Virtual Tour: Primrose Lane by Debbie Mason

Love is the best medicine.

PRIMROSE LANE

Harmony Harbor #3

Debbie Mason

Releasing June 27, 2017

Forever

Love is the best medicine.

Olivia Davenport has finally gotten her life back together. She’s left her painful past behind, started over in a new town, and become Harmony Harbor’s most sought-after event planner. But her past catches up to her when Olivia learns that she’s now guardian of her ex’s young daughter. With her world spinning, Olivia must reconcile her old life with her new one. And she doesn’t have time for her new next door neighbor, no matter how handsome he is.

Olivia may act like she’s got everything under control, but Dr. Finn Gallagher knows a person in over her head when he sees one. He’d really like to be the shoulder she leans on, but Olivia makes it clear she doesn’t want his help. Since he’s returned to town, his waiting room has been full of single women feigning illness. Yet the one woman he’s interested in is avoiding him. But with a little help from some matchmaking widows and a precocious little girl, Finn might just win Olivia over.

“What are you two still doing in the pond? You can see that we’ve rescued Miller and George, can’t you?” his baby brother Liam asked.

Finn was about to make a smartass comeback when his other brother shouted, “Finn, on your six!”

The wedding guests and waitstaff yelled, “Run!”

Finn glanced over his shoulder. Sure enough, two swans were doing their running-on-water thing and coming toward him with their wings spread wide. “Liv, get out of here!” he yelled, turning to splash the big white birds in order to distract them so she could get to shore. It didn’t feel very manly or heroic, but he couldn’t exactly scoop Liv up and run from the pond with her in his arms. His leg wouldn’t make it. But it’s the thought that counted. Or so he was telling himself when he heard the sound of a warrior’s cry. If his brothers raced into the pond to rescue him, he was going to kill them.

Somebody brushed past him, knocking him off balance. It was Liv. Brandishing her shoes like weapons, she made a beeline for the birds. The swan on the right dipped forward and grabbed the shoe. . . and Liv’s hand. Finn launched himself at Liv, wrapping an arm around her waist and dragging her away from the posturing birds.

A piece of bread hit Finn in the side of the head. The swan dropped Liv’s shoe and joined his three pals to glide gracefully to where the guests were now throwing bread into the pond. Too bad someone hadn’t thought of that earlier.

“If I never see a swan again, it’ll be too soon,” he muttered, half-dragging Liv out of the pond after him. It wasn’t until they’d climbed out that he realized she hadn’t said a word. He slowly turned. She was pale and shaking. “Liv, what is it?”

She looked at him, stared at him really, as if she expected him to understand what was going on. And there was definitely something going on, and it had nothing to do with a lost shoe. It hit him then. It had to do with a loss of another kind, a gut-wrenching, soul-crushing, heart-breaking loss that no one should ever have to bear.

He put his hands on her shoulders and ducked to look in her glassy eyes. “She’s fine, Liv. She was never in any real danger. We were here.”

“What if we hadn’t been?” she whispered, looking to where his brothers were drying George and Miller with towels. “She wanders off all the time and won’t come when I call. She hides from me, climbs rocks and trees, runs into the woods and the ocean at high tide.” A tear rolled down her cheek. She wiped her face and looked away. “If something happened to her . . .” She slowly shook her head. “I can’t do this, Finn.”

 

Debbie Mason is the USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author of the Christmas, Colorado series and the Harmony Harbor series. Her books have been praised for their "likable characters, clever dialogue and juicy plots" (RT Book Reviews). When she isn't writing or reading, Debbie enjoys spending time with her very own real-life hero, their three wonderful children and son-in-law, two adorable grandbabies, and a yappy Yorkie named Bella.

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Book Blast: Somebody Like You & Nearest Thing to Heaven by Lynnette Austin

The question begs to be asked. Is there anything sexier than a cowboy?

SOMEBODY LIKE YOU

Maverick Junction #1

Lynnette Austin

Forever Yours

WHEN A COWBOY MEETS AN HEIRESS…
Cash Hardeman thinks he’ll have all the time in the world to find the right woman...until he discovers he might lose the family ranch if he’s not married by his 30th birthday. So when Boston beauty Annelise blows into town on her Harley, Cash can't help wondering if she's the sexy, leather-clad answer to all his problems.

Giving her bodyguards and the paparazzi the slip, heiress Annelise Montjoy comes to Maverick Junction on a mission to help her ailing grandfather. But keeping her identity hidden in the small Texas town is harder than she expected—especially around a tempting cowboy like Cash. He’s the kind of man who makes her want to spill all her secrets. Soon Annelise starts to wonder if she’s finally found the man who can love her for herself rather than her money. But will the secrets they both keep ruin their plans to ride off into the sunset together?

