Romancing the Holidays: A First Coast Romance Writers Holiday Anthology

Publication date: September 22nd 2020
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

A dozen ways to fall in love at the holidays…

Come celebrate the holidays with these dozen unique romances, ranging from sweet to steamy and all ending with a happily-ever-after. This anthology of short stories, written by multi-award-winning authors, including New York Times best-selling author, Alyssa Day, will transport you from Labor Day and Halloween antics to Christmas and Valentine romantics. Its stories will whisk you away into contemporary, historical, and paranormal worlds where love prevails. So, savor the authors featured in this enchanting book and bet your heart on some romantic cheer while you enjoy these twelve ways to fall in love.

Proceeds from this novel benefit First Coast Romance Writers, a non-profit chapter of Romance Writers of America that helps writers hone their craft and expand their knowledge of the publishing industry. A portion of the proceeds are also donated to FeedAmerica.org.

Excerpt

“Faking it for the Holidays” by Lia Davis:

Julius probably shouldn’t be as happy as he was about his parents going on a cruise the week of Christmas. But he was. For the first time since he met his best friend and future wife—although she didn’t know that yet—he would be able to spend a normal, quiet, holiday season with Tara.

Just the two of them.

Was it wrong that he wanted to spend Christmas with his best friend, alone? 

They didn’t have to listen to his parents, especially his mom, go on and on about how they should get married and give her beautiful grandbabies. It was embarrassing and made things awkward between them for the whole trip to Oregon to spend Christmas with his parents.

Tara had always been fantastic about his crazy family, which made her even more perfect for him. She never complained. She fit right in with them and humored his mom when she started in about the future of their lives and how they weren’t getting any younger.

The whole thing made him hesitate to ask Tara to marry him. He didn’t want her to think he was pressured into proposing, which he wasn’t. He loved her from the moment they met as kids.

He wanted to show her how much he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, without the pressure of his family lurking and watching them. Yessir, this year was going to be different.

He had Tara to himself.

His cell rang and he snatched it up from the kitchen counter where he was prepping movie-night snacks for him and Tara. It was their usual Saturday night “date” to make fun of bad movies. Not looking at the screen and thinking it was Tara, he said, “You better not be backing out on tonight.”

There was a long few moments of silence. Jules’ heart dropped to his feet. She wasn’t coming over. He’d spent all week gathering the courage to finally tell her how he felt. That he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her and not as just her best friend. He wanted more. “Tara?”

“Oh, no silly. It’s your mother. Don’t you check the caller ID?”

Damn. “Mom. How are you? Are you on the ship?”

She let out a disappointing sigh. “Sadly, no. The cruise was canceled last minute. That means we’re staying home for Christmas. You’re coming, right?”

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Spotlight: Say You’ll Be There by Billie Dale

Publication date: October 1st 2020
Genres: Comedy, New Adult, Romance

From award winning author Billie Dale comes a second chance love story muddling the line between love and hate. As young love goes Joey and Preslee were perfect but nothing last forever and the world is ready for the taking. Dale’s sassy wit shines in comedic fashion with Say You’ll Be There, book two in Love in Seven Mile Forge.

At sixteen, Joey Holmes handed me his heart.

At eighteen, I threw it at the Now Leaving Seven Mile Forge sign on my way out of town.

A silly teenage game of seven minutes in heaven spiraled us from friends to more.

We shared our firsts. Loved with the innocence of immaturity.

I wanted out. A fresh start far away from our tiny home town. Joey didn’t care where we were so long as we were together. I couldn’t spread my wings without clipping his. My heart told me I was doing what was best when I left him broken in my rearview mirror.

With a threat breathing down my neck, I’m forced to return home but Joey isn’t the skinny boy I knew. Nope, now he’s the sexiest Chief of Police in three states and he hates the very air I breathe.

Can the hot cop keep me safe from the danger lurking in the shadows or will the bleached bones of the skeletons in my closet be our tragic end?

Excerpt

“Preslee,” his soft voice turns hoarse, “I lo…” My index finger silences him this time. 

When I plopped down his palms landed on my back, rubbing up and down while I situated myself. Now, his spanned fingers inch through the ticklish place under my arms, gliding until both my breasts sit in his hands. A slight ocean breeze peaks my nipples. The pads of his thumbs brushing against them makes keeping my thought train maddening. I deserve top accolades in the resisting temptation Olympics, but I need to say this. 

