Showing posts with label #Dontcallmecupcake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #Dontcallmecupcake. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Don't Touch My Petunia by Tara Sheets - Excerpt Tour and GiveAway



A woman with garden magic finds out the builder in charge of remodeling her florist shop is the same man who broke her heart over a decade ago. In spite of best laid plans, they find themselves falling head over hearts in this whimsical romantic comedy where opposites attract, sparks fly, and magical mayhem ensues.


Available September 25th – DON’T TOUCH MY PETUNIA, a new book in the Holloway Girls series by Tara Sheets.




Book Description:

Pine Cove Island is the kind of enchanting place where anything is possible . . .

The Holloway women each have a special gift, passed down through generations, each one a little different. Juliette possesses a magical green thumb, which makes her job managing the local florist shop a dream. She may be a bit wild, but she knows what she wants: to save enough money to buy the shop from her boss. Then in marches Logan O’Connor, more annoyingly handsome than ever, turning all her plans upside down.

Logan hasn’t been back on Pine Cove Island since he was eighteen and broke Juliette’s teenage heart. Now it turns out he’s her boss’s nephew—and will be spending his days remodeling the shop and barking orders. At her.

For the sake of the business, Juliette will have to ignore their simmering attraction and work with Logan. But that doesn’t mean she has to make things easy for him. Because no one knows better than she that one tiny, perfectly planted bit of garden magic could uproot Logan’s own plans and keep him out of her way. And nothing would make her happier. At least that’s what she thinks . . .



Excerpt:

It was ten o’clock in the morning by the time Logan strolled in to work. Juliette tried to tell herself it didn’t matter; his job was his business. But that wasn’t entirely true. As the standing manager of Romeo’s Florist Shop, it was her responsibility to oversee everything that went on, which included the business of Romeo’s slow-moving, swaggering nephew. 

“Nice of you to finally make it in,” she said when he came through the back door. She’d spent the morning swamped with customers and orders, and in the middle of it she’d had to deal with Logan’s lumberyard delivery all by herself. 

He walked over to the coffeepot and poured himself a cup from the new machine. His face looked drawn, and there were dark shadows under his eyes. 

Juliette crossed her arms and opened her mouth to speak, but Logan held up a hand. 

“Before you start,” he said, “you should know that my answer to everything for the next five minutes is going to be ‘coffee.’” 

“You should know that you’re late,” she tossed back. “We open at eight o’clock here.” 

He raised his mug in salute and took a sip. 

“The lumber company stopped by this morning at eight-thirty,” she continued, “and since you weren’t here, they started dumping all the supplies by the front walkway. And this time, the store was filled with customers.” 

Logan leaned against the counter and regarded her with bloodshot eyes. He took another slow sip. 

“What is wrong with you this morning?” she blurted. “You look like you drank one too many shots of tequila last night and had to crawl home on your lips.” 

His mouth lifted at one corner as if he found her amusing. 

“It’s not funny,” she said with growing annoyance. “You’re supposed to be here on time so you can handle all the remodel stuff.” 

He closed his eyes and rubbed his face with one hand. “A friend kept me up all night.” 

An image of the pretty blonde from the bonfire flashed across Juliette’s mind. She’d been wrapped around him like a human pretzel, and it hadn’t seemed to bother him. 

Juliette bristled. “Look, if you want to party all night long with Suzy Sunshine, go right ahead. But you’re still expected to show up on time and get some actual work done here. The rest of us have to do our jobs. I’m sure Romeo wouldn’t be thrilled to know you were dragging in two hours late on your second day of work.” 

Logan stopped with his cup halfway to his mouth. “Suzy Sunshine?” 

“That girl from the barbeque.” 

He frowned. “You mean Bella?” 

“Whatever.” She wouldn’t know. Because she didn’t care. 

“We weren’t partying,” he said casually. “Not all night, anyway. I wasn’t up for it.” 

She had the sudden urge to throw something at him. Instead, she smiled sweetly. “Stamina problems, huh? Not a shocker. It’s your second day on the job and you can’t even keep up.” 

Logan set his cup on the counter with a thud, an unspoken challenge in his eyes. 

All Juliette’s nerve endings went on high alert. She suddenly felt like a rabbit in plain sight of a wolf. 

His gaze slid lazily down her body in a sensual caress, then back up to linger on her mouth before meeting her eyes. “I have no problems keeping up, Juliette.” He drew her name out on his tongue like he could taste it. “I’d be happy to prove it to you, if you don’t believe me.”


More from the Holloway Girls series
Don’t Call Me Cupcake



Follow the tour and enter to win a signed paperback set of the first two books in the Holloway Girls series




About Tara Sheets:


TARA SHEETS is an award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. Her work has earned first place recognition in literary contests nationwide and her debut novel, Don’t Call Me Cupcake, won the 2016 Golden Heart® award sponsored by Romance Writers of America®. Tara began her career as an author in the Pacific Northwest, inspired by the rain and the misty mountains and the rivers of Starbucks coffee. She now lives in the warm, wonderful South where she can stand outside with no coat on, and she finds that pretty inspiring too. When not writing, Tara enjoys life with her book-loving family and a book-eating dog named Merlin. She is represented by Sarah Phair at Trident Media Group.



