Maggie Blackbird

Today, award-winning and bestselling author Patricia Leavy is guesting. She’s talking about her latest release After the Red Carpet, book two in the A Red Carpet Romance series, a contemporary romance. Don’t forget to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway.

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Patricia on why she wrote about a married couple in a romance novel: 

Pop culture constantly shows us that getting married is the end of the romance story, but actually, it’s the beginning. So many romance novels end with the proposal or wedding. Why? I think the idea that romance ends with marriage is actually pretty sad, and maybe one of the reasons so many marriages fail. Everyone starts out hopeful and “in love.” It’s easy to read and write about that, and I’ve done so many times myself. But it’s not the whole story. Merging your life with someone else, growing with them, accepting them unconditionally, all the while retaining your own identity—these things are challenging.

After the Red Carpet is a cozy romance that explores what happens after two people fall in love and decide to build a life together. It’s the second book that follows Ella Sinclair and Finn Forrester. In the first book, The Location Shoot, the pair meet on a film set in Sweden. Finn is starring in the movie and Ella is a free-spirited philosopher who is friends with the director. The book ends when Finn proposes to Ella on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, captivating the press and public with their real-life fairy tale. After the Red Carpet is about what happens next. Ella and Finn vow to prioritize their romance and live an adventure of their own making. Ella moves into Finn’s Beverly Hills mansion and must adjust to his world. Finn, secretly afraid of losing Ella, is determined to make everything perfect for his betrothed. Meanwhile, Ella wants nothing more than to retain her own identity as they build their new life together. All the while, she is writing a philosophical treatise on love, exploring the question: when we love so deeply, where do we end and where does the other begin? This is a sweet and whimsical Hollywood story perfect for a romantic escape, but really, it’s about things a lot of us deal with—what partnership looks and feels like, trying to retain “me” in a “we,” and starting a family.

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Title: After the Red Carpet
Series: A Red Carpet Romance, book two
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Author: Patricia Leavy
Length: 232 pages
Release Date: September 3, 2024
Publisher: She Writes Press

For fans of Tessa Bailey and Hannah Grace, After the Red Carpet is a feel-good, contemporary celebrity romance about what happens after the fairy-tale beginning as two lovers work toward their own true meaning of “happily ever after.”

Blurb: After legendary Hollywood star Finn Forrester proposed to philosopher Ella Sinclair on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, the couple captivated the press and public with their real-life fairy tale. Now they vow to prioritize their romance and live an adventure of their own making. Ella moves into Finn’s Beverly Hills mansion and must adjust to his world. Finn, secretly afraid of losing Ella, is determined to make everything perfect for his betrothed. Meanwhile, Ella wants nothing more than to retain her own identity as they build their new life together. All the while, she is writing a philosophical treatise on love, exploring the question: when we love so deeply, where do we end and where does the other begin?

In this highly anticipated follow-up to The Location Shoot, will Ella and Finn finally live the life they’ve dreamed of? See how their epic romance unfolds, after the red carpet.

Goodreads | Amazon

Finn and Ella strolled down the long red carpet at the famed Royal Albert Hall, arm in arm behind the rest of the Celebration team.

“Somehow I’ve never been here before,” Finn said.

“Well, you’re in for a treat. It’s extraordinary inside. Concerts here are wonderful.”

“I’ll have to get us tickets sometime.”

“Funny story about how this place came to be. Prince Albert wanted to create a hall to celebrate the arts and sciences, to bring culture to the people. He died before it was completed, and Queen Victoria insisted it should be named after him. They even wove the letter A into the stairway railings. Then of course she had that obscenely pricey, gold memorial statue created outside, across the road from the hall. She spent the rest of her life wearing black, to show her deep mourning.”

“She must have really loved him.”

Ella shrugged.

“What?” Finn asked.

“Oh, I don’t know. I’m sure she did love him, in her own way, but perhaps it would have meant more to simply realize his vision. He wanted this place to be about the arts, not about him. Love isn’t about gold statues or opulence. The grandest gesture is seeing someone for who they are and honoring what’s important to them.”

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Patricia Leavy, PhD, is an award-winning, best-selling author. She was formerly Associate Professor of Sociology, Chairperson of Sociology & Criminology, and Founding Director of Gender Studies at Stonehill College.

She has published more than forty books; her work has been translated into many languages, and she has received more than one hundred book honors. Her last novel, The Location Shoot, was featured on Ms. Career Girl‘s “10 Perfect Books to Get Your Fall Reading List Started” and was the 2023 Firebird Book Awards 1st Place Winner in 4 categories: Contemporary Novel, Pop Culture Fiction, Romance and Summer Beach Read. Patricia has also received career awards from the New England Sociological Association, the American Creativity Association, the American Educational Research Association, the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, and the National Art Education Association. In 2018, she was honored by the National Women’s Hall of Fame and SUNY-New Paltz established the “Patricia Leavy Award for Art and Social Justice.”

Patricia lives in Maine. In addition to writing, she enjoys art, reading, and travel.

Follow Patricia: Website

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