Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Guest Post & Giveaway - Waiting for a Girl Like You by Gina Conkle


Waiting for a Girl Like You

by Gina Conkle

GENRE:   Contemporary Romance

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BLURB:

(Two stories in one Book)

Proper Care and Feeding of a Broken Heart

Bookstore clerk Abbie is off-the-charts nervous her first night moonlighting in a sex-for-hire job. If she only kept her mouth shut…but nothing goes as expected, including the intense blue-eyed surfer who walks through her door. Mark wants to work out a few kinks —and leave the lifestyle for good. Past mistakes still haunt him, but sweet Abbie turns Mark’s plans upside down, and two broken hearts discover honesty is the hottest aphrodisiac.

Anything But Safe

Former trophy wife Jennifer wants to thrive again, but when her new life hits a speedbump, her unlikely hero is rough working man AJ. The woman he rescued is out of his league, but the two together are magic. Jennifer smooths his hard edges, and when she’s with AJ, her true, quirky colors show. A surprise threatens to derail the two who quickly learn…love is anything but safe.

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EXCERPT:

Waiting for a Girl Like You

“I don’t know what Mrs. Smith told you but when she said ‘fresh face’ that was code for I don’t know what I’m doing. I’ve never done this before. Any of it. Not sex for hire. And certainly not BDSM. Much as I want to bolt, I need the money. So can we get this over with?”         

Another dry chuckle. “You know how to get a man going.”

I glared at him through my bangs and hugged myself tighter. Music pulsed from the room next door, but I couldn’t say what the song was. Did they need a sound track to get going? The frazzled side of me surrendered to how little I knew about sex. Despite standing bravely, I was small and adrift on an unknown sea.

Surfer Man stepped within touching distance, his blue eyes on the verge of grey, lit with a strange mixture of hard shell and tender patience. A faint line traced the left side of his mouth like contempt came easy.          

“First rule,” he said evenly. “You only talk when spoken to.”

“Then what am I supposed to call you?”

The question startled us both. I was throwing out the no names rule and for good reason. Something dawned on me. With the closed door, it was just the two of us. This square room was my island. Control could go either way. Surfer Man’s mouth opened, but an adrenaline rush took over and my hip cocked sideways. In the world of fight or flight, my body tensed with its version of fight.

“Oh, let me guess. You’re going to say Call me master or some crap like that. I work at a bookstore. I’ve read those please spank me Mr. Billionaire books.”

I liked a few of them. Reading the books was one thing. Living them was another.         

One side of his mouth curved up. “Maybe you should tell me how you really feel.”

I exhaled slowly, blowing bangs off my forehead. No sense in telling him what I really thought. Talk about a mood killer. No man wanted to hear me say this place is for losers who can’t find a girl. Yet, this guy was no loser.

“Real billionaires don’t look like you do in those jeans of yours.”

He chuckled, his blue eyes flaring wider. “I’m no billionaire.”

Oh, but you are one hot man. Thankfully my filter worked and I kept that to myself.

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What’s Your Favorite Romance Trope?
By Gina Conkle

For me, the hankering for a certain trope changes according to my mood. I started off as a young reader devouring my grandma’s innocent Barbara Cartland books. Looking back the favored trope of Cartland’s books was older-guardian-falls-for-his-ingénue-ward. Definitely a lot of May-December romance in those books.

As I got older, my tastes changed. My reading got decidedly less innocent. Wolf and the Dove by Kathleen Woodiwiss was my first “adult romance.” The book gave me a taste of enemies-to-lovers romance and I was hooked. Medieval romance novels abound with that trope! So do Viking romances (my other sweet spot).

Since then, I’ve grown to love rakish second son romances (you know the bad-boy/good-girl tales), the marriage-of-convenience trope, the opposites attract romance, and boss-employee trope. As a read I can’t get enough of these because they’re so much fun!

I finally wrote a rich boy/bad girl romance (The Lord Meets His Lady, Midnight Meetings series, book 3 which comes out in December). That was a first for me and a lot of fun. I liked it so much, I did the same trope for a Viking romance coming out in 2018 (Secrets in Amber)!

There are two stodgy-hero/femme-fatale stories in the works. I love, love that mix.

But, you know one trope I often pass on? Friends-to-lovers. I don’t know why. I have no interest in reading them or writing them…at least this year. The closest I come to that trope is a Viking romance (Secrets in Ice coming late 2018/early 2019). That book has two tropes: childhood-friends-turned-lovers and revenge.  Still, the hero and heroine friends are reunited as adults in a tense setting.

Now you tell me. What is your favorite trope? Do you have one you keep reading? Or do you mix it up like me and go for whatever you’re in the mood for?

Thanks to Sue for hosting me on her blog!
-Gina    

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Gina Conkle writes Viking and Georgian Romance with a new dip into hot Contemporary Romance. She grew up in southern California and despite all that sunshine, Gina loves books over beaches and stone castles over sand castles. Now she lives in Michigan with her favorite alpha male, Brian, and their two sons where she’s known to occasionally garden and cook.

Social Media Connections:

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Buy Links for Waiting for a Girl Like You by Gina Conkle

The book will be on sale for $0.99.




FREE BOOK! Listening to Her, free on Instafreebie: https://www.instafreebie.com/free/pVnGx

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GIVEAWAY:

Gina Conkle will be awarding an Amazon Kindle Fire 7” to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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