Connect with Tara:
   Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ 



Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Don't Call Me Cupcake by Tara Sheets - Excerpt Tour and Giveaway



A cupcake baker with magical abilities suddenly finds herself competing with the unfortunately handsome owner of the fancy new bakery across the street in Golden Heart® Winner Tara Sheets's magical romantic comedy released 24 April.






Book Description:

There’s a very special kind of sweetness to life on Pine Cove Island …

Most families have a favorite recipe or two, handed down through generations. The Holloway women are a little different. Emma Holloway, like her grandmother before her, bakes charms into her delicious cupcakes, granting the recipient comfort, sweet dreams, or any number of good things. It’s a strange gift, but it brings only happiness. Until gorgeous, smooth-talking newcomer Hunter Kane strolls into her shop, Fairy Cakes—and Emma makes the mistake of selling him not one, but three Sweet Success cupcakes.

Hunter, it turns out, is opening a fancy new restaurant and bakery right on the waterfront—Emma’s competition. To make matters worse, the town committee has decided to split the upcoming summer festival contract between the two, forcing Emma to work with her nemesis. But she can’t afford to split her profits. The solution: create a recipe that will make Hunter leave town permanently.

The Holloway charms are powerful. But there are other kinds of magic in the world—like red-hot first kisses, secret glances, and the feeling that comes with falling truly, madly, inconveniently in love . . .



Excerpt:
Copyright© 2018 Don’t Call Me Cupcake
Tara Sheets


That half smile ghosted across his face again and he crossed his arms. It was a simple gesture of relaxed ease, but Emma didn’t buy it. There was a hunger in his dark green gaze that she remembered all too well. The lion was on high alert.

“What did you want to talk about?” he asked.

“It was wrong,” she blurted.

Hunter’s posture shifted slightly. “You think last night was a mistake.”

“Totally. I mean, I never do that kind of thing. Ever. I don’t know what I was thinking, you know?” Here came the babble. She always babbled when she was nervous. “But I know it’s not a good idea to mix my personal life with business. And you and I are just business, so I hope you understand it’s not going to happen again because, you know, I can’t really believe it even happened in the first place.”

His gaze was intense, like he was imagining the things they could do. The things they had done. A delicious shiver skittered up her spine. She forged ahead. “I mean, I just don’t think it should have happened at all. It was kind of crazy and well, contrary to what you may have heard, I’m not actually crazy. Weird, sure. But not reckless like that. At least I never have been in the past. So anyway, I would like to forget about it and, you know, just go on like before,” said the queen of Babble-on. “Normal and stuff.”

Hunter nodded once and glanced down at the floor. He seemed deep in thought, as if he was trying to make a decision.

Emma tried not to notice his muscular arms, crossed against his chest. Nothing sexy about those. Nope. La la la. She could hear the second hands ticking on the wall clock. Tick. Tick.

He pressed his lips together and she suddenly remembered the feel of them, warm and hot against the sensitive spot on her neck. Focus!

When he finally lifted his head, her knees almost buckled. The lion stared back, all wild and hungry and seductive, like he was about to lick zebra chops. He leaned closer.

She should probably back away.

He watched her beneath thick, dark lashes and lowered his gaze to her mouth.

Yup. Definitely backing away soon. She could almost feel the heat of his body on hers and her traitorous limbs ached with the desire to step closer.

His face hovered inches from hers, as if he was waiting for some sign.

Any second now, she would back away. Any second. Emma’s mouth opened on a tiny indrawn breath.

It seemed to be exactly what he was waiting for. The moment his lips touched hers, her limbs flooded with heat. Her body remembered him and was instantly ready.

He gripped her hips and lifted, pulling her flush against him. She wrapped her legs around his waist, completely lost in the kiss that spread like wildfire through her blood. He carried her to the back room, knocking over a bag of sugar on the way as he braced her up against the pantry wall. She gripped the edge of the shelf, sending stainless steel mixing bowls toppling to the floor. The two of them were like a hurricane, demolishing anything that got in the way, and she was helpless to do anything but hang on.

Emma suddenly wanted to feel his skin against hers. She grabbed the hem of his shirt and yanked it up, breaking away from their kiss just long enough to tear it over his head.

A low growl escaped him as he ran his hands up under her apron, sending a jolt of pure desire rocketing through her.

Screwed. She was so screwed. But in this moment, who cared? 

She smiled against his mouth and licked his lips. If he was the hungry lion, then she was happy, slow-roasting zebra chops.





GiveAway:
(One lucky winner will receive a Kindle Fire)





TARA SHEETS is an award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. Her work has earned first place recognition in literary contests nationwide and her debut novel, Don’t Call Me Cupcake, won the 2016 Golden Heart® award sponsored by Romance Writers of America®. Tara began her career as an author in the Pacific Northwest, inspired by the rain and the misty mountains and the rivers of Starbucks coffee. She now lives in the warm, wonderful South where she can stand outside with no coat on, and she finds that pretty inspiring too. When not writing, Tara enjoys life with her book-loving family and a book-eating dog named Merlin. She is represented by Sarah Phair at Trident Media Group.






Connect with Tara: