Free E-book!

I’m so excited about the upcoming release of Carolina Home, the first in my new Dare Island series!

The wonderful JoAnn Ross calls Carolina Home “a deeply moving story of family, love, and second chances...prose as lush and warm as a coastal summer.” Publishers Weekly says, “This first in a proposed trilogy introduces readers to the Fletcher clan, whose warmth and devotion feel genuine, and the palpable heat from Matt and Allison ensures a sizzling good time. Kantra’s storybuilding is excellent.”

Woo hoo! CAROLINA HOME goes on sale July 3. But if you preorder the book now - by JUNE 5th - I will send you a free, full length e-book, THE COMEBACK OF CONN MACNEILL, as a reader appreciation gift.

Conn MacNeill has a lot of the things that make Carolina Home special: a small town, North Carolina setting; that “home and hearth” feel; and a hero to die for. The story, about a free-spirited Southern beauty who clashes with her father's financial hired gun over the running of her restaurant, was nominated for Romance Writers of America’s RITA award.

So, how do you get them both?

1. BUY Carolina Home on-line now (by June 5th) from any of these vendors

Amazon

Barnes&Noble

IndieBound

2. FORWARD your email order/receipt (for your security, you can delete your billing address before forwarding the order) to freebook@virginiakantra.com

3. SPECIFY if you would like to receive your free e-book as a mobi (Kindle) or e-pub (Nook, Sony, etc.) file.

Already ordered CAROLINA HOME? Thank you! You can still receive the reader appreciation gift. Just follow steps 2 & 3 above.

Don’t have an e-reader? Not a problem. Download free reading apps for Kindle or Nook and read The Comeback of Conn MacNeill on your PC, Mac, smartphone, or tablet! (Once you’ve downloaded your free e-book to your computer, it should automatically appear in your e-reader device library.)

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy Carolina Home AND your free copy of The Comeback of Conn MacNeill!

Virginia

(Please feel free to post, tweet, and tell your friends about this offer. Remember, the deadline for this special “reader appreciation” gift is June 5th.)

Epub covers and schedule!

I've got covers! And e-books, of course, for Nook and Kindle. Don't they look pretty, all in a row?

The Reforming of Matthew Dunn, April 2012, Golden Heart Winner, Holt Medallion Winner, RT Reviewers' Choice nominee
The Passion of Patrick MacNeill, May 2012, RITA Award finalist, RT Top Pick
The Comeback of Conn MacNeill, June 2012, RITA Award finalist
The Temptation of Sean MacNeill, coming soon, Romance Readers Anonymous Award nominee
Mad Dog and Annie, coming soon, RITA Award finalist, AAR Desert Island Keeper

Teaser Tuesday! CAROLINA HOME

Allison Carter pinned him with those big brown eyes, those just-licked lips, and every hormone in Matt’s body jumped to attention. “Can I buy you that beer?”

He ought to say no, he thought, regarding her fresh, flushed face.

Correction. He ought to say Hell no.

He liked to keep things simple. Allison Carter was a distraction he didn’t want, a complication he didn’t need.

Whatever she was looking for, he was damn sure he wasn’t it.

But her scent filled the cab of the truck, fresh and sweet, soap and woman and something else, vanilla with a hint of spice.

Matt rubbed his jaw, aware he hadn’t shaved since the day before yesterday. “You sure you’re old enough to have a drink with me?”

She narrowed those gorgeous eyes at him. “What does my age have to do with anything?”

Straight-faced, he explained, “You have to be twenty-one to purchase alcohol in this state.”

Suspicion dissolved into a smile. “I’m twenty-five.”

So, okay, she was older than she looked. Still too young for him.

But it was only a beer, he told himself. Only an hour on his way home. She was new to the island. No harm in being friendly.

Right.

Coming July 3, 2012, from Berkley Books!

Teaser Tuesday!

Con MacNeill rubbed sweat from his chest. This Carolina town was too damn hot for a Boston boy.

He leaned against the wall of the First Baptist Church, seeking shade and the cool prickle of brick against his back. Main Street, North Carolina, was not his scene at all. But with Lynn’s wedding scheduled for three weeks from today, even Boston had begun to feel uncomfortably warm. Too many parties. Too many phone calls from mock or mutual friends eager to pry or express sympathy. He was better out of it. All of it. The offer from Edward Cutler couldn’t have come at a better time.

Nothing like a new challenge to get a man over being fired.

Con crossed his arms against his chest, shutting down the flare of frustration. Define the problem, he reminded himself. That was the way he operated. Solve the problem.

He surveyed the street, spanned by a banner that proclaimed the town of Cutler’s Seventh Annual Super Summer Sidewalk Sale. From the church parking lot to the county courthouse steps, racks of out-of-season clothes competed with bins of plastic trinkets. Halfway down the block, Arlene’s Country Cafe supplied coffee and doughnuts to passing patrons, while the rival establishment on the opposite corner handed out clear plastic cups of...Lord knew what.

Con narrowed his eyes at the freshly painted green-and-white sign over the door: Wild Thymes. Cute. Very cute. As he watched, a vendor leaned forward from beneath the cool canvas awning to offer an elderly customer a plastic fork and a smile.

