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Adriana Kraft

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Stress – But not a complaint! #EroticRomance #RomanticSuspense #MFRWAuthor

January 5, 2022 by Adriana Kraft 2 Comments

Do you let stress derail you plans?

Um, yes. Today’s Wednesday. I always have a post ready ahead of time for the MFRW Book Hooks weekly blog hop – but not this morning. I wasn’t even aware I’d missed it until I started running into the BookHooks posts of other authors on social  media this morning.

Stressors? On top of political turmoil and Covid fears, we lost a very dear friend Christmas day, and as so often also happens when I’m under stress, I didn’t pay enough attention to self-care and have developed a minor infection (short lived and easily cured, I hasten to add).

Stress doesn’t necessarily always stem from negative events – we’re thrilled our granddaughter is getting married this weekend. We can’t be there, and I put pressure on myself to get our gift to her in a timely manner. Which went out FedEx this morning.

I’m not writing all this on our blog to complain, but to talk about the impact of stressors on the best laid plans. Sometimes we have to simply step aside, accept what life has handed us, and change direction.

This is what Merry Delaney faces with the intrusion of Detective Jim Barnes into her life. Widowed for over a year, Merry is happily exploring all the dimensions of her new sexual liberation and has no plans to stop or slow down for anyone. Jim is investigating a mob funds-laundering scheme related to drug trafficking, and one of Merry’s accounting clients is under suspicion. She’s just discovered that some of her files have mysteriously disappeared from her home office computer…

EXCERPT

Merry looked up from the computer screen to see the object of her concern stalk into her office. He didn’t look any more relaxed than earlier. He held out his hand to her. She saw three tiny objects.

She cringed away from his hard stare. “What are they? Where did you find them?”

“Each of your three phones was tapped.”

“Shit. You were right about the computer, too. I don’t know why the security programs didn’t block the hacker. Somebody knows what they’re doing. You didn’t find anything else?”

“I’m not an expert on that, so we’ll wait for the people I called.”

“So we don’t know if anyone is listening as we speak.”

“Probably not.”

Merry slammed a fist on her desk. “This is too much. Having you spy on me from bushes is one thing, but this guy or woman is lurking in my space.”

“As I said, Merry, I doubt they have the house bugged. We’ll know for sure in a couple hours.”

“Good. I don’t like this, Jim. Not one bit.” She chewed on her lower lip. “It’s scary.”

“I know it is. Come on,” he said, offering her a hand. “Let’s go outside. Just in case.”

She grabbed his hand and led the way out onto the patio. “Would you hold me, please?” She directed him to the chaise lounge and sat on his lap. “Put your arms around me, please. I’m chilled. I’ve never been this scared. I was just trying to help—to help those young girls stay off drugs.”

BUY LINKS

All our backlist, including The Merry Widow, is on sale at Extasy Books through the month of January:

  Extasy Books

Additional Buy Links:

Amazon   Kobo   Barnes & Noble

Apple    Google Play

Goodreads     BookBub

Please visit all the Book Hooks bloggers who were timely at this link – you’ll be glad you did:

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Filed Under: Blog, Erotic Romance, Excerpts, Romantic Suspense Tagged With: crime fiction, Detective, erotic romance, Extasy Books, Romantic Suspense

It doesn’t take any more time to dream big than small. #NewYear #Dreaming #RomanticSuspense #HorseRacing #MFRWAuthor #KU

January 2, 2022 by Adriana Kraft Leave a Comment

Happy New Year!

What are your dreams for this year? Do you even let yourself dream? I hope so.

Part of my daily practice is using the Daily Calm meditation app, first thing after I get up and start coffee. This morning’s meditation was on dreaming, and among other things, it pointed out that every new invention, every solution to every problem, has come about because somebody had a dream.

Mr. Kraft and I have been writing fiction for over two decades, published for a decade and a half. That all got started because of a dream each of us had held since childhood but never nourished until after we got together.

Each of us had also always dreamed about owning horses. As a child, I read every horse book I could get my hands on, including how to care for them, the different breeds, riding instructions, as well as all the famous children’s horse fiction, from Black Beauty to King of the Wind and Misty of Chincoteague Island.

Because we dreamed about it, we’ve been able to own horses at various points in our life; race horses in the early 90s, and a Saddlebred/Arabian gelding a decade later.

 

We pour our dreams and our hopes into our characters, so it seemed appropriate today to pull a quotation from one of them that surfaced for me after my meditation:

“Listen kid, if you hang around me much you’ll have to get used to expanding your dreams. I don’t dream small. It doesn’t take any more time to dream big than small.”

 

BLURB

When the chips are down, there’s nobody there.  Willowy blonde Daisy Matthews has survived the Chicago streets with this mantra, but she’s unprepared for the much older Nick Underwood’s urgent pursuit. The wealthy businessman receives a thoroughbred in payment for a bad debt and is thrust into Daisy’s world. She teaches him about horse racing; he teaches her about love. When Daisy’s seamy brother-in-law threatens Nick’s safety, she doggedly tries to stop him by herself, but flees to the familiar streets when he attacks. Can Nick find her in time – and if he does, will she still want him?

