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Judith Sterling

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Judith Sterling

Tag Archives: Peggy Jaeger

MIX AND MATCH by Peggy Jaeger

21 Monday Feb 2022

Posted by Judith Sterling in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

A Match Made in Heaven, Baked With Love, contemporary romance, divorce, family issues, first in series, friends to lovers, Heaven's Matchmaker, later in life romance, Mix and Match, Peggy Jaeger, small town romance, sweet romance

I’m delighted to welcome back Peggy Jaeger, who’s here to promote her upcoming release, Mix and Match. It’s the first book in her Heaven’s Matchmaker series, and she’s going to tell us all about it. Take it away, Peggy!

Judith, thank you so much for welcoming me back to your site today. I love being here to talk to you, your readers, and your fans!

My new series, HEAVEN’S MATCHMAKER, has some familiar secondary characters as stars from my previous small town romance series A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN.

The overall series deals with the attempts of Heaven, NH’s local matchmaker Olivia Joyner to help her clients find their forever loves. Olivia was first introduced in TODAY, TOMORROW, ALWAYS, book 2 in the Match Made in Heaven series and from the moment she first appeared on the page I knew I wanted to give her her own storyline. Olivia is a third generation matchmaker with a sad past. She’ll be getting her own HEA in an upcoming book, but for now she helps people navigate through the dating quagmire 2022 has become. And she’s very good at her job.

Architect Donovan Boyd first appeared in BAKED WITH LOVE, book 3 in A Match Made in Heaven. Flirtatious, witty, and uber-charming, I simply knew I needed to find him the perfect woman. The man wants to be married and enjoy all the wonderful things his parents have in their lives – a long lasting love, a house filled with kids, and a mate they can devote all their love and attention to.  Since the idea of dating apps and picking a woman up in bar give him hives, Donovan enlists Olivia’s aid in helping him find his true love. When she pairs him with Jasmine Green, a recently divorced nurse, he thinks his prayers have been answered. But they have very different ideas about what marriage looks like and soon realize they have more in common as friends than as would-be mates.

Getting these two to see that their differences make them stronger as a couple was so much fun for me. I love a good friends-to-lovers storyline, especially when the couple really are best friends. That makes the love relationship so much stonger, I think.

The book is exclusive to Amazon and KU here:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09P48WPZC

Judith, again, thank you so much for hosting me today and for allowing me to introduce my new series to your readers and fans.

Be well and keep reading, kids!

Thanks for joining us, Peggy. I’m excited about your new series! Here’s a bit more about the first installment:

Divorced and lonely, nurse Jasmine Green retains the services of Heaven, NH’s very own successful matchmaker, Olivia Joyner. The bar scene and dating apps give Jasmine hives and Liv’s reputation is stellar. If anyone can help guide her through the quagmire that dating has become, Olivia can.

Architect Donovan Boyd is ready to settle down. He wants the kind of marriage his parents have; long lasting, filled with love, children, and joy. But even after a year of living and working in Heaven he’s still considered an outsider by many. Meeting the type of woman he’s looking for is hard in the tightknit community. Retaining Olivia Joyner to help him find his forever love is one of the smartest things he’s done, especially after she sets him up with Jasmine Green.

But the red-haired, green-eyed beauty wants a different kind of marriage from the one Donovan considers ideal.

Can these two strong willed people learn to compromise so they can both find their happily ever after? Or will their relationship forever be relegated to the friend zone?

A peek between the pages:

Jasmine scanned the bar where Olivia told her her date would be waiting.  There were three men scattered down along the rail. Two she recognized from high school and one guy whose face she couldn’t see because his back was to her. When he turned she realized immediately this was not the man she was due to have drinks with.

First, there was no way this guy was 36 years old. Her mother would have called him Gramps.

Clue number two was the wedding band on the hand holding his beer. It was so tight, the skin surrounding it swollen, his knuckle hair squeezed around it, indicating it had been there for decades.

Nope. This wasn’t her guy. A cursory glance around the place showed most of the tables were taken with couples.

Her date had yet to arrive.

“Hey, Jazz,” the bartender and owner, Kick Loomis said from his perch drying beer glasses behind the bar.

“Kick.”

“You squattin’ or sittin’, sweetheart?”

She’d been in the place enough times in her life to know he meant was she going to sit at the bar or take a table.

Jasmine was self-conscious enough she didn’t want to be seated on a bar stool, sitting alone while waiting for her date, especially when one of the guys she’d gone to school with tossed her an inquiring eye and a raised eyebrow. She didn’t want to get into a how-you-doing-what-you-been-up-to-since-high school chat. If her memory served, and it always did, the guy had been one of the football heroes of Heaven High back in the day. Those glory days were long gone and she had no desire to listen to him dredge them up.

She spotted an empty table in the corner and nodded toward it.

“I’ll send Raylynn over with a menu.”

She nodded and as she was about to head for it felt a tap on her arm.

