#firstlinefriday A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: DYLAN #comingsoon #romanticsuspense #STEM

Okay, this one is making me all happy on the inside! A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: DYLAN is set to release into the book-reading world on September 18, 2023! I am sososo thrilled. Here’s the very first look at the cover:

And here’s the book jacket blurb:

Cyber-security specialist Dylan Keane is working undercover to suss out a corporate thief. When he zeroes in on Harper Vale, he thinks he’s found his mole.

Harper has a reputation as a coding savant and an introvert. Dylan’s interest is flattering, but after she’s implicated in the theft of the company’s protected software, she doubts everything he’s told her.

When a series of potentially deadly accidents occur involving Harper, Dylan wonders if she is being set up to take the fall. One thing is certain: the more time they spend together, the more Dylan realizes he’s the one who’s falling—for Harper.

And now here’s the FIRST LINE:

Chapter 1

Wednesday, noon

Dylan Keane knew if he hadn’t been forced to walk the straight and narrow by his parents, he would have had a lucrative career as a con man instead of a private investigator.

No preorder links yet because we’re so far out for publication, but I am sosos excited to have a set date for release.

If you haven’t read the two previous PRIDE OF BROTHERS books, Rick and Aiden, now it your chance to get caught up!

A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: RICK

Elite bodyguard and P.I. Rick Bannerman’s job is to protect. He doesn’t get emotional with his clients, but when a woman from his past is threatened, his next job becomes personal.

Family lawyer Abigail Laine is the target of a client’s vengeful husband, but refuses Rick’s offer of protection. He walked away from her four years ago, and she swore to forget him.

Now her reluctance to accept his help could cost Abby her life.

A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: AIDEN

Lexi Buckley wants answers about her younger sister’s death. The police have labeled it a suicide, but Lexi doesn’t believe it. Stymied in her investigation, she doesn’t know where to turn next. After a chance encounter with a private investigator, she thinks her prayers have been answered.

Aiden Keane has never been an answer to a prayer before, but he agrees to help Lexi. A quirky combo of brains and beauty, the pixie blonde makes him feel things no professional ever should for a client.

When their investigation puts Lexi’s life in jeopardy, her safety becomes his number one priority. The hard part is not falling for her.

Look how great these covers look all together!!!

and here’s one more little teaser….there’s 1 more book-brother left to write. Only 2 people on the planet know the name of this brother, me and a very special lady. Hee hee. More on that to come….

Advertisement

Leave a comment

Filed under A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: DYLAN

Getting Witchy with it Facebook takeover! #PNR #GWWI2023 #attendingauthor

I’m so stoked because this Saturday, May 27th, starting at 6pm EST, I’ll be taking over the Getting Witch With It Reader FB page for an hour! Please join me because I don’t want to be lonely, LOL. I’ll be having giveaways, talking about my PNR books- those that are out and those that are releasing soon – and we’ll be playing some witchy-themed games.

GWWI is a two day author/reader extravaganza set for Saturday Sept. 16 2023 and Sunday Sept 17. I’ll be at the Saturday signing. More about that during the FB takeover.

If you’re interested in attending the actual event, here’s the registration and details. GWWI2023

Here’s the complete list of attending authors for both days: ( it’s some list!!!)

Leave a comment

Filed under Getting Witch With it 2023

A cool #Vella interview about the Jane Austen Murders #shortreads #kindlevella

I was honored last night to be interviewed by podcaster and writer Anton Crucis about my Kindle Vella story THE JANE AUSTEN MURDERS.

You can view the entire interview here : Youtube

P.S. it’s about 15 minutes, so not too long!!

And I really have to stop talking with my hands!

Check out my other Vella stories, here: VELLA

Leave a comment

Filed under kindle vella

#Wednesdaywisdom 5.24.2023

Leave a comment

May 24, 2023 · 12:14 am

#mugmonday 5.22.2023

My darling friend, Cheryl, gave this to me for my birthday! She really gets me and gets that I’m a writer, lol!

Leave a comment

Filed under mug monday

Boobs Between the Books! A Girl’s night out fundraiser for EVOLVE PINK…

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is girls-night-out-fundraiser-to-support-evolve-pink.png

I am so excited – and honored and humbled – to be attending BOOBS BETWEEN THE BOOKS a fundraiser for the wonderful Breast Cancer Support service, EVOLVE PINK.

EVOLVE PINK strives to bridge the gap between treatment and true healing for breast cancer survivors.

I’ll be joining a wonderful array of Authors who’ll be talking about all things writing and romance. PLus, we’ll be having a book signing with a portion of the proceeds to go to EVOLVE PINK!! WinWin!!!

Jodi Payne https://www.facebook.com/jodipayneauthor

Elizabeth John www.facebook.com/elizabethjohnauthor

Shari Nichols https://www.facebook.com/sharinich/

Roz Lee http://www.facebook.com/authorrozlee

Ruth Casie https://www.facebook.com/RuthACasie/

Kathy Fawcett (writes as K.M. Fawcett) https://www.facebook.com/kathy.m.fawcett

Miriam Allenson facebook.com/msallenson

Kimberley Ash Facebook.com/KimberleyAshAuthor

Lisa Olech https://www.facebook.com/Lisa.A.Olech.Writ

Rose C. Carole https://www.facebook.com/RoseCCaroleAuthor/

Nicole S. Patrick

Stacey Wilk www.Facebook.com/staceytwilk

and me, Peggy Jaeger: https://www.facebook.com/PeggyJaeger.Author/

Registration is FREE!!!!

Come and enjoy a FREE DINNER & DESSERTS donated by Dream Dinners of Flemington, Max’s 31 in Califon, Costco, & Shop Rite. BYOB and your questions for the authors!!!

Leave a comment

Filed under Writing

#FIRSTLINEFRIDAY 5.19.2023 #romanticsuspense #bodyguard #NYCromance

Today’s first line come from the second book in A PRIDE OF BROTHERS, this one featuring the youngest brother, AIDEN.

This little treasure won a whole passel of awards and was a RONE finalist in 2022 in the romantic suspense category. This is the review that garnered a crowned heart:

Leave a comment

Filed under #firstlinefriday

SABLE ( Always a Bridesmaid- book 12)releases today! #sweetromance #fakedating #friendstosomethingmore

So unless you’ve been living under a rock – or don’t follow this blog ( LOL) you know today is release day for SABLE, my addition to the ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID sweet romance series.

This book was a joy to write because I got to use my medical/nursing knowledge and since it’s a sweet romance, I didn’t have to write any sex scenes, hahaha!

SABLE MILLER is Chance Miller’s sister. Last year, Chance was featured in the LAST MAN STANDING series and he got quite the following, so I’m hopeful readers enjoy Sable just as much.

Here’s the cover jacket for SABLE:


ALWAYS BEING A BRIDESMAID IS GETTING OLD…


Pediatrician Sable Miller is sick and tired of being the go-to, dependable bridesmaid in all her family and friends’ weddings. But her demanding job, the ridiculous hours, and endless family commitments keep her from finding the perfect man. A matchmaking service? Sounds like too much work. Swipe right dating? Not her thing. The bar scene? When was the last time she even had an evening free to go to a bar?

And forget about dating the myriad of on-the-make doctors and residents in her hospital. Besides, workplace romances never work out.

Sable’s options to meet the man of her dreams and start a family are dwindling and time is running out, because she promised herself the next wedding she would attend would be her own.

Kristopher Lee, the Physician’s Assistant assigned to Sable has a crush on his new mentor. But she’s got a hands-off rule when it comes to dating someone she works with. Kris is nothing if not persistent, though. After all, he didn’t survive two tours in the Army without focusing on a goal. And making Sable Miller fall in love with him is his best goal yet.

and a little excerpt:

They each declined a cocktail, Sable preferring a diet soda, Kris, water. A few minutes spent perusing the menu, then once their selections were ordered, Sable took a sip of the table water and said, “So. How was your day off? Do anything aside from sleep?”

