My Summer Reading List by Lucinda Race #RomanceGems

Hello again.

It’s Summer and it’s HOT!

So, for the months of June, July and August I’ve embarked on a personal reading challenge. To read at least one book from every author in the #RomanceGems group. Prior to deciding to make this a short-term goal I did have a reading goal on Good Reads. But I’ve gone from twenty-four books as my goal to adding twenty more. But where to begin.

As an author of ten books I have a favorite and I was sure the other amazing authors in our group did too, so I asked. Where do I begin? 

So far, I’ve read Joan Reeves, Bonnie Edwards, Kathy Lawless, Elsa Kurt, Karen Kelly, Connie Vines, Jan Scarbrough and Kathryn Hills. Each novel or series of books I’ve read has been a wonderful diversion in the long wonderful days of summer.

I’ve been diligent to post reviews on Amazon, Goodreads and Bookbub to support this amazing and talented group of authors is very important to do. Writers supporting writers is critical as writing and editing is such a solitary pursuit.

My kindle is full of books to be read and up next is anyone’s guess. But I see some amazing books in my future. If you’re interested in my reviews check out my Goodreads page. Every word is honest and comes from the love of reading. 

When I was telling a friend what I was doing she said it reminded her of the reading list she got from her teachers each summer. I had to laugh at the comparison but this is much better than the assignments of old. I know that as a romance novel junkie I’m going to spend the summer falling in love again and again.

Don’t forget to sign up for this month’s contest. 

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.

Until next time, 

I wish you happiness. 

Lucinda

My Kind of Hero @karilemor #RomanceGems

So many people talk about book boyfriends and I have to admit I don’t really have any. Not that I don’t like the heroes I read about. I do! But typically, I read romance. In these stories I am looking for a connection between the two main characters.  If I end up with the hero, that means the other character does not. Then it wouldn’t be a romance. Or it would be my romance, and since I’m already married, that would be a problem. I’m not into cheating.  In my life or in my books.

When I do choose my heroes, I have to say I like certain things. And some things I’m not a huge fan of. Jerky alpha billionaire, Pass. Any guy who’s ever cheated on a woman, Pass. Royalty, sheik, hit man. Pass. I’m more into those who serve, like military, police, firefighter, or government agent.  Or I like the manly type who work with their hands. Cowboy, carpenter, or farmer.

One of my good friends checked out my ‘Hero’ Pinterest board and said I definitely have a type. Yup, I do. Physically, I like them trim, clean cut, lean muscles, and swoon worthy. I do appreciate a bit of chest hair as well. But that’s all superficial.

What I really want in a hero is vulnerability. Sure, I want them to be macho and strong, physically and emotionally. But I also want them to be real. To have problems they need to work on. I want them to love their woman with every fiber of their being and fight until the death for them. Since many of my books are romantic suspense, they do exactly that. Well, not quite to the death, but often times close.

It’s great that most books now have the hero’s point of view as well. I love the inner thoughts and the struggles they go through in the story. One favorite is Nikko from Peggy Jaeger’s Cant Stand the Heat. He’s a definite alpha male who takes no guff from anyone. But he’s got this teenage daughter who is going through quite an ordeal. Instead of being the absent father, or the one who rules with an iron fist, he is caring and loving and his daughter is more important to him than anything else in his life. And he constantly tells her so. This man, this father, dug so deeply into my heart, I thought I might bleed.

Another great hero with a vulnerability is Ty from Marianne Rice’s What Makes Us Stronger. Ty is a man who works with his hands and very masculine. But he suffers from depression and struggles to get through life with this around his neck. This is a real issue that so many people suffer from.  I love watching him as he finds a way to make things work with the heroine. Swoonworthy.

I’ve got my own vulnerable hero coming out soon. The book, Elusive Dreams, is the first in my new series, Storms of New England. The series is a small-town family contemporary set in…you guessed it… New England.

