Fall In Love | 21 FREE Romances

I'm so happy to be hosting this week's Instafreebie group giveaway for romance! My freebie, LAST CALL, is a short story that introduces you to the town of Inspiration, Iowa, the setting for my CALLING IT series. The story is sweet, but the series certainly is definitely on the steamier side!

Including LAST CALL, there are 21 FREE romances here for you to download and enjoy. Happy reading!

 

Last Call (by Jen Doyle) - Contemporary/Sweet Intro to a Steamy Series

Romancing the Null (by Tina Gower) - Paranormal/Steamy

Strictly Unprofessional (by Maggie Way) - Contemporary/Steamy

White Magic Woman (by Ju Ephraime) - Paranormal/Steamy

The Trouble With Flying (by Rochelle Morgan) - Contemporary/Sweet

Opening Hearts (by Iona Findley) - Contemporary/Steamy

Trust My Love (by Iona Findley) - Contemporary/Steamy

You're the One (by Alix Nicholas) - Romantic Comedy/Steamy

Second Chance Ranch (by Liz Isaacson) - Western Romance/Sweet

Cunning Linguist (by Rachel Shane) - New Adult/Steamy

Tell Me A Story (by Tamara Lush) - Contemporary/Hot

Tempting Isabel (by Rissa Brahm) - Contemporary/Hot

Returning for Valentine's (by Victoria Pinder) - Contemporary/Sweet

The Year We Fell Down (by Sarina Bowen) - New Adult Contemporary/Steamy

Finding You At Christmas (by Kristin Wallace) - Contemporary/Sweet

A Winter Wedding (by Gemma Brocato) - Holiday/Hot

A Promise To My Stepbrother (by Anne Burroughs) - Contemporary/Sweet

Tales of the Valkyries - ANTHOLOGY (Asa Maria Bradley/Gina Conkle/Lisa Hendrix/Anna Markland/Emma Prince/Harper St. George) - Historical and Paranormal/Steamy

How the Duke Stole Christmas (by Anna Harrington) - Historical/Sweet

Crazy, Sexy, Ghoulish (by G.G. Andrew) - Romantic Comedy/Sweet

A Moment Of Bliss (by Michelle Jo Quinn) - Romantic Comedy/Sweet

 

 

 

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Blog Tour: Day Five

Blog Tour: Day Four

Blog Tour: Day Three

Blog Tour: Day Two

Today is Day Two of the CALLED UP blog tour, and we've got seven stops today, including a guest post at Fire and Ice Book Reviews where I talk about Who's Who in the series. (Stop 1) - I Love Romance (with REVIEW)

(Stop 2) - Lisa's Home for Books (with REVIEW)

(Stop 3) - The Silver Dagger Scriptorium

(Stop 4) - Fire And Ice Book Reviews (with REVIEW)

(Stop 5) - Plain Talk Book Marketing

(Stop 6) - Melena's Reviews

(Stop 7) - A Southern Girls Bookshelf

And don't forget to check out the Tasty Book Tours website for the full blog tour schedule.

IT'S RELEASE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, today is CALLED UP's release day! Thank you for sharing it with me! This is also the beginning of my two week blog tour. Thank you to Tasty Book Tours for organizing ten days' worth of posts, reviews, and excerpts. TBT is amazing!

And here's the list of blogs I'll be appearing on today. Please be sure to check out Ctrl, Alt, Books! because I'll be doing a guest post there on the top five reasons women love baseball players. Thank you to all of the bloggers for hosting me, and a humongous extra thank you to those who did a review. I, of course, hope everyone loves the book, but even for those who don't, I very much appreciate your including CALLED UP in what I know is a huge TBR pile and for taking the time to do a review. You are all amazing!

* NOTE: Stops in bold indicate there will be a review.

AUGUST 29, 2016:

(Stop 1) Thoughts of a Blonde (with REVIEW)

(Stop 2) - Ellesea Loves Reading (with REVIEW)

(Stop 3) - Ctrl, Alt, Books!

(Stop 4) - Wicked Reads (with REVIEW)

(Stop 5) - A Sky Filled with Sparkling Stars

(Stop 6) - Addicted 2 Romance

(Stop 7) - Southern Yankee Book Reviews (with REVIEW)

(Stop 8) - Books & Spoons (with REVIEW)

(Stop 9) - Diana's Book Reviews

(Stop 10) - Hines and Bigham's Literary Tryst (with REVIEW)

 

Want to see the rest of the blog tour schedule? Click here.

Last Day for CALLED UP Preorder Giveaway Entries

Called UpPre-Order Giveaway CALLED UP releases TOMORROW! And to celebrate some really great ARC reviews, I've been doing a preorder giveaway for the last couple of weeks.

I’ll be giving away a $25 AMAZON GIFT CERTIFICATE to a lucky winner (along with a couple of other prizes).

 

 

So head on over to one of the following e-retailers:

Amazon: http://bit.ly/CalledUpAZ B&N: http://bit.ly/CalledUpBN iBooks: http://bit.ly/CalledUpIB Kobo: href="http://bit.ly/CalledUpKobo

And once you’ve done that, fill out the form at http://bit.ly/2b2nMW1 and tell me all about it. PLUS, there are additional ways to enter on that page. The giveaway ends TONIGHT (Sunday, August 28, 2016) at 11:59 p.m. Good luck!

FB Party: The Lineup

Have you RSVP'd yet for Monday night's Sweet & Sexy Release Day Facebook Party that Rachel Lacey, Lisa Marie Perry and I are hosting in celebration of our books coming out this week? If not, join in now at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1614567405521101/ There will be great prizes, including the grand prize of a $75 Amazon gift card. And the lineup is incredible. Check it out:

7:00pm - Welcome (Rachel, Lisa and myself) 7:10pm - Debbie Mason 7:30pm - Rachel Lacey 7:50pm - Shannon Stacey 8:10pm - Maisey Yates 8:30pm - Nicole Helm 8:50pm - Me! 9:10pm - Molly O'Keefe 9:30pm - Elizabeth Hayley 9:50pm - Jessica Linden 10:10pm - Lisa Marie Perry

There's also an "Invite a Guest" pre-party giveaway on the Discussion tab (direct link here: http://bit.ly/2aqNwyP) where we have three $5 gift cards up for grabs.

Need that RSVP link again? Here you go: https://www.facebook.com/events/1614567405521101/

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14 Free Books!

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Instafreebie_Steamy_1x1 I'm so happy to be part of a group giveaway beginning today over at Instafreebie. LAST CALL, a short story that introduces readers to Inspiration, Iowa, is part of the "14 Free Steamy Romances" giveaway running through Thursday, 9/1. (LAST CALL itself isn't steamy, I'm sorry to say, but the series it intros is! :) ) Here's the full line-up, along with the freebie links. Enjoy!

Tease by Alexis Anne

Anywhere with You by Heatherly Bell

Sass by Laramie Briscoe

King Takes Queen by Monica Corwin

Welcome to Cypress Corners by JoMarie DeGioia

Last Call by Jen Doyle

Stockholm Diaries, Caroline by Rebecca Hunter

Wrecked (Studs in Spurs) by Cat Johnson

The Wedding Week by Julia Kelly

Dissident by Cecilia London

Personal Geography by Tamsen Parker

Tease by Tracy Reed

A Good Game by D. D. Shaw

Protecting His Heart by Dana Volney

 

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Release Day is Just Around the Corner!

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That's right! Except for that whole pesky deadline thing, August 29 has seemed reeeeaaaalllllyyyy far away. Until, um, just now. Because CALLED UP releases on Monday!!!!! So, to build a little excitement:

Last Call_smallerONE day from now... You'll begin to see announcements for an incredible group giveaway I'm part of through Instafreebie. There will be fourteen awesome FREE short stories/novellas/books available, including LAST CALL, my short story intro to Inspiration, Iowa. (Hint: Deke makes a cameo appearance.) So if you haven't had a chance to get a copy of that yet, now you will.

