A cupcake baker with magical abilities suddenly finds herself
competing with the unfortunately handsome owner of the fancy new bakery across
the street in Golden Heart® Winner Tara
Sheets's magical romantic comedy releasing April 24th, 2018.
Rafflecopter for Don’t Call Me Cupcake First Look Celebration Giveaway:
Tara
is offering one (1) lucky Grand Prize winner an Alex & Ani cupcake charm bracelet and a
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About Don’t
Call Me Cupcake:
Title:
Don’t
Call Me Cupcake
Author: Tara Sheets
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release
Date: April
24, 2018
Publisher:
Zebra
Shout – Kensington Publishing
Series: The Holloway Girls
Format: Digital eBook / Print
Digital
ISBN: 1420146264
Print ISBN: 9781420146264
Synopsis:
There’s a very special kind
of sweetness to life on Pine Cove Island …
Most families have
a favorite recipe or two, handed down through generations. The Holloway women
are a little different. Emma Holloway, like her grandmother before her, bakes
charms into her delicious cupcakes, granting the recipient comfort, sweet dreams,
or any number of good things. It’s a strange gift, but it brings only
happiness. Until gorgeous, smooth-talking newcomer Hunter Kane strolls into her
shop, Fairy Cakes—and Emma makes the mistake of selling him not one, but three
Sweet Success cupcakes.
Hunter, it turns
out, is opening a fancy new restaurant and bakery right on the
waterfront—Emma’s competition. To make matters worse, the town committee has
decided to split the upcoming summer festival contract between the two, forcing
Emma to work with her nemesis. But she can’t afford to split her profits. The
solution: create a recipe that will make Hunter leave town permanently.
The Holloway
charms are powerful. But there are other kinds of magic in the world—like
red-hot first kisses, secret glances, and the feeling that comes with falling
truly, madly, inconveniently in love . . .
Excerpt:
Copyright© 2018
Don’t Call Me Cupcake
Tara Sheets
“You.” A
woman’s voice called behind him, and he turned to see the cupcake girl marching
toward him. She was still wearing that black-and-white frilly apron. With her
blond ringlets flying around her delicate face and flinty sparks in her gray
eyes, Hunter felt like he was about to be attacked by a sexy Goldilocks.
He
searched behind him as she approached, to make sure she wasn’t talking to
someone else. “Me?”
She
stopped in front of him, a little out of breath from her march down the street.
Her chest lifted and fell intriguingly over the white apron lace, but her
rosebud mouth was pursed tightly and Hunter took a step back. He had seen that
look on women before. Goldilocks was not happy.
“Yes,
you,” she said through gritted teeth. “You lied to me. You’re not a tourist.”
“Uh,”
Hunter glanced around for a moment. “I’m not?”
“No,
you’re not.” She stepped in close, grabbing the pastry box out of his hand. She
peered inside and glared up at him in accusation. “And of course. You had to go
and eat all three of them, didn’t you?”
He
blinked. “But, I paid for them, remember?”
“That’s
not the point. You. Ate. Them.”
“Yes,”
he said carefully. Maybe Goldilocks liked to spike her morning porridge. “They
were delicious?”
“Ugh.” She stomped her foot and he tried
not to smile. She was irritated, yes, but so damn adorable. Even if she was a
little bit odd.
“You shouldn’t
have eaten them because you weren’t being honest with me. You’re not just a
tourist passing through. You’re the new owner of that.” She pointed to the empty waterfront building that would soon
be his fancy new café and restaurant.
“Yes.” He
held out his hand and gave her his best smile. “I’m Hunter Kane.”
She
frowned back at him, ignoring his hand. “I know who you are. And you should
have told me that before I gave you those Sweet Success cupcakes.”
“Why?”
“Because
I own Fairy Cakes, and now your business is going to take away all my
customers.” She looked so upset that Hunter felt a twinge of pity for her, even
though she was being ridiculous. Competition was the name of the game in any
industry, and restaurant ownership was no exception. “Look, I’m sorry you feel
that way, but it’s just business. And why would my eating your chocolate
cupcakes be a problem anyway? It’s not like I’m going to steal the recipe or
something.”
“Ha,”
she scoffed. “As if you ever could. My cupcakes are special, and everyone on
this island knows it.”
“Oh . .
. kay.” He still wasn’t quite sure what she was getting at.
“And now
you’ve gone and eaten them.” She threw her hands up in the air.
Hunter
frowned down at her. “Well, excuse me, ma’am. I thought that was the whole point
of buying them.”
She
jammed her hands onto her hips. “First of all, I’m twenty-five years old. Don’t
call me ‘ma’am.’ Save it for old ladies with lapdogs.”
“Fine,
Cupcake.” He shouldn’t have said it. He knew it. But something about her
righteous indignation made him want to tease her. She gasped, her eyes
narrowing on him like an angry feline. He was so dead.
About Tara Sheets:
TARA SHEETS is an award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s
fiction. Her work has earned first place recognition in literary contests
nationwide and her debut novel, Don’t Call Me Cupcake, won the 2016 Golden
Heart® award sponsored by Romance Writers of America®. Tara began her career as
an author in the Pacific Northwest, inspired by the rain and the misty
mountains and the rivers of Starbucks coffee.
She now lives in the warm, wonderful South where she can stand outside
with no coat on, and she finds that pretty inspiring too. When not writing, Tara enjoys life with her
book-loving family and a book-eating dog named Merlin. She is represented by
Sarah Phair at Trident Media Group.
