Entangled Teen Road Tripping Blog Hop!

Posted at Mar 19, 2020 8:48 pm

Hi Everyone! 

I hope you’re enjoying the Entangled Teen virtual road trip! These are challenging times, and we wanted to brighten your days with fun book excerpts and a big giveaway happening on Wednesday, March 25th on Entangled Teen’s Facebook page! I’ll be giving away a signed copy of THE BOOKWORM CRUSH, along with a few bookworm goodies 🙂 

My latest book from Entangled Teen is THE BOOKWORM CRUSH, featuring cocky surfer Toff Nichols and shy book blogger Amy McIntyre. I had so much fun writing this opposites-attract, ode-to-bookworms story. So many readers have embraced these funny, sparky characters and their love story, which makes this author very happy. 

The story takes place in Shady Cove, California, a fictional beach town in southern California loosely based on several coastal town in California. My almost forever home is Colorado, but in my early twenties I lived in sunny Cali, and I still miss the ocean.

Here’s an excerpt of Toff and Amy as their sparks start flying. In this scene, Toff is dropping off Amy’s younger brother Brayden, after giving him surf lessons on the beach. The night before, Toff rescued Amy from a sheriff encounter by pretending to be her boyfriend, with no idea she’s been crushing on him forever. 

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Toff waited for Amy in the McIntyres’ kitchen, where Brayden had dragged him. He hadn’t planned to come inside, but curiosity had won out. He’d had fun with Amy last night—and today—especially when she teased him, and he wondered how long she’d been hiding that feisty side. Plus, he felt kind of bad about how hurt she’d looked when he’d rejected her book recommendations.

Not that he’d ever read one of those books.

His stomach growled. The kitchen smelled great, like bacon and coffee and something sweet and delicious. He was always hungry, especially after surfing.

“Amy’s doing weird book stuff. She’ll be out in a minute.” Brayden handed him a cookie from a Tupperware container. “You know how she is.” He shot him an exasperated look, like he and Toff shared a burden. Toff grinned and took a bite of the cookie. Whoa. This was one seriously tasty pastry.

                “How many burpees can you do in a row? Do you swim a lot of laps? What’s your favorite Sharknado movie?” Brayden fired questions like a machine gun while their dog, a bouncy golden retriever, danced around Toff, licking his bare legs. He leaned down to pet her, and she flopped onto her back, offering her belly.

                  “Brayden, leave Toff alone. Go take out the trash. Goldi, go to your bed.”

                  Toff straightened to face Amy, who stood with her arms crossed over her chest, scowling. Usually girls were happy to see him. He wasn’t sure if she was annoyed because of her brother, or because he’d decided to come inside instead of dropping Brayden off like she’d asked.

He couldn’t put a finger on why he was standing in her kitchen. All he knew for sure was he’d needed to come inside and just…see her, or whatever. Make sure she hadn’t accidentally stabbed herself with a knitting stick.

                  “Hi.” She barely glanced at Toff, then nudged the dog, who was still lying belly up, with her bare foot. “Brayden, take Goldi outside.”

                  “But you just told me to take out the trash.” Brayden shot Toff a dude-back-me-up look. Toff shook his head. No way was he getting in the middle of these two.

                  Amy huffed in frustration. “So do both. And poop scoop while you’re at it.”

                  Brayden glared at his sister. “You’re doing the litter box.” He pointed at her, then Toff, then back to her. “You scoop the

cat poop, or I spill the boyfriend scoop.” He snorted. “You lied, Amy. Toff’s your boyfriend. Why else would he be here?”

                  Toff smashed his lips together, holding in a laugh. Amy’s pretty eyes widened, and she blushed as red as her hair.

                  “If you want any more surfing tips from me, you’ll stop spying on your sister,” Toff warned.

                  Brayden looked more stunned than his sister did, which was saying a lot. Toff leaned against the kitchen counter, warming up to his role.

“Nobody threatens my girlfriend, not even her brother. Get going, kid. You’ve got chores to do.” He pointed to the door leading outside, then pinned Brayden with his toughest don’t-eff-with-the-team-captain glare.

                  Brayden stared up at him, mouth half open. He didn’t look scared so much as impressed. Toff held in his grin until

the kid and the dog left the kitchen; then he turned to Amy, blasting her with his flirtiest grin.

                  “I’ve got this fake boyfriend act down. First I fake out the sheriff; then I scare off your brother.”

Amy blinked, then reached up to twist her hair into some sort of bun shape. Something small and sparkly fell out and landed on the floor. She bent down to grab it. When she stood up, he read her T-shirt and laughed.

I Like to Party (and by party, I mean read.)

“Nice shirt. You and Dallas should start a nerd shirt store.”

Her eyes flickered, reminding him of when he’d called her knitting needle a stick and teased her on the beach. He liked sparky Amy.

“What are you—” She took a breath and tugged self-consciously at her T-shirt. “What are you doing here, Toff? You could’ve just dropped off Brayden.”

“Is that any way to talk to your boyfriend? Especially after last night?” He put as much innuendo as he could into those last two words, hoping she’d play along.

She didn’t.

“I don’t like being mocked. Besides, you’re the one who told me to crush Brayden’s dream and tell him that this”—she mimicked his gesture from the beach, pointing to him, then herself—“isn’t happening.”

A jolt of surprise shot through him. “Hey, I didn’t mean—That’s not what—” Frustrated, he ran a hand through his hair, still damp from surfing. He hadn’t meant to upset her, but somehow he had.

“Did you come inside to make fun of my yarn bombing?” Amy brushed past him, opening the fridge and pulling out sandwich makings. His stomach growled again.

“What? No, I just…”

Where was his flirt game?

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Be sure to check out the next stop on the hop: THE AFTERLIFE OF THE PARTY by Marlene Perez!

See you on March 25th at the Facebook party! 

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