BRAVING THE HEAT

BRAVING THE HEAT

One man wants her dead.

Another will do anything to protect her.

Firefighter Kenzie Hughes never thought saving lives would make her a target. When someone rigs her car and sexy Stephen Galway offers to be her bodyguard, the flames of danger burn red-hot. Stephen lost his fiancée to violence years ago, but he can’t resist Kenzie. Can he keep Kenzie safe and out of his arms when they’re forced to confront what they fear most?

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REGAN BLACK, a USA Today bestselling author, writes award-winning, action-packed romantic novels featuring kick-butt heroines and the sexy heroes who fall in love with them. Raised in the Midwest and California, she and her family, along with their adopted greyhound and two arrogant cats reside in the South Carolina Lowcountry where the rich blend of legend, romance, and history fuels her imagination.

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THE Q&A

ANGI: How often to you get lost in a story?

REGAN: Every day! I get grumpy in a hurry if I don’t have my quiet time for reading or writing. Reading (across a wide variety of genres) has been part of my daily routine for as long as I can remember and I don’t plan to give up such a healthy habit anytime soon.

ANGI: Would you put yourself in a Fairy Tale or Action Adventure?

REGAN:  I would much rather fall into an action-adventure, preferably as one of my kick-butt heroines of course. For me, living vicariously through characters that can run and drive and fight fires and dance all night if they like is one of the real joys of the writing process.

ANGI: What’s your favorite cartoon character?

REGAN: Looking around my desk and the various gifts and such I’ve received over the years, it would seem Minions are my favorite cartoon characters. They’re such clever and mischievous helpers. LOL

ANGI: What’s your favorite thing about your book’s heroine?

REGAN: So many things about Kenzie were wonderful to write as she came to life for me on the page. This might sound silly, but I love that she knows cars and can handle a great car on a racetrack. It struck a chord with me as well when she was determined to fix her car trouble on her own, rather than simply rely on Stephen to do it for her.

ANGI: What’s your favorite movie of all time?

REGAN: There is a pretty long list of movies I enjoy watching over and over as the mood strikes. For example, no October is complete for me without a viewing of Practical Magic. That said, I think my favorite movie is actually Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 1. With the humor, the battles, the overall story arc, the dynamic characters, and the happy ending, it works for me on all levels.

ANGI: What’s your perfect day?

REGAN: Most of my days are pretty wonderful, but a perfect day includes time outside with our greyhound Bandit, watching birds and butterflies in the yard, a productive writing day (with the unflagging support of the cats), and some quiet time in the evening relaxing with my husband and kids.

ANGI: Rock or Mozart?

REGAN: Lately that depends on where I am in the writing process. Mozart, or other classical music, often powers my drafting time, while rock, country or even heavy metal gets me through edit and revision phases.  Having grown up with music (piano lessons started when I was four) I’ve enjoyed learning and performing everything from classical to jazz to marching band shows.

ANGI: Favorite inspiration

REGAN: Movies! I love to watch movies for character development and story arc and to learn when and where to shine the spotlight for the best possible effect on the story.

ANGI’s GOTTA ASK:  Where is your favorite writing place & why? 

REGAN’S GOTTA ANSWER:   I love to draft my novels at the desk I inherited from my grandmother. This desk was a fixture in her home, no matter where she and my grandpa lived and so many of my early memories revolve around her at this desk too.  She had family pictures tucked into the glass, treasures behind the doors and all sorts of things stashed in every little cubby of the desk itself. She too was an author and I feel close to the strength, support, encouragement, and wisdom she poured out over me throughout her life. 

UP NEXT for REAGAN:

WHAT SHE KNEW 

Breakdown, # 4

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The Dead Girl:  THE BREAKDOWN BEGINS...

Former L.A. homicide detective Laney Holt walked away from big city crime after a shooting she couldn't put behind her. With L.A. in her rear view mirror, she accepted the position of deputy chief of police in a small picturesque paradise called Shutter Lake. Nestled in a peaceful valley surrounded by the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Shutter Lake is the perfect small town filled with pleasant, charming folks. The crime rate in Shutter Lake is zero...at least until the dead girl is found. The shocking murder shakes the town to it's very foundation.

Laney's past comes back to haunt her as she delves into the investigation of who murdered beautiful, young Sylvia Cole. But Laney's secrets aren't the only ones revealed as one by one the cracks in this perfect town start to show and the facade of perfection slowly begins to breakdown.

PREVIOUS RELEASES by REAGAN:

SAFE IN HIS SIGHT

Escape Club Heroes #1

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A STRANGER SHE CAN TRUST

Escape Club Heroes, #2

Read a little, Buy the book

PROTECTING HER SECRET SON

Escape Club Heroes, #3

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REAGAN is giving away the winner's choice of any of her backlist (digital copy). 

