SHAMROCKS ARE A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND by Author Lucinda Race **Book Birthday** **Review**

It's my pleasure to welcome friend and fellow author Lucinda Race to Notes From a Romantic's Heart. Today, we're celebrating the release of her new book, Shamrocks Are a Girl's Best Friend, from the Last Chance Beach Romance series.

Battered, broken and looking for solitude smoke jumper Tric heads to Last Chance Beach and without warning walks into Kelly's cottage. She knows from experience this is the best place for him to recover and she'll share her safe haven with him. Will a bit of Irish luck and a matchmaking uncle give them a chance to find love?

Tric Ryan has spent the majority of his adult life jumping out of airplanes and into infernos. That is until a fateful jump nearly ends his career as a smoke jumper. Badly in need of a change, he drives to Last Chance Beach to recover. A short respite at Shamrock Cottage promises him the solitude he needs to recoup, or to figure out how he’ll face a future without the dangerous job he loves.

Kelly O’Malley moved to Last Chance Beach after a broken heart. She’s living in her uncle’s rental, Shamrock Cottage, after a fire destroys her home. Brandishing a skillet, she’s ready to defend her safe haven from the battered and bruised man in her living room. A quick call to her uncle confirms the mix-up, and that he’s accidentally rented the cottage to both Tric and her for an open-ended stay. When they both agree they can share the spacious vacation home, sparks are sure to fly.

Kelly helps Tric recover with easy walks on the beach and friendship. Will the magic of Last Chance Beach, with a dash of luck from the Irish, heal the heartaches Kelly and Tric carry and help them find the love and a future they both deserve? After all Shamrocks are a girl’s best friend.

Get Shamrocks Are a Girl's Best Friend On Your Favorite eBook Site

Kelly O’Malley crept down the hallway of Shamrock Cottage, her heart pounding in her chest. The early morning sun streamed through the skylights and the hardwood floor was cool against her bare feet on this late-January morning. The weight of her cell phone was comforting in her sweatpants pocket.

Who the heck was in her house?

She slid along the wall like she had seen in those movies on television where the girl sleuth was stalking the unknown. Dramatic much? When she reached the end of the hall, she peeked around the corner, her gaze sweeping the open space of the living and dining rooms and kitchen. Standing in front of the sliding glass doors, looking out over the ocean, was a very tall man, even by her standards, as Kelly was tapping six feet herself. With a backpack over one shoulder and an enormous canvas duffel bag at his feet, he leaned heavily on a cane.

She tiptoed to the counter and grabbed the cast iron skillet, being careful not to make a sound. If he’d heard her, he hadn’t moved.

She raised the skillet to shoulder height, clutching it with two hands for good swinging leverage. “What are you doing in my house?”

The man slowly turned, grimaced, clutched his leg, and held up his other hand with the cane dangling from it. “What are you doing in my rental?” Confusion and pain clouded his eyes. “I promise I can’t hurt you.” He gestured to his leg. “Recovering from surgery and exhausted from a long drive.”

She didn’t lower her makeshift weapon but instead looked him over from head to toe. He was ruggedly handsome but did look road weary. “Rental?”

“Yes, well, actually this place belongs to a friend of my uncle, who’s a fire chief in Chicago. I signed the agreement on Rental Direct.” He shifted his backpack on his shoulder. “I can show you the agreement on my laptop.”

5 Beachy Stars!

Shamrocks Are a Girl’s Best Friend arrived on my computer shortly after midnight yesterday morning. As with all of author Lucinda Race’s books, I pushed aside my busy schedule and made time to have a read. And, as always, I was pleased with my decision.

The main characters, Kelly O’Malley and Tric Ryan are a mis-match made in paradise. Or, in this case, on the island paradise of Last Chance Beach. While the concept of forced togetherness isn’t a new one, Lucinda Race gives the trope a wonderful twist with both the magic of the wonderful setting and the luck of the Irish.

If you’re a fan of contemporary romance and happily-ever-after, you’ll definitely want to grab a copy of Shamrocks Are a Girl’s Best Friend.

Award-winning and best-selling author Lucinda Race is a lifelong fan of romantic fiction. As a young girl, she spent hours reading romance novels and getting lost in the hope they represent. While her friends dreamed of becoming doctors and engineers, her dreams were to become a writer—a romance novelist.

As life twisted and turned, she found herself writing nonfiction but longed to turn to her true passion. After developing the storyline for The Loudon Series, it was time to start living her dream. Her fingers practically fly over computer keys as she weaves stories about strong women and the men who love them.

