Women's Fiction

Cover Reveal: On The Edge

May 11, 2015 2 Comments

“On The Edge” by T.S. Krupa

(on sale June 9th, 2015)

Blurb: Andy Parker is a war widow raising her fifteen-year-old daughter on her own. Hayden Grace dreams of becoming a professional snowboarder, and Andy is doing everything she can to make that happen. When Hayden Grace’s passion begins to falter, Andy is at a loss for how to re-inspire her daughter.

Andy does her best balancing Hayden Grace’s competition schedule, practice, and school with her own work schedule at home, in the city, and on the mountain. But work starts to demand more from Andy. Then, Andy receives an opportunity of a lifetime. An opportunity that will turn their lives upside down. But is it too good to be true?

Soon, mother and daughter find themselves in Aspen for Hayden Grace’s first national competition when a chance encounter brings Andy into a passionate, unexpected romance, a romance that could change everything. Will Andy be able to find the happiness she deserves?

**Book link: Goodreads

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**About author, T.S. Krupa:

T.S. Krupa was born in New Haven, Connecticut. Raised in a Polish household with a blended American culture, she is fluent in Polish. She graduated with her bachelor’s degree from Franklin Pierce University, where she also played field hockey. She earned her Master’s from Texas Tech University and recently graduated with her Doctor of Education from North Carolina State University. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and her dog.

In 2014, T.S. Krupa published her award-winning debut novel Safe & Sound. On The Edge is her second novel. To learn more about the author visit her website.

**Contact T.S.: Website Facebook Goodreads Twitter

Dear Carolina

May 7, 2015 3 Comments

“Dear Carolina” by Kristy Woodson Harvey

Blurb:

A moving debut novel about two mothers—one biological and one adoptive—from a compelling new voice in Southern women’s fiction.

One baby girl.

Two strong Southern women.

And the most difficult decision they’ll ever make.

Frances “Khaki” Mason has it all: a thriving interior design career, a loving husband and son, homes in North Carolina and Manhattan—everything except the second child she has always wanted. Jodi, her husband’s nineteen-year-old cousin, is fresh out of rehab, pregnant, and alone. Although the two women couldn’t seem more different, they forge a lifelong connection as Khaki reaches out to Jodi, encouraging her to have her baby. But as Jodi struggles to be the mother she knows her daughter deserves, she will ask Khaki the ultimate favor…

Written to baby Carolina, by both her birth mother and her adoptive one, this is a story that proves that life circumstances shape us but don’t define us—and that families aren’t born, they’re made…

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EXCERPT

Khaki

Salad Greens

I designed a special scrapbook for each of my children. A custom-made blue or pink album with white polka dots and a fat bow tied down the side, the front center proudly displaying a monogram that was given to each of you. I take those books out every now and then. Sometimes I add a new photo or memento. Other times I gaze at the pictures and marvel at how quickly the eyes-closed-to-the-world phase of infancy morphs into the headfirst-plunging alacrity of toddlerhood.

Other times, like tonight, with your book in particular, my sweet Carolina, I sit on the floor of our family room overlooking my favorite field of corn and simply stare at the cover, running my finger across the scrolling monogram. It’s only a name, we have been reminded since middle school in what has now become perhaps the most cliché of Shakespeare’s musings. But, in what is certainly not the first exception to a Shakespearean rule, that name means more than the house your daddy built in this field where we spent so much time falling in love or the sterling silver service that has been in our family for generations.

It means more because that name wasn’t always yours. And you weren’t always ours.

I was, just like a mother should be, the first person to hold you when you were born. Your birth mother, after thirty hours of labor, fainted when she saw you, perfect and round and red as a fresh-picked apple. I felt like holding you first would be like stealing money from the offering plate. But as soon as the misty-eyed nurse placed you in the nest of my arms, you quit crying, opened your eyes, and locked your gaze with mine. That instant of serendipity was fleeting because it wasn’t more than a few seconds that your birth mother was out.

When she came to, and I was there, cuddling this lighter-than-air you that she had grown inside herself for nine long months, I begged for forgiveness. But she said, “I’m glad you got to hold her first. You’ve been here this whole dern time too.”

