Click here for the introductory post for the anthology.

Sometimes life gets in the way of books... Aussie author Abbie Jackson is busy moving house with her family today, so this will be a shorter, more general spotlight. I'm wishing her and her loved ones all the best in their new home! :-)
​

Shannon’s Legacy - Blurb:
Shannon's cancer has spread and she is running out of time.  Fast! She is determined to find a miracle for her death sentence, but what she discovers along the way may be just the second chance she needed.
Her husband, Matt wants to enjoy her remaining time as a family, not in a hospital, and Shannon must also prepare her young son for a future without her. Will Shannon's determination be enough?

Two line Tag:
Shannon’s time is running out. Fast. The love of her family pushes her to find a cure for the cruel hand she’s been dealt. Will determination be enough?

Abbie Jackson is a young mum of four toddlers, runs her own business, and in her spare time (that’s a joke), she writes novels and enjoys cooking and baking.
Abbie lives in South-East Queensland and has travelled extensively around the world prior to having her family. Abbie loves writing across multiple genres including fantasy, sci-fi, romance, crime and children’s stories.
 
Email: 
Website: www.abbiejackson.net
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AbbieJacksonAuthor
PayPal:
​

Second Chance Café buy links:
 
iBooks - https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/second-chance-cafe/id1055312419?mt=11
 
Barnes & Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/second-chance-cafe-susanne-bellamy/1122908100?ean=2940152444353
 
Smashwords - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/588802
 
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017Z7V4SC/

​What do you like most and least about being a writer?
 
Since I was a small child I’ve loved storytelling and I guess, for me, that is one of the pleasures of being a writer – creating your own version of the world for other people to read and enjoy.  I also love working with my cover designer to create that all important front image. And, I guess the best moment of all is holding the finished book in your hand and saying to yourself, ‘I did this’.
 
The worst?  Well that has to be the editing – checking, cutting, changing, and rewrites.  I know it’s an incredibly important part of the process but after the great buzz of actually writing the book it certainly brings you back down to earth! Thank heaven I have a brilliant editor!
 
I read and enjoyed your book “Summer Moved On”, and I think the title fits perfectly. How do you come up with titles and what do you think is important about them?
 
Apart from one, all of my books have been named after song titles.  I love music and my playlists, which are in constant use while I’m writing, are so important to me. It seemed quite natural then once the writing was completed to explore the idea of using songs for my book titles.
 
For my very first novel I chose When Tomorrow Comes by The Eurythmics.  My second book was more difficult and I eventually abandoned the song theme and came up with Love, Lies and Promises instead. However, I was soon back on the song title track - The Ghost of You and Me (BB Mak) came next, Between Today and Yesterday (Alan Price) and The Other Side of Morning (a slightly altered This Side of the Morning by Scottish band Del Amitri) followed. Summer Moved On came from Norwegian band A-Ha and my current WIP’s title comes from Swedish duo Roxette.   And…I know of at least two other writers who use this method, so I’m not alone.
 
What inspired the story of “Summer Moved On” and its underlying theme of new beginnings and second chances?
 
While my fifth book, the last in my Little Court series, was away being edited I decided to work on some ideas for my next project.  I’d had a lot of thoughts about ‘Life after Little Court’ but nothing I came up with made me feel I’d found the story I was looking for.  Then suddenly it was there - the idea of two people from totally different backgrounds meeting and falling in love and all the complications and drama that could bring with it.  On this occasion although I wanted to write a contemporary romance there were going to be similarities to my Little Court novels.  It would have a village background, involve family issues and have my trademark love-to-hate female antagonist.
 
This time I created the fictitious village of Lynbrook in South Devon, one of my favourite parts of the UK.  Once I had developed bios for my central characters - middle class Jess, gypsy Talún and the incredibly obnoxious Lily -  I sat down at the PC and began to weave a story around them and Summer Moved On was born.
 
Did you have to do a lot of research for your book? How did you do it?
 
