Spotlight & Giveaway: Santa Cam by Maria Hoagland #RomBks4Chris19

On Tour with Prism Book Tours

Santa Cam

(A MyHeartChanel Romance)

By Maria Hoagland

Sweet Contemporary Romance

Hardcover & ebook, 206 Pages 

October 28th 2019 by Red Leaves Press

♥♥ The one behind the camera could be his best match yet. ♥♥

All professional soccer player Camden Sharpe wants for Christmas is to get home to Cobble Creek, Wyoming, for snow and family time. But when a brawl video surfaces online, Cam is forced to stay in Texas to clean up the public relations mess if he ever wants to get off the fans’ Naughty List. His manager-imposed community service lands Camden in a Santa suit surrounded by little kids with long lists of demands, but his attention is on his pretty elf assistant. He’s sure he’s seen her somewhere before, and he’s not convinced it was all that good.

Talia Thomas hopes Santa doesn’t recognize her. A lot of things in her life have changed since they butted heads a while back—including the trajectory of her career—and he has no idea he was the one who changed everything. Once a network reporter, Talia now runs MyHeartChannel Talia’s Truth Cam, but views are falling, advertisers are disappearing, and Talia’s excitement for her stories has frozen over. She’s tired of depressing news and shattered hearts, but it’s her job to tell the truth.

As Talia and Cam set out on a mission to convince the other the see the good in the world around them, they soon discover that only looking for the good sometimes means missing the truth that was right in front of them. Can Camden and Talia ever trust each other enough to move on from the mistakes of their past?

♥ If you love Hallmark channel Christmas movies, this full-length sweet romance novel will brighten your day any time of year! Always clean and wholesome, Maria Hoagland's books can be read as standalone, but often have character cameos from other books. Don't miss any of her uplifting collections of hears, homes, and happily ever afters! ♥♥

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Excerpt

Pulling back the curtain, he watched thick flakes swirl through the light of the streetlamp in front of his house. At least a couple of inches had accumulated—not bad for a place where he hadn’t expected to ever see snow. He itched to go out in it, but it wouldn’t be fun alone.

He found the number in his contacts and called, hoping Talia had her phone on do not disturb if it was too late for him to be calling. She answered on the second ring.

“Are you afraid of the little storm, Cam?” she crooned before he could say hello.

Point for her. Her spunkiness was exactly why he liked spending time with her. “Do you have an early morning?”

“No . . .” She drew it out, slowly enunciating the word. “Why?” she followed up quickly.

He ignored her question. “How adventurous are you feeling?”

“Why?” This time she asked with more suspicion. While she didn’t exactly answer, at least this time she sounded a little more eager.

“Put on your snow boots and parka. I’m coming over.” He was going to make an order, but decided he ought not to leave it there. “Okay?”

“But it’s snowing . . .”

The unspoken sentiment was that she was worried about him driving and getting in an accident. He’d grown up driving in this kind of weather. “That’s the whole point. And why I suggested boots and a coat.” If that was her only objection, he wasn’t going to let that keep him from coming. “I’ll see you in a few.”

Getting out the door took more work than he’d planned. First, Cam had to dig through a few boxes to locate the appropriate winter attire. While looking, he ran back and forth to the stove, throwing together a thermos-ful of his mom’s hot chocolate. As long as he didn’t scald it while scrounging for matching gloves, it would be a nice addition to the evening he had planned.

Dressed in normal winter clothes but with a Santa cap on his head, Cam knocked on Talia’s door just before midnight. She opened to him, pulling on her knit cap and stepping outside.

She rushed to the balcony railing and put gloved hands in the puff of accumulated precipitation to look over it. “It’s so beauti—”

He didn’t let her finish her statement before he blasted her in the back with a snowball he’d had behind his back. It exploded like a bombshell, the white of the snow stark against her black coat, and she laughed, scooping snow from the railing for a retaliatory snowball. She wound up and let loose, and the ball hit him square in the chest, tiny ice shards ricocheting onto his face.

“I was going to thank you for driving over here in this.” Her tone teasingly insinuated she no longer felt that way. She scooted farther down the landing, capturing more snow but never taking her eyes off Camden. “But I know why you came now.”

“Is that right?” He tossed a handful of snow in her general direction, but it didn’t go higher than their waists and then floated like pixie dust onto her boots.

They sparred down three flights of stairs, and only once did he need to reach out to keep her from slipping down several steps. They made their way across the first-floor walkway, tossing half-formed snowballs at each other and trying to keep quiet so they wouldn’t wake anyone in the apartments. When they made it into the open lawn, however, she slammed him with a good one at the base of his neck, and snow fell down the back of his coat.

“Just for that . . .” He lunged at her, grabbing her around the waist and swinging her around. If there’d been more than the inch or two, he would have dragged her to the ground, but as it was, everywhere they scraped snow away left soggy mud.

She strained against him for half a second, but when he loosened his grasp, she grabbed him around the arms, pinning them to his sides, and jostled him back and forth as he had her. Her mischievous smile was inches from his, and without thinking, he leaned forward until her lips were under his.

