Bet you thought this day would never come, huh, since I’ve been talking about it FOREVEH!!! LOL
I am so happy SASHA’S SECRET SANTA is finally available. Did you preorder it? If so, thank you from the bottom of my writer’s heart!!! Hopefully, it’s on your Kindle right now! I’ve also made is available in Kindle Unlimited, so if you’re a subscriber…enjoy!
The early reviews on the story have been amazing and OH MY GOSH i want to cry happy tears at them!
InD’Tale Magazine says SASHA’S SECRET SANTA is a …”delectable holiday-themed book wrapped with emotions and finished with a big red bow on top!” And it was awarded a CROWNED HEART!
Mistress of Reviews says that …”this installment of a Dickens Holiday romance delivers all you could want in a love story.”
An Amazon reviewer said: “Sasha’s Secret Santa truly delivered all the feels. This was a captivating read that had me running the gamut of emotions but left me feeling warm and fuzzy at the end!”
Can I just say….wow!!! I am truly humbled. I hope you enjoy the book, too, and if you do, please let me know! My little ego needs recharging every now and again and the best way is when a great review gets posted.
Enjoy!
And then there’s this review from NN LIght’s Bookhaven that just about did me in, emotionally!!! These tears are such happy ones!
I’m getting very excited! SASHA’S SECRET SANTA ( A Dickens Holiday Romance: Dorrit’s Diner) releases into the book reading world in a little over one week! Here’s the last snippet to whet your book-reading appetite!!! Enjoy.
The diner was, blissfully, empty for the moment after a mad breakfast rush so Sasha slid across the booth from her sister and let out a sigh.
“Busy morning?” Abra asked peering over the edge of her mug.
“Aren’t they all?”
“For you, maybe. I’m just sitting around the house all day hoping not to explode.”
Sasha’s gaze drifted to Abra’s belly. If it were possible it was larger than the week before. “You sure there’s only one baby cooking in there?”
“Unless he or she is hiding right behind the other, yeah. One baby on ultrasound. I swear it’s gonna come out knowing how to walk.” She glanced around. “Where’s mom?”
“Took the day off to go shopping with dad. I almost couldn’t believe it when she told me yesterday she was actually going to be away from the diner during daylight hours for an entire day.”
“Dollar bet she’s back here before three, unable to take a full day off.”
“I’m taking that bet.”
Abra put her cup down and cleared her throat.
“Here it comes,” Sasha said.
“What?”
“The reason you’re here, in the middle of the morning, when I know for a fact your deadline is tomorrow and you haven’t finished the book yet.” When her sister lifted her brows, Sasha said, “Colton was in yesterday for lunch.”
“That man.” Abra’s eye rolls were legendary within the family and Sasha was always impressed they didn’t give her sister a major headache when she executed them. “When I met him he never spoke more than three words if one would suffice. With the advent of this pregnancy he’s become Chatty Charlie.”
“Okay, so out with it. What’s up?”
Another eye roll. “I should have asked this before but my life is such a crazy reality show right now and yours isn’t exactly calm, either.”
“Truth.”
“But, well, Colt and I realized last night that with the baby due any second now, we need to get some things done beforehand. So, on my list today is asking you something I should have asked a few months ago, but…well.”
“I wasn’t in exactly the best head space a few months ago.”
Abra’s reluctant nod agreed. “But now you are and I need to know, will you be the peanut’s godmother?”
Tears formed and a smile she couldn’t contain broke free over Sasha’s face. “You know the answer without me uttering a word. Of course I will. I’m honored to.”
Nodding, Abra said, “There’s more. Colt’s the one who brought this up and it makes sense. He and his first wife discussed it when she was alive concerning their boys and now with this one due,” she ran a hand over her stomach, “we need to get it settled, legally.”
“Abs, what are you asking me?”
“We want to make you guardian of the baby should anything happen to us.”
“Oh, my heavens. Really?”
“You’re the most logical and best choice for so many reasons my head spins thinking about them. So, yes, really, we want you.”
She stretched a hand across the table and Sasha met it, halfway. “Nothing’s going to happen to Colt or I, God willing,” she knocked on the table with her free hand, “but if it does, we’d feel better knowing you’d be the one to look after our child.”
Pleased and honored were good words but they didn’t come close to what Sasha truly felt. Her throat now choked with emotion, she could only squeeze her sister’s hand and nod.
Abra smiled. “Good. That’s two things off my list for today.” Her theatrical sigh pulled a grin from Sasha. “Only ten thousand more to do.”
“Let’s start with getting you and baby some lunch. Be right back.”
The character of Amy Dorrit (Charles) is fascinating for so many reasons, but the main one for me is how she loves her 3 adoptive kids and how strongly she protects them. She also doesn’t suffer fools and calls it like she sees it, evident in this scene. She’s found a distraught Sasha crying in her apartment and after listening to the reason why, she…well, she acts like a mom who lays it on the line.
Enjoy.
After several minutes of Amy rocking and cooing to her, Sasha shifted, her tears finally starting to abate.
