#RB4U ~ Only 9 Months To Go!

Welcome to Romance Books 4 Us everyone. I'm your tour guide for the day, Nicole Morgan and as some of you may have noticed I drop by with a new post on the first of every month and either ramble like a fool or amaze you with my intellect. LOL. Okay, yes that last one was a stretch, but...I've got you smiling now, don't I? Now that you're good and loosened up, go ahead and kick your shoes off, sit back, relax and enjoy!

Just 9 months to go...    

Happy February everyone. For many February can be one of the most stressful months. Not only do we have a few less days than usual to get a whole months worth of work in, but we also have to rush around and find the perfect, most romantic and at the same time affordable gift for our Valentine. Which, let's face it...isn't always that easy. Well, for those who do suffer from Valentines woes, I have some tips over on my blog to help you out. However, that's not what my post is about. Today I'm talking about getting married! 

A year and a half ago my younger guy (yes, I'm a cougar LOL. Would you like to hear me RAWR) finally decided it was time to settle down and proposed to me. This is the second marriage for the both of us and since I had the big wedding first I was more than willing to elope to Vegas. But, his marriage hadn't involved a big shin dig and he'd gotten married in front of the justice of the peace without his family. So...the big wedding idea was born. And that was when we started planning the wedding of both of our dreams.

For the first time in years I finally felt like I was getting that happily ever after that all little girls dream of. However, like with all fairy tales, real life gets in the way and slaps us upside the head like a migraine headache after a New Year's Eve drinking binge. As some of my friends know, due to some health issues within my family, we have postponed the wedding twice because it was important to us that we have all those we love so much there with us on our big day. In addition to that, Josh, a wonderful man who Zac and I both adored and was to perform our ceremony was killed in a car accident on December 26th. This was a devastating loss for his wife and children as well as those whose lives he touched, and made me realize even more just how precious life is.

Well, now that those health issues are starting to get better we now have a new date and only nine months to throw everything together. So, suffice it to say, I will be doing a lot of girlie things in the next several months. Not that I'm complaining. I'm actually starting to enjoy it. He has a way of making me feel young again. You know, when I ditch the walker and take my back pills. Ha! :-)

So for today's post, in this month dedicated to our special someone's I thought I'd share a few things of what we do have worked out for the wedding.

Here is a picture of the reception room and these are our colors as well.

Now that we have our table designs done, the place selected and a few other things checked off the list, that means we only have.... about a million other things to do. So have a good Valentines' Day everyone. I will be knee deep in Bride's Magazines and watching a whole lot of TLC's Say Yes to the Dress! 

Nicole Morgan is an author of erotic romance novels, which more often than not have a suspenseful back story. Erotic romance mixed with good old-fashioned whodunit. While she's written everything from contemporary to paranormal her leading men will more than likely be wearing a uniform of some kind. From military to police officers, she has a love for writing about those who protect and serve. From her very first novel (which turned into a four book series) about Navy SEALs to her more recent releases you will be sure to find a few twists and turns you were not expecting.

She also has a recurring monthly column in Book & Trailer Showcase's eMagazine, and is a proud member of the Romance Books 4 Us Gold Authors. 

Find out more about Nicole and her books by visiting her website, blog, Google + Page, Twitter, Facebook and her Yahoo Group, Nicole’s Think Tank.

Until next month my lovies ~ Nicole 

How Do You Like The Cover of The Bridal Gift?

Thanks for visiting the Romance Books 4 Us blog. Today I’m giving away a RB4U t-shirt to one lucky commenter, so please don’t forget to leave your email address in case you are the winner.

I thought today I’d present a cover and title I’m releasing soon, and ask for comments. This first novel in my new series will launch in early March.

I wrote the story for the Harlequin Mills & Boon market fifteen years ago, and have rewritten it off and on ever since. It’s been through countless rewrites and edits. 

I’m delighted to say that it’s finally been through a professional edit and I’m completing the recommended changes. After fifteen years of labor, I’ll soon birth this baby! 

My son put together a bare bones cover about six months ago (see above). It feels to me like something is missing. I just can’t figure out what. So I thought the RB’4’US authors and readers might have a suggestion or two.

Also, what do you think of the title The Bridal Gift? Since this is a contemporary love story, I wonder if the title is now (fifteen years later) dated. I have a Google Alert set for Bridal Gift, and let me tell you, it’s a phrase that is rarely used!

The story takes place on a tropical island, with a brief trip to Texas. Some other title ideas are:

The Wedding Gift

Tropical Bride

Tropical Wedding

Island Bride

Do you have a title suggestion?

I truly appreciate your comments on these questions. Thanks to everyone who has a comment on either the cover or the title!

THE BRIDAL GIFT:

   Billionaire Texas oilman Travis MacFarland bought a resort on a Caribbean island, hoping to drive away demons that have haunted him since a tragic boating accident years ago on a Texas lake.

   Dive boat operator and dolphin communicator Arabella Weston is a free spirit going through a tough time. Her cheating fiancé dumped her and cleared out their joint account, leaving her in peril of losing boat and livelihood.

   In Arabella, Travis sees a carefree joyous woman who can help him overcome his fears. He has never felt better than when he is with her.

   In Travis, Arabella sees a drowning man, a knight in tarnished armor, battle weary but wanting to believe. When his charm shines through, she wants to help him heal.

   But what will his recovery cost her? Can she maintain her inner bliss while helping him discover his own?

   During a hurricane on stormy seas, they will find out.  

 

Yay! Wait...what? CONTEST

I know this isn’t news to many of you, but I’m getting married this year. I am in love with my best friend. I have a beautiful future ahead of me. Sounds very exciting, right? I mean I get to get all dressed up, buy a pretty dress and have a great party with all my closest friends and family…how fun, right?! But, I bet you didn’t know there’s a side effect that comes to planning a wedding. It’s a nasty little gremlin that they don’t talk about in all those foo foo bridal magazines. Want to know what it is? Okay, I’ll tell you, but you might want to sit down for this one.

WORK.

I know!!! I didn’t know either! I mean, I knew…but, come on, how many different fonts can there be for invitations? Then there’s colors – which by the way I’ve already changed twice in four months, so yeah. I’ve gone from Tiffany Blue with Chocolate Brown to now Turquoise with white and silver accents. Why? Pfft…heck if I know. Because it looks pretty! LOL. There’s too much to decide. And now I’ve got two teenage daughters pestering me about what our song is going to be. A song? Crap! I knew that we should have a song, but picking just one song that holds so much meaning is kind of nerve wracking. What if after a year the song gets old and I can’t stand to listen to it? Or what if I find a song which I feel fits us better, but I’ve already committed to the other one? *sigh* I mean this is a lot of pressure!

Soooo…guess what?! I thought maybe all of you could be my unofficial bridesmaids and groomsmen. Sit back down! You can’t say no! You’re already here! LOL. And like with all bridesmaids and groomsmen, your title comes with responsibility. Therefore, I’ve devised a fun little contest for all of you which will in turn help ME gather a bunch of mushy and girlie love songs.

PRIZE:

1 - $10 Gift Card to Bookstrand, Inc.

HOW CAN YOU WIN:

1 – Read the blurb and excerpt on my upcoming release, Surrounded by Roses which is scheduled for release February 7^th, but is already available for pre-order!

2 – Leave me a comment below (remember to include your email) with a love song you think my fiancé and I should dance to at our wedding.

*This contest runs until February 7^th 11:59pm EST

My fiancé, Zac will come on the blog and choose a random winner on February 8^th!

BONUS PRIZE:

If you include in your comment the answer to the following question, you will also be eligible to win a free eBook copy of Surrounded by Roses.

QUESTION: What did my fiancé do in the Navy?  

HINT: Some may say he inspired the character of this book. *winks* 

After years of working on submarines and loving what he does, a training exercise goes horribly wrong. Suffering from the loss of his best friend, Trevor Purlington comes home to try and get past the demons which keep him awake at night.

Emily Dennis spends her days working as a nurse and her nights anticipating correspondence from her deployed submariner boyfriend. The last thing she expected was to find him at home waiting for her after a long shift at the clinic where she works. After being apart for so long, she is ecstatic to finally have him home.

Only Trevor comes home to Emily a different man, one who is starting to overshadow the man she once knew. Overwhelmed and confused, she refuses to give up on the man that she loves and vows to do whatever it takes to knock down his walls and bring back the Trevor she once knew.

