Book Title: The Bridesmaid and The Hurricane

Kelly Maher

Series: Capital Kisses #1

Release Date: July 4, 2017

Retail Price: $3.99

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/review/new/35278193-the-bridesmaid-and-the-hurricane

THE BRIDESMAID AND THE HURRICANE

A one-weekend stand over a year ago, and now they’re coworkers…

Being a woman in TV is hard enough, but when the boss is trying to derail Radhika O’Leary’s career from behind the scenes, she has to make sure every aspect of her work—and her life—stands up to scrutiny.

Of course, the double standard is alive and well and Malcolm Jones, the broadcast meteorologist known as “Colm” to his friends and “The Hurricane Hottie” to his fangirls, knows that fame can hurt just as much as it helps. When Colm moves to DC, he’s excited to work with Radhika—her professional reputation is sparkling, and so are the kisses they shared that one weekend over a year ago when he was in town covering a blizzard.

But when Radhika is paired up with Colm for a project, all she sees is a looming storm over her carefully constructed career. Sparks still fly between the two journalists, and if they’re not careful, lightning might strike and alter the course of their lives forever.

Please welcome Kelly Maher to the blog today!!!!!

Thanks so much for having me! I’m so pleased to share some tidbits about my new book, THE BRIDESMAID AND THE HURRICANE!

Back in January 2016, I got a day off work as DC was getting the leading edge of a blizzard. As this was a Friday, this meant I had the whole weekend to twiddle my thumbs. I’m from the Midwest and have weathered many a blizzard before. I decided to do an experiment and see if I could write, polish, and publish a short story related to a current event in a short time frame. I did! The short story was BLIZZARD BLISS. Well, two things happened. First, my cover designer asked me if I wanted to use a subtitle. I tossed out “A Capital Kisses Story” and we went with it. After the story came out, a couple of reviewers mentioned how they were excited to read the story of the hero’s sister. Well, at that point, the sister didn’t have a name. But I started thinking on it.

At the RT convention in Las Vegas, I spoke with a friend and she was the person who named Radhika (RAH-dihk-ah). Even though I now had Radhika’s name, I was still stuck on her story, so I let the thoughts burble and brew over the summer and into the fall. I went to a lot of conferences last year, so story time in my brain was fighting for space with business time, as well as some family stuff. In October, I made the decision that not only was Radhika’s story happening, but it would be the start of a trilogy. The goal was to release at least Radhika’s story by my next birthday (a milestone one), and the Tuesday before that was July 4th. PERFECT! Since I knew I’d need time to edit the story, I decided to draft it during NaNoWriMo. Short answer was that I did. Long answer was that immersing myself in this story was an antidote to a week spent at home for my grandmother’s funeral, and capped by political news I was not a fan of, and helped me get through a really not good month.

I consciously broke history since I had set BLIZZARD BLISS during a real event in a real place. Sorry, but the Cubs lost in the world of Capital Kisses (and not just because I’m a White Sox fan!!). I’ve lived in DC for over five years, and I call it my second hometown. I love exploring the neighborhoods both in the city and the nearby suburbs, and wanted to show off some of my finds to readers who may only associate DC with politics. There’s a teensy bit of politics in THE BRIDESMAID AND THE HURRICANE, but that’s only because it’s a miracle if you can avoid it completely 😉 While I don’t name specific foodtrucks in the book, I’m a big fan of TaKorean, Arepa Zone, and Popped! Republic. My sister gives thumb’s up to Red Hook Lobster Pound DC. If you’re ever in DC, you need to check them out! The other experience I have to absolutely recommend is taking the Yellow Line train across the Potomac. You want to sit in a seat where you’re facing DC (riding backward if going to Virginia, or riding forward if going to DC) and have a window to your immediate left. You’ll get a fabulous view of the monuments on the National Mall.

I hope you’ll check out THE BRIDESMAID AND THE HURRICANE at the very least for more insider tips on things to do in the area and enjoy the local DC experience!

Excerpt:

Once they got inside the cafeteria, they went their separate ways to order their lunches. Stacey came back as Radhika was waiting on the veggie burger she’d ordered. “Did you get fries to go with that?”

“Yes.”

“Can you get a second order? I’ve been dying for some.”

“Sure.” She put in the request and they came up with the burger.

They went through the check out and Radhika put it all on her company account. They found an empty table over in one of the corners. Less chance of being interrupted. “How did the segment go?”

“Really good. I managed to get in all of the information I wanted to about the show and we still had a little time left over, so I talked a bit about how part of the proceeds go to help charity.”

“That’s great.”

“Yeah. Hopefully, if someone doesn’t go to the play, they’ll still consider donating.” She lifted one shoulder and dug into her bowl of chicken noodle soup.

The noise level in the cafeteria lifted like a small wave building into a bigger one. Radhika looked over and quickly found the reason. Colm. She wondered if this was his first turn in the cafeteria. Like
if he knew that tour groups sometimes ended up here. Today, there was a bunch of high schoolers and some family groups. High-pitched squeals echoed every few seconds as he stopped to take pictures she was sure would be posted to the internet right after he walked away.

“Wow. Is that him?”

Radhika turned back to find Stacey staring at Colm slack jawed. “Mm-hmmm.”

Stacey leaned in. “And you hit that?” She held up her hand for a high-five.

Radhika let her hang.

“Hey, I’m trying to congratulate you.”

“You realize that’s crass.”

“So?” She pointed at her still raised hand with her other index finger. “High-five back, bitch.”

Purchase Links:

Amazon – http://amzn.to/2s43VSd

iBooks – http://apple.co/2sLOOe7

Kobo – http://bit.ly/2sM9UZx

Nook – http://bit.ly/2snbSm3

About the Author:

Foiled in her attempts to pursue a career in Forensic Anthropology due to a fatal incomprehension of calculus, Kelly turned to a life of telling people where to go, AKA librarianship. She then took another page out of her idol Indiana Jones’ playbook and renamed herself after the dog, writing tales of romance of varying heat levels and erotica. She currently splits her time working on new writing projects and at the day job in a federal library in Washington, DC.