Book Tour for Skate Cute by Melissa J. Roche (Guest Post & GIVEAWAY)……

A young woman who couldn't wait to leave her small town is back, attracting the attention of the boy who once loved her from afar, along with someone looking to harm her in this delightful contemporary romance.  Keep reading to get a tempting taste of Skate Cute by Melissa J. Roche, hear from the author about small town romances, then learn even more about this book by visiting the other sites hosting this tour.  In honor of this charming romance make sure to fill out the form below for the chance to win a digital copy of this book and a $25 bookstore GC too!

Words of Wisdom from Ms. Roche talking about why she thinks readers are drawn to small town romances.....

Great question! I’d better start with a disclaimer: I currently live in a small town, one that I happen to have fallen in love with. I love the big trees lining the roads in Old Town; I love the local, women-owned bookstore coffee shop across the street from the homemade children’s museum; I love the splash pad with the ice cream shop hovering nearby. And more than that, I love that whenever I visit all of the above, I inevitably run into people that I know.

It’s the people that make the small town, and thus it’s the characters that make a good small town romance. Small towns grow quirky characters like beans in a backyard garden. Writers love to write (and readers love to read) these characters, to watch them come alive with a simple touch of imagination. And small towns tend to mix and mingle everybody together in the most charming ways: senior pickleball tournaments on Saturdays, karaoke nights at the diner downtown, oatmeal festivals and peach festivals and Gus Macker festivals and tulip festivals...

Then there’s the appeal to the five senses. We love to read small town romances because we’ve all been to or through small towns, and we can almost feel, taste, and see the story unfold against our senses. You can see the grizzled regulars huddled at their table in the back of the diner; you can hear the drawl of conversation that knows it doesn’t have to hurry; you can smell the sun on grassy fields that never were or will be parking lots. It doesn’t matter if you’ve put down roots or just passed through, we all can relate to the appeal of small towns to the five senses.

The last reason I love small town romances? Series potential. Of course I’m going to read the next book in the series if it promises to highlight those two firecracker side characters with the sizzling love-to-hate-you relationship I couldn’t get enough of in the first. And of course the next book in my Sacreola Sweethearts series stars Chase’s mom Angie, the single, 50-something, romance author who falls for Ben, the widowed, 50-something owner of the bookstore coffee shop where she loves to sit and write her novels. Small town characters tend to leap off the pages, larger than life, teasing me with more story to tell. Who am I to say no?

Kriss heads home to her small prairie town with 98% of an astrophysics PhD, a load of memories she’d rather not think about, and a survival plan: skate and graduate. Her plan doesn’t include the attention of a familiar admirer from the nearby fire station, one with an impressive physique, a hidden singing talent, and a smile dazzling enough to sweep her off her skates. Before she knows it, she’s falling for him—hard.

Chase has settled into the rhythms of his small-town firefighter routine, but he remembers Kriss from high school: the starry-eyed skater girl on her way out the door of his life. Now she’s back, just as gorgeous as ever, spinning around the next-door rink without a care in the world. Or so he thinks, until Kriss is targeted with mysterious acts of vandalism designed to derail her dreams. Can he help Kriss find the courage to stand up under the attacks and trust herself to love again?

EXCERPT:

The door on the south side of the rink banged against the wall, the noise jerking Kriss out of her emotional puddle. Her eyes flung open and her body surged upward, her head jerking toward the sound and the intruder. Crap, someone from the skate park must have thought the rink was empty and come over to goof off—
But it wasn’t a skater. It was a dude in jogging shorts and a dark navy-blue T-shirt with a fire department logo on the front, one earbud dangling against his collar.
Kriss met his wide eyes for exactly one shocked microsecond before dropping her head in embarrassment.
“Oh...I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I thought you were...Um. Are you okay?”
She nodded, hastily swiping at her cheeks. But it was too late; he had to have seen the tears already. “Sorry, no, I’m fine. I just...felt like lying down.”
She stole another quick glance at him. He was nodding sheepishly, his arm raised to scratch awkwardly at the back of his neck. A detached corner of her mind noted that his face looked familiar from somewhere. Another very, very detached corner of her mind noted the way his T-shirt stretched over his upper arms with the motion.
“Well, um, glad you’re okay,” he said, his chest bouncing with a hasty chuckle. His voice wasn’t what she was expecting. It was deep, but not too deep, and definitely more...smooth, or something. Maybe resonant was the right word.

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AUTHOR INFO:

Melissa received her first pair of black-and-hot-pink inline skates in fourth grade, a couple of years before she swore her life to the study of the stars (in a fit of sci-fi inspired passion). Two decades later, she has acquired several larger pairs of skates and an astronomy PhD, both of which tend to slip out from under her at the most inopportune moments. She enjoys skating and singing at the neighborhood rink in her small town in Colorado, where she lives with her husband, two boys, and a cozy lap cat. Only one of which is allowed to read her writing over her shoulder.

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