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:
Filed under #firstlinefriday
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
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!
Filed under romantic suspense
This year, to try something new, the Oklahoma Romance Writers Guild is hosting a VIRTUAL BOOK FAIR.
Multiple authors in multiple genres have their books available for purchase directly to you from the lovely convenience of your laptop/desktop/device.
Pretty cool, no?
Check it out on FACEBOOK< here: OKRWGFB
Love reading romance? You’ve come to the right place! Here you’ll find romance of all steam levels and genres. So take your time, have a little fun here on our event page, and please visit our official book fair page and enter to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card
My steamy romance, BALANCE, part of the NYC Socialites Series, is one of the books listed. Check it out, here: OKRWG BOOK FAIR under the STEAMY category!
She’s a wealthy socialite who survived an abusive marriage.
He’s a hardworking guy raising his son and caring for his widowed father.
They come from different worlds, but it’s said…opposites attract.
Can they find the balance between their two lifestyles to make their love work?
Or will their differences tear them apart?
Life and love are a balancing act.
BALANCE is also a 2022 Nominee in the InD’Tale Magazine RONE AWARDS. The award ceremony if set for Saturday, 10.9 at 8pm EST!
I haven’t done one of these in a while and when I woke up I remembered today was Thursday, so…
From my upcoming addition to the LAST MAN STANDING series, CHANCE, dropping on 9.12.2022. Here’s a little something between the h/h to whet your preorder appetites!
“I’m so sorry about this,” Chance told Freddie as he pulled the car into traffic. “Nothing short of coming down with the bubonic plague was going to be a good enough excuse to get out of today. And if I told her I was sick she would have come straight to my apartment to check on me. Probably would have sent her private doc to visit you if we’d said you were afflicted. I’m so sorry,” he said again.
A quick glance across the front of the rental car showed him she wasn’t showing any signs of being angry or put out. In fact, he ventured to think it was the opposite. She looked resigned to it and content.
“Don’t worry about it.” She turned to glance at her daughter who was secured in the booster seat behind them, holding an iPad and with earphones in place. “I wasn’t doing anything today buy baking for tomorrow anyway, and I already got a head start on that this morning.”
“Still, I feel, well, guilty about all this. If I’d never asked you to pretend to be my girlfriend in the first place you wouldn’t have been ambushed into coming along today. My only hope is that after this they’ll leave me, us, alone.”
He remembered saying the same thing after the anniversary party and look how that had backfired.
“It’ll all be fine,” she said. “Where’d you get the car, by the way? I thought you didn’t keep one in the city.”
“I don’t. I rented it for the weekend. It was easier than depending on car service, plus, this way we can leave as soon as we want without having to wait to be picked up.”
Freddie’s laugh filled the cab. “We haven’t even gotten there yet and already you’re planning your escape.”
“It pays to plan ahead,” he muttered.
Why wasn’t she angry? Or at least put out by the situation? He was. In spades.
But saying no to his family wasn’t something he could do. He felt obligated to abide by his aunt’s wishes no matter how much they inconvenienced him.
Freddie, though, had no obligation to his family. And yet, here she was, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, going to a dinner that was sure to be emotionally trying, her daughter in tow, and acting like it was no big deal at all.
The more he came to know the woman the more intrigued he was by her.
Traffic, unfortunately in his eyes, was sparse and they made it over the bridge to his aunt’s Brooklyn brownstone in record time.
When he found a parking spot on her street he started to feel like some cosmic force was conspiring against him, making everything easy today so he’d be forced to stay longer than he wanted.
Freddie took Dawn out of the booster seat and once the child was on the sidewalk between then, she slipped her tiny hand into his, the other in her mother’s. Something shifted in his chest when he looked down at the little redhead and she smiled up at him.
“Mommy,” she said as they made their way up the stoop steps to his aunt’s front door. “Did you make enough cupcakes for me to have two?”
“We’ll see,” Freddie said. “It depends on how many people are here and how well you do with eating your dinner.”
“I’ll be good. Promise. I just hope they don’t have carrots.” She looked back up at Chance. “I don’t like carrots. I don’t like any orange food.”
He pressed her hand and said, “Me, neither.”
“Really?”
Her wide, blue-eyed wonder, made him laugh. “Can’t stand them.”
“Wow. I thought all grownups ate carrots.”
Chance rang the doorbell. “Not this one.” He took a deep breath when the lock shifted.
“Relax,” Freddie said.
“Impossible.”
The door was thrown open wide and his aunt pulled him into her arms, then pushed him away to do the same to Freddie. When it was Dawn’s turn to receive the exuberant welcome, he felt her body press against his leg, her little hand still holding tight to his. In a heartbeat, he picked up her so she wouldn’t have to be engulfed in his aunt’s killer grip and said, “It smells great in here. When are we eating?”
