Tuesday, November 1, 2016

CATE BEAUMAN'S FAVORITE FALL DESSERT


Ethan Cooke Security and their bodyguard team return to action in Deceiving Bella – book eleven in Cate Beauman’s Bodyguards of L.A. County series.

With over 7700 reviews and a 4.4 rating for the entire series, see why the Bodyguards of L.A. County is a multi-award winning series.

Buy It Now!


New to the series? No problem! Each book in the “Bodyguards” series is a stand-alone title. Although reading the books in order is preferred, it is not necessary.  Each title features brand new primary characters and limited overlapping secondary characters.  Don’t hesitate to jump right in!


Isabella Colby has always yearned for normalcy. Now that she’s settled in LA, she finally has it. Good friends, a pretty home, and her thriving career as the Palisades’ top skincare specialist are a dream come true. Bella is content until she meets her hunky new neighbor, but her attraction to the blue-eyed cutie is the least of her worries when contacting her long-lost father threatens to destroy her happy life.

Reed McKinley is more than ready to forget the past. His seven-year stint as an NYPD detective nearly got him killed. His wounds have healed and he’s starting over as Ethan Cooke Security’s latest recruit. With sixty-hour workweeks and little time to himself, the last thing on his mind is a relationship. Then he bumps into the gorgeous woman next door.

Reed and Bella become fast friends. Before long, Reed discovers that Bella is keeping dangerous secrets. Bella may have the answers to decades-old questions he’s been searching for. Reed will risk it all to uncover the truth, but he soon realizes that the deeper he digs, the direr the consequences.


One Of Cate’s Favorite Fall Desserts:

I don’t know about you but I love the fall. The air turns crisp and the scenery beautiful, but I think what I love most is the new variety of foods we often eat. We put away the grill for the year (or use it less frequently) and utilize our stoves and ovens more. Typically, I try to share healthier recipes but this is one of my favorite sinful treats. Chocolate raspberry bars are pretty easy to make and they’re great to bring to a potluck or tailgating. Whenever we share these, I go home with an empty plate.

Chocolate Raspberry Bars

·      1 cup of butter, softened (2 sticks)
·      ½ cup packed brown sugar
·      2 cups flour
·      1 can sweetened condensed milk
·      2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
·      Seedless raspberry preserves

Instructions:
1.     Preheat oven to 350-degrees and grease a 9x13 baking dish.
2.     Combine softened butter, brown sugar, and flour to make coarse crumbs. Measure approximately 2 cups of the crumbs and press evenly into the greased pan. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.
3.     While the pressed crumbs are in the oven, combine condensed milk and 1 cup of the chocolate chips in a saucepan and stir together over low heat until chocolate chips are melted and the mixture is combined.
4.     Pour chocolate/condensed milk mixture over hot crust and spread with a spatula until all of the crust is covered.
5.     Sprinkle remaining crumbs over chocolate. Drop jam by ½ teaspoons randomly over crumbs (less is more). Scatter remaining 1-cup of chocolate chips over the entire dish and bake for 25 minutes.
6.     Cool and cut into bars.



Read an excerpt from Deceiving Bella:

