Making Connections: Love Edy by Shewanda Pugh: Interview + Giveaway

Love Edy
by Shewanda Pugh

When Edy Phelps falls hard for her best friend, she knows nothing can come from it. Forget actual chemistry, or the fact that she cherishes his mother more than her own; centuries of tradition say that Hassan will grow up, marry the girl his parents pick, and forget his best friend: the dancer with the bursting smile. Except he can't. In a world erupting with possibilities for the boy with a body of steel and dreams of the NFL, everything seems promised while nothing at all is; when he's denied the girl he wants most.

Two hearts. Two families devoted through generations of friendship. Could Edy and Hassan really risk all that? And yet ... how could they not?

Paperback, 310 pages
Published June 24th 2014 by Razor's Edge

Goodreads Link:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15738722-enchanted

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Edy-Shewanda-Pugh/dp/0692027149/ref=la_B0085F9DOG_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400803920&sr=1-1

Barnes & Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-edy-shewanda-pugh/1119566606?ean=2940045939201

Shewanda Pugh debuted as an adult contemporary romance author in 2012 with the Crimson Footprints series. Shortlisted for the AAMBC Reader's Choice Award, the National Black Book Festival's Best New Author Award, and the prestigious Rone Award for Contemporary Fiction in 2012 and 2013, she has an MA in Writing from Nova Southeastern University and a BA in Political Science from Alabama A&M. Though a native of Boston, MA, she now lives in Miami, FL, where she can soak up sun rays without fear of shivering.

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/shewandapugh
Website: http://shewandapugh.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShewandaP
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Author.ShewandaPugh?ref=hl

Q & A With Author Shewanda Pugh

Q: Tell us a little bit about your main characters.
A: Edy's the ballerina with a perfect life ... flawless grades, prominent parents, zero money problems, and in with the in crowd by accident of birth. But how often are things ever what they seem? Falling in love with her best friend brings more than she can handle when the weight of her world seems ready to collapse. Then there's Hassan, the best friend turned obscene hottie: a bronzed bad boy with an ignition switch of a temper, dreams of the NFL ... and of Edy.

Q: Who designs the covers for your books and what is that process like for you as an author?
A: Claudia McKinney of Phatpuppy Art Studios handled the Love Edy artwork. We began by discussing some of the overarching concepts in the novel, the transformations that Edy herself would undergo during the course of the book and how best we could splash that on canvas.

Q: How has your environment/upbringing colored your writing?
A: For most of my life I've lived in vibrant, diverse metropolitan cities: Boston and Miami. My writing reflects this not just in the tale of romance, but in sights, sounds, and surroundings. I'm a city girl and it tends to show.

Q: What is the best advice you have been given?
A: "You're only in competition with yourself." However, I've found that I'm a pretty stiff competitor to contend with anyway.

Q: What do you do to unwind and relax?
A: Unwind? Relax? Reading, of course!

Q: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: A writer.

Q: Which do you prefer, hard/paperbacks or ebooks?
A: Ebooks. I mean c'mon. You can't beat the convenience of carrying around a few hundred books in your purse. Call it greed, I guess, since I know I'll only be reading one at a time.

Q: What book are you reading now?
A: Mortal Instruments City of Heavenly Fire.

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