Bidding
on Brooks
The
Winslow Brothers, Book 1
Katy
Regnery
Genre:
Contemporary romance
Date
of Publication: 5.11.15
ISBN:
9780990900344
ASIN:
B00TEB4HAU
Number
of pages: 256
Word
Count: 77,000
Cover
Artist: Kim Killion, Hot Damn Designs
One
bachelor auction.
Two
good friends.
When
Skye agrees to bid on her friend, Brooks, the last thing she expects
to lose is her heart.
Bidding
on Brooks
is the first of four books about the Philadelphia-based,
wildly-handsome Winslow brothers who are all on the look-out for
love.
(Except Preston. He's been down that road before and still has the scars to prove it. And maybe Cameron, because he's super-hot, but too hot-headed to be decent boyfriend material...)
Railroaded into a bachelor auction by his sister, Jessica, Brooks Winslow asks his friend, Skye Sorenson, to bid on him to avoid the possibility of any romantic entanglements. Fiercely competitive and protective of those he cares for, Brooks was profoundly affected by the loss of his father at an early age. A witness to his mother's terrible loneliness and his siblings' grief, the ex-Olympian has never allowed himself to fall in love.
Skye Sorenson, the plucky mechanic at Sorenson Marina, where Brooks moors his three sailboats, is a credible sailor in her own right...and has quietly lusted after Brooks for years. But her longstanding friendship with Brooks has always made romance seem impossible.
When Skye agrees to bid on Brooks, the two cast off for a weeklong ocean adventure on Brooks' sailboat, The Zephyr, where the last thing Skye expects to lose is her heart.
Return to the world created in the English Brothers books with this fresh foursome of scorching hot Winslow Brothers!
(Except Preston. He's been down that road before and still has the scars to prove it. And maybe Cameron, because he's super-hot, but too hot-headed to be decent boyfriend material...)
Railroaded into a bachelor auction by his sister, Jessica, Brooks Winslow asks his friend, Skye Sorenson, to bid on him to avoid the possibility of any romantic entanglements. Fiercely competitive and protective of those he cares for, Brooks was profoundly affected by the loss of his father at an early age. A witness to his mother's terrible loneliness and his siblings' grief, the ex-Olympian has never allowed himself to fall in love.
Skye Sorenson, the plucky mechanic at Sorenson Marina, where Brooks moors his three sailboats, is a credible sailor in her own right...and has quietly lusted after Brooks for years. But her longstanding friendship with Brooks has always made romance seem impossible.
When Skye agrees to bid on Brooks, the two cast off for a weeklong ocean adventure on Brooks' sailboat, The Zephyr, where the last thing Skye expects to lose is her heart.
Return to the world created in the English Brothers books with this fresh foursome of scorching hot Winslow Brothers!
Excerpt from
Chapter 1 Bidding
on Brooks
(All
rights reserved. Used with permission from Katy Regnery)
“Please,
Skye. Just listen. You’re the perfect person for this. You’ve got
to help me out.”
Skye
Sorenson rolled her eyes at Brooks Winslow, adjusting the brim of her
baseball cap as she swept past him and headed down the dock for her
next job.
“I
mean it, Skye. I’m up a tree…and we’re friends. Can’t you
give me a hand?”
Dreamy
Delight
needed a new float switch and bilge pump, which would be difficult to
manage with Brooks Winslow standing on the dock, looking casually
gorgeous as he yammered at her about some charity event he wanted her
to attend.
Gazing
at her hands, she noted they were still covered with engine grease
from the oil change she’d just handled on the outboard motor of a
J-24 sailboat. Not wanting to get black fingerprints on the white
fiberglass of the motorboat she was about to service, she took a
bandana out of the back pocket of her overalls then turned to face
Brooks as she wiped her fingers.
“Are
you going to follow me around all afternoon if I don’t listen?”
“Umm…pretty
much.”
She
sighed with feigned annoyance. “Fine. You have my attention. Tell
it to me again.”
