Reviews - - A Harlequin Trio

In A Heartbeat

By Janice Kay Johnson

Publisher: Harlequin Superromance

Release Date: April 1, 2018
Reviewed by Janga

Nate Kendrick, a venture capitalist in Seattle, refuses to feel guilty when business requires him to bail out on a promise to chaperone a field trip for his seven-year-old daughter, Molly. But when a man dies saving Milly from drowning in a nearby river, Nate is troubled by the guilt he feels and by his concern for the man’s widow and two young children who are struggling financially. His offer to help is met with the widow’s scornful rejection of “blood money.” There seems to be little that Nate can do.

Anna Grainger has been a stay-at-home mom to seven-year-old Josh and four-year-old Jenna, and except for an occasional worrisome thought, has left family finances in her husband’s hands. But when Kyle drowns while rescuing one of Josh’s classmates, Anna discovers the depth of his fiscal irresponsibility. Kyle cashed in his life insurance and his retirement fund, leaving his family almost destitute. Forced to sell her home for barely enough to pay off the mortgage and pay the real estate agent’s reduced commission, Anna is looking at the possibility of being homeless.

When Nate’s ex-wife, Sonja, passes out in a drunken stupor, leaving Molly terrified and vulnerable, Nate insists Sonja enter rehab. Faced with the necessity of finding someone to care for his daughter for whom he now has full custody, Nate sees a way to solve two problems. He offers Anna a job that includes the vacant apartment intended for a housekeeper. Desperate, Anna reluctantly accepts. As the two families integrate, Anna comes to love Molly and, more gradually, to appreciate that Nate is not the man she had imagined him to be. The more she sees him as a devoted father whose nurturing extends to her children as well as his own child and as a man whom she finds uncomfortably appealing physically, the more difficult she finds it to cling to her prejudices. Nate has been attracted to Anna from the beginning, but he knows their history complicates things. Can Anna move past her grief and the guilt her feelings for Nate evoke and allow Nate into her life and into her heart?

In a Heartbeat is Janice Kay Johnson’s final Superromance. The imprint is being phased out by Harlequin. I’m sad to see this. HSR has long been my favorite category line, and Johnson has been a favorite author since the mid-1990s. She has written more than seventy HSRs, and I have read most of them. I love her richly developed, believable characters and the emotional punch her stories pack. Johnson will be writing for Harlequin’s Intrigue imprint now. Given her skill with romantic suspense, that should be a good fit, but I will miss the contemporary romances that focused on family relationships with their myriad complexities. I’m glad this last HSR is one of those books. It looks at loss and forgiveness and second chances in a story that makes me care about the characters and sigh with contentment when they reach a happy resolution to their conflicts. If you too enjoy this kind of story, I recommend In a Heartbeat.

The Baby Switch

By Melissa Senate

Publisher: Harlequin Special Edition

Release Date: April 1, 2018
Reviewed by Janga 

Single father and corporate president Liam Mercer has astonished his family and friends with his transformation to devoted dad since the birth of Alexander West Mercer six months ago. Young Alexander’s mother, a former girlfriend of Liam’s, died when Alexander was born, but Liam has surrounded his son with love and attention along with all the privileges of being born a Mercer. Then one day Liam receives a phone call from the Wedlock Creek Clinic where his son was born. The clinic administrator requests that he come in and bring his lawyer.

Shelby Ingalls, owner of Treasures, a second-hand shop, is also a single parent. Her former husband, a rodeo cowboy, left town with another woman as soon as he learned Shelby was pregnant. Six-month-old Shane is the light of Shelby’s life and is adored by her colorful extended family. When the Wedlock Creek Clinic calls asking her to come in with her lawyer, she fears there was more to Shane’s recent virus than she was first told. The blood work that stemmed from that virus did reveal something startling, but it is not anything that Shelby would ever have imagined.

The clinic administrator informs Shelby that Shane cannot be her biological son. There is a very real possibility that the two male infants born minutes apart during a November snowstorm six months earlier were identified incorrectly and sent home with the wrong parent. Neither Shelby nor Liam can bear the thought of losing the child they love, but neither can they bear not claiming the child that may be their own. Liam proposes a marriage of convenience that will allow both of them access to both babies, but that convenient marriage may prove most inconvenient for their wary hearts.

