SECRETS OF A (SOMEWHAT) SUNNY GIRL
Genre: Romantic Women’s Fiction
Author: Karen Booth
Release Date: October 16, 2018
As sisters, they tell each other all their secrets…except one.
With divorce and infidelity hanging from nearly every branch of her family tree, Katherine Fuller sees no point in marriage. Boyfriends? Sure. Sex? Of course. Wedding vows? No, thanks. Still, when her younger sister Amy gets engaged, Katherine gathers all the enthusiasm she can. She won’t let Amy down. She’s done enough of that for a lifetime.
As the sisters embark on wedding plans, Katherine’s college love resurfaces. It nearly killed Katherine to part from sexy Irish musician Eamon more than a decade ago, but falling under his spell a second time forces her to confront everything she hid from him. The secrets surrounding her mother’s death are still fresh and raw in her mind, but one has haunted her more than the others. She can’t bear to tell anyone, especially not Amy. It could ruin far more than a wedding. It could destroy a sister’s love forever.
Katherine and Irish musician Eamon had a super-steamy relationship 11 years ago. Now he’s back in her life, but out on the road, leaving them to talk on the phone every day. This is the night of Katherine’s sister Amy’s engagement party, an event Katherine has been dreading.“How did the party go?” Eamon asked. “You don’t sound drunk, so it must’ve been at least tolerable.”
“It was okay. Everyone was really nice, but I definitely did not feel comfortable. Their whole family is like pod people. They’re all so happy and normal.”
“Why does that make them pod people?”
“I don’t know. Because that’s nothing at all like my family? And there’s no family dirt, which I find a little impossible to believe.”
“You went digging for dirt at your sister’s engagement party?”
“Hey. You’re the one who told me not to drink too much. I had to entertain myself somehow.”
He unleashed the laugh I find most disarming. In my head, I could see his off-kilter smile. “There’s always dirt somewhere. Trust me.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
It got quiet on the other end of the line and I wondered what he was thinking about or whether he was maybe tired. I would’ve given anything for him to be waiting for me at home right now, rather than thousands of miles away. I couldn’t escape the loneliness of that fact.
“Katherine, can I ask you something?”
“Of course. Anything.”
“What exactly is it about that situation that makes you so deeply uncomfortable? Your sister getting married. I know it’s not just that you feel like you’re losing her. There’s something more to it, isn’t there?”
It felt like my heart was doing a bad impression of an old clock, ticking away at an unreliable pace. There was so much about this for me to unpack, probably because I’d devoted so much of my life to keeping it hidden. “My parents didn’t have a great marriage and they did a lot of things to hurt each other. It’s hard as a kid to witness that. It definitely sours your opinion of the institution.”
“I suppose.”
“Am I being unreasonable?”
“No. You’re not. I just think that’s not the only way to look at it. Some people might go through that and decide that they can do better. Maybe that’s the way your sister feels.”
Was he right? Had Amy taken things one way while I’d run with it in the opposite direction? She’d definitely seemed comfortable at the party, acclimated to the idea that marriage was this normal thing normal people did, and that she was a member of that group. Maybe I needed to accept that just because I saw her one way, and I saw myself the same way, perhaps I’d been completely wrong. After all, she had been younger than me. She’d witnessed less than I had. And of course, she hadn’t been the catalyst for the ultimate bad. She hadn’t set the demise of her own family in motion. Amy didn’t have to live with that.
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe I need to stop looking at it like that.” I knew then that I needed to get my attitude straight. Amy deserved better than a maid of honor who was being a complete pain in the ass.
“I could be wrong.”
“Nope. It’s a great suggestion. You make me a better person, you know. You always have.”
“Do you really think that?”
I thought back to the way I’d been with him the first time, so full of sunny optimism, not at all the way I was right now, but I could admit it was a place I wanted to get back to. “I do, Eamon. I really do.”
2 Truths and a Lie with Katherine and Eamon from Secrets of a (Somewhat) Sunny Girl
I’m so excited to be here today and let Katherine and Eamon, the main characters from Secrets of a (Somewhat) Sunny Girl, play Two Truths and a Lie. Katherine and Eamon met eleven years ago when she was studying abroad in Ireland. There was instant chemistry—as Katherine says, “The first time we did it, we were so hot for each other we didn’t even use a condom. We were half-naked in his front hall. I was out of my mind.” But their romance didn’t last long the first time. Katherine had to return to the U.S. Eamon left for his first world tour. Hearts were broken, big time.
