One More Time by Caitlin Ricci Guest Post, Excerpt & Review!

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Hiya guys, we have Caitlin Ricci popping in to introduce us to her upcoming release One More Time, Caitlin chats about One More Time and Thornwood, we have a great excerpt (cheers Dreamspinner website 😉 ), we also have Lisa’s review (lucky minion). So enjoy the post! <3 ~Pixie~  

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One More Time

(A Thornwood Novel 01)
by

Caitlin Ricci

Wanting to start over after breaking off a relationship with his married boss, Caleb Robinson is happy to move from Los Angeles to Thornwood, Colorado. He can barely find the town on a map, which is just the kind of place Caleb needs. He’s not looking for a relationship, and Thornwood looks to be the perfect place to get lost in his art. But when Thornwood’s local police officer, Trent Williams, knocks on Caleb’s front door, both men have an instant attraction to each other, and Caleb’s plans for solitude might have to change.

But he soon learns that Trent is a legendary one-night-stand man for a very special reason. His boyfriend has been kept on life support for the past five years after a serious skiing accident. Even though Simon isn’t expected to wake up and Trent says he’s trying to get past him, he won’t entertain anything that comes close to commitment. As compelling as their attraction is, Caleb doesn’t want to be just another hook-up, and he won’t be the other man. But Trent isn’t sure he can risk the pain of losing someone else he cares about, no matter how intense the chemistry between him and Caleb.

Release date 21st September 2015

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Caitlin chats about One More Time

One More Time came about because of my young adult novel, Weathering the Storm. In that book Robbie and his brothers are dragged across the country by their dad to go live with their Uncle Caleb and when Robbie needs someone most Caleb and his boyfriend, Trent, are there to help him out.

In my mind that’s where their story ended. They were happy and in love in that novel, but as I started doing edits on Weathering the Storm, and as editors kept telling me how much they wanted to see Caleb and Trent again, I knew that they would be getting a novel of their own at some point. I didn’t have anything concrete right then, but I had their story down in my writing plan so they’d get attention again someday.

Well, about a month later I was driving from Centennial, Colorado to Black Hawk to do a little gambling at the penny slots and have all you can eat crab legs (yum!), and I got lost. I’m not great at driving in the mountains anyway since I get overly cautious but we ended up in a tiny town that I didn’t even see a sign for telling me where I was. The Colorado mountains are full of old, forgotten mining towns that run along the rivers and cut through the rock and this one was absolutely perfect for Caleb and Trent to live in.

Thornwood had already been decided in Weathering the Storm but it was a small Colorado town in the mountains seen from the perspective of a teenage boy who didn’t consider it home and didn’t want to be there.  With Trent and Caleb I was able to give it life with a small town cop who had always lived there and loved everything about the town, even though everyone called him ‘Kid’ and had known him since he was a baby. Then with Caleb there’s this man who wants to disappear and start over in a town that can’t even be found on a map. It’s the perfect place for him to get back to his version of normal.

And in creating a tiny town I was able to play with my favorite pieces of living in a small town in Maine for a few years when I was a kid. As a military child we moved around a lot and I keep coming back to those years I spent eating lobster rolls by the harbor and picking blueberries on my way home from school as one of the happiest times in my life. I wanted to bring those feelings into Thornwood with the only place to eat at being a diner Trent’s mom owned and a small police force where his dad is the chief and the other officers get asked to be at children’s birthday parties.  I’ve always loved big cabins that are filled with glass windows and overlook pine trees so I gave Caleb that and, because I love horses, he also has pastures and backs to government land.

I loved writing about Caleb and Trent, and after a while I fell in love with Thornwood too. It’s the kind of small town I would want to live in where there are less than a thousand people, the nearest mall is over a half hour away, and the things people call the police to complain about are a bunch of raccoons getting into their trash. One More Time is the first book in the Thornwood series and each book can be read alone because I like series like that, especially when I know that they’re going to end up being pretty long because I’m not willing to leave Thornwood anytime soon. With this series I wanted readers to be able to jump in anywhere and not have to go back and read five other books if they really wanted to start with the fireman novel.

