March is here (and Sarah & Joel will be soon!)

Author

Bethany Monaco Smith
March 01, 2023

In this email...

  • A note from me

  • One more week until Together Like This (plus a teaser!)

  • The results are in (plus vote for more content!)

  • Teaser of my current WIP

  • This week's featured books

  • Behind the scenes of what I'm working on right now

Happy March everyone!

We're officially in the third month of the year and (maybe, possibly) headed toward spring. We got a few inches of snow yesterday, but not too much. Better than the 3-4ft we've had dumped on us several times in the last few years. Of course, there's still plenty of time for that.

How is everyone else doing? Any big fun plans? I've got nothing, but I'm cool with hiding out at home, enjoying some warm beverages, and getting some writing done.

Less than 10 days till Together Like This!

So how about one last teaser to make you fall in love with Sarah and Joel? This is your last chance to grab the ebook at the pre-order price, so be sure to do that now if you want it!

I’m getting ready to climb into the shower when Sarah walks into the room.

She grins at me when she sees me standing here in nothing but exercise shorts—shorts I’m now realizing are white and am wondering how much they reveal.

Don’t look down at your junk. Don’t do it.

She strolls over to me and runs her hand down my chest. “Is this your way of getting me back?”

“Getting you back for what?” I ask innocently.

Her eyes narrow, then she puts on a fake pout. “Are you saying you weren’t having fun with me today?”

I poke her cheek, right where one of her dimples usually forms, begging it to pop out.

“Oh, I had plenty of fun. I enjoyed teasing you as much as I loved you teasing me. In fact, you might’ve gotten me a little excited.” I grin at her, but my eyes widen as she drags one finger down my stomach, tracing the line of my abs.

“Me too. Maybe we should finish teasing each other,” she says smoothly.

I am not smooth at all. My voice cracks as I say, “What do you mean?”

She glances toward the bathroom. “You were going to take a shower. Maybe you should take a bath. With me.”

Holy shit.

“Naked?”

Jesus, I’m dumb.

“Yes. Naked.”

“And what do you want to do?” I ask, some smoothness returning to my voice.

She inhales sharply. “I thought we could… relieve some tension. There’s a lot we can do without doing that.”

“You want us to touch each other?”

The results are in...

Last week, I asked which freebie novella you'd like next. The results were pretty close, but Hudson and Hennessey won out by a few.

That novella won't be available until fall, but between now and then, I'll be releasing some short stories. Once again, you get to vote on who you'd like to read first!

How about a tiny WIP teaser?

As I mentioned last week, I recently finished up Mark and Frannie's story for a vacation anthology. Now I'm working on her cousin Kennedy's hot bffs to lovers story, part of a shared world coming in June.

Featured new releases!

What happens when a New York City playboy, a Southern spitfire, and a hairless cat walk into a coffee shop?

Self-made mogul Chase Moore is a charming hound dog with a hairless cat and a family business to save. He was fine being the spare to the heir until the family's billion-dollar business threatens to go belly-up. Now Chase will need more than his rakish good looks to fight his father for control. Powerhouse marketing guru Campbell King returns to Texas and launches her own company after being chewed up and spat out by the city that never sleeps. One phone call makes all the difference when a suave and sexy male voice offers her the chance to redeem herself and help him save his swanky Manhattan store. When the sexy redhead finally runs into her new billionaire boss, they’re both in for a shock. But there’s no way Campbell is dating the boss. In fact, anyone but the billionaire would be better...

How does a chance encounter (one that’s steamy as heck) lead to warring with your inner demons?

The internationally known deviant, Bruce Canyon, is one smooth bad boy and he doesn’t care who knows it. In fact, he relishes in the attention, which only adds to his sexy nightclub entrepreneur persona—it’s good for business. But when he meets Mariam Abbas, a bright, attractive woman who knows what she wants (him, and only once), he finds himself out of his league. Sparks snap, crackle, and ignite between them as they give in to their carnal needs, but Bruce finds himself in an unfamiliar position: wanting more. Much to his own surprise, he goes out of his way to stake his claim on her. Mariam Abbas prefers “one and done,” never committing to personal relationships, or looking back for that matter (despite how mind-numbingly good the experience was). Is this a little cold, perhaps a little calculating? Maybe, but it’s how she goes about her neat and orderly life. A chaotic past won’t allow her to veer toward coloring outside the lines. Not even a man-child, though attractive and sensual as sin he may be, who can’t take “no” for an answer. What begins as a game of cat and mouse turns into an unlikely friendship until circumstances push them into each other’s arms. It’s not all hearts and roses, though. Inner, dark demons emerge while secrets come out to play, wrecking what brief joy they may have found in one another. But they say everyone deserves a second chance. The question is, are Bruce and Mariam deserving of theirs?

Behind the scenes with me

Want to know what I'm working on right now? Listening to? Reading? What's rumbling around in my head? Well, I'm going to tell you anyway!

  • Currently working on: As mentioned above, The Last Key is this month's project. I'm also about to upload the final versions of TLT to Amazon!

  • Currently distracting me from those things: Designing random book covers? Plus all the other story ideas I don't have time to write yet.

  • Currently reading: I'm between books at that moment, but I'm still deep in my hockey hole and am about to start a new ARC by my author friend Katherine Jay.

  • Currently listening to: I've been into audiobooks and podcasts so much lately! Currently reliving my teen years listening to the Back to the Beach Podcast about the Laguna Beach behind the scenes.

If you want more fun behind the scenes info, make sure you join my FB reader group! It's where we talk about books, romance, my characters & their love stories, and where I share random unedited snippets of what I'm working on and other fun teases! And this year there might be an exclusive giveaway or two as well!

Are you ready for Together Like This? I can't wait for you all to read Sarah and Joel's story! How about some new characters? Are you excited to meet Mark and Frannie and Devon and Kennedy? P.S. Don't forget to vote for which short story you want! And until next time, take care and happy reading!