Novel-ties: Valentine Book Blitz, Day 4: Teapots and Treachery

My apologies. For some reason this didn't go up on the 2nd as it was meant to and I didn't check until I was setting up the one for the 3rd.

This book is actually a pair of novellas and I got to become familiar with it earlier this year, so I hope you look into it further.

Award-winning author, wife, mother, grandmother, Harry Potter geek, Army veteran, karate black belt, and online gamer girl.

A Savage Ghost
Lia Savage reluctantly puts her dream of opening a dessert boutique on hold to help her dad remodel a castle he’s inherited in Washington State. Soon, a specter targets her younger sister.

Lia enlists the help of strapping Coop Montgomery, the head gardener and her former crush. As they search together for a way to rid the castle of its ghost, the romance she used to dream about with Coop kindles.

But Lia’s gentle giant means to stay in Washington while she’s determined to return to California. She must find the courage to face both the ghost and her future.

With Coop. Or without him.

Waves of Deceit
Twenty-six-year-old Shelby Nash wants to break free of her controlling, billionaire father. With the completion of one more project for his company, she can branch out on her own. However, her ex-boyfriend’s been appointed as the new lead architect. She has to find a way to protect her heart from him while avoiding whoever’s making anonymous threats.

Wade Masters did a poor job handling the news about the identity of his girlfriend’s father. Shelby walked out of his life without another word. Finally, four years later, Wade has a chance to win her back. As long as whoever’s targeted her doesn’t get her first.

Snippet From Waves of Deceit:

She tried to ignore Wade beside her. He wore her favorite cologne, the one she had first introduced him to. During the meeting, she’d managed to ignore it, but now ... It brought back so many memories. She’d liked the fragrance well enough at the mall, but when he’d put it on, he’d brought his own something to the smell.

Her pulse quickened at the memory. Irritated, she tried to analyze her reaction to the smell, thinking of the science behind it, of the molecules of the fragrance responding to a person’s skin and hormones, the complex mixture of all those chemicals—water, fat, acids, sugars, salts, proteins ...

What she really wanted was to snuggle against his neck and breathe him in.

Shelby leaned away from him, as far as she could, and rested her cheek in her palm. Didn’t she hate him? Hadn’t she told herself that over and over again for years? He’d rejected her because of who her father was. Like she had any control over that. It was absolutely ridiculous to still respond to him in this way. It made her feel weak, a simpleton who let hormones control her. She wouldn’t do it.

From the side, she sensed movement from him, and a whiff of his cologne hit her again. Was he doing that on purpose? She straightened, prepared to say something. He sat with his laptop open, earbuds already in his ears. He glanced at her and pulled out a bud.

“Sorry, is that blowing on you?” Wade reached up, shifted the air vent a little, and returned the earbud. He leaned over his computer, like he’d already forgotten her.

Shelby pulled the dagger from her heart. All these years she’d grieved the death of their love, vilified him, and agonized over what they might have had. Apparently, he hadn’t even given her a second thought.