Excerpt: Jingle Belle
Moonchuckle Bay Prequel #0.5
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Jingle has a bounty hunter on her trail!
When her controlling uncle plans Jingle’s unwanted marriage to a much older man, she flees Snowville. Determined to marry only for love, she boards the Blizzard Express to create a new life for herself. Nicholas is hired to deliver her to her groom — but when he comes face to face with the beautiful faedy, he wants to keep her for his own. Can he keep her safe? And will she forgive him if she learns what he’s done?
Chapter One ~ A Surprise Party
THE MAGIC WORKED! FINALLY!
Jingle Belle’s heart sang with jubilation as she watched the flash of light that signaled she’d gotten it right.
After three years of work in her mother’s laboratory, Jingle had perfected her snow magic!
She held the cone high as she spun around the room. Little sparkles of blue light flashed off the snow — a flavor that would fix a person’s blue mood and make them feel happier.
She took another bite. It was delicious — and her own mood shifted even higher.
Now she could help people feel better the way her mother had encouraged her to do before her death. Her mother had been gifted in magic, and Jingle had finally accomplished something her mother would be proud of. If only she could show her what she’d done.
At a knock on the laboratory door, she froze. She exchanged a glance with her pure white Arctic fox, Snowball, and then said, “Yes?”
Her uncle’s voice called out, his tone pleasant for a change, “Jingle, I’ve come to escort you to the dinner table.”
He couldn’t come into the room unless she allowed it, because her mother had warded the door against everyone except the two of them. This was a magical lab. Not all the pixies had magic. Her uncle didn’t. He had arrogance and control issues. He may have moved into her parents’ home after her mother died, claiming the home and duchy as his own now that he was Jingle’s guardian, but he still couldn’t come into this room. And that infuriated him.
Which made Jingle wish she could just stay inside forever — but he could make her life miserable if she didn’t obey him. “All right. Let me set my things down, and I’ll be right out.”
“Hurry, dear.” His voice had a quality of barely controlled patience.
She set the cone down in the special holder that could corral five cones at once. This special magical snow melted at a much slower rate than normal shaved ice — this one wouldn’t start to drip until late tomorrow evening.
She wiped her fingers on a damp towel and blew out a breath. Shaking her arms and lifting her shoulders, she prepared herself to talk with her uncle, the Duke of Snowville, control freak of the century.
Snowball sent a thought to her: Be careful. He is not to be trusted.
I know it, and I will, Jingle sent back. Will you wait here for me? Otherwise he might see you.
I will wait.
She unlocked the door and opened it.
Her uncle smiled down at her, but she didn’t trust that smile. Usually that meant he was planning something she wouldn’t like.
She didn’t normally go into people’s heads, even though she could, but when others were feeling strong emotions, sometimes she found herself sucked into their minds before she realized it. That happened now. He was definitely happy about something, but she couldn’t make out what it was.
Oh well, perhaps later. Happy was good, right?
He held out his arm, she put her hand on it, and he walked her toward the formal dining room — a room that could seat fifty guests.
Cook had prepared a feast, undoubtably keeping her five assistants busy all afternoon. There was enough food here for twenty, and yet it was just Jingle and her uncle here.
The butler pulled out a seat for her. She smiled at him and said, “Thank you, Arnold.”
He smiled back. “You’re very welcome, Miss Jingle.”
Then Arnold pulled out a chair for the Duke, who ignored him entirely. The butler went to stand alongside the wall and await the next order.
She hated how the household staff had grown so stiff and fearful. Not at all like the happy people they’d been when her mother was still here.
The serving girls brought out platters filled with breads and cheeses, and then her favorite soup, a sweet, chilled strawberry soup.
Jingle ate, watching her uncle warily. He ate, ignoring her for the most part.
After the second course was brought out, a succulent steamed fish with vegetables, he looked at her and said, “I’ve been thinking. You’ll be twenty-one in two weeks, Jingle, and it’s time for you to begin thinking of marriage.”
