Kristen Strassel is one of my fav NA authors. Toss contemporary romance with some paranormal and add a dash of rock-n-roll is her usual recipe for an amazing book. This year she is releasing two new stories. The first is a novella about a young mother who is lucky to find the right guy releases TODAY!
The trouble with Bree is...
Bree Farrell is ready to turn her life around. A
twenty-one-year-old mother of two, she's not sure where to start. She could use
a little help, but her string of horrible ex-boyfriends keep setting her back.
First step: she's swearing off men forever. Or at least until she gets back on
her feet.
Josh Maxwell got a second chance at life, and now he wants to help kids who are in the same situation he was in. His new job as the coordinator at a preschool for underprivileged kids is the perfect place to do that.
On paper, the school policy for staff not to get involved with the families of the students makes perfect sense. But when Bree meets the new coordinator of her son's school, she and Josh learn that some rules are made to be broken, no matter what the consequences.
EXCERPT
Josh
accepted the paperwork but put it aside without looking at it. He smiled so
easily, I didn’t think much of it when it was meant for Landon, but now it was
all for me, and it was dangerous. My heart stuttered a couple times, confused
by all the messages in my brain that were telling me it’s never gonna happen.
“Our
goal at Head Start is to get kids ready to learn. We evaluate each student to
make sure they’re in the best group and get them prepared to start school.
We’ll have kids from a lot of different backgrounds, and they’ll all have
different strengths, but the cool thing is they’ll usually work together and
make each other better.”
“I
like that approach. Do you teach at all?” He’d be great at it.
Josh
shook his head. “No. I coordinate the programs and make sure they all go
according to plan.”
“With
a room full of four-year-olds?” I asked. “You must be new at this.”
“I
am.” Josh laughed, running his hand through his hair and leaning forward, his
voice hushed. “Don’t tell Landon this is my first time.”
I
looked back at the boys and bit my lip. “I can’t make any promises.”
“I
guess I’ll have to stay in your good graces.” Josh raised an eyebrow. “Do you
have any other kids?”
“Oh
God, no.” That sounded really bad. I laughed. “I didn’t mean it like that. But
my hands are full with two.”
Everyone
I knew who had two kids agreed with my theory. After the first baby, there was
this euphoria. I made a human being inside my body. I managed to keep him alive
for almost a year at that point. It was an invincible feeling. If I could do
that, I could do anything, right? Including have another baby. But the level of
difficulty when I added another child to the mix multiplied exponentially. And
the finesse I needed to handle it didn’t come right away.
Josh
nodded. “I get it.”
“Do
you have any kids?” He wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, but then of course,
neither was I.
He
shook his head. “Just the sixty that will be here.”
“You
look fantastic for having so many kids.” I giggled. Crap. I went from zero to
flirt without even thinking about it.
“So
do you.” My eyes widened, and he backpedaled. “I mean, for having two.”
“Thanks.”
My cheeks flushed, and I looked back at the boys.
“Do
you have any questions, Ms. Farrell?” Thankfully Josh was wrapping this up
before we got ourselves in trouble.
“You
can call me Bree.” I don’t think anyone had called me Ms. Farrell before. I
thought about his question before I answered. I didn’t want to miss anything
important and put Landon behind because I thought the school coordinator was
hot. I had no idea how old he was. He didn’t seem that much older than me, yet
his shit was so much more together than mine.
I
wanted to know what made him tick.
“I do have a question, but it’s not about
Landon. I’m starting school this semester, too, and I was wondering, how did
you decide you wanted to do this?”
“That’s
a great question, Bree.” Josh’s eyes lit up. “Maybe I could tell you about it
over dinner?”
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