“Few things. You?”

She shook her head. “I usually take the Saturday after my last night tour and sleep until early afternoon, then lounge around a bit and go to bed early so I can acclimate myself back to my normal routine. I don’t like to be foggy headed and tired when I start back up on days on Monday morning.”

“I’m on nights for the first six months. Not sure what happens after my probationary period ends. I guess I go where and when they need me the most.”

“You don’t mind the shift work? The crazy sleeping hours?”

“I got used to erratic hours in the army. There’s no real nine-to-five time frame overseas. You work when you’re awake, sleep when you can. Luckily, I do well on a few hours rest.”

Sable sighed. “I envy you that. I’m ridiculously stuck in my ways when it comes to sleeping.”

“How’d you fare in med school and as an intern? Those hours are crazy.”

“Poorly, to be truthful.” She smiled. “Back then I survived on Red Bull and determination.”

He laughed.

“When I finally graduated I slept for three days straight. Chance was so worried about me when I didn’t answer my phone he barged into my apartment, worried he’d find me sick. Or worse.”

“Chance?

“My older brother.”

“I don’t remember you having a brother in school with us.”

 “I didn’t. He graduated years before we even got into high school. Chance is ten years older. He’s turning forty in a few weeks.” She shook her head.

Their salads arrived and conversation halted for a moment. Once they were alone again, Kris said, “You got a wistful look on your face when you mentioned your brother. Everything…okay, with him?”

“Wistful?” She considered the word. “Maybe. No, everything’s great with Chance. He finally got married a few months ago to a widow with a six-year-old, so, instant family.” She wiggled her hands in the air as she smiled.

“First marriage at forty? Wow, slow starter.” Kris grinned and Sable laughed at the description.

“Not so much slow as determined to remain the last man standing. Chance never saw marriage as one of his life choices.”

“How come? Too busy having fun playing the field?”

 “No. Although, in truth, he did date a lot. A lot”. She laughed. “It was really because of all the stuff he deals with every day at work that made him relationship averse.”

“What does he do to have such a strong reaction?”

“He’s a divorce lawyer. One of the best, to be truthful.  His clients love him because he’s excellent at what he does. Other divorce lawyers hate going up against him.”

Kris winced. 

“Oh, gosh, sorry,” Sable said, heat flying up from her neck. “I forgot. I’m…sorry.”

“Don’t be.” He shrugged and shook his head. “It’s been three years since my divorce was finalized. I’m over it. Really.”

Who was he trying to convince, she wondered.

“We don’t have to talk about it,” she said, understanding there was still some pain there, “if you don’t want to. I know this was billed as a catch-up meal, but we can skip over a few things.”

He was silent for a moment as he regarded her. He’d always had such an intense way of looking at people, she remembered. As if trying to memorize every aspect of a face, or get inside the person’s head when they were talking. Most of the teenage boys she’d known hardly ever established eye contact, only doing so when they wanted something from her, and even then not lighting on her face for more than a second or two. Even as a teenager herself Sable had considered that behavior beyond rude, thinking at the time boys didn’t like her because they never looked at her.

Now, as a pediatrician, she knew the ins and outs of a child’s personality traits and recognized the non-establishment of eye contact as a universal trait among the age group, boys and girls alike.

Kris, though, had been the exception to the rule and still possessed that probing characteristic. As a sixteen-year-old with a serious crush she’d thought his eyes and the way he looked at her were the stuff of dreams. At thirty? Well, she could admit when his gaze drifted across her face and wound up back at her eyes, she still got a little fluttery.

He glanced down at his salad, then forked in a mouthful. After swallowing he asked, “So what finally changed your brother’s mind about marriage?”

“Freddie,” she said with a huge grin. “His wife. Her real name is Fredrika,” she added when his eyebrows flirted with his hairline at the name. “She owns her own coffee bar in the building Chance used to work in. That’s how they met.” She grinned. “Funny story about their first meeting, too. The ex-wife of Chance’s client happened to be in front of him on line, getting a cup to go after a hotly contentious settlement meeting. She spotted Chance, called him a few choice names, then tossed her iced coffee on him.”

“Thank goodness it was a cold brew.”

She nodded. “Freddie was horrified, came to his rescue and…” she shrugged.

“Love at first sight.”

“More like severe interest on his part. Freddie, as I said, was a widow and she’d vowed never to get involved with a man again and remarry because, in her words, she’d already found the love of her life.”

“Since your brother was marriage-shy, that fact must have been encouraging?”

“More than you realize,” she muttered and took a sip from her soda.

“There’s a story there. Spill it, Sable.”

I hope that whet your romance reading appetite!!

You can read the entire series here: ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID

and the men of LAST MAN STANDING here: LMS

And one last thing: I’m over on the ROMANCE SWEET READS Facebook group all day today talking about romance, books, having contests and doing a giveaway. If you’r free, stop by and play a game or learn more about the books featured in the series. There’s a big giveaway at the end of the perpetual party, so enter as many times as you can – each comment gets you an entry. I have posts at 9 am est, 12 noon, 3pm ESt, 6 pm EST and then at 8 pm. I’llbe checking the comments until Friday, when I pick my winners. Come join me for some fun!!!

Happy reading ~ Peg

Leave a comment

Filed under always a bridesmaid

#wednesdaywisdom 5.17.2023

Leave a comment

May 17, 2023 · 12:33 am

A BOOKTHRONE #Kindlevella Promo Event. #entertowin

I’m partnering with a bunch of fabulous #Kindlevella authors for a May sweeps promo to get people excited about the Vella platform.

🎀FIND NEW & AMAZING STORIES ON KINDLE VELLA ⚡
🔥Start Binge-Reading.🔥
🎁 We’re giving away a $200 Amazon Gift Card to one lucky reader. Enter our giveaway for a chance to win for a Chance to Win.
https://www.bookthrone.com/may-vella-giveaway

If you read on Vella, please consider taking a peek at the stories I’ve there. And remember: the first 3 chapters/episodes are ALWAYS FREE TO READ!

Peggy Jaeger Vella Books

Leave a comment

Filed under kindle vella, Uncategorized

#mugmonday 5.15.2023

Obligatory last name initial mug!

Leave a comment

Filed under mug monday

Happy Mother’s Day?

Mother’s day…

I’m not going to lie. This has been the hardest day of my life to date.

In 62 years I’ve lived through a lot.

A lot.

So that’s saying something about the agony of today.

Chronic pain; numerous surgeries; life-changing accidents; rejection; multiple types of skin cancer with subsequent disfiguring surgeries.

It’s a lot.

But it’s all paled in comparison to the unstoppable ache in my soul today.

This is the first Mother’s Day I’ve ever had without my mother.

The sadness surrounding me is like a cloak made of a heavy black depression that weighs more than anyone should bear.

Even during the times our relationship wasn’t perfect, Mother’s Day was always something I never forgot. Cards, small tokens, even just a phone call was all she ever wanted, just a reminder from me that she was my mother and I loved her.

My mother wasn’t one of those moms who demanded and expected hearts, flowers, and expensive gifts.

She was a simple woman with simple tastes and desires.

One of her favorite gifts, and the one she commented on every year on Mother’s Day, was a ceramic house I made her in third-grade arts and crafts class in school. I’ve looked at this item over the years and have always wondered, why the hell did she love it so much?

I know the answer now.
At least, I think I do.

We lived in apartments from the time I was born until I was in the sixth grade. That year, my mother and stepfather bought their first home. It was a tiny one-bedroom bungalow in a beach community on Staten Island. Low rent district, because it was in a flood zone, but a real house nonetheless.

And yes, I said one bedroom. They slept in it, I slept in the living room on an old Castro convertible – remember them?

The entire house couldn’t have been more than 750 square feet. It had a small fenced-in backyard that abutted a wooded area. The houses were separated from each other by three feet ( 1.5 feet on either side), which meant you could hear and see everything going on in the next house. Railroad track houses they were called. One room falling into the next.

