Book Blurb & Info
What if the one time you didn't want love was when you truly needed it?Forced to flee her abusive ex, alone with no support, Elle is determined to rebuild her life and protect her five-year-old son. Not one to take the easy road, she opens a bookshop café, but opening day almost ends in disaster. In the midst of this chaos, the last thing she needs is a man as charming as George Jones getting in her way.
George has always been a sucker for a damsel in distress, and Elle ticks all the boxes. But Elle's not interested in being rescued by anyone, especially not him. She knows her taste in men can't be trusted, but fighting George's charisma is harder than she expected. And George, who is not one to ignore an itch, has found there's something about Elle that's got under his skin.
When Elle's ex turns up to cause trouble, George must overcome his boyish flirtatiousness if he's to convince Elle to trust herself and let him into her life. But can Elle put her past behind her before it overwhelms her present?
Perfect for fans of Nora Roberts, Liane Moriarty, Jojo Moyes and Jane Green.
Buy Links
Releases in August
Goodreads / Amazon / BN
Her debut contemporary romance novel, What Goes on Tour caught the attention of Momentum’s Joel Naoum when her first scene was read aloud at the Romance Writers’ of Australia (RWA) conference in 2013. This led to a four book contract for The Texan Quartet series.
Claire is proactive in organising social gatherings and educational opportunities for local authors. She is an active volunteer for RWA, as a mentor for aspiring authors and the reader judge coordinator.
When Claire’s not writing she can be found in the garden attempting to grow vegetables, or racing around a vintage motocross track. If she can convince anyone to play with her, she also enjoys cards and board games.
Claire lives in Western Australia, just south of Perth, with her husband, who loves even her most annoying quirks, and her grubby, but adorable Australian bulldog.
Contact
Please email Claire with any questions claire@claireboston.com
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Book Excerpt
Chapter 1
This was crazy. How Elle
had ever thought she could possibly pull it off, she had no idea.
She had no more than a
high-school diploma – not so much as a semester of college – and no experience
with business, unless you counted the years of bussing tables while at school.
A few online business
courses did not an entrepreneur make.
Her lack of experience
was really showing now. It was opening day of her bookshop café, Eat, Drink,
Read, and she’d lost count of all the things that had gone wrong. The only
thing she’d got right was having a ‘quiet’ opening rather than making a fuss of
it – fewer people around to watch her fail.
But still there were
enough . . . and that was part of the problem. Only one of the two
waitresses she’d hired had turned up. The other had called in sick, but from
the giggling in the background, Elle was sure it was a lie. The other problem
was that people were more interested in the bookstore part of her café than
she’d anticipated. There hadn’t been a bricks-and-mortar bookshop in this part
of Houston for years and it was now packed with people browsing. Elle didn’t
have the time to go over to check if anyone needed any help, or to make sure
half her stock wasn’t walking out of the door without being paid for.
She placed two coffees
in front of a couple who had been waiting quite a while. “I’m sorry for the
wait.”
“Man could have died of
thirst,” the gray-haired gentleman complained.
Elle kept the smile on
her face. “Can I offer you a complimentary cookie, to make sure you don’t die
of hunger?”
The man raised his
eyebrows. “Those chocolate-chip ones look good.”
“I’ll bring one straight
out.”
Elle left the table and
went straight to her cookie jar. She knew today was all about making sure her
customers were happy and had a good experience, so they would spread the word
and come back. If she had to give away a truckload of cookies, it would be worth
it.
After delivering the
cookie to the now appeased man, she took orders at three other tables and then
went behind the counter to prepare them.
“This is crazy,” Nora,
her waitress, commented. Nora was a single mother like Elle and had jumped at
the chance to work at the café. She had family to take care of her little girl,
who was Toby’s age – and, thank heavens – they’d agreed to look after Toby
today as well.
“We’d be managing if
Drew had shown up.”
“I’d fire her if I were
you,” Nora said. “She’s obviously had a big night out and is hungover.”
Drew was in college and
only a few years younger than Elle. She had admittedly seemed a little flighty
in the interview, but she had a huge smile and a friendly attitude that would
please the customers.
If she ever turned up.
Elle murmured
non-committedly and handed Nora the coffee list while she prepared the food
order.
“Helloooo, check out the
hotties who just walked in,” Nora said.
Elle wasn’t interested
in good-looking men, but she glanced up just the same and groaned inwardly. One
of the hotties was Chris Barker, the lawyer who’d been so kind to her and
helped her set up her business plan and review her lease. She didn’t want him
to see her failing on her first day.
