Dani Collins: His Blushing Bride - Free!

I've been in a small fluster lately. My parents moved in with us back around Mother's Day.

Coincidentally, that was my husband's birthday this year. That's pretty much what every fifty-something man asks for his birthday, isn't it? That is mother-in-law move in with him? Actually, Mom has been doing a lot of the cooking, so he's genuinely quite happy. (I do next to zero, so...)

And it's not a health issue that caused this, so we're all grateful for that.

No, it was flooding. My parents came to us one night as a precaution. My dad was angry with himself that he didn't 'stay and fight it,' but that turned out to be a good thing. Those who stayed were evacuated in the middle of the night, some of them sound asleep and unaware that their bedrooms had an inch of water on the floor until they stood up.

My parents' house was surrounded by water for about twelve days. No injuries, no fatalities in the entire area, so that's another win! But my parents have a few more steps before they're approved to go back in. It's proceeding, slow but sure. As disasters go, this has all been fairly manageable. We keep focusing on the bright side and today I have another one.

I get to offer you a free eBook!

His Blushing Bride is a sweet and sexy romance between a playboy nerd and a virgin school teacher.

Piper and Bastian think they can have a no strings affair and promptly trip into love. I have a lot of favourite scenes in this one, but one of them is when Piper tries to lock Bastian out of the bathroom. I adore when a confirmed bachelor realizes he's an idiot. Don't you?

His Blushing Bride is free on all platforms for a limited time. Here are all the quick links:

Amazon:

US | CA | UK | AUS | Nook | iBooks | GooglePlay | Kobo  

His Blushing Bride is Book Four in my Love In Montana series. If you like to read in order, they go like this:

1) Hometown Hero

2) Blame the Mistletoe

3) The Bachelor's Baby

4) His Blushing Bride

4.5) Scorch*

5) His Christmas Miracle

*Scorch takes place in Glacier Creek, not Marietta, but Piper and Bastian come for a visit. 

Read more about this series here and enjoy!

Dani Collins is a USA Today Bestselling author of forty titles for Harlequin Presents, Tule's Montana Born, and herself. She lives in Canada with her husband and parents. So much for empty-nesting, but she's making the most of it! 

Join her newsletter and you'll receive a link for Cruel Summer, a short ebook she wrote for you, Dear Reader. 

A Royal Wedding and a freebie!

I'm moving house and so I'm crazy busy right now, but I had to drop in and let you know that the fabulous Invitation to a Wedding quartet from Sophie Weston, Jessica Hart, myself and Anne McAllister, published by Tule, is now available in paperback. Just look at those luscious covers!

It won't have escaped anyone's notice that we have a real royal wedding this spring and we were all delighted to hear that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have - like Hope and Jonas, our own royal couple - decided to invite the locals into the grounds of Windsor Castle to witness the arrival of the bride and the royal party at St George's Chapel. We are all smiling.

And here's the freebie..

It's Read an eBook week and to celebrate I've made a number of my books free at Smashwords including a rare opportunity to download my Little of Book of Writing Romance.with a click that will cost you nothing.

Here's the link so don't delay - grab them for your reader! 

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

The Start of Something -- Anne McAllister

Last year right about this time, I published a book called Last Year's Bride.  In it was the first cowboy hero I'd written in a dozen years.  I missed them badly. Turns out at least one missed me.  Once I opened the flood gates, Montana cowboy Cole McCullough -- not known for his loquaciousness -- never shut up.

His story was one of several in Tule Publishing's Great Wedding Giveaway set in and around fictional Marietta, Montana.

All the books had something to do with Marietta's hundredth anniversary of the first Marietta Wedding Giveaway back in the town's heyday.  It was great fun to write about the town and its people some of whom actually got speaking parts in Cole's book.

One was Jane Weiss, the head of the Chamber of Commerce.  My heroine, television director, Nell, had business dealings with her as Nell and her boss realized their plan to shoot a couple of episodes of the reality TV show, The Compatibility Game, on a ranch near Marietta.  Cole's family's ranch, as it happens.

And Cole and Nell have a history ... one that they needed the book to get sorted out.

While they were doing it, Jane was busy, too. I had no idea she had her own story line. And I particularly didn't imagine who her hero was going to be!  Characters surprise you when you least expect it.

