Category Archives: First Kiss Friday

First Kiss Friday with Maddison Michaels

04 Friday Mar 2022

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Welcome to my First Kiss Friday blog! Today’s guest is Maddison Michaels who has a first kiss scene from her story The Bachelor Betrayal. Isn’t the cover gorgeous? Happy reading and enjoy my lovelies!

Excerpt:

“If we’re entering into an agreement together, we should seal the deal with a kiss,” he murmured. “It’s the polite thing to do.”

“Sealing the deal with a kiss is how my friend Olivia ended up marrying the Bastard of Baker Street,” she said, annoyed her voice sounded slightly breathless. “I’ve no intention of following the same path.”

“Oh, don’t worry, my lady. Neither do I,” Marcus all but purred. “I will never marry again. You’re safe from me in that regard. Unless, of course, you’re scared of a kiss?”

“I’m scared of no man’s kiss.”

“Then show me.”

The deep timber of his voice sent a shiver through her body and all she could do was nod. What harm was there in a kiss? It might satisfy her curiosity and put the unaccountable sensations she was experiencing in his presence to rest once and for all. “Very well.”

She raised her head and pressed her lips softly against his. Almost immediately, a heat began to curl in her belly from the touch, his lips scorching in their intensity. She moaned as he nudged open her mouth with his, and his tongue flicked against hers. Mirroring the movement, she did the same to him and was rewarded with his deep groan as they began to kiss each other with an unrestrained passion she didn’t think was possible for her.

Instinctively, she pressed herself closer to him, reveling at the sensations of pleasure coursing through her from his very touch. He was strong and so masculine it made her feel delicate and feminine, which she rarely ever did.

His hands circled around her waist, before sliding lower and cupping her buttocks, pulling her in, tighter against him. Kat nearly gasped when the hardness of his manhood pressed into her lower belly. It was wicked. It was wanton. It was addictive, and she wanted more.

She wound her hands up and around his neck and kissed him back with unrepentant fervor, pressing her breasts more snugly against the broadness of his thick chest. Never had she tasted such sublime wonder as was Marcus.A throat being cleared from behind them had Kat wrenching away from Marcus and spinning around to face the threat. It was Cantfield and Etta. How mortifying. And Kat never felt mortified by anything, though she’d never been kissed so thoroughly before either, or caught in the act.

The Bachelor Betrayal
By Maddison Michaels

He wants justice

Underestimating Marcus Black is the last thing his enemies ever do. After all, the respected Earl of Westwood is a deadly threat… when her Majesty needs him to be. And his only goal is to avenge his brother’s murder. Which would be much easier if the viciously-skilled Lady Kaitlyn Montrose wouldn’t swoop in, knee him in the bollocks, and then run off with his only lead…

She wants revenge

Kat is determined to avenge her beloved uncle’s murder and nothing will stop her. Especially not the devastatingly handsome, and equally lethal Marcus Black. The fact that he’s after the same target is a complication she hadn’t planned on.  And as much as she enjoys taunting him, she has a job to do—one that doesn’t include sparring with the infuriating man at every turn. Except Kat has a new plan… one that Marcus will just hate.

Now they’ll have to work together… if they don’t kill each other first

Individually, Marcus and Kat are deadly. If they worked together, they could be unstoppable. But when attraction gets in the way of vengeance, it’s more than hearts on the line. And only one person can win…

BUY LINKS:

www.books2read.com/TheBachelorBetrayal

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QJP3SBZ

Amazon Can: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09QJP3SBZ

Amazon Aus: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B09QJP3SBZ

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09QJP3SBZ  

iBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-bachelor-betrayal/id1605625104

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-bachelor-betrayal

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-bachelor-betrayal-maddison-michaels/1140893534

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=g1tZEAAAQBAJ

About the Author:

Indoctrinated into a world of dashing rogues and feisty heroines when she was a teenager and picked up her first ever historical romance, Maddison Michaels has been a prolific reader and writer of historical romance ever since. She is the bestselling author of six books, including THE DEVILISH DUKE which won the 2019 RWA Australia Historical Romantic Book of the Year.

Writing historical romance is Maddison’s way of time traveling back to Victorian London to experience a cornucopia of intrigue, romance and adventure all from the comfort of her living room! She also loves incorporating her previous 16 years experience as a police officer into the mystery and suspense elements of her books.  She lives in Sydney, Australia with her own handsome hero, beautiful daughter and fur baby, and she always starts her day with a cup of liquid gold…coffee – just quietly, she’s addicted to the stuff!

Maddison absolutely loves to hear from her readers and you can find her at http://www.maddisonmichaels.com/ or on most social media platforms!

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:

Website: http://maddisonmichaels.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaddisonMichaelsAuthor/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/mmichaelsauthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maddisonmichaelsauthor/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17367583.Maddison_Michaels

Amazon Author Page : https://www.amazon.com/Maddison-Michaels/e/B079LXRLQ7
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/maddison-michaels

First Kiss Friday with Cerise DeLand

25 Friday Feb 2022

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Welcome to another First Kiss Friday. Please welcome my guest Cerise DeLand who has an excerpt from If You Were The Only Girl In the World. Happy reading and enjoy, my lovelies!

Intro from the author:

In the spring 1916, American Katrina Schubert arrives in London awaiting confirmation that she can cross the Channel in a packet. She’s a young doctor, in Europe on her own to help the war effort. Because she has learned the American Army will not enlist female physicians if or when the country goes to war, she decides to take her inheritance and serve at her own expense. 

What she does not realize is that since the last time she was here, Europeans have drastically changed. Paris a city under seige. There is no place to hide from the war, no place to run, no place for gaiety. As she tries to secure passage across to France, one night she is attacked in the London streets. But she is saved by a young British colonel whom she remembers all too well saved her once before.

When she finally gets approval to cross the Channel, Nate Langston, the Earl of Crabury, takes her to Dover along with his good friend and distant cousin, Dylan Hanniford. Here we find them in Dover, saying goodbye.

Excerpt:

She took Nate’s hand to aid her out of the taxi that he and Dylan had engaged at the train station. She stared at the small hotel was quaint with its ivy covered stone and young white rosebuds climbing the walls. But the building was sad as the weather. Tilting to one side, the three-story building seemed to have held itself up along the old and winding street for a century or more. Its sign swinging from an iron hook banged against the stones in a mournful cry. 

She refused to glance at the port once more. The first sight of armored ships, their guns pointed toward the water and the French coast, the grey drizzle, the bone-deep chill combined to make her teeth ache.

Nate and Dylan hailed the porter, an elderly fellow who should not be doing such heavy lifting. But young men were a rarity. Even Dylan in civilian dress as he was, was scrutinized by those in the train station. Men in uniform had a special disdain for him. One glance to see he was in the company of a British Colonel assuaged a bit of their irritation as well as inspired their curiosity. They found it even more strange that a young woman was accompanied by two men and gave Katrina a once-over that was less than kind.

The three hurried inside the hotel where a fire burned in warm and crackling welcome.

Dylan signed in at the desk with the proprietress. A lady of rectitude as rigid as her posture, she was curious about the woman who was next.

“I have a reservation. My name is Dr. Katrina Schubert.” The woman softened at the word ‘doctor’ but resumed her stiff demeanor at the sound of Katrina’s last name. As Katrina handed the lady her passport, she went on, “I go on to Paris to work there.”

Nate stood to one side of her. Dylan the other. Both of them gave the lady twinkly little smiles as she checked her ledger and sought the keys from her pegboard behind her.