Senate introduces her Wyoming Multiples with this sweet story that may be far-fetched but is just close enough to possible to keep the reader believing. Liam and Shelby are appealing in their vulnerability and maturity. There is also a mystery thread that involves a family secret. It seemed rather contrived to me, and it didn’t make me more sympathetic to Liam’s father. The man’s behavior toward Alexander made me want to kick him. Nevertheless, likable protagonists keep this one entertaining, especially for readers who like romance with babies added to the mix.

Love Songs and Lullabies

By Amy Vastine

Publisher: Harlequin Heartwarming

Release Date: April 1, 2018
Reviewed by Janga

 

Piper Starling, platinum selling country music star, is poised to be the next crossover sensation, but she gets a big surprise when she visits a Nashville emergency room to have a twisted ankle checked out and receives a bonus diagnosis—she is pregnant. The father-to-be is Sawyer Stratton, a new artist whose first album has just been released. Piper and Sawyer worked together writing songs, and things briefly took a turn toward the passionate. But two months ago, they decided the relationship was bad for their careers and broke things off before anyone else realized they were together.

When their families are informed about the pregnancy, everyone has an opinion about what Piper and Sawyer should do—marry or not marry, tour together or tour separately. Piper’s father/manager is convinced a pregnancy before a wedding will destroy her good-girl image in the eyes of her conservative country base and thus seriously damage her career. Piper trusts her father, and she is overwhelmingly conscious that her career supports a lot of people, including her brother and his enormous medical bills. Sawyer is only certain he is not in love with Piper. He wants to be a father to his child, but he is adamantly opposed to marrying without love, having lived with the consequences of his parents’ example. His sister supports his decision. Eventually, all parties more or less agree that a fake engagement is the best solution. However, the plan sounds simpler than it proves to be; it just leads to more complications. Will Piper and Sawyer ever cut through the walls and pretenses and be honest with themselves and with each other about their feelings.

This is the third book in Vastine’s Grace Notes Records series, after The Girl He Used to Love and Catch a Fallen Star. It is obvious that Piper and Sawyer have a history, and I think their history must be a thread in the first book. Missing that connection, I found myself impatient with all the drama and the family interference in the lives of the lead couple. They are twenty-five, but much of the reaction would have seemed more appropriate had they been a decade younger. I also felt that much of the tension could have been resolved with one honest conversation between the two people most directly involved.

Faith, Sawyer’s sister, was the only character I truly liked, and I actively disliked Piper’s father. Had this not been a book I had committed to review, it might have been a DNF for me. Readers more dedicated to the Heartwarming imprint than I or who have read the earlier books in the series will likely find it more appealing than I did. That belief persuaded me to award the novel three stars and conclude that I was just not part of the audience that Love Songs and Lullabies targets. (I do like the title.)

Review - - Come Home to Me

Come Home to Me

By Liz Talley

Publisher: Montlake

Release Date: April 17, 2018
Reviewed by Janga 

Fifteen years ago, three members of the Class of 2003 of Mangham High School, Moonlight, South Carolina, left their small hometown. Summer Valentine, a brainy girl with a gift for composing and singing, left for Columbia, South Carolina, where she had a full scholarship to the University of South Carolina. A short time later she was back home, pregnant, and dealing with her father suffering because they were targeted by the wealthy, influential family of her baby’s father. She kept her child against all advice, attending a community college to earn a business degree instead of the life she had planned. From the moment she made her decision, her child has been the most important person in her life. It was for David, now fourteen, that she left Nashville and her dream of making it as a singer-songwriter to return to Moonlight so that her son’s father could be part of his life in a way not possible with eight hours distance between them.

Rhett Bryan left Moonlight to attend college in California. He discovered his freshman year that he had a gift for standup comedy, and through hard work and compromise, he has parleyed that gift into A-list stardom as the host of a popular late-night television show. But when he accidentally kills a child who chases a ball into the street, his life changes. A pending wrongful-death suit and a public meltdown on his show have NBC suggesting he take a long break. He heads home to Moonlight, to his grandfather’s house where he grew up after his parents’ deaths. Maybe in his hometown he can find the boy he used to be and healing for the man he has become.

