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

Michelle Styles: Bee Aware

Michelle Styles explains the importance of bees and why we individually need to do more to help them.

Bees are a theme through out man’s creative endeavours reaching back to the beginnings of time. One of the first paintings ever discovered was of a man gathering honey. Bees have been all around humans ever since, but generally quietly working in the background.

Think of bees and mostly you think of honey or possibly wax (besides candles, beeswax is used in many cosmetics). Honey is proving more and more useful in the fight against disease as it does have certain antibacterial properties. While both of these products are excellent, they are hardly life-changing. Bees actually have a much more important role to play.   Bees are responsible for much of the pollination of our food stuff, particularly fruit. Life on this planet would be very different if the bees were not there to do their job.

 HOWEVER, the bee population has declined significantly in recent years (along with the butterfly population).  One reason has been loss of habitat and another reason has been the chemicals we spray on plants, in particular a group of chemicals called neonicatiniods (neonics for short). They have been implicated in the decline of bees and butterflies.  Gardeners may think they are just killing pests, but they are killing the beneficial insects as well. It is very easy to fall for the need to have the roses looking good without any thought to what is actually happening to the planet. Equally it is easy to plant exotic flowers which are sterile hybrids. If a flower is sterile, there is no food for the bees. Without food, bees starve.

Without bees, we starve.

So what can the average person do? What can one person do?

Simple Actions to help save bees (and butterflies)

First  consider the use of chemicals in your garden. Read the labels and refuse to use  any containing  acetamirid, clothianidin, dinotefuran, imidacloprid  or thiamethoxam. A recent study from Harvard showed that these chemicals do harm bees. Monsanto's roundup has been implicated in the disappearance of the Monarch butterfly. The website beeaction.org has a list of US popular brands which contain these chemicals. Let your hardware or gardening centre know that stocking products that contain neonics means they are contributing to the decline in the bee population. Beeaction.org has a campaign to get Ace Hardware and True Value to stop stocking these products.

Second consider planting bee friendly plants, rather than sterile hybrids. Bee friendly plants set seed.  One plant that is often overlooked is the  fuchsia in lists about what to plant for bees. A little fuchsia nectar adds a certain depth to honey – one of the premiere beekeepers in the UK told me this when I was starting out beekeeping and I have no reason to doubt her word. Fuchsias, particularly hardy fuchsias, are great plants for bees. Sunflowers, penstemons, cone flowers, sweet peas, alliums, wild roses (the kind that give rose hips) are also great. Butterflies love buddleia  and lilacs. Herbs such as thyme, rosemary or chive are also good with the added bonus that you can use them in the kitchen. Fruit trees such as apple, pear or cherry (not ornamental)  Honeysuckle however is not useful to bees, despite its name. It is pollinated by moths and butterflies.  You want flowers, rather than ever greens. So consider have a mixed border. Swathes of closely trimmed green grass is not helpful in the least. Clover though is a good bee plant when it flowers. When beneficial insects thrive in gardens, gardens thrive.

Third try to buy raw or local honey. Most of the honey you buy in the big supermarket is ultra heat treated. This is often little better than sugar water. Ultra heat treatment preserves the honey but at the expense of the pollens and other antibacterial qualities. Local raw honey can help fight against allergies and can help to keep colds at bay.  Supporting your local beekeeper means that bees are more likely to be in your area. A healthy bee population means more flowers and fruit in your garden as plants need to be pollinated. And as the population of wild bees (including bumblebees) decreases, we need the domesticated honeybee more than ever.

Finally consider keeping bees. Beekeeping was traditionally done by men.  Among the reason they gave were that women were unclean and therefore unfit to collect the pure wax that was in church candles. For many years they didn’t realise that bee hives were 90% female.  Women can keep bees  just as well as men. There can be some lifting involved when you are removing supers but nothing that is heavier than say lifting a large sack of dog food.  Hives, if properly sited do not cause any trouble. The bees get on with their thing and you look at them about once a week. There is a sort relaxing pleasure looking after  bees. You have to slow down. At various times of the year, you take the honey harvest. Some beekeeping associations run schemes where they match people who want to keep bees but have no space with people who have space but don’t want to fiddle about with hives etc. Generally the beekeeper pays in honey.

