias…so many bridesmaids.

    You can’t have a wedding without family – how did yours behave in the lead-up to the wedding or on the day?
    I don’t have much family. My parents were killed when I was a teenager so it’s always been my sister and I…she set the kitchen on fire and then came with me on my solo honeymoon with me (may as well use the tickets). However she abandoned me on the honeymoon so all in all I guess my family didn’t exactly have my back.

    Are you still a believer in the happily ever after?
    You know what a funny thing happened since my botched wedding day. I’ve started to see that maybe I was with the wrong guy all along and that maybe the right guy isn’t too far away at all.

    Follow the Here Comes The Bride Blog Hop authors and enter our giveaway
    Monday – Monique McDonell
    Tuesday – Samantha March/ChickLitPlus
    Wednesday – Laura Chapman
    Thursday – Nikki Mahood
    Friday – Kathleen  Irene Paterka

     

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  • Blog

    New release, new week and Musical Monday

    December 28, 2019

    8/25/2014

    Any Way You Slice It - Upper Crust Novel - Monique McDonell - Original CoverI’m a bit late with this week’s Musical Monday but I figure it’s still Monday in much of the world and for many of my blog readers so I’m giving myself a pass.
    Any Way You Slice It, An Upper Crust Series Novella released over the weekend. Thanks to those who have purchased it. Much appreciated. If you feel like leaving a review for my books that is always fantastic. All authors big or small appreciate you taking the time to do that.

    I’m already working on the sequel and if I get my butt in gear it will be out in a couple of months. (Working title A Cut Above). Quite frankly I’m a bit tired so finding the writing mojo might be a tad challenging for the next day of so but fingers crossed.

    For Musical Monday I thought I’d give you a wedding song. (Due to the nature of the series there’ll be a few wedding related posts here over the next little while.)

    I’ve chosen this very peppy Bruno Mars song, Marry You. I think it is very on theme for the book. (Plus who doesn’t love a flash mob?)

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  • Blog

    What does romance look like in real life?

    December 27, 2019

    3/3/2014

    Monique McDonell Wedding PhotoI’m about to head off on a little holiday/vacation with my lovely husband to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary (yes, thank you for noticing I was a child bride).

    I have an idea for a novel I think I’ll start while we’re away but of course the anniversary has me pondering what in real life love versus love in a romance novel looks like.

    Like Cassie in Hearts Afire I actually met my husband on a tropical island off the Queensland coast. I was there on my own (long and not very fabulous story involving changed plans and my own battle with chronic fatigue syndrome) and he was there as part of a TV crew. We’re both from Sydney but I don’t think we would have ever met here so I guess it was, as they say, destiny.

    We’re very different people – like totally different – and I don’t think many people thought we’d last long enough to get married and probably once we did marry doubted we’d last this long. And I can see why they felt that way. Since then we’ve done some crazy stuff together – he ran for office and I ran his political campaign (with a lot of help from my friends), we’ve built a house (maybe one day we’ll even finish it) , we’ve travelled, we’ve volunteered, we’ve danced till dawn more often than I can count and of course we’ve had our beautiful daughter. That’s the stuff that makes up the fabric of your life.

    I’m quite romantic in the hearts and flowers sense. Heart shaped pancakes for breakfast on Valentine’s Day (sure), the perfect gift (absolutely) while my husband is really not-so-much. Although in fairness I certainly do get bunches of flowers more than most women I know and he has embraced the all important – flowers from the petrol station don’t count, rule and he certainly will notice how I look and says lovely things to me, a lot.

    But I don’t think that’s what romance looks like really.

    Romance is when you have morning sickness for 22 weeks and he gets you to hospital, gets you some meds and drives you around with a bucket in your lap for that whole time.

    Romance is after you have that baby and you’re miserable in hospital (on day 4) bringing you a bottle of wine and hot pasta to your hospital room because no one can regenerate on hospital food.

    Romance is giving your mother a hand when she needs it. (New pathway, sure. Moving house, no problem. Want that light bulb changed, Ok.)

    Romance is bringing you a cup of tea and all your favourite bits of the Sydney Morning Herald so you can read in bed on a Saturday morning.

    Romance is showing up and helping.

    Romance is designing and creating a mosaic mirror together.

    Romance is picking you and your friends up after dinner so you can all enjoy an adult beverage or two.

    Romance is being nice to your partner’s friends and making them welcome in your home.

    Romance is hanging in the hammock at the end of the day having a chat.

    Romance is dancing like a maniac until 3am.

    Romance is bringing extra hankies to a funeral because he knows you will definitely need them.

    Romance is speaking kindly to you and about you.

    Romance is dangling a child by their ankles and tickling them (or chasing them round the room or pushing them on a swing or playing My Little Pony with them).

    Romance is telling every person he meets that you’ve written a book and handing them a postcard about it (it’s embarrassing and romantic all at once).

    So I guess you could say we have had a fairly romantic time of it over the years by my own definition anyway. It’s just that it might not be such an exciting book to read.

     

    Comments

    MaryK
    3/3/2014 02:49:01 pm

    Happy Anniversary Monique and Romantic Ross! So much wisdom in this post! I especially love this: “Romance is speaking kindly to you and about you.”

    Have a wonderful vacation!
    Reply
    Monique
    3/3/2014 03:44:42 pm

    Thanks MaryK. I certainly don’t always succeed in that area but it is something to strive for 🙂

    Betty
    3/3/2014 09:45:20 pm

    Happy Anniversary kids! May the next 20 years be even better!

    Marygail
    3/3/2014 09:57:38 pm

    What a wonderful love note to Ross on your 20th anniversary. Enjoy your anniversary holiday and many more happy years.
    Reply

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