I hope you fall in love with Thornwood and want to move there as much as I do. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. One More Time comes out through Dreamspinner Press on September 21st.

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Excerpt

CALEB

I LOOKED up from unpacking the box at my feet at the sound of the doorbell ringing. It was a soft chime, which I was glad about because I hadn’t thought to check it before deciding to buy the house. When the bell sounded again, I straightened up and instantly grabbed at my lower back. There was some rule about not bending over boxes and lifting with my legs instead of my bad back, but I’d apparently forgotten my doctor’s orders in the move. I’d be paying for that by sundown, I was sure. I hurried to answer it, checked the peephole, and decided to open the heavy wooden door anyway, despite my better judgement. The kitchen was close, and I was pretty sure I’d managed to unpack the knives already if the cop on the other side of the door ended up being some kind of backwoods small-town Colorado murderer or something.

“Can I help you, officer?” I asked. I tried not to pay attention to how cute he was, which was damn hard given his smile. I was always a sucker for a good smile. And a cup of coffee just like the one he extended toward me.

“Hey. I’m Trent, and please don’t call me ‘officer’ unless I’m arresting you. Everyone calls me by my first name.”

I accepted the coffee and held it up so I could sniff it. I am fairly certain I sighed because he grinned at me like he was trying not to laugh. “Sorry.” I was blushing pretty badly, judging by how warm the tops of my ears felt. “I haven’t unpacked my coffee machine yet. Thanks for this. Is there something wrong?” I asked, because in Los Angeles cops didn’t randomly come to my door unless there was trouble. I’d only been in Thornwood a day, and now I had a cop at my door. My sister, Marie, would probably love to know what kind of trouble I’d managed to get myself into so soon.

Trent shook his head, his hat slipping a little, and I was momentarily distracted by his dark hair. It was the color of chocolate, which, like my coffee, I hadn’t unpacked either. I’d barely managed to get a towel out for my shower that morning after making sure my books were out on the bookshelf. “Nothing’s wrong. Why? Do you think there is?”

I shrugged and sipped the coffee. Cream and sugar, which I could handle, though I normally took it black. At least he hadn’t grabbed me a latte or something else that would put me in a sugar coma before lunch. “There’s a cop on my front porch,” I pointed out, as if my concerns needed to be explained.

“Oh!” Understanding seemed to come to him instantly. “Oh, no. I’m not here because you did something. Unless you did?”

“Not that I know of,” I replied, wondering what he was doing there if it wasn’t because of something I’d done.

Trent smiled at me. “Then you’re fine. I just wanted to come here and introduce myself. Meet the new neighbor kind of thing.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s a small town. So….” He shifted his weight as he leaned back on his heels. “You waiting on your family to move here too?”

I shook my head and knew why he was asking that. I’d bought a massive house, because I’d wanted to and had been able to afford it after the settlement from a car accident. But I’d probably be getting the family question fairly often until people got over their curiosity about the new guy in town. “Nope. Just me.”

“Horses?”

“None of those either.”

He frowned at me and turned to look over the barn and pastures that had come with the property. “You know you bought a horse farm, right?”

I laughed and took another sip of the coffee. It really was nice of him to bring it for me. “Yeah. I know. You want to come in or something?”

It was the first time I’d ever actually invited a cop into my home, not that I’d ever had anything to hide, but in LA I used to get told about probable cause and warrants all the time from my neighbors. It had been normal conversation over getting the mail. I hadn’t been living in the best neighborhood at the time.

Trent chewed on his bottom lip, and damn I wanted to kiss him, but that would have been insanity. He shook his head as he stopped messing with his lip, and I got a break from thinking about kissing him for a bit. “Thanks, but I should probably be getting to work. Here’s my number, in case you need something.” He dug a business card out of his pocket and put his coffee down on my porch to write his number on it.