Hunt McCroy left Moonlight to attend the University of Florida and play baseball for the Gators. Baseball was his life, and when Summer informed him of her pregnancy, his only concern was not letting fatherhood interfere with his dream of a successful college career followed by playing professional baseball. He had little to do with his son for the first nine years of the boy’s life. That changed five years ago when an injury and subsequent addiction to pain medication destroyed his baseball career and sent him back to Moonlight to work for his controlling father. Hunt is determined to be a good father and to avoid repeating the errors his own father made, errors that left Hunt feeling as if he never measured up.

Summer, Rhett, and Hunt discover that the choices they made when they were only a few years older than young David are still impacting their present. Summer always saw Rhett as a golden boy without blemish, but she learns that he is as flawed and vulnerable and scarred as she is. Rhett must learn that Summer is a woman made strong and beautiful by her experience, far different from the teenage girl who tutored him. He and Hunt, once best friends, find out how little they knew about each other. And Hunt learns that to be the father he wants to be he must face the truth of his past and accept responsibility for his mistakes.

Talley uses multiple points of view and a narrative that switches between past and present to give her readers a compelling story that packs a powerful emotional punch. Although Summer and Rhett’s romance is essential to the story, this book is more a general fiction/romance hybrid than a conventional romance. There are really no heroes or villains here. While some of their mistakes are more consequential than others, all three of the central characters are faulty, deeply human creatures who struggle to make meaning out of their lives. Each of them grows during the story and eventually achieves new self-awareness and earned happiness. I liked Rhett and developed a degree of sympathy for Hunt, but Summer is my favorite character. Her love for her son and her capacity to forgive—which is NOT the same as forgetting—is amazing.

The secondary characters add more depth to the story. Rhett’s grandfather is a curmudgeon with a good heart, David is a credible adolescent with an endearing sweetness and the errors in judgment common to teenage boys, and Summer’s sister Maisie is an interesting and sympathetic character. Even Hunt’s father, although a jerk of the first order, is more than a stereotype. Additionally, Talley gives a clear sense of Moonlight’s low-country appeal, but she avoids making the town unbelievable idyllic.

I've been a Liz Talley fan since her Boys of the Bayou Harlequin Superromance series, and her Morning Glory books all earned stellar reviews from me. (I look forward to the fourth book in that series set to be released this summer.) Talley has never been afraid to push the boundaries of the genre, and she is particularly adept at weaving stories around the second-chance trope. This is one of her best. The ending left me sighing happily.  

If you like stories about flawed characters who fall down and get up--and ultimately grab their second chance, I think you will enjoy Come Home to Me as much as I did. I highly recommend it. One caveat: parts of this book may be a problem for readers for whom non-consensual sex is a trigger, and the cover copy fails to warn of this.

Review - - Indecent Exposure

Indecent Exposure

By Tessa Bailey

Publisher: Avon

Release Date: January 30, 2018

Reviewed by Hellie

Reading the back of the blurb for Indecent Exposure, a reader might think this was a light, frothy rom-com, like a police version of Top Gun, where the hero has hit on our fair heroine who turns out to be an instructor for the academy he’s currently training. The premise is correct, but the delivery (see: rom-com) is not what I felt was advertised.

Jack Garrett has just met the most beautiful woman in the world--literally, she’s from Ireland--and he’d do anything to spend all his time with her while she is vacationing in New York. Never mind that he has academy to go to during the day; and the fiery little vixen is far too able to keep him at arm’s length, which he’s never had that problem before. He’s got references, if she wants them, of just how popular he is and can be. He can show her a good time. She agrees to meet him for a date the next evening.

The next day, before the best date of his life that he is anticipating, his dream date walks into the academy. She is the guest instructor for target shooting. He can’t believe his luck--he gets to spend his days and nights with her; however, Katie McCoy wants to maintain a bit of professional distance and integrity. Still, she can’t resist Jack, but she is not a girl just interested in a fling. She’s interested in the man beneath. Jack wants to tell her about himself, likes having a girl who is interested in the real Jack--but telling her may send her running. The blurb ends that Jack tells her a little lie of omission.

It sounds like we’re selling vanilla fluffy cupcakes here when what you have is dark chocolate cake with more surprise layers than you can possibly put mousse in. Jack is earthy, sexual, and blunt; he talks dirty often and expertly; and he is intent on making you see God as fast and as often as possible with the skill of his mouth and body. He also has a dark secret that he numbs out by drinking and maintaining a perpetual alcoholic buzz. He’s created his entire life around getting by, which he’s doing at the police academy, because he didn’t know what else to do with his life and his friends were joining the academy.