“Show me. Exhale our past. Inhale our present. Until our world slows on its axis, threatening to grind to a halt, we make our second chance more than words. So many times, people use those eight letters in place of the sentiment to make them true. Love is a hug for no reason, support on the worst of days and shared joy on the best. It’s breakfast in bed, a ride from the airport, a forehead kiss, holding hands, sending a song which makes you think of me, handling vapid telemarketers, saying ‘bless you’ when I sneeze, thinking I’m beautiful when I’m really a hot mess, and seeing no other woman but me, trusting someone with all of you… it’s an entire planet of little subtle conveniences, flirts, and simplicity but conveying what matters without uttering a syllable. We save the words to use when actions can’t.”

A lopsided grin hooks up one side of his lips for a fraction of a second before they touch mine. He draws back, waggling his brows. “I’m all for a little less talk and a lot more action.” A whispered kiss followed by a sinful smirk. “Lovin’, touchin’, squeezin’.” I expect another peck but he shifts, dusting his lips along my cheek instead before hitting me with a hell of a smolder. “Everything I do, I do for you.” He finds the other cheek. “I don’t want to miss a thing.” Now my nose. “More. Than. Words. Preslee, you’re the flame. You were the first and you’ll be the last.” Warm breath skates down until his mouth takes mine in a searing possession.

Also the first book in the series Wannabe More will be on sale for $0.99 (FREE w/ KU)  from 10/28-10/5: http://mybook.to/Wannabe

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About the Author

Billie Dale lives in no-where middle earth. Lost in a small village in the Midwest with four kids, three animals and an amazing, word inspiring-book boyfriend, worthy husband.

A blogger by nature and a writer because she got tired of arguing with the voices in her head. She loves and lives the words on the page, whether writing them or reading them; her life is consumed by the worlds her head creates.

Her greatest wish is for readers to fall in love with her words as much as she loves writing them. She loves to create new worlds to explore and writing words that will take root in your soul.

Paranormal, New Adult, Romantic Comedy, Contemporary -- there is not one box she fits in. She's a rebel in the author world who writes what her head tells her even it jumps from genre to genre.

Connect:

https://www.instagram.com/authorbilliedale/

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Audio Spotlight: The Winter of Enchantment by Victoria Walker

Narrator: Kim Bretton

Length: 4 hours 13 minutes

Publisher: Victoria Clayton Limited⎮2020

Genre: Fantasy; Children’s

Series: Sebastian and Melissa, Book 1

Release date: Jun. 15, 2020

Synopsis: A magic mirror enables Sebastian to travel from his Victorian world of winter snow and Mrs Parkin to a magic world of Melissa, Mantari, and wicked Enchanter and many other exciting people.

This wonderful audiobook follows in the great tradition of the E. Nesbit magic books. Since its first publication in 1969 it has proved its appeal to children of every age.

Long out of print until republished by Fidra Books in the UK and Purple House Press in the USA, it received praise from respected children's authors.

The sequel to this book is called The House Called Hadlows.

Listen to an excerpt

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About the Author: Victoria Walker

Victoria Walker was twenty-one when she wrote The Winter of Enchantment in 1968. A second story about Sebastian and Melissa, The House Called Hadlows, was published in 1972. In 1973 she went to Cambridge University to read English and married immediately after finishing her degree. Two children followed and two decades passed before she began to write under her married name of Victoria Clayton. She lives with her husband in Northamptonshire.

About the Narrator: Kim Bretton

Kim Bretton Kim is an accomplished and award winning actress and director with West End/Broadway theatre credits. Kim has narrated over 60 audiobooks and counting. She is also an in demand voice over talent in the commercial and corporate arena and owns her own class A recording studio in Nashville. Kim is from the UK but has lived in NYC, L.A. and now Nashville TN. She continues to work in Theatre, Film and TV as an actress and a director alongside narrating audiobooks and commercial voice overs. 

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Spotlight: Brennan by Anna Castor

Series: Lucky Irish Series #3

Release Date: October 2, 2020

Errin's homesick phone calls to her family in Jersey were getting longer and more frequent. Moving to Austin so the three Walsh sisters could be together again had been a total bust. With her mind set on her final shot at making it as a dancer back in Jersey, she never saw the handsome and broody bartender coming. Falling for the eleven year older Mills brother is exactly NOT what she needs right now. 

Within the first thirty seconds in meeting Errin for the first time, Brennan concluded they would never be a thing or even friends for that matter.But then one night, Brennan sees Errin in a different light. Has the best thing that could ever happen to him been sitting right under his nose all this time? Their push and pull is making him crazy. Brennan finally found the one that could match him and he is all in. But is Errin? Or is Brennan too late?

