Tuesday, December 31, 2019

HOLIDAY READS : Love in the Key of C by Daryl Devore




Love in the Key of C by Daryl Devore


BLURB:
Can a slice of pizza and a flute erase the ravages of life and allow Giselle and Ethan to fall in love by Christmas?
Collapsing in front the biggest department store in the city on one of the busiest
days of the holiday season was not how Giselle imagined her day. Cold and
hungry, she trudged through her daily existence wondering if she'd ever find
happiness again.
Teenagers. Ethan loved working with them and turning their raw musical talent
into something beautiful and rewarding, but that didn't fill the black void in his
soul.
Like fate, the songwriters' muse nudged Giselle and Ethan together. But can
Giselle overcome her fears and can Ethan get past the darkness that surrounds
him, so they can find love?

Release date – Dec 23, 2017

eXtasy Books
EXCERPT:
She looked so cold and weak, like she hadn't eaten in a while and was clinging
with failing resolve to any semblance of a normal life. I heard the rumbling of her
stomach. Anybody could who happened to be within a ten-foot radius. But more importantly, she was beautiful. No, not her outside. Her clothes were
worn and hung on her like she'd purchased them three sizes too big. The
sallowness of her skin resembled some of the dead and faded leaves that
still clogged the city's sewers. Her hair was wet from the weather and a small
cap of whiteness rested on her shoulders. A shiver shot through me as I glanced
down at her feet. Tired shoes soaked from the slush on the sidewalk. I fought off
the sensation of how cold her toes must be. It was her eyes that captured me. No, not the color, which was brown if you really
needed to know. It was the pain of her existence that poured from them. They
were a billboard exposing the humiliation that hung around her shoulders and
robbed her of the proud stance she'd once possessed. I wanted to help her, offering her a moment of warmth, rest and nourishment.
What stopped me? A debate raged inside. Did I offer her this gift and then release
her back into the elements and despair that had become her life? Wouldn't that
be cruel? Or, did I look away and pretend she didn't exist, like so many others had
done? I knew how this city worked. What we refuse to acknowledge does not then
taint our lives.
Taint. Taint me—dammit. I needed to meet this woman.



***


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Tuesday, December 24, 2019

HOLIDAY READS: The President’s Daughter by Seelie Kay



The President’s Daughter by Seelie Kay

Release Date: Dec. 22, 2018
Publisher: Extasy Books
Romantic Suspense, three flames

