The Trouble with Flying: Excerpt and giveaway

The Trouble With Flying - PROMO Blitz

By Rachel Morgan

Young Adult/New Adult

Date Published: June 24, 2014

    

  

When introvert Sarah boards a plane to fly home after an overseas holiday, the last thing she expects is Aiden, the guy sitting next to her who’s never flown anywhere before and refuses to shut up. Hours of random conversation later, they part ways. Sarah can’t stop thinking about Aiden, though, and wondering if she made a terrible mistake letting him go. Should she abandon her safe, predictable life and go in search of him, or would she be chasing a happily ever after that could never exist in real life?

EXCERPT

CHAPTER ONE

I don’t make friends on aeroplanes. I know there are people who like to strike up a conversation with the complete stranger sitting next to them, but that’s not me. It’s not that I’m an unfriendly person. It’s more the fact that the conversation centre of my brain seems to seize up in the presence of strangers, and I can’t for the life of me figure out what to say. And even if the other person is happy to simply babble on while I pretend to listen and be interested, I’d really rather be doing something else. Like reading. Or watching a movie. Or sleeping. Or trying to figure out how to stop crying.
Yes. Crying. Because if being shy and awkward isn’t enough, today I’m adding red eyes, tears, and suppressed sobs to the embarrassing mix.
I stare out the tiny, oval window at the patches of reflected light on the wet runway and silently ask God to leave the seat next to me empty. I can’t deal with a chatty neighbour right now. I’d rather watch the black sky and incessant rain until we reach cruising altitude. Then I’ll close my eyes and let sleep take the pain away.
Oh, STOP IT. It’s not like someone died.
I wiggle around a bit in my seat and sniff, trying to listen to my inner pep-talk voice. Think of the good things, I tell myself. I’m on my way home. I’m leaving behind the dreary, wet weather for a sunny, summer climate. That, at least, should make me happy. But thinking about home leads to thoughts ofwho I’m flying towards, and that only makes my stomach twist further.
I hear the sound of a bag being dumped onto the seat at the end of my row. There are only three seats between the window and the aisle—mine and two others—so there’s a fifty-fifty chance this person is about to plonk him or herself down right next to me.
I angle myself more towards the window and swipe my fingers beneath my eyes. I start the furious tear-banishing blinking. Stop crying, stop crying, stop crying. All I need now is for someone to see my blotchy, wet face and start asking me what’s wrong.
I hear someone settling into a seat. I don’t feel movement right beside me, so it must be the aisle seat. Fantastic. I send up a quick thank-you prayer and remind God that it would be spectacularly awesome if He could keep the seat next to me empty.
A tickle inside my left nostril alerts me to the fact that my nose is dribbling. I sniff, but it doesn’t help.Crap, where are my tissues? I lean forward and reach down by my feet for my handbag. Brown strands of hair fall in front of my face and block my vision, but if I can just get the zip open and feel past my purse to the tissues—
No. Too late. Now it’s trickling down my lip and I’m digging around in the bag and I can’t feel the stupid tissues and a drop of tear-snot just landed on my hand and yuck! I haul the ridiculous handbag—I told Jules I didn’t need something so big—onto my lap with one hand while holding the back of my other hand to my nose. And there the tissues are. Right next to my purse. Perfectly easy to find. I rip one from the packet and jam it against my nose to stop the tear-snot flood.
And that’s when I catch a glimpse of the guy sitting in the aisle seat. A quick sideways glimpse, but enough to tell me he’s cute. Excellent cheekbones, a strong jawline, and perfectly messy dark brown hair. Terrific. My nose is dripping snot in front of a cute guy. Not that I should care that he’s cute, or that he’s a guy, because it’s not like I’m going to talk to him, and it’s not like I’m even available—am I? I don’t actually know. And thinking about that makes me want to cry all over again—but STILL. I don’t want to look blotchy and snotty in front of a cute guy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Rachel Morgan was born in South Africa and spent a large portion of her childhood living in a fantasy land of her own making. After completing a degree in genetics, she decided science wasn't for her--after all, they didn't approve of made-up facts. These days she spends much of her time immersed in fantasy land once more, writing fiction for young adults.