“Why did you bring me back?” Philip asked. “And why was it so difficult?” Mortimer’s laughter stopped abruptly. “Two questions with the same answer,” Death said, setting his coffee mug down. His hand shook faintly, Philip noticed. “Because the reason that you were able to stay alive as long as you did is the very reason that I’ve brought you here.” He sighed heavily and closed his eyes. Closed them for so long that Philip almost thought he’d fallen asleep. Then he opened his eyes again, slowly, and the gray eyes looked mournfully at Philip. “My die was stolen.” “Your die?” Philip repeated, surprised, and automatically gazed at Mortimer’s chest, where the hundred-sided die should have hung from a silver necklace. One of the two great dice. Death’s die. The one that gave newborns their life-years. But there was no necklace. No die. “When?” “About two weeks ago. At first, I thought I’d misplaced it, that I’d put it somewhere. I searched the entire house before I realized.” “Realized what?” Satina asked. “That the front door was ajar. Someone had been here. Someone had been here and had stolen my die while I slept.” “Do you have any idea who it might be?” Mortimer shook his head. “I have no clue. But it must be someone who knows me well. Knows my habits. I sleep just once a year, you see. On April thirty-first, when spring has arrived, Vita’s working overtime, and everything is in bloom. That’s when I get my deep sleep. You remember Vita, right Philip?” Philip nodded. He remembered Vita very well. She was Mortimer’s sister. Philip had met her the last time he was in Hell. She was the one who brought him back to life. She was life. Then it hit him, exactly what Mortimer had said, and he counted the months on his knuckles. January, February, March, April. No, there weren’t 31 days in April. And another thing… “You said the die was stolen two weeks ago,” he said. “But half a year has passed since April?” “For you, yes,” Death replied. “But time is different down here, remember.” “Oh yeah,” Philip said, a little irritated for not figuring that out himself. Hadn’t he just determined there was no such thing as April 31st? Of course, time was different down here. Everything was different down here. “This is a calamity!” The old man stood and began to pace the floor, shaking his head in despair. “Without my die, every child born in the world will be immortal. The consequences will be horrific for those poor people, who won’t have death to look forward to.” “Death isn’t exactly something people look forward to, is it?” objected Philip cautiously. Mortimer paused, staring at him. “Yes, it is,” he said in a voice verging on a snarl. “They just don’t know it.” “I don’t understand.” “And Lucifer said you were such a bright boy. But then again, he is the Father of Lies,” Death muttered. He moved to the window and looked out at the evening darkness as it sank swiftly across the bleak countryside. “Many people would say the same thing, Philip. That death is something terrible, a necessary evil best avoided.” “Well… isn’t it?” “No!” shouted Mortimer, startling both Philip and Satina. His old eyes sparkled. “I’m humanity’s greatest fear because there’s no greater fear than that of death. But that’s not the way it should be! The truth is, people don’t realize just how much they should appreciate me. Death isn’t an unfortunate consequence of life; on the contrary, Death is what makes life worth living. Men and women value only that which they might lose. Don’t you see? Without death, life is uninteresting and utterly meaningless.” Philip didn’t entirely understand what Mortimer was saying. And yet… maybe he did. “It’s like what Lucifer said. Without evil there is no good. You can’t have one without the other. And the same goes for life and death?” “Exactly!” Mortimer thrust out his arms. “Without death, the joy of life is killed by life itself! And that’s not even the worst of it. How would the world look in just fifty years? Think about all those poor wretches who’ve been seriously injured, but whose heart continues to beat. Victims of traffic accidents, of earthquakes, fires, floods. Terrible, terrible! The world would be populated by living corpses who wish for nothing more than the peace that comes with death, but their wishes would never be fulfilled. Can you imagine that?” Satina said nothing, but Philip had to swallow twice. Yes, he could imagine it. He could see it all too clearly, and he could feel the nausea burbling in his gut at the frightening scenario Death described. “When you roll your die,” Philip said, “what happens exactly?” “That’s a huge question,” Death said, gazing deeply into his eyes. “Can your mind handle the answer?” “Try me.” “When the die is cast, the sand begins to run.” Philip glanced at Satina, who shook her head to show she didn’t understand either. “What do you mean?” Mortimer stepped slowly toward him. Shadows covered his face like a black spiderweb. His eyes were concealed in darkness. “Are you afraid, Philip?” he asked. His voice was dry as the fire crackling in the woodstove. “Are you afraid of death?” Philip’s first impulse was to nod. Because he was afraid of Death, afraid of this odd, ancient man who’d been around since the origins of life, who had seen civilizations rise and fall, who had seen so many ghastly things that it had snuffed out the light in his eyes. But he surprised himself by shaking his head. “No. I’m not afraid. I’m already dead.” Mortimer seemed to consider this response carefully. Then his mouth twisted into a wry smile. “Come along,” he said. “I will show you something no human being has ever seen.”
… and I began writing when I was a teenager. My first book was a really awful horror novel titled Nidhug’s Slaves. It didn’t get published. Luckily.
During the next 7 years, I wrote nearly 20 novels–all of which were rejected–while working as a school teacher. The rest of the time I spent writing.
In 2000 I published my debut fantasy book, The Battle of Caïssa, and that’s when things really took off. Since then I’ve published more than thirty-five books for children and young adults in genres ranging from fantasy to horror and science fiction.
My books have been translated into more than 15 languages and my series about the superhero Antboy has been adapted for film, which is available on Netflix. An animated tv series is currently in development.
A musical of The Devil’s Apprentice opened in the fall 2018 and the movie rights for the series have also been optioned.
I live in Copenhagen with my wife, two boys, a dog named Milo and spiders in the basement.
About THE GREAT DEVIL WAR: The Great Devil War was published in Denmark from 2005-2016, beginning with The Devil’s Apprentice.
Even though the story (mostly) takes place in Hell and deals with themes like evil, death and free will, it is also a humoristic tale about good and evil seen from a different perspective. A tale that hopefully will make the reader – young or old, boy or girl – laugh and think.
Welcome to the other side!
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