New McCarthy Book Out Tomorrow!

Take the ferry back to Gansett Island for yet another installment in the popular McCarthys of Gansett Island Series! Kisses After Dark features Shane McCarthy and Katie Lawry. Shane and Katie first came together in Gansett After Dark, when Shane saved her from a rip current and nearly drowned in the process. The sparks between them were evident from the very beginning and carry through in Kisses After Dark! Here's what you can expect in the new book:

She's avoided men all her life...
Growing up with an abusive father, Katie Lawry learned a thing or two about men and has made a conscious choice to stay far away from them. Until the day of her brother Owen's wedding when she's rescued from nearly drowning by Shane McCarthy. With everyone who matters to Katie assuring her that Shane is one of the good guys, she feels safe to give in to the attraction that simmers between them. Katie has waited a long time to take a chance on love, but is Shane the right guy for her?

He's ready to move on...
More than two years after a painful divorce, Shane has a life on Gansett Island that makes sense to him. With his father, sister and beloved baby nephew living close by and a job that he enjoys, Shane is content if not entirely happy. One thing he knows for sure is he's tired of living in the past. Spending time with sweet, sensitive, sexy Katie Lawry makes him feel hopeful again, and he might be ready to risk his heart again.

Surrounded by the Gansett Island community, Shane and Katie take an important step forward together, but is their new relationship strong enough to withstand an unexpected challenge?

Enjoy Shane and Katie's story while catching up with some of your Gansett Island favorites in this latest book in the New York Times bestselling McCarthys of Gansett Island Series!

Here's a sneak peek at a scene from Kisses After Dark:

Katie looked at him for a long time, trying to find the courage to ask for what she wanted. “What you did before, at the clinic… Would you do it again?”
“Hold your hand?”
She shook her head, amused by his teasing.
“Put my arm around you?”
“Not that either, but I did like when you did that.”
“Oh, wait, I know.” He scooted closer to her, cupped her face in his work-roughened hand and leaned in to brush his lips over hers. “That?”
“Yes,” she said breathlessly. “That.”
“You liked that, huh?”
She nodded as her heart pounded.
“I liked it, too.”
“Did you like it enough to do it again?”
“Let me think about that.”
A gurgle of laughter escaped from her lips, which had been pressed tightly together.
He leaned in so his lips were a heartbeat away from touching hers. “I’m done thinking.” And then he kissed her again, and Katie couldn’t seem to breathe or move or do anything other than wait to see what he would do next.

REMEMBER: Info about our quick five-day contest is included in the back of the ebooks and includes an opportunity to win a trip for two to the 2015 Reader Weekend in Rhode Island next June! Reader Weekend includes a day on Block Island, the real-life inspiration for Gansett Island. The contest link will ONLY be found in the ebook so read fast to enter the contest!

Preorder Now to read first thing on Wednesday!
Kindle US: http://amzn.to/1Ctsplc 
iBooks: http://bit.ly/Ye2ajh 
Google: http://bit.ly/1o5T6md 
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1rkrIon

Kindle UK: http://amzn.to/1rTH4na 
Kindle AU: http://bit.ly/1rYfi9c 
Kindle CA: http://amzn.to/1ufEwhT

UPDATE: Nook readers, watch for Kisses After Dark right around midnight on Wednesday, October 1.

In Print:
http://amzn.to/Zem2mv

Signed print copies:
http://marieforce.com/store

Read the excerpt of Chapter 1:
http://bit.ly/1uetlGc

Meant for Love, On Sale Today!

Release day celebration! MEANT FOR LOVE, McCarthys of Gansett Island Book 10, is now ON SALE! Jenny the lighthouse keeper finally gets her happily ever after with Alex Martinez in this latest installment from Gansett Island, which features some of your favorite characters from past books too!

AND SPECIAL BONUS! At the back of Meant for Love, get the FIRST EVER sneak preview of ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE, Book 1 in my NEW Green Mountain Series, coming February 4, 2014!

Get MEANT FOR LOVE this week to participate in the fabulous launch week contest with all kinds of prizes, including a trip to Newport, RI for Reader Weekend 2014, up for grabs! Details can be found in the back of the ebook!

Kindle/Amazon: http://amzn.to/1cqm6Br
Kindle UK: http://amzn.to/1bfi394
Kindle Canada: http://amzn.to/18bPl60
iBooks: http://bit.ly/H4pLdO
Nook: http://bit.ly/1bNQuUQ
Nook UK: http://bit.ly/17gkTLK
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1fDNJrU

Get your SIGNED print copy here:https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9WZRMGM

Hope you enjoy Jenny and Alex as much as I LOVED writing them!

Announcing MEANT FOR LOVE Release Week Contest!

We have a contest with fabulous prizes to go along with tomorrow's release of Meant for Love! The contest will run from Nov. 18 through midnight, Nov. 25 EST and will require you to provide Marie with your TOP FIVE favorite lines from Chapter 2 and beyond in the book. Make plans to read the book in time to submit your favorite lines by the deadline!

