Biting the Bullet

 

      

         Hello, gentle readers! Hope you are well and staying safe!

        Well, I’m finally ready to do it. I think. I have a manuscript that’s just been sitting in my computer for the past two years. Just sitting there, doing nothing except calling my name and asking me what the heck do I think I’m doing. 

        While The Maverick & Miss Miller is being beta-read, I’ve been working on Wife For Hire, going through it one last time, tweaking a little bit here and there, fixing some issues…and I’m almost done. Almost. (And wonder of wonders, I still love the story and the characters). So, by the end of this week, I plan (fingers crossed) to submit it to a publisher. 

It’s time. It’s actually past time. Not sure why I’ve been sitting on it so long…I finished it before the pandemic hit. Really, I have no excuses. I just…

        Had several moments of self-doubt (all right, more than several…I think I’ve talked myself out of submitting more than I’ve talked myself into it). Some writers, I’ve heard, go through this. We hear these little voices in our heads (mine happens to sound a lot like Meryl Streep—think the character she played in The Devil Wears Prada). It’s not good enough or so the little voice says (or my personal favorite—this sucks). No one will want it (again, that darned voice…so cool, so patronizing, so steeped in contempt). You know, the whole litany in order to justify my procrastination.

        BUT…I promised myself I would do it. What’s the worst that can happen? A publisher will say ‘No’. Seriously, that is the worst that can happen. And if it does, I’ll just move on to the next publisher. I’ll never know what Wife For Hire can do if I don’t submit so…I’m going to do it. I am (yes, I’m convincing myself as I write this). Really. I am.  

        On the other hand, what’s the best that can happen? A publisher will love it as much as I do. Let’s hope that’s the case.

        Wish me luck!

        Until next time, stay well, stay safe, and remember to spread kindness wherever you go.

Marie

Veronica Reviews - A SCOUNDREL OF HER OWN by Stacy Reid

A Scoundrel of Her Own 

(Sinful Wallflowers #3)

by Stacy Reid

5 Stars

★★★★★

“I felt I have been waiting all my life for this moment to love you.”

For 15 years, Devlin Byrne has worked his way up from nothing to be worthy of the girl who stole his heart so many years ago when he was just a boy of 12.  Now a powerfully wealthy man, Devlin has garnered a reputation of being both faithful to those he cares for as well as ruthless to those who would cause them harm.  But regardless of his wealth and power, he is still not considered worthy of being part of the ton.  Devlin has fought too hard to achieve his heart’s desire, and he will continue to plot and wait for as long as it takes to claim his beloved Fifi.

Lady Ophelia Durby is the only child of a powerful marquess.  Her doting parents have always allowed her to choose her own path in life and encouraged her to only marry for love…so long as she brings no scandal to the family name.  But Ophelia’s heart was stolen long ago…by a boy with a heart of gold who saved her from certain death…who made her feel cherished, protected and loved just as she was…a boy who begged his Fifi to wait for him…

Stacy Reid has once again hit it out of the park in her third installment to her Sinful Wallflowers series!  This story is full of all the heartwarming sinfully romantic feelings I’ve grown to expect and enjoy from her romances!  To the moon and back I loved Devlin and Fifi’s story and highly recommend!  Wish I could give more than 5 stars!

Sharing what I love, 

Veronica

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Hello, Transcriber by Hannah Morrissey

 Not only does Hazel Greenlee listen and type the crimes of Black Harbor for the police force, but she somehow gets involved.  As an aspiring author, this may help her out of the hole of a life she feels surrounds her.  

Being privy to the details, she gets tangled up with a crime and seduced by a detective.   Only one of these is willingly.

Nikolai Kole is a veteran detective with a past.  He fights crime unconventionally and loves women of many types.  When he encounters the new transcriber, he reveals secrets to Hazel.

Hazel doesn't reciprocate her secrets.  Yet, the chemistry is binding between them. One thing she pounces on is knowing a man involved in the selling of drugs to kids.  

Kole brings her on a covert mission to take down the drug dealer who's also a murderer.  

Through many close contact situations, a type of love festers and becomes physical in backseats and dark rooms.  

Is it a love that can outrun the hidden truths Hazel holds, and the forced deception of Kole?  Can their lives endure the danger and crime enveloping the dark city?

A contemporary, spooky love story darkened by crime.  Keep the lights on and keep reading.

Happy reading,

Dawn

   

 

Catch up before the next Last Chance story by Lexi Post releases!

 

Book #7 of the Last Chance series is coming out soon. So be sure to catch up, starting with the first three books!

LAST CHANCE RANCH

by Lexi Post

Welcome to Last Chance Ranch, created for rescued horses, home of rescued hearts.

Cole Hatcher, the cowboy firefighter who has already had a second chance with Lacey, has once again let his mother come between them. It’s not until Lacey spends Christmas with Angel that Cole realizes it’s his last chance at forever with the woman he loves.

Soon to be divorced Trace Williams doesn’t usually find himself attracted to women who point a shotgun at him, but when he meets Whisper Adams, the squatter who has no social skills but a unique ability to communicate with animals, he’s intrigued. Unfortunately, there’s a reason she’s living off the grid, and she soon becomes Trace’s Trouble. With his heart in tatters once again, he has to decide if he’s going take one last chance on love.

Firefighter Bo Fletcher knows better than to get involved with a woman he rescued from a burning building. Unfortunately, when animal rescuer Dana Wilson shows up at the fire station to give him a piece of her mind, sparks fly that he can’t put out, and she is soon dubbed Fletcher’s Flame. Now as fires seem to follow in her footsteps, he’s got one last chance to gain her trust or lose her forever.

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Thoughts on a Marriage

 

            Hello, gentle readers! Hope you are all well and staying safe!

