Amazing Covers – Covergasm Blog H0p!

covergasm

A Lady Awakened
Yep. This one is ALL about the covers. The ones that just make you gasp and go..oh my, I NEED this book. Now! Those that are truly…covergasm-worthy. Stop by each blog to check out their favorites! There will be a giveaway at each stop plus a grand prize giveaway of an Amazon Gift Card! Happy Hopping!

Do you have a favorite cover? Or maybe you like one of the ones I posted? Let us know in the comments!

 

At the Mercy of the QueenBy adding a comment, you can not only enter the grand prize drawing, but also enter my giveaway below for a chance to win one of two $5 gift cards to your choice of Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Just login to the rafflecopter app after making your comment and check that off. Then take a look at the other options for additional entries into the giveaway. And good luck!

 

 

DreamspellWhen it comes to art–including covers–I’m drawn to things that are pretty, beautiful, haunting. It’s about the colors, about the gorgeous dresses, about the sweeping vistas in the background. When it comes to the art in my home, I love just about anything with water in it–lighthouses, sailboats, lakes, oceans–and you can see some of that in some of these covers, too.

 

 

Forsaken DreamsBut I think in the end what really gets me is the emotional feel of the cover, and I love the dreamy, yesteryear feel of the covers I’ve got here. I hope you’re enjoying them too! 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Daughter of Siena

My book The Reluctant Billionaire is currently part of a boxed set of BBW romances called Crazy About Curves. I hope you enjoy this quick excerpt.

The Reluctant Billionaire

Once Rhys’ entree left the kitchen, Sophie raced to get things cleaned up. She wanted to get out of there before Rhys could find her. She figured she had at least twenty minutes while he ate his dinner and then all bets were off.

His visit that morning had knocked her off-kilter and the feeling had lasted the entire day. She needed to get some time to herself to think about what he’d said and what she wanted and what she needed. She couldn’t do that with him around.

But before she could leave, she had to finish cleaning up after the staff, who’d eaten earlier. And she had to put out cookies for Rhys’ dessert. And make sure everything was ready for the next morning’s breakfast.

The clock ticked down. When she passed the twenty minute mark, she moved even faster. Then she passed the thirty minute mark and she still wasn’t finished. There was so much to do! At thirty-five minutes, she swiped the dishrag across the counter one last time and tossed it in the laundry.

Done.

She headed for the stairway that led to the servant’s quarters but before she could get there, the door from the house opened and Rhys walked through.

His eyebrows rose. “Cookies?”

“On the counter,” she said, backing toward the stairs. “Shouldn’t Raymond be getting those for you?”

He didn’t move. “Thought I’d come get them myself. Going somewhere?”

“Just…” She motioned toward the upper floors. “I’m finished for the night.”

Rhys sauntered toward her. “Good! Then you’re free to go on a walk.”

No, no, no. Her palms suddenly felt damp. This wasn’t the plan. “I have stuff to do.” Washing her hair, rearranging her sock drawer.

“Just a little walk. And we can eat cookies along the way. I’m sure there are plenty. I remember you saying you were making a double batch today.” Rhys grabbed her arm and led her toward the counter and the plate of cookies. “Come on, you’ll like it.” Leaning close, he whispered, “I promise not to bite.”

Why did that send a shiver through her? This was such a bad idea. Yet she let him walk her through the kitchen and out to the garden, with only a short pause while he scooped up the cookies from the plate.

He handed her one. “These are really good. You should try one.” Then he popped one into his mouth whole. Hand free, he placed his palm on the small of her back.

Sophie tried to slow them down. They stood in the open area in the back of the house where less than a week earlier a dance floor had been laid out and three hundred teenagers celebrated Rhys’ niece’s sixteenth birthday. “I really have a lot of things to do this evening. Maybe we could just talk here for a few minutes and then call it a night.”

He finished chewing. “Are you kidding? The garden’s beautiful at night. Plus, over in that corner we have a night garden. I want to show you.”

It wasn’t full dark yet, but it was getting there. With Autumn in full swing, the days would get shorter and shorter until the sun rose and set while she was still working. Tonight, the sun set in a blaze of pinks and purples that hung over the garden, nearly brushing the trees.

His thumb moved against her back. “Come on. You’ll like it. Did you know there are plants that only bloom at night? Amazing.” With a slight pressure, he pushed her into motion. They strolled to the right, away from the copse of trees where his childhood tree house stood, and in the opposite direction from the butterfly garden he’d shown her on their last walk.

