Dani Collins's Blog, page 51

#TeaserTuesday - Blame The Mistletoe (4)

Big News! To celebrate the launch of Blame The Mistletoe, my publishers, Montana Born, are making Hometown Hero FREE this week (on Amazon Oct 14-18, 2014.) I'll wait here while you get your copy.

Back now? Have you entered the A Fall Love Affair - $500 Visa Gift Card Giveaway? Make sure you scroll past the excerpt for the Rafflecopter entry form, then be sure to enter the Goodreads Giveaway for my November book while you're there.

Now that the announcements are out of the way...

This is my last excerpt from Blame The Mistletoe. The pre-order response has been amazing and the reviews on the advance copies very favorable. I'm so thrilled!

I'm currently writing my next Montana Born story, featuring Blake's sister, Meg. It's killing me that it won't come out until next Spring. (Not ever, if I don't write the darned thing, so I'll keep the chatting short here!)

But if you enjoy free excerpts, please check out on my #SampleSunday for The Russian's Acquisition series.

And if you love free books, please join my newsletter. My next draw from my subscriber list for a signed copy of The Russians Acquisition will be around Oct 27th.

TeaserTuesday

How far have we come with Liz and Blake?

Liz meets Blake at a cocktail party (hosted by Skye and Chase from Hometown Hero) and realize they know each other.
Liz wonders if she knows more about Blake than he does.
Blake definitely wants to get to know Liz better.

Here they start to get to know one another more:

~ * ~

Crossing a room was hardly a date, but Blake’s light hand on her felt surprisingly significant. Which told her she was desperately in need of male attention, if she was turning to feminine pudding just because this cowboy had dominance traits.

And maybe she was being uber-sensitive, but she thought she intercepted a look from one of the men standing near the food table that silently asked Blake, How the hell did that happen?

“Has everyone met Liz Bloom?” Blake asked, introducing her around once she had a drink in her hand.

“Flowers,” she corrected. “I kept my married name so it matches my daughter’s.”

“Ah. Well, everyone will remember that I was once married to a Flower?” Blake said to the group. “Liz and I are collaborating on a country and western song about our dealings with them.”

She threw back her head in a laugh, loving the idea. “Can you imagine how tragic that song would be? It would go platinum immediately!” Their gazes caught again, both of them brimming with amused solidarity.

Oh I wish, she thought, but didn’t let herself finish the thought. Right now, this was enough. It was perfect.

A lot of names and faces flew by and everyone was very easy to talk to, thanks to Blake. He seemed very well liked, bantering easily, keeping her up to speed if the conversation started to close her out as names were brought up that she didn’t know. And he fed her, reaching across to bring a plate of cream cheese pinwheels and little crackers with pepper jelly and roasted garlic and pine nuts on them.

The evening turned out far more fun than she’d dared to anticipate, considering it had begun with such painful shyness on her part. She laughed so much her cheeks ached and a poignant feeling accosted her as the hour grew late, making her almost wish this were her life. She had friends and a home and everything she needed back in California, but she could see—for once—that maybe the Flowers were onto something. Marietta was a really wonderful place to live.

As she readied to leave, she went searching for the plastic tub she’d used to bring up her bruschetta and found Skye stocking it with Ziploc bags filled with leftovers.

“I’ll never eat all that,” Liz protested.

“Neither will we. We’re heading to Texas for a few days next week, so I can’t keep all of this. One of Chase’s friends is turning thirty and having party. He wants to go,” Skye said with a shrug and a shake of her head. “I still feel so pretentious flying halfway across the country for what amounts to one evening.”

Skye’s fiancé was a local who was now a ballplayer in the majors, but from what Liz had seen, he remained down to earth. “Have you set a date for the wedding?”

“Not until after next season. We only started seeing each other a couple of months ago.” Skye expertly packaged egg rolls with a flick and a fold. “He’s giving me time to get used to this back and forth whirlwind life of his, but we both wanted to be committed enough to give it a serious try, so—” She gave her wrist a twist, making the gorgeous stone in her ring flash as she showed it off. “This feels surreal.”

But she was happy. Glowing with joy.

Liz sighed inwardly, envious and trying not to be.

But Chase was such a gentleman, fetching her coat and holding it for her while Skye opened the door to let Blake back in from warming up his truck. Of course, Blake was quite a catch himself, stepping into the foyer so tall with snow dusting the shoulders of his worn sheepskin coat, wearing a cowboy hat now. His gaze clashed into hers like he’d been looking for her before the door had opened.

Such a lovely, fanciful thought.

“Uh oh, Liz. You have a decision to make,” Skye said, pointing above Liz’s head.

Liz looked up. Mistletoe.

“The girls made me hang it,” Chase said from behind her, referring to Skye’s nieces who’d been running around with the rest of the children this evening.

Her gaze caught Blake’s on the way down from the little sprig and her heart skipped at the light in his eyes. Her brain grasped for a smart remark, but nothing came.

Blake stepped into her space. “I think we owe it to ourselves,” he said. “Don’t you?”

Swaying, she set her hands on the cold, brushed texture of his coat, feeling ridiculously small and girlish all of a sudden. “Because of our mutual experience with the Flowers?” she asked.

“Actually . . . ” His gaze narrowed as he stared at her mouth and started to lower his head. “Let’s not think of them at all.”

His mouth touched hers and wiped her brain clean. All she knew was the brush of cold lips that warmed against hers, pressing firmly enough to open her lips so the kiss was not nearly so chaste as it should or could have been. He lingered, waiting until temptation got the better of her and she kissed him back, letting her mouth cling to his, then he slowly drew back. Something satisfied flickered in his eyes.

That had been bad. Good in a way that was very, very bad. Liz could barely breathe or muster a smile.

Skye and Chase smirked at each other. Someone from the lounge whistled. Liz rolled her eyes, feeling herself blush.

And Blake didn’t bother to hide the male smugness in his gaze as he took the leftovers from Skye and opened the door for Liz.

“You need better boots,” he told her, gripping her elbow as she tiptoed across the drive to the battered truck that was swept of snow and sending out a cloud of white exhaust. “You never would have made it home in those.”

They weren’t going to talk about that kiss then? Good.

~ * ~

I won't spoil what happens next, but Liz continues to enjoy the Christmas season, thanks to Blake. Buy Blame The Mistletoe now.

Did you know that Hometown Hero is part of the Montana Born Homecoming Series? They're very loosely linked stories, not actual sequels, but if you like to read in order, here are all the authors and their release dates:

Sept 22 - Sing Me Back Home by Eve Gaddy
Sept 25 - Finding Home by Roxanne Snopek
Sept 29 - Hometown Hero by Dani Collins
Oct 02 - Long Way Home by Kathleen O’Brien
Oct 06 - Home For Good by Terri Reed


Giveaways

Please keep checking back over the next few weeks. I have lots going on for all my fall books. This one is a multi-author promotion with our publisher, Tule, and their Montana Born imprint:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Are you on Goodreads? This one runs to Oct 23rd:

.goodreadsGiveawayWidget { color: #555; font-family: georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; background: white; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget img { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0 !important; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0; color: #660; text-decoration: none; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:visted { color: #660; text-decoration: none; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:hover { color: #660; text-decoration: underline !important; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget p { margin: 0 0 .5em !important; padding: 0; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink { display: block; width: 150px; margin: 10px auto 0 !important; padding: 0px 5px !important;
text-align: center; line-height: 1.8em; color: #222; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;
border: 1px solid #6A6454; border-radius: 5px; font-family:arial,verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;
background-image:url(https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_button4.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-color:#BBB596;
outline: 0; white-space: nowrap;
}
.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink:hover { background-image:url(https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_button4_hover.gif);
color: black; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;
}


Goodreads Book Giveaway








The Russian's Acquisition


by Dani Collins

Giveaway ends October 23, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Want to preorder The Russian's Acquisition from Amazon now? It will be in stores November 1st or you can also buy now from Mills & Boon UK.

All my Harlequin titles are available on Mills & Boon UK, eHarlequin and Mills & Boon Aus.

All my titles are on Amazon:

US | Canada | UK | India | Germany | Brazil | Spain | Italy | Japan | Australia 

And these fine retailers carry most of my titles too:

Nook | Kobo | ARe | BooksaMillion | ChaptersIndigo | iBooks

If you'd like to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest...etc, Click here for Dani's Social Media links.

I feel out of sorts. Yesterday was Thanksgiving so MrC was home. Now I keep thinking today is Monday. Must get myself back up to speed.

Have a great week,

Dani

#SampleSunday - The Russian's Acquisition (2)

Congratulations Kimberly in Virginia! She's the latest winner of a signed copy of The Russian's Acquisition. I'm prepping my next newsletter and I always draw from my subscriber list for a copy of my upcoming release. Join my newsletter if you'd like to be entered in the next draw (which will happen around Oct 27th.)

This is a very busy fall for me. Hometown Hero released on Amazon Sept 29th. This Monday (Thanksgiving here in Canada) Blame The Mistletoe will launch on Amazon as well. (Pre-order Blame The Mistletoe here and it will deliver automatically as soon as it's live.)

You can read more about both of these titles below the #SampleSunday, but I wanted to mention: Someone asked over at Goodreads when Hometown Hero will release on Nook. I checked with my publisher and it will eventually be available on all platforms, but probably not for six months to a year.

If you want to know more about how these sorts of decisions are made, I talk about publishing choices in this blog post. Basically it comes down to what Amazon offers when you publish exclusively with them and in this case we want to exploit those opportunities before branching to the other formats.

Do you have a question for me? Please send me an email off my contact page here on my website or ask it through Goodreads or on my Facebook page. I love hearing from readers!

In other news, I finished revisions on Seduced Into The Greek's World. Whew! I sent it to London and it has already come back for a final bit of fine-tuning. Nothing heavy, thank goodness, and I hope to have it done and dusted by the end of the weekend. So you can look for Book Four in the Makricosta Dynasty in June of 2015.

