CROSSING THE ICE Audiobook Tour-Day One

Welcome to the CROSSING THE ICE audiobook blog tour! Stop by the sites below to learn more about the audiobook and enter to win one of the prizes!

Victoria Simcox's Blog  - http://victoriasimcox.blogspot.com/2015/01/crossing-ice-tour-giveway.html - Promo Post

The Book Hoarders – www.book-hoarders.blogspot.com - Audiobook Review

LOSING THE ICE News

Happy New Year!! I hope 2015 has gotten off to a great start for you! I had set the goal of finishing LOSING THE ICE by the end of 2014, and today I typed THE END, so I hit it just a few days late ;) Now that the novella is done, I've set a release date of February 23! The cover reveal will be February 2, and the book will also be available for pre-order on Amazon on that day. I hope you're ready for more Courtney and Josh!!

How about another teaser to get ready for the release? :)

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Josh snuggled me closer to him and rested his cheek against the top of my head. “It’s funny how people I’ve known a year and a half feel more like family than the people I’m actually related to.”

I tilted my neck to look up at him. “Em and Sergei care so much about you, and you know the twins freaking adore you.”

“What about you?” He tapped the tip of my nose. “How do you feel about me?”

I shrugged. “You’re alright, I guess.”

“Alright?” He tickled my side.

I yelped. “I think you need to remind me of my true feelings.”

“Is that so? Well, let’s see if this helps.”

His fingers curled behind my neck and into my hair, raising goose bumps down my spine. He leaned slowly into me, his eyes on mine, and he brushed my lips with a kiss.

“Mmmm… it’s starting to come back to me,” I said.

****

A quick reminder that the audiobook version of CROSSING THE ICE is now available! You can pick it up at Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. 

Snowed In Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the "Snowed In? So Read" Giveaway Hop! I'm featuring the newly released audio book of my latest novel CROSSING THE ICE. This is a sweet love story that's guaranteed to warm you up on a cold winter night! Here's an excerpt from the audio book where the main characters Courtney and Josh do a little flirting :)

More about CROSSING THE ICE:

Falling hard never felt so good.

Pair skaters Courtney and Mark have one shot left at their Olympic dream. They vow not to let anything get in their way, especially not Josh and Stephanie, the wealthy and talented brother and sister team.

The heart doesn’t always listen to reason, though…

The more time Courtney spends with sweet, shy Josh, the harder she falls for him. But they are on opposite sides of the competition, and their futures are headed in opposite directions. Will their friendship blossom into more or are their paths too different to cross?

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And now for the giveaway! Enter below to win a prize pack of FIVE ebooks from Astraea Press. For more giveaways, check out the other sites on the hop here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Unforgettable Moments of Love Show

I've never visited Las Vegas, so when I heard there would be a Disson skating show with Meryl Davis & Charlie White AND Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto in Vegas, I knew I had to go! I was even more excited when I heard O.A.R. would be the live band because they are a current rock band with great songs (unlike most of the live musical acts Disson books).

The show was one of the best Disson specials I've seen. The cast was a good mix of longtime pro veterans and recent competitors on the Olympic scene. The highlight for me was seeing Meryl, Charlie, Tanith, and Ben skate a quartet program. I've always wanted to see them swap partners, and their program to Sam Smith's "Lay Me Down" didn't disappoint!

Here are my photos from the show and the post-show meet and greet! => PHOTOS

The programs from what I can remember :)

Kimmie Meissner & Michael Weiss - O.A.R. song

Alissa Czisny - Evita by Madonna

Alissa Czisny - O.A.R. song

Kimmie Meissner - "In Your Eyes" by Quietdrive

Micheal Weiss - "Teenage Dream" by Boyce Avenue

Brian Boitano - "Shatter" by O.A.R.

Brian Boitano - "Truly" (cover of Lionel Ritchie song)

Meryl Davis/Charlie White/Tanith Belbin/Ben Agosto - "Lay Me Down" by Sam Smith

Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto - "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri

Meryl Davis & Charlie White - "Peace" by O.A.R.

Ryan Bradley - "Ho Hey" by The Lumineers

Ryan Bradley - O.A.R. song

Elvis Stojko - O.A.R. song

Elvis Stojko and wife Gladys Orozco - "Just the Way You Are" by Bruno Mars

Evan Lysacek - "Latch" by Sam Smith

Evan Lysacek - O.A.R. song

LOSING THE ICE Teaser #2!

I only have three chapters of LOSING THE ICE (Ice #2) left to write, so I think it's time for a new teaser! The novella will be out in early Spring!

****

I unzipped my Team USA jacket, and when we reached the end of the hallway I gave it to Em. My hands fidgeted with the braids woven into my up-do, then the halter neckline of my rose-colored dress, and then the hem of my short skirt. Josh stepped in front of me, and he gently grasped my shoulders, stilling me. I stared up at him and took in a slow breath.

His long-sleeved, V-neck shirt showed off his lean muscles and matched the color of my dress perfectly. We’d worn our costumes at a dress rehearsal at home, but looking at us together now, standing just a few feet from competition ice, it really hit me.

