Blog Tour & Giveaway: A Shot At Love

A Shot At Love

by Peggy Jaeger

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GENRE:   Contemporary Romance

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BLURB:

Nothing’s impossible when love is on the menu. In Peggy Jaeger’s luscious series, the only thing more tempting than a delicious meal is a truly delectable romance . . .
Look for exclusive recipes in each book!

Photographer Gemma Laine is looking for arresting faces on the streets of Manhattan when her camera captures something shocking—a triple murder. In that moment, she becomes a target for the mob—and a top priority for a very determined, breathtakingly handsome, FBI special agent. With deadlines to meet and photo shoots on her calendar, Gemma chafes at the idea of protection, but every moment she spends under his watchful eye is a temptation to lose herself in his muscular arms . . .

With two of his men and one crucial witness dead, Special Agent Kyros Pappandreos can’t afford to be distracted. But Gemma is dazzling—and her connection to Kandy Laine’s high-profile cooking empire makes her an especially easy mark for some very bad people. Keeping her safe is much more pleasure than business, but as the heat between them starts to sizzle, Ky is set to investigate whether they have a shot at love . . .

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Excerpt One:

A woman stood next to the vehicle, a cell phone at her ear, her back to him. Tall, maybe as tall as him, and slender, her back tapered down to a miniscule waist, her legs clad in tight, faded jeans. When she turned Ky almost stopped midstride, the questions he intended to grill her with jumping out of his head. His breath caught as he simply stared at the loveliest woman he’d ever seen.

Hair the color of midnight, straight as a board, fell to just below her shoulders, blowing back from her face in the gentle afternoon breeze. Blunt, chopped bangs, fringed a pair of large, bright blue eyes. Plump, coral colored lips moved as she spoke into the phone and for a brief, hot second, Ky wondered if they’d taste as delicious as they looked.

Her gaze stayed on him as she spoke.

“I’ve gotta go,” she said into the phone. “Yeah. I’ll call when I’m done. Love you, too.”

“Miss Laine?”

She tucked the phone into her back pocket.

“I’m Special Agent Pappandreos. I need to speak with you about what you saw.”

“Special Agent?” Those delicate brows furrowed under her bangs. “Like, FBI?”

Jesus, where does a woman get a voice like that? Whiskey laced with honey and rolled into one smooth pitch.

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Interview:

Where are you from? Tell us a little about yourself!

Born an bred in Brooklyn, NY. By way of Staten Island, I wound up in New Hampshire 24 years ago and absolutely love it here. There is nothing – in my mind – prettier, than a New England Autumn. I’m an only child from divorced parents – lots of angst, there – and I’ve been married to the first man I’ve ever loved for 30 years. We have a gorgeous daughter who brings us joy every singe day with just a smile.

Tell us about your book? How did it get started?

I wanted to write about a family of sisters and explore all the emotions, histories, and personalities in a girls-only family. The Laine girls came to me one evening while I was cooking. 7 girls, raised by a single/divorced  mother and that mother’s parents. How would the navigate the world after being betrayed by the one man who should have loved them above everyone else – their father. KANDY LAINE, the oldest ( COOKING WITH KANDY, Bk 1) was taken under her grandmother’s wing as a child and taught to cook. Gemma Laine, ( A SHOT AT LOVE, bk2) is 3 years younger than Kandy and has been her personal photographer all of her career. Now, with Kandy’s tv show winding down, Gemma has branched out to her own business, GAL Photos, and has been making quite a name for herself. Because of how she feels about what her father did to her mother and the rest of the family, Gemma is determine to never give her heart to any man. She is fearful of being left the way her mother was and refuses to be anyone’s victim.

How do you create your characters?

I love this question!! I am uber-nosy. Really. I am unabashedly nosy, in fact. I lovelovelove to talk to people, find out what makes them, well…them. I am a master eavesdropper and will spend hours in Panera, or at the movies, or the mall, just listening to how people talk to and interact with one another. From all these snippets of conversations, I start to imagine characters who say the same things. That girl in line at the bank who was complaining– loudly – on her cell phone to someone about her ex-boyfriend; the elderly couple sitting on a bench, sharing a hot pretzel from a street vendor; that young mother, trying to get her children corralled at the park. All these people speak to tell their stories.

What inspires and what got your started in writing?

I got started writing as a kid because I was a lonely, overweight, shy child from divorced parents. Both had remarried and neither had any more children. I wanted a big family, so I started inventing them on the page for myself. Families inspire me to this day. The people you grew up with and live with, and maybe have even left for a time, all know you like no one else knows you. They’ve seen you at your best and your worst. And they still love you in spite of, and despite, all that. I love that.

Where do you write? Is there something you need in order to write (music, drinks?)

I have an office on the third floor of my home that overlooks our back forest property. I live in the woods where it is quiet and peaceful. I can watch the seasons change every day as I type away on my laptop on my desk in front of a window. I need quiet to write. Total quiet. I am not one of the very lucky people who can tune extraneous noise out. If I listened to music I would never write because I’d be singing along all day long.

How do you get your ideas for writing?

What do you like to read?

I’m a fiction whore. I lovelove love fiction. I read cozy mysteries, thrillers, and in romance I love contemporary, humorous small town stories, and Regencies. I read up to 3 books a week because I read fast and I read on the treadmill every day at the gym. Combining workouts ( which I hate) with reading ( which I adore) has made me somewhat fit and very happy!

What would your advice to be for authors or aspiring in regards to writing?
Two things: never give up on a dream,  and write the story of their heart no matter who says you shouldn’t/or can’t.

I was 55 years old when I got my first novel published. At a time when most people are starting to think of bucket lists and retirement, I was starting an entirely new career that I was committed to. I was all in! It’s never to late to find your writing voice and a willing ear who will listen to it, and publish it!

Don’t write to trends or what is currently selling. By the time you write something that’s already hot now, the tide will turn and something else will be popular. Just write what is in your heart. The story that only you can tell. This is what I did.

Anything else you’d like to share? Just thank you for having me today! Your questions are thought provoking!

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Peggy Jaeger is a contemporary romance writer who writes about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them.

Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, Peggy brings all topics of daily life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she has created the families she wanted as that lonely child.

Tying into her love of families, her children’s book, THE KINDNESS TALES, was illustrated by her artist mother-in-law.

Peggy holds a master’s degree in Nursing Administration and first found publication with several articles she authored on Alzheimer’s Disease during her time running an Alzheimer’s in-patient care unit during the 1990s.

In 2013, she placed first in two categories in the Dixie Kane Memorial Contest: Single Title Contemporary Romance and Short/Long Contemporary Romance.

In 2017 she came in 3rd in the New England Reader’s Choice contest for A KISS UNDER THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS and is a finalist in the 2017 STILETTO contest for the same title.

A lifelong and avid romance reader and writer, she is a member of RWA and her local New Hampshire RWA Chapter.

Website/Blog: http://peggyjaeger.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/peggy_jaeger

Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00T8E5LN0

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Peggy-Jaeger-Author/825914814095072?ref=bookmarks

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/peggyjaeger/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13478796.Peggy_Jaeger

Instagram: https://instagram.com/mmj122687/

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE:

Peggy Jaeger will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway