Monday, December 31, 2018

Release Blitz ~ The Christmas Melody - Hardman Holidays by Shanna Hatfield


Title: The Christmas Melody
Author: Shanna Hatfield
Genre: Holiday Romance
Publication Date: December 28th, 2018
Hosted by: Lady Amber’s PR

Blurb:
He needs a holiday miracle. . .
She's prepared to deliver one

Claire Baker does nothing halfway. She makes it a point to follow her heart, even when it leads her to a small Eastern Oregon town to stay with relatives. In truth, she loves Hardman and the people there. Which is why she wants a recluse she met in the woods and his adorable daughter to join in the community holiday celebrations. The more time they spend together, the more she realizes she’s fallen hopelessly in love with both of them.

All Grayson Carter wants is to be left alone. That’s why he built his cabin in the middle of more than a thousand acres of woods, seeking to disappear from the world and keep his daughter, Maddie, safe.  Then a beautiful interloper appears and becomes quite determined in her efforts of drawing him back into the land of the living. As she brings him and Maddie Christmas cheer, he realizes falling in love with her could be the best and worst thing he’s ever done.

With Christmas fast approaching, a mystery to be solved, and old-fashioned holiday fun, this sweet historical romance will fill your heart with the joys of the season.

Buy Link:



USA Today Bestselling Author Shanna Hatfield writes character-driven romances with relatable heroes and heroines. Her historical westerns have been described as “reminiscent of the era captured by Bonanza and The Virginian” while her contemporary works have been called “laugh-out-loud funny, and a little heart-pumping sexy without being explicit in any way.”

Convinced everyone deserves a happy ending, this hopeless romantic is out to make it happen one story at a time. When she isn’t writing or indulging in chocolate (dark and decadent, please), Shanna hangs out with her husband, lovingly known as Captain Cavedweller.

Shanna is a member of Western Writers of America, Women Writing the West, Romance Writers of America, Sweet Romance Reads, Cowboy Kisses, and Pioneer Hearts.

Author Links:

Buy Link:





Book Blitz ~ A Caribbean Christmas by Olivia Noble


A Caribbean Christmas
Olivia Noble
Publication date: December 21st 2018
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Catherine Duncan is down on her luck.

Life is stressful enough for the hardworking single mom when she gets unexpectedly fired from her job. Right before Christmas. But her sister is there to cheer her up, with a gift of a vacation to Jamaica, to take her mind off all the stress.

Enter Derek—tall, dark, handsome, and everything Cathy needs to refresh her weary spirits, and have some fun for the first time in forever.

But Derek is not all that he seems.

A businessman with an overbearing father, he ropes Cathy into a fake fiancĂ©e agreement that promises to end her financial troubles. Feeling skeptical, but desperate for the money, Cathy wonders if this sexy man will end up turning her Jamaican vacation into a perfect paradise, or a complete nightmare…


Author Bio:
Olivia Noble is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband, two beautiful children-- and a new baby on the way! The husband recently thought it was a good idea to read Olivia's books, and he blames their "extremely inappropriate" content for their little accident. (She happily takes responsibility.)
Raising two rambunctious rug rats makes it nearly impossible to escape long enough to finish writing an entire book, but Olivia does her best to find "Mommy time." She likes to keep her books romantic, steamy, and filled with fun characters that get into all kinds of trouble-- the kind of trouble she wishes she could get into.
Subscribe to Olivia's mailing list to receive a free book as a gift: http://eepurl.com/TRg95

XBTBanner1

Saturday, December 29, 2018

2019 Recollections Creative Year Planner



Check out my new 2019 Recollections Creative Year Spiral Bound Planner! I can't wait to begin planning in this! :)

Please like, share, and subscribe!