Actually I needed hardly any for this book.  As I’m familiar with village life it was very easy to create and populate the fictitious community of Lynbrook with characters. The Black Bull was based on a country pub I know well and yes, it does have its own cricket team! The only thing I did have to work on was Jess’s career as a teacher. Luckily I have a good friend who teaches and she was able to give me a lot of help and valuable information.  When I initially undertook this research, Summer Moved On was planned as a single novel. However as I wrote it was evident from the rising word count and the way the story was progressing that it was going to spill over into a sequel.  When I came to fully plotting the second book, I tweaked Jess’s story slightly which meant I didn’t require the teaching information after all – but as I never throw anything away  it’s on file in case I need it in future!   
 
Any hidden talents or crazy facts about you?
 
I confess to having a bit of a  ‘thing’ about notebooks.  In fact I can’t pass a stationery store without going in to check out the notebook section. I’ve a large collection, including project books, and yes, I do use them, but there are one or two special purchases which are so lovely I couldn’t bear to write in them.  
 
Your book “The Other Side of Morning” is set in England and Italy. Is there any other country you’d like to write about?
 
Italy is one of my favourite holiday destinations – Tuscany in particular. I love the country, the history, the people and, of course, the food.  In my other books I’ve also used Spain, Bali, Gran Cayman, Australia, New York and California.  This means I’m already quite a ‘well-travelled’ writer.  However, I think a return to the States would be nice. New England in the Fall maybe?
 
Tell us about the one thing you can’t write without.
 
Music.  I can’t work without it.  I set up playlists and use them in the background while I’m working. Scottish crime writer Iain Rankin was being interviewed on Breakfast television the other morning and he was talking about his use of music when working.  He said it created a bubble, something that shut out the world and allowed him to concentrate on his writing.  I thought ‘yes, that’s exactly what it does for me’.  
 
Oh and I couldn’t be without my muses.  I always have one for each of my principal male characters pinned to my notice board for inspiration while writing.
 
Do you have any advice for (aspiring) authors?
 
a) Read as much as possible, especially those books which are similar to your own work.
b) Stay focused.
c) A social media presence is a must – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and, of course, a blog and/or website.   
d) Finally and most important of all – get the services of a professional editor.  They are absolutely essential.
 
If you were suddenly forced to marry one of the characters you’ve written, who would it be and why?
 
Oh it would definitely have to be Marco from The Other Side of Morning. Of all the main male characters I have created he is the ‘special one’.  He’s a tall, dark, good looking Italian who runs the European restaurant side of his father’s multi-million pound business empire. He is a man who loves women and knows how to treat them.  He’s also a great mix of masculinity and vulnerability - probably one of my best character creations to date.
 
What are you currently working on?
 
I’m 11,000 words into the sequel to Summer Moved On – Watercolours in the Rain.  We catch up with Talún, Jess and Lily six years after the end of book one.  During those years there have been quite substantial changes for all of them - and more to come as fate brings them back together again.

​SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:
 
Website: http://jolambertbooks.com
Blog:  http://jolambertwriter.wordpress.com
Googleplus: google.com/+JoLambert
Twitter: @jolambertwriter
Facebook.com/joannalambert
​

Click here for the introductory post for the anthology.

​Excerpt – September Harvest
 
She inhaled the smell of his sweat mingled with the tang of lemon soap and Tilly, all thought of Nathaniel’s taunts about another girl gone from her mind, was transported back to the previous September night, her lips tingling in memory of the kiss.
The press of his body against hers awakened something surprising, unfamiliar to her, but she instinctively knew it had something to do with the kiss.
She blinked away tears and when she could see clearly once more, she could tell he remembered too. His head lowered an inch and stopped. As he started to raise it, Tilly stood on the balls of her feet to fill the gap.
The kiss and embrace was as she remembered, an utter contradiction – soft lips and hard muscles, warm mouth and cool breeze at her back.
“Tilly, you don’t know what you do to me.” His urgent, almost pained whisper answered something deep within. Then there was more, his lips coaxed hers open.
Then she knew he wanted her, needed her, loved her, and she gave everything in return in that kiss.
Then he held her away from him. Tilly frowned not knowing the reason why. Andrew’s eyes widened as though alarmed and he scrubbed his hand over his face. She couldn’t fathom the reason until the blood rushing in her ears stopped and she heard a female voice, young, perhaps her own age...
“Andy?” the voice called.