I don’t know how much the house cost in 1971 but they had a sizable mortgage for the time. That, I do remember because money was really tight during those years. Those were the times when we didn’t eat vegetables because we couldn’t afford them, powdered milk was the only kind they could buy because of the cheap price, and we ate boiled potatoes five times a week and plain macaroni as our main meal on the weekends.

My mother loved that house.

Why? I think because it was the first real one she ever lived in. Her entire life until that moment had been spent in apartments. First as a child, then as an adult.

This was the first home that was truly hers and not owned by someone else.

I’m not gonna lie and say everything was honky dory in that house. It wasn’t.

The water pressure was practically nil, which meant taking a shower and actually getting soap and shampoo off you took five times longer than it should have. And the water was never really…hot.

The stove was an old burner flame one and the pilot light went out routinely 3-4 times a week. I learned how to light an oven at an age no child should. And with matches, not an electric lighter.

The walls were paper thin which mean no privacy. In the bathroom…in the bedroom.

You get the idea.

There was one thermostat to control the heat and it was in the living room so that meant in order for heat to register in the bedroom the temp had to be turned up high. I never went to bed without sweating.

And forget air conditioning. They couldn’t afford one. Summers were…difficult.

But my mother loved that house, despite all the issues.

And I think that’s why she loved that ceramic house I made her so much.

At the time I made it, we were still living in apartments where roaches were our roommates, junkies looking for a fix roamed outside the front doors, and crime lived in the lobbies.

That little ceramic house was my mother’s hope for the future; her dream where we would live one day. Safe, sound, and far from crime and urban squalor.

The funny thing is, that very first home in the beach looked an awful lot like the ceramic one.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms, moms-to-be, aunties, sisters, and step-moms. If you’ve still got your mom with you, call her, give her a hug, tell her you love her.

Thank her.

I wish I could do every one of those things…

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

#firstlinefriday 5.12.2023 THE HAUNTING OF WILTON JUNE #pnr #Ronenominee #smalltownghost

Today’s #firstlinefriday comes from the ( you had to have guessed this!) THE HAUNTING OF WILTON JUNE. LOL. It’s the only book I’ve been talking about all week due to its RONE NOMINEE status. WILL is book 2 in the ROMANTIC HAUNTINGS series from Magnolia Blossom Publishers.

Here’s the first line:

Oh, and have I mentioned the book is a RONE NOMINEE ( LOL) If you’d like to vote for it, and haven’t already- despite all my begging!- here’s the link and the instructions:

To vote: PARANORMAL SHORT

Voting ends at midnight tonight!
Thanks for your support and have a great weekend ~ Peg

Leave a comment

Filed under #firstlinefriday

1 Week from today – SABLE ( ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID) #fakedating #sweetromance #medicalromance

The countdown is starting!!!
In just 7 days, SABLE ( ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID) releases into the romance reading world. This pediatrician is sick and tired of always being a bridesmaid. She’s determined that the next wedding she attends will be her own.

Pediatrician Sable Miller is sick and tired of being the go-to, dependable bridesmaid in all her family and friends’ weddings. But her demanding job, the ridiculous hours, and endless family commitments keep her from finding the perfect man. A matchmaking service? Sounds like too much work. Swipe right dating? Not her thing. The bar scene? When was the last time she even had an evening free to go to a bar?

And forget about dating the myriad of on-the-make doctors and residents in her hospital. Besides, workplace romances never work out.

Sable’s options to meet the man of her dreams and start a family are dwindling and time is running out, because she promised herself the next wedding she would attend would be her own.

Kristopher Lee, the Physician’s Assistant assigned to Sable has a crush on his new mentor. But she’s got a hands-off rule when it comes to dating someone she works with. Kris is nothing if not persistent, though. After all, he didn’t survive three tours in the Army without focusing on a goal. And making Sable Miller fall in love with him is his best goal yet.

Did you preorder your copy yet? I’m still running a little giveaway if you haven’t – the rules are in the graphic below. Click on this link to my FB page. Preorder, let me know, and you’ll be in the running to win a $10.00 amazon gift card. I’m giving away 5 on the day Sable releases!

Leave a comment

Filed under always a bridesmaid

#wednesdaywisdom 5.10.2023

Leave a comment

May 10, 2023 · 12:17 am

#TeaserTuesday from #rone nominated The Haunting of Wilton June #Pnr #Smalltown #ghoststory

Today’s tease is from my currently nominated Rone Award book THE HAUNTING OF WILTON JUNE ( you just knew I was gonna get that award in there, didn’t”cha? LOL)

Hotshot movie director Wilton June is in pre-production for a new movie. The moment he sees Maison Toussaint he decides it’s the perfect setting for the film and wants to rent it. The one stumbling block? The owner isn’t sure she can let her ancestral home be used in a movie.

Botanist Jerica Toussaint needs cash – a lot of it – to keep her home up to code and her herbal healing business alive. June’s financial offer is oh-so-tempting, as is the director himself. But the house has a secret Jerica’s guarded her entire life. Can she, in good conscience, rent it to a man who may expose it?

Convincing Jerica to trust him with her home – and her secret – is no easy feat and after a time Will realizes he needs to convince her to trust him with one more thing: her heart.

“I understand you want to film a movie in the house.”

He nodded.

“That’s an unusual request. Don’t you usually film one in a studio or on a soundstage?”

“I could, but I’d have to construct a prop house. Your home is absolutely perfect for the storyline of the film

12

and it’s already standing. It would be cheaper in the long run to use an already standing structure.”

“What about my house makes it absolutely perfect, to use your words? Ms. Gordon told me you looked at six other properties similar to mine. Surely any one of them would suit your . . . needs.”

Will couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen a grown woman blush. Her cheeks turned apple-red as she spoke and he’d be damned if it weren’t the most alluring thing he’d ever seen.

“True, but when I saw your house it spoke to me. Screamed at me, in fact,” he said, grinning.

“Sc-screamed?” Jerica swallowed and a fine tremor started in her folded hands. “What do you mean . . . screamed?”

Will grinned and leaned back in his chair. “The movie I’m set to make is a modern-day love story about two people who try to solve a one-hundred-year-old murder which occurred in the house where the heroine lives. Your house is perfect for the time period, aside from being huge, which is another plus, because of the size of my film equipment. After I walked through it with Ms. Gordon yesterday and got the lay of the land and the room sizes, I’m more convinced than ever it’s the house I need for my film to come alive.”

Her shoulders dropped down from where they’d been hugging her ears. He couldn’t for the life of him figure out why his explanation calmed her nerves, but the response encouraged him. Leaning forward, he told her, “I know it’s a huge imposition to have people and equipment in your home, but I can assure you, we’re all professional. And my crew is only ten people plus me. And the actors, of course. I have an extremely well-oiled machine of people I trust and who are tops in their fields. I promise nothing will get broken or damaged, and we won’t move a thing unless we ask first.”

She tossed a quick glance at the lawyer who caught the move and nodded.

“Should Miss Toussaint agree to your filming in the house—and that’s still a big if—we would ask you to sign a separate waiver stating you’ll take full responsibility for the costs of any damage.”

“Not a problem,” Will said.

“Now, about the use-of-location rider,” Gavin said, taking a stack of papers from a briefcase at his feet. “The fee mentioned seems a little low since the house will not only be inhabited by you as a resident but your film crew as well—”

“The crew stays off-site. I’ll be the only one actually living in the house at the time of filming.”

“Even so, the recompense paid to Ms. Toussaint, we feel, should be higher. After all, the film will be seen, potentially, by a large audience.”

“That’s always the hope.” Will grinned.

“People may actually want to come and visit where the movie was filmed. You can see where this may pose a problem with security for Ms. Toussaint. A higher fee would enable her to employ security if needed. This is, after all, her home. We want to ensure her safety.”

Will’s gaze raked over Jerica Toussaint’s face. “Of course. What price were you thinking?”