I had given birth myself before, and that teary first introduction to a new life after a forty-week hormone roller coaster was fresh in my mind, still damp like the coat of paint on the wall in your nursery. But I’d never been on my feet, outside the bed, when four were breathing the air and then, with one tiny cry, there were five. To experience that kind of wonder is like being born again.

Even in that resurrection moment, I couldn’t have known that one day, I would get to hold you, swaddled and warm, all the time. But I did swear that I would do everything in my power to protect you, love you, and make sure you grew up good and slow as salad greens.

And so, my love, if you ever look at your book and think maybe it’s a little thicker than your sister’s and your brother’s, it’s only because instead of having one mother to save snapshots and write letters and remind you how much she loves you, you have two: the one who brought you into the world and the one who brought you up in it. And if you ever start feeling like maybe you got dealt a bad hand, that having a mother who raised you and a mother who birthed you is too tough, just remember this: You can never have too many people who love you.

Jodi

Jam Left on Too Long

Some things in life, they don’t even seem right. Like how you can preserve something grown right there in your own backyard and have it sitting on your pantry shelf ’til your kids have kids. And how them women down at the flea mall can write a whole Bible verse on one of them little grains of rice. And then there’s the thing I know right good: how ripping-your-finger-off-in-the-combine awful it is for a momma to have to give up her baby.

I think you already got to realizing, looking at me right now, messin’ in your momma and daddy’s white, shiny kitchen, that I ain’t just your daddy’s cousin. ’Course, you’re still so little now, you cain’t know how I grew you in me, how I birthed you, how I loved you and still do. But you give me that same crooked smile my daddy had and squeeze my finger real tight—and it’s like you know it all. Whenever I say that to your momma, she says back, “Of course she knows. Babies know everything.”

It’s a right simple thing to say. And simple is who I am and what I’ve been knowing my whole life. I cain’t say a lot of fancy things, and I don’t believe in making excuses as to why I’m not doing your raisin’. So here’s the boiled-down-lower-than-jam-left-on-too-long truth: I gave you up ’cause I loved you more than me. I gave you up ’cause I wanted you to have more. I gave you up ’cause, in some, murky way, like that river that runs right through town, my heart knew that it’d take giving you up for us to really be family. I used to tell your momma I was scared that being in your life was gonna hurt you. But then she’d tell me, right simple: You can never have too many people who love you.

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**Contact author, Kristy Woodson Harvey

Email Website Facebook Twitter Design Chic – Twitter

Playing All the Angles

April 16, 2015 3 Comments

“Playing All the Angles” by Nicole Lane

Blurb: Dominic Phillips is an enjoyable distraction from fashion designer Eve D’Amico’s loneliness, but there’s never been anything more between them than hot sex. Since he desires no commitment from her either, it’s pretty much the perfect arrangement…except for the fact that he’s dating her sister Isabelle.Eve’s grown used to being the promiscuous black sheep of her family ever since an unplanned pregnancy at age fourteen, and Isabelle is the only one in the D’Amico clan who doesn’t treat her like a second class citizen. Eve doesn’t exactly revel in the idea of hurting her sister if the truth ever comes out.Just when she starts hitting it off with the sexy new neighbor next door, her world is turned upside-down when Dominic reveals his plans to marry Isabelle. As if things weren’t complicated enough, life decides to throw another surprise her way, and Eve is suddenly trapped with another secret to add to a much more shocking one from her past, both of which threaten to destroy every relationship she’s ever hoped to have. She must soon decide whether to reveal the truth and save her sister from a man who’s incapable of commitment, or to keep her lips sealed and secure her own place in the family. For now, though, she will dance around that decision for as long as she can, keeping everyone in check by Playing All the Angles.

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Excerpt:

“Your sister is a right piece of work, you know that?” Dominic said, looking up from the paper to watch Isabelle at the stove as she made breakfast.

“Which one?”

“You know which. The one who hates me.”

Isabelle turned to look at him. “Eve doesn’t hate you.”