“Room twenty-two, Madam Schubert.”

“Doctor.”

“Of course.” The lady glared at her, then gave Dylan his key.

Angry at the slight, Katrina grasped the large iron key and debated if she should reprimand the woman. She was so very tired of others who judged her for her profession. Or her male company. Or her lack of female company.

Nate’s fingers squeezed her waist.

Dylan gave her a knowing lift of his brows and in hearing of the proprietress said, “I’ll see you down here for dinner, Katrina. Seven o’clock, sound fine?”

“Absolutely.” She toyed with the key. Here, ready to leave England, she felt her blood pressure kick up. She spun toward Nate as he picked up her two suitcases. “I’ll take those.”

“I’ll carry them up for you.”

She shook her head and widened her eyes in warning. “You’ve done so much for me.”

He tipped his head. “And you for me.”

She gave a laugh. “How can that be?”

“I need to talk to you. Alone. Let me take these up. Give me you key, eh? Stay here. She will think what she will. Then we’ll get Dylan and we three will go find a tea room or a pub. Some place to have a decent meal.”

“No.” Tears threatened and she hated that she’d dissolve in front of him. “Please don’t argue. I need to be alone.”

“Do you?” he asked, regret alive in his tone. “I don’t understand—“

“I need to summon my inner warrior, Colonel. You have coddled me these past few days and I must put on my armor, sir, for the crossing.”  Embarrassed, she shook her head, pushing aside her loss of him. “Sorry. I’m being a ninny.”

“I’d say you’re been damn brave.”

She bucked up at that and admired his handsome face for one of the last times. “Oh, Nate. I’m realizing what a wild decision I made to come here. That’s not brave. That’s pitiful.”

He pulled her to the side of the room and into an alcove secluded from the lobby. She had presence of mind to note two chairs and a settee and rejoiced at the privacy at this last vital moment with him. He put her suitcases to the floor and reached for her. Once more, as the night he had saved her from those thugs, he was her comfort as he drew her gently into his arms.

She went, falling against his shoulder like a rag doll, her arms clutching him around his waist, the smooth wool of his uniform on her cheek, a comfort to her tattered mind.

He ran his hands down her spine and she sighed into him.

“I’ve wanted to hold you for days,” he said on a little laugh.

“I wanted to be held,” she admitted to his shoulder and hugged him like she’d never let him go. “I cannot tell you what a help you’ve been to me.”

He pulled away, and smiled wickedly as he lifted her chin. He had tears in his eyes and he was not hiding them. “I remember the first night we met. You were brave then.”

She gave laugh. “Oh, that’s not true. I was angry.”

“You had good cause.”

“I did,” she acknowledged.

Katrina pulled back in his arms to examine him. The subject she thought of for years, the dumbest she had not broached with him, suddenly seemed the most important one she had to clarify before they parted. “What happened to her?”

“Who?” he sounded lost as if he had no idea who she spoke of.

“Did she die? Your fiancé. Your wife. You told me you have a son but no wife.”

He brushed away a tear from her cheek. “I didn’t marry old Whats-her-name. After you showed me what I should be doing that night, I called off the engagement. I didn’t marry her. I married another girl. From my village. A sweet young woman who died giving birth to our son.”

“Oh, Nate.” She cupped his jaw. “I am so sorry.”

“He’s a fine boy.”

“I’m sure.”

“And I wouldn’t have him if it were not for you.”

She demurred. “Oh, I doubt—“

“No. You see that night you saved me from what would have been disaster.”

That he would credit her struck her as magnanimous and much maligned. “I think you knew what it was before you spoke to a stranger on the veranda.”

“Did I? A few words. A casual observation. Two strangers on a veranda speaking the truth. My marriage would never have worked.”

“Nor mine.”

He grinned. “I do believe we saved each other.”

“Put like that?” She nodded and grinned. “We did.”

He brushed his thumb over the curve of her bottom lip. “I’ll come to Paris. I don’t know when or how. But I will. I’ll write but the mail across the Channel is irregular. But I will come to call. Will you have me?”

She hugged him close, her heart breaking that she’d never see him again, that he’d die or forget her. “Have you? Of course. Nate, when you do, I might never let you go.”

“Kate,” he said as if he couldn’t believe she’d want him. And then he bent to put his firm hot lips to hers. His kiss was fast, hard, every claim she’d ever imagined from a man who truly could not live without her. He crushed her near again and his next kiss was a brand of heat and chaos. He traced her lips with his tongue and she opened, wanting his possession. He skimmed her cheek. “Don’t forget me.”

She caught his chin. “I never did. I thought so often about you. A gallant man. I’d known only a few. I wondered too in the still of many nights when I was weary or I had lost someone, if you remembered me. Or how you’d be if you were mine.”

He sucked in a breath. “Oh, Kate, we’ll discover that together, shall we, eh? Soon. I’ll come to Paris.” His gaze ran over her in question and in a look that was our possession. Then he kissed her once more, a claim of lips and tongue and teeth.

He stepped back and she gasped in objection.

So full of his endearments, she reached up and brushed his mussed hair into better form. “Paris, yes. A promise.”

He lifted her hand and kissed the back. “Doctor, you are brave. Go. Save many. Be safe. Au revoir, darling.”

Slowly he turned away, straightening his coat, and with a heave of his shoulders, he strode away.

If You Were The Only Girl In The World
By Cerise DeLand

One starlit night, he saved her from tragedy and she saved him from disaster.

Years later, on a moonless night, he rescues her again—and they discover a love affair they cannot resist. 

Now during the nightmare of war, each must decide if they’ll abandon all they worked for to claim the only person in the world they could love.

Katrina Schubert rejected what her father’s millions could buy—a title, a castle, a man who’d marry her for her money. Instead, she wanted to use her intellect and become a doctor.


Nathaniel, the Earl of Carbury, didn’t want what his family insisted he needed—a good woman who proved to him how beneficial a loving partner could be.


But one starless night in war-torn London, Nate saves Katrina from tragedy, the same way years before, she’d saved him from disaster. What began as friendship turns to a love affair they can’t resist.
Dare they risk their hearts to take all the riches enchantment can bring them?
Or will they reject the possibility that each remains alone, remembering the only other person they could adore?

Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/You-Were-Only-Girl-World-ebook/dp/B09GL2PM3P/?tag=cerdel-20

About the Author:

Cerise DeLand loves to write about dashing heroes and the sassy women they adore. 

But I bet you knew that! 

Did you know that she’s known for her poetic elegance and accuracy of detail? 

That she’s an award-winning author of more than 40 novels and was first published in 1991 by Kensington, then Pocket Books, later by St. Martin’s Press and independent presses? 

That her books have been monthly selections of the Doubleday Book Club and the Mystery Guild? Right. And she’s won awards. Lots of them. Need details? Write to her. She’ll send you the list!

To research, she’s dived into the oldest texts and dustiest library shelves. She also travels abroad taking good walking shoes, trusty notebooks and pens, plus camera! She visits chateaux and country homes she loves to people with her own imaginary characters. 

And at home every day? She cooks. Never dusts. (That can be a problem.) She goes swimming or pumps iron once a week and tries (desperately) to grow vegetables in her arid backyard in south Texas! 

Do visit her website, http://cerisedeland.com and blog http://cerisedeland.blogspot.com

First Kiss Friday with Meara Platt

18 Friday Feb 2022

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Thanks for stopping by my First Kiss Friday blog. Today’s guest is my friend Meara Platt who has an excerpt from Lyon in the Rough. We hope you enjoy this first kiss scene. Happy reading, my lovelies!

