Into My World...: Blog Tour: Falling For Hope excerpt and review

Title – Falling For Hope

Series – Four Winds #3

Author- Anne Conley

Genre- Paranormal Romance

Publication Date - March 5, 2014

Length (Pages/#words)- 46,000 words

Publisher – Anne Conley

Cover Artist – Vanessa Booke

Book Blurb/Synopsis-

Hope is an eccentric librarian who lives with her five cats and loves to spend her time fantasizing about living in a world of shape shifters, vampires, and fairies. Although the existence of a paranormal world is far from Hope’s reality, she can’t help but sense there’s something different about the mysterious man lurking in her library.

Gabriel is God’s Strength, the Messenger, who’s been tasked with delivering the Word for millennia. His most recent assignment will be his last, to fall in love and become human. But he can’t quite figure out what he’s done to displease the Boss. Gabriel’s latest assignment might be the hardest, but this gorgeous rubenesque quirk of a woman definitely has him intrigued.

God’s Four Winds are his most trusted archangels: Uriel, Raphael, Gabriel, and Michael. Follow their adventures in “falling” as they each discover their chosen one and what it means to be human. Along the way, the Deceiver, who’s been cast down, only wants what his “brothers” have, and will stop at nothing to foil his Father’s plans.

Falling for Hope is book three in the Four Winds series, but they are all stand-alone novels.

AMAZON | GOODREADS | SMASHWORDS | BARNES & NOBLES

The next morning, Hope was watching her feet as she climbed the steps to the library. She cursed to herself as she tasted the tangy-sweet saliva in her mouth again. Maybe it was some sort of building issue? She'd never heard of asbestos making people taste funny things, but she'd be sure to ask the other employees today, just in case.

As she neared the top of the stairs, Hope felt the prickly feeling yet again, and her gaze rose to the man standing in front of the library doors waiting.

"Aren't the doors open?" She tried to sound solicitous, but the truth of the matter was, this guy took her breath away. It was the man that had watched her all day yesterday.

"Yes, but I won't be staying today." The low rumble of his voice greeted her a cheery good morning unlike anything else she could ask for. Just the sound of his voice made her day perfect.

"Oh." Disappointed that he wouldn't be in her little room of the library bit through the fog of his voice.

"Come to dinner with me tonight."

Shocked speechless, she stared at him. He had an air of expectation about him, and his forehead crinkled in thought at the same time that she heard his luxurious voice rumble inside her head.

Come. Say yes. His sexy-as-sin voice resonated inside her head.

Hope's eyes darted around, making sure there wasn't anybody else who could have done that, before she looked back up at him. "You don't have to use the force on me. I'm thinking. I was just taken by surprise, is all."

Both of his eyebrows rose, almost to his hairline and his eyes widened in surprise. "You heard that?"

"Didn't you mean for me to?" She countered, putting a hand on her hip.

His face remained impassive. "Well…yes. But usually it's not so obvious." His tone of voice suggested he wasn’t expecting Hope to call him on his little trick, and seeing that gave her a little boost of confidence.

"You go around using Jedi mind tricks on women to get dates often?"

He chuckled, and his eyes dropped to the ground. "No. I've never done it for a date, no."

Hope's eyes roamed his body from his feet, clad in shiny leather loafers, up his gray woolen slacks (Hello, Fifty), to the black sweater vest he wore over a white long-sleeved button down shirt, open at the collar. His face held strong features: a square jaw with a small dimple in the middle, high, obscenely high cheekbones, a rather large mouth that made her mind travel to erotic places, and those eyes… The man exuded a strength that wasn’t visible. Well, it was visible, he looked like his muscles had muscles, but he had an air of intense power and vigor about him that told Hope he expected people to do what he said. Often.

Then her eyes traveled to herself. She had worn black dress pants today, with a shirt that actually sort of fit her large breasts, although it showed a little more cleavage than she was comfortable with. Hope looked at him again, and his eyes held the question. What was her answer?

"Why?"

The question in his eyes turned to surprise. Apparently, this guy didn't get questioned very often. An image flitted through her mind, the two of them together at a table, lit with candles, Hope's head thrown back in laughter.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Did you do that, too?"

He had the grace to look sheepish. "Will you go to dinner with me?"

"No."

His head snapped up, and his mouth fell open. "Why not?"

"Because I'm having dinner with my parents tonight. But you didn't answer my question? Why do you want to take me out?"

It was his turn to peruse her. His eyes started at her feet, and slowly worked their way up her body. By the time they reached her face, Hope was squirming. "Why not?" The timbre of his voice washed over her, like it had yesterday, and Hope actually felt her breasts get heavier, as if they were swelling out of her bra.

Why not, indeed?

"Okay, my lunch is from one to two."

"I'll pick you up here, then? At one o'clock?"

Hope nodded, suddenly speechless again, unable to look away as he turned his long, lean frame and deftly descended the steps. Suppressing the urge to do a happy dance, lest he turn around and catch her, she scurried inside the library.

----------------------------------------------------------

Review!!

~4/5~

This short story is a fast read.

Let’s talk about the bad. A few things that got to me was pace in which your two main characters ‘hooked up’ if you will. One moment Gabe is sending thoughts into Hope’s head, the next she is completely accepting it like it’s a normal occurrence. I understand that she is a librarian who lives with her head in the clouds (and this is a work of fiction), but if some sexy man came up to me and pushed a thought into my mind I would have to reevaluate my sanity. And after a very, very short exchange of words she’s going out on a lunch date with him. No name, no real arguing, and no wondering if he is a stalker (no matter how sexy I ain’t going on a date with some random man I just met.). Granted, after all is said and done with, and Gabe shows up the next day, Hope wises up and wants to learn more about him. So I’ll let those slid.

Now, on to the good stuff!

I think the best thing about Hope is that I can kind of see myself. All the cats, the life style-to some degree. Is that scary? But that’s as far as the similarities go. Hope is stuck in a rough place after having lost her sister some time ago and in the course her relationship isn’t the best with her parents. I mean it’s good, but not what it should be when it comes to talking about her sister. Then Gabe comes in and begins to mend things. He really is a saving Grace and makes her content life become truly happy.

I’m a sucker for a sexy guy and Gabe is right up there. He’s an angel having been sent on a heck of a mission, fall for Hope. And what I love most is as you read Gabe begins to change. He starts to feel things we are used to, but they are not at all familiar to him and you can see that by his reactions. When his muscles start to get sore in the library he actually has to get up and walk around. Totally new to him. So I definitely love what the author has done with him and the overall concept to this story.

My favorite lines:

“…One: I’m wooing you, and as the wooer, I should meet the wooee’s parents.
Two: If your mother sees you being wooed, she might leave you alone about the rest.
And three: I think you’re beautiful as you are, and I just might tell your mother that.”

Gabe continues to say:

“I’m making a humorous play on the word woo, which you seem to enjoy so much, but I’m deadly serious about the actual plan of action.”

This is a very interesting story and being that it was so easy and fast I just might have to get to know the other men and their stories with Falling for Heaven and Falling for Grace.

Author bio-

Anne Conley lives in a small town in East Texas, with her husband, two kids and numerous goats. She brazenly stole her pseudonym from her great-grandmother, a true pioneer woman who raised seven kids alone: churning butter, plucking chickens, knitting clothes, and putting coal oil on every visible wound. Anne’s Stories of serendipity feature real people, living life and finding love in a small town. She also has a Paranormal Romance series, the Four Winds about archangels “falling” in love and coping with turning into humans Her writing is escapist therepy, and she succumbs to it every chance she gets.