Author Links

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Buy Link

Amazon

GIVEAWAY

A $20 Amazon gift card for one winner

E-copy of THE TROUBLE WITH FLYING for two winners

  

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Healed by a Heart: Review, giveaway and poll

Discover the second installment in the Destiny in Deadwood Series. 

Read it as a part of a series or as a stand alone!

                                      

Release Date: May 2014  

Genre: Historical Romance. Western.      

All Liam Anderson wanted after the War Between the States, was a little peace. After seventeen years in the army, he’s tired of fighting and killing. Having lost his beloved wife to influenza, he’s tired of hurting. And seeing his baby brother framed for murder, he’s tired of injustice.

He left everything behind to help his brothers escape, packed up his children and possessions, and took them all to a gold claim in Deadwood. Miss Eleanor Smith is a thirty-two year-old spinster. She gave up her dream of a home and family a long time ago. Instead, she has spent her life traveling the world, ministering to the weak, the injured, the poor, and the forgotten, following her preacher father from one hell hole to another.

From what she’s seen of men and the world, she’s better off taking care of herself. And she gets along just fine, until she literally falls into Liam’s arms, gets in the middle of a fight that isn’t hers, and becomes a pawn for an enemy’s revenge.

Deadwood was supposed to be a fresh start for Liam Anderson and his younger brothers, but trouble followed him and his children. And when Eleanor disappears, only Liam can rescue her. The headstrong, independent woman awoke his dead passion, but refused to surrender to his touch. Can he convince her that merely surviving isn’t enough? Despite his sins, he's the only man who can save her, and she's the only woman strong enough to heal his broken heart.

PROLOGUE

April 1876St. Louis, Missouri Liam Anderson sat in front of a blazing fire, in his pajamas and robe, puffing on his pipe, reading, for the last time in this house. The place he’d called home for so many years. The kids were asleep upstairs. Sleep had eluded him and he’d risen to read until he got tired.

BAM! BAM! BAM!He looked up from the book he read and glanced at the mantel clock. One of the few things he hadn’t packed away. “What in the world? Who would be out in this weather at this hour?

”What the hell?” said Liam, when he opened the door to his two younger brothers. “Jake? Zach? What are you two doing here? It’s the middle of the night.”Zach growled from behind Jake. “Are you going to let us in or make us stand in this rain all night?”

“Come in. Zach put that gun away,” said Liam.

“Can’t until the kid here,” he poked Jake in the back with his gun, “is inside and we’ve talked to you.

”Jake, the youngest of his brothers, walked into the foyer of the house, followed closely by Zach. He stared down the hallway, packed with luggage and boxes down to the parlor, but didn’t question it. Didn’t even seem to notice that the house was packed up ready to move.

Both of them were haggard, completely worn out. Their coats were soaked through and they couldn’t have been comfortable. He’d never seen them looking so exhausted or…desperate.

“Sorry to do this to you, Liam. I know you’re leaving tomorrow,” said Zach as he holstered his gun and dripped water onto the foyer floor. He threw his had onto one of the steamer trunks. Jake followed suit.

It was times like these that the difference between his brothers was so striking. Zach with his nearly black hair and dark blue eyes. There was one in every generation with the coloring of their Gypsy great grandmother, Zach was theirs and their father had been the one in his generation. It was rare to have two gypsies in the same family, usual it was an uncle or aunt rather than a parent of the latest child with the coloring.

Jake with dark blond, overly long hair and light blue eyes most resembled their dear mother.

Liam was somewhere between the two, with light brown hair and gray eyes. His children were different as night and day, too. Ten year old David resembled Liam not only physically but mentally too. David always seemed to weigh his words before he spoke them. Whereas Hannah, the gypsy of her generation, said whatever came into her little head. She was only five, but even at her age, David had been as contemplative as he was now.

He smiled thinking of his children. They were his joy. His reason for living. He closed his eyes and grounded himself in the present and answered Jake.“Yes. At first light. Now, tell me what’s going on and why you brought Jake here at gun point.”

“Only way I could get him to come,” growled Zach.

“And?” Liam said, exasperated. “Don’t make me beat the story out of you word by word, little brother. Just tell me the problem.”

Liam pointed at the two chairs in front of the fire and then went to the fireplace and stoked the banked coals back to a roaring blaze. He really didn’t need this now, not when he was leaving in the morning. Not when he was so close to putting the old, hurtful memories behind him.

