(Crossed & Bared Series #1)
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21694399-hale-maree
SYNOPSIS
NEW ADULT CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
NOT SUITABLE FOR YOUNG ADULT READERS
Hale Simmons’s life is already bottoming out and she’s only eighteen. Struggling on welfare, while trying to keep her alcoholic father on track, her dreams of having a better life fade a little more each day.
But, when her dad witnesses a brutal accident at the bar one night, it changes the entire course of Hale’s future.
Thrust into an arranged marriage
with Oscar Maree, the playboy son of a wealthy man, Hale must learn to trust a
stranger to give her the life she’s always wanted.
First, Hale needs to figure out if love can ever happen by accident.
FREE DURIGN THE BLITZ!
~Amazon US~B&N~
Oscar puts the mug on the counter. I think he’s going to tell me I’m a spoiled brat, or that I don’t know a thing about how relationships work, or that I’m just plain impossible, but instead, he leans forward with one hand on the countertop before he says, “Done.”
My fingertips slip from the door handle.
“I would notice you, Hale,” he continues, “if you walked into a room behind a 500 pound lion that was charging straight at me. I would notice you if the room were full of naked women, and I was in deep conversation about my own death. I will always come running, I’ll eat the dinner, and wear the shirts and I’ve already thought that if you put on ten more pounds, it’d be a sure bet that I would never let you out of my bed. I’ve been trying to soak up every word you’ve said since the first time we spoke, so I think it’s only fair that you try just as hard to hear me now. I think you are perfect for me, Hale, and I’m just waiting for you to realize that I’m perfect for you too.”
It’s like the entire room disappears and all I see is Oscar with his level gaze. He drops his voice to a whisper as he says, “Come here.”
But I stay where I am, with the sun warming my back through the windows, and I shake my head at him.
“No,” I say. “Come running.”
EXCERPT #2 Full of Grace
“She’s a good girl,” Oscar says.
“Very good.”
“No, I mean good,” Oscar repeats with a pointed stare. It’s not just the booze that makes me look at him the way I do. Good. He can’t mean good. His words must’ve gone cross-eyed.
“Not good…as in good.” I shake my head slowly, thinking of how Sher’s eyes were squeezed shut, how she kept biting down on her lip, how my shoulders are probably bleeding through the dress shirt beneath my jacket from the way her fingernails shredded my skin. I think of how she seemed so nerved-up afterward, how she insisted on walking so ridiculously slow all the way back to the wedding tent. Oh shit. “Not that kind of good. Tell me you don’t mean that kind of good.”
But Oscar shakes his head sadly. “I mean exactly that kind of good, my friend.”
“Shit,” I say. I want to bash my own head against the bar. I want to scream at her.
That kind of good and I just jack-hammered her with a quickie? Why didn’t she tell me? Now, I’m a part of this girl’s life history. I’m not just some ‘good time’ she did at a wedding; I’m her first. That’s an epic load of responsibility.
10 Things You Might Not Know About Misty
1) I was a high school drop out and runaway once. It would be odd if I still was, wouldn’t it?
2) I know the best people on Earth. And I keep adding names to that ring of friendships.
3) I have two dogs, one of which is a rescue named Larry, who is part Border Collie and part Llama. The other is Pooh. She’s half beagle and half I-Kill-You.
4) I took collegiate level ASL, French & Spanish…and can no longer speak any of it enough to find a bathroom.
5) I have been flat, busted broke in more ways than one.
6) I have something clinical for men’s cologne. I wear it sometimes and have to CONSTANTLY refrain from throwing me down and making sweet love to myself.
7) Nothing I say should be read or repeated or even thought without laughter.
8) I spend a LOT of time trying to sneak feral kittens into the house, under my allergic husband’s nose.
9) I believe in living. Living in your house, in your skin, in your neighbor’s hot tub, if you can manage it.
10) I’ve been told I’m psychic, but I think I just pay attention more than the average bear.
10 Things Misty has Learned While Being An Indie Writer
1) I’ve learned what BRAND means. It means that people will pick up your books, expecting a certain kind of story out of you. You might be the paranormal girl. Or the Queen of the kinky-sex-scenes. Or the guy that makes us laugh. For me, I’ve swept all of my brands into one big heap and call my brand The Unexpected Twist. You can expect it all from me.
