Cole Grayson, featuring his abs.

Here’s the official copy:

Spring comes to Star Harbor, bringing unexpected passion for a sexy sheriff, as the next Grayson brother finds love with the town’s beautiful doctor.

Julie Kensington grew up in the same small town as the Grayson brothers and remembers when the boys were nothing but trouble. As teenagers, Cole’s rugged sex appeal set Julie’s heart ablaze, but she did her best to ignore it. Now a grown woman with a medical degree, Julie still can’t resist her searing attraction to the roughest, toughest Grayson. He’s ex-military, tormented, and sexier than ever, but are his wounds too deep to be healed by her loving, gentle touch?

Even back in high school, straight-arrow Julie had a way of making Cole think twice about his bad-boy lifestyle. When Julie decides she’s finally ready to embrace her wild side, Cole knows he is just the man to show her the way, unleashing years of pent-up desire. Neither of them counted on falling in love, but when Cole’s demons threaten to derail their relationship, it’s up to Julie to show him that together, they can overcome the past . . . and build a future.

Also, if you haven’t read the super sexy excerpt posted on Scribd, you can read it here.

For those of you who’ve pre-ordered the book, thank you! If you haven’t yet picked up your copy, you can buy the book everywhere e-books are sold!

Here are some links:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple | Google | Other Places

And if you’d like to follow along on my blog tour for the book, I’d love to see you. Today I’m at Romance @ Random and USA Today, but you can check out the other stops on my tour here.

Oh, happy day! Thanks for celebrating with me!

Have a wonderful weekend, and I’ll see you on Monday for release day!

*Marched in a big parade with my three children in ninety-degree weather

*Went to a birthday party with one of my children and played in the sandbox

*Did five loads of laundry (and it wasn’t even laundry day)

*Swam with my children and Mr. B in a lovely, warm pool

*Made homemade guacamole and orzo salad to go along with my grilled chicken and corn-on-the-cob for our Sunday night dinner (not very Cinco de Mayo of me, but the fam loved it anyway)

So, yes, I did a lot. In other news, later this summer, I will be heading to the big RWA national conference. What this means is that I really need to clear the decks of swag from last year’s conference to make room for the inevitable swag I will get from this year’s. So one lucky commenter will receive one audiobook of your choice from my stash (I’ll give you a choice). Just let me know what you did this weekend! Also, I know Friday seems to be the giveaway day of choice for most folks, but Monday works for me for a bunch of different reasons so I’m thinking I’ll keep the giveaways going on Mondays, at least for a while.

Finally, in just one short week, my third book, Long Simmering Spring will be released! So far, people have been saying some very nice things about the book (thank you, thank you!) and my blog tour for Long Simmering Spring starts this Friday. I hope you’ll join me for giveaways and fun over the next few weeks to celebrate! I also have a little excerpt for you to whet your appetite. Just to give you a bit of set-up, Cole and Julie are on their first date and the past starts to bleed into the present.

“After what I’ve done, I can guarantee I’m not the same guy I used to be.” He shook his head. “Maybe not all my change is for the better, but it’s no surprise you’ve turned out to be someone incredible.”

It seemed that it was confession time. “There was another reason I slapped you.”

“Yeah?” he asked, his gaze steady, as if readying himself to take whatever she dished out. “What’s that?”

“I thought if I gave you the chance—if I let you in, even for a second—you’d break my heart. And I couldn’t let that happen. Not then. Definitely not now.”

A terrible look of sadness flashed across his face for just a moment, before he composed himself. “That isn’t me and that isn’t you. Not anymore.”

Long Simmering Spring (c) 2013 Elisabeth Barrett

Like it? Order it!

Forget about who he was now; all she probably remembered was the guy he used to be. Bad. There was no other way to put it. He and his brothers had raised some serious hell in high school, and he’d been the worst of them all. The pranks, the drinking, the girls—God, it was embarrassing to even think about. Yet he’d come so far. He might still be one of Star Harbor’s notorious Grayson brothers, but instead of a cocksure hellion, he was a decorated military hero who worked every day to improve his community.

