HelenKay Dimon's Blog, page 21

Saturday Snippet

This week’s topic is emotion. That pretty much covers every book, but I thought I’d go ahead and give another early peek of March release, NO TURNING BACK. I have the cover but I haven’t gotten the okay to share it yet, so that will have to wait…but soon.

“Do you really not understand?” Leah closed her eyes and tried to find the right words to convince him. “There are people in this town who will make it impossible for you to stay.”

“I get the whole angry mob thing, but I don’t think it’s as big as you think it is. Unless you mean your father.”

“For one, but your dad screwed a lot of people here. He was the favored hometown boy who promised them a financial wonderland and then ripped them all off. He broke their trust in the most fundamental way.”

Declan blew out a long, exaggerated breath. “I’m aware of his sins.”



“Charlie came up with a scheme, got people to invest, got my father to invest town funds. Then Charlie took off.” She held up a finger as the words kept rolling out of her. “But not before cleaning up the tracks behind him. He destroyed people and some families lost everything.”

Declan’s expression stayed blank. “Noted.”

“The police chief is itching to get his hands on you. I wouldn’t go even one mile per hour over the speed limit, if I were you.”

Lounging against the bar with his ankles crossed and his lips flat, Declan appeared immune to reason. “My driving is fine.”

No matter what argument she used, he discounted it and her fury spewed. Damn it, here she was struggling not to like him and he wasn’t doing anything to help her protect him. “Wake up. You can’t be this nonchalant about all of this.”

“You know what I am, Leah?” His voice was so soft, so deadly flat as he pushed off from the bar and came to stand beside her. His hand rested next to hers on the back of the chair. “Tired to being judged by Charlie’s actions.”

The brakes slammed somewhere in the back of her head. Declan was furious. She could see it in the flat line of his mouth and boiling fire in his eyes.

She backed up until the curtains brushed against her hair. “I didn’t-”

“You did.” A nerve ticked in is cheek. “The man abandoned my mom. After the first few years, Charlie didn’t even bother to come around for visits and he never sent money. He left a legacy of shit and I’ve been shoveling it ever since. So, when you crawl up on your high horse and look down on me, I don’t exactly get worried about it because, you see, I’ve lived with that kind of condescending bullshit my whole life.”

Declan’s voice shook as he spoke, low and subtle, but she heard it. When he stopped talking, his anger continued to rock the room. Tension rolled off his stiff shoulders and slammed into her, stealing her breath with its force.

“You want me to feel guilty.” She whispered the phrase because he was right there, just inches away, hovering over her and closing in without moving.

“I want you to understand you aren’t the only one who’s lived with Charlie’s mess.”

“You’re a victim, too. I get that.” One of the hundred, possibly thousands, Charlie left in his wake.

Declan shook his head. “Wrong. I refuse the label and all the dysfunction that goes with it.”

Maybe survivor was the right word. This could be the greatest, most convincing con of his life of course, and part of Leah wanted to believe that so she wouldn’t care, but she couldn’t muster the skepticism. A piece of the wall she’d erected against Declan slipped and shattered.

“Why are you really here? Tonight, in my house.” She could smell the soap in his skin, something with a hint of lime, and see the way his dark hair curled at the ends. His mouth was so close. His body next to hers until it blocked her view of the kitchen beyond.

His gaze traveled over her face. “I don’t know.”

“At least that’s honest.” Her voice sounded breathy. She tried to inhale deeply through her nose to keep from gulping for air.

“You didn’t think I could be honest?” There was no anger in his voice but there was something else. The slightest shift until his breath blew across her cheek.

The air crackled and whatever was jumping back and forth between them had her head pounding. She had to move.

“Okay, stop. Let’s back up a second.” She slipped around the chair and kept walking around the table. The man had her literally running around in circles in her own dining room.

NO TURNING BACK

Copyright 2013, HelenKay Dimon

All Rights Reserved, The Berkley Publishing Group

_______________

Don’t forget to check out the other snippets:

Lissa Matthews

Rhian Cahill

Shelli Stevens

Eliza Gayle

Leah Braemel

Myla Jackson

Caris Roane

Jody Wallace

McKenna Jeffries

Taige Crenshaw

Shiloh Walker

Delilah Devlin

Lauren Dane

TJ Michaels

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

Lauren Dane tagged me in the Next Big Thing blog hop. The blog hop is an author answering ten questions about whatever their next “big thing” is. That author then tags more authors and so on and so forth.

It’s a fun way to find out a little bit about what your favorite authors are doing – or maybe being introduced to new authors. I’m going to talk about my March release from Berkley intermix.