CrazyAboutCurvesFront360

It seemed his love of gardening was real, even if he wasn’t the gardener he’d let her believe. “You work in the garden. Did you plan all this?”

“Every inch. With the help of my gardener, of course. He loves that I give him so much money for the grounds, but I think he hates it that I want to be so hands-on.”

The fading light muted all the colors. While not quite gray on gray, the flowers were nevertheless losing their vibrancy. “I can see his point,” she said. “If you were trying to tell me what to cook all the time, I’d have a fit.”

His hand slid from her back to her waist, pulling her closer. “I’d like to see that.”

“See…?”

“See you pitch a fit. I’ll bet it would be really hot.”

Men. Who understood them? “Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m going to pass on the hissy fit.”

He squeezed her hip. “Too bad.”

Amazon US
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Rock your inner big girl!

What do rock stars, a movie star, several billionaires, some alpha wolves, a mercenary and a couple of guys next door have in common? They’re all Crazy about Curves and they are all part of this collection of ten romances, from sweet to scorching, featuring plus-size heroines and the men who crave their lush, curvy bodies. Brought to you by today’s hottest New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Authors and romance’s future stars!

Captive Heart – Adriana Hunter
Alpha Marked #1: Scarlet – Celia Kyle
Curvy, Crazy, and Confused – Ava Catori
The Reluctant Billionaire – Danielle Duncan
Bought by the Billionaire Brothers – Alexx Andria
Bikini Curves – Charlotte Summers
Ripped – Olivia Rigal
Curve Contract – Christa Wick
Something True – Malia Mallory
Laid Bear: The Kodiak Clan – Marina Maddix

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Loving Summer – A Summer for Love H0p!

A Summer for love blog hopI don’t know about you, but where I live we had a very long, very cold, very hard winter. So maybe more than ever before, I’m very happy to see spring blooming all around me. I hope we have a long, not-too-hot (in other words, perfect) summer ahead of us!

To me, summer is about only have to wear one layer of clothes, about smelling food grilling when I get home from work, about vacations and mosquitos and ice cream and eating outdoors and green, green everywhere. I’m not much of a gardener (unlike my character Rhys!) but I do love seeing all the colorful flowers and the grass that emerges from underneath the snow and the trees that explode in various shades of green.

What do you love about summer? Let us know in the comments!

By adding a comment, you can not only enter the grand prize drawing, but also enter my giveaway below for a chance to win one of two $5 gift cards to your choice of Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Just login to the rafflecopter app after making your comment and check that off. Then take a look at the other options for additional entries into the giveaway. And good luck!

My book The Reluctant Billionaire is currently part of a boxed set of BBW romances. I hope you enjoy this scene where Rhys and Sophie take an evening walk through his gardens.

The Reluctant Billionaire

They walked down a path lined with bushes and flowerbeds–petunias and roses and gardenias of all different colors. The path led to a little bridge over a pond, then into a sleepy area with big trees and benches. A fire pit sat in the middle, though no fire was lit tonight.

“Here we are. It’s a great place for night time parties, which is why the fire pit’s here.” He steered her toward one of the benches. “Let’s sit. The flowers won’t bloom quite yet.”

Oh, no. He wanted them to wait here while the flowers bloomed? That could take a long time, couldn’t it? “I really need to get back.”

He pulled her down onto the bench. “Oh, come on. This’ll be worth it.” He slung an arm around the back of the seat so it brushed her shoulders. His thigh lay against hers and his fingers stroked her arm.

Her stomach fluttered. Torture. That’s what this was. She’d wanted some distance so she could figure out what she wanted, and she’d gotten the opposite. No distance; instead, she felt like she was drowning in him. “How’s work?” she stammered.

“It’s fine.” He paused. A long pause. Nearly long enough for her to want to fill the silence. “I’m going to have to go to New York for a while on business.” His fingers continued to rub her arm. “I’d like to call you while I’m gone, if I could.”

She shifted to face him, dislodging his hand. “Rhys. We’re not dating. We can’t. You know that.”

“What I know is that you’re not even giving us a chance. What’s the worst that could happen? The very, very worst?”

She took a breath but didn’t answer.

