The InD’Tale magazine Rone nominees are set for this week. My ROMANTIC SUSPENSE novel from The Wild Rose Press A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: AIDEN is up in the Suspense/Thriller Steamy category and I’m up against some pretty impressive other books!
There’s a song that says I’m not afraid to beg, and I’M NOT!!! Hee hee
If you can see it in your heart to, please vote for A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: AIDEN. I was a finalist with book 1 last year, RIck, and I came in second. I don’t think I have to say how thrilled I’d be to win this year!! And yes, that is shameful self-promotion, but I own it!
You must first be signed in to vote – this is easy if you don’t have an account. Just sign up. There’s no obligation to buy anything and they’ll never call you!!
Every now and then something happens in my life that validates I’m doing the whole writing-thing correctly. Yesterday was one of those days.
I received – quite unexpectedly – a BEST BOOK nod from a reviewer at Long and Short Reviews EZine.
When I first saw the post and quickly glanced at it I noticed just 1 star in the header and my heart fell. I figured I’d really gotten it wrong with this book if a professional reviewer gave it such a low rating. A one star rating is the equivalent of saying don’t give up your day job.
But…
When I looked closely and saw the words BEST BOOK embossed in the star I started screaming with joy. So much so, Maple came running to see if I was being attacked and rescue me!
This is by far one of the most emotional reviews for me EVAH! You can read it here in its entirety if you want, but suffice it to say the reviewer liked the book. She really liked it – like a Sally Field at the Oscars liked it!!!! L&SR
If you’d like to purchase a copy of your own to read, here’s the universal link. The book is available in ecopy and print across multiple commercial sites: A Pride of Brothers: AIDEN
For me, I’m going to bac to writing now, armed with the knowledge I’m doing something -some small thing – correctly!
~Peg
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.
I’m tickled silly this morning because I’ve got 2 great pieces of news to share and they both involve books!. My books, hee hee
First, the second book in my A PRIDE OFBROTHER’s series, AIDEN, is officially up for preorder, with a release date of 9.8.2021. You can reserve your copy here: AIDEN
My second piece of good news is that, in anticipation of AIDEN’S release, A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: RICK is ON SALE for just 99cents!!! So if you haven’t read the first brother’s story, now’s the best time to. And just FYI – you don’t need to read book 1 to know what’s going on in book 2 because they are stand alone books.
And hey, if you look really really close at Aiden’s cover, you’ll see the heroine, Lexi, holding a copy of… you guessed it! Rick’s book. Hee hee. I love that sosos much.
Today’s tease is in honor of brothers. I don’t have any but if I did I’d want them to be like the 4 Keane men in Brothers, Inc.
So, for your reading and teasing pleasure, here’s a little something from A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: AIDEN ( release date sometime in 2021). Aiden has just arrived home from a two month assignment out of town and his older brother Dylan is picking him up at the airport.
Enjoy!
At the bottom of the escalator he spotted his older brother, Dylan, waiting and holding a sign reading, Welcome Home, Brain.
Dylan tossed him the cocky, shit-eating smirk he reserved for his baby brother. The one that, when he’d been a scrawny, shy, sickly kid, filled Aiden with insecurity. Not any longer. Now that he matched his brothers for height and strength, Aiden’s insecurity was a thing of the past.
“Hey, baby bro,” Dylan said, tugging his brother close and banging him on the back a few times.
“You’re an asshole,” Aiden said, “with that sign.”
“Yeah, but ya love me anyway.”
Aiden shook his head, while his brother tossed an arm over his shoulder and tugged him along.
“Car’s right outside. And I brought a little lady along with me.”
His mood lifted considerably. “You been taking good care of her for me? I better not find out she gained ten pounds and got lazy from laying around all day.”
“Cool your jets. She’s as fit as always. But I think she’s forgotten all about you. Absence doesn’t always make the heart grow fonder and she now knows, firsthand, I’m the better brother in every way. She’s grown quite used to being with me.”
“Don’t bet on it. She’s as loyal as they come.”
He’d parked the Jeep outside the loading zone barrier, it’s flashers on, the motor running.
“As least you kept the air conditioning on,” Aiden said when he spotted the vehicle.
The moment he opened the passenger back door he was set upon by one hundred and twenty pounds of pure muscle and love.
Laughing, Aiden allowed himself to be licked and pawed, while he rubbed and loved on the dog that meant more to him than most people he knew.
“I missed you, too, girl. Did Uncle Dylan take good care of you?”
The dog answered by jumping and placing her paws on his shoulders, her tail swishing like a windshield wiper, and gracing his face with another slobbery lick.
“Dog’s more spoiled than you were as a kid,” Dylan said as he slid into the driver’s seat. “Come on. I don’t want to get ticketed.”
Once the brothers and the excited chocolate Labrador were settled in, Dylan pulled out into traffic.
“She give you any trouble?” Aiden asked as he continued to rub the dog’s neck where she peeked in between the front seats.
“Not an ounce. I don’t think she even barked once while you were gone.” He glanced at his younger brother, a sly grin gracing his face. “I never knew a dog was such a babe magnet. Whenever I took her for a run in the park, chicks flocked around her, and by extension, me. I got more numbers shoot my way than I could deal with.”
Aiden frowned at him. “I don’t like the idea of you using my dog to score with women.”
“I didn’t use Bronte for anything unseemly, but I couldn’t help how many women thought she was quote, the most beautiful dog they’d ever seen, unquote, and just had to pet her and ask me all about her.”
“I’m gonna bet you sang your own praises more than my dog’s.”
