Is it July Yet? ...by Amy, Catherine, Karen and Kate

July might seem like a long time away, but the four of us with releases that month have been planning fun ways to celebrate with our readers. This post—with two chances to win—is just a teaser. We have four months of fun and giveaways planned. Watch for our announcements on our social media platforms and, in some case, right here on the Heartwarming Authors blog.

So, let's start by introducing ourselves.

If you frequent this blog, follow us on social media or have read any of our books, you've probably seen the above pictures before, right? Well, what we're fairly certain you haven't seen, are the following pictures. Yes, those pictures are of us well before we started writing Heartwarming stories!

First Giveaway!

Here's our first giveaway! Would you like to win signed copies of the following four books?

All you have to do is match our baby pictures to us correctly, using our names and the letter of the baby picture. You can enter by leaving a comment at the end of this posts or, if you prefer to keep your responses private, e-mailing readers@kate-james.com. If more than one person matches all the baby pictures correctly, we'll have a random draw for the winner. You have until end of day April 3rd to enter. Check back here at the bottom of this post or visit our Facebook pages on April 4th for the announcement of the name of the winner.

Second Giveaway!

Okay, the first giveaway was easy...at least we thought so, until Kate's husband guessed that Catherine's baby picture was Kate! (Not to worry, Kate took it as a compliment, as she thinks the world of Catherine.) You have a second chance to win signed copies of our books.

This giveaway will take a little more effort! Our July releases are now available for preorder and the links to the books on Amazon are provided below (please click on the title to access the Amazon page for that book).

~ Amy's The Girl He Used to Love (Grace Note Records);

~ Catherine's Sophie's Path (Shores of Indian Lake);

~ Karen's Under an Adirondack Sky (A Walsh Family Story); and

~ Kate's When I Found You (K-9 Trilogy).

Here is what you have to do to win all four books with this giveaway. Read the back cover copy for each book on Amazon. Next, read the short excerpts below. Match the excerpt to the book. You have the same ways to enter (comment here or e-mail readers@kate-james.com).

Here are the four excerpts:

Excerpt 1

     She followed him inside and glanced at the massive four poster iron French bed covered in a beige and gold satin duvet and a mass of gold and beige pillows of every size. In the middle of the bed was a pink doggie blanket and the teddy bear they’d bought her at the pet store—that first day. She felt her heart melt another fraction. Frenchie sprang out of her arms and directly onto the pink blanket. She cuddled around the teddy bear, still shivering, though measurably less now that she didn’t let Him out of her sight.

     He walked into the bathroom and picked up a towel and started drying off his head, face, shirt and shoes.

     “The teddy bear,” she said pointing at Frenchie. “She appears very attached to it.”

     “She is. We picked it out together, as I remember.”  He came to the door way, still scrubbing his hair with the towel.

     She eased around him and found the hair dryer.

     She plugged in the dryer and turned it on full blast. “Come here,” she ordered.

     “My hair’s dry enough,” he said walking over to her. “But I could dry yours for you.”

     She dropped to her knees and started drying his pants legs. “If you let the water set, there will be a permanent stain around the edges. As soon as you can on Monday take the tux to the cleaners and ask them to work on these water stains. Maybe you can save the suit.”
     “The jacket is probably toast, but it was worth it.”

     She continued drying his pants legs. She pretended she didn’t hear what he’d just said. Right now she was thankful she was on the floor because being this close to him, in this intimate setting had turned her bones to jelly. Most people would have thought they’d had a bleed out. There had to be a physical reason for this kind of instant inertia.

     Fear. Was a reason.

     So was desire. The kind that flames up, incinerates your soul and then leaves only ash.

     He reached down and pulled her to her feet with his hands on both her arms. He took the hair dryer from her and turned it off. Suddenly, the room seemed quiet as a church at midnight.

     “You can’t help it, can you?”

     “What?”

     “It’s just in you to always help. It’s like you have some ever-expanding bleeding heart that takes in the broken, the wounded, dogs, anyone in pain. Me, included. Do you ever put yourself first?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “I don’t think so, because I haven’t seen it.”

     He put the palm of his hand on her cheek and with his thumb he caressed her temple. His eyes roamed her face slowly as if memorizing every plane and hollow. “You didn’t stop to dry your hair, which is quite wet. Still beautiful. But wet. You didn’t towel off your dress which probably needs to go to the cleaners just as much as my tux. Maybe more. My tux is a decade old. And that’s new, isn’t it?”

