Adriana Kraft

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“Have a Good Day…” #MFRWHooks #HolidayStory #PreOrder

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Some couples get a “Meet Cute” guaranteed to make your heart swoon. Cliff and Carol have a rougher beginning…

Welcome to Book Hooks, a weekly sampler by author members of Marketing for Romance Writers. Click on the links at the end to travel to this week’s excerpts!

A Reluctant Santa, by Adriana Kraft
Release Date: December 2, 2022
Publisher: Extasy Books
Word Count: 12,698
Genre: Erotic Romance, Mature Heroine, Holiday Story
Heat Level: 3 flames

BUY LINK

Pre-order at Amazon

REVIEW

5 Stars

“Loved it. This was a fun book with a great storyline.  Carol and Cliff had super hot chemistry that made this even better. They made for a steamy story. It’s a definite must read!

BLURB

Is it ever too late to find happiness?

They’re in their fifties. Grief-stricken (her) and battle scarred (him) from their previous loves, they don’t want to risk more heartbreak, ever. They’ll have to take it slow, talk it through, test the waters carefully. Can they make it happen at this speed, get it done in a short story, and reap the benefits of sizzling sex at their age? Why not?

EXCERPT

Set Up: Carol’s best friend, Sue, has invited them both for lunch…

“Damn!” Sue looked at Carol, then at Cliff. “Sorry, I have to run. There’s a crisis at work that apparently only I can solve. Enjoy your lunch. My treat.”

Carol shook her head as Sue scurried off, thrust a handful of bills at the cashier, and exited the restaurant.

Cliff’s soft chuckle redirected her attention. His short salt and pepper beard framed an inquisitive smile.

“I’m surprised Sue stayed as long as she did. You’ve known her much longer than I have. Is she always so obvious?”

“That’s Sue.” Carol absently brushed hair away from her eye. “What you see is what you get. A big heart, and too often more than a bit pushy. But the truest, dearest friend I’ve ever had.”

Cliff nodded. “That’s special. She left before the waiter came back to take our orders. Wonder how much she paid them! Do you want to stay? I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry.” He gave her a sheepish smile. “Besides, sharing a meal that’s already been paid for with an attractive woman who seems as skeptical about this process as me might be an opportunity not to be missed.”

Carol’s breath caught—but she didn’t want to look that interested. She shrugged. “Why not? So you don’t do the so-called blind date adventure often?”

“Never. Until Sue twisted my arm so hard I thought it would break. By the way, I should add, I’m not disappointed I came. You do seem intriguing, and what is there to lose? We have a free meal to share, and who knows what we might discover.

“Sure. We can always walk away and say nice meeting you, have a good day.”

Click on the links below to travel to more tantalizing excerpts!

My Review: Once Upon a Wardrobe, by Patti Callahan (@pcalhenry) #Review #Narnia

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Did you devour C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series as a kid? Or perhaps, like me, you read the books out loud to a child. My husband and I started a chapter a night when our son was about 8 years old, after we’d all been enchanted by a community theater production of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. For me, as an adult, the entire series was magical, alluring, and profound.

Once Upon a Wardrobe delivers the same magic. The author, Patti Callahan, came to study Lewis’s life and meet his surviving stepson when she embarked on her earlier book, a biography of Joy Davidman, whom Lewis married in 1956. In Once Upon a Wardrobe, Callahan brings us C.S. Lewis in 1950, shortly after the first publication of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, which he wrote in about 1948.

She does so through the eyes of a fictitious terminally ill eight year old child, George, and his older sister Megs, a seventeen year old Oxford math and physics student who loves her brother fiercely. George has just read The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and is desperate to know whether Narnia is real and where it came from. When he learns that its author teaches where his sister is studying, he insists that Megs find him and ask him those questions.

Megs is ever practical, driven by what can be observed, measured, counted. But she knows she must do this for George. Through the interplay between Megs, an Irish fellow student of hers named Padraig,  George, and C. S. Lewis, Callahan draws us into a world every bit as luminescent and profound as the series itself.

In the story, Lewis is more than willing to engage in dialogue with Megs and takes an almost fatherly stance. But rather than answer questions, he tells stories – his early childhood, the brutality of a British boys school, World War I experiences, hosting “refugee” children during World War II, conversations with Tolkien and the Inklings. Megs records as much as she can of Lewis’s stories and returns faithfully to share them with her brother, who is worsening.

The message, which Megs resists but gradually comes to accept, is that truth is not confined to what can be counted and measured. Fairy tales aren’t just for children. As Lewis himself put it in a New York Times essay in 1956, “Sometimes fairy stories may say best what’s to be said.”