“She doesn’t much like me, either,” he said, folding the paper. “Of course, she’s not fond of her own family, so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.”

She frowned. “They’re too hard on her. She’s living her life the way she wants to. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“She’s living life to spite them, more like. Doing whatever she can to piss them off.”

“If she wanted to do that, she’d flirt with Doyle. That’s the one thing that would send Alora over the edge.”

“You think?” Dominic laughed. “I think her ignoring him sets Lora off. If she gave him attention, it would validate Alora’s taste, especially since she’s always on about what a slag Eve is. Ignoring Doyle makes Alora look like a fool.”

Isabelle put her hands on her hips. “You’ve thought a lot about this.”

“I’ve been watching, yeah.”

“She ignores you, too. I don’t feel any less validated.”

“Well, look at me. Then look at Doyle. Of course you feel validated.”

She snorted a laugh. “Is that what all this was leading up to? You want me to tell you how handsome and wonderful you are?”

“Maybe.”

“You don’t have to ask, you know. Didn’t I make it clear last night…and this morning?”

“Hmm, I dunno. It’s still a bit fuzzy. I think you might need another demonstration for it to really stick.”

She leaned over and kissed him. “After breakfast.”

“Now.” He pulled her over by the ties on her robe, then dug his hands into her hair as he kissed her. He had managed to get the robe off and had her on his lap when the smell of burning bacon interrupted, and Isabelle leaped away to move the frying pan from the stove. He followed, flicking off the burners before grabbing her and carrying her back into the bedroom.

From the bed, Isabelle watched their reflections in the mirror above the dresser as Dominic drove himself into her, his face buried in the curve of her neck. Her eyes traced the lines of his body from his muscular shoulders, down his back, to his thrusting hips, and she marveled that this man was in love with her.

A glint from the stone in her engagement ring caught her attention, and she slid her left hand down his bicep, watching the diamond solitaire glitter. Her hand looked so small on his arm. He was cut out of marble, tall and broad, making her long angles soft by comparison. Everything about him made her soft, she thought as she wound her arms and legs around him, pulling him closer, wanting more. She could never get enough of the feel of his skin, his body rocking against hers.

Dominic lifted his face to look into her eyes, tender and warm, before dropping his mouth to hers. For a few seconds, Isabelle lost track of everything but her building tension and the sound of her own breath. He made her feel things she hadn’t felt before. He made her forget there had ever been anyone else.

**Buy “Playing All the Angles” now!: Amazon Barnes & Noble

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**About author, Nicole Lane:

Nicole Lane is a graduate of the Danielle Steel and Judith Krantz school of romance. The grander the drama, the higher the stakes, the better! This balances out the fact that her everyday life with her little family in North Texas is extremely mundane and quite contented.

She blogs intermittently at www.nicolelaneromance.com.

Find her on Facebook at TheOutsideLane!

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**Click HERE to check out Nicole Lane’s other stops on her Chick Lit Plus Blog Tours!

Her Name is Rose

April 14, 2015 1 Comment

“Her Name Is Rose” by Christine Breen

Blurb: Christine Breen’s debut novel, HER NAME IS ROSE (St Martin’s Press; April 14, 2015; $25.99) is an irresistible and moving tale that explores the depth of a mother’s love for her adopted daughter and the unique journey she feels she must take in order to bridge the past and the future.

When Irish gardener Iris Bowen could not conceive a child, she turned to an Irish adoption agency. There she found a young American exchange student who wanted the best for her infant daughter, but had one request: that the child be named Rose. Now, Rose has grown and is stepping out on her own at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Although a gifted violinist, she questions her talent as she struggles to meet the impossible demands of her brilliant but harsh teacher. Meanwhile, Iris has yet to fulfill her late husband’s last request that she find Rose’s birth mother, so that if anything happened to Iris, Rose would not be left alone in the world. However, when Iris receives some worrisome results on a breast scan, her husband’s words become hauntingly urgent. Without telling her daughter, she embarks on a voyage to find Rose’s birth mother.

