Friday Freebie: A Romantic Comedy

Today's Friday Freebie is Chasing Charlie: A Romantic Comedy by USA Today Bestselling author Kathy Carmichael. It looks fun and I could use a comedy to curl up with after the stressful week I've had!

Here's the back copy:

The Texas Two-Step romantic comedy series is a reader favorite. All of the stories in the series are sweet, charming and emotional contemporary romance. Each story in the series stands alone, but all Texas Two-Step novels and novellas feature love stories about members of the Nelson, Murphy or Palmer families -- and sometimes, more than one!

Raised in a family of rodeo champions on a South Texas cattle ranch, Charlie wants only one thing: to avoid thrill-seeking cowboys.

Davis Murphy, cowboy wannabe and one of Dallas's most eligible bachelors, needs a pretty and witty faux fiancée so his widowed mother will marry her longtime gentleman friend. Charlie, his local librarian, seems the prefect choice.

Charlie's first reaction is to run, but she's promised herself to step out of her plain-jane routine. When Charlie accepts, Davis's plan is set. But now Charlie's sweet ways are challenging his bachelor heart.

Chasing Charlie is the first sweet romance in the Texas Two-Step contemporary romance series from USA Today bestselling author Kathy Carmichael.

You can download your free Kindle copy here 

The Royals of Monterra Kindle Worlds

I'm so excited for my friend Sariah Wilson. Her book, Royal Date, was set in Monterra, a fictional country and kingdom, and she was chosen to be part of Kindle Worlds, where other authors can write novellas in her Monterra world (like fanfiction.) It's so fun and such a cool thing! I read two of the novellas in her Royals of Monterra Kindle World and they were awesome! Go check out this awesome world and all the novellas that are part of it by clicking here. I know I'll be reading these for days!

Here are my thoughts on the first one:

Tailor Made by Annette Lyon

This was such a sweet romance! I loved the historical setting of Monterra and could totally imagine it in my mind's eye with the castle and the surrounding countryside. Our heroine, Sofia, is a renowned craftswoman from the country and is called to the palace to help the tailors and seamstresses get ready for the royal wedding. Once she's arrived, though, Sofia is immediately drawn to Antonio, the head tailor to the royals. Their lives could not be more different, but opposites attract, and Sofia and Antonio definitely embody that. Antonio was the hero every girl dreams of. Strong and yet vulnerable, serious and yet sigh-worthy. Sofia was his match in every way and more, smart, sweet, and daring, especially when they uncover a traitor's plot to plunge Monterra into war. So good!

Both the romance and the intrigue were well-balanced and well-written, and kept me turning pages. A great addition to the Royals Kindle World!

Here's the back copy:

Two people. An impossible Task. A traitor in their midst.

Sofia’s mother desperately needs medicine, and Sofia will do anything to get it—including working for a month at the royal palace, where she'll knit silk stockings from sunup to sundown. Yet if she can do it, Sofia will have the ability to get the medicine her mother needs, with money to spare.

But Sofia’s safe world of knitting needles and thread is turned upside down when she finds herself in the middle of palace intrigue. Head tailor Antonio and Sofia uncover a plot to sabotage the royal wedding and plunge Monterra into war. As they work together to save their country, she can’t help falling in love with the unassuming and attractive head tailor, even though she knows she can’t have him. Her country and her family need her. As they race to stop the traitor, the battle in her heart intensifies, and she fears that the victor won’t be love.

You can buy it here for $1.99

The second one was Royal Quest by Rachel Branton

This one was really good as well! It was a contemporary romance where Amelia has come to Monterra to try to meet her long-lost sister and ends up meeting Davide. She is attracted to him, and they start to act on their feelings, but he's keeping a secret about who he really is, just as she doesn't mention who her sister really is.  The romance is so good that I was flipping pages as fast as I could to see if they could survive the secrets coming out.  Ms. Branton has written three-dimensional characters that were realistic and fun, with a hero and heroine you can't help but cheer on to a happy ending. I really enjoyed this one.

Here's the back copy:

Going undercover as a maid at the Lodge Royal in an attempt to meet her half sister, Katerina, isn’t one of Amelia Lennox’s best ideas. Kat has no idea of Amelia’s existence, and her recent marriage to Nico, the new King of Monterra, puts her further out of Amelia’s reach. Even if Amelia finds Kat, there’s no guarantee the queen will believe her—or that she wants a sister.

To complicate matters, Amelia meets Davide Ciano, who steals her breath away and makes her knees weak. She’s never believed in the kind of fairy tale that her sister found, but then she’s never known anyone like Davide. Maybe, if their secrets don’t keep them apart, she might begin to believe.

