Taste Another Bite From Alexandrea Weis' Latest Novel!

“I didn’t realize you and my uncle were so close.”

Jean Marc smiled, a warm and uplifting smile that muted the sadness in his eyes. “Jack was always a second father to me. My dad was too busy with the business, and when he wasn’t doing that, he was bailing Henri out of some mess.”

“I’m sorry. I’m his niece. I should have been more involved, and then maybe I could have helped him.”

Jean Marc reached across the table for my hand. “Don’t blame yourself. You didn’t know. You aren’t responsible for your uncle, Nora.”

“Then why are you?” I questioned, feeling a sudden twinge of something strange as his strong hand held mine.

“Your uncle has been good to me.” He let go of my hand. “He’s been there for me and listened to me.” He lowered his eyes to the worn surface of the old pine table. “I owe him a debt.”

I shook my head. “You owe him the debt of friendship. I owe him the debt of family.”

“‘It’s better to owe a debt of love than blood,’ my grandfather used to always say. I never realized what he meant until now.” He paused and the chill returned to his dark eyes. “I can look after Jack here. You won’t have time to keep coming back and forth.”

I stared at him, a little taken aback by his comment. “I can’t ask you to do that.”

“Nora, you have a great deal going on in your life. You have your wedding to plan and all the changes your new life will bring.”

“Did Uncle Jack tell you I was getting married?”

“He mentioned you were going to marry a doctor.” He paused and once again his eyes changed and a glint of warmth appeared in their darkness. “But he doesn’t believe you’re in love with this guy.”

I sat back in my chair, feeling slightly dumbfounded. “He said that?”

Jean Marc rose from his chair. “Make sure you love the man you’re going to marry, Nora. Otherwise, marriage can be a real bitch.”

I looked up into his face. “You were married once, weren’t you?”

He nodded. “Lasted less than a year. She was the daughter of a business associate I knew in Dallas. It was wrong from the start.”

“Wrong?” I asked, realizing how little I actually knew about the man.

He snapped his fingers. “There was no spark, no passion between Cynthia and me. Love needs passion to ignite. Without it you just have hormones.” He directed his attention to the small clock on the far wall. “You’d better get back to the city. It’s getting late. I’ll come back in a few hours and check on him. He’s much more reasonable when he’s sober.” Jean Marc placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll find something for him to do at the crawfish farms or, if need be, at the house.” He gave me an encouraging smile.

I stood from my chair. “Thank you, Jean Marc. You’ve been a good friend to my uncle and I’m very grateful.” And then, without thinking, I stood on my toes and gently kissed his lips.

The electricity that passed between us was unlike anything I had ever experienced. I could feel my body throb with the touch of his lips against mine. But before I could pull away, he threw his muscular arms about me and deepened his kiss. I could smell his woody cologne mixed with the scent of the bayou out back. I could hear the wild chirping of the birds in the trees along with the pounding of my heart. All my senses came to life, and the effect made me slightly dizzy. John’s kisses had never been like this.

I pulled away first, overwhelmed by the frenzy of sensations raging within me.

He took a step back from me. “I’m sorry,” he murmured, but the way the light reflected in his eyes, I sensed he really wasn’t.

I smiled, trying to appear unflustered. “Don’t worry about it.” I turned to go and grabbed on to the back of the chair beside me to keep my knees from giving way.

“Nora?” Jean Marc whispered.

I straightened up and faced him. My stomach clenched as I took in his smug grin and the way he was dissecting my features as if he were a detective interrogating a murder suspect.

After several agonizing seconds, he finally said, “Are you sure you want to marry that doctor?”

I hastily lowered my gaze to the old linoleum floor. “You don’t know John. We are a good team and—”

But before I could finish, he stormed out of the kitchen. A few minutes later, I heard the gun of an engine and the screech of tires on my uncle’s shell-covered drive.

I kicked the little pine table next to me. “Damn it!” I fought to regain control over my emotions. I was engaged to another man, so how could I possibly have feelings for a man I had always despised? I assured myself that I was simply exhibiting some nerves over my impending marriage; at least, I hoped that’s all it was. To consider any other reason was, quite simply, dangerous.

"Pssst! I'm nuts about Mom's latest book!
Hope you like it too!"