“I won’t ask if you feel better,” Amy said as she cupped her daughter’s chin and rubbed her thumbs across her cheeks. “A cry like that one serves the purpose of emotionally cleansing and physically exhausting a body.”
“I think I’m more exhausted than cleansed,” Sasha said, swiping her sleeve under her nose. “And now I’ve got a headache to add to it, to boot.”
With a shake of her head, Amy leaned forward and kissed Sasha’s forehead.
“Why are you home so early? I thought you were going to take the entire day to shop.”
“Took most of it.” Amy lifted a shoulder and added, “When we were done, we were done.”
“Most of the day? What time is it?” Sasha asked.
“Half-past three.”
“Oh, God. I told everyone I was only taking a few minutes and it’s been three hours. I need to get downstairs.” She tried to stand but Amy held her back.
“The diner’s fine, baby girl. The girls and Chet have been taking care of things just fine. You sit back down and tell me what got you to blubbering.”
“I need a glass of water, first.” Once Amy let her stand, Sasha filled a glass and downed it in one long draught. After that she ran cold water over her face, knowing she must look like a swollen, red-splotched mess.
Done, she plopped down next to her mother, dragged in several deep, weary breaths, and told her all about her relationship with Steve Caldwell, ending with the conversation she’d had with Kane.
“I should have trusted my instincts,” she said once she was done, the tears spent, and her voice tired. “They told me from the get-go he was only interested in me because he wanted me for the hospital.”
“I’m not sure that’s true,” Amy said.
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve seen the way he looks at you every time he comes into the diner. The man is smitten.”
Sasha rubbed her nose, then shook her head. “If he’s smitten it’s with my skills as a nurse, not as,” she blushed, “a woman or anything else.”
“I don’t like repeating myself, but I’m really not sure that’s true, baby girl.”
On the end of a sigh sewn together with exhaustion and a strangled ache, Sasha said, “It’s true enough, mom. He didn’t deny it when I confronted him.”
“Did you give him a chance to? Or did you steamroll right over him like you always do when you want to make a point?
Surprised, Sasha said, “I don’t do that.”
Amy’s brows took a steady climb toward her hairline. When they arrived and settled, her eyes opened wide and she regarded her daughter with an expression Sasha had seen dozens of times during her childhood. A don’t even think about bullshitting me glower that made the person – or child – being glared at confess any and all infractions they’d committed
That the look could still make her crumble at the age of thirty-four like an unbalanced house of cards was worrisome.
And annoying.
“I don’t.”
“Really? I can give you chapter, book, and verse on any number of times you’ve done it in your life. You’ve always been like that, baby girl. Always need to have the last word in an argument; always need to get your point across before anyone else can make theirs.”
Amy’s words stung. So much so, tears started to swell in Sasha’s eyes again. Angrily, she batted them away with her lashes.
Her mother’s expression softened. “Look, sweetie. I’m not saying it to make you upset, just to point out that you have a…tendency we’ll say, not to listen to the other person during an argument when you think you’re in the right.”
“I am in the right about this, mom. Steve was just buttering me up before asking me to work for the hospital. Kane all but proved it.”
Amy’s thin-lipped glare told her daughter exactly what she thought about Kane Barclay and his declaration.
“I know you’ve never liked him,” Sasha said. Before she could continue, though, her mother cut her off.
“I don’t dislike him,” she said. “But he has a habit of embellishing any story he’s telling to garner more attention for himself. He was always that way as a kid and hasn’t changed much as an adult.”
Sasha waved a hand in the air with a careless flitter. “History aside, this time he didn’t embellish, just told me straight out what he’d overheard.”
“You should know better than to believe any info given to you second-hand like that, Sasha Charles.”
A sudden stab of unease speared through her. Was her mother right? Should she have regarded Kane’s declaration warily?
Intrigued? I hope so, LOL
You can preorder the book here and have it delivered to your Kindle on 11.7.2022 on release day. Or, the paperback version is available right now!
With the push on now to get preorders for my upcoming Dickens Holiday Romance release, SASHA’S SECRET SANTA, I figured a little snippet might whet some holiday romance lovers’ appetites!
This one shows the relationship between sisters Sasha and Abra From Fixing Christmas…..
Enjoy.
“What are you doing here?” Sasha asked her sister a few hours later when she answered the persistent knocking at her apartment door. “It’s the middle of the day. Why aren’t you working?”
“Is that any way to greet the person carrying your first niece or nephew?” Abra asked, fisting a hand on her heavily pregnant and no longer visible waist.
“I’m sorry.” Sasha immediately reached out and snaked a hand under her sister’s elbow. “It’s been a morning.”
Abra let herself be led into the apartment she herself had lived in for a few months prior to her marriage.
“How are you and baby feeling?” Sasha asked as she helped Abra out of her puffy coat.
“I don’t know about the peanut, here,” she plopped down onto a kitchen chair and placed a hand over her protuberant abdomen, “but I feel like a sausage stuffed into the wrong-sized casing. My feet look like water balloons about to burst and I can’t go more than twenty minutes without needing to pee.”
