Vacation Reading

by Bronwyn Jameson

Despite a succession of cold foggy midwinter days, I'm forcing myself toward optimism. Because winter is halfway done...or, if you're in the other hemisphere, the summer heat is halfway done.  We're all on our way out of the extremes and heading toward the enticements of spring and fall.  My favourite seasons.  Yay!

We all have our favourite season(s) and I've been pondering the concept of seasonal reading.  This was driven by the sharing, a month or two back, of several lists of recommended Summer (or Beach) Reads.  This year I garnered at least six new titles/authors for my TBR list, saved for possible purchase for my next vacation reading binge.

On holidays, whether that's a grand adventure with long plane trips (excellent for reading!) or a staycation (equally excellent for reading!), I do choose books that are a little different to my norm.  I want something absorbing, entertaining, unputdownable. Something that adds to the vacation feel by removing me from my usual pattern.  My usual mood.  My usual genre ... that being traditional romance, mostly category or shorter length titles, from trusted authors and/or series.

My vacation reads may include a dark thriller, a family saga packed with secrets and drama, a fun frothy chic-litty comedy, or a slice-of-life told with an engrossing voice.  There may be a once-a-year title by a favourite author, or it may be completely new-to-me, chosen from the blurb or title or buzz.

I've included a few covers from this year's Summer/Beach Reading recommendations and a couple of new titles by author favourites.  Have you read any of these?

Do you read different genres or types of books when on holidays?  

What does the term "Beach Reads" conjure up (apart from sand between the pages or sunscreen smeared on your Kindle screen)?

Sunday Smooch with Kandy Shepherd

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!


Today we have a smooch from BEST MAN AND THE RUNAWAY BRIDE but first 


... the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is Juanita


Can you please contact 
Michelle (at) Michelle - Douglas (dot) com 
to receive your copy of Reunited by a Baby Secret


And now for today's Sunday Smooch from Best Man and the Runaway Bride by Kandy Shepherd

Scandal at a society wedding!

Can he resist the runaway bride?

After helping Nikki Lucas flee her high-society wedding, privacy-loving best man Max Conway never expected to be accused of having an affair with the bride! As the media scandal dies down, he escapes to a remote island—and comes face-to-face with Nikki! Their connection is undeniable but she’s completely off-limits. Yet as the sun sets in paradise, both are struggling to resist…

Scene set-up: Nikki escapes the scandal of running away from her wedding in the arms of best man, international tennis star Max, to a tiny Indonesian island near Bali without telling anyone where she’s gone. Six months later, by coincidence, Max arrives on the island. They’re crazily attracted to each other but the last thing they need is another media scandal so they keep at arm’s length and strictly hands off. (Not that it’s easy!) When this scene starts they are heading for a beachside restaurant to catch the fabulous sunset and sneakily review the menu for her hotelier friends, while incognito pretending to be a tourist couple. They’ve shared a very brief kiss earlier, red hot and fiery, as Max had just accidentally eaten a very hot chilli pepper. Now, they’ve been transported to the sunset restaurant in the back of a taxi truck. During the ride, they’ve kept studiously apart.

Smooch: Nikki called a ‘thank you’ to [the driver] then went to get off the back of the truck. Max jumped down first. ‘I’m here if you need help,’ he said.

‘Of course I don’t need help,’ she said as she prepared to jump. ‘I’ve done this lots of times and—oh!’ She stumbled a little on the uneven ground and landed heavily against him.

‘Whoa,’ he said as he caught her and steadied her with his hands on her upper arms.

‘Th...thank you,’ she stuttered.

‘You okay?’ He looked down into her face.

‘Fine,’ she said. And feeling finer every second he kept his hands on her arms. His tennis-player calluses felt pleasingly rough against her sensitised bare skin, his fingers strong and firm.

When she didn’t move away he pulled her closer, so close she could sense the hammering of his heart, breathe in the exciting maleness of his scent, thrill at the warm strength of his body. She slid her arms around his waist and looked up at him, feeling nervous, excited, uncertain, on the brink of something unexpected. His eyes seemed a deeper shade of blue in the waning light and the intensity of his expression made her breath come short. For a very long moment their gazes locked in what seemed a series of unspoken questions with only one answer. Yes.

