With Love by Alexa Randolph 💕 Behind the Scenes, Series Tour & Gift Card Giveaway 💕 (Contemporary Romance)

Thursday, October 10, 2019

With Love by Alexa Randolph 💕 Behind the Scenes, Series Tour & Gift Card Giveaway 💕 (Contemporary Romance)

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Ella Chambers was a top event planner in New York, about to marry the man of her dreams. Daniel Collins was the quarterback for the Giants, on his way to winning his first ever Super Bowl. Life couldn’t get any better when they both said those three words to each other and planned to spend the rest of their lives together.
Until one perfect day came crashing down around them when they hear the three words no one wants to hear: You have cancer.

Now instead of dresses, flowers, and invitations, they’re dealing with doctors appointments, tests, and tears. Their love and strength will be tested and tortured, but they’ll fight with everything they’ve got to make it through.

Daniel and Molly are both lost in their own worlds. They recently lost the most important people in their lives. They are connected in so many ways but are complete strangers. They are barely hanging on, but a drunken encounter sends them over the edge of despair. Can they bring each other out of their misery, or will they continue to push each other away until it’s too late? Find out in the sequel to With Love, Ella, titled Daniel, Ever After.

I started writing With Love, Ella my Junior Year of College. On my holiday break I just had these ideas in my head. I knew how I wanted my characters to be including the names and what they looked like. I started with the character pages then went to outline how I wanted my book to play out.

For the first draft it took me around a year to write because I was still in school and had family issues so it took me a while to complete. It was such a crazy feeling that i started crying the minute it was done because I couldn't believe I had done it.

Once I graduated College i had decided to start sending it to agents to see what would happen. In that time, I had been out of town and was in a bad car accident. I had hoped that it would help take my mind off everything. In that time, I either heard “no” from agents, or nothing at all. I decided to research self-publishing.

During that time, I started working with a local editor and eventually a writing coach. It was the best thing that happened to me. I changed the story completely except for a few of the major points I wanted involved.

It felt like a completely different book and one I could be proud of. With the editing, book cover and writing coach sessions it was probably another year before I realized it was ready to be published. I once again gave agents another shot, but after months of research I decided it would be best for me to self-publish and I am so glad I did.

This book is my baby. I loved the name Ella for a long time and when I start having kids, I will name my daughter Ella. It is a special name for me and I feel like the characters are my family.

A few fun behind the scenes facts about With Love, Ella are I never even thought about being a writer. I had always wrote cards and letters to my family, but I just never thought about it as a degree pathway. One day I started writing this story and never looked back. I thought once I finished this book that it was a one and done, but my readers wanted more from the love story. I had some more to give and decided to write Daniel, Ever After.

The second book continues soon after the second to last chapter. With the last chapter being 5 years later I wanted it to be where someone could read the first one and know everything, but I also wanted it to be open ended if I ever decided to write another one.

I think it is such a cool feeling once you have read the second book because it will come full circle and it makes you feel like you have bonded with the characters.

Fun fact: My dad helped me come up with the title for Daniel, Ever After. I was originally going with, With Love, Daniel, but the minute I heard the other title from my dad I knew it was the one.

Ella and Daniel’s love story is one for the ages and I hope readers out there enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Daniel and Ella were waiting for their drinks when Marissa came up to them. They both inwardly groaned not wanting to deal with her and her drama that always seemed to follow. “Hello Ella, Hello Daniel,” Marissa said in her fake high-pitched voice. “Hello, Marissa. Enjoying the evening?” Daniel asked. “Yeah, it’s been fine. So, Daniel are you excited for the upcoming season?” “Yes, it will be great to get back into the routine. I have a good feeling about it.” “That’s great. Well, I can’t wait to come watch practice in a few weeks. I know you will do amazing.” “Practices are actually closed for family only, but you can always buy season tickets to watch the team,” Ella explained, trying to be as nice as possible, but getting annoyed. “Oh, I know, my cousin is the second string quarterback and was able to get me into a practice. It’ll be great.” Marissa said while putting her arm around Daniel. “Oh well, that’s nice. Daniel, I love this song. Let’s go dance,” Ella said, holding his hand.

“Sounds great babe.”

“Bye Marissa,” they said, walking away with their drinks in hand. Marissa just stood there glaring at Ella. What did she have that Marissa didn’t?

Ella and Daniel had been dancing for hours with their friends and family, having a great time. Ella really had to go to the bathroom so she dragged a giggling Julia, Daniel’s sister, with her to the bathroom. Marissa and her friend saw them go in so they decided to follow. She couldn’t let Ella get away with humiliating her in front of Daniel.

Alexa Randolph is the author of Daniel, Ever After, which follows With Love, Ella. “It was so fun to be able to watch my characters grow from my first novel to this one,” Alexa says of her contemporary romance novel. “My heart hurt when theirs did, and I felt like I was a part of their world.” You can always find her typing away at the keyboard, crafting romantic short stories or dreaming up characters and plots. Or you may find her blogging and helping to raise awareness for chronic pain. Not surprisingly, Alexa also loves to read the types of stories she writes and is especially fond of John Greene and romance novelist Nicholas Sparks. Alexa is a 2016 graduate of Michigan State University’s College of Communications; during college she was a regular contributor to the online blog, “The Odyssey.”