“Here.” Sasha lifted her sister’s feet to another chair. A quick glance and she let out a guffaw. “You realize you have two different shoes on, right? Or is this a new fashion trend you’re starting for pregnant women?”
“Oh, good God, do I?” Abra peered at her feet. “Oh, sweet baby Jesus, I do.” She dropped her chin to her chest. “I knew the right foot felt different from the left but I thought it’s because they’re so swollen and the shoes weren’t fitting right. No one was home when I left or someone would have warned me.”
Sasha gently pulled each shoe off and the groan that blew from between her sister’s lips tugged another laugh from her.
“Too bad it isn’t summer,” Sasha said. “You could wear sandals.”
“Up until the first snowfall I was, and I still do when I’m home. Colton insisted I start wearing closed shoes again whenever I leave the house, after we started getting accumulative snow. He’s terrified I’m gonna get frostbite and lose a few toes before I deliver.”
“He’s a concerned dad-to-be.”
“He’s a worrywart. He’s been through this twice already. You’d think he’d be cool and collected about it all, but no. I’ve got to have a man who invented the term helicopter husband.”
Today’s little something extra comes from my upcoming addition to the Dickens Universe, SASHA’S SECRET SANTA, which releases into the Dickens-loving universe on 11.7.2022.
After a terrifying incident derails Sasha Charles’ career and confidence, she moves back to her hometown of Dickens to heal, reorganize, and start over.
The only problem? The paralyzing panic attacks that plague her whenever she thinks about going back to nursing. Sasha is mentally, and emotionally stuck, and has no idea how to move forward.
Steve Caldwell is the new Director of Services at Dickens Memorial Hospital. After witnessing her save the life of a local resident in Dorrit’s Diner, he knows Sasha would be perfect for the new trauma center he’s planning. When she refuses his job offer outright, he sets out to change her mind.
But Sasha has thick, protective walls erected around her so Steve must first break through them. With patience and kindness, he does. As the two grow closer, each begin to have second thoughts on what their futures should look like, until idle, small town gossip threatens to derail their budding relationship.
With the imminent arrival of Christmas, will Steve be able to convince Sasha he has her best interests at heart?
TEASER:
Sasha.
Thinking of her compelled him back to the diner. It was lunchtime after all, and a man had to eat. Especially one who’d skipped breakfast so he could get in a fast run at the gym before starting his work day.
The moment he came through the doors he spotted her. The lunch crowd was brisk, every stool at the counter in use and not one booth empty. Luckily, he was the only one waiting, so when he spotted a couple leaving one of the back booths and Sasha quickly moving to bus it, he shot to it.
“Almost done,” she said without lifting her attention from the task of wiping down the table.
Steve slid out of his coat, tossed it carelessly on the seat, and then settled himself in. When Sasha finished her task she pulled her order book from her back jeans pocket, popped it open and finally made eye contact with him as she said, “What can I get—you.”
It took all of his willpower to stifle the wince from her greeting.
“Hey,” he said, inserting as much warmth into the word as he could.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. It didn’t take a body language expert to read the suspicion and caution galloping across her lovely face. Shoulders squared and locked, back straight as a plank, her entire body looked poised to bolt. Chin raised, eyes squinting, she was the polar opposite of happy to see him.
“Hopefully, getting some lunch,” he said. “I’m starving. I missed breakfast and it’s been a heck of a morning.”
Some of the distrust eased from her shoulders. Some, not all, proven when she asked, “And you just happened to pick my station to sit at?”
He smiled and picked up the menu she’d dropped on the table. “I won’t lie. I hoped I’d be at one of your tables. And as luck would have it…” He lifted his hand in a what-can-you-do gesture. “Here we are.”
Pursing her lips, she shook her head, then glanced down at her order book with a sigh. Pencil poised she asked, “So. What’ll it be?”
After he rattled off his order she left him with the promise to bring his coffee right out.
He watched her move to the counter, place his order, then grab the coffee carafe from the back counter, a cup and saucer with it. She tossed a few creamers onto the saucer and brought everything back to him.
As she filled the cup she avoided any kind of eye contact. Steve figured she was embarrassed about how she’d bolted from him in the store. Should he say something about it? Ask her if she was okay?
Feeling indecisive wasn’t an emotion he usually experienced. In his normal dealings with people, his natural confidence and self-assurance proved beneficial. Not with Sasha, though. He worried anything he might say would have her running away again.
After she’d finished pouring, she placed his cup back down and without looking at him, said, “I’ll bring your order out as soon as it’s ready.”
She moved to another table before he could thank her.
With her other customers she was decidedly different than with him. She smiled; established eye contact; joked. He’d give anything if he could figure out a way to get her to act that way with him.
Hope that whet your holiday book reading interest!! You can preorder the book now, here: AMAZON
just in time to read it or gift it for the holiday season!!
Peggy Jaeger, Author 