BOOK SPOTLIGHT: Always a Bridesmaid by #MFRWauthor Melinda Curtis @MelCurtisAuthor

Always a Bridesmaid

The Bridesmaid Series, Book 2
Melinda Curtis
IndieWrites, Inc

Nicole Edwards has walked down the aisle as a bridesmaid thirteen times! Thirteen times! In an effort to change her luck, this master baker plans to give up waiting for Jake – who doesn’t know she’s alive – sell her business in New York City, buy a food truck in Los Angeles, and find her own happily ever after.

Chef Sean O’Malley could use Nicole’s dessert skills at his restaurant in New York City. In fact, he’s banking on a joint venture with Nicole, although he hasn’t yet approached her about it. When he learns during a pre-wedding event they’re both working that she’s moving to L.A. because she’s giving up on Jake, he decides to give her a crash course on how to be noticed. Sean has, after all, three younger sisters. He knows how a woman’s mind works. But he doesn’t factor in how his heart works or how easily it could be broken.

Will the girl who's Always a Bridesmaid ever get her man?

Amazon - http://indi.uno/1wM9nG1

iTunes – http://indi.uno/12Q5q6X 

Barnes & Noble - http://bit.ly/1BscJA0

EXCERPT
“You’re late,” Sean grumbled. “You should be prepping your dessert.”
“I have plenty of extra time.” Words tripped easily off her tongue. “Recall that I don’t work for you, Chef. As a courtesy, I sent you a text message when I left Vegas.” The closest major airport, a good three hours away.
Sean made a derogatory sound, and reached for a clove of garlic. His movements were culinary poetry, contained power and crisp execution.
What woman wouldn’t experience a heart-stopping ka-thunk while watching him? Nicole had a fantasy about Sean involving his ability to slice and dice. Flowers, that is. She imagined him visiting a garden, divesting it of blooms, and spreading them over a bed around her. It was a foolish notion given it was about Chef High & Mighty, but it was one she’d been unable to shake.
When Tiff became engaged the first time, Nicole had only known Sean by reputation. She’d agreed to meet Tiff at the reception hall to check out the refrigeration units and there he was – gorgeous and smart, but gruff and grumpy – the antidote to the Siberian Curse. They’d argued over the appropriateness of the kitchen. As a master baker, Nicole had specific requirements that Sean didn’t share. She preferred equipment that was top of the line, not new and untested, but not too old either.
Her gaze drifted to Sean, noting the subtle lines that fanned out from his eyes. She’d never noticed those lines before. They didn’t make him look old. They made him seem…less Chef High & Mighty and more human.
Human? Must be a trick of the light. Nicole blinked and moved past him to the sink.
Garlic pressed, Sean reached for a sweet potato. He cut it with the quick, steady cadence of a marching band’s drummer. “Your text was a little…vague.”
“Vague?” Nicole washed her hands. The window over the sink offered a view of the Iron Gate Inn’s planked back porch, parking lot, and small winery. All were covered with three feet of softly sloping fresh snow. “I said I was leaving Vegas.”
The percussion session ended. Sean didn’t look up. His knife paused mid-air. “Do you have a new phone?”
“Yeah. How did you know?” She’d gotten a new phone just yesterday and was still in the love-hate phase, discovering – or not – how things worked.
“Check the message you sent me.” That holier-than-thou tone of his always hit her wrong, as if someone had put dough in a food processor on puree when it should have been hand-folded.
Nicole pulled out her phone, toggled to his message and read, “Doodles, I’m live in Vegas now. Are you making porn tonight?” She raised her phone to heaven, feeling her cheeks heat.

ABOUT Melinda Curtis
Award winning, USA Today bestseller Melinda Curtis writes the Harmony Valley series of sweet and emotional romances for Harlequin Heartwarming, and the indie pubbed Bridesmaid series. Brenda Novak says: “Season of Change has found a place on my keeper shelf”. Melinda also writes independently published, hotter romances as Mel Curtis. Jayne Ann Krentz says of Blue Rules: “Sharp, sassy, modern version of a screwball comedy from Hollywood's Golden Age except a lot hotter.”

Website: http://bit.ly/1xMYXnn
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/Z7QpEz
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Pinterest: http://bit.ly/1AIEVcy
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#MFRWauthor BOOK SPOTLIGHT: Doves @ErinCMcRae @Racheline_M

Doves (Love in Los Angeles Book Two)

Erotic Contemporary GLBT Romance
Erin McRae & Racheline Maltese
Torquere Press

Two years after the events of Starling, Cinderella story and star of The Fourth Estate J. Alex Cook is living happily ever after with his boyfriend, television writer Paul Marion Keane. But when Paul’s pilot gets picked up, the demands of their high-profile careers make them question their future together.

