Pure YA Delight!

Mmmrrh... I love sharing the joy when I have read a wonderful book! Senior Week Crush by Maggie Dallen is a story I know I will read again and again, as my go-to when I need a feel-good story that delights with every word, every plot point, every snippet of dialogue.   


Layla James has been waiting her entire life for a chance to get close to her crush, Dylan. Now that moment has arrived. Dylan is finally single and he's started to notice her existance. He even asked if she was going to Senior Week, the last hoorah at the beach before graduation day. Of course she's going, this was destiny calling. The only problem? She doesn't have a ride. Enter her arch-nemesis Jack...


Here is my Amazon Review of this book: I Loved Every Word - Ten Stars!!!!!!!! This book is romantic, empowering, funny, clever, charming and totally satisfying! I looked forward to every event in the story, every next snippet of dialogue-- and the prose is so delightful! Reading this book is just sheer pleasure. This is a wonderful story where everything pays off. Sure, some call it a typical YA romance, but it is done VERY WELL -- superior relationship development. This is totally the kind of book I will re-read when I am in the mood for an comfy favorite that delivers pure joy!

https://www.amazon.com/Senior-Week-Crush-Summer-Love-ebook/dp/B078HHB7ZB

Enjoy a Valentine's Day story for FREE on Kindle!

Everything I write is romantic comedy, but one particular story, "Miss Understanding in the Ballroom with the Wrench," actually takes place mostly on Valentine's night.

Jesse and Peter meet at a Valentine's Day party, and they hit it off. But each is hiding the one thing that they think makes them undateable. Will the secrets and misunderstanding put out the spark before it gets a chance to ignite?

You can find out for free until February 16  on Kindle. getBook.at/4intheAfternoon 

"A unique premise with unique characters!"

"One of my favorites because the chemistry between the two leads in undeniable."

18 and 1 : Remembering an Iconic Super Bowl

Ten years ago, I wrote this piece on Super Bowl 42: the scrappy wild-card New York Giants vs. the undefeated New England Patriots who were one game away from a never-before-acheived 19-0 season. As a New York Giants fan, I cannot think of this past season without steam coming out of my ears. But this Super Bowl weekend, I will indulge in thinking about one of the greatest upsets in sports history. This is the post I wrote 10 years ago...

The Perfect Climax

by Geralyn Corcillo

Every few years or so I dust off Touch Not the Cat by Mary Stewart and reread it, just so I can get to page 227, when Bryony runs out into the moonlit orchard and well, I won't tell you – but it's the best part of the story.

And I'll bet that everyone knows the feeling I'm talking about: reading a dog-eared book or watching a favorite movie just to get to that scene that makes you go mmmrrh! We don't skip ahead to the incandescent chapter, or fast forward to the culminating scene, because without the build up, the climax is a let down. Captain Wentworth’s striding in and asking for Anne in front of everyone wouldn’t grab you by the guts and never let go without that preceding heartbreak, betrayal, belittling and loneliness.

Build-up, climax, bliss -- it's the pulse of romance . . . and sports.

I watch sports to feel the thrill when that 3-point shot at the buzzer wins the game, when that amazing catch in the end zone defies physics, when that guy nobody ever heard of knocks out an invincible champion, when that bunch of college kids ices a communist powerhouse.

A romance writing friend once commented, "Geralyn, that's why there are highlights."

But come on! Highlight reels provide no more than superficial thrills. But when you know what's at stake in the contest, and when you sweat as you watch the fight, the pay-off is visceral.  Mmmrrh . . . 

Why else was this past Sunday's Super Bowl XLII the most watched thing ever on TV, second only to the final episode of M*A*S*H? Are there so many Patriots and Giants fans out there? Maybe, but I suspect the game’s popularity was due to not just the foreplay, but more significantly, the guarantee of an explosive climax.

As Sports Illustrated so succinctly said of Sunday's game, “The Super Bowl would be either a CORONATION or a COLOSSAL UPSET.” In one corner is a smug, undefeated, championship team who wants to make history by becoming the only NFL franchise to go 19-0 in a season. In the other corner is a scrappy wild card team who had unexpectedly beaten redoubtable play-offs rivals to become the second-worse franchise ever to make it to the Super Bowl. New York's Plaxico Burress predicts a 23-17 Giants win. Tom Brady laughs at a press conference at the notion of his Patriots scoring a mere 17 points. Can the New York defense stop the locomotion of the New England offense? Tom Brady looms infallible – can Eli Manning, league leader in interceptions thrown during the regular season, step up?

As it turns out, Plaxico is wrong. The Giants hold the Patriots to 14 points, not 17, thanks to a defense that sacks Tom Brady 5 times and breaks up the Hail Mary. And in the last 2 minutes of the game, Patriots on top by 4, young Eli steps up. Courtesy of an offensive line that wouldn’t quit, he breaks out of a near-sack to throw to third-string receiver David Tyree who makes one of the most amazing catches in NFL history. Seriously, who catches a football with his head? A final pass to Plaxico in the end zone, and the Patriots end an 18-1 season. Those scrappy Giants won the Super Bowl.

It was the perfect climax.

Arlen Black - the hero voted Best Book Boyfriend of 2017 - wants to be your Valentine...

This month, for 99 CENTS, you can spend Valentine Season with Queen of the Universe hero 

ARLEN BLACK:

Best Book Boyfriend 2017 WINNER!

And what makes him so delightfully swoon-worthy? Well...

From the "I'm Trying to Stay Sane" journal of Arlen Black

Why does he need to stay sane, you ask?

From Arlen's journal: Ray said I should do this, keep a journal. That it helps take off the pressure. The show, the media, my crazy-as-a-duck co-star. But the thing is, nothing about playing this part stresses me out. Are you kidding? After everything I've lost ... the kids ...  saying a few lines on camera isn't about to faze me.

Lola is the one driving me nuts, plain and simple. I said I'd be on her show - and I don't regret it. She all but tricked me into it, but to say no would have been to crush her dreams. And I couldn't do it. I WOULDN'T. I wasn't about to let someone else feel  that kind of screeching pain - not when I could stop it. 

So no, I don't regret it. But why did she let me get so close to her?

And why did she get so close to me? She says she thought it was all her and she had no idea I was feeling the attraction, too. Seriously? After that kiss on the very first day ... and on her patio? Man, it's a good thing I walked out - well, stormed out - when I did.

But I came back. Just to do the show. Nothing else. Because now I know that Lola is a liar and a manipulator and ... God, why can't I stop thinking about her? And why does it keep happening? Every time I'm near her, she makes me feel ... God! Even knowing what I know about her - even after everything I lost ... Damn it!

She makes me feel alive again.

💗💋😍

When she was a kid in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Geralyn Vivian Ruane Corcillo dreamed of one day becoming the superhero Dyna Girl. So she did her best and grew up to constantly pick up litter and rescue animals. She lives in a drafty old house in Hollywood with her TV writer husband Ron, a guy who's even cooler than Kip Dynamite.
Corcillo LOVES connecting with readers, so feel free to get in touch with her on facebook and twittter.

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