DIRECT PURCHASE LINK: http://bookstrand.com/surrounded-by-roses  

ADULT EXCERPT  Trevor took in the sight of Emily’s body. Her frame was petite, and he liked the extra few pounds she always complained about not being able to get rid of. He could get lost in the landscape of her body. She had curves which put any other woman to shame. He loved his country and was willing to die for it, but he would take the valleys and peaks of Emily’s body over purple mountain majesty any day. His cock twitched while he teased the taut peaks of her nipples. He always loved the way her body responded to him as if on cue. She made him feel powerful, as though he were the puppet master and could pull her strings into doing exactly what he wanted. As much as he hated to, he pulled away from the glorious, little points. His desire to be inside her wet heat overrode any other need raging inside him. Tugging at the hem of his T-shirt, he pulled it over his head and threw it on the hallway floor. Emily’s delicate fingers trailed across his chest and slowly raked down his abdomen. Her touch was featherlight and nearly tickled. She took a step closer to him and brought her mouth down to his chest. Lips that were a million times softer than he remembered caressed his skin. Using her tongue as a guide, she trailed her mouth to and from each of his nipples. She nibbled tenderly on them while splaying her hand up and around his shoulders. He allowed her to continue her quest, knowing how much she enjoyed exploring his body. Far be it for him to deprive her of something she got such delight from. He would take his journey later, surveying and examining in close detail every square inch of her body. Reaching in between their two bodies, he unsnapped the button of his jeans. Even the small relief in pressure felt like heaven to his dick. He had spent most of the day semi-hard in anticipation of their reunion. The wait to see her again had been excruciating. Three long months submerged below eight hundred feet in the Gulf of Bahrain with limited communication had been trying for the both of them. That excitement mixed with sexual frustration culminated in one giant explosion of lust when he’d heard her outside and pulled her up against the door. His cock had gone from semi to rock hard in one second flat. Emily was still showering his skin in gentle kisses. Some of them were so soft he could barely feel them. She had a tenderness to her that sometimes made him want to shield her from the horrors of the world. He’d seen things in the service that would make even the bravest men shudder. Her softhearted nature was just one of the things he had grown to love about her, but that wasn’t what kept him awake at night. He missed her body, her touch, and the feel of her pussy gripping him so snug. He pulled his zipper down, relieving himself from the constricting denim. When he first tugged the sides down his hips, taking his briefs with them, he hissed out a breath of air when his cock jutted out and poked against the bare skin of her belly. She looked up at him, her expression hungry and desperate. This was always how they were. They didn’t need words when their bodies were involved. All they needed were their hands and mouths to connect. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she kissed him, her seductive tongue seeking his and stroking it the moment she found it. Both of them hurriedly pushed his jeans down his legs the rest of the way. Trevor shimmied the rest of the way out of his jeans, finally shoving them aside. He reached down and wrapped his arms around her ass, lifting her up and carrying her a few steps down the hall to her bedroom. He navigated through the dark room, and they fell to the bed, their lips still locked as they hungrily fed off of one another’s passion. Their relationship might be complicated by distance and a million other obstacles, but they were in sync when they were together like this. His urge to be inside her went deeper than mere lust. It was elemental. He needed it for sheer survival. Like an addict who had gone months without a fix, he needed the high that only she could provide. A realization smacked him upside the head and nearly knocked the wind out of his hard-on. He didn’t bring a condom with him, and the ones he picked up were in his bag in the living room. He pulled away from the kiss, pissed off for having to stop for even a second. “Shit. I’ll be right back.” “No, check the nightstand.” Getting up and off of her, he fumbled in the dark for the drawer handle. He opened it and found a box of condoms. It was still sealed and had never been opened. He tore at the side and pulled one out before throwing the package on the floor. With his teeth he bit off the corner of the foil package and pulled the condom out. He was about to place it on the head of his cock when Emily stopped him. Quicker than he had time to react she sat up and swirled her tongue around the tip. She teased him for several seconds, circling around and sliding up the base until finally she closed her luscious lips over the head and sank her head down on him.

Confession Time

I had a few different ideas on what I wanted to blog about today, but I chose to share something with all of you that on the surface may seem like not much of a surprise for an erotic romance author, but it really surprised me about myself. So here goes… I am a complete and total hopeless romantic. There I said it!

Now before all of you boo and hiss because you think this isn’t very big news, as most women and even some men are, let me elaborate just a bit. You see, I may even go so far as to call myself a ‘mush-aholic’. Yeah, you heard it here first. I am way past mushy and well on my way to a twelve step program. I am the type of woman who will actually cry if I see an image, hear a song or watch a movie that is just too touching.

Now, I bet you’re still thinking that doesn’t sound that bad, right? Well, it gets worse. You see I’m planning a wedding. My second in fact. Do you know how hard it is for a hopeless romantic to plan a wedding and not go full throttle into chick mode until she’s seeing hearts floating around in mid air, birds singing and she feel's like Cinderella about to marry her Prince Charming? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s not easy! LOL

I’ve done the whole big wedding things years ago. And NO I am NOT going to tell you how long ago that way. You’ll just have to all keep thinking that I’m still 29 years old. *winks* Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I am getting married again. And surprisingly, while I assumed if I ever took the plunge again that I’d run off to Vegas and do the Little Wedding Chapel of Love thing, I instead have found myself knee deep in preparing for a big wedding all over again. And you know what? I am loving every single moment of it. From fussing over invitations to being finicky over the perfect shade of napkins. I’ve become that girl! But, I am very proud to say that I have not reached Bridezilla mode, and to be sure that doesn’t happen I watch the show just to make sure I don’t notice any of those nasty little habits rearing their ugly head.

One thing I can say for certain is this. Regardless of how mushy, romantic and total chick-ish I become in the coming year, one thing I can promise is that I will love every minute of it. There is something about love and romance that makes all the bad days, stress and worries just wash away. So, you know what? I’m a mush-aholic and darn proud of it! I think I will ride this hopeless romantic thing for all it’s worth. After all life is too short and we may as well enjoy the blessings that we have, right?

I hope you all have a very Happy Holiday Season and don’t forget that Romance Books 4 Us is kicking off their Jingle Bells Contest today. So, please stop by the Romance Books 4 Us website and enter for your chance to win a $100 gift card as well as many other awesome prizes! Thanks for joining me during confession time. Have a wonderful Holiday Season! 

~ Nicole Morgan