1. What is the working title of your book?

NO TURNING BACK. This is the first in a new contemporary series. The second, A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE, comes out in July 2013.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

The series follows the sons of a notorious con man. He’s dead but he’s left a mess behind, including many wives, and a trail of victims and crimes. Unfortunately, financial scams continue to be in the news. We see stories about the victims and share a mutual dislike for the perpetrators of the crimes, but I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the impact that sort of thing has on the perpetrator’s family…and The Hanover Brothers series was born.

3. What is the genre of the book?

It’s a sexy contemporary romance. I write a lot of romantic suspense, but this is not suspense. It’s emotional, sexy contemporary romance.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

To me Declan looks like Niall Matter who played Zane on the tv show Eureka. Leah looks like movie actress Jessica Chastain.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Out of the Army and looking for direction, the son of a con man travels back to the scene of his father’s first crime to sell the house at the center of it all and runs right into a determined woman who is convinced the con man genes run in the family.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency/publisher?

This is a Berkley Intermix release.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I revise as I write, each day fixing everything I wrote before, so that when I’m done I have a book that only needs a little more polishing. Writing the book, start to finish, took about 9 weeks.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

That’s a tough one! There is some humor in it, from the banter between Declan and Leah, as well as between Declan and his brothers. It has angst, a lot of emotion, smoking sexual tension and sex scenes. I loved the challenge of writing it all.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I really wanted to explore the idea of what happens to the kids of notorious criminals – the distrust they face, their feelings toward their criminal parent and the damage left behind. This series lets me do that. Each brother is different and each handles dad’s crimes in a different way.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

It really is a HelenKay Dimon contemporary in that it takes fractured people and tries to put them back together again in a sexy and sometimes funny way. It’s all about building trust and relationships between families and friends. I hope people will give it a try.

Now, I looked around for people to continue the blog hop and many had alreayd been tagged or couldn’t fit it in with the holidays, so I’ll just say have a great 2013!

Good News!

Some good news for the end of the year…

My book LEAN ON ME was named a Top Read of 2012 by Sunita at Dear Author – thank you Sunita!!! You can check it out HERE.

Happy Holidays!!

To those who celebrate Christmas – Merry Christmas!!!!

Have a safe and happy holiday season.

Saturday Snippet

This week’s topic is: Endings, which seems appropriate for the end of the year. I thought it was also a good time to give you a sneak peek of my March release, NO TURNING BACK. This book kicks off a new contemporary series. The heroes are sons of a notorious conman. They’ve come back to their dad’s hometown to settle an estate and, well, some folks are quite ready to forgive Dear ‘Ole Dad’s sins.

The first book is Declan’s (the middle son) story. This is their second meeting…and it does not go well:

Declan stood on the porch of the stone house, all three crumbling stories of it, and wondered what he’d ever done to piss off the universe. Four months ago he stepped out of the Army uniform that had defined him for ten years. Now he was unemployed and stuck with a one-third ownership interest in a property in Sweetwater, Oregon. The same property with a mortgage hovering on the brink of foreclosure.

Sucked to be him.

Not that the property was a total write-off. Someone generations ago had named it Shadow Hill, which fit a building framed by fireplaces at each end with a turret in the middle. He didn’t know the exact definition of a manor, but he guessed one would look a lot like this place with its acres of rolling hills and open spaces.

The field behind the main house could work as a pasture if someone cleared out the dead tree limbs and piles of forgotten dirt and old wood. Towering pines lined the long drive from the road to the house, surrounding it on two sides, and the pacific coast sat close enough for a hint of salt to float in the air.

Yeah, the place could be something. It would take piles of cash he didn’t have and months of intense work to make it happen. Daunting but not impossible. Certainly less dangerous than dodging roadside bombs outside Baghdad, and he’d survived three tours of that.

No matter what, making the house livable would probably be less trouble than the woman trying to sneak up on him. He’d heard the crunch of gravel under tires a minute ago, though she parked far down the drive. Even now he sensed her closing in. Smelled the same coconut scent he caught in her hair when he leaned in close to her at the diner.

“Do you live here now?” She asked the question without any warning. Just like that her voice cut through the sunny afternoon.

He turned around, following the now familiar husky female voice to the redhead standing a few feet behind him with her hands on her hips. She had huge gray eyes and wore a strangely sexy don’t-mess-with-me scowl. Add to that the slim dark jeans and a yellow shirt held on her tan shoulders only by thin straps and things were looking up. Well, except for the part where she made it clear she thought he was a scum-sucking criminal.

Never mind the trespassing, which she was, his biggest issue came from her attitude. She looked at his father’s history and put them in the same category. He’d spent his entire life outrunning his father’s shitty reputation. Having people judge him on his genes wasn’t new, but that didn’t mean it pissed Declan off any less.

“You’re the lady from the diner.”

“Yes,” That was it. No other information. Just a terse word and a glare.

