Contemporary

Romance set in modern times during present day.

  • Contemporary

    Cover Love: Hardened Desire by Layna Pimentel @LaynaPimentel #RLFblog #PNR

    Hardened Desire
    by Layna Pimentel 

    Cover Love includes a cover, blurb, buy links, and social media
    contacts for the author. Today’s featured book is Hardened Desire by Layna Pimentel.

    What could Luc Mercier, a gargoyle who’s more than a century
    old, possibly have in common with modern introvert, Gillian Harris? Loneliness and
    isolation.
    When meddlesome friends bring the two together, neither is prepared
    for the flurry of emotions nor revelations that overwhelm them. That is, until Gillian
    stumbles across the truth and struggles with how she let her guard down.
    Learning to love again has never been harder.

    Buy This Book

    Amazon (CA): http://www.amazon.ca/Hardened-Desire-Layna-Pimentel-ebook/dp/B00N9QOWUG/
    Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00N9QOWUG/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B00N9QOWUG&linkCode=as2&tag=lucyfelthouse-21&linkId=43J3ODKEWG5EXCA5
    Barnes and Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hardened-desire-layna-pimentel/1115181258?ean=2940046154184

    About the Author

    Born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Layna discovered her love
    of reading at an early age. When she isn’t devouring salacious romance novels or
    writing, she enjoys losing herself in researching ancient history and mythology,
    weaponry, and hiking. She lives in Northern Ontario, with her husband and two daughters.
    Layna is a member of the Romance Writers of America, and is a
    monthly contributor at 69 Shades of Smut.

    Author Social Media

  • Contemporary

    Writing the Loner @MooreKate0 #RLFblog #contemporary

    The Loner 
    Hello to all at Romance Lives Forever.
    There’s some material a writer just can’t resist—hidden secrets,
    past crimes, reunion stories, and high school settings.
    Most of us graduated from high school with a fist pump in the
    air, glad to be on our way to bigger and better places. But chances are, that like
    me, you’ve been back to high school countless times as a reader or a moviegoer.
    You’ve spent time in Salinger’s Pencey Prep, Knowles’ The Devon School, Joanne Harris’s
    St. Oswald’s, and Rowling’s Hogwarts with its ever-changing faculty of dark arts
    teachers, and in a long list of film high schools when you’ve watched Fast Times
    at Ridgemont High, Ferris Buehler’s Day Off, Dead Poets Society, The Outsiders,
    Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, Clueless, 21 Jump Street, or Twilight.
    Why the fictional fascination with high school—that time of “the
    acutest miseries” of unrequited love and social awkwardness, insiders and outsiders,
    and those of us looking on from the sidelines? Basically, I think we are drawn to
    these stories because the high school setting lets us experience a familiar sort
    of suffering without pessimism. Or maybe we’d like a do-over, a chance to correct
    the old mistakes from our more enlightened grown up perspective. High school’s emotional
    intensity comes with a vivid sound track of popular tunes, and a visual track of
    the fashions and flavor of a specific time. But whether it’s a 60’s or 70’s, or
    an 80’s or 90’s experience, it’s a time of suffering and joy intermingled from which
    most of us emerge triumphant. There’s a happy ending!
    That emotional landscape struck me as the perfect setting from
    which to launch my separated lovers on a path to reunion. Where high school is concerned,
    most of us have what Austen calls, “retentive feelings,” feelings that
    are easily revived by an old yearbook picture or a few bars of a song. So it is
    for Will Sloan new billionaire and Annie James his lost love. When Annie and Will
    put on their nametags at a Canyon School reunion event, the feelings come rushing
    back for a second chance at first love. I hope you’ll root for them to get it right
    the second time around.