Lucinda lives with her husband and their two little dogs, a miniature long hair dachshund and a shitzu mix rescue, in the rolling hills of western Massachusetts. When she's not at her day job, she’s immersed in her fictional worlds. And if she’s not writing romance novels, she’s reading everything she can get her hands on. It’s too bad her husband doesn’t cook, but a very good thing he loves takeout.

Lucinda's Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Instagram

Amazon Author Page ~ BookBub ~ Goodreads ~ Newsletter SignUp

~ ~ ~

It has been my pleasure hosting Lucinda today on the blog. Please come back again soon for more wonderful authors and great books!

Nancy

ANDY GETS ANGRY by Author Mike Masse Illustrator: Emily Corbett **Review Tour** **Giveaway**

Today we welcome Author Mike Masse to the blog to tell us all about his new book, Andy Gets Angry, a self-help, mindfulness book geared for children. You can find all the stops on this tour at Goddess Fish Promotions. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for your chance to win a $10 gift card. You can find the entry form at the bottom of this post.

GENRE: Children’s, (picture book) Contemporary

Children can develop the ability to respond to their emotions in a healthy way through the practice of mindfulness. Andy Gets Angry is a great introduction for children to learn a fun and simple breath technique to respond to their emotions. The beautifully hand-painted illustrations provide the perfect landscape to tell the story of Andy and his journey in learning the wonderful skill of mindfulness. Share the book with your loved ones, and help us all plant the seed to be present!

Amazon ~ B&N (Nook) ~ Book Depository ~ Bookshop

Sometimes Andy gets angry when he loses. Sometimes he gets so angry in class when he doesn’t know the answer to a question.

Sometimes Andy gets angry when Bobby takes his toys … or when Sierra won’t stop singing!

Sometimes he gets angry when his parents raise their voices.

4 Stars

Andy Gets Angry by Author Mike Masse provides some easy techniques for children to use to channel their anger, and relieve their feelings of anxiety. To say this is a children’s book though, is a stretch. It’s more of a ‘discussion’ book for parents and children to share. Or, possibly, for educators to recommend when students are displaying anger in the classroom.

As a grandmother of five, I’ve definitely seen my share of childhood and adolescent anger. I appreciate the ease of the technique Mr. Masse teaches here, and enjoyed the lovely illustrations.

Mike Masse is a mindfulness consultant and public speaker who specializes in mindfulness-based stress reduction. For over a decade, he has been teaching adults, youth, and children mindfulness skills to help reduce their levels of stress and anxiety. A highly sought-after trainer, Mike facilitates workshops with educators, first responders, health care providers, and others who work in high-stress environments. Mike lives in Stratford, Ontario with his two sons and his wife.

Mindful Mike Website ~ Facebook ~ Instagram

Mike J Masse will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

~ ~ ~

Thank you so much for stopping by. Please come back again soon for more authors, books, and giveaways.

Nancy

MIX AND MATCH by Author Peggy Jaeger **BOOK BIRTHDAY**

I am pleased to welcome friend and mega-talented author Peggy Jaeger to Notes From a Romantic's Heart. Peggy's celebrating a Book Birthday for her new release, Mix and Match, the first book in her new Heaven's Matchmaker series!

Divorced and lonely, nurse Jasmine Green retains the services of Heaven, NH’s very own successful matchmaker, Olivia Joyner. The bar scene and dating apps give Jasmine hives and Liv’s reputation is stellar. If anyone can help guide her through the quagmire that dating has become, Olivia can.

Architect Donovan Boyd is ready to settle down. He wants the kind of marriage his parents have; long lasting, filled with love, children, and joy. But even after a year of living and working in Heaven he’s still considered an outsider by many. Meeting the type of woman he’s looking for is hard in the tightknit community. Retaining Olivia Joyner to help him find his forever love is one of the smartest things he’s done, especially after she sets him up with Jasmine Green.

But the red-haired, green-eyed beauty wants a different kind of marriage from the one Donovan considers ideal.

Can these two strong willed people learn to compromise so they can both find their happily ever after? Or will their relationship forever be relegated to the friend zone?

Availabe exclusively on Kindle Unlimited

Jasmine scanned the bar where Olivia told her her date would be waiting. There were three men scattered down along the rail. Two she recognized from high school and one guy whose face she couldn’t see because his back was to her. When he turned she realized immediately this was not the man she was due to have drinks with.

First, there was no way this guy was 36 years old. Her mother would have called him Gramps.

Clue number two was the wedding band on the hand holding his beer. It was so tight, the skin surrounding it swollen, his knuckle hair squeezed around it, indicating it had been there for decades.

Nope. This wasn’t her guy. A cursory glance around the place showed most of the tables were taken with couples.

Her date had yet to arrive.

“Hey, Jazz,” the bartender and owner, Kick Loomis said from his perch drying beer glasses behind the bar.

“Kick.”

“You squattin’ or sittin’, sweetheart?”

She’d been in the place enough times in her life to know he meant was she going to sit at the bar or take a table.

Jasmine was self-conscious enough she didn’t want to be seated on a bar stool, sitting alone while waiting for her date, especially when one of the guys she’d gone to school with tossed her an inquiring eye and a raised eyebrow. She didn’t want to get into a how-you-doing-what-you-been-up-to-since-high school chat. If her memory served, and it always did, the guy had been one of the football heroes of Heaven High back in the day. Those glory days were long gone and she had no desire to listen to him dredge them up.

She spotted an empty table in the corner and nodded toward it.

“I’ll send Raylynn over with a menu.”

She nodded and as she was about to head for it felt a tap on her arm.

“Excuse me. Jasmine?”

She turned at the sound of her name, spoken in a deep, soft voice blessed with a charming accent and found herself face to face with the gorgeous guy she’d spotted in her mom’s office. The one Sharmaine had been sucked on to like a tick.

Good Lord, he was even better looking up close and personal than he’d been, seated, and ten feet away from her. Stunning blue eyes, the color of freshly laid Robin’s eggs topped a face with high cut cheeks and a jaw forged from granite. Midnight hair curled around his ears and caressed the nape of his neck. Layered waves fell across his head in a chaos of perfection.

She’d been right about his height. Most men she could stare straight in the eyes due to her own long legs. But she had to tilt her head back a bit to look into this man’s striking ones.

“You are Jasmine, aye?”

Even his voice was gorgeous, the song of Ireland singing through it.

She nodded, her own voice deciding now would be a good time to leave on vacation. And when his smile took a slow stroll from one corner of his full, thick lips to the other, showing perfect, straight white teeth, the tips of her fingertips began to tingle like she’d fallen asleep on them and spent the night with them cuddled beneath the weight of her body.

He-of-the-handsome-face stuck out his hand and declared, “Good. Olivia said to meet you here. Donovan Boyd, but everyone calls me Van. Lovely to meet you.”

Jasmine knew she should shake his hand. It was the polite thing to do, wasn’t it? For some reason, her brain wasn’t sending any signals down her arm to lift it up to his outstretched one.

Donovan, or Van, kept his hand out, his smile in place, and ticked his head to the left a hair. A clap of booming laughter rang out from somewhere behind her and finally propelled the gears in her brain to start turning again.

After a headshake where she actually heard her brains rattle, she extended her hand and slipped it into his.

Warmth, like she’d just stepped into a bubbling hot tub, spread along her fingers, shot across her palm, then jumped all the way up to her neck. A feeling of familiarity bolted through her. With a shock, she recognized it for what it was – desire. Pure and simple. Something she hadn’t felt in almost forever.

She swallowed, said, “It’s nice to meet you,” then shook her head again as she slid her hand back.

“Would you like to sit at the bar or would ya prefer a table?” he asked.

At the bar she’d have to sit next to him, shoulder to shoulder. That seemed a bit too intimate right now, especially when the nerves she’d thought to quell had started bounding through her again. Better to be across from him, keep them at a bit of a physical distance.

Van thrust his chin toward the empty table she’d been aiming for, extended his hand and said, “Shall we?”

He got points for good manners, that was for sure.

Enjoy the Trailer

Peggy Jaeger writes contemporary romances and rom coms about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them.

Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, Peggy brings all aspects of life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness, and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she has created the families she wanted as that lonely child.

As a lifelong diarist, she caught the blogging bug early on, and you can visit her at peggyjaeger.com where she blogs daily about life, writing, and stuff that makes her go "What??!"

Peggy's Website/Blog ~ Amazon Author Page ~ BookBub ~ Goodreads

Facebook ~ Twitter  ~ Pinterest ~ Instagram

~ ~ ~

Thank you so much for stopping by. Please come back again all week for more wonderful authors and great books!

Nancy