A Friendly Engagement by Christine Warner Blog Tour

It's my pleasure to welcome Christine Warner who is here to tell us about her new release. First, she has a wonderful story of how she met her special guy.

Christine Warner

Author of A Friendly Engagement, book one in the Friends First Novel series

I love hearing “meet” stories. How other couples, well, went from one to two. I’ve heard some touching ones that have melted my heart, funny ones that made me laugh so hard I cried, and others that told the story of a bit of indifference at first meeting and took years to cultivate, starting with a single moment in time where a spark was lit and an attraction born.

I love them all!

Today I wanted to share my “meet” story because I think it has a touch of uniqueness that always makes me smile.

One of my good friends was going through some rough times with her husband. They’d split up, but had decided to get back together. So, her husband’s co-worker and good friend—let’s call him Ken—decided to rent a limo and go bar hopping to celebrate. Of course my friend didn’t want an odd number so she asked if she could bring a friend along.

Do you see where this is leading? Lol

Right away Ken was concerned that this wouldn’t be tagged a date. My friend assured him that it wouldn’t be. It would just be more fun rounded off to an even number. So, he agreed. The more the merrier, right?

Right away she called me and asked if I wanted to head downtown in a limo and hit all the hot spots. Of course I said yes, but after I found out a few more details, I made sure she knew that this wasn’t a date. I’d just broken up with a guy not long before and I really wasn’t interested in starting something new. I wanted to have some fun, not anything serious. So, of course she assured me that the word “date” wouldn’t be mentioned. After I breathed a sigh of relief, I agreed.

Do you think my friend was being sneaky? Lol

So, long story short—or at least as short as I can make it—the two not-interested-in-a-date-types hit it off. We laughed and talked all night—and had a few too many drinks I’m sure.

At one of the bars we were having such a good time that the bartender asked what the occasion was. I instantly told him it was double engagement party. Can you say “one to many”? lol Why I even blurted that out I have no idea, I guess I was just being a shit. Anyway, after I said that, Ken asked what it would take for me to really marry him.

Yes, I know, this was the first night.

I told him the only way I’d marry him was if he proposed with a karat. Heck, why not right? It’s not like he was serious so I might as well go for it. Plus, karat diamond engagement rings run in my family. Lol

Fast forward two weeks—or it might have been three—and Ken and I are dating up a storm and having a great time. He picked me up from work to take me to lunch at Pizza Hut. At the time I was slightly addicted to their personal pan pizzas. YUM! And lo and behold he pulls out a gift for me.

He’d had a chunk of gold molded into a carrot—yes, as in the vegetable not the diamond weight. (Don’t you love his play on words with that one?) I absolutely loved it, and fell even harder than I already had. Talk about romance. To me, that was romance at its finest.

A month after I met Ken we moved in together. Four months after we met we eloped—yep two crazy kids. Lol Eight months after we met we found out we were having a baby. And ten months after we met we bought our first house.

That’s a lot happening in one year.

I’m proud to report that twenty-six years later we’re still together. There have been ups, downs, and all arounds, but somehow we’ve made it work. I’d have to say our ability to laugh has carried us through a lot.

And just think—it all started with a limo ride that wasn’t a date, a few laughs, one to many, and an extraordinary gift of a necklace.

How about you? What’s your meet story?

A Friendly Engagement (A Friends First Novel)
by Christine Warner
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | All Romance | Kobo Books
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Published by: Entangled Publishing
Release Date: June 23, 2015
Length: 233 Pages

What's a little engagement between friends?

Omar Esterly is married to his job. But when Omar sets his sights on a potential, family-oriented client, his confirmed bachelorhood becomes a problem. Fortunately, his friend and employee, Devi Boss, has the perfect plan...

Okay, so it wasn't exactly Devi's plan to become her friend's fake fiancée. Lies aren't her style. However, Omar offers her a big, beautiful raise - enough to track down the missing father she's never known - and Devi reluctantly agrees to the whole engagement hoax...

This was supposed to be a no-strings-attached win-win for both Devi and Omar, but when they cross the line between friendship and...well, something more, Devi realizes she's made a huge mistake that just might cost her both job and friend - falling for her fiancé.

 Excerpt

“I’m glad you approve. How about you? Fantasies?”

At the moment her fantasy was stripping down naked and letting him have his way with her. Damn, if he didn’t make a move soon, she might take the reins and have her way with him. Screw not making the first move. She’d push him back against the mattress and climb aboard. Being on top definitely had advantages. Goose bumps erupted on her flesh at the thought. She wanted him, but she didn’t realize the intensity until now.

From over his shoulder the television caught her eye. Her favorite part in the movie filled the screen. “I do have a fantasy. Kind of a silly one.”

“Now you have to share.”

“Mine involves a superhero. He’d hang upside down from the building, I’d remove his mask just enough to reveal his lips, and we’d kiss—of course all of this would happen after he came to my rescue.”

“Would you tell him he’s amazing?”

