And the next R.L. Mathewson book will be...

So, with Devastated finally finished after seven years…

It’s time to move onto the next book. Now, as some of your remember we have quite a few books waiting to get some attention. Right now the main books that most readers seem to be waiting for are:

Irresistible

Tall, Dark & Furious

The next Cursed Hearts novel

Since the next Cursed Heart’s novel isn’t started yet that leaves Irresistible and Tall, Dark & Furious. Both books have already been started are close to the halfway mark, which means that I need to pick between the two…

What if I told you that I was planning the impossible? 

But since I don’t want to jinx myself, lol, we will do it this way. 

Tall, Dark & Furious is the main project right now and Irresistible is my side project. I have something in mind, but I really don’t want to jinx it. So, I am going to keep that to myself for right and get back to work 🙂 

Below I’m posting excerpts from both books including one from Devastated as well as the first review 🙂 But first, I wanted to tell you about the Bradford Style Halloween Basket Giveaway, which will include a signed book and enough junk food to make any Bradford happy. Here’s the link if you’d like a chance to win. 

Bradford Style Basket

First Review for Devastated: An Anger Management Novel 

Ms. Mathewson normally writes hilarious romps through romance, and this time she strayed a little towards a darker path. She handles the transition with ease and the subject matter with a delicate touch, leaving you at the end with a thoughtfulness rather than feeling covered in gore. The romance is her usual gentle build-up, slow and sweet, but between two people who have pasts that have greatly affected their present, and requiring more than the normal getting-to-know-you period. The book is done beautifully, with bits of humor and laugh-out-loud moments, periods of darker times, and a romance that leaves you cheering for a well-deserved couple. Well done, Ms. Mathewson, for a five star read!

-Jo Denson

Excerpt from Devastated: An Anger Management Novel

“Oh, my God, please make it stop,” Kylie muttered with a tragic sigh as her cell phone continued to chime.

She wanted to cry.

She really did, but crying would require energy that she didn’t have right now. Besides, she was going to need all her energy to drag herself out of bed and see what the horrible man wanted.

Why did she have to sign those papers?

Damn Big Daddy and his love of…

Well, she wasn’t exactly sure what he’d been on when he’d burned the apartment building down, but whatever it was she cursed it for putting her in this situation. Even as she struggled to keep her eyes open long enough to sit up on the bare mattress that she’d passed out on a few hours ago, she knew that the fault was hers and hers alone. She’d made a deal with the devil, literally, and now she was paying for it.

Another chime, this one somehow more persistent than the last, had her whimpering pathetically as she reached for her phone. For a moment, she simply held the phone in her hand, praying that this nightmare would end, but the next chime destroyed her dreams and had her sitting up with a groan.

Office in twenty minutes.

Worrying her bottom lip, Kylie glanced from the text, demanding her presence back down to the bare mattress that she never wanted to leave. After a few seconds of indecision, she took a deep breath as she forced herself to climb off the bed and not look back as she made her way to the bathroom, terrified that if she caught even a glimpse of the pillow-top mattress that she would lose this battle.

But God, did she want to lose, Kylie thought with something close to a whimper as she managed to drag herself the rest of the way to the bathroom. Once she was inside the large room that was twice the size of her last apartment, she made quick work of using the bathroom, doubling up on tasks whenever possible so that by the time that she stepped inside the large shower stall her teeth had been brushed, her hair combed, her vitamins taken, her nails had been quickly filed down to a smooth, efficient length, her clothes were laid out for her alongside a fresh planner, pen, and notebook to help her stay organized. All that was left was for her do was to step beneath the ice-cold spray of water, choke back a scream or two as the brisk water gave her the shot of adrenaline that she so desperately needed.

Once she was wide awake and feeling energized, she finished her shower, fixed her hair, got dressed, placed her planner and aforementioned items in her messenger bag and headed for the door, ready to face the day with five minutes to spare. As Kylie hurried down the stairs, she contemplated making a quick trip to the kitchen and grabbing a yogurt and a breakfast bar to get her through this meeting, but something told her that he wouldn’t appreciate the delay.

