Saturday, March 30, 2013

Picture Perfect by Camille Dixon Blog Tour & Giveaway



Picture Perfect by Camille Dixon 
Publication date: March 26th 2013 
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance

On the outside, Devin Thompson looks like he has it all - charm, good looks, and a scholarship every art major at Sanhope would kill for. But on the inside, he’s dying. His family is falling apart, his grades are dropping, and his girlfriend just dumped him for his hockey team rival, who also happens to be his younger brother. Not to mention he hasn't been able to snap a decent picture for his senior portfolio in weeks. But when a sultry redhead with fire burning in her eyes struts across his path, he thinks he may have finally found his muse…

Angela “Angel” Davis learned early on that life never offers any hand-outs. And she’s getting burned out. Between juggling her nights as an exotic dancer at a men’s private club and struggling to keep up with her elementary education courses during the day, she barely has time to think of the future. Not that she wants to. The future implies planning, and Angel is no stranger to broken dreams. Then she meets Devin, a man who’s so wrong for her, yet she can’t seem to stay away from.

When Devin offers to take her on as his private model, Angel finds the cash hard to refuse. Each has something the other desperately needs, and neither one is willing to walk away. As their professional relationship spirals out of control into something more, they learn sometimes the wrong person can be the only right person, and that life - and people - are rarely picture perfect.


AUTHOR BIO
I'm a Southern girl who's spent the last few years freezing my toosh off up north. Except for the snow, things are pretty good. I love sunshine, sweet tea, and romances that touch my heart. A lifelong romantic, I found my own prince charming at an online dating site. Six months later, he asked me to marry him. Picture Perfect is my debut novel.


Author Links:

Camille's Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter



a Rafflecopter giveaway


EXCERPT – PICTURE PERFECT by Camille Dixon

His brows furrowed. “Is something the matter?”
You.
I choked out a fake laugh. “Just nervous, I guess.”
His expression relaxed, his eyes softening as the smile reached them. “You shouldn’t be. You’re perfect.”
I stared at him, struck speechless for the second time tonight.
Hot. Damn.
“Perfect for the camera, I mean,” he added, shifting his weight. A light blush crept to his face, making his rugged looks turn boyishly cute.
And making me want him all the more.


Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Off Sides by Sawyer Bennett Blog Tour & Giveaway


Title: Off Sides
Author: Sawyer Bennett
Release date: February 21, 2013
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Group: New Adult
Event organized by: AToMR Tours


Links to the book:


“I'm not sure what possessed me to do it. Maybe it was the impossible expectations I faced, maybe it was my own self-loathing. But I just knew I needed something different to happen. I needed someone...something...to derail me from my current path. Otherwise, I would become lost...a hollowed out shell of a man. So I did it. I approached her, then I pursued her, then I made her mine. And my life was saved...”

 Ryan Burnham is the privileged son of a U.S. Congressman and captain of his university’s hockey team. While he is on the verge of fulfilling his dreams to play in the NHL, his parents want him on a different course. One he is expected to accept for the sake of his family’s public image.

 Forced to abandon her music career after the heart breaking death of her parents, Danny Cross exists on the opposite side of the tracks from Ryan. She is struggling to make her own way, working two jobs, attending college part time and volunteering in a homeless shelter. She is on a mission to build her own success.

 With a chance meeting, their vastly different worlds collide, causing each to evaluate whether they are truly on the correct path to self-fulfillment and happiness. Can their relationship survive? Particularly when others are against them every step of the way. A lot can happen in just ten short days...

About the Author

Sawyer Bennett is the pen name for a snarky southern woman and reformed trial lawyer who decided to finally start putting on paper all of the stories that were floating in her head. She is married to a mobster (well, a market researcher) and they have two big, furry dogs who hog the bed. Sawyer would like to report she doesn't have many weaknesses but can be bribed with a 
nominal amount of milk chocolate.


