Saturday, May 30, 2015

Bury the Hatchet - A First Look, Plus a Cover Reveal

As I'm gearing up for the July 9 release of Bury the Hatchet, I thought I'd give you a little peek at what's in store. Here's a brief excerpt to whet your appetites. :)

The coaches cleared out of the way, and none other than Sharon Jernigan walked up.
“Fucking hell,” I muttered.
“Who’s that?” Razor asked me.
“Owner’s wife.”
He slumped down in his seat like a kid who didn’t want to get called on in class. “Fucking hell’s right.”
Her helmet hair looked even bigger than the last time I’d seen her, at the wedding. Her smile was as forced as ever. “Welcome to Tulsa and the Thunderbirds organization,” she said, her thick drawl accented by the all-too-familiar waving arms. “Tom and I want to be sure y’all feel like a part of the family.”
I knew she meant her church family, even if the rest of the guys didn’t. Yet. They’d figure it out soon enough.
With that, I decided it was as good a time as any for me to tune out again. I leaned back, crossing my arms and my ankles, doing my best to relax without quite falling asleep. I was doing a damn good job of it, too, until Razor elbowed me in the ribs.
I hissed in a breath, rubbing the spot he’d targeted. “What the fuck was that for?”
“She can’t fucking do that, can she?”
“Do what?” Maybe I should have paid at least some attention while she was talking.
“Put a fucking swear jar in the room. She says the money’s going into the Thunderbirds Foundation fund. That’s got to be against some rule in the CBA or something. Don’t you think?”
A swear jar? I’d known since the first time I’d met her that she was going to have a rude awakening being around hockey players, considering how she’d gotten her panties in a twist over the language I’d used that first day, but this was beyond ridiculous.
Throughout the room, guys were shifting in their seats and muttering beneath their breath, talking to one another.
“I don’t have a clue,” I said quietly. “But if she can, we’re all going to be fucking broke.”
He gave me a thorough once over, a single brow raised. “Good thing you’re paid more than you’re worth.”
“Look who’s talking,” I shot back. He was making the kind of bank a top pairing defenseman would normally earn, but on any other team he wouldn’t be placed any higher than the third or fourth D on the team. That was probably why the Sabres had left him available in the expansion draft, come to think of it. They didn’t want to pay him that much anymore, and they knew the T-Birds would need to add some salary to meet the cap floor.
We were still debating who was being overpaid the most when Dima stood up and walked to his stall. My arguments dropped off. I couldn’t help but watch him, and apparently I wasn’t alone. At least half the guys in the room were staring in the same direction.
Dima dug his wallet out of his jeans pocket. He pulled out a wad of bills and headed for Mrs. Jernigan, pressing them into her hand. “For first fucking month,” he said, his Russian accent thick even if his English was only slightly broken.
She gaped at him as he returned to his seat next to me. “But you’re supposed to stop swearing,” she said in a daze.
I couldn’t help it. I chuckled.
The next thing I knew, every guy in the room got up and followed Dima’s example, me included. The owner’s wife could do nothing but hold out her hand and collect the bills she was handed.
         I guess she still had a thing or two to learn about being around hockey players.

You can pre-order Bury the Hatchet now at Amazon, iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and All Romance eBooks. You can add it to your Goodreads shelf, too.

The second book, Smoke Signals, will star Razor. It releases on October 22, and you can pre-order it at iBooks (and at other vendors 90 days before release) and add it to your Goodreads shelf.

Why did I choose that brief excerpt as the one to share with you first? Because, not only does it give you a bit of interaction between Hunter and Razor, but I'm also revealing the cover for the third book in the series, titled Ghost Dance, which will star Dmitri Nazarenko, aka Dima, who you meet in that excerpt. I don't yet have a release date or blurb for Ghost Dance, but you can add it to your Goodreads shelf now, and I'll share those when they're available.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Portland Storm: The Second Period is Live

The box set of the second grouping of books from the Portland Storm series is available now. If you pre-ordered it, you should be able to download it to your e-reader now. If you didn't pre-order it, you can purchase it now from the following vendors.

AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksKoboGoogle PlayAll Romance eBooksSmashwords

What, specifically, is in this box set? It's got three full novels and two novellas: Delay of Game, Double Major, In the Zone, Holiday Hat Trick, and Comeback.


What's up next? Bury the Hatchet, the first book from the Tulsa Thunderbirds series releases on July 9.

The Tulsa Thunderbirds series is a spin-off from the Portland Storm. It's a hockey romance series following an expansion team in the NHL. You can expect familiar characters, lots of hockey action, and the same emotional backdrop you'd find in the Storm series, but it's all set within a sexier, edgier package.


He was poised to be an elite goalie for a contending team. 


Hunter Fielding has long since proven himself to be one of the best goaltenders in the NHL. The problem? His former team had another (slightly better) backstop. They left Hunter out to dry, the upstart Tulsa Thunderbirds claimed him in the expansion draft, and he made a few stupid comments about backasswards Oklahomans. Now the T-Birds say the only way he can redeem himself is to make nice for the media with some local goody two shoes who’s made some mistakes of her own. 


Oklahoma’s sweetheart could do no wrong until she could do no right. 


Tallulah Belle Roth was the reigning Miss Oklahoma USA until a night of out-of-control drinking, a naked foray in a hot tub with very bad boy, and a bunch of lowlights on TMZ. Now she’s been stripped of her crown and is facing the censure of the same people who made her out to be Little Miss Perfect. Tallie won’t ever get her title back, but her life is another matter—and the only way the public will allow her to do that is if she presents herself as happily settled with someone else under Oklahoma’s eye. 


The marriage is to be in name only—one year of sickeningly-sweet lovey-dovey PDA, all to get their detractors to bury the hatchet. Those kisses and tender moments for the cameras take an emotional toll, though. Can in name only be enough?


Pre-order Bury the Hatchet now at the following retailers.
Amazon
iBooks
Barnes and Noble
Kobo
All Romance eBooks
(Google Play pre-orders will come closer to release date.)


The next Portland Storm book will be a novella titled Home Ice, which releases on August 13.


There’s only one person in the world that Mattias Bergstrom allows to see his soft side: his younger sister, who was born with Down syndrome. She lives with their parents in Sweden, so there’s no worry of accidentally showing his players any part of himself other than the hard-assed former defenseman and current head coach of the Portland Storm. At least not until the doppelganger of Matti’s sister snags one of his young D-men in the corridor before the team’s skills exhibition event, and his frozen heart melts. 


Paige Calhoun has her hands full with four exceedingly boy-crazy, hockey-loving daughters—three teenagers and one pre-teen with Down syndrome. Everyday life is hard enough, but then her ex-husband scores tickets for Paige to take the girls to the StormSkillz Competition. The magnitude of her task is further complicated when her youngest spots the hockey player of her dreams and barrels through the crowd to claim him as her own. 


The team’s sexy-as-sin coach intervenes, and suddenly Paige feels just as boy crazy as her daughters. This girl might not be Matti’s sister, but he decides to give her and her sisters a weekend they’ll never forget. Too bad it never crossed his mind that in the process he might end up giving himself an unexpected happy ever after with Paige.


Pre-order Home Ice now at
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
iBooks
Kobo
All Romance eBooks
(Google Play pre-orders will be available closer to release date.)


More to come soon!