Take a Chance on Me (18 page)

Double Dipping

Holiday Man

The Sweet Temptations Collection
(
3-Book Set for the Series
)

The Perfect Pair

(sweet romantic comedy series)

Pride, Prejudice and the Perfect Match

Pride, Prejudice and the Perfect Bet

The Perfect Pair
(
2-Book Set for the Series
)

The Mirabelle Harbor Stories

(sexy contemporary romance series)

Look for all the books in the
MIRABELLE HARBOR
series!

Book One: Take a Chance on Me
(July 2015)

Book Two:
The One That I Want
(July 2015)

Book Three: You Give Love a Bad Name (
coming soon
)

Book Four: Stranger on the Shore (
coming soon
)

About the Author

Marilyn Brant has been told she writes with honesty, liveliness and wit (descriptors she’s grown terribly fond of) about complex, intelligent women—like her friends—and their significant personal relationships. Although her favorite pursuits undoubtedly involve books, she proves she’s not just a literary snob by confessing her lifelong fascination (read: obsession) with popular music, especially from the ’70s and ’80s, most flavors of ice cream and a variety of sensuous body lotions/oils.

As a former teacher, library staff member, freelance magazine writer and national book reviewer, Marilyn has spent much of her life lost in literature. She is the
New York Times
and
USA Today
bestselling and award-winning author of nine novels to date, and a lifetime member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. The Illinois Association of Teachers of English (IATE) selected her as their 2013 Author of the Year.

Her debut coming-of-age novel,
ACCORDING
TO JANE
(Kensington, 2009), featuring the ghost of Jane Austen giving a young woman dating advice, won the Romance Writers of America’s prestigious Golden Heart Award and the Booksellers’ Best, and it was named one of the “Top 100 Romance Novels of All Time” by Buzzle.com. Her second novel,
FRIDAY MORNINGS AT NINE
(Kensington, 2010), was a Doubleday and Book-of-the-Month Club pick in women’s fiction.
A SUMMER IN EUROPE
(Kensington, 2011) was featured in the Literary Guild and BOMC2, and it became a Top 20 Bestseller in Fiction and Literature for the Rhapsody Book Club. The Polish translation of the novel was released in June 2013.

She’s also a #1 Kindle and #1 Nook bestseller, who writes fun and flirty romantic comedies, like her stories in
THE SWEET TEMPTATIONS COLLECTION
, that involve sweet treats, unexpected love and large doses of humor.
THE ROAD TO YOU
—a coming-of-age romantic mystery—was selected as one of the Top 20 Best Books of the Year (December 2013) by The Reading Frenzy. Several of her novels will soon be available in audio CD/download from Post Hypnotic Press. Look for them in 2015 and beyond, and be sure to keep an eye out for more romances in the “Mirabelle Harbor” series, coming soon!

Marilyn currently lives in the Chicago suburbs with her family. When she isn’t reading her friends’ books or watching old movies, she’s working on her next novel, eating chocolate indiscriminately and hiding from the laundry. Please visit her website:
www.MarilynBrant.com
.

If you enjoyed TAKE A CHANCE ON ME (Book 1) from Marilyn’s new
Mirabelle Harbor
series, check out the sneak peeks below from THE ONE THAT I WANT (Book 2) and YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME (Book 3). And don’t miss the series connection to ON ANY GIVEN SUNDAE (Sweet Temptations, Book 1)!

Description and an Excerpt from

THE ONE THAT I WANT

(Mirabelle Harbor, Book 2)
 

out July 26, 2015!

The summer after her beloved husband died in a car accident, Julia Meriwether Crane is still picking up the pieces of her life in Mirabelle Harbor and trying to help her ten-year-old daughter adjust to this difficult new reality.

