Friday Night Brides by Samantha Chase-Review, Guest Post and Giveaway

FRIDAY NIGHT BRIDES
by Samantha Chase
Release Date: May 3, 2016
Genre: adult,contemporary, romance

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO /

About the book: Release Date May 3, 3016

Four women.
Twenty years.
Five hundred bridal fashion shows.

They’ve been friends since they were five, and modeling for Enchanted Bridal has been as much of a part of their lives as their friendship has. And this season has them seeing more than new wedding trends.

Hailey’s family owns Enchanted Bridal and she knows there’s a possibility that someday it will be hers. She’s not sure that’s the path she wants to take, but she does know that she’s been hopelessly crushing on the perfect man and bridal show model Logan Baxter III. While failing to gain Logan’s attention, she can’t seem to get rid of the less-than-perfect man – and model – Jackson Carr. He’s big and bold and tattooed – pretty much everything Hailey despises. And yet…there’s something about him that has Hailey questioning her definition of perfect.

Becca’s got a knack for dating the wrong kind of guys. When her current boyfriend publicly dumps and humiliates her, she’s devastated. Wanting to run and hide, she’s mortified that the stranger who had witnessed the entire scene is now part of the Enchanted Bridal family. But when Max Abrams offers her comfort and tells her that he thinks she’s beautiful, she has to wonder if maybe getting dumped by Mr. Wrong has finally led her to her very own Mr. Right.

Angie’s loud and feisty and completely fearless. That is until she gets dumped by the one guy she really had feeling for. It opens her up to insecurities she didn’t know she had and she’s not sure what to do about it. But when Sean Patterson comes back into her life in a big way, she’s not sure she’s ready to forgive and forget quite so easily. His persistence and her stubbornness make for an exciting chase, however, but at the end of the season, it’s ultimately up to her if she’s ready to quit running.

Ella’s been planning her perfect wedding to Dylan Graham since she was twelve. Together for thirteen years, Ella’s beginning to wonder if that number really is bad luck. She can’t focus on all that’s right in her life because all she can think about is what she may be missing. Their parents have taken over their wedding, her friends all seem to be in crisis and Dylan’s just not listening to her fears. Not one to ever make waves, she suddenly finds that that’s exactly what she’s doing and turning everyone’s life upside down in the process. The life that she once considered boring is now the one she longs for, but it may be too late.

Four friends.
Four crossroads.
Four possibilities for happily ever after.

••••••••••

REVIEW: FRIDAY NIGHT BRIDES by Samantha Chase is a contemporary, adult romance story focusing on four life-long friends –Hailey, Becca, Angie and Ella. For close to twenty years our foursome have ‘modeled’ bridal wear –flower girls to brides- for Enchanted Bridal, a bridal shop owned by Hailey’s mother Judith. FRIDAY NIGHT BRIDES looks at the struggles and romantic heartbreaks of four friends who believe the ‘grass is always greener on the other side’. There is a prequel novella-THE WEDDING SEASON-that introduces Angie’s friend Sean. You do not have to read the novella to enjoy FRIDAY NIGHT BRIDES.

Told from several third person points of view FRIDAY NIGHT BRIDES follows the friendships, relationships, personal discoveries, and the good and bad times of four friends who have had one another’s backs for as long as they can remember. Of the four, Ella is the only one in a committed relationship, bound for the altar, but a relationship that begins to crumble when Ella wants what the other girls have.

FRIDAY NIGHT BRIDES focuses on each of the four heroines through the ups and downs of relationship nightmares, falling in love, and moving on. There are moments of humor and fun; heartbreak and sorrow; love and passion but in the end Hailey, Becca, and Angie find love where they’d least expect it, while Ella takes back what it is she thought she lost.

Samantha Chase writes a sweet, romantic and entertaining tale of friendship and love. The premise is lighthearted and enchanting; the characters are an eclectic mix of passionate and fun; the romances are emotional and real. FRIDAY NIGHT BRIDES is a fantastic read for every romance fan and romantic at heart.

Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley.

Reviewed by Sandy

Click HERE for more information and to read an excerpt from FRIDAY NIGHT BRIDES by Samantha Chase

Romance covers-How much say does an author have? Do you believe a cover can make or break the success of a book?

Okay, so…funny story. When I first wrote “The Christmas Cottage”, I had no idea how to create a cover and had no idea where to find someone who did. Working with CreateSpace, they have free templates for you to use to create your cover. So I used it. I thought I did a good job, I was happy with it, but some of those early reviewers were unimpressed.

Like seriously unimpressed.

But it didn’t hinder sales on that book, oddly enough. That was the second book I had published and it’s the book that really launched my writing career. But after that book, I found a cover artist and let her design everything from that point on. However, I picked the pictures that I wanted and she worked with the fonts and the layout and really made something out of my two cents.

Working with a publisher was a completely different story. I don’t pick the pictures, I don’t pick the layout. The first five books we did together, they had those covers ready to go before I even had an idea of what we were doing. But when they presented them to me, I did get to say ‘This couple doesn’t work’ or ‘The heroine in the book is a brunette and you’ve got a blond’ and they made the changes. They’ve been very good like that. I believe you need to establish early on – and in your contract – that you have a final say in the covers.

Have I ever rejected a cover? Absolutely! Do I feel good about it? No! Someone is putting in a lot of time and effort to put them together and I always feel bad when I don’t like them, but at the end of the day, it’s my name on the cover and it needs to be something that I like or that I’m proud of.

Can a cover make or break the success of a book? I believe it can certainly hurt your chances of success. For example – when I was self-publishing and put out the first three books in my Montgomery series, I knew the layout that I wanted. Book one – “Wait for Me” – the cover was beautiful. I mean I seriously loved it and so did readers. That book did extremely well! I believe it hit #4 on B&N’s top 100 and was in the top 100 in the Kindle Store. Book two – “Trust in Me” – didn’t do as well. And to be honest…I didn’t particularly like the cover. It was still totally my ideas but I was on a time crunch and I didn’t put as much thought in to it and the sales figures showed. Book three – “Stay With Me” – did great in sales and the cover was pretty and appealing. So from a cover vs. sales standpoint, you could say that the cover of book two was partially to blame.

Back to my traditionally published books, we changed the style of the covers with the release of “I’ll Be There”. We went in a completely different direction. I was so caught up in the new look, that I didn’t pay as much attention to the couple on the cover. I got a lot of negative feedback from readers who thought they were very “blah” and they weren’t people who inspired them to want to pick up the book. I get it. But the sales were okay on that book. Not great but it had some good weeks. So we’ve really been working on that and the cover of my upcoming “Always Me Girl” has done extremely well in pre-order figures. Why? That cover is stunning. There is no other way to describe it. I love it. I want to wallpaper my office in it!

From personal experience, I’m more prone to purchasing a book that looks appealing from the cover – that’s what will initially grab my attention. Whereas a poorly designed or unappealing cover won’t even make me look at the back cover blurb.

Bottom line. Covers help. Make it appealing. Make it the best you can. And do what you can to have a say in it. It’s your name on the cover and you need to be happy with it.

~~Samantha Chase~~

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New York Times and USA Today Bestseller/contemporary romance writer Samantha Chase released her debut novel, Jordan’s Return, in November 2011. Although she waited until she was in her 40’s to publish for the first time, writing has been a lifelong passion. Her motivation to take that step was her students: teaching creative writing to elementary age students all the way up through high school and encouraging those students to follow their writing dreams gave Samantha the confidence to take that step as well.

When she’s not working on a new story, she spends her time reading contemporary romances, playing way too many games of Scrabble or Solitaire on Facebook and spending time with her husband of 25 years and their two sons in North Carolina.

Samantha and her publicist are offering an ecopy of FRIDAY NIGHT BRIDES to THREE (3) commenters at The Reading Cafe.

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