IMG_5654TWO days from now... Well, okay, two days from now I'll be taking a breather in anticipation of a fantastic upcoming couple of weeks and will therefore be hanging out with the fam at the beach. I'll post pictures. :) But I'll also post some specifics about next week's Facebook party. Stay tuned...

Called UpPre-Order GiveawayTHREE days from now... Is the last day of my preorder giveaway. Have you had a chance to enter yet? There's still time. But not much. So head over to http://bit.ly/2b2nMW1 and enter to win a $25 Amazon gift card.

 

AND THEN, drumroll please...

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RELEASE DAY ON MONDAY 8/29!!!!! And there's so much happening!

So rest up, folks. Because it's going to be a great few days!

 

 

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On Becoming A Writer -- Another Throwback Thursday Blog Post

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CI + CU Take 2 _6-17-16_for-WebThis post originally appeared on Everafter Romance on Feb. 12, 2016. I became a writer on November 6, 2001 at approximately 8:45 p.m.

Although I’m a rabid Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan, I didn’t begin watching it until it went into syndication in September 2001. By the time the musical came along I was hooked. So there I was, along with all the other Buffy fans in the world watching it air (because, of course, back then everyone actually watched when the shows were on), and I realized that one of my favorite characters wasn’t there. Having become a shipper before knowing the definition of the term, I realized with dismay that my man was gone.

So out I went onto the Interwebs, trying to find out what had happened. And, apparently, he had gone and gotten himself addicted to vampires. Not the future I had in mind.

Completely unable to grasp this new reality, I kept on searching and I came across this thing called—What? Fan fiction?

Like as in fans writing their own stories? Did they not have anything better to do?

But, you know, some of it was good. Some of it was actually amazing. And in some of it, my favorite character (okay, okay—if you know Buffy at all you know by now that, yes, I am one of the 342 people in the world who define themselves as a Buffy/Riley shipper; bear with me, however) had a much better ending than the one on the show. Still not the ending I wanted; much better, however.

Screen Shot 2016-08-18 at 8.56.40 PMAnd yet, as November turned into December, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I found myself inspired. I’d found my muse, it appeared, although I had no idea at the time that that’s what it was called.

A story came alive in my head.

I’d never written before. Not fiction, at least. Not that wasn’t required in Freshman English, that is. Yet the words poured out of me. They flowed from my head to my hands.

It wasn’t perfect. In fact, it kind of sucked. But it was there.

On January 17, 2002, I put it out into the world. It was one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever done. Never had I done something so instinctually. I was a perfectionist, a planner. (That was back before I had three kids.) I liked to be behind the scenes, not out in front. And here was a universe that I’d barely begun to uncover, not to mention a discipline the rules of which I didn’t know.

On January 23rd, however, I got my first review:

A new WIP to salivate and obsess over. The first four chapters…have me in an absolute lather to see the rest.

Shazaam. A writer was born.

My path may have been different from that of other authors—though, also, likely the same as some. Thirteen years later, I am proud to say that my debut book was published by Carina Press in April 2016. And I'm so happy to be sharing this ride with you.

CALLED UP named TRR Top Pick!

OhWowOhWowOhWOW!!!! I just got the news today that CALLED UP was named a TRR (The Romance Reviews) Top Pick! From Delta's 5 STAR review:

I just love Ms. Doyle's lighthearted yet delicious voice, her fabulous blend of humor and heat that of a much more seasoned author (did I mention this was only her second book?). She has earned a spot on my auto-buy list, and I'm super excited for the next story in this über excellent series!

Bottom Line: CALLED UP gets a big YAAAAAAASSSS from this reviewer! If you dig well written, sweet, funny and erotic romance with a firm HEA, do yourself a favor and pick this series up!

(Read the full review here.)

I won't lie. Book Two was a tough one to write. I can't even begin to say what this means to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you, to Delta and The Romance Reviews!

The Romance Review

 

Reviews of CALLING IT

I feel so very honored to have received so many awesome reviews for CALLING IT, my debut book with Carina Press. I thought I'd collect some of the best ones here so they'd be in one place. Check them out below. (And if you're interested in taking a chance on a new author, you can buy CALLING IT at Amazon and other e-retailers.) Thank you!

Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews Purest Delight Award"Calling It grabbed my heart from the start and didn’t let go. I enjoyed every crazy, funny, emotional, heart-warming minute of it and I can’t wait to read the next one in this series!" ~ 4.5 stars ~ Guilty Pleasures ~ Read full review

“Ms. Doyle’s fresh writing just lit a fuse that I didn’t want to end. I’m in awe that CALLING IT is her first novel. She absolutely killed it!” ~ The Romance Reviews ~ Read full review

TRR Top Pick“I am STUNNED that this is a debut book for this author. She honestly couldn’t have written it any better. I cannot wait for the next one. This author just became an auto-buy for me. I can’t wait for more, but in the meantime…YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK!!” ~ A+ ~ Smitten with Reading ~ Read full review

"Sweet, hot and easy reading – I am hoping that Ms. Doyle will be revisiting their friends and giving us their happily ever afters too." ~ 4.5 "awesome" stars ~ Wicked Reads ~ Read full review

"Author Jen Doyle definitely hits a home run in her first at-bat with her debut, Calling It. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun 😉) Jen’s a fresh and welcome new voice in the romance genre and I look forward to reading more from her soon!" ~ Polished Bookworm ~ Read full review

"This must be one of the sweetest romances I’ve read lately. And it’s got everything. Small town, tight knit families, sports--even the mention of hockey which is my favorite--flings and secret glances that’ll probably be revealed in their own books, a charming hero and a librarian heroine. I mean, c’mon, if this is not the recipe for a damn good book, then I don’t know what is. ... I’m adding five big spoonfuls of this sexy, sweet romance into my hodgepodge and contemplate on who might do the naughty with whom in the future books that I wish were already here." ~ Lady Muslin Myst's Mysterious Hodgepodge ~ Read full review

""Calling It' by Jen Doyle is a fun, light romance that has a sexy Hero and a sweet heroine. It is sure to make any reader feel good and happy. ... I would certainly recommend this if you are looking for a story that has a great sense of family, love and growth.  Oh, and a bit of baseball heroes too!" ~ Cat's Reviews ~ Read full review

 

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My Love Affair With Baseball

TBT of another kind... As I gear up for the release date of CALLED UP (25 days away, but who's counting?), I thought I'd share this post that I wrote back in April for the Carina Press blog. Here goes:

There’s something about baseball that has always appealed to me. The crisp green grass, the crack of the bat, the way those baseball pants fit so well…

Buster-PoseyBaseball pants aside, some of my most vivid memories revolve around baseball, starting when the Red Sox and Yankees played the AL East tie-breaker in 1978, my parents and their friends cheering as they crowded around our tiny little TV.

Baseball was always a part of our life growing up. My mom came from a Brooklyn Dodgers family—the family legend is that her uncle moved to L.A. specifically to express his displeasure from the stands of Dodger Stadium. My dad, on the other hand, was a Yankees fan through and through, raising his three daughters to be the same.

Ron Guidry and Bucky Dent were my first celebrity crushes (just barely inching out Mark Harmon in his 240-Robert days), but it was Thurman Munson who I truly fell in love with. Despite the awards he racked up—Rookie of the Year, three-time Gold Glove Award, and seven-time All-Star, just to name a few—his being the first Team Captain since Lou Gehrig was what truly hooked me. The respect of teammates and management alike spoke to me not just of his talent, but of his humility and love for the game and for his team.

Despite this history, in real life, I managed to fall in love with a Red Sox fan. Although his allegiances weren’t unexpected—my husband grew up in Boston, after all—it came as a blow to my family. And I had no intention of converting.

Sure, we moved to Boston. Sure, we went to Fenway Park regularly. But me, a Sox fan? No way.

