I’m excited to tell you that DIRTY DAMSELS is another Beach Reads Bookish choice from N.N. Light’s Bookheaven Beach Reads Bookish Event today!
Looking for something fun, flirty and sexy to take to the beach, on vacation, or to read in the car? DIRTY DAMSELS is a modern day Cinderella story where Cindy is the master of her own fate. No glass slipper for this girl. She’s a CEO with thriving business and a backbone of steel.
See you at the beach ~ Peg
Filed under Dirty Damsels
I’m so excited WOKE is featured today as a perfect beach read over on N.N. Light’s BEACH READS BOOKISH EVENT. This Sleeping Beauty redux story is near and dear to my heart in so many ways. It’s a light and breezy read, perfect for vacation, sitting by the pool, or lounging on the lanai.
Check out today’s post, here: BEACH READ. And don’t forget to enter the rafflecopter for a chance at an Amazon Gift Card!
On her 21st birthday, someone slipped a potent drug combination into socialite Aurora Brightwell’s champagne putting her in a coma for the next ten years. It’s been a long road back, and it’s time to reclaim the life she lost and find out exactly what happened on that fateful night.
Financier Kincade Enright has his own reason for helping Aurora discover who poisoned her, but for the time being he’s keeping that – and his true identity – to himself. What he can’t keep hidden though, are his growing feelings for the one-time paparazzi darling and party-girl.
When this prince of finance joins forces with the former sleeping beauty, nothing can stop them from finding the answers they seek…or prevent the powerful emotions developing between them as they search for the truth.
Filed under #Woke
*** turn on the sound when you click the above link so you can hear my horrible, scratchy voice!!!
So this is my very feeble attempt at self promoting my book so people will vote for me in the RONE AWARDS.
Please don’t laugh!! ( I laughed enough for all of us when I first previewed it! Heehee)
Hope this prompts you to take pity on me and vote for my book. The explanation on how to do so is here: VOTING INSTRUCTIONS
And the direct link to the STEAMY CONTEMPORARY CATEGORY is here: STEAMY
Thanks, kids!!! I appreciate every vote!
Filed under A Match Made in Heaven
Last week I shared a little snippet from my debut novel, Skater’s Waltz. This week on #BacklistThursday, the second book in The MacQuire Women series, THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME.
This book is so dear to me because it was my very first, true Friends to lovers romance novel.
Blurb:
Symphony pianist Moira Cleary comes home after four years of touring, exhausted, sick, and spiritually broken. Emotional and psychological abuse at the hands of someone she trusted has left her gaunt, anxious, and at a crossroads both professionally and personally.
Moira’s best friend, veterinarian Quentin Stapleton, wants nothing more than to help Moira get well. Can his natural healing skills make it possible for her to open her heart again? And can he convince her she’s meant to stay home now with the family that loves her – and with him – forever?
and here’s a little snippet from the book…
She started to open the front door but stopped when Quentin abruptly turned back and started up the porch steps again.
“I forgot something,” he told her.
“What?”
When he came up the last step and crossed to her, he said, “this,” and without another word pulled her into his arms.
Her first and last coherent thought was her best friend was going to kiss her goodnight. After a heartbeat, she forgot the best friend part and knew down to her toes friendship had nothing to do with this.
His lips slid across her mouth, soft and gentle, testing, tasting. Moira’s mind went blank as she succumbed to the sensation of them, hot and hard, pressing against hers in a kiss like none he’d ever given her before. Slowly, he traced her bottom lip with the tip of his tongue, silently asking her to open for him. When she did, he entered her mouth and began to explore, each movement becoming more demanding, more insistent. Moira fell against him, fisting his jacket lapels to steady herself. When she felt his heartbeat pounding under her hands, she grew lightheaded with need. Quentin framed her face with his fingertips, softly tugging down on her chin, changing the angle of the kiss.
She’d been kissed before, but never, never with such all consuming need and longing. She heard a deep moan and was shocked to realize the sound had escaped from her. One of Quentin’s hands left her face to slide down her back. When he pushed against her backside and molded her body to his, Moira’s stomach jumped. This time, though, it wasn’t with the painful contractions she’d come to expect, but with a heart- stopping craving.
A craving for him.