#planning #recollections #erincondren #michaels #planners #2019planners

Thursday, December 27, 2018

Teatime and Books Review ~ The Duke of Kisses - The Untouchables by Darcy Burke


The Duke of Kisses
The Untouchables

by

Darcy Burke



This series just keeps getting better and better! I absolutely loved The Duke of Kisses. I've just fallen in love with these characters and root them on for a beautiful love that will last a lifetime! Burke's writing is absolutely impeccable, truly one of the greatest story-tellers of our time! If you love a good historical romance, then this book and the whole series is for you!

Sunday, December 23, 2018

Blog Tour ~ The Early I Ruined - Secrets of Charlotte Street: Book Two by Scarlett Peckham



She’s beautiful, rich, and reckless…
When Lady Constance Stonewell accidentally ruins the Earl of Apthorp’s entire future with her gossip column, she does what any honorable young lady must: offer her hand in marriage. Or, at the very least, stage a whirlwind fake engagement to repair his reputation. Never mind that it means spending a month with the dullest man in England. Or the fact that he disapproves of everything she holds dear.
He’s supposedly the most boring politician in the House of Lords…
Julian Haywood, the Earl of Apthorp, is on the cusp of finally proving himself to be the man he’s always wanted to be when his future is destroyed in a single afternoon. When the woman he’s secretly in love with confesses she’s at fault, it isn’t just his life that is shattered: it’s his heart.
They have a month to clear his name and convince society they are madly in love…
But when Constance discovers her faux-intended is decidedly more than meets the eye—not to mention adept at shocking forms of wickedness—she finds herself falling for him.
There’s only one problem: he can’t forgive her for breaking his heart.

About the Book

The Earl I Ruined
by Scarlett Peckham
Series
Secrets of Charlotte Street Book Two
Genre
Adult
Historical Romance
Publisher
Independent
Publication Date
December 11, 2018
Purchase Your Copy Today!
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Kobo  |  iBooks


Tour Wide Giveaway

To celebrate the release of THE EARL I RUINED by Scarlett Peckham, we’re giving away a $25 Amazon gift card to one lucky winner!

GIVEAWAY TERMS & CONDITIONS:  Open to internationally. One winner will receive a $25 Amazon gift card. This giveaway is administered by Pure Textuality PR on behalf of Scarlett Peckham.  Giveaway ends 12/24/2018 @ 11:59pm EST. Limit one entry per reader. Duplicates will be deleted. CLICK HERE TO ENTER!


About Scarlett Peckham



SCARLETT PECKHAM is a four-time Golden Heart® finalist in Historical Romance who writes steamy stories about alpha heroines. Her Secrets of Charlotte Street series follows the members of Georgian London’s most discreet – and illicit – private club with lush writing, historical detail, a feminist worldview and a light touch of kink.
Scarlett lives in Los Angeles and when not reading or writing romance she enjoys drinking immoderate quantities of white wine, watching The Real Housewives, and dressing her cat in bowtie.

Newsletter  |  Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  Goodreads  |  Amazon




Saturday, December 22, 2018

Christmas Countdown 2018 ~ One Winter Night - An Echo Ridge Romance by Heather Tullis




HEATHER TULLIS has been reading romance for as long as she can remember and has been publishing in the genre since 2009. She has published more than twenty books. 

When she’s not dreaming up new stories to write, or helping out with her community garden, she enjoys playing with her dogs and cat, cake decorating, trying new jewelry designs, inventing new ways to eat chocolate, and hanging out with her husband. 

Learn more about her and sign up for her newsletter on her website.






Jonah Owens thought moving to Echo Ridge to open his art gallery would solve all of his problems. The need to sell his grandma's house adds an unexpected complication. It would be easier if his neighbor didn't have all those farm animals.

 Kaya Feidler's family has owned their land for nearly a hundred years--long before the neighbors were there. There's no way she's giving up the animal therapy business she's been struggling to make profitable. She gets a temp job helping Jonah in the gallery. 

Spending time together is a recipe for romance, but can they overcome their own hangups to be more than friends?






