'Regardless of gender, anyone looking for a heart warming, funny rural novel, you are going to LOVE, I repeat LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these books.' 

Danielle Hawkins grew up on a sheep and beef farm and later studied veterinary science. After graduating as a vet Danielle met a very nice dairy farmer who became her husband.

Danielle spends two days per week working as a large animal vet and the other five as a housekeeper, cook and general dogsbody. She has two small children and when she is very lucky, they nap simultaneously and she can write. She is the author of critically acclaimed novel Dinner at Rose’s.

REMINDER:

Remember to share, tweet, retweet, mention any of these posts on Facebook and Twitter using the tag #bushchristmas and you'll go into the draw for a $75.00 Booktopia voucher.

Leave a comment here for your chance to get a Christmas Card direct from Danielle, or maybe a free book from the giveaway pile.

In your own words tell us a little about your new release …

Chocolate Cake for Breakfast is about Helen McNeil, a large-animal vet who happens to first fall over and then fail to recognise one of the more famous All Blacks while escaping from a very dull girl at a party. And then, to her vast surprise, he turns up at the front counter of the vet clinic to ask her out. It's partly about vet-stuff, and partly about what it's like to be attached to someone famous.

What was the idea/the revelation/the ‘kicking off point’/the impetus for writing this particular novel?

I started with the idea of how it might feel to be a perfectly ordinary girl, and to find yourself going out with a guy whose topless picture is on the lunchroom wall at work. I made my famous guy an All Black because New Zealand doesn't have many other celebrities. (At which point I realised I didn't know anything at all about rugby, so I started reading my husband's rugby magazines for research.)

And I thought it would be fun to write about some of the things I do as a vet, as opposed to the things I thought vets did before I was one.

What is your funniest ‘real life’ Christmas story?

This isn't my story, it's Grandma's, but I've always liked it.

Forty-odd years ago, my grandmother had a brilliant idea and decided to buy all her sisters-in-law and nieces nice knickers for Christmas. She rushed into town, where she selected a dozen little lacy numbers and one pair of armour-plated granny pants for Aunty Joan, who had a fuller figure. And it never occurred to her, until they all unwrapped and displayed their presents, that this may not have been the world's most tactful move.

Best Christmas present you’ve ever received?

An AG 100 motorbike that my sister and I got together from Mum and Dad, when I was twelve and she was ten.

Worst Christmas present you’ve ever received?

A box of sugar-free carob drops. I have a feeling they were expired, too.

Best Christmas present you’ve ever bought for someone else?

Um. Gift selection is not my strong point. My husband says the illustrated historical atlas of '06 was pretty cool.

Bree over at One Girl Too Many Books (I love this book review blog) gave 'Chocolate Cake for Breakfast' 9/10 which, if you follow Bree's review's, you will know is very high praise. Check out her thoughts here:

http://1girl2manybooks.wordpress.com/?s=chocolate+cake+for+breakfast&sub...

DanielIe Hawkin's book 'Dinner at Roses' was my 'find' of 2012 and was a novel which made me laugh out loud and cry like a baby. I seriously LOVED this book so much that I bought a stack, gave them away as presents, recommended the novel if anyone asked me what they should read  and Danielle was one of the first authors I knew I just HAD to have on this blog. It was my lucky, lucky day when I was told her new release 'Chocolate cake for Breakfast' (don't you just adore that title?!) was being released in time for Christmas.

Do yourself a favor next time you're in a bookstore and find either of these books. You won't be disappointed.

Thanks to the beautiful people at Allen & Unwin, I have one copy of 'Chocolate Cake for Breakfast' to giveaway. Comment below and go in the draw to win!