Aloha to Donna Kauffman and SNOWFLAKE BAY - The Brides of Blueberry Cove

Hello! I’ve been traveling the internet highways and byways this week, talking about my new Brides of Blueberry Cove release, SNOWFLAKE BAY, so thank you for stopping by today and hanging out with me for a bit. And thank you, Kim, for having me over to play!

Fall is finally here, and I know it’s an unpopular sentiment, but I can’t wait for winter! Yes, it’s true, I do miss the long daylight hours, and I’m perfectly content to watch the leaves turn all those lovely autumn colors while the temperatures start to dip. But that’s just the prelude, the appetizer, to my favorite season. I like bundling up. I like burrowing in. I like getting out all my thick, warm sweaters, and my fuzzy slipper boots. I like throwing another blanket (or three) on top of my already big and puffy down comforter. And don’t even get me started on having a fire crackling in the fire place!

I live in the Blue Ridge mountains in the western part of Virginia, so along with the nip in the air comes a lot of white stuff on the ground. And yes, there is shoveling. A LOT of shoveling. But it’s good exercise, and kind of hard to complain when you look around and feel like you’re in a snow globe wonderland. The black bears who hang out in my yard all summer long finally go into hibernation, so I can put the feeders back out and happily welcome dozens of different species of wild birds, along with the deer families who come by to nibble on the corn and the salt lick, and even the hawks who make a home in the high branches of my towering pines.

In SNOWFLAKE BAY, the heroine, Fiona McCrae, has come back to her hometown of Blueberry Cove, Maine to re-launch her design business on a smaller scale than she’d been operating in her premiere shop in Manhattan. And though she loves being back and close by her family again, she’s kind of sort of forgotten about just how cold it gets up there in her home by the sea. When the story opens, she’s fighting her way through a particularly windy, skin-chapping afternoon, struggling to get inside her childhood home while bogged down with binders and wedding planning flotsam and jetsam for a meeting with her bride-to-be sister, all the while being essentially eaten alive by the wool scarf that has plastered itself to her damp, wind-ravaged face, her lip-balmed lips, gotten tangled in her hair, and well…you get the picture. Naturally, this is when she runs into her childhood crush--old family friend and Christmas tree farmer, Ben Campbell. The same guy who always saw her as the nuisance kid sister, and even nicknamed her fireplug due to her short, stout frame as a child. Did I mention she’s also wearing a thickly padded, red winter parka? I know. So unfair. And yet…

So, maybe I’m a little more in love with winter than Fiona is at that moment, but the other part of winter I love is that it’s also the holiday season. Thanksgiving, then Christmas, and in Blueberry Cove, a wedding, just to make it a truly memorable time. Ben Campbell being back in town is guaranteed to make it all that and more for Fiona McCrae, who finds herself tangled up in something a lot more challenging—and more tantalizing—than a wool scarf!

What is your favorite season? Are you a winter wonderland person, too? Don’t leave me alone out here in the cold! Thanks again to Kim for inviting me over today. Hot chocolate anyone? 

Lighthouse in Portland, Maine
Public Domain (link)

There’s no place like seaside Blueberry Cove, Maine, at Christmas—and there’s nothing like a wedding, the warmth of the holidays, and an old crush, to create the perfect new start…

Interior designer Fiona McCrae has left fast-paced Manhattan to move back home to peaceful Blueberry Cove. But she’s barely arrived before she’s hooked into planning her big sister Hannah’s Christmas wedding—in less than seven weeks. The last thing she needs is for her first love, Ben Campbell, to return to neighboring Snowflake Bay…

As kids, Fiona was the bratty little sister Ben mercilessly teased—while pining after Hannah. But Fi never once thought of Ben like a brother. And that hasn’t changed. Except Fi is all grown up. Will Ben notice her now? More importantly, with her life in a jumble, should he? Or might the romance of the occasion, the spirit of the season, and the gifts of time ignite a long-held flame for many Christmases to come…

Something old might just become something new…
Includes a DIY wedding project!

“Kauffman’s stories show that the bravery to reach for a connection is all we need to discover joy.” –Publishers Weekly on Sandpiper Island

USA Today bestselling author of the Bachelors of Blueberry Cove series, DONNA KAUFFMAN has been gratified to see her books get rave reviews in venues ranging from Kirkus Reviews and Library Journal to Entertainment Weekly and Cosmopolitan. She lives in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains in western Virginia, where she is presently applying her crafty DIY skills to decorating her new mountainside abode. Well, when she isn’t busy trying to keep the bears from hanging out in her flower and vegetable garden all day and night! With her new Brides of Blueberry Cove series, Donna’s been having a blast applying those same restoration and design skills to doing some fictional wedding planning. Of course, if that means haunting all those lovely antique shops and flea markets that are so plentiful in her new neck of the woods, well, it’s a sacrifice she’s willing to make. When she’s not finding ways to take her love of all things rustic and vintage and give them a fabulous seaside, coastal Maine wedding party twist, she loves to hear from readers! You can contact her through her website at donnakauffman.com.

Puffins in Maine
Public Domain (link)

 Mahalo, Donna, for sharing SNOWFLAKE BAY with us!  I am giving away a book choice from my convention stash to one randomly selected commenter.  To enter the giveaway,

1.  Answer Donna's question - what is your favorite season?

2.  Comments are open through Saturday, October 3, 10 pm in Baltimore.

3.  I'll post the winner on Sunday, October 4.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore

Aloha Spirit in Charm City

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