Snippet:

At first Jonah stepped into the room, not realizing what he was seeing. Then he stopped in shock, seeing his grandmother, lying in bed, holding a chicken. It was orange and fluffy and sat calmly in her arms, making a soft clucking sound while Kaya sat beside the bed, talking and smiling. She looked up, laughter still in her voice as she finished her sentence. Her smile disappeared when she saw him.
“What in blazes is going on here?” Jonah looked from the chicken to his grandmother to Kaya and back. “Chickens do not belong in a nursing home.”
Kaya glared at him. “It's a rehab center, not a nursing home. And Bella is a certified therapy chicken.”
“A therapy chicken?” He couldn't believe his ears. “That dirty, nasty, smelly thing is therapy?”
Kaya stood up to him, though she was at least six inches shorter than him. Her dark brows were pulled down in anger. “Bella is not dirty, nasty or smelly. She was thoroughly bathed just a couple of hours ago. She loves to be held and petted, and your grandmother—along with a number of other people who live here—loves her.”









“A therapy chicken cannot be legit. Who gave you permission to bring that thing in here?” Recently bathed or not, the woman obviously had no sense. “What if it poops all over the blanket?” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he realized they had rigged up a diaper of sorts for the bird, but still. It was gross. 








To view our blog schedule and follow along with this tour visit our Official Event page

    







Friday, December 21, 2018

Christmas Countdown 2018 ~ The Billionaire's Blue Christmas - Beach Club Series by Jennifer Griffith




Jennifer lives in Arizona where she writes escapist fiction she calls "Cotton Candy for the Soul."








He needs this job to honor his late wife.
 She needs to complete her late fiancĂ©’s bucket list to be free.

Former action-movie star Chet has counted the days since he lost his wife last New Year’s Eve almost a year ago. When he’s given a shot at starring in a reboot of her favorite TV show, he jumps at it. But there’s a catch: the producers won’t hire him unless he can prove he’s regained emotional stability—by bringing a steady girlfriend to his five auditions.

Which means: five mandatory dates for this bereft widower.

Social worker Holly lost her fiancĂ© to war. With his good life snuffed out too soon, she feels compelled to finish his bucket list of unselfish deeds. But four years later, several remain, and they’re ridiculously impossible. Until she accomplishes her soldier’s dreams, she can’t even consider moving on with her life.

When they meet on the beach at Getaway Bay, what she doesn’t know is homeless-looking mourner Chet is actually Colt Winchester, screen star and fashion icon. What he doesn’t know is that he’s a means to an end.

When their walls start to crumble on their Christmas season dates, can these two find love again, or will they forever be chasing ghosts?"




Snippet:

The wind changed, blowing sea salt into her senses.
Rip, splutter, splutter, splutter. No catch in the engine. Rip, splutter, splutter, splutter. As she grabbed the handle of the rip cord to give it a third try, footfalls sounded on the dock nearby.
“Can I help with that?” a man’s voice called.
Holly turned around and saw the not-homeless guy standing on the dock.
“Hi?”
He jumped off the dock and into her boat. A second later, he pressed her aside and went to the engine, yanking the rip cord.
Rip, roar, tapocka, tapocka, tapocka.
“Wow. First try.” Holly stepped over the seat to keep the boat from rocking too far to starboard.
“I do have a specialized set of skills. Even if they don’t include shore fishing.” He settled himself onto a slat in the boat. “I’m Chet. Should’ve told you earlier.”
“Holly,” she said. She met his eyes. They were greener with the sun striking them. “You change your mind, then? You want to try fishing out in the bay?”
“If I do, will you listen to a proposition I want to make to you?”
Proposition! Holly took a quick step backward, her palms facing forward at her chest. “I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. I’m not really the proposition type of girl.”
A belly laugh rose from the homeless guy’s mouth. It rolled skyward and then fell back down into Holly’s ears. It rang on for a second, and then the guy held his stomach.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. I mean, just that you misinterpreted me. I mean, wow. I haven’t really laughed like that for a while.”

