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Book Blurb
Caroline Tolbertson just wants to be left alone. But her mother is determined to see her married off, no matter Caroline’s protests--or her embarassing lack of suitors. Seeing David Cameron, her childhood crush, again sets her heart racing, but she’s older and wiser now. And no, that wasn’t her heart sinking when David suggested a faux courtship instead of the real thing.
But Caroline has never been very good at following the rules, and the fake attraction soon grows into the real thing. Now Caroline has more scandalous pursuits in mind and David is finding it very hard to say no to his gorgeous friend. Will giving in to temptation send them both down a path they each claim to abhor--straight to the altar?
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Book Trailer
Guest Post/Excerpts
Thank you so much for having me on Toots Book Reviews to blog about my latest release, SUMMER IS FOR LOVERS. I am excited to be here today to share a few of my favorite excerpts.
His heart is unavailable. Luckily, her interest lies in the rest of him…
Though she was just a girl when they first met, Caroline Tolbertson’s infatuation with David Cameron remains undimmed. Now fate has brought the handsome Scotsman back to Brighton for what promises to be an unforgettable summer. Soon, Caroline will have to choose a husband, but for now she is free to indulge her curiosity in things of a passionate nature. That is, if David will agree to teach her.
Past mistakes have convinced David he’ll make a terrible husband, though he’ll gladly help the unconventional Caroline find a suitor. Unfortunately, she has something more scandalous in mind. As the contenders for her hand begin to line up, her future seems assured…provided David can do the honorable thing and let them have her.
SUMMER IS FOR LOVERS opens with the hero battling the waves off the coast of Brighton and considering a decidedly unheroic fate.
David Cameron didn’t want to die.
It was an important fact, albeit one he may have decided too late.
Instinct pushed his limbs toward shore and his lungs toward the heavens. Unfortunately, death was proving a greedy bastard and did not want to loosen its hold. He was quite sure he had swallowed more of the Atlantic in the few moments he had been fighting to live than in the entire hour he had been trying to drown.
“Stop fighting the current!”
David blinked through the cold water and whisky haze that enveloped him like a too-tight glove. Despite his heart’s lumbering quest for survival, it kicked up a notch when he registered where the voice was coming from.
Someone was swimming toward him.
For a moment he was so stunned he wondered if he had died after all. He had selected this stretch of coast as much for its isolated shoreline as its turbulent surf. He might be a coward, but he was a coward with some pride. He had not wanted witnesses to his struggle, whichever side of damnation claimed him.
Whoever shouted at him could not be mortal, not tackling the waves as she was, as if they were butter and she were a heated knife. He caught the flash of small hands, one after the other, ordered and relentless. It looked like no swimming stroke he had ever seen.
Mermaids must swim like that, he thought blearily. Only, mermaids were beautiful.
And full-grown.
God damn it. It was a girl. Where were her parents that she had been permitted to leap into the waves off this violent stretch of coast, just to save his undeserving arse? He was going to have a devil of a time getting himself and a child back to shore.
And the death of another soul on his conscience, even one in need of a proper thrashing, would be his undoing.
My heroine, Caroline Tolbertson, has never forgotten the man she saved from the surf eleven years ago. Tall, athletic, and socially awkward, Caroline finds herself struggling against the prejudices of Brighton’s summer set down from London. When she sees David again for the fist time, Caroline experiences an immediate sense of destiny. But while David at least views her in a more favorable light than her tormentors, his response is nothing close to the passion she wants…
“I don’t come here every day,” she told him. “But you can call on me in town, if you prefer, and we can walk on the Marine Parade, or along the Steine. My house is the large Georgian with red shutters, the first one you encounter on the footpath back.”
He grinned, whatever melancholy that had gripped him tucked away for another time. “I shall do that.”
For a maddening moment, a moment she could not regret, but which she wished she could control, her stomach churned its agreement. Did he mean to court her, then? Eleven years of yearning, secret dreams stretching from childish fancy to adult curiosity, rose up in hope. No one, not even Mr. Dermott, had ever called on her at home before.
