Guest Post – Laura Simcox

21 Thursday Aug 2014

Posted by romanticreadsandsuch in Blog Tour

Tags

A Something to Celebrate Novel, Laura Simcox, Permanent Ink

I’m super thrilled to welcome the totally awesome Laura Simcox to talk with us today. She writes fantastic, witty, funny, sweet romances and I’m so happy that she’s stopping by to visit!

*****

First Daughters Have More Fun

Hey there, Romance Readers. I’m thrilled to be Julie’s guest today, chatting with you about Various States of Undress, my sweet and sexy contemporary series with Avon Impulse. VSOU is about celebrity heroines falling in love—but celebrities who come with Secret Service details and a whole lot of expectation attached to their public images. When a girl’s dad is president of the United States, falling in love can be tough. Meet Carolina, Virginia and Georgia—their dad may run the country, but he can’t run them!

Carolina (book one): the middle child, the good girl, the daughter who secretly lusts after her Secret Service agent, and gets snowbound in a cabin with him for two weeks. This book released May 27.

Virginia (book two): the eldest child, the wild girl, the daughter who falls head over heels for her boss while leading the paparazzi a merry chase all over Manhattan. This book will release October 7.

Georgia (book three): the youngest child, the brainy girl, the daughter who interns at a TV news station and is mesmerized by her interview subject: a sexy pro baseball player. This book will release January 6, 2015.

I’m a romance author who firmly believes that falling in love should be FUN. I love flirting, sexy times, adventure, surprises and writing a happily-ever-after that usually makes me ask myself—is this too corny? And I usually answer—Nahhhh. Take that author perspective and add in First Daughter heroines? Yeah…I’m having a blast writing this series.

I’m an avid romance reader, too, and from a reader’s perspective, I love my series even more. The covers are awesome, the stories are short, fun and sexy and the price is great, too. A buck ninety-nine a book (for e-book) and sometimes they’re on sale for 99 cents. (Like now. Books one and three, on Amazon, until August 25. Lol.)

Please feel free to come say HI on social media. I’m not going to give you a billion links because they are all easily accessible from my website: www.laurasimcox.com Facebook is my fave, by the way. In fact, I’ll be running a contest there in the near future, doing an official cover reveal for VSOU: Virginia. Friend me (Laura Simcox Author) to keep tabs. I also invite you to join a fave Facebook group: Avon Readers and Authors. It’s truly interactive, and we have random chats about random things. Avon authors frequently post contests, news and funny stuff.

Thanks for reading! Hope your day is full of romance.

Laura Simcox

“Sweet, sexy humor in every story!”

*****

Some of you may remember when we met Laura before and looked at the first Something to Celebrate story, Ivy Entwined (which got a sexy new cover, btw). Now we get the next book in the series, Permanent Ink, with the oh-so-sexy Ben and the very entertaining Blair. Happy reading!

Permanent Ink

Something to Celebrate series

by Laura Simcox

Blurb:

Blair Whitaker has one goal: get the hell out of Celebration, NY. Her ticket out is helping the town take the grand prize in a parade contest, which will ensure she lands her dream job. It’s a win-win.

Standing in the way is Ben Lambert, a sexy, local tattoo artist whose smile makes her weak. To win the contest, she’ll have to sideline his plans for the tattoo festival the town council allowed on the same weekend. But trying to thwart Ben is more than she bargained for, and before she knows it, she’s starting to see Celebration–and Ben–as something more than a temporary distraction.

But Blair’s in too deep to change directions now. Celebration is behind the parade contest, the mayor revokes the tattoo festival permit, and Blair is on the cusp of getting everything she’d planned. But coming clean will turn Ben against her for good, and going forward means losing what she really wants and hurting the town she’s grown to love.

Find it at B&N, Amazon, and Goodreads.

*****

Author Info:

After spending twenty years in professional theater as a costume designer, with a few of those years also spent as a college instructor, Laura Simcox abandoned her nomadic lifestyle to sit in a comfy pleather office chair at a beat-up secondhand oak desk and write. The result? Romance novels. Her favorite thing ever since she was, oh, about twelve. Laura writes light contemporary novels and enjoys creating quirky characters and funny dialogue. Still, the love story is always the focus, and Laura has a soft spot for a sappy, happy ending. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and her adorable, high -energy four-year-old son who is currently obsessed with pirates. When not playing mamma pirate, she loves hearing from readers. You can find your favorite way to say hi from the social media buttons on her website: www.laurasimcox.com.

Ivy Entwined – Guest Post and Review

06 Friday Sep 2013

Posted by romanticreadsandsuch in Blog Tour, Book Review

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

A Something to Celebrate Novel, Book Review, Ivy Entwined, Laura Simcox

See below for today’s special Guest Post from Ivy Entwined author Laura Simcox. And don’t forget there are more stops to come so check out the schedule here.

Trust me, you don’t want to miss this one – it’s a fun, sweet and charming read and you can find out all about it with my review below.

*****

A Day in the Life of a Small Town Mayor: Meet Ivy Callahan

Hey there. I’m Laura Simcox, author of Ivy Entwined, and I’m dying for you to meet my heroine, Ivy. She is 26 years old, and was recently elected the mayor of her small home town. She lives in snowy Celebration, NY, where every holiday is an excuse for a parade, but pretty much everybody is broke.

Wanna take a peek at what she’s up against? She could really use some advice. Thanks!

Job requirements: Mayor, Celebration, NY.