Erik Storm is the oldest in his family, with three younger Storm siblings. He has always been popular, handsome, well-liked, and successful. But his time as a Marine over seas left him scarred, barely able to walk, and hiding other medical secrets he never wants his family or friends to find out about. But he promised a dying mother he’d take care of her children. How to do that in the physical shape he’s in?

Tessa Porter has bounced around through a variety of foster homes her whole life. In her teens, she finally came to live next door to Erik’s grandparents in coastal Maine, where Erik spent many summers working at a local restaurant. Due to abuse in her past, Tessa hates to be around people and cringes at any form of touch. But she’s willing to help Erik take care of the children. They are younger and weaker and therefore can’t possibly hurt her.

Unfortunately, a social service worker doesn’t think Erik is in any shape to care for these children, so Erik and Tessa embark on a marriage of convenience to ensure the children will have a stable home and loving family. Both Erik and Tessa face challenges, so creating a family might be the only thing to heal these two scarred souls.

~~~

As soon as I have a cover and release date, I will share. To get up to date news, you can subscribe to my mailing list (I only send out a newsletter when I have a sale or new release or other exciting news). Or you can follow me on BookBub.

Now tell me, what is your favorite kind of hero?


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July Giveaway

Starts at 12:01am CDT, July 5, Friday.

Ends at 12:01am CDT, July 25, Thursday.

You can click Rafflecopter here at any time, or scroll to the bottom and find the form. Remember, it opens July 5 so enter often and tell your friends. There are some great prizes up for grabs.

July Prizes

Grand Prize: a $20.00 Amazon Gift Card

Second Prize: a $15.00 Amazon Gift Card

Third Prize: a $10.00 Amazon Gift Card

Fourth Prize: 2 print books, each autographed and mailed by the author

5th, 6th, and 7th Prizes: Eboook bundles of 3 Ebooks each

Beach Book Bonanza

What's better than a Beach Book in the summer? Not much, especially when you're talking about these beach books by these bestselling authors!

Some are sweet; some are spicy; some are downright sizzling hot! There's definitely something for everyone.

Have fun in the sun, and nobody can take your books away!

Writing Series? @ConstanceBretes #RomanceGems

Do you like to read series? or in this case, a few interconnected books? I never started out intentionally writing a series. It just happened. While concentrating on one hero, another hero close to him pops up wanting me to tell his story too!

As is the case with my story, Love Songs. The hero in this story, Jake Ackerson, is a band leader, CEO, and a hot Native American! The woman he loves, Jennifer Summers, comes back to town as a well-known singing artist and agrees to sing with his band temporary while she tries to decide what to do with her life.

While writing this story, Jake's band, White Sands, bass player, Vincent Carter, was demanding his story be told. Why? I have no idea why, of all the characters in Love Songs, his name kept coming up. I think he wanted his happy ever after....

On a lonely road, Vincent stops and helps a real estate agent, Char Johnson by changing her flat tire. Char insists on paying him for his help in some way, so he asks her to go to the wedding of Jake and Jennifer as his date.

Vincent is struggling with trying to keep his brothers and sisters together as a family, but one family member continues to be obstinate and difficult. Meet Patrick Carter. Hero in Jade's Redemption. Patrick tries to separate himself from his family, by moving away and becoming a Police Chief for a mid-size town, where he meets Jade Harlowe, a woman with a shady past, a former police officer now a 911 dispatch officer.

Just when Patrick finally thinks he's got himself separated from his family, Vincent strolls back into his life and wants Patrick to be his best man at his upcoming wedding to Char!

The two brothers share a painful, horrible past. Can they bridge the gap that separates them and be the brothers they both long for?

Am I going to continue with the series? I've been thinking about it. There is still one brother who is believed to be too badly scarred to find love. He's been pretty quiet, but I think he's just too shy to ask for his story to be told.

So, in keeping with the theme this month, Beaches and Book Boyfriends, I have three more book boyfriends to read about besides the one I'm offering below.