“Excuse me. Jasmine?”

She turned at the sound of her name, spoken in a deep, soft voice blessed with a charming accent and found herself face to face with the gorgeous guy she’d spotted in her mom’s office. The one Sharmaine had been sucked on to like a tick.

Good Lord, he was even better looking up close and personal than he’d been, seated, and ten feet away from her. Stunning blue eyes, the color of freshly laid Robin’s eggs topped a face with high cut cheeks and a jaw forged from granite. Midnight hair curled around his ears and caressed the nape of his neck. Layered waves fell across his head in a chaos of perfection.

She’d been right about his height. Most men she could stare straight in the eyes due to her own long legs. But she had to tilt her head back a bit to look into this man’s striking ones.

“You are Jasmine, aye?”

Even his voice was gorgeous, the song of Ireland singing through it.

She nodded, her own voice deciding now would be a good time to leave on vacation. And when his smile took a slow stroll from one corner of his full, thick lips to the other, showing perfect, straight white teeth, the tips of her fingertips began to tingle like she’d fallen asleep on them and spent the night with them cuddled beneath the weight of her body.

He-of-the-handsome-face stuck out his hand and declared, “Good. Olivia said to meet you here. Donovan Boyd, but everyone calls me Van. Lovely to meet you.”

Jasmine knew she should shake his hand. It was the polite thing to do, wasn’t it? For some reason, her brain wasn’t sending any signals down her arm to lift it up to his outstretched one.

Donovan, or Van, kept his hand out, his smile in place, and ticked his head to the left a hair. A clap of booming laughter rang out from somewhere behind her and finally propelled the gears in her brain to start turning again.

After a headshake where she actually heard her brains rattle, she extended her hand and slipped it into his.

Warmth, like she’d just stepped into a bubbling hot tub, spread along her fingers, shot across her palm, then jumped all the way up to her neck.  A feeling of familiarity bolted through her. With a shock, she recognized it for what it was – desire. Pure and simple. Something she hadn’t felt in almost forever.

She swallowed, said,  “It’s nice to meet you,” then shook her head again as she slid her hand back.

“Would you like to sit at the bar or would ya prefer a table?” he asked.

At the bar she’d have to sit next to him, shoulder to shoulder. That seemed a bit too intimate right now, especially when the nerves she’d thought to quell had started bounding through her again. Better to be across from him, keep them at a bit of a physical distance.

Van thrust his chin toward the empty table she’d been aiming for, extended his hand and said, “Shall we?”

He got points for good manners, that was for sure.

A little more about Peggy:

Peggy Jaeger writes contemporary romances and rom coms about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them.

Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, Peggy brings all aspects of life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness, and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she has created the families she wanted as that lonely child.

As a lifelong diarist, she caught the blogging bug early on, and you can visit her at peggyjaeger.com where she blogs daily about life, writing, and stuff that makes her go “What??!”

Where to find her:

Website/Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | BookBub | YouTube | Instagram | Pinterest | LinkedIn | Amazon | Triberr

FIXING CHRISTMAS by Peggy Jaeger

12 Friday Nov 2021

Posted by Judith Sterling in Uncategorized

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

A Dickens Holiday Romance, adoption, award-winning author, Christmas romance, contemporary romance, Dorrit's Diner, Fixing Christmas, later in life romance, Peggy Jaeger, romantic comedy, Santa Baby, small town romance

Award-winning author Peggy Jaeger is here today to talk about her recent release, Fixing Christmas. If you enjoy holiday romances–or just contemporary romance in general–you’ll want to check this out. Take it away, Peggy!

Welcome back to the tiny New England town of Dickens! FIXING CHRISTMAS is the full length companion novel to my novella SANTA BABY ( DORRIT’S DINER) and tells the story of a grown-up Abracadabra Charles and her life since she was left on Amy Dorrit’s doorstep 38 Christmas Eve’s ago.

Writing about adoption was a true labor of love for me. For several years my husband and I have attended a local auction for the Foster Parents Association in our community to raise excess funds for the worthwhile group. When I learned the statistics about how many children are placed in foster care each year – the number exploding due to the Opioid abuse crisis in this country – I was dumbfounded. The number of children in my community who are adopted by the foster parents is very high, something that warms my heart as a human being and as a writer. Being able to add to their ever dwindling government funding through the auction is something that fills me with a sense of pride.

In my own extended family adoption has played a major role. My sister-in-law and her husband adopted 2 babies (newborns!) within 2 months of one another and created an instant, loving family. FIXING CHRISTMAS is dedicated to them because they were my role models for Andy and Amy Charles, Abra’s adoptive parents.

More about Fixing Christimas:

Christmas has never filled writer Abra Charles with undiluted pleasure. If you’d been left on a doorstep on Christmas Eve morning, you might have a few issues with the holiday as well.

