#NewRelease from Vicky Burkholder: RAINING JELLY BEANS

Vicky Burkholder has an upcoming release for spring. RAINING JELLY BEANS comes out on April 17, 2023 from The Wild Rose Press, part of the Jelly Beans and Spring Things series. Order your copy now and have it delivered to your ereader on April 17!

Blurb: 

Will their future rain Jellybeans and will love win over evil?

Delia loves her life at the lodge but when an email arrives threatening her happiness, she vows to fight to protect her children. Hoping her ex won’t follow through with his threats, she confides her concerns to a local cop and her brother’s best friend Noah.

Noah has loved Delia from afar for a long time. But he knows she’s off limits because she’s Max’s little sister. So, when she asks for his help, he puts his love on the back burner to find her kidnapped twin girls and put her ex-husband behind bars.

Excerpt:

“Noah? What about him? We’re…friends.” Delia thought about her brother Max’s best friend, a tall, handsome local cop who lived about two miles down the mountain toward town. She’d had a crush on him in high school, but he’d been two years ahead of her and barely knew she was alive. She shrugged. “He’s Noah. I’m just Max’s little sister who was always in the way.”

Gigi huffed at her. “You’re impossible. You do realize that he’s been dating you for months now, don’t you?”

“Huh?” Her eyes went wide. “We’ve never been on a date.”

Gigi rolled her eyes and looked at her, one eyebrow raised. “Think about the nights he eats here. Where do you sit?”

Delia frowned and cocked her head, recalling all those nights. “We sit over by the fireplace.”

“Uh huh. And where are the rest of us?”

“You’re right there…” Delia’s eyes widened. “No, you’re not. You’re over near the buffet, with the kids.”

“Yep. And what do you two talk about while you’re eating?”

“We…” Another frown. “We talk about everything. About life, the girls…”

“And that’s not a date? Delia, you’ve been dating that man for months. Tell me you haven’t.”

Buy Links:

The Wild Rose Press: https://www.thewildrosepress.com/bookauthor/vicky-burkholder

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Raining-Jelly-Beans-Spring-Things-ebook/dp/B0BVRQQMN4

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/raining-jelly-beans-vicky-burkholder/1143016056 

Google Books: Books by Vicky Burkholder on Google Play

iTunes: https://books.apple.com/gb/book/raining-jelly-beans/id6445620749

Author Bio:

As her alter-ego, Vicky has multiple homes all over the universe. She looks human - for the most part - but when she starts writing about characters being able to move things or flicking fire from their fingertips, or changing the course of rivers, people tend to get a little freaked out. She found the one guy out there in the universe who loves her for who she is and they've been together forever and raised four wonderful (now) adults. Her career includes work as a technical writer/editor, a stringer for the local newspaper, and an editor and copy editor for various publishers. At various times in her life, she has been a teacher, a secretary, a short-order cook, a computer specialist, a DJ, and a librarian. When not editing or writing, she can be found in the kitchen creating gluten free goodies for her family.

Author Links: 

Website:  http://www.vicky-burkholder.com

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Vicky-Burkholder

Goodreads Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1264928.Vicky_Burkholder

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Vicky-Burkholder-535739543163598/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/vickyburkholder

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/vicky-burkholder

For Other Works by Vicky Burkholder:

Please be sure to stop by her Website to see all of her works.

Spring Break Bookapalooza!

Celebrate your love of books all month long at N. N. Light’s Book Heaven Spring Break Bookapalooza. 28 books, 23 bestselling and award-winning authors, a huge giveaway plus authors share what they love about spring and where they’d love to travel to on their fantasy spring break. Leave your passport and sunscreen at home and join in the fun. 

https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/spring-break-bookapalooza

I'm participating with BURNING LOVE, a sweet contemporary paranormal romance. From April 7 to 21, 2023, BURNING LOVE is on sale at Amazon for .99 cents! Here's the blurb:

After causing three cooking fires in her apartment, Iris Jensen finds herself evicted and homeless. She lands on Riley Benson's doorstep, looking to rent a room in the beautiful old home he's restoring. It's only for six weeks until Iris leaves Portland, Oregon for her new job on a cruise ship. Firefighter Riley knows firsthand what a bad tenant she can be. But he needs money to finish the work on the house he loves. And something about Iris pulls at his heart…

Meanwhile, in Heaven, two angels watch over the young lovers. Angelica and Hildegard work in Heaven's Relationship Division, where angels match mortals with their soul mates. The angels believe so strongly in Iris and Riley’s love that they break Heaven's rules to help them. Can the angels convince them their love will last a lifetime?

Buy Link:  https://www.amazon.com/Burning-Love-ebook/dp/B003552TVU

Check out the fun at N.N. Light's Book Heaven and enter the giveaway for your chance to win a $75 gift card!

https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/spring-break-bookapalooza

All About Charming Alice-A Blake's Folly Romance: #NewRelease from J. Arlene Culiner

J. Arlene Culiner makes a return visit to Journeys with Jana with ALL ABOUT CHARMING ALICE, another romance set in the nearly deserted town of Blake's Folly. I love the idea of these two prickly characters falling in love. Nothing like a "seasoned" romance with not-so-young characters! 

Romance is a dance, archaic and complicated, that has to be re-learned each time it appears. The first steps are awkward, tentative, then just when we gain a bit of confidence, we trip over our own feet, stumble, and sometimes come crashing to the floor. Oh, the misery — especially since this dance requires considerable elegance, high polish, and a promise of tenderness.

Romance isn’t polite. It’s an obsession that makes us rude to friends (think of canceled coffee dates), self-centered (we can’t talk about anything else), and narcissistic (we’re always looking for a mirror).

So it is in All About Charming Alice. Alice Treemont, an original but prickly character, lives in a semi-ghost town in the Nevada desert. She rescues dogs, studies and protects snakes. Jace Constant, a writer from Chicago, isn’t crazy about dogs or the Nevada desert. As for snakes… he’s terrified of them.

Neither Alice nor Jace are young; both have had relationships that fell apart, or grew dusty, or lacked long-term zing. Neither expects love when it comes galumphing over the horizon. But here it is, with all its doubts, hesitations, and misgivings…

And while Alice and Jace are taking those first tentative steps, the nosy, cranky folks in Blake’s Folly are watching from the sidelines: ageless, shapeless Ma and Pa Handy: beer-swilling Mick Fletcher; the lovely flirtatious Rose Badger; and Killer, the scruffy stray.

Blurb:

Trust in Love and Solutions will appear

Alice Treemont has no intention of falling in love. Living in Blake’s Folly, a semi-ghost town, she cooks vegetarian meals, rescues unwanted dogs, and protects the most unloved creatures on earth: snakes. What man would share those interests?

Jace Constant is in Nevada, doing research for his new book, but he won’t be staying. He’s disgusted by desert dust on his fine Italian shoes and dog hair on his cashmere sweaters. As for snakes, he doesn’t just despise them: they terrify him.

So why does the air sizzle each time Alice and Jace meet? A romance would entail far too many compromises.

Excerpt from All About Charming Alice:

Suddenly he rose to his feet and, in that languid way of his, crossed to the doorway where she stood. She was a tallish woman, but he towered over her. Casually, stretching out one arm, he rested his hand on the doorframe, a hair’s breadth above her head. He was close, so close. His body was supple, strong and—yes, she had to admit it—warm, fragrant. The heat of him reached her over the few inches separating them, and she ached to curve into it. Aura? This man was a flesh-and-blood heat wave.

The strange, tingling excitation was flowing through her again like thick port wine. She lowered her eyes, refusing to meet his gaze, although she knew he was, once again, examining her minutely.

“I want to take the room.”

“Look, you don’t need my room,” she said, desperation too evident in her tone. “There’s a perfectly reasonable motel the other side of the Winterback Mine, out in the direction of Logan. Actually, it’s far better equipped to take in tourists than anything you’ll find here in Blake’s Folly.”

“I know. Rider Motel. Air conditioning, cable TV, and right across from the Dew Drop Inn.” His smile was wry. “That’s exactly where I’ve been staying for the last three nights. And over and over during those three nights, I remembered Blake’s Folly and the Room to Rent sign on your wall. And the more I thought about it, the more appealing it got. There’s nothing worse than an impersonal motel room when you have to stay in an area for a while.” He let his eyes wander over the faded wooden framing, over the settee on the veranda. “Right here, it feels more like home.”

That wasn’t it, she knew. That wasn’t even part of the truth. He was back because something hot and wonderful shimmered between them. Did she fascinate him as much as he did her? Possibly. Although she hadn’t done anything to encourage him, not once. It would have been hard to find someone less friendly than she’d been.

Yet, there was something about him that touched her, something that had nothing to do with raw desire. Was it the warmth in his eyes? A quirk to his lips that promised humor and understanding? Or was it plain magic, the magic that happens when the right female meets the right male.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l2VyHtsY7A

Buy Links: https://books2read.com/Charming-Alice

Author links: https://linktr.ee/j.arleneculiner

Author Bio:

Writer, photographer, social critical artist, and impenitent teller of tall tales, J. Arlene Culiner, was born in New York and raised in Toronto. She has crossed much of Europe on foot, has lived in a mud house on the Great Hungarian Plain, a Bavarian castle, a Turkish cave dwelling, a haunted house on the English moors, and on a Dutch canal. She now resides in a 400-year-old former inn in a French village of no interest where, much to local dismay, she protects spiders, snakes, and all weeds. She particularly enjoys incorporating into mysteries, non-fiction, and romances, her experiences in out-of-the-way communities, and her conversations with very odd characters.

Gosh, I enjoyed reading this book immensely. The humor during Jace's courtship of Alice and her self doubts often had me laughing out loud. 

Diana Lanos, Smile Somebody Loves You 

The perfect story for all the hopeless and hopeful romantics out there.

Lisa McCombs, Readers' Favorite

The writing and dialogue is magical and masterful. The romance filled my heart with an emotional, heartfelt, dazzling experience. Enjoy!

Sheila Clapkin, author