Best-selling author Brenda Novak has done charity auctions for ten years to raise money for diabetes research. Novak has raised more than two million dollars for diabetes research through her auction since founding it in honor of her son Thad, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of five. In 2014, instead of an online auction, a boxed set curated by Brenda Novak's Online Auction for Diabetes Research (titled A SWEET LIFE) raised almost $100,000 net to the charity in just one month. This year they are back with a second boxed set. This heart-warming, limited edition collection features ten BRAND NEW contemporary romances by New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors, along with a bonus eleventh story from Novak herself. You can make a difference while you read! All proceeds from the sale of SWEET TALK will be donated to the Diabetes Research Institute via Brenda Novak's Online Auction for Diabetes Research.
I got this boxed set specifically to read the short story by one of my favorite authors, Molly O'Keefe. She easily makes my hotly-contested list of top ten favorite authors. However, I am not of fan of her short story for this anthology, Christmas Eve: A Love Story. Lovers Trina and Dean are childhood friends who become intermittent lovers over many years. The story is rather depressing to me. O'Keefe normally has angst-laden tales that capture my interest and my heart, but this story simply feels too down to me, without the lovely pay-off of convincing true love to make me sigh happily at the end.
However, I did discover a new-to-me author in Rosalind James, who writes Just in Time. This story captivates me, and makes the whole boxed set worthwhile. JUST IN TIME features a hot and noble New Zealand rugby player, Will Tawera, who comes to the U.S. to be a kicker for an NFL in Las Vegas. He meets Faith Goodwin, the assistant to a fashion photographer for whom Will does some modeling photos. Will kicks up his heels a little and ends up modeling for some photos that are used for a fiction writing site, showing him looking dark, dangerous, and Maori. These risquΓ© photos put Will in a great deal of hot water, and Faith travels to New Zealand to meet back up with him and be his pretend girlfriend, in order to preserve his reputation and his spot on the New Zealand All Blacks rugby field. To their mutual surprise, this pretend relationship leads to a real love, although they have a lot of complications to navigate on their way to their Happily Ever After. This is a sweet and touching romance with very likeable characters. Each character feels like the girl or the guy next door, and I rooted so hard for their navigation through all their misunderstandings and hardships. I'm thrilled to have read this box set just for this story alone, which makes it well worth the purchase price.
There is truly something for everyone in this boxed set. Interlude by Linda Lael Miller is a sweet and tame tale. Ask Me Again by Gina Maxwell has some lovely sexual antics, although the groveling at the end felt cut short to me. Jackson by Violet Good is a sports romance featuring sports network reporters and a wealth of feelings to be explored. There is a good mix of sexually explicit tales and sweet stories, with a romance to meet everyone's wishes. With eleven stories, several of which are full length books, this is a great and wide-ranging collection which supports a worthwhile cause. Why not use your purchasing power for social good while getting some great reading material?
In 2014, the boxed set curated by Brenda Novakβs Online
Auction for Diabetes Research (titled A SWEET LIFE),
raised
almost $100,000 net to the charity in only one month. This
year weβre back for a second helping, and you can indulge,
too! this heart-warming, limited edition collection
features
ten BRAND NEW contemporary romances by New York Times and
USA Today bestselling authors...
You can make a difference while you read! All proceeds
from
the sale of SWEET TALK will be donated to the Diabetes
Research Institute via Brenda Novakβs Online Auction for
Diabetes Research.
Featuring a foreword by #1 NYT Bestselling Author Robyn
Carr and a bonus story, the Brenda
Novak classic, WHEN WE
TOUCH, which kicks off her popular small-town
contemporary Whiskey Creek series.
In this new tale, ONCE UPON A DREAM, from NYT
bestselling author Melody
Anne, Whitney Steele loses her sister in the blink of
an
eye and is caring for her niece and nephew, not knowing
how
she is going to get through the loss of the most important
person in her life. Liam Felton loses his brother and
never
gets to say goodbye. Can these two people come together
and
mend what's been broken? Or will fate take them down a
different road altogether?
When behind-the-scenes sports analyst Jackson Gray is
assigned the task of teaching the ins and outs of college
and pro football to the networkβs newest on-camera beauty,
sideline reporter Leila Hart, the last thing he expects is
to become the one getting schooledβin lessons in love,
that
isβfrom a woman who clearly knows way more about sports
than
she lets on. JACKSON by NYT bestselling author Violet
Duke.
From New York Times bestselling author Melissa
Foster comes a new, sweet and sexy wedding romance,
PROMISE MY LOVE, the follow-up novella to
DESTINED
FOR LOVE (The Bradens).
From NYT bestselling author Gina L.
Maxwell comes a story, ASK ME AGAIN, about a
woman who returns to her hometown after her devastating
breakup and finds herself drawn to an old friend whoβs
never
stopped hoping for more.
From NYT bestselling author Linda
Lael
Miller we have a heart-pounding tale of unrequited
love
come to fruition in INTERLUDE, the story of a woman
holding out for the man sheβs never forgotten--the sexy
cowboy sheβs always loved.
#1 NYT bestselling author Sherryl
Woods takes readers back to her beloved Chesapeake
Shores for the story of a woman stuck in a dead-end job
who
discovers it's never too late for a whole new dream.
In the latest romance from NYT bestselling author Steena
Holmes, Charlie Peters knew running away wasnβt the
right thing to do, especially from her fiancΓ©, but with
her
sister in the hospital, now seemed like the perfect time.
And it wasnβt just him she was running away from, but the
promise of the life they could have together. She wasnβt
meant for happily-ever-afters, even though Marcus was her
Prince Charming.
Rosalind
Jamesβs JUST IN TIME (ESCAPE TO NEW ZEALAND)
brings you one bad boy of New Zealand rugby, one erotic
modeling contract that doesnβt stay in Vegas, and one good
woman to pick up the pieces.
Rita Award winning author Molly
O'Keefe writes a heart-warming story of two friends
who
find love where they least expect it in A DATE FOR A
CHRISTMAS WEDDING.
Join USA Today bestselling author Nancy
Naigle in SAND DOLLAR COVE, where a determined
shop owner faces the loss of her familyβs business, and
has
the mayor making tough choices between whatβs best for the
town and what might win the heart of the woman heβs
secretly
loved from afar.
Donβt forget to check out SWEET
DREAMS and SWEET
SEDUCTION, two more limited edition collections from
Brenda Novakβs Online Auction for Diabetes Research, as
well
as LOVE THAT!, Brenda Novak's new cookbook with Jan Coad,
and SAFE HAVEN, a special edition novel from
href="">Lauren Hawkeye... read and help the fight
against diabetes!
No excerpt available.
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