Sandra Nachlinger's Blog, page 60

Teaser Tuesday - Hollywood Beginnings

Want a quick, funny read? Then you'll enjoy Hollywood Beginnings by Kathy Dunnehoff.
Here's my Teaser Tuesday choice, at 15% on my Kindle: 
As I turned from the spectacular view of the ocean to the little metal cafe table right on the sand, Brian Keller rose from his chair to six feet two of muscled gorgeousness. Well, hell, Malibu had all kinds of natural beauty to admire.

Author: Kathy Dunnehoff
Length: 78 Pages
Genre: Romance
Amazon Link: Hollywood Beginnings

To read more Teaser Tuesday posts, click here.


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:Grab your current readOpen to a random pageShare two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that pageBE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away -- you don't want to ruin the book for others)Share the title and author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.- Sandy Nachlinger [image error]

Book Trailers - Mysteries

Do you love book trailers? I do. I love the way the narrative, the pictures, and the music all combine to showcase an author's creation in a brief and catchy way. Best of all, each one is unique, just like the books they represent.

So just for fun I'm posting links to book trailers for a couple of sexy mysteries. Just click on the link below each cover and enjoy!

                  

THE LOVE SONGS MURDERS Trailer                   DEADLY PLEASURES Trailer
                                                             
To see the trailer for I.O.U. SEX, click on the "Trailer" tab above.

- Sandy Nachlinger

                                                           

Book Beginnings on Friday and Friday 56: RYELEE'S COWBOY

BOOK BEGINNINGS:
Clint Maloney ran toward his screaming daughter faster than if the hounds of hell were snapping at his heels. She tearfully pointed up into the heavily foliaged, white ash tree. He expected to rescue a stray cat, but to his consternation, he spotted Ryelee Snyder, his live-in nanny and housekeeper, high up in the tree.
FRIDAY 56:
"It's too late now. Besides, who's going to believe the town drunk's daughter?"
(This is an eBook so I estimated where Page 56 might be.)

Author: Kathleen Ball
Genre: Western Romance
Length: 200 Pages (approximately)
Format: eBook
Available from Secret Cravings Publishing and Amazon.

My impressions:
I love the characters in this book. Clint is a widowed dad who lost the family ranch. His goals are to buy back his ranch and raise his daughter. Clint's nanny/housekeeper Ryelee has grown up poor, the daughter of the town drunk. Unmarried and pregnant, she pours her love into Clint's daughter Rheenie; but mistreatment, insecurities, and fears from her loveless childhood affect the decisions she makes. She wants the best for her unborn baby but doesn't expect much out of life.
All the characters are believable, and the author did a great job of creating sympathy for each of them. 

Click here to connect to other Book Beginnings participants.
Find other Friday 56 bloggers here.
                      

Teaser Tuesday - A Collie Rescue

I'm taking today's Teaser Tuesday entry from Page 1 of A COLLIE RESCUE (Emily Dahill CID) by Lindsay Downs. This ebook novella is only $1.99 and 50% of all proceeds from this book go toward THE PET FUND. (Link)  

Teaser: 
"From curbside trashcans, she'd been able to scrounge a few shards of soap, which she kept in a plastic bag. Her most valued items were objects she couldn't wear to keep warm: a Bronze Star, Distinguished Service Medal, and a Purple Heart with one Oak Leaf Cluster. To some people these might seem like insignificant items of cloth and metal, but to her they were reminders of better times."

Amazon link: A Collie Rescue

Synopsis from Goodreads:
     Former Army Sergeant Sandi Charleston, diagnosed with PTSD and homeless, barely survives day to day. By a miracle of fate she meets Taz, a uniquely special collie, who helps turn her life around. Only through him does she find the courage to go head to head with her worst enemy-terrorist bent on mass destruction.
     Bound by a special love to help and protect each other, side by side these two unlikely partners willingly march forward into battle. A fight to the death neither is sure can be won but fighting as one, they will try to. 
     Kidnapped and forced to reveal what she knows Sandi realizes there is only one individual who can save her from certain death. It’s not the government but her new best buddy. 


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:Grab your current readOpen to a random pageShare two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that pageBE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away -- you don't want to ruin the book for others)Share the title and author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

Sweet Saturday Samples - Sept 8

[image error]I've missed the past few Sweet Saturday Samples, but I'm back today with more from Elly and the Geriatrics, my work in progress. In this scene, Elly and Derek are sitting in his truck at the Sonic drive-in restaurant and they’ve just shared their first kisses. 

