After almost a year of suffering
through a terrible writer's block...
I have three novels being released within three months. Whoot!
Release date: July 27, 2012.
Lisa Hampton
is committed to her career, but a woman in the traditional Japanese
martial arts is seldom taken seriously. At least not until one hot and
hunky man takes her very seriously. James Rhee runs his own brand
of martial arts studio, teaching movie stars who want to shine in their
on-screen stunts.
It’s a
job Lisa genuinely wants no part of. But she soon finds it’s hard to
refuse the maddening man anything…including her body. Before she knows
it, she’s let her guard down and sinfully sizzling sex has turned into
something she simply can’t fight.
An Excerpt From: MY SEXY SENSEI
Copyright © FRAN LEE, 2012
All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing,
Inc.
I
turned, glancing up at the man standing beside my car, who
was leaning down to speak to me through the open window. I thought that he
was Japanese at first, but from the size of him I decided on second thought
that he was more than likely Korean. A closer look at his face as he
removed his reflective dark glasses confirmed my second impression. I
rolled my window down the rest of the way and said, “Yes?”
I never
usually pay more than scant attention to men—it’s safer not to. But I
couldn’t help but pay attention to this one. He was tall for an Asian man.
Judging by the way he was bending down to talk to me, he stood over six
feet tall. I inhaled deeply as I lifted my wide eyes up the long length of
that incredibly ripped body and noted the way he had been assessing me as
well. My gut clenched as he returned his dark eyes to my face and his smile
curved wickedly as if he knew the exact effect he was having on me.
He
dropped down onto his haunches beside the car and his eyes were almost
level with mine as he said quietly, “I would like to see your letter of
recommendation, if you don’t mind.”
I
frowned. How had he…? I hadn’t noticed him inside when I had shown it to Hirokawa. So how the hell had he known my name? My wary
hesitation made him grin and my thoughts went a trifle haywire. And so did parts lower down my anatomy.
Holy shit! The man was absolutely the most intense,
dangerously sensual male I’d ever laid eyes on.
I
swallowed the dryness in my throat and fought to control a sudden glandular
reaction that I’d never experienced before—total and consuming lust.
Oh, yeah. This man is dangerous.
Release date: August 29, 2012
What Fran
Jamison and Jack Gerrard have in common could be balanced on the head of
a pin. Jack screwed up his chances with the BBW years ago when he
allowed his friends to influence his choices. And Fran totally lost her
chance with the hot campus jock by openly spurning his attempt to
apologize.
Fran has
never been to any of the reunions, but now a friend needs her, so this
time she hasn’t been able to shimmy out of it. What she doesn’t expect
in a million years is to find herself making hot love with Jack Gerrard
on the hood of a parked car…on the airport parking ramp!
Jack lost her once. But if she thinks she’s getting away this time, she’s dead wrong.
An Excerpt From: COME, MY LOVE
Copyright © FRAN LEE, 2012
All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing,
Inc.
To: franjamison@think_tank.com
From: SikorskiK@WIndiU.edu
Hello to all of Gracie’s Girls, class of 2002
Once again, thanks to all of you for the flowers and phone calls after my
aunt Gracie’s passing last winter. You all meant so much to her, and to me.
As I’m sure you all know,
our ten-year college reunion is coming up this summer. Since I now have Aunt
Gracie’s big rambling house all to myself, I’d like to extend an
invitation. If any of you are coming back for the reunion, you’re more than
welcome to stay here, in your old rooms. Gracie quit taking in college
students several years back, so there’s no one here but me and I’d love to
have some company while I’m getting the house ready to put on the market.
So what do you say? One last time as roommates? It would be great to see
all of you again.
Hugs,
Karen
She
hadn’t planned to attend, at least not until she’d received Karen’s
guilt-inspiring email. Every instinct she possessed screamed at her to hit
the delete key and pretend the email hadn’t arrived, but she just couldn’t
do that. Karen was having financial problems and might have to sell the
historic but dilapidated old Victorian house they had all shared in
college.
She
shouldn’t feel so gun-shy, but even after all these years it would be hard
for her to go back and see all her old pals with the memories of her
college years slamming hard into her refurbished self-image. A self-image
that had taken her seven long years of analysis and hard work to create.
Fran
sighed and rubbed her temples, shoving her reading glasses up onto her
sleep-tousled head. She’d received the formal reunion invitation last week
but had tossed it without even looking at it. No use reliving the whole
college scene just to see how everyone else looked… See how many of her
friends had kids… How they had all changed over the ten years since she’d
last seen them. She certainly didn’t feel like listening to them telling
stories about new babies and favorite pets and how they’d met their
husbands.
All the
things Fran had excluded from her life in favor of monetary success and
“being her own woman”.
