Unwrapping a Review of RINGING IN LOVE, a Holiday for Romance novel by Peggy Bird

I love how Peggy Bird has pulled characters from her Second Chances series into her new series, Holiday for Romance. I fell in love with Tony Alessandro in TOGETHER AGAIN, book three of the Second Chances series and so in RINGING IN LOVE, a Holiday for Romance, we are treated to meeting Tony’s sister, Catherine and are introduced to a hero who could definitely rival Tony for the title of sexiest hero. Releasing today, I hope you celebrate the New Year by reading RINGING IN LOVE.

***eARC provided by author in exchange for an honest and unscripted review.

Blurb for RINGING IN LOVE:

With a business to grow and a teen-aged son to raise, Catherine Bennett doesn’t have time for a social life. Even if it is the holiday season. Besides, after her ex’s betrayal, she's not willing to open up her heart again. But when she leases office space in Dominic Russo’s building, she can’t keep her mind—or her eyes—off her new landlord. Only problem is he happens to be a known womanizer…and her professional rival.

Unfortunately for Dominic, Philadelphia’s most eligible bachelor is definitely experiencing a dry spell. He hasn’t dated in months, contrary to the rumors, yet convincing career-minded Catherine that there’s more to him than his reputation will be a challenge. Since she’s determined to focus on work, he offers her an irresistible chance at winning a huge contract if she partners with his company.

Can he show Catherine that mixing business with pleasure wouldn’t be such a bad idea this New Year’s Eve?

~*~                ~*~                ~*~                ~*~               ~*~

Catherine Bennett has focused on her business and her son for so long she’s out of practice when it comes to men. So much so that when the sexy, handsome, and very successful Dominic Russo, her greatest business competition, flirts with her, she doesn’t realize that he is doing so at all. Finally, giving in to having lunch with him after he sends her enough flowers to start her own florist shop, he awakens the sleeping sexy woman in her who has been asleep for far too long. But what does he really want? Her? Or a means to getting information about her business and her success?

The very charming, very sexy Dominic wins over her son, her assistant, and eventually, Catherine, but now he may have stolen her ideas to get the account that everyone wants. How does he prove she’s wrong about him?

Peggy Bird creates the sexiest men and I fall in love with every single one of them so yes, I fell for Dominic. She promised me a hero who would rival Tony Alessandro for my affections, and Dominic came very, very close to winning over Tony with his charm, his classy demeanor, and the way he treats a woman, but Tony still has a little somethin’ somethin’ that keeps him at the top of my list. Don’t get me wrong, Dominic Russo is to die for and I would love to be in Catherine’s shoes. Even the way he calls her ‘Ms. Bennett’ conjures the sound of Colin Firth speaking her name in my wildest imagination. Dominic is sexy…he’s seductive…he’s to die for dreamy. I thought my knees would melt out from under me when he asked Catherine how she liked to be seduced. Phew, my temperature is rising just thinking about it. And Catherine...well, she’s a fiery, business minded, beautiful Italian woman with the feminine side of the appeal that her brother, Tony, carries with confidence. She’s the perfect match for Dominic and when she gets mad, she really gets mad. It's awesome!

RINGING IN LOVE by Peggy Bird is a delightful, steamy, and sexy seductive story about two people who never expected to fall in love, never expected anything lasting but in the end, they get the sweetest, most romantic ending on New Year’s Eve. I actually found myself thinking that if I were ever blessed with a romantic New Year’s Eve like that, I’d never complain about sitting home watching the ball drop again.

I highly recommend RINGING IN LOVE, a Holiday for Romance by Peggy Bird to everyone who believes in love, a happily ever after, and how you just never know who might be your perfect match or where you might meet him. Some romances are spicy, surprising, and ultimately, the sweetest in the end. This is exactly what RINGING IN LOVE is and like when you enjoy Tiramisu, it ends with a big satisfied smile. 

Happy Reading, and to everyone – HAPPY NEW YEAR!

RINGING IN LOVE, a Holiday for Romance novel by Peggy Bird, Crimson Romance, available now in ebook formats at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobobooks.

***click on links above or cover below for purchasing information, remember even pennies per sale using my links help keep this blog alive. Thank You.

   

Tasty Review Stop on the BELIEVING AGAIN by Peggy Bird Blog Tour

Welcome to my stop on the Tasty Review Blog Tour for BELIEVING AGAIN by Peggy Bird. I am a huge fan of Peggy’s stories because she’s never let me down in conjuring sexy men that I can fall in love with, and strong vibrant women that make me wish I can be them. The wonderful couple, in BELIEVING AGAIN, is no exception but this time, she’s added a twist. She gives us a look into the heartbreaking world of the homeless veterans who return from war and bring a piece of it with them – in their thoughts and dreams. Oh, and be sure to hang around - there's a giveaway!

***eARC provided by author in exchange for an honest and unscripted review.

Blurb for BELIEVING AGAIN:

As the youngest woman ever to make detective in the Portland Police Bureau, Danny Hartmann has racked up an impressive record. It doesn’t keep her warm at night, but it does make up for feeling she’s somehow disappointed her family with her career choice. Called to the scene of the murder of a homeless veteran in a transient camp, Danny doesn’t expect it to be anything other than another case she clears.

