Wednesday, February 20, 2013

New Adult Giveaway Hop


Welcome to the Crazy, Stupid Love - New Adult Giveaway Hop! I'm offering another sneak peek at the third book in my New Adult EDGE series, tentatively titled Fighting for the Edge (see the first excerpt here!). This book will be a little different in that you'll get both Emily's and Aubrey's point of view! The excerpt below is a scene with Aubrey and Chris. I'm also giving away a $10 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card so you can buy the New Adult book of your choice, so don't forget to enter in the Rafflecopter form below!

****
Aubrey’s cell tweeted from the kitchen, and she rose to check it. She read the text as she carried the phone to the table.
“You’d think the fact that I haven’t responded to any of this guy’s messages would tell him I’m not interested, but he keeps texting me.”
“Who is he?” Chris asked.
“Just a guy I met at the gym. He’s hot as all get-out, but we went to dinner and all he talked about was his ex. No amount of hotness could get me past that.”
Chris’s forehead wrinkled. “Is this what I have to look forward to on the dating scene?”
“Oh, yeah, we were talking about how you’re gonna be a playboy when the lights went out. Haven’t you only ever had serious girlfriends?”
“One throughout high school and then Marley. But since I got dumped both times, I figure it’s time to try something new.”
Aubrey studied him through the dim candlelight. With his warm brown eyes and lightly-freckled ivory cheeks, Chris perfectly fit the image of “the boy next door.” And it wasn’t just his looks that made him a great catch. She’d seen how he’d treated Marley all the years they were together – like she was the most precious thing in the world.
“I don’t know if you’re capable of being a casual dater,” she said. “I think you’re the type of guy who falls hard and fast for a girl and wants her all to yourself.”
“Well, you make staying single look easy. Maybe you need to tell me your secret.”
“If a guy starts getting clingy, I let him know I’m not looking for anything serious. Having the ‘I’m training for the Olympics’ excuse makes it a lot easier.”
“You think girls will fall for that excuse, too?”
“Once they get a look at your abs, they won’t care what lines you feed them.”
Chris sat back in his chair and grinned. “So, you’ve been checking me out.”
Aubrey smirked. “You know you’re in great shape.”
A car alarm sounded in the distance, and its wailing filled the silence as Aubrey and Chris turned back to their plates. Chris chewed with a pensive look.
“How come it feels like we’re talking for the first time when I’ve known you for seven years?”
“Probably because we’ve never hung out… just the two of us. Mar was always around or Nick or Em…”
“We should hang out more often. You can be my wing woman and teach me all the finer points of serial dating.”
“I gladly accept that position.” Aubrey smiled and lifted her water.
Chris raised his bottle. “To keeping things casual.”
Aubrey tapped her drink to his. “And Bah Humbug to relationships!”

****

You can find a list of the other hop participants below the Rafflecopter!


a Rafflecopter giveaway




Monday, February 18, 2013

Music Monday

This week's Music Monday has a movie theme as I saw Safe Haven yesterday (it was great!) and really liked a couple of the songs I heard in the movie. I went home and looked up the soundtrack to find them, and I was surprised by one of the artists. When I heard this song during the movie, I thought the voice was possibly Ray LaMontagne's, but it's Gareth Dunlop's, a new name to me.

"Wrap Your Arms Around Me" by Gareth Dunlop

This was another song that caught my ear, and I learned it's sung by Tristan Prettyman. I know I've heard of her music before, and I keep thinking she had a song on Pretty Little Liars, but I can't find evidence. So, please let me know if Tristan had any songs played on a TV show!

"Say Anything" by Tristan Prettyman

Stop by on Wednesday for a chance to win a gift card and to read a new teaser from the next book in the EDGE series!!

Sunday, February 17, 2013

REACHING THE EDGE - Free Everywhere!


Reaching the Edge is now FREE on all outlets! Yay for Amazon finally matching the price! You can download the ebook here:



It's also free on:

Smashwords
Barnes & Noble
KoboBooks


Friday, February 15, 2013

Romance Is In the Air Hop Winner

Congratulations to the winner of the $10 Amazon gift card:

June Manning

Thanks so much to everyone who participated!! Come back next week for the Crazy, Stupid Love - New Adult Giveaway Hop when I'll be giving away another prize and also revealing another excerpt from Book Three of the EDGE series!!

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Romance Is In the Air Blog Hop


Welcome to the Romance Is In the Air blog hop! I thought this would be a great time to post the first teaser from Book Three of the EDGE series - a little romantic moment between Emily and Sergei :) I'm also giving away a $10 Amazon gift card, so be sure to enter in the Rafflecopter form below!

****
“Do you think we should’ve gone to my parents’ house?” I asked Sergei as I sat beside him on the couch. “If we were in Boston, we’d be closer to the airport. It might be rough getting out of here Sunday morning.”
He slipped his arm around me. “Everything should be clear then. All the reports say the snow will let up tomorrow.”
“I just don’t want to miss our flight and be late getting to Tokyo. It takes my body so long to get acclimated to the time change in Asia, and I need to be one hundred percent with the Canadians breathing down our necks and–"
“It will all work out.” Sergei locked his deep blue eyes on mine. “I promise.”
I smiled. “Early competition jitters, I guess.”
He cuddled me closer. “I am totally confident we’ll have no trouble making it out of here. Besides, if we were at your parents’ house, we wouldn’t be here alone… and snowed in.”
His lips brushed against my ear, setting off a tremble of goose bumps all over my skin. Even though we’d been married two and a half years, I felt like we were still newlyweds. I’d worried that working together at the rink every day might make us weary of each other when we came home at night, but there’d been no such problem. I couldn’t get enough of Sergei, and from the way he was looking at me now, he obviously felt the same.
I tilted my head up and let my gaze travel over Sergei’s face, starting with his hypnotizing eyes down to his slightly crooked nose and stopping on his oh-so-kissable mouth.
“What can we possibly do to entertain ourselves?” I asked.
“I may have an idea.”
Sergei reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a deck of cards. With a crooked grin, he said, “Strip poker."
****

Visit the other sites participating in the hop here!

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Music Monday

My schedule's been a little crazy lately, but I'm back with Music Monday this week! I love One Republic's music, and I was excited to hear their new single used in one of photographer Tom Wehrle's awesome behind-the-scenes-of-skating videos. This video of the ice dancers at the U.S. Figure Skating National Championships gives a glimpse of what life is like at competitions for the skaters in my books :) You can see all the emotion, all the energy surrounding the event!

"If I Lose Myself" by One Republic

I had the exciting news of my new short story Reaching the Edge last week, and this week I'll be posting the first teaser from the next book in the EDGE series! Look for it on Friday!!

Friday, February 1, 2013

REACHING THE EDGE - a short story


Now that I'm back from a whirlwind week at the U.S. Figure Skating National Championships, I have some exciting news to share! I'm self-publishing a short story, REACHING THE EDGE, that tells the story of Emily and Sergei's wedding night. It's available as a FREE download on Smashwords and will also be free on Barnes & Noble and iTunes shortly. There will be a price of $0.99 on Amazon until I can get the site to match the free price from the other outlets.

This story does contain mature content, so it is not suitable for younger readers.   

Add it to your Goodreads shelf!

Reaching the Edge

I appreciate any help spreading the word! I'd love to introduce new readers to the characters of the EDGE series through this story :)