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Call Me Wild Launch Party and Give Away!


Call Me Wild 




She doesn't know a single thing about relationships...
Unemployed sportswriter Jessie James plans to make a killing writing a bestselling romance novel. She's never read one, but really, how hard can it be? Moving cross-country to a borrowed house in Idaho, Jessie starts her research with the first gorgeous guy she runs into...

Luckily, he knows everything...
Sports doctor Fisher Kincaid notices Jessie right away--the transplanted Easterner sticks out like a sore thumb in the small town. When he discovers she's researching attraction and romance, he graciously offers himself as a test subject. That's when everything starts to go wrong, and they both find out how much they need a few good lessons in love...

Okay, it's not officially out until tomorrow, but it's been spotted in stores already so it counts, doesn't it? 


Pop open the champagne and let's celebrate! Call Me Wild is getting awesome reviews! 


Sarah Eisenbraunoh at RT gave it 4-Stars:

"Kaye’s latest is smart and entertaining, especially for contemporary romance fans who love athletics and healthy living. Jessie’s sporty persona adds an original spin to the typical female romance protagonist. (She even uses RT Book Reviews as a research source for her novel, so how can we not love her?) As the leading man, Fisher is more than hot, and his sexy bond with Jessie will keep readers glued until the last page. Fans of Kaye’s past work and contemporary romance readers alike will definitely enjoy their time with this novel."


PW says:

"The frothy, fun plot and intriguing secondary characters provide ample support for this opposites-attract romance."


Shelley Mosley at Booklist says: 

"Kaye’s fast-paced and funny tale will appeal to readers who like their romance novels side-splitting and sexy."




Last week I drove my son across country to Boise, Idaho, where Call Me Wild takes place. Today and tomorrow we'll be attending his freshman orientation at Boise State University so I'm not sure how often I'll be able to check in during the day, but rest assured I'll drop by in the evening if not before.

It's great to be back in Idaho with my three kids, running around Jessie and Fisher's stomping grounds. We've been to Humpin' Hannah's, checked out the farmer's market, ate at their favorite restaurants, and just basked in the Idaho sun.

Unfortunately, there's a forest fire just outside Stanley which was sparked by a lightning strike, so I'm not sure if we'll be allowed up that far. Last I heard over 7,000 acres were destroyed and the fire was 0% contained. I'm praying all our brave forest service fire fighters stay safe and get the blaze under control before it grows much.

We will be hitting Garden Valley, Idaho City, Ketchum, and Sun Valley in the next few days. I'm so excited to be sharing my favorite place with my three teenagers who were so young when we moved away, they hardly remember Idaho. I'll be sure to take pictures to share with you at a later blog.

I'm giving away a copy of Call Me Wild to a lucky commenter. Please be sure to include your email address writing out the word at and dot so robots don't start sending you spam.

Check back tomorrow to congratulate the lucky winner!



