Twas the Night Before Christmas...

It's Christmas Eve and I'm sure, like me usually on this frenetic day, you will be up to your elbows in Christmas preparations. However, please take some friendly advice and make sure that you make plenty of time for yourself over Christmas, especially if you are the host.

You see, the trouble with hosting is that you are so concerned with making sure that your guests are having a good time that you run yourself ragged seeing to their every need. One thing I have learned after years and years of hosting is to do as much in advance as you possibly can. Christmas Eve is always a cooking day for me. I precook everything that I can- Yorkshire puddings, desserts- and prep everything else including the vegetables. That way, I get to sit down with a glass of bubbles on Christmas day and join in the fun which I am denied in the kitchen.

This year though, I had to be super organised. All my pre-cooking, present buying and decorating happened weeks ago. You see, with impeccable timing, as you read this I will be on a plane coming home from my Christmas present from Mr H, a lovely trip to Barbados. I land at Heathrow at 7.30am tomorrow and once I get home my lovely son and daughter will hopefully have started making Christmas dinner in my stead. I can't wait! This is the first Christmas in twenty-one years I haven't had to completely host and I hope its the first of many now that my children are adults.

I hope yours is filled with family and friends too...

Happy Holidays!

Virginia Heath's Christmas Regency Romantic Comedy His Mistletoe Wager is out now!

His Mistletoe Wager is out now

 

Merry Christmas, Alabama: Susan Sands

Christmas, Alabama was released last week, and so far, it's getting fantastic reviews! Whew.

Christmas, Alabama

Until the reviews begin coming in for a new book, an author sweats just a little. This is my first Christmas or holiday story. The season shares the spotlight with the characters and plot because there are so many things going on around our characters while they are connecting and moving forward with the story arc.

Dressing up Ministry for Christmas was great fun and a new challenge. There's a beauty pageant, a 5K Jingle Jog, tour of historic homes, old fashioned Christmas parade, a cookie bake-off, and an imported tree the size of which rivals the one in Rockefeller Square. Oh, and snow blowers.  The snowstorm that hits Alabama is unexpected, and causes all sorts of mayhem for the hero and heroine, Nick and Rachel. Nick is the fill-in doctor who doesn't want to be in Ministry for the holidays, and Rachel is the town's photographer who is not looking for love.

The two become neighbors and share casseroles brought in by the single women in town. Their love of football leads to friendship, which leads to far more. How can a temporary doctor from the city find a way to happiness with a small town girl who plans to stay in Alabama? Christmas magic, that's how!

"I enjoyed this refreshingly sweet and entertaining story from start to finish. Each new character in this quirky small town was colorfully described in vivid detail in an amusing manner that frequently brought a smile to my face. The main players were intriguing and endearing, although Rachel was initially rather prickly and aloof. Ministry, Alabama sounds like a unique and appealing community populated with a wide assortment of odd and lively personalities. Ms. Sand’s writing was easy to follow, well-appointed, and flowed with a smooth elegance that kept me tethered to my Kindle. I plan to pick up the previous installments to further acquaint myself with this enticing and engaging group of citizens."   --Amazon Reviewer

I hope everyone enters this holiday season with hope in your heart and a big stack of books on your TBR pile!!

Susan

Power of Story

by Joanne Rock

With apologies to the wonders of modern transportation, I can’t help but think there is no faster way to take a long journey than four simple words—once upon a time.

There is magic in those words.  If you don’t believe it, try watching the opening to Disney’s Beauty and the Beast sometime, where a wonderful narrator’s voice sucks you in with a long ago legend told over the still pictures of a story book.  Whether or not our books begin with the classic words that begin a fairy tale, our brains still hear them as we sit down to open a book.  And by “we” I’m referring to romance readers, readers who believe in the transporting power of story and are eager to undertake that journey again and again through the pages of a book.  The magic of “once upon a time” is engrained, a mental portal we go through whenever we open a new book and that excitement for a story begins all over again.

