It’s the first FoX Friday of 2015 and I am chuffed to host the other half of my brain, Sarah Hegger. Sarah is a crazy talented author and she has a new series coming soon that I am in love with.

Sarah: Thanks, Xio, for having me over. Anywhere you are, is always a good place to be.

Xio: Aww shucks. You know you’re always welcome. So tell us what’s coming up for you in 2015.

Sarah: This March marks the beginning of a whole new chapter for me (see what I did there *snicker*). With two medieval romances to my name, I’m stepping over to the other side of what I write – contemporary romance.

Xio: Yippee! You know how much I adore contemporary, and yours in particular. Tell us more!

Sarah: The first in the Willow Park Romance series releases March 31^st, 2015 in paperback and eBook. I’m very excited about this series, starting with Nobody’s Angel and I’d love to share a bit about it and a little taste.

Xio: Please do! I’ve already been raving about the book to anyone who will listen. =)

Sarah: This is the blurb my publisher put together for me (in case you thought I made a habit of referring to myself in the third person.)

In this evocative new series from author Sarah Hegger, a woman returns home after a long absence–and wonders if two wrongs really can make a right. . .

Nine years ago Lucy Flint ran away to Seattle, taking her friend’s boyfriend and leaving her high school sweetheart without a word of explanation. Now she’s back in Willow Park, Illinois, to help care for her ailing father–and it’s no surprise that her ex, Dr. Richard Hunter, is still angry. 

Still, she’s a different Lucy now. Sober, wiser, ready to make amends to the long–make that very long–list of those she mistreated during her wild younger days. Falling for Richard all over again would mean wreaking havoc in both their lives and possibly squandering her opportunity for redemption. But here, in the place where everything went wrong, is the one person who always felt right, and a second-chance that could be the best mistake she ever made. . .

And as promised, a little excerpt.

*******

The wind dropped just then and Mad’s voice squawked out of Lucy’s phone loud and clear. The cyclist jerked his head up and Lucy swore again. All the way west in Seattle, Mads had no idea. Lucy ignored the steady stream of rationalizations coming through the phone as her stomach sped south, into her boots.

“Bye,” she whispered and hung up.

The man in the snow had gone dead still. His gaze locked on her like a heat-seeking missile. And Lucy knew he knew that she knew and he knew that she knew he knew. Or something. Her mind went blank. There must be something to say in situations like this, but she had nothing. She stared at him and he stared right back.

“What the hell are you doing here?” All things considered it was a very reasonable question. His tone and the glare he bent her way shot to hell any vague hope she might have held that Richard had learned to forgive and forget.

“Hello, Richard.” Her voice hit the loaded air in a strangled squeak.

His voice was deeper than she remembered, but she would have known it anywhere. Nine years was not long enough to forget any of the small details she could now make out.

Snow powdered one side of his face and stuck to his eyelashes. His face was leaner and the bones stronger and more decisive, but he was still Richard. Handsome in that Cary Grant, clean-cut, one-of-the-good-guys way. It had played havoc with her teenage heart and hormones. Her grown-up hormones were not dead to the appeal either. His eyes were the same pure, unadulterated cobalt. He blinked to clear snow from the dark veil of his lashes.

Lucy watched him with the helpless certainty that the light at the end of the tunnel was an oncoming train.

His head dropped forward almost onto his chest. He’d propped his elbows onto his knees.

She should say something to ease the tension, but she was clueless. She tucked her chin deeper into her scarf and waited.

“Tell me it’s not you,” he said, eventually.

******

Xio: Swoooooon! I love Lucy and Richard. The book is so grounded and real and heartbreaking and funny. And yet hopeful and romantic. It really was a perfect read. When can people pick it up?

Sarah: The book is on preorder right now, along with the second in the series Nobody’s Fool.

Xio: Cool! So folks can grab it on Amazon – Barnes & Noble – iBooks – Kobo

Sarah: I’d love to hear what you think.

Xio: I’m sure they’ll all love it as much as I do. And as a special treat, I’m sneaking in the cover of book two, Nobody’s Fool. I’m in the middle of that right now, and I LOVE it. As I knew I would.

More About Sarah:

Born British and raised in South Africa, Sarah Hegger suffers from an incurable case of wanderlust. Her match? A hot Canadian engineer, whose marriage proposal she accepted six short weeks after they first met. Together they’ve made homes in seven different cities across three different continents (and back again once or twice). If only it made her multilingual, but the best she can manage is idiosyncratic English, fluent Afrikaans, conversant Russian, pigeon Portuguese, even worse Zulu and enough French to get herself into trouble.

Mimicking her globe trotting adventures, Sarah’s career path began as a gainfully employed actress, drifted into public relations, settled a moment in advertising, and eventually took root in the fertile soil of her first love, writing. She also moonlights as a wife and mother.

She currently lives in Draper, Utah, with her teenage daughters, two Golden Retrievers and aforementioned husband. Part footloose buccaneer, part quixotic observer of life, Sarah’s restless heart is most content when reading or writing books.

She loves to hear from readers and you can find her at any of the places below.

Website

Facebook

Twitter

You can also catch Sarah and I each week as part of the Romance Writers Weekly blog hop. That’s always a fun time.

Thanks for stopping by, Sarah! Come back soon. =)