Today, I’m excited to share with you an excerpt from Susan Mallery’s upcoming book, The Girls of Mischief Bay, the first book in her new series.
There is also an amazing ‘California Dreamin’ Prize Package’ up for grabs so be check out the giveaway at the bottom of this post.  I am stop #12 on the excerpt tour, so if you haven’t been following along, be sure to go back to the beginning as the book excerpts follow along in sequence.  You can find the full tour schedule here. I’ll also be participating in the review tour for the book and my review will be up in early March. 

Title: The Girls of Mischief Bay   

Author: Susan Mallery    

Series: Mischeif Bay, #1    

Published: February 2015, MIRA  

  

Nicole Lord wants to be a
good wife, but there’s a difference between being supportive and
supporting her husband, who quit his job to write a screenplay she’s
never seen. He won’t even help take care of their son, leaving Nicole to
run the house and work full-time at her Mischief Bay Pilates studio.
Can she say enough is enough without losing the man she loves?

Sacrificing
a personal life for her career is how Shannon Rigg rose to become vice
president in her firm, but she wonders now whether she made the right
choice. An exciting new relationship with a great guy convinces her that
it might not be too late—until he drops a bombshell that has her
questioning whether she can have it all. And if she can, does she want
it?

Although Pam Eiland has a beautiful house and a husband she
adores, she feels… restless. She wonders who a stay-at-home mom becomes
after the kids are grown. Finding sexy new ways to surprise her husband
brings the heat and the humor back to their marriage, but when
unexpected change turns her life upside down, she’ll have to redefine
herself. Again.

Through romance and heartbreak, laughter and
tears, three very different women will discover that friends can become
family, and that life is richer with sisters at your side.

EXCERPT:

Shannon finished the
quarterly reports and hit the send button. She would meet with the CEO later to
discuss the actual results, but she wasn’t worried. The numbers looked good.

She’d recently revamped
the timetables and discounts in accounts payable. Cash flow was better, which
meant the company’s expansion could be funded internally. When interest rates
were low, taking out a loan made sense, but she had a feeling they were going
to start climbing. Better to keep the money at home.

While a lot of finance
people saw the products their companies produced as interchangeable “widgets,”
she didn’t agree. Every company was different. The challenges to produce a
physical good varied between industries and even within them. Cars were
different from furniture and software was nothing like envelopes. Her attitude
had been the key reason she’d been hired nearly five years before. Nolan could
have hired any one of a dozen applicants, but he’d chosen her. She had a
feeling her rant on the fact that manufacturing products shouldn’t be reduced
to the pejorative term “widget” was a part of the reason.

She glanced out the big
window by her desk. The sun had set a while ago. There was no hint of light
coming from the sky—not counting the bright lights from around the office
building, of course. She’d been at the office since six thirty and except for
taking a class at Mischief in Motion during her lunch break, she’d pretty much
been chained to her desk.

She saved her files and
began to shut down her computer. She would stop for some Thai food on her way
home and spend a quiet evening by herself.

Because she didn’t have
a date. Certainly not with Adam, who had yet to call after their single
meeting.

She’d been hopeful, she
thought as she watched her computer move from saving to shutting down. Hopeful
that he was man enough to accept her success, her career demands, to respect
them, even. But he hadn’t and that meant he wasn’t for her. But being logical
didn’t help the dull ache she’d learned to recognize as loneliness.

Sure there were friends
she could call. With Eric so busy with his screenwriting, Nicole was often up
for dinner out. Tyler came with her, which was fine with Shannon. She enjoyed
hanging out with the charming, happy little boy. Or she could see if Pam and
John wanted some company for an after-dinner glass of wine. No doubt there
would be delicious leftovers for her to dine on.

But while she loved her
friends, she wasn’t lonely because of them. Every now and then, she wanted to
find “the one.” That ridiculous concept she’d been unable to shake, no matter
how she tried. Sometimes Shannon worried that all the talk about pair bonding
in humans just might be true.

She pulled open the
bottom desk drawer and removed her handbag. She reached for her cell only to
have it buzz with an incoming call.

The screen flashed with
the icon she’d linked with the name. A skull and crossbones. Humorous, but also
a warning. Because hearing from Quinn was never good.