Author social media links:
http://www.sawyerbennett.com
http://www.facebook.com/bennettbooks
http://www.twitter.com/bennettbooks
http://www.goodreads.com/Sawyer_Bennett

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Excerpt From Off Sides:

Ryan opens my car door for me and takes my hand. We walk together to my apartment door and I'm looking for my keys in my purse, all of a sudden nervous. A minute ago I was ready to jump in bed with Ryan, but now, in the harsh fluorescent light of the hallway outside of my apartment, I'm faced with the uncertainty of a relationship with a man who is so different than me.
Putting his finger under my chin, Ryan tilts my head up to his and says, "Don't."
He knows I'm doubting this and that tells me a lot about how perceptive he is. Before I can respond he pulls me to him and kisses me...hard. And every thought flies out of my head.
My hands snake up his chest and wrap around his neck before slipping into his hair. It's as soft and silky as I had been trying hard not imagine. Our tongues are swirling...stabbing...and then my teeth grab his bottom lip and bite. He answers me with a guttural sound that vibrates from his mouth into mine.
Without breaking our hold on each other, Ryan pushes me one step backward until my back is pressed into my door. His hands graze down my sides until they reach my hips. His fingers dig in, pulling me tight against him and I can feel his hardness. I am drowning in Ryan, or maybe he's downing in me by the sounds of his ragged breathing, I do not know. I just know I have never been kissed like this before and something warm is unfurling in my chest in response to this passion.
Ryan finally pulls away slightly, breathing hard against my mouth. "Jesus, Danny.
"I don't think Jesus has anything to do with the explosion that just happened between us but if He did, I'm heading to church this weekend to thank Him.


Friday, March 22, 2013

The Boys of Summer Blog Tour


Welcome to my stop on The Boys of Summer blog tour hosted by YA Bound.  Click HERE to check out the full blog tour schedule!

The Boys of Summer (Summer #1)
Release Date: 12/17/12
294 pages
Summary from Goodreads: 
It seemed only natural to nickname them the ‘OnslowBoys’. Every time they swaggered in the front door of the Onslow Hotel after a hard week’s work, their laughter was loud and genuine as they settled onto their bar stools. I peeked through the restaurant partition, a flimsy divider between my world and theirs. I couldn’t help but smile whenever I saw them, saw him ... Toby Morrison.

Quiet seventeen-year-old Tess doesn’t relish the thought of a summertime job. She wants nothing more than to forget the past haunts of high school and have fun with her best friends before the dreaded Year Twelve begins.
To Tess, summer is when everything happens: riding bikes down to the lake, watching the fireworks at the Onslow Show and water bomb fights at the sweltering Sunday markets.

How did she let her friends talk her into working?

After first-shift disasters, rude, wealthy tourists and a taunting ex-boyfriend, Tess is convinced nothing good can come of working her summer away. However, Tess finds unlikely allies in a group of locals dubbed ‘The Onslow Boys’, who are old enough to drive cars, drink beer and not worry about curfews. Tess’s summer ofworking expands her world with a series of first times with new friends, forbidden love and heartbreaking chaos.

All with the one boy she has never been able to forget. 
It will be a summer she will always remember.
Warning: sexual references, and occasional course language.

My Thoughts:

I found The Boys of Summer to be a fun and enjoyable way to spend a quiet, chilly afternoon.

Against her better judgement Tess has allowed herself  to be talked into a summer job. While she had envisioned swimming, sleeping in and just being generally lazy she ends up washing dishes, waiting tables and much to her surprise, falling in love. 

While it did take me a little while to get caught up in Tess's story, once I did I was in for the long haul. Duggan writes a very character driven novel and she did a great job of bringing everyone to life. From Tess's occasional whining, Toby's inability to make a move, Alex's pool table dancing and Ellie's promiscuity everyone had very real, very believable flaws. The Onslow Boys were definitely swoon worthy and I can't wait to read Endless Summer to find out what happens with all of them. I hoping for a lot of happy endings. This is definitely a book that should be added to your summer romance reading list. 

This is definitely written for older young adults that don't mind a little hot, sexy time in their books. 

Buy Links:


Add An Endless Summer (Summer #2) to Goodreads:

About the Author
C.J Duggan is an Australian author who lives with her husband in a rural border town of New South Wales, Australia.
The Boys of Summer is Book One in her Mature Young Adult Romance Series.

***GIVEAWAY***
Enter below to win one of 5 e-book copies of The Boys of Summer, open Internationally!
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Thursday, March 21, 2013

The Truth About Letting Go Book Blitz and Giveaway



The Truth About Letting Go by Leigh Talbert Moore
Publication date: February 21st 2013
Genre: YA Contemporary

Ashley wants to smash everything in her once-perfect life.

Charlotte wants to walk in Ashley’s seemingly charmed shoes.
Colt wants to turn Smalltown USA on its ear—with Ashley at his side.
Jordan wants to follow his heart…
But Ashley’s the one sacrifice he never expected to make.