When Gavin named an amount twenty-five percent higher than the offer, Will hid his surprise, then did a quick mental math shuffle. He could swing the payment increase if he cut the budget a bit somewhere else.

“Okay. Consider it done.”

Surprise galloped around the table, but it was Jerica Toussaint’s wide-eyed face Will settled on.

“Anything else?” he asked after noting the glances between lawyer and client.

Genevieve spoke up for the first time. “The sixth-month rent clause is ironclad. If you decide to leave, for whatever reason, before the lease expires, you won’t be issued a refund.”

“Understood. And I’m prepared to write you a check for the full amount today, as soon as you agree to sign the lease,” he told Jerica.

When she took a corner of her mouth between her teeth, the sexy little dent in her chin winked at him. In a hot second, the lower half of his body went on high alert, and he was thankful the desk hid him from the waist down.

Her indecision was obvious in her body language and once again he wondered why. The payments were high—higher now since he’d agreed to the use-fee increase. She should be overjoyed at the income, especially since the place had stood empty for the past two years.

But she wasn’t, and if he had to guess, she was conflicted about accepting his offer.

Will wanted the house, now more than ever, so he pulled out all the Wilton June charm tactics he could muster, the ones his mother accused him of only using to his advantage.

She wasn’t wrong.

If you like the snippet I hope you’ll read the book, and if you have already, please consider voting for me in the RONES!! Voting ends at midnight this friday!.

1 Comment

Filed under Rone Awards

#Voting in week 5 of the #RONEAWARDS starts today! #paranormalshort category #PNR

Well, here I am again, begging – I won’t lie about that! LOL – for your vote. This is week 5 in the RONE AWARDS nominations. I’m lucky enough to have a book featured in the PARANORMAL: SHORT category, my second book in the ROMANTIC HAUNTINGS series from Magnolia Blossom, THE HAUNTING OF WILTON JUNE.

I loved this book for so many reasons, and if you read it, I hope you enjoyed it, too, and are willing to cast your vote for it to become a finalist in this prestigious contest. Voting starts today and goes until midnight EST Friday may 15th. You can only vote once in each category so that makes it fair for everyone – no stuffing the ballot box!

The rules, as I’ve said before, are easy and are in the graphic above. If you’ve voted in the awards before all you have to do is sign in and click on the Rone Award link:

If you haven’t voted before, here are the easy instructions:

  1. SIGN IN to your IND’TALE ACCOUNT or Register at InD’tale magazine: www.indtale.com if you don’t have one. They will send you an email to confirm your registration. Click on that!
  2. Go to the drop-down that says RONES/CONTESTS in the upper right corner of the main page.
  3. A graphic will pop up with all the nominees. Locate the PARANORMAL: SHORT category and toggle down to THE HAUNTING OF WILTON JUNE by PEGGY JAEGER.
  4. click VOTE next to it and submit.
  5. You’re done!!!!

Bless you to all who’ve put up with me for this voting cycle.

Here’s a copy of the review that garnered me a nomination:

Thank you, all! Peg

1 Comment

Filed under Rone Awards

#mugmonday 5/8/2023

Leave a comment

May 8, 2023 · 12:15 am

Tomorrow, Week 5 in the RONE Awards starts. I’ve got a nominee that could use some #voting love!

I know, I know. Two weeks ago I bombarded and begged you for votes for a book that’s been nominated for a RONE AWARD. But I’ve actually got another one that’s been nominated, this time in the PARANORMAL SHORT category.

THE HAUNTING OF WILTON JUNE is book 2 in the ROMANTIC HAUNTINGS series from Magnolia Blossom Publishing and tells the story of Indie Filmmaker Will June and botanist Jerica Toussaint.

Will wants to rent Jerica’s house to film a movie based on his brother-in-law’s book about a ghost.

Jerica is reluctant to rent because she has her own ghost story to tell about her house.

The Rules for voting are easy – especially if you’ve already voted for my other book. It means you’re already registered so you just go to the website and click on PARANORMAL: SHORT

If you’ve never voted before, these are the rules:

  1. SIGN IN to your IND’TALE ACCOUNT or Register at InD’tale magazine: www.indtale.com if you don’t have one. They will send you an email to confirm your registration. Click on that!
  2. Go to the drop-down that says RONES/CONTESTS in the upper right corner of the main page.
  3. A graphic will pop up with all the nominees. Locate the PARANORMAL: SHORT category and toggle down to THE HAUNTING OF WILTON JUNE by PEGGY JAEGER.
  4. click VOTE next to it and submit.
  5. You’re done!!!!

This is the review that got me to nominee status. Now I need your vote to advance to finalist!

1 Comment

Filed under Rone Awards

#firstlinefriday 5.5.2023 A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: RICK #romanticsuspense #Bodyguardtrope #enemiestolovers

The first book in my A PRIDE OF BROTHERS series, RICK, is one of my favorite stories because it’s an enemies-to-lovers trope, something I just adore reading because it’s always fun to see who caves in first and admits their feelings!

“Maybe you want to slow down the champagne chugging, Abs,” Gemma Laine said, her tone more suggestive of a parent than a sibling, as she lowered her camera and regarded her older sister.

RICK was a Rone Finalist in the Romantic Suspense category, has been a READER RECOMMENDED book by Author Shout in 2020, and has even been made into a game by CHAPTERS Intereactive ROMANCE stories

This is one hot and sexy book.

It can be read in the KISS APP, too

Reviews

TikTokreading.

This book won so many awards and was nominated for so many more, that it holds a special place in my heart because it validated I could write romantic suspense and people like what I wrote!

Leave a comment

Filed under romantic suspense

#wednesdaywisdom 5.3.2023

Leave a comment

May 3, 2023 · 12:07 am

#FREE A modern Cynderella gets her man – and everything else – in DIRTY DAMSELS. Read it for free for a limited time!

Just found out that the publisher put DIRTY DAMSELS up as a FREE book right now!! if you haven’t read this sexy retelling of CYNDERELLA, and the book that prompted my NYC Socialites series, now’s the chance. I don’t know how long it will be #free!

What if Cynderella had a one-night stand with a man named Prince?

When I first saw Cynderella all covered in soot in that sexy maid uniform, I knew I wanted to be her Prince. She’s a smart and savvy businesswoman who’s built her cleaning company from the ground up. But now that Dirty Damsels was booming, I’ve been hired to arrange a hostile takeover.

But the temptation of having her was too much to ignore…

We ended up spending one night together–a night neither of us will forget. Now, I want more. I need more. I want to spend every night, skin-on-skin, with my beautiful Ella.

Problem is, when she finds out who I really am, she’ll never forgive me.

Leave a comment

Filed under Dirty Damsels

A #free #sweetromance for you. #fakerelationshipromance #friendstolovers

I’m excited to announce that from today until May 5, CHANCE ( LAST MAN STANDING) will be FREE on AMAZON to whet your appetite for the May 17th release of SABLE ( ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID) If you didn’t read it when it was originally released, get it now for free!

Chance Miller, divorce lawyer extraordinaire, knows the whole happily ever after dream is an urban myth. He deals with miserable and wedded warring couples every day and swears staying single keeps him sane and happy. His friends and family consider him the last single man standing and fear he’ll never find someone and settle down. But Chance relishes his carefree status and unencumbered lifestyle and has no plans to change anything.

If only his relatives would stop trying to set him up with their version of the perfect woman.

Fredrika Poole already experienced her one great love, and the widow can’t read any future romance in her tea leaves. She’s content to bake, run her business, and care for her daughter.

When Chance meets Freddie and discovers her marriage thoughts run on the same road his do, he realizes she’s the answer to his prayer for keeping the relatives at bay. But the pixie barista has a way of making Chance question everything he’s always thought about love, marriage, and wedded bliss.

Will his last man standing status go unchallenged? Or will Freddie be the one woman he wants…but can never have?