     “Uh, huh,” she muttered with only a tip of her head. She didn’t want to take her eyes from his. Something monumental was happening to her and for the first time in her life she didn’t want to stop it, slow it down or change course. She wanted to meet it head on. Fling herself over the waterfall and see if she survived.

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Excerpt 2

          He gave her another bottle of water and was relieved to hear that her voice, although subdued, was calm when she thanked him. He watched her closely as she took a long drink. There was a slight tremor in her hand, but he had to give her credit for keeping it together as well as she was.

     She ran the cool bottle over her brow and hung her head. “What am I missing? What is it that I should be seeing that I’m not?”

     “I wish I had the answers.” His frustration mingled with a sense of failure.

     She raised her head. He could read the uncertainty, the exhaustion and the residual fear as clearly as if it was written in ink.

     “I don’t know what to do. This is about me. There’s no denying it now. It’s personal. But why?”

     The expression on her face tore at his heart. He crouched in front of her, resting his forearms on his knees and taking her hands into his. He wanted to dismiss what she was saying and comfort her, but she was speaking the truth.

     “I...I don’t know what to do. Knowing I’m the target, and responsible for what’s happening—”

     He cut her off abruptly. “You’re not far off the mark with most of what you’ve said, but you are not responsible for it.”

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Excerpt 3

     On the kitchen table were cooling racks covered in dozens of perfectly golden-brown, chocolate-chip cookies. He could almost taste the melted chocolate, brown sugar, and something else he couldn’t quite identify.

     The only thing that could pull his attention from these tempting cookies was the woman who’d made them. She slipped another cookie sheet into the oven. Her hot-pink apron was tied around her slim waist. Again, he was struck by how grown-up she looked. Where had the time gone? What would Addison have looked like at thirty years old?

     He shook off thoughts of his baby sister. He couldn’t go there. Not when they threatened to unleash feelings he had successfully boxed up and put away years ago.

     “Do I smell whiskey?” he asked, finally putting his finger on the mystery scent.

     She jumped, clutching her chest and shrieking loud enough to be heard for miles. Before he had the opportunity to apologize, she whacked him with her spatula.

     He tried to protect himself. “I’m sorry! Stop. Stop!” he pleaded.

     She gathered her wits and appeared remorseful. “Oh my gosh, I’m sorry.” Then quickly added, “But you really shouldn’t sneak up on people like that.”

     Keeping a safe distance, he tried to explain. “I wasn’t sneaking up on you. You didn’t even give me a chance to say good morning before you went postal on me.”

     She pushed some stray strands of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail behind her ear. “I’m not used to people walking around the house like mice. Sawyer whistles everywhere he goes, so I always know when he’s coming.”

     “Well, I apologize for not being a noisier guest. I’ll be sure to stomp through the house so you hear me coming from now on.” He reached for a cookie, figuring she owed him that much for attacking him. He was so hungry and the smell was so mouthwatering…

     She smacked his hand with the spatula before he could grab one.

     “Ow!”

     “Sorry,” she said, her cheeks turning red. “Just don’t touch my cookies.”

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Excerpt 4

     The world evaporated around them. She felt the rasp of his bristles under her palms, the warmth of his breath on her skin. His eyes studied her own, so seriously, as if he’d only just seen her.

     Unable to bear it, she looked at the ground. “I don’t want to like you,” she admitted, then peeked up at him. An electric current charged the air, crackling between them.

     “Me, neither.”

     “Nothing can come of this,” she told him.

     “Probably not.”

     “I can’t be last on your priority list.”

     “And I don’t have room to add you,” he said, his mouth turning down at the corners.

     “So why do I still want to find out what this thing is between us?”

     “In some parallel universe,” he said, “I’d show you how I—”

     Enough.

     She cut him off by grabbing the thick hair at the base of his neck and pulling that gorgeous head of his down. If they couldn’t exactly have a relationship, she’d settle for this moment. This chance to chase away the loneliness that haunted her still. Besides, everyone they’d need to keep this a secret from was at the camp.