“I’m serious. Tell me what the worst that could happen is. I’ll go first. We could fall in love and then something horrible could happen and we could be torn apart, never to be together again, and I could be so distraught that I commit hara-kiri. And with my death, my company will fail and all the people who work for me will lose their jobs and one of them will be so upset he’ll invent a death ray that blows up the earth and everyone will die. Well, except for me, because I’ll already be dead.”

She tried to swallow her laughter. “That’s ridiculous.”

“So’s this idea that we can’t date. So go ahead. Your turn.”

She couldn’t do this. “What–you want me to make something up where everyone dies at the end?”

“Or whatever your version of ‘worst thing ever’ is. And then when you see how ridiculous it is, you’ll be able to see this whole thing in perspective.” His arm dropped down the back of the seat to rest around her hips, its warmth surrounding her and causing a riot of excited tingles all through her.

She’d had enough. “Do you always have to do that? Touch me? Don’t you know how hard this is?”

He leaned into her so fast she didn’t even see him move, cupping her face, their foreheads just an inch or two away from each other. “I know exactly how hard this is. Do you? Do you know how bad I want you? Want to touch you, kiss you–hell, just want to be around you?”

She didn’t know what to say. In the second that she hesitated, he leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers. When he pulled back, he didn’t go far. “Just give us a chance, Soph.” Then he kissed her again, softer this time. Their lips parted and his tongue slipped into her mouth, tangling with hers.

She couldn’t force herself to pull away. She should; she knew she should. But it felt so good to be held in his arms, so right, and she wanted to stay there forever and forget the rest of the world existed.

Rhys’ arm tightened around her back, pulling her closer. Twining her arms around his neck, she let him draw her in. With a groan, he dragged her onto his lap, ending with one arm around her waist and the other hand threaded through her hair to hold her in place as their kiss deepened even further.

She forgot…everything. She forgot her reasons for needing to stay away from him. She forgot that she shouldn’t be doing this. She forgot her name. Instead, she pulled him closer and opened to him, ready to give him the world if he’d just keep kissing her like that.

Rhys broke the kiss, pulling back by a hair. When he spoke, his lips were still so close they brushed against hers with every word. “Let’s go back to the house. To my room.” His eyes, so close to hers, were dilated with desire, his breathing ragged.

She could only imagine what he saw when he looked at her. She still couldn’t think straight, but she knew this was her only chance to stop this. But why did she want to? She couldn’t remember.

Rhys’ hand cupped her cheek again. With a groan, he pulled her back into a kiss. She gripped his shoulders to hold on as he plundered her mouth.

But as she held him, she remembered. The last time she’d felt like this, she’d thought it would last forever. And then she’d lost everything, bit by bit…her pride, her job, her child. A thread of fear wormed its way through her gut. What if this was the same? Rhys may not intentionally hurt her, but he lived in a different world. He couldn’t possibly mean this to last forever. So she’d get hurt. Again.

Pushing him away hurt too, but she did it. “We shouldn’t.”

 

 

CrazyAboutCurvesBox800Crazy About Curves

Rock your inner big girl!

What do rock stars, a movie star, several billionaires, some alpha wolves, a mercenary and a couple of guys next door have in common? They’re all Crazy about Curves and they are all part of this collection of ten romances, from sweet to scorching, featuring plus-size heroines and the men who crave their lush, curvy bodies. Brought to you by today’s hottest New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Authors and romance’s future stars!

Captive Heart – Adriana Hunter
Alpha Marked #1: Scarlet – Celia Kyle
Curvy, Crazy, and Confused – Ava Catori
The Reluctant Billionaire – Danielle Duncan
Bought by the Billionaire Brothers – Alexx Andria
Bikini Curves – Charlotte Summers
Ripped – Olivia Rigal
Curve Contract – Christa Wick
Something True – Malia Mallory
Laid Bear: The Kodiak Clan – Marina Maddix

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble
Apple iTunes
All Romance Ebooks

a Rafflecopter giveaway


GRAND PRIZES
(6) $50 Amazon or B&N Gift Cards

Comment with your name and email to be entered into the Grand Prize drawing. Comments without name and email will not be counted. Commenting on each and every stop will increase your chances of winning.
Winners for the (6) Grand Prizes will be drawn and announced on THE ROMANCE TROUPE blog by June 10th.

Find a list of all stops here!
http://www.theromancetroupe.com/p/a-summer-for-love-blog-hop.html