Showing posts with label Amy Andrews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amy Andrews. Show all posts

Friday, November 1, 2013

AMY ANDREWS - GIVEAWAY & GUEST POST - HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO - MOMENTUM - CONTEMPORARY ROMANTIC COMEDY - AUSSIE AUTHOR ROAD TRIP - DAY 1



Day 1 has arrived.

YAY!!

To crack off this wonderful event like the fireworks it deserves is the lovely Amy Andrews. I read her book Holding Out For A Hero and totally dug her story. Here is my review. Amy has a guest post for you all to read and a great giveaway and 5 Quick Things about her. 

Big CONGRATULATIONS to Amy for selling over * said in Dr Evil voice * ONE MILLION BOOKS!!!

Welcome Amy.

AUTHOR BIO: 



Amy is an award-winning, best-selling Aussie author who has written thirty + contemporary romances in both the traditional and digital markets. She has written for Harlequin Mills & Boon, Entangled, Harper Collins and Momentum. 

To date she's sold over a million books and been translated into thirteen different languages including manga. 

She loves her kids, her husband, her dogs, cowboys, men in tool belts, cowboys in tool belts and happily ever afters. Please, DO NOT mess with the HEA! Also good books, fab food, great wine and frequent travel - preferably all four together.

She lives on acreage on the outskirts of Brisbane with a gorgeous mountain view but secretly wishes it was the hillsides of Tuscany.


5 Quick Things:


 A quote that means something to you. 


“It takes a whole village to raise a child” 


I like the simplicity of the message in this saying. 



A song that describes you. 

“I get knocked down but I get up again”
Tubthumping




See, I know you are all sitting there singing along to this tune


Who is your book girlfriend?


 Bridget Jones from Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding. Because Bridge was the quintessential every-girl which made her so relatable. And how amazing is it to get to start a whole new sub-genre> 
Without Bridget there would be no chick lit! 



Author that inspired you and why? 

Jennifer Crusie

Her books opened my eyes to an entirely different kind of romance!



 Will you be attending the Indie Author Down Under Gold Coast event in March 2014?


Facebook Link

 Afraid not L




Title: Holding Out For A Hero
Author: Amy Andrews

State: Queensland
Published By : Momentum Moonlight
Date Released : 15th October 2013
Genre : Contemporary Romantic Comedy


When sensible schoolteacher Ella Lucas rides into her home town on a Harley and seduces the resident football hero, Jake Prince, she figures she can be forgiven and move on. After all, she's just buried her mother.

Two years later, back in the city, their paths cross again but this time Jake is in the process of destroying her favourite dive bar. With her home facing a wrecker's ball, her school being closed down and her 15-year-old brother hell bent on self-destruction, it's the last straw. Throw in a dominatrix best friend who is dating a blue ribbon guy so straight he still lives at home with his mother, it's no wonder the sanest person in Ella's life is a dog.

With all this to contend with, the last thing Ella needs is Jake back in her life. But, as fate would have it, Jake is the only chance she has to save her school.

As the school football season heats up, old secrets threaten to surface and Ella takes on greedy developers, school boards and national tabloids. But can she save not just her home, her school and her brother, but also the reputation of the man she's never been able to forget? And, more importantly, does she want to?

Holding Out for a Hero is a quirky, heart-warming tale of unlikely romance, friendship and family.


EXCERPT

Ella was so nervous she couldn’t decide whether she was going to throw up or have a full-blown panic attack. From her vantage point in the opposition stands, she watched Jake and Pete talking, or rather strategizing, if their hand gestures were remotely indicative.

Jake wore a baseball cap tugged low on his forehead and a pair of dark sunglasses but still she could see people nudging each other and pointing at him. Although that may not have anything to do with who he was and everything to do with how he looked and the fact that eighty-five percent of the spectators were women. And not just any women, but mothers. Ella had seen enough of them over the years to recognize that if any one group of women could use a bit of gratuitous eye candy from time to time, it was mothers.

And Jake certainly didn’t disappoint. The man was simply mouth-watering in his jeans and snug-fitting tee. He was like the Lindt chocolate of eye candy. The Ferrero Rocher. The Tim Tam. Ella could practically feel the fat cells on her ass multiplying as her mouth watered.



My top 5 Heroes

Heroes have been on my mind a lot lately since the launch of Holding Out For A Hero on the 15th Oct so I thought I’d give you a run down on my top 5 favourite heroes from the 30 + books I’ve written. Although, of course, I love them all!


#1 Jake Prince. It has to be Jake from Holding Out For A Hero. Ask any writer and they’ll most likely tell you their fav character is always their most current one. What can I say about Jake? Ex footy star, rescuer of strays – dogs and people – wickedly sexy, laidback, reluctant hero. Fav Jake quote –

“No buts, Cam. Men just don’t talk to women like that. That’s the number one rule, mate. Are you a man or a boy? This is where you decide.”


#2. Nathaniel Montgomery from Taming the Tycoon. Think Richard Armitage in a suit and dark glasses. Busy, important, rich successful - completely in control. No time for crazy hippy chicks who wear crystals and live on canal boats. I think he’s one of my favourites because he already has two women in his neat, orderly life who completely confound him – his mother and his grandmother. And then along comes Addie…..Fav Nathaniel quote -

“It means in a few seconds I’m going to kiss you—long and hard—and then I’m going to throw you on a bed or, hell, the floor if the bed’s too damn far, and I’m going to strip off your clothes and make you come loud enough to give every tourist here today something to really take home with them. And if you don’t want that, Addie, you’d better speak up now because I’m barely hanging on by a thread here.”


#3. Vasco Ramirez aka Rick Granville from The Devil and the Deep. Okay yes, it’s complicated. TDATD is a book in a book. The heroine, Stella, is an historical romance novelist who has written a smash hit pirate romance called Pleasure Hunt. The book is about Lady Mary Bingham and her pirate captor, Vasco Ramirez, who she based on her very close childhood friend Rick Granville – the hero. Only Rick doesn’t know that. Or he doesn’t in the beginning anyway…. TDATD tells Rick and Stella’s story but also includes snippets of the fictional pirate story and the delicious Vasco. Think all long dark hair and swashbuckling swagger. Fav Vasco quote (cos he’s really just Rick anyway) –

“Do not thank me yet, Lady Bingham.” He smiled with steel in his lips. “There are a lot of miles between here and Plymouth and by the end of it my men may well care less about you being a lady and more about you being a woman.”



#4 Nick from Sister Pact. Another complicated one. I co-authored SP with my sister under a different name -Ali Ahearn – so not a lot of people know about it, but trust me, Nick is the real deal. He’s one of those tall, broad “capable” guys. You know the type – can shear a sheep, slay a dragon, build a bark hut and plough the back forty all before the suns up for the day. And he appoints himself as Frances’s champion.

Fav Nick quote -

Nick, one eye on Edward’s hand, one eye on Frances, drew himself up to his full height. “Mate, you’d better take your hand off her or this colonial farm boy is going to show you why his ancestors ended up in Botany Bay.”


#5 Nathan (Nate) Trent from my novella The Billionaire Claims His Wife. Nate’s another loaded, successful guy – a renowned fertility specialist with a chain of clinics and the patent on a fertility wonder drug. And he has all the arrogance and stride of a man at the top of his game. So I decided to bring him down a peg or two by making him naked, desperately ill with a crippling flu and having to rely on the mercy of the one woman he’s never been able to forget – his ex-wife.

Fav Nate quote –

Nathan chuckled as he drew close enough to lean in and kiss her. He smiled and handed her the martini. “Dirty,” he said. “Just the way you like it.”


Doncha just love a good hero? J


PURCHASE ALL THESE BOOKS FROM AMAZON


GIVEAWAY TIME

INTERNATIONAL

One Digital Copy 

Holding Out For A Hero

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Goodreads Link: 



Social Media Links:


Twitter @AmyAndrewsbooks

Website www.amyandrews.com.au

Later on today I will have my review for Carmen Jenner's - Welcome To Sugartown.


TOMORROW'S DESTINATION 2ND NOVEMBER :

PEPPER WINTERS

INTERVIEW & GIVEAWAY

Sunday, October 20, 2013

HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO by AMY ANDREWS - MOMENTUM ROMANCE - CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

By : Amy Andrews
Published By: Momentum Romance
Released : Available Now
Details: Netgalley for review, Digital, 243 Pages

RATING: 4 QUIRKY , HEART FELT STARS!

Blurb: Goodreads

When sensible schoolteacher Ella Lucas rides into her home town on a Harley and seduces the resident football hero, Jake Prince, she figures she can be forgiven and move on. After all, she's just buried her mother.

Two years later, back in the city, their paths cross again but this time Jake is in the process of destroying her favourite dive bar. With her home facing a wrecker's ball, her school being closed down and her 15-year-old brother hell bent on self-destruction, it's the last straw. Throw in a dominatrix best friend who is dating a blue ribbon guy so straight he still lives at home with his mother, it's no wonder the sanest person in Ella's life is a dog.

With all this to contend with, the last thing Ella needs is Jake back in her life. But, as fate would have it, Jake is the only chance she has to save her school.

As the school football season heats up, old secrets threaten to surface and Ella takes on greedy developers, school boards and national tabloids. But can she save not just her home, her school and her brother, but also the reputation of the man she's never been able to forget? And, more importantly, does she want to?

Holding Out for a Hero is a quirky, heartwarming tale of unlikely romance, friendship and family.


BOOK REVIEW by Michelle:


What do you get when you have a Coach, a Geek, a Goth, her lover and two quirky Aunts and a high school? A really great underdog story, set among the backdrop of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Woot! I am a Queenslander.

I first noticed the cover to this book on netgalley, a place where bloggers can request books to read. Handsome lad on a motorbike. Check!

Okay, you got my attention.

Holding Out For A Hero, starts off one way and then does a kind of one hundred and eighty degree turn.

I have to admit the lad had no motorbike, but the Geek did. I never did get to see that Harley again. I think I wanted to. It got lost along the way.

What I did get to read was a story that blossomed and had quirky characters.

This I enjoyed.

Iris and Daisy are Ella’s quirky aunts. They like to read Tarot cards.

Goose bumps pricked at her inked arms. Iris had that woo-woo look about her and Daisy had learned a long time ago not to mess with the woo-woo look.

Ella had an unusual up bringing that has caused her and her younger brother much emotional grief. Both are working hard to leave their mother’s day job in the past.

Jake is the ex rugby star. He runs his own bar with the help of Pete. Jake and Ella grew up in the town of Huntley. Jake knows Ella’s back story. He also wants Ella.

Ella felt a rush of heat and beat it back, deciding to change tack. “You do know that abstinence doesn’t kill people, right?” God knew she’d have been dead a long time ago.

Jake nodded. “It sure makes them mighty pissed off though.” He pushed off the desk and picked up his clipboard.





Ella and Jake have their issues along the way, but bottom line, they are smexi together.

“Are you the Energizer Bunny?”

Jake chuckled, his hand drifting higher, capturing the swell of a breast, brushing across her nipple. “Pretty ever-ready yourself,” he murmured, nuzzling her neck.


Ella has worked hard to become Hanniford High’s Principal. The school is threatened with closure and this is where a rather heart warming story comes in. This would be where the 180 degree change came from the start of the story.

Jake glanced at Simon, who shrugged back at him. How could they argue with salvation? “Okay then.”

Rosie is our resident Goth chick. I really like Rosie and her unlikely relationship with Simon the Politician in the making.

“Thought you said you couldn’t do this,” Rosie shouted.

Simon grinned as he pulled her hips in tighter. “This isn’t dancing. This is fornication to music.”


Cam is Ella’s younger brother by many years. He is doing it tough. He reminded me of someone I know. Teenager, hormones and a chip on his shoulder makes for an angry young man.

“No buts, Cam. Men just don’t talk to women like that. That’s the number one rule, mate. Are you a man or a boy? This is where you decide.”

I loved watching Jake and Cam's interaction.

Cameron looked at Jake’s hand on his shoulder and then looked back at Jake.

“Got it?” Jake repeated.

Cameron looked at his feet. “Got it.”


Pete and Cerebus are two characters that were left with no one and found themselves loved by everyone.

Awwwwww!!

There is a villain of the story, but he is a character more lurking in the background.

But as far as she was concerned, his black heart and cruel tongue made him uglier than a hat full of assholes.

This is a story with heart and a message or two about what to do when life deals you a bum hand. I learnt , you get up dust yourself off and then pay it forward.


Warm fuzzies.


Michelle