If lots of people take  little pieces of action, positive change can come about. We need bees. Our planet needs bees. Albert Einstein predicted without bees, our planet would be dead within four years. For more information about what you can do visit www.beeaction.org

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical romances in a wide range of time periods. Her latest Summer of the Vikings was published in June 2015. You can read more about Michelle and her books on www.michellestyles.co.uk  She has kept bees since 2000.

Christina Hollis—Writing, Learning, and Networking: The Romantic Novelists' Association Conference 2015

My Souvenir

I arrived home only five minutes ago, straight from this year's Romantic Novelists' Association conference. It was my first full conference, and it was such a great experience I dumped my case and came straight online to tell you about it.

The conference started at 8:30am on the 10th July, and went right through to 10pm on 12th of July. It was held at Queen Mary's University, Mile End, in East London. Delegates used student accommodation on the campus. It's a great way for the university to earn money while its students are on their long summer vacation.

Jan Jones, Roger Sanderson, Jenny Barden and their RNA team plan these events years in advance, so nothing could be done when a strike of London Underground (subway) workers was called last week for 9th July. That was the day when most people would be arriving at the campus. Worse still, mainline trains running from the west of the country into London would be cancelled, too. People like me who live right out in the shires wouldn't have a hope of getting to the university, as the total lack of parking space there meant bringing a car was right out of the question.

I went up to London a day early to avoid the problems, but lots of people didn't have that option. They battled in on foot on the day, hired cabs, and tried to find a space in one of our traditional red double-decker buses. British people are famously good at queueing, but things got heated and the police had to be brought in to calm things down. You couldn't make it up. We English are usually so peaceful!

The (Prince) Regent's Canal, On Campus

The first day of the RNA conference, Friday, was an industry special. There was a panel of agents discussing their part in an author's career, and talks by editors, publishers, mass book buyers and reviewers. Workshops on character development, finding your writing voice and how to promote yourself, your brand, and your book filled the rest of the weekend. You could learn to punctuate with confidence, experience the intricacies of dressing like a Geisha or a Victorian woman, or (and this was my favourite workshop) learn to shed your inhibitions and project your voice at the same time by jumping up and down and grunting like Bigfoot. Anyone who could do that in a room containing thirty other people had no worries when it came to a one-to-one appointment with one of the agents or publishers who also attended the conference.

Saturday Evening's Gala dinner gave the 300 delegates the chance to dress up and glitter beneath the spectacular vault of books contained in the university's grand Octagon library.

A Touch Of Hogwarts At Queen Mary's

I'm not really a party person—I'd rather read ( or write!)—but the atmosphere was infectious. Joining the Romantic Novelists' Association and taking part in its local chapter meetings has boosted both my career, and my social life. If you've never got around to joining a special interest group like the RNA that's local to you, why not take the plunge? I enjoy being an overseas member of the Romance Writers of America, but however good their online seminars, magazines, message-boards and loops, networking is much more fun when you do it face to face.

What do you think are the best things about belonging to a creative writing group?

When she isn't cooking, gardening or beekeeping, Christina Hollis writes contemporary fiction starring complex men and independent women.  Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and she’s sold more than two million books worldwide. You can catch up with her at http://www.christinahollis.blogspot.com, on Twitter, Facebook, and see a full list of her published books on her website. Her current release, Her Royal Risk, is published by The Wild Rose Press and is available at getBook.at/Her_Royal_Risk and http://bit.ly/1MpGd3D

Views of My Garden

Most of the time my books are influenced by my life.  But sometimes, my life is influenced by my books!

My most recent release, Carry Her Heart, has a garden that almost became a character.  I'll confess, I had a bit of garden-envy.  Especially Piper's milkweed and the butterflies it attracted.  So this spring, we put in a butterfly garden here.  My husband tried to tell me I didn't have room for it.  Ha.  There's always room for more gardens!  No monarchs yet, but it is attracting a bunch of pollinators.  I caught some bees in action the other day.

My favorite lines in the book were inspired by Piper's garden...
“Maybe we live our lives constantly becoming and rebecoming. Maybe we’re always in the process of metamorphosing into something new.”

