Peggy Jaeger's Blog, page 2

Of giveaways, matchmakers, and romance…

and how they all combine.

Today is August 30, 2025 and at midnight tonight my GOODREADS giveaway for MIX AND MATCH ( book 1 in the Heaven’s Matchmakers series ) ends. Did you enter? If you did, good luck!

If you didn’t ( no shade!) you might be interested in knowing that tomorrow, NATIONAL MATCHMAKER DAY, the entire series goes on sale for just 99cents on Kindle, B&N Nook, Apple books and Kobo! SO you can get the entire series for less than $3.00! The books will be on sale for 1 week, until September 7, then they go back to their original 2.99 price.

I’m doing this so that everyone gets a chance to read the series

before the final book, YOU’RE MY MATCH goes on sale on November 24, 2025 – just in time for your Thanksgiving post-tryptophan reading ! The preorder will be up soon, I promise!

YOU’RE MY MATCH ( Charity and Kolby)

Her job as an assistant wedding planner means everything to Charity Quinlan. She’s got a bullet point plan for her future and she’s not about to let anything get in the way of her goals. But a drunken hookup with a coworker – a guy she’s had a hate/hate relationship with from the get-go – may put her plan in jeopardy.  Charity has to ensure her boss never finds out about her indiscretion. But every day it’s getting harder to hide how much she wants a repeat of that amazing night.

His life is a series of one-night stands and Kolby O’Brian is not about to change his status for anyone – not even the little fireball who’s been the bane of his existence since the first day they met. Why, then, are his eyes always straying to Charity when he should be concentrating on work? And why does being around her suddenly make him want to be a different kind of man? A better one? One who thinks about…the future?

These two polar opposites need to decide if they want a future together or a life without the other in it, because an emotional volcano is churning and it’s about to erupt.

Problematic bookcons

….are getting out of hand.

I debated with myself for a few days whether or not to make a public statement about this, and after much soul searching, decided I just couldn’t let it slide and simply let others in the book community say their piece without adding to the discourse with my 10 cents ( adjusted up for tariffs and inflation!).

So, if you are in the know, you know that last weekend a bookcon took place in Boston called Sinners and Stardust. It’s a romantasy bookcon, so obviously, I didn’t attend because I don’t read or write fantasy or romantasy or any of its genres like dark romantasy, mafia, etc.

Apparently, several problematic behaviors occurred from the “fans” attending. Just stop for a moment before I continue and consider this: the word FAN comes from the word FANATIC, which means, a person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal, especially for an extreme religious or political cause; [often with modifier]; a person with an obsessive interest in and enthusiasm for something, especially an activity or person.

Let that definition sit for a moment. Notice the words OBSESSIVE INTEREST and SINGLE-MINDED ZEAL.

Okay, to continue.

There was a ball attached to this con where actors and cosplayers dressed up as favorite “characters” from some of the books represented by their authors at the con. Demons, warlords, overlords, all kinds of “Lords” from dark romantasy books were present and amenable to photo ops with “fans.” And yes, I am putting the word in quotes again for a reason.

One of the characters – and please forgive me for this because I don’t read the books or know the character – is, apparently, a favorite among the dark readers. So much so, that the actor portraying him was mobbed by a group of women at the ball, secured into a corner where he was summarily groped, fondled, a hand was shoved down the front of his pants to “fist him” and – believe it or not – an air tracker device was planted on his clothing. Why, the air tracker? Because the people who planted it wanted to find out what hotel he was staying in and his room number.

I’m going to let you figure out why they wanted that information, but if you need any help doing so, remember: his genitals had already been groped, which, as a definition, is called sexual assault. It’s just a hop, skip, and air track locator away to doing something even more egregious.

WTF???

This was a group of WOMEN. WOMEN!!!! If a man or men had done this to a female cosplayer they would have been tarred, feathered, and burned at the stake by the women attendees present. So please explain to me when it became acceptable for WOMEN to do the same thing to a man they all are fearful of having done to them??