Royal Quest is the story of how two sisters find each other, and about love—true love. Because in Monterra, fairy tales do come true.
You can buy it here for $1.99

I also have to recommend the book that started it all, Royal Date by Sariah Wilson. It was one of my favorite books I read last year and I know you'll enjoy entering the world of Monterra with all its variety. Well, if you love romance anyway.

Here's the back copy:

This Cinderella didn’t plan on a prince . . .

Kat MacTaggart is a girl who has a plan for everything—including her holiday ski trip to Monterra with her best friend. Everything is going according to plan until she finds herself careening out of control down a mountainside and being rescued by a guy who looks like Superman’s hotter Italian cousin.

HRH Prince Nico is intrigued by the woman he saved on the slopes and her refusal to date him. He offers Kat a deal—let him show her his country and he’ll pay her to write articles that will help Monterra’s tourism industry. Kat agrees, but given her past and lingering distrust of men, she has one condition—absolutely no kissing.

Thanks to the claims of a jealous British noblewoman and the schemes of a meddling paparazzo, Kat’s rule doesn’t seem to be a problem at first. But the more Kat gets to know Nico and the people around him, the harder it is to remember her keep-your-distance plan. Should she stick to it or risk everything for a chance at happily ever after?
You can buy Royal Date here for $3.49

Come Vote For Best Romantic Suspense Cover 2015!

So, since I was sick or taking care of sick children all last week, I only got half my writing goals done. I will be working on the same ones again this week, so not much has changed on the goal front. I'm hoping for better progress next week!

There was, however, something fun for readers that popped up today! You can vote for your favorite Romantic Suspense Book Cover for 2015! (Mine is there, of course, but you can vote for which one you love best. No pressure. *grin*)

And anyway, what reader doesn't love picking out beautiful book covers? Right?

Click here to vote!

Castle And My Death (Or I'm Sick And Feel Like Death)

Well, I just got the news yesterday that Castle will not actually be coming back Feb. 1st, it's coming back Feb. 8th.

Ugh.

It's been a really long hiatus already. But the worst part is the head people were teasing a whole lot of stuff for it's return and none of it sounded that interesting to me. Do they even hear the fans, see the ratings, or know how terrible this season has been so far? Are they trying to get Castle cancelled? *deep sigh*

Why do new show-runners have to kill everything good about a show and make it a shell of what it used to be?

And just to compound that terrible news, I'm sick.  This is my life right now.

So, I think I am going to have a pity party. With ice cream. Because sickness and someone putting a whole bunch of terrible storylines on your favorite TV show deserves really good ice cream and lots of it.  Care to join me?

Book Review & $25 Giveaway!

I'm excited to be part of the blog tour for Ranee Clark's new book, Double Play. This is the first book of hers that I've read and I really enjoyed it!

Sophie Pope is the classic vain and shallow girl who doesn't mind being eye candy on some guy's arm. She has her sights set on her on-again/off-again boyfriend, football star Anthony Rogers and even though he's engaged, she's going to prove to him that he'll always come back to her---until his best friend David keeps running interference. The more she gets to know David, however, the more she realizes that she might have been overlooking someone wonderful who'd been right in front of her for two years. But can he see the real woman behind her beautiful clothes and perfect smile?

David was such a sweet and unassuming hero. I really liked his character. He had some big decisions to make in his life and he was realistic and torn.  It was fun to see his interactions with Sophie grow from being mere annoyances to surprise that it could be something more. It pretty much went along with how the audience felt about her, I think.

The author did a great job writing three-dimensional characters and having them experience growth throughout the book, especially in Sophie's case. I liked that there was more to her than met the eye. And David was a sigh-worthy hero with realistic flaws and his interactions with Sophie kept me turning pages. I hadn't read the first book in the series, though, and I wish I had because I think some of the situations and secondary characters' actions would have made more sense to me. It did work as a stand alone, but now I want to read the first and have the full experience! It was a fun college-aged romance, that will make you think about clothes and love in a whole new way! (And I thought the cover was particularly well done. Kudos to the cover designer.)

You can get your own Kindle copy here for $10.99

Be sure to scroll down and enter the giveaway for $25!

Here's the back copy:

Sophie Pope is devastated when she hears the news: her former boyfriend, college football star Anthony “Rocket” Rogers, is engaged to be married. Determined to win him back before he says “I do,” Sophie hatches a foolproof plan to stop the wedding. But when Rocket’s best man, aspiring baseball player David Savage, thwarts her plot, she realizes the game is up. For David, though, it’s just beginning . . .