Fran
was far more realistic now. She refused to kid herself. She had never found
the man of her dreams and settled down to raise a family, mainly because it
had taken her seven years to get past her own demented mental image of
herself. And now that she finally recognized her own worth and had learned
to love herself as she was, she was way past the wild need to flaunt her
wares and try to trap some unwary male. Besides, most men in her age
bracket were already married. Or divorced and on the rebound. Or just
looking for a one-night stand. So far, that had never quite appealed, no
matter how good looking the man in question happened to be.
Men
were not a necessity in life. Besides…she’d royally screwed up, long ago, with
the only man she’d ever really wanted any sort of relationship with.
She ran
her fingers through her wild curls and pressed her thumbs against the
bridge of her nose. Back then she’d been so sure that the tentative
advances he’d made were simply another way for the jock community at WIU to
have a laugh-fest at her expense. She’d reacted defensively, tearing his
ego into tiny strips. And then he’d basically left her alone. Damn…
Only
years later, after many long sessions with her uber-patient
therapist, had it flashed with astonishing clarity into her mind. Jack Gerrard—her dream man—had actually tried to ask her out
on a date. And she had gone off on the man as if he’d just asked her to
jump naked into an anthill.
She
gave a sigh of resignation. The worst part of it was that she’d always had
the most pathetic crush on the man—most girls had crushes on the hot, sexy
hero of the WIU gridiron.
Even in
high school, Gerrard had always been in the
company of cheerleaders and prom queens and the most popular girls. They
hung all over him like bees around a honey pot. One look from those
riveting blue eyes could make any girl drop her panties with a scream of
delight. But Jack had ignored them most of the time, keeping up excellent
grades so he could play varsity football. She supposed that was the true
attraction.
Sure.
There she went, lying to herself again. She’d been hot for his ripped body,
just like all the other girls. But it had gone deeper than that with her.
He had
offered her some modicum of friendship, and good-looking guys did not want
to be pals with Fran Jamison. So when that friendship was withdrawn without
explanation or reason, it had torn her up inside.
Release date:
September 26, 2012
September 26, 2012
There is no such thing as a white knight. Christine Lange thought she’d found one once…not! So
what if her world is falling apart and she has nowhere to turn? She’s
strong. She can make it on her own without a man. But when one shows up
out of the blue, offering her a helping hand, she grabs it. Pride be damned. After all…this time she knows in advance that he’s gay. Why else would a man who looks like that need a temporary wife to satisfy his family?
Tonio
needs a wife and the sexy redhead is perfect. She’s attractive and
desperate…and since she doesn’t like men there’s no danger of her
falling in love with him. But Fate likes to play with those who tempt
her by making assumptions, and an agreement to see to each other’s
physical needs soon has them scorching the sheets. Christine gives Tonio
her body, but it isn’t long before he realizes that what he really
wants is her heart. It’s gonna be one hell of an interesting two years.
An Excerpt From: NEVER TEMPT FATE
Copyright © FRAN LEE, 2012
All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing,
Inc.
Chris threw her jacket over the back of the chair and kicked
off her high heels. She had promised Mrs. Allen that she would vacuum the lobby
and polish the first floor paneling after she got off work, and the bus had
been terribly late. She tore off her silk blouse and her skirt and dragged on a
rather ugly looking old T-shirt and a pair of well worn Levi’s, jamming her
bare feet into her ratty old sneakers. She hurried through to the bathroom,
dragging her hair up off her neck with her hands as she looked for a scrunchy
to secure it with.
She glanced at her watch after securing her flyaway mop, and
hoped Mrs. Allen wouldn’t be too upset about her vacuuming after 6:00 p.m. It
shouldn’t disturb anyone. Mrs. Abbott was deaf as a post, and Mr. Delayne
worked afternoons. They were the only ones who complained all the time. She
grabbed the utility room key off the hook by her door and hurried along the
hall to the stairs, not wanting to wait for the elevator. It probably wouldn’t
work anyway.
She hoped she had made a good impression on Mr. Anderson today.
She had worked through her lunch hour to get her office set up. The previous
person in the position had left a stack of work that dated back seventeen
months. It would take her weeks to get it all sorted out. She was hungry and
tired, and she still had to do the cleaning she had promised to do.
She hurried down the steps and through the fire door on the
first floor and headed for the utility closet across from the manager’s
apartment. She wouldn’t have a spare minute to check the paper for rentals until
after eight, and nobody liked to be bothered by phone calls that late. She had
tried valiantly to look through the ads on the bus, but standing and hanging
onto a damned strap had made it impossible.