Not a fairy tale in any sense of the word, Once Upon a Wardrobe brings Lewis’s purpose and perspective to light in exquisite and richly textured prose, creating an experience reminiscent of Narnia itself. An immensely satisfying and uplifting read.

Happy Thanksgving

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I hope your day is filled with good food, good company, good times, and gratitude.

I am grateful for so many things. Beauty surrounds me constantly and makes me smile daily.

Sabino Canyon, left
Crescent Moon Ranch, above

A stormy evening from our patio

I’ve fully recovered from Covid. I’m fully vaccinated, and my case was mild, but the subsequent exhaustion has just lifted – for now, at least.

So I’m grateful for the many activities I can resume. Taking walks, hiking, golfing, bowling, line dancing, working out. All in time if I start out slow.

Like so many, I always miss loved ones in this season. But with the sadness comes gratitude for having had them in my life. Today we’re sharing Thanksgiving dinner with a friend who’s husband died last Christmas. We didn’t want her to be alone this first Thanksgiving without him. I hope if you’ve also had a recent loss that you have friends and family to surround you and share the memories.

A Pony for Christmas? Or some steamy romantic suspense horse stories? #Series #RaceHorses #RomanticSuspense #KU

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Does your little girl want a pony for Christmas?

THIS little girl did, as far back as I can remember. Or better yet, an actual horse. Growing up, I read every book I could get my hands on about horses. King of the Wind, Misty of Chincoteague, Black Beauty, books on how to ride, horse breeds, the parts of a horse, how to care for them.

I even vaguely remember a book I read as a pre-teen about a girl my age at a horse related event who talked her father into buying each of them a raffle ticket for a beautiful horse. He promised if her ticket won, she could have the horse. He left both tickets with her while he went to purchase something, the drawing was held – and she switched tickets and lied and told him she’d won. I remember she eventually broke down and confessed what she’d done; I don’t remember what her punishment was.

I could never understand in those days why my parents wouldn’t let me get a horse. We lived on seven acres – never mind that none if it was fenced, none of it was “pasture,” we had no stable, no tack – and neither of them had ever had any experience with large animals.

Mr. Kraft grew up on a dairy farm, where when he was very little, his father kept a team of matched Belgians. When his father purchased his first gas powered tractor, he kept the horses a few more years to cross-check his rows of corn as he planted. There was no way a farming family was going to keep a pair of horses just for “riding.” They had to earn their keep. But Mr. Kraft kept dreaming anyway.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that In our middle adult years, we found a way to own horses off and on. For a while, some low-end race horses, which gave us an inside view of trackside life and the horseracing industry. Later on, the Arabian/saddlebred foal in the photo above. We poured that love and that knowledge into our four-book romantic suspense series, Riders Up.

All of the main characters in this series love horses as much as we do. Each story features danger, suspense, stunning race horses, courageous heroines, and the complicated men who love them. Each can be read as a standalone. And each story is definitely steamy ~ if you do have a little girl who wants a pony for Christmas, she might have to wait a couple decades to read this series…

All four books are available exclusively at Amazon, and all are free on Kindle Unlimited:

Riders Up Series Buy Link:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074CH2C33

Cassie’s Hope (Book One)

High stakes,

a fiery Irish redhead,

her stunning racehorse,

and a fiercely loyal half-blood rancher. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GDWTUGY

 

Heat Wave (Book Two)

Hang onto the land – but at what cost?

Feisty widow hires ace racehorse trainer to salvage her family’s heritage.

Can they survive escalating threats to life and limb?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JZ6GW6G

 

Willow Smoke (Book Three)

When the chips are down, there’s nobody there.

Apprentice racehorse trainer Daisy Matthews has survived the Chicago streets with this mantra but is unprepared for the much older Nick Underwood’s urgent pursuit. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N0DH13I

 

 

Detour Ahead (Book Four)

Threatened race horses,

city slicker attorney,

sexy California wrangler

—what can possibly go wrong?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RPT6YJA/

Did our newest characters read this article? Sex and the over-fifty crowd #MidLifeHeroine #EroticRomance

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For starters, Mr. Kraft and I, who write together under our pen name, are older than fifty. You can bet that as we’ve aged, we’ve learned as much as we can about sexual health in the over-fifty crowd. I’ve said elsewhere that writing these stories keeps us young, and I’ll stand by that. But this article from AARP – tweeted by Ageless Sexuality Advocate Joan Price – pulled together things even I didn’t know about the health benefits of sex after fifty: ”10 Surprising Health Benefits of Sex After 50”

So even though Cliff and Carol, our Reluctant Santa and his paramour (yes, they do get it done), may not have read the article, we wonder if something about turning fifty drove them to abandon their dedication to the single life and find a partner.

Here are just a few things I learned – some of which I’d guessed, but it’s nice to see them confirmed.

