Happy Book Birthday, FOOL'S GOLD!

Last week was FOOL'S GOLD's first book birthday. Yay! To celebrate, I'm holding a giveaway over at my blog - you could win an ebook copy of FOOL'S GOLD along with a prize of mystery. But hop to it, peeps, the giveaway ends on 23 January. Cassandra xx

  

THE DIAMOND SERIES, BOOK 2

  Christmas in Freewill Christmas Eve, the Diamond Saloon is empty of its people, and Pearl la Monte has a hankering to retire early. A pounding at the Diamond’s door rids her of such a fool notion. Her irritation rises when she sees the prissy, polite-like Garrett standing outside. Ethan Garrett has a powerful need to gain succor. When the saloon’s voluptuous redheaded singer scowls at him from the threshold of the Diamond, he doesn’t stop to think on how his ire at her has disappeared. Or how he just wants to spend some time in her company. When a blizzard storms in, trapping them, will they spend their time arguing or find their irritation for each other disguises something more?  

Available NOW Decadent Publishing Amazon: AU | US | UK ARe | Smashwords | B&N

~ Excerpt ~

   Turning on her heel, Pearl marched off toward the stairs. A weird kind of panic jolted through Ethan, one he’d never felt before in all his days. It was…he didn’t…. She couldn’t leave him. 

   “Where are you going?” She whirled to face him, her irritation plain. “I was seeking my bed before your arrival, and now I’m seeking it again. Help yourself to whiskey this one time. I got better things to do.” 

    Shoving to his feet, he strode to her. “Don’t just walk away when we’re discussing things.” 

   “We ain’t discussing nothing. You’ll be down here, waiting out the blizzard. I’ll be in my bed, doing what I was gonna before you arrived. That’s the end of it.” Taking a step, she made to leave him. Again. 

   He grabbed her arm. “Don’t leave me.” 

   “Don’t tell me what to do.” Glaring at him, she stood before the bar, her magnificent hair slipping from its pins, her breasts rising and falling. Abruptly, his mouth went dry.

  Clearing his throat some, he said, “You’re supposed to offer succor to those in need.”    

   “We’re closed, remember?” Paint-less lips pressed tight together, she glared up at him. They were so close he could see the faint marks of freckles on her skin. Pearl La Monte had freckles. A kind of haze came over him, tightening his skin and bringing with it something all-fired powerful and completely unstoppable. All the years he’d known her crashed through him, all the times she’d flirted with him and meant something else, all the times he’d seen her perform on stage and wished he could have held such fire. Grabbing her upper arms, he hauled her against him and, ignoring her shocked gasp, he covered her mouth with his.  

Cassandra Dean grew up daydreaming, inventing fantastical worlds and marvelous adventures. Once she learned to read (First phrase – To the Beach. True story), she was never without a book, reading of other people’s fantastical worlds and marvelous adventures. Fairy tales, Famous Fives, fantasies and fancies; horror stories, gumshoe detectives, science fiction; Cassandra read it all. Then she discovered Romance and a true passion was born. So, once upon a time, after making a slight detour into the world of finance, Cassandra tried her hand at writing. After a brief foray into horror, she couldn’t discount her true passion. She started to write Romance and fell head over heels. The love affair exists to this very day. Cassandra lives in Adelaide, South Australia.   

  

Yay! Christmas!

By Cassandra Dean

I’m a huge sucker for Christmas. I love the sparkling lights and the tinsel and the puddings and mince pies and the getting together with family and friends. It’s all such a blast! I also love watching Carols by Candlelight on TV. Every Christmas Eve, there’s a massive concert in Melbourne that’s broadcast live on national TV. Ever since I can remember I’ve watched the carols, holding a candle with sticky-taped with a drip catcher made of cardboard.

Christmas is made up of these little traditions, ably demonstrated by a fantastic performance from comedian Tim Minchin, he of Matilda, the musical fame.

And, just because I love it, here’s a fantastic telling of Neil Gaiman’s subversive and spooky poem about Father Christmas.

Anyhoo, that’s about it from me. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful festive season, however you celebrate.

Cassandra

xx

The Diamond Series, Book 2

Christmas in Freewill 

Christmas Eve, the Diamond Saloon is empty of its people, and Pearl la Monte has a hankering to retire early. A pounding at the Diamond’s door rids her of such a fool notion. Her irritation rises when she sees the prissy, polite-like Garrett standing outside. 