Since searches for a birth mother are usually initiated by the adopted child, Iris finds herself in a unique situation. With no records available to her and only a twenty-year-old envelope with a faded address to guide her, Iris begins a journey into the past that takes her to Boston and back to the west of Ireland, with surprising results for herself and for Rose and the others whom their lives touch. Iris discovers just how connected the world can be and how the world can feel much smaller thanks to love and music.

Written in lyrical prose that brings the music within its pages to life, HER NAME IS ROSE is a gorgeous and intimate debut novel about the bond between a mother and daughter, and what happens when life does not play out the way you expect.

**Buy “Her Name Is Rose”: Amazon Barnes & Noble

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About author, Christine Breen: Christine was born in New York and educated in Boston and Dublin, where she received an MA in Irish Literature. She is an artist, homeopath, and garden designer whose columns on travel, gardening and health have appeared in newspapers and magazines in Ireland and America. She currently lives in Kiltumper, Ireland with her husband, the novelist Niall Williams, in the cottage where her grandfather was born. HER NAME IS ROSE is her first novel.

**Contact Christine: Facebook Twitter

Elle Field

March 31, 2015 3 Comments

About author, Elle Field: Elle Field is a twenty-something chick lit author who lives in London with her boyfriend and their cat. She enjoys exploring and photographing new places, watching musicals on the West End, and eating her way around London’s culinary delights.

**Contact Elle: Blog Facebook Goodreads Twitter

INTERVIEW

Describe yourself in five sentences: I’m a twenty-nine year old author who loves nothing more than reading a good book. Originally from Yorkshire, I went to university in St Andrews – yes, with the Prince – and I now live in London with my boyfriend and our cat, Comps. I enjoy exploring and photographing new places, watching musicals on the West End, and eating my way around London’s culinary delights. I’m also a massive fan of The Killers, Milka Daim, giraffes, caipirinhas, Audrey Hepburn movies, balsamic vinegar, Scrabble, gingerbread men and sunshine. Oh, and tea and champagne, too!

Have you always wanted to be an author? Ever since I can remember I’ve scribbled down tales of magical adventures and damsels in distress. When I got a bit older, I moved on to the adult equivalent of these – I’ve definitely always wanted to be an author!

I first started writing chick lit the summer I turned twenty-one. I’d had a bit of a rough time in the months leading up to that birthday and I found it to be quite cathartic making things turn out well for my characters. Even though that book will probably never see the light of day, it was much more fun than working on my dissertation – that’s what I was supposed to be writing that summer!

As you don’t tend to see advertisements for people looking to hire an author, it has taken me a while to make my dream of being an author happen. Kept finally made it out into the big wide world six years after I penned the first draft, which is why the book is set in 2007!

Hard/paperbacks or eBooks? Once upon a time I would have said paperbacks generally and hardbacks for my absolute favourite authors, but a lack of space means eBooks are my format of choice nowadays. (I own about three thousand hard/paperbacks!)

What is the writing/editing/publishing process like for you? My process is constantly evolving; how I wrote and edited my third book was a completely different process than the process for my first book. I no longer write the first draft by hand, which is probably for the best as my once beautiful handwriting has become a horrid scrawl!

Once the first draft is ready, I edit on screen, on paper, and by reading the book out loud. Once I’m happy with the edits, it goes off to my Copy Editor, who will also proof read the manuscript.

It’s at the first edit stage that I commission my book cover and start working on my marketing and promotion for the release of the book. I definitely enjoy editing more than I enjoy writing the first draft!

Coffee or tea? Most definitely tea! I’m partial to English breakfast tea in the mornings, lemon and ginger tea in the afternoons.

Who and/or what motivates you to write? The beauty of the story is a big motivator: I love getting under my character’s skin and giving them a voice so they can share the twists and turns in their lives! But, knowing that people enjoy and identify with what I write is the biggest motivator for me.

If you’re not writing, then you’re probably…: Cooking, sleeping, exploring, reading or binge-watching box-sets!

How do you come up with ideas for your books? Real life is a great place to start to get inspiration for books, but I always make sure to add a heavy fictional twist if I do “borrow”. Arielle, the heroine of Kept and Lost, has a few of my own traits. I think it is inevitable as an author that a few of your own experiences or quirks might make their way into bits of your books!