Cynthia Woolf is the author of six historical western romance books and one short story with more books on the way. She was born in Denver, Colorado and raised in the mountains west of Golden. She spent her early years running wild around the mountain side with her friends.

Their closest neighbor was one quarter of a mile away, so her little brother was her playmate and her best friend. That fierce friendship lasted until his death in 2006.

Cynthia was and is an avid reader. Her mother was a librarian and brought new books home each week. This is where young Cynthia first got the storytelling bug. She wrote her first story at the age of ten. A romance about a little boy she liked at the time.

Cynthia loves writing and reading romance. Her first western romance Tame A Wild Heart, was inspired by the story her mother told her of meeting Cynthia’s father on a ranch in Creede, Colorado. Although Tame A Wild Heart takes place in Creede that is the only similarity between the stories. Her father was a cowboy not a bounty hunter and her mother was a nursemaid (called a nanny now) not the ranch owner.

Cynthia credits her wonderfully supportive husband Jim and the great friends she's made at CRW for saving her sanity and allowing her to explore her creativity.

TITLES AVAILABLE

    

HEALED BY A HEART

REDEEMED BY A REBEL

CAPITAL BRIDE

HEIRESS BRIDE

FIERY BRIDE

TAME A WILD HEART

TAME A WILD WIND

TAME A WILD BRIDE

TAME A SUMMER HEART

WEBSITE – www.cynthiawoolf.com

MY THOUGHTS:

** I received this book from the autor in Exchange for an honest review**

This is the third book from Cynthia Woolf that I read and definitely won’t be the last.

Even if it is part of a series you can read it as a stand alone.  I’ve read book 1 and loved it but this one was better.

It was such a tender story that unfolded slowly and carefully. The characters were beautifully created and, even if the book is not very long, they achieve great depth.

Liam looks tough on the outside, but slowly Eleanor makes a way to his heart.

I liked her a lot. She is a simple girl, no outstandingly gorgeous or anything, just a girl. But Liam sees her “true colors” and helps her gain confidence while she breaks the barriers he built after his ex wife died.

Two people that thought they would never be happy and when they found each other they end up being a perfect couple. Bringing out the good. I JUST LOVED THEM!

“I will never lie to you. When I tell you that you’re lovely, you can rest assured you are. How could anyone with half a brain not see her for what she was? Beautiful. Not in the conventional sense, though. Her beauty was subtle, quiet. But he saw it, there underneath the starchy façade she put up for the world to see. Liam saw beneath, to the real woman. And he liked what he saw.”

I loved the adventure, the writing which is fast paced and subtle and also like the setting. Can’t wait to read about the third brother. This is a great series!

Totally recommended!

Prize: $50 VISA GC

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Amazing contest!

Do you want to be part of Cynthia Woolf's next book?

Cynthia has so many ideas! Help her decide between one of these settings.

And guess what? If you win, you will get a signed ARC of the book to read it before anyone else and you also will be named on the aknowledgements. Great way to be remembered! ;)

What are you waiting for? Take a look!

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Two Little Lies: Excerpt and giveaway

Two Little Lies by Rhonda Helms 

(Edgewood Falls #2) 

Publication date: June 9th 2014

Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance

Synopsis:

Natalie Goldsmith has a fabulous life and an equally awesome boyfriend. So what is her best friend Bianca thinking when she says she suspects West is cheating—and confesses that she’s hired a PI to prove it? Totally not cool.

Especially since the cynical PI, Kyle Winslow, is her grade school nemesis. With a smug, know-it-all look on his face, Kyle declares he can smell a cheater from a mile away, and he’s willing to bet it all on West. Well, if he wants to waste his time chasing a lie, more power to him. But just days later, he presents irrefutable evidence of her boyfriend’s unfaithfulness, and Natalie’s enviable life takes a total nosedive.

Determined to not let this ruin her New Year’s Eve, she goes out on the town, dressed to the nines…and ends up having a drunken night of mind-blowing sex with Kyle. Now the guy she hates is the one person she can’t get out of her mind. Even crazier, he seems just as drawn to her too. The more time they spend together, the more she realizes Kyle could be everything she’s been looking for. But should she risk it all on a guy who says he doesn’t believe in love?

