Love & Lobsters by Shannon Parker is LIVE & sounds like so much fun!!

Love & Lobsters <— SMALL TOWN ROMANCE ALERT!!! HER POST GOES VIRAL… Love & Lobsters IS LIVE and the author is celebrating by sponsoring today’s newsletter, and we have fun facts and an excerpt!!

The author says:

Lobsters don’t mate for life. Nope, not a thing. (Sorry, Phoebe Buffay!!). Lobsters are fiercely independent and territorial—traits that female lobsterman Charlotte (Charlie) Pinkham understands. Despite her fierce love of community, her bestie, and her grandmother, Charlie doesn’t think romantic love is worth the risk. Until an irresistible renter shows up at her family’s lighthouse.

So what’s it about?

Female lobsterman Charlie Pinkham is content with her seaside life in Christmas Cove, Maine.

Single and surrounded by friends and community, Charlie has always been more comfortable braving the bold Atlantic rather than diving into the messy business of romance. When she writes a post for her bestie’s Happily Ever Holidays blog, Charlie’s decidedly unromantic piece goes viral. Readers connect with lobster behavior, and how they’re hardwired to protect themselves from their own species—a trait Charlie respects.

Because love hurts.

Still, she can’t quell her growing interest in Logan, the mysterious and definitely unavailable man renting her family’s lighthouse for the month of December. Charlie looks for distraction by DMing a stranger online, and organizing Christmas Cove’s first annual holiday festival.

But as her Love & Lobsters posts explore the ways lobsters display trust, commitment, mating rituals, and sexy time, Charlie must decide if plunging into uncharted waters is worth the risk.

“Fun facts” about the book:

· In lobster love, females have all the power

· Lobsters spend a lot of time on the sexy time

· The setting of Christmas Cove, Maine has major Stars Hollow vibes—and its a real place!

· Main character Charlie Pinkham is crustily likeable, endearingly awkward. Her bestie relationship is #BestFriendGoals

· A “Cotton Candy” lobster has a pearlescent shell, shiny with iridescent pinks and baby blues. Chances of finding her are 1-in100-million (about as rare as finding a once-in-a-lifetime love!).

· Love is literally everywhere in this slow-burn, cozy feel-good love story.

· Bonus: There may or may not be a 50-foot Christmas tree made of green lobster traps for a holiday festival.

TROPES in this book:

There might be some:

• Irresponsible fantasies
• Lobster wisdom you didn’t know you needed until now
• #BestFriendGoals
• Maine mystique
• Badass women
• Nerdy dudes who are too sexy for anyone’s good
• Laugh out loud banter
• Spicy spice
• Swoony sunrises
• Unforgettable love
• Cozy feels that will have you reaching for hot cocoa

Also: Sneak peek first chapter and a lobster love blog post available at https://loveandlobters.com

AND check out the awesome fun package giveaway with all sorts of goodies, including a signed book (of course!! 😃:

Spread the love and enter Love & Lobsters giveaway. https://loveandlobsters.com/share-the-love (it’s a rafflecopter!! I love those). 😀

Spread the love by entering to win:

• a jute tote
• signed copy of the novel Love & Lobsters
• ‘breathe’ lemongrass chill candle
• six chocolate bars, including sea salt
• blue lobster coffee beans
• two lobster-themed chowder mugs
• a lobster plushie buddy
• painted wooden buoy
• blue lobster tree ornament with “seas the day” charm

EXCERPT: (Ooooh guys! I think this is the “post” she writes, that goes viral)

“Lobsters pee in each other’s faces to communicate. We need to do better.” <— 😂 😂 🤣

In lobster love, females have all the power.

Female lobsters initiate mating, and many can take or leave the mating rituals altogether. In fact, if there are no males in the vicinity, nearly three quarters of female lobsters won’t mate at all because, why bother? It’s all an enormous hassle.