Now they’re back together after a chance run-in in New York, and although they were recently engaged, there’s still a lot they don’t know about each other. Let’s begin!
Katherine: I already have my list. You know I plan for everything.
Eamon: I do know that much.
Katherine: Number one: I have never eaten a Big Mac. Number two: I’m terrified of spiders. Number three: I lost my virginity to a guy with the name Eamon.
Eamon: Are you joking with me right now?
Katherine: I can’t answer that.
Eamon: Were you really a virgin when we met?
Katherine: This isn’t Twenty Questions. Make a guess.
Eamon: (grumbles) The one about spiders has to be true. You don’t seem like a woman who would do well with those. And I don’t want to think that you’ve never had a Big Mac, but I suppose it’s possible. Number three has to be the lie. You were not a virgin when we met.
Katherine: Wrong. I’m ambivalent about spiders, Big Macs do not excite me, and I did lose my virginity to a guy with the name Eamon.
Eamon: You’re lying.
Katherine: It was his middle name. His first name was James. His mom was Irish. Eamon was her father’s name.
Eamon: You cheated. And how long have you been waiting to tell me this?
Katherine: I did not cheat. I just very carefully worded my statement. And I thought you would think it was a cute coincidence.
Eamon: I don’t want to think about James Eamon who took your virginity.
Katherine: Believe me, I don’t either. Your turn.
Eamon: Number one: I was at the top of my class in secondary school. Number two: I broke my leg in a motorcycle accident when I was thirteen. Number three: my favorite candy is black licorice.
Katherine: This seems like a trap. If I say the first one isn’t true, you’ll never forgive me.
Eamon: No hints. It’s not like you helped me.
Katherine: This is hard. I can totally see you breaking your leg in a motorcycle accident. You seem like the type who would like black licorice. You probably like black jellybeans, too. (shudders) So I guess I’ll say that the one about school is the lie. I bet you were in the top 25% of your class though.
Eamon: Nice job hedging your answer.
Katherine: But did I get it right?
Eamon: No. You did not. I was top in my class. Despite my musician ways, my mam was a schoolteacher and wouldn’t take anything less of me. She also did not want me to get the motorcycle I broke my leg riding. And I despise black licorice. Vile stuff.
Katherine: Wow. I was not top in my class. Not even close.
Eamon: It’s not a competition. And I don’t love you any less for it.
Katherine: Good.
Eamon: Might take me a while to come to terms with James Eamon and your virginity though.
Karen Booth is a midwestern girl transplanted in the South, raised on ‘80s music and repeated readings of Forever by Judy Blume. An early preoccupation with rock ‘n’ roll led her to spend her 20s working her way from intern to executive in the music industry. When her kids came along, she traded late nights for early mornings, writing contemporary romance and women’s fiction. Karen was a finalist for RT Magazine’s Series Romance of the Year and Gold Seal of Excellence, and the 2018 National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award. Her books have been translated into seventeen languages.
Connect with Karen: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest
Giveaway: Win a signed print set of Karen Booth’s three Romantic Women’s Fiction novels: Secrets of a (Somewhat) Sunny Girl, Bring Me Back and Back Forever, or 1 of 2 e-copies of Bring Me Back!
About Bring Me Back:
Nearly forty, Claire Abby had thought life would be a whole lot smoother by now. Single parenting her college-bound daughter is trying, her journalism career is fading, her sister’s a handful, her dad is worse, and her mom has been gone so long it’s hard to remember what it was like when she was here.
So it’s both a lucky break and a jaw-dropping distraction when Claire lands an interview with British rock star Christopher Penman. Claire spent her teenage years fantasizing he was her boyfriend. In person, Chris is everything Claire feared—off-the-charts sexy, ridiculously charming, and utterly nerve-wracking. He’s not about to discuss the rumors he’s dodged for a decade. She must earn his trust and unearth the truth, but she never banked on the heartbreaking secret behind it.
His blockbuster story is her first priority when she returns home, a nearly impossible task when Christopher starts calling. And flirting. There’s no denying his wit or his buttery British accent, and once she agrees to see him, it’s beyond anything her teenage brain ever imagined. But when Christopher’s painful past repeats itself, can Claire smooth out her life and save the man she could never forget?