She raised a hand in
greeting while he and three friends took their seats. Imogen was with him. She
had helped Elle find something decent to wear when Elle had run into them at a
thrift shop a couple of months earlier. Then Imogen had paid to get Elle’s hair
styled at a very classy salon. Elle had been horrified when she realized the
price but the stylist, Joseph, had told her Imogen could afford it. Elle had
called Imogen to thank her again and they’d kept in touch afterward, though
Elle had never been able to afford to go out with her. With them were a blond
woman and the other guy who’d piqued Nora’s interest. He turned when Chris
waved back and Elle’s heart did a little dance.
Nora was right. He was a
hottie.
Broad shouldered, he
wore his dark hair short and neat – business-like – and he was tall, a good
couple of inches taller than Chris. But it was his face that captured Elle’s
attention. His expression was open; he was smiling and sexy as hell.
Quickly she looked down
before he caught her staring at him. She didn’t want or need a man in her life
now and she didn’t have the time to ogle.
“You know them?” Nora
asked.
“The shorter guy is
Chris, the lawyer who helped me with my business documents.”
“If I had known lawyers
were that sexy, I’d have found a reason to visit one long ago.”
Elle smiled but her mind
was on getting the food prepared so she could take Chris’s order before he
realized how chaotic this place was.
She checked the details
and then hurried on to the floor to deliver the cookies and muffins.
“Your coffee will be
right out,” she said to the people at the table and then took her order pad out
of her apron and turned to Chris’s table.
“Hi, Chris. Hi, Imogen.
Thanks for coming.”
He smiled at her. “Looks
like your first day is a success.”
Elle nodded. “It’s busy,
all right. Can I take your order?”
“This place is lovely,
Elle,” Imogen commented. She reminded Elle of a pixie, small with dark hair and
an always smiling face.
“Elle, you know Imogen,
and these are my friends, George and Piper.” Chris gestured at the pair.
Elle smiled at them,
avoiding looking at George. “Pleased to meet you.”
“I can’t wait to browse
the books,” Piper said. “But I’ll leave it until we’ve eaten. Can you give us a
few more minutes to decide? Everything looks great.”
“Sure.” Though she was
pleased they liked the menu, she was sure the few minutes would stretch to ten
or twenty at the rate she was going. She turned and went to make the rest of
her orders.
***
Elle walked away and
George admired the way her black skirt shaped her butt as she walked. “When you
said you wanted to support one of your clients, you didn’t tell me she was a
honey,” he commented to Chris.
“I didn’t notice,” Chris
said, squeezing Imogen’s hand.
George rolled his eyes.
He was pleased his friend had found someone he loved, and Imogen was a great
woman, but it didn’t mean they had to stop admiring other people from afar.
“Are there only two
staff?” Piper asked. “It’s a lot of work for two people.”
“Maybe someone will
start soon for the lunch shift,” Chris said.
George scanned the room.
There was a bookshop area set up at the back, with a couple of comfortable
high-backed chairs and coffee tables where people could sit and browse. The
bookshelves ran along one wall and provided a colorful contrast to the cream
walls. There were a dozen or more tables of different sizes, all a rich dark
wood polished to perfection, and in one corner was a play area for children.
Imogen was right: the place was lovely – cozy and welcoming. He’d have to tell
his mom and sisters about it.
“Are the others coming?”
he asked Chris.
“Yeah. Adrian and Libby
are picking Kate up from her cousin’s place at eleven and will be here for
lunch.”
George knew both Kate
and Libby would love the café. He might even browse through the books before he
left. He hadn’t had time to read anything lately but that didn’t mean he
couldn’t buy something. He scanned the shelves for the thrillers and noticed a
guy take a book from the shelf, look over at the line waiting to pay at the
register and then tuck it under his jacket.
He walked toward the
door and George frowned. “I’ll be right back.” He stood and went to intercept
the would-be thief. He reached the exit as the man put his hand on the door
handle. George stopped him with a hand on his arm.
“You going to pay for
that book?”
The man, college age,
with scruffy greasy brown hair, scowled at him. “What book?”
“The book you put under
your jacket.” George nodded at the man’s arm, which was pressed tightly against
his body.
“Don’t know what you’re
talking about.”
Irritation stirred in
George. Here was a woman starting her own business and making something better
of her life and this schmuck was stealing from her. “I could call the cops if
you like, and get them involved.”
The guy swore, defiance
on his face. “Have you seen the line? I don’t have time for that.”
Five people were still
waiting to pay at the register and Elle and her waitress were serving drinks
and making coffees.
“You’ll make time,”
George said, “or you’ll leave without it.”
The guy dropped the book
and wrenched open the café door. “I’m out of here.”
George let him go and
then picked up the book. It was a thriller and the blurb on the back sounded
interesting. He’d buy it himself.
George walked back to
his table.
“What was that about?”
Piper asked.
“He tried to steal the
book,” he said, putting it on the table and taking his seat. “Said he didn’t
have time to wait.”
