Seasons greetings!

2018 is almost over, which means it's time to tell you about all the big stuff I've got brewing for the new year! 

Starstruck News!

A second book in the Starstruck series will release on March 5th! Fallen Star continues the movie star romance theme with a story about a newly sober former teen heartthrob looking to make his Hollywood comeback, and the unsympathetic script supervisor he's determined to win over.

I'll have a cover reveal to share with you early next year. If you're a planner like me and you want to preorder your copy now, you can do so at the retailers below. There won't be an Amazon preorder for this book, so Kindle readers will have to hold onto their hats until release day.

Chemistry Lessons News!

I took a poll in my Facebook Reader Group last month to see what people wanted me to write next—a third Starstruck book or a fourth Chemistry Lessons book. And guess what? A fourth Chemistry Lessons book won by a landslide. So that's what I'm working on right now.

It's going to be Olivia's story, and I'm aiming for a summer 2019 release.

If you follow me on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter (you do, don't you? It's the quickest way to find out what I'm up to), you've already seen my posts about the early story planning and outlining process and a sneak peek at 5 things in the story. 

★★★ NOW LIVE! ★★★

RISING STAR is available at all retailers! Don’t miss this steamy & emotional new Hollywood romance!

★ AMAZON US: https://amzn.to/2Qmk4vA
★ AMAZON UK: https://amzn.to/2OqOw5G
★ AMAZON CA: https://amzn.to/2F5hSaC
★ AMAZON AU: https://amzn.to/2DnseRj
★ APPLE: https://apple.co/2MnqKYt​
★ B&N: http://bit.ly/2MnqRDn
★ KOBO: http://bit.ly/2Ktz7zX
★ GOOGLE: http://bit.ly/2P1b6DE

Who wouldn’t want to house sit for a smoking hot movie star? The one woman he asked to do it.

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 someone he trusts to look after his precious fur baby.

Someone like 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?

ONE CLICK ➔ https://books2read.com/risingstar
​ADD ON GOODREADS ➔ http://bit.ly/2qu8t2b

We are only ONE WEEK away from the release of Rising Star!!! OMG! In honor of the occasion, here is an excerpt from chapter one. Enjoy!
​
* * * * *

The hot doctor beside Alice—better known to television audiences as the adorably charming Dr. Ethan Convey—bent over to check the patient’s chest drainage unit. “Chest tube output is twelve-hundred cc’s. Prep for thoracotomy.”

His hip bumped against Alice’s, and she shuffled aside to give him more room. They were working in tight quarters, and part of her job was to stay out of everyone else’s way. But as she reached for a scalpel on the tray of instruments beside her, she misjudged how close it was and knocked the whole thing over, sending hemostats, forceps, and scalpels flying with a deafening clatter.

“Ow!” the man dying on the gurney cried out as he flinched away from the flying medical equipment.

“Shit. Sorry,” Alice muttered. Good thing their scalpels weren’t actually sharp.

“Cut!”

The director ripped off his headset and approached with a thunderous expression on his face. It was Dean Harwell’s first time in the director’s chair on Las Vegas General, and the technical challenges of filming the show’s complicated trauma scenes had been giving him fits all week. Dean was moonlighting from his regular job as star of Las Vegas General’s better-rated lead-in, and had only ever directed two episodes of his own show before this. The producers had done him a favor letting him direct, but at this point it was clear to everyone that they’d made a grievous mistake. The guy was in way over his head, and had been taking it out on anyone and everyone with the misfortune to attract his attention.

Alice’s feet weren’t the only ones that shifted nervously as Dean stormed toward them. The other two nurses in the scene—a background actor named Diane and a minor recurring cast member named Abby—shrank back and hung their heads. Even Griffin Beach—who was in his seventh season as series regular Ethan Convey and had recently blown up the box office in the fourth installment of the blockbuster Troublemakers franchise—visibly winced. Only Alfie Crosby, a forty-year veteran of stage and screen sitting comfortably at the top of the call sheet seemed unfazed by the oncoming tantrum.

“Why is the dead guy talking?” Dean demanded, red-faced under his backward Yankees cap. “And moving?”

Once upon a time, Alice had actually thought Dean was hot, but that was before she’d had the pleasure of working with him. Funny how much less attractive some people became once you got to know them.

“He’s not dead yet,” Alfie said, looking more amused than anything. “There’s another page of dialogue before he codes.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, Alfie was being paid a cool half million per episode, so he could afford to be amused.

“She threw a tray of sharp instruments at my face,” the not-dead-yet actor mumbled in his own defense.

“Sorry,” Alice said again. In an entire season working background, this was the first time she’d ever ruined a take—but of course Dean didn’t know that.

“Background are supposed to be seen and not fucking heard!” he shouted. “It’s right there in the goddamn name: background!”

All the extras on his own show despised him. Alice had talked to some of them in the commissary last week, and they’d offered their condolences over Dean’s guest directing stint on LV Gen. Now she knew why.

Dean started to take a menacing step toward Alice, but Griffin Beach inserted himself between them. “It was my fault,” he said, facing down Dean with a level stare. “I bumped into her and made her knock the tray over. If you’re gonna be pissed at someone, be pissed at me.”

Alice could have hugged him for taking the bullet for her. Not that she ever would. There was a strict caste system in place on set. Extras who got too familiar with the talent would quickly find themselves out of a job and unlikely to be assigned a new one by the casting agency.