She unfurled her hands from his jacket and, without thought, wound them upwards, weaving them over his shirt collar and up through his hair. She grabbed onto the ends, pulled his head down closer, and held on fast.
All aspect of time was lost. Nothing mattered but the delicious feel of his strong hands caressing her back and the taste of him as his tongue mated with hers.
This couldn’t be happening. It had to be a dream.
But no dream had ever made her want like this, feel like this. When he skimmed his lips across her jaw and down her throat, stopping to take her lobe into his mouth, Moira knew this wasn’t a dream. That same feeling she’d had when she looked at him in the movie steeped through her again, tickling her stomach muscles. With a jolt, she realized the sensation was desire. Pure and simple.
Quentin pulled back and stared down into her face. With a heavy sigh, he laid his forehead against hers, a small grin tugging at the corners of his lips. “I’ve wanted to kiss you for so long. So damn long.”
“Q—?”
He traced one finger lazily down her jaw and across the lips he’d just caressed, silencing her. “Remember when your cousin Tiffany got married in the backyard here?”
Confused, Moira nodded. She licked her lips, running her tongue across his caressing finger. The hiss that blew from him made her thighs shake.
Quentin rubbed her bottom lip with the pad of his thumb. “When the Reverend told Cole ‘you may now kiss your bride,’ and he swooped her off the ground, spun her around, and kissed her silly? Remember what you said?”
Moira tried to conjure the scene. “I think I said it was the most romantic thing I’d ever seen.”
He nodded. “The exact quote was ‘I hope someone kisses me like that some day.’”
Her grin was quick at the memory. “Pat snorted and said I’d better be satisfied with licks from the horses and Rob Roy because no guy was ever going to kiss me like that.”
“He wasn’t known for tact back then,” he said, rubbing a hand down her back as he held her next to him in the soft lamplight from the porch. The soothing, rhythmic smoothing of his hand made every nerve on Moira’s body stand at attention.
“Later on that day, behind the barn, remember what happened then?”
Because she did, she couldn’t stop the heat from spreading up her face like wildfire. When she merely nodded, he traced a kiss across the area he’d just caressed, and said, “You wanted to know what it felt like to be kissed like that and since I was your best friend, you thought I should be the one to do it, because you—quote—felt safe with me—unquote.”
“What was I? Eleven?” she said, finally finding her voice, and unnerved to hear it whining.
“Thirteen. We both were, and I was more than willing to do it. Almost broke my heart in two when you said afterward, ‘I don’t see what all the fuss is about.’”
His lips twitched at the corners when he said it, and Moira felt the warmth of her blush intensify.
“Q—”
“Hush.” He kissed her forehead. “Ever since that day, all I’ve wanted is a second chance. Now,” he pulled her body closer, wrapped both arms around her small waist, his hand resting just above the dent in her spine. “We’re both a little older, a little more mature. Some of us are much more experienced—”
“And conceited.”
“Experienced,” he said, the laugh in his voice quiet and seductive, “and things can be so much better.”
And if you read the book, you know they were, hee hee!
Intrigued to read more? Here ya go, let me make it easy: There’s No Place Like Home
Filed under MacQuire Women
Every year, one of my favorite promoters/reviewers/book lovers, N.N. Light ( a husband and wife dynamic duo!) rate the best books they’ve read and reviewed over the previous year and all the books that have received 5 stars are chosen as finalists. In 2020 – a year that saw little professional joy for me – I am honored to have 3 books nominated in various categories for their prestigious awards.
VANILLA WITH A TWIST is in the ROMANTIC COMEDY category
MISTLETOE, MOBSTERS, & MOZZARELLA is in theHOLIDAY ROMANCE category
And A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: RICK is a finalist in the ROMANTIC SUSPENSE category.
This is an unbelievable honor!!
In 2019, DEARLY BELOVED was the winner in the ROMANTIC COMEDY category and cried happy tears for days!!
For a complete list of this year’s finalists, you can click on this link: NNLIGHTBOOKAWRDS2020
The winners will be announced next week and I am keeping various body parts crossed for another win! What a fabulous Christmas Present that would be!
Want to read any of the books? Here are the links:
Filed under Writing
Do you love books that make you laugh? Cry? Wish you were one of the characters?
Me, too!! Hee Hee
I ask those questions because if your answer is “Hell, yeah!” I’ve got a great sale going on right now for you.
