Just For Fun by Rosalind James

Rosalind James - Just For Fun - 

Contemporary Romance

Title: Just For Fun (Escape to New Zealand #4)

Author - Rosalind James

Date Published: 12/8/12

What if the person who broke your heart turned out to be the only one who could mend it?

Nic Wilkinson is a responsible, organized, disciplined rugby player at the top of his game. Emma Martens is a sometimes-scattered, often-emotional, and always-broke would-be designer with a big chip on her shoulder where Nic’s concerned.

They have no history together, except one perfect week. Nothing in common anymore, except the most important thing of all.

Getting together again would be messy. Complicated. Scary. And, just maybe, worth every risk.

Just for Fun: Escape to New Zealand #4 (Rosalind James)

Excerpt

“Mum!” Zack burst in through the front door. “It was brilliant!” He kicked his shoes off impatiently, dropped his rugby boots next to them before struggling out of his jacket. Nic followed him in, grabbed the jacket and hung it on the brightly painted rack next to the door when Zack would have dropped it on the floor. 

Emma reached out for a hug that, Nic saw, the boy was still willing to give his mother, at least here at home. Her eyes met Nic’s as she looked over her son’s head. How did she always look so soft? So . . . pettable? She was wearing another sweater, that was all, he told his troublesome libido. Another light, lacy one, prettily trimmed once again. A pale pink cardigan with pearly shell buttons, edged in cream, over a long stretchy top and leggings. She looked like an invitation to cuddle. Like the best blankie ever.

“Can Nic stay for dinner, Mum?” Zack asked excitedly, offering a welcome distraction from his wayward train of thought. “He could help me tell you all the things we did. We’re having spaghetti!” he told Nic. “It’s really good.”

“Can’t, mate. Sorry,” Nic put in hastily at Emma’s instinctive shake of the head. “But I’ll have a glass of water, if one’s on offer.”

“Sit down,” Emma told him. “Please.” 

Nic slipped off his own shoes before heading to the couch with Zack. “Cheers,” he said as she came back from the kitchen to hand each of them a glass, then took her own seat in a small armchair next to the couch, the only other option the little room offered.

“You look tired,” she said abruptly. “And bruised. Are you OK?”

“Just a bit confused on the sleep schedule, still,” Nic admitted. “I took a wee pill on the flight home, but it never works that well.”

“It’s a long way, Mum,” Zack put in. “South Africa’s really far.”

Nic took a long drink of the cold water, looked around for something to set the glass on. “Coaster?”

“Just put it down,” Emma told him. 

“Don’t want to spoil this,” he said, looking more closely at the coffee table. The simple rectangle had been transformed into a forest of ferns, with native birds peeping out from underneath fronds, perched in trees. The parson-throated tui making a meal of red fruit, the colorful, stumpy takahe on the forest floor, tiny fantails darting overhead. 

“You can’t,” Emma assured him. “It’s all enamels. Everything in this house is pretty indestructible.”

“Did you find the ruru yet?” Zack asked him, leaning forward.

“Don’t tell me,” Nic said. “Let me look.” Zack watched him eagerly as he searched and finally pointed triumphantly to a notch in a tree where the owl blended into the bark. “There.”

“You did this too, eh,” he asked Emma. “Nice.”

“I did everything. That’s my decorating theme. Things I made.”

“I like it,” he assured her. The warm colors of the lounge seemed to cocoon them. Two walls were a rich caramel, the others a warm yellow. She didn’t even paint every wall in a room the same color, he realized. Well, at least in the kitchen it was all the same. Purple. He wondered what color her bedroom was. How it looked. And found himself wishing, against every better impulse, that he could see it.

Author Bio

Author Bio:

Rosalind James is the author of the Kindle bestseller Just This Once and the three subsequent books in the Escape to New Zealand series. She is a former marketing executive who has lived all over the United States and in a number of other countries, traveling with her civil engineer husband. Most recently, she spent several years in Australia and New Zealand, where she fell in love with the people, the landscape, and the culture of both countries.

Visit www.rosalindjames.com to listen to the songs from the books, follow the characters on their travels, watch funny and fascinating New Zealand and rugby videos, and learn about what's new!