Not exactly the best town welcoming committee. “Do you have a name, Ms. Woman Who Hates Me For No Reason?”

“Leah Baron. Daughter of Marc Baron.”

Okay, maybe she did have a reason. The Baron name figured prominently in Charlie Hanover history, and not in a good way. “Did you follow me home, Leah?”

She cocked her head to the side, letting her hair fall over her shoulder. The sunlight streamed through the wavy strands. Not that he noticed. He was working damn hard not to notice the pretty round face or the long legs. Guessing what her body looked like under that tiny top was an off-limits topic as well.

“You left the diner over an hour ago,” she said as she crossed her arms over her stomach.

That sounded a bit stalkerish for his liking but he decided to hear her out instead of throw her out. For now. “Is that a no?”

“I figured you’d end up here eventually. I parked down the street and waited.”

Yeah, no doubt about it. He’d been in town for exactly one day and acquired a stalker. Wasn’t that just fucking fantastic.

He’d wait to be flattered by the attention, though he doubted there was anything positive about it, and stay on guard until he figured out her danger level. Right now he guessed she fell into the furious-Charlie-victim category, which was an ever-growing group. But Declan had seen some terrible things during his time in the military and after. He knew how quickly people could turn, and he had no intention of being in her line of fire if she did.

“Let me guess. You came here because, as you pointed out to your friend earlier, I own the place.” He played along, waiting to see what she would do and say. Being alone with her on a twenty acre property and without a weapon inside ten feet made him more cautious than usual. “I feel as if we’ve already met, what with you knowing so much about me or thinking you do.”

“You shouldn’t have listened in on that private conversation at lunch.”

She had to be kidding. When she just stood there, staring at him with those full lips stretched into a flat line, he got the point. Not kidding.

“So, you’re saying it was my fault you were talking shit about me?” he asked.

She dropped her arms and glanced around, her gaze brushing over the land with a softness that wasn’t there a second ago. “Are you moving in?”

He figured that was as close as he was going to get to an answer. “Possibly.”

Her anger snapped back into place, pulling her body straight and narrowing her eyes. “You’re not sure?”

Enough nonsense. He shifted his weight back on his heels and spared her a we’re-done-here scowl. “I don’t know yet.”

“You’re a big boy, Declan. You should have a real answer.”

The damn woman didn’t back down one inch. The same look had sent two-hundred-pound-plus sergeants running but the louder he got, the bolder she acted.

“And my answer would be your business because…?”

“Humor me.”

As far as he was concerned, he already was.

NO TURNING BACK

Copyright 2013, HelenKay Dimon

All Rights Reserved, The Berkley Publishing Group

_______________

Don’t forget to check out the other snippets:

Lissa Matthews

Rhian Cahill

Myla Jackson

Caris Roane

McKenna Jeffries

Taige Crenshaw

Shiloh Walker

Delilah Devlin

Eliza Gayle

Lauren Dane

Felicity Heaton

TJ Michaels

In Tribute

Like so many I’ve been struggling to make sense of the shooting in Connecticut. It’s devastating and inconceivable, and while nothing can ease the pain this tribute is pretty special, so I’m sharing it:

Release Day!!!

It’s release day!!! My final release of the year comes out today – wahoo! It’s WE’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS and it’s a holiday novella (in case you couldn’t tell by the title). Two people meet in a bar, spend three days together and move on (except for the part where they think about each other all the time). Turns out they live in neighboring towns and run into each other a few days before Christmas. Oops…

No man likes having his bedroom skills described as forgettable, but that’s just what Lila Payne does when she runs into Spencer Thomas again. When she discovers that he’d lied about his name during their brief three-day romp a few months before, she’s so angry that she pretends she doesn’t remember him.

Spence regrets his deception, but not as much as he regrets that their time together didn’t last longer. When she shows up in his town, looking to revitalize her uncle’s mountain resort, Spence is determined to help. Maybe rescuing Lila from a hopeless renovation project will get him in her good graces—and back in her bed.

Lila has no interest in being rescued, and Spence is insulted by her stubborn rebuffs and her “faulty” memory. But when rehab work turns into an after-hours meeting, the two of them are in for a night that just might prove unforgettable.

You can buy the book anywhere you usually buy digital books. To make it easy, you can try these:

Carina Press site

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

iTunes

Kobo

All Romance eBooks (ARe)

Feel free to buy gift copies to all your friends!

Saturday Snippet

Today’s topic is about celebration. Since I have a book coming out on Monday and it’s a holiday romance, I have a lot to celebrate. In WE’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, Lila has moved to town and is refurbishing a run-down campground owned by her uncle. She’s never done construction work and Spence has stepped up to do most of the harder projects, but she’s not afraid of a little sweat. Spence thinks she’s overdoing it and is determined to come up with a more realistic list of tasks for her until he sees her the morning after Day One of work…

By the time Spence reached the door his unrealistic anger had downshifted into something else. He didn’t want to scare her, but he did want her to know that kiss was no fluke. The tie between them started in that hotel and knotted them together even now.