There's lots of Giveaway info below the #SampleSunday so please keep reading after the excerpt. And keep checking here and on my Facebook page (and GooglePlus). I have lots of giveaways and Facebook parties (with giveaways) coming up. I try to post the info in as many places as I can, but you can usually find the most current info in these blog posts.

SampleSunday

Last week, Clair arrived at work after a week away. The owner, her friend and mentor, had died. The new owner was a tough looking Russian with a jagged scar down his face. Here we get into that Russian's head and hear what he thinks about his first glimpse of Clair and his intentions here at the firm:

~ * ~

Aleksy Dmitriev set the waste bin next to his feet, reached for the first plaque on the wall and tossed it in, taking less satisfaction in the loud clunk of an industry award hitting the trash than he’d anticipated. This coup had been too easy. Clunk. The bastard wasn’t alive to see his world collapse. Clunk. Van Eych had succumbed to the lifestyle he’d enjoyed at the expense of men like Aleksy’s father rather than face the revenge Aleksy had intended to wreak. Clunk.

The blonde in the foyer was that filthy dog’s mistress. Smash!

A delicate crystal globe shattered in the bottom of the can, leaving a silver heart exposed and dented.

“What on earth,” a clear female voice demanded, “do you think you’re doing?”

Aleksy lifted his head and was struck by the same kick of sexual hunger he’d experienced fifteen minutes ago. The part of his anatomy he couldn’t control suffered another tight, near-painful pull.

At first sight he’d judged her snowflake perfect, delicate and cool with creamy, unblemished skin, white-gold hair and ice-blue eyes. As potent as chilled vodka with a kick of heat that spread from the inside. He’d demanded her name and details.

Now the dull raincoat was gone, revealing warmer colors. Her peach knit top clung to slender arms and hugged smallish but high breasts, while her hips flared just enough to confirm she was all woman.

He smothered reckless desire with angry disgust. How could she have given all that to an old man, especially that old man?

Under his stare, her lashes flickered with uncertainty. She turned one boot in before setting her feet firmly. Her fists knotted at her sides, and her shoulders went back. Her chin came up in the same challenge she’d issued when they first came face-to-face.

“Those might have sentimental value to Mr. Van Eych’s family,” she said.

Aleksy narrowed his eyes. The heat of finding the fight he’d been anticipating singed through his muscles. She was an extension of Victor Van Eych, and that allowed him to hate her, genuinely hate her. His sneer pulled at his scar. He knew it made him look feral and dangerous. He was that and more. “Close the door.”

She hesitated—and it irritated him. When he spoke, people moved. Having a slip of a woman take a moment to think it over, look him over, wasn’t acceptable.

“As you leave,” he commanded with quiet menace. “I’m throwing out all of Van Eych’s trophies, Miss Daniels. That includes you.”

She flinched but remained tall and proud. Her icy blue eyes searched his, confirming he was serious.

As the heart attack that killed your meal ticket, he conveyed with contempt.

She turned away, and loss unexpectedly clawed at him.

He didn’t have time to examine it before she pressed the door closed, remaining inside. Inexplicable satisfaction roared through him. He told himself it was because he would get the fight he craved, but what else could he expect from a woman of her nature? She didn’t live the way she did by walking away from what she wanted.

Keeping her hand on the doorknob, she tossed her hair back and asked with stiff authority, “Who are you?”

Unwillingly, he admired her haughtiness. At least she made a decent adversary. He wiped the taint of dust from his fingertips before extending his hand in a dare. “Aleksy Dmitriev.”

Another brief hesitation; then, with head high, she crossed to tentatively set her hand in his. It was chilly, but slender and soft. He immediately fantasized guiding her light touch down his abdomen and feeling her cool fingers wrap around his hot shaft.

He didn’t usually respond to women like this, rarely let sex thrust to the forefront of his mind so blatantly, especially with a woman he regarded with such derision, but attraction clamored in him as he closed his hand over hers. It took all his will not to use his grip to drag her near enough to take complete ownership, hook his arm across her lower back and mash her narrow body into his.

Especially when she quivered at his touch. She made a coy play at pretending it disconcerted her, but she’d been sleeping with a man old enough to be her grandfather. Acting sexually excited was her stock in trade. It made him sick, yet he still responded to it. He wanted to crowd her into the wall and kindle her reaction until she was helpless to her own need and he could sate his.

Disappointment seared a blistering path through his center. He wanted her, but she’d already let his enemy have her.

~ * ~

Hint: She didn't! And when he finds that out, he can't wait to make her his.

Giveaways

Like what you've read so far? You can enter to win a signed copy of The Russian's Acquistion here (Open 'til Oct 23rd):

.goodreadsGiveawayWidget { color: #555; font-family: georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; background: white; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget img { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0 !important; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0; color: #660; text-decoration: none; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:visted { color: #660; text-decoration: none; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:hover { color: #660; text-decoration: underline !important; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget p { margin: 0 0 .5em !important; padding: 0; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink { display: block; width: 150px; margin: 10px auto 0 !important; padding: 0px 5px !important;
text-align: center; line-height: 1.8em; color: #222; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;
border: 1px solid #6A6454; border-radius: 5px; font-family:arial,verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;
background-image:url(https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_button4.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-color:#BBB596;
outline: 0; white-space: nowrap;
}
.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink:hover { background-image:url(https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_button4_hover.gif);
color: black; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;
}


Goodreads Book Giveaway








The Russian's Acquisition


by Dani Collins

Giveaway ends October 23, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Or you could preorder The Russian's Acquisition from Amazon now. It will be in stores November 1st or you can also buy now from Mills & Boon UK.

$500 Visa Gift Card Giveaway

Christmas is coming and Tule publishing knows it. They've partnered with a number of their authors to bring you this chance to win a $500 Visa Gift Card. Closes Oct 20th

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I said above that I'd have more info about Hometown Hero and Blame The Mistletoe.

First, if you like to read books in order, here are the Homecoming series titles, authors, and release dates:

Sept 22 - Sing Me Back Home by Eve Gaddy
Sept 25 - Finding Home by Roxanne Snopek
Sept 29 - Hometown Hero by Dani Collins
Oct 02 - Long Way Home by Kathleen O’Brien
Oct 06 - Home For Good by Terri Reed

I just finished a series of #SampleSundays from from Hometown Hero. Read Hometown Hero excerpts here. And I've been running a series of #TeaserTuesdays for Blame The Mistletoe here. The last #TeaserTuesday will be this week. If you've read this far, congratulations! I will tell you on the sly that there will be a very special offer in Tuesday's blog post so be sure to check back for it.

All my Harlequin titles are available on Mills & Boon UK, eHarlequin and Mills & Boon Aus.

All my titles are on Amazon:

US | Canada | UK | India | Germany | Brazil | Spain | Italy | Japan | Australia 

And these fine retailers carry most of my titles too:

Nook | Kobo | ARe | BooksaMillion | ChaptersIndigo | iBooks

Want to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest...etc? Click here for Dani's Social Media links and take your pick.

Whew! That's a lot to digest, isn't it? Like I said above, Fall is very busy for me. By December things will cool right off and January will be positively boring. Maybe. I always have plans for something. Stay tuned here or join my newsletter to get all the juicy details.

Have a fabulous weekend,

Remembering Danielle

Today I'm remembering a fairy who became an angel without the chance to become a woman in between.

Danielle was smart, funny, a bit of a bookworm and very pretty. She had wavy dark blond hair with a curly-cue at her hairline. Her laugh was one that made you smile, wanting in on the joke. When she wasn't sure about something, she quirked one eyebrow.

You're missed, Danielle.

Hugs to the rest of our Peanuts gang.

Photo credit: Melodi2 from morguefile.com

#TeaserTuesday - Blame The Mistletoe (3)

Have you entered the A Fall Love Affair - $500 Visa Gift Card Giveaway? Scroll past the excerpt for the Rafflecopter entry form.

Note: If you feel strongly about reading books in order, you'll want to read Hometown Hero (available now on Amazon) before you read these excerpts. Want to try before you buy? You can read the #SampleSundays from Hometown Hero here. And please keep scrolling after the excerpt for a list of all the (multi-authored) books in the Homecoming series.

If you enjoy free excerpts, please also check out on my #SampleSunday for The Russian's Acquisition series, which started this week.

If you like free books, please join my newsletter. I'll be drawing this week from my subscriber list for a signed copy of The Russians Acquisition.

TeaserTuesday

Let's see, where are we with Liz and Blake?

In the first excerpt, Liz meets Blake at a cocktail party hosted by Skye and Chase from Hometown Hero) and they realize they used to be in-laws.
Then Liz wonders if she knows more about Blake than he does.

~ * ~

Blake watched a pensive look come over her face and wondered if he’d over-shared. He was sorry if he had. Her laugh had been charming. Clear and warm and natural. And she was nice. Nicer than he’d realized the first time he’d met her and way nicer than she ought to be.

Way too nice for the kinds of thoughts he was thinking, but he could barely take his eyes off her.

From the second she’d walked in, he’d been captivated, not even realizing at first that he knew her. Fresh faces in small towns caught any man’s attention. Liz had a polished, expensive look that he normally veered from out of self-preservation. But even though her make-up was stylish as a movie star’s, and her dark brunette hair was glossy and cut in sculpted waves around her face, she had a softness about her. Vulnerability, maybe?

Not weak. She had smiled and joked with their hostess as she entered, moving to set out her dish with great care. Her trim figure filled her dark jeans and snug top in a way that had had him trying out a few rusty lines in his head. It had been a while since he’d been with a woman and even longer since he’d felt such a strong pull toward a specific one. His kid was out of the house for a while . . .

Then, he’d been struck by déjà vu. Fate was something he filed with Crystal’s New Age crack-pottery, so he dismissed soul mate bullshit, but he’d felt like he knew her. Not just that she was familiar, but he knew her.

When she’d glanced around the room, bit the corner of her lip and heaved a small sigh, he’d remembered. Suddenly, he’d been back at the head table as Crystal’s brother had given a speech. The guy’s wife had looked, well, like it was a struggle to hold up her spirits.