Blurb​

​Seasonal crop picker Andrew is still a boy himself when he introduces 12 year old Tilly to reading. Instantly besotted both with Andrew and with books, Tilly eagerly awaits his return to her village over the course of 7 summers. Childish adoration is now a young woman’s love but has she misread his feelings for her over the years?

Elizabeth Ellen Carter’s debut novel, Moonstone Obsession, was published in 2013 by Etopia Press. Earlier that year, the Regency adventure romance had been shortlisted in the Romance Writers of Australia Emerald Awards for Best Unpublished Manuscript. Set in England and France during the French Revolution, it was heralded as ‘edge-of-seat adventure and intrigue’ and ‘a rollercoaster of love, blackmail, ill-gotten gains, treason and trickery’ with Carter described as ‘a writer worth keeping an eye on’ with ‘a hint of classic suspense novelist Daphne du Maurier’.
Her second novel, Warrior’s Surrender, was published by Etopia the following year. Set in Northumbria in 1077, it sets the relationship between a displaced Saxon noblewoman and a Norman baron against the turbulent backdrop of England in the years following the Norman invasion of 1066. Reviewers found the novel ‘a fast moving and passionate read’ with ‘strong characters, an intriguing plot, and plenty of action… a sexy romance to be savoured’. Readers agreed, voting Warrior’s Surrender Favourite Historical Fiction in the 2015 Readers & Writers Down Under Readers Choice Awards.
Also in 2014, the short story Moonstone Promise, spinning off from Moonstone Obsession as part of Etopia’s Valentines Heat anthology, followed the fortunes of one of the supporting characters back home to 18th century Pittsburgh in a tale of ‘second chance romance’.
Warrior’s Surrender (now in print as well as eBook) was named Favourite Historical Fiction at the 2015 Readers & Writers Down Under Readers Choice Awards in March this year.
Carter moved up to 1802 for the light-hearted romantic short story Three Ships, part of the Christmas 2014 anthology A Season To Remember, and ventures briefly into contemporary romance for the first time with her Romance Writers of Australia annual Little Gems competition placegetter, The Tin Bear, publishing in August 2015.
And another Moonstone Obsession character, the sinful Lady Abigail Houghall, features in the full length novel Moonstone Conspiracy, coming from Etopia Press in 2015.
Carter is currently working on her fourth novel, set in ancient Rome and tentatively titled Dark Heart, which will bring together the elements for which she has become known in just a few years – in-depth historical detail woven through gripping adventure and captivating romance.
The author lives in Australia with her husband and two cats. A former newspaper journalist, she ran an award-winning PR agency for 12 years.
 
Web: http://eecarter.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethEllenCarter
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EECarterAuthor
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/eecarterauthor/

​

Second Chance Café buy links:
 
iBooks - https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/second-chance-cafe/id1055312419?mt=11
 
Barnes & Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/second-chance-cafe-susanne-bellamy/1122908100?ean=2940152444353
 
Smashwords - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/588802
 
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017Z7V4SC/

Click here for the introductory post for the anthology.

More about The Wish List:

In the throes of beginning my short story for this year’s Christmas anthology, I had written about three thousand words of a story that began at the Mackay Airport and featured a hero named Jax and a daytime soap star who had been friends when they were younger, before life and ambition drew them along separate paths. Partly inspired by the song, ‘Where Do You Go To, My Lovely?’, the story was travelling along at the pace of the tropical cyclone bearing down on the Central Queensland coast when, over Queen’s Birthday long weekend, our beautiful German Shepherd, Anna, passed away suddenly. She was almost 13 years of age, old for her breed, and her passing devastated us. So much so that I stopped writing for several weeks.
 
