This Week's Free Read! A Taste of Honey

So, last Friday was Bealtaine--one of the cross-quarter holidays that fall between the equinoxes and solstices. Bealtaine celebrations are all about fertility, marriage, growth, abundance, etc. And I was surprised by how many of the people I mentioned it to had never heard of it. 

But then again, I'd grown up with the soundtrack from Camelot playing in the background (basically on repeat) ALL. THE. TIME. Or at least that's how it felt. Not that I'm complaining. The music is great, and the lyrics--chef's kiss!

I do love it when song lyrics are clever, grammatical, AND they make sense. 

Anyway, in honor of the holiday, I'm making my Bealtaine-set Oberon book (A Taste of Honey) free for a limited time. 

It's always been one of my favorites.  Grab it while you can!

A Taste of Honey

Oberon, Book 4.0

For Lucy Greco Cavanaugh, life is a dream come true.  She has it all. The perfect family. The perfect husband. The perfect marriage. What more could she wish for?  Other than the chance to do it all again. To experience once more the agony and ecstasy of falling in love with the man of her dreams. To recapture the joy and uncertainty that comes with starting over.

As far as Dan Cavanaugh is concerned, his life has become a nightmare. His storybook marriage is on the line when Deirdre Shelton-Cooper, the runaway daughter of a former girlfriend arrives in Oberon intent on proving Dan is her father. Even though he's convinced the girl's claims are false, Dan decides his only chance to keep from losing everything lies in keeping her very existence a secret from his wife and family.

But, sometimes, what you don't know can hurt you--and those you love. When Deirdre, masquerading as a surfer girl named Monica, accidentally hooks up with their son, Seth, Lucy and Dan are left to wonder: has their perfect, fairy-tale romance, turned into a classic Greek tragedy?

Sometimes you get exactly what you wish for.  And it's more than you'd ever dreamed.

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/2srbtprmkt

Musical Monday: You Gotta Be Tough to Grow Old (Delta King's Blues)

  Okay, I gotta admit I love this song. I may have had it on repeat for a while. Yeah, that's pretty much all I have to say. It's a vibe. 

Wine Wednesday: Serial Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon (2021)

 

Oh, this was a lovely wine. There were a lot of cedar and dark fruit notes in the nose, with just a hint of sweet smoke--like candied bacon. It's a dark, full-bodied wine (typical of Paso Cabernets) without the aggressive tannins Paso Robles Zins are known for. It's a complex wine, it was quite jammy (in the best way) and yet I tasted a lot of tart cherry notes along with violets, blackberries and baking spices. I found the finish very peppery, almost like a Syrah. 

I paired this with a hearty, Sicilian pasta with eggplant. 

Musical Monday: Marry You (Bruno Mars)

  Okay, so...I'm writing a wedding story. So everything is about weddings right now. In fact, there are times when I forget that the people whose wedding I'm planning are not real. And also: no, I will not be able to attend said wedding. 

Anyway, I think this video is of the very first flash mob wedding proposal ever. Or, at least, ONE OF the first. I may have watched it many, many times when it first came out. 

The couple is still together, AFAIK. The woman in the red dress choreographed the whole thing. The gay couple are shown wearing (cheap, fake, plastic) leis because, at the time, Hawaii was one of the few (possibly the only) state where gay marriage was legal. I'm still not sure how I feel about the lyric "dancing juice" having been misinterpreted/re-imagined as "dancing jews".  I believe the family is jewish, and it gives them a chance to get in on the act, but it's a grammar thing. If I could convince myself that Bruno Mars was singing "these" instead of "this" I'd be a lot happier. 

But, even all these years later, it's still just the cutest thing!

Musical Monday: Smoke 2 Joints (Sublime)

   

It's 420. Of course I was going to post something like this. Stay blazing. 

This Week's Featured Read: The Name Game

So...this book has a bit of an interesting background. Ever since I'd introduced Kristi DiLuca in the second Games We Play book, Never Have I Ever, I'd known that someday I'd want to write her brothers' stories. But other than the fact that they're family ran the best bakery in Atlas Beach, I knew next to nothing about them. Then author Tiffany Carby put out a call for books involving sandwiches.

Coming from New Jersey--a state with its own, iconic sandwich--I knew I had to get involved. And, wouldn't you know it? I just happened to have a New Jersey based series already in the works. The title practically wrote itself. Because I wanted it to be game related and the Taylor Ham vs Taylor Pork Roll name dispute has raged up and down and across the state for a hundred and twenty years.

Because if there's one thing Jerseyites can't help but fight over, it's food. 

The Name Game

He knows what to do to save her business. She knows what he needs to fix his life!

Atlas Beach is experiencing a retail-renaissance—and Carly Meyer is determined to be part of it.  But her sandwich shop-slash-food-truck, The Lunch Box, is struggling to stay afloat.

Luckily, help is on the way thanks to the Chamber of Commerce’s innovative mentoring program—partnering successful Atlas Beach business owners with some of the newer start-ups. Too bad the mentor assigned to her is the delectable—and highly annoying—Tino DiLuca.

Tino knows exactly what’s hurting Carly’s business and—exactly how to fix it. But his number one solution, changing the name of her signature sandwich, is the one thing she’s not prepared to do.

https://books2read.com/The-Name-Game

Musical Monday: Whatever Gets You Through the Night (John Lennon & Elton John

    

I'd never seen this version before, but I kind of love it. I mean...vocally, it's rough and a little fast (?) but the energy and the HAIR are fire! The multiplicity of cuts to Yoko was an interesting editing choice.