Ho Ho Ho! It's another snippet! 😉

Ho Ho Ho! 🎄

One more week, are you ready for the holidays? I'm so very close, and looking forward to a little down time.

I have another snippet from my fun, cozy small-town holiday romance, Merry Little Wishing Spritz.

Enjoy!

Today's snippet:

“He’s convincing,” one of the women who worked there whispered. “And sexy. Where’d you find him?”

It was the darn suit. The sleeves strained against muscle when he lifted gifts and the pants practically drew the eye to his thighs when he squatted to talk to the smaller children. It fit too perfectly. Maybe Peyton had spelled it to adjust to the wearer?

“He found us.”

“Well, you’re a lucky woman—”

“Oh, he and I aren’t together.”

“Really? The two of you keep sneaking glances at each other.”

If we did, it was only because we were working together. “I assure you, we’re not a couple.”

“Hum, well then.” She eyed Jack. “If I wasn’t married…” She cackled. Actually cackled! “Don’t just stand there, girl.” She nudged me. “Bring him a bottle of water.”

It was the least I could do. I grabbed a bottle and rejoined Jack.

“I thought Santa might be thirsty.”

“Ho ho ho! Thank you.” Jack grabbed my hand along with the water and twirled me around once. Heart racing and a bit off-balanced I bumped into him. His free hand settled on my waist. “You’re lucky you’re not dressed as Mrs. Clause,” he whispered.

His eyes twinkled. My breath caught. “Why’s that?”

He glanced up. I followed his gaze to the mistletoe hanging from the ceiling.

Merry Little Wishing Spritz
Author: Cherie Colyer
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Genres: Paranormal Romance

Curl up with my small town, enemies to lovers romance with a dash of magic. It’s about a modern-day witch who casts a well-intended spell meant to save her apartment and her job. But magic is unpredictable, especially when her friend casts a little charm of her own that has Cassie lusting after the man she desperately wants to despise. It’s a fun, festive, and flirty read that will make you laugh and swoon.

Grab your copy!

Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Apple ~ Universal link

Goodreads ~ Bookbub

Can a cleverly cast spell save Cassie Moore's home and job?

Welcome back! 🎄

Since my last post, I've managed to decorate the house for the holidays. I think I have all the holiday decorations up that I plan to use this year, and I'm about halfway done with my shopping. How's your holiday prep going? 

As promised, I have another snippet from my small-town holiday romance, Merry Little Wishing Spritz.

Happy reading!

Today's snippet:

Jack tucked the midnight blue candle under his arm and picked up one of the beaded bracelets.

“The magnetite stones help to ground the wearer,” I said.

“Do you believe in that sort of thing?”

I nodded. A person didn’t have to be a witch to believe gems, stones, and herbs had mystical properties. He rolled the black beads between his fingers. “Magnetite also attracts love, loyalty, and commitment, if I remember correctly.”

“You’re right,” I said, amazed he knew the property of the stone.

He held onto the bracelet and wandered to the suspense sections.

I followed. “If you buy Lakeside Books—” His gaze met mine, one eyebrow hiked. “ ‘If’?” My fingers trailed over the nicked shelves as I walked. “Now that word is out the store is for sale, you might not be the only one interested in purchasing it.”

The corners of his mouth curved into a smug smirk, implying he wasn’t worried. Would he up his offer if I countered? Jack reached for a book.

Frustrated at the whole store situation, I flick my finger, sending several paperbacks flying off the shelf with the one Jack grabbed. Books pelted his chest.

I jumped back, acting shocked by the books jumping off the shelf. I couldn’t exactly tell him I did it. “We must have packed them in too tightly.”

I pressed my lips together to hide my smile and helped pick up the fallen books.

“This is quite popular.” I held one out. “Lots of twists and surprise attacks.”

Jack glanced sideways. “Is that right?”

“So I’ve heard.” I stepped closer to show Jack a different book, tripped seemingly over nothing, and stumbled. My arms flailed. “Whoa!”

He caught me around the waist. I grabbed his arm. Squeezed. Yep, it’s solid, flittered through my thoughts at the same time a jolt of power, like static electricity, shot through me. I gasped. This type of shock happened when magic collided. My stunned gaze locked on his.

He stared back at me. His slight smile seemed to teeter on the edge of a loud guffaw. Had he felt the sting? He wouldn’t unless he was a witch too. And he didn’t act as if he had. But then magic colliding wasn’t the only reason a witch might receive a supernatural zap. Magic could be warning me not to cast for personal gain. In this case, magic meant for my amusement. I cursed inwardly. Couldn’t a witch have a little fun?

Merry Little Wishing Spritz
Author: Cherie Colyer
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Genres: Paranormal Romance

Curl up with my small town, enemies to lovers romance with a dash of magic. It’s about a modern-day witch who casts a well-intended spell meant to save her apartment and her job. But magic is unpredictable, especially when her friend casts a little charm of her own that has Cassie lusting after the man she desperately wants to despise. It’s a fun, festive, and flirty read that will make you laugh and swoon.

Grab your copy!

Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Apple ~ Universal link

Goodreads ~ Bookbub

Holiday Greetings and Sneak Peeks

Hello, wonderful readers! 🎄

Can you believe Christmas is just three weeks away? It’s sneaking up on us so fast this year—and it's absolutely freezing! The highs for the last few days have been in the low 20s. Brrr! If it doesn't warm up, my outdoor decorations might just stay cozy inside with me. 😊 How about you? Have you braved the cold to decorate outside yet?

With the holidays closing in, I thought it would be fun to share a snippet each week from my cozy holiday romance, Merry Little Wishing Sprints. It’s the perfect book to curl up with this holiday season!

Today's snippet:

Christmas music and the heavenly scent of cinnamon greeted me when I entered the corner grocery store, lifting my spirits some. I wove my way through the produce section, careful not to bump into the woman hand selecting brussels sprouts. A smile graced my face when I spotted the bright red endcap and the lone tin of homemade peppermint bark waiting to be snatched up.

I reached for it at the same time as a goateed man who couldn’t have been more than a few years older than me.

“I’m sorry.” I smiled sweetly, hoping to appeal to his sense of chivalry. “But I believe it’s the other way around.”

“Huh.” He wet his lips, hand still gripping the tin, smirking mischievously. “We obviously both want this tin. So what do we do?”

“I don’t know,” I said in an equally good-natured tone. ”Why do you need this particular treat?”

He shifted so his hip rested against the display and bent closer. “Well, you see,” he said, dramatically, “I have one last Christmas gift to buy, and Sara Winter’s peppermint bark is her favorite holiday treat. She’ll never forgive me if I come back from Mystic Creek without it. It might sever our relationship forever.”

He was ridiculously charming. That I had the thought at all amazed me. I wasn’t looking for a relationship and even if I were, I didn’t date mortals. Since I didn’t get any witchy-vibes—a magical shock when our fingers touched or a feeling we’d met before—it was a safe bet that this man with the clear hazel eyes and teasing smirk didn’t have a drop of magic in him.

“You don’t say,” I said, grinning.

“Oh yeah. We’re talking war on a biblical level.”

Merry Little Wishing Spritz
Author: Cherie Colyer
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Genres: Paranormal Romance

Book Blurb:

Modern-day witch Cassie Moore’s cozy life turns upside down when her friend foresees the wrecking ball that threatens to destroy Cassie’s home and workplace. But Cassie isn’t giving up without a fight. She casts a well-intended spell meant to save her apartment and her job. But magic is unpredictable, especially when her friend casts a little charm of her own that has Cassie lusting after the man she desperately wants to despise.

Jack Quinn has had his eyes on Lakeside Books for years, and he couldn’t be happier the owner is finally ready to sell. He has big plans for the cozy waterfront property, but he didn’t expect to care about the store or its employees. And he never imagined he’d be drawn to a certain brown-eyed saleswoman.

Almost as if by magic.

Grab your copy!

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Goodreads ~ Bookbub

What's under Atticus Everheart and Draco Dracul's beds?

What’s Under the Bed…

We’re entering the bedroom of three school-aged boys, so a mask and a pair of gloves are a good idea.

Atticus Everheart shares a room with his two older brothers. So it’s not a big surprise that several of the lost socks under Atticus’s bed are two times too big for him. There’s also an empty potato chip bag, a soda can, a pair of red boxers (another article of his brother’s clothing), Legos, a magnifying glass, the fingerprint brush from his brother’s detective bag, his skateboard, and the backpack he never leaves home without. Atticus knows about the last two items. There’s also a family of dust bunnies that have been hiding from the vacuum for at least a year now.

A few blocks away, on Tepes Lane, you’ll find Dracul manor and Drago Dracul. Under his bed are empty blood bags, candy wrappers, rubber spiders, a comb, and a bow tie. There’s also a copy of Thirteen Ways to Blend in with Humans, a must-have book according to his grandfather. There is also the glow-bat stuffed animal his mom gave him when he was three and afraid of the dark (Drago will deny ever being scared of such things), and the mouse Drago believes he compelled to leave the manor. The mouse rather likes having the glow-bat there to keep him company.

What would we find under your bed? (Mine has a few dust bunnies—they’re not related to the ones under Atticus’s bed.)

What readers are saying!

"It's the perfect Halloween read as it presents creepy elements without being scary or dreary. I loved the characters and the mystery." - The Real Word to Sam

Atticus is a cute kid and the other supporting characters were interesting and funny. I could totally picture this as a movie!" - Goodreads Reviewer

Sometimes it takes an ordinary ten-year-old to save the day.

Book Blurb:

Nothing frightens Atticus Everheart more than monsters, thanks to his older brothers, who often threaten to feed him to the beastly creatures.

Fearing that’s what they will do if he doesn’t replace the book he accidentally ruined, he takes a job tutoring a boy in his neighborhood.

Although nervous about the job, Atticus soon discovers there’s a lot more in store for him than teaching. Never in a trillion years would he have imagined he’d be hiding from monsters, working with ghosts, or searching for werewolves and witches. He’s not brave, and he has no plans to change.