All of my San Valentino Holiday RomComs are on sale for 99 cents – the ones from Wild Rose Press,
and my newest indie edition, MISTLETOE, MOBSTERS, & MOZZARELLA ( which I’ll just say is getting amazeballs reviews across the board!)
Here are the links to purchase:
A KISS UNDER THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS
MISTLETOE, MOBSTERS, & MOZZARELLA
And just FYI – if you like PRINT BOOKS instead of ecopy ( and who doesn’t?), I’ve got another great sale going on at my website store. Check it out Peggy’s Book Store
My prices are the lowest you’ll find for my print books!! Some of the offerings have never been in print before, they’ve been digital only. But for the holiday season they’re being offered in print, so take advantage of this great sale, especially if you have a romance reader on your holiday shopping list.
Filed under Romance Books
Tomorrow, 10.26.2020, CHRISTMAS COMES TO DICKENS releases into the Holiday book-reading world and I am so excited to have one of my stories included in this fabulous anthology of bestselling and award-winning authors!
ANGEL KISSES and HOLIDAY WISHES tells the story of rekindled love – a love that was short-ended, tragically, eighteen years ago.The characters are a bit older, which is fun for me to write, and they’ve already been through the marriage mill and come out on the other side divorced. This scene is from my hero, Keith’s, POV as he sits in Sage’s kitchen and begins to reminisce about when they were teenagers and so in love.
She swallowed again. When her chest lifted a hair with the quick breath she hauled in (and Jesus, was she braless?) he knew her nerves were swarming and she was stalling for time in order to think of a response.
Old habits and tactics he remembered her using a lifetime ago.
“Husband?”
“Yeah. You know? Mr. Hamilton?”
“It’s doctor, actually,” she mumbled.
Of course it is. His first name’s probably Alexander.
“And we’re not married anymore.”
His heart rate quickened at the disclosure. “How long?”
“A little less than a year.”
Curiosity compelled him to ask, “Is that the reason why you moved back to Dickens?”
She nodded.
“What happened?”
Sage lifted the pizza to her lips, took a small bite and simultaneously shrugged. “Simple and clichéd story. We got married before I finished residency. I thought we were, well suited is the best word, and that we shared common goals we wanted for our futures. I was wrong, though, because it turned out we wanted very different things and neither of us was prepared to compromise. You’re divorced, according to Corrine,” she added. “You know how it is.”
Nodding, he took his own bite of the delicious pizza and wondered if his ex sounded as bitter when she talked about their failed marriage as Sage did. Barbara had no cause to be, but he didn’t think it would stop her from badmouthing him if given the opportunity.
“What didn’t you agree on?” he asked.
She sighed again and he did a quick eye-dip to her chest.
Yup, no bra.
“Family. I wanted to start one. After a few years when it just wasn’t happening, I thought something might be wrong with me.”
Her eyes drifted down to her plate and the tips of her ears went pink. He didn’t need to be a mind doctor to know why she thought as she did.”
“I went to a doctor who assured me I was fine, but wanted to examine Leland to see if he was the problem.”
“Was he?”
“He would go in, saying there was nothing wrong with him and we just needed to be patient. He kept telling me how much he wanted kids, but in reality he didn’t. Unfortunately, I didn’t find that out until we were married almost seven years. He’d neglected to tell me he had a vasectomy in medical school.”
“What a dick.”
Her eyes widened.
“I figured you had a houseful of kids by now,” he said. “You’re a born nurturer. Remember when my grandparents’ cat had kittens? You took care of the mamma and her babies for over a month. Every day before we’d start working, you’d make sure mamma was comfortable in the store’s back room, had enough to eat. and that the kittens were thriving.”
The smile he’d loved the very first time he’d ever seen it cross her lips lit up her face at the memory. “I think that’s when I knew I wanted to be a doctor.”
“It’s a wonder you didn’t become a Vet with the amount of animals you took care of back then. Mrs. Barclay’s chickens, old man Paley’s dog.”
“People are easier. They can tell you where it hurts.”
“Truth.” He took another bite of pizza, his gaze staying on her. “So. What did Doctor Hamilton want that you didn’t?”
When she nailed him with a look so filled with hurt and yet so drowning in anger, he knew it was something big.
“Other women.”
