Welcome Today's Featured Author
Janet Walden-West!!!
Salt + Stilettos (South Beach Romance Book 1)
About the book:
Sweet
Home Alabama meets Top Chef when Miami’s most determined image consultant clashes with
Samoa’s most uncooperative chef in a race to rebrand him as South Beach’s
newest star.
Brett
Fontaine learned early that appearance matters and not to count on anyone but
yourself. Trading her red-dirt roots for the title of Miami’s go-to image
consultant, she refuses to let anything jeopardize her new life.
Not
an influential client-turned-stalker who’s up for parole.
Not
post-kidnapping panic attacks.
Certainly
not the stubborn, attention-phobic chef she’s challenged to transform into a
celeb in ninety days.
Will
Te’o can almost taste the dream he sacrificed American Samoa, culture, and
cherished family ties for—opening a four star restaurant in the most cut-throat
culinary location in North America. Unfortunately, that requires navigating
it’s equally cut-throat social scene. When his first public performance ends in
a social media spectacle, his only option is turning to the stiletto-wearing
nemesis who’s invaded his kitchen.
Neither
expected to share anything but barbs, yet somewhere between accidentally
bonding over comfort food and office-wrecking sex, they’re named South Beach’s hottest
pairing. Until Brett’s stalker engineers a reputation-shattering reveal. She
may be going down, but she’s not taking Will’s dreams with her. Now Will’s
pulling out all his new skills and cooking up a last-ditch event. He’ll prove
to Brett that relying on the right person makes for the perfect recipe—or be
left heartbroken in the spotlight.
Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Brett Fontaine hurried
under the Miami Beach Food Expo sign and into the smoke of grilled meat and a
heady blend of curries. She cursed causeway traffic and missed trunk shows. But
answering her best friend’s plea for professional help trumped even a Fendi
sale.
She tucked her arms
close, making herself small as possible, and wove through the civic coliseum
masses and their food-smeared fingers. God, the crowd had to be twice as large
as last year.
She could do crowds
again. She had no choice.
She practiced the
calming exercise, almost second nature by now. Breathe in. Hold it. Breathe
out. Repeat, to the tempo of her heels hitting industrial linoleum.
A couple sideswiped
her, busy discussing espresso machines. Her heartbeat picked up, defying the
relaxation technique, and the building seemed to shrink. She flipped her
oversized cocktail ring around, clenching her hand so that the stone bit into
her palm. Not a therapist approved plan, but sometimes pain backed the panic
off.
She had to break the
loop, find something other than the press of strangers to concentrate on.
Anything.
As if someone on high
saw her anxiety and answered, a rich baritone voice rolled over the babble of
attendees and sales pitches.
Drawn by the mellow
tone, Brett angled toward the cooking demo on the main stage. She’d witnessed
hundreds of demonstrations over her years of styling and publicizing chefs.
None like this one
though.
Today’s center stage
chef towered over the perky interviewer and the culinary school student
assigned as his sous. The commercial range looked like a child’s play-set
beside him.
He kept his head bent
over whatever simmered on the setup, the dish’s scent lost among the other
foods and milling bodies. Long, spiral curls and a beard hid his face.
The interviewer,
undoubtedly some local television station’s unpaid intern, relayed a question.
The chef glanced up from the food and Brett forgot crowds and spiking anxiety.
Someone had stuck a Jason Momoa lookalike on a downtown cooking stage.
As the chef reached for
another pan, she amended her first impression. This was Jason’s burlier,
rougher brother, complete with a spatula.
A smile Hollywood would
flip over lit his face. His laugh rumbled like far-off thunder, with a
decadent, rich finish.
He answered whatever
foodie question the wannabe chef in the crowd asked, and that deep,
authoritative voice flowed with a rolling lilt, not the usual Miami
multicultural mashup, or the patois from her past.
It was the kind of
voice that made her think of rumpled sheets, skin sliding against skin, and
erotic demands growled in her ear.
Buy Link
Indiebound:
https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781949090826
About Janet Walden-West:
Janet Walden-West lives in
the southeast with a pack of show dogs, a couple of kids, and a husband who
didn’t read the fine print. A member of the East Tennessee Creative Writers
Alliance, she is also a founding member of The Million Words craft blog. She
pens diverse Urban Fantasy and inclusive Contemporary and Paranormal Romance.
A 2X PitchWars alum, 2019 Pitch Wars Mentor, and Golden Heart® finalist, her debut multicultural Contemporary Romance, SALT+STILETTOS, released in April 2020 from City Owl Press. She is represented by Eva Scalzo of Speilburg Literary Agency.
Find her at:
Website: https://janetwaldenwest.weebly.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janetwaldenwest/
Interview with Janet Walden-West:
1.
Can
you tell us a little about your books?
Although
SALT+STILETTOS, a foodie enemies-to-lovers contemporary is my debut, I write
across a few genres—contemporary romance, urban fantasy romance, and urban
fantasy. The one thing that connects all my stories is kickass heroines getting
things done and looking for love. And really hot heroes. Definitely those.
2.
What
inspires you to write?
I joke that it’s to get the voices in my head to shut
up, but there’s a lot of truth in that statement as well. My characters pop up,
fully formed and demanding I tell their story. Writing is also something I
love, so it’s a form of self-care as well.
3.
If
you could be friends with one of your character, which one would you chose?
Ooh, tough decision. Brett would hook me up with the best designers and
parties, and hopefully let me raid her extensive Jimmy Choo collection. But
Will is a rockstar in the kitchen, and who doesn’t love a man who can cook?
4.
Do
you have a special time to write or how is your day structured?
My
days are made of purest chaos are more fluid than structured, especially
now when job and school schedules are kinda unpredictable. I’m lucky in that I
can write anywhere, anytime—waiting rooms, lunch breaks, at kids’ practices,
etc.
5.
Do
you have a favorite spot to write?
When I
do get a choice, in winter I either go for the corner of a room currently
serving as my writing office, or a fantastic local coffee shop, where they
don’t mind my holding down a table for hours on end. However, if the weather is
at all decent, outdoors is my favorite spot.
6.
Do
you have a favorite food or drink you must have nearby when writing?
Coffee
is mandatory. Always. A caramel macchiato is my coffee of choice, but I’ll
settle for generic and black in a pinch.
7.
If
your fairy godmother waved her wand and whisked you away to the location of
your choice, which place would you choose?
I
LOVE traveling, so I’m cheating a bit with this answer. In Summer, the
mountains—my Smokies, the highlands in Scotland, the Andes, it doesn’t matter.
I hate, hate, hate the cold, so in Winter an over-the-water bungalow in Bali
would be ideal.
8. What writing projects are
you currently working on?
I usually have several projects
going. Right now, I’m outlining a new contemporary romance, doing edits on an
urban fantasy short story due out in June, and finishing the last book in an
urbane fantasy romance trilogy that I hope to have out in the Fall/Winter.
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