Today's Special - - Spotlight on Kate Meader

Today we're shining the spotlight on contemporary romance author Kate Meader.  Originally from Ireland, Kate cut her romance reader teeth on Maeve Binchy and Jilly Cooper novels, with some Mills & Boon thrown in for variety. Give her tales about brooding mill owners, oversexed equestrians, and men who can rock an apron or a fire hose, and she's there. Now based in Chicago, she writes sexy contemporary romance with alpha heroes and strong heroines who can match their men quip for quip. Visit her at KateMeader.com.

In Kate Meader's first trilogy her characters were heating things up in the kitchen. This time around, she's bringing us the Dempsey's, a family of firefighting foster siblings in her Hot in Chicago series. Check out the excerpt from the first book in the series, FLIRTING WITH FIRE, below. But first, Kate chats about her favorite book boyfriends. So who makes your list, Kate?

My Favorite Book Boyfriends

So many fictional boyfriends, so little time. Here are a few of my favorites, in no particular order (okay, I’d cut you to get with Hardy Cates):

1.  Rowdy Yates from Getting Rowdy by Lori Foster.

With his sketchy past, and his penchant for hitting first and asking questions later, Rowdy is a great protective alpha. And the cover for this book is perfection.

2.   Flynn from Willing Victim by Cara McKenna.

Construction worker-boxer with a taste for rough role-playing, and while we never get inside his head, McKenna lays it all out there. A Boston bruiser I wouldn’t mind meeting in a dark alley. 

3.   Hardy Cates from Blue Eyed Devil by Lisa Kleypas.

Rich, Texan, from the wrong side of the tracks, and so caring of the heroine. LK writes the caretaker alpha so well, and Hardy is my favorite of her heroes.

4.  Joey Miller from Collision Course by K.A. Mitchell.

This is an M/M romance and while some people probably prefer the brooding Aaron of this pairing, I love, love, love the manipulative, puppy-eyed, totally grounded Joey. A surfing social worker, he’s the perfect match for a guy who’s been screwed over by the social services system.

5.  Lord Vere from His at Night by Sherry Thomas.

He’s a secret agent posing as a society idiot! What’s not to love?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FLIRTING WITH FIRE (Pocket Books; On-sale: March 24, 2015) is the first book in Kate Meader's new contemporary romance series, Hot in Chicago.  The series features a group of firefighting foster siblings and their blazing hot love interests. Here's the back cover blurb:

Savvy PR guru Kinsey Taylor has always defined herself by her career, not her gender. That is, until she moved from San Francisco to Chicago to be with her fiancé who thought she wasn’t taking her “job” of supporting him in his high-powered career seriously enough—and promptly dumped her for a more supportive and “feminine” nurse. Now, as the new assistant press secretary to Chicago’s dynamic mayor, she’s determined to keep her eye on the prize: no time to feel inferior because she’s a strong, kick-ass woman, and certainly no time for men.

But that all changes when she meets Luke Almeida, a firefighter as searingly sexy as he is quick-tempered. He’s also the second oldest of the Firefightin’ Dempseys, a family of foster siblings who have committed their lives to the service—if Luke’s antics don’t get him fired first. When Luke goes one step too far and gets into a bar brawl with the Chicago Police Department, Kinsey marches into Luke’s firehouse and lays down the law on orders from the mayor. But at Engine Co. 6, Luke Almeida is the law. And he’s not about to let Kinsey make the rules.

AMAZON | B&N | GOODREADS

Excerpt #3

Stunned senseless, she plowed aimlessly over the hot sand, its burn on her feet a match to the scorch marks over her heart. She flexed the hand she had used to strike her gutless ex. It hurt—all of it. Her head, her chest, her knuckles, which looked as raw as she felt. Her throat was thick with unshed tears, which she desperately staved off by making each step more deliberately forceful than the last. Walk it off, Taylor.

Walk. It. Off.

“Hey, watch it,” an aggrieved voice called out. She might have trod on the voice’s towel. Or his sand castle. Or his stupid face.

Fury fueled her off-kilter pivot. She refused to let one more man walk all over her today. “Watch what, asshole?”

Any forthcoming answer was lost on the lake breeze as a strong arm circled her waist and gathered her to a solid chest.

Luke.

The comfort she took in his body was more shocking than the events that had led to this moment. For too long, she had been starved of a man’s affectionate touch. For too long, she had relied on her own resources. It felt so good to rely on someone else for a little while.

Stiffness in every part of her gradually gave way to Luke’s strength, a muscularity that was as much mental as it was physical. It must have taken sincere mental strength not to want to comment on the scene he had just witnessed. Make her feel better with murmured platitudes. Fill the gnawing silence. Instead, he was just there for her, his hold tight and sure and a touch rougher than she was used to.

It was perfect.

Peeking up from where her head was burrowed into his left pec, she found those lake-blue eyes holding her prisoner. While the competitor in her was tempted to see how long this stare down could last, the woman in her needed something else. Something only this man could give.

“I’ve got you,” he whispered.

With strong hands on her butt, he raised her body, her lips to his, and the resulting union streaked through her like fire. Their mouths might be made for sniping, but mostly they were made for this. Better they should be used for this. A perfect melding of lips and tongues, the tangle so sweet, the chemistry so right.

I’ve got you. For the first time in what seemed like forever, someone had her.


Readers, who are your favorite book boyfriends? Do you love firefighter heroes as much as I do? Have you read Kate's books yet? 

We have a copy of FLIRTING WITH FIRE for one randomly chosen person who leaves a comment on today's post. (U.S. only)