And when I set fingers to keyboard again, Jax and the cyclone were blown away by a need to remember Anna and her winsome ways, the conversations we’d had, and her beautiful nature. Anna in my story is the younger version of our lovely girl. I hope you enjoy her story, and that of her mistress, Julie, whose Jack owns a Shepherd remarkably like our Ricky of many years ago.
 
In loving memory of Anna and Ricky 
​

​
​The opening scene of The Wish List:
 
Julie Aster sat in the middle of the oval in Toowoomba’s main park and leaned back on her elbows. Turning her face to the sun, she closed her eyes and let her thoughts drift back to last night’s dream. Fantasy man ticked all her boxes of course, but his face was frustratingly unclear. “If only you hadn’t woken me before I got to see his face.” She stretched out a hand to pat her German Shepherd and met empty air.
“Anna? Where have you got to, girl?” Champion novice dog at puppy training school, Anna simply did not wander far from her mistress. Flutters of concern stirred in Julie’s belly and she put her fingers to her mouth and whistled. Queen’s Park off-leash area was a sea of red, gold and every shade in between. Two streaks, one golden and the other, black, raced out of dense shade at the edge of the park, sending a flurry of autumn leaves flying in their wake.
A huge black Shepherd, the biggest Julie had seen, followed Anna across the lush green grass. Anna came straight to her and sat on her left, smiling to show she was very pleased with her discovery, or so Julie interpreted.
“Found a friend, did you? Where’s your owner, boy?” Julie presented her closed hand for the dog to smell then hunkered down to pat both Anna and her new friend. “He’s a handsome fellow, isn’t he, Anna? Seems like this park is doggie-dating heaven.”
A shadow fell across them and a deep voice rumbled above their heads. “Bear’s been making friends, I see, and with the best-looking females in the city.”
Tingles of awareness ran down Julie’s spine at the whiskey-smooth voice. Anticipation throbbed at the image it created. Silly, you know you’ll be disappointed. Wanting to hold onto the image a moment longer, she fiddled with Anna’s collar and patted her blonde head. Gentle chocolate-brown eyes looked up, and a pink tongue flicked her nose as she waited, body quivering with anticipation.
“Bear? Suits him.” Steeling herself against inevitable disappointment, her gaze lifted, up a pair of denim-clad legs and Jimmy Barnes T-shirt that showed off a toned and muscled torso, and into the face of Bear’s owner. Unshaven and with light brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, his smile charmed as cinnamon-brown eyes crinkled at the corners.
The belly flutters that had subsided with Anna’s reappearance returned as full-sized butterflies swarming around their favourite plants. Ruggedly handsome in an outdoorsy way, Bear’s owner had a killer smile, and a German Shepherd. And despite the cheesy pick-up line, entries two and three on her wish list stood before her rolled into one very tall . . . and attractive package.
Add the sexy voice and she was probably drooling as much as Anna.
Julie’s hand tightened on Anna’s collar as she struggled to come up with a witty comment. Her mouth opened and closed while Bear’s owner hunkered down and wrapped an arm over his dog and stroked Anna’s head.
“Your dog is lovely. No wonder Bear was—interested.” His eyebrow rose cheekily as he stood and held out one hand. “Jack Schulz.”
She shook his hand, surprised to find him towering above her. At five-feet-nine, she usually looked guys directly in the eye. “I’m Julie Aster and this is Anna.”
“So, Julie and Anna Aster, can Bear and I interest you in a coffee? 
​

Born and raised in Toowoomba, Susanne Bellamy is an Australian author of contemporary and suspense romances set in exciting and often exotic locations, and rural romance set in Australia. She adores travel with her husband, both at home and overseas, and weaves stories around the settings and people she encounters.
 
Her heroes have to be pretty special to live up to her real life hero. He saved her life then married her.
 
Susanne is a member of the RWA and was a finalist in their 2011 Emerald Award. She placed third in the 2015 Pan Macmillan short story competition with Chez Romeo. Mentoring aspiring writers, and working as a freelance editor keeps her off the street! She loves connecting with readers and fellow writers. 
 