Don’t forget to jump in and get your name in the latest giveaway, Beaches and Book Boyfriends. I’ll be giving away a free ecopy of Midnight Escape.

Here's the rafflecopter:

Romance Gems July Rafflecopter Giveaway

The Key to Your Heroine—Is Hidden Your Closet? by Connie Vines @connievines #RomanceGems

Research is my middle name.

I plan family vacations to include possible ‘future book settings’, ‘historical events’, ‘regional foods’—well, you know where I’m going with this.

Research often required hours spent at the public library using the card catalog.  Oh, how the Internet has simplified my life.

However, breathing life into your heroine, and bringing your story to life, are all elements that writers spend hours and hours perfecting.

Sensory details, setting, motivation, and that ‘something’ which is the spark of each and every story is often elusive.  Sometimes, just sometimes, the pieces of your fictional universe fall neatly, and unexpectedly, into place.

Today this is what happened to me.

While sorting through my closet, I discovered a treasure of carefully-packed-away-items.  Being the eldest daughter, I’ve acquired the family photos, was blessed with the oral histories of grandparents and great-grandmother, and other relatives.  I carefully placed the items on my bed.  I was fingering a silk scarf of my maternal grandmother’s, noticing blending of colors, threads of silver catching the light when I realized I was holding a moment of her life.  A snap-shot of who she was, who she wanted to be—a time before she was my grandmother.

Had she gone shopping with her sister or her mother to purchase this scarf?  Or had she ridden the EL, after work to a department store in Chicago?  Was she going to a dance? To the theater?
Her parents immigrated from the region of Bohemia in Czechoslovakia (before it became the Czech Republic) and she was the youngest of six children. 

I located pieces of her jewelry, the scarf still smelled faintly of her perfume (or was it simply my memory of her fragrance?).  I found her beaded evening bag.  I recalled a photo taken when she and her sister worked as extras in the motion pictures of the 1920 and 1930s.  They stayed with their older brother (musician, Tony Lada of the Louisiana Five) in San Monica, California.  I was certain I had it in a box, perhaps already scanned to my computer.

  YouTube Louisiana Five

This is how I discover my heroine and my hero.  My characters become living, breathing people—step by step; their stories are revealed to me piece by piece.

I may have the start of a synopsis for my next novel in the works.  What do you think?

Rudolph Valentino? (Catch his silent movies on YouTube—he was a hottie!)

I also have my great-great-grandmother’s butter churn from the 1800s—but that’s another story.

So, what treasure do you have hiding in your closet?

I'd love to hear your family history story :-).  What treasure did you find?

Happy Reading,

Connie Vines

Reminder:  Romance Gems July Contest in in full swing!  Raffelcopter
                  Breaches and Boy Friends Giveaway.


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A Not So Secret Secret by Laura Hunsaker

A couple years ago, friend and fellow writer, Heather Lire asked if I wanted to write a hockey romance together. I thought it might be a fun new direction to take, and wanted to see what would come of it.

Well, I'm here to tell you, it's been an amazing ride.

The two of us are Kenzie MacLir. We not only loved writing Change it Up for the Icing the Puck anthology, but we have another story coming out with the fabulous New York Empires.

But fair warning, we don't just write Hockey Romance. We write hot Paranormal Hockey Romance. In Icing the Puck (book 2 in the New York Empires series), were were invited to add the third story to this anthology. All three stories take place at the same time. You'll see familiar teammates and enjoy their stories as well.

We wrote about a hockey player named Reiner Jahr who finds out he's part god. His nickname from the fans as a hockey god is so much more accurate than Reiner ever could have guessed. And his sister's best friend is coordinating an event between his team and the Special Olympics.

In our next story Against the Boards, due out this winter, we're writing about teammate Kyle Sandberg. I'll let you in on a secret...Kyle's a werewolf. His brother is the alpha of the local pack, but Kyle has the reputation as the screw-up brother. Will meeting his mate change his outlook on the pack? Or will his brother see it as Kyle making promises he can't keep?

Check out Icing the Puck, and the first book Going All In

The New York Empires are back…this time three new players will find their HEA and maybe a little more.