Of course, maybe I’m a very susceptible reader.  I willingly suspend disbelief at the drop of a hat, always ready to take a new journey and see where a story leads.  Perhaps not all readers are as eager to see the world through pages as I am.

But even the most cynical of readers will undertake that magical story journey every now and then.  No matter that they fight the pull of “once upon a time,” sooner or later something will draw them in and lead them deep into a story.  For my oldest son recently, it was DaVinci Code.  For my youngest, it was Harry Potter.  You’ve got to hand it to J.K. Rowling.  Nothing captures a six-year-old’s attention like a giant driving out of the sky on a motorcycle.

 

Thanks to the power of story, I’ve been all around the world and through time to save the world, save the family farm, save numerous rocky marriages.  I’ve battled plagues, bad guys and vampires.  And of course, I’ve fallen for a few bad guys and vampires.  And sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively, it all started once upon a time.

**Do you remember the last book that almost gave you goosebumps as you read the opening pages? Or the last book you highly anticipated? Share with me today for a chance to win a download of LAST CHANCE CHRISTMAS! Don't miss my next book in the Road to Romance series, A CHANCE THIS CHRISTMAS, releasing October 5th.

His Mistletoe Wager

His Mistletoe Wager is released worldwide on 1st October 2017

In the middle of the summer heatwave of 2016, and halfway through writing my Wild Warriners series, my editor at Harlequin Mills and Boon asked me if I would like to do a Christmas book for them. I happily jumped at the chance but because I was already a third into A Warriner to Tempt Her and there was no way I was going to be able to turn a smallpox epidemic into a festive tale, I decided to write a standalone story for my publisher instead.

Sort of.

I say sort of because it is also a bit of a sequel to my second book, Her Enemy at the Altar although like all my books, you don't have to have read one to enjoy the others.

Thanks to several lovely messages from readers and quite a few comments from reviewers, I knew that some people, including me, wanted to see the tormented Aaron Wincanton and shrew-like Constance Stuart again. Fortunately, I gave Connie a younger brother in that book and so it was his story I decided to write as the sun singed my lawn and I melted at my computer.

Hal (Henry) Stuart, the newly minted Earl of Redbridge and notorious rake is a little out of sorts. Something is not quite right in his life but he can’t put his finger on what. His scandalous life has suddenly become very boring now that he has a title, largely because hunting for women has got too easy.

On a quest to find his missing vigour, he accepts a bet from his brother-in-law Aaron that he cannot steal five kisses in five separate places before Twelfth Night. One kiss for each of the berries on the sprig pinned to his lapel. Hal assumes he has to kiss five separate women, but Aaron decrees that all the kisses must be stolen from just the one woman.

Sullen Lizzie.

A committed spinster with a hatred for rakes and, unbeknownst to both Hal and the whole of the Ton, a very dirty secret she has kept hidden for five long years.

At times, these two characters had me laughing out loud as I wrote them and despite forming a fast and unlikely friendship, I couldn’t get Lizzie to allow herself to fall for Hal. Throw in a couple of meddling relatives, a menacing butler and three adorable and tenacious children and the end result, His Mistletoe Wager, was huge fun to write.

But in the end, a wager is a wager and it’s Christmas. And at Christmas there is always mistletoe…

Virginia Heath writes raunchy Regency romantic comedies for Harlequin Mills & Boon but her dog Trevor mostly writes her Facebook posts.

Mistletoe magic — Kandy Shepherd

For a fairly innocuous looking plant—a parasite no less!—mistletoe seems to have been imbued with mystical qualities from way back to the ancient Druids. Variously believed to be an aphrodisiac, an aid to fertility and even a protection against poison and witchcraft, mistletoe is now firmly established as a fun Christmas tradition. Stand under a bunch of mistletoe hanging in a festively decorated house and expect to be kissed! 

The custom of kissing under the mistletoe is a gift to romance writers at this time of year. It makes a perfect excuse for that all-important first kiss!