Here's a little snippet of Call Me Wild~




Chapter 1

Jessie’s eyes darted from one naked man to the next. As a sports reporter, she’d done her share of major league locker room interviews over the years, but today it was as if every player knew something she didn’t. She couldn’t remember when she’d seen more balls—and not the kind you hit with bats, unless you were a jealous husband or wife.
Jessie squared her shoulders and pressed the record button on her iPhone—just for audio—she certainly wasn’t going to film this nightmare.
Tonight the men on the team showed as much skin as possible. She hadn’t had that problem since she was a cub reporter they thought they could shock easily. Every now and then, she had to teach a rookie a painful lesson, but for the most part, the guys were polite and kept their towels in place. Until today.
Wiping her suddenly clammy hand on her Ally McBeal skirt, at almost six feet tall, Jessie had no prob­lem looking most men in the eye. She zeroed in on the shortstop. “Carter, is that you?” She’d never liked the obnoxious man and figured he was as good a victim as any. Jessie dropped her gaze to his package for a few beats and pointed to his junk hanging unencumbered and proud—well, it had been until a second ago. Now it looked even smaller, having evidently wilted under her scrutiny.
An uncomfortable silence filled the room—at least it was uncomfortable for Carter. His face turned a putrid shade of red, a few shades deeper than his carrot-colored hair, and then his smile crumbled like a winning streak after a team photo on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Jessie kept her focus on Carter. “For a moment there I thought I’d walked in on a peewee baseball team. My mistake.”
The team laughed, and when her gaze slid over each player, she found they’d rediscovered their manners and their towels, or at the very least, their jockeys.
Nakedness didn’t bother Jessie; lack of respect did. After quieting the team’s laughter, she got down to business. She did her interviews and left, wading through the throngs of fans on the way to her Eighth Avenue office.
In the elevator, Jessie wondered what caused the scene in the team’s locker room. Maybe it was a full moon? A nudist baseball player’s convention? She wasn’t sure, but she knew something was wrong. It was as if they were humoring her. The reporter in her sensed a juicy story. She’d do some snooping around after she filed her column.
The newsroom always felt different this time of night. Most of the staff was long gone, and a quiet settled over the usually insane place. There were no clacking keyboards, no raucous conversation, no slamming of the editor’s door. Jessie dumped her messenger bag on her desk, tossed an old Starbucks cup into the trash, and tried to ignore the itchy feeling crawling up the back of her neck. Something was off.
Looking through her game notes, she checked her stats. Her memory had never failed her before, but she wasn’t about to chance screwing up. The readers of her column and blog knew the stats almost as well as she did, which was saying something. She played the inter­views she’d recorded, still trying to ignore that niggling feeling, and wrote her story, leaving out the part where the team lost their shorts, jockstraps, and manners, and filed it well before her deadline.
Spinning her chair toward the window, she stared out over Eighth Avenue. She supposed she could go home, but thanks to the coffee and the win, she was too hyped to sleep. She picked up her phone and called her best friend Andrew in LA.
“Hey, sugar,” his deep voice came through the phone. “What’s up?”
Jessie leaned back in her chair. “Good, you’re alone.”
“How do you know?”
“You never call me sugar when you have a girlfriend around.”
“You caught me. Nothin’ personal, but most women don’t believe my best friend is female and that at least one of us is not secretly in love with the other. I’ve found it easier not to mention you are.”
“Not mention I’m what?”
“A woman.”
“You’re kidding.” Jessie twisted in her chair until her back cracked. For once she was glad she didn’t have a social life. No dating, no explanations. Then again, no dating, no boyfriend. No boyfriend, no sex. Yeah, that last one was a real bitch. Jessie didn’t miss having boyfriends, she did, however, miss sex. A lot.
Andrew continued. “They assume you’re a guy, so if I were to call you sugar, they’d wonder if I was bi.”
“I’ll bet. I guess that’s one of the downsides of dating.”
“Sugar, all you see are the downsides.” Andrew cleared his throat. “What are you doing? I thought you’d be writing your column. I caught the end of the game.”
Thank God he changed the subject. Smart man. Jessie twirled around in her chair. “It’s filed.”
“Okay, so cross off writer’s block. What’s the problem?”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t give me that. Something’s wrong. What is it?”
Jessie shook her head, “Probably nothing. I’m just overreacting.” She should be used to Andrew’s hypersensitive, highly accurate, best friend ESP.
Andrew remained quiet, which made her nervous.
“Fine, I went into the locker room for interviews, and every last player lost his shorts. They were playing a trick or a game, and I was the only one not in on it.”
“And what’d you do?”
“I told Carter that I thought I’d walked into a peewee team’s locker room. It’ll take him a few weeks to heal from the wound to his manhood. For such a big prick, who knew his would be so little?”
“You’re skating on thin ice, Jess.”
“Enough about me. What’s up with you? How’s work?”
“It’s a soap opera, but it pays the bills.”
Jessie spun her chair around and clicked on her email, sifting through the trash while she and Andrew spoke. She still couldn’t believe her best friend since freshman year at Columbia was writing for a soap opera, even if the money was damn good. Whatever happened to his dreams of writing for film? “Have you been working on your screenplay?”
“Have you been working on your novel? See Jess, two can play that game.”
“Hey, I’m living the dream. I’m a sports reporter for the Times—I’ve already achieved my goal. You gave up on yours.”
“I didn’t give up. I have a day job so I don’t have to live in my car while writing my screenplay. I’m an artist, just not a starving one.”
Andrew talked about how hard it was to get into the film business. She knew from experience it would take awhile for him to go through his litany of excuses. Instead of wasting her time, she did what every woman was capable of; she multitasked and went through her hundred or so emails. At least by doing that she had a prayer of finding something original and or new, maybe even exciting.
She scrolled through the usual junk—drugs to enhance the size of her nonexistent penis, an ad for dates with naked women. She wondered if it was her androgynous name that brought all this crap to her email box or if everyone got it. She deleted it all without reading, while saying her “uh-huhs.”
Jessie flagged the emails from fans of her column and blog, moving them to her file to be answered—an early morning task she did over coffee. She opened an email from her boss, and for the second time that day, wondered if she’d entered an alternate reality.
She pushed suddenly sweaty bangs off her face with a shaking hand and looked around the deserted office. Had she been Punk’d? “Oh God.”
Andrew stopped kvetching mid-word. “Are you even listening to me?”
She blinked at her computer, and it was still there—an electronic pink slip.
She swallowed hard. “I think I just got downsized.”
This couldn’t be happening to her. She worked all her life for this position—her dream job. She loved it, she was great at it, and now, they were taking it all away.
“What do you mean?”
“Look for yourself.” She hit send. “I’m forwarding you an email from my boss.” It should have been high­lighted in pink. She hadn’t heard about any more layoffs. There was no warning. No sign anything was up. Was she the last one to know about her pink slip?
Jessie checked the time stamp. Noon. Her editor must have assigned another reporter to cover the game. No wonder the guys in the locker room had been naked. They obviously hadn’t expected her.
She rubbed her stomach. If she’d had some warning, she would never have eaten that second hotdog at the stadium. Gray spots danced on a transparent veil hanging over her computer screen, and she swallowed back the saliva gathering in her mouth—the usual preamble to violent illness. She pulled her trashcan out from under her desk just to be safe.
“Oh shit, sugar. I’m so sorry.”
“I just signed a two-year lease on my apartment last week.” She pressed the heels of her palms against her eyes to keep from crying. “I can’t afford my apartment without a paycheck.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll work this out.”
Who’d have thought? A pink slip didn’t need to be pink to pull the Astroturf right out from under her feet.
 ♦♦♦

