Hi! I am so excited today to be on one of my all-time favorite blogs as we count down to BURN ZONE (pubs 4/27), which is the first in my sexy new smoke jumper series set in Central Oregon amid the wildfire season. It centers around the forbidden attraction between a sunny newbie smoke jumper and an older, more jaded veteran. It’s also Older Brother’s Best Friend Trope, and oh how I love this trope. It’s all time favorite for me. I did it in AT ATTENTION as well, but here I wanted to take a Continue Reading
Excerpt: Temper by Chantal Fernando
Blurb from Temper by Chantal Fernando, available now. Every year, the hot, tatted biker comes into Abbie’s bar, orders whiskey, and asks her out. Every year, Abbie turns him down. After all, dating a man that goes by Temper seems like a really bad idea, no matter how attracted she is to him. But this year is different. Abbie’s different. Older, wiser, and tired of being stuck behind the bar in a sleepy town. This year, she’s ready for whatever adventure the sexy but sweet biker has in Continue Reading
Top Ten April 17, 2020
I've read at least ten books (current and back list) that I want to tell y'all about but also every day is exhausting. I hope everyone is staying at home as much as they are able, washing hands, and being healthy. So instead of a round up and mini-reviews, here is today's Top Ten. 10. This video had me cackling. 9. File this under cats with jobs 8. Is she wrong though? 7. This is just adorable 6. I just finished Nadiya's season of GBBO recently. I am so excited about this Continue Reading
Guest Post: Feeling My Way Home by Alice Archer
Where is home for you? Are you happy there? Over the two years I wrote The Infinite Onion, I thought a lot about Home with a capital H, wondering if a deep feeling of Home would be possible for me after living in eighty places in three countries. I felt homeless in a conceptual way, and longed for an easy answer to my dilemma of where to settle, where to put down roots for good. Storytelling, especially the long form of a novel, allows me to explore extremes to a degree I can’t in real Continue Reading
Guest Post: Strong Female Characters by Cecelia London
There’s a certain difficulty inherent in being a strong female character. Their complexity leaves them vulnerable to criticism, and we all know that complex women bear the brunt of criticism more frequently than complex men. Strong female characters are not allowed to be too angry, too aggressive, too sexual, too anything, while the over-the-topness (yes, I just created a new word) of strong male characters (alphas, if you will) is overlooked or even praised. But the complexity is worth Continue Reading
Guest Post: Blending Hard Topics with Romance by Jennie Davids
Thank you so much for having me here today. I was invited to talk about how I blend hard topics and romance in my Thorn & Thistle series which follows the queer women that work in a tattoo shop. Two books into the series and I’ve already tackled cancer, alcoholism, and the death of a parent. Those topics might not scream romance to some, but they do for me. In fact, as I’ve learned when I try to write lighter things and failed, they are a necessity. For me, the presence of heavy subjects is Continue Reading
Smexy Rewind April 10
I have nothing fresh for y'all today so I thought I would take a look back and see what we were talking about on Smexy in years past. If I skipped a year it is because there was no post. I hope you enjoy this glimpse into the past. 2018- Review: It Happened in the Highlands by May McGoldrick 2017- Review: At Attention by Annabeth Albert 2016- Smexy Scene Sunday Hard Ball by CD Reiss 2015- Smexy’s Top Ten – April 10th 2014- Review: Special Interests by Emma Barry 2013- Ten Continue Reading
Review: You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle
You may know by now that enemies to lovers is one of my least favorite tropes. Two characters antagonizing and sniping at each other can often veer into meanness and that never works for me. The blurb for this also alluded to it being a relationship in trouble. I knew I had to give it a try and hoped for the best. BLURB: When your nemesis also happens to be your fiancé, happily ever after becomes a lot more complicated in this wickedly funny, lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy Continue Reading
Excerpt from Hostile Pursuit by June Rushdan and a giveaway!!
The new Hard Core Justice Thriller series is about US Marshals who are thrust into extraordinary circumstances, where everything goes wrong while trying to protect their witnesses. And of course, they fall in love along the way, but can they survive to have a happily-ever-after? In this excerpt, US Marshal Nick McKenna has been protecting Lori Carpenter for the past year. She is supposed to testify in twenty-four hours, but assassins have been sent by a drug cartel to silence her. They’ve Continue Reading
Top Ten April 3, 2020
After 31 very long days March is FINALLY over and April has begun. I hope that where ever you are you are safe and healthy. Here are some of the things that I found on the internet that have made me laugh or I have found them to be useful. 10. Have you found yourself cooking more now than ever and looking for budget friendly items? I found this account on IG recently and they are one of my new favorites. Since I am making almost all our meals at home, I need lots of ideas to keep things Continue Reading