Mistletoe is a theme for my two romances out now: Greek Tycoon’s MistletoeProposal from Harlequin Romance which is book two in the charming Maid Under the Mistletoe series. Then there’s more mistletoe in my indie published novella Millionaire Under the Mistletoe.

I love writing Christmas-themed stories and I really had fun with these two very different stories.

Greek Tycoon’s Mistletoe Proposal is set in snowy London with a feisty runaway bride heroine and a gorgeous Greek billionaire hero. Lukas coerces gatecrasher Ashleigh into pretending to be his girlfriend to help get a business deal across the line. But pretend feelings start to grow into real ones. Finally the mistletoe works its magic and their attraction ignites.

“Then Lukas realised she was standing right under the mistletoe she had hung from the chandelier above them. He saw an invitation to a kiss in the gleam of her blue eyes, the slight parting of her lush lips. This couldn’t wait.

He dipped his head to claim her mouth. She responded immediately and wound her arms around his neck to bring him closer, to press her body close to his. She made a little murmur of pleasure deep in her throat. With an answering groan he deepened the kiss. He wanted to hear more: whimpers of need, sighs of pleasure, moans of ecstasy from this wonderful, perfect woman. His woman.”

(Their next kiss is under falling snowflakes—just as romantic as the mistletoe!)

Millionaire Under the Mistletoe is set in Sydney, Australia where the feelings between reunited former lovers Carly and Dylan are every bit as steamy as the hot summer weather that comes with Christmas down under! Carly and Dylan broke each other’s hearts four years ago but when they unexpectedly meet (thanks to a cat called Morris) the old feelings are still there. Again the mistletoe brings them together.

“Carly stood under the mistletoe and thrilled to the look in Dylan’s eyes—excitement, impatience, and something fierce that made it suddenly difficult to breathe. She didn’t dare try to read anything further into it. Except to know it went beyond mere friendship.

She swallowed hard against a sudden lump of emotion in her throat and managed to choke out a few words. “So what are the rules about kissing in the house?”

“Just the usual rule about mistletoe.” His voice was husky and deep and sent shivers of awareness down her spine.

“You mean that thing you have to do when you’re standing under it?”

“Yes,” he said, his gaze intent on her face.

“I…I don’t want to break that rule.”

“Me neither,” he said, as he dipped his head to kiss her.”

Do you hang mistletoe at your house? Have you ever had a romantic, fun or embarrassing kiss under the mistletoe? I’d love to hear about it! Make a comment to be in the draw for a paperback copy of Greek Tycoon’s Mistletoe Proposal or one of two e-copies of Millionaire Under the Mistletoe. Be sure to include your email address with your comment if you want to be in the draw.

I wish everyone a wonderful holiday season! See you here next year.

Millionaire Under the Mistletoe is just $0.99 at e-book retailers. 

Kandy Shepherd is a multi-published, award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. She lives on a small farm in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her family and a menagerie of four-legged friends.

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

Connect with Kandy on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest

Holiday Writing

by Joanne Rock

I wish this post was about writing a holiday romance—something I love to do. Witness my super fun holiday release, Last Chance Christmas. But I wanted to share a few insights about another kind of holiday writing today—writing during the holidays. That can be decidedly less pleasant.

It’s an interesting dichotomy for creative folks when we are lucky enough to work in the field we once passionately pursued for fun. Mixing up the income stream with something that was once a labor of love is an emotionally confusing place. This puts a whole lot of demands on the labor of love to be much more than that. It must also be a labor of efficiency. A labor of smart economy. A labor of financial means.

Ask any Muse and she’ll tell you how much she hates this.

Pre-published writers don’t give any thought to this dilemma. I know I didn’t, and I had years of intense writing before I sold a book to consider every facet of the craft. But I was far more focused on craft than business, and I sure didn’t think about problems that selling a book could introduced. I thought only about the problems that selling a book would solve! I mean, if I was spending 90% of my waking hours writing anyhow, it only made sense that I’d love getting paid for it.