An Interview with Seelie Kay:
Q.  Why do you write romance?
Because I am fascinated by the games people play to find and secure a lasting relationship, which is not always love. There’s the chase, the courtship, the falling, the surrender. That’s what I try to capture in my stories.
Q.  Do you prefer a certain type of romantic hero?
I adore smart, dashing gentlemen who aren’t afraid to live on the edge. They can be a bad boy, a billionaire, a prince, or a secret agent. That hint of danger just hooks me! However, I also love strong, independent women who aren’t afraid to fight for what they want, even love.
Q.  Why did you write “The President’s Daughter?”
Actually, the book is dedicated to my editor, since he inspired the idea for the book. About a year ago, he posted a photo on Facebook. It turns out he was adopted by an American couple at eight years old from an orphanage in Italy. That started me thinking about the adoption process and how families aren’t necessarily born of blood, sometimes they are born of the heart. So as my overactive imagination began to wander, I came across an article about someone who was kidnapped as a baby and as a teenager, discovered her true origins. From there, I wondered what happens when, after being raised by your kidnappers, you are suddenly faced with the truth? How does that impact your concept of family? Do you love your kidnappers any less? At the time I was looking for a holiday story and family is so important during the holidays that my musings became “The President’s Daughter.” 
Q.   Romantic suspense is a new genre for you. You’re most known for your Kinky Briefs series, which are collections of stories about lawyers in love, with a dash of kink. “Snatching Dianna,” your first attempt at suspense was released Oct. 19 and this book has the same elements. Why the shift from erotic romance?
I have always had a preference for mysteries and thrillers. I enjoy plots that challenge the mind. My characters still enjoy erotic, loving relationships, but now the action focuses on solving a dilemma or crime. And in “The President’s Daughter” the lead character is faced with the discovery of two families. She must decide whether blood takes precedence over the heart.
Q.   How does your former profession as a lawyer impact your writing?
After 30 years, the law and the legal world are so firmly embedded in my brain that I can’t flush them out. That has become the lens through which I view the world and that naturally guides my characters and plots. Little peculiarities that I have witnessed in lawyers and the law always work their way into my stories. 
Q.   Any plans to write outside the romance genre completely?
Actually, I ghostwrite non-fiction for other professionals—doctors, lawyers, financial gurus—so I dip my toes into a lot of different genres. However, I have been itching to write a book about a relative who founded a religious cult. I researched it for years and found a lot of information that had been buried. I have a pile of paper a foot high. Someday, I need to go through it carefully and start writing. I have the interest, just not the time.
Blurb:
Be careful what you wish for because it just might send your life into a tailspin from which you may not recover.
When presidential candidate Jamisen Powell meets volunteer Sarah Lee Pearson, he is shocked to discover her eyes mirror his own. But Sarah was raised by two loving parents and has no questions about her heritage. Instead, after their death, she merely longs to find an extended family. She becomes convinced that Powell could be a distant relative. Powell, on the other hand, has spent twenty-five long years haunted by the memory of a daughter kidnapped from her bed. He suspects Sarah could be his long-lost daughter. As both launch separate covert searches for the truth, Sarah is found by the estranged parents of the man who raised her. Suddenly, the truth will no longer set her free. It could destroy the happy memories of her childhood. Hang on to your seat, and more importantly, hang on to your heart, as one woman discovers the true meaning of family.
Excerpt:
“You think I’m Sally Jane Powell?”
“I can’t confirm that, not without a DNA test, but…” Lisa pulled out two driver’s licenses from the envelope. “I found these in that shoebox you gave me, the one with your parents’ personal effects and your photos and stuff. Your parents were first issued driver’s licenses in Wisconsin in nineteen ninety-four, five years after you were born, also the year Sally was kidnapped.” 
Lisa tapped the photos on the licenses. “Look at your parents, Slee. You look nothing like them. Do you know the chances of two brown-eyed adults, both with dark hair, having a blonde, blue-eyed child? It’s exceptionally rare. It’s possible one of your grandparents had blue eyes, but I couldn’t find any photos to confirm.”
“Maybe I was adopted. I always wondered…”
Lisa shook her head. “I’m sorry, Slee. I couldn’t find a record of that either.” She pulled out two more news clippings. “Slee, this is a photo of you when you were seven. When you won a spelling bee? It was in your box.” She handed the other clipping to Sarah. “Compare that photo to the one of Sally. The one the police distributed when she was taken.”
Sarah studied both photos. Then she shook her head. “There are some similarities, sure. Same eyes. Same color hair. But there are also some differences. My face is thinner. My hair is long and straight. Hers is curly. It could just be a coincidence.” She looked up at Lisa and her eyes filled. “No way I was kidnapped. My parents loved me too much. Besides, don’t people kidnap for money?”
Lisa shook her head. “Not always. Sometimes, they just want a child.” She patted Sarah’s hand. “Slee, I know this is disturbing, but let’s not put the cart before the horse. And no matter what we find, that doesn’t make your parents any less your parents. Sure, there’s a chance that you don’t share their blood, but they loved you. Hold on to that.” 
Buy links:







About Seelie Kay:
Seelie Kay is a nom de plume for a writer, editor, and author with more than 30 years of experience in law, journalism, marketing, and public relations. When she writes about love and lust in the legal world, something kinky is bound to happen!  In possession of a wicked pen and an overly inquisitive mind, Ms. Kay is the author of multiple works of fiction, including the Kinky Briefs series, The Garage Dweller, A Touchdown to Remember, and The President’s Wife. 
When not spinning her kinky tales, Ms. Kay ghostwrites nonfiction for lawyers and other professionals. She resides in a bucolic exurb outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she shares a home with her son and enjoys opera, gourmet cooking, organic gardening, and an occasional bottle of red wine. 

Ms. Kay is an MS warrior and ruthlessly battles the disease on a daily basis. Her message to those diagnosed with MS:  Never give up. You define MS, it does not define you!
Author links:
Twitter: @SeelieKay https://twitter.com/SeelieKay
Prior Books:


Coming soon:
Infamy (Part Two, Feisty Lawyers):  January 4, 2019
Cult (Part Three, Feisty Lawyers): TBD

Seizing Hope (Divorce Divas anthology): January 24, 2019

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Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Twelve Days of Christmas Excerpts - The Pear Tree ~ A partridge, a pear tree…and a fairy in the bed.


A partridge, a pear tree…and a fairy in the bed.
Nelis Winter and Xavier Partridge knew one another years ago. Now Frances le Fay has invited them both to a dinner party on Christmas Eve. Stopping at The Pear Tree pub on the way seems a good idea…until Nelis walks in on an orgy of naked elves.

Nelis Winter’s Leavers’ Party had been held on a Friday night in December. The night was stuck in Nelis’ mind forever, like a nail in the coffin of her school years. Daisy Comice, trying to make up for years of frugal indignity heaped on Nelis during their life with Snowland Winter, booked her daughter into Affinity to have her hair and makeup done, and took her to Beautiful Signets to buy a dress and shoes among the Christmas shoppers.