And then he ruined it. Took her swelling hope in his hands and pressed it flat, as if her dreams were a whimsical castle made of sand and he was the inevitable tide.
“After all,” he said, as if the matter of Caroline Tolbertson receiving a gentleman caller was not an astonishing thing. “If I am going to resist my mother’s harried match-making efforts this summer, I suspect I am going to need a good friend in Brighton to make it through unscathed.”
Caroline has been in love with David for eleven years, but he refuses to open his heart, believing past mistakes have made him unredeemable. Which means, of course, that Caroline must resort to Plan B…
“I cannot offer for you, so do not ask me.”
His words stung, for all that she was now prepared to deal with them. Caroline crossed her arms across her flannel-clad chest and tried to hide her shaking fingers. “As you pointed out last night, we would not suit. I am not seeking an offer of marriage from you.”
And she wasn’t. He had made it quite clear his heart was otherwise engaged.
But given that the love of his life had been dead for some eleven years, he could not argue that other pertinent parts of his anatomy were not available.
“You told me last night you weren’t celibate. That means you grant your favors to other women.” Her stomach churned, whether from the constant, shuddering movement of the bathing machine, or the nature of what she was asking, she couldn’t be sure. “I want you to share some small measure of those favors with me. One friend to another.”
“Have you not heard a word I have said?” His words swung wildly, but still found their mark. The honor she sensed lurking beneath David’s skin, the honor he denied he possessed, insinuated itself front and center. “You are more than ‘other’ women to me. You are asking me to ruin you, and then wrap it in a nice bow as if it’s some kind of perverted gift.”
“Don’t I deserve to know what I should be seeking in a husband before I make the wrong choice?” she countered. “And I have not asked you to do anything of the sort. I do not require the whole of the experience. Just enough to properly inform my decision.”
He paused facing away from her, trapped in one narrow corner of the bathing box that seemed to have shrunk about three sizes. She heard him swallow, even over the rush of the ocean. “How much of it?” he rasped.
“Not all of it. But more than kissing.” She had already had that from him, and while she was looking forward to repeating the experience, she wanted to know more.
His shoulders tensed beneath the wet fabric of his shirt, and she could see his fists clench and unclench. “You do not know what you are asking of me.”
“I do.” And she believed, with every fiber of her being, that he was the only man who could accomplish it.
Thank you again for having me on, I hope you enjoyed these brief excerpts from SUMMER IS FOR LOVERS!
Though she was just a girl when they first met, Caroline Tolbertson’s infatuation with David Cameron remains undimmed. Now fate has brought the handsome Scotsman back to Brighton for what promises to be an unforgettable summer. Soon, Caroline will have to choose a husband, but for now she is free to indulge her curiosity in things of a passionate nature. That is, if David will agree to teach her.
Past mistakes have convinced David he’ll make a terrible husband, though he’ll gladly help the unconventional Caroline find a suitor. Unfortunately, she has something more scandalous in mind. As the contenders for her hand begin to line up, her future seems assured…provided David can do the honorable thing and let them have her.
David Cameron didn’t want to die.
It was an important fact, albeit one he may have decided too late.
Instinct pushed his limbs toward shore and his lungs toward the heavens. Unfortunately, death was proving a greedy bastard and did not want to loosen its hold. He was quite sure he had swallowed more of the Atlantic in the few moments he had been fighting to live than in the entire hour he had been trying to drown.
“Stop fighting the current!”
David blinked through the cold water and whisky haze that enveloped him like a too-tight glove. Despite his heart’s lumbering quest for survival, it kicked up a notch when he registered where the voice was coming from.
Someone was swimming toward him.
For a moment he was so stunned he wondered if he had died after all. He had selected this stretch of coast as much for its isolated shoreline as its turbulent surf. He might be a coward, but he was a coward with some pride. He had not wanted witnesses to his struggle, whichever side of damnation claimed him.
Whoever shouted at him could not be mortal, not tackling the waves as she was, as if they were butter and she were a heated knife. He caught the flash of small hands, one after the other, ordered and relentless. It looked like no swimming stroke he had ever seen.