Of course, I do. Thank goodness I finally cleared that final hurdle to selling my stories. I’m happy

I won a Snow Globe Award for Last Chance Christmas! 

and grateful to be able to share those works with readers. But the creative dynamic shifts in immeasurable ways once the passionate pursuit becomes a livelihood, and those changes are never more evident than during the holidays when a writer wants to play.

Writers aren’t unique in this, of course. We all want to play during the holidays and chances are you have to earn a living too, so you can’t play all month long. What’s different about creative work is that—to do it well—the time investment is huge. Often, we are thinking about our work the majority of our waking hours. A piece of our brain is always engaged with the work-in-progress. Most of the year, that’s okay, because of the “labor of love” element. We wanted this job, after all. During the holidays, however, we all want to labor over gingerbread houses or tree trimming and—more importantly—to be really present in those moments. Too often when I’m writing through the holidays, I feel like I’m going through the motions since my story is always consuming huge amounts of brain space.

My cure is to write as little as possible during December. I’d rather work like a madwoman in January and November and close my laptop for a couple of weeks in December. Some years that’s just not possible, but every year, I try. For the first five or seven years of my publishing career, I tried to maintain my schedule through December (Be more disciplined! I told my Muse). For me, that was simply an exercise in frustration. I didn’t write well anyhow, and I still felt cranky and robbed of my holiday.

This year is one of those years where I really needed to write some during December. I’m super excited to have a new series out with Harlequin Desire in 2017 and I very much wanted the extra releases to get the McNeill Magnates up and running. That helps, knowing that I set up this schedule to accomplish a bigger goal. Another trick I’ve finally discovered after writing for almost twenty years? I can write the framework of a story without knowing every detail. That’s been revolutionary for me since I used to get stuck on small plot points in my writing, wanting clear answers before I moved forward. In the last few years, I’ve gotten much better at moving plot points forward, then going back to layer in depth and conflict elements. Go me!

Turns out you can teach old dogs new tricks. But next year, I’m going to box up all my tricks when I close my laptop early in December to simply enjoy the holidays! Until then, my friends, I’m focusing on what I love most about my stories, just like I did back in those pre-published days when I wrote because I couldn’t NOT write.

***I’m not the only one wrestling with how to do it all this holiday season! Tell me what parts of your holiday feel daunting and we’ll commiserate or share ideas to make it better! As a bonus, if you share your thoughts with me this week, you’ll be automatically entered to win this fun prize pack with Christine Rimmer’s Carter Bravo’s Christmas Bride from her award-winning Bravos series, plus my holiday 2-in-1 with Tawny Weber featuring two sexy Blaze Christmas stories AND a Runaway Brides tee!

Hot Christmas nights - Kandy Shepherd

Christmas Down Under falls in summer. It’s hot. Sometimes very hot. Sometimes so hot the thought of cooking dinner in a sweltering kitchen becomes untenable and Aussies head to the barbecue to cook the festive feast. (Except in my English heritage family where anything other than the full-on traditional Christmas dinner is non-negotiable!)

A summer Christmas Down Under also means vacation—our summer vacation is when school and university have their long break. Holiday time runs from late December all the way through to the end of January. It means for people living on the coast time on the beach, for those inland on rivers and lakes and mountains.

With all the sun, the heat, the relaxing the holiday season is a great time for romance. I’ve had a lot of fun collaborating with a fabulous group of Down Under authors to produce a boxed set of seven brand new, never published before novellas around the theme of Hot Christmas Nights, which launched on December 1.

Wonderful, original novellas by Rachel Bailey, Michelle Douglas, Louisa George, Helen Lacey, Stefanie London,  Jennifer St George and me. What fine company I'm in!

Best selling, award-winning and rising start authors all contributed stories for this collection. They live in Australia or New Zealand but their novels, published by international publishers, go all around the world. They’re a really nice bunch of people and working with them was a great delight. The stories in Hot Christmas Nights range from sweet to super steamy and all “hot” in terms of romance!

