Meet Jennifer McQuiston and warm up with "Summer is for Lovers"

AUTHOR: Jennifer McQuiston

Title: Summer is For Lovers

Publisher: Avon/Harper Collins

Please say hi to another of my fellow Avon authors, Jennifer McQuiston. She has a fascinating life story as well as the most amazing (and popular!) new historical romances out there. And, she’s as delightful as she sounds. Welcome, Jennifer!

MEET JENNIFER

Jennifer McQuiston is an infectious disease researcher by training, but she also writes Different. Historical. Romance. She lives in Atlanta, GA with her family and the pony she promised her girls when Mommy got her first book deal. Visit her at www.jenmcquiston.com, or follow her on Twitter @jenmcqwrites and Facebook at www.facebook.com/jennifermcquistonauthor. 

SUMMER IS FOR LOVERS

His heart is unavailable. Luckily, her interest lies in the rest of him…

Though she was just a girl when they first met, Caroline Tolbertson’s infatuation with David Cameron remains undimmed. Now fate has brought the handsome Scotsman back to Brighton for what promises to be an unforgettable summer. Soon, Caroline will have to choose a husband, but for now she is free to indulge her curiosity in things of a passionate nature.

That is, if David will agree to teach her.

Past mistakes have convinced David he’ll make a terrible husband, though he’ll gladly help the unconventional Caroline find a suitor. Unfortunately, she has something more scandalous in mind.  As the contenders for her hand begin to line up, her future seems assured…provided David can do the honorable thing and let them have her.

  

SEE THE BOOK TRAILER HERE

Pre-order SUMMER IS FOR LOVERS 

AMAZON

BARNES AND NOBLE   

BOOKS A MILLION

INDIE BOUND 

A Q&A FOR JEN McQUISTON

LIZ: What are the next five books on your ‘to be read’ pile?

JENNIFER: I am currently reading THE PAINTED VEIL by W. Somerset Maugham, published in 1925. I am finding it a staggeringly good book, with a decidedly modern feel to it. Next up is Julia Quinn’s WHEN HE WAS WICKED and a re-read of Sherry Thomas’s NOT QUITE A HUSBAND (which I am reading for research for an upcoming RT Book Reviews feature article on infectious diseases in historical romance—apparently both of these feature scenes where the hero has malaria!). My critique partner Romily Bernard’s new YA thriller called FIND ME came out September 24^th, and I am looking forward to reading it again after the editors had their hands all up in it. And my Critique Partner Kimberly Kincaid’s debut was also September 24^th, an anthology called the THE CHRISTMAS COOKIE SWEETHEART SWAP.  

LIZ: What one thing about your hero drives his heroine crazy? And what one thing about your heroine drives her hero nuts?

JENNIFER: In SUMMER IS FOR LOVERS, the hero, David Cameron, is convinced he would be a dangerous match for the innocent heroine because of a terrible mistake he made eleven years ago. He has lived with the guilt for over a decade, and my heroine has had enough of his self-flagellation!

I would say what is driving my hero crazy about my heroine is that she seems to know what she wants and is willing to do almost anything to have it… and unfortunately “it” is him!

LIZ: Name three things that are, at this moment, in your heroine’s purse, satchel, reticule, weapons belt or amulet bag (or whatever she carries).

JENNIFER: My heroine doesn’t carry a reticule, but she has pockets that are probably hiding any number of things. I feel sure she would have a comb and extra hair pins (her hair is always wet because of her secret penchant for swimming), and a seashell (she would collect this as a memento of the secret cove where she likes to swim).

LIZ: If you were given a chance to travel to the past where would you go and specifically why?

JENNIFER: This one is an easy one for me! I would travel to the Soho section of London during the infamous cholera outbreak that struck there in 1854. I am an epidemiologist by training, and that outbreak marked the start of my profession, as well as the ground-breaking discovery that cholera was actually transmitted by water. During that outbreak, Dr. John Snow, the father of epidemiology, mapped the cholera deaths in a community and showed they clustered around the Broad Street pump, a communal water pump where everyone in the area obtained their drinking water. He convinced health officials to take the handle off the pump and stopped the outbreak. There is a pub erected on the corner of Broad Street now, dedicated to his memory, and I raised a pint to toast him when I visited London over a decade ago.

But man, it would have been so much cooler to actually be there during the outbreak…

LIZ: What will always make you smile, even on a bad day?

JENNIFER: Definitely our family’s pony, Beaux Regard, who was promised my daughters if Mommy was ever able to get a book deal. I pretend he is for the girls, but I sometimes think I love him more than they do!

LIZ: What is your biggest vice?

JENNIFER: Gotta be Diet Coke. I have given it up no less than a dozen times, and am currently holding off the sauce strong since June…. But I want one. Every. Single. Day. Summertime is KILLER without Diet Coke.

LIZ: What’s your favorite kid joke?

JENNIFER: What’s the difference between broccoli and boogers?

Wait for it….

Wait for it….

Little kids don’t eat Broccoli.

LIZ: I adore that joke—it’s going to be one of my new favorite.  I love stupid kids jokes—hence the question, I guess!

LIZ: What do you hope for the future of romance publishing?

JENNIFER: I hope historicals aren’t “dead”, as the conversation recently went on a prominent blog site. Not only because I love to write historicals, but because I absolutely love to read them!

LIZ HAS GOTTA ASK: What’s the most personal thing you’ve ever put in one of your books?

JENNIFER HAS TO ANSWER: Holy cow, that is a loaded question!!!

Well…I will confess, in Summer is for Lovers, I have a scene that takes place in a secret ocean cove, under a full moon. I was trying to describe what the hero looked like in the moonlight, and how far the heroine could have reasonably seen if the moon was full and bright. So, I set my alarm one cloudless, full moon night and made my husband get up and walk around the back yard so I could get a better sense of it.

Then I went back to bed and he was not at all amused with me.

DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION YOU’D LIKE TO ASK YOUR FANS?

Oh, I definitely want to hear everyone’s best kid’s joke! Turnabout is fair play.

Jennifer will be giving away a copy of SUMMER IS FOR LOVERS, for North American readers.

CONTACT JENNIFER:

E-mail: jenmcq@live.com 

Website: www.jenmcquiston.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/jennifermcquistonauthor   

Twitter: @jenmcqwrites

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17331380-summer-is-for-lovers

Blogs: www.dashingduchesses.com

UP NEXT: The third book in the series, MOONLIGHT ON MY MIND, will be released March 25, 2014.

PREVIOUS RELEASES: My first book, WHAT HAPPENS IN SCOTLAND, is available now.

 

Thank you so much, Jennifer, for visiting here on GLIAS -- what a treat to have you with us!