Exclusive Excerpt #2: Ashley's Dream by B.R. Kingsolver

Hello readers!

The holiday season is over I suppose, and everyone went back to work today.  But, I'm still giving out presents!  Remember that I told you I would share 4 excerpts of Ashley's Dream by B.R. Kingsolver?  Well, here is excerpt #2.  Enjoy:)

Can a woman have both love and her dreams?

Ashley isn't looking for love. Her dream is to travel the world, and getting tied down by a man doesn't fit into her plans. Relationships always get so complicated, and men always lie. It's better just to have some fun and no one gets hurt. 

After graduating university, she doesn’t get the job offer she hopes for, so it's life as usual, working as the manager of a college town bar and spending time with her friends. But life doesn’t always go the way you plan, and the next thing Ashley knows, she has two hot roommates interested in her. She likes them both, but is it love or just infatuation? She always seems to make decisions that break her heart. 

When the job offer she has always wanted arrives, her heart is torn between love and following her dream. 

Buy links:

http://www.amazon.com/Ashleys-Dream-BR-Kingsolver-ebook/dp/B00RARA06K/

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ashleys-dream-br-kingsolver/1120951493?ean=2940150140974

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/503876

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23556381-ashley-s-dream

EXCERPT:

When Jeff came over after his softball game, I still had a lot of anger and resentment that I hadn’t taken out on Marcie. I didn’t even know it was there until I had another convenient target.

He pulled me into his arms and kissed me, but I pulled away. Walking away from him, I said, “Why didn’t you tell me you were rich? Or that your father’s company is Owens, Hart and Collins?”

“You never asked me. Why, is it important?”

“I guess it isn’t if this is just a temporary fling. I just think it’s polite to let a girl know that you’re never going to take her home to meet your parents. It sort of puts everything in perspective so that she can decide whether or not she’s comfortable just being a casual fuck.”

“Ashley, what is going on? I’m not trying to hold anything back from you. We hardly know each other.”

“Yeah. I was asked earlier today, what your last name is and I didn’t know it. My fault, I guess. Normally you find that sort of thing out on a first date, but I guess we haven’t had our first date yet, have we? We just jumped into the fucking part and left the introductions for later.”

“I’m not the one who did the seducing,” he said. “I told you that we should wait. You’re the one who was hot to trot, and now that’s my fault? You’re being incredibly ungrateful. I think you’ve got issues, and I’m more than willing to let you work them out. Good night.”

He didn’t exactly slam the door, but he didn’t close it gently, either. I stood staring at it with my mouth open. What the hell just happened? The last thing I wanted to do was fight with Jeff. When he knocked on the door, my heart jumped in my chest, and I skipped to the door to answer it. And then I opened my mouth, and the same bitchy crap I’d laid on Marcie earlier came spilling out.

Exclusive Excerpt #1: Ashley's Dream by B.R. Kingsolver

Hello my readers!

B.R. Kingsolver, the author of a great new contemporary romance/new adult, has shared with me four exclusive excerpts.  And I'm going to share them with you as a little holiday gift!

Can a woman have both love and her dreams?

 

Ashley isn't looking for love. Her dream is to travel the world, and getting tied down by a man doesn't fit into her plans. Relationships always get so complicated, and men always lie. It's better just to have some fun and no one gets hurt. 

After graduating university, she doesn’t get the job offer she hopes for, so it's life as usual, working as the manager of a college town bar and spending time with her friends. But life doesn’t always go the way you plan, and the next thing Ashley knows, she has two hot roommates interested in her. She likes them both, but is it love or just infatuation? She always seems to make decisions that break her heart. 

When the job offer she has always wanted arrives, her heart is torn between love and following her dream. 

 

Buy links:

http://www.amazon.com/Ashleys-Dream-BR-Kingsolver-ebook/dp/B00RARA06K/

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ashleys-dream-br-kingsolver/1120951493?ean=2940150140974

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/503876

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23556381-ashley-s-dream

EXCERPT:

Marcie flew in to Denver on Friday and drove up to Fort Collins that afternoon. We had dinner together at the bar and then I went back to work. She showed up at my place the next morning at nine, and I would have killed her if she hadn’t had a key and been quiet about it. She let herself in, and though I woke up, I fell back to sleep when she didn’t come into my room.

The smell of bacon and fresh coffee woke me the second time. I staggered into the kitchen and watched in a daze as she shoveled pancakes and bacon on a plate and set it on the table.

“Eat,” she said, pouring coffee in a mug and setting it beside my plate. God, I thought, she’s going to make someone a great wife. As I ate, I decided that it should be me.

“Will you marry me?” I asked.

She threw back her head and laughed. “We might as well, considering our luck with men.”

We finished breakfast and I showed her my new clothes.

“Kind of a bummer,” I said, modeling one of the dresses. “I look gorgeous, but I don’t have anyone to wear them for.”

“Get Tyrell trained,” she said. “Things can’t be that busy during the summer. We should go out when I’m home.”

“How much longer are you going to keep the apartment here?” I asked. I knew it had to be a pain driving up here from Denver every week.

“I don’t know,” she said. “The lease is up next month. But from what they’re telling me, I’ll probably be on the road, either working on audits or project work, for the next couple of years. Some people do that their whole careers.”

