Hot Summer Romance Giveaway Hop!

It's here! Whoo! The Hot Summer Romance Giveaway! This blog hop is sponsored by the Insatiable Reads Book Tour!

Want to win some stuff!?











Here's how to win some awesome prizes!

Just leave a comment/your email below, or on any of the blogs in the hop, and you'll have a chance to win:

The GRAND HOP PRIZE: A Kindle Fire!

The SECOND HOP PRIZE: A $50 Amazon Gift Card!

AND of course, as well, I'll be randomly picking a lucky someone on my blog who'll get:

 An ebook copy of Letting You In!

 :) Isn't this exciting!?

For more prizes being offered by other authors on their blogs, hop (haha) to the List: The Main Hop List!

The theme this month is Romance! So, I have a special sneak preview of the sequel to the Letting You In series!

Ready?

READY?

Letting You Know is complete!

It'll be available on Amazon and Barnes&Noble very soon! Keep an eye out for it, or join my mailing list if you'd like to know the moment it goes live! 

So in the spirit of gifts, here's a sneak peak inside Letting You Know: Book 2 in the Letting You In series. 

Deacon and Leah fly to Kentucky for the holidays. At first, their biggest worry is if his extremely religious parents will approve of Leah, especially if her past is put on the table. 

Unfortunately for them, there's something far worse on the horizon. Something so painful and bitter, it'll threaten their budding relationship more than any awkward family dinner ever could.

Bethany Sommer: Deacon's first love. The girl who stole his heart, then tossed it away.

He thought he'd never see her again, never have to deal with the torture she brought to his world.

Now, due to some impossible to foresee circumstances, Leah and Deacon will both be forced to suffer through the memories of his past.

This excerpt is from Deacon's point of view, but I'll say no more! Enjoy!

The music must have stopped, I had trouble telling. I was sure I hadn't sung a single word, yet my mouth hung open, like it had been ready to.

Something touched my forearm; Leah. Her eyes were glossy, teeth bright in the heavy lights of the room. “Did I do alright?” She asked, whispering with bubbling delight.

I didn't even listen, I don't know. I don't know how she sounded at all. Fighting off my daze, worried I might be sick any second, I pushed a weak smile into place. “You were great,” I lied, feeling awful about how I had zoned out.

Worse, zoned out thinking about my ex.

My memories weren't filling me with fond joy. In fact, recalling how bright my future had seemed with Bethany back then was making my gut ache with disgust.

I don't want to be here right now.

The pastor spoke again, inviting us all to sit. I was relieved to collapse; my muscles stiff, sore. A jittery energy was filling me head to toe. It was as if I'd chugged multiple cups of the coffee I loathed.

What do I do? I should have thought about this, of course Bethany would still be singing here. Why would she ever have left? Especially after being so wary of leaving this town at all.

That still galled me, thinking about how she had once wished to take her talent to bigger places.

Now, she's just the big fish in this tiny pond.

The group on stage didn't move, they remained as the pastor rolled into a sermon. It was impossible for me to look anywhere else but at her.

Bethany appeared healthy, her mouth tight and serious as it usually was. Thick lashes tickled her cheeks, hiding her blue eyes.

Is it possible she won't even notice me here?

As the service progressed, my hope blossomed. It seemed a far dream to go unseen, it reminded a bitter part of me of how much I had once tried to get her attention in the first place.

“Now, let us stand, and rejoice in the song of his birth,” the pastor instructed.

Together, the room moved; the sound of cloth shuffling, shoes clicking. But there was another noise, a brief but loud 'clomp' that came from beside me.

“Ah!” Leah gasped, scrambling to bend down and lift the hymn book she had dropped. Red, flustered, she ducked her eyes quickly. “Sorry, sorry.”

As if drawn in by that one, erratic sound, Bethany lifted her head and found me in the crowd. The brightness of her azure orbs was muted only by the lack of surprise on her face.

She doesn't seem startled to see me, I mused, fighting to keep myself relaxed. Sweat was beading on my neck, tickling me like spiders as it rolled down to soak my shirt. That... that bothers me. Why wouldn't she be shocked?

Wooof! And there you go! Poor Deacon, he's about to deal with a lot more strife than he even knows. 

For a lighter topic, allow me to tell you a funny story about my own romantic foibles. Maybe I just love guys who seem to have the world against them, but... anyway.

Once, a few years back, I was dating someone (who I may, or may not, now be engaged to) who wanted to do something sweet for me on Valentines Day. I was honestly not used to any sort of sweet gestures from other ex's, so the idea alone was very amazing too me.

I was hanging out at my apartment, when around seven at night, my boyfriend called me. He was apologetic off the bat, and said to me;

"I wanted to do something nice for you. So, I decided to go and secretly pick up some cupcakes from your favorite place downtown."

"Oh that's so sweet of you!" I exclaimed, shocked and excited at the promise of dessert.

"Yeah," he went on, laughing nervously. "But the place was closed, so I couldn't get them."

"Oh," I said, more amused than anything. "That's too bad, I'm still so happy you even tried!" And I was, I felt genuinely flattered he would want to do such a thing for me. Maybe other girls have guys fawning over them constantly, trying to win their hearts. 

But not me, I never had that. Not till probably this guy, potentially. Last thing I wanted to do was sound upset at his failed efforts. "Come to my place, we'll get dinner."

"Right, yeah, so," he went on, clearly embarrassed, "there's one more problem. You won't like this."

"Um, okay, what... what's wrong?"

"My car, when I parked it in the lot down here? I uh, think I left the light on or something. It's... dead. My car is dead." He paused, just long enough for me to start laughing. "Yeah. I'm going to need you to come down here and give me a jump."

And that was my Valentines day!

Don't worry, we got cupcakes the next day. :)

Thank you everyone, and good luck with the contest!! Leave those emails so I can contact the winners!

For more on the Insatiable Reads Tour, head over HERE. Also, to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for the tour, you can go HERE!