Your Kiss Is on My List is on Sale for $.99!

Dear ,

Don't you love book sales? I hope so, because I wanted to treat you to the summer sale of Your Kiss Is on My List.

This college hockey romance features Trey, a hero who hits me smack in my soft-spot. Trey's been in love with his kid sister's best friend Dani for a while--but of course he considers her off-limits--until she begs him to pretend to be her boyfriend when they visit her estranged father.

We all know this forbidden-love fake-dating romance is going to have a a few problems before Trey & Dani come close to a happy ending, but I think you might enjoy the hot, bumpy ride along the way!

About my current work-in-progress, Lucky Puck, I'm in a writing groove this week. I've been writing standing up most of the time because I've taken to heart that new health-mantra, sitting is the new smoking.

Is standing keeping me healthy? Who knows? But I am getting lots of juicy words on the page that I can't wait for you to read!

In fact...

I'm sharing a new Snippet from Lucky Puck below! ⬇️⬇️⬇️

If you love hockey romance AND you love small town romance, then you may just enjoy my new Hockey Boys series!💋 See below! ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Also this week I have some fantastic Christmas in July romance book deals for you below! ⬇️⬇️⬇️

As always, I appreciate your time and attention to my newsletter, and your support, very much. 💜

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At SQ's House

This week I was in full nose to the grind-stone mode with my only excursions to the gym and the grocery store.

Fun & games were only fond memories from last week's time on the lake, boating on that perfect summer day. ➜➜➜

(My husband took the photo.)

On the up side, I did make it to the gym twice.

On the down side, I more than made up for it with copious amounts of snacking while deep into working out character motivations and imagining exactly how they would react to the fake in-laws.

The highlight of each evening for me and my husband was getting more than 2 questions (answers?) right on Jeopardy (that show is ridiculous annoying addictive). Then I was back to re-wording sentences and deleting cliches while my husband made intermittent wisecracks, to make me laugh.

I can't complain even if it all sounds so boring quiet uneventful. There's something to be said for that feeling of contentment you get when you're comfortably settled.

(It's the kind of scene you might find in my romance novels--in the epilogue.)💜

Who else watches that frustrating challenging show, Jeopardy?

💜

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I'd love you to join my team!

Join the SQ Team on Facebook Here!

You too could be one of my expert series consultants!

Plus it would be fun to get to know you better.

You'll get sneak peaks at draft book covers-and have a say in the final draft, we'll have exclusive contests and some behind the scenes writer stuff and of course, talk about romance books--and whatever else we want. 💜

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Work-in-Progress

LUCKY PUCK - a hockey rom-com

Word Count Goal: 75,000

Current Word Count: 59,788

Percentage Complete: 80%

Once you lie about a thing like being married and it gets leaked to the public, creating an unexpected tsunami of attention, the biggest problem is figuring how you extract yourself from the lie, i.e., how do you get divorced from a marriage that doesn't exist?

Brody & Bianca realize this too late.

They never thought about the exit plan...

EXCLUSIVE SNIPPET FROM LUCKY PUCK

Bianca

“It’s not true that everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”

She chuckles. “What happened? Knowing you it can’t be that bad.”

I keep my flinch on the inside this time. “I guess you haven’t watched any sports news or been on social media.” Not that I’m surprised.

She laughs.

I loosen up, starting to feel like my normal self, the same one who left here a few days ago, the one whose only challenge was trying to get a bonus to pay her bills.

Now that seems like nothing because I’m teetering on the cliff of losing my job and my whole career, pivot or not. 

“Of course I didn’t watch sports. Hello?”

She follows me as I wheel my luggage the last few feet of its journey into my bedroom and plop down onto my squeaky bed, lying flat on my back. I wonder why I decorated this space in shades of beige and pull the lone pop of color in the form of a red pillow, over my belly and hold on.

“Guess you’re tuckered out from the excitement of Vegas. Tell me all about it. Did you follow my advice?” She grins as she bounces onto the foot of my bed and I can’t help grinning back, though I prefer to hold off letting loose the damned up story of my Vegas weekend for as long as possible. 

There’s no question that I’m going to tell my best friend since forever the full unvarnished truth.  We grew up together in a small town called Littleton in New Hampshire where my parents still run their diner and her father is still the minister of the church that Cat made famous with her award-winning voice in the choir.