We have a big garden, and most of the plots are dedicated to plants that provide food, but I think that any garden can benefit from plants that provide beauty and inspiration.  More than gardens, I think any person needs them as well!



I have always been a reader, and so many of my favorite books have inspired me to change.  I didn't expect the books I write—books that come from me—to change and influence me as well.  But they do.  In so many ways.

How about you?  Is there a book (or books) that have changed you??

Have a great Monday!!

Holly

Holly's current release, Carry Her Heart, is on sale at Amazon this week!

Refilling the Well - with Kate Walker

I’m  a bit late with my blog post for Tote Bags today – but I really believe that my excuse is that it’s for the best possible reason.  Honestly. I was so busy today – though I suspect that other people seeing me and  how I was spending the day  would have said that I was actually  just relaxing.

I  spent a large amount of my time curled up on a cushion in the sunshine with my nose in a book.

Yes – I  was reading. I was reading, deeply involved in and thoroughly enjoying a book that I just didn’t want to put down. I  was almost halfway through this story last night when I found that I really just couldn’t stay awake  and reluctantly put it down as my eyes were closing.  Then I couldn’t pick it up again this morning as I had to get the grocery shopping done, visit a friend, feed my son ‘s cats (he and his fiancée are away this weekend).  But as soon as I got a moment I grabbed the book again (well – I grabbed my kindle again) and lost myself in the world of the mystery and the emotions of the story I was being told.

It can be hard to lose myself like that. Writing fiction for a living makes you too critical of other people’s  novels. You can  begin to see where the story is going, start to question why the characters are behaving the way they are, find the pace begins to lag . . . So it’s wonderful when you feel the ‘can’t put it down’ experience that keeps you intent on the pages.  

It’s special in several ways. Because it relaxes and absorbs you. Because it reminds you of just what you’re aiming for when you’re writing yourself (something that needs bringing home to every author  because there’s always the temptation to write fast  and get the story out , not thinking about the way to keep your reader hooked)  And then there’s the need to ‘refill the well’ - to  feed your own imagination,  take you away from the worlds you build in your own books and into someone else’s stories  so that your imagination has a feast of new experiences and  from those experiences new ideas grow for my own books.

I  usually find that books that are very unlike my own novels are the best ones for feeding my imagination this way.  Contemporary romances or  even historical ones are often too like the books I write so that I end up thinking ‘I wouldn’t have written this that way’  or ‘I would have made  this character do this-  or that. . .’   So I’ve been lucky for the past few weeks. I’ve read some new  books, discovered  some new authors I’ve enjoyed – and who have written  several books that I now want to get hold of and see what the  rest of their output is like.

So there was In The Woods by Tana French  - a gripping murder mystery where the present day mystery  links the detective’s past experiences to add an extra dimension  to the story.

Then there was Amy Snow by  Tracy Rees. This was a historical novel with a  mystery and a 

‘treasure hunt’ at its heart.   Cryptic messages and a journey across  England  leading the heroine to . .  well,  that would be giving the story  away.

Letters to the Lost is by Iona Grey who I know as India Grey who used to write for  Harlequin. Her first single title is a lovely debut  - like the Tracy Rees book, who can resist a mystery that is slowly 

revealed by letters  - though this one links the present day with a   tragic love story from the past   set in 1943.

And today’s book  - my excuse for being late with this post – was A Single Breath by Lucy Clarke. OK, I admit I guessed what the twist at the end was going to be – but that was why I had to keep on reading. I wanted to know how the author would make it work and what would happen when . . . .  It didn't disappoint. 

I’ve had a great time with these  books – all of them  different, all of them absorbing.   They’ve relaxed and refreshed me, intrigued and taxed my imagination – and made me want to get down to my latest story and see just what is going to happen when  my hero and heroine meet up again after five years  apart and realise that they are very different people from the ones who originally met. . .

Have you read anything you’ve really enjoyed recently?  Any good recommendations to add to my TBR pile?  (Not that I need any suggestions – the pile/list of kindle titles is more than full – but a few more won’t hurt!)