Let’s just say when I started the book, I was anticipating something in the sweet, dialogue heavy, funny-cute way of a Tessa Dare or a Kristan Higgins, but what I got was something much more wild, darker, and chockful of sexual experiences, some of which *I* haven’t even done.

Too much information. Sorry about that.

Point being, if you’re good with hot, wild, dirty sex (think Elizabeth Hoyt writing contemporary) and darker complicated heroes and characters, you’re going to be pleasantly surprised. I will say, for these things Tessa Bailey certainly delivers and uses them to her advantage to advance the character arc and plot. If you were looking for something cute or sweet, a hero who would never dream of using the “P” word when referring to anything on a woman’s body, I’d say just go ahead and give this a pass.

On Second Thought - - The Bakers of Baseball

The Bakers of Baseball

By Stephanie Doyle

Prequel Novellas: Playing the Game and Making the Play (February 1, 2016)

Book 1: The Comeback of Roy Walker (March 3, 2015)

Book 2: Scout’s Honor (October 1, 2015)

Book 3: Betting on the Rookie (June 1, 2016)

Publisher: Harlequin Superromance

I’ve been a Harlequin Superromance reader for more than thirty years. I don’t remember the first Superromance I read, but my first HSR keeper was The Hellion by Lavyrle Spencer with a pub date of August 1, 1984. It fell to pieces from rereads a few years ago, and I replaced it with a digital copy. I still have a spot in my heart for Tommy Lee Gentry, the “hell raiser of Russellville, Alabama” and a reunion romance that took place after twenty-four years. It doesn’t fit the category romance stereotype, does it? Few Superromances do. That’s why I’ve been reading them all these years and discovering some of my favorite contemporary authors such as Emilie Richards, Judith Arnold, Janice Kay Johnson, Brenda Novak, Jean Brashear, Molly O’Keefe, Sarah Mayberry, Karina Bliss, and many others. Most of you will recognize the names I have mentioned, but you may not recognize another favorite, Stephanie Doyle, unless you are a faithful HSR reader. She is one of those writers who deserve a larger audience. I’ve been enjoying her books for several years, but I particularly love the Bakers of Baseball series. It is a perfect reread for this time of year when baseball is in the news and on the minds of sports fans.

The series opens with a couple of prequel novellas. In “Playing the Game” sports journalist Pete Wright is irate when the Minotaur Falls Triple-A baseball team in rural New York is bought by Jocelyn Taft, a billionaire businesswoman who, in the words of the team’s manager, Duff Baker, “doesn’t know squat about the game.” But as he begins to teach her about the game he loves, he finds something more important than baseball. He just has to convince Jo that she can have a life in Minotaur Falls with him. This novella also introduces Duff Baker, a Hall of Fame shortstop and legendary manager of World Series-winning teams, who in his retirement is managing this minor league team, and his three daughters. The story thread involving Lane Baker and Roy Walker sets up the first novel in the series. The second novella, “Making the Play” uses the occasion of Pete efforts to move Jo toward a wedding to tell part one of the love story of Scout Baker and Jayson LeBec, a former baseball player currently training as a scout. Their story continues in the second novel.

The Comeback of Roy Walker begins five years later. Roy, who was then retiring from baseball a wealthy man with an enviable reputation as a talented pitcher, is broke after sinking his fortune in a video company that failed.  At thirty-seven, an old man in baseball, he is attempting a comeback for financial reasons. Knowing that the odds of succeeding are slim, he needs the help of a physical therapist to get into shape for his comeback. Lane, the middle Baker sister, was much in demand as a sports therapist when Roy met her, but when Roy engineered a public disclosure of her husband’s infidelity, Lane divorced her husband, cut her professional ties with sports, and declared her hatred of Roy Walker.

The call from her sister Scout saying Lane is needed at home because of concerns about their father’s health comes just after Lane, burdened with guilt after the suicide of one of her patients at the veterans’ rehab facility where she has worked for the last five years, has quit her job. The sisters agree that Lane will accept an invitation from her father to work with a pitcher who needs to gradually work up to full speed. No one tells Lane that the pitcher is her former friend Roy Walker. Lane is furious, but Roy hopes his second chance a baseball will also prove to be a second chance with Lane.