Excerpt:

The vast expanse of sea shimmered before them as the sun fell across it.

But it paled to Beatrix’s splendor.

Perhaps this is why poets went on about women sparkling like diamonds. Beatrix was a vision of loveliness. Her gown, a soft, dove gray, picked up the soft gray of her eyes and accentuated the blue in them as well.

She stole his breath away every time he looked at her.

Even now, his heart was beating faster, as it would with the thrill of a first encounter. He had been in close quarters with Beatrix for over a week now and that heady feeling had not faded.

It galled him that Bessie had recognized she was a perfect match for him.

He had not met Beatrix until that morning at the Lyon’s Den. It seemed a lifetime ago. And yet, he felt as though he had always known her.

Perhaps his heart had known her and simply been waiting for her to appear.

Anam charaid.

The love of his soul.

This was going to be a problem if her father had truly promised her to that dunce, Greenock.

Lucas had no intention of giving Beatrix up.

If she wanted him, then he was ready to move heaven and earth to have her.

Why should he not put himself forward and offer for Beatrix’s hand in marriage? He had excellent connections. He was a Lyon of Mar and had the birthmark on his buttocks to prove it. Indeed, the red splotch in the shape of a lion was the mark of every Lyon. He and his brothers all carried it.

But he knew a birthmark to prove his lineage would not overcome the biggest hurdle to gaining her father’s approval. The problem remained, he was not a peer nor was he ever likely to become one by inheriting the dukedom of Mar. It would require the death of his two elder brothers and any sons they might sire. Cheyne already had a son, a newborn babe hardly a few months old.

Lucas did not wish for any bad fate to befall them. No, he wished only good health and happiness for all of his family.

Beatrix inhaled lightly and squeezed his hand, distracting him from his thoughts. “Look, Lucas! There is something moving in the water.”

She began to hop excitedly beside him. “Is it a whale? Oh, there! I think it is an entire family of whales.”

He chuckled and kept tight hold of her hand. “Aye, lass. Aren’t they a magnificent sight?”

She turned to face him. “Everything is magnificent about this moment. Do you feel it, Lucas? This contentment. This sheer perfection.”

“Aye, lass. I do.”

When would they ever have such a day again?

A cooling breeze rippled off the water to swirl around them as they stood on the heights.

The sun shone down upon them and glistened across the waves. The sea was bluer than Lucas had ever seen it, and clear enough to provide an unimpeded view of the pod of whales gliding beneath its surface.

Beatrix had her mouth slightly open as she stared in utter fascination.

He mostly kept his gaze on her.

Anam charaid.

Yes, she was that.

As they watched, one of the larger leviathans surfaced and blew a spume of water out of its spout.

Beatrix squealed in delight. “Do you think he noticed us and decided to put on a show?”

“Perhaps, lass.” Why should not all creatures be enchanted with this girl? She was the loveliest part of this day.

Poseidon wagged his little rump and barked at the whales, unable to contain his excitement. Lucas kept firm hold of his tether, tugging him back each time he skittered to the edge to announce his dominion over these creatures who were a thousand times his size.

Beatrix turned once more to look up at him, happiness shining in her eyes. “Lucas, thank you for sharing this with me. I have never seen anything so beautiful.” 

“Lass,” he said in a raw whisper, wanting so badly to draw her up against his body and crush his lips to hers. She was the beauty in this moment. The sun, the wind, the azure water and majestic gray whales all paled next her. “It is my pleasure.”

He tucked a finger under her chin to hold her gaze to his.

She closed her eyes. “I am making a wish.”

“What are ye wishing for?”

“I dare not say.”

“Why? Is it too sinful?” He only meant to tease her, for he could not imagine this girl as anything other than innocent.

“It is, Lucas. Well, perhaps not sinful by your standards, but not anything I ought to be wishing to do.”

Her eyes fluttered open as she spoke, the blue in them seeming to melt into the blue of the sky. Her lips were the pink of the windblown flowers that grew in abundance on this outcropping. “What is it ye wish, Beatrix?”

He knew what he would wish for in this idyllic moment, in this perfect slice of a day. In the heat of the sun shining down on them and the roar of the waves pounding against the shore.

She took a deep breath. “It will not come true if I tell you. Perhaps it is for the best that it doesn’t.” She inhaled again and then let her breath out slowly. “I wished that you would kiss me on this perfect spot amid this perfect day. Would you consider it, Lucas?”

He gave a raw laugh. “Blessed saints, Beatrix. It is a terrible idea.”

Her cheeks turned a bright pink. “Oh, I see. Of course. This is why I should not have told you. Because…what you must think of me…that is, I just assumed…because men…I am so sorry.”

“Dinna be sorry, lass. It is a terrible idea because it is one that has been preying on my mind throughout this journey. Ye’re an angel. I have ached to put my lips to yours from the moment I met ye. How can ye not know it?” He drew her up against him, for this burning need to kiss her had grown unbearable. “I canno’ promise ye anything beyond this kiss.”

She nodded. “I am not asking for anything more.”

In truth, he would give her anything she wished because he was already lost to her. He was so far gone in love with this lass, he would give up everything without need for her to request it. “Verra well. One kiss. Is it yer first?”

She nodded.

“Och, then it must be special. Close yer eyes, Beatrix.”

She held her breath and shut her eyes.

He stifled his laughter, not merely for her obvious innocence but also for the way his heart was responding. Puffed with pride. Touched to the core. He had yet to kiss her and he already knew her lips would taste of heaven. “Breathe, lass. It is permitted.”

She released her breath with a light groan. “Oh, Lucas. I have no idea what I am supposed to do.”

“Ye’ll be just fine. Let me do the work. Ye need only follow my lead.” He brought his mouth down on hers and pressed lightly upon her lips, careful to keep the kiss gentle despite the savage heat coursing through him.

He did not want to scare her off with his ravenous longing.

Give me strength.

Liquid fire coursed through his veins, but he held the flames in check. This was her first time with a man and he dared not overwhelm her.

Nor did he intend to be tepid, for he could never be indifferent to this girl who turned his body molten.

He slowly began to deepen the kiss.

Och, he had to stop thinking each step and just go with what felt right. But she meant so much to him, he wanted their first time to be perfect.

Fool, it will no’ be if ye measure every step.

He set aside his thoughts and simply allowed the heat building up inside of him to flow naturally through his body.

Lord, it came at him like a wall of flames.

He lifted her up against him, drawing her tight to him so that her feet were off the ground and the length of their bodies were seared to each other. He felt the plumpness of her bosom against his hard chest and ached to explore her lovely mounds with his hands and lips.

Not this first time.

Some restraint was required or he would scare her off.

His tongue teased along the seam of her lips to draw them open. He delved in when she responded, tasting the sweet velvet of her mouth.

She moaned and slipped her arms around his neck, leaning into him so that there was no space between their bodies, not a particle of distance between them as their legs entwined and arms held each other in a desperate clench.

He felt the wild beat of her heart.

Blessed saints, she was made for him.

He could tell by the sweet heat of her skin that she was aroused by him.

Was it any different for him?

He poured all of his heart and longing into their first kiss, for it represented so much more than the wild press of two mouths or the hot touch of two bodies.

His was stripped raw, no barriers remaining.

He loved this girl.

She was his heart and the light in his soul.

Mo anam.

My soul.

She had to be his, even if her father had betrothed her to Greenock.

He could not bear to think of it.

“Beatrix,” he whispered, feeling her body shudder with a desire they both felt. “Lass, we canno’ go further.”

