by Katy Regnery
Please.
“Fin,” said Rory, leaning over his beautiful bride-to-be, Brittany. “Think you could play something?”
So far the rehearsal and dinner had been a snooze.
First the rehearsal itself, where Finian, who would be an usher tomorrow, pretended to hand out programs. And now, the dinner, where Fin was flanked by his cousin’s hot, but very taken, fiancé, on one side, and his stern Aunt Colleen, his mother’s sister, who was in a wheelchair, on his other side. His eyes had scanned the room a time or two for a girl who’d be game for a fling, but so far, he’d come up empty, more’s the pity.
At least playing a song or two would liven the place up a bit.
“Ah, sure,” said Fin, gesturing to the barn entrance with a flick of his chin. “My guitar’s over there.”
“Get it,” said Rory. “I’ll make an announcement.”
Standing up from his seat, Fin cringed, then froze, as his empty chair crashed to the floor. Beside him, his aunt gasped, her flinty green eyes darting up to capture his.
“Bad luck,” she whispered, making the sign of the cross over her chest.
“Ah, come on,” he said, ignoring the shiver down his spine as he leaned over to right the chair. “That’s just superstition, Aunt Colleen.”
“Mí áde,” she repeated. Bad luck, this time in Irish.
“Éirigh as.” Stop it.
He gave his aunt an annoyed look as he pushed in the chair, but in his heart, Fin knew that his protestations were more for his benefit than hers. He was trying to convince himself that the falling chair meant nothing, but his hair was already up. Bad luck was coming, whether he liked it or not.
He crossed the room—a barn decorated with white flowers and Christmas lights—to where he’d left his guitar case at the entrance.
“Friends,” said Rory, after clanking on his wine glass with a spoon, “you all know that we Havens take our Irish ancestry pretty seriously. As luck would have it, my cousin, Finian, who’s visiting from Ireland, is staying with us, and he’s brought his guitar…”
As Rory droned on about Ireland and Irish music, Fin unbuckled his guitar case and took out his Irish bouzouki.
Imported to Ireland in the 1950s from Greece, the bouzouki had become a staple of Irish pub music over the past sixty-something years, and Fin was more than proficient, able to play almost any traditional Irish song on his own or pick up a new song after listening for a few minutes.
And as good luck would have it, his guitar bore a shamrock on the back, engraved and stained into the wood. He flipped the instrument over, rubbing the green clover with satisfaction. Not quite as good as a rabbit’s foot or saint’s medal, the shamrock should still do the trick.
There, he thought. Bad luck reversed.
He stood up, looking out over the candlelit room, holding the neck of the guitar and easing the strap over his head…
When he saw her.
Her platinum blonde head gleamed in the soft, warm light, catching his eyes and holding them as he tightened his grip on the guitar, physically unable to look away. With his feet planted firmly on the ground, he slid his gaze— slowly, so slowly—from the crown on her head to her eyes.
His knees buckled, but he somehow straightened them just before he fell. He felt the jolt of recognition in the base of his spine, in the hinge of his jaw, in the tips of his toes. Blue like the August sky, her eyes weren’t human. Couldn’t be. They were so blue in the candlelight, he was hypnotized.
Time stopped, and sound boiled down to a low buzzing in his ears as he stared at her.
Her face was mostly expressionless, her wide blue eyes staring back into his, her shoulders rigid—as frozen as his. He knew that Rory was still speaking. He could feel the strings of the bouzouki clenched beneath the pads of his fingertips. But he couldn’t move. He didn’t know if he’d ever be able to move again.
And then she smiled.
And suddenly his ears tuned into real life again and his fingers eased off the neck of his guitar. He blinked, taking a deep breath to fill his empty lungs and wondering what had just happened. It was almost as though a spell had been cast, and her smile had released him from—or into—enchantment.
Cailleach phiseogach. She’s a witch. A sorceress.