Up until now, Ashley Lockett’s followed the rules. She’s always done the right thing, played it safe, gone to church. Then her ideal life is torn apart when her dad dies suddenly.

Now she’s miserable and furious, and she makes a vow not to believe in anything. She’s on a mission to do everything opposite of how she lived before—rejecting safety, the rules, faith… 

And then she meets Jordan. 

Jordan has big dreams, he’s a great kisser, and he wants to help her through her grief. He also believes in everything Ashley now claims to  hate. 

Then she meets Colt. He is not safe. And he’s ready to help Ashley fulfill her mission.


PURCHASE: 



a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway


AUTHOR BIO
Leigh Talbert Moore is a wife and mom by day, a writer by day, a reader by day, a freelance editor when time permits, a chocoholic, a caffeine addict, a lover of any great love story, a beach bum, and occasionally she sleeps.
Leigh’s debut novel The Truth About Faking is available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Kobo.
Her second book, Rouge, is a mature YA/new adult romantic suspense novel set in New Orleans. It’s available on Amazon.

Author Links:



Friday, March 15, 2013

Desert Flower by Angela Scott (Blog Tour)




Bodies have a canny way of finding Samantha Jean Haggert—the first, the dead body of her mama; the second, a naked man in the middle of the Arizona desert. For Sam, dealing with one dead body in her lifetime is more than unfair. Two is downright cruel.

Seven years after running from West Virginia, Sam's now a young woman of nineteen, trying to put the pieces of her life together with the help of her family—Jacob, Boone, and Laura. But the naked man in the desert spirals her world out of control, resurrecting past hurts and revealing old secrets. It also pits against one another the two men who vie for her heart: Carson, her friend, her first kiss, and the one man who knows everything about her past and loves her despite it; and Turner, the stranger who knows nothing, but who excites and frustrates her all at once.

When bad choices made as a child lead to more bad choices as a young adult, Sam finds herself at a crossroads, forced to face her demons head-on if she plans to have any future at all—with Carson, with Turner, or with anyone. But fixing the wrongs of the past takes time, and learning to forgive one's self is damn near impossible.

Visit old friends in this harrowing sequel to Desert Rice, in which award-winning author Angela Scott brings back the characters so many readers have loved. 

Buy Links 
Amazon


Angela Scott

Author Bio:
I hear voices. Tiny fictional people sit on my shoulders and whisper their stories in my ear. Instead of medicating myself, I decided to pick up a pen, write down everything those voices tell me, and turn it into a book. I’m not crazy. I’m an author. For the most part, I write contemporary Young Adult novels. However, through a writing exercise that spiraled out of control, I found myself writing about zombies terrorizing the Wild Wild West—and loving it. My zombies don’t sparkle, and they definitely don’t cuddle. At least, I wouldn’t suggest it.
I live on the benches of the beautiful Wasatch Mountains with two lovely children, one teenager, and a very patient husband. I graduated from Utah State University with a B.A. degree in English, not because of my love for the written word, but because it was the only major that didn’t require math. I can’t spell, and grammar is my arch nemesis. But they gave me the degree, and there are no take backs.
As a child, I never sucked on a pacifier; I chewed on a pencil. I’ve been writing that long. It has only been the past few years that I’ve pursued it professionally, forged relationships with other like-minded individuals, and determined to make a career out of it.
You can subscribe and follow me on my website, where I blog obsessively about my writing process and post updates on my current works. I’m also on Twitter and Facebook, but be forewarned, I tweet and post more than a normal person.
Twitter: @whimsywriting

My Thoughts:

I  read a lot of books and every now and again I get one that I know will stick with me for a while. Desert Rice is definitely one of those books. Scott has done an amazing job of writing characters that you will  not only root for but that you'll also fall in love with. 

Desert Flower is the sequel to Desert Rice and so much goes on in the first novel that leads up to the second that I feel like I need to be kind of vague so that I don't give anything away. I do recommend reading the books in order because the second definitely is written after the first. 

The first book Desert Rice is all about Sam and her brother Jacob as young teens running away from their home town. Now Sam and Jacob are grown up and have all new adult problems. Just like in the first novel this book is full of extreme highs and lows in their lives and how they deal with their decisions and mistakes. 

I can honestly say that I loved both of these amazingly written novels. I became so emotionally invested in the characters and their stories. I highly recommend both of 
these novels, just make sure you have plenty of tissues available because you're going to need them.