Abra’s avoided her hometown of Dickens for the past twenty Christmas seasons, but now she’s returned in an attempt to get her writing mojo back. Twice-divorced and with her third engagement ending in heartbreak, anger, and blackmail, Abra is now six months behind on submitting her current book. She hopes renting Copperfield House and immersing herself in solitude will cure her writer’s block and get her life back on track. The house she rents isn’t helping her achieve her goal, though, as one thing after another breaks, collapses, or floods.

Colton Bree, Dickens’ very own Mr. FixIt can’t help but wonder if the new resident of Copperfield House is cursed. After being called to repair a broken window, he’s then needed to fix an exploding coffeepot, an overrunning toilet, and a washing machine that has a mind of its own. Bree doesn’t mind all the unexpected repair jobs, though, because the sexy renter is something to look at and dream about, despite being a little neurotic and a whole lot of snarky.

Can Abra get her book done with all the distractions and craziness of her life, the biggest distraction being the flannelled hunk with the bedroom eyes and scowling yet oh-so-kissable mouth? Or will Dickens’ Mr FixIt have to step in and save the day and in so doing, fix Christmas for Abra forever?

A peek between the pages:

Here she was, alone at God only knew what hour, out in the most secluded part of town. The notion she should have paid more attention to those self-defense classes she’d sat in on as research for her last book blew through her head.

Think, Abra, think.

A butcher block of knives rested on the kitchen counter.

Armed is always better than unarmed.

She pulled one out, held it against her thigh.

Opening the basement door as if she was trying to disarm a live bomb, she slid through it and took a step downward. When the stair didn’t give her away by groaning, she stepped down another, then another until she could crouch down a bit and see into the basement proper.

A man, large and tall—exceptionally so—swept glass from a windowpane with the head of a hammer. The window looked too small for him to have crawled through, so how had he gotten into the house?

Abra took another step down and, in the next second, lost her balance as her foot miscalculated the depth of the step. She flailed out but wasn’t quick enough to grab onto the handrail before she tumbled straight down to the concrete basement floor, her butt bumping on each riser until she landed, once again, flat on her ass at the bottom. Still sore from last night’s tumble on the ice, she couldn’t prevent the ear-piercing scream of pain she let out.

“What the hell?” The man turned, surprise covering his face. He moved toward her.

“Don’t come any closer,” Abra shouted.  She shot her free hand up in a halt stance. “I’m armed.” She pointed the knife at him, which by some miracle hadn’t dropped from her hand when she’d fallen.

The man stopped in his tracks, glanced down at it, then fisted his hands on his hips, his brows tugging together across his forehead. “What are you gonna do? Butter me to death?”

Abra took a good look at the knife for the first time. It wasn’t the steel edged stiletto she thought she’d chosen, but had a flat, wide head, perfect for spreading jam and not skewering an intruder. She had to give him praise-points because most men in her experience didn’t know the differences among everyday cutlery. Ask them about a hunting or pocketknife, and you’d get a different response entirely.

The man shook his head. “Who are you?”

“Since this is my house shouldn’t I be asking you that? How did you get in here, because I know for a fact I locked the door last night.” A slight fib, but he didn’t need to know it.

She tried to pull herself to a standing position using only her free hand so she could keep the knife brandished in the other. It was awkward at best since she had no core strength to speak of.

Warm, strong arms slid around her waist and hauled her up as if she weighed no more than a passing thought.

He stared down at her, his head tilted to one side, his hands once again fisted on his hips as soon as she stood, surefooted.

“Since I know for a fact this isn’t your house,” he said, “you must be the renter Jimmy Marley mentioned. The one who’s supposed to arrive tomorrow.”

Despite the fact Abra loved a good sarcastic throwaway line, she didn’t appreciate being the subject of said mockery. While she swiped at the dust now covering her from chest to knees, she said, “I had a change of plans and that still doesn’t explain who you are or why you’re in my house, breaking a window.”

“Window was already broken. Marley hired me to fix it, gave me a key to get in to do so.” His gaze dragged down her torso. “Before you arrived.”

Suddenly, Abra was hyper-aware of her bra-less state. Half naked and alone in a big, old, creepy house, with a guy who knew the difference between everyday cutlery, wasn’t the way she saw her morning starting.  With her brain still on Vegas-time, her nerves frayed, and her body screaming for coffee, this was a worse case scenario if ever she saw one.

Tall, gray, and built-like-a-tank continued to stare at her as if she had two heads, possibly, three.

“You stay here,” she ordered, flourishing the butter knife at him again. “I’m going upstairs to make a call to confirm you are who you say you are.” She squinted up at him. “Who are you?”

He shook his head, and if she wasn’t mistaken, rolled his eyes. “Colton Bree.” He didn’t offer his hand.

She bobbed her head once. Not exactly a serial killer moniker, but Theodore Bundy was an innocuous sounding, milquetoast name, so you never knew.

“You stay here,” she said again, then, because it was never a good idea to turn your back on a potential murderer, she made her way up the stairs, backwards, the knife still wielded in front of her.

Buy the book!