Scout’s Honor is the second novel. Elizabeth “Scout” Baker is the youngest of Duff Baker’s three daughters and the one closest to her father. When her parents divorced, she became her father’s champion and declared her mother a “traitor.” Four years ago, she fell in love with Jayson LeBec. For several months, their love was blissful, but when Jayson accepted a job as assistant manager to a Houston Double-A team, Scout refused to leave her father and Minotaur Falls. Now Duff is dead, and a grieving Scout, still reeling from the loss of the man who was the center of her world, is in danger of losing her job as a rare female scout and her place in the world of baseball, all she has ever known.

Jayson agrees to replace Duff as manager of the Minotaur Falls team only at Duff’s personal request. Jayson’s recovery from his breakup with Scout has been long and painful. He knows the risk being around her poses to his heart, but he can’t refuse his mentor. He finds being Scout’s friend, protecting her from others and from herself, while challenging her to move on with her life, even more difficult than he expected. Just when it looks as if the romance has been rekindled, Scout and Jayson are faced with the choices they confronted before. Will he go? Will she stay? Or can they find a compromise that allows them to turn a second chance into a happily ever after?

The series concludes with Betting on the Rookie. This is the story of Samantha, the oldest Baker sister, the one with a big surprise in her history. It picks up two years after Duff’s death. Sam, lawyer and hotshot sports agents to super stars, has retreated to Minotaur Falls after her career fell apart when she believed a client’s lies and publicly supported a man caught on video physically abusing his fiancée. No one believes that Sam wasn’t part of the coverup. She lost all her clients except the liar, and she ended that relationship. But Sam is determined to restart her career, and her sister Scout suggests a rising baseball star as just the guy to provide the reboot.

Scout discovered Evan Tanner, a twenty-seven-year-old former college football player who taught himself baseball in order to coach a high school team. Scout’s belief in Evan cost her a job with the New England Rebels, but Evan is proving Scout was right. He has just been traded to the Rebels and is going to play for their minor league team, the Minotaurs, but the buzz is that before the season is over he will be playing on the major league team.

Evan was attracted to Sam when they met two years ago, but he has bought into the common belief and has no interest in being represented by someone defended a guy who abused women. But Evan’s own instincts and a little pressure from Scout have him reconsidering. As their professional relationship begins, the sparks between them gain power. But when the cautious Samantha starts to trust that Evan is the good guy he appears to be, his college girlfriend shows up claiming that Evan is the father of her seven-year-old son and that she needs a cut of Evan’s major league salary to pay for young Connor’s medical bills. Sam has been burned twice—once personally and once professionally. Can she take the risk, trust Evan, and put her heart on the line, or will the Ice Princess win the day?

I admit that the last novel is my favorite because Evan is a wonderful beta hero, the kind that most easily steals my heart, but I love the full series. Doyle gives readers a sweeping look at the world of baseball, not through the view of a young star player or a former star dealing with a career-ending injury, the typical perspectives in sports romances but through nine perspectives from all areas of the sport. And none is typical. For example, the owner is a woman, the rising star is almost thirty, and the injured player finds a satisfying new career in management. She also showcases the connection between a minor league team and the town that loves and supports “their team.” More important to the romance reader, Doyle offers four variations of the second-chance-at-love trope and makes each of them a compelling and rewarding read. Finally, she makes the love between siblings and between parent and child a vivid, vital part of these stories.

If you are a baseball fan, a fan of sports romances generally, or a fan of contemporary romance series that combine sizzle and sentiment with a rare skill, I highly recommend you try Stephanie Doyle’s the Bakers of Baseball. I ended my third reading of the series more in love with this world and its characters than I was the first time I read the books.

Winners - - Sheila Roberts

The three randomly chosen winners from our spotlight on 

Welcome to Moonlight Harbor by Sheila Roberts are:

Annette N

Choice of print or digital copy of Welcome to Moonlight Harbor

A Melvin

Choice of print or digital copy of Welcome to Moonlight Harbor

Lynda Gordon

Moonlight Harbor Gift Package

 Please send your full name and mailing address to:

theromancedish (at) gmail (dot) com

Winner - - Terri Osburn

The randomly chosen winner of a digital copy of

Falling Star by Terri Osburn is:

irisheyes

Congratulations!

