Darcy Shaughnessy has gotten used to her overbearing brothers chasing away any man she wants to date. But a chance meeting with a brooding – and deliciously handsome – artist is about to make this holiday season one to remember.
There's only one thing Benjamin Tanner loves more than his woodcarving: solitude. Then he gets snowed in with Darcy in his cozy cabin in the woods, and their heated feelings begin to melt the icy barrier between them.
With Ben's need for privacy and Darcy's love of family and social life, will opposites still attract once the snow clears and the holiday festivities come to an end?
I have read and enjoyed the previous book of Samantha Chase that I have read unfortunately none of the previous books I read belonged to this series. But that's not a problem this is just fine as a holiday stand alone.
What happens when an introvert and an extrovert fall in love. Ben lives for his art, he's a wood carver and he's trying to get the word about his art out to more people his PR person suggested a book
and while Ben loves the idea the fact that he has to write stuff is really putting him off. Until he comes up with the idea to get an old friend and reporter to help him, she's busy but she sends her sister-in-law in her place. It's right up Darcy's alley anyways she is active in the art scene and she lives for organization. Not to mention she's still trying to figure out what to do with her life.
There is instant chemistry between the two but due to a misunderstanding Darcy starts to treat Ben distant and when she gets stranded at his cabin in the woods it seems like things can't get much worse, until they kiss. Once the misunderstanding to figured out and Ben and Darcy start to sleep together it seems like the idyllic life. It was just suppose to be a fling but by the time for Darcy to go home they don't want it to end at decide to try a long distance relationship.
Things get really touch and go when Darcy and Ben realize how different they are, Darcy and her closeness to her family and Ben and his solitary life. Ben unwillingness to move on from the deaths of his parents and Darcy's misguided search for the perfect family.
Overall, from Halloween to New Years this story is full of drama and romance; a thoroughly enjoyable holiday romance. Samantha Chase is humorous and really hits the heartstrings with this one. I really empathize with Ben, I would rather live in a cabin in the woods.
The laundry was going.
She’d made enough cookie dough for several dozen cookies and baked a cake.And she was slowly losing her mind.
Yeah, her usual happy place—baking in the kitchen—was so not cutting it right now. She’d used up most of the basic ingredients and knew if she kept going, she was going to have to get creative. Why the hell had she stopped Ben earlier? Right now, she could be naked and satisfied in that amazing bed of his and feeling completely at peace, and instead, her fingers were coated in cookie dough, and she was frustrated.
Good plan, Darce.
Okay, he’d scared her. Or maybe she’d scared herself. It was all just so intense. So everything. She felt consumed and hot and bothered, and her heart had felt so damn full that she’d almost had a panic attack over the whole thing.
What the hell was that about?
Sex! She was just supposed to want sex! It would be a great way to pass the time, get out of her slump, and move on! Why had emotions gone and gotten in the way? Or worse, her heart! She wasn’t that girl!
Or at least, she had thought she wasn’t that girl.
Rinsing her hands off, she walked over to the kitchen table and sat with a sigh. Wasn’t this exactly what she had been worrying about a week ago at Riley’s house? She wanted to feel like this. She wanted to be wanted like this.
She just didn’t think she wanted it with Ben.
And what was so wrong with Ben?
Um, the whole crush on Savannah thing, she reminded herself. But then instantly, she pushed that aside. He had a point last night, and so did Anna. Darcy knew she was flirty with some of her guy friends, and it had nothing to do with being attracted to them.Right now, she needed to come to grips with why she was being so closed-minded about Ben.
He was sexy, attractive, considerate—he had saved her from being stranded in an airport in a storm—and when she wasn’t arguing with him and actually let herself relax and have a conversation with him, she found he was funny and someone she enjoyed talking to.
Looking around, she took in her surroundings and sighed. There was the whole he looked a little like a lumberjack and lived like a mountain man thing, but was that so bad? Probably not. She wasn’t looking for forever with him. Maybe she was looking for a hot and heavy fling.
And boy, did she want to get flung.
For hours at a time.
And after discovering how Ben kissed and how she responded to those kisses, Darcy had no doubt that getting flung by him would be incredibly satisfying.
So how did she get them to that place? How did she approach him when he came inside after shoveling and let him know she would be agreeable to…flinging?
“Ugh,” she murmured as the timer on the oven went off. Rising, she walked over to her baking station and started rolling the dough into little balls to place on the baking sheets.
“I need to come up with a better metaphor than that.”
