Romance Novel Giveaways

3 Wishes by Peggy Jaeger ♥ Book Tour & GIVEAWAY ♥ (Contemporary Romance)

Valentine’s Day is chocolatier Chloe San Valentino’s favorite day of the year. Not only is it the busiest day in her candy shop, Caramelle de Chloe, but it’s also her birthday. Chloe’s got a birthday wish list for the perfect man she pulls out every year: he’d fall in love with her in a heartbeat, he’d be someone who cares about people, and he’d have one blue eye and one green eye, just like her. So far, Chloe’s fantasy man hasn’t materialized, despite the matchmaking efforts of her big, close-knit Italian family. But this year for her big 3-0 birthday, she just might get her three wishes.

Did you know that chocolate has been referred to as “the food of the gods” since the time of Montezuma? Or that Christopher Columbus enjoyed the chocolate he discovered in the Americas so much he brought it back to Queen Isabella of Spain and introduced it to the Spanish Court? The aristocracy was so enamored with the taste of the treat and its aphrodisiac properties, it quickly became the next big thing in Europe.
In 1861, English candy maker Richard Cadbury created the first ever heart-shaped box for Valentine’s Day, beginning the association of Valentines heart boxes with chocolate candy.
Like most people (and all women!) I love chocolate. From the taste, to the consistency, to the way it gives me a rush of pleasure when it meets my taste buds. As I was writing 3 WISHES I wanted to know more about this addictive little piece of heaven, since I made my heroine a chocolatier and knew she would need to be up on all things chocolate-related.
This is just a taste (!) of what I learned:
Scientists have discovered a link with the chemical phenylethylamine found in chocolate to human feelings of excitement, attraction and physical pleasure. (I could have told them all that without the cost of the research involved!) The “high” you experience when you eat a piece of chocolate comes from a little rush of endorphins, the pleasure receptors in your brain.
According to HolidayInsights.com, women buy 75% of most of the chocolate sold during the year while men make 75% of the purchases on Valentine’s Day. Second to jewelry, chocolate is the most given present on February 14.

My heroine, Chloe San Valentino, is a chocolatier. The true definition of this craft is: a person who makes confectionaries from chocolate. Chocolatiers are different from chocolate makers, who make their creations using cacao beans mixed with other ingredients. Who knew? Chloe is a slave to her confections and her shop is very successful year round, not just on the day of love. She fell in love with chocolate making when she was six years old and has devoted her life to creating new and exquisite tastes and confections.

To be a chocolatier, one must master the art of working with chocolate to not only make mouth watering desserts, but be able to craft pieces of art-for-eating with it as well. Chloe has a specialty business where she caters her desserts for wedding engagements, baby showers, etc and her chocolate art pieces have been highlighted in several prestigious food magazines.

I will tell you this and not be embarrassed in the least at admitting it: I wrote 3 WISHES in 2 weeks and gained five pounds. Why? Research. And by research, I mean I ate every kind of chocolate I could get my hands on, trying to learn about them all so Chloe’s “voice” when she spoke of it would sound true-to-life and expert.

Devoted to my job, much?

Happy Valentine’s day!

The man had been a hunk-a-doodle when he’d been in my shop. Right now he looked like sex on a candy stick. Tall, lithe, wide shouldered and narrow hipped in his scrubs. He was every fantasy I’d ever had about what my man would look like. He stood in the doorway of the waiting room and stared at me.

And I stared right back.

“I assume she’s your mother,” he said, hooking his thumb in the general direction behind him.

I nodded.

He grinned and my toes curled up at the tips.

“She’s a force to be reckoned with.”

I winced and replied, “She means well.”

Even to my ears it sounded more like a weak question than a declaration.

His grin spread and I swear my girlie parts quivered.

Quivered.

When he came toward me, eating up the floor with his long stride, a hot bead of awareness burst from somewhere deep, deep down inside me.