Add to Goodreads WANT TO READ list.

Add to BookBub.

A little more about Peggy:

Peggy Jaeger is a contemporary romance writer who writes Romantic Comedies about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them. If she can make you cry on one page and bring you out of tears rolling with laughter the next, she’s done her job as a writer.

Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, she brings all topics of daily life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she’s created the families she wanted as that lonely child.

When she’s not writing Peggy is usually painting, crafting, scrapbooking or decoupaging old steamer trunks she finds at rummage stores and garage sales.

As a lifelong diarist, she caught the blogging bug early on, and you can visit her at peggyjaeger.com where she blogs daily about life, writing, and stuff that makes her go “What??!”

Where to find her:

Website/Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | BookBub | YouTube | Instagram | Pinterest | LinkedIn | Amazon | Triberr

Congrats on your new release, Peggy! Wishing you all the best with it! 🙂

A New Release by Peggy Jaeger ~ A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: AIDEN

03 Friday Sep 2021

Posted by Judith Sterling in Uncategorized

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

A Pride of Brothers: Aiden, contemporary romance, military dogs, NYC romance, Peggy Jaeger, romantic suspense, service dogs, women's fiction

I’m excited to welcome back Peggy Jaeger! Her upcoming release is the second book in the series A Pride of Brothers, and this time, Aiden Keane is the hero. His service dog also has a leading role in the story, and Peggy’s here to tell us all about her. Take it away, Peggy!

One of the main characters in A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: AIDEN is Bronte, Aiden’s service dog, a female chocolate Labrador who is more his best friend than anything else.

I wrote APOB:A in late 2019, early 2020 and did a great deal of research on training dogs, especially dogs trained as service animals and as military dogs. I knew that with Aiden’s issues, there may be some times he was too weak to speak, so when I read that the US Army requires their dogs to learn commands with a verbal cue, as well as a visual cue, such as a hand signal, I knew I needed Bronte and Aiden to communicate this way as well. It just makes sense.

The training that dogs go through when they serve in the military is intense. They train with their handles daily, for a minimum of 30 minutes at a time. This not only fosters obedience and recognition, but bonding as well. These dogs would – and do – give their lives over for their partners, just like any soldier would to a fellow comrade in arms.

Now, as serendipity would have it, in September of 2020, my husband and I adopted an 8-week-old chocolate lab we named Maple, since we live in New Hampshire. I trained Maple using verbal and nonverbal cues just like those military dogs. She’s up to about 30 commands now and I think it’s easier for her to remember the nonverbal hand gestures than it is for me!

More about Aiden’s story:

Lexi Buckley wants answers about her younger sister’s death. The police have labeled it a suicide, but Lexi doesn’t believe it. Stymied in her investigation, she doesn’t know where to turn next. After a chance encounter with a private investigator, she thinks her prayers have been answered.

Aiden Keane has never been an answer to a prayer before, but he agrees to help Lexi. A quirky combo of brains and beauty, the pixie blonde makes him feel things no professional ever should for a client.

When their investigation puts Lexi’s life in jeopardy, her safety becomes his number one priority. The hard part is not falling for her.

A peek between the pages:

Were you close with your sister?” Aiden asked.

Not the way we should have been. Not at the end.

“We had a sizable age difference between us. Almost ten years. I was the big sis. The oldest.” Her lips trembled when she pulled them into a sad line. Rolling her eyes she added, “The bossy one, according to her. She was the baby and took full advantage of her status from the moment she realized it.”

“And rightly so.” The corners of his eyes crinkled. “I’m the youngest of my brothers and I can tell you with one hundred percent honesty, my oldest brother is the bossiest one of us. I think it comes with birth order. Although he takes his so called right uber-seriously. Especially at work.”

This time her grin was steadier.  “What kind of business do you all own together?”

“We run a private security company.”

“Security?”

“Personal bodyguards, if a client needs protection from something. Background checks for employers. Mostly we do investigations.”

“What, like private eyes? Like on television?”

He laughed. “Nothing so glamorous. The fast cars and hot babes are all fantasy. It’s a lot of boring research, computer work, and surveillance, but yeah, you could say I’m a private eye.”

Lexi’s entire mood turned on his words. The sorrow flew, the hurt dissolved. Even her nervous trivia-speak went dormant. She sat bolt upright, her knees bumping against the tabletop when she shifted. Excitement shot from her system as she turned her body, placed a hand across his forearm and declared, “Oh, my God. You’re the answer to my prayers.”

Buy the book!

More about Peggy:

Peggy Jaeger writes contemporary romances and rom coms about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them.

Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, Peggy brings all aspects of life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness, and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she has created the families she wanted as that lonely child.

As a lifelong diarist, she caught the blogging bug early on, and you can visit her at peggyjaeger.com where she blogs daily about life, writing, and stuff that makes her go “What??!”