Ethan Garrett has a powerful need to gain succor. When the saloon’s voluptuous redheaded singer scowls at him from the threshold of the Diamond, he doesn’t stop to think on how his ire at her has disappeared. Or how he just wants to spend some time in her company. 

When a blizzard storms in, trapping them, will they spend their time arguing or find their irritation for each other disguises something more?

Available NOW

Decadent Publishing

Amazon: AU | US | UK

ARe | Smashwords | B&N

Cassandra grew up daydreaming, inventing fantastical worlds and marvelous adventures. Once she learned to read (First phrase – To the Beach. True story), she was never without a book, reading of other people’s fantastical worlds and marvelous adventures.

Fairy tales, Famous Fives, fantasies and fancies; horror stories, gumshoe detectives, science fiction; Cassandra read it all. Then she discovered Romance and a true passion was born. 

So, once upon a time, after making a slight detour into the world of finance, Cassandra tried her hand at writing. After a brief foray into horror, she couldn’t discount her true passion. She started to write Romance and fell head over heels. 

The love affair exists to this very day. 

Cassandra lives in Adelaide, South Australia.

You can find Cassandra at: 

CassandraDean.com ~ Cassandra and Lucy ~ Facebook ~ Twitter

Goodreads ~ Tumblr ~ Pintrest ~ Amazon.com

Characters...

Hi peeps,

   Continuing on with my posts about The Writing, here’s a little bit on Characters.

   Characters are the lifeblood of a story. If you cannot get your reader to emotionally engage with your characters, most especially your protagonists, then you are in deep, deep trouble. My job as an author is to make my characters compelling. I have to make you peeps love the characters of my stories, or love to hate them.  Either way, you should be so totally emotionally invested that nothing will stop you from FINDING OUT WHAT HAPPENS. NOTHING. Not the threat of a tsunami. Not a nuclear holocaust. Not that Game of Thrones is back on TV and OHMIGODWHATSHAPPENINGWITHARYAANDDANYANDJONANDGODALMIGHTYIWANTTOSLAPJOFFREYSOMETHINGFIERCE

Ahem. Sorry about that. Perhaps I’m a tad excited Game of Thrones is back on the telly.

   Anyway, your characters don’t have to be likeable. In fact, the reader can completely despise them but—and this is a big BUT—if they despise your character, it’s because this is what you have intended. Your protagonist can be the biggest tool in the universe, and the reader can absolutely loathe them, but there has to be that special something that makes your reader want to find out what happens. 

   Think of Hamlet. Oh my word, what a whiny do-nothing of a character. Should I kill my step-dad? Should I? I don’t know. Oh, I should drive my girlfriend crazy. I should pretend to be crazy! But should I kill my step-dad? Maybe I’ll kill this other guy…But then there is my step-dad. Should I kill him?

   Wow. Just…Wow. And yet, such a character is compelling. We want to know what he finally decides, even as we are morbidly fascinated with watching the trainwreck before us. This is because Shakespeare has made it compelling. Hamlet is a complex enough as a character that we understand his point of view, even if we don’t agree with it.  And that understanding, dear peeps, is crucial.

   To make characters complex, we must understand that no one, ever, is wholly good or wholly evil. The villain of the piece will have one redeeming feature, even as the heroine of a story will have a dark side, albeit perhaps an extremely sunny dark side. 

   A character is more interesting because of their flaws, not because of their perfection. It’s hard to give your character flaws, to make them less than perfect, but you must if you what them to be believable and relatable.  Put them through hell and your readers will love you for it! 

   Joss Whedon, he who is God of the Writings, has intoned in scripture (or maybe it was a DVD commentary) Don't give people what they want, give them what they need. Kill off that beloved character, make your hero dump your heroine, have your heroine betray your hero. Your readers will wail and scream, but you can be sure they will be glued to the page. 

   So, the take home message: Brave the darker recesses of your creative nature. Make characters flawed, and you will have a richly textured story with living, breathing characters your readers will love – or love to hate!

   Thanks for hanging with me, peeps!

Cassandra Dean

Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Goodreads ~ Tumblr ~ Pintrest ~ Amazon.com

The Diamond Series, Book 2

Christmas in Freewill

Christmas Eve, the Diamond Saloon is empty of its people, and Pearl la Monte has a hankering to retire early. A pounding at the Diamond’s door rids her of such a fool notion. Her irritation rises when she sees the prissy, polite-like Garrett standing outside.

