A sweet treat in the mail (and a contest)

Don’t you love opening the door to that special delivery?

Seeing a big box with your name on it?

A slight thrill runs up your spine, because you have no idea what’s in the box or who sent it to you, so the possibilities are endless.

Now, I can’t lie and say that’s exactly what happened to me a couple of days ago. Firstly, I didn’t open the door, my hubby did. Secondly, I wasn’t even in when the delivery came. I arrived home to find a box waiting for me. And thirdly, I had an inkling what it was. Okay…so I’d been obsessively waiting for the delivery for weeks! But that didn’t stop the excitement. Believe me, I fairly ripped into the box.

Here it is. A photo sequence of my experience:

1) I open the box with shaky hands

2) I pull the flaps apart to reveal the hidden treasure within.

Yes, it’s my author copies of Three Of A Kind, the print anthology of Raising The Stakes and Full House.

3) I reverently remove one and hold it in my hand:

4) I insert it ever so tenderly into its designated spot on my bookshelf:

And baby makes 8.

So, now I have 9 spare copies of Three Of A Kind sitting in my office. What to do…what to do…?

How about…I give one away?

Tell you what. Just let me know which your favorite novella from the Three Of A Kind trilogy was and why, and I’ll randomly pick a winner and send you a book.

No worries if you haven’t read the novellas yet. Just let me know which one you most want to read, and why.

Here are your choices:

Going All In, Raising The Stakes and Full House.

I’m gonna post this to Down Under Divas and to International Heat as well, and I’ll choose a winner on Sunday.

GOOD LUCK!

Three Of A Kind releases on the 5th of June, and is available now for pre-order at Samhain Publishing, Amazon and Barnes and Noble

Jess

Currently loving…an awesome book series

A couple weeks ago I finished reading Maria V Snyder’s YA Study series, and cannot explain how much I loved it. I finished the first book in a day, the second book the next day, forced myself to take a break between books two and three, and then missed the characters so much, I read the third book on day 4.

The books are magical. Literally. I think if I tried to describe them I would not do them justice, so rather read the blurb from the first book, Poison Study, and see for yourself:

Poison Study:

Choose: A quick death or slow poison…

On the eve of her execution for murder, Yelena Zaltana is offered an incredible reprieve – on the condition that she becomes the food taster for the military leader of Ixia, Commander Ambrose.

Avoiding poison is the least of her troubles, however… General Brazell, father of the man she killed, has vowed bloody revenge; she’s beginning to have feelings for her captor, Valek; and someone is plotting the downfall of the current regime.

In a desperate race against time, Yelena must learn to control the growing magical talent within her and master the demons of her past. The Commander’s life, the future of Ixia and all those she loves depend on it…

————–

Go ahead. Read the first book. You will love it.

The nice thing about this series is that Ms. Snyder follows it up with a whole new series “Glass” – about a character we meet in the Study books. She brings us right back to magical world she’s created, and generously lets us meet up with all those wonderful characters from the Study series.

But please – don’t make the mistake I made. Don’t read Glass before Study. You’ll enjoy all six books way more if you read them in order.

Happy reading,

Jess

Jenna and Garreth

Since the release of Winter Fire in January, I’ve had loads of emails asking whether I’ll be writing Jenna and Garreth’s story.

I’ve even noticed a few curious search engine terms on my blog:

‘Jess Dee Winter Fire sequel’

‘Jenna Garreth Jess Dee’

I apologize to everyone who doesn’t already know the answer to this.

YES! I am writing their story. In fact, I’m about 3000 words short of completing the book.

I have tentatively titled it “Ties That Bind”, but that may change.

If you’re curious, here’s a little excerpt. A short, not so sweet, and very unedited excerpt. (Please don’t hold spelling and grammar mistakes against me. This is a very rough draft!)

TIES THAT BIND: An Unedited Excerpt

(Comment from Jess, added a few hours after posting this blog:  Oops, just noticed I’d already posted the excerpt in my blog a few days ago. (Yeah, yeah, I’m losing my mind. I know.) So now I’ve changed it to a different one. You can read the original excerpt here.)

He began to sweat. “Jenna-girl,” he coaxed, “tell me you love me.”

She shook her head.

“Say it, Jenn.” Christ, he needed to hear the words. “Say ‘I love you, Garreth.’”

“I…” She broke off. Shook her head again.

“It’s easy. Listen, I’ll go first. I love you, Jenna Brooks. I have since the moment I met you. I love everything about you. I love how you stick to your beliefs and your scruples. I love how you put your friends and family first. I love how you love them. I love how hard you try and control your environment, how you’ve made it work for you. I love how determined you are to put your trauma aside, how you triumphed in spite of it. And I love how hard you’re trying to deny you love me.” He stopped, frowned and shook his head. “Uh, actually no, I don’t love that part. I hate it. But it’s making me horny as the devil, knowing you love me, knowing you’re making me work to prove I love you. You’re making me chase you, and believe me Jenn, I love a good chase. Especially when the prize is you.”

He took a breath. Gazed at her. Lost the very breath he’d just taken.

She looked half parts utterly smitten with him, and half parts utterly terrified.

“Tell me you love me, Jenna.”

Finally, finally, finally she spoke, and the words lodged in his heart like an arrow. “You fucked my best friend.”

He saw red. And for the first time ever, lost his cool with her. He lost it in a spectacular fashion. “Yes, I did.” He roared. “I fucked your best friend. I met her, I seduced her and I fucked her. I got her into my room, I got her naked, and I fucked her. And guess what? She fucked me too. We fucked each other.”

She stared at him, aghast.

“I knew who she was too. Right from the beginning. Knew she was the love of Jackson’s life. Knew she was your best friend. And guess what? It didn’t stop me. It encouraged me. I fucked her, and I let Jackson know I fucked her.”

“Bastard,” she spat at him.

“You know why I did it? You know why I fucked her?”

“Because you’re a moral-less, son of a bitch who doesn’t care who gets hurt?”

“Bong. Wrong! I did it for you. For you and for your coward-assed brother.”

“Well, gee, give the man a hand,” Jenna cheered sarcastically. “What a hero. Fucking a woman for the sake of his best friend and the woman he loves. A real fucking hero alright.”

“A real fucking hero knows what he wants and goes after it. Especially if what he wants, wants exactly the same thing he does. I want you, Jenna. I love you. You love me too. I was sick and tired of your excuses. Yours and Jackson. Both of you. Using the pact as an excuse. Putting it before your own happiness. Someone had to make you see the pact had outlived its usefulness. It wasn’t protecting you. Either of you. It was making you unhappy. It was making us all unhappy. You, me, Jackson and Rachel.”

“Ah, so you slept with Rachel to cheer her up? To cheer yourself up?”

“I slept with Rachel because someone had to open your eyes. Yours and your brother’s. Someone had to make you see clearly. I slept with her because I knew it would make Jackson jealous as hell. Jealous enough to make him act, finally. Jealous enough to make him break the pact. Because if he didn’t break it, you never would. If he didn’t free you from it, I could never have you.”

————-

I’ll post more when it’s done, and let you know about release dates too. I promise.

Jess