Fisher Kincaid gazed across Starbucks, over the top of his Idaho Statesman newspaper, at the woman sitting behind her MacBook Air, staring at a blank Word document, and chewing on the cardboard lip of her venti cup. This was the second time he’d seen her today. Since it was barely 7:00 a.m., he hadn’t slept with her, and she wasn’t a patient, that was notable—even for a city as small as Boise.
“Checkin’ out the new customer, Fisher?” Laura, a barista with the voice of an angel and the body of a porn star, handed him his daily refill, which meant it was almost time to leave to make rounds at the hospital.
“I took a run earlier and followed her for five miles.” He didn’t mention that he’d barely kept up with her.
Laura raised her perfectly plucked eyebrow.
“What was I supposed to do?” Fisher’s hands went up—coffee cup and all. “She was in front of me and turned at my usual place by the park.”
“Five miles, huh? So that’s how you keep in shape.” Laura ran a hand down the button band of his shirt, stopping just above his belt buckle, and making her way slowly back up his chest.
Ah, to be twenty again. Those days were long gone, and so were nights with anyone like Laura. She turned her back on him and was already belting out a Lady Gaga tune and hamming it up for the regulars. She spun around, grabbed his free hand, and lifted it high before dancing under it. He set down his coffee and dipped her until her ponytail touched the floor, receiving a round of applause from the crowd.
Fisher pulled Laura up and released her. He nodded toward the woman with the amazing ass and even more impressive stamina he’d followed just that morning. “What’s the deal with her?”
“Not sure.” Laura wiped the counter, looking at Mac-chick chewing on her cup.
The woman was nervous—the kind of nerves that couldn’t be blamed on coffee, even if she’d downed a few venti quads. Her eyes darted around the small store in a sweep of the area, not meeting anyone’s gaze, but missing nothing.
Pacific Northwesterners never had a problem looking strangers in the eye. Obviously, the woman wasn’t from around here. With her self-imposed isolation and the way she frowned at the copy of the Times she’d bought off the rack, Fisher pegged her for a tourist from the east coast.
He hadn’t seen her type a word on that computer since he walked in and recognized her, taking in her blank face and her blank screen. He’d said hello to the morning regulars, talked golf with his buddy Dana, and fishing with Alan, as they joked with the baristas and each other. All the while he’d had the distinct feeling he was being watched.
“What’s her name?” Fisher asked Laura. If anyone there knew, it would be Laura. She had a great memory for names and drinks.
“Jessica. The two of you have a drink in common, but she likes her venti Americano with sugar-free vanilla instead of a half cup of sugar, and she doesn’t bring in her cup for the discount.”
“I don’t do it for the discount; I just hate cold coffee.” He threw his arm around her shoulder. “And I love the way you always heat up my cup—it keeps my coffee hot longer.”
Laura tilted her head toward him. “Too bad the only person getting hotter than your coffee is me. Yeah, hot, bothered, just sayin’.”
Fisher stepped away as he watched Jessica open the Times to the sports page and scowl. Not many women he knew went right to the sports without first checking out the front page and the lifestyle section. Hell, most women he knew never made it to the sports page at all. That’s why he hadn’t had to buy a paper in ages. He usually found it littering a table just waiting for the next guy to read.
Steph, the manager, sauntered out from the back of the store, “Hey, Fisher. What are you still doing here? You’re running late today.”
He checked his watch. Damn, she was right. Heading toward the door, he waved goodbye to the baristas, gave Steph a wink, and walked straight into Jessica. His arms went around her as her body slammed into his. He instinctively tightened his hold, drawing her close, doing his best to keep them from falling, as he struggled to catch his balance without spilling his coffee all over her.
Her solid muscles vibrated with what seemed like barely contained indignation. She was tall, just a few inches shorter than him, and at six feet three inches, it was unusual for him to be eye-to-eye with a beautiful woman. She was lean with sharp angles, sinewy muscles, and what looked like keen intelligence, once you got past the pissed off, icy glare. Even her expressions were hard. The only things soft about her were the breasts pillowed against his chest.
Her deep brown eyes were shot with specks of gold and blasted insults loud enough to be heard without speaking.
“I’m sorry.” Fisher did his best to steady her, moving his hand to her small waist. No hint of softness there either.