Reportedly, the gentleman had a panic attack and had to be treated by EMS. It’s a wonder he didn’t need to be put into a mental health facility for a few days. I can’t imagine the flashbacks he’s going to have over this.

It’s indescribable the anger that is burning inside me at this disgusting display. And I don’t want to hear anything about alcohol causing or fueling the behavior. And I definitely don’t want to hear anyone blaming the AUTHORS for writing stuff where these kind of actions are “doable.” This is fiction, people. FICTION!!!!!! Make believe. The authors had nothing to do with what happened to that man. They didn’t write a scenario saying to sexually assault him and then put it into the ether for these women to perpetrate.

Another thing that happened was one of the authors was speaking to a group of her friends and she was approached by a group of “fans” who proceeded to grab her. From what we’ve heard, they were very aggressive and said many inappropriate things to her about her characters and her writing. The author said NO repeatedly about leaving her group and the “fans” didn’t listen. They just disregarded her pleas and basically carted her away.

The author stated, afterward, that she felt threatened, unsafe, and was fearful, so again, I am going to ask when did it become acceptable to women to treat one another the way they are always in fear of being treated themselves??

Dark romantasy and dark romance is predicated on FANTASY -which, if you need a defintion of is:  the faculty or activity of imagining things, especially things that are impossible or improbable.

Pay attention to 3 words: imagination( imagining), impossible and improbable in that definition.

The books are make believe. They are not real. The characters are make believe. Once again, they are not real.

The coup de grâce in my opinion, though, was one of the attendees “won” a huge plastic dildo from one of the authors present. I’m not going to interpret why the author thought this was an appropriate item to giveaway – I’ll leave her to figure that out, but the women who won it did several things that she could and should be arrested for. One, she strapped it on to her genital region under her dress and went around asking people, “Wanna see something?” and then lifting her dress and shoving it at them, while she cackled with laughter. OKay, can you say the word ASSAULT? The other thing that has been reported is that she was having oral sex with it in the lobby of the hotel – where people not attending the conference and their children were walking. Simulating oral sex with a fake penis in a public place. Public lewdness as an offense doesn’t come close to what she should be charged with.

That person needs intense psychological help if you ask my opinion. Not that anyone is, but still…

All of this behavior, isolated and disgusting as it is, adds fuel to the general public’s disdain for romance readers and writers in general, claiming we are all sex-starved, nymphomaniacs who can’t write REAL fiction.

All over social media the day after this occurred, idiots – and I use that word descriptively and pejoratively – posted things like “what did you expect to happen? These books promote sick behavior like that?” and “Not surprising because those books are trash and when people read trash they act it out.” And my favorite: ( Note the sarcasm in the word) “He ( the cosplayer) probably loved it.”

Okay, again, WTF??

I write all levels of heat – everything from sweet to steamy, so I ‘ve got a broad range of sex on and off the page in my books. I’ve had people come up to my table at books cons -mostly men, but some women too, – who have said things like, “I bet your husband is a happy man,” and “Where did you do all your sex research?” And my favorite, “You don’t look like a romance writer.” Which was followed up by the man adding, “You don’t give off a slut vibe.”

How many times can I say WTF in this piece??

All the stuff that has been going on for the past 6 months with bad bookcons ( One Million LIves, Once upon a CON) and now this, has justified in my mind that I am done doing big author and genred events for the foreseeable future. As authors, we pay a ridiculous amount of money to attend these cons with table fees, hotels, travel, swag, giveaways, and I have never even broken even on the back end with what I’ve laid out. The most expensive one I attended a few years ago cost me $1000.00 and I never sold one book.

You can’t sustain a business if you are always in the red. That’s just fiscal soundness.

The bad behavior and poor reputations these cons are getting has now made me see that I am done being a small cog in a big wheel. I will still do my local bookstore booksignings, and library events- which I lovelove love doing – but the big, mulitauthor, genre-ed events are over for me. I’m too old and too damn tired to worry about my own personal safety and mental health and that of my readers’s in a space where they – and I – should be safe, sound, happy, and feel protected.