I talked her into moving to the big city of Portsmouth, NH—we’re talking relative to our home town of two thousand—after I graduated from law school and landed my job with the Jett Agency. Their office is in New York, but most of us work remotely in cities where our client athletes play and live. I was lucky to get assigned to Portsmouth and of course, Brody Holden.

Among other duties, I was assigned to be Brody’s official hand-holder because he was only nineteen when we signed him and he was drafted.

I take in a deep breath. He’s right. We did kind of start out together. That seems like a lifetime ago instead of only a year. 

She shakes my foot in impatience like she used to when we were kids to get the story out of me. I always liked to take my time and think about what to say, to control the narrative as they say in the business. Now she’s all giddy with excitement, anticipating some wild story.

“How were the parties? I bet people were all dressed up and glamorous. Did you see anyone famous? Tell me the wildest thing you did.” This demand is the follow up to her advice that I should do something wild. In fact she made me promise.

My smile expands with satisfaction. Because no matter how much trouble I could be in, no matter how precariously I’m balanced on the edge between total success and total failure, I can tell my friend that I kept my promise to do something wild with spectacular success.

“What’s the one most wild thing Vegas is known for?” I ask.

She scrunches her brows. “I don’t know—quickie chapel weddings?”

I nod. “Exactly—”

She screeches and covers her mouth in shock, then horror and then bursts into laughter, shaking me as if that will rattle the real story from me. 

“You didn’t?”

I shake my head and she snorts and swats my leg.

“You jerk! Don’t tease me like that I nearly had a heart attack.”

“You’re right. I didn’t get married. Not exactly…” I pause as jittery nerves sneak up on me and my tummy levitates. The butterflies are back and they all seem to have taken flight at once.

“What do you mean by not exactly?” She lowers her voice and stills.

I gulp, suddenly nervous to admit the crazy truth even to my best friend who I know will absolutely not judge me no matter what.

“Tell me,” she prompts, her voice serious, her hand finding mine and squeezing it to reassure me.

“I faked a quickie Vegas marriage.”

She opens her mouth, then closes it, her forehead furrowing and her brows knitting together like a zipper. “That’s… something. More weird than wild—”

“That depends on who I’m pretending to be married to, doesn’t it? And depends on who we told about it—”

Her brows go back to zipped. “I don’t understand. What are you talking about?” 

I take a deep breath. “I’m pretending to be married to Brody Holden and we told the press—”

She leaps off the bed and screeches. “You what?” 

Because even my allergic-to-sports friend knows who Brody Holden is.

Pre-Order Lucky Puck for Only $2.99

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Hockey Boys Series

Patrick: the Jennings Brothers

Patrick

Should I or shouldn't I...

kiss the sweetness right out of my secret crush, the forbidden and unforgettable treat, Carmella Rossi?

Not with my brothers watching from one side of the street and the Rossi brothers watching from the other.

Not while her old man wields the chain saw cutting the latest blue fin catch down to size.

Not when all of them, including my dear dad, aka coach, is within reaching distance of a hockey stick and every last one of them knows how to one-time a puck straight through my front teeth....

You can pre-order now!

More Jennings Brothers coming soon...

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Stephanie Queen's Featured Review

"What a series! I have enjoyed every book in this series. I don't want it to be finished. This story is well written. The characters, their personalities & development are smooth & believable with a nice HEA... I look forward to more of Ms. Queen's writings & definitely recommend this series!"

--Kindle Customer

READ NOW!

Thank you to every reader who takes the time to write a review. They're all very much appreciated and I read them all.💜

Special thanks to my Stephanie Queen Team ARC Readers. You're the BEST!

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SQ's Featured Book Deals

Christmas Romance in July!

YOUR NEXT FAVORITE STEAMY ROMANCE

CHRISTMAS IN JULY TO KEEP YOU COOL!

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Thank you again for reading this newsletter.

When you have a chance, let me know what you think of the new snippet from Lucky Puck. I hope you take advantage of the low pre-order price while it lasts. Time is getting short!

In the meantime, enjoy your reading and know how much I appreciate your support. 💜

Warmest Regards,