You know that saying “Happy wife, happy life”? Well, mine is a little different. It’s “Happy spouse, happy house.” I truly believe that and I’ll tell you why.

The DH and I celebrated our 41^st wedding anniversary just a bit ago (we met when I was nineteen, married at twenty, so I have spent two thirds of my life with this man). There’s been a lot of learning and growing and arguing in those years, but here we are.

Anyway, several people have asked me what my secret to a long, happy marriage is. My response never fails to disappoint them – there is no secret. Not really. However, there are some key ingredients that I will share (in no particular order):

Tolerance (this is a big one). There will be many things that will pop up that you will learn to tolerate (and maybe even celebrate). The DH and I are as different as night and day. He’s a night owl, while I’m a morning person. I dislike clutter (it makes me anxious) while he is a pack rat (my house is very neat and uncluttered...I won’t tell you what his workshop looks like). He has a tendency to lash out when upset whereas I will take a step back and gain control of myself (because things said in the heat of anger cannot be taken back or unheard—learned that from hearing my parents argue).

Respect. This is a must. Gotta respect the other person – their ideas, their thoughts, their feelings (this goes for children, too). Everyone has the right to have their emotions validated, to be heard (even if you don’t want to hear it).

Humor: Oh my gosh! You have to have humor. I’m fortunate that my DH can make me laugh (sometimes, when I don’t want to). There has been a lot of laughter in our years together and I’ve found that we can face anything (no matter how bad), by finding the humor (or the positive side) even when there is none. It takes work, but it can be done.

Trust. ‘Nuf said.

Communication: You have to talk, even if the subject is painful. In the beginning of our lives together, my DH avoided tough subjects like they were the plague. He was taught (and he still struggles with this), if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all BUT by doing so, resentment and other feelings can grow, destroying that fragile foundation you’re trying to build. That’s not to say we haven’t cried together while discussing difficult topics. We have. Argued over them, too. Our biggest fight was over (believe it or not) how the toilet paper should be placed on the holder (over or under). Truthfully, I was just happy there was toilet paper on the spindle – I didn’t care which way it went but apparently, he did. Really, though, it wasn’t about toilet paper at all...it was the fact that he didn’t think I was listening to him (and I wasn’t).

Commitment. On the day we got married, I made a promise. I committed to NOT have a marriage like my parents had, that I wanted something better. Something more. And I wasn’t afraid to work for it; however, all that work cannot be done by just one person. There is another person in this with you and he/she has to be equally committed. I was lucky enough to find someone who was. 

Which brings me to why I love to read romance novels. Because it’s not real. Romance novels don’t discuss or bring in the nitty-gritty of everyday life. There are no problems with what bills need to be paid when and who’s going to pay them, what to make for dinner for your 80 thousandth meal together, who’s responsibility is it to clean up after the kids or the family pet. As unromantic as the DH is (his idea of romance is doing an oil change on my car), he has never denigrated the fact that I can escape into a fantasy world by reading a romance or by writing my own. And this is important, too. And that’s it.  Well, actually, there are a whole lot more, but that's for another time. 

Stay well! Stay safe! And remember to spread kindness wherever you go!

Marie

Veronica Reviews - KNIGHT TIME KISS by Brynn Paulin

Knight Time Kiss 

by Brynn Paulin

5 Stars 

★★★★★

“I love you…you are my very heart…”

For years Emma has dreamed of her knight, but each dream ends the same…after a kiss, she is swept away from his embrace only to wake alone in her bed.  Out of habit, Emma twists her grandmother’s ring on her finger.  Running her fingers against it, she remembers that her grandmother once told her the ring would bring her what she needed the most—what she desired in the deepest part of her heart.  And what Emma is wanting the most is to love and be loved…to no longer be alone…to have a family…

While thinking of her knight, Emma slips her grandmother’s ring on her finger and suddenly finds herself dropped in a strange location with people screaming “witch” at her.  But like in her dream, the knight that always held and made her feel safe and loved is there and prepared to defend her.  Emma is both thrilled and terrified at finding herself back in time with her beloved knight, but how will she survive the loss, if it all disappears with a kiss…

Oh, how I luvs time travel romances, and Brynn Paulin did not disappoint this reader with her smexxy romantic tale of a knight and his lady sharing a dream and falling in love.  Did not what this story to end!  Loved and highly recommend!

Sharing what I love,

Veronica

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I Hate, I Bake, And I Don't Date! by Alina Jacobs

 This story is truly hilarious, and I love Tess and her sad accommodations in Manhatton.  Not to mention her food binging, baking, and hatred (in a funny way) toward men.  

Tess works through a temp agency and is currently on the billionaire's payroll as an assistant.  Billionaire Beck Svensson fires help at random, typically rehiring the next hour the same person.  

Tess has been fired several times until Beck realizes he needs her.  Not too fast, he needs her as a babysitter for his grade-school age half-sisters whom he has the chance of adopting.  

Tess isn't sure about helping a man she hates (Beck), but rent is due, she needs baking supplies, and her dilapidated rental is growing mushrooms of a non-edible kind from the leaks in the ceiling.  She needs the money, and after meeting the girls, she actually kind of likes them.  Tess figures she can help the girls have a lot more fun than Beck will supply.

Beck is not so bad a man.  He just needs to learn empathy and how to treat his employees with respect, especially after he tells Tess part of her new position is to pretend to be his girlfriend. 

Snickered the whole way through the romantic comedy as Beck and Tess dueled and loved each other in their own ways.  So, let's hope the ending is with adopted sisters, Tess employed, Beck less introverted, and a happily-ever-after.  That's a lot to ask!   

Happy reading,

Dawn