You can find her at the following:
a.https://www.facebook.com/susanne.bellamy.7
b.https://twitter.com/SusanneBellamy
c.http://www.susannebellamy.com/
d.http://www.pinterest.com/susannebellamy/
e.https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/6869630.Susanne_Bellamy
​

Second Chance Café buy links:
 
iBooks - https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/second-chance-cafe/id1055312419?mt=11
 
Barnes & Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/second-chance-cafe-susanne-bellamy/1122908100?ean=2940152444353
 
Smashwords - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/588802
 
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017Z7V4SC/
​

You can find the introductory post for the anthology here.

Tag line for ‘Encore’
The roar of applause fills her ears. Louisa Frank has never forgotten a line, so why is she doomed to a life of waiting off-stage in the shadows?
​

Excerpt of ‘Encore’ by Noelle Clark
 
When she’d first met James, he had a girlfriend. A pretty young thing—if you liked them flat-chested, bony, and brainless—whose name was Carole.
Carole had many annoying habits, but the worst was how she followed James around like a puppy. At one point, Louisa thought of buying her a bag of liver treats and locking her in the bathroom. James and Louisa had lines to learn, scenes to practice. Having Carole underfoot every moment was a most unsatisfactory situation.
Eventually, Louisa told James that if he wanted to be her leading man, he had to ditch the blonde. Not permanently, but long enough for them to rehearse. It was James’s idea to head off to Café Cleo after every performance. He apparently told Carole that it was a ‘Director’s Meeting’, where they went over the night’s performance and fixed any issues. He told her she wouldn’t be at all welcome. Instead, as soon as the curtains went down, Carole caught a taxi home. On her own.
Those hours spent in the Café Cleo were the start of a great—a magnificent—love affair.

​
​BLURB for Encore
 
Louisa Frank is a creature of habit, borne of years of discipline.
She lives with one foot in the glorious past, the other in the mundane and lonely present. If it wasn’t for Alfie Baretto, she might have been forgotten, lost in a sea of successful young starlets.
In the narrow streets of Hell’s Kitchen, in a small but atmospheric diner called Café Cleo, Alfie ensures the Broadway star—Louisa Frank—will forever be feted by theatre-goers, and remembered for her amazing performances. For fifty years Café Cleo has supported the Off-Off-Broadway stars—the non-Equity actors who were forbidden from performing in the big name theatres on and off Broadway. Instead, the rebel movement grew, allowing actors to tread the boards in tiny establishments where they achieved their own brand of fame.
But the years have passed slowly for Louisa. Will the endless quest for a return to the glory years ever end?

Bio for Noelle Clark
Noelle Clark is an Australian author of contemporary romance novels, rural romance, and historical fiction. Her books weave romance, intrigue, and adventure into colourful and interesting settings. They feature characters who deal with love and loss; and who experience the often difficult facets of life, such as forgiveness and redemption.
Noelle lives close to the sea in sunny Queensland, Australia, and shares her home with one cat and two dogs. She has two grown up children and four very small grandchildren. When Noelle's not writing and travelling, she procrastinates a lot thinking about travel, and perfecting ways to avoid housework.
 
Other books by Noelle Clark
Let Angels Fly
Rosamanti
Honor’s Debt – Book 1 Robinhill Farm Series
Honor’s Promise – Book 2 Robinhill Farm Series
Honor’s Legacy – Book 3 Robinhill Farm Series
 
Contact Noelle Clark
www.noelleclark.net
https://www.facebook.com/NoelleClark.Author
​

Second Chance Café buy links:
 
iBooks - https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/second-chance-cafe/id1055312419?mt=11
 
Barnes & Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/second-chance-cafe-susanne-bellamy/1122908100?ean=2940152444353
 
Smashwords - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/588802
 
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017Z7V4SC/

​Second Chance Café
Four Stories of Love and Coffee, and Second Chances
 
What do you get when you put four authors together around a café table, give them one idea and carte blanche to write whatever they want?
 