2) I’ve learned that looking at reviews can KILL YOU. There will be people who love our work, people who hate it, people who blow smoke up our fannies, people who are just miserable trolls. When I’m feeling crappy, I go check out J.K. Rowling’s slew of 1 star reviews and realize it ain’t no thing.
3) I’ve come to understand that the battles over comma placements have gone on long before I was born and will continue long after I am gone.
4) I’ve learned: OMG! I can format a book!
5) OMG! I can make an ebook cover!
6) OMG! I can learn to plot stringently…I’m sure of it!
7) I’ve learned I need to just keep writing. You can get trapped in quality vs. quantity; Indie vs Traditional; smut vs. sweet, and it all comes down to this: WRITE A BOOK.
8) I’ve learned that every single person I meet, upon hearing that I am a writer, tells me that their life story would make a bestseller. And they are right.
9) I’ve learned that writing has to be for the joy. And when it is, we can’t lose.
10) I’ve learned that every book is a bugger, but also better than the last.
INTERVIEW
1) Wait a second. First, I’ve got to know if this book is religious. Hale Maree? Full of Grace? But the series name is Crossed & Bared…are these books hot and sexy or do they have a religious element?
Oh my goodness! No, the books are absolutely not religious and by no means meant to be a comment or slight to the Blessed Mother, Mary.
The name of the book came during a conversation I was having with Michelle Leighton. I had just left my job and needed to make a good go in the book world, but I’d had only limited success at that point. I was mired in one of those discouraging, down-with-everything moments and Michelle was trying to yank me out of it. She mentioned that she’d written a ‘Hail Mary’ story herself and that it changed her career. She used the term the same way the Deadliest Catch fishermen on TV put out a Hail Mary string of crab pots. It’s your biggest and best effort, you pour yourself in and hope for the best.
Well, I wanted to write a hot and sexy, contemporary romance. I thought, why not name the book after my hope of its success? And BLAM. That’s how Hale Maree came to be.
2) Okay, then how do you explain the second book in the series, Full of Grace?
Full of Grace (FoG) is a spin off—a story told by Landon Grace, who we meet in Hale Maree. I don’t want to spoil the surprises, so…when you’ve read Hale and then read the synopsis for FoG, you’ll totally understand the name of the book!
3)Tell me, where did you get the idea of an arranged marriage? That doesn’t happen these days!
A friend of mine actually did arrange his own marriage to a woman overseas. When he told me he was going to do it, I was intrigued at how it would work. I was fascinated at the aspect of marrying a person you’d never met and what it would take to make a marriage like that not only work, but work well with both spouses actually finding love.
I used much more exciting mechanisms to arrange the marriage in Hale, because my focus was not on depicting the culture gap or the red tape of an arranged marriage, but of explore the relationship between two strangers who must make a marriage work and what it would take to create a true romance under those circumstances. Hopefully, readers will enjoy the fantastical story of Hale and Oscar’s pulse-pumping romance.
4) You mentioned you had just left your job before writing Hale Maree. Are you a full time writer now?
I am! I spend my days plotting and writing and hoping that my books will bring others some joy.
5) What is your next project?
I’m actually working on three projects right now. I’ve got a Young Adult manuscript, a New Adult serial, and a New Adult where I let my raunchy humor out of its cage. Be scared. Hee hee.
This was a great time! I hope that your readers will help themselves to a free copy of Hale Maree and grab Full of Grace while it is still on sale this week too. Regularly $3.99, it’s a dollar off right now! Enjoy!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Misty Provencher is a long-term wife, mama, and author. The first two are a bit more recent, but Provencher's writing roots date back to the hieroglyphics she left in her mother's womb.
While Provencher can ride a motorcycle, knows how to Karate chop, and has learned enough French, Spanish, and Sign Language to get herself slapped, Misty's life is actually just the ruse she uses to connect with people. She is totally enchanted with them and spends her days trying to translate the soul bouquets of her muses into words.
Misty Provencher lives in the Mitten. Knock on her internet blog door at: Misty Provencher's Books, http://mistypro.blogspot.com/ or find her on Facebook and Twitter as Misty Provencher.
~Website~Facebook~Goodreads~Twitter~