Holding Back

Weekenders Romance Watch

Author: Helen Pollard
Genre: Mainstream Romance
Buy: Amazon

 
Blurb:
Laura Matheson is a natural at avoiding romance, so when she's drawn to mystery guest Daniel Stone while helping out at her friends' hotel in Portugal, she assumes all she needs is a little extra willpower.

Daniel is at the hotel on business. The demands of work and a manipulative ex-girlfriend mean he doesn't have the time or energy for romance, but Laura is a distraction he finds hard to ignore.

As they negotiate a minefield of misunderstandings and mutual attraction, will they both continue to hold back? Or will they finally allow love into their lives?



Enchanting Excerpt:
Laura's mind raced as her footsteps slowed. What on earth was he doing here? The unlikely hope he might be passing by—perhaps he'd called in for directions to somewhere else?—was immediately scotched as he lifted his luggage from the car. Reminded of their encounters at the airport, she could have squirmed with embarrassment at how out of character she'd acted, making mistakes and being so snappy about them.

Well, he wouldn't see her like that again. If Daniel Stone was a guest here—and it seemed there was no escaping from it—then she must make him welcome. For goodness' sake, she was used to dealing with awkward situations every day at school!

He turned at the sound of her footsteps. Forcing a calmness into her voice that didn't extend to her stomach, she stepped forward and held out her hand.

"Mr. Stone? Welcome to the Quinta Maria."

Closing the car, he straightened up to his full six-foot-something and reached out to shake hands. For one brief, glorious moment, Laura thought he might not recognise her now that she was spruced up a little, but any hope of that disappeared as his eyes narrowed in sudden recognition and his hand dropped to his side as though it had been burned.

"It seems you have the advantage over me, knowing my name," he said. "Since you're determined to turn up like a bad penny wherever I go, perhaps you could enlighten me with yours?"


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Warm Hearts in Winter

Weekenders Romance Watch

Author: Helen Pollard
Genre: Mainstream Romance
Buy: Amazon

Blurb:
When Abby Davis accepts an assignment in the wilds of Yorkshire as personal assistant to a widowed novelist, she assumes he’s an ageing recluse. Jack Blane is anything but. Still struggling to get his life and career back on track after his wife’s death, Jack isn’t ready for a breath of fresh air like Abby. Snowed in at his winter retreat, as the weeks go by Abby must rethink her policy of never getting involved at work … and Jack must decide if he’s willing to risk love a second time.

Enchanting Excerpt:
Blinking against the sudden light, Abby held out her gloved hand.

"Mr Blane, I presume?" She tried for the most professional manner she could manage. It wasn't as successful as she would have liked due to the snowflakes catching in her mouth and her teeth chattering.

When she gave an involuntary shiver, a hand shot out to quickly shake hers in response.

"Yes. You must be Miss Davis. For goodness' sake, come on in out of the cold. This is no time to be standing on ceremony." He stood aside for her to clump over the doorstep, showering snow as she came. "I've been caught up in my work. I had no idea the weather had got so bad," he said apologetically as he closed the door on the icy wind. "Let's get you out of those wet things and into the warmth."

As her eyes adjusted to the bright hallway light, Abby froze - but not from the cold. Oh, no. This was not what she had expected, not at all. In a desperate attempt to reassure herself she would be perfectly safe working alone with a strange man out here in the wilds, she'd spent the car journey creating an image in her mind's eye of what her new boss would be like. That image was of someone much older, much stuffier. Casey had led her to believe he was a loner, some sort of unsociable hermit hunched over his writing all day. A widower, she'd said, implying someone middle-aged or even elderly. Someone harmless.

Jack Blane was anything but.


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