The world had shrunk to her and Max. Her lips parted in anticipation and she murmured her pleasure when he kissed her. His mouth was firm and warm against hers, his beard surprisingly soft against her skin. She tilted her head so she could more easily kiss him back.

‘Is this because we’re pretending to be a couple,’ she murmured against his mouth.

‘No, it’s because I want to kiss you,’ he said.

“I want to kiss you too.’ She licked along the seam of his mouth with the tip of her tongue. ‘No chilli this time. You’re naturally hot.’

‘You think so?’

‘Oh, yes.’ She wound her arms around his neck and pulled him to her, deepening the kiss. What had started as tender very quickly escalated into something intense, demanding, passionate, so all-consuming all she could think about was Max and the heat they were generating. Desire burned through her. She pressed her body to his as lips and tongues became more demanding.

This. Him. Max. She wanted him.

She didn’t know how much longer they would have stood there in the middle of the narrow lane kissing, oblivious to their surroundings, if another truck hadn’t driven up to deposit visitors to the restaurant. At the sound of its blaring horn, she came plummeting back to reality. Reluctantly she pulled away, immediately had to hold onto Max’s arm to steady herself on legs that had turned to jelly. She blinked with bewilderment.

‘What happened?’ She choked out the words.

Max looked equally shaken. He took in a deep, shuddering breath. ‘The inevitable,’ he said.

Nikki didn’t have to ask what he meant. No matter how she’d tried to deny it, they’d been heading towards this.

‘The...the question is where do we go from here?’ She knew her voice sounded strained and uncertain. 

Max reached out and gently smoothed the strands of her hair that had come loose back off her face. She stood very still, briefly closed her eyes at the pleasure of his touch on her skin. ‘Wherever it leads us,’ he said. 

Best Man and the Runaway Bride is a July release from Harlequin Romance in North America, Mills & Boon Forever Romance in Australia and New Zealand, and Mills & Boon True Love in the UK

Author Photo and question: Have you ever bumped into someone, quite by coincidence, somewhere you’d never expect to see them? Do you enjoy a runaway bride story? Sportsman heroes—yes or no? 

I’d love to read your thoughts. Leave a comment below to be in the draw for a signed paperback copy of Best Man and the Runaway Bride (mailed internationally.)

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced and a smooch from Annie West will be posted!

Smooch Graphic by WebWeaver

Just read... Kandy Shepherd

We’re having a long, hot January summer in my part of DownUnder—too hot really. So hot all I could do some days was sit near an air conditioner or fan and read. Turning the pages and lifting a cool drink to my lips was all the effort I could make!

Looking at what I read over the holiday break, I realised it was all romance and thrillers. I do read broadly across all genres as well as literary novels and non-fiction but recent reads, both print and e-books did not include those. Just romance and thrillers.

My family can’t understand why I enjoy thrillers and police procedurals, not shying away from the sometimes gruesome. (Or watch television programs where there is often a deal of screaming involved!) I say it’s because of the suspense of the whodunnit, the way characters react under pressure and danger, and because justice inevitably prevails.

And then there’s romance. Like many romance authors, I’ve often asked why I write romance. The implication is, why don’t I write something “better” than romance. Apart from the perhaps unintentional insult the question implies, I get a little cranky sometimes at having to “justify” what I write. The simple answer is that I love reading romance and decided to write what I enjoy reading!

Looking back (a looong time ago) I realise I always enjoyed stories with even a hint of romance in them—even in children’s books. My introduction to romance novels started with first my grandmother’s collection of Mills & Boon and Women’s Weekly Library that were considered “safe” for a young person’s eyes.

I don’t know that they realised how sensual some of the M&Bs were and how I combed them for the “sexy bits”!

When my mother brought home These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer from the library and told me she thought I would enjoy it, I got hooked on historicals. Then I really got into the “bodice rippers” of the eighties!