Excerpt:

Sensory detail came to me in little pieces. The strips of weak sunshine through the blinds on the window. The rich cotton of the pillow and sheets that touched my skin. The firm mattress.The warm hand resting on my naked hip.I froze, cracked one eye open. This wasn’t my bedroom. I wasn’t in my apartment. Where the hell was I? I ordered my brain to think faster, but it was like trying to navigate a boat through a thick fog.Snippets of memories from last night finally seeped through the swiss cheese holes in my brain. Tino’s bar. Kyle showing up with friends. His mouth on mine in the bathroom stall. Coming back to his place to talk. And then…Oh, God. My face erupted in a burst of flames that spread down my throat, across my chest. Had I really had sex with him? I was lying naked in not-my-bed, with not-my-hand touching me. My pelvis and thighs had a slight tenderness that wasn’t unpleasant. All signs pointed to yes.
Conflicting emotions battered at me. Part of me wanted to run away, pretend like this had never occurred. After all, what was gonna happen between him and me now? Would he wake up, look at me and be horrified about last night? Regretful? Rude and dismissive?The other part of me couldn’t stop focusing on the gentle pressure of his fingers cupped around my hip. How his hand flexed in his sleep so he gave me little unconscious squeezes. The soft cadence of his breath stirring the back of my hair.My chest tightened, and I sucked in a breath. I’d had sex with Kyle. And now that the pieces were filling in, I remembered that it had been amazing. The best I’d ever had, hands down. Unbelievably hot and intimate too. There had been moments of genuine connection between us last night. Not just physical lust. And maybe that was the thing that was tripping me up the most right now. Because I’d felt something for him.I bit my lower lip. How could I have experienced an emotional link with someone who wasn’t my type? A guy who tended to aggravate me more often than not? And to add to the issue, I was freshly single. Twenty-four hours after dumping West, I’d been all too willing to hop into the sack with Kyle.Or the couch, to be technical.What kind of a girl did that? This kind, apparently. Bianca would approve of my sexual revolution. Hell, she’d probably give me a box of condoms and tell me to keep up the good work.I lay there for another moment, coming up with scenarios that wouldn’t end this event in total awkward disaster. Finally, I rolled onto my back. His hand slid possessively across my belly and cuddled me closer.I swallowed as my heart squeezed. It was so dumb, the momentary flare of wanting this to be real. Never gonna happen.

AUTHOR BIO:

Rhonda Helms started writing several years ago. She has a Master's degree in English and a Bachelor's degree in Creative Writing. She also edits for Carina Press (an imprint of Harlequin Publishing) and freelance edits.

When she isn't writing, she likes to do amateur photography, dig her toes into the sand, read for hours at a time, and eat scads of cheese. WAY too much cheese.

Rhonda lives in Northeast Ohio with her family.

Author links: 

Website

Twitter

Facebook

Goodreads

GIVEAWAY:

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Healed by a Heart, excerpt and giveaway

Healed by a Heart 

by Cynthia Woolf

This is the second book in the Destiny in Deadwood series but you can also read it as a stand alone.

Quick Facts                                        

Release Date:                  

Genre: Historical Romance. Western                                              

Formats to buy: Papaerbacks and all ebook formats

Book Synopsis

 

All Liam Anderson wanted after the War Between the States, was a little peace. After seventeen years in the army, he’s tired of fighting and killing. Having lost his beloved wife to influenza, he’s tired of hurting. And seeing his baby brother framed for murder, he’s tired of injustice.

He left everything behind to help his brothers escape, packed up his children and possessions, and took them all to a gold claim in Deadwood. Miss Eleanor Smith is a thirty-two year-old spinster. She gave up her dream of a home and family a long time ago. Instead, she has spent her life traveling the world, ministering to the weak, the injured, the poor, and the forgotten, following her preacher father from one hell hole to another.

From what she’s seen of men and the world, she’s better off taking care of herself. And she gets along just fine, until she literally falls into Liam’s arms, gets in the middle of a fight that isn’t hers, and becomes a pawn for an enemy’s revenge.