Light the Lamp by Isabo Kelly 

Geneticist Dr. Ann Bell never thought she’d have a normal life or a normal relationship. She moves to New York hoping her “Devil’s spawn” half sister can help her control the fire curse that’s haunted her her whole life. Without help, Ann fears she’ll kill someone. Finding a confusing, handsome, overwhelming hockey player was never part of the plan. But when that man proves to be someone she could love, things get a lot more complicated for Ann.

New York Empires defenseman Brody Evans never expects to find the woman of his dreams wandering the physical therapy center. He’s never met anyone like Ann Bell, and he wants more from her than any other woman before. But Ann’s keeping a secret that could tear them apart. For the first time in his life, Brody feels helpless. He’s a fighter, though, and Ann is a woman he’ll fight for, no matter what it takes.


Crossing the Lines by Stacey Agdern 

Kayleigh Emerson knows that she shouldn’t get involved with a teammate of her brother’s. But the chemistry between her and rookie sensation Max St. Laurent is unmistakable.

Max St. Laurent is captivated by the talented violinist who happens to be his captain’s sister. Unfortunately, he doesn’t need his unique combination of empathy and telepathy to realize there’ll be problems if he pursues her.

But when mandatory English conversational sessions lead to a fake date that feels all too real, Max and Kayleigh must decide whether to cross the line between friendship and love.

Change It Up by Kenzie MacLir 

Reiner Jahr is in his second year of playing for the New York Empires. As a boy from Setså, Norway, he dreamed of nothing but winning the Stanley Cup, and with his stick-handling skills, it’s close to becoming real. But finding out he’s the son of a god isn’t something he’s equipped to handle, and when he runs into his sister’s best friend at an event for his team, he can’t keep his eyes off her. Suddenly hockey is no longer the only thing on his mind.

Emma Chase loves her job with the local Special Olympics organization. Coordinating an event with the New York Empires has been a dream come true. Until she sees Reiner Jahr, her best friend’s big brother. Her teenage crush has developed into so much more. Seeing him again brings all her youthful feelings racing back. Their meeting sets in motion a chain of events that will forever change her.

What can they do when changes happen both on and off the ice?

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Romance Gems July Rafflecopter Giveaway

WHO IS YOUR BEST BOOK BOYFRIEND? @kathleenlawless #romancegems

Isn’t it fun to have a book boyfriend?  

You know, the guy who never disappoints, always says and does the right thing and is there for you no matter what.


My literary love affairs started early with Nancy Drew’s boyfriend Ned, even though I was puzzled by his constantly changing personality.  Decades later I learned there was no one author named Carolyn Keene, but a stable of different writers who penned the series.  Which explained the lack of continuity with Ned.  Around the same time, I was intrigued by Trixie Beldon’s adopted brother, Jim.  I so wanted those two to get together and drop the friendship act, but the writers shied away from anything romantic between them. 

As I matured, so did my reading tastes.  I still remember my crush on Connan TreMellynn in Victoria Holt’s Mistress of Meylynn, which I read shortly before Harlequin Presents burst onto the scene, with their SSB heroes. Sneering, Sardonic Bastards, for readers who are too young to remember that era.

  

Written entirely from the female POV, our erstwhile heroine was always shocked and delighted to learn, in the last chapter, the SSB had secretly loved her from the beginning, but was fighting those feelings for mysterious reasons which may or may not be revealed as they ride off into the sunset.

Then Kathleen Woodiwiss gave us the unforgettable Ruark!  There was a swoon-worthy hero, willing to do anything, make any sacrifice for Shanna.  Pant, pant.  Flutter, flutter.  His was a tough act to follow although many authors tried, and brought us a wide variety of men we loved to love.  Even if Fabio did grace many a cover. 

Fantasies and magic also wielded a big influence on romance readers, fueled by Harry Potter and Cedric.  Why have an ordinary book boyfriend when you can have one with extraordinary powers?  And haven’t Vampires always been sexy?  Thank you Twilight! 

Book boyfriends today wear many hats and are every bit as likely to be a single dad, a nerd, a cowboy, a navy seal, a billionaire, or the boy-next-door. Who… wait for it…. just might not be exactly who he seems.

