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Mourning Dove – Book Tour – Excerpt

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morning dove cover

 

“An accurate and heart-wrenching picture of the sensibilities of the American South.” Kirkus Book Reviews

The heart has a home when it has an ally.
If Millie Crossan doesn’t know anything else, she knows this one truth simply because her brother Finley grew up beside her. Charismatic Finley, eighteen months her senior, becomes Millie’s guide when their mother Posey leaves their father and moves her children from Minnesota to Memphis shortly after Millie’s tenth birthday.

Memphis is a world foreign to Millie and Finley. This is the 1970s Memphis, the genteel world of their mother’s upbringing and vastly different from anything they’ve ever known. Here they are the outsiders. Here, they only have each other. And here, as the years fold over themselves, they mature in a manicured Southern culture where they learn firsthand that much of what glitters isn’t gold. Nuance, tradition, and Southern eccentrics flavor Millie and Finley’s world as they find their way to belonging.

But what hidden variables take their shared history to leave both brother and sister at such disparate ends?

Excerpt

Moments after the cathedral front doors banged open, I heard a commotion downstairs followed by the clatter of hard heels tapping across the black-and white tiled entrance hall, until they fell cat-like to a muted padding across the parlor and ended with a clatter in the adjoining card room.

I crept down the serpentine front stairs to see Finley pushing through the beveled glass doors that partitioned the entrance hall from the back hallway. Finley and I had an uncanny, almost telepathic way of pursuing the same moment.

We looked at each other wordlessly, listening to the cawing of Stella Richmond from the big Tudor house across the street, who’d come to fetch her husband home. It was ten o’clock on a Tuesday night. Earlier Danny Richmond had taken it upon himself to walk across the street and chivalrously offer his assistance to the unmarried Posey for whatever she may need, right in the middle of the cocktail hour.

Hours transpired, the sun had set, dinner had been forgotten, and there the two sat, drinking and chatting as if they had all the time in the world. “Danny Richmond, how dare you? And how dare you, Posey?” Stella raged, glaring at her husband. “You get yourself home right now, and I’m not speaking to either of you any time soon after what you’ve put me through.” Stella Richmond was not the kind of woman who ever meant “maybe,” and her sphere of not speaking came to include Finley and me.

Many months passed before she looked either of us in the eyes without suggesting our guilt by association, and for a while I innocently assumed word of that episode had ricocheted among the twenty-six homes in Kensington Park, which I thought explained others’ cold glances. I had no way of knowing similar episodes had transpired, with wandering husbands in search of my mother. She probably should have discouraged the attention instead of soaking it in.

If she had, she might not have lost her childhood best friend, Shuggs, whose only contribution to the rift was telling her husband that Posey was looking for a new car. The ways of the South, I was to learn, were such that upon hearing word of a single woman in need, the only gentlemanly thing to do was offer assistance, which is exactly what Virgil did, to his wife’s tufted pride.

For the first week, Shuggs was magnanimous and happy her husband could help. She yielded agreeably when he went to Kensington Park after work instead of coming straight home. Shuggs reported the arrangement to all her friends, and basked in the recognition she received for the security she enjoyed in her foolproof marriage.

But as time stretched on, her goodwill became tested. She avoided the clock and battened down her emotional hatches as the weeks multiplied, and tried to talk herself into justifying the cocktails Virgil stayed for after making the dealership rounds. This worked until the schedule became a habit and her benevolence wore thin. By the fourth week, Shuggs had lost compassion. By the fifth week, she had none at all.

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Blog Tour – Love Me Crazy – Camden Leigh

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Today we have the blog tour for Love Me Crazy by Camden Leigh. We are so excited to share this fantastic new contemporary romance with you! Be sure to check it out and grab your copy today!

 

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About Love Me Crazy:

 

“We’re broken in the most screwed-up perfect way. It was inevitable we’d end up together.”

 

Cassidy Beck is focused on one thing, and one thing only: planning the Southern wedding of the century in Lucas Hill, South Carolina. Fresh from a tragic breakup, Cassidy’s not in the mood for any distractions. But when antebellum hottie Quinn Covington arrives in all his sexy, tattooed glory, he might prove to be the biggest distraction of them all.

 

MIA ever since his father’s death, Quinn doesn’t plan to stay any longer than it takes to start his dad’s vintage truck. But the sight of Cassidy trying to fend off his family’s pet turkey sends him for a loop. Red-haired and fierce, she’s just as broken as he is. But even though Cassidy’s past makes her the only one able to understand Quinn’s own scars, they also make her wary. After all, how can she trust him with her heart when everyone else she’s ever given it to has thrown it away?

 

Sexy, heart-wrenching, and full of Southern charm, this new contemporary romance from Camden Leigh shows just what happens when two people who are perfectly broken end up piecing each other back together.

 

Get your copy today!

Publisher | Amazon/Kindle | iBook | Nook | Kobo | Google Play

EXCERPT 

“I think I should go to bed.” She ducks under my arm from where I pinned her against the counter. The glance she casts over her shoulder leaks her uncertainty into the air.

Fuck if I’m going down that easily.

