We’re delighted to welcome Marcella Bell to our blog to chat all about her new book, Snowbound in Her Boss’s Bed.

If you love spicy romances featuring the workplace romance and forced proximity tropes, you will love this festive read!

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They say that art imitates life. Well, even though I’ve never been snowbound in a luxurious Aspen chalet, when it comes to Snowbound in Her Boss’s Bed, the maxim most definitely holds true.

Much like the heroine of Snowbound in Her Boss’s Bed, Miriam Howard, I didn’t grow up celebrating Hanukkah. In fact, my oldest child was old enough to sing the blessings herself before my understanding of the Festival of Lights expanded beyond what I’d gleaned from the picture book, Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins (and given that ‘don’t try to take more than one pickle from the jar at a time,’ was my biggest takeaway, I’m not even sure it was Hanukkah I walked away with an understanding of).

But, also like Miriam, in real life, I fell in love with and married a Jewish man.

Like the hero of the book, Benjamin Silver, my real life partner (Josh) wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about celebrating the holiday in the early years of our relationship.

Fortunately, for us, we had his mum’s side of the family – the Golds (to whom this book is dedicated) – to get us in line. They brought the brightness of Hanukkah into our lives, and more importantly, cracked through the barrier that stood between us and more fully celebrating and embracing Josh’s rich heritage in our daily lives.

The crack let some light in. (Are you sensing a theme here?)

That was years ago, now, and in the time since, we’ve embraced Hanukkah and the rest of the annual cycle of Jewish holidays and observances. It hasn’t all been bright and easy, though.

A side effect of turning a light on is that it has a tendency to reveal what’s hiding in the shadows. Actively celebrating my husband’s Jewishness grew my awareness of the ubiquitous insidiousness of antisemitism. Like the rest of the isms, antisemitism is subtle if you have never learned to watch for it. It is everywhere, from the way Jewish people and traditions are depicted in media, to conspiracy theories, to phrases people use every day.

When antisemitism reached out to touch my children, I realised it was not enough to celebrate and observe. In order to learn more, like Miriam, I attended the joining classes my local reform synagogue offered.

And later, while brainstorming the holiday romance I wanted to write – already knowing I wanted it to be a snowed-in forced proximity romance (perhaps because my own husband proposed when we were snowed-in at a decommissioned forest fire lookout tower?) – I realised that I had an opportunity to do more.

I could pay forward the crack that let a little more light into my own life. I could share Hanukkah.

What better holiday than Hanukkah to bring two unlikely people together to fall in love than an eight day holiday celebrating a miraculously enduring flame under siege? As far as romantic premises go, the setup is practically built in.  And while I love a good Christmas romance, when you’re looking for the kind of miracle that is two strangers falling in love, it’s nice to have more than just a couple days to work with.

My book is insignificant in the face of the diversity of Jewish experience and history and the writing and representation of it (which I encourage exploration of), but by sharing Benjamin and Miriam – and through them, aspects of my own family and learning – I hope that I have not only contributed to a universe of holiday romance that I adore, but also did a small part to undermine the force of antisemitism in the world.

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Snowbound in Her Boss’s Bed by Marcella Bell

By Lauren Gardiner