Shy Jane Spyrus loves gadgets. She can build anything B.L.I.S.S. needs in the international organization’s fight against crime-although its agents aren’t exactly lining up at her door. Some of them think her inventions are a little too . . . well, innovative. Like her shrink-wrap prophylactic constraints, or her spray-on truth serum.

Of course, you can’t use wacky inventions to fix all your problems; Jane knows that better than anyone. Her neighbor has been kidnapped, driving that point home. She will have to team up with another human being-and Abel Andretti arrives just in time. He will help Jane find her neighbor, stop a villain, and most of all he will show Jane to love the daylights out of something without batteries.

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She hadn’t been thinking, that was obvious, Jane decided, and tossed the little packets back into her briefcase, then reached to retrieve the banana and it’s spiked holder.

“What are you doing?” Y asked sharply.

Jane paused and flushed. “I was going to skip this item. It’s rather silly and I thought I should just move on to-”

“No skipping,” Y said firmly.

Mr Manetrue nodded, adding, “Even if your idea doesn’t work out, Jane, it may spur another idea from someone else here, or even yourself. That’s what these meetings are about, remember?”

Jane blew out an unhappy breath, but set the banana and its holder back and retrieved the small foil packets from her briefcase. “This idea- Well, my gran was telling me once about an agent friend of hers who was raped while on assignment and I thought-” Her face was flaming and she knew it, but she had no choice but to continue, so straightened her shoulders and blurted, “I came up with the BLISS Shrink-Wrap Condom.”

Dick Hedde was not the only one to laugh this time, although most of the other laughs were more embarrassed titters. Jane did her best to ignore them and walked over to hand a packet to both Y and Mr Manetrue before returning to her spot and opening the packet she’d kept for herself.

“As you can see, the label suggests the condom contains a Viagra-like substance to increase longevity and increase sensitivity and pleasure,” she mumbled, wishing she’d thought a little harder about this before deciding to present it. “This is to make it appear more attractive to anyone who might use it.”

About the Author:

LYNSAY SANDS is the nationally bestselling author of the Argeneau/Rogue Hunter vampire series, as well as numerous historicals and anthologies. She’s been writing stories since grade school and considers herself incredibly lucky to be able to make a career out of it. Her hope is that readers can get away from their everyday stress through her stories, and if there’s occasional uncontrollable fits of laughter, that’s just a big bonus. Please visit her on the web at www.lynsaysands.net.

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Jennifer’s Review of The Loving Daylights

Review (4 Stars)  Jane Spryus loves creating gadgets for her job at B.L.I.S.S. and is great at it except her ideas border on being too creative and unconventional.  One night, she takes some of her inventions home with her and her next door neighbor, Edie, “borrows” one, unaware that object is more than meets the eye. When her neighbor ends up being kidnapped, it is up to Jane and Edie’s brother to find her and save the day while falling in love at the same time.

The Loving Daylights is a very cute romance with the right amount of espionage to make it entertaining and keep you on the edge of your seat.  Jane was a very shy character in the beginning of this book and she felt that everything she did was wrong.  Never in a million years did she imagine to meet a handsome guy and go on an adventure of a lifetime.  I liked Jane and Abel as a couple because they were both very sweet and reserved and just seemed to bring out the best in one another.  The story is quite different than Ms. Sands vampire series but I think it is a fast-paced fun adventure that I’m sure will please fans of her books.

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A big-city doctor in a small-town Montana practice….A former nurse who has sworn off doctors forever….The scene is set for passions to ignite in Big Sky Country.

City doctor Josh Stanton and his sports car don’t suit the country, but with his medical school debt about to bury him, Josh has to make the best out of a bad situation. Adjusting to his new job and life in the middle of nowhere isn’t easy, but at least the views of the mountains—and one distractingly attractive local—are stunning…

After eight years away, Katrina McCade is back in Bear Paw for a break from her life, bad choices—and men. But when a broad-shouldered stranger bursts into town, she finds herself unexpectedly saddled with the town’s sexy new doctor as a tenant. Katrina doesn’t need a man to make her happy, especially a disgruntled physician. But try telling her body that…

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Just as they reached the door of a squat, flat-roofed building, Floyd’s phone started ringing. He checked the screen and with an apologetic smile said, “I’m sorry. I have to take this but you go right on ahead. They’re expecting you.”

Josh took that to mean his staff and he pushed open the door, stepping into a waiting room. Two framed and faded prints of the Rocky Mountains hung crookedly facing each other, and the rest of the wall space was taken up with health posters that urged people to quit smoking, lose weight and have their eyes checked. The reception desk had the usual raised counter and he caught the sight of a computer screen but there was no sign of a receptionist. He could however see a black hoodie slung over a chair. Kitty-corner to the reception desk was a large basket overflowing with toys and in the center of the room a small stack of dog-eared magazines sat on a low table.

Matching green upright chairs— all evenly spaced— bordered three sides of the room making it like most every other waiting room he’d ever seen. The chatter in the room faded as twenty sets of eyes swung straight to him, their expressions a mixture of interest and caution.

With no one available to formally introduce him, Josh took the situation into his own hands. After all, he was the physcian they’d been waiting for and he had experience addressing the media from his time in the E.R. having treated some of the more infamous gang members for gunshot wounds. Clapping his hands together as a sign that an announcement was about to be made, he said with appropriate gravitas, “Hello. I’m Dr. Stanton from Chicago’s Mercy Hospital and I’m in Bear Paw for—”

    “Has Randall finally quit to fish?” an elderly lady asked in surprise.

    Josh wasn’t used to being interrupted. He opened his mouth to reply but another woman got in first. “Lynn didn’t mention it when I met her at the grocery store the other day.”

    The man next to her adjusted his glasses and gave Josh a long, hard stare. “Are you a real doctor or just one of those pretend ones they usually send us?”

    “Physician’s assistant,” someone added in clarification. “He doesn’t look old enough to be a doctor.”

    “Of course I’m a doctor,” Josh said incredulously, still trying to come to grips with the way the conversation was flying off on tangents. It was like being on a stage with a cast who’d gone off-script. “I’m a qualified E.R. physician.”

    “Oh, I used to like that George Clooney,” a woman who looked to be in her sixties said with a dreamy smile.

    Now he was seriously in the twilight zone. “He’s an actor,” Josh said firmly, his voice sounding overly loud. “I’m board-certified. A real doctor.”

    The room went silent and the geriatric inquisition stared at him unhappily. This wasn’t going quite like the ticker tape parade he’d imagined.

    “I’m quite aware that Mr. Clooney’s an actor,” the woman said with a sniff. “He made a fine doctor.”

    The inference was clear— Josh was coming a distant second to an aging Hollywood actor who’d starred in the role fifteen years ago. What the hell sort of a town had he come to?

    “No one can live up to George, Doris,” said a new voice behind him.

He turned to see a young woman smiling at him.

    “That’s very true, Millie,” Doris replied. “I guess for now we’ll have to give Dr. Stanton the benefit of the doubt. Mind you, he’s got a look of a younger George with his height and curly hair.” Doris sounded slightly mollified.

    “I’ll do my best.” Josh said uncertain exactly how to proceed. Right now he’d take a patient with a gunshot wound or an off-his-face meth addict rather than face this group of critical seniors. He was used to being judged on his clinical skills, not his ability to look like an actor.

    The young woman stuck out her hand. “I’m Millie Switkowski, nurse practitioner and I’m your go-to person here at the clinic. Welcome to Bear Paw Dr. Stanton. I’m looking forward to working with you.”

    He gripped her hand like it was a life preserver in a choppy sea. Finally, he’d met someone who seemed professional and competent. Hell, she was the first person he’d met in Bear Paw who seemed normal.

    The memory of dancing green eyes, a sassy mouth and a sweet behind, flooded him and he immediately tried to shut it out. Katrina McCade wasn’t normal— she was difficult, bitter, bossy and annoying. And as sexy as hell.

    Someone coughed— a wet and hacking noise that was the insidious sound of heart failure. It immediately focused him. The town and its population might be as foreign to him as Kazakhstan and he may not have gotten the welcome he’d anticipated, but this he knew. He swung round briskly. “Who ever owns that cough, I’ll see you first.”