Angi Morgan

Get Lost on Facebook   @GetLostInAStory  #GetLostStories

AND OUR NEW Facebook Group: The Readers’ Spot

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REAGAN WANTS TO KNOW:    Where is your favorite place to escape for a summer weekend getaway?

Amanda McIntyre's Between the Pages with Carolyn Brown

Welcome to between the Pages!! Today my guest is Carolyn Brown! Well-known for her wonderful storytelling about cowboys, women's fiction, and small town life! We love having this prolific writer stopping by to share what's next for readers!

A little bit about Carolyn: 
Carolyn Brown is a New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author and a RITA finalist with more than ninety published books, which include women’s fiction and historical, contemporary, and cowboys-and-country-music romance. She and her husband live in the small town of Davis, Oklahoma—where everyone knows everyone else and knows what they’re doing and when—and they read the local newspaper on Wednesday to see who got caught. They have three grown children and enough grandchildren to keep them young.

Amanda: How many books have you written? 

CAROLYN: Small Town Rumors is my 91st published book. There are two cowboys already written and another women's fiction, all written and waiting in the wings so that's 94 written to date.

AMANDA: Wow!! Congratulations! So, whats ahead for Carolyn Brown in 2018? 

CAROLYN: Cowboy Honor, the second book in the Longhorn Canyon series will arrive in September and then in 2019 my readers can look for Cowboy Brave, the third book in that series; The Magnolia Inn, a women's fiction story; Cowboy Brave and Cowboy Rebel, the fourth and fifth books in the Longhorn Canyon series; The Perfect Dress, a women's fiction book; and an as yet untitled women's fiction book. Right now I'm working on The Perfect Dress and when it's finished I'll dive right into Cowboy Rebel.

LET'S DIVE IN TO THIS BOOK RELEASING JULY 3! Do you have your copy? I do!

SMALL TOWN RUMORS by Carolyn Brown

AMAZON

From New York Times bestselling author Carolyn Brown comes a funny heartache of a novel about overcoming the past, confronting the future, and defying all expectations.

Everyone is talking about Jennie Sue Baker and the mess she made of her life in New York. The former high school queen bee—and wealthy darling of Bloom, Texas—has returned home after all these years, riding on a common bus and bearing two bounced alimony checks. In a town that thrives on gossip, Jennie’s fall from grace has shamed her mother, set the town buzzing, and caused old, jealous enemies to whisper in delight. They say she’s taken a job as a housekeeper, gotten a garage apartment, and might be crushing on Rick Lawson, a simple farmer with modest dreams.

As romance starts to bud, Jennie relishes what it means to follow her heart, find real new friends, and finally be herself—regardless of all the lying town chatter. But fate has another twist in store. Rumor has it that Jennie now stands to lose what matters most…unless she can convince Rick of one true thing—and that’s love.

CHATTING WITH CAROLYN ABOUT SMALL TOWN RUMORS:

AMANDA: What characteristic do you love/hate most about Jennie Sue Baker?

CAROLYN: I hate that she put up with her ex-husband’s mental abuse as long as she did but I love that she finally takes control of her life. I like her big heart and the fact that money and prestige aren’t high on her list.

AMANDA: What makes your hero lovable in this story?

CAROLYN: He's a broken hero who needs fixing and no one has been able to do that. He’s kind, gentle, and sweet but he’s got an inner core of strength. Jennie Sue helps him find that strength to overcome his not care about the wounds he received fighting for our country.

AMANDA :What tradition was important for you to teach your children, and/or grandchildren?

 CAROLYN: Family! Plain and simple. In today’s high tech world too many times family values get pushed aside for speed, one line text messages and fast phone calls. Someone asked me once what my secret was for having a close knit family. My answer was that it’s simply, “home in time for supper.” It didn’t matter how many kids had come to our yard to play or where my three kids were, when it was supper time, they were to be sitting around the table with me and their dad. It was our family time to talk about school, jobs, food, the books we were reading or whatever was on our minds that day. Just our family and an hour or even longer if the conversation went that long to stop and pay attention to family.

AMANDA: Small town or city life?

CAROLYN: Small town, hands down! I love small towns and write about them in most of my books. They have a heartbeat and pulse of their own. An example: A few years ago my sister passed away here in our small town (one traffic light and a population of under three thousand). We didn’t cook a meal for a week and ate leftovers for a week after that. Small town folks might be nosy but they take care of each other. Here in our part of the world, we tell folks that everyone knows what everyone is doing, with whom and where they are doing it and we all read the local paper just to see who got caught.

AMANDA:  Sunrise or sunset?