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• Weis' Acadian Waltz Sweet, Sassy, Sexy...and Dangerous

Weis' Acadian Waltz Sweet, Sassy, Sexy...and Dangerous

English: Acadian House, Longfellow-Evangeline State Park, St. Martinville, Louisiana (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When your papa used to bring you out here. As soon as
you stepped from your papa's car, you went runnin' to
Jean Marc. Followed that boy all over the dock, you did."
Uncle Jack pointed the wrench over at the doc next to the
boat. "Jean Marc was always hangin' around helpin' to
fix engines and such. Anytime you came to visit, he would volunteer to watch you so your papa and me could
go fishin/. He even taught you how to dance. You don't
remember that?"
I gave my uncle a bewildered side-glance. "Dance?"
"The Acadian Waltz. Your papa and me come back from
fishin' early one day and found you two dancin' on the
dock with no music. Funniest damn thing I ever see."
"I don't remember that," I mumbled.
"Spect not. You are barely out of diapers then. That boy
always has taken a fancy to you. Nora T. He liked you then, and if you ask me, he still likes you."
~~~
 

Acadian Waltz


By Alexandrea Weis


Weis has a range of topics in her novels, but so far, they've all been set in Louisiana and tell readers much about her home state--I thoroughly enjoy her stories and her writing. With Acadian Waltz as the title, I wasn't surprised to have a romance but I was surprised at the mother [from h***] of the bride! LOL But she was a perfect character and, if you're a working woman like I am, you naturally will love to hate her!

But, for me, she wasn't as bad as John...

No wonder Nora Kehoe was still unmarried, lived in her own apartment, and had worked hard to have a successful career as a physical therapist and administrator... To her mother, it wasn't important that she was happily working...what she needed was a husband...and children, preferably in that order. Her mother would be thrilled to have grandchildren!

"Put your hands on me," he whispered in my ear.
Flustered, I reached up and put my hands on his
chest.
"No, not there." He took my right hand and guided
it to his erection. "Now, stroke me," he directed.
"I soon learned that the entire sexual experience to
John was something akin to following instructions
for operating a DVD player. At specific intervals I
was told to "touch me here" or "kiss me there" or
"move against me like this." By the time we had
come to the end of our very brief encounter, I was
so emotionally frazzled that I had forgotten to fake
an orgasm...
~~~

So Nora was hounded until she gave in...and her mother started setting up blind dates! And she met John... No, her mother hadn't picked him for a date, rather Nora's date had an allergic reaction to food and they both wound up in the emergency room...where Dr. John Blessing worked!

Unfortunately, Nora was immediately attracted to John...I say that because the man was a control freak! Nora started to date him and her mother was in heaven--a doctor!

But, little by little Nora was changing--losing weight, giving in to the wishes of others. After all, they would make a "nice" couple...(personal sarcasm, LOL)

Nora had maintained a relationship with her Uncle Jack, her mother's brother, although there was little contact between the siblings. Nora routinely visited him, especially to check his blood pressure and other health issues that he routinely ignored. He only listened because of his love for her...

Then on one of those visits, Jean Marc, who was now her uncle's boss, stopped by...

Sometime during the internal fight that began inside, Nora was reminded that when she was eight, she had given Jean Marc a ring and asked him to marry her. He had been eighteen and was about to leave home...She hadn't seen him for over ten years...

But in Louisiana, it was getting more dangerous. There had always been smuggling of some sort, now, many drugs... But the latest crime had been the death of a young girl, her eyes destroyed, looking as if done by a surgeon...

And then one night, Nora met her secretary to go out while John worked. They came upon a circle of people in white, chanting, and they were leading a young girl to stand in front of the leader who waited with a knife. And Nora recognized him!