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Filed Under: Blog, Romantic Suspense Tagged With: Dream big dreams, Dreaming, Happy New Year, horse racing, KU

Christmas Holiday Book Festival at @NNP_W_Light #EroticRomance #Giveaway #MFRWAuthor

December 31, 2021 by Adriana Kraft Leave a Comment

Today is the last day of N. N. Light’s Christmas Holiday Book Festival, and our erotic romance The Merry Widow is featured today as a Festival Pick! Head on over to Holiday Festival to learn more about it and read an excerpt – and be sure to check out all the other holiday entrants, plus enter for a chance to win a $75 Gift certificate!

 

The millennium arrived with such promise—will it deliver for recently widowed Merry Delaney?

Have you ever felt like life was passing you by? That shut-down feeling that separates you from everyone you see? They seem to be normal, happy, satisfied, and you just can’t connect. Worse yet, you don’t have the energy to do anything about it, to take even that first baby step toward making a change.

That’s what Merry Delaney is experiencing as the world turns toward the new millennium, New Year’s Eve 1999. She’s an accountant, for pete’s sake. Her life consists of managing the math for other people’s lives. She’s been a widow for the past year, but something inside her died long before that, as she watched her husband’s MS take over his body and felt him withdraw from her.

Mr. Kraft and I co-write erotic romance and romantic suspense under our pen name, Adriana Kraft. The Merry Widow combines both – intense eroticism with underlying suspense. But it is so much more than that. We wanted to capture a woman’s transition from that dark place and explore the process as she opens up and begins to say yes—slowly at first, and then pell-mell into the fast lane.

Especially, we wanted to explore the nuances of transformation: what is the moment, precisely, when a character makes an about face? When she’s passed the point of no return (or we’ve passed it, for that matter) and can no longer continue as before? Is it an earth-shattering moment? Is it a moment so tiny it’s lost in the cacophony of choices and activities, only to be recognized much later, upon reflection? Does it happen not when the choice is first made, but when a character is confronted with something she wants very badly that flies in the face of what she’s become?

Naturally, in our story, Merry’s journey of self-discovery is filled with sexual adventure—we write erotic romance, after all. But it’s also filled with choices she must make as she samples new experiences and begins to fall in love at the same time. Will she settle for less than what she truly wants? We hope not—and we hope the same for you, our readers.

BLURB

So much for all the anticipation about the new millennium. Merry Delaney’s life is still in a rut and shows no signs of changing. Sex? A fading memory, gone long before her husband actually died. Excitement? Hardly the hallmark of an accountant’s life. At forty-two, what can she look forward to?

Until her best friend takes Merry’s predicament into her practiced hands. One passionate kiss unleashes possibilities Merry never dreamed of—and she wants to sample them all. Men? Women? Young? Old? Ménage? Toys? Yes, to all, to pleasure, to making up for lost time.

Enter Chicago Detective Jim Barnes, who solicits Merry’s help with a mob funds-skimming case. Can the scorching passion that soon smolders between Merry and Jim survive the escalating mob threats of exposure? Having discovered a zest for sex, will Merry ever again be satisfied with one man?

BUY LINKS

Amazon   Kobo   Barnes & Noble   Extasy Books  

Apple    Google Play

Goodreads     BookBub

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Filed Under: Blog, Erotic Romance, Menage, Romantic Suspense Tagged With: Detectve, erotic romance, ménage, New Year's Eve

Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to spend this day alone. #MFRWHook #EroticRomance #LGBTQ

December 29, 2021 by Adriana Kraft 4 Comments

The millennium arrived with such promise—will it deliver for recently widowed Merry Delaney?

Welcome to Book Hooks, a Wednesday offering by members of Marketing For Romance Writers to share a little taste of our work and entice you into wanting more! Click on the links at the end to travel to other Book Hook posts, and enjoy!

EXCERPT

Since Friday night will usher in the new year, we’re sharing a snippet from The Merry Widow, which opens on New Year’s Eve:

Prologue

New Year’s Eve 1999
Four AM
Glencoe, Illinois

It was starting. Merry had awakened to her alarm, brewed the coffee, warmed up her favorite pastry, and now sat curled up on her living room couch wrapped in her plush bathrobe and focused on the TV screen, where the Samoans had just begun to welcome in the new year. Her favorite channel would be live for the next twenty-four hours, tracking the celebrations—or lack of—as the world turned toward the new millennium.

The Millennium. Y2K. She was so tired of all the doomsday hype—as an accountant, she’d had ample advance notice to bring all her software up to date to accommodate the changeover. People were treating it as if it might be the end of the world—hardly, even if her world had ended.

Maybe she could glean at least a small shred of inspiration from the rest of the world. How did you pick up and move on when everything you knew had changed? Tomorrow would be one year—to the day—since Dan had died. She shuddered. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to spend this day alone.