Lucky Irish series: Brennan is the third book in the funny, sweet and steamy Lucky Irish series about the love lives of several Irish families in Austin, Texas. Each book is an interconnected standalone, a new sexy romance but let us also catch up with favorite characters from the series. 

No cheating, no cliffhangers and definitely a HEA. For mature readers only.

Excerpt

Brennan had already stopped the music and flicked on the lights. He’d swept and cleaned most of the tables. One last table to go.

He closed the register and picked up his towel, a sponge, and cleaning solution. The checkout had to wait till tomorrow. He strode to Pops’ table where Errin still sat.

Errin eyed him with mascara trails running down her cheeks like she was seeing him for the very first time. Oh, hell no. She had to stop giving him the look. 

The look that said she was game for the night. The look that said she wanted to forget whatever’s been bothering her, and he was the number one solution to make her forget. She wasn’t the first woman who’d eyed him like this at closing time in Lucky.

He sprayed the cleaning formula on the table and wiped it over and over with his sponge. Her penetrating gaze followed his every move, but he intended to keep on ignoring her. 

He would not give in to her sudden interest in him. She showed none before, so why now—because she was drunk? That had to be the number one turnoff for him. How cliché of her.

“So…” she said.

He spared a glance over his shoulder at Errin sitting at the table, and sure enough, she blushed the moment their eyes met. Fuck. Errin never blushed. 

“Stop it,” he warned.

Her light blue eyes grew wide, and she stuttered, “S-stop w-what?”

“Stop staring at me.” He lifted one eyebrow and dared her to contradict him.

“I—” 

“Stop looking at me as if you want me to pick you up, throw you on this table and fuck the life out of you,” he said and returned his focus on his hands that kept assaulting the tabletop with his sponge. Damn confetti.

Errin gasped. “Oh-my-god! Are you serious?”

“That’s what you’ve been thinking about, isn’t it?” he stopped scrubbing and glanced over his shoulder again.

Her wide eyes ping-ponged from the tabletop to his face again. “I… erm, no! Never. You stop it. I have no idea what’s going on inside that head of yours, but I’ll have you know that nobody will ever throw me over any kind of surface to get fucked. And certainly not you! Ugh.”

She was such a terrible liar. Her cheeks reddened even more and her eyes blazed with fire. Those beautiful baby blues were shooting daggers at him and the weird thing was, it was making him hard as hell. He didn’t want her, but fuck if his body didn’t get that memo.

To derail their inescapable route to ‘FuckedupVille’, he wanted to get her out of his pub as soon as possible. Otherwise he couldn’t be held responsible for his actions. “Okay, so I’ll take you upstairs.” 

“W-what? No. I wanna go home.” She pouted those damn glossy lips again while wiping the messy mascara trails from under her eyes.

“Why are you talking like a five-year-old?” he muttered, giving the table a few last scrubs.

“Am not!” she sulked, crossing her arms in front of her chest, drawing his eyes to the little swell that now peeked over the bodice of her leotard. 

The cute pout she wore made her fuckin’ adorable where he often found other women annoying. But not Errin. She always spoke her mind, often brutally honest, and would never play the innocent pouty type to gain his attention. Thinking about Errin’s feisty attitude, his face turned up.

She tilted her head while assessing him. “Why don’t you ever smile? You—”

“I’m taking the couch, so you can take the second bedroom to your left. Otherwise you’ll be sleeping next to a heavily snoring Pops. And let me tell you, that shit ain’t pretty.”

Her face reddened.  “Stop talking to me like I’m a kid! I turned twenty-six today, you know. You don’t get to—”

“Errin, go upstairs and stop looking for a fight. You’re not supposed to give me any lip, remember?”

He examined her plump lips. She’d put some glossy shit on, making them even more pink than usual. She licked her lips, evoking a groan from him.

“What?” she said as she tucked an unruly strand of warm blond hair behind her ear, only to have it pop up again in the next second.

“Stop teasing me,” he said.

“I’m not teasing you, old man. Never. I’m not interested. I’m nothing like your normal bimbo-type that throw themselves at you.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. But she didn’t stop there, no.

“What do they see in you, anyway? I mean… you’re always so… angry? Huh, and dare I say boring? And let’s not forget self-righteous? Ha! I mean the way you—”

Just to shut her the hell up, he kissed her. His hand slid to the back of her head the moment he’d dropped the wet sponge onto the table. She moaned against his lips but didn’t open up for him. He grabbed her tiny waist with his other hand and pulled her up from the chair. 

