New Release! Craving Jake Return to Welcome Book 3 by @BonnieEdwards #RomanceGems

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I'm excited to post here today about my newest book in my Return to Welcome series. Set in Welcome, WA, a fictional town full of citizens with long memories and old grudges, Craving Jake is about a woman who's returned to her hometown to help her mother recuperate from surgery.

Except returning to Welcome is never easy.

And this time, someone wants Brianna Bowler to leave again. This isn't the first time someone's told her to get out of town. Last time, it was her high school crush pushing her to leave.

Jake Morrow is still here, a paramedic now and Brianna can hardly take her eyes off him. Stalking isn't always a bad thing, is it?

For a limited time, the price for Craving Jake is only $2.99. Catch this deal while you can.

Returning to Welcome was easy…staying will be a challenge. Especially when someone is determined to drive her out.

Brianna Bowler has returned to her small town of Welcome to help run Bowler’s Dog Rescue. She’s also doing everything she can to set aside thoughts of her high school crush Jake Morrow. Jake appears to be with a perfectly perfect sprite of a woman. (Not that she minds how opposite she and the sprite are. Really, she doesn’t.)

Paramedic Jake Morrow has a woman in his house: she cooks, cleans, clings —and irritates the hell out of him. He’d felt sorry for her, injured, alone and broke, and offered to help. Big mistake. 

What would really make Jake’s day? His ex-girlfriend finally moving out. But she won’t take his word for it that things are over. What’s worse is Brianna Bowler has returned to Welcome.

Their shared tragic past and attraction burns between them as Jake accepts that things aren’t quite right with his ex. A break-in at the dog rescue, smashed windows, and a stolen laptop all add up to serious trouble for Jake and Brianna.

But with his ex in the wind and escalating, Jake’s protective instincts rise as events take a deadly turn. With the love of his life in danger, Jake comes to see that some women can’t be set aside, not even for their own good…but others want revenge.

This month on Romance Gems we're talking about Life Lessons...and my hero in Craving Jake has more than one to learn. First, be careful who you trust, second, if a person shows you what they're like, believe them.


November is the month for Gratitude, Appreciation, and counting your Blessings if you are religious and/or philosophical. Grateful, Thankful, Blessed—that's what we Romance Gems Authors feel. Join us this month in celebrating the Life Lessons we all learn. Enter our November Rafflecopter now for a chance to win 1 of 5 Amazon Gift Cards. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Craving Jake Cover Reveal! by @BonnieEdwards #RomanceGems

Sometimes life throws us curve balls and we need to duck or be hit in the head, or the heart. That's why I'm two weeks late with my post. My heart is quivering in fear for a loved one. On my regular blog date (the 15th) I couldn't even think about posting about a happy-ever-after romance.

This week things aren't any better, in fact they're worse. But, travel plans have come together and I feel more centered and accepting of the changes to come.

Everyone goes through peaks and valleys with loved ones. We learn to ride those peaks and valleys.

Unless we don't. Unless we react in dark and dangerous ways.

Sorry! I can't provide a buy link yet.

My next book in my Return to Welcome series is about a person who can't quite roll with the punches. A person who won't let go, can hold on too tightly and even become unbalanced.

Here's a sneak peek from the opening of Craving Jake, Return to Welcome Book 3.

* * *

Stalking wasn’t always a bad thing, Brianna Bowler told herself. Not when it happened by accident. Seeing Jake Morrow from afar three times in one month could be called a coincidence, couldn’t it?

But this was the first time she’d seen Jake with his girlfriend. From across the street, Brianna froze in shock as they stood in front of the fire station together.

Jake had always been easy on the eyes and fifteen years hadn’t changed that. Jake had black, untamed curls and deep blue eyes, and if she were close enough she’d see his spiky black eyelashes that looked like ink starbursts. Women would kill for those eyelashes. In fact, they paid swank prices for extensions that looked just like the ones Jake grew on his own. Wasn’t fair.

But she was distracted from the real reason she stood numb and still at the open trunk of her mom’s car.