What I love about romance? That wonderful feeling of falling in love and that gorgeous, guaranteed happy ending. I love that about chick flicks too (but not when someone dies in the end!)

I still adore category romance, one of the reasons I love being a LoveCat alongside my favourite authors of the genre.  Sometimes I have to pinch myself that my bookshelves at home now include rows of my own books, not only in English but also translations!

Did you fit some reading time over the holiday? What is it you love most about romance? I’d love to see your comments!

Sunday Smooch with Kandy Shepherd

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!


Today we have a smooch from Kandy Shepherd but first 


... the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is Tammy Y.


Can you please contact Amy Andrews at 

 amy(at)amyandrews(dot)com(dot)au

 to receive your copy of  Swept Away by the Seductive Stranger



And now for today's Sunday Smooch from Heart of the Bay

Their hearts are leading them...to home and to love.
 The Dolphin Bay trilogy: The Summer They Never Forgot, The Tycoon and the Wedding Planner, A Diamond in Her Stocking.

Scene set-up: There are three linked novels in Heart of the Bay all set in the fictional rural town of Dolphin Bay on the  south coast of New South Wales, Australia. This smooch is from the first story, The Summer They Never Forgot.

On her thirtieth birthday, running from betrayal, Sandy Adams has on impulse returned to Dolphin Bay the small coastal town where she spent her happiest teenage vacation ever with gorgeous, carefree surfer dude Ben Morgan.

Ben was her first love but thanks to interference from their families their romance never progressed. Twelve years later she finds a very different Ben, scarred both physically and emotionally from a tragic accident. The attraction is still as strong as ever but the barriers stopping them from taking a second chance seem insurmountable.

Sandy is in town for a few days to help out his injured aunt but Ben has made it very clear that there can be nothing more between them. At sunrise when she is walking along the beach she encounters him body surfing. Against all caution and common sense she waits for him on the beach.

Throwing driftwood for his dog Hobo they accidentally collide. Ben examines Sandy’s head for bumps to find she’s uninjured. But they’re close, so closer, closer than they’ve been for twelve years…

Smooch  - 
“His big, scarred hands moved from her scalp to cradle her face. He tilted her head so she was forced to look up into his eyes. For a long moment he searched her face.

‘I don’t want to hurt you, Sandy,’ he said, his voice hoarse.

She knew he wasn’t talking about the collision. ‘I realise that, Ben,’ she whispered.

Then, with her eyes drowning in his, he kissed her.

She was so surprised she stood stock-still for a moment. Then she relaxed into the sensation of Ben’s mouth on hers. It felt like coming home.

When Ben had lifted his head from the wave and had seen Sandy standing on the beach, it had been as if the past and the present had coalesced into one shining moment. A joy so unexpected it was painful had flooded his heart.

And here he was, against all resolutions, kissing her.

Her lips were warm and pliant beneath his. Her breasts were pressed to his chest. Her eyes, startled at first, were filled with an expression of bliss.

He shouldn’t be kissing her. Starting things he could not finish. Risking pain for both of them. Bit those thoughts were lost in the wonder of having her close to him again.

It was as if the twelve years between kisses had never happened.

He twined his hands in her shiny vanilla-scented hair, tilted her head back as he deepened the kiss, pushed against her lips with his tongue. Her mouth parted to welcome him, to meet the tip of his tongue with hers.

She made a small murmur of appreciation and wound her arms around his neck. His arms slid to her waist, to the smooth, warm skin where her top stopped, drawing her close. He could feel her heart thudding against her chest.

He wanted her. She could surely feel his arousal. But this wasn’t just about sex. It had always been so much more than that with Sandy.

The world shrank to just him and her, and the surf was a muted pounding that echoed the pulsing of their hearts, the blood running hot through his veins.”

What's your favourite setting for a romantic getaway? Beach? Country? Snow? Or somewhere else entirely!  For a chance to win a paperback copy of Heart of the Bay (worldwide) please make a comment!

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced and a special Christmas Message from Bronwyn Jameson will be posted!

Smooch Graphic by WebWeaver
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