After her best friend Sharlene—one of the well-connected Michaelsen siblings—talks her into finally going out on the town again, Julia finds herself stunned to be the object of interest of several different men: The boy who’d broken her heart back in high school. The college ex she’d left behind. And most surprising of all, the movie actor she’d always fantasized about but had never met in person…until now. Can one woman have more than one “great love” in the same lifetime? And, if so, how can she be sure which man that’ll be?

Sometimes the person you think will be best for you isn’t the one you really want. THE ONE THAT I WANT, a Mirabelle Harbor story.

From the Novel:

With the exception of my best friend Sharlene, the others at the wine bar had gone back to their conversations so, thankfully, I didn’t have too many people witnessing my fumbles with setting up a (sort-of) date for the first time in twelve years. It was awkward, but I agreed to coffee with my old high-school boyfriend and gave Kristopher my phone number, which he dutifully punched into his cell so we could arrange a time and day to meet later.

Shar nudged me when he wasn’t looking and whispered, “See? Not so hard, is it?”

I made a face at her and shrugged.

Finally, the party was beginning to break up. I was mentally congratulating myself on making it through the evening when the very sweet, well-dressed woman—Elsie was her name—wolf whistled. “Wait, people!”

Everyone halted.

“I’ve been wanting to tell you this good news all night.” She paused for effect. “You know my friend Rosemary, the one who works at the Knightsbridge Theater in the city, right?”

Most of the group nodded, seeming to have met Elsie’s friend or, at least, heard about her.

“There’s a dress rehearsal for their upcoming summer production, ‘The Bachelor Pad,’ this Thursday at six-thirty in the evening, in advance of next Friday’s Opening Night,” Elsie said. “And Rosemary reserved a block of seats for us.”

Despite the noise in the wine bar, an audible spike in sound came on the heels of those words, and a couple of the women actually squealed.

I squinted at them. I mean, tickets to a play were always nice, but wasn’t this taking theatrical enthusiasm a bit far?

“But that’s not all,” Elsie continued enthusiastically. “Rosemary also got us passes to meet the cast, just as she did for that steampunk musical last year—”

“Steampunk musical?” I hissed in Shar’s ear.

She nodded. “It was bizarre. Tell you more about it later.”

I grinned and brought my glass of wine to my lips, draining it of its final swallow.

“—including a special Q&A session with the director, Zachary Leeward,” Elsie added, “and with the star of the show, Dane Tyler.”

I choked on the last drops of merlot, coughing so hard that Bill reached across the table to hand me a fresh glass of ice water, Shar patted me on the back, and everyone else stared at me worriedly. Except for Kristopher. He shot me a knowing look.

Yeah, of course he’d remember
that
.

“Are you okay?” Elsie asked me.

I gulped down half the water.
Oh, God. Of all the actors on the planet—Dane Tyler. Here? REALLY?

My teen world had just materialized out of thin air, like that freaky phantom ship that came from absolutely nowhere in
Pirates of the Caribbean
. My gut twisted weirdly, and I could barely breathe. “P-Please go on,” I managed to whisper.

She smiled. “So, if any of you want to go to the performance, and I know you do, let me know now, and I’ll email the list of names to Rosemary in the morning.”

Elsie was right. With the exception of one accountant guy, who had an out-of-town business trip next week, and a very disappointed single mom, whose kid was playing in a baseball tournament Thursday night, everyone else signed up to go.

Including
me,
at Shar’s insistence. And including Kristopher.

My old high-school boyfriend leaned over the table and said with a laugh, “Well, isn’t that something? Maybe, if you ask him real nice, he’ll recite your favorite lines from your favorite movie to you.”

“Ha,” I said weakly.

“Which lines? Which movie?” Shar asked.

Before I could reply, Elise jumped in and pointed to Shar and then me. “You two want to ride down with me?”

Shar answered for both of us. “Oh, yeah!”

Although I managed to stop tripping over my own tongue and was able to thank the kind woman, I didn’t succeed in making more than a few last bits of small talk. All I could do was blush furiously and think to myself, in the fevered squeaking of an adolescent schoolgirl,
OMG, I’m finally going to see Dane Tyler in person! Maybe even talk to him!