“I know. Oh, Lucas,” she said breathlessly, “I am trying so hard to hold back my feelings.” She still had her arms around his neck while the length of her body remained pressed to his, the softness of her breasts such sweet perfection against his chest.

He kissed her again.

His body was on fire and the flames consumed them both.

Lyon In The Rough
By Meara Platt

Lucas Lyon is leaving London to head back to his home in Edinburgh when his meddlesome aunt, Bessie Dove-Lyon, decides he also needs to deliver the lovely Lady Beatrix MacGlory to her father. Along for the ride are Beatrix’s overly perfumed aunt and her aunt’s little pug, Poseidon, who is about the size of a hedgehog but thinks he is a lion. Lucas is not happy about this arrangement, until he finds himself falling in love with Beatrix. However, she is returning to Edinburgh for an arranged betrothal to another man. Since when has that stopped a Lyon from claiming what he wants? If you love Scottish heroes, road trip romances, or simply enjoy laughter, you’ll have fun with Lucas and Beatrix as they fall in love in Lyon In The Rough.

Lyon in the Rough Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09LRF418F

Author Bio: 

Meara Platt is a USA Today bestselling, award winning author, and an Amazon UK All Star. Her Regency romances are infused with humor and heart, and her fantasy/paranormal stories add just enough darkness to keep her readers intrigued. For Meara, romance is a journey of enchantment, so whether you are looking for funny, uplifting escapes in her Farthingale series or Book of Love series, or wish to be transported into edgier Fae/dragon realms as in her Dark Gardens series, or something in between, take the journey and enjoy!

Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMearaPlatt/

Amazon Author Link: http://www.amazon.com/Meara-Platt/e/B00PO672QU

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/meara-platt

Website: www.mearaplatt.com

Newsletter: http://bit.ly/meara-platts-newsletter

Free download If You Kissed Me for free form signup link is this: http://bit.ly/free-novella-download

Free download Any Duke Will Do:  https://BookHip.com/MLAHCW

First Kiss Friday with Sherry Ewing

11 Friday Feb 2022

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Welcome to my First Kiss Friday blog. I’m still celebrating the release of Before I Found You: A de Courtenay Novella (Book Three). I can’t being to tell you how much I just adore this cover (thank you Period Images!). I had a great time writing this novella that was originally in the Bluestocking Belles’ box set Storm & Shelter. It took a certain hero for Miss Miranda de Courtenay to finally find what matters most in life and that certainly wasn’t a title. Please enjoy this first kiss scene between Miranda & Jasper. Happy reading, my lovelies!

Excerpt:

She at last remembered herself and backed up a step. He, in turn, stepped forward and continued to do so until they were out of sight of the front of the manor. It wasn’t until she felt the brick wall upon her back that she realized she had nowhere else to turn.

“I had to see you one last time,” she murmured in a breathy whisper. She leaned her head back just so she could once more stare into his eyes.

“I’m certain our paths will cross often, Miranda, at least when I’m on shore,” he said, coming so close she could feel the very heat of him radiating from his body. She almost moaned but as she placed her hands upon his muscular chest, instead a gasp escaped her. Her action was meant to halt him from coming any closer but it had the opposite effect when he pulled her into his arms.

“I don’t see how that will be possible,” she managed to say, while attempting to hold him off. Her pulse quickened and every fiber of her being craved to be held in his arms forever more. She must remember her goal, and Jasper could never fit into her plans.

“Anything is possible, Miranda. We just need to have a little patience. Time will eventually be on our side. I won’t always be at sea.” He ran a finger down her cheek, causing her to shiver in pleasure.

“It’s not about time, Jasper, because all the time in the world won’t change anything.”

He bent forward until his forehead touched her own. “I know we have only just met but, for whatever the reason, I feel drawn to you. Was I mistaken that you feel the same way?”

Her breath caught in her throat to hear his words. “No,” she said honestly. “You weren’t mistaken.”

He cupped her face so she had no choice than to give him her undivided attention. “Then, hopefully, you’ll forgive me if I do something I’ve been craving to do since last night.”

She gulped. Oh no… please don’t let him kiss me. “What’s that?” she asked instead, even though she knew what was coming.

“This…”

His lips gently slid across her own as if testing to see if she would accept the gift of his kiss. She should have pulled away but how could she deny what she herself wanted just as badly? She tilted her head to give him full access to her mouth and, when his tongue slipped inside, Miranda was completely lost. Shivers of delight swept across her entire body until she found herself wrapped in Jasper’s arms. Her hands made their way up into his hair and her fingers tangled into the soft length. He deepened their kiss without any protest from Miranda until she thought her feet would never again touch the ground.

How long their mouths danced with one another, she could not say. For one brief instant, Miranda never wanted the kiss to end. She never wanted to leave Jasper’s arms or his life. But when a soft moan escaped from her lips, the reality of what this man did to her finally penetrated her numb mind. She broke off their kiss and yet their mouths lingered near as their breaths mingled together. She may want him, but he could never offer her the life of her dreams.

Before I Found You: A De Courtenay Novella (Book Three)
By Sherry Ewing

A quest for a title. An encounter with a stranger. Will she choose love?

Miss Miranda de Courtenay has only one goal in life: to find a rich husband who can change her status from Missto My Lady. But when a handsome stranger crosses her path at a Valentine’s Day ball, her obsession with titles dims. Might love be enough?

Captain Jasper Rousseau has no plans to become infatuated during a chance encounter at a ball. He has a new ship to run, passengers to book, and cargo to deliver. But one look into a young lady’s beautiful hazel eyes, and he becomes lost. Does love at first sight really exist?

Their paths continue to cross until they are both stranded in Fenwick on Sea. Their growing connection is hard to dismiss, despite Miranda’s childish quest for a title at all cost. But what if the cost includes love?

Buy Links:

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Apple Books: https://apple.co/3FNrW2W

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First Kiss Friday with Jude Knight

04 Friday Feb 2022

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It’s First Kiss Friday and I’m very excited to have my dearest friend Jude Knight on my blog today. I will admit, I’ve been waiting for this story to be told and Jude has finally done it! I do so enjoy an older couple romance, don’t you? Please enjoy this excerpt from Paradise At Last and happy reading, my lovelies!

This excerpt is from Paradise At Last, in which my widowed duchess and widowed duke are finally free to marry thirty-five years after their families broke up their courtship. Except that a disagreement has torn them apart. It takes a stern talking to from relatives and a kidnapping to bring them together again.

Excerpt:

James continued his circuit of the house, and decided Eleanor must be on the upper level—a sloping roof that might contain a bedroom or two as well as storage space. He saw no one else. He should still be cautious in case of other confederates. Though would the couple in the kitchen be indulging as they were if others were in the house?

In his circuit, he had found a window with a broken catch. It was a moment’s work and nearly silent to break it still further. Inside the room, he listened, but nothing disturbed the peace except the increasingly enthusiastic noises from the kitchen.

Carefully, checking each space before he moved to it, James made his way upstairs. Three doors. The first opened to an empty room, with nothing in it but dust and spiders. The second was certainly the major bedchamber of the house. James guessed that the kidnappers had coopted it as their own, given the male and female clothing strewn around. So why they were not putting the bed to use, he could not imagine.

The third was locked, but he’d seen a key on a table beside the bed in the second room, so he fetched that and opened the door, his heart in his mouth, ready to attack a guard, fearing she was secured somewhere else.

Eleanor was there, alone, and unharmed. Relief froze him in the doorway, but he recovered quickly when she threw herself into his arms. He maneuvered her backwards, closing the door with one hand, while the other explored her to make sure she was real and unharmed.