He hadn’t actually planned this, had not come with this intent in mind, but there she was, laughing and happy and oh so beautiful in the moonlight.

About the Author

Maria Hoagland writes about hearts, homes, and happily ever afters. Known for her fun and flirty sweet romance and women's fiction, Maria's novels make great book club choices. She's published over a dozen books including two Whitney Award finalists, and has no plans to stop writing any time soon. She is a member of the Storymakers Guild and Indie Author Hub, and is currently serving as the Chair for the Storymakers board of directors.

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Tour Schedule

(Posts go live on the day they're scheduled.)

December 11th: Launch
December 12th: Julie Coulter Bellon - Truth or Dare
December 13th: Delaney Cameron - The Gift of Love
December 14th: Raneé S. Clark - Her Country Christmas Date
December 15th: Stephanie Fowers - Robin and Marian
December 16th: Aspen Hadley - Blind Dates, Bridesmaids & Other Disasters
December 17th: Maria Hoagland - Santa Cam
December 18th: Rachel John - The Christmas Bachelor Auction
December 19th: Sally Johnson - Dear Mr. Darcy
December 20th: D.E. Malone - Love Like Forever
December 21st: Melissa McClone - Mountain Rescue Romance Series
December 22nd: Brooke St. James - The Suite Life
December 23rd: Grand Finale

Tour Giveaway

1 winner will receive a $50 Amazon eGift Card

Open internationally (as long as winner is eligible to receive prize)

Ends December 28, 2019

ENTER HERE

Review: The Practically Romantic Groom by Maria Hoagland

My rating: 3 stars / I liked it

Synopsis

When words don’t come easily…

Cobble Creek’s divorce attorney, Isaac Murphy, is not interested in romance. Quite the opposite, in fact. As a supportive brother for his sister raising a daughter with selective mutism, Isaac has seen enough disappointed hearts and broken marriages to know love takes more than a bouquet of roses or flowery phrases. No, Isaac is all about being pragmatic when it comes to relationships.
 
As the small-town florist, Brooke Holt is passionate about romance in everything from picnics to horseback riding. A closet musician, she pours her romantic dreams into writing country love songs—which she might even share someday, if she weren’t stricken with a severe case of stage fright.
 
When Brooke’s brother shows interest in Isaac’s sister, what starts as a friendly wager between Brooke and Isaac to prove whose way is right brings out their competitive streaks and rekindles their old high school friendship. As feelings start to turn into something more, though, expressing those feelings seems like an awfully risky gamble.

My Review

This is a fun story with vibrant and optimistic Brooke reuniting with her middle school boyfriend, the now jaded Isaac. It took me a while to get a feel for both Brooke and Isaac since they start out expressing some extreme opinions but quickly fall back into a friendship despite their disagreements. They love to banter and don't go easy on each other. Their relationship is all about fun and they enjoy feeling good around each other, even when they often get frustrated. The subplot of Brooke's brother dating Isaac's sister added another dimension, especially with the disability of Isaac's niece and the way her family and friends supported her and handled the difficulties that arise.

(I received a complimentary copy of the book; all opinions in this review are my own)

Check out all the books in the Cobble Creek Romance series . . .

The Sheriff's Bride
The Inventive Bride
The Lumberjack's Yuletide Bride
The Practically Romantic Groom
The Snapshot Bride
The Combustible Engagement

Review: The {Re}Model Marriage by Maria Hoagland

My rating: 4 stars / I really liked it

Synopsis

From the outside, Kirk and Jamie appear to have a beautiful home and the perfect marriage. Inside, the aging Craftsman is falling apart, their marriage is crumbling from neglect, and Jamie Royce wants out! Kirk, on the other hand, isn’t ready to give up on either the house or their relationship.

With their divorce scheduled for the day after their daughter’s high school graduation, Jamie and Kirk have to fix the home’s problems to lift their selling price out of the basement. Working to renovate the home together, they discover secrets—in the home, in their marriage, and in the fertility clinic that helped give them their daughter—and find themselves questioning what true love really is.

My Review

I don't read many romance books with a troubled marriage as the focus, but this one did it right. It was sad and disheartening to see how insecure and defensive Jamie and Kirk were, and how they let pride prevent them from being honest with each other. That was balanced out by the author skillfully weaving in pieces of their falling-in-love story to illustrate not only why their relationship was worth saving, but also the root of some of their issues. Communication, or the lack thereof, is the biggest hurdle they need to overcome. It's too easy as a reader to want to yell at them, "just say something!!!" but also recognizing that the difficult emotions they are feeling are all too realistic. I kept on reading quickly, trying to hurry to the point where they turn things around, but also found myself fascinated by the home renovations they undertake originating with demolishing a leaky bathroom. I found it to be a good metaphor for how they needed to fix their marriage- strip down the "quick fixes" until the true problem under the surface is revealed, and start over from there, building things carefully and correctly. Each chapter has a helpful tip about various aspects of home renovation, several of which I want to remember for the future!

(Thank you to the author for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review)