Novel Magic: Can’t Stand the Heat by Peggy Jaeger

Novel Magic highlights a contemporary romance this week. Though Contemp Romance isn’t our normal abnormal fair here at Sorchia’s Universe, we love this lady and want to add our support! So dip your toes in the real world with Can’t Stand the Heat, Peggy Jaeger’s latest release.

Be sure to scroll down to the contest below. If you want to increase your chances of winning a $50 gift card–and find out more about Peggy’s work–visit and comment at each stop on the tour. Go HERE to find all the other stops.

Can’t Stand the Heat

With three successful TV series under her belt, including her cousin Kandy’s, executive producer Stacy Peters is ready to helm her own show. But to make that happen, she has to do her network boss one favor first—spend two months on a ranch in Montana wrangling the notoriously difficult director of Beef Battles. Apparently, he eats producers for breakfast. Yet all Stacy can think when she meets the lean, rugged man is how hungry he makes her . . .

Dominic Stamp—Nikko to his very few friends—has had enough interference from TV newbies. And when Stacy climbs out of the car in Montana, he’s not convinced she’s even old enough to drive, much less produce his show. But he can’t deny that the long-legged blonde with the stubborn will and the dazzling smile whets his appetite. And as Stacy proves her talent with the crew and the budget alike, Nikko vows to prove to her that love is on the menu for both of them . . .

And  an Excerpt

This couldn’t be the new executive producer.

She looked like an intern, barely out of college, not the seasoned television producer Teddy Davis had emailed him about.

The one he’d emailed back saying he neither wanted nor needed.

Hair the color of champagne fell just below her shoulders in a soft cascade of waves and ripples. Even in the heat and humidity engulfing them it looked fresh. Her face was a perfect heart, a tiny dip in the center of the hairline bifurcating her brow into two perfectly aligned sections, her flawless chin falling into a delicate point. She had one hand out to shake his, the other shading her eyes from the strong and harsh afternoon sun, but underneath her fingers he was able to make out a pair of sloe-shaped eyes in a deep, forest green.

Taller than average but small boned, her legs took up most of the lissome body. With her lips held together in a tight line, she reached him.

“I’m Stacy Peters, Mr. Stamp.”

He stopped and planted his feet, his gaze shifting to her outstretched hand and then back up to her face without taking it. Her eyes narrowed into a determined glare and it looked as if she wasn’t going to back down until he shook it. With reluctance, he did.

Like the rest of her, her fingers were narrow and thin as they coiled around his.

A last of heat instantly warmed and calmed his entire body like a few shots of his favorite Irish whiskey did after a rough and painful day. The subtle aroma of vanilla floated to him, filling his senses with the sweet fragrance. The persistent, throbbing ache in his left leg the liquor helped chase away was momentarily forgotten

with his hand rooted in hers.

A little Background

When I set out to write the WILL COOK FOR LOVE series, I gave Kandy Laine 6 younger sisters and one younger cousin, Stacy Peters. Stacy is as different from her cousins in every physical way imaginable. Where they are tall and dark haired, she is average height and fair haired and light complected. They were all raised by their powerhouse of a grandmother, Sophie, though, so that backbone of titanium that runs down grandma’s spine has been gifted to everyone of her granddaughters, Stacy no exception.

In book 1, Cooking with Kandy, Stacy is her cousin’s assistant and office manager for the television show Cooking with Kandy. Stacy’s personality—calm, efficient and able to stay focused through any crisis—makes her the perfect person for the sometimes frenetic pace of the show and the mercurial emotions of its star. After Kandy’s show ends, the network programming chief asks Stacy to executive produce a show that is failing in the ratings and one which he is having a great deal of difficulty bring to production under budget. With Stacy at the helm, the show is turned around and becomes a profitable ratings powerhouse for the network. She works her same kind of magic with another failing show and gets the reputation at the network as a “fixer.”

Stacy, quite literally,  lives for her job.

Now she’s at a point in her career where she wants to be in charge of her own production. She devises a food show, presents it to the network chief, and is granted her wish of being at the helm of her very own production team. There’s only one little catch. Before she can start on her show she has to executive produce one more show for the network. Once that’s done, she’s got the green light to move forward.

Since Can’t Stand the Heat is a romance, I needed to give Stacy a hero who could challenge her mind and stimulate her heart. She’s never been in a long term relationship before, never really dated much, either. A tragedy when she was teenager prompted her to think she would never be seen as a desirable woman and this thought had made getting close to any man a problem for her. When she meets Dominick ( Nikko) Stamp, his legendary reputation as being a difficult to work with director keeps her on her toes. She soon realizes she’s his foil is every way. Where she is calm, composed, and the crew all like her, Nikko has a my-way-or-the-highway presence, yells more than he speaks, and the crew runs around in terror of him. As polar opposites, their differences make them attractive to one other. In Stacy, Nikko sees a woman whose inner strength and outer tranquility may just be exactly what he needs to get his life on track.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Peggy Jaeger is a contemporary romance writer who writes about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them.

Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, Peggy brings all topics of daily life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she has created the families she wanted as that lonely child.

Tying into her love of families, her children’s book, THE KINDNESS TALES, was illustrated by her artist mother-in-law.

Peggy holds a master’s degree in Nursing Administration and first found publication with several articles she authored on Alzheimer’s Disease during her time running an Alzheimer’s in-patient care unit during the 1990s.

In 2013, she placed first in two categories in the Dixie Kane Memorial Contest: Single Title Contemporary Romance and Short/Long Contemporary Romance.

In 2017 she came in 3rd in the New England Reader’s Choice contest for A KISS UNDER THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS and was a finalist in the 2017 STILETTO contest for the same title.

A lifelong and avid romance reader and writer, she is a member of RWA and her local New Hampshire RWA Chapter.

Connect with Peggy Jaeger

Website/Blog 

Twitter 

Amazon Author page 

Facebook 

Pinterest 

Goodreads 

Instagram

BookBub

And Now that giveaway:

One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.

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