And as far as the women who did what they did at Sinners and Stardust: you all need professional help and should be arrested.

Rant over…

Why authors do giveaways…

of their books.

Seems counterintuitive, right? Why are you giving something you should be making money on, away for free??

You write a book ( a product) that you hope people read ( and pay for),and you spend more time than you’d like marketing the book just so people know about it. And the more people who know about it, the chance that you will make a sale of that book, rises.

Makes sense in a commercial, market economy, no?

Then why do authors give away their books for free on things like Goodreads giveaways, or the book schmivoways on tiktok, or at the facebook parties that were once all the rage when an author came out with a new book?

I can’t speak for every author, I don’t have that kind of conceit ( LOL) but I can tell you why I do Goodreads giveAways and tiktok ones, too.

It’s to gain new readers.

That’s the name of the game in book publishing right now. You’re going to say but I thought the goal was book sales so you make money off all your hard work.

Yup, that’s true. But in order to make a book sale, you need – wait for it – readers!

Finding new readers when you are tyring to make a name for yourself as a legit author is hard. You could spend thousands of dollars on FB ads, or ‘Zon ads, or Bookbub deals. But most of us don’t have that kind of marketing budget.

My first year as an author I had zero dollars to spend on marketing. And it showed. I think my first book during its first release sold something like 30 copies. In an entire year! And that was with a traditional publisher.

But as I gained some new readers, who, through word of mouth- bless them -gained me even more readers, I started to develop a following. But the number was small, loyal though theY were, and I needed to find ways to get more new readers who would turn into one-click readers. Ways that wouldn’t break my non-existent marketing budget.

I did my first Goodreads giveaway in May of 2015. 346 people requested the book – the first in the MacQuire women series and, my first book!

Did that giveaway garner me some sales? Yeah, a few. People who didn’t win bought the book just because they had seen it listed in a giveaway. I got a few fan latters because of that too, so my empirical data is truthful.

So…I kept doing the giveaways. The one that garnered me the most entrants, and which subsequently sold a lot of books for me on the back end, was this one:

2249 people requested it. That’s quite a jump from 346!

And now, I’ve got my newest giveaway going on over on goodreads for Mix and Match

The giveaway started on 8/15 and today ( 8/16) already has 614 entrants. The giveaway is set to run until 8.30.

How many of those people truly want to read the book and aren’t just entering because they want to win something? I can’t give you an exact count, but the WANT TO READ stats on the book are good so that tells me readers are interested. And since most of my “fans” already have read the book, this also tells me these are new readers – the gold medal of book sales.

So, that’s my reason for doing giveaways, why I give the book away instead of making a legit sale and getting some coin back on my investment. What I’m really getting for the ROI( return on investment) is new readers-to-my work who will – please Jesus – become lifelong readers of mine.

Want to enter the Goodreads giveaway? Here’s the link: GRG

A GOODREADS giveaway for you…

just in time to celebrate National Matchmaker day!

So starting today, I’ve got a Goodreads giveaway for my first book in the HEAVEN’S MATCHMAKER series, MIX AND MATCH, Jasmine and Donovan. I’m giving away 100 Kindle copies. You can enter from now until August 30.

I decided to do this giveaway for a few reasons.

~MIX and MATCH is the best way to start the HEAVEN’S MATCHMAKER series since it is the first book. Book 3, Perfect Match came out earlier this year, with Love Match releasing in 2024. The final installment in the series, YOU’RE MY MATCH releases on 11.24.25

~You’ll have lots of time to catch up on the entire series before the last book drops!

~And I wanted to give readers who hadn’t had a chance to read MIX and MATCH yet a chance to win it, love it, and want to read more!! ( LOL) Delusions of grandeur is my middle name, LOL.

Plus, I am lowering the prices on all the book in the series starting on 8.31.25 for 1 week to celebrate NATIONAL MATCHMAKER DAY!