Flash forward to 2003. On that fateful October night, as I watched Aaron Boone hit his walk-off home-run and felt that bone-crushing disappointment, I realized I’d succumbed. Because I, like the rest of Red Sox Nation, had believed that maybe this time they would win.

IMG_5936They didn’t; not that night. But the Red Sox of 2004 were an entirely different ballgame. (Yes, I went there.) Damon, Lowe, Ortiz… Although the list goes on, it wasn’t any one individual—it was the team. It was everything baseball should be.

And on that October night when the Red Sox beat the Yankees in their historic win—when my dad called my husband and their conversation was the very definition of sportsmanship—I realized I’ve been blessed to have these men I love up close and the men I love from afar. And that writing CALLING IT gave me the chance to put my love affair into words.

How about you? Is it the crack of the bat that gets your heart racing? The pants? Do tell…

(See the original post at: http://carinapress.com/blog/2016/04/my-love-affair-with-baseball/)

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August Release Blitz & Giveaway

On the first day of August, my true love said to me...I'm so happy to be in the great company of some amazing  authors who all have new books coming out in August. Rachel Lacey, Jessica Linden, and Lisa Marie Perry are all beginning new series, while Bronwen Evans, Codi Gary, Annie Rains and myself have new installments in currently running series. And in honor of this release blitz, we're giving away a $50 gift certificate to the e-retailer of your choice. All you need to do is head on over to Rafflecopter to enter. Good luck, and happy reading!

August 2: Rock With You, by Rachel Lacey Amazon | B&N | More info and links...

Welcoming the Bad Boy, by Annie Rains Amazon | B&N | Google Play | iBooks | Kobo

August 16: Hero of Mine, by Codi Gary Amazon

A Taste of Seduction, by Bronwen Evans Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon Ca | Amazon Aust | Nook | iBooks | Kobo | Google Play

August 29: Called Up, by Jen Doyle Amazon | B&N | iBooks | Kobo

August 30: Fight for Me, by Jessica Linden Amazon | B&N | Kobo

Meant to be Mine, by Lisa Marie Perry Amazon | B&N | iBooks | Kobo

Run to You, by Rachel Lacey Amazon | B&N | More info & links...

 

 

 

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Harlequin Junkie Spotlight

Screen Shot 2016-06-19 at 10.03.32 PM Going back through some old links and I thought I'd share one of my favorite memories of the CALLING IT release blitz: being highlighted on Harlequin Junkie. With questions ranging from "Random Facts" to "Did any scene have you crying or laughing (or blushing) while writing it?" I got the chance to really think about different aspects of the writing process. If you didn't have a chance to read it back in April, you can check it out now at: http://harlequinjunkie.com/spotlight-giveaway-calling-it-by-jen-doyle/  

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The Only Way I Take the Bed...

Screen Shot 2016-06-18 at 7.53.16 PMSo, as I mentioned, oh, a month ago, I've been trying to catch up on everything that has happened in the two months since the release of CALLING IT, and one thing I wanted to call attention to was this awesome fan art by The Lusty Literate. I am in awe of people who can take a snippet of text--the right snippet of text--put it together with a photo, and make it into the perfect bite, for lack of a better word. The Lusty Literate was part of the blog tour I did with Tasty Book Tours, and I am again so very appreciative of everyone who took part in that. If you have a chance, stop by and say thank you for me.

Author Spotlight on Anna Harrington's Blog

My very dear friend Anna Harrington is an author of historical romance, with three books out at the moment: Dukes are Forever, Along Came A Rogue, and How I Married A Marquess. I was so honored to Screen Shot 2016-05-23 at 10.54.40 PMbe the first in her "Author Spotlight" series (I'm the featured author for May).

The interview starts off with:

Anna: What would readers be surprised to find out about you?

Jen: That I can’t talk about sex. I can write the hell out of it, but to actually talk about it with anyone? Nope.

...And it goes from there. ;)

Read the rest on her website!

Thank you, Tasty Book Tours!