The door shut, he crushed her to him and took her lips with his own, wild with relief. She was very real—a fragrant armful of human female, uncorseted and returning his kiss as enthusiastically as he could ever have imagined.

He was struggling to remember why he should pull away when she suddenly came to herself. “James, how did you find me? No! There’s no time for that. Let’s get away.”

Paradise Triptych
By Jude Knight
Release Date: March 15, 2022

Long ago, when they were young, James and Eleanor were deeply in love. But their families tore them apart and they went on to marry other people.

Paradise Regained

James Winderfield yearns to end a long journey in the arms of his loving family. But his father’s agents offer the exiled prodigal forgiveness and a place in Society — if he abandons his foreign-born wife and children to return to England.

With her husband away, Mahzad faces revolt, invasion and betrayal in the mountain kingdom they built together. A queen without her king, she will not allow their dream and their family to be destroyed.

But the greatest threats to their marriage and their lives together is the widening distance between them. To win Paradise, they must face the truths in their hearts.

Paradise Lost

In 1812, the suitor Eleanor’s father rejected in favour of the Duke of Haverford has returned to England. He has been away for thirty-two years, and has returned a widower, and the father of ten children.
As the year passes, various events prompt Eleanor to turn to her box of keepsakes, which recall the momentous events of her life.
Paradise Lost is a series of vignettes grounded in 1812, in which Eleanor relives those memories.

Paradise At Last

Now Haverford is deceased nothing stands between the Duchess of Haverford and the Duke of Winshire. Except that James has not forgiven Eleanor for putting the dynasty of the Haverfords ahead of his niece’s happiness.
Can two star-crossed lovers find their happiness at last? Or will their own pride or the villain who wants to destroy the Haverfords stand in their way?

Paradise Triptych contains two novella and a set of memoirs: Paradise Regained (already published), Paradise Lost (available free to my newsletter subscribers) and Paradise At Last (new for this collection).

Meet Jude

Jude always wanted to be a novelist. She started in her teens, but life kept getting in the way. Years passed, and with them dozens of unfinished manuscripts. The fear grew. What if she tried, failed, and lost the dream forever? The years since 2014 have brought 11 novels, 13 novella, 4 volumes of short stories, 3 awards, and hundreds of positive reviews. The dream is alive.

Website and blog: http://judeknightauthor.com/

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First Kiss Friday with Elizabeth Ellen Carter

28 Friday Jan 2022

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Today on my First Kiss Friday blog, I have the fabulous Elizabeth Ellen Carter who has a new series looming on the horizon. Isn’t the cover lovely? We hope you enjoy this excerpt from Deceiving the Duke that releases on February 4th. Happy reading, my lovelies!

Excerpt:

She approached the desk and glanced down at the papers there – drawings, lots of them. She recognized the complex web of warp and weft threads suspended on a loom.

“You recognize what this is?”

Ruby started.

“I… ah, yes… my father took an interest in textiles and how machinery operated. He would show me how each pattern would be set up.”

She made the mistake of looking into his eyes. He was interested in what she had to say, and she’d said too much.

Thank goodness it was he who broke the spell by priming another lamp. Apparently, he was uncomfortable as she with this new intimacy.

She took the second lighted lamp from the desk and picked the farthest corner of the library to conduct her search.

Poetry. Perhaps the duke had a romantic soul after all – presuming he had a soul.

As she browsed the titles, she listened to Seth returning to his work. The pen scratching on paper and the whispered sigh of pencils as they shaded in his diagrams.

This was ridiculous! Mooning over a man who could mean nothing to her.

She grabbed a book, only glancing at it, intending to return directly to her patient. It was a book of poems by Pierre de Ronsard. With her focus on the door, she did not hear her name called. 

A touch on the arm stilled her.

“Don’t go… not yet.”

She should go. Oh, how she should go. But she made the mistake of looking at the earl… Seth. 

Those eyes seemed to see deep into her soul and found its twin in the loneliness.

He must have heard the answering call because he removed the book from her hand and placed it on the small side table by the door. His face was half in shadows, but she could see his eyes clear enough. They searched her face and seemed to know what was in her deepest heart. 

He lowered his lips to hers slowly, giving her time to escape from him if she wished.

But she didn’t wish.

Her eyes fluttered closed as his lips met hers. Never had she felt such emotion in so small a touch. She could taste the isolation, the need. She responded with a need of her own.

Seth responded by sliding his arms around her waist and pulling her into his embrace.

The kiss was all too brief, but his hold lingered. She had no idea how much she craved his touch until that moment.

Deceiving The Duke
By Elizabeth Ellen Carter

Hate brought them together. Will love tear them apart?

Welcome to book 1 in the exciting new series from USA Today Bestselling Author Elizabeth Ellen Carter.

William Musgrave, Duke of Auchen, is dying. When he goes to his grave, he will take with him the opportunity to right a wrong that has left Lady Ruby McAllister impoverished.

Ruby has the contract that pledged her father a one-third share in a successful Scottish textile mill. But Auchen never made good on his promise before Ruby’s father died. Now Ruby has lost her beloved Strathaird, home to the McAllisters for centuries. Her only hope is to confront the duke before he dies. And her chance comes when a vacancy arises for a new night nurse in his London household.

Standing in her way is Seth Musgrave, the duke’s estranged son, who despises his father for deriding him as an imbecile. In truth, Seth is the driving force behind his father’s successful enterprise. William Musgrave has heeded no one in his life except for his wife. She died twenty years ago, but Ruby hears him call for her in his nightly delirium.

What if Ruby answered his call, pretending to be the only woman who could ever persuade the duke to do the right thing?

How long can Ruby keep her secret when Seth is trying to distract her with his kisses? And what if Seth learns the woman he’s falling in love with is deceiving the Duke?

Available Amazon and Kindle Unlimited

Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NL99DYN

About Elizabeth Ellen Carter

Elizabeth Ellen Carter is USA Today bestselling author and an award-winning historical romance writer who pens richly detailed historical romantic adventures. A former newspaper journalist, Carter ran an award-winning PR agency for 12 years. The author lives in Australia with her husband and two cats.

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First Kiss Friday with Caroline Warfield

21 Friday Jan 2022

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Welcome to my First Kiss Friday blog. I’m welcoming back my dear friend Caroline Warfield. The third book in Caroline’s Ashmead Heirs Series, The Forgotten Daughter is available for pre-order now for 99 cents. We posted her first kiss here two weeks ago.

Book One in the series, The Wayward Son, remains 99 cents in the meantime. Here’s a kiss from Book One, in which the hero has returned from a dangerous attempt to track a murderer. Along the way he stumbled on something she thought lost. Rob Benson didn’t mean to stay in Ashmead, but when Lucy Whitaker was threatened, he had no choice. In reaction to danger, passion flares.

Excerpt:

“You came back,” she breathed.

A grin, lopsided and dear, lit his face. “You waited.”

She scrambled back so he could enter, embarrassed by her foolish words, and noticed for the first time that the bundle he carried had begun to squirm.

He saw the direction of her gaze and his grin widened. He offered her the bundle, its movement becoming frantic. A wooly head peeked out the opening, and her heart swelled.

“You found it!” She took the lamb from him, but the creature struggled until she put it down, and it wandered into the darkened dining room. “Agnes will have a fit if she finds that animal in the house. We best give it to Vincent. He can see that it gets to his mother in the morning.”

