Blog Tour: Protecting the Dream by Michelle Sharp (Guest Post, Excerpt, Review, Giveaway and Buy Links)
Protecting The Dream
Book 1.5
117 Pages
Release Date: 09/15/2015
Genre: Romance | Contemporary Romance | Series: Dream Seekers
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Relationships can be murder…
Detective Jordan Delany is back and contemplating her most challenging mission to date—moving in with Tyler McGee.
After receiving commendations for their last successful drug bust, Jordan and Ty are planning a vacation.
Or are they?
Jordan allows Ty to keep their destination a surprise. But instead of whisking her away to a warm Caribbean beach, as her not-so-subtle hints alluded to, he detours to an old estate that he has loved since childhood and asks her to move in with him.
Sparks fly when Jordan is blindsided by Ty’s proposal. He wants to buy the aging horse ranch, start renovations, and begin a life with Jordan. But can Jordan overcome her deepest insecurities and commit to living with Ty? And if so, will she be able to navigate the one other minor hitch: the spirit inside the house who is determined to show Jordan the home’s deadliest secret?
Keep reading for an awesome guest post by Michelle Sharp, a book excerpt, a book review and rating, plus details on where to find Protecting the Dream for purchase, and also details on how you can enter a giveaway for a chance to win a $50 gift card to Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
Favorite Scene from Protecting the Dream
by Michelle Sharp
Wow. This is an interesting question because I do have a favorite scene in Protecting the Dream, and it came so completely out of the blue. It also comes rather early in the story. This is a bit of a spoiler alert, but, I kept toying with the idea of how to have Ty ask Jordan to move in with him. It felt like the sort of thing that should have come later in the book, in front of a romantic fire, after they had spent a few days on the estate and after Jordan falls in love with the place. That’s how my structured, neurotic brain kept demanding that it be.
But low and behold, in true Jordan and Ty screwed-up-ness (is that a word) it happened right out of the gate and changed the whole trajectory of the story. I absolutely love the way it turned out, and I’m grateful I’m able to quiet the structured side of my brain and just let those ideas go, but I do wonder why I bother to spend weeks and even months plotting and planning. LOL.
I also have a scene in Dream Caller (book 2 releasing in October) that happened much in the same way. I was a crying, sobbing nervous wreck at the end of it.
As a writer, when I look back on these scenes I think “yeah, that’s what writing is truly about.” Anyone can plan and plot, and it is necessary sometimes. But letting the characters breathe and fight and become real enough to surprise even me on the page—man, I really love that.
From Protecting the Dream by Michelle Sharp:
The blindfold was purely for Ty’s own self-preservation. If Jordan could see, it’d take her no time at all to draw her weapon and aim it at his head when he pulled in front of the broken-down old ranch house in lieu of a tropical beach. He took a deep breath to slow his thundering heart rate.
Today Ty planned to convince Jordan to move in with him.
Her hints about wanting a beach and some water to play in hadn’t exactly been subtle, and a beach would have been damned easy to deliver. But, no. He’d come up with the bright idea to take her to the middle of nowhere and show her a house with no heat and weedy overgrown pastures. He peeked over at her.
What the fuck was I thinking? She’s going to rip my head off!
Jordan exhaled a giant impatient sigh and crossed her arms. “We’re not heading to the airport, are we?”
“Not exactly.” He swallowed hard. Shit, her instincts were sharp enough to split hairs. What made him think a blindfold would fool her?
“The train station?” she asked.
“Nope.” He sighed, debating whether to keep driving toward the lackluster property or turn around. A couple of weeks ago the plan had seemed like a romantic gesture, a step toward commitment without scaring her off with a marriage proposal. Now his strategy felt foolish.
She sighed again. Heavily. “Hopping on a bus?”
“Un-uh.”
“What the hell, cowboy? I happen to know there are no tropical beaches in Missouri.”
Nerves had eaten away most of his composure. “Could you maybe just be quiet for, like, five more minutes?”
He turned on the gravel road that led to the gated entrance of the old Henderson estate, a onetime horse ranch. His heart was thundering so hard he could feel the wall of his chest vibrate. The woman he loved had been handed double doses of intelligence, bravery, and compassion. But she’d missed the patience line altogether.
He put the truck in park. “I’m hopping out for just a second.”
She reached up to pull the scarf from her eyes, but Ty grabbed her hand.
“Listen, I promise to have you at a beach by tomorrow night if that’s what you want, but I have one surprise that I need you to see first. If you trust me, please keep your eyes covered for another minute or two.”
He brushed a kiss against her lips, and thankfully she nodded.
*ARC provided by Author/Publicist in exchange for a fair and honest review *
Well-written and captivating, Protecting the Dream starts right in the thick of things for Jordan Delany, prompting her to second guess her desire for a vacation with sexy, fellow police officer, Tyler McGee. Luckily, he manages to convince her to go anyway and then surprises her with his choice of a vacation destination–and his want for more from her.
I really loved this story. The characters were realistic and their emotions and reactions to the situation they found themselves in felt natural. I loved Jordan’s spunky ways and Tyler’s romantic but also a wee bit prickly nature. It made for a really fun, dynamic read here. I should also mention there was a fast-paced, easy-going flow to the words and scenes in this, which made the story a joy to read despite my not having read the first book in this particular series. It wasn’t difficult for me to follow with this story or the characters at all, which I seriously appreciated.
Set in Missouri, which really fit the story Michelle Sharp told here, Protecting the Dream is a delightful and entertaining read. If you haven’t read this author before, I highly recommend giving her books a shot. I’ve read two books by her now, and in both, her writing is sharp, her characters are memorable, and her stories are fun and interesting in the best of ways.
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$50 Amazon or B & N Gift Card
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Award-winning author, Michelle Sharp, has been nominated for a 2014 National Readers Choice Award for Best Romantic Suspense and Best First Book. In addition, her debut novel Dream Huntress has been selected as a finalist in the 2015 Daphne Du Maurier award for Excellence in Mystery and Suspense. Although she has a degree in Journalism from Southern Illinois University, she finds weaving tales of danger, deception, and love much preferable to reporting the cold, hard facts.
As most authors probably are, she is an avid reader. Growing up in St. Louis has made her a die-hard Cardinals fan, and having a child with Down Syndrome has made her passionate about any issue regarding special needs kiddos. She’s also a fairly big sucker when it comes to anything with fur or feathers. Michelle is a proud member of Romance Writers of America and Missouri Romance Writers. You can learn more about her at michellesharpbooks.com.
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