Then she meets the man who made the 9-1-1 call and everything changes.

 Jake Abrams, a volunteer doctor at the Veterans Medical Services Clinic, doesn’t have much faith in anything other than his work and the vets he cares deeply about. Not shy about voicing his opinions, even to the cops investigating the murder of one of his patients, he annoys Danny with his snarky remarks.

However, working the case, she has to rely on Jake to help her find her way around the transient camps under the bridges and in the city’s huge wilderness park. As they work together, their attraction becomes mutual and passionate.

But Jake has demons. Like the vets he cares for, he carries scars both mental and physical from his service in the National Guard in Iraq. He fears Danny will turn from him in disgust when she discovers them. She’s afraid his experience in Iraq makes it impossible for him to love someone who does what she does for a living.

When the murderer of the homeless vets comes too close to Jake, it’ll be up to Danny to save his life. It’ll be up to their love for each other to save them both.

*               *               *               *                *

Danny Hartmann is woman who takes her job seriously. She lives, breathes, and thrills at being a cop. She long ago decided that any man who wants to be part of her life must accept this or hit the road. All of this becomes first, and foremost, in her thoughts after she meets a handsome doctor who not only takes his job as a surgeon as seriously as she does hers as a detective, but also takes caring for his patients just as seriously as she does protecting them.

Jake Abrams, a veteran himself, introduces her to a world unseen by most but currently the center of her investigation as well as the delights of a relationship with a man willing to give his all to her in the same way he does his patients. Fearful that she may lose herself in his world, his family, and his love, Danny pulls back when he tries to convince her there’s more to life than being a cop.

When the danger of the case encroaches closer to Jake and the veterans that they both try to protect, Danny must trust her skills, her instincts, and the love she’s developed for this stubborn, relentless man or risk them all losing their lives.

BELIEVING AGAIN by Peggy Bird is a poignant, action-filled, suspense romance that unlike the others in the series that are truly second chances at love, this one takes us through the beginnings of love, only to have it fall apart but then gives this matched pair a second chance at love in the end. Jake and Danny together is a match made in heaven. Each is stubborn, sharp-witted, and accepting of each other’s fears yet individuals with their own way of looking at the world. Jake reminds me very much of one of my favorite heroes created by Peggy – Tony Alessandro from TOGETHER AGAIN. Like Tony with Margo, Jake isn’t willing to give up on Danny and their happily-ever-after. Once he decides that she’s the only woman for him, he will stop at nothing, including giving her up, to prove to her that they are meant to be together. This endears Jake Abrams to me in a way that other hero-types can’t. Actions really do speak louder than words.

The suspense of the murder mystery behind the romance keeps the story tight and the reader on the edge of their seat as Danny and Sam try to find out who is shooting up the homeless camps and why the victims are all Jake’s patients. The clues are there but I was still surprised. That’s a good thing.

I highly recommend BELIEVING AGAIN, book five in the Second Chance series by Peggy Bird for anyone who loves a good suspense story, the thrill of falling in love, and experiencing those first moments in a love affair as well as the fear that it’s not going to work out. Thankfully, it does and you’ll love the way it ends. Jake is one patient man and so sensitive, you just want to hug him - all the time.

Happy Reading Everyone!

About the Author:

Born in Philly, Peggy Bird spent most of her adult life in the Pacific Northwest where she has happily grown webs between her toes and moss

behind her ears. She pursued a number of careers—nurse, legislative staffer, lobbyist, public affairs consultant, non-profit association executive, workshop teacher, oh, and mother and wife—before deciding to leave it all for what she loved through every stage of life—writing. She’s been published in anthologies, magazines, newspapers and in the brochures, newsletters, and reports of her consulting clients and employers. Unless you count speeches for politicians, she’d never written fiction until a cast of characters began inhabiting her daydreams. A glass artist and a gallery owner were there. So were a sculptor and a jewelry designer. When some dead bodies showed up, a couple of cops and a deputy DA arrived. Soon they began to fall in love with each other and work for their happy-ending. Bingo. Peggy was a romance writer.

If you’d like to learn more about Peggy Bird, please feel free to visit her website, and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Goodreads. She loves hearing from her readers.

GIVEAWAY:

Peggy is giving away a $10.00 Amazon or Barnes & Noble Gift Card to one lucky person tour wide so feel free to enter for a chance at winning – you can buy her books! Please use the rafflecopter for entry. Thanks and Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

BELIEVING AGAIN, a Second Chance novel by Peggy Bird, Crimson Romance, available in ebook formats at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobobooks.

***click on links or cover below for purchasing information

   

Unwrapping: Review of TOGETHER AGAIN, a Second Chances novel by Peggy Bird

When Peggy Bird asked me to read and review her third book in the Second Chances series, I remembered how much I enjoyed book 2, LOVING AGAIN, and so jumped at the chance. TOGETHER AGAIN did not disappoint, in fact, this is my favorite - Tony is ... well, you've to meet this guy to understand. He's definitely swoon-worthy.