After a quick count to ten, he shoved the door open. It only took a second to find her. She stood bundled up in a ski jacket and gloves, trying to paint the inside window trim even though it was cold enough to see her breath.

With that the last of his frustration fell away. She wasn’t running from him. She was running to this.

Maybe it was the cheeks stung bright pink by the cool air or the fake fur earmuffs that made her look like some sort of ski bunny. And the way the excitement lit her eyes there was no way he could deny her the right to rush to the project each morning, even if he wanted her somewhere else with him.



“Spence?”

“How long have you been here?” The words came out sharper than he intended but she didn’t even flinch.

She dumped the paintbrush back in the tray by her rain boots. “An hour.”

Since it wasn’t even seven yet, he found her work ethic more than a little impressive. He and Travis were

the early risers at Thomas Nurseries. Mitch would sleep until ten if he could and Austin shoved more work into a nine-to-six workday than any other human on the planet. Already this morning Lila had set up the drop

cloth and outlined the window in blue tape, though the finish wasn’t on the walls, so there was nothing she

could ruin with a stray splash of off-white.

Which led to an obvious issue. “I’m not sure we’re ready to paint in here yet.”

“That’s what Travis said.”

Spence gave in to temptation. He walked over to stand in front of her, just out of touching range but close enough to reach out if he wanted to…and boy did he want to. “Regardless of the warnings, you thought you’d give it a shot?”

She shrugged under her oversized coat. “I just wanted to see.”

Big coat. Tiny T-shirt. Spence didn’t think he could take much more. He ached to get her out of all of it.

Instead of dwelling on her wardrobe or his plans for later, he went with the need thundering in his brain.

“There’s one thing you forgot when you rushed out here this morning.”

She nibbled on her bottom lip. “What?”

The way her hair fell over her shoulders, all smooth and shiny, made him want to run his fingers through

it. “This.”

Through all the layers and despite the tiny O that formed on her mouth as he leaned in, he wasn’t deterred. His mouth met hers and the fireworks sparked as strong as they had the night before. Heat raced through his body and the blood rushed to his erection. He’d take her over any drop of alcohol or drug out there. The taste of her, the feel of her hands against his chest, wiped out every oath he’d ever made about women.

His mother left. Women moved in and out of his life. Friends lost it over the females in their lives. He didn’t understand any of it. Didn’t understand his feelings for the woman wrapped in his arms or what made her different, because she was and he couldn’t explain how.

None of that stopped him from deepening the kiss until he knew he had to stop or risk giving his men an unbelievable show. When he pulled back and looked down at her, he saw flushed cheeks and cloudy eyes. Her death grip on his sleeves hadn’t eased even though the kiss ended.

“What was that for?” Her voice sounded breathy and thin.

“A reminder.”

“Of what?”

Damn, he could not stop wanting her. Touching her only ramped up the need. “Last night’s kiss.”

“You honestly think I forgot about that?”

Her smile rocked him. Yeah, this woman wasn’t on the run. That wasn’t the look of a woman trying to hide her feelings.

“A man needs to make sure.”

She treated him to a quick kiss that was over before he could join in. “And this woman needs breakfast. Take me to Schmidt’s.”

By the time he realized what was happening, she’d put three feet of formidable space between them. “If I didn’t know better I’d say you were trying to drag me into public because you’re not sure if you can resist me in private.”

She stepped up and slipped her arm through his, guiding him toward the door. “Did I mention you’re paying?”

Question answered. “With pleasure.”

___________

Remember to check out the other authors’ snippets:

Lissa Matthews

Rhian Cahill

Leah Braemel

Myla Jackson

Caris Roane

Jody Wallace

McKenna Jeffries

Taige Crenshaw

TJ Michaels

Shiloh Walker

Delilah Devlin

Eliza Gayle

Lauren Dane

Holiday!

To all my U.S. readers and friends:

Foreign Covers!

I love writing for Harlequin for many reasons. One is the way I sell a book and it goes global without any real additional effort from me. Harlequin uses its publishing arms and publishing partnerships in other countries to get the books on the shelves there. I end up with a lot of foreign copies and different covers and have to admit some of my favorite come from Mills & Boon, the UK and Australia publishers of Harlequin books. For the most part M&B takes the US cover and changes the focus slightly. And, honestly, I love the look.

Here’s the US version of SWITCHED:

Here’s the UK version of SWITCHED:

You can click on the covers to make the bigger. See? A slight difference but it’s enough to make the cover pop. I actually love both of these, but the close-up of the cover dude is pretty nice.