{Name Before the Masses + Guest Post} Talking Dirty With the Player by Jackie Ashenden

It's another manic Monday here at Ever After Romance Book Blog. Jackie Ashenden will be our guest poster for today. She's here to talk about not only her book, Talking Dirty With the Player but to also tell us the Ten Reasons Why New Zealand is cool!

But before that, let me give all the fantastic details about Talking Dirty With the Player including a juicy excerpt, buy links, et cetera. Enjoy!

Talking Dirty With the Player

by Jackie Ashenden

BLURB

Up-and-coming photographer Judith Ashton is pretty sure she has everything in her life under control. That is, until a blast from the past comes back to taunt her, in the shape of Caleb Steele, her older brother's best friend...and the man who broke her heart eight years ago. Their chemistry is combustible, but she's been fooled once by this player, and she's not going there again. To pro rugby player Caleb, Judith has always been his Kryptonite. But his former playboy lifestyle is the last thing she wants to be involved in. In the midst of her brother's threats to back off, and the deal of his career sending him far away from her, he knows he's playing with fire. And this is one game he's going to lose.

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EXCERPT

His smile widened and Judith had to remind herself that she was now immune to its lethal charm. Completely immune. “Oh don’t be like that,” he said. “You missed me. Admit it.” 

“Yeah. Like I miss gonorrhea.” 

One dark brow rose. “You’ve had gonorrhea?”

Judith sighed. He was all about the witty comeback. If that’s what you called wit. “Oh, shut up, Caleb.”

“See, this is what I’ve missed while I’ve been away. I say something then you say something, then I say something back and you end with ‘shut up, Caleb’. We always have such great, in-depth conversations.”

Still the same old Caleb. Patronizing, arrogant, and cocky as hell. They’d been friends once, a long time ago. And then more than friends. Until he’d broken her poor little teenage heart. She’d forgiven him for that, though; it had been years and years since their affair, after all. 

Eight years to be exact.

Nevertheless a familiar feeling began to creep up on her. An antsy, irritated feeling. Like she’d brushed up against poison ivy. Okay, so she may have forgiven him. That didn’t mean he didn’t bug her on occasion. 

Judith swallowed her irritation and maintained her usual calm-and-in-control expression. The one that seemed to exasperate him as much as his teasing arrogance exasperated her.

“Did you have something special you wanted to say?” she asked him in bored tones. “Or are you just here to be annoying?” 

“Actually, I’m here to shoot you. Though, being annoying is always an added bonus.”

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GUEST POST

Jackie Ashenden

Since Talking Dirty with the Player is set in New Zealand and we're such a small country, you may not have heard that New Zealand is actually quite cool. And not only because we have a lot of sheep! Here are ten reasons why:

Ten Reasons New Zealand is Cool

1.      We have the best beaches in the universe. Seriously. Beaches for surfing, lounging, walking, digging holes in the sand that get filled up with hot water (true fact)…  And the best part is that they're almost never crowded.

2.      Sonny Bill Williams' abs

3.      The coffee. I've been around the world and I'm afraid NZ makes the best. Sorry, but it's true. The cafes here make the most fabulous lattes but if you're after US style coffee, you have to ask for a flat white.

4.      Kiwis. The bird, not the fruit. They are cute and feathery, have long beaks and scurry around in the undergrowth. What's not cool about that?

5.      Sonny Bill Williams' abs (have I mentioned this yet?).

6.      Hobbits. It's a little known fact that Hobbits do, indeed, exist. I've seen them on my trek through Mordor (AKA the Tongariro plateau), and you can also spot them in the Shire region (AKA Matamata).

7.      Sausage rolls. So I've heard you don't have sausage rolls in the States and dudes, you're seriously missing out.  What's a sausage roll? Well, it's sausage in a roll of course.

8.      Sonny Bill William's abs (yeah, I think I really have mentioned this)

9.      We're incredibly laid back. Lady Gaga could probably walk into a supermarket and NO ONE would ask for her autograph. We'd be all 'oh, it's Lady Gaga. Let's be cool and give her space'.

10.  Oh and lastly, the best reason New Zealand is cool because it's full of New Zealanders. We're pretty awesome actually. J

About the Author

Jackie has been writing fiction since she was eleven years old. Mild mannered fantasy/SF/pseudo-literary writer by day, obsessive romance writer by night, she used to balance her writing with the more serious job of librarianship until a chance meeting with another romance writer prompted her to throw off the shackles of her day job and devote herself to the true love of her heart – writing romance. She particularly likes to write emotional stories with alpha heroes who've just got the world to their liking only to have it blown wide apart by their kick-ass heroines. 

She lives in Auckland, New Zealand with her husband, the inimitable Dr Jax, two kids, two cats and some guppies (possibly dead guppies by the time you read this). When she's not torturing alpha males and their stroppy heroines, she can be found drinking chocolate martinis, reading anything she can lay her hands on, posting random crap on her blog, or being forced to go mountain biking with her husband.

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