David knows that Sophie is just another pretty face, and he’s more than happy to save his best friend from her shallow advances. She’s not his type at all, so he’s baffled by his response to an awkward encounter with Donovan, another of Sophie’s former flames. Despite himself, David feels driven by an inexplicable need to protect her. Pretending to be Sophie’s new fiancé leads to unexpected sparks between the pair, and soon they’re searching for excuses to spend time together. But when a curveball threatens to send them in opposite directions, will Sophie and David step up to the plate for the possibility of true love?

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Friday Freebie

Today's Friday Freebie is a fun coming of age story by Mikey Brooks called The Dream Keeper (Dream Keeper Chronicles Book 1). If your young reader got a Kindle for Christmas, this would be a fun download for them!

Here's the back copy:

Dreams: Dorothy called it Oz, Alice called it Wonderland, but Nightmares call it HOME.

When an evil shifter takes over the gateway to the realm of Dreams, it falls to 14-year-olds Parker and Kaelyn to stop him. Their only hope lies with Gladamyr, the Dream Keeper, but can they trust a Nightmare to save their world?

"The Dream Keeper is a fun, fantastic ride through both Dream and Nightmare. Brooks has written a book that can be enjoyed by young and old alike. Bravo!"—Michaelbrent Collings, bestselling author of The Billy Saga and Hooked: A True Faerie Tale.

Download your free Kindle copy here

Movie Review of Just Let Go & Meridian Reviewed My Book!

I was so excited to see that Meridian Magazine reviewed my new novel, The Captive! My favorite part of the review was, ""This is a story that reads like today's headlines . . . The plot is strong and dynamic. Readers won't want to set this one down." Hooray! You can see the entire review here

And have you entered the giveaway to win a paperback copy of my new book? Just click the link at the top of the sidebar and it could be yours!

Today, I also wanted to review the new movie, Just Let Go, that stars Henry Ian Cusick. It's a true story of a man named Chris Williams who was driving to get ice cream with his pregnant wife and kids, when a drunk driver slammed into them, killing his wife, their unborn child, and two of his children. The movie is about the aftermath and what Mr. Williams and his family experience as they struggle to do what's right instead of what's expected.

This movie evoked a lot of discussion in my house. (It is rated PG-13 for the accident images and themes so I watched it with my older kids.) In the movie, the drunk who hit them is seventeen, but only a couple of months away from turning eighteen. If he is tried as an adult, he could be put away for thirty years. If he is tried as a juvenile, he would be out in three years and his record expunged. So, Chris is struggling to know what is best. He's lost so much. His son that survived has critical injuries, he is overwhelmed with grief but trying to keep it together, and medical bills just keep piling on. How this man keeps going is a miracle in itself. But what is merciful for the young man that hit them? How far does justice have to go to be satisfied?

The meat of the story is can someone whose life has been destroyed truly forgive and see the person who hurt them so deeply from another perspective? Do you bow to society's standards that demand the maximum punishment, then suing the other family for ever penny they have? I was impressed with the real and difficult struggle we witnessed as Mr. Williams decides what's right for him.  

I thought the movie was realistic and heart-wrenching, but there were light moments and inspiring moments as well. (The convenience store clerk stood out for me. "We're friends aren't we?" And there's a scene with Mr. Williams and his two surviving sons that was also really touching.) The film used a lot of flashbacks, which actually worked well and made it easier to showcase the complexity of the story while keeping it easy to follow.  There was solid local talent in the movie, but Mr. Cusick shines in bringing the emotions and subtleties to the main character. There were also some religious references, but it was kept non-denominational and not overly preachy. 

I don't know if I could emotionally survive if anything like this ever happened to me. I hope I never have to find out. But my heart was touched and I think this is a film that will stay with me for a long time.

Here's more about it and be sure to scroll down for the book trailer.

Henry Ian Cusick, Emmy Nominee, as Chris Williams in the true story "Just Let Go". After surviving a drunk driving accident that killed his pregnant wife and two kids, Chris Williams struggles to 'just let go' and forgive the young man who caused it.

As we begin the New Year, this message of forgiveness is an important reminder, that forgiveness can bring peace to your soul. “It has allowed a terrible tragedy … to be turned into, in many aspects, a tremendous blessing. That has been one of the most fascinating things to experience,” Williams said in a interview with the Deseret News. “To see the lives blessed since the crash, it has been overwhelming how many positive things have come from it.”