He caught her arm when she started after the animal and pulled her back. Whatever he meant to say stuck in his throat. His hand slid up her arm to her shoulder, and his heated gaze stole her breath.

“Oh, bloody hell,” he murmured as his mouth found hers and his arm snaked around her to pull her close. When he loosened his grip to allow her to move away, she clung to his shoulders to pull him back, and he kissed her again, caressing her mouth with his, seeking and finding entrance to deepen it. She lost herself in the embrace. Only when he pulled away to breathe, his breath hot against her mouth, and began to slide gentle kisses in the corner of it and down her chin did she realize how she clutched his neck with one arm while her other hand had tangled in his hair, feathering it between her fingers.

“Oh God, Rob, what—”

“What indeed,” he whispered against her mouth, kissing her again and driving out reason.

When he moved to explore her ear, his tongue sending shivers down her spine, she moaned and tried to pull him closer. “I was so afraid. You’re safe, you’re safe,” she said between kisses to the side of his face.

At her words he pulled back. “Safe? I think not. Not here; not now.” He dropped a swift kiss to her nose and loosened his hold.

She dropped from her toes, her body sliding down his, rested both hands on his chest, and leaned her forehead against him to hide her heated cheeks.

“A gentleman would apologize. I won’t. I wanted that too badly. A gentleman would—”

Her head still on his chest, she raised her hand to his lips to silence him. “Don’t. Don’t go all honorable now.” He stilled and she pulled away. “Tell me about Miller.” Her piercing gaze dared him to finish the speech he had begun.

“He got away. Clarion and Gibbons will question the Caulfield tenants tomorrow. The earl plans to send for Spangler too. Happy?”

She shook her head. “Not if he got away.”

Rob put one knuckle under her chin and drew her face up to look at him. “We need to talk about this.” He didn’t have to clarify “this.” He didn’t mean Miller. They stood like that for several breaths. He tried to hold her eyes, but his gaze dropped to her mouth, and she swallowed convulsively. When he bent to kiss her again, she rose to meet him. His restless hands began to explore her neck, her shoulders, her back—when they reached her derriere he stilled.

He gripped her shoulders with both hands and set her a few inches away. “We have to stop; we can talk in the morning. Things are clearer in the light.” He dropped one last kiss to the top of her head and stepped back. “I’ll check on the guards and sleep down here.”

About The Ashmead Heirs

When the old Earl of Clarion leaves a will with bequests for all his children, legitimate and not, listing each and their mothers by name, he complicates the lives of many in the village of Ashmead. 

One sleepy village

One scandalous will

Four tormented heirs

The first of them grew believing he was the innkeeper’s son. His life is London. He has no intention of letting the unexpected bequest tie him to Ashmead, but concern for Lucy keeps him there. Rob is The Wayward Son. Still 99 cents https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09484DC1D/

He called his only legitimate daughter defiant, and sold her to a man twice her age. He left her nothing, but she won’t give up her freedom now that she’s a widow. Brynn Morgan has other ideas. Madelyn is The Defiant Daughter. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09GL6PT1J/

He forgot one daughter entirely and left her out of the will. Now she’s determined that the new earl’s steward make it right. Eli will fix it, if he has to die trying—and it may come to that. Never underestimate a quiet hero. Fanny is the third heir, The Forgotten Daughter. Preorder for 99 cents by January 27. Price reverts to retail after launch. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09PGSYJ3Q/

In a fit of spite, the old earl left his heir a tarnished title and a bankrupt estate stripped of every unentailed asset. Somehow the new earl has to care for all of them and still find his own happiness. A shocking new neighbor may help with that. David is The Upright Son, and his story is coming in May 2022.

You can find more about The Ashmead Heirs and all Caroline’s books at https://www.carolinewarfield.com/bookshelf/

About the Author

Award winning author Caroline Warfield has been many things: traveler, librarian, poet, raiser of children, bird watcher, Internet and Web services manager, conference speaker, indexer, tech writer, genealogist—even a nun. She reckons she is on at least her third act, happily working in an office surrounded by windows where she lets her characters lead her to adventures in England and the far-flung corners of the British Empire. She nudges them to explore the riskiest territory of all, the human heart. 

Find Caroline here:

Website:   http://www.carolinewarfield.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caroline.warfield.1422/

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Caroline-Warfield/e/B00N9PZZZS/

GoodReads:  http://bit.ly/1C5blTm

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/caroline-warfield

Twitter:   https://twitter.com/CaroWarfield

First Kiss Friday with Caroline Warfield

07 Friday Jan 2022

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Happy New Year, my lovelies, and welcome to my First Kiss Friday blog. My first guest author of the year is my dear friend Caroline Warfield. Caroline has an excerpt from her upcoming novel The Forgotten Daughter in her new Ashmead Heirs series. If you haven’t gotten a chance to read them, you’re missing out. We hope you enjoy this first kiss scene. Happy reading!

When the old Earl of Clarion leaves a will with bequests for all his children, legitimate and not, listing each and their mothers by name, he complicates the lives of many in the village of Ashmead and beyond. Francis Hancock was left out and forgotten completely. She is the third of The Ashmead Heirs.

In The Forgotten Daughter, Fanny comes looking for a hero. She gets a mild-mannered land steward. Eli is good at fixing things, however, and he is determined to solve her problems, even when they take him far from home. Even when he falls in love with her. Even when she falls into the net of a trafficking ring. Even at risk to his own life. Never underestimate a quiet hero. 

In this scene, a band of kidnappers tried to pull her from her carriage.

Excerpt:

“Is this the first time you killed a man, Benson?” the corporal asked.

Eli nodded. He’d had no choice and wouldn’t second guess himself, but the horror of it would haunt him.

“It needed doing,” Goodfellow said, clapping him on the shoulder. “Think on the things you protected.”

When Fanny slid up next to him and put an arm around his waist, he turned her away from the sight of the brigand’s wounds, and pulled her into an embrace. He soaked in the comfort she offered, thanking God she had not been injured. 

Fanny went up on her toes and kissed the side of his chin. “We best get Reilly to a doctor,” she said, her voice thick and wet.

He kissed her fiercely then, pouring all the wanting, all the passion, all his need for comfort into that kiss. When he raised his head, still holding her, Goodfellow studiously saw to the tack on his horse, but Wil stared open mouthed.

Eli almost asked Fanny to trade places with Wil, needing her by his side, but she’d be safer inside the carriage. One thing he knew for certain. Once they got to the inn, he wouldn’t let her out of his sight.

About the Book

Frances Hancock always knew she was a bastard. She didn’t know her father was an earl until her mother died. The information came just in time. She and her mother’s younger children were about to be homeless. She needs help. Fast. What she wants is a hero.

Eli Benson, the Earl of Clarion’s steward, took great pride in cleaning up the mess left behind by the old earl’s will. When a dainty but ferocious young woman with the earl’s hair and eyes comes demanding help, his heart sinks. She isn’t in the will. She was forgotten entirely. And the estate is just getting its finances back in order. But he knows a moral obligation when he sees one. He may not be her idea of a hero, but people count on him to fix things. He’s good at it. Falling in love with her will only complicate things.

Eli will solve her problems or die trying. It may come to that.

Preorder now for 99 cents. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09PGSYJ3Q/

It reverts to full price after launch on January 27.

About the Author

Award winning author Caroline Warfield has been many things: traveler, librarian, poet, raiser of children, bird watcher, Internet and Web services manager, conference speaker, indexer, tech writer, genealogist—even a nun. She reckons she is on at least her third act, happily working in an office surrounded by windows where she lets her characters lead her to adventures in England and the far-flung corners of the British Empire. She nudges them to explore the riskiest territory of all, the human heart. 