Please send your email address to:

theromancedish (at) gmail (dot) com

Review - - The Bride Next Door

The Bride Next Door

By Hope Ramsay

Publisher: Grand Central / Forever

Release Date: April 3, 2018
Reviewed by Janga

Courtney Wallace is surrounded by girlfriends who have found their perfect matches and have settled or are preparing to settle into marital bliss, several of them already happily pregnant. Although Courtney is happy for her friends, the thirty-six-year-old special events planner at Eagle Hall Manor hears the ticking of her biological clock without much hope that she will find an HEA of her own. Jaded, she has little confidence in the pool of eligible men, having decided that most of them can be identified as one of several loser types: the Man Baby, the Nice Guy Not, the Space Invader, the Too Selfless to Be True, the Emotionally Unavailable, and the worst offender-- the Hook-up Artist. She quickly writes Matthew Lyndon off as a player. When she learns about his bet that he can defrost Ice Queen Courtney in two dates, she labels him a Hook-up Artist and decides to teach him a lesson.

Matt has recently returned to Shenandoah Falls, Virginia, where his family is local royalty. He has done so reluctantly, but when his job in government affairs in Washington, D. C. dries up and none of his efforts to find another one proves successful, he comes home and joins his father’s law firm. As a middle child who feels that he has never earned his father’s approval, he is prepared for a certain level of discomfort. Badly burned by a past experience, his level of trust in romance is as low as Courtney’s, but he finds her attractive enough to disregard the fact that she is ten years his senior and determined to resist him.

Matt is constantly forcing Courtney to reconsider what she thinks she knows of him. His gift of roses may be predictable, but his Shakespeare quotations are not. No mere player would give himself as wholeheartedly to a pro bono case for tenants in a low-rent building as Matt does. But Courtney and Matt will have to move beyond their pasts and learn to trust each other if they are to build a future together.

This is the fourth novel in Ramsay’s Chapel of Love series. It is rich in small-town appeal, family dynamics, and the ties of friendship. How much readers like the book will depend largely upon how much they like the protagonists. Courtney and Matt are not immediately sympathetic characters. Since simplistic labels are a pet peeve of mine, I had a hard time liking Courtney. Matt behaves like a jerk initially, but I found him easier to like since it is clear early on that there is more to him than his player façade. Eventually, I was invested in both characters and rooting for their HEA. And I loved the start of a romance between a Jewish legal assistant/singer-songwriter and an Irish bartender. I hope we see more of them in an upcoming book.

If you like small-town romance with heart and a sure contemporary touch, add this one to your list. Fans of the series will likely enjoy seeing characters from the earlier novels, but it is not necessary to have read the first three novels and two novellas to enjoy this one.

Today's Special - - Spotlight on Elicia Hyder's Lights Out Lucy

Hi Everybody! PJ here. I'm excited to share an excerpt from Lights Out Lucy: Roller Derby 101 today. I'm about two-thirds of the way through an advanced copy of this first book in Elicia Hyder's new Music City Rollers series that releases April 24 and it is so much fun. Filled with humor, likeable characters, strong female friendships, a sweet romance, and women challenging themselves to discover what they're made of, Lights Out Lucy kept me smiling from the get-go. I don't know how many books Hyder has planned for this series but I'll be buying them all. I'm totally invested in these characters and can't wait to read all their stories!

Elicia Hyder played women’s flat track roller derby with the Nashville Rollergirls under the skater name, eL’s Bells. After a black eye, a broken finger, a severely pulled groin, and two serious knee injuries, Elicia hung up her skates to focus on a safer hobby—writing. She has fictionalized her experience in her latest novel, Lights Out Lucy: Roller Derby 101. More novels are to come in the Music City Rollers series. For more information about Elicia and her books, visit her website. For series specific information about the Music City Rollers, including appearances, visit the series website. 

Lucy Cooper isn’t looking for love when she finds it—or slams into it, rather—during rush hour traffic. But her heart, like her car, is a total loss the moment West Adler steps out of his truck to inspect the damage. 

West truly is the perfect guy: handsome, funny, rich. The benefactor of not one, but two children’s hospitals. And he’s the main sponsor of the Music City Rollers, Nashville’s championship roller derby team. 

When Lucy discovers the Rollers are actively recruiting “Fresh Meat,” she puts her life on the line to catch West Adler’s attention. But will accident-prone Lucy skate off with the heart of Nashville’s Most Eligible Bachelor? Or will she get herself killed in a sport that promises, “It’s not a matter of if you’ll get hurt—but of how bad and when.”