If you could meet any other author who would it be? I’d love to meet Bill Bryson. He’s one of my favourite authors, and has been for over half of my life now. I’d love to share a cup of tea with him and chat books and Blighty.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given? Never give up. It might take you six months to publish your novel, or it might take you six years… if you give up though, you never will!

Can you tell us about any of your upcoming projects? My third book, Lost, will be out on April 7th (it’s available to pre-order now, and is the second book in the Arielle Lockley series: http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Arielle-Lockley-Book-2-ebook/dp/B00U2X7E4A). Once that is published, I’ll be working on the third book in the series. Found will be out towards the end of 2015.

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Books by Elle Field

Kept (Arielle Lockley Series Book 1) – Amazon

Geli Voyante’s Hot or Not – Amazon

Lost (Arielle Lockley Series Book 2) – Amazon, (pre-order now!)

The Marrying Type

February 24, 2015 1 Comment

“The Marrying Type” by Laura Chapman

About “The Marrying Type”: Always the wedding planner, never a bride, Elliot Lynch is famous for orchestrating the splashiest weddings in Charleston, South Carolina. When her father’s sloppy management practices leave them on the brink of bankruptcy, Elliot will do whatever it takes to save the family business. When asked to appear on “The Marrying Type,” a reality TV show about the people behind the scenes as couples exchange I dos, she says yes to the invasion of privacy (and the hefty paycheck that comes with it).

With a camera crew capturing every detail of her life, Elliot faces her most challenging contract yet: planning a wedding where her ex is involved in every part of the process. Add in a lazy assistant, liquor-loving bridesmaid, and rival planner encroaching on her turf, and Elliot’s wedding season goes from high-end to high-stress.

Forced to confront her past, Elliot must live out her troubled present on national TV if she has any hope of saving her future.

**Buy “The Marrying Type”: Amazon Barnes & Noble Kobo Marching Ink

**Other book links for “The Marrying Type”: Goodreads YouTube

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GUEST POST

“Second Times a Charm?” by Laura Chapman

Like dating, each new book you write offers valuable experience that you can use the next time around.

When I wrote my first novel, Hard Hats and Doormats, I’d toyed with the idea of telling the story of a young human resources manager trying to fit into a very grownup world while still trying to understand what adulthood meant. When November 1, 2010, rolled around, and I saw friends posting updates on Facebook about how they were participating in National Novel Writing Month, I decided I might as well give it a try. I’ve always a little too competitive for my own good. I spent that evening creating a rough outline of the book and went to work. Progress was slow, because like my main character, I too was traveling a lot for work and not quite sure what being 24 meant. I still felt like a college student a lot of the time, but my student loan, mounting bills, and professional responsibilities begged to differ.

I was well behind reaching the 50,000-word goal when I decided to take off a few days from work the week of Thanksgiving. I had a little bit of vacation time I had to use or lose, and it seemed like this was as good of a time as any. During the last week and a half of NaNoWriMo, I wrote between 4,000 and 5,000 words a day, determined to reach my goal on November 30. When I did, with just a few hours to spare, I cried. It was such an exciting and overwhelming experience to realize I could and did write 50,000 words in a month. It took me a few more months to finish the first draft of the book and years to revise.

Writing my second book was a vastly different experience. I knew a month before November 1, 2011, that I was going to write The Marrying Type. Figuring I was an old veteran by this point, I carefully outlined my novel and had a game plan for crossing the 50,000-word mark by November 30. Working alongside a couple of local friends who were also participating in NaNoWriMo, I met my goal two days early. Now I really felt like a pro.

But once again, it took me a couple of months to finish that first draft. And while I was happy just like the first time, I wasn’t as excited. This time, I understood a little bit better just how much work was going to be involved if I wanted to publish this book. Even then, I still didn’t have a full clue of just what the next few years would entail.

While writing the first draft of my second book was a faster experience than the first time around, and I better understood had to build tension and tell a story, I still had a lot to learn. Like with book one, book two went through round after round of edits and drafts before becoming the book it is today.

