by Jayne Nichols
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: Contemprorary Romance
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BLURB:
Is
it possible for a poor hash-house waitress to find love with a wealthy Irish
horse breeder? Not as long as he thinks she conned his father into leaving
her his cottage on the island of Inish Mor in the Aran Islands. To prove
his assumption false, Samantha St. John sells her new inheritance to Kieran
McDade for one Euro, receives his thank-you kiss on her cheek, and bids him
farewell.
Never expecting to see him again, she is surprised to receive his invitation and a plane ticket to Ireland. He’s had second thoughts and offers Samantha a holiday at his home on FastTrack Farm where she charms not only his race horse, but Kieran himself. For Samantha, it is like a fairy tale, complete with a wicked witch, an elegant ball, and a horse race that could decide whether her Cinderella story will have a happy ending.
Never expecting to see him again, she is surprised to receive his invitation and a plane ticket to Ireland. He’s had second thoughts and offers Samantha a holiday at his home on FastTrack Farm where she charms not only his race horse, but Kieran himself. For Samantha, it is like a fairy tale, complete with a wicked witch, an elegant ball, and a horse race that could decide whether her Cinderella story will have a happy ending.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT
She
wandered into the barn, taking care not to make any noise. The barn was eerily
quiet. Maybe Lifetime was asleep. Niall had said something about the horse not
eating and sleeping too much. She tiptoed toward his stall and glanced over the
gate. Lifetime was lying flat out in the straw.
“You’re
never going to win the Derby if you don’t practice.” She rested her hands on
the gate. “I used to run cross country. I know.”
The
horse lifted his head, whinnied low in his throat. He stood, shook the straw
from his body head to tail, and pawed at the floor.
“Don’t
give me that nonsense,” Samantha admonished. “Come here.” The horse eyed her
from across the stall. “You heard me. Come here.” She reached into the grain
bucket sitting outside the stall and offered him a handful. “Got something for
you.”
Lifetime
took several steps toward her, stretched his head to sniff at her hand. He
moved closer to nudge at her jacket pocket. She stepped back, held her cupped
hand beneath his lips. “Dinner, first. Then dessert.” He sniffed at the grain,
scooped it up with his tongue, and licked her hand clean. “Good boy.” She gave
him a butter mint and patted his neck.
“Don’t
be feeding him too many sweets. Fat horses don’t win races.”
Samantha’s
heart jumped into her throat. Eyes wide, Lifetime backed away immediately from
the gate. He retreated to the far end of the stall, shaking his head.
“I’m
sorry, Niall. I wanted to see if he’d eat some grain.”
“And
did he?”
“Yes,
a small handful.” She cupped her hand to show him how much. “Did I do something
wrong?”
Niall
turned his dumbfounded stare from her to the horse and back to her. “No, lass,
you’ve done nothing wrong.” He shook his head, his smile turning slowly into a
perceptive grin. “Well now, Miss Samantha, I think you have the gift.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Growing up, I wrote a few things for school—reports and a
few creative writing projects for English class—but never really thought about
writing novels until after I married my David.
Even then, what little writing I did leaned toward Mystery. I didn’t discover Romance until my husband
and I traveled to Greece. It was hot—I
mean really hot—and we ducked inside the Athens Hilton to bask in their
air conditioned gift shop. I was looking
at a rack of paperback books and picked up one entitled Born in Fire by
someone named Sarah Hardesty. I stayed
in our air-conditioned hotel room for two days reading that novel nearly
non-stop and decided then and there what I wanted to do for the rest of my
life. I wanted to write Romance. It wasn’t until I was back home and hunting
through a Barnes and Noble for more books by Sarah Hardesty that I learned the
author was actually Nora Roberts.
Truthfully, I had never heard of her.
I know who she is now. And who
knows, maybe someday, she will have heard of me.
As
Jayne Nichols, I write contemporary romance (Wish Fulfilled Series) and
romantic suspense (Madrona Point Series), and I love every minute of it.
Social
Media Links
(Note from ELF: check out her website, such a fun name!)
Website (Note from ELF: check out her website, such a fun name!)
Twitter
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The tour dates can be found here
