Today, I am so excited to be a part of the blog tour for two phenomenal authors, Hope Ramsay and Molly Cannon! These two write super sweet contemporary romances (hence the tour name "sweet and sassy") and I can't wait for the chance to read their newest releases! Here's a bit about the books…
Inn at Last Chance
By Hope Ramsay
Release Date: April 29, 2014
Summary: Jenny Carpenter is the unrivaled pie-baking champion of Last Chance, South Carolina's annual Watermelon Festival and the town's unofficial spinster. With her dream of marriage and children on hold, she focuses on another dream, turning the local haunted house into a charming bed-and-breakfast. But her plans go off course when the home's former owner shows up on her doorstep on a dark and stormy night . . .
Mega-bestselling horror writer Gabriel Raintree is as mysterious and tortured as his heroes. His family's long-deserted mansion is just the inspiration he needs to finish his latest twisted tale, or so he thinks until he learns it's been sold. The new innkeeper proves to be as determined as she is kind, and soon Gabriel finds himself a paying guest in his own home. As Jenny and Gabe bring new passion to the old house, can she convince him to leave the ghosts of his past behind-and make Last Chance their first choice for a future together?
“We have
plenty of time for you to tell me your secrets. And I can tell you mine. You
don’t have to bear every burden all by yourself, you know.”
He wanted to believe that most of all, so he didn’t move. He didn’t
try to leave her. He didn’t open the door and walk away. He sat there and let
her seal the deal with a kiss. She leaned over the console and touched her soft
lips to his. The kiss started out tentatively, as if she was testing him to see
what he might do.
He should
have pushed her away like the other times.
But her kiss was like a healing balm. It seemed to work its way into all the endlessly aching
places in his soul. It filled him up with something golden and pure, like some
miraculous elixir. And so he fell into the
kiss as hard as he’d ever fallen into a kiss. He opened his mouth and
she moved in and blew all his good intentions and deep fears to smithereens.
***
Jenny unlocked the two locks on The Jonquil House’s front door. Her
heart was pounding so hard she couldn’t breathe. This was it. She was taking
charge, but holy God she didn’t have the first idea how to actually do that.
It was still kind of amazing that Gabe was here, coming back to the
inn knowing that they were not going to
say good night
and go to their separate bedrooms. And really, she was starting to have a tiny
bit of performance anxiety. It had been one hell of a long time since she’d
gotten intimate with a man.
More important, if she was crazy enough to buy into what Savannah
Randall had suggested earlier in the evening, then there was a boatload riding
on this moment. Like her heart and her future. Which explained why her hands
were shaking so badly that she was fumbling with the keys.
It seemed to take an eternity to get the door open. She was running
out of time to think of something hot and sultry to say that would get him up to her bedroom.
Then, as
the door swung inward, Bear came flying down the hall and knocked her back into
Gabe’s waiting arms. The dog was probably ruining her green dress with his paws
up on her chest, but he was giving her lots
and lots of sloppy dog
kisses, and somehow that seemed exactly right for the moment.
Because it made Gabe laugh. He was right behind her, holding her
up. And he’d used the moment to sneak his big manly hands around her waist
while he propped her up against his sturdy chest and hips, where she discovered that Gabe was
turned on.
Evidently, he
didn’t need any sultry lines. The
kisses they’d shared in the car had done the trick. They were some first-class
kisses.
His heat penetrated her being and wormed its way into every cell of
her body, melting her so that she kind of settled back into him with a vocal
sigh.
“Bear. Down. Now.” Gabe could be commanding when he chose to be.
The dog obeyed. And she found herself back on her own two feet
while Gabe shut and locked the door.
“He needs to be walked,” she said, suddenly realizing that a dog
complicated things. And
then something else occurred to her. “You were going to leave Bear behind? With
me?”
He turned away from the door and aimed his gaze on her. His eyes
seemed even darker, and
his look lit a fire in
her. “He’s your dog,” he said.
She shook her head. “No, I think he’s our dog.”
The corner of his mouth twitched. She wanted to kiss it and
wondered why the heck she was holding back. She needed to break free of these
restraints that she’d imposed on herself for all these years.
But before she could act on the impulse, he was striding down the hall toward the kitchen.
“Wait.” She
followed after him.
He pulled the dog’s leash down from the hook by the back door. “I’ll
walk the dog.”
She didn’t want him to leave her. If he did, she’d lose her nerve. Or
maybe he’d talk himself out of it.
She shook her head. “No, we’ll walk the dog after.” And she took a
couple of steps toward him, snaked her arms around his neck, and pulled him down for the
kiss she’d wanted to give him a moment before.
His mouth met hers,
his lips firm and moist and gentle. When he opened the seam of her lips, his tongue proved to
be exceptionally talented.
She ran her fingers up into his hair, and he made a noise that made her feel powerful in a
way she had never felt before.
His mouth left hers and trailed a
string of kisses and half bites along her jaw and down into the hollow of her
neck.
Her insides melted,
as if some warm being
had breathed spring into the desolate, cold places that she’d been guarding. The
walls came down. She stopped worrying. She stopped thinking.
She simply was. Alive.