Learn more about Caroline here:

Visit Caroline’s Website and Blog  http://www.carolinewarfield.com/

Meet Caroline on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/carolinewarfield7

Follow Caroline on Twitter https://twitter.com/CaroWarfield

Email Caroline directly   warfieldcaro@gmail.com

Subscribe to Caroline’s newsletter  http://www.carolinewarfield.com/newsletter/

Amazon Author http://www.amazon.com/Caroline-Warfield/e/B00N9PZZZS/

Good Reads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8523742.Caroline_Warfield

Bookbub https://www.bookbub.com/profile/caroline-warfield

Bookshelf: http://www.carolinewarfield.com/bookshelf

First Kiss Friday with Jude Knight

19 Friday Nov 2021

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Happy First Kiss Friday and welcome to my blog. It’s never too early to start celebrating the holiday season and my guest Jude Knight has an excerpt from her novella A Suitable Husband in the Bluestocking Belles’ box set Holly and Hopeful Hearts which is on sale for only $0.99! Happy reading, my lovelies, and enjoy.

James fell in love at first sight, but has been hitting one barrier to his wooing after another. At last, after eight months, he is alone with his beloved, as she decorates a room for Christmas. How could he bear to waste such an opportunity?

Excerpt:

“Very well, Lord Elfingham, I will put you to work.” She put one hand on his shoulder to help herself from the ladder. “Bring the ladder, please. I have more garlands to hang.”

James lifted the ladder and followed obediently in her wake. “What are we doing, pray tell?”

“We are having a costume party tonight. You heard?”

James nodded. His wardrobe was limited to what he could carry in his saddlebags, but the duchess had ordered chests of costumes and fabric brought down from the attics, and he had found the means to replicate his festival clothes as a mountain prince, or at least close enough for the audience.

If they wanted a barbarian, he would give them a barbarian.

“We did not decorate in here on Christmas Eve, since we had so much else to do, so I am putting up Christmas decorations. See? The evergreen is a symbol of life in this most holy season. And the holly, have you heard the song about the holly?”

Sophia sang for him, in a light alto, all the verses his father had taught them when he was a tiny child. This European holly was not precisely the same as the holly he had grown up with, but it was similar. For the pleasure of hearing her voice, he kept his counsel. 

She went on to explain the other Christmas customs, not just the foliage and ribbons and other materials used in the decorations, but the pudding that had been served at Christmas dinner, the Yule logs burning in various fireplaces around the house, and the boxes that the duchess had delivered the previous day to poor families around the district. 

“Cedrica and I, and several of the other ladies, were her deputies,” Sophia explained. “It was wonderful to see the happy little faces of the children, James.” 

James had stayed back from the hunt organized for the men in the hopes of spending time with Sophia, and had found out about the charity expedition too late to offer his services. “I am sorry that I missed it,” he said sincerely.

He noted one glaring omission in her descriptions. “Just a decoration,” she had told him, mendaciously, when he asked about the kissing boughs.

And now pretending to be ignorant of these English Christmas customs was about to pay off. One day, when she was safely his wife, he might admit to Sophia that he and the whole gala had hung on his father’s tales of an English Christmas, that his mother and her maids had decorated high and low, and his father had led the troops out to find a fitting Yule log to carry home in triumph on Christmas Eve. A harder job in his dry mountains than in this green land.

But this was not the time for that story. Not when Sophia was relaxed and about to pass under a kissing bough that retained its full complement of mistletoe berries.

James suppressed a grin. “Look,” he said, at the opportune time, pointing up. “My kaka—my Papa—told me about these.”

She stopped, as he had intended. With a single stride he reached her, wrapped her in his arms, and captured the lips that had been haunting his dreams this past eight months.

And she kissed him back. For a moment—for one long glorious moment, while time stood still and the world ceased to exist—Sophia Belvoir kissed him back.

James and Sophia first appeared in The Bluestocking and the Barbarian, a novella in the collection Holly and Hopeful Hearts. This collection is currently on sale at 99c, and the Bluestocking Belles will be discussing it on Facebook at 1pm (New York time) on Saturday 27th November.

We’d love for you to join us on: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BellesBrigade/posts/3079496369002451/

About Holly and Hopeful Hearts

When the Duchess of Haverford sends out invitations to a Yuletide house party and a New Year’s Eve ball at her country estate, Hollystone Hall, those who respond know that Her Grace intends to raise money for her favorite cause and promote whatever love-matches she can. Seven assorted heroes and heroines set out with their pocketbooks firmly clutched and hearts in protective custody. Or are they?

Holly and Hopeful Hearts is a Bluestocking Belles Christmas collection, and is currently reduced in price to 99c.

Buy it at:

Amazon US:  http://ow.ly/INwa3049Ey3
Amazon UK: http://ow.ly/ZMuH3049ELM
Amazon Australia: http://ow.ly/TczG3049EQ2
Amazon Canada: http://ow.ly/IERm3049EYM
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/664559
Kobo: http://ow.ly/Vx1n304jGzj
Barnes & Noble: http://ow.ly/LqCI304jGuS
iBooks: http://ow.ly/JcSI304jGWE

For more links, see: https://bluestockingbelles.net/belles-joint-projects/holly-and-hopeful-hearts/

A Suitable Husband, by Jude Knight

As the Duchess of Haverford’s companion, Cedrica Grenford is not treated as a poor relation and is encouraged to mingle with Her Grace’s guests. Surely she can find a suitable husband amongst the gentlemen gathered for the duchess’s house party. Above stairs or possibly below. 

Valuing Vanessa, by Susana Ellis

Facing a dim future as a spinster under her mother’s thumb, Vanessa Sedgely makes a practical decision to attach an amiable gentleman who will not try to rule her life. 

A Kiss for Charity, by Sherry Ewing

Young widow Grace, Lady de Courtenay, has no idea how a close encounter with a rake at a masquerade ball would make her yearn for love again. Can she learn to forgive Lord Nicholas Lacey and set aside their differences to let love into her heart?

Artemis, by Jessica Cale

Actress Charlotte Halfpenny is in trouble. Pregnant, abandoned by her lover, and out of a job, Charlotte faces eviction two weeks before Christmas. When the reclusive Earl of Somerton makes her an outrageous offer, she has no choice but to accept. Could he be the man of her dreams, or is the nightmare just beginning?

The Bluestocking and the Barbarian, by Jude Knight

James must marry to please his grandfather, the duke, and to win social acceptance for himself and his father’s other foreign-born children. But only Lady Sophia Belvoir makes his heart sing, and to win her he must invite himself to spend Christmas at the home of his father’s greatest enemy. 

This novella was later rewritten as the novel To Wed a Proper Lady, the first novel in the series The Return of the Mountain King.

Christmas Kisses, by Nicole Zoltack

Louisa Wycliff, Dowager Countess of Exeter wants only for her darling daughter, Anna, to find a man she can love and marry. Appallingly, Anna has her sights on a scoundrel of a duke who chases after every skirt he sees. Anna truly thinks the dashing duke cares for her, but her mother has her doubts. 

An Open Heart, by Caroline Warfield

Esther Baumann longs for a loving husband who will help her create a home where they will teach their children to value the traditions of their people, but she wants a man who is also open to new ideas and happy to make friends outside their narrow circle. Is it so unreasonable to ask for toe curling passion as well?

