Secret Sister NBtM

Blurb:

To their friends, Nick and Cathy Chance have the perfect marriage. High school sweethearts who’ve been together for ten years, they’ve weathered challenges and are as committed as they were when they first fell in love. Cathy trusts Nick, Nick’s world revolves around his wife, and the future looks golden.

To everyone who knows them, Cathy Chance and Roxanne Ruiz have a perfect friendship. They connected in grade school and since then have been each other’s confident and trusted advisor. Cathy loves the gorgeous Roxanne like a sister, Roxanne has fun-loving Cathy’s back in every situation, though lately there’s been tension between these two best friends…

And then, on a sunny summer morning, the unthinkable occurs, throwing into doubt the truth of what each of these people really know about themselves and one another.

Will Roxanne’s sacrifice be too little, and too late? Should Nick’s love for his wife be strong enough to risk trusting his heart more than logic? Can Cathy’s devotion to Nick give her enough strength to convince him to see her for who she really is?

Secret Sister proves how strong, how stubborn, and how trustworthy love can be as Nick and Cathy and Roxanne are challenged to overcome the secrets, the lies … and one extraordinary twist of fate that turns their lives upside down.

Excerpt:

It was sunny and mild the July morning Roxanne and I headed up the state highway into the Verdugo Hills. But the Santa Anas were blowing in from the desert, and those aptly called devil winds rocked our car with gusts of heat and dust that caused tiny sparks of electricity to snap against my fingertips every time I touched my hair.

I looked forward to the Santa Anas each summer because they cleared every trace of smog from the vast L.A. basin and left the air sparkling. But that day they were weeks early and their intensity increased a sense of foreboding I’d awakened with.

I squeezed my hands together and glanced at the woman sitting next to me, for she was the true reason for my uneasiness.

My best friend and I should have been relaxed and chatty, but we hadn’t been either lately. Roxanne had recently broken up with the guy she’d been seeing for years, and her mood alarmed me. She had barely said a word at the front door when she picked me up, and nothing at all since we’d been in the car.

Slowly I turned my head from side to side, trying to ease the knot of anxiety in my neck. I reached up to massage my shoulder but the seatbelt held me snugly, so I undid it.

The lock made a sharp click as it released.

“What’s wrong?” Roxanne asked.

“Nothing.” I spoke quietly. “Just a kink. I must have slept weird.”

Emelle, thanks so much for stopping by. So, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself?

Thanks for hosting this stop on the tour, Emily! I’m a mom, wife, writer, owner of 2 orange cat sisters, Lucy and Bella, who think it’s the other way round on the owner thing. I love to read, watch movies, sit with friends and travel. I’ve been a writer for over 30 years and my head is always filled with stories yet to be written.

How did you get started writing?

On my website I explain I wrote my first story at about age five, about a lost baby bunny trying to figure out who she belonged to in the forest by asking the other animals, “Am I a deer, Mrs. Bambi…” That instinct to write and tell stories evolved into really bad teen poetry, pained college girl stories, and finally into romance, which I loved to read and thought I might try my hand at. So I did. I sold my second attempt at a novel to Harlequin Intrigue and haven’t looked back since. Once you accept you’re a writer, you’re a writer.

What was the inspiration for your book?

I am a die-hard romantic, despite what my friends and family might say is a realistic and somewhat skeptical mind-set. But I believe soul mates are out there, and that fate dictates when and if you’re lucky enough to find one. And that when you do, that’s it. He’s the one. I wanted to dramatize that by putting up the hardest situational roadblocks possible for my heroine to reclaim her one and only, and Secret Sister was born.

What’s the one genre you haven’t written in yet that you’d like to?

I’d like to write a historical novel, but I’m overwhelmed by the research I imagine is necessary. I love to read them. Grew up with Victoria Holt and Mary Stewart and a million other books about runaway princesses and Victorian governesses. But I’ll probably stick to reading about them.

Are there any genres you won’t read or write in? Why?

I wouldn’t attempt horror, it depresses me. I wouldn’t write erotica because I’m sure my kids would die of embarrassment, even though they are grown up. HA! My son’s fiancé chased him around their apartment reading aloud from a scene in Secret Sister that is pretty hot. He says he’s scarred for life. So no Fifty Shades of anything for moi.

So, what are you working on right now? Got any releases planned, or still writing?

Molly Harper, a big book about a movie star and her star-crossed life, including a huge secret, is up next. It’s a follow on story to Duets, a novella in the current anthology, Once and Forever. Then Dating Cary Grant, a more humorous and lighter toned novel than I’ve tried before,  about a girl, her estranged husband, and the hunky guy she’s dating downstairs, who happens to be a hunky, iconic DEAD movie star. HA! Can’t wait to see if everyone loves Cary Grant as a ghost as much as I did.

Alright, now for some totally random, fun questions. Favorite color?    Blue, blue, my heart is blue!

Favorite movie? Gosh. Tie between Ryan’s Daughter and Casablanca.

Book that inspired you to become an author?

All of them. Not kidding. If they’re good, I want to be as good. If they’re bad, I think, I can do better!

Alright, you have one superpower. What is it?

I am the Goddess of the Golden Rule. It’s imposed on everyone, who must treat everyone just like they want to be treated. I think it’s the secret…simple, loving, fair and doable, if only we’ll try. How’s that for optimism?

You can have dinner with any 3 people, dead, alive, fictitious, etc. Who are they?

Thomas Jefferson. Steve McQueen. Ghandi. Three hunks full of soul who did good for people. Well, two of them did. The other one is just dreamy.

Last question: Which of your characters are you most like and how/why?

I’m probably most like Cathy Chance in Secret Sister. She’s bossy but generous. Loving but a pain in the neck. Kind of impetuous and impractical, but loyal. Also sort of blonde and in love with the only man in the world she wants, which is really like me. Only instead of Nick Chance, my guy is named Phil-the-fist (ex marine nick-name).

That’s all from me, thanks so much for taking the time to stop by!

Thanks again! It’s been a pleasure visiting Sharing Links and Wisdom, Emily!

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August 19:  Full Moon Dreaming

August 26:  Critters at the Keyboard . . . .

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November 25: Literary Nook

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December 2: Welcome to My World of Dreams

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December 16: The Simple Things in Life

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January 6: The London Diaries

January 13: Fantasy Powered by Love

January 20: Straight from the Library

Author Bio and Links:

Emelle Gamble was a writer at an early age, bursting with the requisite childhood stories of introspection which evolved into bad teen poetry and took her first stab at full length fiction in an adult education writing class when her kids were in bed. As M.L. Gamble, she published several romantic suspense novels with Harlequin. She has contracted with Soul Mate Publishing for Secret Sister, summer of 2013, and Dating Cary Grant, an early 2014 release.

Always intrigued by the words ‘what if’, Emelle’s books feature an ordinary woman confronted with an extraordinary situation.  She most enjoys reading stories that surprise and amaze her, and hopes her readers will enjoy the challenging and exciting journeys her characters take.

Emelle lives in suburban Washington D.C.  with her husband, Phil, her hero of thirty years,  and two orange cats, Lucy and Bella. These girls, like all good villains, have their reasons for misbehaving. Her daughter, Olivia, and son, Allen, are happily launched on their own and contributing great things to society, their mother’s fondest wish.

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Twitter: @EmelleGamble