Where to find her:

Website | Twitter | Amazon | Facebook | Pinterest | Goodreads | Instagram | BookBub | YouTube

Thanks so much for joining us today, Peggy. Wishing you great success with the new book!

SANTA BABY by Peggy Jaeger

07 Monday Jun 2021

Posted by Judith Sterling in Uncategorized

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Christmas, contemporary romance, holiday read, holiday romance, New England, new release, novella, Peggy Jaeger, prequel, Santa Baby, sweet romance

Congrats to Peggy Jaeger, whose new release, Santa Baby, is out today! If you love holiday reads, you’ll want to snap up this sweet romance novella. It’s the prequel to a full-length Christmas book releasing this November. Here’s a little about the story:

It’s Christmas Eve morning in the tiny New England town of Dickens.

Santa’s arrival is imminent, and a hint of snow is in the air.

Amy Dorrit is just about to open her popular diner for the breakfast rush when she discovers an abandoned baby on her back doorstep.

Amy knows she should call the authorities and turn the infant over to them, but she just can’t. Thoughts of her own abandonment as a baby flood through her and she wants to keep the little one out of the hands of the authorities until the mother – hopefully –returns.

But will the mom come back? And if she doesn’t, what is Amy prepared to do about the baby who has, already, claimed her heart?

A peek inside:

As she moved through the breezeway connecting the diner to her apartment, Amy heard a mewling sound at the back alley door. Her cook, Willie, often left scraps out for strays, especially in winter, and sometimes when she took the trash out at the end of the day, Amy would find a mamma cat searching for something to feed her kittens.

Amy opened the door, expecting to see a hungry animal looking for a handout, and got the shock of the century when she found a baby carrier, complete with a crying infant nestled in it.

She gasped, her head flicking right, then left, to find the person responsible for leaving a baby out in the frigid night air.

“Hello? Is anyone here?”

The still sleeping and silent town surrounded her as shoe impressions in the fresh snow indicated the baby hadn’t been there for long.

The infant’s howl echoed in the quiet.

“Oh, you poor thing. Let’s get you out of the cold.”

Watch the trailer:

Buy the book here!

About Peggy:

Peggy Jaeger is a contemporary romance writer who writes Romantic Comedies about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them. If she can make you cry on one page and bring you out of tears rolling with laughter the next, she’s done her job as a writer!

Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, she brings all topics of daily life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she’s created the families she wanted as that lonely child.

When she’s not writing Peggy is usually painting, crafting, scrapbooking or decoupaging old steamer trunks she finds at rummage stores and garage sales.

As a lifelong diarist, she caught the blogging bug early on, and you can visit her at peggyjaeger.com where she blogs daily about life, writing, and stuff that makes her go “What??!”

Where to find her:

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | BookBub | YouTube | Instagram | Pinterest | LinkedIn | Amazon | Triberr

All the best, Peggy! Wishing you great success with the book!

Cover Reveal ~ A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: AIDEN

01 Tuesday Jun 2021

Posted by Judith Sterling in Uncategorized

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

A Pride of Brothers: Aiden, A Pride of Brothers: Rick, award-nominated, contemporary romance, cover reveal, Peggy Jaeger, romance series, The Wild Rose Press

Behold the cover of Peggy Jaeger’s upcoming release, A Pride of Brothers: Aiden! It’s the second book in the series; the first, whose hero is Rick, is nominated for a RONE award. (Best of luck, Peg!)

Here’s the scoop on Aiden’s story:

Lexi Buckley wants answers about her younger sister’s death. The police have labeled it a suicide, but Lexi doesn’t believe it. Stymied in her investigation, she doesn’t know where to turn next. After a chance encounter with a private investigator, she thinks her prayers have been answered.

Aiden Keane has never been an answer to a prayer before, but he agrees to help Lexi. A quirky combo of brains and beauty, the pixie blonde makes him feel things no professional ever should for a client. When their investigation puts Lexi’s life in jeopardy, her safety becomes his number one priority. The hard part is not falling for her.

A peek between the pages:

Were you close with your sister?” Aiden asked.

Not the way we should have been. Not at the end.

“We had a sizable age difference between us. Almost ten years. I was the big sis. The oldest.” Her lips trembled when she pulled them into a sad line. Rolling her eyes she added, “The bossy one, according to her. She was the baby and took full advantage of her status from the moment she realized it.”

“And rightly so.” The corners of his eyes crinkled. “I’m the youngest of my brothers and I’ll can tell you with one hundred percent honesty, my oldest brother is the bossiest one of us. I think it comes with birth order. Although he takes his so called right uber-seriously. Especially at work.”

This time her grin was steadier.  “What kind of business do you all own together?”

“We a run a private security company.”

“Security?”

“Personal bodyguards, if a client needs protection from something. Background checks for employers. Mostly we do investigations.”

“What, like private eyes? Like on television?”

He laughed. “Nothing so glamorous. The fast cars and hot babes are all fantasy. It’s a lot of boring research, computer work, and surveillance, but yeah, you could say I’m a private eye.”