We are a team. We are truly a TEAM.

The jitters shaking my legs kicked into a higher gear, and if Josh hadn’t been holding onto me, I probably would’ve collapsed into a trembling heap. He rubbed my arms with long, warm strokes, and slowly my butterflies simmered down.

His eyes roamed over me and met mine with a deep gaze. “God, you are so beautiful.”

My butterflies fluttered their wings happily, and I locked Josh in a tight hug. Leave it to him to be practically mute all night and then to say something so sweet.

“I just want you to know…” His soft voice tickled my ear. “Skating here with you tonight is an absolute dream come true for me.”

Swoony Awards-CROSSING THE ICE

CROSSING THE ICE is up for a Swoony Award! 

Vote HERE before December 31!

What Are the Swoony Awards?

The Swoony Awards were created to recognize excellence in clean fiction. We want to help recognize authors who write entertaining books that are wholesome. It’s our hope that each year we will help provide everyone with a great list of books to read and maybe introduce them to new authors.

What Are the Eligibility Requirements?

-Publication Year: Only books published during the current contest year may be nominated. To be fair to all books, contest dates will run from December 1, 2013 – November 31, 2014.

-Clean romance: No sex or closed door, low/mild innuendo. Only M/F romances.

-Language: None/mild, anything over a handful of profanity (especially the more offensive words) would not be considered clean.

-Violence: None/mild

-Other: Nothing overly dark, depressing or heavy subject matter

Novels, novellas and short stories are all eligible for nomination, no limits on page number. Any (clean) genre is eligible (i.e. contemporary, fantasy, mystery, historical, etc.).

Each voter is able to choose up to 100 books to vote on or nominate each contest year. There is no cap on the overall number of books nominated.

How Are Winners Selected?

We will be accepting entries throughout the year and the winners announced the first week in January. There are fifteen award categories (i.e. Best Novel of the Year, Best Historical, Best Contemporary, etc.). Winners will be announced via our blogs (Bookworm Nation, KJ’s Book Nook and Katie’s Clean Book Reviews) and through Goodreads Swoony Awards Group.

Since this is a reader’s choice award the winners are determined by a combination of the number of votes received and how high the voter rated the book and what rank the voter gave each book they voted for.

To stay up to date on voting and nominations, please join our Goodreads Swoony Awards group page!

The 2014 Swoony Awards are now accepting nominations and votes for your favorite books of the year. Polls will be open until December 31, 2014. 

Join us on Facebook and Twitter.


As a thank you for making the Swoony Awards a success,

we'd like to offer an Amazon gift card! The winner will

have 48 hours to claim the prize. Only valid

where Amazon gift cards may be used. You must

be 13 or older to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Confessions of a Figure Skating Grown-Up

Today I'd like to welcome a special guest to my blog - fellow romance author Elizabeth Harmon. Elizabeth is also a fellow figure skating fan, and she's written a skating romance, Pairing Off, which will be out in February 2015! She is here today to share how writing Pairing Off inspired her to start skating again. Take it away, Elizabeth!

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Confessions of a Figure Skating Grown-Up

Last year when I started figure skating lessons, my instructor gave me a sheet of picture cards for the basic moves I was learning. Each shows a model demonstrating the move. None of the skater-models is older than twelve.

Let’s just say I’m a little older than that.

Everyone has things we wish we’d done differently. One of mine is giving up ice-skating when I was thirteen.

That year the roller rink opened in my town, and everyone started going there rather than the ice rink. Part of the allure was the roller rink’s disco verses the ice rink’s classical, but from then on, I was a roller skater.

Still, the ice held a certain fascination, and when I started to write romance, I knew if I wrote a female athlete, she would be a figure skater.

In Pairing Off, not only is the heroine a skater, so is the hero. Researching Olympic pair skating rekindled memories of skaters I’d loved watching. I drew on personal experience too. The Moscow rink where Anton and Carrie train looks a bit like the one in Illinois where I skated as a child. Their moonlight skate in Gorki Park is on a pond that resembles the place I skated for the first time, at age four.

It also gave me the urge to get back on the ice myself.

Though I was terrified of looking like an idiot, one Friday afternoon, I tried our rink’s adults-only session. I wobbled on rental skates, close to the boards, but none of the more accomplished skaters laughed. Instead, they welcomed me and urged me to come back.

I did.

In the two years since, I’ve made wonderful friends who love that I wrote a skating romance. One suggested the book’s title, another organized a party when Pairing Off sold to Carina. I still can’t do the cool moves they can, but I can do more than when I started. I even skated in the rock and roll number of our rink’s ice show, where I had the distinction of being one of the oldest, and newest, skaters.

From center ice, the applause sounded sweet.

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Contemporary romance author Elizabeth Harmon’s debut novel Pairing Off is a February 2015 Carina Press release. Set in the world of international competitive figure skating, it’s the first book in the “Red Hot Russians” series.” Pre-order on Amazon below, add on Goodreads, or visit Elizabeth online at www.romancewriter-girl.com.

In the photo above, Elizabeth is the dignified skater on the left.