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Excerpt: The Bridesmaid Earns Her Wings
Moonchuckle Bay #2 (Release date Black Friday, Nov 26, 2016)
Dixie’s good luck streak is taking her across state lines!
When a Vegas psychic tells Dixie and Stacy their lifemates are waiting for them in a town in Utah, of all places, they leave the party to take a road trip. Everyone is so nice to her, and Dixie decides to apply for a job. The lawyer who hires her knows two things the instant he interviews her — she can’t type worth beans and she’s his lifemate — maybe. How can a confused lovestruck vampire convince a woman in denial to take a chance on love?
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CHAPTER ONE
“IF I’D KNOWN HOW MUCH TROUBLE this wedding would be, I’d have just eloped.”
“That would be so romantic!” Dixie Maloy looked at her bride-to-be friend, Amanda Ross. Feeling a little wistful about her own lack of romantic prospects, she said, “If I ever get married, I’d love to elope right here, in Vegas. In a romantic lacy dress. In this very cool castle.”
Dixie motioned at the immense castle the taxi drove them toward. A large neon sign proclaimed it to be the Nightshade Hotel & Casino. It wasn’t along the Strip, but in the outer part of Vegas. They wouldn’t have even known it was here except that Amanda’d made reservations with a highly rated psychic, and she did her readings here.
The castle appealed to Dixie’s sense of whimsy. It looked like it could be Dracula’s Castle, moved over stone by stone from Transylvania, and it had more authentic character than the more modern casinos on the strip that they’d visited today.
The other two bridesmaids laughed. Linda George told Dixie, “You probably would elope, too. This is exactly the kind of place you like. Weirdo stuff.”
“Dixie might like the idea, but she couldn’t elope, either.” Dixie’s best friend, Stacy Thompson, shook her head. “Her mother would never let her leave home long enough.”
“That’s exactly why I’d have to elope,” Dixie said. She’d had to actually defy her mother to come to Vegas. Seriously. She was twenty-three and her mother refused to let her move out. When would her mother give up her paranoid nature and let Dixie enjoy life? She had a health episode whenever Dixie even broached the subject. Given all the years of her mother’s dire predictions that always involved betrayal, death, or worse, if that were possible, attention by the wrong people — the nebulous they — Dixie was beginning to wonder if her mother needed medication. And not for her episodes, but for her mental health. She was worried.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, her grandmother — who also lived with them — had simply kissed her cheek and told her to have an adventure with a dollop of good luck, and she was doing exactly that.
“Your mother would follow you,” warned Stacy. “She would object to the wedding when it got to that part.”
“I’d have to elope secretly. It would work great. And I’d get married by,” she lowered her voice and said, in mock reverence, “The King.”
“Yeah, I can definitely see you doing that.” Stacy nodded. “I wonder if they have an Elvis impersonator in the castle.”
“Maybe if he has fangs,” Linda said, and they all laughed.
&n
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Heather Horrocks
www.BooksByHeatherHorrocks.com
Excerpt: Davidson and Goliath
Chick Flick Clique Romantic Comedy #7
Donuts aren’t the comfort food they used to be!
Dani Davidson can’t believe that Goliath Donuts would open their new chain store right across the street from her family's decade’s-old Holier Than Thou Donuts — and she can’t stand Mac MacKinnon, the man instrumental in putting it there.
Mac is ready to settle down in a smaller town and maybe find a nice woman to settle down with.
Refusing to let her business get shut down, Dani seeks advice from her online pen pal, Patrick, who gives her some great suggestions for fighting back against the large chain.
Colt Ross wants to start his new dating life, after his divorce, with Dani, who is his good friend.
Things really heat up when the community splits down the middle to support one or the other of the combatants in the love-vs.-war, change-vs.-status-quo, maple-bar-vs.-bearclaw, Davidson-vs.-Goliath match.
Which donut shop will win? And which man will win Dani?
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Chapter One
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If you’d like to read more, go to www.BooksByHeatherHorrocks.com.
The Artist Cries Wolf Page 14