Maybe Julie didn’t care. They’d run in totally different circles—he with the bad boys and she with the good girls. He’d done nothing to distinguish himself to her back then until he’d confronted her—and himself—the afternoon he’d run into her behind the track at the high school. He’d made a play, and she’d turned him down, taking him apart with a few choice words. And then, bonehead that he was, he’d gone in for the kiss anyway. He’d gotten what he deserved that day—a slap so hard it had rattled his teeth, and a lecture on making something of himself.

Words he hadn’t heeded until years later.

Long Simmering Spring (c) 2013 Elisabeth Barrett

I s’pose I should put up the buy links. Here they are: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple | Other

And just because you’re awesome, I’m doing a giveaway! In honor of my release, give me your best spring memory, and I’ll send you one lucky commenter will win a copy of Fatal Justice by the excellent Marie Force (U.S. only, please). Stay tuned for another excerpt and giveaway next Monday!

*********************************

Today is my birthday, and in honor of this special day, I’m giving away free preview copies to the first 50 people to fill out and submit this form. I’m also well aware that it’s tax day, so hopefully this should ease the pain a little bit.

So sign up . . . you know you want to!

I’ll close the form when I get 50 entries, so if you can see the form, the giveaway is still open and you will get your book! Once I get all the entries, I’ll send out an e-mail with details (so watch for it and check your junk mail folder if you don’t get anything).

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Okay, I was shooting for sexy and emotional, but I’m okay with dirty.

Go. Go now. Unless you are at work.*

Also, I want to give you a heads-up that you should check this space on Tax Day, aka April 15, aka Monday, aka my birthday because I’ll be doing something very special and you will want to be here. Trust me on this one.

*At an office. If you work at home, do whatever you want.

First, I can hardly believe it, but Long Simmering Spring, Cole and Julie’s story, is coming out in just over a month(!!!) and I owe you some excerpts. Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

The telltale sound of the metal-on-metal rigging clanging above deck was a clear indication that Cole Grayson wasn’t inside a stifling-hot canvas tent in Kunar Province. The gentle pitch and roll under his back and the aromas of salt and sea could mean only one thing: he was on his brother’s houseboat in Star Harbor, thousands of miles from Afghanistan. His eyeballs were sticking to his lids, but for once, waking up early didn’t bother him.

He’d finally slept through the night. It had taken him only seven years, three months, and nineteen days.

Not that he was counting.

(c) Elisabeth Barrett 2013

Cole Grayson, featuring his abs.

First page, first glimpse of our hero, and yes, I really love this man—his whole tortured, repentant, honorable, sexy self. I hope you enjoy reading about him as much as I enjoyed figuring out what made him tick! Pre-order links are here, if you’re so inclined.

Oh, and if you want more, sign up for my newsletter, where I promise to give more tantalizing excerpts and sneak peeks of my upcoming books! If you haven’t signed up, it’s not too late. Just go to the bottom of www.elisabethbarrett.com and follow the prompts. I’m non-spammy and infrequent—I swear!

Next, believe it or not, the fact that my third Star Harbor book is coming out next month isn’t even the main point of this blog post. The main point is to give you a glimpse into my research for my WIP—a Tahoe-based book about a scientist and an actuary. No, no—it’s not boring—really! See, the scientist is really a snowboarder, and the actuary is really a skier and together their chemistry is off-the-charts hot. Like burning up a snowy mountain hot. Trust me on this.

I’m calling the book Tahoe for now, even though I have another working title in my head because the working title is long and kind of confusing. So, yes, it may change.

I’d been thinking about writing a California book for some time and hoped to set it in Silicon Valley. Then I had a great idea about opposites attracting, and somehow the Tahoe angle came into play. Only problem was I’d never been there. And there was only one solution to this problem: ROAD TRIP!!! The first person I called was Spence, my BFF, to see if she’d join me. She didn’t even hesitate. Yes! We wanted another friend to come, but she was in Mammoth Lake that weekend. She tried to get us to come to Mammoth Lake with her instead, but I was undeterred. Tahoe it needed to be, and so Tahoe it was!