Female lobsters will only make themselves vulnerable for the right male lobster because their commitment is a big one. Unlike their male counterparts, female lobsters need to shed their shell to mate, becoming so fully defenseless that they’re wise to interrogate their options in the sea. If the men aren’t bringing it, the females wait.

And wait.

Now, sure. They’re waiting for things that might seem shallow to us, like a male lobster with the finest home: an enclave mansion of hardscrabble rock on the seabed floor, his dwelling covered in fine sediment and organisms and perhaps some ornamental shells scattered for decoration. His den excites the female because his fine digs are evidence of his alpha status, that he’s fought hard and overcome his rivals to keep the keys to his swank, spacious mancave under the sea. The female lobster isn’t playing coy when she cruises in front of the male’s patch of rocky ocean bottom, hanging around, being her beautiful female self, wearing her irresistible lobster perfume made of pheromones and promises. She’s deciding.

The male needs to wait for the female to be ready.

He must hole up during her rousing drive-bys until she’s prepared to commit.

If she likes what she sees, she’ll pee in his general direction. From her face. Don’t judge. You can google the details, but that’s the gist. And this is the lobster’s dance.

If and when the female enters the male lobster’s shelter, she holds out her claws with the tips pointed downward as if waiting for the male to put a ring on it.

He doesn’t.

Instead of a gemstone presented in a collection box, the male and female actually box.

The male jabs to determine where the female’s shell has become hollow, estimating how long it will take her to molt, as if assessing how much effort he’ll need to commit to foreplay. He is, after all, a male.

The female jabs to loosen her shell.

To humans, it might look like a violent form of undressing, but the lobster couple is building trust, the consenting pair displaying what looks like aggression all while kicking up sand and water, stirring movement that aerates their shared den and broadcasts their love.

He’s hers.

She’s his.

For now.

Because no female lobster has ever redecorated her cozy little nest on the sandy bottom to make room for a long-term partner, just as no male lobster will give up his sea bottom mantuary to let a lady love move in permanently.

Don’t get me wrong, lobsters can be found together, just not together together. Female lobsters entertain males for sexy time then leave to carry around thousands of eggs (ten thousand for every pound of their weight, if you’re counting) until they feel safe enough to release the fruits of their coupling to the wild. The female chooses her timing for mating and her time to bring forth the next generation. She is in control.

A female will only enter a male’s den if it serves her.

The behaviors of a female lobster can help us to ask questions of our own choices, like: What are our needs for a mate? A partner? What are the spaces in which we build trust? And how long should our courtships run?

Recently, I’ve had a front row seat to watching someone dear to me surrender to romantic love. My grandmother had identified her male decades ago, but couldn’t initiate coupling because of a number of factors, like having to unexpectedly care for me. Life events prevented her from entering her male’s den, but still, she was there, inviting him into romantic trust. She kept her respectable distance from a man she loved because she prioritized the den she’d made with me, a singular ecosystem that couldn’t make space for a love interest.

Now, long after any reproductive imperative has expired for this couple, they’ve made room for their love, surrendering to its magnetic pull. They’ve agreed to shed their hardened skins for each other, becoming more vulnerable in their journey to become closer. Through this process, they’ve emerged stronger. She has dipped her claw to him and he will put a ring on her finger.

Their future den is unknown.

I’m certain their cohabitation will kick up lots of gritty, lonesome feelings within me, fine as grains of sand, but her likely move to a new den makes room in my den, and I am a female.

I have all the power.

I can stay here alone, or break with tradition and let someone inside. A partner to box with, trust with, explore. Because time is a constant. Days and years and decades will move past us and our needs and wants and insecurities at breakneck speed, spitting us out on the other side of our prime, forcing us to look around our den to consider if we made the right choices along the way.

Did we take the risks that may not have been risks at all? Grab hold of the opportunities to grow into our best selves? With someone else?

And have those choices made all the difference?

Also: Sneak peek first chapter and a lobster love blog post available at https://loveandlobters.com