My Odd Little World: Were You 'Smitten at First Sight'?

Today, I have the pleasure of hosting Marie Astor on her Excerpt tour for her Contemporary Romance, Smitten at First Sight. Marie will be awarding to five randomly drawn commenters at the end of the tour, one of the following five custom-designed jewelry prizes:

Prize 1: Blue quartz three strand necklace with sterling silver clasp
Prize 2: Jade and prehnite necklace
Prize 3: Green aventurine sterling silver earrings
Prize 4: Smoky quartz sterling silver earrings
Prize 5: Rose quartz sterling silver earrings

Blurb for Smitten at First Sight:

Maggie Robin has been dating the irresistibly good-looking, successful Jeffrey Preston for two years. But when Jeffrey proposes marriage a week after Maggie’s college graduation, she is no longer sure if she wants to marry a workaholic TV producer.

Maggie’s doubts culminate when during a ski trip to British Columbia, she meets Taylor Denton, a handsome, free-spirited big mountain skier who is the complete opposite of Jeffrey. It does not take Maggie long to realize that she has fallen in love with Taylor and she decides to break off her engagement with Jeffrey. But just when she thinks she has found the love of her life, an ill-fated misunderstanding tears Maggie and Taylor apart.

A week later, Maggie is told that Taylor has died in a tragic ski accident; yet, her heart refuses to believe in Taylor’s death. When Maggie returns to Taylor’s native town, she learns that Taylor is indeed alive, but has been seriously injured. Resolved to bring her lover back to life Maggie stands by Taylor’s side, convincing him to embrace life again.

Excerpt for Smitten at First Sight:

“I’m Taylor, Taylor Denton.” The younger man stepped forward without waiting for Jeffrey’s introduction.

I already know that, Maggie thought. For a moment, she was rendered speechless as her gaze remained glued to the dazzling green of Taylor’s eyes: there was something in his open, fearless gaze that unnerved her. “Very nice to meet you, Taylor,” Maggie struggled to keep her voice even, as she shook Taylor’s hand. His hand was warm, and his grip had just the right amount of pressure. He held her hand in his for a moment longer than necessary, or it might have been just her imagination, but the electrifying sensation she felt at the touch of Taylor’s hand filled her with guilt anyway: her fiancé was standing right there, and she had no business having these kinds of thoughts about some daredevil skier she had just met.

“Very nice to meet you, Taylor, I’m Bethany.” Bethany cut in, eyeing Taylor and Maggie in turn.

Maggie averted her eyes – nothing ever escaped Bethany’s attention.

“Maggie is my fiancée,” Jeffrey announced, his tone tightening. “Taylor is the star of our project,” Jeffrey completed the introduction.

Taylor let go of her hand and bowed. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Maggie.”

Well, he certainly is not shy. Maggie watched Taylor out of the corner of her eye: with his head cocked and his shoulders thrown back, he looked as though he owned the world. A pang of agitation seized her – imagine the embarrassment if this hotshot were ever to learn about being an unwitting subject of her photographs – no doubt, he would think that she were some kind of a crazy stalker; or worse, that she had the hots for him or something. Never mind that she had only admired him from the aesthetic perspective of an image composition – someone like Taylor would never understand that; well, fine, yes, she had been curious about what he might be like, but now that she met him in person, her curiosity was answered: he was undeniably handsome, but also incredibly smug and reckless to boot. She made a mental note to erase the photographs from her camera as soon as she would get back to the hotel.

“Yes, well, Taylor was just telling us about the wonders of off-piste skiing,” Jeffrey continued, breaking the awkward silence, “and he was gracious enough to agree to be our guide tomorrow.”

“I always wanted to try skiing off-piste,” Maggie blurted out before she could stop herself.

“Why don’t you join us tomorrow then?” Taylor suggested before Jeffrey had a chance to put in a word.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Jeffrey cut in, “it will be pretty rough out there.”

“There’s plenty of intermediate terrain,” Taylor assured him. “If Maggie can manage blues, she’ll be all right.”

“I just skied a double diamond this morning,” Maggie exaggerated her prowess – she had skied double diamonds before, just not this morning. She bit her lip, wondering just what exactly possessed her to show off in front of this green-eyed daredevil.

“I thought we were going to a more advanced terrain.” Jeffrey frowned.

“Err, well, actually, I would not mind starting with intermediate slopes,” Charlie interjected.

“I think I know just the perfect place,” Taylor brought the argument to a halt. “There are several very nice, wide runs just off the air tram - that’ll be the perfect place to warm up, and after that, we could always go onto steeper runs.”

“Yeah, sure, sounds like a plan.” Jeffrey shrugged, clearly annoyed by being outnumbered.

Maggie had to bite her lip in order to hide the smile on her face: whether on plain ground or in the mountains, men never tired of fighting for dominance.

“Well, looks like it’s settled then,” Jeffrey announced, clearly eager to seize back control of the conversation. “Bethany, do you want to come along? Maggie will need someone to keep her company.”

Maggie felt the blood flow to her face: as usual, Jeffrey Preston was assigning roles, as though life were a TV script.

Marie Astor is the author of contemporary romance novels Lucky Charm, Smitten at First Sight, This Tangled Thing Called Love, romantic suspense novel, To Catch a Bad Guy, and a short story collection, A Dress in a Window.

If you would like to find out more about Marie’s books, please visit Marie at her website: www.marieastor.com.

Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Marie-Astor/e/B004EBDX9Q/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Website: www.marieastor.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marieastorcollection

Good Reads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4665230.Marie_Astor

Books by Marie Astor:

To Catch a Bad Guy: http://www.amazon.com/To-Catch-Bad-Guy-ebook/dp/B008W1L5IA/ref=la_B004EBDX9Q_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1344820115&sr=1-5

This Tangled Thing Called Love: http://www.amazon.com/This-Tangled-Thing-Called-ebook/dp/B0078IPNCW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344820073&sr=8-1&keywords=marie+astor

Lucky Charm: http://www.amazon.com/Lucky-Charm-Contemporary-Romance-ebook/dp/B005BZL3L4/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1

Smitten at First Sight: http://www.amazon.com/Smitten-First-Sight-Contemporary-ebook/dp/B005TOWI7K/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1357427954&sr=8-4&keywords=marie+astor

A Dress in a Window – a collection of short stories about love, coincidences, and fate.

http://www.amazon.com/A-Dress-Window-ebook/dp/B004E112TO/ref=pd_sim_kstore_3?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

Over the Mountain and Back – young adult fantasy adventure novel about a boy who takes his snowboard for a ride and finds himself in a magical, hidden world he never knew existed.

http://www.amazon.com/Over-Mountain-Back-Adventure-ebook/dp/B008WF1Y78/ref=la_B004EBDX9Q_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1350684616&sr=1-6

I want to thank Mary for bringing this to my attention-got to add this to the wish list now. Here are the rest of the stops on Mary's tour, stop by to increase your chances of winning one of her lovely prizes.