CAROLYN: Either or both. Texas has the most beautiful sunsets and sunrises I’ve ever seen.

EXCERPT:

Jennie Sue Baker could almost hear the rumors buzzing around the small town of Bloom, Texas, when she stepped off the Greyhound bus in front of the Main Street Café that Monday at noon. On a slow day, gossip hung over the town like smoke in an old western honky-tonk. On a good day, in the opinion of the community, it obliterated the sun.

Today would definitely be a good day for Bloom, but to Jennie Sue, the target of all those rumors, it would be downright miserable.

She wiped sweat from her brow and then picked up the single suitcase that the driver set out on the sidewalk beside her. Glancing around as the bus pulled back out onto the highway, she expected to see her mother’s pearly-white Cadillac parked nearby, but it wasn’t anywhere in sight.

She set the suitcase down and seriously considered sitting on it. It wasn’t her mother’s fault—not really, because she hadn’t called her until an hour ago, and Charlotte was never on time for anything except her hair appointments. That was because the beauty salon was the breeding ground for the best talk in town.

Well, her mama had better hurry, because Jennie Sue Baker sitting on a suitcase on Main Street would stir up more than anything the beauty shop could dream up.

The smell of greasy burgers, bacon, and fries wafted across the street from the café. Her stomach reminded her that the package of crackers from a vending machine she’d had for breakfast had long since disappeared. Dragging her suitcase across the street, she was so focused on the café that she didn’t notice the vehicle pulling up to the curb only a few feet from her. When the driver honked, she jumped and glared at the car before she realized that it was her mother. She couldn’t see Charlotte’s face through the tinted windshield, but she could sure enough feel the icy-cold aura coming from the car when she opened the back door and shoved the suitcase inside.

“I’ve come up with a perfect story,” Charlotte started the moment that Jennie Sue was buckled up.

Jennie Sue wasn’t surprised at the first words out of her mother’s mouth, but she was disappointed. “Hello to you, too, Mama. It’s really good to see you. You look as beautiful as ever. Has it really been six months since I’ve seen you?”

“Don’t sass me,” Charlotte snapped. “We talk and text every week. And speaking of the last time I saw you, it doesn’t look like you’ve done anything to lose that extra ten pounds you’re carryin’ around.”

“I’d been in the hospital. Besides, I like food,” Jennie Sue said.

“Evidently,” Charlotte sighed. “Do you like looking like a homeless woman, too? When word gets out that you came in on a bus dressed like that, I won’t be able to hold my head up.” She eased the car out onto the street. “I bet Cricket was watchin’ from the café. Nothing escapes that girl’s eye.”

“I’m not a movie star, Mama, and I didn’t see any paparazzi fighting to get pictures of me. This is Bloom, not Los Angeles. I’m not that important.” She shifted in her seat.

HOW ABOUT YOU? 

SMALL TOWN OR CITY LIFE FOR YOU?

Share in comments why you love one or the other and be entered to win A DIGITAL COPY FROM AMAZON OF SMALL TOWN RUMORS!!

**BE SURE TO LEAVE YOUR EMAIL IN COMMENTS**

Be sure to check out Carolyn's magnificent stories by following her!!

FACEBOOK  WEBSITE   BLOG  

Email @ ccbrown66@att.net

 July 3, 2018

JC Harroway - Talking About DARE-ing Heroes and Heroines!

Ready for a little more Harlequin DARE? I’m so happy to have my fellow DARE author and all round fabulous New Zealander, JC Harroway with me to talk about her latest DARE, One Night Only!

About JC Harroway

Lifelong romance addict JC Harroway lives in New Zealand. Writing her very real obsession with happy endings and the endorphin rush they create. You can follow her via her website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

The romantic vs the cynic. 

Chemistry is all they have in common!

New York lawyer Ash has moved to London to escape his demons – and one red–hot night with gorgeous stranger Essie is the perfect distraction! He's ready to forget about her entirely...until she walks into his office for her first day at work. She's a romantic, seeking her happily–ever–after – he's a distrustful cynic who can't commit. Could a sexy fling be the best mistake of their lives?

 

Read a little…

Essie slipped her hand into the back pocket of his jeans, her fingers pressing into his tightly toned backside. Where had her uncharacteristic bravery come from? The desire for something more than the dribs and drabs she’d tolerated from her no-good ex?

Her ex’s idea of foreplay had been a mandatory squeeze of the boob. And to her shame, she’d accepted such lazy, shoddy attention.

All the more reason to explore a one-night stand with the drool-worthy, confident American. She’d gain some much-needed experience in the one-night-stand stakes, and hopefully score herself the kind of orgasm that only existed in her world as a mythical will-o’-the-wisp, and afterwards they’d move on having both had a good time. Unless Ash was a serial killer, it was a win-win situation. She absorbed the foreign, heady thrill of his big warm body next to hers. Not that it was cold—her shivers originated purely from anticipation.

