Hi, I’m Marina Ford and over the next few days, I’ll be touring blogs to tell you about my new(ish) novel, Marry Him. I am so excited to tell you all about it!
It’s the story of Joe, a London artist whose life is a chaotic mess. He falls in love with Harry, a PR firm executive and an absolute king of organisation and neatness. When they first meet, they don’t get on (I mean, duh). But soon sparks fly and, well, so do their clothes. There’s a catch though. Harry has just come out of a long-term relationship with Kieran, whom his family and friends adore. Joe is Kieran’s opposite in every way, so he has his work cut out for him.
The story is told from Joe’s perspective, but here is a little glimpse at Harry’s side of the story, just before he first meets Joe. Ever felt like your family interferes too much in your life? Well, you’ll find Harry’s plight a stonker.
Oh, and don’t forget to follow my tour and comment! You could win a $15 Riptide voucher!
Enjoy! 🙂
Excerpt
Nobody mum-guilts like my mum mum-guilts. She’s the patent holder. One time, when I was eleven, she made me feel so guilty for not hugging her goodbye before setting off for a school trip, I mowed our neighbours’ lawns for a month to buy her a sweater from M&S by way of showing her that I did in fact, despite all evidence to the contrary, love her. It was a glittery, 1980s-style, hideous mess of a sweater, but she adored it.
She’s that good.
“So?” her voice went a little high pitched, a little brittle. “What do you think?”
She was only sixty, but she could make herself sound like ninety-five with just a slight wobble, a perfectly measured modulation of voice and breathing. This was especially effective over the phone, when I couldn’t see her right in front of me, sturdy as an ox.
“Let me see if I understand you,” I said. “You would like me to invite my ex-boyfriend to Christmas at our house.”
“Well?” she said. “Wouldn’t it be fun?”
“Has Auntie Fiona been feeding you her piña colada tarts again?”
“Don’t be silly. Besides, there’s barely any piña colada in those things.”
Last year, after five of those tarts, Auntie Fiona rushed out of the front door of my grandmother’s house in quiet, little Kilmacanogue, population 1 thousand, and yelled at the top of her lungs: “I am the queen of the village!”
“If you say so,” I muttered.
“Look,” my mum summoned my attention back to her. “Gammy is turning eighty five this year. She’s been so poorly recently, and terribly confused. All I want is for her to see how well everyone is doing. How everyone is taken care of so that she can be at peace. I thought it would be such a fabulous idea, to have everyone together, perhaps for the last time. Kieran wouldn’t want to miss that.”
“Mum. She’s had a whole month to get to terms with our break up. It would surely be more confusing to her if I turned up with him, than if I were alone.”
There was a pause on the other side.
“Mum?”
“About that…”
“You did tell her that we split up, didn’t you?” No response. “Hello?”
“I didn’t think it would last! I mean, you were together for so long, and we all like him so much, I was sure you would patch it up again. If there had been somebody else, of course, I would have told her immediately, but as it was…”
“I can’t believe you.”
“It didn’t seem worth the fuss! She would have worried about you. It would have been so distressing to her. She really loves Kieran, you know.”
I rubbed the bridge of my nose, trying to remind myself that this woman gave birth to me, and therefore deserved not to die at my hands.
She continued, “Do you really want her to be sad at Christmas, Harry? An eighty five year old woman? Your own Gammy?”
Out come the big guns.
“Do you really want her to spend perhaps the last Christmas of her life, worrying about you?”
“No,” I said, resigned.
Resistance, I knew, was absolutely futile. You might as well try and quarrel with the tides. As she continued to tell me how weak my grandmother was, and how much her health would suffer if I did not deliver her favourite to her, I googled diseases I could serendipitously contract to avoid going there for Christmas at all.
Maya, my assistant, walked past my door and I waved at her.
“Where is my one o’clock?” I mouthed. My mum wasn’t yet finished monologuing about Kieran’s health properties.
