GUEST BLOGGER: Christine Bell

Today I'd like to welcome Christine Bell.

She's a fellow Entangled Publishing Indulgence author and her book has just released!

Over to you Christine...

First, I want to thank Nicola for having me today! Very excited to be here because I’m a huge fan of her work. In fact, that’s a great segue-way into my post today. On my blog tour for Wife for Hire, I’ve been focusing on indulgences. Not just the Entangled line of books featuring to-die-for alpha heroes and intelligent, fun and spunky heroines, but also other kinds of indulgences that make what can be a sometimes dreary day a little brighter. On this stop at casa de Marsh, I thought I’d talk to you about one of my favorite and long lasting indulgences: the romance novel.

Growing up, I was a voracious reader. Like as in I would read ANYthing I could get my hands on, and in the late seventies, that was a strange collection of materials. There were encyclopedias (yes, the real kind that a door to door salesman came and sold to my mother. Funk & Wagnall, if I recall), and my older sister’s book report selections (I read Of Mice and Men at age 6, but the subtleties were lost on me. I do recall crying when Lennie loved that puppy too hard, though), there were short stories collections (of which I always enjoyed the twisted ones like The Lottery and The Most Dangerous Game) and the magazines my mother used to get with the cloying perfume samples that made me dizzy. We had the Scholastic Book club pamphlet that came from school every month, and my mother would scrape together what she could to get me some, it but never went far enough for my liking. We also had a small library at my grammar school but they couldn’t keep up with me, not to mention that this whole “publishing passels of books specifically for the enjoyment of children” concept hadn’t really taken hold yet. So it was with breathless excitement that I waited for my thirteenth birthday. The day my mother told me I could go to her best friend (and our across the street neighbor) Jeannie’s house and try one of her Harlequin Romance novels.

Jeannie (we called her Bean) had…ALL of them. I kid you not, her entire basement was floor to ceiling bookshelves, lined back to back and contained EVERY Harlequin Romance novel written to that point. She brought me down the stairs and set me loose, with the promise that, if I returned the books I borrowed to their proper place, I could take more the next time. That day changed my whole life. For the first time in my life, I had *enough* books. I didn’t have to “slow down” or re-read those same dog-eared copies. I felt like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory. Bean kept me in books through high school, until I went away to college. But even after I moved away from home and wound up knee deep in academic reading, I would finish my work and lay awake with a flashlight under my blanket reading romance novels. Today, I have a Kindle instead of a paperback, and a book-light instead of a flashlight, and I don’t always read romance, but when I want to escape and indulge, laugh or cry, it’s my go-to genre. Lucky for me there are a lot more publishers who recognize the power of a romance novel now, so I never run out of things to read. Single title, category, novellas, historical romance, steampunk romance, paranormal romance, the list goes on and on. All thanks to Bean (who I dedicated my own first romance novel to in 2010. Love and miss you, Beanward).

Here is the blurb for my Entangled Indulgence, Wife for Hire:

He needs a wife for three weeks…

Owen Phipps is out for revenge. His mission? To expose the man who stole his sister’s money and dignity. All he needs is a “wife” who can play along. Too bad his last best hope is an actress who tries to mace him with perfume when he offers her the role of a lifetime.

Lindy Knight is a real sap. She loves too hard, feels too deep, and often finds herself saying yes when she should be saying “Let me think about it.” She can’t believe her good fortune when Owen offers her more than enough money to hold off foreclosure until she can find a job. Three weeks at a resort, money she desperately needs, and she gets to help bring a criminal to justice? Score.

It seems easy enough until the first time a couples bonding game turns intimate, and they realize how dangerous their mutual attraction could be. Can they keep their hands to themselves long enough to find the evidence Owen needs? Or are the close quarters more temptation than they can handle?

Please check out the Entangled website here for an extended excerpt of Wife for Hire, and readers, stick around to comment, because, to celebrate the release of my new Entangled Indulgence, I’m offering to indulge YOU! 

One commenter on this post will win a $10 Barnes & Noble or Amazon gift card, so she (or he!) can buy a couple (or, if you buy from the Entangled Indulgence line, a few because they’re only $2.99!) new books. 

AND I’m also running a Let Me Indulge You contest. If Wife for Hire gets onto the Amazon OR Barnes & Noble top 500 list by September 18th, I will be giving away a $250 gift card to the salon or spa of one lucky winner’s choice. Check out the link to my giveaway and every comment from my blog tour will be counted as an entry. Follow my whole blog tour? EACH comment = another entry! Extra entries will also be given for tweeting or posting the link to the book on your Facebook page.

So now to you, blog readers! Do tell. What’s your favorite indulgence? How did you get into reading romance?