Deadwood was supposed to be a fresh start for Liam Anderson and his younger brothers, but trouble followed him and his children. And when Eleanor disappears, only Liam can rescue her. The headstrong, independent woman awoke his dead passion, but refused to surrender to his touch. Can he convince her that merely surviving isn’t enough? Despite his sins, he's the only man who can save her, and she's the only woman strong enough to heal his broken heart.

..............................................................................................................................................

Excerpt:

PROLOGUE

 April 1876 - St. Louis, Missouri 

Liam Anderson sat in front of a blazing fire, in his pajamas and robe, puffing on his pipe, reading, for the last time in this house. The place he’d called home for so many years. The kids were asleep upstairs. Sleep had eluded him and he’d risen to read until he got tired.BAM! BAM! BAM!He looked up from the book he read and glanced at the mantel clock. One of the few things he hadn’t packed away. “What in the world? Who would be out in this weather at this hour?”What the hell?” said Liam, when he opened the door to his two younger brothers. “Jake? Zach? What are you two doing here? It’s the middle of the night.”Zach growled from behind Jake. “Are you going to let us in or make us stand in this rain all night?”“Come in. Zach put that gun away,” said Liam.“Can’t until the kid here,” he poked Jake in the back with his gun, “is inside and we’ve talked to you.”Jake, the youngest of his brothers, walked into the foyer of the house, followed closely by Zach. He stared down the hallway, packed with luggage and boxes down to the parlor, but didn’t question it. Didn’t even seem to notice that the house was packed up ready to move.Both of them were haggard, completely worn out. Their coats were soaked through and they couldn’t have been comfortable. He’d never seen them looking so exhausted or…desperate.“Sorry to do this to you, Liam. I know you’re leaving tomorrow,” said Zach as he holstered his gun and dripped water onto the foyer floor. He threw his had onto one of the steamer trunks. Jake followed suit.It was times like these that the difference between his brothers was so striking. Zach with his nearly black hair and dark blue eyes. There was one in every generation with the coloring of their Gypsy great grandmother, Zach was theirs and their father had been the one in his generation. It was rare to have two gypsies in the same family, usual it was an uncle or aunt rather than a parent of the latest child with the coloring.Jake with dark blond, overly long hair and light blue eyes most resembled their dear mother.Liam was somewhere between the two, with light brown hair and gray eyes. His children were different as night and day, too. Ten year old David resembled Liam not only physically but mentally too. David always seemed to weigh his words before he spoke them. Whereas Hannah, the gypsy of her generation, said whatever came into her little head. She was only five, but even at her age, David had been as contemplative as he was now.He smiled thinking of his children. They were his joy. His reason for living. He closed his eyes and grounded himself in the present and answered Jake.“Yes. At first light. Now, tell me what’s going on and why you brought Jake here at gun point.”“Only way I could get him to come,” growled Zach.“And?” Liam said, exasperated. “Don’t make me beat the story out of you word by word, little brother. Just tell me the problem.”Liam pointed at the two chairs in front of the fire and then went to the fireplace and stoked the banked coals back to a roaring blaze. He really didn’t need this now, not when he was leaving in the morning. Not when he was so close to putting the old, hurtful memories behind him.

..............................................................................................................................................

Other books in the series:

Redeemed by a Rebel

The Author

Cynthia Woolf is the author of six historical western romance books and one short story with more

books on the way.

She was born in Denver, Colorado and raised in the mountains west of Golden. She spent her early years running wild around the mountain side with her friends.Their closest neighbor was one quarter of a mile away, so her little brother was her playmate and her best friend. That fierce friendship lasted until his death in 2006.

Cynthia was and is an avid reader. Her mother was a librarian and brought new books home each week. This is where young Cynthia first got the storytelling bug. She wrote her first story at the age of ten. A romance about a little boy she liked at the time.

Cynthia loves writing and reading romance. Her first western romance Tame A Wild Heart, was inspired by the story her mother told her of meeting Cynthia’s father on a ranch in Creede, Colorado. Although Tame A Wild Heart takes place in Creede that is the only similarity between the stories. Her father was a cowboy not a bounty hunter and her mother was a nursemaid (called a nanny now) not the ranch owner. Cynthia credits her wonderfully supportive husband Jim and the great friends she's made at CRW for saving her sanity and allowing her to explore her creativity.

 WEBSITE – www.cynthiawoolf.com

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