As
Micah starts finding his rhythm, life throws him a different beat.
ONE AND ONLY
Hale Street #7
Amy Knupp
Releasing March 7th, 2017
Drummer
Micah Sullivan lost his music and his dreams when his wife died unexpectedly.
In the emotional aftermath, he quit his successful country band and pushed away
his family and friends. Three years later, he’s opened a music shop on Hale
Street in Nashville and tells himself he’s content trying to make it a hit.
What he failed to consider is that success requires connections—including the
very ones he turned his back on.
Sloan
McGuire is up for a new challenge…never realizing it might lead to heartbreak.
When she takes a job as entertainment manager at a bar not known for its music,
she doesn’t bargain for running into Micah, whose late wife was her best friend.
She can tell within minutes that he’s still grieving. Out of love for her
friend, she attempts to reconnect with the reclusive drummer. Falling for him
isn’t in the plans, though—not only because he was married to her friend but
because she’s been second-best before, and she never wants to play that role
again.
As Micah
starts finding his rhythm, life throws him a different beat. But with a little
improvisation and a lot of courage, he just might tap into the one and only
connection he needs.
His eyes were closed, and he was …
lost in the music. No question about it.
He wore headphones, so whatever song
he was playing to, she couldn’t hear, and he was jamming out hard enough that
his hair was flopping all over the place. His whole body was in action as his
sticks flew from one element to another. It seemed wild and out of control and
… God, so sexy.
Sloan frowned at the thought, intended
to get his attention and put an end to her private ogling session, but she
couldn’t make herself do it quite yet. Because she was riveted by the sight.
The expressions on his face, so animated, so full of feeling. The way his biceps
flexed and rippled, partially visible beneath his T-shirt sleeves. His hands,
in command of two thin wooden sticks, able to make such powerful, moving music.
It was just percussion, but she felt it in her chest. The beats, yes, but also
the emotion. And Micah himself.
Welcome to Hale Street by Amy Knupp
ONE AND ONLY is set on fictional Hale Street in Nashville,
TN. I say fictional because most people would claim it isn’t real, but in the
minds of me and my two series co-writers, Natasha Lake and Emily Leigh, it’s one
hundred percent an actual place. It’s become a spot we’d all love to shop,
live, and hang out in. For readers who are new to Hale Street, here are the top
five things you should know:
1
Hale Street is one block long, located near
downtown Nashville. Originally developed in the 1940s, the street is being
redeveloped, with the goal of turning it into a shopping destination. Nick Morello,
the lead contractor (who, by the way, is a treat in a tool belt) makes every
effort to maintain historic details while making the buildings modern and
functional. Brick sidewalks are lined with quaint, old-fashioned streetlamps,
one-of-a-kind shops, and delectable food joints. Most of the buildings have
apartments on the upper floors.
2
One of the cornerstone businesses on Hale Street
is Clayborne’s on the Corner. With a Cheers-like
familiarity for residents and a warm, welcoming atmosphere for visitors, it’s
the perfect place to catch a ballgame on TV, an up-and-coming band on stage, or
a tasty meal of a hot ham and Swiss sandwich, fried mushrooms, and an adult
beverage. Hunter Clayborne, the current owner, is a feast for the eyes as well.
3
At the opposite end of the street is the
majestic historical Wentworth Hotel, owned by Burke Wentworth, a man who does
daily justice to a three-piece suit. The elegant ballroom hosts countless
formal affairs, from wedding receptions to New Year’s Eve balls. The top floor
houses long-term luxury suites in addition to the hotel’s impeccable regular
rooms. The general manager of the hotel is Daisy Calloway, who, incidentally,
used to be engaged to Burke.
4
No one can wander down Hale Street without
stopping into Sugar Babies Sweet Shop. With a beautiful handcrafted front
counter and a gorgeous bay window, it’s the ideal spot to savor a sinful sweet—peppermint-cocoa
cupcakes, bourbon pecan pie bites, or anything with Ivy Gibson’s fluffy brown
sugar icing on it, for example. An arched doorway connects the bakery to Angry
Cat Books, where you can grab coffee and an absorbing book to go with your
sweet treat.
5
As you meander along Hale Street, you might want
to keep an eye out for the neighborhood kook, Lurlene Williams, and her leash-trained
pet albino ferret. Lurlene is harmless enough, but making eye contact can
subject a person to a lengthy anti-technology rant or an in-depth diatribe on
pigeons. If she gets in front of you in line at Sugar Babies, prepare for her
to ask the bakery girls about every single menu option before finally settling
on her usual chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting.