So it's been quite a crazy month and a half since CALLING IT released on April 11. I have to admit, I was a bit unprepared. But rather than lament all the things I did wrong, I thought I'd focus on the things I did right--and one of those was working with Tasty Book Tours and all of the wonderful bloggers that took part in my virtual tour in April. Because I have some catch up to do, over the next few weeks I'll be posting links to some of the interviews I did there as well as some of the reviews because I think they might have gotten buried what with everything that was going on. But I look forward to working with them again in August when CALLED UP (i.e., Book 2 ;) ) is released.

In the meantime, I thought I'd leave this screen shot here of all of the incredible bloggers that reviewed and promo'd CALLING IT, whether they were fans of the book or not. I've written a bunch of reviews in my time and, frankly, sucked at it. I'm in awe of those who do it all the time.

And a special thank you to Lisa at TBT. What a great way to start out this journey.

 

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What They Mean To Me...

As I had mentioned in last week's post about tonight's Facebook Party (join us from 7:30 - 10:30 p.m. at https://www.facebook.com/events/1769646836591549/), each of the guest authors has some significance to me. For the past week and a half, I've been posting on my author page about each of the guests, but I thought I'd pull it all together here. (Note, the posts got shorter as time went on and release day got closer--thank you, Real Life. So don't go reading anything into that, LOL.) In order of appearance at the party, here's the lineup:

7:30 p.m.: Marina Adair Marina is up first because she's one of the first authors I read when I began reading romance, and she pulled me right in.

I, like many others out there, had a skewed view of what a romance novel was. So when I came upon Kissing Under the Mistletoe, the first in Marina's St. Helena Vineyard series, I was utterly delighted and surprised by the amazing heroine, the great cast of characters, and the humor throughout the book. (O.k., yes, Gabe, too. :) ) I devoured each book in the series, albeit slowing down after the first three as I didn't want it to end. Kissing Under the Mistletoe was one of the books that changed my entire outlook about the genre (and, with my first book published today, my actual life).

And then I met Marina in person at the 2015 RWA conference, and she was/is as incredible in person as I had wanted her to be. Not only did she provide encouragement to an as-yet-unsigned author each time she saw me--and remembered me!--during the conference, she has been an incredible support to me since then despite her own hectic schedule. It was an incredible honor that she read my book and gave me a wonderful comment that I've heralded far and wide, and an even more incredible honor that she enthusiastically agreed to be a guest author at my release day Facebook party.

7:50 p.m.: Lisa Marie Perry The next step along the journey to publication was writing something that was actually publishable. (Um, because the first manuscript, at 360K words, was decidedly not.) And, since this was the beginning of Calling It, you are likely well aware that Nate Hawkins, the hero of the book, is a baseball player. Thus a sports romance was born.

Lisa is the author of The Blue Dynasty series, which follows the Las Vegas Slayers football team. One More Night With You, the fifth and last book in the series, was just recommended as a "must-read romance" by USA Today. She has several other novels coming out soon, all of which you can read about on her website. I first (virtually) met Lisa as a member of the incredibly supportive ‪#‎TeamSarah‬, i.e., the group of authors represented by the awesome Sarah E. Younger (Nancy Yost Literary Agency).

8:10 p.m.: Nicole Michaels Guest Author #3 (and CALLING IT Facebook Party co-host) is another ‪#‎TeamSarah‬ member, Nicole Michaels. Nicole is also a fellow contemporary romance writer and the author of the amazing Hearts and Crafts series. (Her latest, Draw Me Close, is getting some rave reviews. Among other things, it was chosen by Amazon as one of the Best Romance Books of the Month in March.)

Nicole, herself is also awesome--without her generosity and support, I truly don't think the Facebook Party would be happening. And that would be so very sad (because it, too, is going to be awesome.)

