Today's Special - - Maria Geraci

Andrea and I are delighted to welcome Maria Geraci back to the Dish today. Maria's new book, That Thing You Do kicks off her Whispering Bay series and will be followed by Then He Kissed Me (5/19/15) and That Man of Mine (6/9/15). Count me one happy reader!

Maria writes contemporary romance and women’s fiction with a happy ending. The Portland Book Review called her novel, The Boyfriend of the Month Club, “immensely sexy, immensely satisfying and humorous.” Her fourth novel, A Girl Like You, was nominated for Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA ® award. Her current addictions include watching the STARZ adaptation of OUTLANDER to drool over Sam Heughan, hitting the beach on the weekends, and searching for the perfect key lime pie recipe (but not the kind they served on Dexter).

www.mariageraci.com

https://www.facebook.com/MariaGeraciBooks

https://twitter.com/MariaGeraci

Welcome back, Maria!

I’m so happy to be back at The Romance Dish! Thank you to PJ and Andrea for hosting me today. This past year I’ve done something I wasn’t sure I could. I wrote 3 books nearly all at once. And while my family thought I was crazy (I thought I was going crazy myself!) now is the fun part—seeing those books come out for the rest of the world to read.

All three books take place in the fictional town of Whispering Bay, Florida and incorporate the characters from my first two books, my Bunco Babes series, so it was almost like coming home again. I really loved writing these stories and I hope you’ll enjoy reading them.

In the first book in the series, THAT THING YOU DO, Allie and Tom who were once high school sweethearts, must reluctantly join forces to figure out what’s causing the strange goings on in the town’s old abandoned senior center. Tom wants to tear the building down, but Allie wants to investigate it. Add in the fact that their relationship ended on a very bad note and sparks soon begin to fly. Here’s a snippet from the opening scene in which Tom discovers Allie snooping around inside the locked building.

Allie tried not to stare, but it was impossible. This certainly was not the Tom Donalan of her fantasies. The ones she had (only occasionally) after eating too much Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey. In that world Tom Donalan had a beer belly, was bald, and missing a couple of front teeth. A lot of deterioration for only twelve years, but, hey, a girl could dream, right?

This Tom Donalan, on the other hand, had far superseded the promise made by his high school boyish good looks. Tall. Broad shouldered. With a full head of dark blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. He stood there staring at her with his arms crossed over his chest like he was Captain Friggin’ America in charge of the planet.

He looked angry, which didn’t make sense. She was the wronged party here! He’d practically attacked her, for Pete’s sake.

She took a deep breath and tried to act as if running into her ex was an everyday occurrence. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t Tom Donalan. I see you still have all your teeth.”

He blinked and shook his head. “What?”

I see you still have all your teeth.

Argh!

Of all the Tom Donalan scenarios she’d played in her head over all the years, this was not what she was supposed to say to him. She was supposed to be witty. Charming. He was supposed to be dumbstruck by her brilliance. He was at a loss for words, all right.

Allie pasted a smile to her face and tried again. “You need to be more specific. What, as in, what’s my favorite color, or what do I have programmed on my DVR for tomorrow night, or what—”

“What, as in, what are you doing inside this building?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “I could ask you the exact same question. Where’d you come from anyway?”

“I was driving by and I saw a car in the parking lot. So I stopped to investigate. Now it’s your turn. What are you doing back in town? I thought you lived in Tampa.”

He knew where she lived? “I don’t need a reason to come back home. Certainly not one I need to run by you, anyway. And I thought you lived in Atlanta.”

“Things change,” he said.

“Right. Things change.”

“So are you going to answer me or not?”

The way he stared at her made Allie squirm. Instinctively, she went to run a hand through her hair, then remembered that she’d pulled it back in a ponytail. She didn’t need a mirror to know exactly what she looked like. Ratty shorts, skinned up knee, no makeup. Her When-I See-Tom-Donalan-Again-Revenge-Fantasy was officially zero-for-two now.

As you can see, running into her ex has Allie more than a little frazzled! I think we all dream of looking like a runway model when we run into the One Who Got Away. 

Has this ever happened to you? Have you run into your ex looking not as good as you’d prefer?

Leave a comment, and I’ll randomly select one person to win a signed autographed copy of THAT THING YOU DO, along with some beach swag! (US only)

Deadline for comments to be entered for giveaway is Midnight PST, April 28, 2015.

Allie Grant doesn’t believe in second chances. She does, however, believe in the power of a permanent paycheck. So when a tipster reports that the soon-to-be demolished senior center in her hometown is haunted, Allie hightails it to Whispering Bay to get the scoop that could secure her dream job at Florida! magazine. What she finds, though, is far scarier than any ghost. Cue her ex-boyfriend, sexy construction foreman Tom Donalan. 

When Tom catches Allie poking around his construction site, he quickly realizes his former high school flame is just as feisty as ever. And, heaven help him, her irresistible, mile-high legs still take his breath away. But Tom isn’t about to delay the building’s demolition because of a silly ghost story. 

With neither of the stubborn exes backing down from their opposing positions, sparks fly. And, underneath the surface, the fire of their old attraction burns as hot as ever. When strange things start happening with increasing frequency around town, even a tough skeptic like Tom is tested. The question is, can Allie and Tom stop fighting long enough to get to the bottom of Whispering Bay’s ghost problem—and the more important matter of mending their broken hearts?