Romancing His Rival is out now!

Hi, all!

I'm very excited to announce that it's release day for 

Romancing His Rival!

Here is what some nice readers are saying:

“I smiled the entire time I read this book. It was fun, cute and I read it in one sitting I was that into it.” -Kristy S., NetGalley

“Romancing the Rival by Jennifer Shirk a five-star read that will make you swoon.” -Sara O., Goodreads

“This is another sweet romance by Jennifer Shirk!” -Thomas N., Goodreads

“Jennifer Shirk always writes such sweet romances and Romancing His Rival was a great addition to the Accidentally Yours series.” -Stephanie’s Book Reviews

“Absolutely loved this sweet read. Romancing His Rival is a nice and clean romance that stays focused on the story and is true to the characters. Fast-paced, defined world, great storyline and engaging characters...a reader can’t ask for more.” -Katrina H., Goodreads

“I highly recommend you pick up this book. I do warn you that once you start this book you will not be able to put it down until you are completely finished.” -Sherri B., Goodreads

Hopeless romantic Elena Mason doesn’t often hate people, but she hates her ex-fiancé’s insufferable best man, Lucas Albright III. She just knows Lucas is the one who talked her ex out of getting married—so Lucas is clearly the cause of all her problems.

And now she’s expected to work with him? Oh, heck no.

Lucas Albright wants nothing more than to make partner at his advertising firm, and he knows he works best alone. But then Elena ends up as his partner on an account that could win him a promotion. He had a great reason to end her engagement, not that she’d ever believe him. Still, he’s willing to try working as a team.

Unfortunately, his new “partner” wants him dead.

Elena knows she’s going to have to give in and work with her nemesis, though nobody said it had to be easy for him. But what happens when fighting starts feeling a whole lot like falling in love?

Available:

B&N     AMZ    iTunes    Kobo

Also: the winner of my Pre-Order giveaway is Mary Preston!
Congrats!

Wrong Brother Right Match Sale Blitz!

Two brothers. One Christmas. One matchmaker's mistake…

Wrong Brother, Right Match

Anyone But You #3

Jennifer Shirk

Entangled Bliss

Matchmaking guru Kennedy Pepperdine’s life is perfect. Perfect job. Perfect friends. Perfect boyfriend. Except...when she gets trapped in an elevator with a handsome stranger, she accidentally confesses a secret: maybe her perfect boyfriend, Justin, isn’t so perfect for her after all. But a matchmaker should be able to successfully match herself, right? Thankfully, she’ll never see the handsome stranger again. Until she heads home with Justin for the holidays and learns that the sexy stranger is none other than Justin’s older brother, Matt.

Matt Ellis is trying to be on his best behavior for his mother—it is Christmas, after all. But when he recognizes the beautiful woman from the elevator—the one he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about for months—his best behavior is being held by a thread. Matt’s always sacrificed for his family, and nothing is more important than their happiness, but the more time he spends around Kennedy, the more he wonders if her supposed "right match" might just be the wrong brother.

Praise for Wrong Brother, Right Match

"Wrong Brother, Right Match is basically a Hallmark Christmas Movie in book form and I love it!" - Stephanie's Book Reviews

If you want to be swept away into a sweet read that will keep you glued to the page then this is the book for you. There was just something about this storyline that was the right amount of sweet, romance and fun that made it unputdownable."- The Sub Club Books

 Wrong Brother, Right Match WON the 2017 ©Desert Rose RWA® Golden Quill Contest- Sweet Traditional Category 

EXCERPT

Kennedy grew silent again. She began chewing her bottom lip. His eyes automatically dropped to her mouth, and for the forty-eighth time since being trapped together, he thought about kissing some sense into that anxious brain of hers.

“You’re right.” Her words were so soft, he wasn’t sure she’d spoken them. “He’s wonderful. Really awesome. But honestly…” She gave him a sharp if slightly tipsy look. “I’ve never said this to anyone, so you can’t tell a soul.”

He gave her a droll look. “Who am I going to tell?”

She stared him down for several seconds as if judging his sincerity. “Cross your heart?”

“Cross my heart,” he repeated, making the motion against his chest.

“Okay.” She bit her lip. “It’s just that…sometimes I doubt we’re meant for each other.”

“Really?”

 “Yes. I know it’s crazy,” she murmured. “Especially since I can’t afford for my software to be wrong.”

 Before he could respond, the lights overhead flickered. Her head whipped up toward the ceiling. “Thank God!” The elated expression on her face reminded him of a child watching fireworks go off. “We’re finally going to get out of here,” she squealed.

“Yeah…awesome.” Matt swallowed hard. He should be happy, too. Why the hell wasn’t he happy? He’d finally be out of this cramped elevator and away from this anxiety-ridden woman with her boyfriend issues. But instead, all he could do was bank down a strange sense of disappointment at the thought of her walking through those elevator doors and him never seeing her again.

