Happy Humpday - Zola's Magic Touch!

Well...hello there! Half way through the week and we are on the downhill slide. I am probably the only one to admit I am actually enjoying the rain - it's my guilty indulgence: watching it trickle down the windows, sipping on lovely dark java, listening to some mellow tunes and sneaking a peek at my latest e-book download! Now that's a way to spend your day!

Whatever your favorite guilty pleasure is - I sincerely hope you indulge yourself just a bit! Go ahead, you deserve it. As a catalyst, allow me to help you indulge in another treat - calorie free as always! Eye candy....Mmmmmmmm!

Beauty and the Geek: Zola's Magic Touch, Shiree McCarver, Mocha Memoirs Press, May 2011

Glossophobia - the fear of public speaking.

Shirou Tsubasa, a glossophobic Japanese scientist, and Zola Simpson, a determined plus-size African-American public affairs specialist, find themselves immersed in a battle of wills. NASA needs their golden boy to perform like a trick pony at an important convention in Atlanta to assure future funding, but the thought of getting up in front of hundreds causes Shirou such intense anxiety he flat-out refuses. Frustrated and at their wits’ end, the bosses decide Zola’s magic touch is the only thing that can snap their residential genius into shape for the big event. Zola is resentful that she has to give up a planned weekend of sexual abandon with her ex after a long dry spell. However, she’s never met a geek she couldn’t crack, and Shirou Tsubasa will speak at that convention—even if she has to seduce the egghead into it.
Zola works her ass off for NASA as a Public Affairs specialist. However, all work and no play has made her a sexually frustrated woman. Plans to hook up with an ex are foiled by her boss who sends her to Atlanta to convince an eccentric and phobic physicist into speaking to a large group of political big wigs to ensure their government funding doesn't get cut. Zola strikes up a conversation with an interesting man at the gate which leads to a sexy meal a deux in First Class and an even sexier encounter in the lavatory. At least it was sexy until she realizes the sweet but enticing Asian man she is sexing up is the very scientist she's been sent to babysit.

Shin can't believe his luck when a luscious lady chats him up in the airport. Instantly attracted to her, he is even more amazed at the ease with which he is able to talk. Zoe is sexy, sassy and direct and he is totally and utterly captivated. Their chemistry sizzles and he is left foundering when she jilts him before landing and bolts in the airport.

Shirou and Zola batter down each others defenses, dispel each others preconceived stereotypes and bolster each other's hearts with a hot little affair that morphs into something entirely different. Zola is smart mouthed and sassy, completely at ease with her size and completely endearing. Shin takes tall, dark and handsome to a cerebral level, making smart sexy as all get out! The biggest question of the night for them appears to be, can they leave their emotional baggage at the door of their hotel suite long enough to find how far they can go?

This reader is always up for a new adventure, a new recipe and a new author. This week, I found an author that managed to cook up a new adventure with some exotic ingredients that pleasantly surprised me! Being a self professed Queen of the Nerd Herd, I am always intrigued by stories with really brainy heroes and heroines. I find the clash between brains and sex to be, well, sexy! Ms. McCarver apparently believes this as well. Make the heroine a curvy, sassy, smart girl and the hero a super nerdy sex god and you have SOLD written all over the piece for me!

I give Beauty and the Geek: Zola's Magic Touch a delish five chocolate dipped strawberries. I am also eagerly looking forward to whatever Ms. McCarver is cooking up next!