Winners will be contacted and announced the first week of December.

Randomly selected winners will receive one of these great prizes!

First prize winner will receive a trip to the 2014 Memorial Day Reader Weekend in Rhode Island (airfare in continental US, three nights hotel and registration fee). The Reader Weekend includes a day in Block Island (weather permitting), the inspiration for Gansett Island. International winner must be able to get to a US point of entry. Click here for details about the Reader Weekend in RI.

Second prize $250 gift card to the e-book retailer of the winner's choice

Third prize $100 gift card to the e-book retailer of the winner's choice

Two runners up: Signed copies of all 10 print books in the McCarthy Series and a Gansett Island beach towel

Enter the contest HERE:https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J3GWWZP

News!

Since my agent has made it official today on Publisher's Marketplace, I guess I can too! 

Best-selling author of The McCarthys of Gansett Island series, Marie Force's first two books in a new small-town contemporary series THE GREEN MOUNTAIN COUNTRY STORE, set in a rural mountain town, to Kate Seaver at Berkley, in a very nice deal, by Kevan Lyon at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency (world).

Hoping to take the magic of the island and move it to the mountains with the Abbot family, purveyors of the odd and hard to find relics of a time long gone by in small-town Vermont. Hope you'll come with me to the Green Mountains! The first book is due out in early 2014.

Is "I Love You" the Kiss of Death?

Did I get your attention with that headline? Well, there was a great discussion about this very topic yesterday on Romancing the Blog in which the blogger used Line of Scrimmage as an example of a book she loved. What a lovely way to start the day for the author of Line of Scrimmage! The blogger, Laurie, posed an absolutely awesome question about what happens to a romance novel AFTER the hero says I love you. I enjoyed the comments and the conversation on this topic because it's something we wrestle with as authors. When exactly is the right time for the exchange of I love yous? In Line of Scrimmage, Ryan tells Susannah he loves her in the first chapter when he's trying to convince her to give him and their marriage another chance. I think in chapter 5 Susannah admits that she still loves Ryan, that she never stopped loving him and probably never would, but that doesn't mean she's ready to take him back. Nooooo... In fact, at that point, the story was just getting started.

In Love at First Flight, Michael tells Juliana fairly early on that he's falling for her. He doesn't use the word "love," but it is implied. He was definitely in it to win it before she was. But following a traumatic event, in one of the more romantic scenes I've ever written, Michael says that telling her he loves her seems inadequate because there isn't a word big enough to describe how he feels about her. He is surprised when she tells him she loves him, too. This occurs about halfway through the book, and again A LOT happens after their declaration. In the book I'm currently working on, the hero and heroine say I love you on page 138.

I've decided the reason I like to do it this way, rather than waiting until the end, is because saying those words raises the stakes. It changes the tenor of the relationship and gives the characters something to fight for. The I love yous happen organically in my books. When I feel it, they feel it. Whether it's in the beginning, middle or end, it happens when it happens. I know this will come as a shock to you, but I'm not much for "the rules" in romance. If I was, I wouldn't have written a book about an athlete or another about a hero and heroine who were with other people when they met—two things that are supposedly "not done" in romance. Screw that!

Reading the comments on yesterday's blog, I learned that some readers prefer to get that payoff later in the story—at least in contemporaries. I've been gorging on historical romances lately, and the mid-story marriage is very common in that genre. Often the I love yous come later but not always. What's your preference? Does I love you spell the end of the story for you or does it make you more invested in the couple?

Update on the Couch to 5K workout front: I got through the first week without dying, which is always a good thing. I'll start week 2 tomorrow. I've had two memorable running outings with the kids who are very proud of me, which makes it all worth it! I'll keep you posted.

TV Show Update: Loved last night's Grey's Anatomy. Meredith made me a little misty a couple of times as she dealt with her deadbeat father who needed a lobe of her liver. Lexi was also awesome. I loved when Meredith said she wasn't sure what it's like to have a father but she knows what it's like to have a sister and it's pretty terrific. Lovely. This show has LOST me in recent seasons, but I'm starting to have hope again. Of course just getting to look at Derek makes it worth my time.

Private Practice: LOVE IT. Just. Love. It. All. of. it. Except that weird thing Addison does with her mouth when she's e-mo-tion-al.

Brothers & Sisters: Cautiously interested in the Kitty-has-lymphoma story line. However, I worry that there's just too much damned cancer in people's lives for that to be entertaining to the masses. I do like how she now has her gorgeous husband's attention again. Excellent scene when she ushers Kevin out the door and then blurts out to Robert that she has cancer. Calista Flockhart is excellent.

Glee: Way behind on the TIVO'd episodes, but loving what I've seen so far. Love the music. Is there Glee Club for 40-something mothers? A friend of mine might be interested. I'm just saying...

Friday Night Lights: Please come back soon. Please. I miss Tim Riggins. Who's with me? What are you watching?