My  latest romance  is Olivero's Outrageous Proposal published in April in Harlequin Presents and Mills and Boon Modern Romance. Coming next  is Destined For The Desert King  which is published in December this year.

Then there's the  12 Point Guide to Writing Romance, the newest edition of which is available on Kindle or a revised and updated paperback edition now available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Kate Walker's web site is  here   and the up-to-date news can be found on her blog or her Facebook page.

Endurance : : Anne McAllister

If you've ever tried to write a novel, you know one thing for sure -- it takes time.

Even if you have your entire plot worked out and you never make a mistake or write the wrong word through the entire process (and if that's you, I don't want to know you because it will just depress me), you still won't get done in a day. Or probably even a week. Or two. Maybe you'll get there in a month, but I wouldn't bet on it.  It can take months . . . or years . . . to write a novel.

As I've been staring at chapter one recently (in several incarnations. Not for me the one draft, never set a foot wrong method of novel writing), I have been
thinking about endurance, about what it takes to persevere.

And at this time of year in particular, I'm confronted by real endurance every morning when I tune in to watch the day's journey on the Tour de France.

Talk about endurance!  Those guys have it in spades.  Since Saturday I have watched the saga of Etixx Quickstep -- of Tony Martin just missing the yellow jersey on day one . . . and day two . . . and day three.

And then I saw him succeed on day four.  And I felt incredible joy for him at his dogged perserverence.

Yesterday I saw his crash in the last kilometer. I saw the tweeted picture of his compound fracture of his collarbone.  I felt vicariously the white hot sear of pain (been there, done that with broken bones myself) followed by the determination that it took him to get up, get on a bike and, with the help of his team, make it to the finish line.

He didn't quit.  He had his op. He will recover. He will be back.

Why? Because it's what he does. It's what he values, I imagine it's what he loves. And so he isn't just in it for the good times. He endures.

I take his example to heart. I haven't had a broken collarbone because of my writing. It has never become a matter of life-or-death for me. But it does become tedious at times. It isn't always a joy to turn on the computer in the morning.  It isn't always thrilling to show up and try to come up with the right words.

Sometimes it is, though.  Sometimes -- like yesterday afternoon when next year's hero punched this year's hero in the eye -- it was pretty exhilarating.  It was worth showing up for.  But in the end, all the days are worth showing up for because taken together they give purpose, they provide focus, they demand that I do what I think is important on a day-in-day-out basis.

It's not just about writing, either.  We do it in relationships every day. Or we don't.  We are parents not just in the good times, but every single day of the week, all day and all night (especially if we have new babies or teenagers!) because it's a commitment we've made, a commitment we value.

That's what my current hero is dealing with now -- discovering that what he thought mattered most is really pretty peripheral to what really matters.  And when the chips are down, he can tell the difference. He knows where to focus his attention, what needs to be done -- even if it's hard.

If we're lucky, our lives are like that -- marathons, not sprints or dashes from one thing to another.  We figure out what's important -- which goals, which relationships, which commitments -- and we turn up every day through good times and not so good times because we care.

If you're not watching the Tour de France, you're missing not just a great -- and enduring -- athletic competition, you're missing some spectacular scenery.  And I don't mean just lean fit men in Lycra. Those seashores and mountaintops and verdant valleys are pretty spectacular, too.

I've never endured anything quite as grueling as the Tour de France. Have you?  What's the hardest thing you've ever done?

Photo credits:
1. User: Mschlindwein: Arrivée de la neuvième étape du tour de France em Mulhouse (10 Juillet 2005): Creative Commons license: Wikimedia Commons.
2. Jérémy-Günther-Heinz Jähnick / Diksmuide - Ronde van België, etappe 3, individuele tijdrit, 30 mei 2014 (C06) / Wikimedia Commons

Hired by the Brooding Billionaire - Kandy Shepherd

I love gothic-inspired romances. There’s something about a gloomy mansion and a mystery surrounding the handsome, damaged man who lives there that appeals to me. I’ve always wanted to write a story with those elements.

Hired by the Brooding Billionaire, my August release for Harlequin Romance is that story. It’s a beauty-and-the-beast tale with a brilliant wounded hero, Declan Grant, who has cut himself off from the world after a tragedy in his past. He lives in a splendid old mansion that is slowly being covered by a wild, out-of-control garden.