So, enter today…read…and enjoy!

~ Peg

My weekend plans…

…include a library booksigning!

This Saturday, August 9, 2025, I will be at the I LOVE ROMANCE BOOK AND AUThOR FESTIVAL at the Bigelow Free Public Library in Clinton, MA. Nine other authors, including me(!) will take part in this wonderful annual event sponsored by the Library and Jeannie Jones Tatro – an avid romance book lover and magnificent author supporter.

The event goes from 10:30 am until 12:30 pm, is open to the public and best of all is FREE!!! You might want to bring a few bucks with you, though ( or a credit card!) because the authors will be selling their books directly to you!

I will have the following titles for sale during the event:

Dearly Beloved Today, Tomorrow, Always Baked with Love ( ALL the MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN BOOK Series)

Mix and Match, Love Match, Perfect Match ( All the HEAVEN’S MATCHMAKER series)

A PRIODE OF BROTHERS: Rick, Aiden, Dylan ( the entire series)

RETRIBUTION hardback copies.

If you’d like to preorder any of these books or any others from my catalog, click here for the order form and will bring the books with me to the library on Saturday. PEGGY’S WEBSTORE

Come out to the Bigelow Free Library Saturday morning – it promises to be loads of fun!

Book price changes…

are happening at midnight tonight.

SInce tomorrow is the first day of August ( and I can’t even believe that!! Where has the year gone??) all the sale prices on my DICKENS HOLIDAY ROMANCE books are going back to their normal ones and the .99 cent sale will no longer be in effect.

CHRISTMAS IN JULY for the DICKENS gang was fun. Over on the Facebook page we’ve been spotlighting the books and Dickens authors all month, but the time has come for the page to turn, the month to end, and the sale to finish.

So…if you haven’t read any of my Dorrit’s Diner books yet in the DICKENS HOLIDAY ROMANCE series, now is your absolute last chance before the holiday season to do so.

So…what are ya waiting for? LOL!

Finding my readers…

in the age of Tiktok.

It’s no secret as writers we need to be our own brand ambassadors and publicists. Most of us who write – either independently or who have traditional publishing contracts – are now responsible for all or most of our own marketing, for tooting our own writing horns, and for pushing our names, faces, and books in front of the reading world with the goal of finding new readers who will turn into loyal ones for future book releases.

This is just a fact of a writer’s life in the world of book promotion.

It’s also no secret that being on top of the social media world can help with the goal of finding new readers, sites like TikTok and Instagram, perfect examples of this.

I love Tiktok and the reading/writing/author part of it, Booktok. I’ve found so many new-to-me-authors and readers through my association with the platform these past two years. But there is one large drawback to being a writing creative on it. It’s a young platform.

And I don’t mean it’s only-been-around-for-a-few-years-young.

I mean it in the purest sense of the word young – the age group posting/creating/influencing is waaaaaay younger than me. Like, 40 years younger.

Let that sink in for a moment, because I had to. When I realized most of the influencers who are pushing authors into the Booktok stratosphere and making these authors household names are in their twenties and early thirties, it gave me a moment of pause.

Okay. A few moments. Like, a lot of moments.

If you know me and have read my books, you’re aware I write characters typically in their late thirties and early forties as the main protagonists. I write all heat levels, from sweet to steamy, and I typically write small town, although I do have a female billionaire series. I write contemporary, romcoms, and books that don’t delve into fantasy or deal with morally gray men, explicit sexual situations or have age gaps of 400 years.

But the majority of what comes by my BookTok feed daily…does.

Romantasy, dark romance, Mafia romance, and polyamorous characters in books flood my feed daily, in addition to the categories readers now refer to as high spice and smut. Teenaged girls who are involved with vampires. Mystical creatures having relations with humans. Mobsters ready to kill in a breath if someone touches a woman they consider their own property.

None of which I write.

Not one word.

And also none of which I read.

Not that there’s anything wrong with any of this – let me be clear on that. It’s just not my cup of tea; not what I write or read or want to.