BLURB

So much for all the anticipation about the new millennium. Merry Delaney’s life is still in a rut and shows no signs of changing. Sex? A fading memory, gone long before her husband actually died. Excitement? Hardly the hallmark of an accountant’s life. At forty-two, what can she look forward to?

Until her best friend takes Merry’s predicament into her practiced hands. One passionate kiss unleashes possibilities Merry never dreamed of—and she wants to sample them all. Men? Women? Young? Old? Ménage? Toys? Yes, to all, to pleasure, to making up for lost time.

Enter Chicago Detective Jim Barnes, who solicits Merry’s help with a mob funds-skimming case. Can the scorching passion that soon smolders between Merry and Jim survive the escalating mob threats of exposure? Having discovered a zest for sex, will Merry ever again be satisfied with one man?

REVIEW

Wow, what an incredible book! Not only is The Merry Widow a gripping romantic suspense, but the heat level is hotter than Death Valley… The ending took me by surprise and I was a little sad to see it end. I grew attached to the characters and wanted to stay in their world a little bit longer. The Merry Widow will be on my keeper shelf and one I will be re-reading again and again. Highly recommend!   N. N. Light

BUY LINKS

Amazon   Kobo   Barnes & Noble   Extasy Books

Apple    Google Play

Goodreads     BookBub

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Filed Under: Blog, Erotic Romance, Excerpts, LGBT, Menage Tagged With: erotic romance, LGBTQ, ménage, New Year's Eve

Angela’s Kiss by @katehillromance Free at Smashwords Until December 31, 2021 #contemporaryromance #holidayromance #MFRWAuthor

December 27, 2021 by Adriana Kraft 2 Comments

Christmas Eve, 1967. Two strangers united by mutual loss find the love they’ve been searching for.

After surviving captivity in a Vietnam prison camp, Master Sergeant Abraham Marley Fiske longs more than ever for a loving family life, but he doesn’t believe it’s in his future. Then a promise to a deceased friend sends him to the woman who can make his dream come true.

Since her brother was killed in Vietnam, Angela Franco has been caring for her young niece. She never expected to fall in love with her brother’s best friend, but when she meets Abe, she can’t ignore her feelings for him. Having lost her brother, will she now risk her heart by planning a future with Abe?

Excerpt:

While Abe undressed, Angela changed into the black lace nightgown she’d bought especially for his first night home. She brushed her hair until it hung, thick and shiny down her back.

“You look so beautiful,” he said, caressing her bare shoulders and kissing her lips. “I almost want to wait on that bath.”

“Oh, you won’t want to miss it.”

She grinned, taking his hand and guiding him to the bathroom where she ran the water in the tub and poured in a couple of capfuls of her favorite bubbles.

Abe watched the basin fill, his lips curved upward in a faint smile.

Finally, he sank into the hot water.

“If anyone ever suggested that Abraham Marley Fiske would be sitting in a tub of bubbles smelling like roses, I’d laugh in his face.”

“How does it feel?”

He glanced down, sniffing the water and brushing bubbles from his chest hair. “I think I kinda like it.”

Angela’s Kiss is free at Smashwords until December 31, 2021 with the coupon code TA99W.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1116728

About Kate

Kate Hill is a vegetarian New Englander who started writing many years ago for pleasure.

When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading, watching horror and action movies, working out, and spending time with her family and pets. Visit her online at https://www.kate-hill.com. Sign up for her newsletter at https://kate-hill.com/index.php/newsletter/ and download Doing Thyme, a spicy science fiction romance exclusive to newsletter members.

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Filed Under: Blog, Guest Bloggers Tagged With: Contemporary Romance, FREE Books, Holiday Romance

Wishing you joy and peace

December 25, 2021 by Adriana Kraft Leave a Comment

Do you say Merry Christmas? Happy Holidays? Blessed Solstice? Happy Hanukkah?

If I know what you celebrate, I’ll respond accordingly. But out of respect for so many different approaches to faith, I’ve no wish to offend with an off-the-mark Merry Christmas.

Whatever you celebrate – or even if you don’t – Mr. Kraft and I are aware the holiday season can be a roller coaster of excitement, disappointment, joy, and for some, grief and loss.

I think both Mr. Kraft and I will be glad to put 2021 behind us. While we’ve remained healthy and experienced successes, we’ve also had to navigate many events that were deeply troubling to us.

A few mornings ago, my classical radio station was playing Christmas music. I’m not sure I’d ever paid full attention to the third verse of It Came Upon A Midnight Clear, but these words struck me as especially apt, coming at the end of a tumultuous 2021.

Penned in 1849 by Edmund Sears, pastor of the Unitarian Church in Wayland, Massachusetts.

We probably all need a rest.
Perhaps we’ll hear them singing.

In the words of our own tradition, we wish you glad tidings of comfort and joy.

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Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Christmas, Holiday, Season's Greetings, Solstice

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