I think both of these novels are more for the more mature Young Adults to Adults. Even though the first book is about Sam and Jacob as teens, it deals with some very intense situations. 

Excerpt From Desert Flower by Angela Scott

I catapulted myself at Carson the moment he walked in the door—a wild, crazy woman. My fists pummeled his chest. He just stood there and accepted my onslaught of violence.
"You shouldn't have left me alone with her! You said you'd only be gone an hour!"
"Sam, I tried to hurry—"
I pushed him and then pushed him again. "You should have taken her with you!"
He dropped his armload of groceries on the floor and the broken eggs seeped through the brown paper bag. He took hold of me and shook me violently by the shoulders, as if that would snap me out of my insanity, but it only infuriated me further.
"Let go of me!"
"Not until you calm down!"
I struggled to free myself from his grasp, but Carson pinned me to the wall and held me there.
"Get your hands off me!" But he wouldn't release me.
"Knock it off, Sam! Settle down."
"Settle down! You left me here with her! You said she would sleep, but she didn't. She wouldn't stop crying. I didn't know what to do!"
"Maybe if you held her more and faked some interest in your own baby, then maybe you would!"
He released his hands from me as though I were poisonous, shook his head, and knelt to pick up the spilled groceries. Distaste and disappointment coated his face. He didn't like me any better than I liked myself.
"Hannah deserves better than this," he mumbled, something we both agreed on.
I lowered myself to the floor in a heap and wrapped my arms around my legs. "I'm sorry." Tears fell down my face. "I didn't know what to do. She just wouldn't stop crying. I'm sorry!"
His hands froze midway in their pursuit to clean up the mess at his feet, and he looked at me, really looked at me. "Where's the baby, Sam?"




Thursday, March 7, 2013

Undertow by Elle Chardou Promo and Giveaway


Title: Undertow
Author: Elle Chardou
Release date: February 3, 2013
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Group: New Adult
Event organized by: AToMR Tours

Book Links:
Amazon

Book Description:

Secrets...
Evie Sandstrom has always had secrets. She has grown up with them and now they are coming back and chipping away at her confident facade. Always one for an adventure, she decides to leave after college break and spend the summer in Boston.

The Irish Gangster...
Finn Reilly is not only a bad-boy drug dealer but he is also Evie's first love. When they meet again in Boston, sparks begin to fly and although they share one huge secret that should have destroyed them forever, it unites them at a time when she needs all the help she can get.

The French Model...
Evie's mother, superstar actress Athena Donahue, has remarried to Etienne Fournier, a model who is eighteen years her mother's junior and wants to get to know Evie in more ways than one.

Once Athena drags her daughter back to L.A. under dubious circumstances, she is within the sights of Etienne yet out of the sights of Finn. Can they resolve their differences and will true love prevail or will life get in the way and spoil their chances of happiness?




About the Author


Elle Chardou is a world traveler and author of several different series.
Ms. Chardou is the author of The Ties That Bind Trilogy, The Atonement Series, The Hart Family Saga, The Vamp Saga, The Supernaturals, Beginnings: Book I (The Plague) series. She is currently working on Only Love (The Atonement Series), Queen of the Immortals, Book Three in The Vamp Saga.
Ms. Chardou has lived abroad in Stockholm (Sweden), Manchester (England), Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and Portland. She currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada



Author social media links:
Blog: The Beautiful People: A Writer’s Journey 
Follow Elle Chardou on Twitter
Like Elle Chardou on Facebook

Excerpt:

Did I still love Finbar Reilly?

It wasn't so much a question of whether I loved him because he was my first love but whether we were willing to try for a second time to make our relationship work now that we were adults. If he continued his criminal enterprise activities then obviously the chances of us having a functional relationship were slim to none. My mother would rather have me murdered herself than to have her only child wrapped up with an Irish thug.

I promptly grabbed my phone from Finn and replied, “I didn’t buy the damn thing—my dad did for my nineteenth birthday.”

 “Wow. He really thinks a nineteen-year-old needs a fifty thousand dollar mobile phone?” he inquired in a sarcastic voice.

“Whoa, check out the big brain on Finn. How the hell do you know how much this phone costs anyway?”

“I read you know. Contrary to what you might think, I am completely literate and can use a computer just fine. I have an iBook over there in the corner, a Kindle Fire, an iPod Touch and the latest iPhone. I also have an iPad but I mostly use it to watch films when I want to be alone.”