Strong, spirited horticulturalist Shelley Fairhill has to work hard to not only tame the garden but also to cut down the barriers Declan has put up around his emotions. At the same time she has to overcome past heartbreak of her own before she can love again.

I loved writing Shelley and Declan’s emotional journey towards each other and finding the  love they both so deserve.

But I also enjoyed writing about the overgrown garden that brings them together.

Camellias

The story starts in winter and I’m sharing some snaps of my Down Under winter garden with you. All these flowers appear in the story.

Sweet-scented jonquils

My part of Australia doesn’t get the severe winters that other parts of the world can get. Everything slows down but for most of the year we have something blooming. (The disadvantage is that the weeds still grow, too!) 

Fragrant daphne

Do you like a beauty-and-and-the-beast story? What’s your garden like in winter? Please share your thoughts with a comment!

I’m giving away one signed paperback copy (or an e-book if you’d prefer) of Hired by the Brooding Billionaire. Make a comment to be in the draw. Please include your email address if you want to be included in the draw.

Hired by the Brooding Billionaire is my August 2015 release for Harlequin Romance and is available now for pre-order in print and e-book.

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

Top Five For Summer

I'm a list maker.  Few things in the world make me as happy as making a list of things.  I love all the seasons for different reasons but here are my top five for summer.

1.  Reading.  It's okay to sit outside with my sunglasses on and glass of iced tea and just read.  I don't have to rush to pick the kids up from school and since my kids are bookworms like me, they are happy enough to spend time with me reading.

2. Dining al fresco.  I don't know if it's because I'm Italian-American or because my happiest summer memories are of my family gathered around a long table made of sawhorses and plywood draped with fabric from my mom's sewing shed, but I love sitting outside eating and laughing with friends.  The food has to be cooked on the grill and accompanied by light side dishes of fresh fruits and veggies.  And there has to be wine.  :)

3. Late nights and mornings.  Because the kids are out of school my schedule is more relaxed.  And in the UK the sun is out until 9 p.m. so it's really not that hard to stay up late.  My favorite nights are when we are all gathered around the kitchen table playing games and talking.

4. Travel.  Even when we are planning an easy going summer we end up taking a trip.  It might be just to the beach or maybe to a historic sight we haven't seen before.  But we always make a trip somewhere.

5.Make-up or rather lack of the need to wear it.  I always tan up in the summer and my skin hardly needs any make up.  My hair gets sun streaked from long days at the beach or pool and I just feel robustly healthy in summer. Maybe it's because I'm outside all the time and walking to places instead of taking my car, but summertime always makes me feel good.

What's your favorite part of the summer season?

Hot Italian vs Cool Cowboy!

Just a bit of fun today from the Harlequin blog - a face off between totally opposite heroes!

I'm not trying to influence you or anything but I just want you to know that Dante Vettori will take you in during a snowstorm, cook your favourite meal and take you to the hottest ticket party during Milan fashion week. Got that? Then go and vote here!

Does Age Matter? By Kim Boykin

DOES AGE MATTER?

When I was writing my Tule title, FLIRTING WITH FOREVER, my heroine was of course  beautiful and smart. At the time, I'd read a bunch of romances with mostly twenty-something-year-old heroines, and I wanted different, so I made Tara Jordan 45. 

The setup for the story was fun--Tara's first book, The Perfect Marriage in 30 Days, is at the top of the bestseller lists and her publisher wants her on book tour ASAP. While Tara's about to live her dream, her husband of 15 years has just walked out leaving Tara on the brink of financial ruin with no choice but to promote a marriage self-help book while hers in secretly in ruins. 

I finished the story, sent it to my editor, loving my older protagonist and the fact that she ends up falling for her 30 year old publicist. And then I got back her notes, mostly all good, hardly any changes, except one. 

My editor felt 45 was too old, 40 was pushing it, but I liked idea of a May/December romance where the woman was the December part of the duo. So Tara ended up being 40,  and got her HEA despite her age. 

