It’s my turn over on ROMANCING THE GENRES blog this month and I’m helping them celebrate their 10th year in the blog-o-sphere! I love a top 10 list, so hop on over and see the one I devised for their anniversary:
She did the best she could…
It’s my turn over on the ROMANCE GEMS blog and this month’s theme is mom, roses, and romance. Check out this tribute to my mom, a woman I’ve never given enough credit to before for being the ultimate survivor…
Filed under ROmance Gems
FREE from Jan Scarbrough, May 19-22
My fellow Romance Gems sistah, Jan Scarbrough is giving her readers a real gift for a limited time. Her DAWSONS OF MONTANA series edition BRODY is free from May 19-22. Here’s a little about the book and series….
Brody: Dawsons of Montana
Blurb
When champion bull rider Brody Caldera learns his stepfather has suffered a serious accident, he heads home to the ranch he’d left behind years before. Maybe the clean Montana air of the Six Buckles Ranch, near Yellowstone Park, will help him forget his cheating ex-girlfriend. But returning will also force him to confront another woman, the one he deserted when she needed him most.
Ten years ago, Brody had chosen bucking bulls over booties and bottles, leaving ranch worker Stef Chambers to raise their daughter alone. She’s done her best to cowboy up for the sake of her daughter and build a good life for them. She can’t let Brody’s return change that. Damn the man for breaking her heart once. It won’t happen again. But Stef’s hero-worshipping ten-year-old is enamored by the famous cowboy, and Stef’s best intentions are side-tracked from day one.
Is Brody ready to be the man Stef needs, or is he just taking her for a ride? Brody has troubles of his own, dealing with his injured stepfather and a stepbrother enraged that the family cattle ranch is now a dude ranch. Is he ready to settle down and trade bull riding for a bride?
Excerpt:
Two o’clock a.m.
May 2017
Chicago, Illinois
He was home.
Brody Caldera’s heart quickened as he turned the key to the door of his high-rise apartment on North Sheridan Road. When his girlfriend Lori Ann helped him pick it out soon after they met two years ago, she’d loved the apartment’s million-dollar view of Lake Michigan. The location was trendy and close to downtown and her job at an up-and-coming ad agency. The apartment was to-die-for, and she said she’d be very happy living there alone between Brody’s business trips.
Yeah, Lori Ann was spoiled, all right. He gave her anything and everything she wanted. But why not? He could afford it. What else did he have to spend his money on but the woman he loved? Since the day he met her at a promotional event for his professional bull riders’ organization, he’d been head-over-heels in love with her. And she with him. They were a perfect match for each other. He was athletic, craved excitement, and took chances. She was sweet and calm, a great grounding rock for him. There was just something right about them together. And one day they’d get married and make beautiful blond babies together. Maybe sooner than she thought.
Even after all this time, he adored her. Still bought her clothes and jewelry. Still had hot sex with her. That’s why he’d caught an early plane home. He wanted to surprise her this morning and kiss her awake. And give her the ring he carried in his pocket.
His adrenalin surged just like it did when he was about to climb down on the back of a seventeen-hundred-pound bull. Brody slowly turned the doorknob, so he wouldn’t make noise and wake Lori Ann. She wasn’t expecting him.
What the hell?
Dawsons of Montana Series are available in KU https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08ZM6V8H8
Brody: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016XI57SW
Mercer: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016EMSSDI
Liz: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08ZM6V8H8
A little about Jan…
Whether it is the Bluegrass of Kentucky, the mountains of Montana, or Medieval England, Jan Scarbrough brings you home with romances from the heart.
Jan is the author of two popular Bluegrass series, writing heartwarming contemporary romances about home and family, single moms and children, and if the plot allows, about another passion–horses. Living in the horse country of Kentucky makes it easy for Jan to add small town, Southern charm to her books and the excitement of a Bluegrass horse race or a competitive horse show.
The Ghost Mountain Ranch series contains a trilogy of three contemporary western books with a good blend of mystery and happily-ever-after romance.