Hoping that he wouldn’t make a habit of holding meetings before the sun came up, she paused by the double doors leading into the large office that she’d spent three hours cleaning yesterday, closed her eyes and took a deep breath before pasting a smile on her face, opening her eyes and-

“You’re late,” Mr. O’Mallery announced as he walked past her.

Kylie considered pointing out that she still had two minutes left, but then she remembered what happened the last time that she’d corrected one of her bosses and decided to let this one slide. As she followed him into the large room, she resigned herself to the fact that she was most likely going to have to get used to biting her tongue a lot.

At least, for the next year, Kylie thought as she sat down on the only available option to her, a metal folding chair that was placed directly in front of the only real piece of furniture in the room, a large desk. Hunter walked around the desk, glaring at her the entire way and sat down in a large leather chair that looked a great deal more comfortable than the one she was currently perched on.

When she realized that he wasn’t going to do anything more than sit there and glare at her, she gave him what she hoped was a pleasant smile, clicked open her pen, and looked at him expectantly as she waited for his orders. He continued to keep her waiting until, with a sigh that could only be described as bored, he leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms over his chest, and gestured with a nod towards the planner on her lap as he asked, “What the hell is that?”

Although Kylie didn’t think it was a good idea to take her eyes off him, mostly because of that whole anger management thing that he had going for him, she forced herself to follow his glare.

“My planner?” Kylie said, hoping that it was her beloved planner and not her presence responsible for that expression on his face because she really wasn’t sure that she could beat him to the door. The reminder that she was working for a large, muscular man with an anger problem had her second-guessing her decision to stay.

Anger. Management, Kylie reminded herself, trying for a bland, yet polite, expression as she waited to see how this was going to play out. When he didn’t jump over the desk and go for her throat, she took that as a win and waited for him to continue. When he just sat there, glaring at her, she tried for a small smile only to quickly bite it back when his eyes narrowed even further.

For several long minutes, Hunter didn’t say anything. He just sat there, watching her, and making her wonder if they’d accept a personal check for that ten thousand dollars or if she should plan on making a quick run to the bank and get that in cash when he finally spoke.

“I have thousands of employees, clients, vendors, and contacts that you will be responsible for. That means that you need to have their phone numbers, addresses, email addresses as well as access to their files. So, tell me something, Miss Jenkins, how exactly do you plan on doing all that with a ten-dollar planner from Wal-Mart?”

“Carefully?” Kylie said before she could stop herself and she really wished that she’d been able to stop herself

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Excerpt from Tall, Dark & Furious

A Pyte/Sentinel Novel

“I really hate you,” Samantha informed the traitor that was following her as she tightened the towel around herself while she tried to ignore the splitting headache that was starting to concern her. She quickly made her way to her bedroom and once she was there, she slammed the door shut in the little bastard’s face only to bite back a groan when she realized that she wasn’t alone.

“What’s this?” the man that had barged into the bathroom a total of fifteen times to make sure that she was doing as she was told before stealing her clothes, asked from where he sat on her bed, examining her old iPod.

“It’s an iPod,” she said, absently noting that he was now wearing a pair of Nathan’s old jeans and had probably already searched her brother’s bedroom.

“What does it do?” he asked, as she walked over to her dresser, wondering if he’d found anything that she could use to get out of this.

“It plays music,” she said as she quickly grabbed some clothes, hoping to get dressed before-

“And this?” he asked, drawing her attention back to find him holding-

“Oh, my god!” she gasped as she dropped the clothes in her arms to rescue Bob before he realized what it was for, but something, mainly the way that his eyes suddenly turned red and that growl that she really shouldn’t find sexy was torn from his throat, told her that he’d just figured it out.

With a somewhat hysterical smile, she managed to grab Bob from him and shove it back in the nightstand drawer with the hopes that there wouldn’t be any follow up questions, but of course with the way that her day was going, she really should have expected it.

“What do you use that for, wife?” he asked, making her wince.

