"Romancing the Holiday" with Serenity Woods {White-Hot Christmas} Guest Post & Giveaway Entry

Please welcome Serenity Woods to the "Romancing the Holiday" event.

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When lust turns to love, it’s one fire he can’t extinguish…

Merle Cameron’s not looking for love. Between her job as a university lecturer and caring for a mother recovering from breast cancer, she has no room in her schedule for a demanding relationship.

While visiting her sister in New Zealand, however, she’s happy to indulge in some hot holiday sex with kind, hunky firefighter Neon Carter. After all, they live on opposite sides of the world. There’s no chance things will turn serious.

Neon Carter is a catch. At least, that’s what the ladies apparently think. All they seem to want is a quick trip down the aisle, but Neon’s in no rush to settle down. Light-hearted summer loving with a sexy blonde is something different, though, and Neon’s happy to offer his services until Merle has to return to England.

The weather’s hot, the sex even hotter. But when it’s time for Merle to go home, they both realize they’re in deeper than they thought. And there’s no solution that won’t break someone’s heart.

Warning: Please do not read if you are allergic to any of the following: love at first sight, one-night stands in a one-man tent, rugby hakas, firemen rescuing children, and rough caveman sex guaranteed to put hairs on your chest. May contain nuts.

A White-Hot Christmas!

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to spend Christmas in the southern hemisphere?


I’m originally from the UK, so I’m used to cold, wet winters where the windows steam up as you cook the turkey dinner and it’s dark by 4pm. I’ve seen very few white Christmases in England—once it snowed on Christmas Eve, but usually—if it’s going to snow at all—it’ll be in January or February.


Imagine how weird it was when we first landed in New Zealand on 7th December six years ago, and it was 82 degrees Fahrenheit. Everyone was dressed in shorts and jandals (flip-flops to the rest of the world), the shops selling beachwear had windows decorated with holly and snowmen, and we spent Christmas Eve paddling in the Pacific.

It was incredibly surreal, but we're getting used to it! Christmas here isn’t quite the same, (and in fact we always have a midwinter “Yule” celebration that is much more like a traditional northern hemisphere Christmas). We tend to treat it more like a midsummer festival, and Christmas dinner is usually cooked on the barbecue and eaten around the pool.


You can still buy a turkey, and many people have a traditional Christmas dinner here. But I like mine Kiwi style. This year’s menu is likely to include barbecued pork chops and steaks with various marinades, smoked Kingfish, Greek salad, potato and bacon hash, and fresh fruit salad to finish, although we’ll probably have a traditional Christmas pud just for the hell of it.

If you’d like to find out more about Christmas Down Under, my book White-Hot Christmas by Samhain Publishing tells the story of university lecturer Merle Cameron’s holiday in New Zealand and what happens when she meets sexy firefighter Neon Carter. White-Hot Christmas was given the first ever starred review of a digital-first book on Library Journal's XPress Reviews (you can read it here: http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2011/11/books/genre-fiction/romance/xpress-reviews-e-originals-first-look-at-new-books-november-18-2011/ )

You can buy White-Hot Christmas from Amazon here:  http://www.amazon.com/White-Hot-Christmas-ebook/dp/B005V32PVI/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1318490905&sr=1-1

Serenity Woods lives in the sub-tropical Northland of New Zealand with her wonderful husband and gorgeous teenage son. She writes fun, flirty, and sexy contemporary romances for the modern woman who likes intelligent, spirited heroines, and hunky but approachable heroes. She's won several romance writing competitions and is a member of the Romance Writers of New Zealand. She would much rather immerse herself in reading or writing romance than do the dusting and ironing, which is why it's not a great idea to pop round if you have any allergies. You can check out her books at  www.serenitywoodsromance.com

She also writes under the name Faye Robertson and has another Christmas release out soon from Entangled Publishing called Holly’s First Noel.

Giveaway Details:

• Leave a comment on the post, or a question for Serenity, to have your name thrown in the magical random.org hat, for a chance to win one of three books featured throughout the mini-event week. (Winner will receive their book of choice and it will either be shipped via the Book Depository, All Romance ebooks, or Amazon.)

• Extra Entry Options (Please leave in a separate comment):

• Follow Serenity on Twitter.

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• Tweet the contest (please leave the link of your tweet).

• Contest is open Internationally.

• Contest will run until 11/28 11:59 PM EST

• Winner will be randomly selected and notified via email.