The last person she wants might be the second chance she needs.
Better Luck Next Time, an all-new funny and heartfelt standalone romantic comedy from New York Times bestselling author Denise Grover Swank and A.R. Casella is available now!
Adalia Buchanan broke up with art, but it won’t break up with her. So she paints in secret, then destroys her work. Her mentor stole her art months ago, and she’ll never share her work again.
After he sold his brewery, Finn Hamilton’s life was supposed to be on an upward trajectory. Instead, he’s lost his way. When he stumbles upon Adalia destroying her painting, two thoughts come to mind: one, she looks like a Valkyrie with blonde hair swinging and paint flying from her blade, and two, she’s talented. Very talented.
Suddenly, she's no longer the sassy sister of his best friend’s girlfriend—she’s an intriguing, beautiful woman he’s dying to get to know better.
Too bad Adalia, who's infatuated with Pride and Prejudice, thinks he’s arrogant and conceited, a modern-day Mr. Darcy.
Then again, Elizabeth Bennett changed her mind about Darcy, so there may be hope for them yet...if they can survive an evil cat, a goat-obsessed artist, and their meddling families.
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REVIEW: BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME (ASHEVILLE BREWERY #2) BY DENISE GROVER SWANK, A.R. CASELLA
Better Luck Next Time by A.R. Casella
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Swank and Casella steam up bookshelves everywhere with their tempting sense of humor and unpredictable band of characters. It's hard to look away from their light-hearted brand of fun. Finn and Adalia are joy personified and the fact that their path to romance is littered with one of my all time favorite stories is an added bonus. If your heart is looking to fall in love, look no further than Better Luck Next Time. From start to finish it's quite the trip.
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Excerpt
“Working outside of the office?” Finn asked once he’d lowered himself into the other chair.
“Sort of.” Adalia didn’t feel like telling him what she was really up to. Not after what he’d said to her. She was worried she’d see disappointment in his eyes, although for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why his opinion mattered. “But mostly playing the ‘Who are you?’ game.” She was slightly embarrassed to admit it, but it felt safer than talking about the résumé. Or her art.
He leaned back, his upper shoulder pressed against the railing around the small seating area, his arms crossed over his chest—did he always wear button-downs or polos?—and an amused look lit up his eyes. “Okay, you’ve got me. What’s the ‘Who are you?’ game?”
“It’s simple,” she said, leaning forward, sure this would scare him off. He might talk like a poet, but he was still a rich boy businessman. His name was Finn Hamilton, for God’s sake. “You find someone walking by and come up with a story about who they are and where they’re going.”
He cocked an eyebrow.
“I’ll start.” She scanned the street and found the mother pushing the stroller as she emerged from a store. “That’s Willow. She’s a former executive of some BS company from Charlotte—they probably made toilet paper or something. Then her husband got a hair up his butt to move to Asheville. She was reluctant at first, but see that yoga mat sticking out of the bottom of the stroller?”
Finn turned slightly, nodding when he caught sight of the woman.
“She joined a Mommy and Me yoga play group and she’s considering becoming a yogi.”
His slight smile turned into a full-blown amused grin. “And her baby’s name?”
“Fig Tree, Tree being the middle name, of course.”
“Of course,” he said, still smiling. “But you never said where they were going.”
“Home. The baby’s about to go down for a nap and she’s eager to try the tantric sex method she learned from the instructor while they sipped organic oolong tea after class.”
Adalia had said it to shock him. She was pretty good at catching people off guard, and she’d come to recognize it for what it was—a defense mechanism to keep others at a distance. And she definitely needed to keep Finn at a distance. Only he didn’t look as taken aback as she’d expected. Instead, he pursed his lips as though giving it some thought. “Interesting how you jumped right to sex.”
A slow smile spread across her face. He’d surprised her, and she delighted in surprises. Good surprises. “You disagree?”
He let his arms drop to his sides and sat up slightly. “No, quite the opposite.” He turned slightly to glance at the woman before turning back to Adalia. “I’m sure her husband is already waiting at home, ready to strip her naked the moment she walks through the door.”
The way he said it made Adalia shiver with anticipation, but she mentally shook herself. This was Finn. The man who’d betrayed River by selling Big Catch to one of those mega conglomerates with so many product lines the people who ran it probably only knew about half of them. Finn Hamilton was much too good-looking, rich, and cocky for his own good. He was used to getting anything and anyone he wanted, and she wouldn’t be one of his conquests. Not her and not her art either.
