I’m happy to welcome author Hannah Jordan. Today, Hannah shares her creative journey and debut novel, For You I’d Break, Book 1 in the Peace Falls Small Town Romance Series.

Here’s Hannah!

What is the best part of being an author? The worst?

The best part of being an author is the job’s flexibility with time, place, and wardrobe. I can work anytime, anywhere in the world in my PJs. While editing For You I’d Break, I’d sit in my car with my laptop and work during my youngest daughter’s lacrosse practice.

The worst part of being an author, for me, has always been the rejection. I have a lot of experience as a nonfiction writer, so I’ve grown a pretty thick skin. As a parenting blogger, I had internet trolls comment on my actual life, but that’s the price you pay for putting your words into the world. I want to continue to improve as a writer, so I read the comments and reviews. Still, a bad review hurts.

Describe your writing space.

I have two main writing spaces. The first is my home office, which is a hot mess. I manage the HR, marketing, and accounting for my husband’s dental practice. My high schooler also likes to do her homework at the desk beside mine. So, there’s a lot going on. I only use the space to write when everyone is home and living loud.

When I have the house to myself, I go into the living room, where I have oversized, super comfy chairs and an ottoman. I switch chairs each week, so there isn’t a Hannah-sized butt imprint in only one (and for a slightly different view.) The room is usually tidy (not so much my office), which for some reason makes me feel more relaxed, and there are large windows where I can see both the front and back yards. My house has an open floor plan, which I love, but it means I can hear everyone when I’m in the living room, and people wander in and out asking what’s for dinner.

Which authors have inspired you?

I love Jane Austen. It should have been my first clue during my literary fiction phase that I might be in the wrong genre. Austen’s writing is masterful and I will die on that hill, but when it comes right down to it, she wrote romances. Exceptional romances, but romances.

The list of current authors I admire (and have learned from) is long, but includes writers in different subgenres. I’ll read an LJ Shen novel one week, a Pippa Grant another, and an Amy Harmon the following. One writes fairly dark romance, one writes romantic comedies, and one writes historical romance. I love it all!

Besides writing and reading, what are some of your hobbies?

I love seeing new places and hiking. I’m not a hardcore hiker. I enjoy the outdoors for a few hours and then return to the luxuries of running water and air conditioning. I try to balance my travels between nature-focused trips, like St John, and cosmopolitan settings like London. My favorite trips combine both.

Any advice for aspiring writers?

Rejection is an inherent part of a writer’s life, so embrace failure. There’s a point where the dreamers stop and the gritty keep going. Learn from your mistakes, especially the ones that gut you, and move on.

What are you working on next?

I’m very excited about the rest of the Peace Falls series. The second book, For You I’d Mend, launched earlier this month. It focuses on Rowan’s sister, Poppy, and Cal’s best friend, Theo. Poppy and Theo feature heavily in For You I’d Break as friends who are attracted to each other but haven’t yet left the friend zone. Poppy is my favorite character in the entire series, and I loved writing her story.

The third book, For You I’d Bloom, will come out in January. It’s my favorite book of the series because I fell a bit in love with the lead, Aiden. I’m currently working on edits of this book.

I know I’ll be staying in Peace Falls for at least three more books, but I’m still debating which story to write next.

Blurb

When Rowan’s two-year marriage ends with a crash, she returns home to Peace Falls, VA, riding shotgun in her sister’s 1990 Cadillac hearse. Everything about her is damaged: her heart, her pride, her bank account, and her spine—thanks to a tourist, a Segway, and finding her husband getting busy with her boss. But Rowan is determined to reclaim her career and city life as soon as she recuperates and lands a new job.

Caleb “Cal” Cardoso didn’t notice wallflower Rowan in high school, but the former football star, and Peace Falls’s newest physical therapist, can’t take his eyes off the stunning redhead now. Too bad he’s sworn off relationships. After his last hookup purposely tanked his online reputation, Cal stands to lose his job if a single patient leaves his care. Which is why he can’t let Rowan switch to another practitioner, despite the friction between them, and why he definitely can’t act on his growing attraction.

Rowan agrees to remain Cal’s patient if he helps her younger brother train for football tryouts. Though Cal hasn’t touched a football since the accident that killed his best friend, he agrees, and as Cal helps heal Rowan’s body, she begins to heal his heart.

For You I’d Break is a small-town romance with a hefty dash of spice, a HEA ending, and a cast of memorable characters, including a goth sculptor who secretly loves to decorate cakes, a fearsome-looking felon with a heart of gold, a hothead with a sweet side, a karma-devoted barista who collects damaged pets and first dates, and a lovable dog with more emotional sense than everyone put together.

Excerpt

Being a wallflower makes you thirsty, so parched for attention your heart feels brittle. Then after years—or in my case a lifetime—someone finally sees you. The exquisite feeling seeps deep, the attention saturating your life. So, you jump, headfirst. The red flags go unnoticed. Declarations of love tossed as lightly as petals. Maybe you marry him, like I did. Maybe you bloom in domestic bliss with a house in the suburbs and two adorable kids. Maybe a dog. Bare minimum a pet turtle.

I wasn’t so lucky.

After two years of marriage, instead of house hunting in the outskirts of DC, I was riding shotgun in my sister’s 1990 Cadillac hearse, headed back to Peace Falls, VA, with everything I owned stuffed where a coffin ought to be.

I’d cried so much in the past three hours, I could barely make out the foothills rising in the distance. My throat was raw. Crumpled tissues littered the floorboard, and lint covered my leggings.

The tears surprised me. Apart from a couple of late-night phone calls to my mother after I left the hospital, I’d held it together pretty well. I was too busy tying up the loose ends of my life in DC to feel anything but stressed. The moment Poppy arrived to drive me home, the tears started and built with every box, bag, and lamp we slid into the hearse.

Author Bio and Links

Hannah Jordan grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia but wound up in South Jersey after falling in love with her complete opposite. She’s got all the degrees of a “serious” fiction writer but only smiles when she’s writing romance.

She lives with her husband and two daughters in a picturesque town outside of Philadelphia where she enjoys reading in all genres, especially the spicy ones, and confusing people with her half-Southern, half-Northern accent.

The first book in her Peace Falls Small Town Romance Series, For You I’d Break, launched July 17, 2024.

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Giveaway

Hannah Jordan will be awarding a $25 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Find out more here.