Lexi’s entire mood turned on his words. The sorrow flew, the hurt dissolved. Even her nervous trivia-speak went dormant. She sat bolt upright, her knees bumping against the tabletop when she shifted. Excitement shot from her system as she turned her body, placed a hand across his forearm and declared, “Oh, my God. You’re the answer to my prayers.”

Sounds like a great read, and the cover really sets the mood. No buy links yet, but you can find the first book in the series here.

Connect with Peggy:

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | BookBub | YouTube | Instagram 

Pinterest | LinkedIn | Amazon | Triberr

Wishing Peggy all the best with her forthcoming release, and wishing you a lovely June!

VANILLA WITH A TWIST by Peggy Jaeger

14 Thursday May 2020

Posted by Judith Sterling in Uncategorized

≈ 24 Comments

Tags

Judith Sterling, novella, One Scoop or Two, Peggy Jaeger, romance series, summer reading, sweet romance, The Wild Rose Press, Vanilla with a Twist, writing

Sister Rose Peggy Jaeger is back!  She’s here to talk about her upcoming release, Vanilla with a Twist.  Ice cream and romance:  not a bad combo, if you ask me, and it sounds like a fun summer read.  Take it away, Peggy!

My new novella, VANILLA WITH A TWIST, is part of the new summer series from Wild Rose Press titled ONE SCOOP OR TWO. All the stories revolve around ice cream in some form and all must be set in summer. Since they are also novellas, the word count is set at 35,000 or less.

I typically write long tomes that range from 85,000 to 100,00 words, include a lot of story elements, and that typically feature some kind of intimacy (read: sex!) for the hero and heroine. I like a slow buildup with a lot of emotional and physical tension, so my folks don’t just jump in the sac in chapter 1. Sometimes, not even by chapter 10!

Because I like to write this way, penning a romance novella where I am restricted in the word count, and therefore the slow buildup, has made me a side-writer of sweet romance.

Of the three – now 4 – novellas I’ve penned for WRP, all have been sweet romances. No physical intimacy aside from a few kisses and hugs for the H/H.

Can I just tell you what an exercise in writing restraint that’s been?! Hee hee.

It’s actually been a good exercise, because it’s made me figure out alternative ways to show the physical tension and buildup of emotion through action and dialogue. A simple brush of the hero’s hand against the heroine’s can show a shiver of longing run up her spine, or have him hiss in a breath at the simple content. Just having them be aware of one another across a crowded room, or thinking about the other throughout the day without actually being in the same room denotes a type of intimacy and affection that can occur without sex accompanying it.

I have to admit, I love that.

But I also have to admit, I like writing my sex scenes, too. Hee hee.

The story:

Tandy Blakemore spends her days running her New England ice cream parlor, single-parenting her teenage son, and trying to keep her head above financial water. No easy feat when the shop’s machinery is aging and her son is thinking about college. Tandy hasn’t had a day off in a decade and wonders if she’ll ever be able to live a worry-free life.

Engineer Deacon Withers is on an enforced vacation in the tiny seaside town of Beacher’s Cove. Overworked, stressed, and lonely, he walks into Tandy’s shop for a midday ice cream cone and gets embroiled in helping her fix a broken piece of equipment.

Can the budding friendship that follows lead to something everlasting?

A peek between the pages:

For a few moments, she regarded him with a look his mother would have called insightful. The corners of her eyes narrowed, she dipped her chin a hair, and she pulled her mouth into another appealing pout he was tempted to kiss.

“I bet,” she said after a long, drawn-out sigh, “you were the kind of kid who took apart clocks and fans and vacuum cleaners to see how they worked.”

“It was more washing machines and lawn mowers and anything with a motor, but yeah. I was.”

She shook her head, her own lips forming a lopsided grin. “Your poor mother.”

“She survived.”

Tandy rolled her eyes and shot her hands to her hips. “So it’s working again?” She thrust her chin at the ice cream machine.

“For now.”

“Okay, well, I can live with for now. And you think you know the real reason it’s been acting up?”

“I definitely do. But like I said, the water to the machine needs to be shut off to fix it.”

“Okay. Well, we close at nine.”

“I’ll come back a little before then. Get things ready. Is that okay with you?”

“I guess it’ll have to be.” She bit down on the inside of her cheek as her brows pulled together. “And you’re sure you want to do this?”

“If I weren’t, I wouldn’t offer, Tandy.”

Why her reluctance to have him help was such a turn-on was something he considered while he waited for his ice cream.

Buy the book:

Amazon | Nook | Apple Books

More about Peggy:

Peggy Jaeger is a contemporary romance writer who writes Romantic Comedies about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them. If she can make you cry on one page and bring you out of tears rolling with laughter the next, she’s done her job as a writer!

Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, she brings all topics of daily life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she’s created the families she wanted as that lonely child.

When she’s not writing Peggy is usually painting, crafting, scrapbooking or decoupaging old steamer trunks she finds at rummage stores and garage sales.

