Avoiding My Merry Birthday is a Christmas and Holiday Festival pick #romance #scrooge #giveaway
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  • N. N. Light
    • Dec 15, 2023
    • 4 min read

Avoiding My Merry Birthday is a Christmas and Holiday Festival pick #romance #scrooge #giveaway



Title: AVOIDING MY MERRY BIRTHDAY

 

Author:  SONJA GUNTER

 

Genre: CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

 

Book Blurb: 

 

What is it like to have been born on December 24th, Christmas Eve?

 

Gloria White is celebrating her 35th birthday, but things go terribly wrong. Single and no love interest in sight, she leaves work only to find her car won’t start. When the tow truck arrives, Nick Klaaws, who she has known since grade school, is the driver.

 

She falls and hits her head. This is when she is visited by a ghost resembling her boss, Mr. SC Rouge. He takes her back in time to see that her soulmate has been in front of her, and she hasn’t seen him. The ghost Mr. SCRouge, takes her to two possible futures.

 

Once, back in real time, will Gloria be able to make the right choices for love?

 

Excerpt:

 

CHAPTER TWO

 

FIFTH-GRADE CHRISTMAS BREAK, TWENTYFOUR YEARS AGO

 

A bright light made Gloria spontaneously squeeze her closed eyes tightly. Throwing an arm across her forehead as an added shield, she groaned and tried to collect her thoughts.

 

It took a few moments before she remembered that today

was her birthday. Only one person, her mother, had sent her a

happy birthday wish text, which she received before she went

into work.

 

Work.

 

That’s right, she had closed the store with Mr. Rouge, and

they had walked out together. He reminded her to be on time in

the morning.

 

OMG, I’m late.

 

No, she couldn’t be. She hadn’t been home yet. Her mouth

tightened as the data she was processing became a dull ache of

uneasiness. It nestled deep within her as clarity refused to come.

Unable to focus, waves of thoughts after thoughts intertwined

and became more confusing.

 

Mental images of her folding clothes, blended into colors

streams. A red tow truck became bigger and bigger until it was

towering above her, and a Christmas wreath fell from its front

grill. It floated down over her.

 

No. No.

 

The warped visions sent threads of alarm through her.

Using a breathing technique from her long ago pilates

classes, she inhaled and held it for two seconds, before she

released it. Repeating the exercise until she could feel a calmness come over her and her jumbled brainwaves rightened themselves.

 

She could picture herself and Mr. Rouge, who had just reprimanded her on the importance of time and not checking in late.

 

He then walked away to his car, and she went to hers, but it

hadn’t started. She called Triple A and waited for the tow truck.

Then the bright colors and images faded. Everything went

blank and dark.

 

Her mind resisted any memory to come forward. The harder

she tried to remember, a piece would emerge and then disappear. The images were beyond her reach, gloating her to fail.

 

Irritated, Gloria bit her lower lip. If she couldn’t remember

anything, she had to figure out where she was and determine if

she had suffered any injuries. She ignored the thoughts that all

this was some sort of a dream.

 

She wiggled her fingers on her arm that shielded the now

nonexistent light from her eyes. Each finger moved without any

pain or problems. Satisfied, she removed her arm from her forehead, but kept her eyes shut. And as she did, Christmas music filtered into her mind.

 

That’s right.

 

Her thoughts were clearing again. The tow truck had come,

and the song, Jingle Bells, had been playing. She had been

standing next to her car and reached inside for her purse.

She’d fallen. Her head had hit the pavement.

 

OMG. Nick, Nick Klaaws, her old school friend was the tow

truck driver.

 

A long-ago emotion of delight emerged from the shadows of

her heart. Disinterested in to figuring out why they were

showing up now, she shoved them away.

 

If Nick had caught her, where had he brought her? To a

hospital? How much time had passed?

 

Minutes?

 

Hours?

 

Days?

 

Clinging to the flickers of reality, little by little, Gloria

opened her eyes. However, the fog that had covered her mind a

few minutes ago was now encompassing her. There was no

outline of her car or the tow truck. But she knew she wasn’t in

the mall parking lot or in a hospital room. She couldn’t see

anything around her even though her eyes were open.

 

A haziness now filled the area. If this was death or the afterlife it wasn’t what she’d expected. Dismissing the notion she’d died, she frowned.

 

Where was Nick? He’d been at her side and had come to

her aid.

 

Then she thought, of all the tow truck services, why his?


They hadn’t seen each other since her ex-fiancé had proposed. It

was odd that their paths hadn’t crossed in the two years she’d

been home until today. All of a sudden, her mind burned with a

rush of scenes of them together. Some were from long ago and

some she couldn’t remember ever happening.

 

Why was she thinking of him? It wasn’t like they’d ever

been boyfriend and girlfriend. They’d only kissed once and

there had been a spark, but nothing had come of it.

 

Had it been fate that had sent him to her? Or was it just a

coincidence that he was the tow truck driver sent to help her?

If that was the case, where was he, she required help.

 

“Nick? Hello, are you there?”

 

He didn’t answer. Gloria squinted, thinking that would help

see through the cloudy thickness. But it didn’t work. No shapes

emerged, or people.

 

“Help! Is there someone here?”

 

The sound of her cry pulsated through the fog into the

emptiness. She waited and waited. Still, no one came or

answered her.

 

I’m dead.

 

Considering the words, her mood changed abruptly to

anger.

 

No, I can’t.

 

She couldn’t be. Her denial sounded weak in her mind. Even

though she was a strong person, death usually had its own path.

“It couldn’t have come for me yet,” she repeated to herself.

 

Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Share a holiday family tradition:

 

Baking cookies with my mom.

 

Why is your featured book perfect to get readers in the holiday mood?

 

Brings on a new twist to a wonderful holiday story about Scrooge.

 

Giveaway –

 

One lucky reader will win a $75 Amazon gift card

 

 

Open internationally.

 

Runs December 1 – 31

 

Drawing will be held on January 2, 2024.

 


Author Biography:          

 

Born and raised in the cold and beautiful Minnesota, she escaped to Illinois for seventeen years to raise two boys, and now calls Florida home. She and her husband Andy, who’s always her hero, have a new family to worry about; Cookie, an Assui-Po dog and Chip, a ragdoll cat, that their sons compare to Eeyore.

 

She loves to travel, read, and bowl. You can catch her writing her next novel at the lanes. 

 

Sonja encourages you to visit www.sonjagunter.com for more info and don’t be surprised if she lets her Norwegian heritage come through in her stories.  You betcha!

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