A Dream Within A Dream: Book/Author Feature + Giveaway: Chanel Cleeton

Hey everyone! Today I'm hosting author Chanel Cleeton on the blog to talk about her upcoming book, I See London. Don't forget to check out her guest post and then enter the giveaway!

I See London

Author: Chanel Cleeton

Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance

Release Date: February 3, 2014

Publisher: Harlequin HQN (Digital First)

Description:

Maggie Carpenter is ready for a change— and to leave her ordinary life in South Carolina behind. But when she accepts a scholarship to the International School in London, a university attended by the privileged offspring of diplomats and world leaders, Maggie might get more than she bargained for.

When Maggie meets Hugh, a twentysomething British guy, she finds herself living the life she always wanted. Suddenly she’s riding around the city in a Ferrari, wearing borrowed designer clothes and going to the hottest clubs. The only problem? Another guy, the one she can’t seem to keep her hands off of.

Half French, half Lebanese, and ridiculously wealthy, Samir Khouri has made it clear he doesn’t do relationships. He’s the opposite of everything Maggie thought she wanted…and he’s everything she can’t resist. Torn between her dream guy and the boy haunting her dreams, Maggie has to fight for her own happy ending. In a city like London, you never know where you stand, and everything can change in the blink of an eye.

This is a New Adult romance recommended for readers 17 and up.

Spring break in Paris

The first time I saw the Eiffel Tower at night, it took my breath away. It also made me cry. There was something about it— lit up like a Christmas tree— that overwhelmed me. Maybe it was what it represented, the fact that I was somehow in France, a country I’d been reading about since I was a kid. Most likely, it was the fact that I was this eighteen year-old girl who had grown up in a relatively small town, leading a relatively boring life. Until I started college.

When I started writing I SEE LONDON, it was a bit like traveling back in time. The book is inspired by the four years I spent living in London, attending an international university. In a lot of ways, that’s where the similarities end. Once I started writing, my characters took over (as they usually do). I share some things in common with my heroine, Maggie— like me she grew up in a small town, full of dreams of adventure. And like me, she was dazzled the first time she went to Paris, moved by the beauty of the Eiffel Tower.

Going to university in London was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. It is such an amazing city. Samuel Johnson, I think, said it best, “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London, all that life can afford.” I could have spent four years exploring London and still have stumbled across surprises. But one of the best things about going to college in England was the opportunity to travel to other countries for really cheap prices. Sometimes that resulted in creative transportation— like the time my friends and I took a bus to Paris (there was a ferry involved) or the flight on an airplane so cramped that we couldn’t read a magazine without hitting the seat in front of us. Regardless of how we got there, it was ALWAYS an adventure.

Writing about an international university in London gave me the opportunity to send my characters to Paris for spring break, Venice in the fall. It gave me a chance to relive some of my favorite trips and share my love of those cities with my readers.

Paris plays a special role in this trip; it is the city of love, after all :) Thanks to a cheap Eurostar ticket, Maggie and her friends take a trip to Paris that they’ll never forget. For Maggie, it’s a sign of how far she’s come— she’s living her dreams and figuring out what she wants. She’s awed by Paris, by the magic of it all. I can identify :)

At its heart I SEE LONDON is about following your dreams. For Maggie, her freshman year is a chance to reinvent herself, to build the life she’s always wanted. It’s a time for the kind of friendships that are often forged in adventure, for taking chances and for following her heart, and most of all it’s a time to be dazzled— by places, people, and possibilities.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing some behind-the-scenes info about I SEE LONDON, Chanel!

Originally a Florida girl, at seventeen Chanel moved to London to attend an international university. In the four years that followed, she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, learned how to dance, travelled through Europe, and made lifelong friendships. Chanel fell in love with London and planned to stay there forever. But fate intervened on a Caribbean cruise, when an American fighter pilot with smooth dance moves, swept her off her feet.

Now, a happily ever after later, Chanel is living her next adventure in South Korea. An avid reader and hopeless romantic, she is happiest curled up with a book. She has a weakness for handbags, puppy cuddles, and her fighter pilot husband. Chanel writes New Adult contemporary romances and Young Adult thrillers. Her New Adult debut, I SEE LONDON, will be released by Harlequin (HQN) on February 3, 2014, followed by a sequel, LONDON FALLING, later in the year.

AUTHOR LINKS:
Website: www.chanelcleeton.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorchanelcleeton
Twitter: www.twitter.com/chanelcleeton
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/chanelcleeton

BOOK ORDER LINKS:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1cQXjYm
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1khLGx1