She hid gratefully behind Griffin’s broad shoulders and kept her mouth shut while Dean railed about professionalism and the fact that it was only eleven a.m. on Wednesday and they were already four hours and ten pages behind schedule. Someone might have pointed out that they were only behind because of Dean’s inexperience and repeated tantrums—this was his second outburst of the day and they were still hours away from lunch—but no one did, because it would only antagonize him and lengthen the duration of his tirade.

It was a full five minutes before he lost steam and stalked back to the monitors.

“Thank you,” Alice whispered to Griffin as soon as Dean was out of earshot.

Griffin gave her a wink so devastatingly sexy she felt her knees go wobbly. So much for not paying attention to how attractive he was.

“Don’t worry about that apple-faced goon,” he whispered back, covering the mic tucked under his shirt as he leaned toward her. “He’s not even qualified to be the assistant manager at PetSmart.”

Alice swallowed, momentarily paralyzed by the perfect storm of Griffin’s kindness and sexy proximity, combined with her own overwhelming gratitude and embarrassment.

“Boy, what a dickhead,” Alfie announced loudly, not caring who heard him. “Who told that moron he could direct?”

Griffin snorted and wandered back to his mark, leaving Alice to pull herself together and reapply her veneer of detached professionalism.

Props came through and reset the scene, Dean called action, and they started again from the top.

This time, Alice managed not to throw a tray of scalpels at anyone.

PREORDER YOUR COPY NOW ➔ https://books2read.com/risingstar

Can you believe we’re only 2 weeks away from Rising Star??? I can’t!

This year has passed so quickly, it doesn’t feel real. I know it’s been a while since I released a new book, and I’m so grateful for everyone who’s waited patiently these last months.

But it’s almost here!!! I’m so excited and proud of this book! Alice and Griffin are two of my favorite characters I’ve ever written, and I can’t wait for you to meet them. I hope you fall as much in love with them as they fall in love with each other.

There's some stuff I should probably tell you about this book before you read it. For one thing, it's a lot steamier than the Chemistry Lessons series. Instead of closed door love scenes, I'm throwing the doors wide open, so gird your loins! 

For another thing, although it's not mentioned in the blurb, Rising Star features a subplot about sexual harassment that was inspired by #MeToo. It's not a major part of the plot—the harassment occurs before the events of the book and doesn't involve the hero in any way--but it definitely affects the heroine and the way she reacts to the events of the story. It's still a light and funny read for the most part, similar in tone to the Chemistry Lessons books, but maybe a little more emotional and topical.

Finally, I hope you like movie star romances, because I'm already hard at work on the next book in the Starstruck series, which will probably hit stores in March 2019! 

Assuming I haven't scared you away or bored you to tears yet, here's the part where I gently nudge you toward the preorder links. You do want your copy of Rising Star to be magically delivered to your favorite ereader on release day, don't you? 

Readers! In anticipation of my next book release, I am once more looking to expand my ARC team.

What is an ARC? It's an Advance Reading Copy given out to select readers in order to create buzz and increase awareness of a book prior to release. ARCs are distributed in the hope that recipients will leave honest and thoughtful reviews on the major retailer sites and other book communities like Goodreads and BookBub on launch day. They may also choose to post about the book on social media.

If you're interested being one of my Advance Readers and would be willing to post reviews on or before launch day, please fill out the form below:

SIGN UP HERE ➔ https://goo.gl/forms/KJx0H9z6EMZYYKcC2

ARE YOU A BOOK BLOGGER? Then you can sign up for special release events and ARCs through InkSlinger PR at https://goo.gl/forms/NiQ2nC6H7ViMCYj12.

Alice grabbed her clothes and shower tote, stepped out into the hall—and found herself face to face with Griffin.

Wearing nothing but a towel.

A towel that was sagging dangerously low on his hips and only barely covering his man parts.

She froze, so startled she let the shower tote tip, dumping its contents all over the floor. “Damn,” she said, dropping to her knees to gather up her things, which at least gave her something to look at that wasn’t Griffin and his sagging towel.

“Hey,” he said sheepishly. “Morning.”

“Morning,” she muttered, trying to ignore Griffin’s mostly naked—and extremely impressive—body.

Settle down. It’s not like it’s the first time you’ve seen his abs. He’d done plenty of shirtless scenes on TV, not to mention a cover of Men’s Health last year that she may or may not have drooled over at the checkout stand.

This was just the first time she’d seen his abs in person. It was one thing to see Griffin Beach’s abs on screen or in an airbrushed photo, and something else entirely to see them standing two feet away from her in the flesh, with mere millimeters of sagging terrycloth hiding his unmentionables. Apparently they hadn’t done that much airbrushing for the magazine cover. His six-pack was very real, as was his Adonis belt and the vein leading down to his—yeah. Wow.

Griffin squatted down to help her pick up her things, which unfortunately caused his towel to gap, exposing an alarming amount of skin on his muscular upper leg, all the way up to--

Alice tore her eyes away again, hoping he didn’t notice her blushing as she accepted the bottle of shampoo he held out. She hurriedly shoved the rest of her stuff back into her tote and stood, trying to keep her eyes averted.

“Sorry.” As Griffin got to his feet, he finally seemed to notice his towel wasn’t covering him as well as it could and tugged it up higher on his hips, grimacing. “I realized as I was about to get in the shower that I left my clothes in the dryer. I promise I won’t make a habit of parading around the house in a towel.”

Too bad.

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!