As someone who’d had his share of wondering how the hell he could carry on, he’d felt an odd mixture of empathy and an uncharacteristic sense of premonition. When the Flower Family Grapevine had revealed Liz and Dean were having marital troubles a year later, Blake hadn’t been surprised. In fact, when his own marriage began to crumble, he hadn’t been terribly surprised by that either and tended to trace it back to that moment. Like he’d seen the potential for disaster in Liz’s weariness with her marriage.

Not that he’d thought of Liz personally at the time. He’d just recollected that glimpse of happily ever afters that weren’t.

“How did you wind up here tonight?” he asked, wondering if there was something in the stars after all, because he’d dithered over whether to make the drive. Free food had won over cooking for himself, but he was nursing a single beer and planning to leave before he finished it.

“Skye came by. Introduced herself.” Her irises were an enigmatic dark blue in this light, her skin tinted just enough to tell him she lived with a hint of winter sun. As she talked, he found himself staring at her lips. Not a wide mouth. Kind of set in a permanent almost-invitation to kiss. She had a dot of a birthmark on her bottom lip, slightly off center. “I thought it would be good for me—Do I have something on my mouth? Sometimes people think I do, but it’s just a freckle . . . ”

“What? No, you’re fine,” he rushed to assure her, wits dulled by a sucker-punch of thinking about running his tongue over that little dot. Which was okay. They weren’t related. It was just maybe unwise and yeah, possibly fueled by irony and a desire to mow down the Flowers.

And desire for Liz. She was classy and pretty and intriguing. He would love to tear up the sheets with her.

Which would start to show if he wasn’t careful. He made himself catch up to the conversation. “What do you mean that coming here is good for you?”

“You know. I thought I should mingle with the natives.”

“You’re eating your social vegetables?”

“Kind of,” she agreed, flashing straight white teeth. “Yes, I suppose that’s exactly what I’m doing. Chewing community kale to stave off a bad case of isolation rickets.”

He nodded, liking that she could be playful.

“And you said you brought Petra? Dean didn’t bring her?”

“He and the woman he’s marrying already have twin sons. His van was pretty full and I wanted to visit Stella before they all left. That’s when his mother pounced.”

“Of course she did. Are you sure you weren’t coerced, Liz? Do you need a sling for that arm that was obviously twisted?”

“I’ll admit I’m not great at sticking up for myself. I’m a middle child who grew up following Major Bloom’s orders so I tend to—”

“What now? Major . . . ?” he interrupted.

“Bloom. My dad. He was in the military so he was a major. And yes, my maiden name is Bloom and my married name is Flower. Ha ha. Yes, it’s hysterical.”

He laughed. Openly and with great enjoyment. Major Bloom. “Poor bastard never lived that one down, did he?”

“He really didn’t. It’s probably why he’s a grouch to this day.”

Their laughing gazes tangled and he knew he was grinning like a fool, but he was enjoying getting to know her. As his marriage had deteriorated, he’d distanced himself more and more from anything to do with Crystal’s family. Auntie Liz had just become a name on a card to Ethan at Christmas and his birthday.

But she was so much more than that.

“Tell me about your salons. Why can you walk away from running them this time of year?” he asked.

“I have two jobs, actually. I write corporate communications—withhold your awe, please. And yes, sadly, I can do that from anywhere, including Nola’s sofa. The other I do with my mother and sister. We have a dozen salons across California. So, I’m working long distance a lot of the time anyway, visiting each one a couple of times a year so . . . ” She shrugged. “That’s why the Flowers are drinking margaritas in the sun, while I’m waking up to prizes on the carpet left by a cranky little dog.” She pointed at an empty martini glass left on a table nearby. A miniature candy cane hung off the rim. “What do you suppose that is? It looks like it was yummy.”

“Eggnog martini. I had a sip of one when I got here. Lethal. If you’re driving, you might want to take one home and drink it when you get there.”

“No, I walked up, but—”

“Who’s giving you a lift home?” Amazing how that came out of him so fast. And with such a possessive need to know.

“It’s not far. Maybe half a mile? I’ll just walk back in a bit.”

“Oh, you city folk are so cute,” he said, fairly sure Chase would have caught her before she actually tried walking down in the dark, but still glad he was the one who could do it. “It’s snowing hard out there.” He pointed to the view through the glass wall where full dark had fallen. The deck was coated with a deep couple of inches that had accumulated since he’d arrived. The colored lights outside turned the floating flakes into a powdered rainbow, making it look deceptively pretty and safe, but he knew better. “It’s dangerous out there.”

“Really?” she asked skeptically, wrinkling her nose at a scene she probably thought had been lifted off a Christmas card.

“The bears are hibernating, but the cougars and timber wolves aren’t. It’s really easy to get turned around in that, especially without streetlights. I’m not playing Prank the Tourist. Life and death is a fine line on a night like this.” He knew. His birth parents had died in conditions like this. “I’m not trying to scare the pretty lady into my car, either. I just want you to get home safe. I’ll take you,” he promised.

She swept her lashes down in the shy way a woman did when a man unexpectedly called her pretty and she liked it. The male interest stirring in him solidified into something far more serious.

“Come on. Let’s find you a drink,” he said, urging her along with a gentlemanly hand against her lower back. Yes, it was a bit of a branding iron. Don’t even think about it, stallions. He’d cut this one from the herd for himself.

~ * ~

You can pre-order Blame The Mistletoe here.

As I said above, if you like to read in order, you'll want to read Hometown Hero first. If you want to read the Homecoming series in order, here are all the authors and their release dates (I'm third):

Sept 22 - Sing Me Back Home by Eve Gaddy
Sept 25 - Finding Home by Roxanne Snopek
Sept 29 - Hometown Hero by Dani Collins
Oct 02 - Long Way Home by Kathleen O’Brien
Oct 06 - Home For Good by Terri Reed


Giveaways

Please keep checking back over the next few weeks. I have lots going on for all my fall books:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Open 'til Oct 23rd:

.goodreadsGiveawayWidget { color: #555; font-family: georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; background: white; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget img { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0 !important; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0; color: #660; text-decoration: none; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:visted { color: #660; text-decoration: none; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:hover { color: #660; text-decoration: underline !important; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget p { margin: 0 0 .5em !important; padding: 0; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink { display: block; width: 150px; margin: 10px auto 0 !important; padding: 0px 5px !important;
text-align: center; line-height: 1.8em; color: #222; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;
border: 1px solid #6A6454; border-radius: 5px; font-family:arial,verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;
background-image:url(https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_button4.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-color:#BBB596;
outline: 0; white-space: nowrap;
}
.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink:hover { background-image:url(https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_button4_hover.gif);
color: black; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;
}


Goodreads Book Giveaway








The Russian's Acquisition


by Dani Collins

Giveaway ends October 23, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Want to preorder The Russian's Acquisition from Amazon now? It will be in stores November 1st or you can also buy now from Mills & Boon UK.

All my Harlequin titles are available on Mills & Boon UK, eHarlequin and Mills & Boon Aus.

All my titles are on Amazon:

US | Canada | UK | India | Germany | Brazil | Spain | Italy | Japan | Australia 

And these fine retailers carry most of my titles too:

Nook | Kobo | ARe | BooksaMillion | ChaptersIndigo | iBooks

Want to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest...etc? Click here for Dani's Social Media links and take your pick.

Have a great week,

#SampleSunday - The Russian's Acquisition

Welcome to a new #SampleSunday series. The Russian's Acquisition will be in stores November 1st, but you can buy it now from Mills & Boon UK.

I'm putting the finishing touches on Seduced Into The Greek's World, and have a ton of things to do around the house today so I'll try to keep this brief.

Before I get to #SampleSunday, however, I wanted to remind you that Hometown Hero is available on Amazon along with the second book in this new series, Blame The Mistletoe, which you can pre-order here.

These are rancher novellas in the fictional town of Marietta. Hometown Hero is a collaboration with five other authors. The fifth story launches Monday:

Sept 22 - Sing Me Back Home, by Eve Gaddy
Sept 25 - Finding Home, by Roxanne Snopek
Sept 29 - Hometown Hero, by Dani Collins
Oct 2 - Long Way Home, by Kathleen O’Brien
Oct 6 - Home For Good, by Terri Reed

You can tell I'm running around breathless, can't you? This house is upside down, I tell you, which is why I want to be sure this is posted so I don't forget later.

SampleSunday

This is a new series, so you're getting the opening pages. I'll likely run this one into November since I usually do six for my Harlequin Presents.

I'll also have a blog tour with this one with giveaways on my guest posts and other ones here so please keep checking back (or join my newsletter) and don't forget to keep scrolling down for Givewaways happening now.

Here goes:

~ * ~

I miss waking up with you.

THE NOTE STRUCK a pang of wistfulness in Clair Daniels’s chest. She wondered if anyone would ever write something so romantic to her. Then she recalled the waves of emotional highs and lows Abby had been riding for months, all under the influence of that elusive emotion called “love.” Being independent was more secure and less hurtful, she reminded herself. And the roller coaster she’d been through in the last two weeks, after losing a man who was merely a friend and mentor, was brutal enough.

Still, she had to hide envy as she handed the note back to Abby and said with a composed smile, “That’s very sweet. The wedding is this weekend?”

Abby, the firm’s receptionist, nodded with excitement as she placed the card back in the extravagant bouquet Clair had admired. “I was just saying to everyone—” She waved at the ladies gathered with their morning coffee. “I texted him that after Saturday, we can wake up together forev…” She trailed off as it struck her who she was talking to.

The horseshoe of women dropped their gazes.

Clair’s throat closed over a helpless I wasn’t waking up with him. She’d never slept with anyone but couldn’t say so. Her confidentiality clause with Victor Van Eych had made such confessions impossible.

Still, she knew everyone had thought her relationship to the boss went deeper than merely being his PA. The gossip had eaten her up, but she’d let it happen out of kindness for a man whose self-assurance had been dented by age. Other people’s opinions of her shouldn’t matter, she’d told herself. Victor was nice to her. He had encouraged her to start the foundation she’d always dreamed of. Letting a white lie prevail in return had seemed harmless.

Then his family had refused to let her into his mansion to so much as share condolences, turning their backs and pushing her to the fringes like a pariah.