About the Author:

Fiona Lowe is a RITA® and R*BY award-winning, multi-published author with Harlequin , Carina Press and, Berkley USA. Whether her books are set in outback Australia or the USA, they feature small towns with big hearts, and warm, likeable characters that make you fall in love. When she’s not writing stories, she’s a weekend wife, mother of two ‘ginger’ teenage boys, guardian of 80 rose bushes, slave to a cat and often found collapsed on the couch with wine.

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Jennifer’s Review of Montana Actually

Review (4.5 Stars): I enjoyed this sweet romance because it was actually two love stories wrapped in one.  Katrina moved back to Bear Paw to get away from the mess of her life and reconnect with her family.  Josh ended up in Bear Paw to pay down his student loans and never expected to meet the one woman he couldn’t resist.  Together they find that love has been waiting for them all along and they just have to take a chance at a future they have always wanted.

I liked Katrina and Josh together in this story because I loved Katrina’s personality.  She was this spunky firecracker that seemed to be able to do anything she set her mind to except finding the right guy.  Josh was very conservative in the beginning and seemed as though he needed to work on his bedside manner quite a bit to be able to fit into this small community.  They just seemed to work well together and I enjoyed spending time in Bear Paw getting to know these characters.  Montana Actually is a very charming romance that is the perfect start to this series. Bear Paw seems like a great place to visit and fall in love and I’m looking forward to seeing which character is up next for their happy ending.

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He’s trouble she doesn’t need . . . Thanks to a cheating fiancé, Josephina Harrington’s perfect life just crashed and burned. Moving in with her overbearing parents is definitely not an option. No, she needs to prove she can make it on her own. And she will-by turning her great-aunt’s old plantation house into a destination getaway. She’s just not expecting her contractor to be so hands-on-and so totally irresistible.

. . . but everything she wants Bad-boy golf champion Brett McGraw figured his hometown of Sugar, Georgia was the perfect place to lay low and get his life back up to par. The leggy blonde with a pint-sized pup is the kind of sweet ‘n sassy trouble he never saw coming. She doesn’t know a nut from a bolt and before long, he’s renovating her house . . . as she steals his heart. Can he convince Josephina that his womanizing ways are in the past and he’s ready for forever?