Brooks
looked relieved and gave her a small grin that—damn
it—made
Skye’s stomach flutter.
“Knew
you wouldn’t let me down.”
“Haven’t
said yes to anything yet,” she said, shoving the bandana back into
her pocket and crossing her arms over her chest.
“My
sister, Jessica, is back in Philly this summer to get married. To
keep busy, she’s organized some big benefit for the Institute of
Contemporary Art. She and her girlfriends thought it would be fun to
volunteer their single brothers to be auctioned off.”
“Auctioned
off?”
“Yeah…a
bachelor auction.”
“Some
sister,” said Skye, unable to keep the teasing from her voice.
“It’s
for charity,” he said defensively, running a hand through his waves
of jet black hair.
“Okay.
So you got roped into it.” She thought back to an old movie she’d
seen once where women were auctioned off as dates. At each of their
feet had been a pretty lunch basket, and the man that was the highest
bidder won a homemade lunch with the girl of his choice. “What do
you have to do? Have lunch with someone?”
“Oh,
no,” he said with irritation, pursing his lips. “Nothing that
painless. Jess wants to make money.
Big
money. She had to think bigger than lunch.”
Skye
stared up at him. “Dinner?”
“Nope.”
“Two
dinners?”
“Nuh-uh.”
She
gestured to the sleek Sportscruiser moored at the end of the dock
that she was supposed to be working on. “I’m out of guesses,
Brooks…and that pump isn’t going to fix itself, so—”
“A
sail. She’s auctioning off a sail. With me.”
“Well,
I don’t know why you’re complaining. You love sailing. You love
women. What’s the problem?”
Skye
tilted her head to the side, looking at Brooks’ way-too-handsome
face with a cheeky grin.
Long
ago Skye had accepted the fact that Brooks would never see her as
anything but a great mechanic, a proficient sailor, and a long-time
friend. She was—honestly and truly—satisfied with that status quo
between them. He was rich and powerful, an ex-Olympian and
world-renowned sailor from Philadelphia, while Skye lived a much
quieter life, working as a “handyman” at her dad’s marina in
Maryland. What they had in common was a deep love of boats and mutual
respect for one another’s nautical skills, and that was just enough
to keep their friendship intact.
The
first time Skye had ever seen Brooks Winslow was the day he came down
to her father’s marina to claim the fifteen foot Primrose
wood-hulled sailboat gifted to him from his parents for his fifteenth
birthday. He swaggered into Sorenson Marina, flashing his perfect
smile at her, and her ten-year-old heart had grown wings as she’d
discreetly followed him down the dock. She was instantly infatuated
with Brooks, of course, but much more, Skye harbored a deep devotion
to his Primrose, the most beautiful little double-ended Daycruiser
she’d ever seen. Her stomach had been in knots as she walked behind
him from a discreet distance, hopeful that he would handle the little
sailboat with the grace and care she deserved. But Skye’s worries
turned out to be unfounded. He’d treated that pretty boat with
respect and skill, and Skye had breathed deeply with relief,
whispering, “I’m gonna marry you someday,” as he sailed away.
Twenty
years later, Skye knew two things for certain:
One,
that Brooks was one of the most talented, natural, organic sailors
she’d ever met in her life. Heck, he’d made it all the way to the
Olympics and come home with a medal to prove what Skye had always
known—that any boat was safe in his hands. She respected him more
than most of the sailors she knew.
And
two, the chances of her ever marrying him were next to none in the
approximate area of zero. He was gorgeous and rich and talented and
fascinating…and completely out of her league.
“Not a one-day
sail,” Brooks continued in a terse voice, jettisoning her memories
as he prompted her back to their conversation. “Not even two.
Jessica signed me up for a cruise. From Baltimore to Charleston.”
Skye
felt her eyes widen as she stared at him. “That’s a week.
Minimum.”
“Yeah.”
“Crew?”