    About the Book

    The Loner is the first book in Kate Moore’s (multiple RITA nominee)
    newest series, The Canyon Club. Gatsby meets Persuasion in a story of sex and money
    in L.A. as a self-sufficient loner, new billionaire Will Sloan, dares to cross the
    divide of privilege to claim his lost love.
    Pride
    Loner Will Sloan, son of a waitress and a dead rodeo cowboy,
    former scholarship student, new billionaire, is back in L.A., land of palm-lined
    drives and fiery sunsets. His friends urge him to jump into the hot city dating
    scene, but a chance encounter at a school reunion revives a powerful past love.
    He’s never forgotten Annie James…and this time around, he swears he’ll do the walking
    out.
    And Persuasion
    Widowed young, Annie James believes she’s recovered from the
    early heartbreaks that left her single and jobless at 24. Ten years later, she’s
    got a job, a house, and a personal passion helping at-risk kids. Then she steps
    up to do a favor for a friend and help a poor boy win a scholarship to the Canyon
    School. Doing so unlocks the door to the past, and to the one man who could break
    her heart again. This time, though, love will conquer all.

    Buy This Book

    About the Author

    Kate has lived most of her life along the California coast. That
    experience has made her a jeans-wearing, toes in wet-sand, married to a surfer,
    fog-loving weather wimp, with a hint of East Coast polish from spending her college
    years in Boston. Family history connects her to Irish and English immigrants, Cornish
    miners, gold prospectors, and adventurers who sailed around Cape Horn bound for
    San Francisco.
    When she’s not reading, writing or brainstorming, Kate walks
    in the redwoods, feed birds, collect books, apples and leaves; she watches tele-novellas
    on Spanish-language TV and immerses herself in all things English. Her favorite
    food groups are butter, brown sugar, dark chocolate, and red wine. Kate’s early
    literary influences were The Little Engine That Could, The Little Red Hen, and Winnie
    the Pooh. Austen, Heyer, Chaucer, and Homer came later and inspired her to put that
    first plot on paper.
    Kate’s heroes are honorable, virile outsiders with some grand
    ambition; her heroines are practical princesses, who drive those edgy loners into
    love with good sense and good sex.
    Her family and friends offer endless support and humor. Kate
    says her children are her best works, and her husband is her favorite hero.

    Author Social Media

  • Contemporary

    Character Interview: Jacob, Cowboy of Mine @LB_Red_Author #RLFblog #timetravel

    Interview with Jacob Cameron

    Tell us about yourself,
    please.
    Hello. I’m Jacob Cameron. Jake. I’ve heard from my older brother,
    Duncan, he was interviewed here too, so I should have prepared better. Ach, but
    ’tis difficult to talk ’bout myself.
    Um, let’s see. I was raised in Durness, Scotland, the Highlands
    for those who don’t ken. I was raised in the 17th century, but was rescued by a
    mischievous man who thinks he’s the Norse god, Odin, who shot me through many other
    eras since I met him. Then I wound up in Montana in 1887, in a brutally cold winter.
    However, I met my Meredith who’s kept me warm since.
    What special skills do
    you rely on?
    Well, I’m fast. I hope that doesna sound as if I’m a braggart,
    but I am fast. When the man calling himself Odin first landed me in the West, I
    learned how to draw a pistol and how to shoot the new fangled rifles, which have
    a hell of a lot better aim since the muskets of 1653. Anyway, I rely on my speed
    often.
    Tell us about your significant other, that person who makes living
    worthwhile.
    Oh, that’s my Meredith. Actually, I’ve come to learn she’s a
    doctorate. Mighty smart wee thing, she is, my Meredith. Well, what can I say about
    my sweetheart? She’s bonny, ye ken? And she’s just a wee thing, so when I saw her
    the first time, I thought she was part fae. I ken, I was bein’ fanciful, but she
    does so look like a fae with her little nose and huge violet eyes. Aye, that’s right.
    She has violet eyes that stole my heart from the very moment I caught sight of her.
    And, Lord, I havena even told ye about how brilliant she is, have I? She is. And
    she’s generous. And brave. And, och, the list could go on and on.
    What would that person
    say about you?
    Hmm, that’s a good question. What would Meredith say ’bout me?
    Well, she tells me I gave her a home and a future to look forward to, and that makes
    me right proud I’ve provided that for her. Makes me want keep providin’ that for
    her too.
    What is your family like?
    (Jake laughs) My family, ‘cept my mother o’ course, was all lads.
    My poor ma, right? So I had four brothers, but one of my brothers passed away in
    a war now more than three hundred years ago. Still, I miss him, Douglas. My other
    brothers and I are close, we’re the best of mates as well as being brothers, ye
    ken? We’re all very different, but when we’re together, we all fit. And now my brothers
    and I have been singled out by time-traveling deities. ‘Tis difficult to stay a
    step ahead of the muses and gods flinging us through time, so we’ve discovered ’tis
    best to just relax and enjoy the adventure while it lasts.
    Why are you happy (or
    not happy) with the way your story ended?
    Are ye jestin’? I’m very happy. I ended up with the prettiest,
    wee lass I’ve ever seen. I have no idea how I got this lucky. But I am the luckiest
    man alive, I’d venture to say.