His hand stopped its assent to his mouth, the point of the pizza wedge dipping down toward the plate. “He cheated on you?”
“Chronically and for most of our marriage. It was his favorite hobby. Most doctors play golf on their days off. Leland played the role of happy bachelor. When I found out and confronted him, he actually told me I didn’t need to worry about any of the other women. They meant nothing to him. It was just sex. His libido was strong and he needed…more, than I could give him.” A rapid flush flew up her neck and face. “But he came home to me every night and I had his name, proof, he told me, that he loved me and me, alone. Seems we differed on the definition of the word. Another thing about us I didn’t learn until several years after we married.”
“Again. Dick.”
The sound that shot from her sounded more like a dog’s bark than a laugh, but when she leaned forward and grabbed her napkin he realized she’d snorted out the water she’d sipped just as hilarity overcame her.
His favorite sound as a teenager had been Sage’s laughter. It took a lot to get her to laugh, to really let loose with a belly-shaker. She’d been serious and cautious most of the time around people. But when it was just the two of them, all her inhibitions flew and he was able to draw the real Sage out of her shell.
The thought he’d missed her more than he’d allowed himself to admit over the years sailed through him.
“Sorry.” She swiped at the tears falling from her eyes with one hand, the other patting her chest when she coughed a few times. “I haven’t laughed like that in a long while.”
“Yeah, I can see why having a serial cheater for a husband wouldn’t be a laugh riot. I hope you took him for every penny he had in the divorce.”
10 great Holiday-themed, HEA stories all packed into one perfect gift to give yourself! And there’s even a FREE cookie companion titled IT’S A DICKENS OF A COOKIE that you can download filled with 20 holiday cookie recipes as a gift from the authors.
I hope you’ll enjoy ANGEL KISSES AND HOLIDAY WISHES! And if you do, please consider writing a review – authors live for reviews, not because our egos are so fragile ( although mine is! LOL) but because the more reviews we get, the more Amazon promotes out work.
Christmas Comes to Dickens UBL Link: https://books2read.com/DickensChristmas
It’s a Dickens of a Cookie UBL Link: https://books2read.com/dickens-cookie
And visit our FACEBOOK PAGE, and PINTEREST PAGE too!
Thanks oodles, kids, and if you’re looking for me, I’m here: FOLLOW ME
Filed under Romance
I love day’s like this. I get to shout out about one of my favorite books of the year, one of my favorite authors, and a dear writing pal!!
Charlotte O’Shay, one of my ubertalented Wild Rose Press sistahs, has a new book releasing today, titled ALWAYS, ALMOND FUDGE. It’s part of the wonderful One Scoop or Two series from WRP and I was honored to read the book prior to publication. You can see my review at the end of this post, but here’s a hint: I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT! I’m gonna give it over to Charlotte now so she can tell you a bit about this wonderful story.
Charlotte….take it away.
Hi Peggy!
I’m thrilled to visit you.
Thanks for letting me shout-out about my just released novella, Always, Almond Fudge, part of The Wild Rose Press’ One Scoop or Two series.
Here’s what people have asked me about the story.
Isn’t this out of your usual genre?
Absolutely. I’ve only written contemporary romance so far. This story is a 20th century historical starting in 1941. (Can you believe we are twenty years into a new century already?)
It’s also a sweet romance. I typically write steamier stories.
Why write historical?
I want to stretch myself as a writer and historical romance is a challenge. Language, lifestyle, dress, and the drama of the WW2 era— I had to get myself into the proper head and research to get details and the atmosphere right.
How does this fit into the One Scoop or Two series?
Summertime (in the northern hemisphere), seaside, and ice cream are what link all of the stories in this series. When I thought about those words my immediate vision was of a sweet, in name and deed, romance that starts on the eve of America’s entry into World War Two.
What inspired the characters of Merry and Anthony?
My parents. Like Merry and Anthony, there’s an age gap between them. My father had to ask my mom’s employer if he could ask her on a date. (She had a summer job as a waitress in a resort.) He was very much like the character of Anthony— a city kid, a stellar natural athlete, whether baseball, swimming, horseback riding, ice skating, you name it. He loved to sing and cook, too! Just a happy go lucky guy who always told us when he met our mom for the first time, “I fell like a ton of bricks.”