Jake’s girlfriend was petite and slim and looked like a chirpy little sprite in her skin-tight active wear cropped pants and her kicky cross-trainers. And her dark curling hair made her look like a little sister or cousin. She’d just bet the gorgeous specimen of femininity also had blue eyes.

Not to mention she looked much, much too young for him, even from across the street and up the block Brianna could see she was a very young twenty-something. Young and fresh and pretty and perfect.

Brianna had already heard they lived together. She tried not to scowl, but Jake should be ashamed of himself. He was over thirty and this girl-child was an entire generation behind.

She shook off her dark emotions and bent to her task. And yes, her chest always clenched when she hefted bags of dog food and dumped them into a car trunk. Her eyes always smarted and her breath always caught. Four bags later, she dusted the kibble dust off her hands and closed the trunk lid.

She studiously kept her eyes away from the fire station’s open front doors, where Jake and his perfect girlfriend stood, probably talking about what to have for dinner together or what shows they’d be binge watching tonight. The ordinary stuff of lives lived together.

She didn’t miss that part of a relationship, not at all. She’d left Anthony behind in Seattle and he’d been content enough to be left. Whatever they’d shared had run its course and she was free now. Single again, and not looking at Jake Morrow and his cheerful, chirpy child-sized girlfriend.

* * *

Craving Jake is still in the editing phase and this opening may change a bit. But the story is set in my mind and the editing will continue. Expected month of release is August. I'd hoped for early in August, but life has tossed me a grenade, so this book may have to wait. I'm sorry about that, but when the heart is broken, it needs time to heal.

I love this small town series. Welcome, WA is not the cheery, sweet place that most romance small towns are. Welcome is full of nasty rumor, ugly gossip, and long-held grudges. People have long memories and are loathe to let others move on.

Returning to Welcome takes fortitude and guts and my returning heroes and heroines have what it takes.

The first people to learn when Craving Jake will be released will be my newsletter subscribers. You can sign up here: Bonnie's Newsy Bits

Next month we'll have a whole new contest and theme for Romance Gems, so please stay tuned...

Happy Reading!

An update: Since writing this blog, I've lost my sister to complications from epilepsy. Please remember, not every disability is visible and chronic illness takes a lifelong toll. Please think twice before judging...you never know what a person is struggling with.

An Unexpected Heroine by @BonnieEdwards #RomanceGems

Last year, I asked aloud on Facebook what people would think of a heroine who had lots of children from different fathers.  It was an interesting mix of reactions. Let's face it, romance heroines are expected to be smart, courageous, larger-than-life, sympathetic and, in a way, represent a person the reader would like to be.

But women can find themselves in love more than once. Mistakes happen, especially in our youth. Babies are born, and not all men are keepers.

One comment came something like this: I'm not sure if she'd make a great heroine, but I'd love to see how you handle it, Bonnie.

I often have a theme in my books: Don't judge until you've walked in her shoes.

And this is that book. Elle Foster is the sister of the hero from Finding Mercy and comes with baggage...a whole carload.

FREE TODAY ONLY!

Loving Logan is the second book in my current series Return to Welcome.

Elle Foster is a woman struggling to support four children while juggling an ex-husband's demands, newly-interested grandparents, the memory of a dead ex and the nasty gossip and rumors that abound in the seemingly idyllic town of Welcome, WA.

Amazon Exclusive

Into this mix strides Logan Hughes, a man who wants nothing more than children of his own. Adopted, Logan needs to see his eyes looking back at him, wants to recognize himself in a child.

Is that so much to ask?

It is if the woman you love has vowed to NEVER get pregnant again.

Loving Logan, Return to Welcome Book 2 is FREE Feb 5 - ONLY


Loving Logan is a standalone romance with depth, that "captivates and entertains" with a heroine not usually seen in romance.

To follow Bonnie Edwards on BookBub.

Or to sign up for her newsletter:  Bonnie's Newsy Bits

Craving Jake, Return to Welcome Book 3: The story of Brianna Bowler and Jake Morrow is currently being revised while I'm in sunny, relaxing Portugal catching some sunshine and warm weather. My newsletter is the place to be for updates and samples from this work-in-progress.

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