And if you like CHANCE and want to read his sister, SABLE’s, story, I’m having a giveaway if you preorder and let me know you have done so. I’m giving away $10.00 Amazon GCs to 5 people who’ve preordered before the release day of May 17th. Rules are in the following graphic!

Leave a comment

Filed under always a bridesmaid, Last Man Standing

Last day in @IndTaleMagazine #RoneAward voting, week 3 #Dickensholidayromance #Holidayromcom #vote

You have until midnight tonight EDT to vote for the books in the 2 categories of the RONE AWARD nominees this week. I hope you’ll consider voting for my Dickens Holiday Romance SASHA’S SECRET SANTA. It’s a nominee in the Steamy category.

The rules are simple:

  1. SIGN IN to your IND’TALE ACCOUNT or Register at InD’tale magazine: www.indtale.com if you don’t have one. They will send you an email to confirm your registration. Click on that!
  2. Go to the drop-down that says RONES/CONTESTS in the upper right corner of the main page.
  3. A graphic will pop up with all the nominees. Locate the CONTEMPORARY STEAMY Category in WEEK 3 APRIL 24- MAY 1 and find SASHA’S SECRET SANTA by PEGGY JAEGER
  4. click VOTE next to it and submit.
  5. You’re done!!!!

Thank you so much for yout time and consideration!!!! I’ll let you know if the book makes it to the finals. ~ Peg

Leave a comment

Filed under Rone Awards

I think I’ve lost my funny…

This is hard for me to say, but since my mom’s passing, I’ve lost my funny.

I write RomComs, quirky characters, and silly/weird situations for my romance novels. I’m known for my snappy dialogue, my character’s sometimes snarky inner thoughts, and my ability to make you cry on one page and bring you out of with laughter on the next.

I’ve got a bunch of books I need to get finished to release this year (2023) and I’m really struggling because I just can’t find the funny.

Not in my characters, my storylines, or my dialogue. Not even in myself.

It’s like my funny bone died when my mom did.

Not that she was a barrel of laughs, but she did say some crazy-funny things at times.

Like she called the gynecologist the groinecologist – a word I used in one of my Match Made in Heaven books.

Once, during a fight we were having when I was a teenager she hurled my current COSMO magazine at me and screamed, “this is nothing but trash about organisms and slutty shit.”

I knew she meant orgasms, but if I’d corrected her she would have gotten even more angry, and referring to something as shit was synonymous with a normal person saying stuff.

When she got angry she usually slipped into a Mrs. Malaprop persona. And if you told her who that was she wouldn’t have had a clue and would have thought you were insulting her.

Once, when I was about 12, I said something snarky and she threw a slice of pizza at me and called me a little shit. The pizza was cold, so no damage done. I picked it up off the table and ate it.

Twenty years later I referenced that, laughing at it then because the argument had been about – of all things – if I could use tampons (she wouldn’t allow me to), and she got all mad and pissy and said, “You deserved it because you were acting like such a little shit.”

Le sigh…

Please don’t get the idea she was abusive- not in the true sense of the word, anyway. She just had a hard time handling the emotions of a neurotic teenager, going through a horrible menopause she didn’t understand, and since she had been parented by a mother who didn’t love her and was cold to her, she had no true sense of how to parent me.

But we did have some funny times, too, lest you think it was all horrible.

We never had a clothes dryer in our home because she couldn’t afford one, so whenever she washed clothes they were always hung out on the line to dry, no matter what season it was. Once, the temperatures dropped and she didn’t know they were going to, so she hung out all the laundry she’d done in the evening, thinking it would be dry by morning. Morning came and all the clothes were frozen solid. She brought in a pair of my stepfather’s cotton boxes and they were as stiff as a sheet of cardboard. You could have flung them like a Frisbee. My flannel nightgown had both arms frozen and sticking out to the sides, the gown portion hard as concrete. Her bra stood up on its own. When she brought it into the house she said, “If I wear this my posture is gonna be perfect for the first time in forever.”

I remember laughing hysterically because she never self-deprecated. Ever.

For some reason, both she and my stepfather loved to go for walks in the local cemetery. Every single time—Every. Single. Time—she would say, “People are just dying to get in here.”

Dumb, but…funny, you know?

She had her moments, she really did.

Maybe if I try remembering more of the funny ones I’ll get my funny back….

5 Comments

Filed under Writing

#FirstlineFriday A #Holidayromcom w/heart and a crazy family. MISTLETOE, MOBSTERS, & MOZZARELLA

One of my absolute favorite SanValentino stories because it has sososos many layers to it.

MISTLETOE, MOBSTERS, & MOZZARELLA tells the story of a beloved daughter and how she navigates through a family of old school brothers and uncles, and always comes out on top of the heap.

The first line of the story is:

Advice for surviving in a big Italian family: Never let them see you sweat.

The moment I arrived at the deli I knew something was wrong. 

Finding a body in the freezer of the family deli isn’t the way Madonna San Valentino planned to start her day.

Adding insult to injury, the investigating detective is the one guy she’s never been able to forget. After seven minutes of heaven in the back seat of his car when they were teenagers, Tony Roma skipped town without so much as a thanks for the memory.

Just when Madonna thinks the present situation can’t get any worse, Tony is ordered to go undercover at the deli to ferret out a killer. Forced to work together, she vows to keep their relationship cool and professional. But with the sexy, longing looks he tosses her at every turn, Madonna’s resolve is weakening.

With Christmas drawing closer and Tony’s investigation taking an unexpected turn, Madonna is at her wit’s end. Can she really be falling for him again? And will he wind up leaving her broken-hearted and alone like the last time?

Intrigued? Get your copy everywhere digital books are sold, here: MISTLETOE, MOBSTERS, & MOZZARELLA

People love this story: REVIEWS

Hear a reading on TIKTOK

Leave a comment

Filed under #firstlinefriday

#Wednesdaywisdom 4.26.2023

Leave a comment

April 26, 2023 · 12:21 am

A #TuesdayTease a #booksiging & a #newrelease OH MY!

I love titles with 3 things mentioned!!! Makes me think of the Wizard of OZ – lions and tigers and bears…oh my!. LOL

Anyhoo…

Today’s Tuesday tease is from my new (print) release of SABLE – ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID. The official release is May 17, but I had several author copies printed up because I’m going to a wonderful BOOKSIGNING this weekend in New Jersey Wine Country and wanted to have them available for purchase. Here’s the tease, first:

“Rough shift,” he said, sidling up to her as she buttoned her jacket.

“And it wasn’t even a full moon,” she quipped.

His grin shot out fast. “Can’t wait to see what that’s like in the ER.”

Her lids went to half-mast as she slid a glance at him. “Be careful what you wish for,” she said. “Full moons are nothing to make fun of around here.”

He shrugged and zipped up his jacket. “Can’t be any worse than trying to patch someone up with artillery fire exploding all around you.”

Her head whipped up and her unlined brow folded in on itself.

“Listen,” he said, “I’m starving and I imagine you are, too, since neither of us got a dinner break last night. Want to go grab something quick before heading home? The diner across the street makes the best waffles this side of the Mississippi.”

When a corner of her mouth lifted a bit, he felt ten feet tall. In the next instant it flattened again.

“I’m actually heading there for a breakfast meeting right now, so, sorry. I can’t.”

“Business meeting?”

When she rolled her eyes, he thought she looked all of sixteen years old again. Since he’d known her when she was that age, a familiar feeling of warmth moved within him.

Sable expelled a tortured groan. There was no other way to describe the sound that rumbled up from the back of her throat and blew past her lips.

“I wish it were a business meeting, but no.” When he cocked his head, she added, “I’m meeting with my cousin, Moira. She has something to”—she lifted her fingers in air quotes—“discuss with me, but I already know what it is and I really wish I had an excuse not to go.”

“Okay, now I’m seriously interested. What’s so horrible she wants to talk about?”

“Me.” Another eye roll.

“You?”

She nodded.

“What about you?”

“Not me specifically, I guess, but my unmarried, childless state.”