She considered letting
the call go to voice mail. Mostly because that was the safest action. He
wouldn’t leave a message. No doubt she wouldn’t hear from him for weeks. But if
she did answer…

She grabbed her phone
and pushed the talk button.

“Hello?”

“Gorgeous.”

That was all it took. A
single word in that low, smoky voice. Her tension eased, her breathing slowed
and between her legs she felt the telltale combination of hunger and dampness.
She could talk all the successful-career, self-actualized crap she wanted, but
at the end of the day, she was little more than Quinn’s bitch.

“Hey,” she murmured,
even as she glanced at the clock on the wall and calculated how long it would
take her to drive to Malibu at this time of the evening.

“Come over.”

Quinn didn’t ask. He
instructed. He took charge. It was the same in bed, where he decided what they
were going to do and who came first. She should have resented it, but she
didn’t. There was something to be said for a man who took charge. She relaxed
around him because there was no point in fighting the tide.

“I can’t stay,” she
said—a feeble attempt to take control. But she’d learned the hard truth. Better
to get what she wanted and escape than spend the night.

“No problem.”

There was a soft click.
She knew the call had been disconnected.

She dropped her cell
into her handbag, then crossed to the private bathroom that came with her C
level title. After using the bathroom, she freshened her makeup and brushed her
teeth. Then she left and headed for her car.

The drive to Malibu was
simple. Head north on Pacific Coast Highway, which became Sepulveda and a half
dozen other streets through Marina del Rey and Venice. She picked it up again
in Santa Monica, then followed the road until she reached Malibu.

When people thought of
that town they pictured beachfront mansions and star sightings. Both were
plentiful, but much of the community was also old and a little worn around the
edges. Tiny restaurants favored by locals nestled against the larger, more
famous attractions, like Gladstone’s.

Shannon turned onto a
small street. In one of those weird L.A. ironies, the most beautiful homes
often had completely deceptive entrances. There was a garage, a secured gate
and what looked like the beginning of a modest thousand-square-foot bungalow.
All of which concealed eight or ten million dollars’ worth of luxury living and
incredible views.

Quinn’s house was
similar, although his gate kept anyone from pulling into the driveway. Shannon
punched in the code. In that split second before the heavy iron gate swung
open, she wondered if it would. Because she knew there would come a day when
her code would no longer work. She often told herself that would be a good
thing. Some days she even believed herself.

But it wasn’t tonight,
she thought as she drove into the open garage and parked next to his Maserati.

She got out and walked
inside.

Text Copyright © 2015 by Susan Macias Redmond

Permission to reproduce
text granted by Harlequin Books S.A.

Purchase
the book at:

Amazon | B&N  | iBooks | Indiebound  | Kobo | Target 

********************************************************************************

About  the author: New York Times bestselling
author Susan Mallery has won the hearts of millions of readers around
the world with books described as “immensely entertaining, intensely
emotional” (RT Book Reviews), “hilarious” (Fort Worth Star-Telegram), and “heartwarming” (Publishers Weekly).

One
major retailer recently described her as “the queen of romantic
fiction.” While she deeply appreciates the accolades of critics and
booksellers, Mallery is even more honored by the enthusiasm of her
readers and the word-of-mouth that catapults her toward the top of the
bestsellers lists time and again.

Mallery lives in not-so-sunny Seattle with her husband and a toy poodle
who makes her laugh every day and who’s not even a little bit impressed
by her growing fame.

Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Goodreads

GIVEAWAY DETAILS (US/Canada only):

The folks at Harlequin have put together this amazing prize package – the California Dreaming Prize Package – for one lucky reader here at Always With a Book:

 A Pacific blue beach towel

Pure Paradise body cream

Luxury moisturizing bath bar from the San Francisco soap company

An autographed copy of EVENING STARS by Susan Mallery (the first book with a character from Mischief Bay)

Flip-flop tea candle holder

Map of Mischief Bay

THE GIRLS OF MISCHIEF BAY Post-It book

THE GIRLS OF MISCHIEF BAY bookmark

Handy bath mini-tote

Susan Mallery lip gloss

Susan Mallery 3D luggage tag

Susan Mallery pen

To enter the giveaway, please fill out the form by February 18th.  

Form closed

This giveaway is open to US & Canada residents only & ends February 18th.  

Good Luck!!! 

**Be sure to follow the rest of the tour HERE to find out what happens in the next excerpt and for another chance to win another prize package.