    About the Writer

    As a military historian by day, sometimes Red
    does feel a bit clandestine when she writes romance at night. No one knows that
    while she researches heroes of the past and present, she uses everything for her
    characters in her books. Her secret’s been safe . . . until now.
    She lives in Montana with her family and far
    too many animals but never enough books.
    She loves her readers,
    so please feel free to contact her at http://www.redljameson.com
    Why did you choose this
    character for the interview today?
    As I began to write Jake, I just fell in love with the guy. He
    tries so hard to do the right thing, in a world where right and wrong are blurred.
    And he’s a guy very similar to a couple fellas in my life, the kind of guy—very
    rare—who wears his heart on his sleeve. I really felt for him, because he’s had
    a few broken hearts, so I had to give him a happily ever after of his own.
    When writing the book,
    what did you discover about this character that surprised you?
    Oh, Jake surprised me in every scene. He was so much more virtuous
    than I had planned. Although, he’s in the Western era, in Montana in 1887, he’s
    really a knight in shining armor. Okay, he’s a knight in shining armor who happens
    to have a fast draw and looks good in a black Stetson.
    Are any sequels planned
    for this book?
    Oh, yes! Jake has his brothers and there are other Highlanders
    who need a good dose of time traveling and sassy, spunky heroines. So several more
    books are planned!
    What genre(s) would you
    like to write that you haven’t tried yet?
    Well, with time-travel romance I fulfill my love of both historical
    and paranormal elements into one book. However, I would like to write historical
    romance books and paranormal romance novels as well. I have too many story ideas.
    So many ideas, too little time. However, I am thinking of no longer cleaning my
    house to make more time. So please don’t visit me unexpectedly. Hee-hee!
    What would your readers
    be surprised to learn about you?
    Even though I have in my biography that I am a military historian,
    I think most people find it surprising. I am a woman, and military history is a
    very masculine career. And I can attest to that. I very rarely worked around other
    women. I think that’s one reason why writing romance was so critical for me. I really
    needed more women in my life, and romance writers are mainly women. Yay!

    About the Book

    Title Cowboy of Mine
    Genre Time-Travel Romance
    Author Red L. Jameson
    Book heat level (based on movie ratings): PG13 verging into R
    Book Three of the Glimpse Time Travel Series
    The matchmaking, time-traveling muses have a huge problem. An
    angry Norse god has just captured one of their mortals, refusing to tell them where
    he took Jacob Cameron, let alone when.
    As a seventeenth-century Highlander, being shuttled through time
    by a man calling himself Odin, might have been enough to crack Jake Cameron’s sanity.
    He’s kept his mind only through grit, gumption, and the single goal to somehow return
    to 1653 and his brothers. Landing in the freezing wilds of Montana in 1887, becoming
    the sheriff for a small mining community, Jake now needs to make a plan to travel
    back in time. However, when a wee fae-like woman walks into his life all his best-laid
    intentions becomes hazy.
    As a thief and liar, Meredith Peabody knows she has no chance
    with the new sheriff in town. Although, he melts her frozen heart with his protection
    and smoldering looks. Even if she did have a chance with him, how could she ever
    relate she’s not from this time? She might never get the chance because as soon
    as she realizes her winter’s wish—for Jake to stay close—the criminal he’s hunting
    turns the tables on him. But there’s no way in h-e-double hockey sticks Meredith
    will let that happen.
    The muses have their work cut out for this glimpse—chasing after
    a god, trying to find clues where and when their humans could be, and fitting in
    time for dress shopping has been murder. Gods, hopefully not literally!