She gasped when his erection pressed against her belly and he slid his tongue in her mouth and let his tongue play with hers. They stood in the middle of the pub, flooded by the harsh overhead lights and surrounded by the smell of stale beer. As they kissed, everything faded to the background, as if they stood somewhere else. 

The gurgling sound from the running fridge reminded him he was standing in the middle of Lucky kissing Errin. He pulled his face away and took a step back. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. 

“Second door to your left.” 

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About the Author

Anna loves to write heartfelt and steamy romance series. She falls in love with her characters as they go through their ups and downs. Anna laughs out loud behind her laptop as she writes the banter between siblings. Sometimes she cries as a result from the real talk that comes with family. There's no hiding from a nosy Pops ;-) Her books are for mature readers only because of their steamy content.Author of the Lucky Irish series. A series about several large and close-knit Irish families in Austin, TX with strong heroines, quirky family banter and steamy alpha's.Anna is a former wedding photographer turned author. While photographing weddings, Anna loved being a part of the couple's special day to tell their (love) story through her pictures. Each wedding had a different story to tell: the histories of the bride and groom, their family dynamics, their challenges in life, and of course, how they met and fell in love.And now Anna takes her readers through the troubles and hardships her characters may come across on their journey to a happily ever after.

Connect:

Website: https://www.annacastor.com/ 

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

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Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19388808.Anna_Castor 

Spotlight: The Code for Love and Heartbreak by Jillian Cantor

In this contemporary romcom retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma by USA TODAY bestselling author Jillian Cantor, there’s nothing more complex—or unpredictable—than love.When math genius Emma and her coding club co-president, George, are tasked with brainstorming a new project, The Code for Love is born.George disapproves of Emma’s idea of creating a matchmaking app, accusing her of meddling in people’s lives. But all the happy new couples at school are proof that the app works. At least at first.Emma’s code is flawless. So why is it that perfectly matched couples start breaking up, the wrong people keep falling for each other, and Emma’s own feelings defy any algorithm?

Excerpt

PROLOGUE

 I’ve always loved numbers a whole lot more than I love people. For one thing, I can make numbers behave any way I want them to. No arguments, no questions. I write a line of code, and my computer performs a specific and very regulated task. Numbers don’t play games or hide behind some nuance I’ve missed. I write an equation, then formulate a definitive and absolutely correct answer. 

And maybe most importantly, numbers never leave me. I tell this to Izzy as she’s sitting on her suitcase, trying to force it closed, having just packed the last of her closet before leaving for her freshman year at UCLA, which is exactly 2,764 miles from our house in Highbury, New Jersey. A number which seems insurmountable, and which makes me think that after this day, Izzy’s last one at home until Christmas break, we’ll be more like two strangers floating across a continent from one another than sisters.

 “Numbers,” I say to Izzy now, “are much better than people.”

 “You’re such a nerd, Em,” Izzy says, but she stops what she’s doing and squeezes my arm affectionately, before finally getting the suitcase to zip. She’s a nerd, too, but not for numbers like me—for books. Izzy is running 2,764 miles away from New Jersey to read, to major in English at UCLA. Which is ridiculous, given she could’ve done the same at Rutgers, or the College of New Jersey, or almost any one of the other sixty-two colleges in our state, any of which would’ve been within driving distance so we could’ve seen each other on weekends. Izzy says she’s going to California for the sunshine, but Dad and I both know the real reason is that her boyfriend, John, decided to go to UCLA to study film. Izzy chose John over me, and that part stings the most. 

“I can’t believe you’re actually going,” I say, and not for the first time. I’ve been saying this to Izzy all summer, hoping she might change her mind. But now that her suitcase is zipped, it feels like she’s really leaving, and my eyes start to well up. I do love numbers more than people. Most people.

 Izzy and I are only seventeen months apart, and our mom died when we were both toddlers. Dad works a lot, and Izzy and I have barely been apart for more than a night in as long as I can remember, much less months.

 She stops messing with her suitcase now, walks over to where I’m sitting on her bed and puts her arm around me. I lean my head on her shoulder, and breathe in the comforting scent of her strawberry shampoo, one last time. “I’m going to miss you, too, Em,” she says. “But you’re going to have a great senior year.” She says it emphatically, her voice filled with enthusiasm that I don’t believe or even understand. 

“You really could stay,” I say. “You got into two colleges in New Jersey.” This has been my argument to her all summer. I keep thinking if I say it enough she really will change her mind. But even as I say it, I know it’s probably too late for her to change anything for fall semester now, no matter how much I might want her to. And she just looks back at me with worry all over her face. 