Excerpt from LIGHTS OUT LUCY

There was less violence for the rest of the first half. The bout was so intense, I almost forgot the whole reason we were there. But five minutes into the second half, I saw an arm waving in the stands across the arena.

An arm that belonged to West Adler.

I looked at Olivia. "It's him."

Her mouth gaped. "Huh?"

"West Adler," I said, pointing.

She followed my finger and strained her eyes. "The guy waving, I assume?"

"Yes."

"Are you going to go talk to him?"

I pressed my lips together and shook my head.

"No?"

"No. He can come here. I'm a lady."

She laughed and almost spit out her beer. "We're only here because you're an online creeper. You lost your lady card yesterday."

When I looked again, West was gone. My eyes scanned the crowd till I saw him walking down the stairs to the floor of the arena. He slapped hands with a few people as he walked the perimeter of the room.

I dug my nails into Olivia's arm. "Oh gosh, I think he's on his way over here."

"You need Xanax," she said, draining the last of her beer.

"What do I do?" My voice jumped up an octave.

She laughed. "I would say 'be cool' but that ain't happening."

West walked up to the team bench in front of our bleachers and shook hands with a few of the players. He paused to say something to The Duchess before patting the woman on the back and turning toward the bleacher steps. Our steps. I worried I might lose my hot dog.

He took the steps two at a time until he stopped at the row behind ours and sidestepped his way across the spectators to the empty seats directly behind us. "What are the odds, Lucy?" he asked, sitting down.

"Better than you think," Olivia mumbled beside me.

I elbowed her in the ribs as I turned toward him. "Hey there, West. What are you doing here?"

He motioned to the track. "I come to all the bouts. I love this sport."

"Me too!" I said with a little too much enthusiasm.

He blinked with surprise. "Really?"

"Sure! Well, it's my first time, but so far, I love it."

"How'd you hear about it?" he asked.

My mouth was open, but no words came out. Olivia caught my eye and glared as she turned in her seat, stretching her hand toward West. "It was my idea. I'm Lucy's roommate, Olivia."

He shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, Olivia. West Adler."

"I've heard a lot about you," she said, causing me to die a little inside. "Thanks for taking care of her yesterday."

"It was my pleasure." He looked at me. "How are you feeling?"

"So sore," I said, grimacing.

The corners of his eyes crinkled with sympathy. "I was worried about that. The next day is usually the worst. What did they say about your car?"

My nose wrinkled. "Nothing good. The car is probably totaled. I should find out for sure on Monday."

He put his hand on my shoulder. "That sucks. I'm sorry to hear it. Are you able to get around without it?"

I nodded. "My insurance company got me a rental car. How's your bumper?"

"Replaceable." He glanced at the empty plastic cup in Olivia's hand. "I'm going to get another drink. Can I buy you ladies a round?"

"Thank you," she said.

"What are you drinking?" he asked.

"Three Leprechauns Red Ale."

"Diet Coke," I answered.

He winked as he stood. "Coming right up."

When he was gone, Olivia nodded her head. "I admire a man who buys the booze. He's a keeper."

"He's cute, too, huh?"

"Yeah, he's cute. Is he single?"

I shrugged. "He doesn't wear a wedding band, and I found him on a list of most eligible bachelors, so I hope so."

Just then, one of Nashville's blockers cut sideways toward Richmond's jammer, 6VI6. The same skater who'd leveled Medusa. With a loud grunt that echoed around the room, the blocker plowed into 6VI6's rib cage with her shoulder. The jammer lost control and careened into the crowd sitting on the floor at about a thousand miles per hour.

Whistles blew, the horn from the scoreboard blasted, and emergency workers ran across the gym. I realized I was on my feet with the rest of the crowd and didn't even remember standing.

"And that's why we call them the suicide seats, folks! They're not for the faint of heart!" the announcer said in the microphone.

The jammer stood back up on her skates, aided by the fans she'd just mowed down. When she turned in our direction, I saw blood pouring from her nose into her mouth. She pulled her jersey over her head and pressed it to her face before slapping high fives with the fans around her legs. Everyone cheered, including Medusa and the rest of Nashville's players, as she skated back to her team's bench in her sports bra.

I exhaled, gripping my chest. "Thank God no one was hurt."

Olivia held her fists up. "That was awesome. I want more blood!"