-Develop plan to revive the downtown, get the snowplow fixed, get wireless installed in city hall

-Utilize outdated desk top computer and accompanying sticky keyboard

-Manipulate duct tape as a budget-saving device

-Direct annoying ex-fiancé, who is town planner, in creating parades and festivals to keep up town spirit

-Manage four phone lines and three irritated citizens simultaneously

-Exhibit advanced skills in moderating town council meetings, especially during a donut shortage

-Acquire business associates who will benefit the town. The richer the better. If they’re amazingly handsome, so be it.

-Keep tabs on super-hot business associate so he doesn’t double cross you. Double cross him first. Celebration needs the money.

-Avoid falling in love with super-hot business associate, even if he stares at you like he’s starving. Even if you crushed on him so hard in junior high, you wrote his name in your locker in Sharpie.

-Listen to gossip, but don’t spread it. When in doubt, ask your grandma, but be careful: she’s playing Cupid. Target: super hottie with the cash.

-Put in regular appearances at the Lovin’ Cup diner: pour coffee, shake hands and eat French toast. Don’t gossip.

-Maintain a holiday spirit, 24/7, 365. It is Celebration, after all.

*****

Review:

Ivy Callahan is back in her hometown of Celebration, NY to take over for her dad as the town’s mayor. On her first day on the job, she gets a few not so nice surprises – her ex-fiance is now the town planner and her childhood crush is back trying to push Megamart, a big-box store that will destroy what is left of her town. While her ex may just be annoying, the crush is just as sexy as ever and hard to resist. As an orphaned teenager, Marcus Weaver was taken in by his drunken uncle but he couldn’t get out of Celebration fast enough. Now he’s only back because the town is his ticket to owning his own Megamart franchise. But his biggest obstacle is the new, gorgeous mayor. With the town’s future at stake, Ivy has to do something. But will their attraction get in the way of either of them getting what they want ….

I really enjoyed Ivy Entwined. There is a decent amount of business and political maneuvering, so some may find that gets in the way of the romance, but it felt very realistic to me. It has a zany, small town charm with wacky secondary characters, but it also feels like it is something that could actually happen. Both Marcus and Ivy make mistakes, sometimes they are doozies, but their reactions are very believable – full of pride and hurt, they sometimes let their emotions get the better of them, but you know that there is a happy ever after just waiting for them to grab it.

Ivy is sometimes her own biggest enemy but she tries hard to keep the town’s welfare in the forefront, even when it interferes with her growing feelings for Marcus. She is trying to juggle a lot and most of it is contradictory so her choices aren’t necessarily easy ones. I may not have made the same ones but I can definitely see why she does what she does. Marcus has some leftover resentment and anger from his childhood. He’s carried it a long time but it’s also pushed him to be successful. Now he’s at the point that he’s got to decide if that is going to be a ruling factor in his future. Can he let it go and move on?

Set during the winter, Ivy Entwined is a fun choice to get you in the holiday spirit a little early (Simcox’s writing is so well done I actually forgot it was still hot outside a few times) – full of laughter and smiles but also a few sniffles, I finished the last page with a little grin in my heart.

Ivy Entwined Cover Reveal and Blog Tour Info

20 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by romanticreadsandsuch in Blog Tour, Contest, Sneak Peek

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

A Something to Celebrate Novel, Ivy Entwined, Ivy Entwined Blog Tour, Laura Simcox

Entangled Publishing has another sweet release coming soon …. Join the blog tour, August 26th thru September 30th, and you could win a Celebration Gift Basket or one of three Swag Bags!

Grand Prize – ‘Celebration in a Basket’. (In keeping with the series theme – ‘Something to Celebrate’) Includes: fun party supplies for a girlfriends-type party (champagne glasses, napkins and plates, party food recipe cards written by the author), Mardis Gras style beads, candles, chocolate, hard candy, and a deck of ‘Ivy Entwined’ playing cards.

Three runner-up swag bags. Includes: Ivy Entwined bookmarks, magnets, pens and a purse charm-style keychain. Each bag will contain two sets…one for the winner and one for a friend who loves to read romance, too!

Enter HERE!

*****

I’ll have a guest blog post and book review on September 6th, so come back then.

While you wait, check out below for a sneak peek of the cover, a book blurb, author bio for Laura Simcox and a list of the sites participating in the tour.

When Ivy Callahan returns to her hometown as mayor, she doesn’t expect much to have changed. But now her ex-fiancé is the town planner, the biggest business is closed, and the only store interested in Celebration, NY is a Megamart. On top of it all, the liaison for the big, bad, box store is Marcus Weaver, her childhood crush. And he’s still as dangerously delectable as ever.

Marcus unwillingly spent his teens in Celebration with his vindictive, drunken uncle. As far as Marcus is concerned, the town’s only use is to cement his rise up the corporate ladder. He needs that Megamart opened, and Ivy is his ticket. But the sexy, stubborn mayor could also be his downfall. As the unemployed townspeople put on the pressure, Ivy needs to do something. With a fresh downtown-renewal project in the works, Ivy could stop Marcus and his Megamart before they kill the town’s spirit. But with sparks flying between Ivy and Marcus, they each need to decide what’s more important: their careers or their hearts.

*****

Meet Laura Simcox
After spending twenty years in professional theater as a costume designer, with a few of those years also spent as a college instructor, Laura abandoned the nomadic lifestyle to sit in a comfy pleather office chair at a beat up ginormous second hand oak desk and write. The result? Romance novels! Her favorite thing ever since she was, oh, about twelve. She writes contemporary, light novels and enjoys creating quirky characters and funny dialogue. Still, the love story is the focus and Laura has a huge soft spot for a sappy, happy ending. She lives in North Carolina with her husband (true love is real!) and her adorable, high energy four year old son who is currently obsessed with pirates. When not playing mamma pirate, she loves hearing from readers and you can find your favorite way to say hi via the social media buttons on her website: www.laurasimcox.com.