Granted I write sweet, and Kristen Ashley writes hot, but she is a favorite of mine. I particularly loved her second book in the Magdalene series, SOARING. But mostly I love her because that wasn't the first time she made me fall in love with a 40+ year-old-heroine or hero for that matter.

 Does the hero and heroine's age matter to you? What's your limit, so to speak? If you're over 50, like I am, do you still prefer to read about twenty -something-year-old protagonists?

 Be sure and check out FLIRTING WITH FOREVER. It is a fun story and is going to be set free on Kindle JULY 6-10 ONLY! 

C. J.’s Summer Reading List

Salutations and Happy Independence Day to my American readers and friends. I’m going to be spending the fourth at our cottage in Montana with my daughter Tessa and her friend Ella. I wish we could look forward to some fireworks over Flathead Lake but conditions have been so dry lately, that those sorts of celebrations are being discouraged.

The good news is...we can still read! In the hot summer months one of my favorite indulgences is to dive into a fast paced book and just keep reading until it’s done. With July off to a good start, I thought it would be fun to share the top three books on this year’s summer reading list.

For Reading When It’s Just Too Hot To Move:

The Silent Girls by Eric Rickstad

The chills in this book will keep you from overheating on those very hot summer days. I am about two thirds in and can’t wait to finish! It’s a very captivating mystery with some pretty cool characters. The gun-toting, venison-eating hero captures your heart when you learn he raised his niece as his own after his sister’s murder.

For Reading On A Rainy Summer Morning:

It’s You by Jane Porter

Don’t let rain clouds dampen your day. Just make a cup of tea, crawl under your quilt, and snuggle down for a read that will touch your heart and make you think about who really are the ‘good guys’ and the ‘bad guys’ in this world. I gulped this one down in just three days!

For Reading In Your Beach Chair:

A Week At The Lake by Wendy Wax

I don’t have my copy of this one yet, but I love the cover and I’m a fan of Wendy Wax, so I don’t see how I can go wrong. When I’m done here I may go pick another title from Tule Publishing. They have so many excellent books out this summer with the most delicious-looking covers!

Tell me—what will you be reading this summer? I need some more books to add to my list and I’d love to hear your suggestions.

Hope you enjoy your summer!

C.J. Carmichael

Website | Facebook

Lucy Monroe Reccommends: Bad Boys, We Love You

I have always had a soft spot in my heart for the "Bad Boys" - those rough and tumble tough guys, the Johnny Depps and Christian Bales, the boys with the unruly behavior, tortured souls and soulful eyes.  This month we are talking some great new stories with wayward men and I'm thrilled to say, some of them are by a couple of my personal favorites!

First, Lori Foster's Heartbreakers gives us two stories of roguish ladies' men, in "Treat Her Right" and "Mr. November". These two standalone stories are hot!  Treat Her Right features a single parent paramedic bad boy, and in Mr. November, a firefighter calendar model with some hot ideas on what he sees as being a good exchange for his time.

"What’s not to like about a fireman and an EMT? Especially when they are die hard bachelors who don’t have time to pursue love and fate decides to send them their exact opposites to tease and confound them."-Goodreads reader review

 

Jayne Ann Krentz has been at the top of my auto-buy list for years, and Trust No One is an exciting read. Grace Elland finds her boss dead on the floor.  Together with a tough ex-Marine whose specialized skills help her to discover a dark secret plan that could hurt her and those she cares about!

“Krentz never disappoints, but this title shines with authentic characters, an unusual setting in the motivational business world, and a creative arc that ratchets up sexual and psychological tensions. An intriguing, textured mystery that perfectly layers humor, suspense and romance.”—Kirkus, starred review

E.L James' hotly anticipated addition to the Fifty Shades trilogy, Grey shows us Christian's world through his eyes, inviting us in to the world we were drawn into in the first three books.   This is one of my daughter's favorite series and she can't wait to find time to read the story all over again from Christian's perspective.

 

"Will being with Ana dispel the horrors of his childhood that haunt Christian every night? Or will his dark sexual desires, his compulsion to control, and the self-loathing that fills his soul drive this girl away and destroy the fragile hope she offers him?"