Perhaps the greatest lesson book two taught me was that no matter how many times you set out to write a novel, it is always going to take a lot of work. It isn’t going to be as easy as you might imagine. You’re almost always going to have to part with a scene or character you liked to make your story stronger. And no matter how hard you try, you will always have to go back and fix typos or change plot elements.

The ups and downs of writing my first two novels ultimately paid off. While they took more time than I’d ever imagined, I was able to produce two novelettes with relative ease after going through this experience. And though I struggled to write the first draft of my third novel, the experiences of books one and two taught me that it was okay to basically scrap everything and start over. Which is what I ended up doing, and my last attempt at the first draft took record time. I’m currently editing that book, and I’m happy to say that it is in much better shape than my first two books at this stage in the game. It’s not perfect, but I can see my growth as a writer, which is a great reward.

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**About author, Laura Chapman:

Laura Chapman is the author of The Marrying Type, Hard Hats and Doormats and the Autumn and Tuck series, which appear in Merry & Bright and A Kind of Mad Courage. A native Nebraskan, she loves football, Netflix marathons, and her cats, Jane and Bingley. Until she fulfills her dream of landing a British husband or becoming a Disney princess, you can find her in a bar penning her next novel.

**Contact Laura:

Website Blog Facebook Goodreads Instagram Twitter

Boot Camp Bride

February 24, 2015 7 Comments

“Boot Camp Bride” by Lizzie Lamb

Blurb: Take an up-for-anything rookie reporter. Add a world-weary photo-journalist. Put them together . . . light the blue touch paper and stand well back! Posing as a bride-to-be, Charlee Montague goes undercover at a boot camp for brides in Norfolk (England) to photograph supermodel Anastasia Markova looking less than perfect. At Charlee’s side and posing as her fiancé, is Rafael Ffinch award winning photographer and survivor of a kidnap attempt in Colombia. He’s in no mood to cut inexperienced Charlee any slack and has made it plain that once the investigation is over, their partnership – and fake engagement – will be terminated, too. Soon Charlee has more questions than answers. What’s the real reason behind Ffinch’s interest in the boot camp? How is it connected to his kidnap in Colombia? In setting out to uncover the truth, Charlee puts herself in danger. And, as the investigation draws to a close, she wonders if she’ll be able to hand back the engagement ring and walk away from gorgeous Rafa without a backward glance.

EXCERPT

Chapter One

No, No, No

Charlee was listening to Amy Winehouse on her iPod in the large walk-in cupboard that doubled as a storeroom for copier paper, last year’s Comic Relief publicity material and those computers even the techno-geeks couldn’t fix. The sign on the door read ‘Photo Archive’. But looking round the room crammed with filing cabinets and office detritus – and with the sour smell from an abandoned mop bucket wafting towards her – Charlee decided that a spell in rehab was beginning to look an attractive alternative. Trying to keep her spirits up, she sang along with Amy at the top of her voice.

No one ever came down to the basement of What’cha! Magazine of their own volition and the photo archive was rumoured to be haunted. But Charlee guessed that was just a story put about by the post boys to scare her. She glanced once over her shoulder in the windowless twilight, shivered, and then continued with her task. Editorial wanted ‘before/after’ photos of celebrities whose facelifts had gone wrong. And, as a lowly intern who had seriously pissed off the fashion editor, Vanessa Lloyd, Charlee had been given the task.

Listening to the iPod was a small act of rebellion on her part. Out of sheer vindictiveness – and just because she could – Vanessa had banned the use of iPods and mobiles during office hours. However, Charlee’s defiance couldn’t compensate for the crumminess of the task. Or the fact that she’d been sitting in a cramped position for two hours, flicking through photos of lopsided celebrities, dying to use the loo.

Her – that is – not the celebrities!

Cutting-edge journalism? Hardly.

It all seemed far away from the heady day last summer when she’d graduated with a first in Modern Languages and Political Studies. Then she’d imagined herself reporting from a war zone above the rolling titles of a breaking news story on the Beeb. Instead, here she was, wondering if it was possible to get dowager’s hump from sitting hunched over a low desk for hours on end while all feeling left her lower limbs.