If he wasn’t mistaken there was a hint of bitterness in her tone, topped by a whole lot of embarrassment, solidified when her cheeks turned three different shades of crimson within a millisecond.

She closed her eyes and sighed. “I can’t believe I said that out loud. And to you, of all people,” she mumbled.

He’d think about the last part of her sentence later. For now, he said, “Let me take a guess here.”

She opened her eyes and – halleluiah – looked him in the eye.

“She wants to fix you up.”

Eyes closed again, she nodded.

“And you…what? Don’t want to be?”

Another nod.

“Because? You don’t like to be set up? Or you’re already seeing someone?”

He said a silent prayer it wasn’t the latter.

“The whole thing is ridiculously embarrassing, for starters,” she said. “I’m thirty years old and can get my own dates, thank you very much. But you’d think I was either twelve and knew nothing about the world the way my family acts, or pushing fifty and looking at a lonely later life with nothing for companionship but cats and Netflix movies.”

He wanted to laugh but kept the merriment inside him, understanding she was dead serious. She hadn’t said she was seeing someone, though, so that was telling.

And promising.

AND NOW the BOOK SIGNING:

I’ll be there both days!!! Come out and find some new romance authors to read, have some wine, bring some friends!! This promises to be a FUNFUNFUN event put on by the fabulous Roz Lee

And if you’re coming to the event and want to make sure you get a copy of thebooks I’ll be brining along, here’s a copy of the event preorder list for me: PREORDER

1 Comment

Filed under author promotion

Voting starts today in Week 3 of the #RoneAwards SASHA’S SECRET SANTA

If you read my blog yesterday, you know that voting begins today in WEEK 3 of InD’Tales Rone awards to determine the finalists. This is round 1 and SASHA’S SECRET SANTA is a nominee in the Contemporary Steamy Category.

I am boldly asking for your vote!! If you’ve read the book and loved it ( thank you!!!) please vote for it to move on to the nominee round. All the voting in this preliminary round is done by the public – you, the readers. You have a great deal of power – first, you buy or don’t buy our books! Second, you get to decide who moves up to the next round here. And I sincerely hope you liked Sasha enough to vote for the book.

Here is the way you vote – and please read all the instructions because you need to do every one for your vote to count.

  1. SIGN IN to your IND’TALE ACCOUNT or Register at InD’tale magazine: www.indtale.com if you don’t have one. They will send you an email to confirm your registration. Click on that!
  2. Go to the drop-down that says RONES/CONTESTS in the upper right corner of the main page.
  3. A graphic will pop up with all the nominees. Locate the CONTEMPORARY STEAMY Category in WEEK 3 APRIL 24- MAY 1 and find SASHA’S SECRET SANTA by PEGGY JAEGER
  4. click VOTE next to it and submit.
  5. You’re done!!!!

Thank you never seems like enough to say when someone goes out of their way to do something you ask, but I really mean it. You have my undying gratitude!!!

Thank you and be well. ~ PEg

1 Comment

Filed under Rone Awards

SASHA’S SECRET SANTA is a #RONE nominee and needs your votes! #contemporaryromance #steamyromance

I’m tickled pink ( and Christmas red!) That SASHA’S SECRET SANTA is an InD’Tale Rone Award Nominee!! This industry award is like to authors what the Golden Globes and the Oscars are to actors. You become a nominee if your book garners a 4.5 or 5 star rating in the magazine and Sasha did!!! Here’s the review that got me the nomination: REVIEW

To become a finalist, the public needs to vote for their favorite nominees and today I’m doing a shameless ask for just that! LOL.

Starting TOMORROW you can vote. Here are the instructions -and please read them carefully because there are steps you need to take ( yes, I’m sorry, I know!!!!)

  1. SIGN IN to your IND’TALE ACCOUNT or Register at InD’tale magazine: www.indtale.com if you don’t have one. They will send you an email to confirm your registration. Click on that!
  2. Go to the drop-down that says RONES/CONTESTS in the upper right corner of the main page.
  1. A graphic will pop up with all the nominees. Locate the CONTEMPORARY STEAMY Category in WEEK 3 APRIL 24- MAY 1 and find SASHA’S SECRET SANTA by PEGGY JAEGER
  2. click VOTE next to it and submit.
  3. You’re done!!!!

And you have my undying gratitude!! Please share this blog with your friends because I need all the help I can get, haahaa. This is a very prestigious award and authors really want it — just like I do!! I’ve been a nominee several times and a finalist several years in a row, but I’ve never won my category and I’m hungry to.

Okay, enough self-serving. Thanks for your vote ( I could never be a politician!!!)

Leave a comment

Filed under Rone Awards

I’m not the only one suffering…

So, it’s been 5 weeks since my mother died.

She passed on a Saturday and the very next day my stepfather fell again at the nursing home. He was so distraught about my moms’ death that when he tried to get up from his wheelchair to go to the bathroom, he forgot to lock the wheels and the chair slipped out from under him when he stood. This caused him to fall to the ground and he landed – hard – on his freshly postop left hip. The one that had necessitated this entire lifestyle change for both my parents barely 2 weeks prior.

The nursing home called me to tell me he fell and they were sending him back to the hospital for xrays. He was filmed, then sent home.

For the next two days, he lay in bed, alternating between crying about my mother’s loss and the pain in his hip. They finally sent him back to the emergency room, and a CAT scan was done. Long story short, he’d broken the rod holding his leg to his hip and shattered the ball joint.

The surgeon who performed the first surgery did not want to repair it because the repair was too involved, so my dad was shipped to the nearest tertiary care hospital in Hartford, CT.

Can you imagine what it was like for him? Already infirm due to the first hip break, he’s just lost his wife, very unexpectedly, and now he’s heading to a strange environment for another major surgery, less than 2 weeks after the first one.

The poor man was so despondent, especially because he was all alone in the hospital, with no family, no one who knew him. I drove four hours every day for a week while he was there ( 2 going, 2 coming back)just so he wouldn’t feel so alone.

All he did was cry.

In pain. In grief. In loss.

Once the leg was finally repaired and he was sent back to the nursing home, his depression was stark on his face and in his voice.

Whenever I visit him or talk to him on the phone, he cries about my mom. More than once he’s said, “I just want to hold her one more time.”

My heart breaks anew every time. Every. Time.

In the span of two weeks, this poor man lost his physical independence, his home, his wife of 57 years, and his way of life.

I’d cry too.

13 Comments

Filed under Writing

#firstlinefriday CHRISTMAS & CANNOLIS #holidayromcom #survivingloss #adoption

The third book in the San Valentino family is today’s First line Friday – CHRISTMAS & CANNOLIS

Regina’s tips for surviving in a big Italian family: #1: Ignore behavior that will never change.

With Christmas season in full swing, baker Regina San Valentino is up to her elbows in cake batter and cookie dough. Between running her own business, filling her bursting holiday order book, and managing her crazy Italian family, she’s got no time to relax, no room for more custom cake orders, and no desire to find love. A failed marriage and a personal tragedy have convinced her she’s better off alone. Then a handsome stranger enters her bakery begging for help. Regina can’t find it in her heart to refuse him.

Connor Gilhooly is in a bind. He needs a specialty cake for an upcoming fundraiser and puts himself—and his company’s reputation—in Regina’s capable hands. What he doesn’t plan on is falling for a woman with heartbreak in her eyes or dealing with a wise-guy father and a disapproving family.

Can Regina lay her past to rest and trust the man who’s awoken her heart?

1 Comment

Filed under #firstlinefriday

#wednesdaywisdom 4.19.2023

1 Comment

April 19, 2023 · 12:43 am

WINDOW OVER THE SINK: A Promise Fulfilled spotlight #PNR #ghoststory #Romanceanthology

I’m visiting with writer friend Liz Flaherty today as she spotlights my newest book, A PROMISE FULFILLED, part of the GHOSTS OF NEW ENGLAND: LAST LIGHT POINT anthology.