As she dragged the ancient Kirby from the closet and plugged
it in, she wondered if she might be able to get an actual seat if she left a
half-hour earlier in the morning. The trip was pretty lousy standing in the
aisle. It was a five block walk to the bus stop, then a thirty minute bus trip
on her feet, then another three block walk to the office. Her feet were killing
her. Tomorrow she would wear her sneakers and carry her heels in a shopping
bag.
She jabbed the switch on the vacuum with her toe, and as the
vacuum whirred to life, she quickly and efficiently worked her way along one
end of the main hallway, then the other, before heading for the entryway and
lobby. She backed around the corner and avoided knocking the antique lamp off
the hall table, working her way toward the main entrance.
If she hurried, maybe she would be finished before Mrs.
Allen even got home.
* * * *
The car slid to a halt before the steps leading up into the
lobby of what must have once been a rather elegant apartment building. As Jose
opened the door for him, Tonio stepped out, frowning at the untrimmed shrubbery
that half-obliterated the uneven, broken concrete of the sidewalk. The place
had been utterly neglected for what appeared to be quite some time. He knew
that his father had always insisted on his properties being kept up, but this
one had somehow been missed. He glanced at the peeling paint on the wood around
the front entryway, and he glanced at his driver. “I won’t be long.”
He climbed the cracked concrete of the front steps, and
removed his leather glove to push open the sadly neglected oak and glass doors.
The sound of a vacuum cleaner met his ears as he stepped inside and glanced
about, and he paused as a woman appeared around the corner from the right
hallway, her back to him as she negotiated the turn, jabbing the whirring edge
of the Kirby into the corner and under a table.
He noted how quickly she was moving, as if in a hurry, and
he wondered if this could be the manager. He glanced at the paper in his hand,
and as he lifted his eyes, the darting vacuum attempted to eat the toe of his
hand-made Italian shoe! He stared down at the offending machine, irritated that
its operator had been so careless. He drew a deep breath as the vacuum was shut
off, and a startled voice gasped, “Oh, my God! I am so sorry!”
“No terrible damage done,” he breathed in a well-controlled
voice, lifting his eyes up the worn jeans, over a baggy T-shirt to meet a pair
of horrified green eyes, and he had to stop himself from laughing aloud. She
looked so utterly stricken he found it difficult not to smile. He inhaled
slowly, noting the smudge of dirt across her nose, and the way her mouth had
dropped open wordlessly as she stared up into his face.
He lifted one brow and asked quietly, “Mrs. Allen?”
Check out my website for pre-release giveaways and other treats! This is so exciting for me!
In the meantime, if you are planning to attend Romanticon in October, you will find my special print edition of Broken Rules available during the book signing October 14th. This book, which includes my short novels Her Own Set of Rules and Double Your Pleasure, will ONLY be available at the book signing until it formally is released in December.
So I hope to see you there! Tell me you read my blog for a special gift....
Hugs!
Fran Lee
http://www.franleeromance.com
So I hope to see you there! Tell me you read my blog for a special gift....
Hugs!
Fran Lee
http://www.franleeromance.com
16 comments:
Congrats on your upcoming new releases and freeing yourself from writer's block.
I think I'm going to have to have Never Tempt Fate. Sounds like just the perfect story for a weekend read. Can't wait! :)
Thanks, Mary! I think you will enjoy it.
Congrats on breaking through the writer's block. It's not easy.
Can't wait to get my hands on new Fran books. ;)
Congrats Fran:) All of these sound like 'must reads'!
Feels good to be 'back in the saddle' again, doesn't it?
Major congrats, Fran!! I adore the cover for "Never Tempt Fate" - wow!!
Congratulations on getting through the writer's block and having three upcoming releases! They sound hot and just the thing for a "reading vacation" that I've been planning:)
Congrats...and those are some seriously HOT covers, Fran! They all sound great.
How wonderful to have so many beautiful books released back to back. It's a victory!
I've said it before, but those covers really sizzle.
XXOO Kat
Congratulations on your three releases. Your covers are gorgeous and the stories are hot!! Good luck.
Congrats on your multiple releases, Fran!! :)
How simply wonderful! Loved all the excerpts...congratulations (big ones) jean
Thanks everyone! Yes, it IS nice to be back in the saddle. Writer's block is horrific for the writer...and it lets your fans forget you ever existed when you don't have a new one out every few months. You are all so sweet to comment. Thanks so much!
Thanks everyone! Yes, it IS nice to be back in the saddle. Writer's block is horrific for the writer...and it lets your fans forget you ever existed when you don't have a new one out every few months. You are all so sweet to comment. Thanks so much!
Big congrats, Fran! Your books look like terrific reads. Best of luck!
~Adele
Congrats on all the releases! I cannot wait to read these books.
Gabrielle
Thanks so much for your comments. They are heartwarming and encouraging.
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