    Buy This Book

    Amazon http://amzn.to/1xtvBKI
    Barnes and Noble http://bit.ly/1HWXRYX

    Author Social Media

    Blog http://immortalhistory.com
    Amazon Author Page http://goo.gl/Gvd2vq

  • Contemporary

    A Different Kind of Cosplay Lucy Felthouse @cw1985 #RLFblog #erotic

    A Different Kind of Cosplay 
    Zachary has a dilemma. His girlfriend, Reese, has a special birthday
    coming up soon and he has absolutely no clue what to get for her. It doesn’t help
    that Zach does not share or really understand Reese’s biggest hobby—comic books,
    superheroes and everything that goes with them. Zach raids Reese’s DVD collection
    for inspiration, and what he finds there gives him an idea…possibly the best one
    he’s ever had.
    Sure, Reese has fantasized about her favorite superheroes. All
    those muscles and rakish smiles are to die for. She didn’t think Zach would ever
    really understand, though. But he proves her wrong in the best way possible.

    Buy This Book

    Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00RLQZ1NM/
    Amazon AU http://www.amazon.com.au/Different-Kind-Cosplay-Lucy-Felthouse-ebook/dp/B00RLQZ1NM/
    ARe https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-adifferentkindofcosplay-1717072-340.html
    Barnes and Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-different-kind-of-cosplay-lucy-felthouse/1120980387?ean=9781419992698

    Kobo http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/a-different-kind-of-cosplay

    About the Author

    Lucy Felthouse is a very busy woman! She writes erotica and erotic
    romance in a variety of subgenres and pairings, and has over 100 publications to
    her name, with many more in the pipeline. These include several editions of Best
    Bondage Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica 2013 and Best Erotic Romance 2014. Another
    string to her bow is editing, and she has edited and co-edited a number of anthologies,
    and also edits for a small publishing house. She owns Erotica For All, is book editor for Cliterati, and is one eighth of The Brit Babes. Find out more at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk Subscribe
    to her newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9

    Author Social Media

    Amazon Author Page http://www.amazon.com/gp/entity/Lucy-Felthouse/B003ZA5I5E?ie=UTF8&ref_=ntt_dp_epwbk_0%23&tag=lucyfelt-20&ie=UTF8&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957

  • Contemporary

    Cover Love: Wooing the Librarian @jelquinnauthor #RLFblog #historical

    Wooing the Librarian 
    Author: Jane Leopold Quinn
    Book: Wooing the Librarian
    Book heat level (based on movie ratings): R
    Wooing the Librarian (previously published as Hot Under the Collar)
    After a spectacularly failed romance left her devastated, all
    Isis Garrett wants is to start her library in this California town. The last thing
    she wants is another man, not even the handsome preacher who offers his church for
    her books.
    Pres MacKay is starting a new life as a preacher. He can’t hide
    his attraction to the sweetly rounde
    d new librarian even as she pushes him away.
    Can he discover the way into her closed heart and prove to her he’s one of the good
    guys?
    Pres isn’t about to give up on Isis, though. The question is
    can she forget the pain of the past and see a future with him?

    Buy This Book

    Amazon http://amzn.com/B00ONZSRPS

    About the Author

    Sensual fantasies were locked in my mind for years until a friend
    said, “Why don’t you write them down?” Why not, indeed? One spiral notebook,
    a pen and the unleashing of my imagination later, and here I am with more than a
    dozen books published. The craft of writing erotic romance has become my passion
    and my niche in life. I love every part of the creative process — developing characters,
    designing the plot, even drawing the layout of physical spaces from my stories.
    My careers have been varied — third grade school teacher, bookkeeper, secretary
    — none of which gave me a bit of inspiration. But now I’m lucky enough to write
    romance full time — the best job in the universe! And I’m fortunate enough to have
    found my own happily ever after husband.

    Author Social Media

    Website: http://janeleopoldquinn.blogspot.com

  • Contemporary

    Writing While Traveling by Sharon Hamilton @sharonlhamilton #RLFblog #amwriting

    Breakfast at sea 

     Early on in my writing career I needed
    complete quiet or certain music in a familiar place to write. But that left behind
    my love of travel. And my love of cruising, in particular.