She wasn’t someone who wore her heart on her sleeve, but the one person she had begun to count on had died. Shock and sorrow had overwhelmed her. Thankfully she’d had a place to bolt to for a week and absorb her loss. Ironic that it had been the orphanage, but what a timely reminder how important the home and foundation were, not just to her, but to children as alone as she was.

Now she was feeling more alone than ever, trying not to squirm under the scrutiny of her colleagues, not wanting to reveal that her chest had gone tight and her throat felt swollen. It wasn’t just Victor’s unexpected death getting to her, but a kind of despair. Would anyone ever stick? Or was she meant to walk through life in isolation forever?

Into the suffocating moment, the elevator pinged and the doors whispered open. Clair glanced over her shoulder to escape her anxiety, and what she saw made her catch a startled breath.

A hunting party of suits invaded the top floor. It was the only way to describe the tribe of alert, stony-faced men. The last off the elevator, the tallest, was obviously their leader. He was a warrior whose swarthy face wore a blaze of genuine battle injury. At first that was all Clair saw: the slash of a pale scar that began where his dark hair was combed back from his hairline. It bisected his left eyebrow, angled from his cheekbone toward the corner of his mouth, then dropped off his clean-shaven jaw.

He seemed indifferent to it, his energy completely focused on the new territory he was conquering. His armor-gray suit clung with perfect tailoring to his powerful build. With one sweep of his golden-brown eyes, he disbursed the clique of women in a subtle hiss of indrawn breaths and muted clicks of retreating heels.

Clair couldn’t move. His marauding air incited panic, but her feet stayed glued to the floor. She lifted her chin, refusing to let him see he intimidated her.

Male interest sparked to life as he held her stare. His gaze drifted like a caress to her mouth, lowered to her open collar and mentally stripped her neatly belted raincoat and low-heeled ankle boots.

Clair set her teeth, hating these moments of objectification as much as any woman, but something strange happened. Her paralysis continued. She wasn’t able to turn away in rejection. Heat came to life in her abdomen like a cooling ember blown into a brighter glow. Warmth radiated into her chest and bathed her throat.

His attention came back to her face, decision stamped in his eyes. She was something he would want.

She blushed, still unable to look away. A writhing sensation knotted in her stomach, clenching like a fist when he spoke in a voice like dark chocolate, melting and rich, yet carrying a biting edge.

She didn’t understand him.

Clair blinked in surprise, but he didn’t switch to English. His command had been for one of his companions, yet she had the impression he’d been talking about her if not to her. He swung away, moving into the interior offices as if he owned the place. One of the men flanking him murmured in a similar language.

“Was that Russian?” Clair asked on a breathless gasp as the last pin-striped back disappeared. She felt as if a tank had just flattened her.

“They’ve been coming in all week. That tall one is new.” Abby dragged her gaze away from the hall and became conspiratorial as she leaned over her keyboard. “No one knows what’s going on. I was hoping you could enlighten us.”
“I wasn’t here,” Clair reminded her. She hadn’t even been in London. “But Mr. Turner told me before I left that everything would carry on as usual, that the family were keeping things status quo until they’d had time to settle his private affairs. Are they lawyers?” She glanced toward the hall but was certain that man wasn’t anything as straitlaced as a lawyer. He struck her as someone who made his own rules rather than living by any imposed on him. Her skin still tingled under the brand of ownership he’d imprinted on her.

“Some are, I think,” Abby answered. “Ours have been meeting them every day.”

“Our—? Oh, right.” Clair forced herself back to the conversation. Lawyers. Not just her friend deceased but the boss and owner, leaving the place on tiptoes of tension. She’d noticed the mood the second she returned. Having strangers prowl like bargain hunters at a fire sale didn’t help. Clair decided she didn’t like that trespasser of a man.

Abby glanced around before hunching even closer. “Clair? I’m really sorry for what I said. I know losing Mr. Van Eych must be hard for y—”

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it,” Clair dismissed with a light smile. She stepped back to freeze out the empathy. Putting up walls was a protective reflex, an automatic reaction that probably accounted for why no one ever sent her flowers or love notes. She wasn’t good at being close to people. That was why she’d let herself fall into a fake romance with Victor. He’d offered companionship without the demands of physical or emotional intimacy, protecting her from anyone else trying to make a similar claim. No risk, she’d thought. No chance of pain.

Ha.

That Russian would make incredible demands, she thought, and her stomach dipped even as she wondered where her speculation had come from. No way would she let someone like that into her private life. He was a one-way ticket to a broken heart. Forget him.

Nevertheless, trepidation weakened her knees as she looked toward her office, the direction he’d taken. Silly to be afraid. He would already have forgotten her.

“I’ll check in with Mr. Turner,” Clair said, holding the smile of confident warmth she’d perfected as Victor’s PA. “If I’m able to tell you anything, I will.”

“Thank you.” Abby’s worried brow relaxed.

Clair walked away, determined to push the Russian from her mind, but she’d barely hung her coat and bent to tuck her purse into her desk drawer before Mr. Turner appeared in the doorway. Waxen paleness underpinned the flags of red in his sagging cheeks.

Clair stood to attention, heart sinking with intuitive fear. “What’s wrong?”

“You’re to report to—” He ran a hand over his thinning hair. “The new owner.”

~ * ~

I will have another #TeaserTuesday from Blame The Mistletoe on Tuesday and it looks like I'll have to rewrite the one from last week. That will be Monday's job, I'm afraid. Here's the first one if you missed it:

Read the first pages of Blame The Mistletoe here.

Giveaways

Please keep checking back. I have lots of these over the next few weeks:

Ends Today Hometown Hero Prize Package.

Hometown Hero Giveaway

Also:

My Goodreads Giveaway for The Russian's Acquisition runs until October 23rd. (scroll down)
In October, there will be a special promotion with Tule/Montana Born and their authors for a $500 Visa Gift Card. It runs October 6th-20th. I'll post the links here and on my Facebook Page.
In late October, I'll have a Blame The Mistletoe Package (similar to Hometown Hero one) which will likely run for about a week.
Finally, sometime in November, I'll have a Facebook party with lots of giveaways from my author friends so you can hopefully win some romances to help keep you warm through those long winter months.

Here's the Goodreads Giveaway:

.goodreadsGiveawayWidget { color: #555; font-family: georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; background: white; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget img { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0 !important; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0; color: #660; text-decoration: none; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:visted { color: #660; text-decoration: none; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:hover { color: #660; text-decoration: underline !important; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget p { margin: 0 0 .5em !important; padding: 0; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink { display: block; width: 150px; margin: 10px auto 0 !important; padding: 0px 5px !important;
text-align: center; line-height: 1.8em; color: #222; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;
border: 1px solid #6A6454; border-radius: 5px; font-family:arial,verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;
background-image:url(https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_button4.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-color:#BBB596;
outline: 0; white-space: nowrap;
}
.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink:hover { background-image:url(https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_button4_hover.gif);
color: black; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;
}


Goodreads Book Giveaway








The Russian's Acquisition


by Dani Collins

Giveaway ends October 23, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

I'm sure there's more to say, but I'll end here.

All my Harlequin titles are available on Mills & Boon UK, eHarlequin and Mills & Boon Aus.

Prefer Amazon?

US | Canada | UK | India | Germany | Brazil | Spain | Italy | Japan | Australia 

These other fine retailers have my books too:

Nook | Kobo | ARe | BooksaMillion | ChaptersIndigo | iBooks

Want to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest...etc? Click here for Dani's Social Media links and take your pick.

Have a great weekend,

Dani

Mercury Retrograde - *Why*

I wasn't going to do a #ThursdayThirteen post. I have to get my revisions done today.

But a glitch with the upgrade on my blogging platform deleted this week's #TeaserTuesday post. So I wanted to post a quick acknowledgment of that.

I will rewrite it if it can't be recovered from back up. I'm as distressed as you are, Dear Reader. I'm blaming the onset of Mercury retrograde, which actually begins on Saturday, but as you can see, has far-reaching affects when it comes to computers.

The truth is, Merc Retro is great for things like revising and rewriting. Anything prefaced by 're' is a great pasttime during these annoying weeks when it plays heck with ground transport and other stuff. Therefore I'm okay with re-writing a blog post, finishing my re-visions and starting our re-novations. (But I will cross my fingers and hope that the back up is there. I mean, time, right?)

Anyway, very sorry and I will monitor the situation closely. Expect a new #SampleSunday series. I'll be starting excerpts from my November Harlequin Presents The Russian's Acquisition.

I will return next week with a new #TeaserTuesday (and this week's!) for Blame The Mistletoe.

This week, my Homecoming book launched! It's actually a prequel to Blame The Mistletoe so you might want tobuy Hometown Hero here and read it first, or read the #SampleSunday posts for Hometown Hero here.

That's it! Short and sweet. Back to work.

Have a great day,

#TeaserTuesday - Blame The Mistletoe (2)

Quick! Before you scroll down for #TeaserTuesday, grab the prequel, Hometown Hero, for 99cents TODAY ONLY (Sept 30).

Hometown Hero released at a special introductory price of 99 cents, but goes up to $2.99 October 1st. If you'd like to try before you buy, check out this series of #SampleSundays with excerpts from Hometown Hero.

The above post also talks about all the giveaways I'll be running or participating in over the next couple of months. You'll find entry forms below for the ones that are live right now.

For those of you who have emailed me a request for a signed bookmark - I'm told they've shipped. Hopefully they arrive in the next few days and are as cute as I envision. If you haven't requested a signed bookmark but would like one, email me your snail address. I'll get it out as soon as they arrive.

I'm trying to keep this short. I usually turn revisions around very quickly, but this darned Demitri is such a problem child. I'll be unplugging for some long stretches this week to deal with him.

Ready for #TeaserTuesday?

Last week, Liz arrived at a Christmas cocktail party in full swing. She was a bit intimidated, especially because a sexy cowboy was staring at her. Turns out, they know each other, it's just been a really long time.

WARNING: If you feel strongly about reading a series in order, Hometown Hero (99cents today, Sept 30th only, just saying) comes before this story. Hometown hero features Skye and Chase, the hosts of this cocktail party that Liz is attending.

~ * ~

“Have you two introduced yourselves?” Skye asked, appearing next to Blake with a hostess’s eye for matchmaking. “Liz, this is Blake Canon. His ranch is next to my family’s place out on Timberline. Blake, Liz is house-sitting for the Flowers at the bottom of the road—”

“Seriously?” He sent her a look that Liz ducked by switching her attention to Skye.

“We actually know each other.” His judgment shouldn’t matter, but she didn’t like him thinking she’d let the Flowers turn her into a doormat. She had, for years, but that was in the past. Appearances to the contrary notwithstanding. “Blake’s ex-wife and my ex-husband are brother and sister,” she explained to Skye, something she might have expanded on when first chatting to Skye, but it hadn’t seemed important then.

Or maybe she’d feared judgment from a stranger, too.

“Oh. When you said your last name was Flowers, I assumed you were a niece or something,” Skye said with a breezy smile, then reassessed them with speculative lift of her brows. “Well, you two have plenty to catch up on, I’m sure. I’ll leave you to it.” She walked away.

“I didn’t put it together that you lived here,” Liz said. “Or that I’d run into you. Or that you’d remember me,” she added with an echo of surprise. “Did we even see each other after your wedding? All I ever heard at the family gatherings was that you couldn’t leave the ranch.”

That’s why most of her ex-husband’s family had moved from California to Montana. Blake’s wife—ex-wife—had begged her parents and siblings to join her in Marietta, only to divorce Blake as soon as everyone settled here. Liz had been separating from Dean at that point and hadn’t even considered the move.

Maybe that had been closed-minded of her.

She could say with fresh eyes and emotional distance that Marietta wasn’t a bad place, but at the time she’d only seen that her own family was in California. If Dean had wanted to move to be with his, that was his business. Fortunately, he hadn’t and they’d had plenty of fuel for their fights without bringing geography into it. From what Liz had heard of Blake and Crystal’s break up, it had been even more contentious and bloody than hers.

Blake took a pull off his beer, eyelids lowered circumspectly, not saying anything about being tied to his ranch.

“That wasn’t meant to sound like I was taking their side,” Liz said. “I know ranching isn’t something you just take a week off from because you want to.” She bit into a tangy olive, enjoying the way it burst with flavor in her mouth. “For what it’s worth, Dean never understood the demands of the salons either. That’s one of the reasons he made me quit doing nails.” That and how it had looked when his wife gave manicures to the wives of his colleagues.

Blake’s dark eyes sharpened as they flashed to connect with hers. It almost looked like he took umbrage at Dean’s heavy-handed control—as she had. Maybe it was just another thing they had in common: letting the Flowers talk them into things they didn’t really want to do.

Then his gaze warmed with amusement. “Are you saying your clients demand attention every day? I just envisioned a herd of women with broken nails bawling in a meadow.”

She chuckled, realigning her vision of Blake from an overwhelmed young man wiping his brow as he spoke his vows to this mature, confident man with a wry sense of humor.

“They’re not much better this time of year,” she said ruefully, “Habitual nail-chewers suddenly stampede to look pretty for Christmas.”

“And yet you’re here rather than polishing.”

She heard the question in his tone and shrugged. “I’m in management now. I fill in sometimes if I have to. It’s flu season, so techs call in sick and the phones never stop, so I often man those, but . . . ” She shrugged, debating how much to tell him about why she was staying here. They were strangers really, having only met the once. But their kids had remained connected as cousins. She heard things. Their shared sister-in-law, Stella, was very talkative when she had a glass of wine in her. Blake might not be entirely comfortable with how much Liz knew of his personal business.

For the first time in nearly a week of being in Marietta, however, she felt like she had a friend. She nibbled the tip of a gherkin, edging around revealing her motives by asking, “What do you think of the big family wedding and tropical Christmas?”

“I don’t have a problem with it,” he said with a small flicker of surprise that she hadn’t really answered his question. He motioned for her to come into a corner with him as people crowded near the table, squeezing them out. “Ethan’s coming home early since it’s my year to have him. Is Petra staying the whole time?”

“She is.” A pinch near her heart made her face his lingering curiosity and the decision she’d made with all its cloudy facets. It was okay that it hurt, she reminded herself. Generosity was something that might sting when it was extended, but it had to be exercised or it would stiffen up and atrophy. “I was upset when they first started planning it, but it’s her Dad’s wedding. And she genuinely loves being around her cousins. I couldn’t fight it. It’s the sort of thing they’ll remember forever.”

“Which is why I said Ethan could go for two weeks, but not all of December.”

Liz still privately agonized at allowing Petra to be gone so long. She’d been furious and aggrieved, dreading the whole thing from the time it was proposed, and then she’d arrived here to a fresh pie in the face. She tried to smile past the tightness straining her expression.

“I’ve been bitter for a long time,” she confessed. “Always gearing up for a battle. I knew it wasn’t healthy and I’m sure it looks from the outside like I’m the biggest dupe in America. I mean, who gets suckered into watching their ex-mother-in-law’s chirpy little dog, alone through Christmas, while her ex-husband’s family has a month in the sun? Right? But it is Christmas. When I got here and they told me Nola’s dog sitter had fallen through and Nola just assumed I had nothing else to do and could take him . . . ” She shook her head, hating how the ball of mistreated energy had come to life with a vengeance, throbbing and pulsing and threatening to tear up her insides.

“I’m tired of giving them the power to make me unhappy,” she said. “I asked myself if I would do it for a neighbor in a pinch, or a client, and I would. The only reason I would refuse Nola was animosity and I’m tired of it. So, I decided to embrace the spirit of the season. I don’t care if Dean appreciates the gesture, or whether the Flowers think kindly of me, or even if karma repays me. I’m not trying to be bigger than them, I just don’t want to be angry anymore. That sounds crazy, doesn’t it?”

Her mother and sister had certainly thought so when she’d called to tell them she was staying here while Petra was gone. Her sister had said it was a recipe for a fresh batch of resentment. But even though Liz was facing a lonely Christmas, even though this ‘favor’ was actually putting her out and taking her away from her family in California, she felt like she was doing the right thing. Christmas had always been a bit of a let down for her anyway. Her family wasn’t the warmest and half the time her father had missed it altogether. This way her expectations were rock bottom, so she couldn’t be disappointed.

“I say no to Crystal all the time,” Blake said reflectively, mouth going flat.

“Your situation is completely different from mine,” she assured him with an instinctive touch on his arm.

He glanced at her hand and she pulled it away, curling her fingers into her palm and licking her lips in a sudden attack of nerves that had nothing to do with social anxiety. That had felt—he had felt good. Muscly hard. Masculine. And there’d been a little zing of sexual something that she would completely ignore, because it was silly to even imagine it had been there.

She cleared her throat.

“I know what you’re up against with Crystal. If you give her an inch, you’ll never see your son again, so you’re better to stick hard and fast to your custody agreement. I wasn’t trying to sound pious or tell you what to do.”

He absorbed that with a cant of his head. “You are setting a precedent, though. They’ll expect things from you going forward,” he warned.

She shrugged, trying to be philosophical. “Maybe. I’ll deal with that as it comes, but I didn’t want to go home indignant that they’d had the nerve to ask. I didn’t want to carry guilt if I said no. Instead, I took control, decided I wanted to do this, and I feel okay about it.”

He stared at her.

He thinks I’m nuts, she thought.

“Are you still bitter?” she asked.

“As snake venom,” he replied conversationally, making a surprised laugh burst out of her.

He had a right to be, she supposed, thinking of what she knew about his marriage and divorce, then letting her lashes sweep down so he wouldn’t know she knew.

Did he even know?

~ * ~

You can pre-order Blame The Mistletoe now, but if you'd like to be notified when it (and all of my books) become available, please join my newsletter.

I send out my newsletter when I have a new release to announce and I always draw for a signed copy of my next print book from my subscriber list. You could win a copy of The Russian's Acquisition or The Sheikh's Sinful Seduction, or maybe even Seduced Into The Greek's World if I manage to finish these revisions.

I'll have two more #TeaserTuesdays for Blame The Mistletoe. This weekend, look for a fresh batch of #SampleSunday excerpts from The Russian's Acquisition.

By the way, Hometown Hero is one of five in a series set during Homecoming in Marietta, Montana. Here's the line-up of authors who collaborated on this series along with the release dates for their titles:

Sept 22 - Sing Me Back Home, by Eve Gaddy
Sept 25 - Finding Home, by Roxanne Snopek
Sept 29 - Hometown Hero , by Dani Collins
Oct 2 - Long Way Home, by Kathleen O’Brien
Oct 6 - Home For Good, by Terri Reed


Giveaways!

Like to win free books and other goodies? I put together this Hometown Hero Giveaway Package. Enter before Oct 5th.

Hometown Hero Giveaway

This Goodreads Giveaway runs until October 23rd:

.goodreadsGiveawayWidget { color: #555; font-family: georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; background: white; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget img { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0 !important; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0; color: #660; text-decoration: none; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:visted { color: #660; text-decoration: none; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:hover { color: #660; text-decoration: underline !important; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget p { margin: 0 0 .5em !important; padding: 0; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink { display: block; width: 150px; margin: 10px auto 0 !important; padding: 0px 5px !important;
text-align: center; line-height: 1.8em; color: #222; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;
border: 1px solid #6A6454; border-radius: 5px; font-family:arial,verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;
background-image:url(https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_button4.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-color:#BBB596;
outline: 0; white-space: nowrap;
}
.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink:hover { background-image:url(https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_button4_hover.gif);
color: black; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;
}


Goodreads Book Giveaway








The Russian's Acquisition


by Dani Collins

Giveaway ends October 23, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

I'll close with buy links and wish you a great week. Depending how revisions go, I may or may not have a #ThursdayThirteen. We'll both have to wait and see.

All my Harlequin titles are available on Mills & Boon UK, eHarlequin and Mills & Boon Aus.

Prefer Amazon?