Maya shrugged. Artists. Shouldn’t have expected him to be on time. In fact, I’ve noticed this about them: the better the artist, the less comprehension about how appointments work do they have. By that calculation, I wouldn’t see this guy, Joe, until tomorrow.
Title: Marry Him by Marina Ford
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, Gay, Romance
Length: 284 pages/Word Count: 75,000
Summary:
It was meant to be a one-night stand, not “I do.”
Joe Kaminski likes to go with the flow, a good trait to have as a young artist living in London. His laidback approach to life makes him a fish out of water when he’s hired at P&B Designs, a high-powered PR agency. The money’s good, but with his poor planning skills, he doesn’t see it lasting.
Harry Byrne likes his life the same way he likes his PowerPoint presentations: structured. Known for his dynamic personality, Harry suffered a blow when his seven-year relationship fell apart, souring his mood. The last thing on his mind is getting into another relationship, especially with a man who can barely make it to the office on time.
They’re not even supposed to like each other. But five years later, Joe and Harry are getting ready to tie the knot. They should’ve known it was only a matter of time before everything starts to fall apart: obstructive friends, well-meaning but meddlesome family, a hovering ex, international incidents, fires, pregnancies, and an airport chase. It seems their “I do”s were doomed from the start.
Add to Goodreads.
Purchase Link: Riptide Publishing
Author Bio
Marina Ford is a thirty-three-year-old book addict, who would, if permitted, spend all of her time in bookstores, libraries, or in her own bed with stacks and stacks of books. Luckily, she has a husband and a dog, who force her to interact with humans of planet Earth from time to time. In fact, she so enjoyed falling in love with her husband that she can’t resist evoking those same feelings in the love stories she writes. She does not believe in love at first sight—but she does believe in the happy ever after, though it must be earned. She likes her stories to be light, since real life can be miserable enough without making up more of it in fiction.
She lives in England, loves rain (gives one an excuse to stay at home and read books, right?), long walks (when it doesn’t rain), history, Jane Austen, the theatre, languages, and dogs. It is her dream to one day possess an enormous country house in which each room is a library (okay, maybe except for the kitchen), and in which there are more dogs than people. A smaller and perhaps more realistic dream is to make people smile with the things she writes.
Author Link: Goodreads
Giveaway
To celebrate this release, one lucky person will win a $15 gift card to Riptide! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on March 7, 2020. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. For more chances to enter, follow the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!
Title: 
Bru Baker writes sophisticated gay romantic fiction with strong characters, real-world problems, and plenty of humor.
Title: 
Brien Michaels was hatched shortly before the turn of the century. He grew up in the DMV area and has been creating characters for as long as he can remember, starting with an imaginary friend named Farquad Beaverhausen. Before turning his considerably wicked imagination to writing, he was an actor, aspiring film student, movie theater concessionist, and the first human to enter the seventy-second dimension. Though it is unclear whether he made it back or if Farquad’s evil twin, Brad, has taken control of his body. He’s currently on the run from the Secret Police, who want to bring him in for questioning regarding the whereabouts of erotica authors L.A. Witt and Lauren Gallagher. If you encounter him, please contact his publishers immediately, as he likely should be chained to a desk writing and not out walking children in nature.
Title: 
Title: 
Amy Lane lives in a crumbling crapmansion with a couple of growing children, a passel of furbabies, and a bemused spouse. She’s been nominated for a RITA, has won honorable mention for an Indiefab, and has a couple of Rainbow Awards to her name. She also has too damned much yarn, a penchant for action-adventure movies, and a need to know that somewhere in all the pain is a story of Wuv, Twu Wuv, which she continues to believe in to this day! She writes fantasy, urban fantasy, and gay romance–and if you accidentally make eye contact, she’ll bore you to tears with why those three genres go together. She’ll also tell you that sacrifices, large and small, are worth the urge to write.