I took the card, though I wasn’t too sure why I did so. It wasn’t like I’d be calling him or anything. “Don’t you have 911 up here?” Thornwood couldn’t possibly have been so tiny that the emergency services required me calling Trent up.

“Yeah, we’ve got 911. Where’d you think you moved to? Antarctica or something?”

He smiled again, and I barely managed to shrug while I stood there staring at him like a dumbass. Damn but he was cute in that navy-blue uniform. I wanted to see him out of it.

For more excerpt click here: Dreamspinner (Just click the excerpt tab)

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About Caitlin

Caitlin was fortunate growing up to be surrounded by family and teachers that encouraged her love of reading. She has always been a voracious reader and that love of the written word easily morphed into a passion for writing. If she isn’t writing, she can usually be found studying as she works toward her counseling degree. She comes from a military family and the men and women of the armed forces are close to her heart. She also enjoys gardening and horseback riding in the Colorado Rockies where she calls home with her wonderful fiance and their two dogs. Her belief that there is no one true path to happily ever after runs deeply through all of her stories.

Contact Caitlin

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Review

OneMoreTimeLGTitle: One More Time

Series: A Thornwood Novel, 01

Author: Caitlin Ricci

Genre: Contemporary

Length: Novel (200 Pages)

ISBN: 978-1-63476-299-1

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (September 21, 2015)

Heat Level: Moderate

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥ 5 Hearts

Reviewer: Lisa

Blurb: Wanting to start over after breaking off a relationship with his married boss, Caleb Robinson is happy to move from Los Angeles to Thornwood, Colorado. He can barely find the town on a map, which is just the kind of place Caleb needs. He’s not looking for a relationship, and Thornwood looks to be the perfect place to get lost in his art.

But when Thornwood’s local police officer, Trent Williams, knocks on Caleb’s front door, both men have an instant attraction to each other, and Caleb’s plans for solitude might have to change.

But he soon learns that Trent is a legendary one-night-stand man for a very special reason. His boyfriend has been kept on life support for the past five years after a serious skiing accident. Even though Simon isn’t expected to wake up and Trent says he’s trying to get past him, he won’t entertain anything that comes close to commitment. As compelling as their attraction is, Caleb doesn’t want to be just another hook-up, and he won’t be the other man.

But Trent isn’t sure he can risk the pain of losing someone else he cares about, no matter how intense the chemistry between him and Caleb.

Product Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6875

Review: I have read many books by this amazing author and this book definitely didn’t disappoint. The way it was told drove me a bit nuts. Going from Caleb’s perspective to Trent’s, but it didn’t take away from the story at all. When you read a book you can usually tell if the author is just doing it for the money or is really into it.

When they right with their feelings put in, makes the book even better in my opinion. This is one of those books. There is so much seriousness to it but you can see the hint of humor also. To me that makes it so much better.

There was something about this book that caught my attention and kept it. I adored the guys even though I would have really wanted to smack them both. I understood why Trent acted the way he did but he comes off as very careless considering he was cop. It made them more loveable and very endearing.

Caleb had been sleeping with his boss. That is until his boss’s wife ran him over. Now he moved to Colorado to start over. He had not expected the cop that knocked on his door though. He wanted Trent but didn’t want to give it a chance. He was saddened by his experience and angered by his past choice. Then he finds out Trent’s secret. He has to decide if it is worth it.

Trent had been in love with Simon, but Simon was in a coma after an accident. He didn’t want to let go, but he also didn’t want to try again. He knew Simon would have wanted him to. He tried to escape the pain by all the warm bodies, but Caleb is the one that pulled at his heart. He needed to change and to have the courage to start again.

I had a blast with this story and look forward to reading the next one. I would definitely recommend reading it. It caught my attention from the moment I started reading and kept it all the way to the end.

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