Jan leaves her contemporary voice behind with two paranormal gothic romances, Timeless and Tangled Memories, a Romance Writers of America (RWA) Golden Heart finalist. Her historical romance, My Lord Raven, is a medieval story of honor and betrayal.
A member of Novelist, Inc., Jan self-publishes her books with her husband’s help. She has published 25 romances.
Join Jan’s mailing list at http://www.janscarbrough.com/ for news about new books.
Website http://janscarbrough.com/
Blog http://janscarbrough.com/blog/
Newsletter http://janscarbrough.com/contact/
Amazon Author URL https://www.amazon.com/Jan-Scarbrough/e/B001K8768A
Bookbub Author URL https://www.bookbub.com/authors/jan-scarbrough
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Romancerider/
Twitter https://twitter.com/romancerider
Filed under ROmance Gems
CRUSH, book 2 in the Crescent Lake Winery Series by LUCINDA RACE releases today!
My good friend, LUCINDA RACE, has a new addition to her CRESCENT LAKE WINERY series out today. Come and read all about CRUSH…
He’s just the spark she needs…
Anna Price is an Enologist, a world-renowned expert in anything having to do with wine. Her work at her family’s Crescent Lake Winery in the Finger Lakes region of New York has her feeling as if she’s treading water. There has to be more to life than just wine. Has she lost her spark? She’s jolted when her father suffers a heart attack, then gets a jolt of a different kind from the man taking care of her father.
Colin Grant is a nurse practitioner, specializing in the care of cardiac patients. He’d met Anna once before, but had just ended a long-distance relationship and wasn’t ready for someone new. But this time it’s different. There’s no denying his attraction to the curvy girl who has no idea how beautiful she is.
When Anna is offered a job in France, they may find their growing relationship crushed. How can she say no to the offer of a lifetime? Colin’s job is caring for other people’s hearts; he’s determined not to have his own broken again. Absence doesn’t always make the heart grow fonder. But is it worth the risk, for a lifetime of love?
Get your copy here: CRUSH
And look for the rest of the books in the series, currently available across all digital media:
BLENDS
His mother’s final illness waylaid Sam Price’s college dreams, but he’s content working in his family’s vineyard in the Finger Lakes region of New York. When he finds a woman with a flat tire on a vineyard road, he’s stunned to discover it’s the girl he’d had a crush on in high school. He’d never been confident enough to ask her out back then. He’d been a farm kid. Her daddy was the bank president. Way out of his league.
Sherry Jones is tired of her parent’s ambitious plans for her life. She’ll finish her college accounting degree like they want, but how can she tell them about her real love: working with growing things? Then a flat tire and a neglected garden offer her an unexpected opportunity, with the added bonus of a tall, gorgeous guy with eyes that set her senses tingling.
What does a guy with dirt under his nails and calluses on his hands have to offer a woman like Sherry? It will take courage for her to defy her parents and claim her own dreams. Sam and Sherry’s lives took different paths, but a winding vineyard road has brought them back together. Are they willing to take a chance to create the perfect blend for a lifelong love?
Available here: BLENDS
and…
BREATHE
Romance and fine wine both need time to breathe…
Her family’s successful winery business in the Finger Lakes region of New York should have gone to Tessa Price. She’d always dreamed of running the winery, but when the “prodigal son” returns to take up the reins, she boldly strikes out on her own, purchasing Sand Creek Winery—a cash-strapped competitor—right out from under her family. She can forge her own destiny, using her marketing skills and big plans to bring new life to the winery. But first she has a proposition for the sexy previous owner. And he’s likely to hate it.
Kevin “Max” Maxwell would never have willingly sold his winery to anyone named “Price.” Family always comes first, and if paying for his sister’s cancer treatment cost him his business, it was worth it. But when the new owner offers him a one year contract to stay on as general manager, with a possible bonus, he really can’t afford to turn it down. He can ignore the effect her deep brown eyes and heart-shaped face have on his senses for a year, can’t he?