US | Canada | UK | India | Germany | Brazil | Spain | Italy | Japan | Australia 

These other fine retailers have my books too:

Nook | Kobo | ARe | BooksaMillion | ChaptersIndigo | iBooks

Want to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest...etc? Click here for Dani's Social Media links and take your pick.

Cheers,

#SampleSunday - Hometown Hero (4)

Count down to launch day. I'm so excited! And there's lots to cover (new giveaways and a recipe!) so keep reading.

First I wanted to mention that I was finalizing the newsletter for Hometown Hero Launch Day before I started this blog post and I pulled the latest winner from my newsletter subscribers. Morgan from Connecticut has won a signed copy of The Russian's Acquisition.

Want in on that action? Join my newsletter!. Bonus reason: Hometown Hero will have a special introductory release price of 99c. I will send you my newsletter Monday morning as a reminder to get Hometown Hero before the price goes up.

I also wanted to clear up a small spot of confusion about Blame The Mistletoe (which you can pre-order here. That's the confusing bit. Blame The Mistletoe has gone up on NetGalley so some lucky readers are getting a sneak peek at it and they haven't got access to Hometown Hero yet. They are wondering if Blame The Mistletoe is part of a series and yes, it is meant to be read after Hometown Hero.

I also wanted to remind you that Hometown Hero is one of five in a series set during Homecoming in Marietta, Montana. Here's the line-up of authors who collaborated on this series along with the release dates for their titles:

Sept 22 - Sing Me Back Home, by Eve Gaddy
Sept 25 - Finding Home, by Roxanne Snopek
Sept 29 - Hometown Hero, by Dani Collins
Oct 2 - Long Way Home, by Kathleen O’Brien
Oct 6 - Home For Good, by Terri Reed


And now, #SampleSunday...

Please keep reading after this for a chance to enter for the Hometown Hero Prize Package and other giveaways.

If you've missed the previous posts, you can catch up here:

Chase caught an eyeful of Skye. Then he said something stupid.
Skye gives Chase an earful. Then she feels stupid.
Skye was caught on camera. And feels extra-super stupid.

Chase feels pretty bad about the whole thing too:

~ * ~

“She’s not a wing-nut. I won’t say that,” Chase insisted wearily to the team’s publicist.

His phone had exploded last night, about fifteen minutes after they got home. Flynn had elbowed his lanky, teenaged frame into Chase’s room and said, One of the guys got Ms. Baynard’s meltdown on his phone. He posted it while we were at the dance. I just told him to take it down, but it’s already been shared like a hundred times.

Chase had just stared at his brother. He was here to keep Flynn’s life under control, not lose his grasp on his own. The players in the series were the ones under the media microscope right now, not the guy who was out with an injury, leaving his team at the bottom of the standings. He’d been so relieved by the idea of coasting under the radar for the next few months, he’d actually been pissed when he’d learned the town wanted to honor him with Quinn Douglas and a handful of other outstanding local athletes. Quinn deserved it, but not him. He felt like a tool.

Now they were up into the hundred-thousand territory of shares on YouTube. Network news was asking for a statement.

“So you don’t want to refute anything she said?” the publicist demanded in a surly voice.

“I don’t have a tiny dick! Let’s get that straight,” he growled.

An hour later he dropped Flynn at school and met up with the physiotherapist he was supposed to visit twice weekly while he was here. The scar from the surgery to repair his torn rotator cuff was healing nicely, but bringing all the muscles back to full strength and range of motion was taking more time. The kind of time that had already been making him antsy when he’d thought Flynn and everything else in Marietta was fine. He hated downtime, preferring the intensity of being caught up in the season: the training, the need to keep his head in the game. Some found the demands exhausting, but he found them a perfect distraction from the mess of real life.

Messes like Flynn taking up drinking and getting kicked off the football team.

All his life, Chase had had one goal: Don’t grow up like the old man. That had meant leaning toward baseball over football, which had been his father’s first love and ultimate downfall. Not making the cut for a college team had sent his dad into a bottle and he’d never come out.

Chase and Flynn had inherited their father’s natural athleticism, but now Chase worried Flynn had inherited the same destructive thirst as well.

He wanted to believe that one Friday night of being a jackass did not a drunkard make, but he’d been out with his injury so he’d flown home to yank his half-brother back onto the straight and narrow. A few heart-to-hearts with Max, Mitch Holden and the other coaches, and he’d earned Flynn a chance to keep up with practice on his various teams. Flynn would bench-warm through the next few games, but sport had been Chase’s salvation through high school. Flynn had potential if he would only keep at it. If nothing else, Chase prayed that having a sober father-figure show up and act like he gave a damn would carry some influence.

The fact he was a god to some of Flynn’s posse was a plus. They wanted to hang with him so Flynn didn’t have to make excuses or feel torn between his brother and his friends. He and Flynn got on well, regardless. Flynn’s mother—and her pregnancy with Flynn—might have been the reason Chase’s mother had left, but he didn’t blame his kid brother. At least Flynn’s mother had stuck with their dad.

She’d been the main breadwinner until Chase had been old enough to get a real job. That had meant Chase had been the babysitter, dragging Flynn with him if he wanted to go anywhere, balancing him on the handlebars of his bike so he could make practice. Later, Flynn had met him at the feed store after school where Flynn had waited out Chase’s four-hour shift, asking Chase for help with his homework between Chase’s spurts of loading and unloading trucks.

He hadn’t felt good about leaving Flynn when he was drafted, even though his step-mom had had a decent paying job by then. Now he wondered yet again if it had been a mistake, but everything he’d accomplished since leaving Marietta had allowed him to keep a roof over their heads. He and Flynn had talked more than once about Flynn coming to live with him, but Flynn liked his friends here and Marietta was a solid town full of solid people, even if their father wasn’t one of them.

Chase really felt he’d done the best he could and he was here now, when Flynn was struggling. That had to count for something. Flynn was a good kid at heart, he reminded himself, just going through the typical strains and growing pains of approaching graduation and adulthood.

He hoped that’s all it was. He’d find out while he was here. His entire focus for the rest of the month would be Flynn.

If he could work up the nerve to go into the school and collect the forms that would allow him to hang around students and help with extra-curricular events.

Damned background checks. He’d told Max he would go all-in. Parent driver, chaperone, whatever they needed. Just get the forms from the office, Max had said.

It had sounded like a five-minute formality, but that had been before the school secretary had publicly disemboweled him.

Now that formality had become an entry into the Gorgon’s cave. He’d texted Max this morning, asking if he could pick up the forms for him. Max’s response: Hell no. Max had felt bad last night, saying, I shouldn’t have said anything to you about it. I know better. A town like this, you can’t move on if everyone keeps bringing up your shit.

Chase knew something about that, growing up overhearing neighbors talking about his dad, watching people shake their heads with pity and disgust when they heard he was Gary Goodwin’s boy. Just thinking about it brought back the sick knot in his belly, the one he used to get before a game, knowing some jerk from a neighboring team would trash talk about his father, trying to get a rise out of him. Trying to get him thrown from the game for fighting.

It’s why he’d been so anxious to leave town. Hell, he liked Montana. He liked the big sky and the clean air. Sitting in the car in the school parking lot, window open, he took a moment to drink in the sweetly familiar scent of a late summer morning in Marietta. The mower was taking down the grass on the field, the sun was baking dust onto the asphalt, the pines were sweating just enough to tinge the breeze with their faint scent. It smelled like a promise.

Rock music approached with the rumble of an engine. A kid with his mother’s car pulled in and slung a backpack over his shoulder. He gave Chase a double-take and a crooked, slightly puzzled grin. He obviously recognized him and wondered what he was doing sitting in the school parking lot.

Procrastinating.

Maybe Skye had called in sick.

Maybe he could apologize and smooth the whole thing over.

Maybe he should just do it.

Leaving the rented SUV, he trailed the kid and entered that unique sound of a school with classes in session, teachers’ voices rising indistinctly above the restlessness of students who resented putting their social lives on hold.

They’d painted. He’d noticed that last night. Had a few more trophies in the case.

Quit stalling. He forced his feet to take him to the office.

Ah hell, there she was, turning away to hang up her phone then swinging back around in her chair to her computer screen, face pale, expression stoic, gaze lifting as she realized someone was at the open door.

Her eyes widened and he heard her thoughts in the persecution that flashed across her face. Are you serious right now?

~ * ~

This is my last excerpt from Hometown Hero. I'm sad, too. The scene after this one is a very fun few minutes where Chase is all sexy and Skye is all flustered. He actually feels like a massive tool after and they still aren't finished bumping into each other. Small towns!

But you'll have to buy the book if you want to read it because next week I have to switch up to The Russian's Acquisition, which comes out November 1st.

However, you can keep reading about Marietta. I've started a new #TeaserTuesday series from the story that follows Hometown Hero. Read the first pages of Blame The Mistletoe here.

Giveaways

As I said, lots to cover on this topic:

My Goodreads Giveaway for The Russian's Acquisition has started and runs until October 23rd. (scroll down)
Starting Sept 29th, I have a Hometown Hero prize package up for grabs. Enter before October 5th. (scroll down)
In October, there will be a special promotion with a bunch of Tule/Montana Born authors for a $500 Visa Gift Card. I know! You'll definitely want to enter that! It will run October 6th-20th and I'll post the links here and on my Facebook Page.
In late October, I'll have a Blame The Mistletoe Package (similar to Hometown Hero one) which will likely run for about a week.
Finally, sometime in November, I'll have a Facebook party with lots of giveaways from my author friends so you can hopefully win some romances to help keep you warm through those long winter months.