It was a whirlwind trip. Spence and I left Silicon Valley on Friday morning after I dropped the Barrett Pack off at school and we were on our way! On the drive up, we stopped at the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield. We didn’t take a tour, but we did indulge in some jellybeans!

Jelly Belly

And after a 4-hour drive, we were in Tahoe!!! We saw the lake. It was so blue.

Lake Tahoe

We climbed a mountain in the snow.

Spence on the backside.

We checked out some of the ski resorts.

Squaw from the approach.

And we found this sign:

Star Harbor!!!

YESSSSSS!!!!!

Okay, we knew the sign existed because when Deep Autumn Heat was released, my friend told me about the Star Harbor sign up in Tahoe. Obviously, Spence and I made a pilgrimage to check it out.

We also ate some great food, checked out the local watering holes (no pics, sorry!) and had a blast driving around. We were back home by 6 p.m. on Saturday. See? Whirlwind!

So there you have it folks: Tahoe in photographs! I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and I promise to share some snippets from Tahoe soon. Have you been to Lake Tahoe? Tell me about your experiences!!

One more thing. If you are in the Bay Area this weekend, on Satuday, April 6 at 10 a.m., I’m speaking at the Monterey Bay RWA chapter. Information about the meeting can be found here. It’s only $5 (cheap!) at the Watsonville Community Hospital and you get to hear me talk! Yay!

It’s Val to a T! Slim, lean, strong…and oh, those shoulders! I especialy love the patch of sand on his abs. Nice touch, right?

Here’s the official copy:

As the sizzling Star Harbor series concludes, the fourth sexy Grayson brother, a dedicated DEA agent, shows a high-society beauty the true meaning of love.

Cameron Stahl has everything, so why does she feel like her life is incomplete? A beautiful Boston socialite and a successful entrepreneur, she’s just opened her second boutique in Star Harbor and business is booming. But one searing look from Val Grayson sends fire through her body and shows her exactly what’s missing from her life: a real man who doesn’t play games and who makes her feel like the most desired woman on earth.

DEA agent Val Grayson has always looked after his brothers. Now it’s his turn to find love—though Cam is the last sort of woman he ever dreamed he’d fall for. When courageous Cam realizes she has the insider connections to help Val take down a major drug player within Boston’s political elite, he can’t stop her from putting herself in danger. But as the drug bust of his career looms, all Val cares about is saving the woman he loves before it’s too late.

So what do you all think? Love it?

I’ll be sharing some super special sneak peeks of Long Simmering Spring and Slow Summer Burn on my newsletter, so be sure to sign up here (just go to the bottom of the main page).

And in case you’ve missed my interweb sightings over the past few weeks while I’ve been buried in edits, today I’m at Romance@Random talking about endings and beginnings, and last month I wrote two posts with the amazing Jennifer Probst–first at Romance@Random and again at USA Today’s HEA where we riffed on all things mommy-esque.

You might have noticed I’ve been gone for a while. Well, go figure, I’ve been busy! My copyedits for Long Simmering Spring were due a week ago, and Slow Summer Burn is due in a couple of weeks, so my time has not been my own. Plus, in between writing and editing, I’ve started working on another manuscript–something I’m really excited about! That being said, it is the day of love, and since I write books of love, I had to share at least a little something with you.

Last year, I started a new tradition which was to give an anecdote from my personal life and try to relate it in some way to romance novels. I intend to continue that tradition this year! Mr. B was a terribly good sport about last year’s post, and I’m hoping he’ll feel the same about this year’s!

Ready? Here goes!

Mr. Barrett is extremely funny. He’s a great joke teller and has spot-on referential humor, which he usually whips up in the half-second you’re using to finish your sentence. Also, he’s a whiz when it comes to world history. Like, a complete whiz. It’s mind-boggling. Personally, I’m not noted for my sense of humor. Nor am I noted for my prowess in world history.  In fact, I’m kind of a dud in both areas.

Now those of you who know me IRL may say, “Why, Elisabeth, what are you talking about? You’re very funny!” All I will say is that there’s a big difference between being oneself and actually being funny. The difference, say, between laughing at me and laughing with me.