Which has made it difficult for me to get any real traction on BookTok with finding new-to-me readers.

Trying to find new readers who read what I write and having to compete with these young creatives who are blasting out their love for the types of romance I don’t write, has been challenging.

My stories are light, fluffy, and what one of my besties – also a writer – calls Palette cleansers, meaning when you’ve had enough of the dark and dangerous, one of my books is just what you need to reorient your mood back to the happy side of the reading world from the dark. It cleanses your mind of all the deep darkness and refreshes you back to the norm.

I am conflicted about whether or not I like that description of my writing. It’s a total compliment, but in a way it kind of negates the whole real world romance aspect I’m going for in my books.

In the age of high fantasy, I write about the here and now real world.

In a time when teenage girls are being deified and getting involved with adult men of morally indistinct character or imagined creatures who disrupt their lives in unimaginable ways, I write about strong, age-appropriate women with real jobs, bills that need to be paid, families in crisis, and the emotional angst that comes with relationships.

In a book sphere where the imagined world is painted with dark and dreary and fantastical colors, I write about a world filled with the light of what love brings to the table.

So I need a favor. If you’re on Booktok and you like to read my type of romance – real world romance stories about strong women, the families who love and support them, and the men who can’t live without them, do you think you could follow me? Interact with my content? Spread the word about my books?

There are a few “sides” of Booktok that I’ve tried to gain traction with – the #over40booktok and the #fiftyplusbooktokreaders groups. But it’s been difficult to find them, though, so if you’re in one of those groups or any groups where the typical age is above 30, please give me a follow!!

And if you like the categories I write, maybe you’ll even read a book or two of mine.

I’ve gotta tell ya, kids: this self promotion stuff is HARD!!!!

~ Peg

Writing journeys are never linear…

they take twists and turns.

I received an email yesterday from the publisher who contracted DIRTY DAMSELS, the first book in my billionaire female romance series originally published under the DOTCOM girls series name, telling me that my contract had expired and they would not be renewing it for the future. All my rights reverted to me with this missive, and if you go look for the book now on Amazon, you will not find it.

What this means for me is that I can now rebrand it under my own publishing moniker and distribute it wide ( Amazon, B&N, kobo, etc) which I am going to do in the future, probably 2026. It will have a new cover because I can’t use the one they made for me, and I will be updating the text a bit, making a few simple changes to incorporate it into the NYC Socialites series world. I also have another book in the series plotted, titled PERFECTION that will release to coincide with DD coming back into the world.

For now, I still have print copies in my possession that I purchased as author copies and I am able to sell them through my webstore. So, if you want a print copy of the first edition, here’s where you can order it from me ( US only due to shipping costs.) DIRTY DAMSELS

So, a quick story to tell you about how this all came about.

I “wrote” DIRTY DAMSELS and the sequel IT’S A TRUST THING while I was coming home from NY. The car ride was four hours and I had an idea for a story about female CEOs and billionaires who’d had it rough, but survived. The books came to me as fully formed MOVIES in my mind, because I am a visual thinker. Once I got home, I started penning. DIRTY DAMSELS was a little sexier than what I had been writing, and I have to admit – I liked that!

I put out some queries, and Limitless Publishing said they wanted to buy it. Sold! YAY.

After it came out, I told them I had the second book ready to go, and they declined to represent it for their list. They never gave me a solid reason, but it wasn’t hard to figure out. This is no shade on them – publishing is a business and you need to make money to survive.

When the book released – to great reviews BTW -it sold, maybe, 100 copies initially. Despite all the publicity they, and I, did. So, they didn’t get any ROI for the contract. Because of that, they couldn’t see throwing more money at another book by the same author. ( That’s my assumption, anyway.) And I can’t blame them because, as I said, publishing is a business, and if you just throw money at projects that don’t get you any return, you will fail.

So…I published IT’S A TRUST THING myself. My very first indie book. Did I make mistakes? Tons. Did I learn from them? You betcha. The next three books in the series went a lot better than IATT did. But…live and learn.

