Minx Post - Catch Me A Catch

Minx Sally here. I get to do a Minx post this Monday, to announce that my first book, Catch Me A Catch is coming out this Wednesday from The Wild Rose Press. It's a story close to my heart. Set in the glorious West of Ireland, and featuring a heroine who's job means she's up to her elbows in chocolate, which is definitely my dream job! (And with a blog called Love and Chocolate, I think it's very apt that my first book should feature chocolates on the cover.)

Here's a sneak peak, and an excerpt. I do hope that everyone likes it!

Catch Me A Catch by Sally Clements

She had the perfect life - and all she wanted was to escape it. Artisan chocolatier and reluctant matchmaker Annie Devine wants to survive the annual Durna Matchmaking Festival without messing up. She's useless at relationships, and the whole village know it. They've known ever since the day she was left at the altar in her wedding dress. When Jack Miller, charismatic head of Miller Advertising is forced to make an emergency stop on his transatlantic crossing, she mistakes him for a love-lorn bachelor, and sparks fly. Jack's in Ireland to discover his roots, while Annie's desperate to escape hers. Annie longs to win the coveted Chocolate Oscar competition, and claim the ultimate prize, her own shop in Dublin. But with the deadline for Jack's return to New York looming, is she making the right choice?

Excerpt

“Annie! What the hell?” She grabbed him by his upper arms and slammed him back against the worn brickwork of the building.

“What did you think you were doing?” The potent buzz of anger infused every pore. “What sort of idiot caveman are you?”

He’d kissed her. In front of everyone. She scrunched her eyes tight shut to blot out the memory. And, stupidly, she’d let him. With a snort of disgust, she dropped her hands to her sides and moved away. He’d better have a good excuse for kissing her, because she didn’t have a clue why she’d kissed him back.

“You needed my help.” Jack clenched his jaw and crossed his arms over his chest. “They were all over you in there.”

A tension headache stabbed between her eyes. Oh great. Hero complex.

“I did not need your help. I can take care of myself; I’ve been doing it for years. The last thing I needed was you pawing me in front of the whole town. You’ve made a show of me.” She bit her lip, the repercussions of her very public response to him fully sinking in. Her privacy was the most important thing to her. And she’d just tossed it away by kissing him.

“They all already think I’m desperate. Now every guy in the village will think I’m easy too. I’ll be fighting them off with a stick,” she muttered wryly. This was morphing into the weekend from hell. Before she melted back to Dublin, the grapevine would be buzzing with more news on her love life. Just what she didn’t need.

He shoved away from the wall towards her. She glared, effectively halting his approach. “I kissed you for a reason, and it wasn’t the obvious one.”

Catch Me A Catch available here from Wednesday.