***eARC provided by author in exchange for an honest and unscripted review.

Blurb for TOGETHER AGAIN:

Deputy DA Margo Keyes is looking forward to this trip with as much enthusiasm as she’d have for a root canal. There’s the Philly summer heat, the high school reunion she’d rather avoid, and the speech she’d be giving as a last-minute stand-in for her boss. Mostly there’s facing high school crush Tony Alessandro. When she’d last seen the Philly cop, he’d danced her out of his sister’s wedding reception to a dark room where he’d kissed her senseless. If his nephew hadn’t interrupted they’d have…well, who knows?

Tony had disappeared on some family errand. She went home to Portland, Oregon the next day. She hadn’t heard from him since.

However, her homecoming turns out better than expected. The reunion and the speech work out. Even better, when she and Tony pick up where they left off in that dark room, the only heat that’s unbearable is what they generate in bed.

Margo returns to Portland wondering if she and Tony have started something she might not be ready for, relieved she’s put a whole continent between them to give her breathing room to sort it. Then his work with a federal task force investigating industrial espionage brings him to Portland. And an accidental swap of messenger bags on her flight home puts her in the middle of the investigation.

Tony wants her out of the way of the bad guys and focused on him. She wants to use a secret from her past to wrap up the case. And maybe avoid having to think about what’s happening between them.

They can’t both win. Or can they?

                                               *               *              *                *               *                *         

Margo Keyes is not thrilled about her earlier than usual visit to Philadelphia. It isn't that she doesn't love her mother, or even the city she grew up in - it's because there are too many bad memories associated with Philly and she hates being reminded of them. She has no choice since she must now give a speech her boss was supposed to give with some police detective at a conference. Hoping to avoid too many folks from her past, she decides to stay in a hotel rather than with her mom. Her main reason being that she doesn't want to risk running into an old friend with whom she shared a passionate encounter in a dark room at his sister's wedding reception only to have it interrupted by his nephew and have him never return. She hasn't heard from him since. Margo has a lot surprises waiting for her in Philly and surprisingly, they're nearly all good - perhaps better than good - amazing.

Tony Alessandro has had it bad for his childhood friend and former neighbor for longer than he wishes to admit. He has arranged, with the help of Margo's mother, to get her to attend their high school reunion with the plan of being her date. His real hope is to take up where he was forced to leave off that night at his sister's reception months earlier. Trying to get a woman's attention with a continent between you is difficult enough - leave her hanging after a passion-filled encounter makes it nearly impossible. He also discovers that he's partnered with Margo for the speech to be given at the conference. He couldn't have planned it better had he tried. They would be working together all week.  

Everything comes together for Tony. Margo is having a much better week than planned and even decides to stay the full time rather than skittering back home to Portland early. The only fly in the ointment - Tony's desire to make more of this than a passionate visit. Margo fears that once reality sets in that Tony will scurry away like every other man does once they find who her father is and what he did. Her past could cause Tony problems with his career and Margo doesn't want anything to do with hurting this man who has captured her heart. Hoping to let things cool once she's returned to Portland, fate has other plans. Upon returning home, Margo discovers she's become embroiled in something sinister and the bodies are beginning to pile up in her wake. Already involved in the case, Tony comes to Portland while following the trail - the trail that leads right to Margo's front door.

Once I started reading TOGETHER AGAIN by Peggy Bird, I couldn't put it down. I had it read in so short a time that I felt guilty at not reviewing it as soon as I finished but there wasn't a slot open to do so. This fabulous, spicy, suspenseful, contemporary features a hero that will make your knees weak, your heart flutter, and have you wishing you could smack Margo right upside the head for turning this loving, honest, sexy man away. From the moment this man first appears on the street outside her mother's house, you know he's a keeper. He goes the extra mile to make Margo feel special, safe, and supported in her career, her life choices, and emotional fears, right up to the make you smile ending. If only a man like Tony were real.

Peggy has created a series that carries characters from one to the next so you never really leave them behind. I read something she wrote about TOGETHER AGAIN - she said, "I got to thinking about stories I'd heard from women friends who'd gone to a reunion and seen an old boyfriend. I started making up stories about what could happen when you saw someone you'd once loved or had a crush on. When Tony and Margo appeared in those stories, I started to write about them. It didn't work. The first, second, third tries--I'm embarrassed to say how many drafts I went through, actually--were not good. I finally put it away and moved on to Sam and Amanda (LOVING AGAIN) and a novella--Liz and Collins story, (BEGINNING AGAIN)."

Well, Peggy - you finally got it right! You got it very right!

I highly recommend TOGETHER AGAIN, book 3 in the Second Chances series by Peggy Bird, if you love fabulous romance,  a sexy man who could make any woman feel special, and an exciting plot that keeps you so engaged you don't want to put this book down for any reason. If you haven't read the rest of the series, I recommend them as well. Great characters, tension-filled suspense, spicy romance and wonderful happy second chance endings. 

Happy Reading Everyone!

TOGETHER AGAIN, a Second Chances novel by Peggy Bird, Crimson Romance, available now in ebook formats.