Join author Celia Bonaduce on her Virtual Book Tour
Tour for The Merchant of Venice Beach,
presented by Reading Addiction Book
Tours, from December 9 – January 11, 2014.
Please leave a comment or question for Celia to let her know you stopped
by. You can enter her tour wide giveaway
by filling out the Rafflecopter form below.
You can also follow the rest of Celia’s tour here,
the more stops you visit the better your odds of winning. My review will post later this morning.
The Merchant of Venice BeachBy Celia BonaduceA Venice Beach Romance, Book 1Publisher: eKensingtonRelease Date: August 1, 2013Genre: Contemporary RomanceLength: 230 PagesISBN: 978-1-601831-23-1ASIN: B00BTG44O2Add to GoodreadsAbout the book:The Rollicking Bun--Home of the Epic Scone--is the center of Suzanna Wolf's life. Part tea shop, part bookstore, part home, it's everything she's ever wanted right on the Venice Beach boardwalk, including partnership with her two best friends from high school, Eric and Fernando. But with thirty-three just around the corner, suddenly Suzanna wants something more--something strictly her own. Salsa lessons, especially with a gorgeous instructor, seem like a good start--a harmless secret, and just maybe the start of a fling. But before she knows it, Suzanna is learning steps she never imagined--and dancing her way into confusion.Buy Links: Amazon B&N eKensington
Excerpt
Suzanna was in a panic. After several futile attempts at
looking for shoes on-line, it became clear she was never going to have enough
alone time to really investigate the subject properly. All the research she did
manage just brought about more questions, not less and Suzanna had to admit
that she really needed some expert help in finding the right shoes. Now her
first salsa lesson was looming, and she had somehow not managed to find the
time to go to Dante’s Dancewear. She didn’t know exactly what she wanted, but
she knew she couldn’t show up at the studio in the wrong shoes…whatever that
meant!
Slipping away from The Bun as soon as the afternoon tea
crowd had settled down, Suzanna pointed her Smart Car towards Westwood
Boulevard, where Dante’s Dancewear beckoned. Suzanna walked noiselessly into
the store, ready to appear confident and assured. After all, she didn’t know
everything, but she knew she wanted “character shoes.”
“You don’t want character shoes,” said the stone-faced
skeleton behind the counter.
It’s times like these when Suzanna remembered why she never
left her comfort zone. When she was managing The Bun or hanging out with
Fernando and Eric, curve balls like this were never hurled at her. The
little self-doubts pricked at her like tiny toothpicks, but she pulled myself
together, arched an eyebrow and breathed… “Oh?”
“A character shoe has a leather sole. You want a suede sole
for classes.”
“Oh,” she paused emphatically. And then, because she
couldn’t stand not knowing, added, “Why?”
“The suede glides on the wood floor,” she replied, “and a
suede soled shoe is lighter and easier to dance in for long periods of time.”
It took Suzanna a moment to let go of her character-shoes-dream,
but since her character-shoes-dream was only about a week old, she found she
could easily replace it with the new, more dance-centric suede-sole dance-shoes
dream. Because, make no mistake, she planned on dancing for long periods of
time!
She asked the skeleton to show her some suede-soled dance
shoes that would lend themselves to sensuous salsa.
“What color?” She asked.
Red? Too showy. White? Too virginal.
“Black!” Suzanna said.
“You don’t want black.”
Suzanna left Dante’s Dancewear a little more unsteady and a
lot less sure of herself than when she entered, but she had to congratulate
herself. She had bought her dance shoes.
They were beige.
Apparently in the dance world, one referred to “shoes” in
the singular. You bought a “shoe” and somehow your other foot magically got
shod. According to the skeleton, one did not want a shoe that stood out. One
wanted a shoe that blended in. Suzanna argued that the whole point of dance
lessons was that she was damn SICK of fitting in. The skeleton replied
that she wanted her form and herself to stand out – not her feet.
“Beige hides footwork mistakes,” she said.
So Suzanna bought beige.
Suzanna clicked off the alarm in her Smart Car and hid her
clandestine purchase in what was passing for a trunk in the vehicle that was
passing for a car. Suzanna wondered briefly if the hot dance instructor would
be impressed with her wise choice of a beige shoe. She looked down at her
iPhone calendar – she’d find out in less than 4 hours.
About the Author
Currently a Field Producer on
HGTV’s House Hunters, Celia Bonaduce's TV credits cover a lot of ground -
everything from field-producing ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to
writing for many of Nickelodeon’s animated series, including Hey, Arnold and Chalkzone.
An avid reader, entering the
world of books has always been a lifelong ambition. The Merchant of Venice
Beach, A Venice Beach Romance, was published August 1st, 2013 by eKensington.
Contact Links:
Website: http://celiabonaduce.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CeliaBonaduce
eKensington Author Page: http://www.ekensingtonbooks.com/author.aspx/26393
this sounds like a lot of fun!! Thanks so much for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteLooks fun story, will love to have read this one.
ReplyDeleteThanks for chance :)
I'm curious if Suzanna will get what she wants by her 33rd birthday.
ReplyDeletebituin76 at hotmail dot com