I'm thinking I might give Jane and her hero a chance to share their own story later this year. But right now I'm dealing with a character who was only mentioned in Last Year's Bride, Cole's older brother, Clint.

Clint was so far off the page as to be virtually non-existent then. He'd left Montana years before and he'd never looked back.  Certainly he'd never planned on coming back.

Now he's pacing around my office, muttering and trying to pick up the pieces of his life.

And he isn't the only one.  It's a regular mad house in here.

There's a friend of his, Quinn, whose own life is going to get shaken up around Christmas time.  And a couple more of their pals -- Adam and Shea -- who are by turns nervously cracking their knuckles and demanding that Clint and Shea hurry up and sort their lives out so they can have a turn.

I've never dealt with such an impatient -- and, frankly, just a little unruly -- bunch of heroes before. They knew each other in college.  A dozen years later their lives have gone in very different directions.  Now they are back in Montana. Well, one, Adam just pointed out that he'd never left. (See? They even read over my shoulder!)  Anyway, they're here now, one way or another trying to turn around their lives -- and the legacy of the ranch at Hard Broke Creek.

I had no idea all this was going to come out of Last Year's Bride -- but I'm super happy that it has.  I love these guys -- when I'm not wanting to bang their heads together.

If you haven't read Last Year's Bride, it's available now. Later this week (by Saturday, I'm told) it's going to be FREE  until June 18th.

So if you already have a copy, bless your heart. If you don't, grab it now or when it's free.  If you like it, tell your friends and they can grab it while it's FREE!

And keep an eye out for those Men of Hard Broke Creek who will begin turning up this fall.  Clint's first, then Quinn, then Adam and finally Shea -- if he can be patient that long or if I don't kill him first!  I'll keep you posted.

Maisey Yates: Take Me

Sometimes to really understand an event you have to see it.

I had already finished work on the first 5th Avenue book, Avenge Me when I was approached about writing a possible prequel novella. I wasn’t sure what I would write, until one of the lovely editor suggested I take it back ten years, to where it all began.

That made Take Me different for me in a lot of ways. It was great to go back to the scene of the incident that ultimately kicks off the 5th Avenue books of decade later, and it was interesting to take on a pair of characters who were so young.

Travis and Sydney are in their early 20s, still in college, not yet out in the real world. But one night changes everything, when they are friend jumps to her death at an opulent Christmas party.

This is the first glimpse into the corruption that is at the core of this opulent world. The first bit of tarnish on an empire that will ultimately crumble as the series goes on.

But this is the beginning. And it isn’t only the beginning of the end for Jason Treffen’s kingdom, it’s the beginning of a change in Travis and Sydney’s relationship.

I'm a sucker for a friends to lovers romance. I can’t lie. So the idea of having a tragedy make two friends see each other in a different way was natural to me. Because it is a short story, Most of it takes place over one night, and the connection between Travis and Sydney is very intense.

There are a lot of emotions burning between them, and certainly for Travis, years of repressed desire now burning to the surface.

But when the night is over, and the sun rises, they both have to face what they’ve done. They have to face the loss of their friend, and the change in their friendship. And the fact that no matter how much they might want them to, things can never be the same again.

The question is, will they move forward without each other, or stronger than ever?

 And I have included, a short teaser for you:

There was one thing he wanted. One thing he’d always wanted. And taking it now would be...it would be the worst kind of betrayal. 
But he didn’t get up. He didn’t leave. Instead, he pulled her hard against him, wrapped his arms tightly around her body. 
She buried her face in his neck, her tears falling onto his neck. He’d never seen Sydney cry. She was too tough. Too guarded. But she was crying now, weeping like she was trying to cleanse herself of everything that had happened tonight. 
He wished he could do it too. But there were no tears for him. There was nothing but deep, yawning pain, and a need that he didn’t think could ever be entirely satisfied. 
She shifted against him, turned her face to the side, her lips brushing against his jaw. The soft, sweet contact shocked him, burned him. His heart sped up, blood pumping hard and fast through him, heating up the cold places inside of him. Reminding him that he was alive. 
She put her hand on his face, traced the line of his jaw with her finger. His breathing became labored, his heart raging so hard he thought he was having an attack. 
“Not a good idea, Syd,” he said, giving her a chance. One last chance, because if she took it any further he didn’t know what he might do. 
“No,” she said, “maybe not.” 
He gritted his teeth, his blood pumping hot through his veins, his shaft aching, getting hard. This was not the time for that. Not the place for that, and dammit, he’d made the decision years ago, she was not the woman for this. But he couldn’t stop himself from responding. “Definitely not.” “What if there was nothing else, Travis?” she whispered, a temptation he couldn’t ignore. “What if this was all there was? Tonight? This room? You and me. What if it started and ended here?” 
He closed his eyes, swallowed hard, his whole body on fire. “Then I know exactly what I would want to do. But the thing is, there’s more than this night, more than this room, and more than us. More than that...there’s a lot more to us than...this.” “There wasn’t more for Sarah,” she said, her words choked. “This was it, Trav. And I’m not going to...to jump off of a building, but what I saw tonight reminded me that...that we don’t necessarily have tomorrow. Unless we’re choosing to take tomorrow from ourselves, like she did, I think we all truly believe that tomorrow is going to be there, but we’re just making up stories.” 
He closed his eyes. “Is that all?” 
“Yes. Because until the sun rises we don’t really know if it will for us. It’s just...making fantasies for what we hope will happen when the only thing that’s actually real is...now.” “But tomorrow...”
“Screw tomorrow,” she said, her words fierce. “It’s not...I can’t...”
He angled his head and closed the distance between them, his lips pressing hard against hers. Cutting off her words, trying to cut off her thoughts, her pain, her desperation. And his own.  
And just like she’d said it would, everything burned away. There was only this moment, this room, this kiss.

Take Me is available FREE for preorder in most ebook stores.

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

Harlequin

iBooks

Happy St. Patrick's Day

 I love spring!  Winters can be long here on the shores of Lake Erie.  We have this thing called, Lake Effect Snow.  Cold Canadian winds blow across the lake, picking up moisture, which hits the lakeshore in the form of...you guessed it, snow.

Here in Erie we have an average of almost 80 inches of snow a year.  That's a lot of snow.

But now it's March!  At this moment, the snow in my yard has all melted.  Although, they're calling for more snow tonight.  This time of year the weather is more precarious than ever.  This last weekend it was in the sixties.  I opened the windows and I wore just a sweatshirt as I walked the dogs.  Tuesday, when I walked, I was back in a heavy coat, but still wore sneakers.  If it snows, well I'm back in boots and bundled up.

But spring is busting out all over!  If you look closely at the picture on the left, I've got purple flowers starting to open on my crocuses.  The one on the right is a hyacinth.  The birds are loud as I walk in the mornings.  I love this season of rebirth and renewal.  I just turned in my Christmas book and I'm working on something new.  I come to my computer each day with that same springtime sense of potential...anything can happen!!  And since I'm working on one of my comedies, it probably will!

Now, this is Erie, so I know we'll have at least one more snow.  Local legend has it that St. Patrick's Day generally means a late season snow storm (although at this moment, weather.com is calling for 33 degrees and only a 10% chance of snow).   But even if it snows, St. Patrick's Day seems to herald the official start of spring here on the lake.  It's a day when everyone's a little Irish.  A day when green isn't simply a color that's coming back to life in our gardens and lawns...its the color everyone's wearing.  A day when you can get Guinness at almost any bar in town! (As a Guinness fan, that's a good thing!)

So, Sláinte, everyone!  I hope spring is arriving where you are and that even if you're still snowed in, you remember that spring is just around the corner!  I hope this season gives you that same sense of potential and glee that it gives me.  Anything's possible!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day...and spring!

Holly


A St. Patrick's Day Gift for you all:

I've tried my hand at publishing a short story trilogy this year.  I gave Nothing But Love away for Christmas, Nothing But Heart away for Valentine's and my springtime/St. Patrick's Day gift is the final book, my first St. Patrick's day romance, Nothing But Luck.  It stand alone, so even if you didn't read the other two, it's fine.  And it's free for Kindle this weekend, Saturday the 16th, Sunday the 17th and Monday the 18th.  So mark your calendars and stop in and pick it up before you go get that Guinness!  (And I know that many of you have other types of eReaders.  The entire series will be out next year for those platforms.)

Nothing But Luck