As Paul becomes increasingly absent from their relationship, Alex tries to regain control of his private life and establish a career path independent of Fourth's enigmatic showrunner Victor. But the delicate web of relationships that connects Alex, Paul, and their friends — including Alex's excitable ex-lover Liam and his no-nonsense fiancée Carly — threatens to unravel.

With the business of Hollywood making it hard to remember who he is when the whole world isn’t watching, Alex is forced to confront major changes in the fairytale life he never wanted as he discovers that love in Los Angeles looks nothing like the movies.

AMAZON Buy Link

EXCERPT

By the time the call with Victor is over and Alex has finally slumped back into the chair next to Paul's, Alex is ready to never answer his phone ever again.
Which is when Paul's phone rings.
Paul looks scared. His mother looks like none of this is terribly out of the ordinary. Alex wonders if that's just because she's used to Paul's job or if her life transcended strange and scary a long time ago.
""Answer it,"" Alex hisses, because he knows this is one of the two calls they've been waiting for and the one that will go a long way towards telling them the shape of the next year.
Paul answers it, and Alex watches him closely as he nods and says yes and thank you a number of times, but he's so damn even Alex can't tell if the news is good or bad.
When he clicks off, he just stares straight ahead breathing for a moment, and what Alex would have once taken as shock or admired as an even disposition now just seems learned in the most unsettling of ways.
""Well?"" he finally asks.
Everyone is leaned forward in their chairs on the verandah staring at him in the bug-filled twilight.
""Thirteen episodes,"" he says softly. ""Option for another eight. And then we pray for season two.""
The reaction is loud from Paul's family, but Alex just sits there, still bent towards Paul and holding his hand, waiting for the moment to actually connect. When it does, Paul is out of his chair in a flash, hauling Alex up with him into a crushing hug.
""Oh my god, this day,"" Alex says in his ear.
Paul laughs in utter delight. ""So will you marry me now?""

ABOUT Racheline Maltese and Erin McRae
Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese are authors of the gay romance series Love in Los Angeles, set in the film and television industry (Starling (September 10, 2014), Doves (January 21, 2015), and Phoenix (June 10, 2015)), all from Torquere Press. Their gay romance novella Midsummer, Book One of the Love’s Labour series, about a summerstock Shakespeare company, is from Dreamspinner Press (Summer 2015). Racheline is a NYC-based performer and storyteller; Erin is a writer and blogger based in Washington, D.C. They write stories and scripts about the intersection of private lives, fame, and desire.

Joint Blog: http://Avian30.com

Joint Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Erin.and.Racheline

Erin’s Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8323893.Erin_McRae

Racheline’s Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1015335.Racheline_Maltese

A Short and Sweet #MFRWauthor Interview with Jasmine Hill @Jasmine_Romance

A Short & Sweet Interview with MFRW Author Jasmine Hill.
Jasmine was born in Australia and grew up in Sydney. She currently lives in Madrid, Spain with her husband. She adores reading all genres but in particular she enjoys erotic romance novels and thrillers. Jasmine loves writing and is always looking for new ideas for stories that will provoke inner passions, stimulate the senses and ignite the imagination. Her interests include cooking, traveling, yoga and skiing.

She has won some short story competitions and is now excited to have started publishing her erotic romance stories through Totally Bound Publishing.

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Why did you decide to write romance novels?
I love reading romance novels and I enjoy writing so to me, it made sense that I try my hand at writing my own novel.

How much of your personality and life experiences are in your writing?
Quite a lot of me can be found in the pages of my books. I'm a big believer in writing what I'm familiar with (including story settings). Readers will quickly identify whether or not an author is not acquainted with a particular place or activity.

What kind of research do you do for a book?
I like to write about what I know or, at least be able to access the information I need. the internet is very handy to substantiate facts (particularly for historicals) although I'm careful with what resources I use on the internet (not all sites can be relied on for veracity). For my latest book I asked my husband and mother in law many questions regarding the outback lifestyle and life on a sheep station.

What is your writing routine once you start a book?
I like to write at least 3 - 4000 words a day, usually in the morning. Sometimes I manage more, sometimes it's less but that's the goal I work towards, depending on the expected book length.

