The Great Divide has ruined me

Okay, I’m being dramatic.

What it’s actually done is made me a little mopey in the car. It’s made me a bit reflective. And it’s made me consider nostalgia and how its impact can be found across all creative spaces.

There’s something so powerful about this emotion. I always think of that quote from Mad Men, one that has stayed with me for many years:

“Nostalgia—it’s delicate, but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek, nostalgia literally means ‘the pain from an old wound.’ It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn’t a spaceship, it’s a time machine. It goes backwards, and forwards… it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It’s not called the wheel, it’s called the carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels—around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know we are loved.”

Noah Kahan evokes so much nostalgia with his new album. Even in the cover itself, which is framed not like an old photograph, but like a memory:

The window is a portal to the past. It shows us that special kind of bittersweet pain that can only be found in our memories—the feeling of wanting to be transported to a place you know you can no longer go back to, because it doesn’t exist anymore. But there’s peace in the thought of it, the feeling. Knowing that, at one point, it did exist. And if you’re lucky, you get to carry that with you and revisit it, time and time again. It might hurt, a little. But it also provides relief; comfort.

THE MATCHMAKER’S COTTAGE is about this specific kind of nostalgia. The kind that “lets us travel the way a child travels—around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know we are loved”. Julia and Ethan didn’t have the easiest childhoods growing up, though it manifested for them both in different ways: Julia, with a mom who left the family, leaving her and her father to fend for themselves behind doors that were only closed to each other; and Ethan, with parents who were emotionally distant and fighting their own demons, thinking that their smart, athletic, social son didn’t need the kind of support that he was actually craving. In this dysfunction, though, came peace—because despite everything that was wrong with their families or their lives, at least they always had their summers together. They had the cottage, the lake, and the town.

And they had each other.

For Julia and Ethan, “the place where [they] know [they] are loved” isn’t one physical location, but rather the time they spent together. Their moments of connection. And, eventually, only their memories.

Until one day, Ethan reaches out again…

Before I move on to other news, I want to share a personal photo that evokes the same kind of nostalgia for me as detailed throughout Noah’s album and in that Don Draper quote:

As the month comes to an end, so does my Goodreads Giveaway! You still have one more day to enter, and then 10 winners will be chosen to receive an early copy of my book. If you do get an early copy and you loved it, (hey—even if you didn’t!) feel free to head back to Goodreads and leave a review!

I know I’m not supposed to read them (and technically I don’t—or try not to, anyway 😬) but it still helps others to see whether a book is worth picking up or not. Even a bad review can be helpful, because sometimes those say things like “This wasn’t for me as I don’t like estranged childhood friends with flashbacks”, but then you’re like “Oh man, I love those things!” and everyone is happy! (Except, I guess, for the person who didn’t really enjoy the book—sorry to that person).

And, as one (giveaway) door closes, another (giveaway) door opens.

Here is your very first peek at the NEXT giveaway we have coming up that includes THE MATCHMAKER’S COTTAGE:

Yes, you’re reading that right.

MY book… and four AMAZING other Berkley books… all in one giveaway! For this one, you need to be 18+ and a US resident (sorry again, Canadian and International buds) and I will post the live link on May 1st when the sweepstakes opens. You have until May 10th to enter and only ONE winner will be chosen!

That winner will receive a copy of:

• THE MATCHMAKER’S COTTAGE by yours truly

• WILD GOOSE CHASE by Sarah Adler

• MUTUAL DISCORD by Liana de la Rosa

• DANGEROUSLY OURS by Krista & Becca Ritchie

• MAGGIE AND ARTHUR’S MAGIC MOMENT by Leslie Rene

Good luck to all who enter this one! Stay tuned to my Instagram page for more details and the link on May 1st!

Okay, I teased big news on my Instagram story today, and I said that my newsletter subscribers would get first look. I am nothing if not a woman of my word, so without further ado:

THE MATCHMAKER’S COTTAGE is getting a TARGET EXCLUSIVE EDITION. Sorry, one more time: A TARGET EXCLUSIVE EDITION.

Sorry—

It’s true.

This means not only can you find THE MATCHMAKER’S COTTAGE at your local Target location in the US, but ALSO that version of the book will come with fun, bonus content (spoiler: one of Julia’s favourite recipes 👩‍🍳❤️ with maybe some added commentary by a certain someone) and a beautiful gold foil embossed cover, with a shiny, metallic title and whimsical gold foil leaves strewn about it.

Words cannot express how over the moon I am to share this with you, as I already felt like this book was so, so special, and now I have gold-embossed confirmation that I was, in fact, right about that.

It’s also now available to preorder (and at the lowest price you can currently find it) by clicking the below image:

Anyway. Probably one of the coolest things that’s ever happened to me and that’s saying a lot.

So there you have it!

Nostalgia, giveaways, and some crazy big news for a debut author to be able to share. As we hurtle into three months until release day on August 11, I know things are going to continue to get bigger, crazier, and even more fun.

Thanks for coming along for the ride!