Summer Lovin' Contest - Week One - Update!

Congrats to Mary Preston, this week's winner of a $5 Amazon gift card! I award gift cards each week through the end of June, and then one lucky winner gets the Ever After box full of goodies at the end of the month!

Hello readers! I promised you free reads at the beginning of 2017, and I haven't forgotten that promise. Sometimes life and writing and other things get in the way. But never fear - I'm holding a month-long contest right here, with free reads, chances to comment, and (of course) prizes along the way. So I hope you'll sit back, enjoy, and jump right in with your thoughts. It's time for the Summer Lovin' Contest, Allie Boniface style!

How To Enter: Each Monday in the month of June, I'll put up a new blog post. Leave a comment, and you're entered to win. It's as simple as that! You'll have a chance to win weekly as well as at the end of the month!

What You Can Win: Each week, I'll choose one winner of a $5 Amazon gift card randomly from everyone who comments on that week's post. Then, at the end of the month, I'll choose one winner randomly from all comments on all posts in the month to win an Ever After "Librarians in Love" Gift Box. Look what's inside: 

The Undateable (print)
The Librarian and the Spy (print)
Labyrinth of Love (e-book download)
Book Card Socks ( so cute!!!)
Book Light
I Heart the Library Coloring Book 
Coloring Cards

So are you ready? The Summer Lovin' Contest is all about my next novella, Faces of Love, which will be Book #6 in the Hometown Heroes series. I'm still working on it, and I'd like you guys to help me with the story. Sound like fun? Here's chapter 1. Make sure to check out the question at the end so you can enter this week's giveaway! 

###

Chapter 1 (Unedited)

I got it!!!
Chloe couldn’t stop smiling as she typed the words. She leaned against the solid oak tree in the middle of campus and ran one thumb over the screen of her phone. Of all the people in all the colleges all across the country that had applied for the prestigious Justine DuBois Award, little ol’ Chloe Garrick, from one of the smallest towns on the whole East coast, had won. Talk about frickin’ amazing.

You did? Congrats!!! Can’t wait to see you. Have some news here too.

She was about to send a bunch of question marks -- because let’s be honest, her stepmom led the quietest life on the planet, so if Franny had news, the sky must be falling, but then Chloe’s best friend came racing across the lawn.

“OhmygodChloeisittrue?” Misty Everly’s question came out as one giant word, and everyone in a quarter-mile radius looked up. She dropped to the ground and shook Chloe by the shoulders. “Tell me. Right now.”

“Ow.” Chloe’s teeth shook in her head. “Could you maybe stop assaulting me?”

“Assaulting -- ” Misty let go and leaned back with a look. “Please. You have ten seconds to tell me if the news is true.”

“Which news?”

“Seriously, girl, I’m about ready to burst. Kendra told me that Professor Hunt announced it at the end of class, but you know Kendra. Half the time she gets the story completely wrong, so --”

“It’s true.”

Misty squealed again. Grabbed Chloe’s shoulders again.

“Ow,” Chloe said again.

“Sorry. I’m just -- this is so super cool. No one from Blakely College has ever won that award.”

Chloe knew. She’d known it when she applied six months ago, knew the odds were far against her, but she’d figured what the heck? Why not try? She had straight A’s in all her classes and a recommendation from one of the most renowned artists on the East Coast. Two phone interviews, an in-person interview, and a thorough critique of her portfolio later, she’d gotten the phone call that was going to change her life.

It had to, right? Being chosen from six hundred other applicants, having the chance to study abroad for her final semester of college, had to mean something life-changing was about to happen.

“Did you tell your father yet?”

“No. I just found out this morning. I texted Franny, though.”

“Will he flip?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Do you think he’ll let you go?”

“Of course.” But Chloe hadn’t thought of that. What if he didn’t? She still lived at home, which meant she was sort of under his rules, but she was also one semester away from finishing college. Twenty-two years old. And this was the Justine Dubois Award. He had to let her go.

“When do you leave?”

“A month. The beginning of June.”

Misty lay back on the grass with a dramatic sigh. “I can’t believe you’re going to France.” She slipped her sunglasses over her eyes. “That’s like the most romantic place in the whole world.”
###
Comment: What adventures would you love to see Chloe have while she’s in France? What’s the most romantic thing you could imagine for her?
​