“Fin? Finian?” He blinked again, looking right, then left, then focusing on Rory, who was staring back at him expectantly. “Cuz? You, uh, you ready to play?”
“Yeah! Yeah, of course. Coming,” he said, weaving his way through tables, careful not to look back over at the cailleach, lest she steal his breath—and his senses—again.
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If you enjoyed Rory and Brittany’s story, why not give Barrett and Emily’s story a try?
Breaking Up with Barrett, The English Brothers #1
Barrett English, a.k.a. “the Shark,” is the fair-haired, firstborn son of the English brothers and the CEO of the oldest, most prestigious investment banking firm in Philadelphia. He rules the boardroom with an iron fist, refusing to take no for an answer and always getting his way.
Emily Edwards, a first-year doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania, grew up in the gatehouse on the outskirts of Barrett’s childhood estate. The daughter of his family’s gardener and housekeeper, she was always looking through the window of privilege but forced to remember her place at the very periphery of the kingdom.
When business partners suggest that a fiancée might soften Barrett’s image over business dinners, he approaches Emily for the “job” of fiancée. And while love wasn’t necessarily on Barrett’s radar, he begins to realize that Emily always has been. But will his take-no-prisoners boardroom tactics work on the heart of the woman he loves?
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THE SUMMERHAVEN TRIO
Fighting Irish
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Smiling Irish
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Loving Irish
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Catching Irish
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THE BLUEBERRY LANE SERIES
THE ENGLISH BROTHERS
(Blueberry Lane Books #1–7)
Breaking Up with Barrett
Falling for Fitz
Anyone but Alex
Seduced by Stratton
Wild about Weston
Kiss Me Kate
Marrying Mr. English
THE WINSLOW BROTHERS
(Blueberry Lane Books #8–11)
Bidding on Brooks
Proposing to Preston
Crazy about Cameron
Campaigning for Christopher
THE ROUSSEAUS
(Blueberry Lane Books #12–14)
Jonquils for Jax
Marry Me Mad
J.C. and the Bijoux Jolis
THE STORY SISTERS
(Blueberry Lane Books #15–17)
The Bohemian and the Businessman
The Director and Don Juan
Countdown to Midnight
a m o d e r n f a i r y t a l e
(A collection)
The Vixen and the Vet
Never Let You Go
Ginger’s Heart
Dark Sexy Knight
Don’t Speak
Shear Heaven
Fragments of Ash
Coming 2018
Swan Song
Coming 2019
STAND-ALONE BOOKS
After We Break
(a stand-alone second-chance romance)
Frosted
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(a romance novella for mature readers)
Unloved, a love story
(a stand-alone suspenseful romance)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Katy Regnery started her writing career by enrolling in a short story class in January 2012. One year later, she signed her first contract, and Katy’s first novel was published in September 2013.
Almost forty books later, Katy claims authorship of the multititled New York Times and USA Today bestselling Blueberry Lane Series, which follows the English, Winslow, Rousseau, Story, and Ambler families of Philadelphia; the six-book, bestselling a modern fairytale series; and several other stand-alone novels and novellas, including the 2018 RITA® nominated, USA Today bestselling contemporary romance Unloved, a love story.
Katy’s first modern fairytale romance, The Vixen and the Vet, was nominated for a RITA® in 2015 and won the 2015 Kindle Book Award for romance. Katy’s boxed set, The English Brothers Boxed Set, Books #1–4, hit the USA Today bestseller list in 2015, and her Christmas story, Marrying Mr. English, appeared on the list a week later. In May 2016, Katy’s Blueberry Lane collection, The Winslow Brothers Boxed Set, Books #1–4, became a New York Times e-book bestseller.
Katy’s books are available in English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Turkish.
Katy lives in the relative wilds of northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, where her writing room looks out at the woods, and her husband, two young children, two dogs, and one Blue Tonkinese kitten create just enough cheerful chaos to remind her that the very best love stories begin at home.
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Upcoming (2018) Projects
Fragments of Ash, a modern fairytale
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