She felt her face heat, again. “Of course.”

“And that’s all? I would bet money you’d fantasize about more than a kiss.”

A bubble of laughter escaped. “You got me. Afterward he’d carry me to a romantic oasis by the water, he’d give me the most incredible foot massage, and we’d make passionate love on a bed littered with rose petals—in assorted colors.”

“Rose petals?”

“Oh yeah. I’m sure I’m not the only one with this fantasy. If you’re going to do it, you might as well enjoy it with a superhero. Plus, this is my fantasy. I get it the way I want.”

“Nice to know about your superhero, but I revealed a fantasy about you. I thought you’d reciprocate.” The teasing quality left his voice, and his eyes darkened as they circled the obvious peaks of her nipples through her bathing suit cover-up.

She swallowed. How the hell could he turn her on with just a few words, or looks? “Who said I don’t think of you as my superhero? After all, you rescued me from painful feet and carried me upstairs…”

About Christine Warner
Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads | Newsletter | Street Team | Amazon Author Page

Christine Warner is living her dream in Michigan along with her husband, three children, one laptop and a much loved assortment of furry friends.

Besides laughing and a good round of humor, Christine enjoys spending time with her family, cooking, reading, writing but no arithmitic.  A confessed people watcher, she finds inspiration for her stories in everyday activities.  She loves to read and write about strong heroes and determined, sometimes sassy, heroines.

A girl gone wild, at least where social media is concerned, Christine enjoys meeting other avid readers and writers on Facebook, Twitter and her website.

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~About the Books~

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo Books
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: 179 Pages
Release Date: June 10, 2013
Published by: Entangled Publishing

Jill Adgate wants three things from life: a successful catering business, a family, and the love of an exceptional man. What she has is no job, a mounting pile of bills, and her outspoken best friend—who sets her up on a blind date with the man who inadvertently ruined Jill’s life.

Chet Castle is a businessman who has everything, except the ability to trust. Burned by a money-hungry fiancée, he refuses to get involved in any relationship that has a shelf life longer than a head of lettuce.

Intrigued by her ambition—and determined to get her in bed—Chet offers Jill the chance of a lifetime: work as his live-in chef and he’ll help her get her catering business off the ground. When sparks fly in the kitchen, Jill realizes what’s cooking is a recipe for disaster…

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo Books | The Wild Rose Press
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: 238 Pages
Release Date: August 22, 2012
Published by: The Wild Rose Press

Farah Smith is on a mission: secure the funds for her twin sister’s surgery. She’ll do whatever it takes to succeed. Even if that means putting her values aside to work for a man she finds morally bankrupt. But when the real Farah meets her new boss, she wonders if she’ll be able to resist his sexy advances long enough to help her sister. From the blonde wig, to the stilettos strapped around her ankles, Farah’s a clone of Keller Donovan’s harem of past assistants. She can’t believe she’s let herself be talked into the disguise, let alone working for the man planning to demolish the hospital her sister so desperately needs, but the salary he offers is the only way she’ll be able to afford her sister’s surgery. The moment Farah meets Keller she realizes her most daunting task isn’t typing, spreadsheets or organizing travel arrangements, but fighting the growing attraction toward a man whose ruthlessness is legendary in the boardroom as well as the bedroom.

Determined not to end up in a disastrous marriage like his divorced parents, Keller believes all relationships should have a shelf life of sixth months or less. But when he meets Farah, all bets are off. He not only wants her to continue as his personal assistant, but his own private bed warmer. Unfortunately, his offer of an affair doesn’t sit well with her fairytale dreams or the strangled hold gripping his heart.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo Books | The Wild Rose Press
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: 260 Pages
Release Date: March 20, 2012
Published by: The Wild Rose Press

Sunny Kennedy, the only female in a family of blue blood male detectives, is determined to prove testosterone isn’t the only qualification required to solve a cold case. Handcuffed while undercover then taken to the precinct by an attractive detective, her domineering family demands she work with Detective Judson Blackwolf, or she’s off the case.

Judson Blackwolf thinks women in law enforcement should work behind the scenes. The prospect of working with his Captain’s sexy daughter doesn’t thrill him. He only agrees in hopes of solving the murder of his one time mentor’s daughter. Once the case is over, he’s moving to Montana to heal his wounds from the loss of his last partner. But when their investigation takes a dangerous turn, Sunny and Judd soon realize their feelings for each other cannot be denied.

~About Christine Warner~

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Christine Warner is living her dream in Michigan along with her husband, three children, one laptop and a much loved assortment of furry friends.
Besides laughing and a good round of humor, she enjoys spending time with her family, cooking, reading, writing but no arithmitic. A confessed people watcher, she finds inspiration for her stories in everyday activities. She loves to read and write about strong heroes and determined, sometimes sassy, heroines.A girl gone wild, at least where social media is concerned, she enjoys meeting other avid readers and writers on facebook, twitter and her website at christine-warner.com.