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Creating Your Book Cover

By Rosalind James

You can judge a book by its cover—and people do it all the time. Your cover has to convince YOUR target buyer that this is her type of book, and that it’s a good one. The tips below, gleaned from ten years in marketing for the publishing industry, helped me create my own covers. I pass them along in hopes that they help you too.

1. Hire a professional. It isn’t as expensive as you may think. Three eBook covers cost me less than $100 per book: A small investment that has already paid for itself many times over in book sales.

2. Choose the right professional. I did a web search to find designers in my genre (Romance), then looked at their websites and portfolios. Who designs covers that appeal to you and make you want to buy the book? When you’ve found somebody whose work you like, ask for a quote. 

3. Know your market. Think about authors whose books resemble yours. Those authors have succeeded in attracting your market. Look at the covers of their books, and you’ll see trends. (Shirtless heroes? Flowers? An ornate font, or a simple one? Big, bold block letters on a red background, for a thriller?) Copy the links to your favorite covers. You’ll want to share them with your designer.

4. Define the effect you want to achieve. Your cover is your brand. Even if you only have one book out there now, you’ll want a “look” that people identify with your style. A good designer excels in translating “feelings” into art. This is the direction I gave my own designer: “I want a simple, tasteful, intelligent cover (no half-naked heroes!) Something that still says ‘romance,’ but not ‘embarrassing.’ The books are funny, playful, sexy, and occasionally tearjerking. Not completely frothy, a serious story in there too. I want to convey that--plus ‘exotic New Zealand locale.’”

I also had three books, with a fourth to come, so I needed to tie the covers together. The designer achieved that with the use of color and layout.

5. Research stock art. You’ll get better results and help your designer if you take the time to find stock imagery that conveys the look you’re going for. I used Dreamstime. The designer used the image I found for my first book, Just This Once, but found different (better!) images for the other books, Just Good Friends and Just For Now. 

6. Work the design, and get feedback. After you get the designer’s first pass, ask people who have read your book for their reactions, then evaluate the feedback and give ONE response to the designer. If it isn’t quite right, keep working. (It took me three or four rounds.) Don’t give the designer specific direction (“could you put the title under the picture?”) Instead, try to explain the “feeling” that isn’t quite right (“It doesn’t look playful enough”).

7. Admire your beautiful book cover! I hope it sells great!

Jen's Review 

Cute story! I had a hard time following with the accent - I'm not familiar with the way they speak in New Zealand. It wasn't too bad, but still confusing in some places.

I also don't know much about Rugby, but then again, neither did Jenna. Good thing we had little Sophie to give us play by play on her daddy's games :)

I love a good book with little kids! And Sophie and Harry  were the cutest 4 and 7 year old kids :)

Jenna went through a hard breakup with her husband. Not knowing all the facts about him when they got married. She thought being his friend was enough to love him. But things went bad, and she had to get away.

A new place to start over. Jenna decided to take a year off from teaching, but not working wasn't an option. She missed working with kids. When she came across the help wanted ad for a live in Nanny of 2 small children, she jumped at the chance.

Finn is a famous Rugby player. He had to be extra careful with interviewing for new Nanny's because some crazy women think he's looking for a wife instead of someone to take care of his children.
But his children are his number one priority. With Nyree taking a year off, he needed someone soon before his Rugby practices started kicking up again. and those away games. He hated to be away from his kids, but he knew as long as he had someone to take care of them, they would be ok.

Interviewing Jenna didn't go well. He thought she was one of those "looking for more" type women. But just as Jenna was about to storm out of the house, 2 familiar little kids showed up. Jenna had seen both Sophie and Henry at the park a few times while they were with Nyree. She had grown fond of the two children, but she wouldn't put up with that kind of behavior from their father.

Finn learned he was wrong about Jenna, and called her back. Once she got settled in, he was able to relax before practice started up.

Jenna was great with the kids. she helped them see that doing small chores of their own will help them become better people. She was there for them, and cared for them. And in return the children respected and loved her.
And the more Finn saw how she handled his children, he started to see Jenna in a different light.

Really cute book :)

Juls Review