She watched me change and then said, “You know, we could get a two or three bedroom place for less than we spend on two singles.”

I looked around. I’d had the apartment for a year, since Marcie left the previous summer for her internship in New York. I wasn’t particularly attached to it. We’d lived together for four years, and were comfortable together.

“Do we have to get a bunch of cats?”

I didn’t think it was that funny, but she laughed until tears ran down her cheeks.

Release Day Launch: Breaking the Rules by Katie McGarry

 

We are so excited to bring you the Release Day launch for Katie McGarry's BREAKING THE RULES! BREAKING THE RULES is a Young Adult contemporary romance published by Harlequin Teen, and is the follow-up book to Katie's PUSHING THE LIMITS. You do not want to miss Noah and Echo's story! Grab it today!

 

Amazon ** Barnes & Noble ** Books-A-Million ** Kobo ** iBooks ** Google Play

  BREAKING THE RULES Synopsis: A summer road trip changes everything in this unforgettable new tale from acclaimed author Katie McGarry. For new high school graduate Echo Emerson, a summer road trip out west with her boyfriend means getting away and forgetting what makes her so . . . different. It means seeing cool sights while selling her art at galleries along the way. And most of all, it means almost three months alone with Noah Hutchins, the hot, smart, soul-battered guy who's never judged her. Echo and Noah share everything--except the one thing Echo's just not ready for. But when the source of Echo's constant nightmares comes back into her life, she has to make some tough decisions about what she really wants--even as foster kid Noah's search for his last remaining relatives forces them both to confront some serious truths about life, love, and themselves. Now, with one week left before college orientation, jobs and real life, Echo must decide if Noah's more than the bad-boy fling everyone warned her he'd be. And the last leg of an amazing road trip will turn . . . seriously epic.

And don’t forget to read the first books in the Pushing the Limits Series…

PUSHING THE LIMITS

CROSSING THE LINE

DARE YOU TO

CRASH INTO YOU

TAKE ME ON

    About Katie McGarry: Katie McGarry was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan. Katie is the author of full length YA novels, PUSHING THE LIMITS, DARE YOU TO, CRASH INTO YOU, TAKE ME ON, BREAKING THE RULES, and NOWHERE BUT HERE and the e-novellas, CROSSING THE LINE and RED AT NIGHT. Her debut YA novel, PUSHING THE LIMITS was a 2012 Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction, a RT Magazine's 2012 Reviewer's Choice Awards Nominee for Young Adult Contemporary Novel, a double Rita Finalist, and a 2013 YALSA Top Ten Teen Pick. DARE YOU TO was also a Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction and won RT Magazine’s Reviewer’s Choice Best Book Award for Young Adult Contemporary fiction in 2013.

Website | Twitter @KatieMcGarry | Facebook | Goodreads | Pinterest | Tumbler | Instagram

 

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Review: The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Summary: Wanted: 
One young woman to take care of four-year-old boy. Must be cheerful, enthusiastic and selfless--bordering on masochistic. Must relish sixteen-hour shifts with a deliberately nap-deprived preschooler. Must love getting thrown up on, literally and figuratively, by everyone in his family. Must enjoy the delicious anticipation of ridiculously erratic pay. Mostly, must love being treated like fungus found growing out of employers Hermès bag. Those who take it personally need not apply. Who wouldn'twant this job? Struggling to graduate from NYU and afford her microscopic studio apartment, Nanny takes a position caring for the only son of the wealthy X family. She rapidly learns the insane amount of juggling involved to ensure that a Park Avenue wife who doesn't work, cook, clean, or raise her own child has a smooth day.  When the Xs' marriage begins to disintegrate, Nanny ends up involved way beyond the bounds of human decency or good taste. Her tenure with the X family becomes a nearly impossible mission to maintain the mental health of their four-year-old, her own integrity and, most importantly, her sense of humor. Over nine tense months, Mrs. X and Nanny perform the age-old dance of decorum and power as they test the limits of modern-day servitude.  Written by two former nannies, The Nanny Diaries deftly punctures the glamour of Manhattan's upper class.

Characters: Uh, I think I listened to the abridged version because Harvard Hottie never appeared.  So, I wonder how much of the story I missed. Stupid CD didn't even list the story's duration! Anyway, Nan is a fantastic nanny. Not only does she raise little Greyer who is ever so cute, but she deals with that witch Mrs. X.  Her thoughts are smart and funny, depicting the wealthy housewives in a sardonic light.  Very entertaining.  You'll want to give Mr. and Mrs. X a nice slap in the face because they are terrible, terrible parents.  I don't understand why people who care more about themselves have children.  I'm no parent, so I guess my opinion doesn't count for much, and I can expect the hate to come flooding in.

Plot: I had seen the movie before I started, so I wasn't shocked about anything, not like chick lit is very heavy on the plot.  It's realistic and fun.

Sequel: Nanny Returns takes place when Greyer is a teen and Nan is married to H. H.  I know the ratings are a bit low on goodreads for all of Emma and Nicola's books, but I still want to read them all.  The ladies are super sweet, and their books are so light and easy to read.

Would I recommend it to a friend? Yes, I thought this book was pretty funny with a lovable narrator and child.  There is something special about it, thus so many have read it.

View all my reviews