After a successful and pleasurable collaboration (with Eva Scott) in 2014, the desire to repeat the fun led to the decision to create a second anthology for 2015. What better way to celebrate our writing successes than through another Christmas offering?
 
The place:     Reef Point Café, Redcliffe http://reefpointcafe.com.au/
The writers:   Noelle Clark, Elizabeth Ellen Carter, Abbie Jackson, and Susanne Bellamy (in absentia with a migraine)
The idea:       Second chances
The setting:   A café
 
What is fascinating is how differently these four authors interpreted the simple guidelines. The choice of cafés ranges from a nineteenth century coffee house, an off-off-Broadway theatre café, a hospital café, and a café in a park.
 
Second chances occur in all areas of life and while two writers chose to explore relationships focused on love, Abbie Jackson looks at life and the big ‘C’ while Susanne Bellamy’s love of dogs created the animal rescue centre in need of funds to give more animals, great and small, a second chance.
 
Check out the blurbs here today. Over the next four posts, we’ll introduce you to the individual authors and some extracts from the four shorts. 
​

​The Wish List – Susanne Bellamy:
Julie Aster has worked hard to make the animal shelter a success but money is short. Then the sexy Jack Schulz sweeps into her life with an answer to all her problems.
But when a client lets out a secret about Jack, she wonders if she really knows him.
 
Can she trust this man who seems to have all the answers... and more to the point, can she trust her heart?
 
Encore – Noelle Clark:
Louisa Frank is a creature of habit, borne of years of discipline.
She lives with one foot in the glorious past, the other in the mundane and lonely present. If it wasn’t for Alfie Baretto she might have been forgotten, lost in a sea of successful young starlets.
In the narrow streets of Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, in a small but atmospheric diner called Café Cleo, Alfie ensures the Broadway star—Louisa Frank—will forever be fêted by theatre-goers, and remembered for her amazing performances.
But the years have passed slowly for Louisa. Will the endless quest for a return to the glory years ever end?
 
September Harvest – Elizabeth Ellen Carter:
Seasonal crop picker Andrew is still a boy himself when he introduces 12 year old Tilly to reading. Instantly besotted both with Andrew and with books, Tilly eagerly awaits his return to her village over the course of 7 summers. Childish adoration is now a young woman’s love but has she misread his feelings for her over the years?
 
Shannon’s Legacy – Abbie Jackson:
Shannon's cancer has spread and she is running out of time.  Fast! She is determined to find a miracle for her death sentence, but what she discovers along the way may be just the second chance she needed.
Her husband, Matt wants to enjoy her remaining time as a family, not in a hospital, and Shannon must also prepare her young son for a future without her. Will Shannon's determination be enough?
 
 
Second Chance Café buy links:
 
iBooks - https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/second-chance-cafe/id1055312419?mt=11
Barnes & Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/second-chance-cafe-susanne-bellamy/1122908100?ean=2940152444353
Smashwords - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/588802
Amazon - 
 
 
Second Chance Café – may I take your order? 

​This $1.4 million dollar car for the mega rich only seats four, but the seats and atmosphere are pure class. If you purchase the convertible, you are protected from excessive wind (can’t have a social lady’s hair disturbed) and it provides far more protection if the vehicle rolls than most convertibles.
Here’s a youtube video: https://youtu.be/6BvMAhXN_Ow%
While there are sport cars more expensive, the Maybach Landaulet is no minor purchase, unless of course you belong to the 1%. Then it’s a rounding number and you can afford to buy the 8 million dollar Maybach sports car version as well.
Here’s the youtube for the Maybach Exelero sports car. https://youtu.be/V_YfX5RFFb8
Wonder why they cost so much? They are custom built for the client.
And here’s what happens when Cass is wheeled out and sees the ‘family car’.

