It's the long-awaited moment where I can finally share the details of what Proud Mary IS ABOUT, and Y'ALL! I'm pumped!
I'm so bad at secrets, but this whole marketing requires a sense of mystique sometimes... (Don't they know I'm not built for mystique!?)
I've spent the last few days getting the book into shape for beta readers, and I finally got them the full draft YESTERDAY! It's a very behind-the-scenes milestone but a milestone nonetheless! So I'm taking a moment to breathe. The beta comments are already coming in and giving me life (and adding to my to-do list, let's be real 😅)!
ANYWAY, you've all been such patient potatoes, so I will shut up and present to you: THE BIG, BEAUTIFUL BLURB REVEAL!
DRUMROLL PLEASE...
[Proud Mary blurb reveal graphic]
If that graphic is too small for your eyes, here's the text version:
If she’s too much, why can’t he get enough?
Sappy love stories weren’t written for women like tattoo artist Mary Medeiros. She’s too sensitive. Too stubborn. Too much. Single by choice at thirty-eight, she’s made a life on her own terms—and made peace with shutting most people out. If only she could shut out the insufferable firefighter who’s spent the last fourteen years needling her at every opportunity.
Fighting fires for a living didn’t stop Gus Shepherd’s dreams from going up in smoke. Divorced before thirty, he feels like a failure in hero’s clothing—the family man without a family of his own. On the outside, he’s the guy everyone relies on, but beneath the surface, he’s haunted by self-doubt… and a smoldering desire for the one woman who gets under his skin.
When Mary gets roped into house-sitting over Christmas on Gus’ uniquely festive cul-de-sac, it only reignites old frustrations—and getting snowed in together stirs those embers into a raging fire. But, as an unnerving string of arsons unfolds in small-town Lennox Valley, their tenuous connection may be what burns them both.
Proud Mary is the fourth and final book in the Lennox Valley Chronicles series. It features mature content intended for readers aged 18 and up.
And seeing as the blurb gives us a lot of the juicy trope scoop, I figured I might as well share said juicy tropes at the same time. So here they are, along with other key details (including archetypes and representation, which aren't technically tropes but often get lumped in):
[Proud Mary tropes & details reveal graphic]
Once again, to save your eyeballs, here's the tropes list too! (Not everything fit on the fancy shmancy graphic, but here's the full list!)
👨🚒 Firefighter/golden retriever MMC Tattoo artist/black cat FMC 😏 Grumpy/sunshine ⚔️ Dislike to love ❤️🩹 Divorced MMC ↔️ Age gap (she’s 9 years older) ❄️ Snowed in at Christmas 🥵 Medium burn 💬 Bitchy banter 🔥 Suspenseful subplot 🧠 SPD representation 🌶️ Open door spice 🏙 Smallish town 👥 Dual POV
I'll be revealing the blurb and tropes/etc on Instagram Wednesday this week (August 5th) and I would LOVE your help hyping up Proud Mary! To make that easy for ya, I've created some graphics for you to share if you'd like to help spread the word! FUCK YEAH!EASY FREE THINGS!? Right here, babes.
This folder contains Instagram-sized posts in 3 different colors, one each for the blurb and tropes/etc. It also has story-sized versions, including one that has a spot to put the link sticker.
The link is included in that folder (see the "Proud Mary Info Sheet" document), or you can copy it from right here:
And if you click the link (above or from the button below here), it'll take you to your local Amazon, where you can pre-order. And if you do that? Well, you get extra forehead kisses forever and ever, amen. 😘😘😘
I've gone and done yet ANOTHER Instagram live with my girl KVB and we had a great time talking about everything AUDIOBOOKS. We even posed for five whole seconds to get this cute still frame right. DID WE DO A GOOD JOB!?
[Screenshot from Instagram LIVE with Hannah Brixton (above) and Katie Van Brunt (below), both smiling like nerds]
If you'd like to re-watch the Live, I'll link it below, along with the rest of the Lives we've done in this series. We're gonna keep going with these, approximately every couple of weeks, so please do send us your topic ideas and join us if you can!
Zach Almardon knows the first rule of goaltending: stop the puck. He can do that with his eyes closed. The second rule of hockey: don't date your teammates' sisters, or exes, or daughters. Easy. Until he meets Mackie Anderson.