Mermaids must swim like that, he thought blearily. Only, mermaids were beautiful.
And full-grown.
God damn it. It was a girl. Where were her parents that she had been permitted to leap into the waves off this violent stretch of coast, just to save his undeserving arse? He was going to have a devil of a time getting himself and a child back to shore.
And the death of another soul on his conscience, even one in need of a proper thrashing, would be his undoing.
My heroine, Caroline Tolbertson, has never forgotten the man she saved from the surf eleven years ago. Tall, athletic, and socially awkward, Caroline finds herself struggling against the prejudices of Brighton’s summer set down from London. When she sees David again for the fist time, Caroline experiences an immediate sense of destiny. But while David at least views her in a more favorable light than her tormentors, his response is nothing close to the passion she wants…
“I don’t come here every day,” she told him. “But you can call on me in town, if you prefer, and we can walk on the Marine Parade, or along the Steine. My house is the large Georgian with red shutters, the first one you encounter on the footpath back.”
He grinned, whatever melancholy that had gripped him tucked away for another time. “I shall do that.”
For a maddening moment, a moment she could not regret, but which she wished she could control, her stomach churned its agreement. Did he mean to court her, then? Eleven years of yearning, secret dreams stretching from childish fancy to adult curiosity, rose up in hope. No one, not even Mr. Dermott, had ever called on her at home before.
And then he ruined it. Took her swelling hope in his hands and pressed it flat, as if her dreams were a whimsical castle made of sand and he was the inevitable tide.
“After all,” he said, as if the matter of Caroline Tolbertson receiving a gentleman caller was not an astonishing thing. “If I am going to resist my mother’s harried match-making efforts this summer, I suspect I am going to need a good friend in Brighton to make it through unscathed.”
Caroline has been in love with David for eleven years, but he refuses to open his heart, believing past mistakes have made him unredeemable. Which means, of course, that Caroline must resort to Plan B…
“I cannot offer for you, so do not ask me.”
His words stung, for all that she was now prepared to deal with them. Caroline crossed her arms across her flannel-clad chest and tried to hide her shaking fingers. “As you pointed out last night, we would not suit. I am not seeking an offer of marriage from you.”
And she wasn’t. He had made it quite clear his heart was otherwise engaged.
But given that the love of his life had been dead for some eleven years, he could not argue that other pertinent parts of his anatomy were not available.
“You told me last night you weren’t celibate. That means you grant your favors to other women.” Her stomach churned, whether from the constant, shuddering movement of the bathing machine, or the nature of what she was asking, she couldn’t be sure. “I want you to share some small measure of those favors with me. One friend to another.”
“Have you not heard a word I have said?” His words swung wildly, but still found their mark. The honor she sensed lurking beneath David’s skin, the honor he denied he possessed, insinuated itself front and center. “You are more than ‘other’ women to me. You are asking me to ruin you, and then wrap it in a nice bow as if it’s some kind of perverted gift.”
“Don’t I deserve to know what I should be seeking in a husband before I make the wrong choice?” she countered. “And I have not asked you to do anything of the sort. I do not require the whole of the experience. Just enough to properly inform my decision.”
He paused facing away from her, trapped in one narrow corner of the bathing box that seemed to have shrunk about three sizes. She heard him swallow, even over the rush of the ocean. “How much of it?” he rasped.
“Not all of it. But more than kissing.” She had already had that from him, and while she was looking forward to repeating the experience, she wanted to know more.
His shoulders tensed beneath the wet fabric of his shirt, and she could see his fists clench and unclench. “You do not know what you are asking of me.”
“I do.” And she believed, with every fiber of her being, that he was the only man who could accomplish it.
Thank you again for having me on, I hope you enjoyed these brief excerpts from SUMMER IS FOR LOVERS!
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I am so interested in your David and Caroline. She seems like someone whose going after what she want and is gonna get it. Can't wait to read it.
ReplyDeleteThe more excerpts I read the more I want to read Summer is For Lovers!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the excerpts; this sounds like a great read.
ReplyDeleteDo you think you will ever write any other genre
ReplyDelete