What do you do to relax and recharge your batteries?
Often I read and I find that a daily exercise regime helps to clear out the cobwebs. Most often I do something unrelated to the book I'm writing so I can take a break and gain some fresh perspective.

Who are some of your favorite authors to read?
My all time favorite author has to be Jane Austen. I can read her books over and over again. I also enjoy Sylvia Day and more recently I've been reading Deborah Bladon.

Tell us about your latest book. What motivated the story? Where did the idea come from?
My latest book, Lillian's Light Horseman, is an historical erotic romance set in the Australian outback in 1921.It’s a story about star-crossed childhood sweethearts who re-unite after ten years — with interesting consequences. My husband grew up on a sheep station in Western NSW. The property was settled on his grandfather by the Australian Government for his services as an Australian Light Horseman in WWI. The novel is VERY loosely based around him. There are some family stories involving a love triangle, a governess and a broken heart.

Lillian's Light Horseman

Erotic Romance
Totally Bound Publishing

The year is 1921, Lillian Hamilton at twenty-six, is alone, desperate and living in England. An ocean away in outback Australia, her childhood sweetheart and decorated Light Horseman, William Cartwright, is running a sheep station and nursing a deep betrayal while the local ladies vie for his attention. But Lillian and William’s paths are about to cross once again, unexpectedly and dynamically, spinning each of them into turmoil, igniting past hurts and spurring them to a wary truce.

As they work through their deep-seated issues of distrust, others are conspiring against them, until a shocking revelation sends Lillian running out of the safety of William’s arms and into the path of another man. William will have to work against time to find Lillian before he loses her forever.

Are the span of an ocean, ten years and a cruel deception, too much for love to overcome?

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EXCERPT
She’d forgotten the desolation of the Australian outback—how dusty and dry it was and how unbearably hot it could be. She was lucky that she’d arrived in winter but the days in the outback, even in winter, could still be warm. She knew that her clothes would be impractical for the environment but there was not a lot she could do about that. Her wardrobe was designed for English weather and she knew that as the days grew warmer, her dresses and skirts of durable, heavy European fabric would be oppressively uncomfortable.

They drew nearer to Mulga Creek Sheep Station and her nervousness increased, making her palms damp and clammy. She’d spent the past ten years trying to forget about William and her memories of their time together, first as childhood friends then as childhood sweethearts, only now to put herself into a position where those bittersweet memories would be thrust to the forefront of her consciousness. She wondered where William was living and whether he bore any resemblance to the young man of nineteen he had been when last she’d seen him.

The buggy rounded a bend in the road and the homestead finally came into view. The house was newly painted white and glowed welcomingly in the midday sun. A garden fronting the residence was filled with hardy, durable flowers and plants—the only type to survive in such a dry and unforgiving climate. Geraniums and wattle bordered a pathway that led to the front door and an extensive vegetable garden took up the right side of the house adjacent to the kitchen.

The sight of the homestead and the sudden pang of déjà vu that it brought with it took Lillian’s breath away, and all too soon they were pulling up in the long drive and the station hand was unloading her belongings.
“I’ll take your trunk inside, miss. Mrs. Thompson has gone into Bourke to run errands. She asked that you wait in the drawing room for the boss. I’ll let him know that you’re here.”
Lillian’s anxiety deepened. She’d expected that Mrs. Thompson would be at the homestead to greet her and had hoped that she’d be present to ease any awkwardness that might arise when James Cartwright discovered her identity.

Lillian followed the station hand into the house and stopped in the hall to assess her reflection in the mirror. The image that greeted her made her gasp in shock. Her hair, which she’d styled so carefully that morning, was coming loose from its chignon and fell in dusty ringlets around her shoulders. And her face, usually of a peaches and cream complexion, was caked in a fine layer of red outback dust. She stepped back and surveyed her travelling attire, unsurprised to find that her skirt and jacket were creased and covered in fine ocher-colored powder. She’d forgotten how quickly the outback dirt permeated everything—even her mouth was gritty with the stuff.

She couldn’t meet James Cartwright looking like she did. She needed to freshen up. Making a decision, she left the hall and went in search of someone to assist her. Finding a maid in the kitchen, she requested a basin of water and a cloth and quickly scrubbed her face and hands. She scraped her hair back and re-pinned the escaped tendrils as best she could. There was nothing much she could do with her attire, so she settled for patting herself all over liberally with the damp cloth. It would have to do. One more inspection of her reflection in the hall mirror confirmed that she looked moderately better.