Chet was weird. Green eyes might not be enough to eclipse this level of weirdness.







To view our blog schedule and follow along with this tour visit our Official Event page

    







Virtual Book Tour ~ The Christmas Countdown - Holiday Lake: Book One by Ani Gonzalez







The Christmas Countdown

Holiday Lake

Book One

Ani Gonzalez





Genre: Romance, Romantic Comedy

Publisher: FAC Publishing LLC

Date of Publication: 12/1/2018

Number of pages: 175
Word Count: 35k

Cover Artist: Ani Gonzalez

Tagline: A perfect Christmas in twenty-four hours? What could possibly go wrong…or unexpectedly go right?

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L6N55PV

Book Description:

For the residents of Holiday Lake, Minnesota, there is no such thing as too much Christmas cheer. The tiny town prides itself on celebrating the holiday every day of the year and their halls are decked with boughs of holly all year round.

Yet this December twenty-third, professional holiday decorator Nat Quinn, known as "The Christmas Queen”, has had enough. After a hectic year helping clients set up the absolutely-perfect-to-the-last-detail backdrops for the festive season, she is ready to relax. That’s when divorced billionaire and workaholic Cyrus Blackstone makes a proposal she can’t turn down: Provide the perfect holiday for his children in exchange for the beach vacation of her dreams.

A perfect Christmas in twenty-four hours? That’s a tall order, even for the Queen of Christmas and her team in Holiday Lake. As Nat races to fulfill her assignment, she realizes that the real challenge isn't the tinsel and pudding... it’s not falling in love.

