by: Dani Collins
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: December 28, 2021
Publisher: Harlequin Presents
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Their last night as husband and wife, or the beginning of something new? USA TODAY bestselling author Dani Collins delights with this passionate forced-proximity romance.
Their New Year’s Eve reunion…
…could make or break their marriage!
Rebecca Matthews has one New Year’s resolution: divorce Donovan Scott. So being snowbound with him at his mountain mansion is not part of the plan. Especially when it’s clear the sizzling chemistry that led to their elopement is still very much alive!
Van wants to know the real reason Becca left—it’s clear there’s more to tell. With only twenty-four hours before the snowstorm clears, it’s time for them to gain some much-needed closure. That’s if, of course, they can resist a final explosive encounter…
From Harlequin Presents: Escape to exotic locations where passion knows no bounds.
Hi Kim! I’m doing really well. Thanks for inviting me back. I love Read Your Writes!
Thank you so much! One Snowbound New Year’s Night is a second chance, forced proximity romance. What do you love about those tropes?
I love that you can skip past ‘getting to know you’ niceties. The characters can go from zero to furious in a heartbeat. They want to be grown-ups and be civil, but they push each other’s buttons and old baggage falls out. They’re deeply vulnerable from the moment they see their old flame.
And forced proximity means they can’t go anywhere. All that junk they never dealt with? They have to finally face it.
I don’t recall reading a forced proximity, second chance romance before. That being forced to be together, for this couple, REALLY brought out all kinds of emotions. Can you please tell me about Rebecca “Becca” Matthews and Donovan “Van” Scott?
Becca is from Australia. She loves her family, but they were poor and she wants to ‘be’ something. Her brief marriage to Van didn’t work out, she went home to help her ailing mother, and she now plans to become a lab technician. She finally feels like she has her life together. She just needs to nip off that last thread of her divorce.
Van is Canadian. His mother was an alpine ski champion and raised him to be one. Most of his life was consumed by that, but he didn’t mind because it allowed him to escape his parent’s fighting and eventual divorce. His family never accepted Becca, thinking her a gold-digger and a distraction from his training, but when he finally won gold, she wasn’t there. He’s used to winning, so he feels like divorce is a failure.
How did they meet each other?
Van and Becca meet at a party. Becca doesn’t realize she’s going to the home of a big-shot athlete. She winds up playing darts with Van and a bunch of his friends and she cleans their clocks.
That was a fun scene, I liked it. What do you love about them, as individuals and as a couple?
Oooh, great question! I love that Becca is a scrambled-egg mess inside, but keeps cracking jokes while she figures things out. She has never had anyone build her up so her self-esteem is very fragile, but she’s learning to feel good about who she is and she’s strong enough to defend herself.
Van is tough and mad about a lot of things, rich and sexy and funny and he has a romantic streak that I think is cute. He loves Becca so much and doesn’t have a clue that it’s there or how to express it.
As a couple, I love that they’re puzzle pieces that have been offset for a long time and they slowly, slowly figure out how to compromise and shift their edges and find their HEA.
That is a VERY good way of describing them. What do you see as each of their biggest weakness or character flaw?
Becca needs to get past her self-esteem issues. They definitely contributed to her never feeling good enough for Van.
Van is closed off. It’s a defense mechanism from his childhood, but he never fully appreciated how hard he made it for Becca to stay in Canada with him.
As usual, with your stories, I read an excerpt and HAD to read the book. In the excerpt that I read, it seemed a couple of the biggest obstacles or issues between these two were secrets and looking the other way. How hard was it for you to get Becca and Van back on the same page? And who was the most difficult character to deal with?
It was challenging! I knew I had to get this snowstorm to trap them as their divorce is finalizing, but how could I make that believable?
Becca is going into their old house (which is not a cabin, it’s a gorgeous mansion of course!) to collect her last few things. She would have to tell the lawyer, right? She’s coming from Australia, so she’s not going to ‘pop by’ and break in, or risk not knowing the alarm code.
So she picks a time when she knows Van is visiting his sister for the holidays. She springs it on him last minute that she wants to get into the house. Thankfully, I was able to use the approaching storm to keep her friend from accompanying her so Becca is there all alone and settles in for a cry before she succumbs to jet lag.
Van, meanwhile, sees his one and only chance to clear the air with her and drives twelve hours to catch her. I did have to give some thought as to why he would suddenly have to see her, so I had his sister make a small reveal that lights a fire under him. He wants answers!
Tell me about one of your favorite scenes and why is it a favorite?
Another challenge of this book was that the setting never changes. I had a house to work with so I had to find ways to move them from room to room.
One of my favorite scenes takes place in the games room when Becca challenges Van to pool. They used to play ‘strip’ pool and he even says, “Did it ever occur to you that I used to let you win so I had a head start when we moved on to other things?”
In this case, they banter and force some emotional stripping by revealing things they should have said while they were married.
“I know you only married me to tick off your mom,” she blurted as he shot.
“What?” He swore as the eleven went in, but the white plonked in behind it. He moved to the pocket to retrieve it. “You’re cheating.”
“I thought that’s how we were playing.” She carried her stick around the table and set the retrieved cue ball.
“We’re throwing out unfounded accusations? Because if that was my reason for marrying you, I would already know it.”
“Maybe I should say that you liked the fact that marrying me annoyed your mother.”
“Good God, Becca. I was twenty-five, not five. I didn’t care that our marriage annoyed her. That’s different.”
“Not from this side,” she muttered, sending the cue ball to tap the five into the corner before it rolled across and dropped another ball in the side. “She resented me, full stop.”
“Mom didn’t want me to have any distractions. Between her and my coaches, my days were regimented down to the last minute. She didn’t resent you. It was the fact that I was married at all.”
“Oh, yes. That’s true. She made sure I knew it wasn’t personal.” She dampened her tongue with a sip of margarita, then adopted her snippiest Canadian accent. “Van is asserting his independence, Rebecca. It’s a symptom of the pressure he’s under. As long as you don’t impact what he’s worked his entire life to achieve, you and I will get along.”
“And that’s why you fell in line and never told me about Paisley or any of the other things they said or did?” His voice was filled with smoldering disgust.
“You had worked your whole life toward winning gold. I respected that. I wanted to be part of the team that got you there. Falling in line, as you call it, was the best way I could support you.”
“Then why weren’t you?” he ground out, voice so bitter she straightened before taking her shot. “If you were part of the team, Becca, why weren’t you there when I won?”
Can you tell me a fun fact or two about One Snowbound New Year’s Night?
My editor actually pitched this idea. She asked if I wanted to write 24-hour snowbound in Canada. I leapt on the idea!
It also takes place over New Year’s Eve so I actually had a spreadsheet of the hours leading up to midnight. I logged their arrival times and how long each scene took, how long they played pool, etc. I wanted to be sure the black moment happened immediately after the fireworks when their divorce is final.
I love the idea of having a spreadsheet to keep track of time. Dani, thank you so much for answering some questions for me.
My pleasure! I hope you enjoyed the story, Kim.
I definitely enjoyed the story. Thank you so much.
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Great premise and interview!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!
Thank you. This was a good, yet emotionally draining book. Meaning, I felt the characters and their heartbreak and despair.
DeleteI enjoyed the interview. I always like second chance stories too.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I definitely enjoyed this story.
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