In just one evening, three distinct memories of men from my past played out like a warped summertime version of
A Christmas Carol
in my mind. Haunting memories of relationships that I’d had or had lost or had wanted—sometimes simultaneously and always more powerfully than I’d expected—were reeling through my brain on a continuous loop, braiding my emotions with the mental film footage.

Before my best friend could ask me any more questions I didn’t want to answer, I hugged her goodnight and raced into the evening, forgetting until my feet hit the pavement and I collapsed into the driver’s seat of my car that I wasn’t, in fact, lost in time.

That I wasn’t living out some high-school fantasy.

That I wasn’t a vulnerable young woman, helpless in the face of fate.

I started the engine, replayed those last three thoughts again, and shook my head.

Like hell I wasn’t.

**Check out the
Mirabelle Harbor website page
for more information on the series!**

Coming Soon

YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME

(Mirabelle Harbor, Book 3)

by Marilyn Brant

“Nothing but love, 24/7” is the slogan of Mirabelle Harbor’s only radio station, 102.5 “LOVE” FM. At age thirty-four, local DJ Blake Michaelsen is well-known for several reasons: his very sexy on-air voice, his omnipresent family, his eligible bachelor status, and his reputation as one of the most impulsive men in Chicago’s northern suburbs.

High-school French teacher and lifelong romantic Vicky Bernier is not at all wild about people who exhibit reckless conduct. (Blake.) Or men who have gigantic egos. (Blake.) Or grownups who still act like teenagers. (Blake, again.) She deals with enough adolescent behavior during the school day. Unfortunately, she’s the staff advisor to the Homecoming Committee, and they’ve chosen him as their DJ for the big fall dance.

What happens when a man whose job it is to play love songs for a living is forced to admit his deepest secret—that he doesn’t believe in true love—only to discover that the one woman who might capture his heart is the same woman who distrusts him the most?

No matter what you call it, with love there’s an exception to every rule. YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME, a Mirabelle Harbor story.

Series Connection:

ON ANY GIVEN SUNDAE

(Sweet Temptations, Book 1)

out now!

Readers who are familiar with the stories in THE SWEET TEMPTATIONS COLLECTION (a trio of light romantic comedies set in the Midwest) might recognize references to the fictional Chicago restaurant “The Playbook,” which is owned by Roberto Gabinarri, the hero of Marilyn’s
New York Times
&
USA Today
bestselling novel ON ANY GIVEN SUNDAE. Also featured in the story is Nia’s cousin Nick… Here’s a brief description and a short excerpt from the book:

When Elizabeth’s uncle Siegfried and Rob’s uncle Pauly rush off to Europe for a month in summer, they temporarily relinquish the reins of their ice cream shop to their respective niece and nephew—two people who may have grown up practically next door to each other but who have next to nothing in common…

From the Novel:

Rob Gabinarri was enjoying the sound of his own voice in his latest battle of wits with Miguel, the style consultant for his Chicago restaurant, when the phone rang.

“Rob Gabinarri, proprietor. The Playbook,” he said into the receiver, feeling the usual pride at the words. He never got tired of announcing his ownership of this place.

“Roberto!” his uncle Pauly said.

Rob checked the date. It wasn’t his birthday. It wasn’t Christmas. It wasn’t the NFL Playoffs or anytime close to the Super Bowl. Something must be wrong with somebody.

“Uncle Pauly, how are you? Is everything all right in Wilmington Bay?”

“Great, great.”

“Everyone in the family? Mama and Tony and Maria-Louisa and the kids and—”

“Oh, they’re all fine. Just fine. But I need your help.”

This stopped Rob cold. The last time his independent uncle had asked for anybody’s help, big hair and legwarmers had still been in fashion. No matter what, there was no way Rob could decline. Family always came first.