 I shrugged apathetic shoulders. “What can I say? He’s old world and Swedish…not to mention a former action hero superstar. He doesn’t get that people in the real world don’t carry around outrageously expensive shit like rich people do.”

“Oh yeah, where is he living now and when’s the last time you saw him? I read about his marriage to Artemis Ozan. That must have sent your mother around the bend. He dumps her and marries a British pop singer who used to be part of the mega-girl group, The Baby Gyrls.”

“No one even knows who the hell she is here so that helped.” I began to play with my phone just to keep my hands busy and away from his body. “It didn’t help that Artemis is a huge star in the UK. Mom used to hate to attend premieres there because they would always ask her questions about the woman and wonder whether she had anything to do with my parents’ divorce.”

Finn stared me over with bright crystal blue eyes. “Did she?”

“Well…yeah. He met her at the premiere of that film he did about the rogue CIA agent. He and Mom were having problems because of what had happened here between us but…she doesn’t blame me. She thinks she made the right decision but Dad was furious with her. He thought you and I could really make a go of it and wanted to buy us a place in Europe. I would have been sixteen soon and that’s the age of consent in Sweden. We could have gotten married.”

I was silent for a moment. “He never thought we should have just been separated the way we were and furthermore, he didn’t want me to grow up in the spotlight. His bright idea was moving us away and allowing me to grow up like a normal teenager in Sweden. Of course that would have meant you would have wanted to move there but he was willing to finance the whole set-up.”

Finn took the phone from my hands and set it down on the table next to the bed before he slipped his arms around my waist. “You know I would have gone anywhere with you. Why didn’t your dad have more of a say?”

“Because Mom just took over the whole situation and that is when he gave up and went to Europe to do that film. By the time he got back, everything was already put into motion and there was nothing he could do. He kind of just allowed the marriage to fall apart and the next thing I knew, Mom told me he was moving to London to star in a Broadway show and they were getting a divorce.”

We drifted down onto the bed and when he kissed me again my heart began to thump in my chest with an intensity I didn’t think was possible. Everything about the situation was perfect including the way his JD soaked tongue swirled with mine and we both kind of drifted into each other’s space.

My hands had a mind of their own as they removed his wife-beater to reveal a new tattoo, one of a shamrock on the left side of his chest with the colors of the Irish flag. This joined a black Celtic cross he had on his right shoulder blade, a black broken heart on his right upper arm and my name in cursive on his left upper shoulder just above a hard-core barbed wire tattoo.

I traced the shamrock tattoo on his chest. “This your last time dabbling with ink?” I questioned in a teasing manner.

“I don’t know. You still have your tramp stamp?” he inquired.

“Um, yeah. It makes interesting conversation when ever I have ever been in bed with a guy…which has only been a couple of times since you…guys I mean.”

The tramp stamp he referred to was a tattoo I had at the base of my back which read “Property of Finn R.” It was during the days when we were inseparable and although I was underage, it didn’t stop me from getting it done. I was so happy to be with him I would have had it tattooed on my face if he’d wanted me to at the time.

“Speaking of being with other guys…I don’t want to hear about it, okay? And does that mean you’re on anything?” Finn inquired with cold look flashing through his gorgeous eyes.

“No, I’m not on anything because the guys I have been with…we always used rubbers and lately, I’ve been kind of dabbling on the other side of the fence.”
a Rafflecopter giveaway


The first installment of The Atonement Series.

Deirdre Bardot is a PhD student at Harvard and on her way home for Thanksgiving when she finds out her father has been murdered in a vicious hit and run by a drunk driver.

Forced to piece her life together after such a traumatic event, Deirdre moves back to Seattle to be closer to her younger sister, Caitlyn, and their mother.

When her psychiatrist, Dr. van der Meer, suggests she needs to get away from it all and take a vacation, her best friend decides to introduce her to a friend of his who has more or less the same idea. Colin is perfect: he's good looking, self-deprecating and sexy as hell but he also happens to be the Dr. van der Meer's son.

Deirdre finds herself falling hard for a guy she barely knows and one who is equally into her as she is into him. They decide a trip to Western Europe together is the perfect way to get to know one another a whole lot better.

Then an unspeakable and random act of violence occurs one night and Colin realizes he is forced to reveal a secret to Deirdre he has been hiding...a secret that is breaking him, and in doing so to free his conscience, he just might destroy the relationship he has created with Deirdre and lose her forever.

Publisher's Note: Due to mature adult themes, sexually explicit scenes and adult language, this 
novel is not suitable for minors under the age of 18.


Sunday, March 3, 2013

Promo: The Samantha Project by Stephanie Karpinske


Title: The Samantha Project
Author: Stephanie Karpinske
Release date: November 15, 2012
Genre: Science Fiction/Romance/Thriller
Age Group: Young Adult
Buy Links: (will add BN link after 2/14)

Book Description:

Seventeen-year-old Samantha Andrews has a seemingly perfect life; great parents, early admission to Stanford, and a boyfriend who just happens to be the hottest guy in school. But dark secret from her past turns her world upside down. Sam discovers she's part of a global corporation's genetic enhancement project. And just as she's learning what these enhanced genes can do, the corporation decides they want her, and the technology inside her, back! During a heart-pounding race to flee from her pursuers, she encounters another person who was part of the experimental project. He's tall, blond, tan and completely irresistible! And he can read her thoughts!! Together, they're both in danger and a rogue scientist discovers yet another secret lies inside them.




About the Author

A former editor for a publishing company, Stephanie Karpinske has worked on several bestselling nonfiction books. Now she freelances full-time, writing for a variety of books and national magazines. The Samantha Project is her debut YA novel and is the first in The Samantha Project series. Stephanie lives in Des Moines, Iowa.
Author social media links:


Saturday, March 2, 2013

Conflicting Hearts by J.D. Burrows ~ Promo Blitz




Conflicting Hearts
Contemporary Romance
Date Published: November 2012

 Conflicting Hearts

Synopsis:

Rachel Hayward hoped to have a quiet thirtieth birthday alone. Instead, fate had different plans.

Caught in traffic and late for work, she can do nothing except wait for the freeway gridlock to ease. A three-car pileup has caused the snarl. Just as cars begin to move at a faster clip, Rachel takes her eyes off the road to gawk at the accident and rear-ends the car in front of her.

Sick over having ruined her day, she lowers her head onto the steering wheel and waits for the driver to begin a tirade over her stupidity. Instead, a kind man taps on her window showing genuine concern about her welfare. The brief colliding encounter suddenly starts a relationship between two strangers that takes off under odd circumstances.

When the couple becomes intimate, their relationship turns into a conflicting set of desires and needs. Rachel is bound by a shameful, dark childhood. After she falls in love with the handsome Ian Richards, she is faced with the decision to leave him or finally confront her demons to obtain the one thing in life she's always needed--healing from the sexual abuse she endured as a little girl.


EXCERPT

Ian slowly turns me around so that I’m facing him. We’re nose to nose. Our bodies are touching front to front. This is not good, or maybe it is good. He doesn’t say a thing, except to look at me with a smoldering gaze. A second later, he lazily moves his eyes toward my lips.

I’m frozen. I look at him with half anticipation and half panic. He’s going to kiss me; I know it. His intentions are clearly expressed in his blue eyes, which have turned a shade darker. I’m losing it. Hurriedly, I remind him of his words to fend off the advance.
“Uh, I thought you wanted to be just friends?”

A look of admiration sweeps across his face. He gently brings his hand up to my forehead and brushes a few strands of hair out of my eyes. Ian is silent, but it’s obvious he is thinking this through. It’s driving me crazy being close to his body.
“You want more?” I whisper, trying to get him to say something.
“Do you?”

He answers with a question. It’s annoying. “I asked you first,” I reply, not cracking a smile or giving away my heart pounding in my chest. I can’t look at him any longer. I close my eyes, and silently ask God, who I’ve ignored for years, to help me.

Then I feel the warmth of his breath approach. He circles my lips with his and gives me a long, tender kiss. Sweet Jesus. He tastes so delicious! I hope the breath mint I popped in my mouth a half hour ago is still working. Eventually, he pulls away, and I open my eyes.

“Does that answer your question?”


Read Chapter 1 Online via a Flip Book:


Author Bio:

J. D. Burrows is a pen named used for contemporary romance written by Vicki Hopkins. She has authored four other historical fiction/romance novels. Her recent historical (Dark Persuasion) won the 2012 USA Best Book Awards Finalist for Fiction Romance.
The author lives in the rainy Pacific Northwest with a pesky cat who refuses to let her sleep in. She enjoys traveling to England, researching her English ancestry, finding long-lost relatives from the Holland lineage, and creating stories that touch the hearts of women.
For information about her historical romance, visit http://vickihopkins.com



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