“I’m not taking any part of that bet.” Dylan’s smug grin pulled a headshake and a wry smile from him.
Last week I brought you a little sumthin’ from my upcoming WRP release of TODAY, TOMORROW, ALWAYS. This week, I have another new WRP release coming out SOON from a new series called PRIDE OF BROTHERS. The first book is Rick’s Story.
Rick Bannerman’s job is to protect. An elite bodyguard and P.I., he’s used to denying his emotions and ignoring his feelings in order to keep those in his care safe, at all costs. When lawyer Abigail Laine becomes the target of a vengeful client, Rick slips in to protection mode even though Abby refuses his help.
Four years ago Rick left Abby standing on a balcony alone, after walking away from a kiss that sent them both reeling. His refusal stung, and Abby’s sworn to forget it so she can protect her heart and move on with her life. But now she needs Rick’s professional help and her reluctance to accept it could just cost her her life.
Can these two stubborn and independent people put their troubled past behind them and learn to trust one another?
Excerpt:
Rick was seated on the couch, his laptop on the table in front of him, an open bag of potato chips next to it.
“Where did those come from?”
“They were in the bag from Kandy,” he told her never looking up from his typing. “Josh took pity on me and sneaked them in.”
She pulled a bottle of water from the fridge. “Why would Josh need to take pity on you?”
If shamefaced had a proper name, it would be Rick, because that’s exactly the expression he wore on his face at her question. His shoulders curled forward a little, his neck almost disappearing into them. The tips of his ears turned ruddy, and he cleared his throat a few times before reaching for his own water bottle and taking a good chug.
He wouldn’t meet her eyes.
“Answer me,” she commanded when he put the bottle back down on the table.
She watched his neck work and couldn’t decide which emotion was stronger: the need to hear the answer to her question, or the desire to crawl into his lap and lick his neck—and every other part of him.
It was a testament to her analytical training that she opted for an answer.
“Maybe pity was the wrong word.”
Abby waited.
Rick scrubbed his hands through his hair and cupped the back of his neck. “Fine, but don’t get all pissy when I tell you, okay?”
For an answer, she cocked one of her eyebrows and dropped her chin.
“When we were over there, I happened to mention to Josh you don’t keep any junk food in the house. No cake, no chips, pretzels. Nothing to snack on.”
“Not true. I always have cut fruit in the fridge.”
The breath he blew between his lips told her what he thought of fruit as a snack. “Like I said, nothing to snack on. I kind of told him I was, you know, going through withdrawal, from the lack.”
She couldn’t help it: she laughed.
Rick straightened up in his seat, his eyes squinting at her. “You don’t have to laugh at me. You did ask.”
“How old are you?”
“What does my age have to do with anything?”
“You just said you were going through withdrawal because you haven’t had crappy snacks to munch on. Don’t—” She held a hand up to him to silence what he’d been about to say. “The stuff you like is crappy from a nutrition standpoint. The last time I heard someone complain like you was my nephew Declan when were all at the beach last month. He’s nine. Which is the age I’d expect a kid to be who’s made a statement like you just did.”
Rick shook his head. “I knew you were gonna get pissy.”
“I’m not being pissy because I eat food that’s actually good for me. You don’t live here, Rick. I do. You can fill your apartment to the ceiling with junk food and I won’t care, but this is my home, my space, and I don’t stock it full of bad food choices.”
“Why are you so hyper-vigilant and OCD about snacky stuff? It’s not gonna kill you to have a cupcake or some cheese puffs, you know.”
“Spoken like a man who can eat whatever he wants.”
“The hell does that mean?”
“It means you don’t need to worry about your weight. Ever. You’ve never struggled with an extra ounce of body fat in your life, Rick. I know that for fact. You have no idea what it’s like to count every calorie and watch every single thing that goes into your mouth because of the inevitability it’s going to wind up on your ass. I do. I wasn’t blessed with my grandmother’s metabolism like Kandy and most of my sisters. Ellie and I take after our dad’s side. We’re the only ones who do. One more thing to despise about him,” she added, pursing her lips. “I’ve had to deny myself food everyone else can eat with abandon since my teens. And it’s a struggle. A monumental one. I’m strong-willed, but sometimes willpower can only go so far, which is why I keep healthy foods around me so if I do snack, at least it’s on something I won’t obsess over about the calorie count.”
She took a long pull from her water bottle.
Rick’s gaze stayed on her while she drank. He didn’t seem embarrassed any more. In truth, she couldn’t tell what was behind that penetrating stare of his. She placed the bottle down on the counter next to her broken shoe.
“Come here,” he said, holding out his hand.
“Why?”
He wiggled his fingers. “Just, come here.” When she didn’t move he added, “Please.”
He took her hand when she got close and yanked her down onto his lap with her legs resting on the couch.
“For the record,” he said, winding one hand around her waist, the other across her thighs, “I love your ass. I love every part of your body. And whether you weighed fifty pounds or three fifty, you’d still be the sexiest woman I’ve ever known, Abigail.”
The words seeped into her soul. She wanted to believe them.
“And I’m sorry I dissed you to Josh. You’re right, I don’t live here, and I have no right to complain about anything. So, I’m sorry.”
Abby sat, quietly, staring up at him.
“What?” he asked when she tilted her head to one side.
“Contrition looks good on you.”
Intrigued? Stay tuned for more announcements on cover reveal, preorder links and release date!
And don’t forget, DEARLY BELOVED is still on sale until 8.23.19 Get your copy before book 2 comes out so you’ll be all caught up!
Peggy Jaeger, Author 