A Shot At Love by Peggy Jaeger ❤️ Fun Facts, Book Tour & Gift Card Giveaway ❤️ (Contemporary Romance)

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Nothing’s impossible when love is on the menu. In Peggy Jaeger’s luscious series, the only thing more tempting than a delicious meal is a truly delectable romance . . .
Look for exclusive recipes in each book!

Photographer Gemma Laine is looking for arresting faces on the streets of Manhattan when her camera captures something shocking—a triple murder. In that moment, she becomes a target for the mob—and a top priority for a very determined, breathtakingly handsome, FBI special agent. With deadlines to meet and photo shoots on her calendar, Gemma chafes at the idea of protection, but every moment she spends under his watchful eye is a temptation to lose herself in his muscular arms . . .

With two of his men and one crucial witness dead, Special Agent Kyros Pappandreos can’t afford to be distracted. But Gemma is dazzling—and her connection to Kandy Laine’s high-profile cooking empire makes her an especially easy mark for some very bad people. Keeping her safe is much more pleasure than business, but as the heat between them starts to sizzle, Ky is set to investigate whether they have a shot at love . . .

In A SHOT AT LOVE, photographer Gemma Laine not only protects her heart from love, but her body from…personal attack. When I devised her character arc for the WILL COOK FOR LOVE SERIES, Gemma was the Laine sister I classified as the Warrior. She’s the sister the others went to if they needed protection from bullies in school, or if they were afraid to walk home late at night. Gemma could and did defend them against problems.
A serious incident in high school prompted Gemma to learn about martial art disciplines and she found she had a natural affinity for the defensive arts. Especially the physical aspects of defense. She has black belts in several disciplines and when Kyros Pappandreos – a lover and practitioner of the arts as well - discovers this about her, he falls just a little more in love with the woman he’s been ordered to protect.
Knowing how cognizant readers are these days, I knew I had to get Gemma’s moves right in order to make them believable to readers. I didn’t have to go far for instruction. My husband, daughter, and I were privileged for many years to study Kempo Karate and then Kosho Ru karate with Sensei Rick Wilmott in our home town. We each had our favorite parts of the study, mine being the use of fighting sticks, or Jo sticks. The physical stamina and speed it took to fight effectively with the sticks gave me some of the best workouts I’ve ever had. Hand-eye coordination and concentration/focus are uber-necessary to the discipline so you don’t get injured.
When Gemma and Ky practice with the sticks in one of the early scenes in the book, each is impressed with the other’s capability. Gemma’s foot thick internal walls keeping her heart secure start to chip away when she comes to realize Ky respects and applauds her defensive skills – so unlike the other men who have drifted into her life who saw her more as a threat to their masculinity.
Knowing how to walk the walk, and move the moves of a stick fighter went far in helping Gemma’s credibility – on paper to my readers, and on page to Ky.

“I took a basic karate class as a high school gym elective one year. The teacher told me I had”—she shrugged—“a natural ability for the art and the movements and that I should consider pursuing it. So I did.”
“What’s your rank?”
She never hesitated to tell him, proud of her achievements. “Third degree black in Kempo, second in Ju-Jitsu.”
Ky whistled. “Nice.” He glanced over at the weapon wall. “You like working with sticks?”
“They’re my favorite weapons next to nunchakus.”
“Okay. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
“What?”
He moved to the storage wall and selected two pair of three-foot fighting sticks, and handed her one pair.
“Seriously?” Because it was second nature to her, she weighed the sticks in each hand and found her balance, legs spread hip distance apart and equalized on the balls of her feet, arms and shoulders lifted, the sticks pointed upward. “You know how to stick fight?”
His mouth lifted in a tiny arc on one side. “I’ve been known to hold my own,” he told her, adopting an equal stance. “Drill first to get a feel for one another?”
Gemma nodded. “High, low, then triples?”
The tiny grin he’d tossed her spread into a full-fledged smile that had her mouth watering.
She counted them down.
From the first series of strikes she knew without a doubt he could more than just hold his own. Kyros Pappandreos had some serious skill.
They started slow, each gaging the other’s reaction time, getting the feel, as he’d said, for the other’s ability, but in less than a minute the pace jumped. They parried and danced in a circle, each counterbalancing a move made by the other. For every lift of his stick to strike high, Gemma met his move and then changed the angle, first striking low, then lifting her arm. Back and forth, each maneuver challenging the other, the sounds of the sticks striking, wood to wood in a staccato rhythm, bounced off the walls.
At one point they were moving so fast, the sticks blurred in her vision and all she could do was let instinct and training take over her hands and arms, the weapons becoming an extension of her body.
How much time passed, she couldn’t guess, but her arms began to scream with the effort and speed they mounted.
Gemma met him, hit for hit, strike for strike. It was exhilarating, mentally and technically, to work with someone so well schooled in the art. For many of the past several years, her master had recruited her into helping the less experienced students. When she’d been able to spar and fight with him, his proficiency level had elevated hers, forcing her to defend against moves no novice or amateur could. She’d grown as a fighter, cherishing each time she was able to implement her abilities.
And every one of those skills was put to the test with Ky as her partner.
Eventually, he slowed them down to where they were simply just tapping their sticks together, high strikes then low. Gemma was breathing hard, but wasn’t winded; she was elated. She wanted to push herself – push him – to see where they could take this.
“Enough,” he said, taking a step back and lowering his sticks to a neutral position.
Gemma mimicked his movement.
“You know what you’re doing,” she told him, measuring his breathing by the pace of his chest rising and falling. It gave her a subtle ego-boost to realize he was breathing a little rougher than she was.
“As do you,” he answered. Respect and something deeper filled his gaze as he considered her. Gemma’s toes curled inside her sneakers as those hooded eyes regarded her. “You’ve had top notch training.”

   

Peggy Jaeger is a contemporary romance writer who writes about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them.

Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, Peggy brings all topics of daily life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she has created the families she wanted as that lonely child.

Tying into her love of families, her children's book, THE KINDNESS TALES, was illustrated by her artist mother-in-law.


Peggy holds a master's degree in Nursing Administration and first found publication with several articles she authored on Alzheimer's Disease during her time running an Alzheimer's in-patient care unit during the 1990s.
In 2013, she placed first in two categories in the Dixie Kane Memorial Contest: Single Title Contemporary Romance and Short/Long Contemporary Romance.
In 2017 she came in 3rd in the New England Reader's Choice contest for A KISS UNDER THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS and is a finalist in the 2017 STILETTO contest for the same title.

A lifelong and avid romance reader and writer, she is a member of RWA and her local New Hampshire RWA Chapter.

     

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