8:30 p.m.: Adriana Anders I met Adriana at the NJ RWA Conference in 2014--the NJ RWA conference, incidentally, where I pitched to four people, one of whom would become my agent, and one of whom would become my publisher (Carina Press). But neither of those things would have happened if Adriana hadn't been with me when the slot for my agent-to-be became available and, as I sat on the fence (thinking, "I'm not ready! I'm not ready!"), Adriana gave me a push right off ("Are you kidding, girl? Of course you're ready!"). And the rest is history.

Adriana's debut, the first book in her Soucebooks Casablanca series, Blank Canvas, will be out in January 2017.

8:50 p.m.: Jennifer Hallock The next (Facebook Party Guest Author) batter up is Jennifer Hallock. Jennifer is a fellow member of the New England Chapter of the RWA and the author of Under the Sugar Sun and Hotel Oriente, both set in the Phillippines in the early 20th century. Although I am a proud member of the NJ chapter (and that was the first chapter I belonged to), it very quickly became clear that I needed some local peeps. At one of my first ever meetings of the chapter, I had the chance to hang out afterwards with Jennifer and a few others and it was like coming home. I truly could not have been blessed with a more welcoming and supportive crowd, with Jennifer at the helm. (Of course, I seem to find myself saying that with just about every post, but it's true. The romance author community is, I think, one of the best professional communities that there is.)

9:10 p.m.: Melissa Cutler Like Marina Adair and Shannon Stacey, Melissa was one of the authors that pulled me into the genre when I first started reading romance. Her Catcher Creek series is one of my favorites of all time, and I can still vividly recall some of the scenes from those books (which, given that I tend to read at least one book every few days, is saying something). So it felt like fate when I was trolling around the Interwebs and trying to figure out exactly how to go about hosting a Facebook Party that I found a post she'd written detailing that very thing. Having also met her at RWA, I thought I'd take a chance and ask if she'd take part in my release day party--and here we are.

Melissa's latest, One Hot Summer, just came out this week.

9:30 p.m.: Joanna Shupe I met Joanna at one of my first conferences and she has been another amazingly helpful and supportive fellow author (answering questions as basic as, "Um, is there a standard number of lines I'm supposed to have between where I say 'Chapter X' and the first line of the chapter?").

Her debut series, Wicked Deceptions, earned some rave reviews and her second series The Knickerbocker Club, is heading along the same path. (Magnate, the first in the series [available 4/26] has been given starred reviews by both Library Journal and Publishers Weekly *and* has been named an RT Book Reviews Top Pick.)

9:50 p.m.: Sheryl Lister Another member of ‪#‎TeamSarah‬, I met Sheryl in person at last year's RWA conference in NYC. As with so many of my fellow authors, she was so incredibly welcoming of me into the group that it felt like I'd come home. (And her love of Canva is catching!) Sheryl writes contemporary and inspirational romance, as well as romantic suspense. Her latest, Tender Kisses, came out in March.

10:10 p.m.: Shannon Stacey And the last, but most definitely not least, is Shannon Stacey. As with Marina Adair and Melissa Cutler, Shannon's books were among the first I read when I started reading romance--and among those that sucked me right in. The extended Kowalski family and their [you name it] of DOOM feels like a part of my own family.

But it's not just the reading of her books, it's also that Shannon has been yet another amazingly supportive author along the way. From her encouraging words after I pitched my book at NJ RWA's Agent/Editor sessions, to her support along the way, it is an incredible honor to be joining her as one of Carina Press's authors.

Shannon has several books out this year, the latest of which is Fully Ignited, the third in the Boston Fire series.

Designated Hitter: Anna Harrington Anna is, yes, another member of ‪#‎TeamSarah‬ (also awesome). I met her at RWA's 2015 conference in NYC, at a reception for NYLA's authors. We headed out for a "quick bite" of pizza and, four hours (and a couple of slices PLUS one conversation about Buffy the Vampire Slayer) later, couldn't deny that we were kindred spirits. And, since that time, she has encouraged, commiserated, supported, and been one of my biggest cheerleaders--i.e., pretty much everything one could hope for in a fellow author and friend.

Anna was recently named All About Romance's Best Debuting Author in 2015.