Showing posts with label #Contemporary Romance; #holidayromance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #Contemporary Romance; #holidayromance. Show all posts

Monday, January 3, 2022

THEIR NEW YEAR'S BEGINNING by Author Michelle Major **Book Blast** **Review**


Happy New Year Everyone! Welcome back to Notes From a Romantic’s Heart for 2022. We’re starting the new year off with a visit from author Michelle Major and her new book, Their New Year’s Beginning from Harlequin Special Edition. You can find all the stops on Michelle’s tour at Goddess Fish Promotions. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway. The entry form is at the bottom of this post.

GENRE: Contemporary Romance


At the stroke of midnight, a stranger’s kiss changes everything…

Brian Fortune doesn’t think he will ever find the woman he kissed at his brother's New Year's wedding. So when the search for the provenance of a mysterious gift leads him into a local antique store a few days later, he's stunned to find Emmaline Lewis, proprietor—and mystery kisser! Surprise turns to shock when he realizes that she's also six months pregnant. Brian has never been the type to commit—and he’s really not ready to become a family man in one fell swoop! But suddenly he knows he’ll do anything to stay at Emmaline's side—for good…



“May I kiss you, Emmaline?”

Welp. There it was. He was actually asking her permission. As if Emmaline could be more taken with him, his quiet question pushed her over the edge of reason.

She was smitten. The kind of enamored that had her wondering if he might be able to hear her heart pounding against her rib cage. As if her anticipation was a palpable thing.

After a moment, she nodded, not trusting her voice.

Brian’s warm hands lifted to her face, and he cupped her cheeks as if she were precious to him. She felt precious.

He leaned in and brushed his lips against hers, featherlight and controlled. Her body erupted in goosebumps and she let out a tiny moan, both in satisfaction and frustration. She reveled in the sensations swirling through her and, at the same time, wanted more.

Brian must have heard the sound—another tally in her list of embarrassments for this night—but he didn’t seem to find anything wrong with it.

In fact, it seemed to spur him on. The kiss turned deeper as he shifted both of them into a nearby alcove so she couldn’t be seen by the crowd.

He continued to cup her cheeks, the softness of his touch in sharp contrast to the hard planes of the chest she could feel under her hands. But when he lowered one hand to the small of her back to pull her closer, Emmaline wrenched away.

She could not allow herself to be pressed up against him. Not now. Not without revealing…too much.

He looked as dazed as she felt as he stared at her.

“I have to go,” she whispered, more to herself than him.

Before he could answer, she turned and ran away.

3.5 Stars

This was a nice, comfy, romance. Plenty of family, activities and love to go around. A bit confusing at times with a large host of characters but, once I got them straight in my head, I was able to follow along well enough to enjoy the story. I found it a bit strange that all the young heroines were pregnant when they nabbed their hero, but I’m going to assume that was the premise for a new series.

The story follows the standard Harlequin formula. So, if you enjoy this tried-and-true genre, I’m sure you’ll like this book.


USA Today bestselling author Michelle Major loves stories of new beginnings, second chances and always a happily ever after. An avid hiker and avoider of housework, she lives in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains with her husband, two teenagers, and a menagerie of spoiled furbabies.


Michelle Major will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.


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It's been my pleasure hosting Michelle for today's stop on her tour. Please come back again later in the week and all month for more authors, books, and giveaways!

Nancy




Thursday, November 4, 2021

RED VELVET CRINKLES AND CHRISTMAS SPRINKLES by Author Maria Imbalzano **BOOK BLAST**


Welcome to Notes From a Romantic’s Heart. Today we are featuring author Maria Imbalzano and her new holiday romance, Red Velvet Crinkles and Christmas Sprinkles. You can find all the stops on Maria’s tour at Goddess Fish Promotions. Also, don’t forget to enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway. The entry form is at the bottom of this post.

GENRE: Contemporary Romance


Competitive, work-obsessed Bella Simonetti has just been fired from her high-paying job at a Manhattan law firm. At an all-time low, she returns home and helps her parents at their small-town gift shop, but the business is failing and may not make it past the Christmas holidays.

Successful landscape architect Dean Jackson is like a son to Bella's parents. But he's a persistent annoyance to her—he seems to have forgotten his unforgivable blunder thirteen years earlier.

When Bella transforms her parents' gift shop into a cookie cottage, Dean's generosity and magnetic smile are hard to resist, and those feelings of unrequited adolescent love come rushing back. But can Bella let go of the past and accept Dean for the man he is today?

Get the book at: Amazon ~ Apple ~ B&N (Nook)


There came that half-teasing, half-serious smile. To avoid it, she started pulling Christmas balls hung on red-and-green silk ribbons from the large box she’d brought out.

“I can help you hang those in the window. I hid the hooks above the molding last year so we don’t have to remove them every year.”

“Clever.” Her sarcastic tone couldn’t be mistaken.

“We’ll need a ladder,” he determined. “I’ll get it from the back, then you can hand me the balls, and I’ll attach them.”

She slitted her eyes at him. “I want to hang the balls. You can do something else.”

“Fine. But it takes two for this job. You don’t want to be going up and down the ladder each time you hang a ball. It’s inefficient.”

He had a point. She’d have to bury her reluctance to work with him at the risk of coming up with some other childish excuse.

Once Dean brought the ladder to the window, she climbed up three steps and took the first ball from him. Not a well-thought-out plan since her butt was now at his eye level.

“Can you stand over here, please?” She pointed to the other side of the ladder.

“It’s better if I stand behind you, to spot you. In case you lose your balance.” His grin emerged, and she gritted her teeth to prevent a growl.


Maria is a retired matrimonial lawyer who now writes full time. Instead of drafting motions, legal memoranda, and briefs, although fascinating, she now spends her days creating memorable characters and taking them on their emotional journeys through her contemporary romance novels.

Her novel, “Unchained Memories,” won the Wisconsin Romance Writers Write Touch Readers’ Award and the ACRA Readers’ Choice Heart of Excellence Award. “Sworn to Forget,” the first of the four-book Sworn Sisters Series was a finalist for the illustrious RONE award as well as the Book Buyers Best Award. Her novellas, “The Blueberry Swirl Waltz” and “A Song For Another Day” each came in first in their category in the National Excellence in Story Telling contest.


Maria Imbalzano will be awarding a $15 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.


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Thank you so much for joining us today. Please come back again soon for more authors, books, and giveaways.

Nancy