romance

Still fighting the crowded stores?

/ Dora Hiers

Settle back in your chair, sip your coffee, click, click, and wait for the gift to arrive. Here’s a gift idea~

Stop stressing over crowded lines. Order your autographed copies of Journey’s End here. Only $10 plus shipping. Check out the purchase links to the right (note separate links for US/Canadian readers and UK readers due to shipping cost). A couple clicks and you’re done.

A brutal murder…A devastated life rebuilt…Where one journey ends, another begins…
Devastated after the brutal murder of her husband, Chelsea Hammond vows never to love another lawman. Intent on rebuilding her shattered life, she turns her focus to helping troubled teens. But when an angry father bent on retaliation, threatens her, Chelsea must turn to the one man she never thought to trust: Deputy U.S. Marshal Trey Colten.


Trey wants only to protect Chelsea, but she blames him for her husband’s death. Trey can relate. He blames himself, also. As danger lurks, Trey begs Chelsea to heed his warnings. He let down one Hammond. He won’t let down another—especially one who now holds his heart.

When Chelsea is snatched from her home, can she put aside her fear and trust Trey with her life? Can she forgive him for destroying her past and let him help to rebuild her future?

Where one journey ends, another begins…

NEED TO KNOW by Susan Tuttle

/ Dora Hiers / 2 Comments

Meet Susan Tuttle. Encourager extraordinaire. Thought-provoking blogger. Homeschooling mom of three. Loving wife of nearly fourteen years. Daughter of the King. And one of those friends who makes your life richer and sweeter from knowing her.

A member of ACFW, Susan is busy writing the stories and devotions God places on her heart with the goal of one day adding ‘published’ in front of ‘author’. Her heart’s desire is to keep people stepping forward into God’s grace. Her blog, StepSusan, offers inspiring and uplifting devotionals, where you’ll find comfort knowing you’re not alone on your journey.

Today and tomorrow, enjoy Susan’s short romantic story, Need to Know.

Need to Know

“Hey, Anderson!  Look alive!”

