Giveaways

Is He READY TO FALL? Review and Giveaway!

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Hi there and welcome to my stop on the READY TO FALL blog tour, sponsored by The Novel Tease! Today’s book is a Contemporary Romance by Daisy Prescott and it’s filled with a sexy lumberjack…er, I mean, sexy silvaculturalist.

Ready to Fall CoverAbout the book:
When you fall, you fall hard…

Readers first fell in love with John Day as the hot next-door neighbor in Romantic Comedy Best Seller Geoducks Are for Lovers. Tall, dark, and handsome is an understatement. With the beard, a dog named Babe, and his ever present plaid shirt, John is a modern lumberjack in more ways than one.

Lurking beneath the flannel and beard could be the heart of a romantic. Or is John a wolf in flannel clothing?

After his favorite neighbor rents out her cabin for the winter, John finds himself playing fireman and tour guide to Diane Watson, a beautiful brunette with her own messy past and recent battle scars. When an ex shows up unexpectedly, their lives will be changed forever.

Will he be ready to fall in love? Or will he fall back into his old, flirty ways?

Hold onto your heart… and get ready to fall with John Day as he tells his story in this contemporary romance/romantic comedy told in male POV.

How about a little taste?

I pulled the bike off the road and we ran for the overhang of the store. Standing in the shadows next to the bagged ice freezer on the side of the building, I took off my helmet and brushed the rain from the back of my neck. Diane was dry on her front, but the back of her jacket appeared nearly soaked.

After she took off her helmet and set it on the ground, I gave her a stern look. “See what I mean about not talking about the weather? Around here it can rain when the sun’s out.”

Brushing the water off her jacket, she peered up at me with a sheepish smile. “Sorry. How long do you think we’ll have to wait it out?”

I left the dry safety of the overhang to stare up at the fast moving clouds swirling above us. “Hard to say. Might turn back to being a mist. Might not.”

“Can we ride home in the rain?” she asked, leaning against the wall. Her wet jeans clung to her legs and I found myself staring while she lifted one leg to brace it on the wall.

“Sure. Do we want to? Not really.”

“What should we do?”

I lifted my eyes to her face. Her eyes sparkled same as they did back in the bar. I swept my thumb across my lower lip and then ran it across my chin.

Since our hike at Deception Pass, I couldn’t stop thinking about kissing her. The day she received a letter from the asshole wasn’t the right time. Normally, I didn’t give this much thought to making a move. If I wanted to kiss a woman, I did. As long as she gave me the right signals. Maybe that was part of the problem with Diane. I didn’t know her signals. We flirted, we teased. I caught her staring, but it never moved from thoughts to action. My hand was getting tired of all the time I spent thinking.

There was a time and place for action.

That time and place was now.

“Store’s closed. Nothing to do but stand here and watch the rain fall.” I moved closer to her along the wall, my shoulder brushing hers when I mirrored her posture. My hand dropped between us and brushed against her leg, but I faced the line of water dripping from the roof gutter.

“Nothing?” she asked, her voice more of a whisper.

“Can’t think of anything,” I whispered back while I turned to gaze down at her. “You?”

I could see everything in her eyes. I wasn’t the only one thinking about kissing. When I entwined our fingers, her breath hitched. I broke eye contact and stared down at her mouth. Her lips parted and her tongue peeked out to wet the bottom one.

“John …” Her words faded away when I leaned down.

My review:

First, let me say, I love reading a male POV in romance. It’s so fun to pretend I’m inside a guy’s head.

John Day is a man’s man. He’s big, burly and built. He fishes, and hunts, but prefers fishing. He lives on an island in the Pacific Northwest. He’s rugged. But, he’s kind, and broken-hearted that his mom died years before when she got caught in a snowstorm after visiting him at school. And, he hates that his dad was a cheating husband. Currently, John’s dating Kelly–sister to his high school BFF–but it’s casual because she’s getting a divorce…sort of.