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*EXCERPT*

For three weeks, she’d stared at the door, thinking this had to be some kind of mistake and that at any minute Wilson would walk in and everything would go back to the way it was supposed to be. Then, last night, while watching Under the Tuscan Sun and inhaling a red velvet cake, she realized that she didn’t want to go back to the way things were.
Even scarier, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment she’d lost balance in her life and in turn lost herself. Which was why she was moving out. It was clear that Wilson wasn’t coming back. And every moment she stayed there, in the place she thought she’d grow old and raise babies, the regret ratcheted tighter around her chest, until breathing hurt.
No, she needed to leave—and pronto. Problem was, the only place she had to go was her parents’ house, where the couture décor and upstate judgment would be equally suffocating, just in a different way. Even thinking about it gave her hives.
“Your mother pays me.” Rosalie narrowed her eyes. “She says to come here and help you. You say you need to move. So I fill boxes. What about this?” Rosalie held up an old shoebox covered in stickers and glitter and enough memories to make her heart jerk painfully. Then jerk again until it somehow landed in her throat, creating a whole new set of problems. Because there, in Rosalie’s pudgy hand, was a part of Josephina’s past that she hadn’t thought about in years.
“Where did you find that?” Josephina gently took the box and walked over to the couch.
She’d cried so much over the past few weeks, she assumed more tears would be impossible. Yet as she slipped open the lid and saw the photo resting atop a pile of letters and keepsakes, her eyes went blurry. This pain was different, as though it originated from someplace old and forgotten, and it packed the kind of power that made breathing almost impossible.
Josephina didn’t know how her life had spiraled so far from center, but she did know that she hadn’t felt as free as the girl smiling back at her in years. She picked up the photo and traced a finger over the rolled edge. It had been taken the summer she’d turned ten and her parents had gone on one of their trips to Europe, leaving her, once again, with her aunt.
It was one of the best summers of her life, spent making mud pies and learning from Letty how to
make real ones. Which was why she was standing on a wooden chair in pigtails, pearls, and a too-big apron, with flour down her front, a whisk in her hand, and a smile of sheer pleasure on her face.
If she closed her eyes she could almost smell the bite of lemons and hear Aunt Letty’s voice: “Careful, child. If you have to beat it that hard then you’re missing an ingredient. Might look perfect today but come morning that meringue will be a big pile of trouble, stinking up the fridge for days to come.”
Josephina placed the photo on the coffee table and carefully thumbed through the box. She dug past drawings and sketches—mostly in crayon and big swirly letters with hearts over the i’s—through magazine clippings and all of the ideas and dreams she and her aunt had cooked up for the old boardinghouse that Letty had called home, stopping when she found what she was looking for. At the bottom, postmarked six weeks before Letty had passed, sat a yellow envelope.
With a shaky breath Josephina opened the flap and pulled out the letter. The paper smelled like lilac and mothballs, and Josephina wanted to press it to her face and breathe in. A faded photo of Letty, standing on the front steps of Fairchild House in mud boots and a rain slicker, holding a jug of her finest moonshine, fell to the couch.
She remembered that last summer, sitting curled up in Letty’s arms while looking out the windows of the salon as a summer storm blew past and listening to Letty recount the story about how her great-great-aunt, Pearl Fairchild, came to call the magical boardinghouse home.
According to legend,  Letty had said, the two-story Plantation-style house was built in the mid-1800s by the first mayor of Sugar, Jeremiah Sugar. It was a masterpiece designed to win the heart of the beautiful socialite Pearl Fairchild, who, moved by his romantic overture and promises of a life filled with adventure, left her family and New York behind to become Mrs. Jeremiah Sugar.
Even the name sounded perfect. But after two months of travel, first in a train and later in a horse-drawn wagon, finally walking the remaining eight miles to the house, Pearl realized there was nothing sugary about her husband-to-be.
The man whom she had defied her parents for, had given her heart to, stood in the foyer. His slacks hung around his ankles, his face blotched red, while his pale backside engaged in rapid undulation under the housekeeper’s smock, so engaged that he failed to notice her enter the residence or even pick up his beloved mayoral gavel.
Pearl never took his last name, the mayor’s body was never found, and the housekeeper—prone to gossip—never had to work another day in her life, instead spending the rest of her days as Pearl’s handsomely paid companion.
Thus, the Fairchild House, boarding for the adventurous, was born.
Josephina turned the photo over and on the back, Letty had simply written: Come home, Fairy Bug. Your adventure is waiting for you.
Fairy, she remembered, clutching the photo to her heart to keep it from breaking, was because Letty swore Josephina was born to fly. The bug part was to remind her that sometimes she had to get dirty to really live.
And more than anything Josephina wanted to live again—really live. She tucked the photo into her pocket and looked at Rosalie. “I need a car.”

About the Author:

Marina Adair is a lifelong fan of romance novels. Along with the Sugar series, she is also the author of the St. Helena Vineyard series. She currently lives in a hundred-year-old log cabin, nestled in the majestic redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains, with her husband and daughter. As a writer, Marina is devoted to giving her readers contemporary romance where the towns are small, the personalities large, and the romance explosive. She also loves to interact with readers and you can catch her on Twitter at @MarinaEAdair or visit her at www.MarinaAdair.com.

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Jennifer’s Review of Sugar’s Twice As Sweet

Review (4.25 Stars):  Josephina was such a sweet character and just wanted to go somewhere where she felt safe and was full of endless possibilities such as her great-aunt’s old home in Sugar, Georgia.  Her fiance just broke up with her and everyone treated her as though she was a failure when I saw her as a free spirit who just needed a  place where she could feel loved and accepted.  Meeting the handsome and smooth-talking Brett McGraw wasn’t what she wanted but absolutely what she needed because he accepted her for who she was, not what he wanted her to be.

For Brett, he found Josephina aggravating and lovely all at the same time. She was the one person who made him think about leaving his womanizing ways and try for a real relationship.  And once the McGraw men fall in love, it is for the end of time and their love stories are legend in the little town of Sugar.   I wanted so desperately for Josephina to get her happy ending because after everything she went through she deserved a love worthy of the greatest of “fairy” tales.

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