Sunlight dropped across her face. Her tawny hair blazed, stirred by a hot breeze. For that one moment, sun and wind combined to create a vision of light and movement that burned like summer sparkling on lake waters. For that one moment, the woman leaning across the plank counter was Woman, divine and incarnate. Wild yearning uncurled in Con’s Celtic heart. Awe breathed through his Catholic soul. She was Eve before the Fall. She was Niamh of the Golden Hair, legendary love of Oisin. She was the Lady on the White Horse in his mother’s stories.

Desire hit him, hard and low. And striking harder, unrecognized and unwelcome, possibility assailed him like the sea.

Then the breeze dropped. The woman turned her head to talk to someone over her shoulder. Green shade drabbed the golden hair and dimmed the radiant face, leaving only a waitress, chatting up a customer.

Teaser Tuesay!

Kate pressed her legs together on the edge of the mattress, hoping to make her thighs look thinner. Downstairs she could hear Patrick moving around, talking to the dog. Nerves jitterbugged in her stomach.

She was cold. The skin of her arms and legs bumped like uncooked chicken. But her cheeks were hot. She could feel the blood heating there, and beating in her throat and in her chest, and pooling warm and liquid in her lower body.

Look before you leap. Think before you speak. Analyze before you act.

She would not be foolish like her mother or trusting like her sister, both of them mothers and alone before their thirties But how could she examine her options when all she could see was Patrick’s intent face? How could she hear herself think over the drumbeat of her blood?

He was the worst man in the world for her. A patient’s father, a grieving husband. A man too used to getting his own way and too aware of his effect on women.

But he had granted her rights, given her welcome, shared his house and his son and a piece of his soul with her. She admired him, perhaps more than any man she’d ever met. His utter reliability, the way he supported his mother and loved his son and was simply there for every member of his family in a way that no one had ever been there for her...Oh, she liked that a lot. It made her want him. It made her want to be there for him.

Kate might have held out against her own desire. She could not resist Patrick’s need.

She shivered, thinking of Wade Preston, the blond Apollo of Jefferson University Medical School. He’d told her he needed her. He’d even claimed to love her. But his need hadn’t outlasted their shared residency, and his love hadn’t survived the discovery of her background, so unsuitable for a doctor’s wife in Baltimore.

This is different, she thought, rubbing her hands nervously on the goose-bumped flesh of her thighs. Wade, pledging his future, had been miserly with praise and stingy in bed. Patrick promised her nothing. But she suspected, with a newfound feminine instinct, that he would be generous with his passion. At the very least, he seemed really to want her. And she wanted him.

The door opened, and he was there.

The Passion of Patrick MacNeill

Buy it now for Kindle!

and for Nook!

The MacNeills are coming!

I'm having so much fun revising my backlist for release in ebook format. But - gulp - I actually found my hero using a pay phone at one point. Lots of technology tweaks to do! The emotions, though...The emotions still feel fresh and true.

***

He rested one hand on the wall above her, close enough for her to feel the warmth emanating from his body, close enough for his breath to touch her face. She saw his eyes, with their thick, short lashes, his pupils nearly swallowing the blazing blue. Her stomach squeezed into her chest, crowding her lungs. She couldn’t breathe. She felt the warmth of his arm, close by her head. She heard her blood thundering in her ears, and the rasp of his quickly indrawn breath.

He kissed her.

It was over before she could say if she liked it, before she had time to react. He lifted his head, and she felt the absence of his mouth more keenly than she had felt its pressure a moment before.

“Well?”

She lifted her chin. She had to, to meet his gaze. “Well, what?”

His firm, well-shaped lips curved at the corners. “Are you going to object?”

She dug deep for a cool response, her hands pressed flat to the wall behind her. He was probably the most vital, potent man she’d ever met, and she was merely unattractive Katie Sue Sinclair, too smart for her own good and stupid with men. She couldn’t let him see how he got to her, how she was affected by his nearness. He would eat her alive.

Maybe she wanted him to.

--from THE PASSION OF PATRICK MACNEILL

So excited that my very first book, a North Carolina-set romantic suspense, is now (slightly) revised and available in ebook format! You can read a sample or download it here

for Kindle

and for Nook!

I'd be delighted if any of you who have read this book would leave a "like" or a comment.

For those of you who haven't read it :-), here's the blurb:

A crusading widow takes on the cynical cop next door in The Reforming of Matthew Dunn.

Golden Heart Winner for Best Romantic Suspense Holt Medallion Winner RT Bookreviews Best First Series Romance Nominee

"Virginia Kantra is an autobuy...her books are keepers and her heroes are to die for." – New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Brockmann

"With a genuine understanding of deep emotions, Ms. Kantra gifts the readers with an exciting plot with just-right pacing. Her protagonists are complex and learn about love and loving the hard way, which adds a touch of realism to this special love story." – Rendezvous

"Impressive newcomer Virginia Kantra makes a smashing debut as a beautiful widow takes on The Reforming of Matthew Dunn. Ms. Kantra creates a superb romantic tension between her reluctant lovers as well as a memorable cast of characters." 4 stars – RT Book Reviews

Clare Harmon believes in second chances for the kids and ex-cons she employs through her neighborhood garden project. But she won't risk her heart and future on any man again, especially one who gets shot at for a living.

Tough cop Matt Dunn doesn't want a dewy-eyed do-gooder like Clare complicating his recent assignment to the city's new community policing program. But when danger forces them together, these two wounded souls just may take a second chance...on love.

Next up? Well, it will be a race between the reissue of The Passion of Patrick MacNeill in ebook and the all new release of Carolina Home, in stores July 3!

Hope your spring is full of mild weather and fabulous reads!