As you’ve seen, Smitten by Books (formerly The Season) has gone through a major facelift–new look, brand new site. Although, it’s still a work-in-progress.

All reviews will now be posted on the blog but you can still access all the older features and reviews on the Smitten by Books website.

To celebrate the new site, I’m hosting a giveaway where a $30 eGift Card and lots of books are up for grabs. Print books being given away can be found here, on the Print Books for Giveaway. I’ll be adding to this list over the next several days.

In the next several months (January 2015) I’ll be releasing, Always Been You, the second full-length book in my Unforgettable You series and today I’m posting an exclusive excerpt.

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The best way to ruin a perfectly wonderful friendship?

Have sex with your BFF.

A mistake.

That’s what Troy calls what was easily the single best sex experience of my life. He claims our “slip” was due to too much alcohol. I respond the only way I know how, which is by burying the entire experience under a six-foot mound of denial and regret. Lesson learned.

Two years later, when I’m (finally)emotionally in a place where I can move on with someone else, Troy does a complete about face. Now he wants me. And he wants more.

That should have been the end, right? I’m getting what I’ve wanted since I was sixteen. But there’s no honeymoon period for our “new” relationship. The same devastating news that turns Troy’s life upside down soon becomes my cross to bear. And the only way I can get back everything I lost is to bare it all. Literally.

Now my boyfriend may be a progressive, twenty-first century kind of guy, but when it comes to his girlfriend posing nude for Playboy?

He’s 100% Neanderthal.

Other books in the Unforgettable You series:

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I’m about to get into my car in the southeast parking lot near the English Lit building, when I hear, “Hey, Ridgefield, you got a sec?”

I turn to see April’s boyfriend coming toward me at a light jog. As usual, he’s dressed more for a night out on the town than going to class. Seriously, doesn’t the guy own a pair of jeans?

He slows and comes to a halt in front of me. I let the hand holding my car keys fall to my side and lower my backpack to the ground.

“What’s up?” I ask, trying to be cordial. It’s hard because I can’t stand the guy.

“I wanted to talk to you about what happened on Friday.”

Okay. So the guy doesn’t beat around the bush or let sleeping dogs lie. Good to know.

“There’s really nothing to talk about.” I’m not talking to him about me and April. It’s none of his goddamn business.

“Nah dude. It’s not like that. April told me everything. I know nothing like that ever happened between you guys, so…” He flashes me a tight smile as if to say, “Hey, we’re cool,” in a strained sort of way.

I stare back at him. Unsmiling.

She lied to him. April lied to him while I hadn’t lied to Melissa. Which is what caused the scene in the restaurant. Right now I don’t know who I’m more pissed of at, him or April.

I pull myself up to my full height so I’m taller than him by a good two inches. “Let me ask you a hypothetical. What if something like that had happened between us–me and April? Then what?” I challenge, feeling fairly aggressive and more than a little territorial.

Whatever fake goodwill he’d managed to drum up for our “heart-to-heart”—when he didn’t think I’d had sex with his girlfriend—gets crushed between his eyebrows clashing over the bridge of his nose.

“What are you saying? That your girlfriend wasn’t lying?” he asks in a voice fifty degrees cooler than before.

“She isn’t my girlfriend,” I reply, my irritation with him growing.

His mouth thins. He says nothing as he stares narrowly at me. After several seconds of icy silence, he says, “Look, I know April considers you a good friend, but whatever else you may have had going on with her, that’s the past. It’s over. She’s with me now.”

I blink once. Slowly, I look to my left, and then too the right. Nope, there’s no else around, which means this asswipe is talking to me. I just had to be sure.

I return my gaze to his. “And you felt the need to tell me this, why?” I refuse to give this idiot the satisfaction of knowing that he’s getting to me. The thought of April and him together is more than I can bear right now.

He squares his shoulders and juts out his chin as if that’s supposed to intimidate me. Ask me if I’m scared.

“I just want things to be clear between us.”

I throw my head back and let out a wry laugh. “Things don’t need to be clear between us. I’m not the one going out with you.” I can’t wait for April to lose this idiot. My bet is they won’t last another month. I pray.

“Look, I’m just trying to keep the peace.”

No. After what Melissa told him, it’s obvious he now sees me as a threat to his relationship. And you know what? He should, because I am. But I’m not going to admit that to him.

“Yeah, well don’t do me any favors,” I reply dismissively and turn to my car, turning my back on him.

“Well she’s with me now. Remember that.”

I don’t allow myself to react visibly, calmly unlocking the car door. Before getting in, I angle my head over my shoulder and stare him dead in his eye as I unclench my locked jaw. “Don’t fool yourself, Jenkins. I was there before you, and I’ll be there long after you’re gone. You’re the one who needs to remember that.”

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By Free stuff, Giveaways131 Comments on Giveaway & Excerpt ☆ Always Been You by Beverley Kendall

131 Replies to “Giveaway & Excerpt ☆ Always Been You by Beverley Kendall”

  10. Thanks for the giveaway. Been waiting for ‘Always Been You’ to release. Glad its finally coming…

  18. I can’t wait to read more about April and Troy’s ongoing friendship/relationship. Sounds like the time to reveal their true feelings is coming to a head.

    Wonderful website. Love your giveaways. Excellent selection of historicals and contemporaries that I WANT TO READ.

    johns lake at usa dot com

  21. I can’t wait for this book the tension between April and Troy has been building forever. I need this book! Gah *pulls hair*

    Oh, thanks for the giveaway 😉

  30. Love the chance to win because if I am anything at all it’s a book lover. I looked over the books on the print books and they look so great. Can’t wait for you next book. Excerpt sounds soooooo good.

  48. I’ve really been enjoying the new site! Great reviews, quick to load, and easy to read. Thanks for the giveaway!

    Jody F

  64. I think the new name really fits the spirit of the blog and the new look is great as well. 😀

  68. I don’t know any real life friends to lovers relationships. I am interested in reading how Troy comes to grips with the change in his feelings for April. Also how April deals with two men fighting over her.

  84. I will miss Season, but look forward to exploring the new site. It has a nice clean look. Hope it works well for you.

  101. Oh, yeah. Sex has that “ruins everything” thing going for it sometimes. :))
    Congrats on the new layout. It looks great.
    Thank you!

Comments are closed.