‘Montague,’ a voice growled. ‘Is that an iPod I see?’ A pair of hands clamped over her knotted shoulders.

In one well-practised move, Charlee put her hand up her sweater, pulled out the earphones and hid the wires from view. She spun round expecting to find Vanessa Lloyd standing there ready to give her a ticking off for not being on task. Instead, she found Poppy Walker – daughter of What’cha!’s editor-cum-proprietor – her best friend and confidante.

‘You’ve just shaved five years off my life, Walker, know that?’ Charlee said, now she could breathe easy again. Poppy ignored her, looking round the dinginess of the photo archive and wrinkling her nose instead.

‘What is that smell?’

‘I’ve been down here so long I’ve become immune to it. But I think it’s coming from that mop bucket over there.’ Charlee collected the ‘before/after’ photos together, making sure that she’d left markers in the filing cabinets to show where they’d come from. She knew exactly who’d be putting them back once Editorial had finished with them.

‘Poor Charlee,’ Poppy sighed. She reached into an oversized designer handbag, pulled out a bottle of perfume and sprayed a suffocating cloud of some exclusive, spicy scent in Charlee’s direction. ‘There, sweetie; that ought to stop dogs running after you in the street.’

‘Thanks, mate.’ Charlee put a sarcastic stress on the word, but the irony was lost on Poppy. She wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer and was only kept on at What’cha! because her family owned the magazine. And no one – not even the almighty Vanessa – dared to complain to Sam Walker about his daughter.

Charlee regarded Poppy with fond exasperation.

Last summer, she’d written to every newspaper from The Times to Pigeon Fanciers’ Weekly in an attempt to get a toehold in the world of journalism – but none of them had bothered to answer her letters or emails. As the weeks stretched into months, Poppy had spoken to her father on Charlee’s behalf, brushing aside Charlee’s half-hearted protests that she was cashing in on their friendship. The result was a year’s internship at What’cha! during which time Charlee had to prove herself worthy of Sam and Poppy’s belief in her.

‘Why can’t you do this online?’ Poppy asked, waving a hand in front of Charlee’s face and breaking her dream.

‘That’s exactly what I asked – dared to ask – Vanessa.’

‘And your head is still attached to your shoulders?’ They exchanged a look of fellow feeling. Vanessa’s high-handedness with interns was legendary, but her dislike of Charlee verged on the pathological. It was Charlee’s avowed intention to make Vanessa review her low opinion of her and eat her caustic words. All she needed was a chance, an opportunity to show everyone her mettle. She had it in her to be a great journalist; she felt it in her water. One day her lucky break would come along and when it did, she’d be ready.

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**Contact Links for author, Lizzie Lamb:

Email Website Blog

Amazon

Facebook (Lizzie Lamb), Facebook (New Romantics 4)

Goodreads LinkedIn Pinterest

Twitter (Lizzie Lamb) Twitter (New Romantics 4)

The Other Wife

February 18, 2015 Leave a Comment

“The Other Wife” by Kathleen Irene Paterka

Blurb:

Till death do us part…

Eleanor Anderson has a beautiful home, a loving husband, a tranquil life. After thirty-eight years of marriage and her children now grown, she finally has time for herself. She’s not expecting any surprises; certainly not to wake up one morning and find her husband dead in bed beside her from a massive heart attack. It’s a devastating discovery… but not as much as the shock awaiting Eleanor when she learns the truth about her husband’s secret life. And then there’s the damaging document he signed before his death, which threatens to destroy her life.

Claire Anderson isn’t your average thirtysomething. A professor of psychology at a prestigious university, Claire has a successful career, a handsome husband, and two young children at home. But nothing in her background, including her academic accomplishments, prepares Claire for the horrendous reality of discovering that the life she’d led was all a lie… fostered by a husband who’d promised to love and cherish her forever.

Two women from two generations, bound together by denial, anger, and grief. How far will their misery and fear push them? Does compassion rule the day, or will a husband’s betrayal lead to a woman’s revenge?