      As he watched her sip her cherry Coke, Derek wondered if their kisses had affected Elly as much as they had him. The touch of her lips had sent a lightning bolt of lust straight through him—something that hadn’t happened lately. He turned to look out the window, trying to keep his thoughts from turning X-rated. He hadn’t meant to kiss her and wondered what had come over him. He glanced over to see her brows creased in a frown. Maybe his actions puzzled her too.       Actually, she was the one who took it from a friendly kiss to a sizzling liplock. He liked that—a woman who didn’t play games but went after what she wanted.        But what's with the ex-boyfriend? Is she still hung up on that jerk?        Now that she’d confessed her living arrangement with Mrs. M, it all added up. No wonder she’d been around the neighborhood so often.
***       Elly wondered what had possessed her to grab the man and give him such a lustful kiss. She’d been surprised when he reached for her and kissed her—surprised and delighted. She didn’t even stop to think before she kissed him back. It just felt right.       Then the reality of all she’d said hit her. Why did she bring up all that stuff about Rick? Damn, she always talked too much when she was upset. And making out at the Sonic in the middle of Shannon Ridge? Adult women don’t behave that way.       Oh, yes, they do, Granny’s devilish voice chirped in her mind.  Especially when faced with a good-looking man.       Elly frowned and stared down into her drink.        Slow down. Remember Rick.        Then the memory of Mrs. Bagley's warning about Derek nagged her thoughts.       Would she make up something like that? Yeah, the old girl probably thought kissing on the first date was sinful, but still….        What do I really know about Derek?        She scooted closer to the truck’s door and sipped in silence.

What's Sweet Saturday Samples?

Each week, writers post brief samples of their work on their own blogs and then link them to the main site, so readers can conveniently “hop” from blog to blog, meet new authors and become better acquainted with ones they already know. All samples are rated PG-13 (or milder), though the books from which they're taken may be spicier. 
For more SWEET SATURDAY SAMPLES, click  HERE.

Book Beginnings: Season of Sisters

This week's Book Beginnings on Friday excerpt is from Season of Sisters by Geralyn Dawson. This is the first paragraph.

EXCERPT:
Holly Weeks kept her dreams tucked inside her wallet. The list of thirty-two items had been penned in black ink on white paper, folded into a small rectangle, and slipped into a special spot between her driver's license and, appropriately enough, her Discover card. Across its front, bold red ink and loopy handwriting fashioned the heading: My Life List.

MY THOUGHTS:
SEASON OF SISTERS is set in my old stomping grounds of North Texas. It was so much fun hearing Texas accents and visiting familiar towns in the Dallas/Fort Worth area throughout this book. But what I enjoyed most was reading about the friendship between three women -- one young, one middle-aged, and one a senior citizen. Their unlikely bond makes for a lively story, full of love, laughter, and wisdom.

AMAZON LINK: Season of Sisters


Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader (Gilion Dumas). Click HERE to see beginnings from more books.

Here are Gilion's instructions for participating:
Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.
TWITTER: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. Gilion's Twitter handle is @GilionDumas

Semi-Autobiographical?

Have you heard the latest about I.O.U. Sex? Philippe Matthews just posted a great review of our book on his blog. As you can tell from his name, Philippe is a guy, and his male perspective on our novel really made our day, starting with his first sentence:
I.O.U. Sex, by Sandy Nachlinger and Sandra Allen, is an awesome read and super awesome promise!
We took that to mean he thinks the promise of payback sex from an old girlfriend would be “super awesome.” That statement made us laugh out loud! It’s nice to know a man thinks it’s a fun idea.
But Philippe’s next insight made us both look at each other and raise our eyebrows—and that’s not an easy thing to do when we live 2,000 miles apart. Philippe wrote:
In this semi-autobiographical hot read, I.O.U. Sex, by Sandy Nachlinger and Sandra Allen, is about best friends June, Kiki, and Peggy, who graduated from Dallas's Rayburn High School – all of them still virgins.
Semi-autobiographical? Oh, my! Does Philippe think the two of us really did go looking for our old steadies to offer them payback sex? Does he believe the characters in I.O.U. Sex are really us in disguise? After a laugh-filled phone conversation, the two of us realized that probably wasn't what he thought at all. We both grew up in Dallas, we're life-long friends, we used places and themes from our high school years in our book, and the whole thing started when we read Sandy's old diary. So the term “semi-autobiographical” could be somewhat accurate, couldn't it? But that's as far as it goes, honest! I.O.U. Sex is pure fiction, and it comes to you straight from our quirky, warped minds.
So, to Philippe Matthews we send a great big “thanks” for posting such a nice review and for making us see our story in a new light.
Here’s the link to Philippe’s review: The Philippe Matthews Show
~ Miss Pickles (alias Sandra Allen)
*If you're new to our blog and would like to know why I call myself “Miss Pickles”, go to the Blog Archives on the left side of our blog and click on 2011. Then click on March, scroll down to the bottom, and read the posts from bottom to top. You will also see some photos of Sandy and I "back in the day" if you look carefully!
To connect to I.O.U. Sex on Amazon, click on the book’s cover on the left, underneath our smiling faces.