Excerpt
CYRUS ENDED the call,
satisfied. That was one action item taken care of.
He headed for a built-in
mahogany cabinet that served as the study's bar and grabbed a bottle of scotch
and a glass. A perfect Christmas with his kids. This was worth celebrating.
He sat on his desk chair
and poured the amber liquid into the glass. The cut-glass pattern made
everything sparkle, which was rather festive. Now all he had to do was get the
kids on the plane. Everything else would be taken care of.
Happy as Cyrus was about
giving his children the perfect Christmas, there was more to his feeling of
jubilation. He smiled as he realized that the quirky holiday decorator had
improved his mood. She seemed almost entirely too Christmassy to be real, but
she also appeared to be someone you could count on, a quality that was lacking in
this world.
He sipped his drink,
feeling the fiery liquid slide down this throat. That had been a good
negotiation.
And he was looking
forward to the next one. As Nat had said, everyone wanted the perfect Christmas
and it wasn't all that easy. An eleventh-hour version would, he was certain,
encounter a few challenges, and he had a feeling he would enjoy maneuvering
through them with Ms. Quinn. He felt a lot more confident after talking with
her, like a weight had fallen off his back.
Leah walked into the
studio, all well-tailored slacks and glossy hair. She definitely wasn't the
slouchy sweater and Ugg boots type.
"The kids are
packing," she said, a tinge of worry in her voice. "They sound really
excited. Is she going to do it?"
"Of course,"
Cyrus replied. "Did you have any doubts?"
"Some," Leah
exclaimed with a happy smile. "She was dead set against it. How did you
convince her?"
"Money, flattery,
and bottomless margaritas," he replied.
But that wasn't quite
accurate. Ms. Quinn had given in when he'd mentioned his kids. That had been
her weak spot. It made sense that a holiday specialist would be a sucker for
kids. They were the point of her job, after all.
"How much do you
know about this Nat Quinn, Leah?" He asked.
"She's
fantastic," Leah answered, eyes shining. "You know Christmas is not
my thing, so it takes quite a lot to wow me."
Cyrus nodded. Leah was
Jewish, and she'd worked for some of the wealthiest families in Manhattan and
London. She was notoriously hard to impress.
"But the Hagens
hired me one week before Christmas and I was blown away. We drove up to the
lodge and it looked amazing with a ten-foot-tall tree, garlands everywhere, and
Mrs. Hagen's favorite vintage German decorations. Ms. Quinn even found the
large old-fashioned bulbs that Mrs. Hagen wanted. She had an intact set and
everything."
Cyrus suppressed a smile.
At least he wasn't demanding rare Christmas lights and antique ornaments. Ms.
Quinn was likely relieved about that.
"Christmas dinner
was divine," Leah continued. "The main restaurant has an
all-year-round holiday buffet with a citrus cranberry chutney that is out of
this world. You can use it as a sandwich spread for the leftovers too."
His nanny's eyes grew
dreamy as she described the food.
"And the pastry shop
makes this amazing Black Forest cake with cherry Kirsch." Leah gave a deep
sigh of longing. "It has so much alcohol you can't drive after you eat it,
but it is delicious. Absolutely worth being housebound afterwards."
"So you want to go
back for the food?" Cyrus asked, swirling the amber liquid in his glass.          
His question was greeted
by an awkward silence.
Leah avoided his gaze.
"Er, not exactly. The town is lovely and the people are, um, quite
pleasant." She paused. "Particularly Ms. Quinn. She even gave us some
Chinese food for Christmas Eve dinner, which was very thoughtful." Her
eyes grew dreamy again. "The kung pao chicken was delicious. I hear the
place closed though, which is a pity."
Cyrus smiled. "Let's
hope Ms. Quinn can whip us something similar despite the time constraints.
Given what we've given her to work with, we'll be lucky if she can find a
Christmas tree."
"Oh, but I'm sure
Noah's dad—"
Leah raised her hand to
her mouth, eyes wide.
"Oh?" Cyrus
raised a brow. "Who's Noah?"
A tinge of pink spread
across her cheeks. "No one. I'll, er, go check on the kids now."
And she hurried out of
the room.
Cyrus sipped his drink.
Leah had been working for him for almost two years now, and she'd become part
of the family. Yet he'd never seen her blush, not once.
Holiday Lake was going to
be a lot more interesting than he'd expected.
He turned on his
computer. A picture of his kids popped up on the screen. It was from the last
time he'd taken Jack to the FDNY open house. His son stood in front of a fire
truck grinning widely while his sister made bunny ears behind his head.
It was Cyrus’s favorite
picture, partly because he'd made it to the field trip for a change, but mostly
because Jack was wearing a t-shirt that read "Firefighters Like It
Hot", seemingly oblivious to the double entendre.
Cyrus clicked on the
Internet browser icon and waited for the program to load. An e-mail came as he
waited. The sender was Nat Queen at TheChristmasQueen-dot-com and the subject
line read "Contract for Immediate Signature." The words were
punctuated with a dozen exclamation marks.
Ms. Quinn, it appeared,
was quite efficient, a woman after his own heart.
When his browser window
opened, he typed in "Nat Quinn Holiday Lake Minnesota." A
