It's time to go Barefoot! by @amiedenman

While parts of the world are enjoying a slow spring awakening 🌺 and April showers--our theme for this month--the Gulf Coast of Florida is hot and sunny!🌞 Just last week, I released the newest of my trademark beach romances. Truth? I ADORE FLORIDA!! I love everything about it. Humidity, crowds, orange groves, beaches, theme parks.🍊

In my mind and in my books, Florida is a magical place and the Gulf Coast is perfect for romance. 💘Welcome to Barefoot Key, a formerly sleepy beach town experiencing a revival. I first explored Barefoot Key in The Gull Motel (my bestselling book) and recently returned with The Barefoot Beach Rental.

Here's the story on The Barefoot Beach Rental: (in which I included my love of cake 🎂 and cats 🐈)

When a down-on-her-luck baker moves into the Barefoot Beach Rental for a month, she brings the heat to her sexy landlord while also finding a sweet spot of her own.

Ava Bottoms dreams of owning her own bakery where elaborate wedding cakes and custom creations abound. She has baking talent and experience, but she’s mixed romance with business a few too many times, so she’s starting over at the wise age of almost thirty. Burned out of a home and kitchen due to a recent incident with a flaming dessert, Ava checks in to the Barefoot Beach Rental for a month. The brochure promises a gourmet kitchen where she hopes to finish writing The Year of Cake—the book that will bring her the fame and fortune she needs to achieve her bakery dream. She’s sworn off distractions of the male kind, but it’s tough keeping her oven mitts off the sexy owner of her beach rental.

Dalton Neverly checks guests in and out at his Barefoot Beach Rental. Most guests stay only a week, and he savors temporary relationships. Six years after his divorce, he can still hardly look at the gourmet kitchen in rental unit two without remembering what his ex-wife cooked up with a visiting chef. Dalton loves his beach lifestyle, but when Ava moves in next door for a month and tempts him every day with sweets, he wonders if it’s time to feel the heat again.

 

I hope readers will love a trip to the beach--perfect for curling up inside during those April showers! I'd love to connect with you on social media or through my newsletter. Just click on the links below! 😍

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I'm also participating in a Romance giveaway on BookFunnel all month. "April Happy Ever After Romance" includes almost 200 free downloads of romance novels! Find it here!

 

Bless Your Heart by Karen Kelley #RomanceGems

    

  Buy now or

read for free in KU

     I love the South, cowboys, and romance. Until we started traveling, I’d thought everyone was pretty much the same. I guess we are, but I discovered each state had something really special to offer. There were some states we learned not to order Mexican food because it was more often than not closer to original Mexican dishes. I’m too used to TexMex, I guess.

     Buffalo burgers were really dry because they don't have much fat. Frog legs---forget it, I'm not going there.

     But what’s up with Michigan and their mac and cheese? It’s like gourmet food. They even have it as an entrée. I don’t think I’ve ever had mac and cheese as wonderful as what I had in Michigan. Same with their root beer. I love it!

     And I thought curds were something from a nursery rhyme. No, curds actually exist! I ordered some in Wisconsin just to try them. They're wonderful, melt in your mouth, fried cheese. We need curds in Texas, although I’m not sure we could do as well by them.

     And the accents. I love someone with an accent. I have an English friend and I could listen to her talk all day. But not on the phone. If she talks too fast, I can’t understand a word she says. 

     But Texas has always been home and I love being back. All our traveling in the RV inspired me to start a brand new series, It’s A Southern Thang. Yes, I meant to spell thing like thang.

     I love the townspeople, country life, and the falling in love in the first book, Bless Your Heart. I drew on my memories growing up, like my aunt’s sweet tea. How all the cousins eyed the jugs and wondered which one she had made. It was the worse tea I’ve ever tasted. Seriously! It would make your toes curl and your hair frizz. We never had the heart to tell her how awful it was, though. We just talked about her tea when she wasn’t around, but it wasn’t gossip because every bit of it was true.

     Since I titled this first book Bless Your Heart, I've realized how often I actually say it. How funny. If you want to know the meaning, this is how Riley, the hero, explains it:

     Yeah, and I knew when a woman said, bless your heart, it could mean something entirely different. It was all in the way they said it. It could be commiseration if someone in the family died or something, or shock that you’d gone through a traumatic event, like a car accident or were getting a divorce. It could also mean go screw yourself. The words could drip with sarcasm, so you knew they didn’t really give a damn about you. I had a feeling Whitney leaned toward the latter.

     The first book is a little spicy, with humor, and a whole lot of down home country. I hope you enjoy Bless Your Heart as much as I enjoyed writing it.   

     Don't forget to enter our rafflecopter for a chance to win great gifts! 

BEACHES and BOOK BOYFRIENDS is the Romance Gems Julytheme. Enter our drawing for a chance to win 1 of 3 Amazon Gift Cards and fun beach books too! Read the post, leave a comment, and enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway.

Happy Reading,

Karen Kelley

www.authorkarenkelley.com