National Read a Book Day!

Linda Goodnight here. Bookworms of America, you'll be delighted as I was to know that today, September 6 is National Read a Book Day! Which means, you really, really must give yourself permission to take a break, grab a book, and read!

What am I reading on this momentous "holiday"? Mermaid Moon by Colleen Coble, a book I picked up at the American Christian Fiction Writers’ Conference. The story is set along the Maine coast where I vacationed this past spring so I couldn’t resist moving it to the top of my TBR pile. It’s a mystery suspense reunion story, and personally, I love it when old flames cross paths again and the spark reignites.

Speaking of old flames, my newest book, Lone Star Dar, releases September 20. (See how I snuck that in to the conversation?) You’ll find a lopsided old flame story but a lot more in this one. And did I mention a very hunky but damaged hero who can be a bit on the-er-gruff side, a trouble making neighbor kid, a smart heroine with a secret, and a pile of cuddly kittens? This book was such fun for me to write. I hope you love it!

 

What's on your reading list today?

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Love at Cupid's Cove--A Valentine's serial--Lacy Williams

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1401282

He moved, or she did, and their lips brushed in a tentative, seeking kiss. Slowly, Lacy raised one hand and threaded her fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck.

Noise rushed in her ears, as if she’d turned on all of the electric appliances at once; heat flushed through her like she was standing in front of an open oven door.

She could feel his tension, his muscles coiled to move away. Duncan was a man who kept things so tightly bottled inside… until she felt him break, and he crushed her to him.

Moments—or eons—later, he ended the kiss, pressing her head to his broad chest, tucking her head beneath his chin.

“That was a mistake.” She was so close that his words rumbled beneath her cheek. Stubble from his jaw caught in her hair, tugging the fine strands at her temple.

“It doesn’t feel like a mistake,” she said, heart now pounding with more than adrenaline from their kiss. Somehow, she’d found a way inside the walls he kept up to protect himself. Would he push her away?

She wrapped her arms more tightly around his waist, willing him to hold on to her.

“It does to me.” Gently, he set her away from him.

She blinked beneath the harsh kitchen lights, away from his warmth and the protection of his arms.

“I would never… purposely… do anything to hurt you.”

Then why was he pushing her away? It had to be some misguided sense of honor, because of what everyone in town thought about him. Everyone but her.

“Duncan, wait—”

He turned away, one hand on the back of his neck. Headed for the door. “I shouldn’t have come. I should—we should stay away from each other.” He sounded so determined, but she also heard the thread of doubt underscoring his words.

Luckily for the both of them, his statement only sparked a new determination within Lacy—to find a way to make things right for him.


Start at the beginning:
http://craftieladiesofromance.blogspot.com/2013/02/love-at-cupids-cove-valentine-serial.html
http://craftieladiesofromance.blogspot.com/2013/02/love-at-cupids-cove-valentine-serial_2.html
http://craftieladiesofromance.blogspot.com/2013/02/love-at-cupids-cove-valentine-serial_3.html
http://craftieladiesofromance.blogspot.com/2013/02/cupids-cove-valentine-serial-debby.html
http://craftieladiesofromance.blogspot.com/2013/02/love-at-cupids-cove-valentines-serial.html
http://craftieladiesofromance.blogspot.com/2013/02/love-at-cupids-cove-valentines-serial_5.html
http://craftieladiesofromance.blogspot.com/2013/02/love-at-cupids-cove-valentine-serial_7.html
http://craftieladiesofromance.blogspot.com/2013/02/love-at-cupids-cover-valentines-serial.html
http://craftieladiesofromance.blogspot.com/2013/02/love-at-cupids-cove-valentine-serial_9.html
http://craftieladiesofromance.blogspot.com/2013/02/love-at-cupids-cove-valentines-serial_11.html
http://craftieladiesofromance.blogspot.com/2013/02/love-at-cupids-cove-valentine-serial_12.html
http://craftieladiesofromance.blogspot.com/2013/02/happily-ever-after-in-cupids-cove-happy.html

Love At Cupid's Cove - Valentine Serial - Jean C. Gordon

Duncan kept his head down against the wind, a chill running through him that was out of proportion to the slight dip in the temperature this morning.  He crossed the street in front of his mother’s house and ducked down the alley-like short cut that he and his friends had always taken to Cupid Cove High School. Mom had been sleeping when he’d left. She wouldn’t know that he’d detoured a bit with her surprise cupcake.

His thoughts went back to the bakery and its proprietress. She’d seemed as sweet and cheery as her pastries. And, of course she knew his mother. That was the way with small towns. Everyone knew everyone else and their business. Places like Cupid’s Cove had a way of putting labels on their inhabitants. She must not have heard his. It certainly wasn’t hero.

The path he’d been following came out on the driveway of the last house on School Street before the school. The grass in the back yard was a shade longer than last week when his offer to mow the lawn had been rebuffed. He followed the driveway to the kitchen door at the side of the house and knocked.

“Hi, Duncan,” the five-year-old towhead answering the door said.

“That’s Mr. Hines, Angie,” her eight-year-old brother Jason corrected from behind her. “What do you want?”

“To see your mother.”

“She doesn’t want to see you,” the boy said.

“Are those from Miss Lacy’s bakery?” Angie asked, pointing at the box he was crushing in his hands. “For us?”

“Yes.” He unclenched his fingers. Lacy. The name suited her. Delicate, feminine.

“Jason is right. I don’t want to see you,” a disembodied voice said from the front of the house. “Please leave.”

Jason reached over his sister’s shoulder and started to pull the door closed. Duncan pressed the box into Angie’s hands before the door closed in his face. He heard the lock click.

Leave. There was nothing he’d rather do than leave Cupid’s Cove. But he couldn’t. Not yet.