The party should have been in November, but the venue, Theme of Your Dreams, had had a conflict with bookings. The earliest block available was in December, and it had offered a big incentive to Diversity High to shift its dates. Since the school’s motto was something along the lines of We Welcome Alternatives, it couldn’t refuse.

“What, no home-sewn mu-mu made of home-dyed homespun?” the imp in Nelis’ brain demanded as Daisy took down racks of shimmering dresses. “No lecture on the ills of mineral makeup and the beauty of natural skin? No implication that Leavers’ Parties for seventeen-year-olds are inappropriately sexualising occasions?”

Nelis said none of this aloud. She hadn’t been glad when her dad took off to the Arctic Circle to commune with polar bears and hunt the yeti, but she hadn’t been too sorry, either. She’d half-hoped Daisy might go, too, and so leave Nelis to board with a friend for her last year at Diversity, but Daisy, most unexpectedly, had rebelled against the idea of living in an igloo, as she’d put it.

“Come home when you’ve got it out of your system,” she’d told Snow.

 By the day of the Leavers’ Party, Snow had been gone for a year.

Daisy and Nelis had settled into a comfortable rut with a whole lot less tofu and vegan clothing than during Snow’s tenure. They watched cooking shows on their new TV, and Daisy got rather too well acquainted with the shopping channel.

“You look gorgeous, Nel.” Daisy lined her up between the long green recycled tie-dyed curtain and their first-ever microwave oven and photographed her from every angle.

They had a flat now. The eco-cabin had been let to two starry-eyed newlyweds who wanted to spend a year trialling self-sufficiency before they made the lifestyle irrevocable.

Nelis wondered how long they’d last, but she didn’t say so.

She eyed her reflection. A stranger looked back. Her dress was floor-length and pink, with a sequined bodice. Her dark hair was piled with a few loose curls, and her face was made up with soft pink lipstick and faintly pink shadow.

She looked feminine. She looked grown-up.

A flutter of excitement began in her chest.

Some of the parents had clubbed together to hire a minibus to carry a dozen or so leavers to the dinner and to return them afterwards. Daisy accepted an invitation for Nelis to travel in that. “Be nice for you to go with your friends.”

Nelis gave her mother a quick smile. She didn’t tell Daisy the people in question weren’t her friends. Neither were they her enemies. They were simply the dateless, the unpopular and the odd ones out.

Nelis figured she’d fit right in.

So would Xavier Partridge.

The flutter intensified.

Xavier Partridge, whom no one but teachers ever called anything but Bird Boy, was an exchange student who’d arrived at the beginning of year eleven. In his two years at Diversity High, Xavier had remained an outsider even in that eclectic company. He was geeky, gawky, cheerful and odd. He didn’t fit in any category. He wasn’t a member of any clique, team or group. He talked to anyone, anywhere, about anything. He was heart-stoppingly handsome and treated everyone with the same alert, friendly courtesy.

Nelis wished she had half his disregard for peer opinion.

After Snow defected to the Arctic Circle and her life became more mainstream, she wondered if she might invite Xavier out for pizza or to play chess. She wanted to sate her curiosity. She wanted to see what he’d do.

She never had. Now it was probably too late. School was all over but for the final barbecue, which would be held in the school grounds on New Year’s Eve. After that, she presumed Xavier would return to his place of origin, wherever that was, and she’d never see him again.

The minibus was going to leave from the end of Glebe Point Road. Daisy drove Nelis there and decanted her daughter from her eco-warrior car. “Got your phone?”

“Yes, Mum.” It was brand new. She was still learning how to use it. She was half-ashamed of having one because she’d pretended indifference during the Snow years.

“Okay. Give me a call if you need picking up.”

“I’ll be right.”

“If you decide to make a night of it at a café or a girlfriend’s place, just give me a call.”

“Yes, Mum.”

Not a chance, unless…

Daisy took a deep breath. “Okay. Have fun.”

“I will.”

Nelis watched her mother drive away. Then she walked over to the minibus, which was decorated with tinsel and fake holly.

She’d been right. The odd, the undatable and unpopular were all present. So were Alyssa Curry and Ryan Besnik, who were none of these things.

Ryan had his driver’s licence and a car, so what was he doing on the Misfits’ Bus?

The question went out of her mind, for Xavier Partridge was perched in a rear seat and looking about with pleased expectation.

He’s like a bloody tourist watching animals in their natural habitat.

She wanted to sit with him. Instead, she sat down three seats in front of him, next to Alyssa Curry. That was foolish, but the bus was almost full.

“Piss off, Pear Tree, Ryan’s sitting here.”

What happened to the plan for him to drive you?

Nelis got up. Miffy’s cousin Melanie Smith settled behind Alyssa. The only other spare seat was next to Xavier Partridge.

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