He caught Freddie’s dramatic eye roll as she presented the box filled with the cupcakes she’d baked to his aunt.
Filed under Last Man Standing
As of today, the WILL COOK FOR LOVE series is still on sale from Kensington/Lyrical. If you haven’t read them yet, now is the time to add them to your summer reading list because I don’t know how much longer they’ll be discounted!
here’s the amazon link for the sale: WCFL
Happy reading, peeps! ~ Peg
Filed under Kensington Publishers
From my soon-to-be-released LAST MAN STANDING addition to the series, CHANCE.
“The trash gets picked up at midnight,” she told him, apologetically, as she led him to an ancient Volkswagen Beetle, the two front fenders different colors.
“How old is your car?” he asked when she popped the front trunk open.
“A hundred and thirty-thousand miles old.” She started placing the containers inside the spacious trunk. “But still running, isn’t a gas guzzler, and has the added benefit of being paid for.”
Chance helped her stack the remaining boxes. When they were done she slammed the hood down, turned to him and said, “Thanks,” with a smile that took his breath away.
He nodded, looked up, then down the alley. “What time do you get here in the morning?”
“Around six. It’s usually light by then. I can get everything up and running before Lindsey comes at seven and we open.”
He nodded again.
“Well, thanks for the help,” she said. “Can I drop you somewhere? I’m heading downtown, but I can reroute if you need a lift. Or do you drive to work every day?”
He glanced down at her car. He wasn’t even sure he’d be able to sit in the front seat without tilting his head to the side. “I don’t have a car in the city. It’s too stressful driving into work every day and my job’s got enough of that already attached to it.”
She cocked her head and a thought popped into the front of his head. Before he could stop himself, he said, “Let me take you to dinner.” The request surprised him and, apparently, Freddie. Even in the subdued lighting surrounding them he could see her eyes go wide, her mouth drop open.
“Wh-what? Why?”
A good question and one he’d try to answer for himself later on. For now, though, he had the uncontrollable urge to feed her. “I’m sure you didn’t get a break all day and you must be starved. I know I am.”
The quizzical quirk to her brow was followed by, “I’m not dressed to go out to dinner.”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t have to be fancy. I love diner food as much as the next guy. In fact, there’s a great place one block up. Best breakfast in town and their burgers are insane.”
She didn’t look convinced.
“You don’t have to run home and fix supper for…anyone, do you?”
Way to go, Chance. You never even considered she might be married before blurting out your invitation.
She didn’t wear a wedding ring and in his experience women always did. It was the men who removed them or elected to keep their fingers naked.
“No,” she said.
“So, no husband waiting for you to get dinner on the table?” he asked because he had to be clear on the subject.
For a fleeting moment something he couldn’t get a bead on crossed in her eyes. Then it was gone. “That’s a little sexist, you know, assuming it’s the wife who has to always make dinner.”
She was right. “Sorry. That was stupid of me.”
Her left eyebrow rose as she considered his remark. He felt like a jerk asking again but he really wanted to know.
“I wouldn’t use the word stupid,” she said. “Maybe unenlightened.”
That pulled a grin from him.
“But no. No husband at home.”
He held back his sigh of relief, then wondered why she didn’t have a guy waiting at home for her. He knew asking would truly make him sound insensitive so he kept the question to himself.
“Then how do the best burgers in the city sound?”
Chance had always been good at reading body language. It was a talent that had suited him well when the words a client spoke often didn’t jive with the truth of the situation. Their bodies outted them every time.
When Freddie’s shoulders dropped from their hunched position under her ears he knew he was making headway.
“Look,” he said, pulling out a grin he usually reserved for friends and family, “I know you don’t know anything about me other than I’m a divorce lawyer and I like coffee.”
A half-smile slid up her face. “And corn muffins.”
He nodded. “But I’m not a serial murder, I don’t cheat on my taxes, and if you ask my sister she’d tell you other than the fact I tend to argue a point to death, I’m a good guy.”
A full smile graced her face from that declaration.
Progress.
“So what’d’ya say? Wanna grab something to eat before you head home?”
He held his breath waiting for her answer.
After a few moments when he wondered if he’d ever be able to breathe again, she said, “Well,” as she shifted her bag to the other shoulder. “I am hungry, that’s the truth. It was a long day and I didn’t get a break.”
“Is that a yes?”
Please let it be a yes.
With her lips pressed together and her eyes narrowed slightly she finally –finally – nodded. “I guess it is.”