Ethan Garrett has a powerful need to gain succor. When the saloon’s voluptuous redheaded singer scowls at him from the threshold of the Diamond, he doesn’t stop to think on how his ire at her has disappeared. Or how he just wants to spend some time in her company.

When a blizzard storms in, trapping them, will they spend their time arguing or find their irritation for each other disguises something more?

Available from Decadent Publishing

Amazon.com ~ Amazon.co.uk ~ All Romance eBooks ~ Book Depository ~ iTunes Australia ~ Barnes & Noble

Excerpt:

Turning on her heel, Pearl marched off toward the stairs.

A weird kind of panic jolted through Ethan, one he’d never felt before in all his days. It was…he didn’t…. She couldn’t leave him. “Where are you going?”

She whirled to face him, her irritation plain. “I was seeking my bed before your arrival, and now I’m seeking it again. Help yourself to whiskey this one time. I got better things to do.”

Shoving to his feet, he strode to her. “Don’t just walk away when we’re discussing things.”

“We ain’t discussing nothing. You’ll be down here, waiting out the blizzard. I’ll be in my bed, doing what I was gonna before you arrived. That’s the end of it.”

Taking a step, she made to leave him. Again.

He grabbed her arm. “Don’t leave me.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.” Glaring at him, she stood before the bar, her magnificent hair slipping from its pins, her breasts rising and falling.

Abruptly, his mouth went dry. Clearing his throat some, he said, “You’re supposed to offer succor to those in need.”

“We’re closed, remember?” Paint-less lips pressed tight together, she glared up at him.

They were so close he could see the faint marks of freckles on her skin.

Pearl La Monte had freckles.

A kind of haze came over him, tightening his skin and bringing with it something all-fired powerful and completely unstoppable. All the years he’d known her crashed through him, all the times she’d flirted with him and meant something else, all the times he’d seen her perform on stage and wished he could have held such fire.

Grabbing her upper arms, he hauled her against him and, ignoring her shocked gasp, he covered her mouth with his. 

Bio:

Cassandra grew up daydreaming, inventing fantastical worlds and marvelous adventures. Once she learned to read (First phrase – To the Beach. True story), she was never without a book, reading of other people’s fantastical worlds and marvelous adventures.

Fairy tales, Famous Fives, fantasies and fancies; horror stories, gumshoe detectives, science fiction; Cassandra read it all. Then she discovered Romance and a true passion was born.

So, once upon a time, after making a slight detour into the world of finance, Cassandra tried her hand at writing. After a brief foray into horror, she couldn’t discount her true passion. She started to write Romance and fell head over heels.

The love affair exists to this very day.

Cassandra lives in Adelaide, South Australia. 

Groveling for Fun and Profit

Buy Fool's Gold HERE

By Cassandra Dean

Quite a few blogs around the interwebs have been talking about the comeuppance, or the grovel. Well, maybe not quite a few…More like two…Still, totally counts. Anyway, the comeuppance. The grovel. The moment where a character has to apologise for the wrong s/he has dealt another. This is awesomeness.

The thing about the grovel, though, is previous to this you need the scene where you break people’s hearts, that wrenching moment when a character’s world falls around them, caused by the person they love the most. In a romance, to have the most impact, either the hero or the heroine will deal the blow. 

I have just such a scenario in one of my books—I know, shocker, right? J In TEACH ME, the Earl of Malvern realises how large the heroine, Elizabeth, features in his life, such that he cannot imagine a life without her. Well. That Cannot Happen. I mean, bad stuff will definitely eventuate from such. Great and terrible things. Things that are shocking and scary and…and…Well. It Cannot Happen. *sigh* Oh, Malvern. Methinks you doth protest too much ;) Anyhoo, Malvern delivers a smackdown that breaks Elizabeth, destroys her and tears them apart.

I have Joss Whedon to thank for this. The man who is my Writing God facilitated this in his little-known TV show, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. What? You have heard of Buffy? Really?? It’s actually quite well-known and studied in universities around the world? Oh my, I’m just covered in blushes *grin*

All joking aside, Buffy has been the source of so much writing hints and tips for me, none more so than the devastation of Buffy at the hands of her love, Angel. In season two, episode 14, Buffy and Angel finally consummate their relationship…only to have Angel completely emotionally devastate her the next day. Oh my god, my heart was ripped from my chest when I watched this, but I filed it away and used it in TEACH ME.