“Jerk,” Imogen said.
George glanced around
the room and noted how many tables were waiting for food or needed to be
cleared.
“Your friend needs a bit
of help,” he said to Chris.
Chris nodded. “I don’t
know her well enough to offer. I don’t want her to take offence.”
“Let me,” Piper said. “I
spent about a hundred years waitressing. I’ll go have a chat with her.”
Piper went over to Elle,
but George couldn’t hear what she said.
***
Elle answered the
ringing phone as Piper got up from the table and walked over. She hoped Piper
wasn’t going to complain about the long wait for service. This day couldn’t get
any worse.
“Elle, it’s Wayne.”
It took her a minute to
place the name – he was the guitarist she’d hired to play some music that
afternoon, to add a little ambience and celebration to the day.
“Hi, what’s up?”
“I can’t make it today.
I’ve just had a call from my mother and my dad’s in hospital. It’s serious.”
Her stomach fell like
lead.
“I’m sorry.”
Elle swallowed. “It’s
fine. Of course you have to go. I hope your father is all right.” She hung up,
swallowed past the lump in her throat. Nothing was going right today.
She turned and saw Piper
standing there. She braced herself. “I’m sorry about the wait. I’ll be over in
a second.”
“No, it’s fine. I wanted
to check if you needed a hand. You seem a little short staffed.”
Elle couldn’t ask a
stranger to help out. She had no idea who she was. “One of my waitresses called
in sick.”
“Then let me help. I
waited tables all through college. I can clear tables and take orders easily enough
and you’ve got people waiting to pay.”
Elle glanced towards the
cash register at the line of people. Her eyes welled up. She couldn’t possibly
keep up with her customers. Perhaps this was the only way. She had nothing to
lose. “That would be great. The guitarist I hired just called to say he can’t
make it and I never dreamed I’d have this much interest.” She handed Piper a
spare apron and an order pad.
“What was the guitarist
going to do?”
“I thought it would be
nice to have some music after lunch on Saturday and Sunday. Nothing too loud,
but something for ambience, to draw the afternoon crowd.”
“Great idea.” Piper
smiled. “I might know someone who can help out. I’ll give him a call if you
like.”
“I can’t pay much,” Elle
said, worried now.
“I don’t think he’ll
charge. Leave it to me.” Piper swept into the café and started taking orders.
Elle didn’t have time to
worry further. She went over to the cash register and started taking payments,
apologizing for the delay and handing out the discount cards she’d made for her
regulars’ award program.
By the time she had
finished, the tables had been cleared and there was a long line of coffee and
food orders to deal with. It had tipped over to lunchtime so there was also a
list of simple meals to make. She hurried into the tiny kitchen, noted the pile
of dirty dishes that needed washing and put a load in her industrial
dishwasher.
She’d grossly
under-estimated how many staff she needed. She required at a minimum another
person to deal with the dirty dishes and one for some of the food orders – at
least on the weekends. She doubted she’d be this busy during the week.
Really, if she’d been
sensible, she would have opened on a Monday, allowed herself the time to get
used to everything while the majority of people were at work and then she’d
have had all the bugs sorted out by the weekend rush.
Too late to go back now.
A tap at the door had
her whirling around. Chris stood there. Elle forced a smile.
“Piper told me about
your no-shows. You could do with a busboy. Can I help?”
Elle was pragmatic
enough to know she couldn’t let pride stand in her way. The most important thing
was her business and its success. Her shoulders slumped and she said, “Yes,
please.”
“All right. Show me how
this thing works.”
Elle gave him quick
directions on the dishwasher and showed him where the dish towels were. Then
she hurried out to assess how the rest of her café was faring. She stopped
short: Imogen was making coffees.
Imogen smiled at her.
“I’m useless at serving, but I make a mean coffee. Nora’s doing the food.”
Elle didn’t protest.
“Thank you.” She glanced out at the café. The tables were all cleared and full
of people, Piper was taking orders with a smile, and over in the books area,
George was chatting to people, recommending novels. The table where they’d all
been sitting was now filled with other patrons.
Elle wasn’t sure how or
what she was going to pay them, but right now it didn’t matter.
“Orders up,” Nora said,
nodding to the plates of food on the counter.
Elle blinked and picked
them up.
She would thank her
lucky stars later.
Right now she had a café
to run.
***
An hour later, the café
suddenly fell silent. Alarmed, Elle looked up from the cash register. Everyone
was staring at the person who’d just walked through the door.
Elle’s mouth dropped
open.
Kent Downer – rock star.
And he was carrying a guitar case.
Elle watched, along with
the whole café, as he raised a hand to George and walked over to the area she
had cleared for the guitarist.
This couldn’t really be
happening.
