BEA'S BOOK NOOK "I can't imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once." C. S. Lewis “If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.” ― Oscar Wilde

Thursday, October 23, 2014

EXCERPT & GIVEAWAY - Toying with His Affections by Laura K. Curtis


Today it's my pleasure to have author Laura K. Curtis here today, sharing an excerpt from her newest book, "Toying With His Affections". While she's best known for writing romantic suspense, she also writes straight up romance as evidenced by this story. I have followed Laura for a while now on Twitter, she's interesting and lots of fun. I have "TWHA" in my TBR pile and I've read and enjoyed her RS, "Twisted". I hope you'll enjoy this excerpt from "Toying With His Affections".

Laura K. Curtis does everything backwards. As a child, she was extremely serious, so now that she’s chronologically an adult, she feels perfectly justified in acting the fool. She started teaching at age fifteen, then decided to go back to school herself at thirty.

Laura has taught middle school social studies, high school literature, and college-level rhetoric, all with relative success. She’s also a full-on Mac geek who spent years as a consultant and running an academic computing lab. The only thing she completely failed at in the field of education was attempting to teach obedience to her pack of Irish Terriers. Currently, she lives in Westchester, NY, with her husband and two insane Irish Terriers who have taught her how easily love can coincide with the desire to kill.

Laura wrote her first book in first grade. You can see it right here:






It was released (in paperback, naturally) to rave reviews, and she’s been trying to achieve the same level of success ever since.



Find Laura Online:

website
blog
twitter
pinterest
goodreads


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EXCERPT

Evie set the papers aside and reached back into the box. This time, she held up a pair of pink, fuzzy handcuffs. “Want to take these on patrol with you, Sheriff?”

“Uh…not particularly.” He grinned, though, imagining the faces of some of his deputies if he showed up with those hooked to his duty belt. The next item wiped the smile off his face. Black and almost evil-looking, it was circle with small rubber spikes all around and one larger protrusion so that it looked a bit like the symbol for Mars. At the end of the prong, however, a perpendicular spike gave the impression that someone had twisted the arrowhead of the symbol to stand straight up.

“What is that?”

Again, Evie’s fair cheeks reddened. The contradiction between the woman who could passionately defend the use of creams and toys and the one who blushed attempting to explain the actual use of such products entranced him.

“Uh, that’s for men. I mean, it’s nice for women, too, if the guy wears it, but it’s more designed to increase his pleasure than hers.”

“Please tell me this doesn’t sell.”

She’d regained her composure. And her starch. “Everything sells. But no, that’s not a top ten item.”

“Thank God for small favors.”

She handed him a tube of something else. “This is, though.”

He practically choked as he read the name aloud. “Staze-Long?”

“Yep! Between that and the numerous offers I get in my email every day, I can only assume many men in this country have a premature ejaculation problem.”

“I don’t think I can take this.”

She dropped her head and glanced up at him through the screen of her thick lashes. “I didn’t say you could. I need it.”

He dropped the tube and rubbed his hand against his leg. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

“Yeah, but you’re so easy to tease. Who’d have believed that under the bad boy of Fairview High lay a closet prude? Your reputation has suffered here today, Barstow.”

“Is that a dare, Bell?”

She cocked her head. “It may be. I’ll think about it.”

His heart pumped harder and he felt more alive than he had since the day he’d moved home to Fairview. You’ve always been addicted to danger, Bub, and it’s never done you a lick of good. Stay the hell away. But he had a sinking feeling he wouldn’t be able to take his own advice.


**There's another excerpt on Laura's site if you want to do further reading before buying**

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Good girl gone bad...
Evie Bell couldn’t wait to get out of the small town that had labeled her a goodie two-shoes growing up so she could let out her more daring side. Selling sex toys might not have been the career she envisioned when she left Fairview, TN, for Las Vegas to become a showgirl, but she’s proud of her hard-earned success. Now, forced to return to the town she’d hoped never to see again to care for her ailing aunt, she will need every bit of that pride to get along with those who disapprove of her way of life.


Bad boy gone good...
Griffin Barstow was given a choice at eighteen: jail or the military. He chose the military. Now he’s come home to Fairview to run for sheriff. But small towns have long memories and the last thing he needs while trying to convince voters he’s turned his life around is an attraction to a completely inappropriate woman.


Evie would like to avoid Griffin entirely, but her aunt’s store is in trouble only the law can help her solve. And when sparks begin to fly, both will have to decide whether a future together is possible given the issues of the past.

Publisher: River Hills Press 
Format: ebook, paperback 
Release Date: July 14, 2014
Buying Links:  Amazon* | Book Depository* | ARe* | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords* | iTunes | Kobo * affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.


Laura is giving away one digital copy of "Toying With His Affections" to a lucky reader. Enter using the widget below. The giveaway ends October 30th at 11:59 PM ET. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Please read my Giveaway Policy.

a Rafflecopter giveaway



   
Best of luck and happy reading!
  


 Bea


8 comments:

  1. How wonderful that you still have your first book. Great excerpt.

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    1. Mary-
      Well, I was smart and dedicated it to my mom, so she kept it for me all those years when I would have tossed it out! LOL!

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  2. Wow, it sounds like a lot of things backwards! Teaching at age fifteen is quite impressive, seeing as I am fifteen myself now. I hope you have many more writing adventures ahead.

    Check out my review: http://olivia-savannah.blogspot.nl/2014/10/burning-bright-by-sophie-mckenzie.html

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    Replies
    1. Olivia -
      I taught at 15 because I loved children and loved watching them "catch on" to things. It was the ultimate "do what you love." I bet you could do it just fine if you wanted! Best luck to you.
      -Laura

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  3. Replies
    1. Thanks, Mai! I got very lucky with my cover artist. :)

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  4. this looks and sounds fantastic! Thanks for sharing!

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Thanks for taking the time to comment. I enjoy hearing from my readers. Let's talk!