HARLEQUIN NAUGHTY OR NICE WINTER BLOG TOUR! GUEST POST BY LINDA GOODNIGHT AUTHOR OF THE CHRISTMAS FAMILY

About The Christmas Family:

• Goodreads
• Amazon | B&N

The Greatest Christmas Gift  

Contractor Brady Buchanon can’t wait to surprise single mom Abby Webster with his company’s Christmas home makeover prize. But once he does, the struggling waitress turns him down flat! Raised in foster care, Abby won’t accept charity. Yet when her dilapidated porch almost injures her daughter, Abby finally agrees to Brady’s offer. As the hardworking bachelor pushes to finish the house in time for Christmas, he starts falling for Abby and her little girl. With the holidays in sight, Brady wonders if Abby will not only accept her beautiful new home, but also his wish to make her his wife…

Find Linda Goodnight

Website | Twitter | Facebook

 

Linda Goodnight’s Five Easy, Creative Ways to Give Money

Money and gift cards are popular gift choices for teens or older kids and, no doubt about it, they love them. Plus, they’re easy to give. But simply handing over cash or a card doesn’t feel “special” enough to me. So, every year I look for clever ways to give money or gift cards to the older kids on my list. Here are five I’ve used with good success:

1. Snow Globe Money. One year while out shopping, I found an inexpensive snow globe with a photo insert slot. Instead of the photo, I inserted a folded twenty-dollar bill. Globes are also available in various prices, sizes and shapes online such as these:

www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dgarden&field-keywords=snow+globe+with+photo+insert

2. Framed! Purchase a picture frame of any size or price range. Depending on the child’s special interests, you might even choose a frame in his favorite color, decorated with sports emblems such as my red-and-white Oklahoma Sooners football frame, dance shoes, animals, special messages or whatever. Remove the back from the frame and insert the money or gift card, followed by a picture, a piece of shiny gift wrap or the printed background of your choice. You crafty folks will make origami or something creative with the bills. I just get them in there! Replace the back. Wrap or bag.

3. Tissue Box Money. This one works best for an older child with a sense of humor. My thirteen-year-old granddaughter loved it. Tape dollar bills end to end with a dab of tape. (You want to be able to remove the tape without tearing the money.) Roll the taped bills into a tube shape and insert into an empty Kleenex box leaving the edge of one bill poking out. Wrap or gift bag the box. The child will have fun pulling out the endless roll of “tissue” money.

4. Buy a Wallet. Or a cell phone holster, suitable to the recipient’s age and in whatever price range you want. This works especially well for those hard-to-buy-for teenage boys. Insert the gift card or money into the wallet and gift wrap.

5. Christmas Ornament Cash. Purchase a large, hollow transparent or clear globe ornament. Remove the top and fill the inside with bills of any denomination. Optionally, stuff in colored garland or tinsel along with a single bill. Write the person’s name on the ornament, and leave blank or decorate however you wish. Replace the top, add a hook hanger, wrap in tissue paper, box and gift wrap.

There you have them. Five easy ways to make money gifts extra special.

Christmas is just around the corner, and I am always in the market for new, easy ideas for gifting money or cards. Anyone have some to share?

Happy holidays,

Linda

FOLLOW THE TOUR FOR MORE NAUGHTY OR NICE TREATS!

Tour Schedule:

• Monday, Novemer 9th – Book Gossip
• Tuesday, November 10th – The Book Cellar
• Wednesday, November 11th – Books and Things
• Thursday, November 12th – Romancing Rakes For The Love of Romance
• Friday, November 13th – The Reading Cow

• Monday, November 16th – As the Pages Turn
• Tuesday, November 17th – Peace Love Books
• Wednesday, November 18th – Romancebookworms Reviews
• Friday, November 20th – Blushing Reads

• Monday, November 23rd – Rustys Reading
• Wednesday, November 25th – Polished Bookworm
• Friday, November 27th – Toot’s Book Reviews

Giveaway Info:  

One grand prize winner will receive:

• 2 copies of each print title (one for yourself and one for a friend!): Christmas in Mustang Creek by Linda Lael Miller, The Christmas Family by Linda Goodnight, When Secrets Strike by Marta Perry, A Cold Creek Christmas Story by RaeAnne Thayne and Evergreen Springs by RaeAnne Thayne
• An ebook copy of Act Like It by Lucy Parker
• 2 Harlequin Classics limited edition notebooks
• 100,000 Harlequin MyRewards points
• 1 Brenda Jackson Westmorelands notebook
  
  

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COVER REVEAL! A LOVESTRUCK FRESHMAN BY CAROLINE DEJONG (@GHBTours)

A Lovestruck Freshman

These Four Years Book # 1

By- Caroline DeJong

Genre- NA Romance

Published By- Booktrope Editions

Expected Publication Date- December 10th

Eighteen-year-old Sophie Shelton has left behind her comfortable, naive life in Kissimmee, Florida for a startling awakening at the University of Miami. When she begins college, she’s determined to concentrate on her education and future career as a writer. However, her life takes an unexpected turn, and she finds herself thrust into a world she never knew existed.

Immersed completely in a world of sex, love, and cutthroat Greek life, she finds herself dating the freshman quarterback, yet developing feelings for his best friend. Her own best friend advises Sophie to stop leading the two guys on, but she finds that her heart is torn. She knows her path could go either way based upon a seemingly simple choice. Who does her heart belong to? Will she be able to make the choice?

Freshman Year, book one in the These Four Years series, will cause you to fall in love with the angst and joy of college, and understand the difficulty of Sophie’s predicament at the center of a love triangle.

REVIEW BY BRANDY! DARKEST BEFORE DAWN BY MAYA BANKS

 

The Kelly Group International (KGI): A super-elite, top secret, family-run business.
Qualifications: High intelligence, rock-hard body, military background.
Mission: Hostage/kidnap victim recovery. Intelligence gathering. Handling jobs the U.S. government can’t...

The enigmatic Hancock has been both opponent and ally to the KGI teams for as long as they've known him. Always working a deep game, Hancock's true allegiance has never been apparent, but one thing is for certain—he never lets anything get in the way of duty.

But now, his absolute belief in the primacy of his ultimate goal is challenged by a captive he's been ordered to guard, no matter how much she suffers in her prison. She's the only woman who's ever managed to penetrate the rigid walls surrounding his icy heart, but will he allow his perplexing feelings for the beautiful victim to destroy a mission he's spent years working to complete or will he be forced to sacrifice her for “the greater good.”

 I absolutely love Maya Banks.  That being said, I was expecting more from this book.  

I clicked with Honor.  I understand the need to help those who can't help themselves and her selflessness is inspiring.

Hancock.  I wanted to like him.  I really did but he just pissed me off and I couldn't get passed the fact that he is a douche.

**SPOILER ALERT**

How the hell do you think it is okay to "rescue" someone and then turn them over to monsters?  The greater good?  That's ridiculous.  Hancock goes into the Middle East to rescue Honor after she was the sole survivor of a terrorist attack.  The whole point of rescuing her was so she could be used as bait to try and bring down a bad guy cartel.  It just made him seem like an asshole because he seriously thought that sacrificing her for their mission was okay.

Honor was just as bad.  She was angry for a moment and then she accepted that this was the way it was going to be.  I have a problem with that.  She was stronger than that and her story should've reflected it.  

I will continue to read Maya but I have to say that I wish this story would have been more.