Relationships, like slowly ripening vineyards, take time. But Max has been keeping a secret from Tessa, one that could destroy her hopes for their future. Will a terrible accident force Tessa and Max to face how much they have to lose, or tear apart their budding relationship forever? Sometimes a romance is like a fine wine. To be its best, it just needs time to breathe.
A little about Lucinda Race…
Award-winning and best-selling author Lucinda Race is a lifelong fan of romantic fiction. As a young girl, she spent hours reading romance novels and getting lost in the hope they represent. While her friends dreamed of becoming doctors and engineers, her dreams were to become a writer—a romance novelist.
As life twisted and turned, she found herself writing nonfiction but longed to turn to her true passion. After developing the storyline for The Loudon Series, it was time to start living her dream. Her fingers practically fly over computer keys as she weaves stories about strong women and the men who love them.
Lucinda lives with her husband and their two little dogs, a miniature long hair dachshund and a shitzu mix rescue, in the rolling hills of western Massachusetts. When she’s not at her day job, she’s immersed in her fictional worlds. And if she’s not writing romance novels, she’s reading everything she can get her hands on. It’s too bad her husband doesn’t cook, but a very good thing he loves takeout.
Filed under Writing
Pinterest, Santa Baby, and Movie Stars, oh my!
That’s some post title, isn’t it? Anyone else channeling Dorothy Gayle right about now? LOL
So, let me ‘esplain the title.
I love Pinterest. I truly think whoever came up with the idea had me in mind. I usually construct boards for every book I pen while I am plotting. I am such a visual person. I really should be working in film, but…maybe in my next life. Seeing how I want my characters to look, getting a feel for what the setting will look like, and any other little visual item that I can construct in my mind, helps me write better, faster, and with more accuracy.
For my upcoming June 7 release of SANTA BABY ( A Dickens Holiday Romance prequel – Dorrit’s Diner) I went old school in my characterizations. Here’s the page devoted to the book: Pinterest/Santa Baby board. As you can see, if you click onto the board, I chose two of my all time favorite actors to portray the main peeps, Amy Dorrit and Andy Charles. Katherine Hepburn is absolutely the embodiment of free spirit and independent Amy, while Cary Grant is the perfect Andy. Luckily, these two worked together many times during their careers, so I had no difficulty finding pictures of them together to pin.
You may notice a craggy Kris Kristopherson in there, too. He’s the perfect embodiment of cook, WIllie Jackson.
Small town New England is, IMHO, a perfect place to live, evidenced by the scenery pictures on the board. And every small town has a local diner, considered to the beating heart of gossip in the community. In SANTA BABY, that diner belongs to Amy and is called, obviously, DORRIT’S DINER ( I bet you guessed that from the title of the book, Hee Hee)
Pinterest is a gold mine for authors, it truly is. And I have to think it’s made me a better writer, too, because I can flesh out every aspect of the book and use descriptions to enable the reader to actually “see” the words on the page as I envision them.
Pretty cool.
So, SANTA BABY is up for preorder right now across all digital media, here: UNIVERSAL LINK.
If you’re on Booksprouts, you can also read and review a copy before publication here: BOOKSPROUT
If you read the novella ( it’s short, only 57 pages) I hope you enjoy it and you’ll want to come back and read the full length sequel, FIXING CHRISTMAS, on 11.9.2021. But don’t worry – SANTA BABY is a standalone book – no cliffhangers, no unanswered questions at the end, and a total HEA.
And remember I said maybe I should be working in film because I’m such a visual person? My good friend, Nancy Fraser, produced the book trailer ( kinda like a movie trailer) for SANTA BABY and I think it’s just perfect. Check it out:
Happy reading, peeps. Until next time ~ Peg
Looking for me? Here I am:
Blog me // Tweet me // Buy my books // Friend me // Pin me // read me //picture me // watch me // review me
and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter here : Newsletter
#MugshotMonday 5.17.2021
I tend to think today’s mug is – mostly – a true definition of the word. I’m a little conflicted by the grammar, though.
Anyway…I showed you mine. What’s your cup look like today??
Looking for me? Here I am:
Blog me // Tweet me // Buy my books // Friend me // Pin me // read me //picture me // watch me // review me
and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter here : Newsletter
Filed under Writing
#MugshotMonday 5.10.2021
So show my yours.
Happy Mother’s Day, 2021
For all the Mom’s out there…the ones with 10 kids, or 1; the moms-to-be, and the new moms.
Here’s a reprinting of my addition to the CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE MOM’S SOUL book from a few years back:
Once upon a time I was a nurse, a writer, and a wife. Then, one day, I had a child. I became a mother.
Added to the list of things I previously was and did, I became: a chauffeur, cook, dresser, wiper of dirty faces, a cleaner of soiled bottoms, a retriever of thrown socks, a finder of lost shoes, a helper of homework, an insomniac. I was referee in toy wars, a slayer of nighttime dragons, a soother of nervous school jitters. I was a room mother, a den mother, a leader of scouts, and one day, mother of the bride. I calmed tantrums and bolstered fragile egos.
Once upon a time my name was Peggy. Then I became a mother and had as many aliases as a con men. I became – at various times – mm, ma-ma, Ma, Mommie, Mom, Mother, MOTHER!!, and for a very brief period of mental vexation, Peg.
My house, once orderly, became a disordered jumble of toys, stuffed animals, dried peas, and empty strew formula bottles; a carpet of clutter and chaos; a dwelling in disarray.
I was a Mother. I was an icon. I’d done something no man had ever done, accomplished a feat so death defying and magical that many wouldn’t attempt it. I became a mother. And in so doing, I became all that I was, all that I ever wished to be.”
There’s more to the piece, so if you’d like to read it in its entirety – and all the other wonderful pieces in the book, here’s the link: CHICKEN SOUP FOR EVERY MOM’S SOUL
Happy Mother’s Day!
Filed under Writing
Christmas in June? Yup!
So, I’m super excited to tell you that SANTA BABY ( A Dickens Holiday prequel – Dorrit’s Diner) is releasing on June 7, 2021. Get the title of this blog now?
Hee hee.
This is a prequel/novella for my upcoming Dickens Holiday Romance, FIXING CHRISTMAS, which will release on November 9. But SANTA BABY is a stand alone novella with an HEA and NO cliffhangers!
I had such a ball writing Angel Kisses and Holiday Wishes for last year’s Christmas Comes to Dickens Holiday Romance Anthology, that I jumped on board immediately when asked if I wanted to continue the trend. SANTA BABY is an origin story in many ways, but most of all it’s a love story about 2 people and a baby, abandoned on Christmas Eve.
Here’s the blurb:
It’s Christmas Eve morning in the tiny New England town of Dickens.
Santa’s arrival is imminent, and a hint of snow is in the air.
Amy Dorrit is just about to open her popular diner for the breakfast rush when she discovers an abandoned baby on her back doorstep.
Amy knows she should call the authorities and turn the infant over to them, but she just can’t. Thoughts of her own abandonment as a baby flood through her and she wants to keep the little one out of the hands of the authorities until the mother – hopefully –returns.
But will the mom come back? And if she doesn’t, what is Amy prepared to do about the baby who has, already, claimed her heart?
The book is up for preorder now, across all digital media, here: SANTA BABY and, if you’re a Booksprout Subscriber, you can request an ARC and read it for free as long as you review it before May 30, here: BOOKSPROUT. Last time I checked there were still some copies left to grab!
I know some of you are thinking DON’T RUSH TO THE HOLIDAYS!!! LET’S GET THROUGH SUMMER AND FALL FIRST. I hear ya. But…..it’s never too early for a Holiday Romance book! heehee
And Don’t forget to add SANTA BABY to your GOODREADS TBR list and BOOKBUB
And and and….check out the fabulous book trailer Nancy Fraser produced for me:
Happy reading, Peeps ~ Peg
Looking for me? Here I am:
Blog me // Tweet me // Buy my books // Friend me // Pin me // read me //picture me // watch me // review me
and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter here : Newsletter
Peggy Jaeger, Author 