My novella Millionaire Under the Mistletoe is a reunion romance—one of my favorite types of stories to write. There’s something that really appeals to me about giving a second chance at love to two people who so obviously should be together but made mistakes that tore them apart. With the magic of Christmas, and a little help from a cat named Morris, in Millionaire Under the Mistletoe, two lovely young people find their way to the happy-ever-after they deserve.

“London-based chef Carly de Luca and Sydney millionaire Dylan Burke broke each other’s hearts four years ago—but old feelings reignite when she makes a surprise visit home for Christmas. Can Carly and Dylan let go of past hurts and take a second chance on love?”

I couldn’t pick a favorite from the six other stories in the collection. Each is sensual, emotional and beautifully written. The glowing reviews we’re already getting are gratifying!

Hot Christmas Nights is available at Amazon for the bargain price of $0.99.

For my December post I would like to wish everyone a very happy festive season and holiday—to those who celebrate Christmas and those who don’t.

And a very special wish and thank you to Lee Hyatt for hosting me at Tote Bags 'n' Blogs. I look forward to seeing everyone next year!

What's your ideal Christmas? I'd love to hear about it! Make a comment if you'd like to be in the draw for one of two e-book copies of Hot Christmas Nights  Please include you email address and whether you'd prefer mobi or epub download.

Kandy Shepherd is an award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. She lives on a small farm in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her family and a menagerie of four-legged friends.

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

Connect with Kandy on Facebook and Twitter

Holiday Traditions that Feed the Romance Soul

One of the holiday traditions we started years ago with my mom was watching White Christmas on Christmas Eve. A favorite for all of us girls, this movie has it all.  Comedy, romance, and compassion. We've watched it so many times, all of us have the songs and most of the dialogue memorized. I swear, it's one of the places I learned effective romantic story structure. 

As the years progressed, we couldn't fit everything we wanted to do into our time together on Christmas Eve and the movie tradition had to be changed.  This will be our third Christmas without Mom, but because we've shifted our extended family get together to the Saturday before Christmas, I get to reinstate our older tradition of watching the movie on Christmas Eve with my family.  I'm delighted and so are my daughters.  (Not so sure about their husbands! LOL)

For me, the holidays and romance are a natural match.  This time of year, I wait eagerly to see what the publishers are going to offer as food for my love of hot holiday romance.  Here's what's on my list, I'd love to know what's on yours!

A Bravo Christmas Wedding by Christine Rimmer has two of my favorite story elements (three if you count Christmas), a princess and a cowboy.  Christine writes an intense, sexy story that is sure to be a new holiday favorite for me.

Rocky Mountain Miracle by Christine Feehan - No Christmas will ever be the same after Cole and Maia meet on a snowy western ranch… Find out why in #1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan’s romantic holiday e-novella! Okay, can you hear the total fangirl squee from here that one of my ultimate faves has a Christmas story out???

Some fabulous holiday romance classics are repackaged in On the Naughty List by Lori Foster, Carly Phillips, Sugar Jamison & Beth Ciotta.

I love single author anthologies.  Add in a holiday romance theme and I'm going to read it.  That's the case with Nancy Warren's Sugarplum Trio.

A wonderful and engaging historical by Anthea Lawson, Mistress of Melody should not be absent from your holiday reading pile!

What would a romance list be without at least one Harlequin Presents? Christmas in Da Conti's Bed by the awesome and hugely talented Sharon Kendrick is sure to please.

Ready to give a new author a try?  Read either of these charming stories by a couple of my friends you may not have read before: Three Christmas Ghosts: A Regency Christmas Carol by Lydia M. Sheridan and Bahama Christmas by Lavada Dee.

If all this lovely holiday romance leaves room for any more reading, you may want to try my Corporate Information Systems Duo - out today!

Change the Game: In a high-stakes game of love, attraction, and desire, two people playing for all the wrong reasons are about to discover how delicious it can be when plans go deliciously awry and love is all that matters. Alex Trahern may be bent on revenge, but Isabel is set on getting her man.