Teaser Tuesday: A Lot Like a Lady

Want to escape to 1800s England? Then you'll enjoy A LOT LIKE A LADY by Kay Springsteen and Kim Bowman.

Teaser:
"Annabella..." Juliet backed away and found herself up against the bedroom door. "What willy-nilly plan are you hatching in that chicken brain of yours?" 
[at 4% on my Kindle]

Synopsis from Goodreads:
Ladies’ maid, Juliet Baines has gotten herself into a pickle by agreeing to go to London and taking the place of her mistress and best friend, Annabella Price, stepsister to the Duke of Wyndham. After all, what does a servant know about being a lady? But Juliet soon finds that pretending to be a lady isn’t nearly as hard as guarding her heart against the folly of wanting a man who’s completely out of reach. Graeme "Grey" Roland Dominick Markwythe, Sixth Duke of Wyndham, approaches his duties as a nobleman with great dedication and meticulous care. And he’s a man who is not easily fooled...except when he tries to convince himself he's not utterly and madly in love with the beautiful imposter who has turned his life upside down. Will society and his responsibilities to his noble status keep him from opening his heart to the woman he loves?

Amazon Link: A LOT LIKE A LADY


To read more Teaser Tuesday posts, click here.


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:Grab your current readOpen to a random pageShare two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that pageBE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away -- you don't want to ruin the book for others)Share the title and author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

Book Beginnings: The Roots of the Olive Tree

Welcome to Book Beginnings on Friday, where participating bloggers share the openings of books they're reading. Today I'm featuring The Roots of the Olive Tree by Courtney Miller Santo. Here is the opening paragraph:  

"Anna Davison Keller wanted to be the oldest person in the world. She felt she was owed this distinction, due to the particular care she'd taken with the vessel God had given her. In her morning prayers, she made a show, in case God himself was watching, of getting out of bed and onto her knees. She spoke to God in his language--asking for a length of days to be added to the one hundred and twelve years she'd already lived and pleading for health in her navel and marrow in her bones. She didn't say outright that God ought to strike dead the jo-fired man in China who was keeping her from the title, but after all these years, surely, God knew her heart."

SYNOPSIS FROM GOODREADS: Set in a house on an olive grove in northern California, The Roots of the Olive Tree is a beautiful, touching story that brings to life five generations of women--including an unforgettable 112 year-old matriarch determined to break all Guinness longevity records--the secrets and lies that divide them and the love that ultimately ties them together.

Amazon Link

MY THOUGHTS: I have finished reading this book and I enjoyed it. It was well written and the women were interesting and believable, and each one had her own compelling story. But I'll admit that I kept getting the characters confused--who was whose grandmother? Only after I'd finished it did I discover there was a genealogy chart at the beginning.  
- Sandy Nachlinger

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader (Gilion Dumas). Here are instructions for how to participate:
Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

TWITTER: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. My Twitter handle is @GilionDumas.

Teaser Tuesday - Lies That Bind

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For Teaser Tuesday, I'm posting the opening sentences from Lies That Bind by Delinda McCann.

When I was a little girl I never ever said, "When I grow up I want to be the mistress of a world leader." It never entered my head.

Amazon Link

Amazon Reviews (mine included!)
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:Grab your current readOpen to a random pageShare two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that pageBE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away -- you don't want to ruin the book for others)Share the title and author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.~ Sandy Nachlinger