Mackie Anderson knows hockey. Who wouldn't with an alternate-captain, 20-year NHL veteran for a father? But she also knows the quiet backup goalie who's been riding the bench for two years is something special.
There's just one problem: when Zach finally works up the nerve to ask her out, he has no idea who her father is.
By the time he finds out, it's too late. He's already falling.
Now they're sneaking around, stealing moments between practices and games, pretending they're not completely obsessed with each other. Zach knows the risks—his spot on the team, his found family, everything he's worked for. Mackie knows them too.
But when a teammate's meltdown thrusts Zach into the starting position during playoffs, the pressure becomes unbearable. Add a secret relationship, a best friend who's getting suspicious, and a father who will destroy everything if he finds out?
Zach's about to learn that the hardest save of his career won't happen on the ice.
Adeline is a real-life Mulan when it comes to the entire university experience: top-tier classes, a record of volunteer work that could win awards, impressive internships, her own band, a secure part-time job, amazing friends who have become her family away from home…you name it, she has it. She’s hoping to gain new experiences through the new position for the university’s ice hockey team she applied for. Easy enough…until she discovers that avoiding the infuriatingly arrogant team captain she can’t seem to get along with is part of the new experience. Or a whole new experience altogether.
Worst of all, his coach has asked her to mentor him for volunteer work at the university.
Adeline knows she is capable of overcoming more than one hockey-sized obstacle in her one-man race to graduation, but Joshua Lancaster is a complication she never planned for. And one she can’t quite ignore.
Beneath his bravado, skills, and swagger, she’s beginning to see the guy with dreams bigger than the rink…and maybe the one thing she didn’t realize she’s been yearning for all along.
Joshua Lancaster
Joshua’s destination after graduation has been mapped out: Return to Canada to play in the NHL. Becoming team captain is the immense boost he’s been waiting for, especially in pursuing his dream of promoting hockey in Australia and showing the world that there is hockey potential in Australia. He did not expect the brilliant, sharp-tongued new staff member to slice straight through his focus like a sword.
Adeline Chen rattles him in ways no rival ever has. Even the most formidable opponents on the ice are no match for her boldness and energy. Her confidence, her fire, her unshakable drive. Everything about her pulls him toward a world beyond hockey, one he never imagined wanting to venture into. And he’s ready to prove to her she’s never a distraction; she’s the one thing he’d drop his gloves to protect.
She’s not a game like the hundreds of them he plays annually.
She’s endgame. His forever.
He is willing to throw down his Ace and let her Queen card rule.
Proud Mary COVER REVEAL! 🎉 My lovely newsies! This is my second-favorite newsletter to send (next to the one I'll send on pub day before immediately happy-dancing into the sunset), because it's the MOTHERFUCKING COVER REVEAL, Y'ALL! Footage of me right now: [little girl excited with cotton candy GIF] Cover reveal day gets me SO PUMPED. It makes the book feel real, it makes readers scream at me (lovingly), and it's just plain EASY ON THE EYES. After using a temporary cover (a few versions) for...
ARC SIGN-UPS ARE OPEN! 🎉 My lovely babes! Today's the DAY! You've read the blurb, you've seen the tropes, and now you can SIGN UP FOR AN ARC! 🏃♀️ [ARC readers wanted for Proud Mary by Hannah Brixton - trope graphic] Apply for an ARC! Proud Mary is unique in my series in that it overlaps in timeline with Sweet Caroline (well, it has a more substantial overlap than the tiny one between Hey Jude/Jesse's Girl, anyway). In fact, it picks up in the middle of Miles' struggle with depression (and...
On taking a fucking shower & 30k Quinn listens! 🥳 Hellooo lovely humans, What's it like writing sexy romance novels? MUST BE SEXY, you say. WELL, DEAR READER, YOU ARE WRONG. Look, I'm not proud of this. I can clean up alright. I can be all fancy and put together, but is that my norm? Hellllll no. I have described myself at various points during the writing process as a disgusting troll, a gross gremlin, a lumpy potato, and a greasy goblin. Basically, I am bringing it. [Dylan Moran in Black...