However—and this is the important part, peeps—the devastated party doesn’t let the devestator get away with it. Oh no, this is the other part of the smackdown—the non-doormat portion, if you will. This delicious bit is where the character dealt the blow won’t let the other get away with it. This can be done to the face of the blow dealer (heh, totally inappropriate joke there) or as a realisation within themselves. In TEACH ME, Elizabeth confronts Malvern and tells him she knows what he did, why he did it, and why he’s an idiot to have done it. In Buffy, Buffy realised the Angel she loved is gone, consumed by the Vampire Angelus.

You must always ensure that your grovel is commiserate with the damage done. There is no point dealing a relationship-ending blow, something so devastating the character can’t recover, and then have the person dealing the blow say a simple ‘I’m sorry’. NO ONE will believe this.

So break your characters hearts, destroy them, make them cry—and then have the person doing the bad stuff grovel. It will be worth the anguish, I promise!

Cassandra Dean

Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Goodreads ~ Tumblr ~ Pintrest ~ Amazon.com

The Diamond Series, Book 2

Christmas in Freewill

Christmas Eve, the Diamond Saloon is empty of its people, and Pearl la Monte has a hankering to retire early. A pounding at the Diamond’s door rids her of such a fool notion. Her irritation rises when she sees the prissy, polite-like Garrett standing outside.

Ethan Garrett has a powerful need to gain succor. When the saloon’s voluptuous redheaded singer scowls at him from the threshold of the Diamond, he doesn’t stop to think on how his ire at her has disappeared. Or how he just wants to spend some time in her company.

When a blizzard storms in, trapping them, will they spend their time arguing or find their irritation for each other disguises something more?

Available from Decadent Publishing

Amazon.com ~ Amazon.co.uk ~ All Romance eBooks ~ Book Depository ~ iTunes Australia ~ Barnes & Noble

Excerpt:

Turning on her heel, Pearl marched off toward the stairs.

A weird kind of panic jolted through Ethan, one he’d never felt before in all his days. It was…he didn’t…. She couldn’t leave him. “Where are you going?”

She whirled to face him, her irritation plain. “I was seeking my bed before your arrival, and now I’m seeking it again. Help yourself to whiskey this one time. I got better things to do.”

Shoving to his feet, he strode to her. “Don’t just walk away when we’re discussing things.”

“We ain’t discussing nothing. You’ll be down here, waiting out the blizzard. I’ll be in my bed, doing what I was gonna before you arrived. That’s the end of it.”

Taking a step, she made to leave him. Again.

He grabbed her arm. “Don’t leave me.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.” Glaring at him, she stood before the bar, her magnificent hair slipping from its pins, her breasts rising and falling.

Abruptly, his mouth went dry. Clearing his throat some, he said, “You’re supposed to offer succor to those in need.”

“We’re closed, remember?” Paint-less lips pressed tight together, she glared up at him.

They were so close he could see the faint marks of freckles on her skin.

Pearl La Monte had freckles.

A kind of haze came over him, tightening his skin and bringing with it something all-fired powerful and completely unstoppable. All the years he’d known her crashed through him, all the times she’d flirted with him and meant something else, all the times he’d seen her perform on stage and wished he could have held such fire.

Grabbing her upper arms, he hauled her against him and, ignoring her shocked gasp, he covered her mouth with his. 

Bio:

  Cassandra grew up daydreaming, inventing fantastical worlds and marvelous adventures. Once she learned to read (First phrase – To the Beach. True story), she was never without a book, reading of other people’s fantastical worlds and marvelous adventures.

  Fairy tales, Famous Fives, fantasies and fancies; horror stories, gumshoe detectives, science fiction; Cassandra read it all. Then she discovered Romance and a true passion was born.

So, once upon a time, after making a slight detour into the world of finance, Cassandra tried her hand at writing. After a brief foray into horror, she couldn’t discount her true passion. She started to write Romance and fell head over heels. 

  The love affair exists to this very day. 

  Cassandra lives in Adelaide, South Australia.