What happens when each of these women comes face-to-face with the other wife?

PROLOGUE

It wasn’t much of a sound. Later, she would remember it as an odd sort of grunt. Still, it had been loud enough to wake her. Eleanor rolled over in their king-size bed, stretched out an arm, and nudged him. Richard’s snoring had worsened in the past months. She lay there in the darkness, waiting to see if another nudge was necessary. Just the other day, she’d read how snoring could be a sign of sleep apnea, leading to other, more serious, health problems. Perhaps tomorrow, depending on what kind of mood he was in, she’d mention the subject over breakfast. Maybe she should insist that he see a doctor. Not that it would do much good. Richard rarely listened to her. For most of the thirty-eight years they’d been married, he hadn’t listened to much of what she had to say. He’d probably give her his usual shrug, tell her to quit worrying.

Quit worrying. It wasn’t until five hours later that she realized she’d had good cause to be worried. She should have known that sound was different. She should have stayed awake. She should have tried to rouse him. Instead, she waited another minute, surrounded by silence. Then, turning over, she laid her head back on the pillow and curled up in her spot, still warm from sleep, snuggling into the clean, fragrant smell of freshly laundered sheets changed by Martha the day before. Closing her eyes, Eleanor drifted off into the most pleasant dream… only to wake the next morning to her worst nightmare.

Richard, in bed beside her, was dead.

**Click HERE to buy “The Other Wife” on Amazon!

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If I Say No

February 17, 2015 1 Comment

“If I Say No” by Brandy Jellum

Blurb: Reid Harder thought his life was seemingly perfect. He had the woman he loved and nothing could go wrong. The only exception comes in the form of his brother—Rhett.

Set on revenge, his brother will stop at nothing to make Reid pay for his past mistakes. Teaming up with the FBI, Reid is determined to put an end to his brother once and for all. But sometimes, fate has other plans in store. His relationship with Liza is falling apart, enemies become friends, and family becomes his worst nightmare. With the future unknown, Reid must figure out a way to make amends with his past if he wants to move forward with his future.

EXCERPT

“You have to tell her, Reid.” He looks me in the eye. “You’re going to lose her if you don’t.”

“That’s easy for you to say.” My tone is harsher than I intended it to be. “I’m the one who could lose everything.”

“The worst thing that could happen is that Liza leaves you, which is going to happen anyway if you do nothing.” He’s always the sensible one. “You can’t expect her to give you her all and give only her a little of you in return. She’s been through too much already. She deserves to know the truth.”

“It’s not an easy truth to tell, Marco.”

“You were young; you made a mistake. Isn’t that what you’re always preaching to her? You’d end up a hypocrite if you didn’t feel the same about yourself.” I say nothing. “Or, you can just let her stay gone. That’s easier, right? Safer for her, too.”

Bastard.

“Better, though?” he asks pointedly. “I think we both know the answer to that.”

I know he is right. Liza leaving me tonight is only the beginning. The longer I keep her in the dark, the worse it’s going to get. Liza knows about the women in my past and how little they meant. But if she knew my true darkness—if she knew how much like my brother I once was—she’d walk away without looking back.

No. She’d probably run.

“Your choice,” Marco says before he heads back to his room. “I wouldn’t wait too long if I were you.”

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**About author, Brandy Jellum:

Brandy’s passion for writing began long before she actually sat down to write. As a child, she has had an obsession with reading, everything from the classic stories by Jane Austen to YA Fiction by Richelle Mead. Finally, in 2012, she decided to create her own stories for people to fall in love with. Brandy bounces back and forth writing both Romance and Young Adult Fiction (which is mainly just for fun).

At the beginning of 2014, Brandy signed a contract with publishing company Booktrope. She is very excited about the next chapter of her life and cannot wait to share her books and passion with readers.

When she isn’t writing, she can be found chasing after her husband, her four children and her black lab, Diesel. Or curled up on her favorite corner of the couch with her newest book.

**Contact Brandy: Website Facebook Twitter

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**Click HERE to see other stops on Brandy’s Chick Lit Plus Blog Tour!

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