5 star | Lager & Lefse Book Blog

Happy Release Day, Rose Croft! Check out Dear Nicholas, available NOW!!

Let’s get to know Rose a little better.

Can you offer five pieces of advice you would give to your younger self?

Believe in yourself. You are worthy.
Live in the moment because time goes by so fast.
Stand up for what you hold valuable.
Always wear sunscreen.
Lay off the Diet Coke🤪

Tell us five things that most people do not know about you.

I’m insanely afraid to fly.
I’m bilingual—Spanish/English. I initially wanted to learn French. So, I took two years of French in high school and two in college. But I can’t speak it.
I’m in a fantasy football league.
I love to sew. I loved designing my daughter’s Halloween costumes.
I love comedies. The stupider, the better.

What is your most favorite concert you have gone to? How heavily does music influence your writing?

I’ve been to a lot of great concerts, but my all-time favorite would be Pearl Jam. They are amazing live.

Music is everything to me and I constantly listen to music when I write or plot ideas. Songs and lyrics definitely give me inspiration and many times set a tone for the book.

First ten songs that show up in your shuffle.

“Hong Kong Garden”—Siouxsie and the Banshees
“Shape of Things to Come”—Audioslave
“Lullaby”—The Cure
“The Resistance”—Drake
“T.G.I.F.”—Kid Cudi
“We Never Change”—Coldplay
“No, You Don’t”—Nine Inch Nails
“Around the World”—Daft Punk
“Somebody that I Used to Know”—Gotye
“Jeremy’s Storm”—Tame Impala

Quote you live by?

I live My life a quarter mile at a time.

Does one of the main characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?

I love all my characters, but two of my faves are Vicente and Emilio Mendoza because they are pure gritty alphas who will do anything for their loved ones.

What is the key theme and/or message in the book?

We will survive and overcome, no matter the odds.

What do you hope your readers take away from this book?

Hope and you can succeed no matter the odds. And I hope they fall in love with the Mendoza’s.

What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?

Judith McNaught, Johanna Lindsey and Charlaine Harris are the first authors that made me fall in love with this genre.

Favorite quote (does not matter the source)

“Life could be hard. Life could be brutal. Life could be unforgiving. But at the end of the day, life could be wonderful if you fought for what is important. “
—Primitivo

What’s your favorite food?

Pizza. Of course.

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I want to say a HUGE thank you to Rose Croft for participating in this Ask An Author segment. Y’all, I urge you to go check out Dear Nicholas! It was so good. A ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐read!!

Book inspired playlists:

Dear Nicholas playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2QvyfkhR41mCTfjftgikUo?si=1e7e5d7512334308

My Roman playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/11Ofmw4nnnTczwyRuyDD5G?si=d3aa3b88fb454437

Follow Rose on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/i2qvh0wgzhvufe60luhtf4ycr?si=76e7a22c6c0043bb

PURCHASE LINKS
US: https://amzn.to/3otOLTk
UK: https://amzn.to/39WrpNN
CA: https://amzn.to/3uun7Xt
AU: https://amzn.to/3uy4CBb

Free in Kindle Unlimited

Follow along and visit Rose at:
Facebook—https://www.facebook.com/rose.croft.758
Instagram—https://www.instagram.com/rosecroft.a…
Email—croftrose12@gmail.com

Last month, I was introduced to an incredible debut author, Annie Emerson. Her debut book, Thirteen Hours From Here (Sometimes Goodbye Duet #1) was mind blowing. It was everything I wanted it to be and more. This month we are presented with the conclusion to her debut duet.

Let me start by saying, sometimes we are presented with different books in our life that we never knew we needed. We may have fallen 100% in love with them, because it filled a certain part within us. We read to escape, to laugh, to fall in love, to avenge the downtrodden, among other reasons. Something that I did not expect while reading FWYA is the cerebral component (I will get to that in a little bit). Ms. Emerson has a way of mixing all these components exceptionally well. Radley and Meekai gave me the fate, love and avenging I was searching for. Gamma, holy Toledo, Gamma gave me the hilarious, knock me on my butt and the sage advice that I longed to hear, and Annie, Annie gave me the cerebral component. What Cerebral means to me is the ‘make you genuinely think’ about certain topics, whether good or bad and explore them. How do you really feel? Does that component take away from a story? The ‘keep me on my toes’ that sometimes is missing in a book. This is not a fluff story, but a true, heartwarming and life-altering read.

“Me: You do know that 1 in5 pregnancies occur over FaceTime, right? Please be safe and Lysol your cell!”

Kai and Radley are put to the test in this second half. Is their love strong enough to face whatever obstacles come their way? Who will stand with them? Who will be opposed? All topics, sensitive or otherwise, were handled with the delicacy that would not offend the reader, yet gave you ALL the thoughts, emotions and feelings attributed with them.

“Never broken, only bent.”

There was a roller coaster of emotions that Radley and Meekai went through which also reverberated through me. The push/pull and angst ridden was front and center. The perfect combination of back and forth, while continuing to trudge on forward.

“Anyone can let go, but not just anyone can hang on.”

Radley and Meekai, along with their secondary cast of characters are all fleshed out and give you the true familial feeling, whether they are true family or not. Overall, I am 100% in love with this duet and cannot wait for more from Annie Emerson. This duet will definitely be on my top of 2021 list.