About the Author
Hope Ramsay grew up on the North Shore of Long Island, but every summer Momma would pack her off under the care of Aunt Annie to go visiting with relatives in the midlands of South Carolina. Her extended family includes its share of colorful aunts and uncles, as well as cousins by the dozens, who provide the fodder for the characters you'll find in Last Chance, South Carolina. She's a two-time finalist in the Golden Heart and is married to a good ol' Georgia boy who resembles every single one of her heroes. She lives in Fairfax, Virginia, where you can often find her on the back deck, picking on her thirty-five-year-old Martin guitar.
Flirting With Forever
By Molly Cannon
Release Date: April 29, 2014
Summary: Something old and something new . . .
Flying is Theo Jacobson's passion. Soaring above the clouds, he's on to the next adventure . . . and the next woman. So when he comes home to Everson, Texas, for his big brother's wedding, it's nothing but a pit stop. He'll act as best man, cover the family business while the happy couple honeymoons, and be on his way before the champagne goes flat. But all that changes when he comes face-to-face with the wedding planner—the very same woman who broke his heart without a backward glance years ago.
Irene Cornwell started I Do I Do with a wing and a prayer. Now, with two weddings under her belt, it's a piece of cake . . . until Theo lands back in town. Just seeing his twinkling blue eyes and infuriatingly sexy smile turns her world upside down. For the sake of her business, she proposes an uneasy truce. But when the wedding is over, all bets are off!
If he was smart he’d follow her suggestion. Get the hell out of here, go home, and take a
cold shower. But he’d never been smart
about Ree, and it was hot. Summer in
Texas hot. And her swimming pool was
just sitting there waiting to be of some use.
He put his tools away and headed for the bath house. An odd assortment of suits hung from hooks on
the wall, and he picked a pair that looked like long plaid walking shorts. They fit just fine, so he grabbed a towel and
walked out to the pool.
Ree must have still been in the house, but he didn’t wait
for her. He dove into the deep end of
the pool, letting the cool water shock his system. He stayed under water, swimming with his eyes
open until he reached the shallow end of the pool, and then he turned around
without surfacing and swam the other direction.
His lungs were burning from a lack of oxygen, so he was finally forced
to come up for air. Good God. The sight before him nearly knocked the
breath out of him all over again.
Wearing a purple bikini and nothing more, Ree walked out of
the back door gliding toward him like a model on one of his fantasy
runways.
**
Irene walked out the door just as Theo was rising from the
water like a sleek water god. Neptune’s
warrior. Or some mythical creature. His black hair was slicked back from his
face. Water cascaded down his bulging
arms, across his broad chest, and ran over his flat stomach. He’d gained more muscle since she’d first
known him and the result was extraordinary.
Unfortunately for her peace of mind, he was gorgeous. Absolutely.
Undeniably the epitome of male perfection. A beautiful boy grown into the manliest of
men. Damn it all and a box of rocks.
She put her eyeballs back in their sockets and tried to act
casual. If she didn’t want to make a
fool of herself she’d have to keep things light –act unaffected. Working with him this afternoon had already
put her into a state of unbridled ditziness.
She kept sneaking peeks at the way the muscles in his arms bunched as he
swung the hammer, or the way he used his long legs, lifting the thick boards
over his head before putting them in place.
The hot Texas sun must have baked her brain because he suddenly seemed
even more attractive than usual. She was
supposed to be immune. But the way his
dark hair artfully curled around the top of his ears seemed designed to make
her blood thicken with need. Those
eyes. Cool blue and watching her,
calculating her responses, but she’d lost track of what he wanted from her
years ago, and the time she’d spent with him the last few days had done nothing
to clarify anything at all. Especially
what and how she felt about this man.
It had taken her way too long to decide what bathing suit to
wear. Like it mattered. It wasn’t like she was going on a date, for
goodness sakes, but his remark about her not wearing a suit made her
self-conscious, and resentful, and turned on all at the same time. She was letting the man screw with her head,
and that was the one thing she’d promised she wouldn’t do. First she started to put on a black one piece
racing suit that covered as much skin as possible, but it felt like she was
being manipulated into wearing it. Like
she was ashamed that he’d seen her naked on his arrival into town. Then she grabbed a two piece that had a
little skirt. Modest, but showing a
little more flesh. She held it up in the
mirror and frowned at the polka dot design.
It looked like something a clown might wear. To hell with it. She picked up her favorite purple bikini,
slipped it on, and marched outside with her head held high.
The impact of seeing him all wet and bare-chested was like
taking a shot of tequila on an empty stomach.
Hot quivers ran through her veins.
Intoxicating. She’d been without
a man for much too long if he could make her feel so out of control just by
taking his shirt off. It took all of her
mighty concentration not to stop and gawk.
But she was proud of herself. She
made it to the side of the pool, but then stopped having no idea what to do
next. Conversation was way beyond her
power. As a kid she’d always liked to
make a splashy entrance, so she let out a yell and executed the perfect cannon
ball, rocking the pool, and hoping he might be gone when she surfaced for air.
About the Author
Molly lives a charmed life in Texas with hernearly perfect husband and extremely large cat Nelson. When she's not writing, she spends her days reading, taking dance classes with the hubby and watching all kinds of sports.
One lucky reader will get to win a copy of both Inn at Last Chance by Hope Ramsay and Flirting With Forever by Molly Cannon, as well as copies of Ain't Misbehaving and A Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Molly Cannon and Welcome to Last Change and Home at Last Chance by Hope Ramsay! That means the winner will win 6 books! Just fill out the rafflecopter below! ***US Only*** Ends 5/8