Blurb
On a lengthy car ride to their annual seaside vacation, a mother recounts the true story of a sweet family tradition.
It’s the summer of 1941 in the seaside town of Langford, Rhode Island, and seventeen-year-old Meredith Franklin works as a server at Seymore’s Ice Cream Shoppe. When aspiring baseball player Anthony Fanelli strolls into the ice cream shop, his teasing banter leads to romantic sparks and dreams of forever love.
Their whirlwind courtship comes to an abrupt halt on December 7, 1941, when America enters World War Two, forcing the couple to put their future on hold.
Decades later, a treasure trove of wartime letters details the romance of Merry and Anthony and the sacrifices of a generation.
Buy Links Books2Read Universal Buy Link
(click above link for Amazon, Kobo, Apple/IBooks, Barnes & Noble Nook & Google)
Excerpt:
But jeepers, if anything could sidetrack a girl it would be Anthony Fanelli. If anyone could turn a determined woman’s head in the direction of romance it was this handsome fellow who’d smiled big and placed his hand over his heart when he saw her sitting in the stands. Merry had blushed to the roots of her hair, hair that was pinned to the side in deference to the ninety-something degree heat. She’d worn a navy skirt and a simple white polo—Rockets colors. A few of the Langford folk had looked her way at Anthony’s public display but Merry simply smiled and tilted her chin in response. It didn’t matter what stories they might carry back to her parents. Nothing would ever mar the memory of the first time she saw Anthony play.
A little about Charlotte O’Shay
Award winning Author Charlotte O’Shay was born in New York City into big family and then married into another big family.
Negotiating skills honed at the dinner table led her to a career in the law.
After four beautiful children joined the crowded family tree, Charlotte traded her legal career to write about happily ever afters in the City of Dreams.
Charlotte loves to challenge her heroines and heroes with a crisis and watch them figure out who they are while they fall in love.
You can connect with Charlotte here:
WEBSITE // INSTAGRAM // TWITTER// PINTEREST// FACEBOOK PAGE// BOOKBUB
The ONE SCOOP OR TWO series are all novellas by Award Winning and Bestselling Authors of the Wild Rose Press. See a complete list of the books available in the One Scoop or Two series at The Wild Rose Press, here: OSOT
Pssst… more books are planned for 2021!!!
My review of ALWAYS, ALMOND FUDGE is here( Hint: I LOVED IT!) : AAF
Filed under One Scoop or Two
Since WOKE is free on kindle until 8/5/2020, I thought it appropriate I put a little snippet here today to whet your book reading appetite.
“Thank you. Two hundred thousand dollars will go a long way in helping the center with operating costs. A long, long way.”
“It’s my client who deserves the thanks. Like I said, he wanted the painting and I was instructed to do whatever it took to acquire it. But the fact that the money he’s paying is going to a worthy cause is more a bonus for me than him.”
“In what way?”
He shifted and leaned in closer. I found myself doing the same as if I were being pulled by an invisible rope toward him. I startled when our knees bumped under the table.
With his voice low and wildly arousing, and his gaze centered squarely on my face, he said, “It got me to put a name to, and share a meal with, the beautiful woman I haven’t been able to get out of my head ever since I bumped into her this morning. Any price was worth it for that. I was prepared to go as high as needed.”
To say his words filled me with pleasure would be decidedly too tame. My toes curled inside my Kate Spade kitten heels and I found myself unable to sit still in my chair as excitement flowed through me mixed with a healthy dose of lust. I tried to pull my gaze away from his, but honestly, it was impossible. I couldn’t not look at him. It was as if I’d been mesmerized and compelled to stare at him.
His lips were parted a fraction, and this close to me, I had the mad urge again to lean forward and press mine against them.
Because I could see myself actually doing it, I called up the little amount of willpower I could summon and shifted back a bit before I embarrassed myself in front of a table full of people, one of whom was my mother.
He continued to hold my gaze prisoner, that appealing half grin still in place.
From somewhere deep down my twenty-year-old self sprang forth, unbidden and unexpected.
“Why Mr. Enright, are you flirting with me?”
He leaned even closer and asked, “How am I doing?”
Intrigued? Download your free Kindle copy here: WOKE
Until next time, peeps ~ Peg
Filed under sunday snippet, Woke
Peggy Jaeger, Author 