Karina Hall's The Offer 's Bram McGregor is a playboy Scotsman (and who doesn't love one of those?) whose offer to help single mom Nicola Price comes at the price of his antagonizing her at every turn. 

"Bram is known for being a carefree Scottish manwhore. He’s T-r-o-u-b-l-e. He tries to hook up with Nicola at Stephanie and Linden’s wedding but when she tells him she has to get home to her daughter he happily finds someone else to shag… in the bushes… which Nicola sees. Ouch. Now Nicola wants nothing to do with Bram and she makes no effort to hide her disdain for him whenever they are around each other. Bram sees her as a challenge to be conquered." - Reader Review, amazon.com

And for those of you who may have missed my 3 Brides for 3 Bad Boys anthology when it was out in print, it has been released as a trilogy of eBook novellas.

They're not the marrying kind—more the Do NOT Take Home to Mom kind. But these three brothers are about to meet the tempting women who have what it takes to tame their inner bad boys...

RAND:  After tragedy struck six years ago, Rand buried what was left of his heart. But Phoebe Garrison isn't giving up, and she's got an enticing deal: the coveted deed to property his company needs in exchange for one hot week in her bed. It's an offer even the brooding Rand can't refuse. Now, as every hunger is explored, every secret revealed, Rand knows he'll need more than one week to indulge his fantasies with this amazing woman...

COLTON:  Waking up in Vegas next to a naked showgirl named Fayre after a scorching night of passion puts a smile on Colton Denning's face-until he discovers she's his new wife. How could the stable, workaholic Colton have married such an unpredictable force of nature, a woman as likely to throw pottery as a kiss? But when it comes to tender love-and erotic war-Colton's discovering that all is Fayre...

CARTER:  As marriage proposals go, Carter's offer to Daisy Jackson lacks romance: Marry me and I'll give you a half-a-million dollars. To fulfill the requirements of his father's lucrative will, he needs a wife, and Daisy needs the money. But after a wedding night of absolutely explosive sensuality, Carter wants more than an arrangement. He wants Daisy, to have, to hold, and everything else...

With these bad boys, you may kiss the bride is only the beginning...

 

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

Kathleen O'Brien: The Delight of Becoming a Princess

When I was writing HIS DEFIANT PRINCESS, my Tule novella about an American woman who falls in love with the prince of a small, fairytale kingdom by the sea, I couldn’t believe how many people asked me this question: “If you were royal and had all that money, what would you buy?”

Huh?  Money? For me, the attraction of a Royal/Commoner story is that the conflict is intense, difficult to overcome.  Talk about culture shock!  Oh, the poignant nobility of trying to choose honor over personal desires!  And of course a Hero Prince is likely to be extraordinarily well bred, charming, intelligent, competent and brimming with health and confidence, so… there’s that. J

It hadn’t occurred to me that anyone would believe the primary delight of a Royal story was that becoming a princess would be like winning the lottery, with lifetime free-for-all-shopping. 

So I tried to figure out why I saw it differently.  After all, I’m not a saint.  I like money.  I like stuff. J 

But I darn sure wouldn’t marry for it.

You see, I’ve been happily married a very long time, and I know this one thing to be absolutely true:  there wouldn’t be enough money in the world to compensate for living with a man you didn’t love.  You know the old song about having satin sheets to cry on?  It’s not a cliché for nothing.

And the other sad truth is that most of the stuff we buy doesn’t thrill us the way we thought it would. 

I’m sure you’ve been there! An expensive knick-knack looks magical in the store, but when you get it home it’s swamped by all your other junk.  Eventually you just growl between your teeth whenever you pick it up to dust around it.  

George Carlin supposedly once said (paraphrasing here!) that buying things to get happy is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body.

In spite of the small perfume-purchasing problem I haven’t quite licked yet, I do know he’s right.

And so does Brenna Tinley, the public relations professional heroine of HIS DEFIANT PRINCESS, who must decide whether she can allow herself to fall in love with a man who carries the weight of his country on his shoulders.

You can bet that, if she does, it won’t be because he’s the guy who can buy her jewels and expensive dresses.  After all, what’s the point of a fabulous gown if you’ll dread the moment when your Hero wants to slip you out of it?