"The men you owe?"
"My backers." He paused and then chuckled at me. "Nora,
you've lived in New Orleans all your life, but you have no idea what really goes on  inside 
of the French Quarter. The cults that exist there are a powerful attractant to the
weak-minded. There are a few men that organize those cults, collect dues from the
followers, and recruit new initiates from the homeless teenagers that flock to the city
thanks to Anne Rice and her vampire novels. Kids come to New Orleans seeking vampires
and voodoo. These guys I work for give it to them..."
~~~

I looked for Acadian Waltz and found only this nice guy...
I thought it might be Uncle Jack...practicing, hoping...

And just as I thought we were nearing a happy ending, Alexandrea Weis threw in a zinger and I stopped breathing..."Oh no!"

If you haven't read Weis yet, I highly recommend you start with Acadian Waltz, just out! It's romantic, funny, sexy and has an exciting unexpected ending...that will both distress and please... Don't miss this one! It's one of her best, I think...but, so far, I've loved all of her books...

The author is now being spotlighted on Book Reader's Heaven...Check out what's happening there! Pics, Excerpts and more!


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SPOTLIGHT on Author Alexandrea Weis! Please Welcome Her to BRH!

Featuring...

Sex, Secrets and Smugglers Set in the Louisiana Bayous!

Alexandrea Weis weaves a passionate tale about the dark world of smuggling into her new novel, Acadian Waltz.

 

    New Orleans - Nora Kehoe is feeling pressured to settle down. At her mother’s urging, she goes on a blind date and ends up in the emergency room where she meets Dr. John Blessing. She thinks she has found Mr. Right, and then a passionate encounter with a childhood friend changes everything. Soon Nora is thrown headlong into the dangerous world of smugglers and swindlers in this compelling tale filled with intrigue and romance.  Acadian Waltz. (ISBN: 9781938243943).  

    The dark bayou waters run deep with secrets in Louisiana, and every Cajun knows how to dance the fine line between the right and wrong side of the law. But for strangers, learning the steps to staying alive in the swamps can be tricky. Life, and love, will be dependent on how well one can master the … Acadian Waltz 

    “I was raised by a Cajun family and I know their world well. I wanted to bring the language and the people alive in a compelling love story for readers,” Weis says.

     Fans of Diary of a One-Night Stand, and Broken Wings will appreciate the romance, suspense and believable characters Weis creates in Acadian Waltz.

Excerpt:  Acadian Waltz:

For many, the course of an entire lifetime could be summed up in a few defining moments, but moments do not choose your path. There was always an indescribable force lurking inside of us that shaped our destiny. Whether this motivation was the result of fear, longing, or in my case, guilt, it haunted our being and oversaw our every action. Like a constant voice inside our heads, this energy gave each of our lives direction.

My inner voice was hugely influenced by the city where I was born. Built at the bend in the Mississippi River and tucked behind protective levees, New Orleans nurtured a peculiar world infatuated with the Catholic rituals of sin and penance. Therefore, it should be no surprise that those of us who endured in this swamp-ridden land below the level of the sea had mastered the art of sin. In fact, we turned it into something of a tourist industry. It was the penance part that many of us had not quite gotten a handle on. But God, in his infinite wisdom, wanted to make sure that we were always reminded of our heavy feelings of culpability. That was why he created the greatest guilt-making machine of them all—the mother.

Mine was named Claire Mouton Gaspard Kehoe Schuller. My mother’s first husband, Etienne Gaspard, had been her high school sweetheart. Etienne was known for running touchdowns, shrimp boats, and little else. Their marriage ended the day my mother first laid eyes on Clayton Kehoe at the criminal court house, where she had gone, yet again, to bail her drunk husband out of jail.

Her second husband, the late Clayton Kehoe, had been a prominent attorney in the city of New Orleans. Mother’s current husband was a Jewish jewelry maker named Lou Schuller. Lou was not as influential as Kehoe had been, but infinitely more skilled with gold and diamonds, which invariably pleased my mother to no end. But my mother had always insisted that it was Clayton Kehoe who had swept her off her feet from the first moment their eyes met.

“Your father,” Mother would always say. “Had the sweetest way of talking, and he always knew how to treat a lady like a queen.”

My mother was nineteen and my father was thirty-two when they married. It was a happy marriage, with lots of parties, many friends, and eventually the arrival of me, Nora Theresa Kehoe. I was named after my mother’s favorite saint and my father’s favorite movie star.

Marriage to my father must have agreed with Claire. She enjoyed being the wife of a well-connected New Orleans attorney, and thrived on the social circuit of parties and political gatherings. Even after my father died when I was fourteen, she would still meet with her old friends from the various political groups around the city, and pound the pavement for many of my father’s former colleagues who were running for office. But that all ended when she married Lou Schuller.

At fifty-five, Lou was dumpy, chubby, bald, and had the personality of a matzo ball. But Lou had the money to keep Claire in the lifestyle to which she had made herself accustomed, even after all the insurance money my father had left ran out. In the beginning of their marriage, Lou tolerated my mother’s love for the social scene, but he soon grew tired of the endless cocktail parties and political fundraisers, and reined in Claire’s activities. Now, after fifteen years of marriage, middle-aged, and trying to cope with the passage of her youth, my mother had found a new venture in which to place all of her efforts; me. Or more to the point, my marriage to some man, preferably wealthy, in the hopes of attaining the beat all and end all of middle age—grandchildren.

“You’re thirty now, Nora. It’s time to meet a man and settle down. Why haven’t you found someone? It can’t be all bad out there,” my mother began one Sunday morning in March"

Acadian Waltz is published by World Castle Publishing and is available now! BRH Review Soon!

 Bath Gift Basket with a paperback copy and/or Ebooks Giveaway Coming! 

 

About the Author:Alexandrea Weis’s popular second novel, Recovery, won the Gold Medal for best romantic suspense from The Reader’s Favorite Book Awards 2011, was named best Romantic Suspense novel by the Spring 2011 NABE Pinnacle Book Awards, and was a Finalist in the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards in 2012. Her fourth novel, Broken Wings, won best Contemporary Romance by the NABE Pinnacle Book Awards in 2011, and was a finalist in the Reader’s Favorite Book Awards for Contemporary Romance in 2012 and the USA Book Awards for Romance. Her sixth novel, Diary of a One-Night Stand, was released in August 2012. A permitted wildlife rehabber with the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries, Weis rescues orphaned and injured wildlife. She lives with her husband and pets in New Orleans.

 

Website:            www.alexandreaweis.com