I push open her door, grab her around the waist and pull her into me, taking her lips without caution. Her hands ball into fists and press against my shoulders. She turns away and I give her a second to think this through, to really consider what she and I could have, right now, right here. If she wanted. And I need her to want me.

“You can walk away,” I whisper, “but I can’t walk away without a fight.”

Her hands soften as her glazed olive-green eyes consider my offer. I let her go and hold my hands up, waiting for her choice. Will she chose me, or herself?

“Don’t stop fighting,” she whispers. “I want you to win.”

I lock the door and move swiftly to her side, afraid I’m imagining this. Afraid I’ve drunk too much—highly improbable—and am experiencing the most elaborate hallucination ever.

She takes my hands and walks me around the edge of her bed. Her hands slip over my chest, lower to my belt and undo me in a matter of seconds, both physically and mentally. I tug at her shirt hem and shimmy it up, exposing her gorgeous map of freckles. I lean down and kiss her neck, her shoulder, and the dip where her collar bones meet.

Her hands thread through my hair and direct me up. Her kiss settles on my lips. Her tongue traces their seam. I back her into the bed, no longer wanting to take it slow. She pulls her shirt over her head and reaches for the hook on her bra, but I hook her elbow with my finger, wanting to enjoy the sight a bit longer—loose red strands falling from her messy bun, curling just above her navy lace bra. I trace the outline of her nipples and they harden against the sheer material.

She sits on the edge of the mattress. I drop to my knees and lean over her legs, inhaling her and tracing a kiss across her breasts. She arches back and collapses on the bed, but not before grabbing a handful of my shirt and inviting me to stretch out with her.

She pulls my shirt over my head and traces the trail of tattoos across my chest before pulling me closer. I roll on top of her and settle a kiss on her lips. Warm fucking lips. Hot fucking body. Sexiest damn woman I’ve ever met.

“This is our first date, right?” she asks.

“No way.” I kiss her and stretch her arms overhead so I can trace the curves her body makes. “You don’t score on the first date.”

‘Thought we could change that.”

 

About Camden Leigh:

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Camden Leigh is a sucker for first kisses, first hook-ups and anything that adds the unforgettable first sparks of love–humor, seduction, hot-n-sexy bods, angsty determination…what have you! Her stories expose the real dirt, grime and grit that befalls a seemingly perfect relationship, the heartache as a result, and the growth, perseverance and strength it takes to make flaws work for her characters. She wants her characters to experience love that wraps arounds their hearts, turns them into sizzling flames and results in a grand finale of fireworks.

 

When Camden isn’t writing, she’s either crafting, flicking through images of gorgeous paper, saturated palettes or…um, lip-lickin’ washboard abs. When feeling guilty, she attempts to keep up with her energetic kiddos by beach combing, kayaking, golfing (can it really be called golfing if a seven-year-old beats you?) or being that crazy person at a concert. Her addictions: chocolate covered raspberries, real southern sweet tea (not the fake stuff with the sugar crystals hanging out in the bottom of the cup), her pups and pretty paper she’ll never use.

 

Connect with Camden:

twitter: https://twitter.com/Camden_Leigh

instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camden_leigh/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/camden_leigh/

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Camden-Leigh-912698852155676/?pnref=story

goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/camdenleigh

 

Giveaway Details:

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Blog Tour Schedule:

September 28th

Captain Reads A Lot Excerpt

Aly’s Miscellany Excerpt

AC Book Blog Excerpt

Reese’s Reviews Excerpt

Barbara’s Book Reviews Excerpt

September 29th

The Silver Dagger Scriptorium Excerpt

Roxy’s Reviews Excerpt

Ashley Book Blog Review

September 30th

Reading Tigress Excerpt

Two Girls with Books Review

Fangirl Moments and My Two Cents Excerpt

SBB Reviews Review

Spunky N Sassy Excerpt

Kitty’s Book Spot! Excerpt

October 1st

More Books Than Livros Review

Kick Back & Review Excerpt

Those Crazy Book Chicks Excerpt

October 2nd

Bad boys and Bedtime stories book previews Review

Literary Dust Excerpt

October 3rd

Socially Awkward Book Nerd Excerpt

V’s Reads Review

Book Junkiez Excerpt

An Aussie Girls WILD Book Addiction! Dreamcast

October 4th

Alpha Book Club Review

Book Fancy Review

Cruising Susan Book Reviews Review

October 5th

My Slanted Bookish Ramblings Review

Evermore Books Excerpt

Crazii Bitches Book Blog Review

October 6th

Lucky 13 Review

EskieMama Reads Excerpt

Rock Out With Sweet Reads Excerpt

October 7th

KatyaRath Review

Ramblings From This Chick Review

The Book Sirens Review

October 8th

The Book Tree Excerpt

Romance Book Nerd Excerpt

The Power of Three Readers Review

October 9th

Fictional rendezvous book blog Excerpt

Southern Yankee Book Reviews Review

Dog-Eared Daydreams Review

October 10th

Princess Reads Review

Seraphim Book Reviews Guest Post

Novel Addiction Review

October 11th

G & T’s Indie Café Excerpt

Books 2 Blog Review

Teatime and Books Excerpt

One girl lost in romance books Review

Southern Vixens Book Obsessions Review

 

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