Saying that, when I release DIRTY DAMSELS next year under the NYC SOCIALITES series, I know what needs to be done to make it an effective book in the market.

But…if you still want to get a first edition copy with the old cover, you can simply order DIRTY DAMSELS from me for now!

Be well kids, ~ Peg

Do you love FREEEEEEE ebooks?

…then I’ve got a deal for you!

My publisher just informed me that my Cinderella retelling, DIRTY DAMSELS is FREEEEEEEEEEE in Amazon Kindle until july 21.

If you love books about strong women, women who had it all, lost it,then got it back on their own, finding love along the way, this book is for you.

What if Cynderella had a one-night stand with a man named Prince?

“When I first saw Cynderella all covered in soot in that sexy maid uniform, I knew I wanted to be her Prince. She’s a smart and savvy businesswoman who’s built her cleaning company from the ground up. But now that Dirty Damsels was booming, I’ve been hired to arrange a hostile takeover. But the temptation of having her was too much to ignore… We ended up spending one night together–a night neither of us will forget.

Now, I want more.

I need more. I want to spend every night, skin-on-skin, with my beautiful Ella. Problem is, when she finds out who I really am, she’ll never forgive me.”

Readers who like the following topics will enjoy DIRTY DAMSELS: Sexy romance, Modern Fairytale, NYC, female CEO, Corporate Romance, Single woman, female business owner, HEA

RUN RUN RUN today to Amazon to get your freeeeeee kindle copy before July 21~

This book has won numerous writing and cover awards since it was released in 2019!

Happy reading, kids ~ Peg

A Christmas in July sale…

for all my DICKENS HOLIDAY ROMANCE BOOKS.

I love a CHRISTMAS IN JULY sale, don’t you?

Until July 31st, all the DORRIT’S DINER Dickens Holiday Romance e-books are on sale for just 99cents. This is a great way to introduce you to the wonderful world of Dickens, and my 6 additions to the fabulous series.

Start with book 1:

ANGEL KISSES AND HOLIDAY WISHES

Can a first love be rekindled when the past is filled with heartache?

After a personal tragedy, Sage Hamilton left the town she’d grown up in and the boy she’d given her heart to. With a vow never to return, Sage forged on with her life in order to forget the sadness of her past.

Keith Mills loved Sage from the first moment he spotted her ambling down the hallway of their middle school. And she’d felt the same about him. Or so he’d thought until she’d walked away from everything they’d meant to one another with a tearful and rushed goodbye.

But now, eighteen years later, she’s back and, as the town’s new doctor, it looks like she’s staying. Can Keith put the hurt of Sage’s dismissal to bed for good? And will she want to rekindle the love that had burnt so bright all those years ago?

then,

SANTA BABY

It’s Christmas Eve morning in the tiny New England town of Dickens. Santa’s arrival is imminent, and a hint of snow is in the air.Amy Dorrit is just about to open her popular diner for the breakfast rush when she discovers an abandoned baby on her back doorstep.Amy knows she should call the authorities and turn the infant over to them, but she just can’t. Thoughts of her own abandonment as a baby flood through her and she wants to keep the little one out of the hands of the authorities until the mother – hopefully –returns.But will the mom come back? And if she doesn’t, what is Amy prepared to do about the baby who has, already, claimed her heart?