Gross bodily functions and how they apply to writing

Buy Fool's Gold HERE

Hi peeps,

Cassandra Dean here, ready and willing to talk about the Secrets of the Craft of Writing. So give me the clandestine handshake, make sure your patented Secrets of the Craft of Writing pointed hat is firmly on your head, and prepare to be Flabbergasted! Dumb-founded! Amazed! and so on and so forth.

Right. So. Have you heard about the Vomit Draft?

Sounds really gross, but it would have to be the most accurate term I’ve ever heard for a first draft. I first heard this phrase bandied about by Felicia Day and immediately had to adopt it as my own, in all it’s awesomenessness (It’s a word, I promise. Don’t listen to what your dictionary says). The Vomit Draft is the draft where you throw words on a page and see what sticks. Getting the idea down is half the battle. We can prettify it later (again, another word.  My dictionary is not objecting, so maybe it is an actual word. Crazy what you learn in life, isn’t it?).

When I first started this caper, many moons ago, I tried to make my first page perfect. I’d spend eons agonising over the correct word usage, on if this word is better than that and shouldn’t there be a comma there? Never mind that I hadn’t written all the way to the end of the book, the middle of the book or even the next chapter.  I had to get that first page RIGHT and I COULD NOT move on with the story until I did.

This is probably why I never did finish that first manuscript. The first draft is SUPPOSED to be overwhelmingly awful. It is the mess you vomit (to coin a rather gross phrase) to get the bones of the story out before you go back and add the pretty words that will make the story you see in your head resonate with your  reader. 

So really, I didn’t need to make the first scene beautiful before moving on. I didn’t need to have the perfect turn of phrase to describe my character, or even have a definitive idea of who my character was. After all, the characters’ motivations might change as the story takes shape on the page and all that perfecting would have been for nothing.

Nora Roberts has said, quite brilliantly in my opinion, “You can fix a bad page, you can’t fix a blank page.”  So very true.  The ideas swimming around in your head need to be put on the page before you can refine them into exactly the form you want your audience to take them. Make the first draft spectacularly awful. Do the stream of consciousness thing, don’t worry about grammar, spelling, or even if it makes sense.  Just get the feeling of what you want down. Refinement can come later.

Keep in mind, everyone vomits.  Anyone who says they don’t is trying to sell you something.

Cassandra Dean

Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Goodreads ~ Tumblr ~ Pintrest ~ Amazon.com

The Diamond Series, Book 2

Christmas in Freewill

Christmas Eve, the Diamond Saloon is empty of its people, and Pearl la Monte has a hankering to retire early. A pounding at the Diamond’s door rids her of such a fool notion. Her irritation rises when she sees the prissy, polite-like Garrett standing outside.

Ethan Garrett has a powerful need to gain succor. When the saloon’s voluptuous redheaded singer scowls at him from the threshold of the Diamond, he doesn’t stop to think on how his ire at her has disappeared. Or how he just wants to spend some time in her company.

When a blizzard storms in, trapping them, will they spend their time arguing or find their irritation for each other disguises something more?

Available from Decadent Publishing

Amazon.com ~ Amazon.co.uk ~ All Romance eBooks ~ Book Depository ~ iTunes Australia ~ Barnes & Noble

Excerpt:

Turning on her heel, Pearl marched off toward the stairs.

A weird kind of panic jolted through Ethan, one he’d never felt before in all his days. It was…he didn’t…. She couldn’t leave him. “Where are you going?”

She whirled to face him, her irritation plain. “I was seeking my bed before your arrival, and now I’m seeking it again. Help yourself to whiskey this one time. I got better things to do.”

Shoving to his feet, he strode to her. “Don’t just walk away when we’re discussing things.”

“We ain’t discussing nothing. You’ll be down here, waiting out the blizzard. I’ll be in my bed, doing what I was gonna before you arrived. That’s the end of it.”

Taking a step, she made to leave him. Again.

He grabbed her arm. “Don’t leave me.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.” Glaring at him, she stood before the bar, her magnificent hair slipping from its pins, her breasts rising and falling.

Abruptly, his mouth went dry. Clearing his throat some, he said, “You’re supposed to offer succor to those in need.”

“We’re closed, remember?” Paint-less lips pressed tight together, she glared up at him.

They were so close he could see the faint marks of freckles on her skin.

Pearl La Monte had freckles.

A kind of haze came over him, tightening his skin and bringing with it something all-fired powerful and completely unstoppable. All the years he’d known her crashed through him, all the times she’d flirted with him and meant something else, all the times he’d seen her perform on stage and wished he could have held such fire.