Rather than obsess on euphemisms, she simply let herself get into the groove of getting the cookies formed and onto their sheets. It was mindless work and the perfect distraction at the moment. Once she had everything ready to go, she began placing things into the oven and setting timers and starting her cleanup.
This was good.
This was what she needed.
Part of the problem was that she’d stayed up late reading sexy, snowed-in stories. It was feeding her imagination.
At least partly.
Ben being sexy as all get-out was feeding the rest.
And she was just going to have to wait and see what she could come up with where Ben was concerned.
DON’T
MISS THE OTHER SHAUGHNESSY BROTHERS TITLES
BOOK 1 – MADE FOR US
CAN'T MAKE TIME FOR LOVE?
The Shaughnessy brothers have spent the years since their mother's untimely death taking care of each other and trying to make their father proud. Oldest son Aidan is hard-working, handsome, successful-and still single. Sure, he'd like to have his own family someday, but who has the time?
SHE'LL SHOW HIM HOW TO FIND IT
Zoe Dalton, a stunning designer Aidan meets on one of his construction jobs, has the beauty and heart to make Aidan realize how much he could be missing. But it's not easy to break down walls you've spent years building up. Now there's a major storm bearing down on the North Carolina coast, and it could be catalyst enough to force Aidan and Zoe into some major decisions of the heart.
BOOK 2 – LOVE WALKS IN
HE LIVES BY A SCHEDULE
Aubrey Burke is on the run from an about-to-be-disastrous mistake when resort owner Hugh Shaughnessy catches her climbing through his office window. Until Aubrey tumbled into his life, Hugh had relied on work and discipline to safeguard a heart damaged by family tragedy. Now his careful world will never be the same.
SHE LIVES FOR THE MOMENT
Hugh's approach to life and love is the opposite of Aubrey's, but she soon finds herself falling hard for the handsome hotel mogul. There's a darker reason behind her ""live for today"" attitude than Hugh could possibly know, but for the first time Aubrey dares to hope this man's love might make it worth taking a chance on the future.
BOOK 3 – ALWAYS MY GIRL
Falling in love with your best friend? Easy.
Telling them how you really feel? Impossible.
Quinn Shaughnessy believes there's a lot more to life than romance, and he always thought his best friend Anna agreed. But now she's coming out of her shell and dating...and Quinn starts seeing her in a very different light.
Anna can tell Quinn anything, except the big secret she's been hiding for years-that she's fallen in love with him. Now Anna is determined to make a life for herself that doesn't include hopeless pining. But just as she's ready to move on, Quinn seems determined not to let go-and the way he's looking at her might be enough to finally change them from best friends to best everything.
BOOK 4 – THIS IS OUR SONG
Entertainment reporter Savannah Daly is completely unfazed by pretty-boy rock stars. She's just here to get her interview and write her story. When she's assigned to write a tell-all about Riley Shaughnessy, she expects to be put off by a shallow rock star lifestyle. Instead, Riley brings her home to the shores of the Carolinas where she's immediately embraced by his sprawling, rambunctious family. She expected spotlights and cameras; she gets a welcoming, loving family and a side of Riley she never could have guessed.
BOOK 5 – A SKY FULL OF STARS
The stars are about to align in the newest Shaughnessy brothers romance!
WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE
Brilliant astrophysicist Dr. Owen Shaughnessy feels more connected to the cosmos than to people. He’s great with calculations, but when he leads a team of scientists to study a famous meteor shower, he doesn’t factor in his free-spirited artist assistant Brooke Matthews.
LOVE CAN DAZZLE YOU
Polar opposites in personality, the friction between them threatens to derail the project. But the beauty and mystery of the night sky draw Owen and Brooke together—and she’s going to surprise him in ways the stars never could.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Samantha Chase is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller of contemporary romance. She released her debut novel in 2011 and currently has more than forty titles under her belt! When she’s not working on a new story, she spends her time reading romances, playing way too many games of Scrabble or Solitaire on Facebook, wearing a tiara while playing with her sassy pug Maylene…oh, and spending time with her husband of 25 years and their two sons in North Carolina.
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Carrie Ann Ryan never thought she’d be a writer. Not really. No, she loved math and science and even went on to graduate school in chemistry. Yes, she read as a kid and devoured teen fiction and Harry Potter, but it wasn’t until someone handed her a romance book in her late teens that she realized that there was something out there just for her. When another author suggested she use the voices in her head for good and not evil, The Redwood Pack and all her other stories were born.
Carrie Ann is a bestselling author of over twenty novels and novellas and has so much more on her mind (and on her spreadsheets *grins*) that she isn’t planning on giving up her dream anytime soon.
