Give a big, warm, spring welcome to Kathryn Barrett, author of the wonderful Select Contemporary novel, TEMPTATION! Kathryn is here with a special Spring Fling guest post, so sit back and enjoy!
Spring is my favorite time of year, perhaps because I was born in April, smack dab in the middle of Spring. I guess it’s not surprising that my book Temptation begins in the Spring, when Laura Hayes arrives in Pennsylvania’s Amish country to film a movie.
What I didn’t expect, though, was that Laura, a former child actress and a “one hundred percent city girl”, would take to life in the slow lane like a grub to a tomato plant. With handsome neighbor Jacob’s help, she plants a garden, and no one is more surprised than her when green shoots actually start poking through the earth.
I loved watching her discover what’s truly important in life out in that garden, away from her overbearing mother, her free-loading ex-husband, and the phony atmosphere of Hollywood. No need for expensive therapy when you’ve got a trowel, a packet of seeds, and rich, loamy dirt.
I learned a lot about gardening while writing Temptation, as I researched what Laura would be doing in her garden during the spring and summer. I shared some of the tips I discovered in the book, too, along with some of the Amish superstitions.
She was beginning to believe in the old wives’ tale—she thought she saw signs of life poking from the dirt she’d planted earlier, but the only sprouts she recognized pranced around on television commercials for frozen vegetables.
During my “Spring Break” I’ll be starting my own garden. We moved into a new-to-us house last year, and I made myself wait and see what came up in the flowerbeds before I started planting anything. I’m glad I waited—there were irises, hostas, and other perennials popping up all summer—but now I’m ready to fill in a few bare spots, and I’ve found just the sunny spot for a kitchen garden. Maybe it won’t be as lush as Laura’s garden—I don’t have Jacob to help me, after all!—but hopefully I’ll get a few peas and squash from it.
To celebrate Spring Break, I’m giving away a basket of gardening supplies at our Spring Fling Facebook Party! Hope you find, like the saying goes, “Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes!”
TEMPTATION is on sale for only $0.99 for a limited time!
About the book:
Laura Hayes has been acting since she was an infant, making Hollywood the only home she has ever known. But when she moves to Pennsylvania’s Amish country to film her next movie, she discovers there’s more to life than a pair of Jimmy Choos and a Marie Claire cover.
Intrigued by the Amish simplicity, she’s soon gardening and baking plum pies—and enjoying it. And when her neighbor turns out to be the local heartthrob and a talented furniture maker, she realizes that what’s missing from her life might be the love of a good man—not to mention the perfect heirloom tomato.
Jacob fights the urge to question the teachings of his Amish beliefs — despite his desire to create furniture that is beautiful as well as useful — and struggles with his longing for the sexy stranger who makes him feel truly alive for the first time. As his attraction grows, so do his doubts, until he’s forced to face temptation and decide once and for all what is truly worth the fight.
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