Book Recommendation - To Spark a Match

 



In the Christian Fiction world, Jen Turano is the Queen of Comedy, bringing hilarious antics to the late 1800's American high society. I enjoy how she brings the society members down to earth like the rest of us and makes them not only fallible, but hysterical. This book is no different. Second in the Matchmakers series, it picks up with some of the side characters from the first book and fleshes out their story moving forward. Here's a bit about the book:

After five unsuccessful Seasons on the marriage mart, Miss Adelaide Duveen has resigned herself to the notion that she's destined to remain a spinster forever--a rather dismal prospect, but one that will allow her to concentrate on her darling cats and books. However, when she inadvertently stumbles upon Mr. Gideon Abbott engaged in a clandestine activity during a dinner party, Adelaide finds herself thrust into a world of intrigue that resembles the plots in the spy novels she devours.


Former intelligence agent Gideon Abbott feels responsible for Adelaide after society threatens to banish her because of the distraction she caused to save his case. Hoping to return the favor, he turns to a good friend--and one of high society's leaders--to take Adelaide in hand and turn her fashionable.


When danger surrounds them and Adelaide finds herself a target of the criminals in Gideon's case, the spark of love between them threatens to be quenched for good--along with their lives.


As a member of the launch team, I had access to a Q&A session. Here's how that went:


1.    1. During your unboxing video,  you told a story that had happened to you that made it into the opening scenes of this book, which had me in hysterics. I love when real life makes it onto the page. Can you recap that story for my readers?

 

It does seem as if a lot of somewhat unusual things happen to me, which has been great fodder to add into my stories. In “To Spark a Match,” I was finally able to include a completely ridiculous situation I experienced back in the days when I worked in a department store – for those of you who don’t know, I majored in fashion and worked for years in that industry before I had my son – but, anyways, here’s what happened.

 

Picture this – there I was, spending some time out on the floor because I loved interacting with customers but I was usually confined to my buying office. It quickly became clear that it was going to be a weird kind of day because as I went about the business of assisting male customers, all of them began acting somewhat oddly. They wouldn’t look me in the eye, mumbled answers to my questions, and then all but fled from me after they made their purchases. I thought that was somewhat unusual, but didn’t think much more about it until I ran across one of our most valuable customers – Donna. I moseyed right on up to her and told her that I had a tip to share because we’d just gotten a new line of DKNY in that morning, and I knew she’d want to take an early peek at the selections. Donna, bless her heart, didn’t miss a beat. She nodded, then stepped closer to me and told me that she had a bit of a tip for me and that, well, it appeared that I’d  gotten the hem of my skirt tucked into the top of my pantyhose and, if that wasn’t bad enough, I was wearing Minnie Mouse undies. Yep, it was no wonder the men were fleeing from me.

 

I’ve been dying to adapt that unfortunate circumstance into one of my stories and Adelaide was the perfect character to torture with a wardrobe mishap. Hahahaha. Thankfully, Adelaide was up for everything I threw at her and barely batted an eye when her hem got stuck in her bustle, giving everyone a gander at her undergarments that just happened to be embroidered with some rather strange looking cats.

 

2.    2. Adelaide has to be one of my favorite heroines. Besides being bookish and having a fondness for animals, she is also content with her spinster status. As a romance writer, what prompted you to write a story of a romance between a contented spinster and a confirmed bachelor?

 

It’s always fun to throw a wrench into a character’s steadfast plans, and what better wrench to throw than to take two people who are determined to never marry and place them into situations where sparks fly between them, which, of course, has them reconsidering the whole “I’m never getting married” business. 

 

3.     3. What was your favorite part of writing this book (or series)?

 

I really enjoyed digging up research on unusual weapons and then figuring out exactly how Adelaide was going to learn how to operate them.

 

4.   4.  What inspired this particular story line? 

 

I’ve always been a girl who’s perfectly fine being different, even a bit weird if the truth be told. Since I interact with a lot of young readers, many who don’t fit in with the norms of our times, I just wanted to write a heroine who is definitely an odd duck, but who is completely fine being exactly who she is. 

 

 

5.    5. Was there anything fun or interesting you learned while researching this book?

 

The most interesting thing I uncovered while writing this book was finding a grappling hook that shoots out of a pistol. I mean, who knew there was such a thing back in the 1800s?

 

 

6.    6. What do you hope readers will glean from this story?

 

That it’s okay to be different, and instead of trying to conform to how everyone else thinks you should be, you should simply embrace your idiosyncrasies and keep your head held high. 

 

7.    7. I really enjoyed the mystery element to this book. When you set out to write this one, did you have the villain figured out? Or did anything about that element change as you wrote?

 

Well, when I first started out, I thought I knew exactly who the villain was, or…villains. However, as I finished the first draft, I decided the plot was too convoluted, so went back and took out one of the villains, who may or may not show up in the third book of the series.

 

8.   8.  What are you working on next and when can we expect it?

 

I’m almost completely done with “Meeting Her Match,” the third and final book in the series. It comes out in July of 2024, and all I have left to do are copy/line edits and then final design pages, which are no big deal. I’ve also begun to write the first book in a new series – The Merriweather Academy for Young Ladies. It doesn’t have a title just yet, and in all honesty, the characters have yet to settle down and do what I want them to do. First books in a new series usually give me difficulties, but this is taking stubbornness to an entirely different level.

 

Thank you so much for having me join you today, Erin. Always a delight. 


Here's a bit about the author:

Jen Turano–Named One of the Funniest Voices in Inspirational Romance by Booklist, Jen Turano is a USA Today Best-Selling Author, known for penning quirky historical romances set in the Gilded Age. Her books have earned Publisher Weekly and Booklist starred reviews, top picks from Romantic Times, and praise from Library Journal. She’s been a finalist twice for the RT Reviewers’ Choice Awards and had two of her books listed in the top 100 romances of the past decade from Booklist. When she’s not writing, she spends her time outside of Denver, CO. Readers may find her at www.jenturano.com or www.facebook.com/jenturanoauthor or on Twitter @JenTurano.

This book releases November 14, 2023, wherever books are sold. 

For additional information, check out the following links:

Jen Turano's website: https://jenturano.com/

Jen Turano's facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/jenturanoauthor

My full 5-star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5904052034

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