Book 24

I now have full details of book 24 I recently sold.

WILD NIGHTS WITH THE WICKED BOSS (Harlequin Modern Heat) will be released in December this year!

Set in Alaska, Rhys and Jade do have some interesting nights together...and Rhys does look wicked in this pic...Will confirm USA release date when I get it.

And don't forget, Rhys appears in his brother Callum's story, OVERTIME IN THE BOSS'S BED, out in June!

Another RT verdict

You heard what ROMANTIC TIMES had to say about my other June release, THREE TIMES A BRIDESMAID... earlier this week.

Here's what they say about OVERTIME IN THE BOSS'S BED.

OVERTIME IN THE BOSS’S BED (4 stars) by Nicola Marsh: Dancer Starr Merriday is jobless, homeless and penniless, and willing to do anything, including work for the man with whom she shared a wild night of passion. CEO Callum Cartwright doesn’t think Starr will take him up on his job offer, but he wants to atone for past sins. Though he’s trying to focus on his company, having the sexy dancer underfoot at work plays havoc with his concentration.
The saucy heroine is well matched to the driven alpha hero. Marsh does an admirable job of challenging her characters to confront their innermost fears and find love in the process.

Love Starr being described as saucy! And to think, I had to tone her down!

Readers at Home

The READER AT HOME conference is up and running.

Come play!

I'm appearing later today.

Three Times a Bridesmaid...

Here's what ROMANTIC TIMES magazine had to say about my upcoming release (out in the UK next week!)

THREE TIMES A BRIDESMAID … (4 stars) by Nicola Marsh: Successful events coordinator Eve Pemberton doesn’t have time for a personal life, and with the wedding of her last single friend fast approaching, she scrambles to find a date. She asks her old friend, ad exec Bryce Gibson, for help. Playing at love leads to the real thing, but can they find a way to overcome their issues and give each other a real chance? The plot’s a familiar one, but it works well here because the characters are nicely rounded and the hero in particular is very charming.

Weekend Book Club: Evernight

Another YA novel I just had to read so this week I picked up Evernight, the first in a series.

I love trying new authors: the various voices, pacing, style.

Claudia Gray's Evernight is a surprising book. For the absolute out of the blue plot twist smack bang in the middle of the book.

I didn't see it coming. And it changed the second half of the book totally!

If you think this is another predictable vampire boarding school story, think again.

What are you reading this week?

Two in a week

Hot on the heels of my Modern Heat release OVERTIME IN THE BOSS'S BED in the UK this week, I have another release hitting the shelves, TAG TEAM, in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF SPECIAL OPS ROMANCE.

I really, really loved creating these two fiery characters and think they deserve their own full story...one day...

Here's a snippet of Lee and Fox.

The woman had balls.
Big, brass cojones according to rumour circulating the ADF, though the technical terms in Coralee Keaton’s Australian Defence Force file read “brave, brilliant, resourceful.”
Garcia Diaz—Fox to anyone who wanted to walk out of his office without a permanent limp—had witnessed her demonstrate those admirable qualities first hand.
Now she was back.
To muscle in on his operation.
Again.
“Son of a bitch,” he muttered, squeezing his eyes shut, pressing the pads of his thumbs into them, wishing he could obliterate the memory of this woman and what he knew about her.
It didn’t work.
Her file was embedded in his brain: Coralee Keaton, Lee if you didn’t want a Remington 870 shotgun aimed at your head, thirty-four, joined the 4th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (Commando) after six years Army service, became part of the embedded Tactical Assault Group after 9/11.
An integral part of TAG if her results were anything to go by; this, on top of her leadership in 4 RAR (Cdo).
Was there anything the ball-breaking wonder woman couldn’t do?
A brief pounding on the door had his eyes snapping open in time to see her stride into his office, her expression a study in polite professionalism, her eyes eerily blank, as if she didn’t know him. Intimately.
“You cut your hair,” he said, throwing his pen on the stack of monotonous paperwork in front of him, peed at her intrusion yet glad for the distraction.
Coralee Keaton might be a pain in the ass to work with but her taut body, long legs and impressive D cup more than compensated for the grief.
“You cut your surveillance on the Ebola job.”
She slammed her palms on his desk, loomed over him. “It nearly botched the whole operation.”
“But it didn’t.”
Leaning back in his chair, he locked hands behind his head, thrust his chin up, his smug smile guaranteed to grate.
She reared back, her blue eyes frigid as the Yarra River on a winter’s day as she stared him down.
“You better not make the same mistake on the Ricin job.”
He’d had enough of this crap. Balling his hands into fists, he stood so fast his chair slammed into the filing cabinet behind him.
“I don’t make mistakes, Coralee.”
He deliberately used her full first name, hoping to get a rise.
It worked.
“Then what the hell am I doing here?”
“Wasting tax payers’ money?”
Stalking around the desk, he stopped a foot in front of her, invading her personal space, daring her to make an issue of it.
With a toss of her glorious shoulder length black bob, she met his taunting gaze head on.
“I’m the best there is.”
Jabbing his chest for good measure, she smirked. “And don’t you forget it.”
Like he ever could.
He’d tried to forget, dammit, tried with every rebellious cell in his body, but the memory of the last time they’d hooked up on a job was burned into his brain.