 *~*

NEAREST THING TO HEAVEN

Maverick Junction #2

Lynnette Austin

Forever Yours

THE COWBOY AND THE CITY GIRL
Sophie London hates Texas. The longhorns freak her out and the wide-open spaces are more unnerving than a Chicago alleyway at night. But Sophie wouldn’t miss her cousin’s wedding for the world—even if it means returning to Maverick Junction . . . and to the dangerously irresistible Ty Rawlins.

A single father of rambunctious triplet boys, Ty knows trouble when he sees it—and Sophie’s got it written all over her. Yet he’s never been able to stop thinking about her, after their one brief meeting. Maybe fate is giving him a second chance. But if Ty wants Sophie to swap her stilettos for cowgirl boots, they’ll each have to face the past—together.

Excerpt From Somebody Like You: Maverick Junction #1 by Lynette Austin

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Annelise Montjoy motored her Harley along what appeared to be the town’s main street. This was Maverick Junction?

A blue Cadillac, surely old enough to be in a museum, was parked nose-in to the curb. An incredibly ugly dog sat in the front seat.

Thank God, this, the final destination of her cross-country trip from Boston, was temporary. It looked like the kind of place you ran away from, not toward. If luck was on her side, she’d be out of here in a couple weeks at the most.

And then a store door opened and her breath caught. Go, Texas! Look at that cowboy. So different from any of the men in her life. So…intriguing. She slowed to nearly a standstill and watched as he swiped an arm across his forehead, then dumped a grocery bag in the backseat of the old Caddy.

Cracking open a bottle of water, he turned his head in her direction. Her breath hitched as his gaze ran lazily over her, her bike. Then he snagged a Styrofoam cup from inside his car and filled it before setting it on the blistering pavement for the dog waiting patiently beside him.

Leaning against the faded fender, he thumbed back his battered Stetson and chugged the rest of the water. Twisting the cap back on, he tossed the bottle into the recycling bin beside the grocer’s door.

Annelise pulled her bike into a parking space across the street, deliberately turning her back on the stranger. While his clothes might have been stereotypical cowboy—worn jeans, a faded T-shirt, cowboy boots, and hat—he took everything from simmer to boiling point. The jeans hugged long legs, while the shirt stretched taut across his muscled chest. There was something very alluring about him and that surprised her. He wasn’t the kind of man she was usually drawn to.

He shouldn’t appeal to her.

He did.

Not so much as a breeze stirred. The flag on the post office hung limp, and the cheerful red, white, and blue balloons someone had hung outside a beauty salon drooped listlessly.

Unable to stop herself, she peeked in the bike’s rearview mirror. Cowboy was bent over, talking to the dog. Quite a view, but she wasn’t here to admire a fine jean-clad butt. She needed something cold to drink and something light to eat. Then she’d go in search of Dottie Willis and the apartment she’d rented over the Internet. Maverick Junction, Texas. Annelise wished she was driving through, wished she could view it as simply a spot on the map where she’d stopped for lunch one summer day.

Well, she’d just have to work fast.

Lynnette Austin, a recovering middle school teacher, loves long rides with the top down and the music cranked up, the Gulf of Mexico when a storm is brewing, chocolate frozen custard, anything by Blake Shelton, Chris Young, and Thomas Rhett, and sitting in her local coffee shop reading and enjoying an iced coffee. She and her husband divide their time between Southwest Florida's beaches and Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountains. Having grown up in a small town, that's where her heart takes her—to those quirky small towns where everybody knows everybody...and all their business, for better or worse. Writing for Grand Central and Sourcebooks, she’s published twelve novels and is at work on a new series.

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Blog Tour: Read Write, Love at Seaside by Addison Cole

Start reading FREE with Read, Write, Love at Seaside! 

READ, WRITE, LOVE AT SEASIDE

Sweet with Heat: Seaside Summers #1

Addison Cole

Releasing June 14th, 2017

Sweet with Heat: Seaside Summers features a group of fun, flirty, and emotional friends who gather each summer at their Cape Cod cottages. They’re sassy, flawed, and so easy to relate to, you’ll be begging to enter their circle of friends! Start reading FREE with Read, Write, Love at Seaside! 

In READ, WRITE, LOVE at SEASIDE...
Bestselling author Kurt Remington lives to write. He spends twelve hours a day in front of his computer, rarely leaving the seclusion of his beach-front property, where he's come to finish his latest thriller -- that is, until free-spirited Leanna Bray nearly drowns in the ocean trying to save her dog. Kurt's best-laid plans are shot to hell when he comes to their rescue. Kurt's as irritated as he is intrigued by the sexy, hot mess of a woman who lives life on a whim, forgets everything, and doesn't even know the definition of the word organized.

