A Shot at Love

Today my guest author is Peggy Jaeger, who's doing a virtual book tour to promote her romance novel A Shot at Love. As a reader, you can leave a comment and win a prize! Peggy will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Please use the following link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f2412

Blurb

Nothing’s impossible when love is on the menu. In Peggy Jaeger’s luscious series, the only thing more tempting than a delicious meal is a truly delectable romance . . . Look for exclusive recipes in each book!  Photographer Gemma Laine is looking for arresting faces on the streets of Manhattan when her camera captures something shocking—a triple murder. In that moment, she becomes a target for the mob—and a top priority for a very determined, breathtakingly handsome, FBI special agent. With deadlines to meet and photo shoots on her calendar, Gemma chafes at the idea of protection, but every moment she spends under his watchful eye is a temptation to lose herself in his muscular arms . . . With two of his men and one crucial witness dead, Special Agent Kyros Pappandreos can’t afford to be distracted. But Gemma is dazzling—and her connection to Kandy Laine’s high-profile cooking empire makes her an especially easy mark for some very bad people. Keeping her safe is much more pleasure than business, but as the heat between them starts to sizzle, Ky is set to investigate whether they have a shot at love . .

Excerpt

A woman stood next to the vehicle, a cell phone at her ear, her back to him. Tall, maybe as tall as him, and slender, her back tapered down to a miniscule waist, her legs clad in tight, faded jeans. When she turned Ky almost stopped midstride, the questions he intended to grill her with
jumping out of his head. His breath caught as he simply stared at the loveliest woman he’d ever seen.

Hair the color of midnight, straight as a board, fell to just below her shoulders, blowing back from her face in the gentle afternoon breeze. Blunt, chopped bangs, fringed a pair of large, bright blue eyes. Plump, coral colored lips moved as she spoke into the phone and for a brief, hot second, Ky wondered if they’d taste as delicious as they looked.

Her gaze stayed on him as she spoke.

“I’ve gotta go,” she said into the phone. “Yeah. I’ll call when I’m done. Love you, too.”

“Miss Laine?” 

She tucked the phone into her back pocket. 

“I’m Special Agent Pappandreos. I need to speak with you about what you saw.” 

“Special Agent?” Those delicate brows furrowed under her bangs. “Like, FBI?” 

Jesus, where does a woman get a voice like that? Whiskey laced with honey and rolled into one smooth pitch.

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 is 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.
Website/Blog: http://peggyjaeger.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/peggy_jaeger
Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00T8E5LN0
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Peggy-Jaeger-Author/825914814095072?ref=bookmarks
 Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/peggyjaeger/
 Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13478796.Peggy_Jaeger

Instagram: https://instagram.com/mmj122687/

AND NOW - as a special treat I've asked the author to share her views on cooking! Here's what she says:

It’s no great secret that I love to cook. Probably because I lovelovelove to eat! There’s nothing more  soul enriching to me than putting a meal together that satisfies my family and my friends. Growing up I was alone most of the time because my parents both worked fulltime and I was an only child. Back then, kids like me – the ones who were left on their own every day after school until adults came home from work – were called latch key kids. My mother was usually too tired by the time she came home at night to put together a three course, nutritious meal,  so many of the meals she did make consisted of stuff that could be thrown together in 5-10 minutes and routinely came out of a box. Yup, we ate a lot of Prince macaroni and Kraft mac and cheese back then, in addition to take out. I’m not judging  - truly. But after a while, all of those non-choices gets old. I knew that if I wanted to eat when I was hungry, and make it something good for me, I needed to learn to cook. So I did.
 Now, this was before cable TV took over the world. I didn’t have the Food Channel, and computers weren’t a staple in the home so I couldn’t Google or You-tube a cooking lesson. I went to the library and took out a few cookbooks, chief among them the Betty Crocker Cookbook.

I read this tome from cover to cover. I inhaled all the instructions from how to boil water safely to how to sauté. I was even able to make a few rudimentary dinners that I ate and then served to my exhausted mother and stepfather when they got home. They ate everything gratefully!

In college I used to cook for the girls in my dorm when we had some down time. Having a “home cooked meal” went a long way to making us all a little less homesick. 

When I finally married and had a child, I was blessed not to have to work outside the home like my mother did, so every night I made a from-scratch dinner. My daughter didn’t taste Kraft mac and cheese until she was older and went to someone else’s house. In fact, she didn’t believe it was mac and cheese when it was served to her!

Sharing a meal every night with your family, turning the cell phones, the television, and every other distracting device off, is the way my husband and I raised our daughter. Lingering over a delicious meal, discussing our days, actually talking to one another face to face is starting to be a lost art in this country. Everyone is so busy. I get that, I really do. But what’s more important – checking your Twitter feed, or connecting with your kids and family members? Updating facebook, or having a face to face in the same room ( and not on Skype) conversation with the people you love the most?
For me, there’s no choice. It’s family first, last and always. Oh, and the food, too!

One of my favorite go-to recipes when you want to cook something but you don’t want to bother with 15 ingredients. Most of these ingredients people already have in their kitchen.


Spinach and Cheese Pie

Ingredients:
5 large eggs
2/3 cup canola oil
½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 box chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained of water
1 cup Bisquick
1/8 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste
1 thinly sliced tomato

Method:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Generously grease a 10 inch skillet – the kind that can go into a hot oven ( no plastic handles!)

1. By hand. Beat the eggs for a few seconds to break them up,  then add the canola oil, parmesan cheese, mozzarella, spinach, Bisquick, salt and pepper. Mix all together.
2. Pour into the skillet and put into heated oven.
3. After 15 minutes, remove and lay the tomato slices on top of the now-firming mixture. Put the skillet back into the over and cook for another 15 minutes until the pie is completely set.
Makes 8 servings ( 4 in my house because everyone wants a huge piece!!!)