Welcome my online friend, J M Stewart...



Happy to be hosting fellow Wild Rose Press author, J M Stewart at my blog today - JM is here promoting her second contemporary romance, "A Second Chance at Forever" and as I was lucky enough to read this book before it was published, I cannot wish her enough luck with the success of it. Welcome, J M!

Introducing my hero.

I thought I’d introduce you to Alex McKinley, the hero of my novel, A Second Chance at Forever. Of all my heroes, and of all my books, he’s one of my favorites. Alex touched me. There are some characters that just…get to you. For me, Alex was one of them. Sounds, silly right? A part of me says they’re going to cart me off any day now. He’s just a character. But for me, he wasn’t. He was a friend.

My heroes are a usually a mixture of Alpha and Beta. It means they’re strong, take charge when they have to be, but soft at heart. And so is Alex. Alex McKinley is a New York City attorney. He works for the District Attorney’s office. He fights for the little guy. The abused kids. He’s good at his job and he gives a hundred and ten percent to it. He can be very take charge when he needs to be.

At the start of the book, Alex is a man completely out of place in his world. His entire life has been dumped on its ear. Work has become that thing he does in order to forget. He buries himself in the job in order to get a moment’s peace from the pain.

A year before the book opens, Alex suffers a huge loss. His wife and his four year old daughter have been killed in a drunk driving accident. Sadly these days, accidents like these happen all the time. I read an article that said someone is injured in a drunk driving accident every 90 seconds. According to the MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) website, every day in America, twenty-eight people die as a result of drunk driving accidents.

Unfortunately for Alex, I based his wife and daughter’s death off an accident that made the news. A family was killed because their car was hit by a drunk driver going one hundred miles an hour down the wrong way on the highway.

At the beginning of the book, Alex is struggling to come to terms with his loss. He’s struggling to move on with his life. Alex describes it as like living in a dream—so surreal he’s sure any moment now he’s going to wake up. He isn’t sure how he got there. He wasn’t planning on going there, nobody warned him it was coming, but suddenly life as he knew it ceased to exist. He’s been forced to change directions at the drop of a hat.

Now he’s trapped in a never ending cycle. What he wants at the beginning of the book is simply to move on. He wants his life to start again. He wants to pick up and move on, but he doesn’t know how.
Enter Angela. A beautiful woman who lights him up like no one has in a long time. For him, she’s a spark in the darkness, bright and beautiful.

Excerpt:

She turned to the bartender. “White wine, please.” When he nodded and went to make their drinks, she turned back to Alex, her eyes alight with a mixture of amusement and curiosity. “You look like you’re having fun.”

He caught her eye, that spark lighting between them once again. “I assure you it’s the company.”

She bit her lip and lowered her gaze, and a flush crept across her cheeks. There was that sweet shyness that drove him crazy. That made him yearn for nothing more than to kiss her until she sighed and melted into him. She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her left ear, and he wished like hell those were his fingers on her skin.

“If I’m being honest, I haven’t enjoyed myself this much in a very long time.”

Something as simple as dancing with a woman left him feeling lighter and more carefree than he had in…well, twelve months. For a while he’d forgotten himself. Forgotten his life and the eternal emptiness that waited for him back home. Exactly why he’d come to Vegas in the first place. Mission accomplished, and Candy was the cause. He had the sudden urge to tell her that, but decided to keep it to himself. Instead, he offered her a gentle smile.

He picked up one of her hands and stroked his thumb over her knuckles. “I’m glad you called me tonight, Candy.”

She lifted her gaze to his, need expanding between them in that one single glance. “So am I.”

Author Bio:

J.M. writes what she likes to call sweet and spicy contemporary romance. She’s a stay-at-home mom who lives in Seattle Washington, with her husband, two boys and their two very spoiled puppies. She’s 
been devouring romances for as long as she can remember. Writing them has become her passion.

Where you can find me on the web:


J.M. is waiting to chat - Questions? Comments? 



7 comments

  1. Thanks for having me, Rachel! It's a pleasure to be here!

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  2. The book sounds wonderful. I'm rooting for him just from the excerpt.

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    1. Thanks, Liz! Of course, I'm hoping everybody loves him as much as I do.

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  3. Joanne,

    I think I'm half in love with Alex already. I love a story with a lot of deep emotion.

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    1. So do I. Okay, that's probably a duh, lol, but I mean I love to read them. I love a tortured hero. Thanks for stopping by, Debra!

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  4. Hi ladies

    Great post!

    Alex sounds wonderful - and very easy to love!

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    1. Hi Lyn! Thank you! And thank you for stopping by!

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