    The past two years I’ve been able
    to merge these two loves into one. I now take writing “vacations” often,
    going to places I’m going to write about, but many times just to meet colorful characters
    I can use in my books. And to have a bit of fun. Here’s a little excerpt from a
    blog I did in December. Here’s what I mean about fun:
    http://www.authorsharonhamilton.com/2014/12/sundays-with-sharon-cheeseburger-in-paradise/
    Traveling has also been good for business.
    Between last December, when we took our Italy to Rio cruise, and now, I went from
    having 1100 Facebook Author followers to over 11,000, as people followed my travels.
    (You can do the same by scrolling down from the above link). Christmas and Thanksgiving
    will never be the same for me again, since I got to see how local people celebrate
    it in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Canary Islands, Morocco, the Virgin Islands,
    Rio and Sao Paolo. I remember one Christmas Eve when we were serenaded by a group
    of school children in the VI. Such a magical night seeing their bright little faces
    on the night when Santa would descend upon them and their households. Afterwards
    we walked on the beach in the warm balmy night.
    A Port of Call
    When I visited Morocco, the black
    cobras that snake charmers display in the public square in Marrakesh intrigued me.
    These snakes wound up in my book, Cruisin’ For A SEAL, where a group of terrorists
    take over a cruise ship. They were unsuccessful because 9 Navy SEALs and their wives
    were also vacationing on the same boat. I found a suitable lifeboat where a love
    scene could be played out, wrote it while sitting on the bench, as the sea rocked
    and rolled beside and underneath me.
    The multiple languages wash like water
    over me. On these trips, I am very rarely around English-speaking people, which
    is like background noise. This happy chatter excites me, as I pretend I know what
    they’re talking about, or make up a story, undistracted from the reality of what
    they’re really saying.
    Colors and locations are important.
    I finished my Guardian Angel book, Underworld Queen, in the angel room, a room set
    up for playing cards on the cruise ship.
    My husband got in a little trouble
    noodling around on the balcony when our cabin boy surprised us. By that time, the
    bottle of champagne had gotten to be properly, and I didn’t care he saw us necked.
    And then we fantasized about the animal shapes he was making ever after that on
    our bed with the towels.
    Romance is everywhere. In Italy, the
    town of Savona became the backdrop for the beginning of my Cruisin’ story, where
    a SEAL meets a lovely young Italian lady in a piazza, sipping cappuccino with her
    mother. She turns out to be the dance instructor on the cruise. I also walked down
    the cobblestoned village streets in Genoa, finding the little chapel where my vampire
    book started, when my heroine says a prayer as her heart is breaking. Of course,
    her fated mate, a 300-year-old vampire named Marcus Monteleone, overhears this prayer
    and is mesmerized. I would have not had that scene if I hadn’t physically been there,
    in that chapel, with the chimes and the flutter of pigeons and unfamiliar sirens
    going off in the background.
    The view at sea
    In Antigua I found the cottage I will
    rent some day this year, sit on the beach and write. I have a story brewing now.
    Internet was wonderful. The rum punch fantastic, and the gentle water lapping up
    on shore almost made me cry. I thought about the people who had sat on that very
    beach over the centuries, especially Admiral Nelson, as he commanded the Caribbean
    fleet there in English Bay. I felt the presence of some of those people who were
    buried there. One soldier, buried with an infant on his chest, no doubt from a love
    affair with an island girl.
    So traveling has turned my world upside
    down and inside out. Now I look forward to go exploring. Letting my mind wander
    wherever my muse will take me. After all, we write from our experience. Whether
    it’s real or imagined, traveling just broadens my palette, and makes my soul sing.
    And that’s when the magic comes.

    About the Author

    Sharon Hamilton
    NYT and USA/Today and Amazon Top 100 Bestselling Author Sharon
    Hamilton’s SEAL Brotherhood series have earned her Amazon author rankings of #1
    in Romantic Suspense, Military Romance and Contemporary Romance. Her characters
    follow a sometimes rocky road to redemption through passion and true love. Her Golden
    Vampires of Tuscany earned her a #1 Amazon author ranking in Gothic Romance.
    A lifelong organic vegetable and flower gardener, Sharon and
    her husband live in the Wine Country of Northern California, where most of her stories
    take place.

    Author Social Media

    Newsletter http://eepurl.com/saokH