I laughed and smacked her on the back of the head. Out on the track, 6VI6 was escorted back to the locker room by two men in khakis and polo shirts.

West returned a few minutes later balancing three drinks between his two hands. He sidled his way across the row again and reclaimed his seat at our backs. "Three Leprechauns," he said, handing a beer to Olivia.

She held it up like a toast. "Thanks."

"And a Diet Coke," he said, passing me the only cup with a lid and straw.

"Thank you, West."

He leaned toward me. "Now you owe me a bumper, a ride, and a drink, Lucille."

I silently cursed myself for not having a witty comeback.

He gestured toward my cup. "You know, if you're going to hang out on the derby scene, you're going to have to learn how to drink."

"I'm trying to be kind to my liver since I'm taking a lot of pain meds. And I've got to drive home later," I said.

He cringed. "Is you driving sober supposed to make us feel safer?"

My mouth dropped open. Olivia burst out laughing and showered the row in front of us with a light spray of beer from her lips. Thankfully, no one noticed. She slapped my knee. "Oh, I like him."

I turned my eyes back to the track, shaking my head, trying not to laugh.

He nudged my shoulder with his leg. "I'm only teasing."

"You're not funny," I said with forced indignation.

He held up his index finger and thumb with a millimeter of space between them. "I'm a little funny."

I laughed and sipped my drink.

"Power jam!" the announcer yelled over the speakers.

The whole crowd cheered.

Out on the track, Medusa was flying past every member of her team and Richmond's. Two of Richmond's players were in the penalty box, including their jammer who'd replaced 6VI6 in the game. After a fourth pass, everyone was on their feet, including us, and West was cheering loud over our heads. She passed everyone again.

"That's twenty-five!" West yelled.

She passed again.

"Thirty! She's going to run out of time," someone said.

"Run out of time for what?" I asked.

The man in front of us looked back at me. "To break the world record."

"Thirty-five!"

Medusa's knees were bent as she stepped, right skate over left, pushing her legs out hard around the corners. The Nashville blockers kept Richmond's blockers out of her way as she sailed past them again. The crowd began counting down.

"Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four!"

"That's forty-five!" West shouted.

"Three! Two! One!"

EARRRRRRNGGGGG! The buzzer and the crowd were so loud I covered my ears. West made up half the decibels all by himself.

Out on the track, Medusa's entire upper body was heaving with heavy breaths as she slowed and her team ran on their skates out from the bench to catch her in their arms.

The announcer turned up his volume to be heard over the fans. "Forty-five points in that power jam, and our captain reminds us all why she wears that star! Give it up for Medusa!"

Even the Richmond team was standing and clapping as Medusa skated a wide circle around the track, waving to everyone. She slid to a stop near the home team's bench, and the coach walked over and hugged her. Someone handed her a bottle of water.

"That was intense," Olivia said as we sat back down.

"What's the world record?" I asked.

"Fifty points," the man in front of us said.

West leaned down. "Medusa held the record at forty-five points for two years, but she lost it to a skater in Colorado who got fifty. The fifty-point jam even made it into the Guinness Book of World Records."

"Ouch," I said.

"And to make matters worse," Styx's dad added, "they've changed the rules since then."

West nodded. "A power jam is when the opposing jammer is in the penalty box. It used to be that penalties lasted a full minute. Now they're only thirty seconds."

"So it's even harder to collect that many points," I said.

"Impossible, if you ask me," the old man said.

West laughed. "Tell that to Medusa."

Styx's dad pointed at West. "She's the only one who's come close. I gotta give her that." He looked at me and Olivia. "Only a handful of skaters in the whole world can break forty."

Olivia sipped her beer. "The whole world? I had no idea this was that big of a sport."

"They're talking about adding it to the Olympics," West said.

"Really?" I asked, watching Medusa who was shouting at her players from the bench.

"Yep." He pointed to the track. "And when it does, Nashville will have a local on the team."

Just then, the buzzer blared through the arena again. The bout was over.

Music City had won.

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

Have you ever been to a roller derby bout? Watched one on TV? Is it something you would try?

Accident prone Lucy chooses Lights Out Lucy for her derby name...for obvious reasons. What name would you choose for yourself?

Two randomly chosen people who post a comment no later than 11:00 PM (eastern), April 14 will receive a Kindle copy of Lights Out Lucy.