I’m happy to have my author friend Donna Simonetta as my guest today. I asked her to share what has been happening in her life the last few weeks. I also wanted her to promote her new book. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to read her update and learn more about her latest book.
Buy Links:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2VMxHKx
Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2YwYrMO
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/2Ee3071
Apple iBooks: https://apple.co/2Ecj8pm
Author Links:
https://www.facebook.com/donnasimonettaauthor
https://twitter.com/donna_simonetta
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15422407.Donna_Simonetta
https://www.amazon.com/Donna-Simonetta/e/B06X415TWW/
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/donna-simonetta
https://www.instagram.com/donnasimonetta4/
“I didn’t realize you two had moved into the ‘in sickness’ part of your vows.” A childhood friend wrote to me recently. And it was true. As I read her words, I was sitting in a hospital room with my husband. A routine physical revealed an anomaly in his EKG, some further testing, and…BOOM!…the Friday of Memorial Day weekend we were told he needed open heart surgery, and BTW, we’re admitting you and keeping you in the hospital until it can be done on Tuesday. A week earlier, we were doing what all good Baltimoreans were doing, sipping Black-Eyed Susan cocktails and watching the Preakness Stakes. To say it was a shock, would be a dramatic understatement. Fortunately, his surgery was a success, and he is now home with me for the long recuperation.
But it made me think, as a romance writer, I end my stories on a high note. After all, one of the reasons I write and read romance is for the happy-ever-after endings. Life is a winding road, however, and love stories inevitably end up this way––one partner supporting the other, while facing a health crisis. And you know what? There’s a romance to that moment too. The depth of my love for my husband hit me like a sledgehammer, the moment they called from the OR to update me that he had been taken off the machines, and his heart was beating on its own. I cried. With relief. With love. We might not be as young as we once were, but he’s still my own personal romance hero, and I hope my characters someday share the kind of love Leo and I do.”
Author Bio:
My career has been a winding road. I worked in the business world for years, got my MLS and worked in a school library, and am now living my dream as an author. I love to read and write contemporary and fantasy romance. I live in Maryland, with my husband, who is my real-life romance hero. We both enjoy traveling to visit our far-flung family and friends, and spending time on the beach with an umbrella drink and a good book.
Blurb:
Stephanie Williams left skid marks on the road out of Willow Springs, Vermont after she finished high school. She didn’t return until her company sent her to evaluate the town for a massive development project. Back then she thought the town was way too small and too cold. Now the cold isn’t as much of an issue since she’s reconnected with her childhood friend, Donald Flanagan. Stephanie doesn’t remember his eyes being quite so green, or his body quite so built. He’s smart and funny as he ever was, and a forest-fire sized attraction burns between them.
Donald never understood his old friend’s driving need to leave Willow Springs. He loves everything about it. When he learns the truth about Stephanie’s project, and how it will turn his hometown into a theme-park version of itself, will it extinguish the flame that has sparked between them?
Excerpt:
It was much darker on this side of the building, without the bright, neon lights around the entrance, and even though they could hear the muffled music through the wall, it felt as though they were all alone in the world. Donald stopped and turned to face her, which placed her between him and the building. He cupped her face in his hands, and Stephanie marveled that she’d never noticed how big his hands were before. He leaned down a little and studied her face. His eyes seemed to be searching for a clue as to what she wanted. There were complications aplenty––putting their lifelong friendship at risk, and her work here in town, which Donald still didn’t know the extent of, being two major hurdles, but Stephanie knew what she wanted right now. She knew it from the bottom of her toes to the top of her head, with a certainty she’d never experienced before. Her blood pounded in her veins, and she felt a little breathless with excitement about the step they were about to take.
“Hurry up and kiss me, Flanagan, before I spontaneously combust.”
One side of the mouth she longed to be kissing quirked up in a sexy half-grin. “There’s no turning back if we take this step, Williams. Are you sure?”