Diane is subletting John’s neighbor’s home on Whidbey Island. This city gal is out of her element, completely, and John steps in to help her out. They decide to build a friendship–neither is emotionally available anyhow–John’s dealing with Kelly’s messy life and Diane’s pretty shattered after discovering her soon-to-be ex’s infidelity. Hence, her cross country escape from NYC.

Diane and John build a cozy friendship–he helps her find a good vehicle and they share some small adventures–then John decides Kelly’s simply using him and cuts her loose. This opens a path to romance between him and Diane, but neither of them will take it–at first. See, John’s convinced that everyone he loves leaves him–and Diane’s lease is up in May.

What would happen if he gave in an actually loved her, then she left? City girls don’t change, and couldn’t be happy with 24/7 island life, right?

Man, does John do a mental number on himself. I was so happy to see him break out of this funk, and give his heart a chance…especially since Diane is a great gal.

These two broken souls do find happiness in each other eventually–and life plans are much less fixed than John had first thought. It’s a solid romance with a compelling lead man and a strong female lead. We don’t get any of her voice, but her spirit is indomitable, nonetheless. It’s a fun read, and I loved the setting. Might need to consider another trip out west, soon… 🙂

Interested? You can fine READY TO FALL on Goodreads, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Daisy PrescottAbout Daisy Prescott:
Before writing funny contemporary romances about adults, I dreamed of being an author while doing a lot of other things. Antiques dealer, baker, blue ribbon pie-maker, fangirl, freelance writer, gardener, pet mom and wife are a few of the titles I’ve acquired along the way.
Born and raised in San Diego, my husband and I currently live in a real life Stars Hollow in the Boston suburbs with our dog, Hubbell, and an imaginary house goat who remains nameless.
Ready to Fall, my second novel, features John Day, the hot, sexy neighbor in my debut novel Geoducks Are for Lovers. Both can be read as stand-alones. I’m busy writing my next novel, which will not feature any bivalves.

Connect with Daisy Prescott on her website, Goodreads, Facebook, or Twitter.

***GIVEAWAY***
Click the Rafflecopter link below to be one of THREE lucky winners in the Ready to Fall Blog Tour Giveaway!

Grand Prize – Signed Ready to Fall Paperback, button, & magnet
Runner Up – Ready to Fall & Geoducks Are for Lovers E-books
Second Runner Up – Ready to Fall E-book
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck and keep reading my friends!

Ever Have One of Those Days? FAERY SWAP–A Review and Giveaway!

For those who’ve never experienced the disorientation of Spring Forward…I dislike you, greatly.

See, in the US we decide to “jump” the clocks forward by an hour every Spring and the body clock takes about a week to fully adjust to the dark mornings and odd eating times. [Just one more reason to despise Ben Franklin, LOL.] Truly, today I’ll eat lunch at probably 10 am and dinner at 8pm because my stomach can’t figure out what the heck the solar visual cues mean. Don’t think I’m the only kook out there; today is notoriously bad for traffic accidents with sleepy drivers causing more morning crashes…

With my body being so out-of-kilter I thought I’d feature a book I recently read by a dear writing friend, Susan Kaye Quinn. Not that it’s odd for me to recommend her work–but I don’t usually review Middle Grade books. I read them, of course–I have an 11 year old child–yet, the story’s sense of being out of both place and time fit beautifully with my Spring Forward disorientation.

Faery SwapTHE FAERY SWAP features two young(ish) boys–Finn, a human, and Zaneyr, a faery–who trade souls on the summer solstice in Amesbury, England–a stone’s throw from, you guessed it, Stone Henge.

Finn’s whole life is devoted to keeping his sister, Erin, safe and out of foster care. See, they aren’t orphans but their mom died a few years ago and their dad, a mathematics professor, is parentally MIA. On the way to school one morning, Finn is tricked into helping a strange boy with the smallest of tasks–picking up a dropped coin–and plummets into a realm of magic and fantasy the likes he never could have imagined.