She jerked away as if he’d zapped her with a defibrillator.
“Easy, I was just trying to make sure you were steady on your feet.”
She grabbed a handful of her long chestnut hair and tossed it over her shoulder. It was not the usual look-at-me hair flip. No, hers was pure exasperation, not a come-on, which was a damn shame even with her prickly attitude. “I thought this was a coffee shop, not a dance club.”
Fisher did his best to squelch his urge to smile. “Coffee’s a requirement, dancing is optional.” He took a deep breath and caught her scent. It was somehow familiar, but unknown, arousing without being overbearing, light and a little dark at the same time. Captivating.
“Obviously not for me.” Jessie had spent the last half hour watching this guy and wondering what the odds were of running into the man again after he’d followed her on her morning run. It had damned near killed her to outpace him.
His untamed white-blond hair curled over his collar and looked as if it had been gelled and slicked back in a vain attempt to rein in the wild curls—at least temporarily. His bright green eyes were clear and crisp as the high mountain lake she and Andrew used to hike to. He was at least six-three, and ripped in all the right places. He looked like a surfer doing a really bad job of impersonating a professor.
In the half hour she’d been at Starbucks, she’d watched him schmooze every female barista and customer, and most of the males too. Oh yeah, she knew his type. He was the guy who spends half his time working on his tan and the other bleaching his teeth, all the while living in his mother’s basement.
Jessie gave him the Bronx stare, the one that deflated a professional athlete’s ego faster than you could say Goodyear Blimp, only to be met by a grin—a dimple bracketing one side of his mouth and a Tic Tac commercial smile. Crap, the guy must be thick too.
“If you’re uncomfortable dancing here we can go to Humpin’ Hannah’s or Shorty’s.”
Jessie struggled to keep from rolling her eyes. “Not interested, but thanks anyway.” She was surprised to see his smile widen.
“Okay, then. I guess I’ll see you around.”
“Not if I see you first.”
He shot her a wink before he turned toward the door. His smile hadn’t dimmed one little bit. Yeah, he was definitely not a member of Mensa. Maybe he had processing problems. He’d figure out that he’d been turned down sometime in the middle of next week.
Jessie took her place in line and waited. Once the couple in front of her placed their half-hour-long, amazingly complicated order, and paid—having to not only dig for their gold card, but also refill it—she told herself to calm the hell down. After all, she wasn’t in New York, she wasn’t on deadline, and it wasn’t as if she even had a job to go to.
For the first time in her life she had more free time than she knew what to do with. No wonder her mother had always warned her to be careful what she wished for. Jessie had always wanted to have the time to write a novel—she just didn’t want to lose her job and sublet her beloved apartment to get it.
She let out a sigh, pasted on what she hoped was a friendly smile, and stepped toward the counter.
Starbucks’s answer to Lady Gaga with a go-go dancer twist leaned toward Jessie, wide eyed. “Fisher asked you out, and you blew him off? What’s wrong with you? Are you married?”
“No.”
“Gay?”
“No.” Jessie had worked with people for six years who hadn’t asked her such personal questions. The woman had only served her a cup of coffee, and she wanted her life story?
Andrew had warned her that people were a whole lot friendlier in Boise. He didn’t say friendly was synonymous with nosy.
“Why the third degree? So, a guy asked me out, and I said no. What’s the big deal?”
“Hmm. Maybe you have a vision problem. Did you look at the man?”
Jessie did roll her eyes then. “Just because he looks great doesn’t mean there’s anything there, if you know what I mean.”
The barista appraised Jessie’s outfit, a Mets T-shirt, holey, ragged-out jeans, and black Converse high-tops. “I guess there’s no accounting for taste.”
Jessie wasn’t sure if Lady Gaga referred to her taste in men or clothes. She decided it didn’t matter. “May I have an employment application, please?”
“Applications are all online. Just go to Starbucks dot com, slash careers, and you can fill it out there. Lucky you, we’re hiring. I’m sure Steph, our manager, will give you a call.”
“Great, thank you.” Jessie ordered a lemonade iced tea, and after a barista with a pixie face and curly brown hair slid it across the counter with a smile, Jessie went back to the document on her computer that contained nothing but a blinking cursor. At least she had a plan for her forced sabbatical. Write a book and work part-time at Starbucks for the health insurance. It wasn’t much, but it was her plan.