Some serious overtime

If you're in the UK, OVERTIME IN THE BOSS'S BED is out on shelves right now!

Here's a snippet from Chapter 2 to tempt you:

“Cal?”
“Yeah?”
He heard the faintest hiss of breath, before Rhys said, “It wasn’t your fault.”
Callum disconnected in a hurry, the gut-wrenching twist of sorrow deep in his gut telling him otherwise.
It was his fault, every shocking, mind-numbing moment of that night fourteen years ago.
He could forget most days, chase away his demons by submerging himself in business until the figures blurred before his eyes but it was nights like this when it all came rushing back in an agonising avalanche of horrific memories.
Rubbing a weary hand across his eyes, he shoved the phone back in his pocket, turned, scanned the crowd for the blonde.
She’d vanished.
He wanted to pick up where they’d left off, to continue their flirtation. She’d been a firecracker, he could tell. All sass and mouth. Just the type of distraction he needed right now.
Tonight, he wanted to forget.
Everything.
He’d thrown the job offer out there as a challenge, though a small part of him hoped she’d take him up on it. He needed a fill-in PA desperately, the only temp agency he trusted had no one available for eight weeks and he was seriously floundering.
Even a beautiful dancer with a smart mouth, a movie star name and a body built for ballroom rather than clerical would be better than his current predicament.
He scanned the crowd, the entrance, finally spotting her beneath a towering indoor plant near the lobby.
He should leave, head back to his hotel, find solace in pricey single malt Scotch. Instead, he found his feet veering towards her and at that moment she glanced up, tossed her dirty-blonde hair and pinned him with a curious stare.
The impact of those large blue eyes slugged him all the way to his toes.
She glowed with vitality, from the tips of her silver painted toe nails to the top of her mussed, just-out-of-bed hair.
She wasn’t his type, far from it. But there was something about her, something about her boldness that reached to him on an instinctual level.
“Is it too much to hope you’re waiting for me?”
“Way too much.”
“I asked you to hang around for me back there.”
Shrugging, she flicked a less-than-impressed stare his way. “Guess I don’t always do as I’m told, so sue me.”
Oh yeah, she was a firecracker all right, exactly what he needed tonight: hot, feisty, a world away from wallowing in memories he’d rather forget.
“Yet you’re still here?”
She cocked her head to one side, studying him. “I was waiting to say goodbye to a friend but I think she ditched me for one of those hunky waiters.”
“What? Those fake-tanned, muscle-bound Neanderthals?”
Her glossed lips curved into a smile and he couldn’t tear his gaze away.
She had the most beautiful mouth he’d ever seen: full lips, even white teeth, a smile that could make a man forget where he was and why.
“Naked himbos not your thing?”
“Himbos?”
“Male equivalent of bimbo.”
She rolled her eyes, her tolerant expression reading ‘don’t you know anything?’ as he chuckled.
“Looks like she’s a no-show.”
She pushed off from the monstrous terracotta pot where she’d propped, partially hidden amid the lush foliage of a palm, and it hit him all over again how utterly beguiling this woman was.
It had little to do with the sexily mussed blonde hair hanging half way down her back, the wide shimmering blue eyes or the saucy smile curving her lips, more to do with the aura of vibrancy that shimmered and danced around her, intriguing for a guy like him who focussed on business all the time.
He’d never met anyone like her, only dated well-dressed, well-heeled, well-put-together socialites who played things cool.
Starr Merriday was hot, the antithesis of every woman he’d ever been with and he couldn’t walk away.

Succinct

Nobody says it better than Jenny Crusie.

I adore her books, her humour and her succinct way of putting things.

Read this.

Interesting words as always.

Weekend Book Club: Looking for Alaska

I'm on a real YA kick at the moment, reading across the range so when I heard several recommendations for this book, I had to snap it up.

The title itself intrigued me. At first, I thought it referred to the place I honeymooned and hence holds a special place in my heart, Alaska.

But no, John Green's Alaska is a teenage girl, a wild one at that.

I can sum up the story in 4 words.

Real.

Gritty.

Raw.

Powerful.

Published in 2005, it won the Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in Young Adult literature, was a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize, and received many other accolades.

After reading it, I'm not surprised.

What are you reading this week?