A lifelong and avid romance reader and writer, Peggy is a member of RWA and her local New Hampshire RWA Chapter.

As a lifelong diarist, she caught the blogging bug early on, and you can visit her at peggyjaeger.com where she blogs daily about life, writing, and stuff that makes her go “What??!”

Where to find her:

Website: http://peggyjaeger.com/

Blog: http://peggyjaeger.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Peggy-Jaeger-Author/825914814095072?ref=bookmarks

Twitter: https://twitter.com/peggy_jaeger

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13478796.Peggy_Jaeger

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/peggy-jaeger

            YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDR8RRIlssIyS0FYZWeGqsg/videos?view_as=subscriber

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peggyjaeger_author/

Pintrest: https://www.pinterest.com/peggyjaeger/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peggy-jaeger-296ab878/

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00T8E5LN0

Authors database: https://authorsdb.com/community/15814-peggy-jaeger

Triberr: https://triberr.com/tribe/strong-women–loving-men

Thanks for joining us today, Peggy.  Wishing you all the best with the book!

Cover Reveal ~ ROOT BREW FLOAT by Sydney Winward

20 Friday Mar 2020

Posted by Judith Sterling in Uncategorized

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cover reveal, Judith Sterling, One Scoop or Two, Peggy Jaeger, romance series, Root Brew Float, summer reading, Sydney Winward, The Wild Rose Press, Vanilla with a Twist

Here’s the cover for another sister Rose’s (published by The Wild Rose Press) upcoming release, Root Brew Float.  I love it!

Like Peggy Jaeger’s next book, Vanilla with a Twist, Root Brew Float is part of our publisher’s summer series, One Scoop or Two.  I don’t know about you, but these covers are making me hungry for ice cream.  And I’m partial to root beer floats!  Here’s the story:

Josephine Brevil has lived hundreds of years haunted by the horrors she experienced during the Salem Witch Trials. She takes great care to hide her powers, though serving a Root Brew Float laced with a magic potion now and again never hurt anybody. The Order sends her to Massachusetts to deal with a paranormal threat, and she meets the young and handsome widower, Clarence Watts. However, being with him comes with a choice. How can she choose between the man she loves and the magic she holds dear?

Connect with Sydney Winward:

Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram ~ Amazon Page ~ Goodreads ~ Bookbub

The book is set to release on May 18, 2020.  Best of luck with it, Sydney!  🙂

Cover Reveal ~ VANILLA WITH A TWIST by Peggy Jaeger

10 Tuesday Mar 2020

Posted by Judith Sterling in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

award winning author, cover reveal, Judith Sterling, One Scoop or Two, Peggy Jaeger, romance series, The Wild Rose Press, Vanilla with a Twist

Today, one of my sister Roses (published by The Wild Rose Press) is revealing the cover of her upcoming release, Vanilla with a Twist.  It’ll be part of our publisher’s summer series, One Scoop or Two.  Isn’t it cute?  Here’s the scoop (pun intended!):

Tandy Blakemore spends her days running her New England ice cream parlor, single-parenting her teenage son, and trying to keep her head above financial water. No easy feat when the shop’s machinery is aging and her son is thinking about college. Tandy hasn’t had a day off in a decade and wonders if she’ll ever be able to live a worry-free life.

Engineer Deacon Withers is on an enforced vacation in the tiny seaside town of Beacher’s Cove. Overworked, stressed, and lonely, he walks into Tandy’s shop for a midday ice cream cone and gets embroiled in helping her fix a broken piece of equipment.

Can the budding friendship that follows lead to something everlasting?

Sounds like a great summer read!  Visit Peggy’s blog here for more info.

NIGHT OF THE OWL on sale and part of the WINTER GAMES READER CHALLENGE

01 Saturday Feb 2020

Posted by Judith Sterling in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Amazon gift card, Barbara Bettis, booklovers, books on sale, Casi McLean, free books, Judith Sterling, Laura Strickland, multi-genre book event, Night of the Owl, Peggy Jaeger, reading challenge, The Novels of Ravenwood, Winter Games Reader Challenge

Night of the Owl is now on sale for only 99 cents!  Grab your copy today:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple

But you could also read the book FOR FREE if you participate in the Winter Games Reader Challenge.  If you love to read, this event is for you!

It’s a month-long reader challenge with games, a chance to make new friends and meet new authors, and prizes galore, including a chance to win a $200 Amazon gift card!  And guess what?  If you take part in the Winter Games, all of the books included will be free to you.  Even if they’re listed as 99 cents (as Night of the Owl currently is), they’ll be gifted to you on Amazon.  So what are you waiting for?  Sign up today, and let the games begin!

Peggy Jaeger’s New Release ~ A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: RICK

07 Tuesday Jan 2020

Posted by Judith Sterling in Uncategorized

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

A Pride of Brothers: Rick, contemporary romance, Cooking with Kandy, guest post, Judith Sterling, New England authors, Peggy Jaeger, The Wild Rose Press, Will Cook for Love

I’m thrilled to welcome sister Rose (published by the Wild Rose Press) Peggy Jaeger back to my blog!  She’s written a lovely guest post about Abigail Lane, the heroine in her upcoming release, A Pride of Brothers: Rick.  Take it away, Peggy!

Lawyer Abby Laine made an appearance in my first WILL COOK FOR LOVE series book COOKING WITH KANDY. Abby is the second oldest of the Laine girls (right behind Kandy) and when we meet her in the first book she is working as a paralegal in a law firm and attending law school at night.

Abby’s backstory is a deep one. Her father left the family after multiple affairs when Abby was a child. His defection impacted her greatly because she saw what it did to her mother emotionally and to the family financially. Left with no means of support and with nothing but a high school education, Abby’s mother, Hannah, had to work 3 jobs to support herself and her 7 girls, and the family was forced to live with Hannah’s parents. Abby saw the way her mother was treated by her father – dumped and discarded – and by society – an uneducated, unskilled woman – and vowed to never allow herself to be treated so horribly by anyone. She was determined to be self sufficient and financially sound, get a good education and be successful.

Since she was the second oldest, she and Kandy were tasked with taking care of the younger girls while Hannah worked, and it instilled a great sense of family obligation in her. She loves her sisters, there is no doubt of that, but she never really got to be a kid. Assuming adult responsibilities at such a tender age left no room for friends, outside the home activates, or anything fun related.

When we meet Abby in A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: RICK she is confronted by the angry abusive husband of one of her clients in her office while Kandy is visiting. Abby stands up to him and when he threatens her, has him arrested. The fact that her sister deals with such violent people in her practice scares Kandy, and she asks her Private Investigator/Bodyguard husband to place someone in Abby’s office as protection. Abby, of course, refuses the help.

When Rick Bannerman, Josh’s partner, hears about what happened, he wants to help protect Abby. The two of them have a subtle history that ended when he walked away from her after they shared a hot kiss 4 years ago. Abby has always had a thing for Rick, but his dismissal hurt, so she has kept her distance from him, despite the fact that their families are together a great deal.

Abby has a three-legged cat, adopted from a shelter, and whom no one wanted because she wasn’t deemed “perfect.” In her cat, Abby saw a kindred spirit and it was love at first sight. Despite the hardened, take no prisoners personality Abby shows the world, she is truly a softie at heart and wants nothing more than to be loved for the person she is.

A peek between the pages:

“Right there.” She aimed her fork at him as if it were a spear. “Perfect example. You know I hate being called Abigail. I’ve lost count of the hundreds of times I’ve told you and you still do it, knowing it pisses me off. And”—she cut him off before he could speak— “your usual response is to lift your hands and say ‘and still’ when you’re called on it. Who does that? What kind of person persistently and purposefully annoys people?”

“So you’re saying I’m intentionally annoying?”

“Persistently, so. Yes. Makes the lawyer in me wonder why.”

Just the lawyer? “Any answers come to mind?”

“Plenty.”

“Care to share?”

She placed her fork down next to her plate and regarded him across the table. “You really want to hear this? Because if you know anything about me, you know I’m truthful. I don’t hold back.”

Oh, he was sure she didn’t. And wouldn’t. Her tenacity was one of the things he’d first been drawn to.

That and her fabulous ass.

“I’m a big boy,” he said with a grin. “I can take it.

She took a sip of water first, her eyes trained on him the entire time. “Okay. If you really want to hear this.”

He waved his hand for her to continue.

“I think you use your cocky, aren’t-I-simply-too-witty attitude to keep people at a distance.”

Buy the book:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Books-a-Million

More about Peggy:

Peggy Jaeger is a contemporary romance writer who writes Romantic Comedies about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them. If she can make you cry on one page and bring you out of tears rolling with laughter the next, she’s done her job as a writer!

Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, she brings all topics of daily life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she’s created the families she wanted as that lonely child.

When she’s not writing Peggy is usually painting, crafting, scrapbooking or decoupaging old steamer trunks she finds at rummage stores and garage sales.

A lifelong and avid romance reader and writer, Peggy is a member of RWA and her local New Hampshire RWA Chapter.

As a lifelong diarist, she caught the blogging bug early on, and you can visit her at peggyjaeger.com where she blogs daily about life, writing, and stuff that makes her go “What??!”

Where to find her:

Website/Blog: http://peggyjaeger.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/peggy_jaeger

Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00T8E5LN0

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Peggy-Jaeger-Author/825914814095072?ref=bookmarks

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/peggyjaeger/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13478796.Peggy_Jaeger

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peggyjaeger_author/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/peggy-jaeger

You-Tube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDR8RRIlssIyS0FYZWeGqsg/videos?view_as=subscriber

Thanks so much for being my guest, Peggy.  Best of luck with the new book!

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