Now that you know Dorrit’s original story, proceed as follows:

FIXING Christmas

Christmas has never filled writer Abra Charles with undiluted pleasure. If you’d been left on a doorstep on Christmas Eve morning, you might have a few issues with the holiday as well.
Abra’s avoided her hometown of Dickens for the past twenty Christmas seasons, but now she’s returned in an attempt to get her writing mojo back. Twice-divorced and with her third engagement ending in heartbreak, anger, and blackmail, Abra is now six months behind on submitting her current book. She hopes renting Copperfield House and immersing herself in solitude will cure her writer’s block and get her life back on track. The house she rents isn’t helping her achieve her goal, though, as one thing after another breaks, collapses, or floods.
Colton Bree, Dickens’ very own Mr. FixIt, can’t help but wonder if the new resident of Copperfield House is cursed. After being called to repair a broken window, he’s then needed to fix an exploding coffeepot, an overrunning toilet, and a washing machine that has a mind of its own. Bree doesn’t mind all the unexpected repair jobs, though, because the sexy renter is something to look at despite being a little neurotic and a whole lot of snarky.
Can Abra get her book done with all the distractions and craziness of her life, the biggest distraction being the flannelled hunk with the bedroom eyes and scowling yet oh-so-kissable mouth? Or will Dickens’ Mr FixIt have to step in and save the day and in so doing, fix Christmas for Abra forever?

SASHA’S SECRET SANTA

After a terrifying incident derails Sasha Charles’ career and confidence, she moves back to her hometown of Dickens to heal, reorganize, and start over.The only problem? The paralyzing panic attacks that plague her whenever she thinks about going back to nursing. Sasha is mentally, and emotionally stuck, and has no idea how to move forward.

Steve Caldwell is the new Director of Services at Dickens Memorial Hospital. After witnessing her save the life of a local resident in Dorrit’s Diner, he knows Sasha would be perfect for the new trauma center he’s planning. When she refuses his job offer outright, he sets out to change her mind.

But Sasha has thick, protective walls erected around her so Steve must first break through them. With patience and kindness, he does. As the two grow closer, each begin to have second thoughts on what their futures should look like, until idle, small town gossip threatens to derail their budding relationship.

With the imminent arrival of Christmas, will Steve be able to convince Sasha he has her best interests at heart?

DON’T MESS WITH THE MISTLETOE

It’s the holiday season in the tiny town of Dickens and pilot Michael Charles is home for his annual visit. His wanderlust has him itching to get back up in the skies as soon as possible, especially since he’s got a full schedule of rich and famous clients waiting to be transported to warm, exotic locales for the winter.

When his heavily pregnant sisters present him with a plan to give their workaholic mother some time off from managing the family diner, he balks. But one look at how tired the woman who took him into her home and heart is, and Michael agrees to run Dorrit’s Diner for a month so Amy Charles can get some well-deserved rest.

He’ll be back in the skies by the New Year.

The diner staff functions like a well-oiled machine, most of them long-term employees. The exception is new waitress Julia Maryland. The beautiful blonde has a past filled with heartache, a charming six-year-old daughter, and a smile Michael could spend the day getting lost in. But starting a relationship with her wouldn’t be wise because his visit is temporary and Julia seems like a permanent kind of girl.

When a family emergency requires him to rethink and reassess his life, Michael wonders if it’s time he becomes a permanent kind of man.

and finally

A CHEF’S KISS Christmas.

Successful Chef Anton Saparosa had the perfect life. Great marriage; beautiful and adoring wife; trendy, SoCal restaurant frequented by celebrities – many of them his friends.

Then Covid hit.

Anton’s perfect life dissolved before his eyes. With nothing left to keep him in California he starts an itinerant cross-country journey searching for something to give his life meaning again.

Happenstance lands him in the tiny town of Dickens just as Dorrit’s Diner is thrown into chaos.

Literary Agent Portia Avon needs a rest. A messy divorce has her craving quiet and the company of her friend and client A.B. Cards, nee Abra Bree. She comes from the western heat of California to the eastern cold of Dickens and plans to do nothing but rest, relax, and read during her holiday stay.

When Portia spots a familiar face in Dorrit’s, she’s confused. Why is Anton Saparosa, one of the most recognizable chefs in California, working as a fry cook in Abra’s mom’s diner, and going by the name Tony Smith?

A question Portia wants an answer to, but one Tony isn’t willing to share, especially with a woman he can’t stop thinking about.

The Dickens world is very near and dear to my heart and after you read these award-winning books, I’m certain it will be to yours, too!