Dashing Through the Snow, by Amy Rose Bennett

Headstrong bluestocking, Miss Kate Woodville, never thought her Christmas would be spent racing across England with a viscount hell-bent on vengeance. She certainly never expected to find love…

More about Jude Knight:

Jude Knight’s writing goal is to transport readers to another time, another place, where they can enjoy adventure and romance, thrill to trials and challenges, uncover secrets and solve mysteries, delight in a happy ending, and return from their virtual holiday refreshed and ready for anything.

Jude writes everything from Hallmark to Regency Noir, in different eras and diverse places, short, medium and extra long. Expect decent men with wounded hearts, women who are stronger than they think, and villains you’ll want to smack or worse.and all with a leavening of humour.

Website and blog: http://judeknightauthor.com/

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First Kiss Friday with Veronica Crowe

12 Friday Nov 2021

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It’s another week gone by so that must mean it’s First Kiss Friday! Thanks for dropping by my blog. Please welcome my dear friend Veronica Crowe who is sharing an excerpt from her novella The Last Christmas that is in the boxset Star of Wonder. It’s never too early to start reading a holiday love story and with this set, you’ll be ready for the holiday season. Happy reading, my lovelies, and enjoy!

Excerpt:

“You look ready to retire,” he said, rising from his seat. “Allow me to escort you upstairs.”

They climbed the staircase and strolled down the hallway in companiable silence, until they reached her door.

“Thank you for letting us decorate,” Lara said as they faced each other.

“It is my pleasure.” He took her hand in his and looked deeply into her eyes like he did the night before. 

Lara fought the urge to hope, even as he leaned closer, his eyes dropping to her lips. 

No. She would not fall for this kissing nonsense again. 

But to her utter shock, he angled his head and tenderly cupped her jaw with an elegant hand. He rubbed his thumb in a mesmerizing pattern along her jawline and her resistance crumbled. She was not imagining things this time. It was truly happening—she could clearly see the desire in his eyes.

Perhaps. . . wishes do come true. . .

She closed her eyes as his breath fanned on her cheek, and waited… and waited… and waited… 

“I’ve been itching all day to do this,” he said, his thumb moving more firmly on her skin. “This smudge has been driving me crazy.”

Smudge?

Lara opened an eye to see him bent on his task.

“There!” he proclaimed in triumph, releasing her with one last swipe of his thumb. “All gone and clean as can be.”

Lara hoped her mortification did not reflect on her face. His intimate actions and subsequent withdrawal befuddled her. Was he toying with her?

Distress shot through her heart. But of course. He must have read her foolish infatuation to him and wanted to satisfy his conceit. Lovesick simpleton that she was, she fell for it not once—but twice!

This is what happens when you allow yourself to fall for a man who is utterly out of your reach! she chastised herself, overwhelmed with disappointment. To her chagrin, tears sprang in her eyes without warning.

“Good night, Your Grace.” She abruptly turned her back to him and reached for the doorknob.

“Lady Larabelle.” His hand tightened around hers. In her discomfiture, she failed to recall he still held hand her in his.

“Yes?” she replied without turning to face him.

“I am sorry.” He sighed.

“Whatever for?” She gripped the doorknob, stifling the urge to cry.

Large hands alighted on her shoulders. “Please, will you look at me?”

“I—I cannot,” she croaked.

He wedged his body between her and the door and lifted her chin with the crook of his forefinger. “I did not mean to be presumptuous.” He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

“No. It was my mistake. I-I thought—” Lara swallowed to keep her voice from shaking. “I’m sorry—it has been a long day. I-I must have taken leave of my senses and misread y-your—” 

“Advances?” he raised a dark eyebrow in that fashion she adored and pulled her closer. “No, you did not.”

Lara’s eyes widened. The Duke of Grafton had wanted to kiss. . . her?

“I ache for you, Larabelle,” he whispered, resting his forehead against hers.

Lara’s heart filled with joy at the sound of her given name on his lips. “Oh, James.” She sighed with pleasure at how lovely it felt to reciprocate the intimacy. “And I, for you.” 

His eyes darkened but then he suddenly recoiled and swung his gaze away with a muffled oath.

“James?” Lara’s happiness was replaced with trepidation. Was he going to push her away again? But the anguish in his expression told her otherwise. She gently turned his face to her. “What’s wrong?”

He squeezed his eyes shut and drew a long breath, slowly releasing it with a hiss before he opened his eyes again. “Pardon my lapse in manners. It is nothing—nothing important.” He gave her a mollifying smile.

Lara watched him shift to a more pleasant, lighthearted demeanor and wondered if the sorrow she saw in his eyes not a minute past was a figment of her imagination. 

“Shall we continue where we left off?” He wrapped his strong arms around her, enfolding her in his warmth.

She moistened her lips, her pulse racing, her eyes instinctively closing as he tilted her face up to him. 

Somewhere in the back of her mind, a sliver of concern lurked beneath the rapture she felt. She could still—possibly—suffer another dose of humiliation because of her foolishness. 

Lara inwardly cringed at the unthinkable. 

However, she should not have dwelled on her insecurity, because this time around, no more waiting was necessary. To her sheer pleasure and utmost relief, at long last—the handsome and elusive Duke of Grafton—kissed her. 

The Last Christmas
By Veronica Crowe

“This tale was inspired by the Christmas carol, “Stille Nacht” or “Silent Night.” Like the song, this story is about hope, faith, and redeeming grace. True love knows no boundaries and conquers all, and if you pray with all your heart and believe, miracles can happen.”

Blurb:

After more than a decade of relentless galivanting around the world, James Oliver Draven, the Duke of Grafton, had finally returned home. 

He had done everything he wished to do with satisfaction. Tirelessly pursued knowledge and experience from every opportunity he could, with more vibrance and adventure than any man could manage in two lifetimes. He could not want for anything more. 

He was ready to go.

So, what was he doing, nursing sentiments of powerful affection and desire so fierce, he could not help but hope for more days—years, even—and dream of sharing a life with another? 

Of all the worst coincidences in the world—why did he have to meet the woman he could see himself having a life with—now?  

Now—when his days were numbered, and he had no life to give?


Larabelle Howard, the Earl of Berkshire’s daughter, had one goal in returning to England from America:

She wished to spend one last Christmas at her dear departed papa’s beloved country manor, before her mother sold it to the highest bidder. 

As to how she ended up insulting a duke, sleeping in his home, and developing a ridiculous infatuation to him like a moon-eyed ninny at the ripe old age of five and twenty–all in one day–was completely beyond her.

But of course, it would not lead to anything—she knew that. He was the Duke of Grafton, and she—was the odd neighbor who wore breeches and knew how to fix roofs! What was she thinking?

Their “almost” kiss—that’s what. 

The tenderness on his face as he gazed at her—she was almost convinced that he reciprocated her attraction. And that intensity in his eyes as he moved closer; his stare locked onto her mouth. She was almost certain he was going to kiss her.  

 Almost.

Had she imagined the whole thing? Why did she have the feeling that he was pushing her away, because he was hiding something?

Buy Link for the boxset Star of Wonder: https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wonder-Historical-Romance-Collection-ebook/dp/B097J42L9W

About the Author:

Veronica Crowe is the author of the Heirs of Cornwall series from Dragonblade Publishing, a three-book Regency romance full of romantic entanglements, hilarious misadventures, profound, heartfelt moments, and grand happy endings. Her poignant novella, titled, The Last Christmas, can be found in the 2021 holiday collection, Star of Wonder. Currently, she is completing the first book in her urban fantasy series, The Royal Eucalyxian Empire, titled, The Prince and The Quinterian, slated to be released in 2022.