Here's the Goodreads Giveaway:

.goodreadsGiveawayWidget { color: #555; font-family: georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; background: white; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget img { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0 !important; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0; color: #660; text-decoration: none; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:visted { color: #660; text-decoration: none; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:hover { color: #660; text-decoration: underline !important; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget p { margin: 0 0 .5em !important; padding: 0; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink { display: block; width: 150px; margin: 10px auto 0 !important; padding: 0px 5px !important;
text-align: center; line-height: 1.8em; color: #222; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;
border: 1px solid #6A6454; border-radius: 5px; font-family:arial,verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;
background-image:url(https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_button4.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-color:#BBB596;
outline: 0; white-space: nowrap;
}
.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink:hover { background-image:url(https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_button4_hover.gif);
color: black; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;
}


Goodreads Book Giveaway








The Russian's Acquisition


by Dani Collins

Giveaway ends October 23, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

And you can enter the Hometown Hero giveaway after September 29th here:

Hometown Hero Giveaway

Want to be sure you don't miss a new release? You can pre-order The Russian's Acquisition here and pre-order Blame The Mistletoe here.

Need something to read while you wait for all these new releases? May I suggest you start on:

The Makricosta Dynasty

Harlequin has marked down the digital copy of More Than A Convenient Marriage? by $2.00 until September 28th.)

Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk are also still showing a sale price. Hurry. I'm not sure how long those will last.

Note that the N.American version is a 2in1. Those are the first two books in this series. If you haven't read them yet, this is a great time to start since the book I'm currently revising, Seduced Into The Greek's World, is Book Four (Demitri's story). If you like to read in order, it goes:

No Longer Forbidden?
More Than A Convenient Marriage?
An Heir To Bind Them
Seduced Into The Greek's World (releases mid-2015)

All my Harlequin titles are available on Mills & Boon UK, eHarlequin and Mills & Boon Aus.

Prefer Amazon?

US | Canada | UK | India | Germany | Brazil | Spain | Italy | Japan | Australia 

These other fine retailers have my books too:

Nook | Kobo | ARe | BooksaMillion | ChaptersIndigo | iBooks

Want to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest...etc? Click here for Dani's Social Media links and take your pick.

Somehow the entire morning has got away from me. We're prepping for new flooring, had some people drop by, and I have a recipe for Hungarian Goulash I've been dying to make (thank you Natasha Pow!) Would you like to try it too? I'll post it below and sign off, because I really have to get back to revisions on Seduced Into The Greek's World.

Have a great weekend!

Goulash Soup

1 kg (2.2 lb) beef or venison

2 tbsp flour

Vegetable oil

2 medium onions, diced

4 medium carrots, diced

2 celery sticks, leaves and all, diced

1 red pepper, seededand diced

5 garlic cloves, crushed

4 tbsp good sweet Hungarian paprika

2 tbsp caraway seeds, crushed (good luck with that)

4 tbsp (1/4 C) tomato paste

3 bay leaves

2 litres (3 ½ pints) beef stock

4 potatoes, peeled and chopped in small cubes

Salt and pepper to taste

Sour cream (garnish)

Flat-leaf parsley (garnish)

Preparation method:

1. Trim the meat and cut into bit-sized chunks. In a large bowl, mix the flour with a teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Add the beef and toss so that all the chunks are dusted with flour.

2. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan and brown the beef in small batches, setting each batch aside while you brown the next. Take care not to crowd the pan or the beef will steam rather than brown.

3. Meanwhile, heat a little oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan, add the onions, carrots, celery, red pepper and garlic. Cook gently for about 10 minutes until they start to soften. Add the beef, paprika, caraway seeds, tomato paste and bay leaves, then pour in the beef stock.

4. Stir well, cover the pan and simmer for at least 90 minutes until the beef starts to become tender. Add the potatoes and continue to simmer for another 30 minutes. Check the seasoning before serving.

5. Serve the soup in bowls with a generous swirl of sour cream and a sprinkling of parsley.

#Thursday13 - Lines from my WIP

This is a fly-by blog post because I just received revisions and want to jump on them.

So you're getting thirteen sentences from said manuscript that needs revising. It's a quick peek at Demitri and Natalie, Book Four in what my editor just called my Makricosta Dynasty stories. Yes! A Dynasty!!

Oh, and it has a title: Seduced Into The Greek's World

Here ya go:

~ * ~

“Even if I was looking for romance,” she blurted, “Which I’m not, I’d hardly start with the owner of the company, would I?”

“I don’t know. Would you? Let’s have dinner tonight and talk about it.”

Her stomach swooped and her heart stopped, like she’d hit an unexpected wall.

That’s how it’s done. She’d been observing, trying to crack the code of dating and casual hook-ups. It had seemed complicated, but he made it look easy.
Practice, she surmised cynically.

But hook up with him? Impossible. Her heart restarted, pounding with sudden panic, partly because, well, look at him. He was gorgeous and obviously knew his way around the entire city, not just the block.

~ * ~

Now I'm cutting and pasting from other blog posts so you've probably read all that's below. If you haven't entered the Goodreads Giveaway for The Russian's Acquisition, here's the contest entry widget:

.goodreadsGiveawayWidget { color: #555; font-family: georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; background: white; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget img { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0 !important; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0; color: #660; text-decoration: none; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:visted { color: #660; text-decoration: none; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:hover { color: #660; text-decoration: underline !important; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget p { margin: 0 0 .5em !important; padding: 0; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink { display: block; width: 150px; margin: 10px auto 0 !important; padding: 0px 5px !important;
text-align: center; line-height: 1.8em; color: #222; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;
border: 1px solid #6A6454; border-radius: 5px; font-family:arial,verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;
background-image:url(https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_button4.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-color:#BBB596;
outline: 0; white-space: nowrap;
}
.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink:hover { background-image:url(https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_button4_hover.gif);
color: black; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;
}


Goodreads Book Giveaway








The Russian's Acquisition


by Dani Collins

Giveaway ends October 23, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

You can pre-order The Russian's Acquisition here and pre-order Blame The Mistletoe here.

Hometown Hero will have a special introductory release price of 99c. Join my newsletter to be notified when Hometown Hero (and each new title) goes on sale.

Note: I always draw for a signed copy of my next print book from my newsletter subscriber list so you could also win a copy of The Russian's Acquisition or The Sheikh's Sinful Seduction or Seduced Into The Greek's World--provided I quit blogging and get revising.

Please tune in for #SampleSunday. Starting Oct 5th, I'll switch to The Russian's Acquisition, but I'll have the last instalment from Hometown Hero this weekend, then the book launches on the 29th!

By the way, Hometown Hero is one of five in a series set during Homecoming in Marietta, Montana. Here's the line-up of authors who collaborated on this series along with the release dates for their titles:

Sept 22 - Sing Me Back Home, by Eve Gaddy
Sept 25 - Finding Home, by Roxanne Snopek
Sept 29 - Hometown Hero, by Dani Collins
Oct 2 - Long Way Home, by Kathleen O’Brien
Oct 6 - Home For Good, by Terri Reed

Need something to read while you wait for all these new releases? May I suggest you start on

The Makricosta Dynasty

Harlequin has marked down the digital copy of More Than A Convenient Marriage? by $2.00 until September 28th.)

Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk also had it knocked down to almost half price. You'll have to check if it's still on sale.

Note that the N.American version is a 2in1. Those are the first two books in this series. If you haven't read them yet, this is a great time to start since the book I'm revising, Seduced Into The Greek's World, is Book Four. If you like to read in order, it goes:

No Longer Forbidden?
More Than A Convenient Marriage?
An Heir To Bind Them.
Seduced Into The Greek's World (releases mid-2015)

All my Harlequin titles are available on Mills & Boon UK, eHarlequin and Mills & Boon Aus.

Prefer Amazon?

US | Canada | UK | India | Germany | Brazil | Spain | Italy | Japan | Australia 

These other fine retailers have my books too:

Nook | Kobo | ARe | BooksaMillion | ChaptersIndigo | iBooks

Want to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest...etc? Click here for Dani's Social Media links and take your pick.

Okay, work to do. Thanks so much for stopping by. I'll be back (usually on Saturday) with #SampleSunday.

Cheers,

#TeaserTuesday - Blame The Mistletoe

This is a Two-Fer-Tuesday. I have a blurb for my March book along with an excerpt from Blame The Mistletoe. Keep reading!

I'm starting this #TeaserTuesday series because I have a lot of books to promote this Fall: Hometown Hero Sept 29th, Blame The Mistletoe Oct 13th, and The Russian's Acquisition Nov 1st.

(I'm getting bookmarks for these three books! They're so cute. Email me your snail address and I'll send you a signed one.)

So I have lots of titles that overlap in the next few weeks, then no new titles through December and January.

As I write that, (with a small measure of panic) I realize how ridiculous it sounds to be worried about going a couple of months without a new book. Some authors go years.

But I think I'm acclimatized to write, release, promote, lather rinse repeat. By the end of 2014, I'll have eight titles that qualify for this year's Rita contest (like the Oscars for romance writers). That doesn't include The Secret In Room 823 which is too short to enter.

The heck, right? I don't know how I did it either.

So, depending on how my next Montana Born book is scheduled (It's the story that follows Blame The Mistletoe, about Blake's sister, Meg), I may or may not have a book in February before The Sheikh's Sinful Seduction, comes out with Harlequin Presents in March. (I predict they'll be on top of each other, which is fine. I'm definitely learning to roll with it!)

On the topic of my March book, I caught this for the first time today myself and wanted to share it with you. It's the blurb for The Sheikh's Sinful Seduction:

Ruled by duty…

A king among men, Sheikh Zafir cannot allow emotion or feelings to color his judgment. His carnal desires must be curbed for the sake of peace in his kingdom. But his control is tested by the feisty Fern Davenport; Zafir must have her.

Driven by desire…

Innocent Fern Davenport tries to resist the sheikh's skillful seduction—she knows that he could never marry her. But under the blistering sun an incendiary thirst awakes, and one incredible night results in a very lasting consequence.

Now this sheikh must claim his heir and his bride!

Seven Sexy Sins—The true taste of temptation! <

"Where's my #TeaserTuesday?"

Right here, Dear Reader. But first, the blurb for Blame The Mistletoe:

Liz Flowers has never enjoyed Christmas, but this one is shaping up to be the worst by far. She let her ex take her daughter to Mexico while she stays behind in a strange town, sitting her former mother-in-law’s high strung little dog. It’s an opportunity to meet new people, but this California girl doesn’t have much in common with the ranchers in small town Marietta.