About Denise Grover Swank
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Denise Grover Swank was born in Kansas City, Missouri and lived in the area until she was nineteen. Then she became a nomadic gypsy, living in five cities, four states and ten ho uses over the course of ten years before she moved back to her roots. She speaks English and smattering of Spanish and Chinese which she learned through an intensive Nick Jr. immersion period. Her hobbies include witty Facebook comments (in own her mind) and dancing in her kitchen with her children. (Quite badly if you believe her offspring.) Hidden talents include the gift of justification and the ability to drink massive amounts of caffeine and still fall asleep within two minutes. Her lack of the sense of smell allows her to perform many unspeakable tasks. She has six children and hasn’t lost her sanity. Or so she leads you to believe.
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About A.R. Casella
A.R. CASELLA is a freelance developmental editor by day, writer by night. She lives in Asheville, NC with her husband, daughter, two dogs, and a variable number of fish. Her pastimes include chasing around her toddler, baking delicious treats, and occasional bouts of crocheting. Any Luck at All, co-written with New York Times bestselling author Denise Grover Swank, is her first book.
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From New York Times bestselling author Mari Carr comes a feel-good novella that will get you in the holiday spirit. Waiting for Snow is available now!
She might be too big to sit on Santa’s lap, but Adele still has a couple of Christmas wishes. First, a night in Porter’s bed. The alpha cowboy is the king of one-night stands, so it shouldn’t be too much to ask. Follow it up with a White Christmas in Texas? She’ll have gotten everything she wants.
Porter doesn’t believe in asking for what he wants, but he’s got a couple of problems. He believes in riding it down and roping it up. If he gets Adele in his bed, he’s not planning to let her go. But there’s his reputation to overcome, and her stubbornness to boot. It might just take a holiday miracle to convince her to stay all year.
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REVIEW: WAITING FOR SNOW (SPARKS IN TEXAS) BY MARI CARR
Waiting for Snow by Mari Carr
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Tame seems to have a reckless streak. Carr pulls you in by the senses only to walk away with your heart. Waiting for Snow is a beautiful kind of naughty that will be sure to leave you breathless.
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Excerpt
“If I want to hold my girlfriend’s hand, I will.”
She laughed and rolled her eyes. “As far as unbelievable lies go, that one might just take the cake. You know it won’t take Nick long to figure out everything you just said is a pile of shit.”
“What did he mean when he said he could give you what you want in bed?”
Adele wasn’t the type of woman to embarrass easily, so she could probably count on one hand the number of times she’d blushed. Porter’s question sent a flood of heat to her cheeks, and she didn’t need a mirror to know her face was probably blood red. “None of your business.”
Porter gave her a shit-eating grin. “Now that I’m your boyfriend, I think it would be helpful to know exactly what it is I’m supposed to be researching.”
He was having way too much fun at her expense. She tugged her hand away, putting enough force behind the pull that Porter had no choice but to release his grip.
“Very funny. You don’t need to research a thing.”
She meant he didn’t need to research because they weren’t dating, but it was clear that wasn’t how Porter had interpreted her comment, when he wiggled his brows suggestively. “Good to know I’ve already got the appropriate skill set.”
“You know what I mean,” she attempted to clarify.
Not that it helped.
Porter’s tone was deeper and too knowing when he said, “Yeah. I think I do.”
She decided to take a big step away, unable to talk to Porter about anything even remotely sexual, lest she be tempted to climb over the counter, crawl onto his lap, and beg him for one of his infamous one-night stands. Common sense be damned.
“I don’t want you to think I don’t appreciate your help. Honestly. I’m done in tonight, and the idea of rehashing all the reasons why Nick and I weren’t working out was too exhausting to consider. I’m glad for the reprieve, though I suspect it will be brief when he realizes I’m still very single.”
Porter’s grin faded, replaced by a scowl she couldn’t understand. “You’re not single.”
Adele frowned. “I’m pretty sure I am.”
“Nope. I meant what I said, Addie. You’re my girlfriend.”
She laughed, enjoying the joke. Porter loved to tease her, and he was really milking this one for all it was worth. “Oh yeah?” she said, playing along. “Since when?”
He didn’t even crack a smile, his tone way too serious to be teasing. “Since that first dance last spring.”
Adele gasped, shocked, waiting for him to get to the punch line.
He simply held her gaze, daring her to contradict him again.
“Porter,” she said.
“Take a second, darlin’, and let it sink in.”
Adele was pretty sure she looked like a deer in the highlights, but his low baritone voice and the conviction behind his words had her doing exactly what he told her to despite her better judgment.
She was letting it sink in.
About Mari
Virginia native Mari Carr is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller of contemporary romance novels. With over one million copies of her books sold, Mari was the winner of the Romance Writers of America’s Passionate Plume award for her novella, Erotic Research. She has over a hundred published works, including her popular Wild Irish and Compass books, along with the Trinity Masters series she writes with Lila Dubois.
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Website: https://maricarr.com/
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