The most famous rock
star in the world was not in her little café.
Piper had said she was
going to call a guitarist.
Elle whipped her gaze to
Piper, who was picking up some coffees to take out. “Did you organize this?”
She grinned. “I hope you
don’t mind.”
Elle had no words. Of
course she didn’t mind. She was frozen to the spot, watching him.
“You should tell him what
you want him to do,” Piper said.
Was she kidding? He
could do whatever the hell he wanted as far as Elle was concerned. If she got a
photo of Kent Downer in Eat, Drink, Read, it would do wonders for her
promotion.
She hurried over to
where Kent was unpacking his guitar and then hesitated, not sure what to say,
or do.
“Kent, this is the
owner, Elle,” George said.
Elle had forgotten about
George entirely. She blinked, smiled at him briefly and then turned her
attention back to the rock star.
“Howdy, ma’am. Pleasure
to meet you.” He held out a hand and gave her a wicked smile.
Elle forgot to breathe.
She generally wasn’t one
to have celebrity crushes, but Kent’s music had seen her through the toughest
time of her life and she’d viewed him as her lifeline. Now he was standing
right there in front of her and wanted to shake her hand.
Quickly she thrust out a
hand. “I had no idea . . . I mean, thank you for coming
. . . nice to meet you.” She was babbling, but Kent just smiled,
relaxed as could be.
“You want me to set up
here?”
Right. She had to focus
on why he was here. “Please.” She grabbed the stool she’d tucked out of sight
and brought it out. “Is this all right?”
“Perfect. What do you
want me to play?”
Elle stopped. She’d not
thought about that. His music was generally loud and rock. It would be too much
for her little café.
But how could she
possibly say it? “I, ah, well . . .”
“How about a light
acoustic set?” Kent saved her. “Maybe try out one or two of my new songs.”
Relief washed over her.
“That sounds wonderful. Can I get you something to eat or drink?”
“A glass of water would
be mighty fine.”
“Of course.” She hurried
away to get it. Conversations had started up again around the room, but
everyone was sneaking glances at Kent and lots of the customers had their
phones out to take pictures and videos.
At the sink, Nora bumped
into her. “How the hell did that happen?” she asked.
Elle shook her head.
“Wayne cancelled and Piper said she had a friend who could help
. . .”
Some friend.
“Well, girl, our
lunchtime rush isn’t going to end.” She nodded to where people were at the
window of the café, peering in.
Elle couldn’t think
about that now. She took the glass back to where Kent had started his first
song. The noise level was perfect, not so loud as to prevent conversation, but
not so soft that people couldn’t hear. She placed the water on the table next
to him and he nodded his thanks.
Elle stepped back, right
into George. He grunted and his hands came up to steady her.
“Oh, sorry.” She turned
and was standing only inches away from him, staring up into his deep sapphire
blue eyes. They were the most unusual color she’d seen, such a deep blue, and
he was looking rather bemused.
She blinked and moved
away, and would have crashed into a coffee table if George hadn’t reached out
and grabbed her arm. His fingers were warm but his grip was hard, hard enough
to break the spell his eyes had cast. Hard enough to remind her of reality and
the dangers of not looking beyond a pretty face until it was too late.
Elle shook her arm free.
“Thanks.”
She headed back to the
safety of the counter and her orders.
Author Info
Claire Boston is the best-selling author of The Texan Quartet. In 2014 she was nominated for an Australian Romance Readers Award as Favourite New Romance Author. Her debut contemporary romance novel, What Goes on Tour caught the attention of Momentum’s Joel Naoum when her first scene was read aloud at the Romance Writers’ of Australia (RWA) conference in 2013. This led to a four book contract for The Texan Quartet series.
Claire is proactive in organising social gatherings and educational opportunities for local authors. She is an active volunteer for RWA, as a mentor for aspiring authors and the reader judge coordinator.
When Claire’s not writing she can be found in the garden attempting to grow vegetables, or racing around a vintage motocross track. If she can convince anyone to play with her, she also enjoys cards and board games.
Claire lives in Western Australia, just south of Perth, with her husband, who loves even her most annoying quirks, and her grubby, but adorable Australian bulldog.
Contact
Please email Claire with any questions claire@claireboston.com
Social Networks
Website: http://www.claireboston.com
Blog: http://www.claireboston.com/blog
Reader Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/Z4-4z
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/clairebostonauthor
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/clairebauthor
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/clairebauthor
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/clairebostonauthor
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe9YKmz-ORDtYaNG17hM5BA
I read the first chapter of Under the Covers. I don't care what anyone else thinks, I think it is fabulous. Congratulations to Claire Boston. Really looking forward to the rest of the book - 13th August. I really like how the lovely characters from the previous books appear in Under the Covers to help Elle.
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