Blake Canon perks up with male interest when he sees a new face at his friend’s Christmas cocktail party. His son is away and a light affair would take his mind off his financial troubles. Then he realizes he knows Liz. She was once married to the brother of his ex-wife.

Their children might be cousins, but Blake and Liz do the kissing—under the mistletoe. It’s the beginning of a new view of Christmas for Liz, but when their children arrive home unexpectedly, and family secrets are revealed, Liz isn’t sure she’ll stay in Marietta for Christmas after all.

~ * ~

And here's a nice long excerpt of the opening pages.

WARNING: If you feel strongly about reading a series in order, Hometown Hero comes before this story and features Skye and Chase, the hosts of this cocktail party that Liz is attending.

Liz Flowers busied herself arranging her bruschetta-topped baguette slices into a wreath shape, trying to act comfortable, when she was out of her element arriving at a party in full swing like this.

Welcome new people into your life, she chided herself, as she took extra care placing little toothpick bunches of cherry tomatoes and green olives in strategic spots to look like berries. The ‘ribbon’ was made up of strips of lox threaded into a rippling pattern onto skewers. The arrangement looked fantastic, if she said so herself, and spoke of how much time she had on her hands these days.

A pang of loneliness struck, but she ignored it. That emotion was precisely the reason why, despite a mild attack of anxiety at being a stranger in a strange land, she had come here this evening and would stick it out for at least an hour.

Cocktail parties had never been her thing. Her hostess, Skye Wolcott, had assured her this would be more of a potluck get together with neighbors and friends. Skye and her fiancé have a lot of friends, Liz thought ruefully, moving her dish into a more central position on the cluttered table. The gorgeous, high-ceilinged, open-plan house was packed.

To give herself an excuse to scan the crowd, she took in the tasteful extravagance of the Christmas decor. The tree was the focus, as it should be. And real, of course. The one thing she’d begun to learn about this little town was that Marietta was authentic. For some reason, she hadn’t noticed that before, on the few quick visits she’d made over the years.

So, she suspected that the tree might have come from a farm, but was more likely from someone’s ranch. The tree’s base of white lights and tiny silver baubles was layered with colorful ornaments, obviously homemade by children.

Giant poinsettias splashed red and white throughout the room between the shift of bodies as people crossed with drinks and plates in their hands. Their pleasure at seeing familiar faces was genuine. Vases full of frosted sticks vied with bunches of holly encircling candles on end tables and across the mantle.

Whether it was the candles or something in the oven, Liz noted a waft of nutmeg and cinnamon under the heavier aroma of meatballs and lasagna, roasted garlic and ham. This was the kind of home, the kind of Christmas, she’d envied all her life.

So, even though she was having a moment of nerves, she pushed it aside, determined to at least drink in what she’d always yearned for, even if it was second hand.

The table fairly buckled under the mix of finger foods, crock pots, platters of cheese, baskets of buns and bowls of salad. Laughing, joking voices created a lively din over the Christmas music, as people jostled and reached. They all seemed friendly enough, but she didn’t know them and they all seemed to know each other. Their circles looked too intimidating to crack.

Being in an unfamiliar town for the holidays, making new friends, would put butterflies in anyone’s middle, she reasoned. The sense of being an outsider would only get worse if she didn’t take chances like this.

Which was basically what she’d been telling herself about dating for the last couple of years.

She was definitely not looking for Mr. Right while she was here. Not at this party or even this month. No, she refused to put that sort of pressure on herself when she was already feeling vulnerable. The specter of her thirty-eighth birthday could loom all it wanted, along with the false deadlines she’d set for herself to meet the right man, remarry and have another baby before she turned forty. No. She had come to the realization that trying to force things was only making for disappointment as things failed to pan out.

As a Christmas present to herself, she was letting go of all of that and keeping her expectations simple: get out of the house and meet new people. That, at least, she could do successfully.

Maybe.

She suppressed a sigh, not wanting anyone to see how hard she was finding this. Come on, Liz. You talk to strangers all the time.

It was way easier to strike up conversations with a nail file in her hand and when people came to her, but—Wait, was that guy staring at her?

Heart skipping, she reflexively shied away, taking her plastic tub back to the kitchen counter along with an impossible-to-shake impression of a good-looking cowboy in a blue plaid shirt. He’d been clean-shaven, rugged. Familiar? No. Everyone she knew in Marietta had climbed onto a plane for Mexico six days ago.

Oh, quit being such a chicken, she cajoled herself, surprised by how much electricity was running through her limbs. Chatting to a man for five minutes was not a lifetime commitment, she reminded herself. If he wanted to approach her, she shouldn’t act like a nineteenth century school marm about it.

Gathering her courage, she forced herself back to the table where she picked up a plate and began loading it for herself, trying to act like she was open to chat.

“Auntie Liz,” a male voice said in a tone of discovery.

Startled, she looked up.

It was him. The guy who’d been staring. He’d moved to stand across the table from her. Perhaps they’d met somewhere with her niece or nephews, who lived here in Marietta. He looked familiar, but he wasn’t a long-lost nephew to her.

Like most of the men here tonight, he’d left off his cowboy hat for the party. He had thick dark hair with a hint of curl, a smart shirt. Cowboy boots, she surmised, even though she couldn’t see his feet. He had the stance. And he was trim in a natural way. A lot of the men here were ranchers, which was demanding work. She’d always had a thing for nice shoulders so she let herself admire his. Briefly. Very briefly. She couldn’t help it. He was very good looking with his strong jaw and direct blue eyes that gave her a girlish swoop in her middle.

Had she just caught him glancing up from a male assessment of the glittery top she’d purchased the day after she’d been invited to this party? It was a T-shirt style, but clingy with a cowl neckline in midnight blue with streaks of silver and shiny black. She’d been working out lately, trying to build her dating confidence, but hadn’t felt like men had noticed until now. Trickles of flattery and attraction worked through her.

“I’ve been trying to place you since you walked in. Blake Canon,” he said. “Ethan’s dad.” He offered his hand.

She gathered the neglected female hormones that had scattered in a teenaged fit of giddiness. Reaching across to shake his callused hand, she saw him in her mind’s eye wearing a tuxedo, very young to be at the altar . . .

“Uncle Blake,” she countered, laughing softly to cover her mixture of relief at knowing someone after all and shock at how he’d only grown more good looking with the passage of some fifteen years.

Oh, that realization caused a wistfulness in her. Her hand lingered in his a bit too long before she pulled it away, vaguely aware that he hung on loosely, making her fingers slide from his grip. Making her imagine he wanted to maintain the connection longer, too.

Lucky Crystal, she had thought about her sister-in-law back then. Doesn’t have a clue what she has...

And probably still didn’t know what she’d lost, but Liz shook off those sorts of thoughts. Blake was still too young for her. She probably had four or five years on him, which wasn’t a huge issue, but more importantly, he’d married a Flower, just like she had. The association put him totally beyond her reach.

Nevertheless, in the way of soldiers who’d done similar combat tours, she experienced a surge of camaraderie and warmth toward him, probably making her smile too big, but he was smiling at her in a way that made her warm all over. If she blushed, she’d die. The air was way too sexually charged for merely bumping into an old acquaintance.

~ * ~

Like it? You can pre-order Blame The Mistletoe now. Hometown Hero will have a special introductory release price of 99c. Join my newsletter to be notified when Hometown Hero goes on sale.

Note: I always draw for a signed copy of my next print book from my newsletter subscriber list so you could also win a copy of The Russian's Acquisition or The Sheikh's Sinful Seduction.

Keep tuning in for #SampleSunday. Starting Oct 5th, I'll switch to The Russian's Acquisition, but for now it's still Hometown Hero.

By the way, Hometown Hero is one of five in a series set during Homecoming in Marietta, Montana. Here's the line-up of authors who collaborated on this series along with the release dates for their titles:

Sept 22 - Sing Me Back Home, by Eve Gaddy
Sept 25 - Finding Home, by Roxanne Snopek
Sept 29 - Hometown Hero, by Dani Collins
Oct 2 - Long Way Home, by Kathleen O’Brien
Oct 6 - Home For Good, by Terri Reed

Tired of reading about how you can win free books? Wait, don't guess yet. I'll also throw in this wonderful Goodreads Giveaway for The Russian's Acquisition, which started today (Sep 23rd)!

.goodreadsGiveawayWidget { color: #555; font-family: georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; background: white; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget img { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0 !important; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0; color: #660; text-decoration: none; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:visted { color: #660; text-decoration: none; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:hover { color: #660; text-decoration: underline !important; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget p { margin: 0 0 .5em !important; padding: 0; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink { display: block; width: 150px; margin: 10px auto 0 !important; padding: 0px 5px !important;
text-align: center; line-height: 1.8em; color: #222; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;
border: 1px solid #6A6454; border-radius: 5px; font-family:arial,verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;
background-image:url(https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_button4.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-color:#BBB596;
outline: 0; white-space: nowrap;
}
.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink:hover { background-image:url(https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_button4_hover.gif);
color: black; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;
}


Goodreads Book Giveaway








The Russian's Acquisition


by Dani Collins

Giveaway ends October 23, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Need something to read while you wait for all these new releases? Harlequin has marked down the digital copy of More Than A Convenient Marriage? by $2.00 until September 28th.)

Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk also had it knocked down to almost half price. You'll have to check if it's still on sale.

Note that the N.American version is a 2in1. Those are the first two books in my Makricosta series. If you haven't read them yet, this is a great time to start since I just turned in Book Four. (Like to read in order? Start with No Longer Forbidden? then More Than A Convenient Marriage? Book Three is An Heir To Bind Them.)

All my Harlequin titles are available on Mills & Boon UK, eHarlequin and Mills & Boon Aus.

Prefer Amazon?

US | Canada | UK | India | Germany | Brazil | Spain | Italy | Japan | Australia 

These other fine retailers have my books too:

Nook | Kobo | ARe | BooksaMillion | ChaptersIndigo | iBooks

Want to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest...etc? Click here for Dani's Social Media links and take your pick.

Okay, I really must get writing. Eight and a quarter books a year do not write themselves.

Cheers,