But back to the story. Mr. Barrett and I had been dating a few months when he moved to China for a job. “Will you come visit me?” he asked. Yes. Yes, I would. And so I did the bravest thing I’d ever done in my life and booked a ticket to visit a guy I hadn’t known all that long. (Which maybe is a story for another Valentine’s day). At this point in my life, my sense of humor was kind of stunted. As in not fully developed. And I am sorry to say that while I thought Mr. B was kind and handsome and intelligent, I had not laughed at even one of his jokes.

At any rate, one day after I’d joined him in Beijing, we took a trip to a small city called Kaifeng. We were walking around in some garden and I regaled him with a tale of one of my friends, an older man, who had a proclivity for dating much, much younger women.

“So in order to test whether or not they were worthy of dating him, he’d give them the Mao test,” I said.

“What’s the Mao test?” Mr. B asked.

“He’d just casually drop Mao Zedong in conversation, and if he was able to glean that they knew who he was, or even said, ‘China,’ the girl passed the test and he’d date them.”

“Huh,” Mr. B said. “I’ve never heard of the Mao test, but I have one of my own. It’s called the Ho Chi Minh test.”

“The what?” I said.

“The Ho Chi Minh test.” When I didn’t answer right away, he looked horrified. “Oh my God. You don’t know.”

“China?” I offered.

“Uh, no,” he said.

I had no idea what or who Ho Chi Minh was. I swallowed. “Does this mean I fail the test.”

“Yeah,” he said. “It does. Guess we should take you back to the airport now.” He ran his hand through his hair and sighed. “I just wish I’d given you the test before you came out to visit me.”

I stared at him. He stared back. “Are you joking?” I asked.

“I would have taken ‘Vietnam,’” he went on, deadpan. “Or ‘Communist.’”

“Okay, I get who Ho Chi Minh is now, but you’re joking about me failing. Right?”

He let me stew for another minute before a little half-smile curled on his lips. “Yeah, I’m joking, E. I don’t care if you know who Ho Chi Minh is.”

“Oh,” I said relieved. “Then I don’t have to go home.”

Then he started to laugh. Then I started to laugh. Then he laughed even more. “Seriously?” he said. “This is the first time you’re actually laughing at one of my jokes. The Ho Chi Minh test? God.”

“You’re really funny,” I informed him.

“I know.”

“No, really.”

“Damn straight.”

Mr. B is a pretty urbane guy, but I swear he really said that last line.

Over time, I gained more of a sense of humor and now laugh at all of Mr. B’s jokes, and in fact, a few times I’ve been rewarded when after a joke of my own, he informed me that the student had surpassed the master. I will confess to still being hopeless at world events.

But the real takeaway from this story is that it’s not just in romance novels that opposites attract; this kind of attraction happens to real people, every single day.

I wasn’t funny; I knew he was. I liked that. I stink at the blues and yellows in Trivial Pursuit, Genus Edition; he rocks. I liked that, too. And over time, I picked up some humor, and we learned to divide and conquer when it comes to Trivial Pursuit (I take most sciences and all literature and arts, at which Mr. B is completely awful). The differences in our temperaments, personalities and yes, even knowledge bases makes our relationship interesting.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! I hope yours is filled with sweetness and love!

Also:

Show me some love! Both Deep Autumn Heat and Blaze of Winter have been nominated for Best 2012 Contemporary Romance at Guilty Pleasures!! Please take a moment to vote for your fave!

The contest runs from January 14-21, 2013, and for one week only, you have the chance to win, win, win a copy of the book (plus other great prizes)!

Prizes from Random House include:

* A $25 e-gift card grand prize

* Four winners receive one copy of An Affair to Dismember by Elise Sax and Crazy Thing Called Love by Molly O’Keefe

 * Three winners receive a copy of An Affair to Dismember

* One winner receives a Mashup of books from Random House!

Click on the Rafflecopter link here!

Good luck!

And oh, yes, ROFLOL stands for “rolling on the floor laughing out loud,” so here’s something funny for you: Gangnam Style. Psy is a genius, and this song is overplayed but it will never get old. Never!