“Em, you know I can’t.” 

“Can’t or won’t?” I wipe my nose with the back of my hand, pulling away from her. 

She leaves me on her bed, and goes back to her suitcase. She shifts it around, props it upright and then looks back at me. “You know what you need?” she says, breathing hard from managing the weight of her entire life, crammed inside this giant suitcase. “To get out there this year. Be more social. Get some friends. Maybe even a boyfriend.”

 “A boyfriend?” I half laugh, half sniffle at the ridiculousness of it. 

“If you keep busy, you won’t even notice I’m gone.” She speaks quickly, excitedly. There’s nothing Izzy likes more than a good plan, but this sounds terrible to me. “Christmas will be here before you know it—” she’s still talking “—then next year, you’ll be off to college, too.”

 Maybe that would be true for her, if I were the one leaving, and if she were staying here. If I were the older one, leaving for California first, Izzy would stay here, spend the year with John and barely even notice my absence. Which is what I guess she’s about to do at UCLA. But I’ve always needed Izzy much more than she’s needed me. 

“I hate being social. And I don’t want a boyfriend,” I say. “And anyway, you know what the boys are like at our high school. No thanks.” Mostly, they’re intimidated by me and my penchant for math, and I find their intimidation so annoying that I can barely even stand to have a conversation with them, much less a date. And the few that aren’t? Well, the one that isn’t—George—is my equal and co-president of coding club. He also happens to be John’s younger brother. We’re something like friends, George and I. Or maybe not, because we don’t really hang out outside of family stuff, school or coding club, and I guess in a way we’re supposed to be rivals. One of us will for certain be valedictorian of our class this year. The other will be salutatorian. And knowing George, he’s going to be more than a little bit annoyed when he’s staring at my back during graduation. 

“You love numbers so much and you’re so good at coding,” Izzy says now with a flip of her blond curls over her shoulder. She wheels the suitcase toward her bedroom door and stops and looks back at me. “You could always code yourself a boyfriend.” She shrugs, then laughs a little, trying to make this moment lighter. 

I don’t even crack a smile. “That’s a really ridiculous thing to say,” I tell her. “Thank God you’re going to be an English major.”

 But later, after it all fell apart, I would blame her. I’d say that it was all Izzy’s fault, that she started the unraveling of everything with her one stupid offhand comment on the morning that she left me.

Excerpted from The Code For Love and Heartbreak by Jillian Cantor Copyright © Jillian Cantor. Published by Inkyard Press.

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About the Author

Jillian Cantor is the author of award-winning and bestselling novels for adults and teens, including In Another Time, The Hours Count, Margot, and The Lost Letter, which was a USA Today bestseller. She has a BA in English from Penn State University and an MFA from the University of Arizona. Cantor lives in Arizona with her husband and two sons.

Connect:

Author Website: https://www.jilliancantor.com/

TWITTER: @JillianCantor

Facebook: @AuthorJillianCantor

Insta: @JillianCantor

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1651861.Jillian_Cantor 

Cover Reveal: Smoke Screen by K. Nilsson

(The Blue Trilogy, #2)
Publication date: October 2020
Genres: Adult, Romance, Suspense

Synopsis:

She was a distraction. He was a mistake.

Now they’re in each others’ way.

Rookie investigator Devyn Foster knows the pain of losing family. It’s what drives her to do what she does – finding the missing and the lost and returning them to their families.

Her latest assignment is no different, finding the computer a whiz who disappeared while working on a mysterious project. Even though his case has gone cold, she won’t let his elderly parents suffer. She will find him and return him back to them.

But that was before the one-night stand that changed everything…

Private Investigator Max Carson has never let anything—or anyone—stop him from getting the job done. So when he’s hired to track down a software program that could change the world, that’s exactly what he’s going to do… until he finds himself in a dead heat with a woman who’s just as determined as he is to get the job done on her own terms.

Now Max has to deal with two problems: how to get Devyn out of the way… and out of his heart.

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About the Author

K. Nilsson's love of reading began with the Bobbsey twins. When she ran across some Italian True Romance novellas stashed in the attic, the musty serials hooked her on adult fiction. Though black and white photos were dramatic enough to know what the stories were about, she taught herself to read in Italian and translated them to her friends.  She's an unapologetic reviewer of books, restaurants, and vacation destinations.  An amateur photographer, K. loves taking editorial photos and documenting her travels. Her personal philosophy, sleeping is a waste of time.

Connect:

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https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17022263.K_Nilsson