Should we get started?” Bella gestured to the kitchen.
“After you.”
She walked in front of Reed, hurrying to the table to pull out a chair. “Does this work?”
“Yeah, it’s fine.” He sat down.
She immediately draped him with the black cover, wanting to get to his hair while it was still wet. “So, what are we doing here, exactly?”
“Just a cleanup, especially on my neck.”
“Sure.” She grabbed the sheers and took her place by his side, sliding her fingers though his short hair and stopped. “Oops.”
His shoulders tensed. “What?”
“Just kidding. A little haircutting humor.”
He tilted his head up, meeting her eyes. “A comedian.”
She laughed as he smiled. “I haven’t even started cutting yet.” She gave him a bump. “Try to relax. I promise you’re in good hands.”
“Chop away.”
“Thanks.” She combed her fingers through his hair once more, using small snips to freshen up his look. Silent seconds ticked by as she breathed in the masculine scent that was Reed. He didn’t seem to wear cologne or use any fancy shampoos, but he smelled good just the same. “So, how was your day?”
“Not too shabby.”
She worked her way around his head, finding his cut a breeze to clean up. He easily could have gone another week without any problems. “What did you do?”
“Worked a little. Boxed.”
“Fascinating.”
“I could make up something about stopping a bank robbery in progress or rescuing a cat from a tree.”
She smiled. “The truth is fine, thanks.”
“What about you?”
“It was pretty much a normal day at the office—a second-session tattoo removal, a microdermabrasion, two stretch mark reductions, the usual stuff.”
“What’s the tattoo of? The one you’re taking off?”
“A woman’s name. Genevieve. The relationship didn’t work out.”
He winced. “Ouch.”
“Triple ouch. Tattoo removal is not a pain-free procedure, nor is it cheap—and he went pretty ornate with Genevieve. Hopefully next time he’ll pick a woman with a shorter name or abstain from getting himself tatted up altogether.”
He laughed.
She grinned, loving that sound. Did he have any idea how gorgeous he was when he smiled like that? She picked up the clippers off the table and let her knees rest against his as she leaned in and gently lifted his chin, evening out his sideburns. She swallowed, feeling his breath on her skin and his eyes studying her face. Licking her lips, she met his gaze. “You better hope I get this part right, or you’ll have to tilt your head for the next four days.”
He sent her another one of his pulse-pounding smiles. “You’ll have to help me decide if I should lean more to the left or right.”
Oh, this cutie had the potential to be trouble. Her eyes darted to his mouth mere inches from hers as his five o’clock shadow tormented her sensitized fingers. She took a step back and a steadying breath. It was a good thing they were just friends—currently the only relationship status she was interested in.

Did you enjoy the excerpt?  You can read the first chapter on my website, www.catebeauman.com, or you can finish the whole book with the links below!


About the author:

International bestselling author Cate Beauman is known for her full-length, action-packed romantic suspense series, The Bodyguards of L.A. County. Her novels have been nominated for the National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award, National Indie Excellence Award, Golden Quill Award, Writers Touch Award, and have been named Readers Favorite Five Star books. In 2015, JUSTICE FOR ABBY was selected as the Readers' Favorite International Book Award Gold Medalist, while SAVING SOPHIE took the Silver Medal. SAVING SOPHIE was also selected as the 2015 Readers Crown Award winner for Romantic Suspense and FALLING FOR SARAH received the silver medal for the 2014 Readers' Favorite Awards.

Cate makes her home in North Carolina with her husband, two boys, and their St. Bernards, Bear and Jack. Currently Cate is working on her twelfth full length romantic suspense novel.



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Saturday, October 29, 2016

10 THUMBS-UPS for AE DIL HAI MUSHKIL



Dear Readers, I can't recall the last time I enjoyed a movie so much that it inspired a blog post. Wait...(Hee!) Disclaimer: I did love Kapoor and Sons and Piku and Bajirao Mastani and several other Bollywood watchables of 2015/16, but Karan Johar's apres 5-year directorial comeback deserves some advocacy. 
(Also, I'm working on New Book, which means my body clock is wired to wake up at the nightly ghostly-writing-hour and I need to get this movie off my chest before I get to my own stomach-knot-inspiring NEW STORY.)


Why I give AE DIL HAI MUSHKIL 10 THUMBS-UPS:

#10
No Aarti and not a single resounding temple bell.
Unlike all previous K-Jo Specials, ADHM showcases zero poignant families and their associated drama. That, in itself, was refreshing.


#9
Bollywood Bhankas.
The characters are as obsessed with Bollywood as I am. I totally identified with Ayan (Ranbir) and Alizeh (Anushka) appropriating filmy dialogues as part of their daily repertoire.

#8
SRK!!! 
(K-Jo has some good friends, I'll say that!)
My only peeve is that SRK shows up minus his smexy beard. That was tragic but understandable because every male character in ADHM has a beard for the most part. And SRK is hatke.


#7
Whip-smart and poetic too
 The "vatavaran" of Lisa (Haydon) and the "Sufi-ness" of Saba (Aishwarya) and Ali (Fawad) add flavors to the narrative. (Also, too many Alis in this movie but that's neither here nor there and could be a saner reason for the controversy.)

#6
The use of private jets as a conversation starter.
There's also Vienna. I approve of both locations.

#5
Silent discos and Ballroom venues. 
Say what? SHHHH! Put your headphones to your ears and shake that booty.


#4
Girl power!
The shape of Anushka's head (unreal!) and Ash's ass (cough) command our attention as much as their performances. The female characters in ADHM know what they want from life and aren't afraid to...slap, kick and throw the hero out on his ass when he's just not getting with the program.

