About When It’s Love, I’ll Let You Know

And really, that’s accurate. But if I were standing next to you, telling you about When It’s Love, I’ll Let You Know, there’s a lot more that I’d say.

I probably shouldn’t start with “I love this book”…except that I probably would. Both Kate and Peter are attached to their misconceptions about themselves, but that doesn’t prevent them from developing a close friendship that’s based on true compatibility. They really do get each other. They laugh a lot together. And when they finally take that step into a romantic relationship (come on, this is a romance novel, did I really give something away?), I feel like they’ve earned being together because it’s based on who they really are. There’s a lot more going on between them than having the warmies for each other. (But yes, there are warmies. Plenty of that. If you want only sweet, sex-free romance, I ever-so-humbly recommend my short story “Christmas Spirit” in A Stone Mountain Christmas.)

Aside from the main romance plot, there’s angst and stress as well as fun, quite a bit about female friendship, and a small supporting cast of characters that include some women I really enjoy.

When I read this book and I come to the end, I always sigh and think how much I love Kate and Peter together. I hope you enjoy it, too.

A Stone Mountain Christmas

A collection of Christmas stories covering a wide variety of genres. Set in Stone Mountain, Georgia, these stories are filled with Southern-style tradition, love and the magic of Christmas.

From Christmas Spirit:

By the time she reached the age of eighteen, Ariel had come to the reluctant conclusion that she might be a superhero.

While she couldn’t avoid the dreams and events that coerced her to take on responsibility for the world one person at a time, a saving grace had always been that the job didn’t require the traditional comic book tights and a cape.

Until now.

Ariel looked down at herself. Tights. Capelet. Along with a moth-eaten red felt vest, she wore a pointed cap plopped down on her carroty-red mop of hair and voluminous green pantaloons that were short enough to display most of her red and white striped legs. No one needed horizontal stripes stretched across thighs that had seen a bit more fudge than they should have even before the holidays had started. No one her age should jingle every time she moved.

Even a possibly delusional twenty-five year old high-school drop-out deserved a better elf costume than this, if such a thing as a good elf costume existed.

Nevertheless, here she was, one of Santa’s proud little elves, just her and the smirking college-aged kids bustling around the peppermint-scented area where Santa waited to chat with children both naughty and nice.

I don’t know where the story “Christmas Spirit” came from. It flowed out quickly and all things considered, took minimal editing. The only thing difficult about it was deciding on a title! In the end, I took the easy and obvious way out. (Remember how back in elementary school you’d have to write a story, and you’d right out the title first, along the top, in heavy black pencil? Yeah. That never happens anymore.)

Finding Love’s Magic

Welcome to Cupid’s Bow, Georgia, a small town with its own magic. In this anthology, nine authors share their stories of love to last a lifetime and beyond.

The café door swung open with exaggerated force, making the bells tied to the handle bang back against the glass with a heavy silver dissonance. A man about her age burst through the doorway, and then stopped just as abruptly. His puffy down vest and a hoodie that was too young for him were at odds with his very expensive loafers. He seemed at a loss for a moment, then led with, “Ah… hi.”

“Welcometo the Cupid Café?” Jennifer didn’t usually make it sound like a question, but this might be the best-looking man she had ever seen. He was definitely the best-looking man to make an oddly dramatic entrance.

“Right. Do I have to sit down at a table or can I go to the counter?”

“Either way.” He might be a golden-god type, but she mentally begged him to cross the café to the bakery display, where she could give him a cookie or cupcake in a crisp white to-go bag, and as soon as he left she could sit back down for a few more minutes.

“All right.” He sauntered toward the counter.

Jennifer hurried to follow.

“I can’t find my book,” Gammie called from her table in the corner.

“I’ll help you in a second.”

“They say it’s a romance novel, but it just seems like a sex book to me,” her grandmother continued in a carrying voice. As an afterthought, she added, “It’s great.”

Her customer’s mouth twitched as if he tried not to smile.

“More Than Fine”, my story in Finding Love’s Magic, is just so much fun to read. It’s light and there’s a lot of humor in it and my biggest regret is that it couldn’t be longer. I had to end it too soon. Jennifer and Leo could have had a lot more story! (Also, my mom loved it. This story has sex in it. Non-graphic, but still. My mother was not supposed to read it.) My other regret? When people review an anthology, they tend to give an overall impression. I would really love some feedback on this one—other than from my mother—because I think this story is just a good time.