The best kind of shivers.

She sucked in a stuttering breath—she’d never felt more reckless. And, if she was honest, she also felt a little embarrassed. There was no law that stated that, before her twenty-fifth birthday, she should have experienced at least one night of no-strings sex, but, as she touted herself as something of a relationship expert, didn’t she owe it to the readers of her relationship psychology blog to experience what all the fuss was about?

Ash’s hand looped around her shoulder. She reached up and clasped his fingers. They grinned at each other, Essie’s belly jolting in time with her excitable pulse.

No serious scientist could rely solely on academic theory. She could finally verify her years of extensive research with some cold, hard, scientific data.

Surely he must be able to hear the blood whooshing through her head?

Because in practical terms, what did she really know about relationships, especially the functional kind?

Her face fell at the momentary wobble. Her one serious boyfriend during uni had left her practically swearing off the opposite sex for good on the grounds she clearly couldn’t spot a decent relationship candidate if he was stark naked in front of her wearing a pick me, I’m a safer than houses bet hat.

A trait she’d inherited from her mother perhaps… The woman had, after all, procreated with Essie’s lying, cheating, deserting father and spent many years playing second fiddle to his actual wife, his real family.

Not that Essie had known all that back then. She’d simply been a girl who desperately missed her beloved father while he’d worked overseas for long stretches of time. Clearly she and her mother shared a desperate-for-love vibe that usually sent men running.

But Ash wasn’t running.

And she wasn’t looking for a relationship. Just sex. She’d gleaned from Ash’s subtext that, like her, he was only interested in a one-night thing. She shoved the buzzkill thoughts from her mind, focussing on the specimen of manly perfection beside her. Exotic Ash. A gentleman. Funny, intelligent, and interested in what she had to say.

So different from her ex, and she’d wasted two years in that flawed relationship.

Her throat tightened.

Perhaps she was ready for a change. It was, after all, the eve of a brand-new chapter of her life—her new job working for her until recently estranged half-brother began tomorrow. Or perhaps it was just charming, sophisticated, sexy-as-sin Ash with his crinkle-eyed smile, his quick wit and his tales of New York that earned him a place at the top of Essie’s bucket list.

Nothing at all to do with his muscular physique and his dark good looks, which were enough to attract smiles and stares everywhere they’d gone today. And she instinctively knew, as if it were stamped on her overworked ovaries, that Ash would be phenomenal between the sheets. High-calibre screaming orgasms—another experience sadly lacking from her rather pathetic repertoire.

Check out One Night Only on Goodreads, and buy it HERE!

Let’s talk… 

Avril: Can you share with us how the story of One Night Only unfolded for you?

JC: Believe it or not, this story originated from a seed of true events. Last year I visited London and not only did I see a sexy stranger sitting in the sun with his eyes closed, my phone also died while I was trying to take a photo, and someone else kindly offered to take a photo for me. Put those two together and I had the seed for the meeting between Ash and Essie. Of course, this is also the third book of three linked books, so the story had to evolve from there. Ash is Harley from Her Dirty Little Secret's sister.

Avril: What’s the one standout JC Harroway trademark? 
JC: I'm not really sure I have one! I am passionate about promoting consent in a positive way in my books, so I consciously try to make the sexy times full of Yes, yes, yesses! And with my medical background, I'm all about safe sex, even when it's fictional! So My heroes and heroines always look out for each other.

Avril: What do you look for in a romance heroine?

JC: I love my heroine in One Night Only, Essie. She's such a fun character—bubbly and smart—and she doesn't take herself too seriously! Also she's not afraid to encourage Ash, our hero to laugh at himself either, probably what makes him fall for her! As a general rule, for me, heroines need to know what they want and not be afraid to go out and get it. When I'm creating my heroines, I think of the type of woman I would have as a friend— someone to have a glass of wine and a laugh with.

Avril: What’s coming up next?

JC: I have three DAREs out in 2019. My Faulkner Brothers series, which is set in Chelsea, London and based on three single brothers who run a hotel empire. Lots more yummy, suited, sexy heroes…

Avril: Can you give us five books in your TBR pile?

JC: The most recent five books on my kindle are….

Destroyed, Jackie Ashenden

Under Pressure, Lori Foster

Sinfully Mine, Kendall Ryan

True Refuge, Annabelle McInnes

Getting Lucky, Avril Tremayne

So romance, romance and a bit more romance!

JC is giving away a copy of One Night Only - print or e-book, your preference. To go into the draw, tell us your favourite type of heroine and enter the Rafflecopter giveaway!

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