I’m doubly thrilled today – not only am I a stop on the Harlequin Valentine’s Blog Tour, where each site highlights a different great book & author, but for my stop I get a visit from the fabulous K.A. Mitchel who shares a story that just tickles me to no end!
So enjoy the story and, after you check out her book, go see what everyone else is up to as well 🙂
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Trixie Belden and the Mystery of Valentine’s Day Presents
Hi, I’m K.A. and I’m addicted to romance.
Not necessarily what the Valentine’s Day commercials filling our airwaves would call romance, that super shiny and expensive gift.
It’s about the story. The love story.
Long before I understood my addiction, I tried to explain it to others. In fourth grade, when book report diorama time rolled around, I leaped at the opportunity to dramatize a scene near and dear to my romantic soul. I assured my teacher that Trixie Belden and The Happy Valley Mystery held a wide scope for intrigue: a mystery and a flash flood which imperiled the main characters who were trapped in a car.
That was all a smoke screen. My diorama depicted the skating rink where Trixie seethes with jealousy because her as-yet unspoken boyfriend is lacing up some other girl’s skates. In case the import of that escapes you as it did my language arts teacher, Trixie had to watch her man bend slavishly over some bimbo’s feet, fondling her ankles because the vapid tramp was playing the helpless female card.
Afterward, the teacher asked why I’d chose that scene instead of the climatic flood with them trapped in the car. Clearly, she had no romance in her soul.
As romance addicts, we’ll come along for your flashfloods, your mystery, your high fantasy, low comedy, historical, space opera, or paranormal. The details don’t matter if you give us our romance with obstacles and, of course, a happy ending.
I know you’re all dying to know how things worked out for Jim and Trixie. On the flight back from Iowa to their home in New York, Jim gives Trixie an ID bracelet. With his name on it. Take that Dot Murray at the skating rink. Jim staked his claim. My nine-year-old heart swooned.
The jewelry wasn’t shiny or expensive. What mattered was that when he asked her to wear it, he told her that he wanted her to be his girl. That was what got The Happy Valley Mystery many rereads long after I should have turned out my lights.
The shine on the jewelry for Valentine’s Day or any other day is the words, and the feelings that go along with it. Probably not what jewelers want to hear this time of year, but there it is. Take it from an addict. One who may have named the math building in her college-set romance after the James Winthrop Frayne on the ID bracelet. But that’s another story.
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Getting Him Back
by K.A. Mitchell
Blurb:
An unexpected fresh start leads to an unlikely-but-absolutely-perfect pairing in this male/male new-adult novel from bestselling gay romance author K.A. Mitchell
Ethan may have followed his high school sweetheart to college only to get dumped his first day there, but he’s not going to let that stop him from exploring all his new life has to offer. Sex-only hookups, his photography, new friends and a campus-wide game of zombies vs humans all help keep his mind off his broken heart and move him toward building a new, better life without his ex.
And then there’s Wyatt. Mysterious, grouchy—hot. And possibly not gay. But Ethan’s not going to let that stand in the way of figuring out what makes Wyatt tick. New college goal? Get Wyatt into bed and into Ethan’s life.
Step one: arrange a “tutoring” date. Step two: “accidentally” bump into Wyatt as often as possible. Step three: explore the sexy body under that ever-present hoodie. And when their friendship deepens into something neither of them expect, convince Wyatt he’s not just a pity fling or a one-time hookup, but that Ethan is in it for the long haul
Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble
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Author Info:
K.A. MITCHELL discovered the magic of writing at an early age when she learned that a carefully crayoned note of apology sent to the kitchen in a toy truck would earn her a reprieve from banishment to her room. Her career as a spin-control artist was cut short when her family moved to a two-story house, and her trucks would not roll safely down the stairs. Around the same time, she decided that Chip and Ken made a much cuter couple than Ken and Barbie and was perplexed when invitations to play Barbie dropped off. She never stopped making stuff up, though, and was surprised to find out that people would pay her to do it. Although the men in her stories usually carry more emotional baggage than even LAX can lose in a year, she guarantees they always find their sexy way to a happy ending.
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Giveaway:
10 books, a special notebook, and a $50 gift card
https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/82ae250c14/
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Click on the banner below to check out the rest of the books and the other stops on the tour. There’s something here for you!
Romantic Reads and Such 
Thanks for being a part of the tour!
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