Until he’s forced to.

Grab your copy today

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Friends to the End bonus Scene

Hi, Lovely Readers!

The birthday of my middle-grade action/advaenture Friends to the End is this month, and I thought it would be fun to re-share a bonus scene written from Morgan's POV. This scene shares with you what she found related to Grimace Grove Cemetery and Wayward Lane. 

Happy reading!

FRIENDS TO THE END

by C.L. Colyer

Bonus scene from Morgan’s POV

 

Morgan grabbed a can of soda and headed to her dad’s study to use his laptop. If her brothers wouldn’t tell her more about the vanishing house, she’d search the internet. She sat in the big leather chair, pulled her auburn curls into a low ponytail, and typed ‘vanishing house + Wayward Lane’ into the browser. The top result led to a real estate company, but others caught her eye. She clicked on one of them. A post from a popular ghost-hunting TV show filled the screen. The opening hiss of the soda can pierced the silence in the study. Morgan took a sip before leaning forward to read the article.
 

What Lurks in the Dark on Wayward Lane?

 

About an hour outside of Chicago, tucked between the homes along Wayward Lane, is Grimace Grove Cemetery, one of Illinois’s most haunted graveyards. Visit one day and you may see white lights floating between the tombstones, while on another, hazy human-like figures standing by the fence. Listen closely and you may hear the whispers of people long dead. But the strange phenomenon doesn’t stop at the graveyard. Visitors to the area have reported other bizarre sightings, none of which can be explained by experts. Who and what might be the cause of these unexplained events? We took a closer look at the town's sordid past and recorded it below—you be the judge. 
 
The gangsters who visited the town for rest and relaxation during prohibition were known to cause trouble—illegal trouble. Is the shadowy cigar-smoking man who has been spotted in the middle of the street one of the former gangsters? Witnesses describe him as a stout guy, wearing a suit and a bowler hat like the ones worn back in the 1920s. A woman even claims he called her the “bee’s knees” as his spectral form blinked in and out of view. Is he the ghost of Franky—on the lam—Hood? You tell me.
 
Equally as disturbing as the ghost of a gangster are the reports of a phantom Model A roadster that barrels past oncoming traffic, leaving in its wake the roar of men’s laughter and machine gunfire. My money is on these men being more of the mobsters who used to frequent the neighborhood. 

 

Reports of a young woman dressed in fringe and pearls, dancing the Charleston in the middle of the road are common. Drivers who stopped to tell her to get off the road swear that she vanished into thin air when they rolled down their windows. Eyewitnesses later matched her image to photos of Mary Porter, a nineteen-year-old flapper who died in a car accident on that exact stretch of the road in April 1923. She had been on her way home from a popular speakeasy, where she worked as a flapper.
 
But perhaps the most intriguing of the legends surrounding Wayward Lane is that of the disappearing house. This ghost hunter hasn’t found proof that the house, which is often described as an old Victorian-styled home with a long front porch, ever existed on the physical plain. But locals insist this home, known for having housed a venerated Civil War hero, burned down in the 1870s and that it, along with his wife, refuse to let go.

 
The mystery surrounding the house and its occupants may never be solved. Are the locals correct in saying that this house is occupied by the ghost of its last resident? Did her unwavering belief that her husband would return from the war and her determination to be there when he did trap her and the house in a time loop? Romantic? Yes. True? I’ll let you be the judge.

 
No wonder Morgan’s brothers refused to talk about the house and why her parents had forbidden her to search for it. Clearly, they believed the stories––maybe even thought she’d be kidnapped or swept away by the ghosts that lived there. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. Adults can be so gullible sometimes.
 
She clicked back to the search results. The next blog post had similar information about Wayward Lane and Grimace Grove Cemetery. A chill went through her. It also confirmed what her brothers had warned her happened to anyone inside of the house when it vanished: 
 

Rumors of people disappearing along with the house date back to the Civil War, when a soldier was last spotted entering that home and was never seen again. Others are believed to have met the same grim fate when they went to investigate decades later.  

 
Every article, post, and newsletter Morgan read had a slightly different version of the legend, but the result was always the same. Wayward Lane was haunted. Decade after decade, dozens of people had witnessed things they couldn’t explain. Morgan let out a low whistle. Ghosts existed, and she lived within biking distance of the second most haunted location in Illinois.

She couldn't wait to tell Zach the exciting news.

📚 📚 📚

2021 Best Middle-Grade Finalist – N.N. Light Book Awards

 

“A compelling, gripping nail-biting page-turner. You’ll be on the edge of your seat waiting...dreading?... what happens next. I know you won’t be able to put the book down (I couldn’t).” ~ Allan Woodrow, bestselling author of over 30 books for children

 

“Friends to the End is a wonderful middle-grade paranormal mystery from start to finish ~ N.N. Light Book Heaven

Read FRIENDS TO THE END today

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The inspiration behind Grimace Grove Cemetery is loosely based on stories surrounding White Cemetery that I had heard as a teenager. Friends to the End is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of my imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.