#3
Bildungsroman
Ranbir's a hit. With women, for sure. His needy, funny, caring, hating, intense and angry (wait! How's this different from Rockstar?) Ayan grows a pair on screen time and...ooh, the red eyes will get you. Plus, this song...


#2
Love Back...wards only (That's not a pun)
Boy meets girl. Likes her. Girl likes him back...but loves another boy...who likes other girls... 
Boy meets another girl...but...
It's game-time for Love vs Friendship in Kuch Kuch ...oops ADHM. 

#1
The Multi-Way Reality of Life
K-Jo didn't tie a neat little bow at the end of the movie. He leaves the story open to the viewers' interpretation, in my opinion.
Happy end? Happy-ish? Awful end. Tragic, ineffectual, confusing, irritating...thought-provoking...disappointing...realistic? 
Or, none of the above.

I recommend you watch Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and then answer that question.

 Interview with Ranbir and Anushka.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

WITH YOU I DANCE - Aarti V Raman


Book Tour

With You I Dance by Aarti V Raman

Dance is Meera's passion and raison d'etre, what are Aarti V Raman's passions and life goals?

Aarti's answer:
My current passions consists of sleeping, traveling and reading a book a day. I can NEVER sleep enough! And the book a day thing is something I am trying out in the middle of fifty hour work weeks. So far, managed some 25 books in YA and reading Murakami on the side. All great fun.


Life goals: I guess writing-wise I have no goals except to rediscover all the things I did love about writing. And otherwise, it would be to learn to exercise empathy and be a little more mindful of myself.




Blurb

Meera Sagar had everything—the perfect job as a principal ballerina (for a prestigious New York ballet company) and a man who loved her as much as she loved him. But tragedy struck on the night before her biggest performance, forcing her to do the one thing she never wanted to do—come back home. To Mumbai.

Now, a year later, Meera is still trying to pick up the pieces, while fending off marriage proposals from her well-meaning but traditional Gujarati family, and figure life out all over again. By starting a ballet school in Mumbai. But she has two problems. One, she doesn’t know anything about running a business. And two, she can’t dance. Not anymore.

Enter . . .
Abeer Goswami. Hotshot junior partner at a South Bombay law firm and a man nursing a broken heart. When he meets Meera again, the woman who left him, he tries his hardest to be her friend, to help her . . . and not let the past get in the way.

And then . . .
There is the sexy Zoya Sehgal. Meera’s only friend in the city and the woman Abeer is currently seeing. They say triangles have pointy edges, for a reason. Will Meera find a new dream in her ballet school? Can Abeer and Meera find their way back to each other again? And, most important, has Meera danced for the last time?

With you I dance is a warm, funny, at times heart-rending, love story of second chances, true love, and finding yourself when your dearest dream has vanished.


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About the Author





Aarti V Raman is an established novelist in the romantic thriller genre (White Knight, Kingdom Come) with her third book, a contemporary romance titled “With You I Dance” out soon with Fingerprint Publishing.

29 years old, she graduated from Mumbai University in 2007 with a degree in Mass Media focused on Journalism, which provided her the perfect background for conducting sound research on any project. She then went on to study Creative and Professional Writing at Deakin University in Melbourne for post-graduation in 2008. It was there that she learned to hone her craft and lifelong ambition of writing romances that had strong characters and stronger stories that remained etched in the reader's minds.

While waiting for her big break, Aarti pursued commercial writing and gained a vast amount of knowledge (from fishing tackle to soft toys) that she claims have helped her with molding better stories. Her first novel "White Knight" was published by Leadstart in 2012 and gave her the impetus to continue writing. In 2013, her work was excerpted in the Tamil Edition of Mills and Boon novels. And in 2014, her short story "Post-Coital Cigarette" was chosen to be part of the Rupa Romance Anthology "An Atlas of Love" curated by bestselling author Anuja Chauhan.

Her latest novel "Kingdom Come" (Harlequin MIRA) has enjoyed a brief stay at the bestseller lists in Amazon India. Her work is represented by Red Ink Literary Agency, Delhi. And very recently, she was a speaker and panellist at the Goa Arts and Literary Fest 2014, Vth Edition.

She is currently expanding her skill set to include copy editing, content marketing, and creative writing workshop that help her explore the wonderful world of words in various forms.


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