It Was a Surprise: A Guest Post by Hannah Grace
Hannah Grace took forced proximity into the rink in Icebreaker, amped up the heat in Wildfire and turned friends into lovers in Daydream — now she’s about to deck our bookshelves with a brand-new holiday romance. Small town charm meets enemies-to-lovers tension and hearts are about to melt — even if things start off icy. Read on for an exclusive essay from Hannah on writing Holiday Ever After.
Paperback
$14.25
$19.00
Holiday Ever After: A Novel
Holiday Ever After: A Novel
By Hannah Grace
In Stock Online
Paperback
$14.25
$19.00
Clara Davenport wants to solve Fraser Falls’s biggest problem. According to Jack Kelly, Clara is Fraser Falls’s biggest problem.
Clara Davenport wants to solve Fraser Falls’s biggest problem. According to Jack Kelly, Clara is Fraser Falls’s biggest problem.
Holiday Ever After was a surprise to my readers… and me… and my publisher. Back in February I spent the weekend on the couch watching Christmas films with my dogs. I’d been working on a project for a while but didn’t feel like I was making real progress with it, and I’d grown frustrated with myself, so I gave myself the weekend to reset and rest with the promise to start fresh with a brighter mindset on Monday.
You know when you’re browsing for something to watch and for some reason absolutely nothing seems appealing? That feeling but the only thing that was appealing was a wide range of films some people would argue were two months out of date.
I watched the best and the cheesiest films I could find, and it was honestly great.
I think it’s really funny as an author to take something that was supposed to be an opportunity to relax and mentally reset and turn it into “I’m having a lot of fun, so I’d like to write one-hundred-thousand words on it.”
When it came to coming up with the story, I knew I wanted a setting that felt like stepping inside a snow globe. Small town full of charm, tradition, and a wonderfully eccentric supporting cast of characters was my goal because those are the type of books I love reading.
I wanted to write something with heart that didn’t need to be taken too seriously. The holidays can be a difficult time for people, and I want something that feels fun and like somewhere you’d want to visit.
My timing for this creative side quest honestly couldn’t have been worse, because even though I live in (what was in February and March) a snowy village, I left to travel for two months and had nothing but sunshine. So all those chapters about snow and hot chocolate were written while I was being baked in places like Australia and French Polynesia. I remember being in New Zealand and it was pouring down with rain. I was so relieved to have more miserable weather to write with!
When I think about my favourite holiday books, I always come back to the ones that balance humour and warmth with that unmistakable seasonal magic. Good Spirits is undoubtedly my favourite Christmas book ever, very closely followed by B.K. Borison’s other festive standout Lovelight Farms. Every B.K. book is magic but there’s something about how she writes the holidays that I absolutely love.
About the Author: Hannah Grace is an English author, writing adult contemporary romance between characters who all carry a tiny piece of her. When she’s not describing everyone’s eyes ten-thousand times a chapter, accidentally giving multiple characters the same name, or googling American English spellings, you can find her oversharing online or, occasionally, reading a book from her enormous TBR. Hannah is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Icebreaker, Wildfire, and Daydream and a proud parent to two dogs.