In keeping with this month’s Beaches and Book Boyfriends contest, I offer up my hot hero, Jesse Quantrill in Anora’s Pride, “a hero who steams into every woman’s heart with his bad-boy-turned-hero machismo.” RT Reviews.

Please comment below with a few of your most beloved Book Boyfriends. Knowing what readers enjoy in a hero is great intel for authors.

If you’ve been following my new series, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, BRODY'S BRIDE is available now,   https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SRHCQK8

soon to be joined by BRADLEY'S BRIDE   https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TQ488XC

and BRAYDON'S BRIDE.https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TM3RGYG
both at a special pre-order price of only 99 cents.

Better yet, join my VIP Reader’s Group and download the free Prequel, Before the Brides  .http://eepurl.com/bV0sb1

Please take a minute to like us and follow our Facebook page. It’s a great place to connect with like-minded readers.

And we have a brand new contest for you to enter here.

Click Rafflecopter to enter BEACHES and BOOK BOYFRIENDS, our July Giveaway. Visit the Monthly Giveaway page to see all the prizes. Enter often and tell your friends. There are some great prizes up for grabs.

Hot and Heavy by @SatinRussell #RomanceGems

July is the month when temperatures really begin to heat up, but I don’t mind. By the time our long New England winters have come to an end, I’m ready for some hot days and sunshine. As long as I have my sunscreen, hat, and sunglasses, I’m good to go.

Of course, weather isn’t the only heat factor romance writers are familiar with. When it comes to romantic love, sexual encounters tend to come with the territory. Quite a few books in this genre have been known to make a reader blush straight to her roots!

Other times, our stories can be a slow burn with lots of anticipation before things get really steamy.

Romance novels can run the gamut, from sweet to sizzling and everything in between. As an avid reader of romance, I’m happy to read all levels of intimacy. However, as a writer, it became a real consideration – just how far did I want to go and how much detail did I want to get into?

Full disclosure: It wasn’t the first time I had tried my hand at a little “risqué” writing. When my husband and I first started dating, I ended up moving to Bangkok, Thailand for six months. One of the BEST things about getting together long-distance is that everything has to be spelled out and you can’t rely on chemistry to do your communicating for you.

On the other hand, one of the WORST things about getting together long-distance is that everything has to be spelled out and you can’t rely on chemistry to do your communicating for you. Let’s just say there were some pretty racy e-mails exchanged between the two of us during those six months of separation.

(And yes, I did print those communications out and save them!)

But writing for a larger, public audience is different than writing personal love letters to your significant other. I still remember when I sat down to write my first sex scene. I’m a coffee shop writer and at the time it was my habit to write at my local Starbucks. Every day for hours on end, I would sit at my favorite table – the one right next to an outlet – and write.

Yet, when it came time to write my first hot and heavy sex scene…I couldn’t do it! The café felt too public. I became hyper-aware of the man sitting next to me working on a spreadsheet, or the young mother and her child at the condiment station, or the business meeting happening at the community table across the way.

I felt too exposed.

After about forty-five minutes of halted, self-conscious writing, I closed my laptop, packed up my stuff, and headed home. There, sitting alone at my dining room table, I was finally able to write that first sex scene.

Warning: These books contain suspense that sizzles!

As a writer, I think I’ve finally found my sweet spot for writing sex and heated exchanges. I don’t shy away from the details, but I really make my characters earn it. There’s something wonderful about the build-up and anticipation of that first intimate encounter shared between people, don’t you think?

If you'd like to see what I'm talking about, check out my books, Secret Hunger or Secret Need. They're both available on Amazon.

How about you? As a reader, what level of heat do you like in your romance novels? Let me know in the comments!

Speaking of hot, don't forget to enter our July Contest featuring Beach Reads and Book Boyfriends. You can find all the details on our Monthly Giveaway page.

Romance Gems July Rafflecopter Giveaway