He stood first then held out his hand to help her up. Her palm met his, and he tugged just as the elevator began to move again, causing them to lose their balance. His back slammed against the wall, and she fell into his arms.

“Nice catch,” she said with a laugh, obviously still feeling the effects of the champagne.

Matt held on to her, his heart beating wildly. Having her in his arms ignited all kinds of thoughts, all kinds of feelings. Naughty thoughts. Good feelings. His gaze captured hers for a long moment until eventually her smiling face grew serious, too. Then his conscience tapped him on the shoulder.

What the hell do you think you’re doing? it said. You’ve both been drinking. And she has a boyfriend.

 He’d always hated his conscience.

“Matt?”

 Matt didn’t move. The elevator was going to open soon. They would be free to leave separately or leave together. There was still a choice. Growing up, he had always been the one to toe the line. Do what was right for everyone else in his life. But so help him, he didn’t want to do that this time. Maybe it was the alcohol, but he wanted her. True, the woman had a boyfriend—a neglectful boyfriend—but still, there were rules for that sort of thing, weren’t there? Like what if…

Screw it.

He kissed her.

99 CENTS FOR A LIMITED TIME

Amazon:  

B&N:  

Kobo: 

IBooks: 

Want to help me spread the word?
Click here to TWEET

On Writing a Book Series by Guest Author Anna Maclean

Happy Friday, all!

I'm very excited to have author Anna Maclean with me today. She has a new book out: Louisa and The Missing Heiress, the first in a trilogy of mysteries from Penguin Books (NAL),
featuring sleuth Louisa May Alcott.

Please welcome her as she shares some thoughts on writing her book series.

What’s most exciting about writing a series instead of a single novel is this great opportunity to follow a character through a longer time line than a single mystery could allow, to take her from here to there in terms of character development. Specifically, with Louisa May Alcott, who is the sleuth in my series of cozy mysteries, beginning with Louisa and the Missing Heiress, I wanted to begin with her in young adulthood, when she is unknown, inexperienced and uncertain of what she wants to do with her life. And then, take her up to that moment when she begins to become the Louisa May Alcott we know, the woman who writes Little Women and becomes astoundingly famous.

I begin the series in 1854, when twenty-two year old Louisa is living with her family in Boston, teaching children in her parlor to earn money, and secretly writing some pretty exciting tales of dangerous men and femme fatales in her attic writing room. But she’s also beginning to think about writing on a very serious level and soon after the beginning of this novel publishes Flower Tales, her earliest book for children. The book does well in that it earns her a little money and a little recognition…but she senses there is much, much more to come from her imagination. And so, in this first mystery in the series, she begins to think about the characters that will, in years to come, become her Little Women.

Of course, what is difficult about a series is that each book must stand alone and be able to be read, and enjoyed, independently from the others. Information can’t be repeated, yet each book must have all the information the reader needs to ‘know’ Louisa. The character has to change, to develop, yet remain completely identifiable.
There are many things that ‘unify’ my Louisa as a fictional character, so that while developing and changing she retains an inherent character: her love of writing, her devotion to her family, her conviction that she must remain independent if she is to do her best work.

In Louisa and the Missing Heiress, Louisa is just beginning to ‘separate’ from her family on an intellectual level, to realize that she may support causes her father may not support – specifically, women’s rights! So there is that tension, of the girl becoming the women, the free agent, the free-thinker. Throw into that emotional setting a series of events quite plausible for nineteenth century Boston – illegitimate children, sexual abuse of young girls, a murder – and you end up with a Louisa who is certainly different on the last page than she was on the first!

What some readers and admirers of Little Women may not know about Louisa May Alcott is that, in addition to writing grown-up tales of romance and forbidden love, Louisa also had a great sense of humor. I used that in my mystery, allowing Louisa moments of caustic yet never sarcastic fun, as well as a little romance.

I'm a huge fan of Little Women, so you using Louisa May Alcott as your character is so interesting!


Thanks for stopping by! Here's a little bit more about her book:


Long before she will achieve fame as the author of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott is writing stories of a more dark and mysterious nature. But nothing prepares her for the role of amateur detective she assumes when the body of her dear friend, wealthy newlywed Dorothy Wortham, is found floating in Boston’s harbor.

It’s well known that Dorothy’s family didn’t approve of her husband, a confirmed fortune hunter, but Louisa suspects that some deeper secret lies behind her friend’s tragic murder...

CONTEST: Anne will be giving away a Victorian tea cup and saucer to one randomly drawn commenter and, for the host with the most comments, she has a page of cartoons from a mid-nineteenth century issue of Harper's Bazaar - cartoons Louisa herself might have laughed at.


For more information about the author, please visit her website: http://www.annamaclean.net

Good luck!

Do you enjoy reading series books? What's your favorite?
If you're a writer, have you ever considered writing a series?