“Regular romps with your partner are linked to a lower risk of heart problems.” Maybe that’s why Mr. Kraft, in spite of having a heart attack three decades ago and a triple bypass fifteen years back, now has a heart as healthy as any other male in his age cohort, regardless of heart history. I’ll add that there’s a vast amount of strength training, aerobic exercise, and healthy eating involved in addition.

Regular sexual activity (with or without a partner) boosts immunity. Who knew? It strengthens the pelvic floor (makes sense), an issue of particular concern for aging women. It reduces the risk of prostate cancer. It relieves pain – via the endorphins it releases. It reduces stress and improves sleep (all of which is likely related to the benefit for heart health).

Perhaps not surprisingly, given this wide range of benefits, regular sexual activity also increases life expectancy. Lest thinking about aging bodies getting it on disgusts you (and here’s hoping any such disgust decreases as you age!), here’s what’s happening elsewhere in the world: “In Ikaria, Greece — one of the regions of the world where people live significantly longer than average — more than 80 percent of people ages 65 to 100 are having sex.”

So we hope if you’re fifty or over, that you’re as eager as we are to think about fifty-year-olds having sex, and that you’ll enjoy our characters as they muddle through their awkward beginning. And we hope if you’re somewhat (or a LOT) younger than fifty, that you’ll keep an open mind and never give up on both the pleasure and the benefits that come with a healthy sex life.

Release Date: December 2, 2022

Publisher: Extasy Books

Word Count: 12,698

Genre: Erotic Romance, Mature Heroine, Holiday Story

Heat Level: 3 flames

 

BLURB

Is it ever too late to find happiness?

They’re in their fifties. Grief-stricken (her) and battle scarred (him) from their previous loves, they don’t want to risk more heartbreak, ever. They’ll have to take it slow, talk it through, test the waters carefully. Can they make it happen at this speed, get it done in a short story, and reap the benefits of sizzling sex at their age? Why not?

BUY LINK

Available for Pre-order at Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BLSB5DKS/

 

“Then he can watch…” Steamy Teaser from Meghan’s Playhouse #menage #LGBTQIA

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Ready for some serious steam? You won’t want to miss our six book series, Meghan’s Playhouse. 

Here’s a teaser from Book One, Seducing Cat:

What could college English Professor Caitlin Shanahan ever have in common with the brash carpenter Kurt Davis?  The sexy sprite Meghan Keenan, that’s what.

Meghan’s Playhouse

Book One, Seducing Cat
Extasy Books
Novella, 28,000 words
Cover by Syneca Featherstone
Heat Rating
Four Flames:
Explicit sex: M/F, F/F;
Ménage: F/F/M, F/M/F;
anal sex; sex toys

BLURB

Level headed English Professor Caitlin Shanahan has finally earned tenure and purchased the century-old two-story house of her dreams in the college town of Burntside, Wisconsin—at thirty-four, she’d better face facts: her future is teaching college and writing plays, not falling in love.  So why is she so drawn to foxy little hometown actress Meghan Keenan, who’s rented her upstairs apartment, or worse, to the girl’s gorgeous hunk of a lover Kurt Davis, a carpenter who’s never even been to college?

Twenty-year-old Meg has a plan. First she’ll seduce the reluctant professor, then she’ll share her sexual delights with both Cat and her brawny carpenter, and when she’s successfully brought them together, she can make her escape and explore what’s beyond the only town she’s ever lived in.

Kurt can’t stand the up-tight professor who’s hired him to build a gazebo and refurbish her old house—the house he wanted for himself. Even if Meg’s scheme succeeds, he knows Caitlin would never look at him twice.  No need to go there in his fantasies…

EXCERPT

Set up: Cat, Meg, and Kurt have just returned to Cat’s home to celebrate opening night of Cat’s most recent play…

Cat sensed Meg’s fingers working the zipper of her robe down. Meg snaked a hand between the folds to fondle a breast. Cat moaned and inhaled deeply. The warm hand caressing her skin was so right. She opened her eyes to drink in the view of her lover.

Her eyes sprang wide and she yanked her robe shut. There was Kurt Davis sitting ten feet away, watching, as if he’d paid the price of admission.

“Kurt…” she stammered at Meg. “He’s still here.”

“Of course he is,” Meg said, smiling indulgently and continuing to massage an aching breast through the robe. “You know he knows about us.”

She nodded. “But…”

“You’re not ashamed of us, are you, Cat?”

Cat shook her head. “Of course not. I’d never be ashamed of you. Of us.”

“Good. Then he can watch. Right?”

The air turned electric. Cat couldn’t manage to speak. She gazed into Meg’s pleading eyes and raised and lowered her chin slightly.

Seducing Cat (Meghan's Playhouse Book 1)

SERIES BUY LINK:

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HM3G789