Leanna's come to the Cape hoping to find a fulfilling career in the jam-making business, and until she figures out her own life, a man is not on the menu. But Leanna can't get the six-two, deliciously muscled and tragically neat Kurt out of her mind. She tells herself she's just stopping by to say thank you, but the heart-warming afternoon sparks an emotional and unexpectedly sweet ride as Kurt and Leanna test the powers of Chemistry 101: Opposites Attract.

*Read, Write, Love at Seaside by Addison Cole is the sweet edition of New York Times bestselling author Melissa Foster's steamy romance novel Read, Write, Love. The stories and characters remain the same, and convey all of the passion you expect between two people in love, without any explicit scenes or harsh language.

START READING FOR FREE!

 *~*

DREAMING AT SEASIDE

Sweet with Heat: Seaside Summers #2

Addison Cole

Releasing June 14th, 2017

In DREAMING at SEASIDE...
Bella Abbascia has returned to Seaside Cottages in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, as she does every summer. Only this year, Bella has more on her mind than sunbathing and skinny-dipping with her girlfriends. She's quit her job, put her house on the market, and sworn off relationships while she builds a new life in her favorite place on earth. That is, until good-time Bella's prank takes a bad turn and a handsome police officer appears on the scene.

Single father and police officer Caden Grant left Boston with his fourteen-year-old son, Evan, after his partner was killed in the line of duty. He hopes to find a safer life in the small resort town of Wellfleet, and when he meets Bella during a night patrol shift, he realizes he's found the one thing he'd never allowed himself to hope for--or even realized he was missing.

After fourteen years of focusing solely on his son, Caden cannot resist the intense attraction he feels toward beautiful Bella, and Bella's powerless to fight the heat of their budding romance. But starting over proves more difficult than either of them imagined, and when Evan gets mixed up with the wrong kids, Caden's loyalty is put to the test. Will he give up everything to protect his son--even Bella?

Dreaming at Seaside is the sweet edition of New York Times bestselling author Melissa Foster's steamy romance novel Seaside Dreams. The stories and characters remain the same, and convey all of the passion you expect between two people in love, without any explicit scenes or harsh language.

Excerpt

Leanna stepped onto the deck in cutoffs and a white tank top. Her dark hair cascaded in gentle waves over her shoulders.

“Good morning, girlies. I’m late for the flea market, as always.” The previous summer Leanna had begun a jam-making business, Luscious Leanna’s Sweet Treats, and now she ran the business out of the renovated guest cottage on Kurt’s beachfront property. During the summer she also sold her products at the Wellfleet Flea Market and at other flea markets in the area. “I’m sorry about the window, and I promise to remember next time.” Leanna took a sip of Jenna’s coffee.

“Sure, you’ll remember to close the window,” Jenna said. “Now I’m definitely going to install that window lock on the outside.”

“I really do try to remember. It’s just…” Leanna held her palm up.

“Things come up and you don’t think about it?” Jenna threw her head back and laughed.

“Ha-ha. Who was the hot cop?” Leanna asked.

“Caden Grant. He’s Bella’s,” Amy said.

“He is not mine.” The memory of his big hands on her waist, and the heat of their bodies so close, sent a shudder through her.

“Then why did the air sizzle and pop when you were in his arms?” Amy lifted her brows.

“You guys noticed that too, huh?” Bella covered her face with her hands, then met their curious stares with a serious one. “I’m ignoring that particular, incredible connection for now. No men, no commitments, remember? Besides…” She sat up straighter, steeling herself for the gasps and worry that were sure to follow her admission. “I have bigger things to focus on, like the fact that I quit my job.”

As if on cue, Jenna and Amy gasped.

“You what?” Leanna asked.

“Because of Jay? You two weren’t even serious, and you’ve worked there for five years,” Jenna added.

Bella shook her head. “No, not because of Jay. I mean, that factored into it in a very minor way. It was annoying finishing out the school year and having to see him every day, but my decision about moving is based on more than Jay. My decision about taking a break from men is sort of based on him, though. I don’t need to be lied to again, and I’m beginning to think that men and lying go hand in hand.” 

Addison Cole is the sweet alter ego of New York Times and USA Today bestselling and award-winning author Melissa Foster. She writes humorous and emotional sweet contemporary romance. Her books do not include explicit sex scenes or harsh language. Addison spends her summers on Cape Cod, where she dreams up wonderful love stories in her house overlooking Cape Cod Bay.    

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Review: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Published: June 13, 2017

Publisher: Atria Books

Rating: 5/5

Synopsis

Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one in the journalism community is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband, David, has left her, and her career has stagnated. Regardless of why Evelyn has chosen her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s Upper East Side apartment, Monique listens as Evelyn unfurls her story: from making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the late 80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way. As Evelyn’s life unfolds through the decades—revealing a ruthless ambition, an unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love—Monique begins to feel a very a real connection to the actress. But as Evelyn’s story catches up with the present, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

Filled with emotional insight and written with Reid’s signature talent, this is a fascinating journey through the splendor of Old Hollywood into the harsh realities of the present day as two women struggle with what it means—and what it takes—to face the truth.

My Thoughts

Another winner from Taylor Jenkins Reid! What can I say I love everything she has written but this one, while a little different from her previous novels is simply perfection! In The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo we see Evelyn’s life is she tells it to an up & comer in the publishing world. Monique is hand picked by Evelyn to write her biography which sets up the secondary story as to who is Monique when it comes to Evelyn. Why would Evelyn pick and trust an unknown with her life story? As the story plays out we do eventually find out and I was shocked which I loved since I’m hardly surprised nowadays.

The real gem is the life that Evelyn has lead and it is told to us through each of her seven marriages and all the hard work and hardships that she went through. We see how she was determined to make something of herself even if it meant doing things she never wanted to do. We relive the heyday of 50’s Hollywood glam and Evelyn using everything she has to get want she wants. While she was married seven times she was never able to marry her one true love, and that was Evelyn’s one regret in life, that she wasn’t able to live and love as freely as she wanted. We learn some surprising secrets, ones that wouldn’t be such a big deal these days but back then it would’ve ended her career and maybe even her life.

I got swept up with this amazing tale of a woman who only wanted to love her true love and continue to do what she was meant to do. I loved that Evelyn was a strong hard headed woman who at the time when men ruled the entertainment world knew how she wanted her life and career to go and made it happened. The juxtapose between Evelyn and Monique plays out as the book goes on showing us they are more alike that we know, and how they both give each other what the other one's needs.

This is one helluva book that is Reid’s most ambitious book to date. She nailed the old Hollywood glam era and of course, she always delivers when it comes to relationships and that wonderful thing called love. I love that she never makes love simple or uncomplicated, it's always hard and ugly which is part is real…that is how love is. She writes of a love that one longs for…true real love and she nails it here. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a novel that I highly recommend!

Review: The Identicals by Elin Hilderbrand

The Identicals by Elin Hilderbrand

Published: June 13, 2017

Publisher: Little Brown and Co.

Rating: 5/5

Synopsis

Nantucket is only two and a half hours away from Martha's Vineyard by ferry. But the two islands might as well be worlds apart for a set of identical twin sisters who have been at odds for years. Just because twins look exactly the same doesn't mean they're anything alike--and Tabitha and Harper Frost have spent their whole lives trying to prove this point. When a family crisis forces them to band together--or at least appear to--the twins come to realize that the special bond that they share is more important than the resentments that have driven them apart. A story of new loves, old battles, and a threat that gives a whole new meaning to the term sibling rivalry, THE IDENTICALS is Elin Hilderbrand at her page-turning best.

My Thoughts

I look forward to the summer for the simple pleasure of knowing I will be blessed with an Elin Hilderbrand novel and this one is my favorite by far. In the Identicals, we meet identical sisters Tabitha and Harper who couldn’t be more opposite. When their parents got divorced they decided to split the sisters and when they couldn’t decide who would go with whom, they play rock paper scissors to decide their fate. Tabitha grew up with a fashion designer mother who likes the finer things in life and who only wanted the best things in life. Harper grew up with her father who leads a simple life, so different from her mother and sister. While they only lived a ferry ride away both sisters had no contact with each other for years after the death of Tabitha’s son.

After their father has died Tabitha and her mother along with her daughter make the trek to pay their respects and say goodbye, while there we find out that Harper has a boyfriend and also has been having an affair with her father's doctor. When her affair is exposed and her world tumbling down around her she decides she needs to leave. When an accident happens and she receives a call that her sister needs her help she soon goes to be with her niece. What happens next is a series of secrets as to why they aren’t close and how this has torn them apart as sisters and as a family.

I love nothing more than a story that centers around family especially those evolving sisters. The dynamics and emotions that are exposed are amazing. We see how each sister’s life might have been if each had been with the other parent and how their lives could’ve been totally different. However what I loved most were the sisters themselves and how old emotions needed to be brought back to the surface and finally settled. We see how those long ago feelings suffocated both of them and their ability to forgive and move on. This novel was wonderfully written and it made me laugh and cry. The sisters as much as they claimed to be different they were indeed very much alike. In the end, all they wanted was love. Love from others, their parents and especially from each other, through everything in the end they truly got what they have been searching for. I highly recommend this stunning read and it’s a must have on every summer reading list.