You can check out the post here:

https://windowoverthesink.blogspot.com/2023/04/a-promise-fulfilled-by-peggy-jaeger.html

And get the book here: GHOSTS OF NEW ENGLAND: LAST LIGHT POINT

Leave a comment

Filed under ghosts of new england

#mugmonday 4.17.2023

Rainy days…Mondays…April showers. See a theme here? LOL

2 Comments

Filed under mug monday

#sundaySnippet New in #audiobooks #romcom #NYCsocialitesseries

So the little snippet from today’s selection is from my NEW YORK SOCIALITES series, IT’S A TRUST THING, which was just released on APPLE AUDIO!

Nell Newbery has trust issues.

It’s hard to trust when you’re the daughter of a fallen financial scion who bilked people out of billions. Nell’s done everything in her power to keep away from men who see her as their ticket to fortune and fame. All she wants to do is run her ultra-successful business, HELPFUL HUNKS, in peace. But it wouldn’t hurt to find a guy who doesn’t know a thing about her father’s felonious past; one she can give her heart to and trust it won’t come back to her battered, bruised, and broken.

Is Charlie Churchill that guy? On the surface he seems perfect, all polished manners and quiet mirth. Nell’s convinced he knows nothing about her, other than she likes superhero movies and views junk food as a food group.

Can she trust him to be what he appears to be? Or is he just pretending?

For Nell, trust is everything in life…and in love.

SNIPPET…

That old expression if you want something done, give it to a busy person describes my life to perfection.

I was already late for the two-hour lecture I’d agreed to give at Columbia Business School. And I say agreed with my tongue in my cheek.

When Dean Arnold Dietrichson, an old friend of my mother’s from her cotillion days, emailed and asked me to fill in for a professor who’d requested time off to visit a sick parent, I ignored the missive. And the two follow-ups he’d then sent. When he called me directly, I couldn’t come up with an excuse fast or truthful enough to squeak out of it. Public speaking is the last in a long laundry list of things I never want to do. Having my fingernails removed one by one without anesthesia and shaving my head supersede public speaking, so that tells you how much I didn’t want to do what I was about to do.

A scheduling issue had disrupted my afternoon and I found myself two men short for a moving job I’d booked weeks ago for an extremely influential client. It took me two and a half hours, seven pleading phone calls, the promise of an extra day off, plus time and half for the two guys who finally agreed to come in.  I toyed with the idea to add sexual favors to the asking price if no one agreed.

That would have been an empty promise, but desperate times…you know?

My business, Helpful Hunks, rents gorgeous twenty and thirty-something between-jobs male actors and models by the hour to do all the things you can’t—or don’t want to—do.

Are you a woman living on your own and need shelving put up but don’t know the business end of a hammer from a screwdriver? Call me. Are you relocating from one small New York apartment to another and don’t want to pay the exorbitant cost a commercial moving business charges to move the meager stuff you own? Check out my website. Need heavy furniture rearranged? Boxes brought in from storage? Someone to help relocate mom’s belongings from her home to her new assisted care facility? Send me an email.

The idea for the business came to me in college. I was my first client. At a spit above five foot, and with a mother residing in a psych facility and a father who was a guest of the state, I had no one to help me lug all my stuff into the dorm room I’d be living in for the next four years.

When a group of upperclassmen who were involved in a project offered to help me in order to gain service points for their frat house, I readily agreed. Flirty, fit, and hunky-hot, the guys got all my crap moved in one one-hundredth of the time it would have taken me on my own. While I watched them heft and heave my trunks, luggage, books, and bed linens, a little idea wormed its way into my entrepreneurial brain.

Despite my father’s mortifying public trial and his subsequent incarceration, Dennison Newbery’s business acumen-laced DNA flowed through me.

Before sophomore year began, I’d already hired a few classmates over the summer break to aid anyone who needed help moving into dorms and student housing. For a nominal fee, of course. My profits that year paid for the next two years of my education.

Business school, a business loan, and a solid marketing plan after I graduated, and here I was.

And you can listen to a selection here: AUDIO

2 Comments

Filed under sunday snippet

1 month…

Today marks 4 weeks since my mother died.

People keep telling me the pain, the sorrow, the shock, will fade.

When?

When will I wake up and immediately not remember she’s gone? When will I stop crying at the most inopportune times? When will I be able to feel like myself – whole – again?

No answers come back. I understand that. Grieving is different for every person.

I was thinking last night about the differences in how my mother and I were raised.

My mother was the middle child of three girls. The oldest was the shining star of both her parents. Smart, Dependable. Independent. Loyal.

The youngest was my grandmother’s favorite. Why? Only the old woman knew, but after my grandfather died, it was the youngest upon whom she bestowed her smothering love.

My mother, the middle, was her least favorite, something my grandmother told her – actually spoke words to her about – often after her husband passed on. I think I can answer this one with ease: Why did the old lady dislike her so much? Because my mother was my grandfather’s favorite and he made no secret about it. From everyone I ever talked to back then who knew them all – namely the old aunts and uncles in the family when they were all still alive – my mother was the apple of his eye.

She wasn’t smart like her older sister.

She wasn’t as pretty as the youngest.

What she was, was funny, outgoing, sang like an angel – just like him – and thought the man hung the moon.

Apparently, my grandmother was jealous.

I can’t conceive of how a wife would be jealous of a child, but the old lady was, and kept being so, until her dying day. Which, was when she was 86, exactly 53 years after he died. Yup, she was 33 years old when he had a major heart attack and died on his way to work.

Since my mother was raised with the knowledge she wasn’t loved by her own mother, and basically ignored, my mother raised me in the exact opposite way. My grandmother’s way certainly wasn’t healthy for a child’s psyche.

But my mother’s tendency toward her own version of smother love wasn’t either.

She went out of her way, every single day when I was under her roof, to – in her words – protect me from the world. That meant I wasn’t allowed to bring any friends I may have made home after school because she didn’t want other kids corrupting what she was trying to teach me.

Subsequently, I never invited anyone over to our house, even as a teen and then as an adult. I had no close friends, no boyfriend, never had a sleepover at my house and didn’t attend my very first one with a “friend” until I was a senior in high school.

She called the friend’s house three times the first night and then bright and early the next morning to find out when I was coming home.

As a seventeen-year-old, I was mortified, and believe me – a huge fight ensued once I’d gotten home about how embarrassed I was. My mother counter-attacked with the “I’m trying to keep you safe” argument. Like my friends were dope fiends, or thieves, or something equally as nefarious. Which they weren’t. They also weren’t my friends for very long because they thought my mother was crazy and their mothers thought she was rude.

With the advent of maturity and age, I can understand why she acted this way. I still don’t agree with it, but I get it now that I’ve had my own child.

And I bet if you ask my daughter, there were more than a few occasions where I performed my own version of smother love.

Truer words were never written than we are all products of our upbringings, whether good or bad, abusive, or apathetic.

I tried to break the cycle when I had my child. Apparently, it’s harder to break than I realized because there are still some days when I hear my mother’s voice and words blow between my lips – as my daughter is quick to point out. LOL.

Mothers and daughters. Thousands of years of evolution haven’t changed them much, has it?

I miss you, Mommy. Every hour of every day…

6 Comments

Filed under Writing

#firstlinefriday 4.14.2023 A KISS UNDER THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

From the second book in the San Valentino family chronicles, A KISS UNDER THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS is a sweet, holiday romance about mistaken identity, family, and a holiday church bazaar.

“Gia Gabriella,” Mama bellowed from the bottom of the staircase, “Andiamo, let’s go. We’re gonna be late.”

With Christmas just a few weeks away, Gia San Valentino, the baby in her large, loud, and loving Italian family, yearns for a life and home of her own with a husband and bambini she can love and spoil. The single scene doesn’t interest her, and the men her well-meaning family introduce her to aren’t exactly the happily-ever-after kind.