~The Giveaway~

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'Tis the Season To Be Kissed by Amy Andrews

• Genre: Contemporary Romantic Novella
• Length: 70 pages
• Release Date: November 2013
• ISBN: 978-1-62266-357-6
• Imprint: Indulgence

 A down-on-her-romantic-luck kindergarten teacher plans to drown her New Year’s Eve sorrows in a gallon of spiked eggnog, but the arrival of her best friend’s sexy brother threatens to melt the snow piling up outside the tiny Vermont cabin.

Excerpt:

Sergeant Luke Jackson had gone straight into combat mode at the sound of the blood-curdling banshee yell, and it took several seconds for the adrenaline spike to release him from its grip long enough to compute the fact that there was no danger. He had no idea who was beneath him, but the landing had been too soft to register it as a threat.

Still holding firm to the attacker’s splayed wrists, his father’s old putter discarded and well out of reach, he looked down into stormy gray eyes. He may only have been able to see an oval cut-out of her face from the confines of the hood she had pulled tight around her head, but it was definitely a woman. No man owned such delicate bone structure and had a nose as cute as that.

“What the hell?” he demanded back at the woman moving ineffectually underneath him. He’d just trudged two miles through a freaking blizzard from the bus depot to be greeted like this?

“Get off me right now you…giant…ass!”

“Who the hell are you?”

The woman stopped struggling and glared at him. “Hey buddy, this is my house. I get to ask the questions and you”—she struggled some more—“are”—more interesting squirming, shoving, and pushing—“squashing me!”

Luke pushed away immediately and stood towering over her. She looked like a felled Eskimo in full winter regalia. “Ma’am, I don’t know who you are, but I think you’ll find that this is my house.”

She gave him an indignant look as she lay there waving her arms and legs like a stranded beetle. “While I appreciate your manners,” the beetle with the elfin nose and pixie cheekbones said, “I’ll have you know that this cabin belongs to the Jackson family.”

Luke nodded. “Yes. Edward and Sophie. My parents. I’m Luke. Luke Jackson.”

He offered her his hand to help her up, fearing that with all those clothes thwarting her attempts she would never make it unaided.

The angry pixie’s eyebrows knitted together as she glared up at him, but reached her mittened hand for his anyway. “Nice try. Luke Jackson is in Afghanistan and I think impersonating a US soldier on active duty is”—she paused as Luke pulled her to her feet—“beneath contempt.”

Luke didn’t bother to look at the portrait of him and Georgia that he knew hung on the wall to his right. He just jerked his thumb toward it and waited patiently for the penny to drop. The woman blinked at the picture as if she was having trouble seeing it. She peered at him, then back at the wall, then back at him, squinting and scrutinizing it carefully, as if she’d been asked to pick him out of a lineup.

The picture had been taken a few years back on his return from his first tour to Afghanistan, but he hadn’t changed that much.

Not anywhere that was visible, anyway.

And then he heard her gasp and watched as her face fell. Yep. Now she was with the program.
“Oh God,” she groaned as she lurched away, heading for the low table next to the couch, picking up a glass, and taking a hefty swig before facing him again. “I’m so, so sorry. I thought you were a looter…or a burglar…or at the very least up to no good. I didn’t know you were home. Georgia was so disappointed you were going to miss her thirtieth birthday party and if I had known, I would never have yelled and attacked you with a golf club. I teach kindergarten…we use our inside voices, we keep our hands to ourselves…”

Luke folded his arms across his chest, amused at the horror on her face. She obviously wasn’t a violent person. Which only made her actions at defending his family cabin that much more endearing. “You’re Tamara, aren’t you?”

The pixie raised her glass in salute. “That would be me.”

“Pleased to meet, you ma’am,” he said.

She nodded then stopped abruptly. “Wait.” She frowned. “How do you know about me? Georgia and I haven’t known each other that long.”

He shrugged, noting the way her gaze traveled over the contours of his shoulders. Interesting. “Georgia writes a lot of newsy e-mails.”

“Ah,” she said and swayed a little.

Luke reached out a hand. “Ma’am?” he asked, looking at her a little closer. Pink cheeks. Red nose. Unsteady on her feet. A waft of …eggnog?  “Are you…drunk?”


'Tis the Season To Be Kissed is available at  Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo Books | iTunes

Amy Andrews is an award-winning, best-selling Aussie author who has written thirty + contemporary romances in both the traditional and digital markets. She has written for Harlequin Mills & Boon, Entangled, Harper Collins and Momentum.
To date she’s sold over a million books and been translated into thirteen different languages including manga.She loves her kids, her husband, her dogs, cowboys, men in tool belts, cowboys in tool belts and happily ever afters. Please, DO NOT mess with the HEA! Also good books, fab food, great wine and frequent travel – preferably all four together.
She lives on acreage on the outskirts of Brisbane with a gorgeous mountain view but secretly wishes it was the hillsides of Tuscany.

 Amy’s Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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