He couldn’t stop the full-wattage smile that jumped across his face.
Happy reading, peeps. ~ Peg
Filed under Last Man Standing
NYC 2022
Filed under year in photos
So here’s little sumthin’ sumthin’ from my upcoming Sweet romance, CHANCE, part of the Last Man Standing series.
You all know that guy: the confirmed bachelor who vows he’s never gonna be tied down to one woman.
And you all know, as writers, we just love to see guys like this fall! LOL.
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?
Intrigued? Read on….
Before he could stop himself, he said, “Let me take you to dinner.” The request surprised him and, apparently, Freddie. Even in the subdued lighting surrounding them he could see her eyes go wide, her mouth drop open.
“Wh-what? Why?”
A good question and one he’d try to answer for himself later on. For now, though, he had the uncontrollable urge to feed her. “I’m sure you didn’t get a break all day and you must be starved. I know I am.”
The quizzical quirk to her brow was followed by, “I’m not dressed to go out to dinner.”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t have to be fancy. I love diner food as much as the next guy. In fact, there’s a great place one block up. Best breakfast in town and their burgers are insane.”
She didn’t look convinced.
“You don’t have to run home and fix supper for…anyone, do you?”
Why to go, Chance. You never even considered if she was married before blurting out your invitation.
She didn’t wear a wedding ring and in his experience women always did. It was the men who removed them or elected to keep their fingers naked.
“No,” she said.
“So, no husband waiting for you to get dinner on the table?” he asked because he had to be clear on the subject.
For a fleeting moment, something he couldn’t get a bead on crossed her eyes. Then it was gone. “That’s a little sexist, you know, assuming it’s the wife who has to always make dinner.”
She was right. “Sorry. That was stupid of me.”
Her left eyebrow rose as she considered his remark. He felt like a jerk asking again but he really wanted to know.
“I wouldn’t use the word stupid,” she said. “Maybe unenlightened.”
That pulled a grin from him.
“But no. No husband at home.”
He held back his sigh of relief, then wondered why she didn’t have a guy waiting at home for her. He knew asking would truly make him sound insensitive so he kept the question to himself.
“Then how do the best burgers in the city sound?”
Chance had always been good at reading body language. It was a talent that had suited him well when the words a client spoke often didn’t jive with the truth of the situation. Their bodies outted them every time.
When Freddie’s shoulders dropped from their hunched position under her ears he knew he was making headway.
“Look,” he said, pulling out a grin he usually reserved for friends and family, “I know you don’t know anything about me other than I’m a divorce lawyer and I like coffee.”
A half-smile slid up her face. “And corn muffins.”
He nodded. “But I’m not a serial murder, I don’t cheat on my taxes, and if you ask my sister she’d tell you other than the fact I tend to argue a point to death, I’m a good guy.”
A full smile graced her face from that declaration.
Progress.
“So what’d’ya say? Wanna grab something to eat before you head home?”
He held his breath waiting for her answer.
After a few moments when he wondered if he’d ever be able to breathe again, she said, “Well,” as she shifted her bag to the other shoulder. “I am hungry, that’s the truth. It was a long day and I didn’t get a break.”
“Is that a yes?”
Please let it be a yes.
With her lips pressed together and her eyes narrowed slightly she finally –finally – nodded. “I guess it is.”
He couldn’t stop the full-wattage smile that jumped from him.
You can preorder your Kindle copy here or buy it in print now, here.
And it will be enrolled in Kindle Unlimited, so if you’re a subscriber, you can read it as part of your subscription fee after 9.12.2022!
Happy Sunday, peeps ~ Peg
Filed under Last Man Standing, sunday snippet
This is so cool! BOOKTHRONE is spotlighting my NYC Socialite series this week. Check out the post here: BOOKTHRONE
The only book missing from the list is DIRTY DAMSELS, because the copyright on that is still held by LImitless and is under the DOTCOM girls series pages, but that was the book that started me on this poor-little-riches-to-rags-girls storyline.
Enjoy and happy reading!!!!
Filed under It's a trust thing, Woke, Writing
Enter The Giveaway Where EVERYONE Wins!
Hey peeps, check this out!
I’ve joined forces with Romance Devoured and 18 other Bestselling Contemporary Romance Authors to bring you an amazingly HOT giveaway! The best part? EVERYONE WINS!
My book WOKE is featured as part of the giveaway and you’ll get it for FREE just for entering!
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Click here to enter -> https://promos.romancedevoured.com/peggyjaeger
About WOKE:
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.
** What have you got to lose??? Enter now to win all 19 books: https://promos.romancedevoured.com/peggyjaeger
Filed under #Woke
Peggy Jaeger, Author 