I'm super excited to be a part of this blog tour!
Congratulations to Marina Adair on her latest book release!
Today we have a guest post, excerpt and the tour-wide giveaway.
Enjoy!
Marina Adair's
Top 5 favorite "Southern" things
#5. The food. Everything is smoked, BBQ, fried, or coated in gravy—including most vegetables, except mac-and-cheese. Yup, only in the South is that cheese goodness considered a vegetable on most restaurant menus.
#4. Grannies. Having grown up with two I can attest that Southern grannies rule. My Grandma Stowell made the best buttermilk biscuits on the planet, knew how to hug you until the world felt safe, understood the importance of masterful storytelling, and always put the fear of God in you with phrases like, “Honey, you’re going to split hell wide open and fall in with that kind of lie.”
#3. Can we talk biscuits? I know food already made an appearance on list, and we have mentioned biscuits, but when made right, these beautiful, fluffy little slices of heaven can be life altering. Add a little honey or homemade bumble berry jam and it is a religious experience.
#2. Country Music. All I need to say is, Eric Church’s Love you Like Wrecking Ball. Listen to that song and try not to swoon, I dare you.
#1. Southern Gents. Oh, ladies, there is nothing sexier than a sweet talking, down-home southern man in shit kickers and worn jeans who flattens his vowels when he speaks, know how to treat a lady, and doesn’t hesitate to go after what he wants.
Thank you, Marina, for stopping by! Y'all need to listen to that Eric Church song, because it will make you swoon! ~Grace
Thank you, Marina, for stopping by! Y'all need to listen to that Eric Church song, because it will make you swoon! ~Grace
SUGAR'S TWICE AS SWEET by Marina Adair
(November 25, 2014; Forever Mass Market; $6.00)
He's trouble she doesn't need . . .
Thanks to a cheating fiancé, Josephina Harrington's perfect life just crashed and burned. Moving in with her overbearing parents is definitely not an option. No, she needs to prove she can make it on her own. And she will-by turning her great-aunt's old plantation house into a destination getaway. She's just not expecting her contractor to be so hands-on-and so totally irresistible.
. . . but everything she wants
. . . but everything she wants
Bad-boy golf champion Brett McGraw figured his hometown of Sugar, Georgia was the perfect place to lay low and get his life back up to par. The leggy blonde with a pint-sized pup is the kind of sweet 'n sassy trouble he never saw coming. She doesn't know a nut from a bolt and before long, he's renovating her house . . . as she steals his heart. Can he convince Josephina that his womanizing ways are in the past and he's ready for forever?
Buy Links:
B&N
Buy Links:
B&N
Excerpt
Three
days later, Josephina shoved the last scrap of wallpaper into the trash bag and
knew it was quitting time. Her arms were sore from scraping off glue, which was
littering the wood floor, she had a big bruise on her forehead from running
into Brett’s elbow—and sharing breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a man who made
her motor hum only added to her aches.
True
to his word, he had asked her out every day. And every day it became harder to
say no.
Today
had been the worst, she thought as she watched the play of Brett’s muscles
while he supported a plank of rotted wood over his head. He was all rippled and
gorgeous and flashing that orgasm-inducing smile. The one that curled up
slightly at the corners, saying he’d caught her drooling. Again.
“A
simple yes is all it would take,” he said in that southern-boy way that made
her heart warm. Along with some other, more pertinent, parts.
“I
have no idea what you’re talking about.” She stepped sideways, right into a
bowl of nails, knocking them over. Then, blaming Brett for taking up too much
damn space, she picked up the handsaw off the floor and reached into her back
pocket for a pair of gloves—coming up empty.
“I’ve
got an extra pair in my tool belt,” he said with humor in his voice as he
jerked his chin toward his goodie bag, um, tool belt. “Right there in the
center pocket. You see them?”
Oh,
she saw them all right. She also saw how incredibly amused he was.
“Don’t
move.” Eyeing him, she cautiously reached into the pocket, careful not to touch
any of his tools. She grabbed the
leather gloves and jerked her hand back.
Doing
her best to ignore his laughing, she crawled up to the fifth rung of the ladder
and sawed away the remaining few inches of beam. Between the sexy smiles and
“accidental” brushing of bodies, Brett kept her in a constant state of unbalance.
“So to clarify, you’re saying you don’t want to go
out with me,” he mused.
She sighed, sawing through the end of the beam and
wondering why she kept repeating herself. “Dating wouldn’t be a good idea.”
“Why is that?” he asked, lowering the beam to the
floor.
This time she was certain he was flexing his arms on
purpose.
“Because we’d go out, have a good time, come home, and
have sex. Only instead of just amazing no-strings sex it would be complicated
by all this other stuff, which would make things weird. Eventually I’d be short
one contractor, miss my opening date, and wonder what happened.”
Not wanting to look at him, she set the saw on the
top of the ladder, ready to move to the next spot.
“First off, I’m in this for the long haul, I gave
you my word on that.”
Josephina turned around to ask him if he was talking
about the inn, but then she forgot how to speak. Brett blocked her descent,
climbing up behind her to the second rung, which brought him eye level. He
gripped her hips and backed her up against the ladder. “And, sugar, sex between
us wouldn’t be amazing, it would be earth-shattering.”
That’s what I’m afraid
of.
He sculpted his hands down her sides to her thighs, paying
extra attention to her bottom on the trip back. She rested her hands on those
biceps she’d been watching all week so she wouldn’t fall over as the air
whooshed out of her lungs.
Hell, she’d suffered from severe oxygen deprivation since
the minute she found him this morning, standing on the front porch, latte in
one hand, a cheese Danish in the other, and the sun cresting behind him.
The man redefined “sexy contractor.” The faded
college T-shirt clung to his impressive chest. And the hotter it got, the
clingier the material became. Which was why four o’clock was Josephina’s new
favorite time of day. It was when Brett shucked his shirt. And the tool belt he
wore weighed down his jeans, giving her a prime view of chiseled abs and lean
hips, and highlighting his yummy parts.
And that wasn’t even the most tempting part. Nope.
The more she saw Brett as a normal hot guy, the more the never-going-to-date-him
rule seemed to blur, and the harder he became to resist.
“I suck at relationships,” she rushed out, more for
her than him. “I get so lost in the other person that Josephina goes MIA. I
can’t do that again. Not now when people are counting on me. When I’m counting on me.”
“It’s just a date, Joie. I’m not down on one knee.”
He sounded so sincere her heart pounded as if he were.
“Date implies the start of something, and you’re
leaving.” And if I let you, you might take my heart
with you when you go. “And I’m staying here, in Sugar.”
With a single nod, Brett let her slide past him on
the ladder.
He wasn’t giving up, not by a long shot, she could
see that in his eyes. But he was letting it go—for now.
About the Author:
Marina Adair is a lifelong fan of romance novels. Along with the Sugar series, she is also the author of the St. Helena Vineyard series. She currently lives in a hundred-year-old log cabin, nestled in the majestic redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains, with her husband and daughter.
As a writer, Marina is devoted to giving her readers contemporary romance where the towns are small, the personalities large, and the romance explosive. She also loves to interact with readers and you can catch her on Twitter at @MarinaEAdair or visit her at www.MarinaAdair.com.
As a writer, Marina is devoted to giving her readers contemporary romance where the towns are small, the personalities large, and the romance explosive. She also loves to interact with readers and you can catch her on Twitter at @MarinaEAdair or visit her at www.MarinaAdair.com.
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