Home For the Challah Days
Holidays, Heart and Chutzpah Book 1
by Jennifer Wilck
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Options:
Turning
the bitterness of the past…
Into
a sweet future!
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Aaron wiped the counter with a rag, scrubbing so hard he wouldn’t be surprised if he wore a hole in the old Formica. Easing the rag away from the superclean area, he placed a piece of wax paper on the counter and grabbed two slices of rye bread. The din of the packed deli faded into the background.
Sarah Abrams.
His stomach clenched. Of all the people to walk into his deli, he’d never expected her. He’d hoped at one time that she’d change her mind and decide this is where she belonged. Dreamed about her for longer than he’d like to admit—how her long, dark hair brushed his chest when she leaned over and kissed him, how her soft lips teased his, how her olive skin slid smoothly beneath his hands. He’d even broken an engagement with another woman because he couldn’t get Sarah out of his head. But expected? It had been ten years.
“I asked for pumpernickel,” the wizened old man complained across the counter.
Aaron looked at the sandwich, swore under his breath and threw the rye slathered in mustard in the trash.
“Gloria!” He shouted down the line toward an older woman with a brown apron covering her T-shirt and jeans. She patted the shoulder of the woman she was speaking to and strode over.
“Yeah?”
His six-foot frame towered over her, and she craned her neck to meet his gaze.
“Can you take over for me? He wants…” He turned to the customer. Age and disappointment conspired to make the old man resemble a shar-pei. Aaron shook his head and ushered Gloria forward. “Sorry, she’ll make your sandwich. And it’s on the house.”
Wiping his hands on his apron, he weaved through the staff behind the counter. When he reached his tiny office tucked in the back, he shut the door and sank into the rickety-wheeled desk chair. He ground his teeth until his jaw ached. Other parts of his body used to ache when he was around Sarah in high school and college. They’d been inseparable. Her smile, with the one tooth a little crooked in the front, brightened any bad day. Her husky voice soothed him. Now, though?
Disappointment simmered. She’d promised him forever and broken his heart, walking away from this town—from him—without a thought for the people she’d left behind.
What inspired you to write this book?
An agent who I was pursuing at the time wanted me to write a “Jewish romance” after hearing I had published others. She didn’t give me any instructions other than that. So, I did, coming up with a small, diverse town and the people who populated it. I made the hero’s family deli one of the pillars of the community, and the heroine someone who went away but was drawn home despite her dreams of making it in Washington, DC. The agent didn’t end up wanting the book, so I started shopping it around. I got bites from editors, but it was never quite right for them. After lots of revisions and work with my critique partners, I tried one last time for an agent. This time, I found one who loved it! She had me make some minor adjustments, shopped it around, and almost immediately found its home with Harlequin Special Edition. The editor there liked it so much, she asked for two more books, turning it into a three-book Jewish romance series.
What can we expect from you in the future?
Home for the Challah Days comes out Aug. 22 and takes place during the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, our day of atonement. The next book in the series, Matzah Ball Blues, comes out in April 2024, just in time for Passover, and the third book in the series, as yet untitled, comes out in November 2024 for Hanukkah. I was also asked by Harlequin to write a Jewish romance for Harlequin’s Fortunes of Texas series, and that should come out in the winter of 2024 as well.
Do you have any “side stories” about the characters?
I wanted to make the small town in Home for the Challah Days as diverse as possible. I want it filled with immigrants, people of various religions, backgrounds, and races, and I didn’t want to make anything stereotypical. Plus, I wanted to show all of the side characters dealing with real-life issues, even issues that are tough to handle or unexpected in a romance—like antisemitism, racism, crime, etc,—but show how things could be if we work together.
With so many different people, I was able to add multi-generational people into the families, and the grandmother was one of the most fun characters to create. She has no filter and provides a lot of the comedy in the story.
Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Home for the Challah Days?
Sarah Abrams lives in DC and has a job working to better the Jewish community. Her boyfriend, who wants to marry her, is an up-and-coming political lobbyist, who tries to mold her into what he wants. She tries to convince herself that he’s her future. When he proposes, she’s unsure, so she goes home for the Jewish New Year and tells him she’ll give him her decision when she returns.
Aaron Isaacson is Sarah’s high school sweetheart and still lives in Sarah’s hometown. His entire life is tied to his hometown and his family. He’s taken over his family business and takes his responsibility very seriously. His heart broke when Sarah left for DC, he’s resistant to change, and he takes care of others.
How did you come up with the concept and characters for the book?
I like to think the book is a cross between Gilmore Girls and Crossing Delancey. I wanted a Jewish book that wasn’t “another Hanukkah book,” even though I write those, too, and enjoy them. But there are other Jewish holidays that are just as much fun to write about, and that’s what I was trying to do with this story.
Where did you come up with the names in the story?
I wanted the characters to have Jewish Biblical names so readers could identify them as such from the very beginning.
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
I love the relationship between Sarah and Aaron, as well as the family relationships. Aaron’s grandmother and her friends in the senior center were so much fun to write. They’re sweet and comical and meddlesome. And I enjoyed tackling the antisemitism issue because with the way the world is today, I think it’s important to address, even in a romance.
Jennifer Wilck is an award-winning contemporary romance author for readers who are passionate about love, laughter, and happily ever after. Known for writing both Jewish and non-Jewish romances, her books feature damaged heroes, sassy and independent heroines, witty banter and hot chemistry. Jennifer’s ability to transport the reader into the scene, create characters the reader will fall in love with, and evoke a roller coaster of emotions, will hook you from the first page. You can find her books at all major online retailers in a variety of formats.
Jennifer started telling herself stories as a little girl when she couldn’t fall asleep at night. Pretty soon, her head was filled with these stories and the characters that populated them. Even as an adult, she thinks about the characters and stories at night before she falls asleep or walking the dog. Eventually, she started writing them down. Her favorite stories to write are those with smart, sassy, independent heroines; handsome, strong and slightly vulnerable heroes; and her stories always end with happily ever after.
In the real world, she’s the mother of two amazing daughters and wife of one of the smartest men she knows. She believes humor is the only way to get through the day and does not believe in sharing her chocolate.
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