The Gift of Love
(Finding Love #9)
By Delaney Cameron
Sweet Contemporary Romance

ebook, 203 Pages

April 6th 2018

First or even second impressions aren't always right.

Leah didn’t plan to still be searching for love so late in her twenties. Her looks almost guarantee her success with the opposite sex, but quantity doesn’t mean quality. Good thing she’s got a great career to fall back on. The only dark cloud on that particular horizon is the enigmatic Dr. Levy, the man she’s come to think of as a permanent thorn in her side. Brilliant and handsome he most certainly is, but that doesn’t make up for the fact that he’s also stern, impatient, and bad-tempered. Oddly enough, it isn’t their mostly negative encounters that linger in her mind. Instead it’s the sadness she glimpses from time to time in his face. There’s no explanation for why she’s so bothered by this, nor can she imagine a situation where she’ll be in a position to discover the cause of his silent misery. All of which means she’s wasting her time. If anyone can take care of himself, it’s Dr. Levy.

Stratton had only been at Hutchison Clinic a short time before he heard about the beautiful nurse on the second floor. In his usual skeptical fashion he discounted the gossip until he saw Leah for himself. He had no problem admitting that the reports of her beauty hadn’t been exaggerated, but appreciation was as far as he was prepared to go. Love, romance and the so-called happily-ever-after only exist in the movies. Putting your happiness in someone else’s hands is just begging to be hurt. He has a monthly alimony payment to prove it. Getting his family and friends to understand his preference for bachelorhood isn’t so easy. While he appreciates their concern, he doesn’t need the complication of something with such overwhelming odds of failure. One ex-wife is enough for any man.

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Excerpt

The salad course had just been served when Leah became aware of movement behind her. She turned her head to see what was going on and nearly dropped the dinner roll she’d been in the act of buttering. Under her astonished gaze, Dr. Levy sat down in the empty seat beside her. 

After thanking the waitress for a menu and asking for coffee, he turned to Leah and smiled. “Hello, again. If I wasn’t so sure you don’t like me, I’d begin to think you’re following me.” 

This provocative greeting broke the spell she’d fallen under. “I was here first, so the person doing the following is you.” 

“Don’t confuse the issue with facts.” He opened the menu and ran his eyes down the offerings. “This place has a little of everything, doesn’t it? What did you get?” 

“Grilled shrimp with a baked sweet potato and Caesar salad.” 

“Sounds good. I think I’ll get that, too.” 

As if on cue, the waitress arrived with his coffee and took his order. Leah used the time to finish buttering her roll and quiet her jangled nerves. In the three weeks since Dr. Levy had given her a ride home, she’d avoided going anywhere near his area of the clinic. This kind of behavior was unusual for her, but no one likes being caught in an embarrassing situation by someone who already thinks badly of them. And now, here they were again, thrown together by forces outside her control and which no one could have foreseen. Escape was impossible. Her only choice was to make the best of it. 

“How do you know Evangeline and Cecil, Dr. Levy?” 

He smiled as he stirred cream into his coffee. “The name is Stratton. Save Dr. Levy for work. I don’t know Evangeline at all. I’m one of Cecil’s numerous cousins. What about you?” 

She didn’t hear much of what he said after the word Stratton. It was an unusual name, but it suited him somehow. As for calling him by it, that was something else entirely. “Evangeline and I met in middle school. Her family moved to South Carolina during our senior year. She was thrilled when I took the job in Myrtle Beach.” 

“If we’d known ahead of time that we were both coming this way, we could have ridden together.” 

Leah was saved having to come up with a response to this startling remark by the arrival of the main course. In truth, she was having trouble reconciling this sociable man with the somewhat reserved and often-times stern physician she knew from the clinic. Which one was the real Stratton? 

She almost jumped out of her skin when she heard his voice close to her ear. 

“What are you doing after the rehearsal dinner is over?” 

“I’m going back to Evangeline’s house. All the bridesmaids are staying there.” 

“It’s still early. Would you be interested in taking a drive?” 

Taking a drive? With him? Now things were just starting to get weird. 

When she didn’t say anything, a gleam appeared in his eyes. “It’s okay to refuse, Leah. You won’t hurt my feelings.” 

“It’s not that I don’t want to go; I’m just…” She stopped, trying to think of a nicer word than flabbergasted or amazed. “I’m surprised. Our acquaintance has had some…rocky moments.” 

He speared one of his shrimp and doused it in melted butter. “Then it’s about time we did something to change that.” 

“Is it?” 

“Of course. First or even second impressions aren’t always the right ones. Don’t you think we owe it to ourselves and each other to find out how wrong or right we were?”

Other Books in the Series

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About the Author

I'm a Georgia girl at heart if not by birth. I love to read, watch college football, and spend time with my husband. I'm a hopeless romantic so there will always be a happily ever after in my stories. I also like to write about second chances because love doesn't always work out the first time.

My books are sweet romances set in both contemporary and regency settings featuring stories about the journey to love, from that first meeting to the point where two people know their hearts are no longer their own. My characters aren't perfect. They make mistakes and have faults like the rest of us. They learn the sometimes painful truth that the path to love isn't always smooth, but it's a road worth traveling.

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Truth or Dare

By Julie Coulter Bellon

Sweet Contemporary Romantic Suspense, Novella

ebook, 134 Pages

May 8th 2018 by Stone Hall Books

After a year of recovery, wounded war veteran Jonah Harrison comes home for Christmas. No longer the outgoing high school track star, he just wants to be left alone, away from well-meaning friends and neighbors. But when a blizzard strands him with Kami Jackson—the girl who once knew him best—he can’t hide anything from her, no matter how much he wants to. Kami has a wounded heart of her own, though, and it might take a miracle---or at least two matchmaking dogs---for them to find the healing they both long for and the courage to reach for a chance at love.

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Excerpt

Being here brought back so many warm memories for her, like sunshine chasing away all her shadows. The reality was, though some things seemed the same, their lives were very different than what they had been. She needed to keep that in mind. 

Kami ran a hand through her damp hair and suppressed another shiver. She caught chills easily; that hadn’t changed. Back in the day, no matter what season it was, Jonah would be hot and she’d always be cold. He usually had his arm around her to warm her up, though. That was one thing she wished hadn’t changed, even if it was just for tonight. 

She stole a peek behind her. The military had been good to Jonah. He’d always been athletic and good-looking, but now he was powerful and had a ruggedness to him. His blond hair was cropped, military-style, but the short-sleeved T-shirt he wore that proudly said Marines on it pulled across a broad chest and showed off some muscular arms. On the outside, he seemed more like his old self, but every now and then his change in demeanor told her there was a lot going on behind those blue eyes, and he didn’t seem in the mood to share. For now, anyway.

About the Author

Julie Coulter Bellon is the author of nearly two dozen romantic suspense novels. Her book All Fall Down won the RONE award for Best Suspense, Pocket Full of Posies won a RONE Honorable Mention for Best Suspense and The Captain was a RONE award finalist for Best Suspense. Most recently, her books The Capture and Second Look were both Whitney finalists for Best Suspense/Mystery. Julie loves to travel and her favorite cities she's visited so far are probably Athens, Paris, Ottawa, and London. In her free time she loves to read, write, teach, watch Hawaii Five-O, and eat Canadian chocolate. Not necessarily in that order.

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~ Cover Reveal ~

Saved by Love 

by Shilpa Suraj

They meet under impossible circumstances.

She is kidnapped by terrorists blackmailing her father, a Supreme Court Judge. He leads the team sent to rescue her. 

Trekking to safety through Ladakh... They are in danger of falling in love. But, Lt. Col. Arjun Rathod knows that Naina Ahuja, engaged to politics' rising star, is not meant for him.

Forever changed by her trauma, Naina walks out of her controlling family and forges a new life.

And then, she meets Arjun again. But this time, he is engaged to someone else.

Can they save their love or is it too late?

Shilpa Suraj wears many hats - corporate drone, homemaker, mother to a fabulous toddler and author.

An avid reader with an overactive imagination, Shilpa has weaved stories in her head since she was a child. Her previous stints at Google, in an ad agency and as an entrepreneur provide colour to her present day stories, both fiction and non-fiction.