Zaneyr is determined to thwart his father, King Dageyr, from sealing the Rift–the magical space erected between the human and faery world 4000 years ago. In this breach of space-time, Zaneyr’s mother was lost, locked into the mortal human world, while those in the faery Otherworld lived on, never aging. Each summer solstice, emissaries of the faery world are sent to Earth to learn of any advancements in math or science that might lead humans to Otherworld. Due to the time distortions of the Rift, a year in Otherworld equals a century of Earth years, so the advancements move quickly, compared to Otherworld time.

Knowing that sealing the Rift will lead to many mortal lives lost, Zaneyr risks shifting with Finn–even if it means sending Finn’s soul to Otherworld forever. One life must be worth more than the thousands that will be lost if King Dageyr’s plan is complete, right?

Of course, Finn is unwilling to go without a fight. He is assisted in his effort to return to the human realm by a rock sprite named Pyx and Zaneyr’s BFF Liranna, a tough faery who harbors a crush on the impetuous prince. They have less than a day to reverse the swap–by sunset on the solstice the realms will be too far apart for souls to return to their previous realms–so it’s handy that Finn develops some magical skills while trudging through the Otherworld.

Just when Zaneyr is getting settled in Finn’s life, the unimaginable happens–he meets a fellow faery, one who is desperate to return to Otherworld. And, of course, Finn manages to weave a bit of magic that interfere with Zaneyr’s changeling plan.

In the end, it is guidance from Finn’s genius father that stops the realms from merging.

This book is a real treat. Complete, interesting plot arcs call into question some very serious moral issues in a subtle way. For example, is it okay to sacrifice some to save many? And, what is the value of life? Most compelling for me was: is it fair to risk the happiness of everyone to fix an act long regretted?

Most importantly, it is the teen characters who save the day–thwarting the mis-guided plots of King Dageyr to correct past mistakes. The HEA occurs two-fold, with both Zaneyr and Finn having a better place in their realms when the sun finally sets. It’s written with boys in mind–but I believe girls and fantasy lovers of both sexes will enjoy this wholesome tale.

Interested? You can find THE FAERY SWAP on Goodreads, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble.

About Susan Kaye Quinn:

She’s the author of the bestselling young adult SF Mindjack Trilogy. The Dharian Affairs trilogy is her excuse to dress up in corsets and fight with swords. She also has a dark-and-gritty SF serial for ages 17+ called The Debt Collector and a middle grade fantasy called Faery Swap.

It’s possible she’s easily distracted.

Susan grew up in California, got a bunch of engineering degrees (B.S. Aerospace Engineering, M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering) and worked everywhere from NASA to NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research). She designed aircraft engines, studied global warming, and held elected office (as a school board member). Now that she writes novels, her business card says “Author and Rocket Scientist,” but she mostly sits around in her pajamas in awe that she gets paid to make stuff up.

All her engineering skills come in handy when dreaming up dangerous mindpowers, future dystopic worlds, and slightly plausible steampunk inventions. For her stories, of course. Just ignore that stuff in the basement.

Susan writes from the Chicago suburbs with her three boys, two cats, and one husband. Which, it turns out, is exactly as much as she can handle. You can find her on Facebook way too often. Or you can reach her the old-fashioned way: susankayequinn (at) comcast (dot) net

She also does Virtual Author Visits for schools and you can learn about those in this Handy-Dandy YouTube movie…


She’s a dynamic speaker and really inspires people, as you may agree! If you are, or know, a teacher or a librarian, get in touch with Susan about getting in class projects and swag to foster the growth of young minds in both science and writing!

***Blog Tour Giveaway***

Click on the Rafflecopter link below for your chance to win
a $25 Amazon Gift Card
a Signed Paperback of Faery Swap
and Two Faery Wands
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Best of luck, and keep reading my friends!