Grabbing her upper arms, he hauled her against him and, ignoring her shocked gasp, he covered her mouth with his.

Bio:

Cassandra grew up daydreaming, inventing fantastical worlds and marvelous adventures. Once she learned to read (First phrase – To the Beach. True story), she was never without a book, reading of other people’s fantastical worlds and marvelous adventures.

Fairy tales, Famous Fives, fantasies and fancies; horror stories, gumshoe detectives, science fiction; Cassandra read it all. Then she discovered Romance and a true passion was born.

So, once upon a time, after making a slight detour into the world of finance, Cassandra tried her hand at writing. After a brief foray into horror, she couldn’t discount her true passion. She started to write Romance and fell head over heels.

The love affair exists to this very day.

Cassandra lives in Adelaide, South Australia.

Visit The Diamond Series with FOOL’S GOLD

by Cassandra Dean 

Hi peeps!

I’m super pumped to tell you all that the second in The Diamond Series, Fool’s Gold, is now available for purchase! How super awesome is that? Pretty fricking cool, if you ask me*

But what is this Fool’s Gold of which I speak, I hear you ask? I shall tell you! (I’m shameless that way)

Fool’s Gold is the tale of saucy singer Pearl la Monte and polite-like prospector Ethan Garrett. Set in Freewill, Wyoming, in 1899, all Pearl wants to do is enjoy a quiet Christmas Eve in an uncharacteristically empty Diamond Saloon. Then, she hears a pounding at the Diamond’s doors and opens them to find the bane of her existence, Ethan Garrett, stood on the other side…

And now, for something completely the same, an excerpt:

Turning on her heel, Pearl marched off toward the stairs.

A weird kind of panic jolted through Ethan, one he’d never felt before in all his days. It was…he didn’t…. She couldn’t leave him. “Where are you going?”

She whirled to face him, her irritation plain. “I was seeking my bed before your arrival, and now I’m seeking it again. Help yourself to whiskey this one time. I got better things to do.”

Shoving to his feet, he strode to her. “Don’t just walk away when we’re discussing things.”

“We ain’t discussing nothing. You’ll be down here, waiting out the blizzard. I’ll be in my bed, doing what I was gonna before you arrived. That’s the end of it.”

Taking a step, she made to leave him. Again.

He grabbed her arm. “Don’t leave me.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.” Glaring at him, she stood before the bar, her magnificent hair slipping from its pins, her breasts rising and falling.

Abruptly, his mouth went dry. Clearing his throat some, he said, “You’re supposed to offer succor to those in need.”

“We’re closed, remember?” Paint-less lips pressed tight together, she glared up at him.

They were so close he could see the faint marks of freckles on her skin.

Pearl La Monte had freckles.

A kind of haze came over him, tightening his skin and bringing with it something all-fired powerful and completely unstoppable. All the years he’d known her crashed through him, all the times she’d flirted with him and meant something else, all the times he’d seen her perform on stage and wished he could have held such fire.

Grabbing her upper arms, he hauled her against him and, ignoring her shocked gasp, he covered her mouth with his.

Sounds nifty, right peeps?

But wait, there’s totally more! To celebrate the release of Fool’s Gold, book 2 in The Diamond Series, Rough Diamond (The Diamond Series, book 1) has been reduced to $1.99 on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. You can get both books in The Diamond Series for under $5.00. Make sure you hurry, this special price is for a limited time only.

I hope you enjoy the trip to Freewill and the Diamond Saloon and you check out Fool’s Gold real soon!

Cassandra Dean

Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Goodreads ~ Tumblr ~ Pintrest ~ Amazon.com

Christmas in Freewill

Christmas Eve, the Diamond Saloon is empty of its people, and Pearl la Monte has a hankering to retire early. A pounding at the Diamond’s door rids her of such a fool notion. Her irritation rises when she sees the prissy, polite-like Garrett standing outside.

Ethan Garrett has a powerful need to gain succor. When the saloon’s voluptuous redheaded singer scowls at him from the threshold of the Diamond, he doesn’t stop to think on how his ire at her has disappeared. Or how he just wants to spend some time in her company.

When a blizzard storms in, trapping them, will they spend their time arguing or find their irritation for each other disguises something more?

Available from Decadent Publishing

Amazon.com | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks | Barnes & Noble