(NB: Re-edited with previously deleted scenes now included.  Digital re-release of Come Up and See Me Sometime originally published in print only 2005 by Kensington Books)

Win the Game: It's another high-stakes game of love, attraction, and desire, but the players have a past and the stakes couldn't be higher. It's not just their hearts on the line, but secrets and the family neither ever thought to have with the other. Marcus Danvers is a man with a plan and that plan is to win, whatever it takes.
(NB: Re-edited digital re-release of Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It originally published in print only 2005 by Kensington Books)

Hugs, happy holidays and happy reading!

Lucy

Lucy Monroe - Author

With more than 7 million copies of her books in print worldwide, award winning and USA Today bestseller Lucy Monroe has published over 60 books and had her stories translated for sale all over the world. While she writes multiple subgenres of romance, all of her books are sexy, deeply emotional and adhere to the concept that love will conquer all. A passionate devotee of romance, she adores sharing her love for the genre with her readers.

Visit her on the web:

http://www.lucymonroe.com/

http://lucymonroeblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LucyMonroe.Romance

http://twitter.com/lucymonroe

Dani Collins: Family and Holidays – It's Complicated

First, I'm excited to let you know that Blame The Mistletoe is on sale for 99c until Dec 2. That's a special deal that Tule Publishing arranged for this weekend. I hope you'll take advantage

Blame The Mistletoe is a sexy, snuggly story about how family can be complicated, especially around the holidays. 

In our own family we’re always conscious of this as my husband’s mother lives in our old hometown along with his siblings. One of my sisters has been on the move with her husband for the last few years, my parents often winter south in Arizona, and my youngest sister lives in Australia with her family of young children.

We start negotiating weeks ahead. “Are you going to Mom’s? My parents are staying home this year so can we go to your mom’s the week before/after because they’re going to be with his parents that day and…”

I’m sure it plays the same in every household. If you can manage it, it can be a blast. In 2010, we had my mother's side of the family all in one place and if I had permission to post all of my family's photos, I would. You'll just have to imagine all the great shots of kids playing board games, tables laden with food, silly Don't Point That Camera At Me Now expressions... I have a terrific one of my husband crying, he's laughing so hard. Then there are the sweet ones of son-in-law hugging mom and my sister showing off her sparkling new engagement ring. It was a pretty amazing week. 

My middle sister and her husband learned that a donation to Habitat For Humanity would earn them a toque (in Canada, that's what we call these kinds of hats, pronounced Tewk.) They donated enough to get one for all of us. Here I am with both my sisters and my daughter wearing our souvenir head gear. Apparently one of us was caught by surprise with this photo.

My cousin also made the trip from Nevada with her kids, along with our aunts and uncles from far and wide, but with everyone so scattered--my youngest sister is now living with her new family in Australia--we really don't know when we'll all get together again.

These sorts of arrangements get even more complex when the family is blended. I have divorced friends and trying to get our kids together with theirs can be the same game. It’s hard. In some cases, it makes for very lonely holidays.

Which is exactly the blue Christmas I set up for my heroine, Liz. Her ex-husband isn’t cruel, just overly-focused on his own plans. His girlfriend wants to marry and spend Christmas in Mexico with the whole family in attendance. Everyone is going. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?

Except it means Liz’s daughter will be gone the entire month of December.

To me, this is very believable. Maybe not everyone can afford a month in Mexico, but plenty of families have weddings and other family commitments where, even though the custody rules might give a parent the right to refuse, it seems churlish to do so. They go along to keep the peace and wind up rattling around an empty house, missing their kid(s).

Divorce is a funny thing, too. Even though a couple might split, depending on the length of the marriage and the reasons for splitting, people don’t necessarily pull away from the family of their ex. Liz is still so accessible to her husband's ex-family, she’s easily ensnared by her ex-mother-in-law into dog-sitting while they’re away.

Now, as for the tricky dynamic between Liz and Blake, I have to ‘fess up. I stole the idea from a friend who is divorced. She has said more than once that she wishes she could get all the former partners of her ex-husband’s siblings together for a Reunion Of The Exes. She liked them. They were funny and she wishes she’d stayed in touch.

