I’m thrilled to reveal the cover and blurb for my next book, RISING STAR! It’s the first in a new series of movie star romances debuting this fall.

The covers for this series are a departure from my last one, but rest assured the books will feature the same smart heroines, hunky heroes, and relatable stories you’ve come to expect—only STEAMIER! 🔥🔥🔥

Release Date: Nov. 8, 2018
Cover Design: Okay Creations

Preorder on AMAZON ➤ https://amzn.to/2OsMLFL
Preorder on APPLE ➤ https://apple.co/2OHEIWz
Preorder on B&N ➤ http://bit.ly/2MnqRDn
Preorder on KOBO ➤ http://bit.ly/2Ktz7zX
Preorder on GOOGLE ➤ http://bit.ly/2P1b6DE

And now for the blurb…

Alice Carlisle has problems.

Her sociology Ph.D. dissertation is going nowhere, she’s about to lose the TV extra job that’s been paying her bills, and her roommate is kicking her out. She needs to find a new place to live ASAP, so she can focus on finally finishing her doctorate.

Enter Griffin, one of Hollywood’s rising stars, who offers to let her move into his guest room if she’ll dog sit for him. Four months rent free in a nice house with an adorable dog is an offer Alice can’t turn down—even if she has major qualms about her movie star roommate.

Griffin Beach has it all.

He’s gorgeous, newly jacked, and poised to make the leap from TV show regular to box office superstar. Until his dog sitter bails, leaving him desperate to find a replacement.

Enter Alice, the extra who’s never seemed to like him but loves his dog. Griffin has his doubts about the arrangement, but living with Alice opens his eyes to how empty his workaholic lifestyle has become. The more time they spend together, the more he realizes she might be exactly what he needs in his life.

Can Alice let her guard down and learn to trust again? Can Griffin stop trying to please everyone else long enough to show her how he feels? Will they get their Hollywood happy ending? Or will their love story bomb at the box office?

✫*¨*✶.¸ RISING STAR ¸.✶*¨*✫
Book One in the Starstruck Series

Hard at work on my next book, RISING STAR. Stay tuned to this space, because I should have some exciting news on that front soon! ​

Today was a good reminder that there is a light at the end of the writing tunnel.

Yesterday, I had a terrible writing day. Couldn’t focus, couldn’t get past a scene I was stuck on, couldn’t figure out what needed to happen next in the story. After a few hours of frustration, I tried to distract myself by working on the blurb for my next book. But blurbs are always torture (ask any author—they’re universally considered the worst part of the entire process of writing and publishing a book). I only managed to jot down a few terrible, disjointed phrases before throwing in the towel and wallowing in my failure for the rest of the night.

This morning I wasn’t feeling any better about any of it. But I sat down to work and tried anyway. And what do you know, it started to get better. Not right away. I had to work at it for a while, feeling miserable and discouraged. But I kept at it, and suddenly it got a little easier. I had an idea for how fix one small thing. And then another small thing. And that lead me to a way to fix a bigger thing.

Before I knew it, I’d thrown out one whole troublesome chapter that didn’t need to be there, edited two others that did, and sketched out four new ones where previously there’d just been a big question mark in my outline. Go me!

Feeling buoyed by my successes, I decided to tackle that blurb again. And again, it totally sucked at first. I had no ideas, and everything I wrote down was total crap. But gradually, through perseverance, it started to come together. I came up with a sentence that didn’t completely suck. And another one. And another. Until I had that whole damn blurb written. Ha! So there.

Anyway, the point of all this is to say that it’s easy to get worn down by the bad days and feel like that’s all you’ll ever have. But if you stick with it, and keep trying, eventually, bit by bit, it will get better. Maybe not all at once. Maybe not today. But one day. One bit at a time.

So don’t give up, writer friends. Or non-writer friends. Because this applies to so many things in life. It’s easy to get discouraged, and it’s hard to keep trying anyway. But the payoff for all that trying is out there waiting for you. It’s just around the corner. If you keep putting one foot in front of the other, eventually you’ll get there.

And there is a great place to be!

Look what's on the shelves at The Ripped Bodice!!! 💗💗💗 Talk about a dream come true! 😊

Los Angeles area readers can now find my first two books at the only exclusively romance bookstore in the U.S. And those outside of LA can support a terrific indie bookstore by ordering paperback copies through their web site:
​

For a limited time, the second book in the Chemistry Lessons series, Intermediate Thermodynamics, is on sale for only 99 cents at ebook retailers everywhere!

Find it at your favorite store here: https://www.books2read.com/it

✅ Aerospace engineer heroine
✅ Sensitive screenwriter hero
✅ Neighbors + enemies to lovers
Also features: knitting, horror movies, and a cat named Sally Ride!

If you haven't read this feel-good STANDALONE rom com, now's the perfect time to grab your copy at this special low-low price.

Intermediate Thermodynamics is ​also available in paperback and audiobook.

Big news!

The Chemistry Lessons series is available at all major ebook retailers! Now you can get your geeky/STEM romance fix at iBooks, Google Play, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble, in addition to Amazon!
​
REMEDIAL ROCKET SCIENCE ➤ books2read.com/rrs
INTERMEDIATE THERMODYNAMICS ➤ books2read.com/it
ADVANCED PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY ➤ books2read.com/apc​

I have an IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!
​
The Chemistry Lessons series will be leaving Kindle Unlimited soon (maybe VERY soon, in fact). So if you're a KU member, and you've been intending to read them free through that program, make sure to borrow them ASAP. (Borrowed will books stay on your Kindle even after they've left KU, as long as you don't exceed your 10 book borrow limit.)

Read FREE while you still can ➤ https://amzn.to/2rwQGZ6

The GOOD NEWS is that this means the whole series will be going wide soon, and will finally be available for sale on other retailers like iBooks, Google Play, Kobo, and Barnes & Nobles.

​More details to come!

A lot of readers have been asking me what’s next. Another book, of course!

I’m putting aside the STEM heroines for a while and starting a brand new contemporary romance series. Instead of centering on the heroines, this series will focus on celebrity heartthrobs and feature dual POV (which I suspect will make some of you very happy).

But don’t worry: the heroines will still be the smart, independent, relatable characters you've come to expect from me. The first book is about a sociology PhD candidate who winds up housesitting for a TV actor on the verge of becoming a big-time movie star.

​Look for it later this year!

This was my birthday gift from Mr. Sus, in honor of becoming a published writer last year. I spent over 20 years writing and learning and working and honing my craft before I decided to pursue self-publishing. Discovering that I could carve out a place for myself in the marketplace and sink or swim on my own merits was tremendously freeing.

​In the last year I’ve released three books, and right now all three are sitting in the top 20 of their category on Amazon, holding their own alongside much more famous and established authors’ books. It’s so far beyond anything I dared to hope for, I’m honestly at a loss for words. And it’s all because I had the courage to take a chance on myself. ​