♥ To be released February 8 ♥

Peggy Jaeger is a contemporary romance author who writes about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can't live without them.
Her current titles, available now, include SKATER'S WALTZ and THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME, and FIRST IMPRESSIONS books 1 through 3 in her 6-book The MacQuire Women Series, published by The Wild Rose Press. 
Peggy holds a master's degree in Nursing Administration and first found publication with several articles she authored on Alzheimer's Disease during her time running an Alzheimer's in-patient care unit during the 1990s.
A lifelong and avid romance reader and writer, she is a member of RWA and her local New Hampshire RWA Chapter.

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Undeceived by Karen M. Cox ♥ Book Tour & GIVEAWAY ♥ (Romantic Suspense)

During the last gasp of the Cold War, Elizabeth Bennet, a young, forthright counterintelligence officer, embarks on an exciting assignment that would make her late father, a fallen CIA officer, proud. She transfers to Europe to investigate the legendary and elusive William Darcy, an officer in line for the coveted Soviet station chief position who’s suspected of being a double agent.

William Darcy appears to lead a charmed existence, but now he finds himself fighting for his career and against his growing feelings for the young woman he doesn’t know is watching his every move.

Elizabeth wants to throw the book at him, but the facts don’t match her preconceptions. Is Darcy being set up? Are there darker forces at work? Or is William Darcy a skilled double agent after all? Nothing is as it seems, however, and the closer Elizabeth gets to the truth about Darcy, the more she spirals into danger.

Undeceived, the new novel by award-winning author, Karen M. Cox, is part romance, part spy game suspense—inviting readers to uncover the villain in this variation on Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen’s classic tale.

Undeceived was a research-intensive project. I took some artistic license along the way, but I wanted to know as much as I could about the book’s locales. I became very immersed in formation about the CIA. So, I rounded up some of the factoids I learned about this agency, and put them into a format I use for posting about various topics on my blog. The feature is called “The 5 Best…” and below I’ve listed “The 5 Best...”
Things I Learned about the CIA while writing Undeceived:

1. The Memorial Wall, located in the lobby of the original CIA headquarters building has 113 stars. The Book of Honor lists 80 of those 113 who died in the service of their country. The other 33 names are still secret, and are represented in the Book of Honor by a star.

2. The forerunner of the CIA was the Office of Strategic Services, which was disbanded after World War II ended. (If you watched Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman in the 1970s, you’ll remember the OSS!)

3. You must be a US citizen to work for the CIA. And having a tattoo will not keep you from being employed there (yes, that information is on the CIA website.)

4. Current and former employees of the CIA who signed a secrecy agreement must have any written material they intend to publish vetted by the CIA’s Publications Review Board first.

5. In the mid 70s, George Herbert Walker Bush, future President of the United States, was the head of the CIA.
Source: www.cia.gov

Anything surprise you?

The book is a variation on the classic novel, and although readers don’t have to read Pride and Prejudice to follow Undeceived, fans of Jane Austen’s most famous book might get a little kick out of the similarities they find when they compare it to the original.

For example…

Did you ever wonder how a modern version of the infamous Meryton Assembly insult might go? Here’s one possibility from Chapter 1 of Undeceived:

The Farm, CIA training facility
January 1982

“Three weeks, three blasted weeks, and I’m finally through with this place.”
“I know exactly what you mean.” Elizabeth’s classmate, Kitty, inspected her fingernails. “The only good parts of these last few weeks are all the yummy veterans doing the lectures.”
Elizabeth shook her head, smiling. “Is that all you think about?”
“Well, duh. That guy who was here last Thursday was totally hot.”
“The inks expert? George?”
“Girl, I’d blot his ink any time.”
Elizabeth laughed. “Yeah, he was cute.”
“Speaking of totally hot. Check out the guy standing in the doorway. If George was a looker, this guy’s off the charts.”
“Mmm.” Elizabeth looked up, and she was compelled to stare, as if drawn by a magnet. Kitty’s observation was right on the money.
He was tall and handsome, with a noble profile. Dark wavy hair. Broad shoulders. Elizabeth could barely see his hazel eyes from her seat in the front row. Too bad. She had a thing for blue eyes. He was good-looking, even without the baby-blues. But it wasn’t only the outer trimmings that captured her notice. It was the intensity in the eyes. The intelligence. The hint of ruthless cynicism around his mouth. Yes, he was definitely a damned fine man to look at.
“Hey, wait a minute. I know who that is.” Elizabeth noticed the unsettled titter that swept the classroom as he stood arguing with their instructor in urgent whispers. “It’s Darcy.” The murmur in the crowd confirmed the name.
“Who?”
“William Darcy. He’s a big shot in clandestine operations—a well-known field officer. He has this ridiculous nickname, the London Fog, but he’s supposedly the real deal—received the Distinguished Intelligence Cross and everything. I thought he was overseas somewhere. There’s a rumor he’s after the COS position in Moscow.”
“He’s going to be the chief of station in the USSR?” Kitty breathed out. “Wow.”
“That’s the rumor.”
He glanced her way at that moment and caught the two women gaping at him, but instead of winking at them like George, the inks expert from last Thursday, he narrowed his eyes and motioned for the instructor to join him out in the hall.
Intrigued, Elizabeth stepped out of the classroom and over to the water fountain. The two men had their backs to her several feet away, giving her free rein to eavesdrop. Darcy’s voice proceeded to get louder until she could hear him over the splash of water.
“What the hell is this?”
“Guest lecture, Darcy. Interrogation techniques.”
“Like I’ve got nothing better to do than babysit a bunch of snot-nosed trainees.”
“You agreed to do the lecture.”
“I was told to do the lecture.”
“It won’t hurt you, and it’s good motivation for the newcomers to have a seasoned officer talk about his experiences.”
Darcy snorted and jerked his thumb toward the classroom door. “Like those two girls in the front row? If they’re the best the CIA can recruit these days, no wonder everything’s going to hell.”
Elizabeth almost choked on her water.
The instructor’s annoyance flared. “Quit bellyaching and do your damned job! And stop standing around like you’ve got a stick rammed up your ass.”
Elizabeth scurried back inside to her seat and told Kitty the whole exchange.
“Forget what I said earlier.” Kitty leaned over and whispered in Elizabeth’s ear. “What an asshole!”
“Too right.” Elizabeth was a pretty good judge of character, even at first glance. She liked to think it was a gift she had inherited from her father.
“Kitty, my friend, I have learned that there are some fatal flaws that even extreme hotness can’t erase.”
“Amen, sister.”
Darcy gave a fifteen-minute lecture on basic interrogation techniques used in Eastern Europe, fundamentals that they’d learned months ago. Obviously he underestimated either the class’s level of knowledge or their intelligence. He took exactly three questions from the group and gave them terse, supercilious answers. Then he looked at his watch and abruptly stopped the question and answer session. They watched him strut out the door, back ramrod straight, without another word or a single glance behind him.
Elizabeth filed the incident under Officers to Avoid in the Future. She already had some idea what type of colleague she preferred, and Mr. Darcy had come down on the “no, thanks” side of that equation.
***
What do you think? Will Elizabeth change her mind about the London Fog?

Karen M Cox writes novels accented with romance and history. All three of her published novels: 1932, Find Wonder in All Things, and At the Edge of the Sea, have garnered awards from the independent publishing industry, taking top honors three out of the five times they were recognized. Last year, she also participated in Meryton Press’s inaugural anthology, Sun-Kissed: Effusions of Summer, with her short story, “Northanger Revisited 2015.” Her fourth full-length novel, Undeceived: Pride and Prejudice in the Spy Game, will be released in early 2016.

Karen was born in Everett WA, which was the result of coming into the world as the daughter of a United States Air Force Officer. She had a slightly nomadic childhood, with stints in North Dakota, Tennessee and New York State before moving to her family’s home state of Kentucky when she was almost twelve. She lives in a small, quiet Kentucky town with her husband and children, and works as a pediatric speech pathologist. She spends her off hours reading, writing, and being a wife and mom—and spoiling her new granddaughter.