Cruel Summer - Free Download!

I'm excited to tell you about this free short story I'm offering!

Cruel Summer is a reunion romance around a wedding in California and reads a lot like all my other books: sexy, emotional, even funny at times. I wrote it to encourage sign ups to my newsletter list and for some reason, that made it feel like a huge gamble.

For starters, it's only my second self-publishing effort. I paid people to help the first time, so a lot of tasks were new to me. (I successfully formatted it for Kindle and ePub, but forgot about PDF until after all the pieces were in place. If you want PDF, email me.)

Also, even though everyone loves to get something for free, I still went through the 'What if they hate it?' phase. (We authors spend half our life there, I sometimes think!)

Setting things up with my website helpers and my newsletter helpers was also a small challenge. I did a lot of hand-wringing. They said a lot of, "There, there," but it's finally available and so far the response has been amazing!

I sent it out to my fans and this was one of my favourite reviews:

Normally, short stories or novellas do not work for me. There is just not enough time to fully develop the story or characters and I am left frustrated by that lack. Not so "Cruel Summer". It was perfect and I felt as if I were reading a full novel. I felt I really knew Chelsea and Gavin and loved all the pain and pleasure of their story.

Here's the blurb:

“Is there anything I could say or do to earn your forgiveness?”

Website designer Chelsea Parks grew up believing she would marry her best friend’s brother. In college, she gave him her virginity and he broke her heart. She knows she’ll have to face him, now that she’s maid of honor at his sister’s wedding, but she doesn’t expect to sit next to him on the plane to California. Good thing she’s so completely over him.

Architect Gavin Fairfield knows he screwed up, but he’s matured since then. Standing in as Father Of The Bride because his dad recently passed, he’s reassessing his future, realizing how short life is and how much he misses Chelsea. He can see now that they’re meant for each other. Too bad she’s so completely over him.

Staying at his family’s summer home, revisiting their old stomping grounds, burns Chelsea alive in old flames. Gavin is as easy to love as ever. She’d like to be friends again, might even succumb to a fling for old time’s sake, but real relationship aren’t built on a weekend of nostalgia. Are they?

If you'd like to read the opening pages, they're posted here: #SampleSunday - Cruel Summer.

Would you like your own copy? You can Get Cruel Summer Here. This will also sign you up for my newsletter. You can unsubscribe anytime, but I'd love to hear what you think of Cruel Summer so please drop me a line or leave a comment here!

Meanwhile, I hope you're have a fantastic summer. I'll admit, at times this year our summer has been cruel. Forty-plus Celsius (One ten Fahrenheit.) Fortunately we have this:

I took this shot on my evening walk/swim, around eight pm a few nights ago. Bliss!

I'm leaving for New York and the Romance Writers of American conference in a couple of days. I may not answer your comments right away, but I'll be taking lots of photos, planning to post them for you next month! Take care!

Dani