I’ve wanted to write that party so many times. Wouldn’t it make a great set up for a serial? Maybe a play?

I settled for including a hint of it here. My hero, Blake, was married to the sister of Liz’s ex. He recognizes Liz at a cocktail party and they bond as comrades in arms. His son is away at the same tropical wedding-slash-Christmas vacation so he’s at loose ends himself for most of December.

They don’t mean to get together, but it happens and they’re happier than they thought possible until their children and ex-spouses find out. Then things get awkward and they’re forced to decide whether this is a holiday fling or something more serious and long-lasting. I won’t spoil the ending, but this is a romance. Wink.

Do you have a lot of family obligations to navigate during the holidays? How do you make it work? Do you ever wish you could run away somewhere tropical for the month of December? (We do!) Where would you go?

I’m happy to send a PDF copy of Blame The Mistletoe to one lucky commenter, but you can buy Blame The Mistletoe for 99c until Dec 2.

Here’s the BLURB for BLAME THE MISTLETOE

Liz Flowers has never enjoyed Christmas, but this one is shaping up to be the worst by far. She let her ex take her daughter to Mexico while she stays behind in a strange town, sitting her former mother-in-law’s high strung little dog. It’s an opportunity to meet new people, but this California girl doesn’t have much in common with the ranchers in small town Marietta.

Blake Canon perks up with male interest when he sees a new face at his friend’s Christmas cocktail party. His son is away and a light affair would take his mind off his financial troubles. Then he realizes he knows Liz. She was once married to the brother of his ex-wife.

Their children might be cousins, but Blake and Liz do the kissing—under the mistletoe. It’s the beginning of a new view of Christmas for Liz, but when their children arrive home unexpectedly, and family secrets are revealed, Liz isn’t sure she’ll stay in Marietta for Christmas after all.

~ * ~

EXCERPT for BLAME THE MISTLETOE

“Uh oh, Liz. You have a decision to make,” Skye said, pointing above Liz’s head.

Liz looked up. Mistletoe.

“The girls made me hang it,” Chase said from behind her, referring to Skye’s nieces who’d been running around with the rest of the children this evening.

Liz’s gaze caught Blake’s on the way down from the little sprig and her heart skipped at the light in his eyes. Her brain grasped for a smart remark, but nothing came.

Blake stepped into her space. “I think we owe it to ourselves,” he said. “Don’t you?”

Swaying, she set her hands on the cold, brushed texture of his coat, feeling ridiculously small and girlish all of a sudden. “Because of our mutual experience with the Flowers?” she asked.

“Actually . . . ” His gaze narrowed as he stared at her mouth and started to lower his head. “Let’s not think of them at all.”

His mouth touched hers and wiped her brain clean. All she knew was the brush of cold lips that warmed against hers, pressing firmly enough to open her lips so the kiss was not nearly so chaste as it should or could have been. He lingered, waiting until temptation got the better of her and she kissed him back, letting her mouth cling to his, then he slowly drew back. Something satisfied flickered in his eyes.

That had been bad. Good in a way that was very, very bad. Liz could barely breathe or muster a smile.

Skye and Chase smirked at each other. Someone from the lounge whistled. Liz rolled her eyes, feeling herself blush.

And Blake didn’t bother to hide the male smugness in his gaze as he took the leftovers from Skye and opened the door for Liz.

~ * ~

Blame The Mistletoe follows Hometown Hero, where school secretary, Skye Wolcott, gets a second chance with Marietta heartthrob and Major League Baseball player, Chase Goodwin. Please look for my next Montana Born story, The Bachelor’s Baby, in March 2015, which will feature Blake’s sister, Meg.

Award winning author, Dani Collins writes Harlequin Presents, romantic comedy, medieval fantasy, erotic romance, and now small-town rancher novellas. Whatever the genre, Dani always delivers sexy alpha heroes, witty, spirited heroines, complex emotions and loads of passion.

Stay current with Dani’s new releases by joining her newsletter or visiting her here:

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