Comments

  1. Congrats on the release! I love your books and am looking forward to this one.

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  2. Great excerpt! Congrats on the new release!

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  3. So excited to read it! Congrats, Robin!

    mkethridge1 (at) gmail (dot) com

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  4. @ Shana and Cheryl~ Thanks!

    @ Margaret - Thank you and good luck in the give away!

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  5. I am so excited to read this one, because I already love your books so to see this one, I am very excited.

    deni_1188 at yahoo dot com

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  6. Congrats on the release, Robin! I loved reading your excerpt. BTW, great cover! :)

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  7. Congrats on your new release. Sounds great. I love the cover.
    Crystal816[at]hotmail[dot]com

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  8. Wow, can actually relate on the heroine. Was a sports writer during high school and tried writing love stories but failed big time. :) Congratulations on your brand new release. :D

    simonelorzz(AT)gmail(DOT)com

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  9. Awesome reviews for an awesome book! Congratulations and wishing you much success!
    Amelia

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  10. Congratulations on your book. It's always exciting to see new books out.

    countessofmar (AT) yahoo(DOT) com

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  11. Congrats on the imminent release! Enjoyed the excerpt.

    little lamb lst at yahoo dot com

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  12. Congrats on your upcoming release! I enjoyed reading Wild Thing and can't wait to read Call Me Wild!

    kliu107 (at) gmail (dot) com

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  13. Congrats on the release! I was fortunate to read an early copy and loved it!! Whose story is next? Can't wait.

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  14. Congrats on the latest release! Thanks for sharing the excerpt, I've enjoyed it and can't wait to read Call Me Wild! Hope I'm lucky in the giveaway :)

    chibipooh(at)gmail(dot)com

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  15. Congratulations on the book! I enjoyed the excerpt.

    bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  16. Your books are awesome! I would love to be entered to win this one.Thanks for the chance.


    mlawson17 at hotmail dot com

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  17. CONGRATS on the release tomorrow and the wonderful reviews!!! Fantastic Chapter 1... can't wait to read the rest!

    yadkny at hotmail dot com

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  18. @ Whitney~ Thanks so much for the compliment! It's always wonderful to hear! Good luck in the give away!

    @ CH Armand~ Thanks! I really do love this cover too!

    @ CrystalGB - I'm so glad you like it. Good luck with the give away!

    @ Lory Lee - Love the spelling Lory! It's good to hear you say you can relate to Jessie--I had such a great time writing her!

    @ Amelia - From your mouth (or fingers) to God's ears. Thanks a bunch!

    @ Melody May~ It's always exciting when a book comes out. I'm waiting for it to get old, but I doubt it ever will. At least I hope not...

    @ Lil - Thanks, and I'm glad you liked the excerpt. It was a fun book to write.

    @ Kristy - Thanks, you put a smile on my face, and after the day I've had, I really needed it!

    @ Nise' - In this series, Trapper's book is next. I also have a new series coming out--the Bad Boys of Red Hook. Yes, I'm writing Brooklyn again. I have a novella coming out in December on e-book to introduce the series. It's called Hometown Girl, and then Back To You will be out in January in print and e-book. They're a lot of fun. I hope you'll check them out.

    @ Winnie - Good luck with the give away! Thanks so much for stopping by.

    @ bn100- I'm glad! Good luck with the Give Away!

    @ Martha - Thanks so much! It's always good to hear words like awesome!

    @*yadkny* Thank you! The rest of the first chapter and the first chapters of all my books are on my website http://RobinKayeWrites.com

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  19. We have a winner!!

    Martha Lawson was chosen by Random.org!

    Thanks for entering. I'm giving away a copy of Call Me Wild tomorrow on http://killerfictionwriters.blogspot.com/ if you want to stop by for another chance.

    ReplyDelete

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