Quinn Anderson’s hand shot in the air to grab the icy can lobbed at her head.  “Cute, King, real cute.”  She popped the top on the Monster he’d just thrown at her and followed his laughter to the elevators. “You’d be sewing my head up if I’d miss that catch.”
“Nah.” Noah Kingston smiled as he punched the button for the parking garage.  “Your reflexes are too quick.  I knew you’d catch it.”
“You greatly underestimate my skills after a double shift.”  She covered a yawn.  “I need to wake up.”
His eyes shifted to her, moving from her pony-tailed head to her rubber-soled toes.  “Still going out?  That’s some lucky guy.” 
She didn’t miss his smirk.  Yeah, she was a mess.
“Look.  I stayed as a favor to you.  I’m going on this blind date as a favor to my sister.”
“And what about a favor to yourself?”
“Sleep.  Tonight.  After a very expensive meal.”
The elevator dinged and they stepped on. “Louie’s?”
She nodded.
They rode in silence until the elevator dropped them in the belly of the hospital.  Noah motioned her off first.
“You’re more of a steak and potatoes kinda gal.  Think you’ll handle all those forks all right or do I need to give you a crash course in table etiquette?”
If only he knew her parents.  It was one reason she was so comfortable around Noah.  The only thing he cared about was she was a good nurse—not the trust fund sitting in her father’s bank.
She took a long, noisy slurp from her caffeine fix and wiped her mouth on her sleeve. Her eyes cut to him and she grinned.  “Nah. I think I’ll be just fine.”
His rich laughter filled the garage followed by the beep of his car locks releasing.  “Can’t wait to hear how this goes.”
“You’ll hear every detail Sunday morning, long as you bring me a coffee.”
“I’ll be there—hospital chapel before our shift starts?”
“It’s a date.”
His face changed, the smirk gone as his eyes went from grey to black.  “Date?”
Heat crawled up her face and her insides twisted.  Who turned on the electric current that suddenly raced between them?  “Yeah, well…you know what I mean.  Coffee date, between two co-workers?”
He blinked, took a step closer.  “Come on, Quinn.  We’re more than co-workers.”
She inched backward.  “We…we are?” 
He took another step, backing her into the car behind her.  He leaned down to bring his face next to hers, his eyes flicked to her lips.  Was he going to kiss her?  Her breath caught in her throat. 
A car door slammed and Noah jerked back, his smirk suddenly back in place.  “We’re friends, right?”
A buzzing filled her ears, and she released her breath.  “Yep.  Friends.” 
Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’ played from her phone.
Noah’s left brow raised.  “Cute.”
Quinn fumbled for it.  “My niece was playing with my phone again.”  She slid her finger across the screen.  “Hey, Nicky.  Yeah, I stayed for an extra shift but I’ll be there.”  She looked at Noah.  “It’s my sister.  I gotta go.”
“Have a great time tonight.”
Something in his eyes didn’t match his words. 
She didn’t have time for this.  She definitely didn’t have room for whatever feelings he’d tugged from her a moment ago. 
“Sure.  I’ll see you Sunday.”
Noah slammed his car door.  Idiot!  He’d worked with the woman for six months and hadn’t asked her out yet. Hadn’t even told her he was interested. And he’d almost kissed her back there—no warning.  He’d meant to tease her about her slip-up, but stepping that close, her dark green eyes fixed wide on him, and her lavender scent filling his senses; he was lost. 
He revved his engine. His mother had taught him better than that.
Slipping out of his parking spot, his headlights illuminated the other end of the parking garage.  Man it was dark in here.  Where were the lights?  And why hadn’t he walked Quinn to her car? 
Because he was too busy kicking himself.
In the shadows of his headlights he could just make out her form ahead, still talking on her phone.  Movement to her left caught his attention, and he froze.  Two large men rushed towards her.  Quinn never had a chance.  One grabbed her arms, the other her legs and they moved towards a van. 
Noah hit the gas, his car catapulting into the back of their van.  The stunned men dropped Quinn and dove for their vehicle.  Noah erupted from his car, and launched himself at the man closest to him.  Two quick hits and the man was out.  He spun around to grab the second assailant and was met with the smell or burnt rubber as the van peeled out of the garage.  
For a fleeting second he thought about chasing the man, but a weak groan stopped him cold. 
Quinn.
Two quick steps brought him to her small frame.  He knelt next to her and her eyes flitted open.  She tried to sit up but he gently pushed her back.
“Lie still,” he ordered.  He stifled a curse at the small pool of blood beside her head.  She’d caught the sharp edge of a curb. 
“I’m fine.” Her eyes pinned on his, fire in their emerald depths.  Good.  Maybe she wasn’t hurt as badly as he first thought.
“No, you’re not.  You’re bleeding pretty good from a head wound.  Looks like I’m gonna have to sew you up tonight after all.”
She reached around to feel the back of her head.  “Ouch.”
His hand still held her down.  “Ouch is right.  You didn’t even see them coming.”
He palmed his cell phone and dialed for the hospital security and a stretcher.  She tensed beneath him, shoving his hand away. 
“No way am I going in on a stretcher.  Let me up.”
“Not on your life.”
She shoved at him, but he held her down.  “Be a good patient now, Quinn.”
She glared, but stopped fighting.
Red and blue strobes filled the garage and a navy uniform stepped out into the headlights. 
“Over here,” Noah called.
“Why’re the lights out?”
“Not sure.  But two men tried to grab my friend here.  One of them is to your left, on the pavement.”
The officer turned and looked at the man, out cold.  “Care to tell me what happened?”
A side door slammed opened before he could answer and two co-workers from upstairs spilled out.
“Look, I need to get her upstairs and stitched up.  Her head wound is bleeding heavily, and I’m worried she has a concussion.”
“I don’t.” Quinn’s steely voice answered.
“I’m doing a complete work-up so we can be sure.”
“Guess I’m gonna be late for that date.”
Noah shook his head and helped load her onto the stretcher.  Guilt filled him. Making her late—hoping she missed the date all together—had been his original plan when he asked her to stay for an extra shift.  If he’d kept his mouth shut she’d have been long gone, not attacked in a dark parking lot.  This was all his fault.
Will Quinn make her date? What is Quinn not telling him? Stay tuned tomorrow to find out.


Burning Hearts by Nike Chillemi

/ Dora Hiers / 7 Comments

Can a sheltered young seamstress, disillusioned by the horrors of WWII, escape an arsonist/murderer who has killed her employer and mentor, while trying to decide if she can trust the dashing war hero who’s ridden into town on his Harley—who some say is the murderer?
Erica Brogna’s parents doted on her and taught her to think for herself. Many boys she grew up with have fallen in the war, shaking her childhood faith. In rides a handsome stranger, at the hour of her most desperate need. A woman who is her best friend and mentor is trapped in a burning house. After making an unsuccessful rescue attempt, Erica stands by as this man rushes into the inferno and carries her friend’s lifeless body out.
Lorne Kincade can’t out run his past on his Harley Davidson WLA, the civilian model of the motorcycle he rode in the war. He’s tried. He’s been a vagabond biker in the year since the war ended. His Uncle Ivar bequeathed him a ramshackle cottage in Sanctuary Point, on the Great South Bay of Long Island, NY and now he’d like to hope for a future again, repair the miniscule place, and settle down. The only problem is, a young woman with hair the color of mink is starting to get under his skin and that’s the last thing he needs.
Burning Hearts is available at: Amazon. Barnes & Noble. Desert Breeze. 
Let’s find out a little more about Nike Chillemi, Crime Fictionista:

Nike Chillemi has been called a crime fictionista due to her passion for crime fiction. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and the Edgy Christian Fiction Lovers (Ning). She was an Inspy Awards 2010 judge in the Suspense/Thriller/Mystery category and a judge in the 2011 Carol Awards in the suspense, mystery, and romantic suspense categories. She is the founding board member of the Grace Awards, a reader’s choice awards for excellence in Christian fiction. She writes monthly book reviews for The Christian Pulse online magazine. Burning Hearts is the first book in the crime wave that is sweeping the south shore of Long Island in The Sanctuary Point series.

Crime Fictionista. What a cool title. How did you get that name?
NC:  I’m a crime fictionista all right because my passion is crime fiction. For me a good book starts out with a dead body and then the detective character(s) with all his/her flaws showing must seek justice for the victim by finding the killer.
How did you come up with the premise for Burning Hearts?
NC:  I have a vivid imagination. I get caught up in the various scenarios I come up with. I think…what if this, or that? I sometimes actually dream a scene in my book, or it comes to me in that twilight state in between sleep and awakeness. I’ll jump out of bed in the morning and run to my computer with a scene in my head I have to get down. Once I had the entire thing, word for word with dialog. That was incredible. I keep a potential plot file. As soon as I get the idea, in a dream, while washing dishes, whatever…I get to my computer as fast as possible and add it to my file.
The idea for BURNING HEARTS started with thoughts about two people, a heroine and a hero battling a raging fire. The story took off from there. It took four years to write and went through many drafts. Since it’s set in 1946, I had a lot of research to do. Some of the characters changed over time. The basic story line stayed the same, but I realized I had to add a few more twists. That meant rewriting…again. Not all my novels have taken four years to write, but every story has taken at least a year to get it the way I want it for my readers.
What does a normal workday look like for you? (when do you start, how long do you write, etc.)
NC:  I’m a wife, mother, and homeschooling mom as well as an author. I get up and walk the dog. Then I have cats who want to eat breakfast. After the feline attack, I’ve got to have my cup of tea. At that point, the house is still quiet. DH is getting ready for work and I have about an hour to write, which I do every day. Then it’s five hours of homeschooling and another hour of writing. Then it’s getting dinner on the table, reminding DD that she REALLY needs a shower. I try to get in some reading before bed.
Are you a plotter or a pantser?
NC:  I’m both. I start off a seat-of-the pantser. I get an idea, like a raging house fire that opens chapter one in BURNING HEARTS. I’ve got my characters set in my mind and I drop them into the scene. I write seat of the pants at that point. When I’m done with the chapter, I put a short synopsis of it in my “plot outline file.” After the first chapter is set in the outline, I have to get technical. I’ve got to pretty much alternate scenes between my heroine and my hero. One can dominate, but not by much. As I enter the synopsis for each chapter, I see how the plot is flowing. If there’s too much darkness, I might have to go back and add a little humor. However when I’m writing the first draft of a chapter, it’s totally seat of the pants. Of course, then there’s editing. Sometimes I edit a chapter two or three times. When I submit to my publisher, it’s pretty clean.
What are some of your favorite things to do when you’re not writing? Least favorite?
NC:  I love the ocean, particularly the eastern seaboard and the Atlantic Ocean. There’s nothing I like more than sitting under a pavilion or cabana by the sea with a good book. I’m also a foodie and spend a considerable amount of time looking recipes up on the Food Channel’s website. I love eating out in a good restaurant, a little café perhaps. My least favorite is cleaning house, though I feel a sense of pride and accomplishment when it’s done.
If you had a Friday night all to yourself, what would you do?
NC: I’d read. Or, I might write. Since I have to be alone for this, I can’t get DH to take me out to eat. So, I might go to Starbucks and get a cappuccino, soak up the atmosphere and soft music, and read. I love to drive. I could take Sophie, our malti-poo to Long Island and drive out to the ocean in Southampton, or Montauk. I’d find a café that allows dogs outside and order an exotic coffee drink and read or write and watch the surf come in.
Where can readers find your books? Do you have a website, blog, etc.?
NC:  My blog is Crime Fictionista (crime fiction and faith). Readers can find Burning Hearts at the following sites:  Desert Breeze Publishing. . Amazon.  Barnes & Noble.