Brooks
grabbed the back of his neck with his hand, rubbing. “Nope. It’s
supposed to be… romantic.”
A
romantic cruise. For a week. Alone. With Brooks.
Lucky
girl, she
thought, ignoring the ridiculous spike of jealousy that jabbed a
little at her heart and made her feel instantly guilty.
She
couldn’t help her attraction to him, but the fact that it was
totally unreturned made it manageable in a way that didn’t hurt.
For heaven’s sake, it wasn’t like she had feelings
for
Brooks beyond friendship. She just liked looking at him. Her
eighty-year-old granny’s heart would flutter at the sight of
Brooks’ thick, dark hair, flashing sea-green eyes, square jaw,
muscular body, and perennially-tan hands that handled a boat with the
same finesse that he probably handled his women. Noticing Brooks’
good looks didn’t make Skye unique or special, and it didn’t mean
she wanted more from him than friendship either (she tried to
convince herself). It just made her human.
“Romantic,”
she murmured. Turning away, she looked out at the harbor where
sailboats bobbed up and down in afternoon sun.
“Yeah.”
“But
you won’t know who she is,” said Skye, “until she wins you.”
“Bingo,”
he said.
“And
then you’ll be trapped at sea for a week.”
“Precisely.”
“She
could be anyone.”
“Yep.”
“Does
your sister really hate you?”
Brooks
scoffed. “No. But she really loves modern art.”
“Okay.
Yeah. It’s a pretty sucky situation. But how can I help?”
He
grinned. “You can bid on me.”
Review by Tabitha:
I will be totally honest here and tell you that I stalk Katy to find out when her next book comes out. I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED all The English Brothers books and was so excited to find out she was going to be giving The Winslow Brothers their own books. Jessica who is about to be married to Alex English is Brooks' baby sister and he will do anything for his baby sister. So when she talks him into doing a bachelor auction he figures he will just rig it with his trusty "friend" Skye to bid and win. He quickly begins to see Skye as much more than a friend and tries so hard for personal reasons to keep those feelings at bay. Now, Skye on the other hand has pretty much been in love with Brooks for years only she knows that they are from very different worlds and she really felt that there was no way Brooks would ever see her as anything other than a friend. My oh my how things change. I love that Katy wrote these characters as if they were real people and I found myself loving them all the more because of it. If this is what to come with the rest of The Winslow Brothers I only hope she writes them very fast!! I finished this book in one sitting. It really was that good!! An easy 5 AMAZEBALLS stars in my book!!! A copy was given in exchange for an honest review.
About the Author:
Katy
Regnery, award-winning and Amazon bestselling author, started her
writing career by enrolling in a short story class in January 2012.
One year later, she signed her first contract for a winter romance
entitled By
Proxy.
Now
a hybrid author who publishes both independently and traditionally,
Katy claims authorship of the six-book Heart of Montana series, the
six-book English Brothers series, and a Kindle Worlds novella
entitled “Four Weddings and a Fiasco: The Wedding Date.” Katy’s
short story, “The Long Way Home” appears in the first RWA
anthology, Premiere,
and she has published two standalone novels, Playing
for Love at Deep Haven
and the Amazon bestseller, The
Vixen and the Vet,
which is book one in Katy’s a m o d e r n f a i r y t a l e
collection. The
Vixen and the Vet
was nominated for a RITA® in 2015.
Katy
lives in the relative wilds of northern Fairfield County,
Connecticut, where her writing room looks out at the woods, and her
husband, two young children, and two dogs create just enough cheerful
chaos to remind her that the very best love stories begin at home.
Upcoming
(2015) Projects:
The
Winslow Brothers (Books #1-4)
Never
Let You go, a modern fairytale
Ginger’s
Heart, a modern fairytale
Connect
with Katy:
Katy
LOVES connecting with her readers and answers every e-mail, message,
tweet and post personally! Click below to connect with Katy!
No comments:
Post a Comment