Tim Santini believes he’s finally found the woman for him, but Gia will take some convincing she’s that girl. A misunderstanding has her thinking he’s something he’s not.

Can a kiss stolen under the Christmas lights persuade her to spend the rest of her life with him?

Leave a comment

Filed under #firstlinefriday

#Thursdayteaser Sweet Romances, rule! If you’ve read the LAST MAN STANDING series, you’ll love the 14 ladies in ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID~

Last year I was part of a multi-author series titled LAST MAN STANDING. 14 men who were determined never to walk down the aisle, jump the broom, wear the ball and chain.

In essence, that guy who vows never to get married.

The authors took those 14 men and gave them the perfect mate, then watched as each and every one of them fell in love and changed their mind…and their lives.

My addition to the series was CHANCE – Book 12.

CHANCE had a lot of admirers: reviews

This year, those same authors have joined together to bring you the ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID series, 13 gals looking for the one.

My addition to this series is SABLE – Book 12. She’s Chance’s sister, whom we met in last year’s book. Sable is a pediatrician, and she’s sick and tired of being the go-to, dependable bridesmaid in all her family and friends’ weddings. But her demanding job, the ridiculous hours, and endless family commitments keep her from finding the perfect man. A matchmaking service? Sounds like too much work. Swipe right dating? Not her thing. The bar scene? When was the last time she even had an evening free to go to a bar?

And forget about dating the myriad of on-the-make doctors and residents in her hospital. Besides, workplace romances never work out.

Sable’s options to meet the man of her dreams and start a family are dwindling and time is running out, because she promised herself the next wedding she would attend would be her own.

Kristopher Lee, the Physician’s Assistant assigned to Sable has a crush on his new mentor. But she’s got a hands-off rule when it comes to dating someone she works with. Kris is nothing if not persistent, though. After all, he didn’t survive three tours in the Army without focusing on a goal. And making Sable Miller fall in love with him is his best goal yet.

SABLE releases on May 17th and you can preorder her story, here: BOOK 12

And here’s a little giftaway from me if you do preorder. Check out the rules in the graphic below – and if you comment here, below in the comment section, and send me your email addy, you’re entered!

Good luck, and happy reading!!!! ~ Peg

1 Comment

Filed under always a bridesmaid

#wednesdaywisdom 4.12.2023

Leave a comment

April 12, 2023 · 12:10 am

#tuesdaytease 4.11.2023 SABLE ( ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID) #medicalromance #sweetromance

Today’s tease comes from my May 17th release, SABLE (Always a Bridesmaid- book 12)

Sable groaned as she spotted her oldest aunt, Teresa, moving like a heat seeking missile across the ballroom aimed straight for her.

She took a massive chug of Cranberry Cosmo from her glass, swallowed, then put what she hoped looked like a sincere smile on her face.

“There you are. I’ve been searching everywhere for you, young lady.”

“Auntie, I’ve been right here all night,” Sable said, bussing the older woman’s cheek. “What’s up?”

“Well,” her aunt slid her hand into the crook of Sable’s arm and glided her toward a quieter spot in the back corner. “I wanted to have a little chat.”

And I bet I know what about.

“Now that your brother is finally married, you’re the only single one in your generation.”

Here it comes.

 “I worry about you.  All alone, a single woman living in the city. It’s a dangerous place for a girl on her own.”

Goodness, you’d think I lived in an abandoned drug den instead of an Upper West Side brownstone.

“I’m fine, auntie. My apartment has a doorman and Chance had me install security locks on my door. No worries about my safety necessary.”

“Yes, well your brother is a cautious man, thankfully, but it’s time for you to settle down like he finally has. Are you involved with anyone special? You didn’t bring anyone today, but then you never do to any family functions. I would think if you’re serious about someone they would attend your brother’s wedding with you.”

Sable clamped down on the snarky reply she wanted to make. “I’m not involved with anyone, Aunt Teresa. Not right now. Work is the priority. It has to be.”

Teresa pressed her lips together in a thin line, the corners of her mouth pinching. “Your dedication to your medical practice is to be merited, Sable, but there comes a time when you need to do more than simply work. Now, I recently met this charming man I think would be perfect for you—”

Sable squeezed a hand over her aunt’s and forced a smile again. Best to get out in front of this. Her aunt was famous for her matchmaking efforts and Sable wanted no part in a family-mediated hookup.

“While I’m sure he’s as charming as you say, I’m doing fine in the dating world, Auntie. I’m simply taking my time and enjoying the process. You know the old saying? You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince.”

Sable shuddered internally as she made the declaration. So far, the amphibians in her life outnumbered the royals a thousand to one.

“Be that as it may, it’s time you start considering marriage. You’re thirty years old, Sable. Not old, but not in the first bloom of youth, either. You don’t want to have to use artificial means to have a baby because your eggs are drying up, do you?”

Was there anything more ego-deflating than a conversation about the status of her eggs with a woman who’d ended her baby-making career decades ago?

Intrigued? LOL. I’ve also got a preorder contest going on over on my facebook page. The rules are in the following graphic. If you comment down below in this post it counts!!! Good luck!

Leave a comment

Filed under always a bridesmaid

#mugmonday 4.10.2023

Leave a comment

April 10, 2023 · 12:09 am

Happy Easter!

1 Comment

April 9, 2023 · 2:26 am

New Episode in #kindlevella and a #preorder giveaway

So I’ve got two things going on today.

Episode 21 of MAGIC’S CHARM dropped this morning over on Amazon Kindle vella. Are you all caught with Rhys and Siobhan’s story? Here’ the link – and remember you can read the first three episodes for FREE to decide of you like the story. And if you do, please consider giving it a thumbs up or weekly favorite.

Next, if you don’t follow me on instagram or facebook you might not know this, but I’ve got a PREORDER CONTEST going on for SABLE ( ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID) The details are below in the graphic,but the gist is this: if you preorder the book and then put up a screenshot of the preorder and provide me with your email address, I’ll put your name in an invisible hat and once the book releases, I’ll be drawing 5 names to each win a $10.00 Amazon gift card. Sound good? A chance to will 4 times the cost of the book just for preordering?? YOWZA! I’d take advantage of that deal!!

Sound good? I like to think so, hee hee

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID kicks off today #sweetromance #perpetualFBparty #weddingseason

Today kicks of the ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID series and with it, a brand new PERPETUAL FB PARTY. You have to join the Facebook party page here: AABFB to participate.

Every Monday and Wednesday from now until May 27, a new book in the series will be released. Readers are invited to participate in the author 0f the day’s post. Once all the books are out in the romance reading world, a grandprize winner of a Kindle or a $70.00 Amazon GC will be awarded. The authors may be giving away prizes too on their respective days!

The first book is out today! JENNA by NANCY FRASER

Another day, another invitation to serve as Maid of Honor at one of her sorority sisters’ weddings. Who knew she had so many friends chomping at the bit to get married?

Professor Jenna Richardson is half-tempted to apply for a teaching position all the way across the country in an effort to get out of the bridesmaid spin cycle. The only things holding her back are the fact she slid haphazardly across the big 3-0 on her last birthday, and certain tenure is only months away.

Oh… and then there’s him. Elliott Maxwell, this year’s Writer-in-Residence. New York Times bestselling author, screenwriter, major pain in the rump who has all the department’s admins running around catering to his every whim.

Still, Jenna finds herself more than a little intrigued.

Elliott took this gig as Writer-in-Residence to—hopefully—jumpstart his creative mojo. The adage, ‘you’re only as good as your last’ is weighing heavily on his mind, and interrupting his muse. That, and the saucy, sexy English Professor in the office next door. She gets his ‘other’ mojo going with little more than a casual toss of her long, blonde hair. Or, the way she does her best to hide her beautiful smile.

Will their close proximity write them both a new chapter? Or, is their fledgling friendship destined for the bargain bin?

And don’t forget, my addition SABLE, is up for pre-order right now!

2 Comments

Filed under always a bridesmaid