     He kept his arms at his sides, but when she parted her lips, he groaned and his utility tool dropped to the ground with a loud clink. His strong hands came to rest on her waist, and tightened reflexively. When his tongue met hers, her eyes closed, her body sparked and stuttered. Their hearts thudded against each other and she inhaled his breath, its traces of apple and cinnamon. His mouth dropped to her neck, creating an unfamiliar melting sensation deep inside. This was more than kissing, it was…well, it felt like a lot more, even though it couldn’t be.

     His hands never stopped moving. One circled her back while the other tangled in her hair. He wasn’t the only one exploring. Her palms roved up his shoulders and across his chest, feeling his muscles tense beneath her hands, and something in her altered. An awareness. A knowing. Of him. Of herself.

     She touched his jaw and the roughness of a day’s growth of beard scratched her skin. A sudden silence, as if nature had muted itself, descended and tore them apart. It had stopped raining.

     He looked at her with intense passion. “We have to get back,” he said, his breathing ragged.

     “Oh. Well, sure.” Suddenly embarrassed, she stepped away.

     “Meet me after the campfire tonight,” he growled, his voice low and in the back of his throat.

     “I can’t risk any of the counselors seeing us together. They’d accuse me of being unprofessional. It’d threaten my tenure.” But deep down, she knew she’d seek him out in spite of the threat of getting caught.

     “Now who’s putting her job first?”

     A long breath escaped her.

     “I don’t know how Connor would react, either.” His gaze pierced her and then his mouth swooped down and captured hers again in a lingering kiss that left her breathless and clutching his broad shoulders.

     “We have to stop,” she gasped.

     He kissed her again and then pulled back, his lips curled in a cocky grin. “Make me.”

     She swatted him. “Seriously.”

     “I know.” He raked a hand through his hair and released a shaky breath. “Back to reality. The one where we’re both wrong for each other. Where none of this—where we don’t work.” He turned on his heel and trudged away.

     She nodded and followed him outside, silently disagreeing.

     If they were so wrong for each other, why did it feel so right?

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Now, simply match the book title to the excerpt number. Again, you have until end of day April 3rd to enter. If more than one person matches the excerpts to the books correctly, we'll hold a random draw. Check back here at the bottom of this post or visit our Facebook pages on April 4th for the announcement of the name of the winner.

If you liked reading these excerpts follow us on Wattpad as Catherine, Karen and Kate will be posting the first two chapters of their books as a free read, and Amy will be posting a special treat for you: a prequel to her book. Click on our names in the previous sentence to go to our Wattpad profile pages to follow us.

We hope you had as much fun with these giveaways as we had putting them together.
And this is just the beginning . . . J

Thank you for spending time with us today. Happy reading!

Amy, Catherine, Karen and Kate

The giveaways are open to US and Canadian residents for print books. If a winner lives outside US/Canada, e-books will be provided. 

And the winners are . . .

Thank you very much to everyone who played along with us. We had fun and hopefully you did, too.

Now, it’s our great pleasure to share with you the correct answers and announce the winners of the two prize packs of four books each. 

First giveaway: match the pictures

Here are the baby/child pictures matched with the authors:

In summary:

©  Catherine ~ B

©  Kate ~ C

©  Amy ~ D

©  Karen ~ A

Congratulations Katie Watkins  (who submitted by e-mail)! You are the winner of the first prize pack of four books. Katie, please e-mail your mailing address to readers@kate-james.com to claim your books.

Six other people matched the pictures correctly, including Heartwarming author Cerella Sechrist and Heartwarming senior editor Victoria Curran! (Cerella and Victoria were not entered in the random draw for the winner from among the correct entries.)

Second giveaway: match the excerpts to the books

The correct answers are:

©  Excerpt 1 ~ Catherine's Sophie's Path (Shores of Indian Lake)

©  Excerpt 2 ~ Kate's When I Found You (K-9 Trilogy)

©  Excerpt 3 ~ Amy's The Girl He Used to Love (Grace Note Records)

©  Excerpt 4 ~ Karen's Under an Adirondack Sky (A Walsh Family Story)

Congratulations Dawn! You are the winner of the second prize pack of four books. Please e-mail your address to readers@kate-james.com to claim your books.

Eight other people matched the excerpts to the books correctly.

And this was just the beginning! We have three more months until our release date and then a whole month more to celebrate. We have activities, blog tours and giveaways planned, and we hope to see you along the way!

Thank you, again, for playing along with us, and please remember to pick up one or all of this month’s terrific new releases!

Until we see you again, happy reading!

Amy, Catherine, Karen and Kate

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