surprisingly large number of sites popped up, most of them featuring the
Christmas Queen motto and a mistletoe crown logo.
Ms. Quinn, it turned out,
was a busy gal. She'd appeared on various morning shows, giving holiday
decorating tips. She wrote a column on how to plan the perfect holiday. She had
authored numerous magazine articles on virtually every challenge one could
encounter during the holidays, and at least three of the articles dealt with
gravy consistency. She had done sets for holiday movies.
No wonder she longed for
a beach holiday. The poor woman must be exhausted. She even had a sponsorship
agreement with a candle company. The ads boasted that her Citrus Cranberry
Christmas Delight Candle was their all-time best-seller.
Well, there were worst
things one could be remembered for.
He clicked on her website,
TheChristmasQueen.com, and was immediately assaulted by loud music, The
Carol of the Bells
, if he was not mistaken.
It seemed the otherwise
admirable Ms. Quinn had one serious character flaw: She was one of those people
who had pop-up music on her website.
He muted the sound and
scrolled down. There was another mistletoe crown logo, a recipe section, and
several pictures of lavishly decorated houses.
Leah had not exaggerated.
Ms. Quinn could put on a show. She'd even done a party with a real sleigh and
live reindeer. He peered at the computer screen, jaw dropping in disbelief as
he counted the animals. Eight reindeer, all suitably labeled. She'd done a
holiday party with eight reindeer.
Maybe she could do
Christmas in a day.
He kept browsing through her
site. She had social media accounts with current pictures of the town. It had
snowed recently and Holiday Lake could rightfully claim that it would be a
white Christmas. The bakery that Leah loved was shaped like a Swiss chalet with
twinkling lights and a giant Black Forest cake replica in front.
The Chinese restaurant,
it turned out, was re-opening. Leah would no doubt be overjoyed. The Bavarian
Brathaus sounded intriguing and the Holiday Lake Inn would be sponsoring a
Christmas carol concert tomorrow night. The kids would enjoy that.
Holiday Lake seemed to
have a fetish for measuring things. All their statistics were carefully noted
on the various websites. They'd received sixteen inches of snow last week. The
Holiday Lake Inn's all-you-can-eat turkey buffet had served seventeen gallons
of citrus-cranberry chutney on December 26 of last year. Year-to-date, the tree
farm had sold eight hundred and twenty-two trees.
He scrolled through the
social media accounts and checked all the friends lists, but try as he might he
could not find what he was looking for.
There were no clues as to
Leah's mysterious Noah.
And there were no
pictures of Nat Quinn. The Christmas Queen seemed surprisingly shy. No pictures
of herself on her website. No selfies on her social media. Nothing.
But then he checked the
images search tab and found that the local Christmas tree vendors had a picture
of her. The image was blurry, so all he could make out was a slender woman
standing next to an enormous Christmas tree, but clicking on the picture took
him to the tree seller's website.
And there she was. Nat
Quinn had filmed a television segment with Northstar Tree Farm, which had aired
on the Minneapolis public television station. The tree farm had the video on
its website.
He clicked play and sat
back to watch.
Nat Quinn was a tall
woman with bright red hair, green eyes, and a loud cheerful laugh. She knew
more than any human being should about decorative conifers, and she could make
a Christmas wreath in five minutes flat. She liked Balsam firs because they
looked shaggy and natural, but she admired the Fraser fir's longevity. She
wielded a chainsaw like a pro and she did not like artificial trees. As far as
she was concerned, they were an abomination in the eyes of the Lord. She owned
thirty-seven ugly Christmas sweaters and her favorite featured an
unhappy-looking antlered Chihuahua. And she was single.
Cyrus found himself
smiling. Nat Quinn was adorable.
She was also dead serious
about Christmas.
She was the perfect
choice for this job. Even the single part. Not that he cared, of course, not personally.
It just left her free to concentrate on the job.
That was the important
consideration here, the job.
But there was something.
He scrolled up. He could swear he'd seen—
He laughed as he reached
the top of the website. There it was in all its glory—The Northstar Tree Farm's
Christmas tree counter.
And it read
"zero."
There were no trees left.
Zero balsams. Zero Frasers.
Nada.
He was still laughing as
he pulled up Nat's email, opened the contract, and affixed his electronic
signature.
He couldn't wait to see
what the Christmas Queen would do.







About the Author:

Ani Gonzalez is a USA Today bestselling author of holiday-themed romantic comedy and cozy mystery stories set in Banshee Creek, Virginia (The Most Haunted Town in the USA!) and Holiday Lake, Minnesota (Where Every Day is Christmas!). Her books feature feisty, irrepressible heroines dealing with holiday mayhem, paranormal critters (ghosts, cryptids, pagan gods...the sky's the limit) and mysteries. They find love and laughter (and sometimes corpses) along the way, and readers get to follow them every step.







a Rafflecopter giveaway