Please give generously

Click HERE to donate!

It's almost that time of year, when the amazing Brenda Novak runs her charity auction to raise money for kids with diabetes.

I've participated the last few years, with one lovely writer bidding an amazing sum of money to have me critique her partial last year.

This year, I'm offering a critique of a Romance or Modern Heat first chapter. Any takers?

Once again, Brenda has a truly mind-boggling array of auction items for writers, readers and everyone interested in supporting this worthwhile charity.

So make a note in your diary and may the best bids win!

Deseo

My Navy SEAL gets another outing this month!

Are those pecs for real?

Roll over and one fell out

Changes afoot in our household last night.

Toddler moved from cot to his 'big' bed. And it is a big bed, a queen futon.

He loved it, very excited and fell asleep in a heart beat while mum? More than a little sad my 'baby' is growing up way too quick!

Despite lining both sides of the floor with cushions just in case he rolled off, I still didn't get much sleep worrying about him. And yep, 5am this morning, found him lying on the cushions.

Today, I need to go buy some of those side railings so I can get some much needed sleep!

Weekend Book Club: The Lost Symbol

I've had Dan Brown's THE LOST SYMBOL on my TBR pile for a while so decided to delve into it this week.

The good thing? I'd heard absolutely NO reviews about this book. Not that I pay much attention to reviews (except those lovely reviewers who adore my books!) as reading is so subjective, but a huge author like Dan? There are bound to be loads of opinions.

Once again, the book is entirely plot driven. We don't get much of a feel for the characters at all, which would usually bother me but with a cracking plot, it didn't.

I enjoyed it.

(Though guessing the identity of the bad guy early on in the book kinda spoiled all the fun at the end but hey, maybe that's the writer in me, spotting the clues!)

I'm in awe of how the author weaves so much fact into the story, weaving it seamlessly with fiction until you're left wondering what's real and what isn't.
Seriously, if I was living in Washington, I'd be heading to all the hot spots in the book, checking them out!
And the insight into Masonic culture is fascinating.

Can see this being another blockbuster movie too. (Whoever plays Mal'akh? Going to be one seriously spooky dude!)

What are you reading this week?

Speed freak

Regular readers to this blog know I'm a huge fan of the Alphasmart and post raves at intervals.

Warning.
Here comes another.

School holidays the last 2 weeks, super busy, could seriously affect word count, yeah?

Not with super portable Alphie!

I've been writing in snatched 15 minute bursts here and there, with kids usually playing at my feet or asking me to be DNAlien to their Ben 10 or building towering block constructions.

The result? The word count is flying.
Only having that tiny screen where you can't read or edit, and that clunky keyboard, somehow makes my fingers fly. 14000 words the last week. 16 pages daily the last 2 days, all on Alphasmart.

If you're a writer and you want to up your speed, invest in one.
You won't regret it.

For those who can't wait...

For those who can't wait until my double release hits the shelves May in the UK and June in North America, both my upcoming releases are available NOW!

For Harlequin Romance, THREE TIMES A BRIDESMAID, here.

For Harlequin Modern Heat, OVERTIME IN THE BOSS'S BED, here.

I'm waiting rather impatiently myself for my UK copies to arrive because I can't wait to gobble up Liz Fielding's latest. I adore Liz's books so to be paired with her is beyond exciting!

Boo boo?

Okay, so here's the thing.

I'm a tad overworked at the moment, juggling several projects at once, school holidays, hubby's business stuff so I totally missed this.

In yesterday's post, I was super excited about my new cover for my May release OVERTIME IN THE BOSS'S BED. The fact it was different from my USA cover didn't matter, as sometimes covers change. Didn't even register that this hasn't happened for a while...

So this morning the lovely Mira Lyn Kelly, my shelf buddy in May with her first book, points out our covers have been swapped.

I took a look. Duh! They sure have.

I do have part of my book set in the Whitsundays when the boss and his PA take a little 'business' trip so the beach scene on the UK cover of mine seemed to fit. I'm hoping my cover fits into Mira's story too.

Lucky I love both covers!

Hot stuff

UK copies of OVERTIME IN THE BOSS'S BED haven't arrived yet so imagine my delight when I stumbled across the UK cover last night (Google Alerts is a wonderful thing!)

How hot is this?

Definitely my hottest Mod Heat cover yet.

I love it.

The cover fairies have waved their magic wands again!

While Callum's story is soon to hit shelves, I've heard back on his brother Rhys' story. My editor absolutely loved the revisions, going as far as to say it's one of my strongest Mod Heats yet. Emotional depth, sexual chemistry, strength, all there (why is it the books we find the toughest to write as authors and don't like as much as others always seem to grab attention?)

Just a few tiny tweaks and I should have a release date for you.

Stay tuned!