​With an attendant pushing Cass’s wheelchair and her parents following like a funeral procession, they arrived before a white Maybach Landaulet parked outside the emergency exit. Cass had read an article in Forbes just last week declaring it the sixth most expensive car in the world. And if her memory recalled correctly, it cost nearly one and a half million dollars. Who the hell buys a million and a half dollar car? Surely, they can find some better use of their money.
Evidently, her parents were astronomically well off and didn’t have the sense God gave a pigeon on how to spend their wealth.
Her dad helped her into the back passenger seat, which, despite a great deal of leg room, only held two plush leather reclining chairs rather like a triple-first-class airplane would have.
Cass intended to hate the ridiculous chair, but when she sank into the soft leather, securing her in a gentle hug, she thought it the finest seating experience in her very long life.
If this was all a dream ride to heaven, then she’d save her scolding for God until they arrived. No one could be in a bad mood sitting in such comfort.
“Perhaps Casey can sit in the front with the driver,” her mother said.
Damn it! My first taste of excessive luxury and I get booted after thirty seconds.
“I’ll sit up front,” her father said. “Sit in the back with Casey.”
Her mother stared at him, then Cass, then the front section of the car with its black tinted windows. Finally, she motioned the driver to open the front door and disappeared from sight.
Hurrying around to the other side, her father climbed into the other back seat. He reached over and touched Cass’s arm, which floated on the center armrest. “You okay, kitten?”
A smile crossed her face. ‘Okay’ didn’t start to cover her pleasure. She hadn’t been evicted and remained luxuriating in a million dollar chair.
“Would you like the top down?”
She nodded and seconds later, the back half of the roof disappeared, allowing the sun to cheerfully beam down, while the sides continued to protect them from excessive wind.
Holy cow! This feels like all the best features of flying first class and a Caribbean beach resort in one.
As the car pulled away, creating the softest caressing breeze upon her sun-kissed face, she closed her eyes and decided God did exist, and He/She really liked her.
​

Book 1 of the
Requires Rescue Series
Contemporary Suspense
​

BLURB
When 80 year old Cass Goldman learns she has inoperable cancer, she decides to end her life, peacefully on her terms. So imagine her horror when she wakes to find herself in a hospital with strange rich people staring at her. It’s not until the doctor arrives to examine her that she realizes she’s no longer old. She’s in the body of a seventeen year old teen named Casey.
Unfortunately, her new body comes with some serious baggage. First of all, the kid has burned every bridge imaginable. Secondly, those ‘people’ in her room are her outrageously rich parents and while the Dad seems friendly, the mother wants nothing to do with her. The moment they take her home to a horrifically huge mansion, which she dubs Tara, she’s abandoned to the care of the butler.
While Cass is determined to turn this train wreck of a life around, doing so is far harder than she expected. In fact, without help, she’ll end up dead just like the last occupant of this body. Thankfully, her dad has his hunky head of security become her body guard. Between her eighty years of life lessons and hunky Troy’s help, she just might live long enough not to be jail bait.
 
SALES LINK
AMAZON
​

Liza O’Connor is a nut.
Not a real nut, but she is prone to being a smart ass at times, and not surprisingly her heroines say odd and inappropriate things in her book, as well. So even in a suspense novel you can expect to laugh along the way. That’s because Liza loves to see humor in the crazy world around her.
Saving Casey was actually the first book Liza published. Having recently reclaimed her rights to the book, she is happily re-publishing it as her 18th book. And because her books sell better when in a series, she using Saving Casey to kick of a new series called Requires Rescue. It will be different from her other series where the same characters show up in each book. This series will be about strong women who are trying to go it alone, only when help is offered, they have the good sense to accept the helping hand, because in all of our lives, there will come a time you need someone else to help you. Being strong doesn’t make us invincible. Book 1 is Casey/Cass’s story. Book 2 will be about an entirely different young woman who desperately needs help before she’s murdered on the streets of NYC. Book 3, well the plot is super unique, and more books will follow.
You’ll be able to read the series in any order you want, but in each case, you’ll have a strong young woman, a guy stepping up to help when no one else does, and danger galore with humor stuffed in anywhere I can.
I hope you’ll come along with me so you can laugh, love, and get revenge.
 
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LIZA O'CONNOR
 
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