For more Hale Street details, I hope you’ll try ONE AND ONLY
or any of the other six books set there (with more on the way). For more
information on the books in the series, please visit my website (www.amyknupp.com).
Q&A with Amy Knupp
How did you come up with the concept
and the characters for the story?
Micah
Sullivan, the hero, showed up in my first book in the series (Sweet Spot)
wanting to rent space for a music store on Hale Street. Whenever a new
character is mentioned in a scene, I go to Pinterest and find inspiration for
the character so I can better describe him or her. The photo I found of Micah
is (of course) hot, but in it, he’s not happy, and that got my imagination
going. Why isn’t he happy? (Turns out his wife died unexpectedly three years
ago.) He’s also wearing a hood in it, and that led me to think about why he
might be “hiding.” (In a nutshell, grief, sadness, and a little bit of guilt.)
His journey drives the story, so in this case, the picture was sort of worth
75,000 words. J
What did you enjoy most about writing
this book?
The Hale
Street series is a multi-author series I’m writing with two of my best friends,
Emily Leigh and Natasha Lake. While each story is stand-alone, we collaborate constantly
on the setting and character crossover, and the collaboration is the very best
part. The synergy the three of us have makes writing kind of magical, even on
the hard days. If I’m struggling with a plot point, my girls are all over it
with me because they know my characters almost as well as I do. Plus we do
girls’ writing retreat weekends a few times a year and a weeklong private
writing retreat in a lake cottage each summer. Not only is it great for the
writing but it’s soul time.
What gave you the most trouble with
this story?
It was a
challenge to take Micah from a grieving, hiding-from-life man to a happy,
in-love one. You can’t rush grief. Further complicating things was that his
heroine, Sloan, was his wife’s best friend. That’s not the main conflict
between them, but I couldn’t gloss over it either.
What 5 things should
readers know about you?
1.
ONE AND ONLY is my 18th published book and my favorite one (at least
today!)
2.
I have four cats and have told my husband he can never leave me or I’ll be a
cat lady.
3.
Making decisions is often excruciating for me. I can weigh pros and cons until my
eyes cross.
4.
I have an obsession with office products—pens, Post-its, pretty notebooks, gel
pens, colored binder clips, penguin-shaped paper clips…
5.
I live in Wisconsin, the cheese state, but I can’t eat dairy. Before that, I
lived in Kansas, the wheat state, but I can’t eat gluten.
What do you like best
about being a writer? What is the most challenging part?
This
might be revealing my inner geekiness, but I love the psychology aspect of
writing two people who fall in love. When two people come together with an
assortment of baggage, you’ve got a lot of stuff to work through, and I love
the puzzle of it all and figuring out how the pieces go together. I love it
especially after the hard part’s all done!
What do you do when you are not
writing?
Work-wise,
I’m a full-time freelance copyeditor, so I read all day every day (and correct
grammar, etc. to my OCD heart’s content). I get to read/edit just about every
genre/sub-genre imaginable, though more than half my projects are romance. Tough
job but somebody has to do it! I feel blessed that I can say honestly I love what
I do. Between freelancing, which can mean working weekends and holidays, and
raising two teenage boys with my husband, I manage to maintain a fairly high
level of crazy.
Can you tell us about your upcoming
book?
I don’t know
a lot yet because I’m in the early stages of writing it, but my next book, out
this summer, is a novella about two characters from ONE AND ONLY. Lena Kessler
is the oldest of four sisters and the only one still single. She longs for love
and babies like the rest of her family has. Former NHL player Ash McGuire is
the last person who could give her what she dreams of but the only one she
wants.
Amy Knupp is the author of
contemporary romance, a freelance copy editor for Blue Otter Editing, and a
freelance technical writer. While the collection of professional hats she wears
sounds a bit scattered and broad, the common thread among all of them (perhaps
the little ball on top of each hat) is the written word. She loves words and
grammar and meaty, engrossing stories with complex characters.
Amy
lives in Wisconsin with her husband, two teenage sons, four cats, and two box
turtles. She graduated from the University of Kansas with degrees in French and
journalism. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, breaking up cat fights,
watching college hoops, and annoying her family by correcting their grammar.
Thank you for featuring ONE AND ONLY!
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