“It’s umm, a sleep aide?” she said absently, wondering if he’d found-

“And this?” he asked in that same deep sexy growl that let her know that yes, yes, he had indeed found her pocket rocket.

The sound of Bob Jr. turning on only confirmed it. Reminding herself that she needed to tread lightly here, she turned around, and mumbled, “It helps with the sleep aide,” noting the way that his red eyes narrowed on her before she quickly turned around as she shut it off and shoved it in the drawer with Bob. Once that was done, she turned around and-

“What’s a call?” he suddenly demanded as he picked up a large black duffle bag that she hadn’t noticed before and dropped it on her bed.

“A call?” she repeated back slowly as she did her best to keep her gaze from wandering towards the cellphone on her nightstand.  

“I need a call,” he said firmly as those terrifying red eyes locked on her.

“Who do you need to call?” she asked, moving behind the bureau so that she could get dressed in private only to bite back a sigh when he moved closer so that he could keep an eye on her.

“My father,” he bit out evenly as she was struggled to get dressed without dropping her towel, painfully aware of the large, angry man watching her every move as she pulled on another pair of granny panties and her most comfortable pair of jeans just in case she got another chance to escape.

“Do you have a number?” she asked as she turned around, giving him her back and after a minute, she realized that she wasn’t going to be able to put a bra on like this.

Resigning herself to having her boobs slap her in the face during her next escape attempt, she pulled on her old Hershey Park tee shirt. When she was done, she tossed the towel aside and realized that the Advil was slowly starting to kick in, which would hopefully help her figure a way out of this and there had to be a way out of this.

At least, that’s what she was going to keep telling herself.

Excerpt from Irresistible

A Neighbor from Hell Novel

“I’m fine,” the woman that was slowly driving him to drink said from where she lay, curled up in a ball on the floor he’d installed last week, hugging a bath towel against her chest, and looking absolutely miserable.

“Yeah, you’re a rock,” Aidan said dryly as he sat there, trying to figure out how he kept fucking everything up.

One thing was clear, they couldn’t keep doing this.

“Aidan,” Melanie mumbled, averting her pale baby blue eyes as a pink blush crept up her neck and stained her alarmingly pale cheeks, “I-I can’t afford this apartment.”

“I’m not expecting anything,” he said, biting back a sigh as he sat there, trying to figure out how he kept fucking this up.

He’d never had any problems talking to anyone even when he was a kid and could barely get a word out without mangling every single syllable in the process, but whenever he was around her…

She made him nervous and he had absolutely no idea why.

“I wouldn’t feel comfortable with that, Aidan,” she said, clearing her throat awkwardly before adding, “I think it might be for the best if I stay with my parents for a while. At least until the baby comes,” and if she’d actually sounded like that’s what she wanted, he would have let her go and figured out another way to make this work.

But it was the way that she said it that had him closing his eyes and saying the one thing that he prayed would change her mind.

“I used to wet the bed.”

“Ummm…”

“When I was ten, my brothers paid me two dollars to wear my mother’s bra, took pictures, and then charged me twenty dollars not to show my friends.”

“Well, that’s-”

“You know those marshmallow peeps?” he asked with a heavy sigh.

“Um, yeah?”

“They freak me the fuck out,” he reluctantly said, admitting his secret shame.

“I see,” she murmured thoughtfully before asking, “Is there a reason why you’re telling me all this?”

Nodding, he said, “It’s my five things.”

“You’ve only told me three things,” she pointed out, sounding amused.

“That’s because I’m pacing myself,” he said even as he opened his eyes so that he could reach back and turn the water on.

“For…?”

“Well, I don’t want to rush things.”

“And telling me five completely random things about yourself at once would be rushing things?” she asked, blinking up at him.

Sighing heavily, he said, “Yes, yes, it would.”

“Okay, should I take a moment to prepare myself for the two earthshattering revelations that are about to come?”

“That would probably be a good idea,” he said, as he moved so that he could drop the stopper and fill the large bathtub.

“I’m not sure if my heart can handle all this excitement,” she said, smiling as she carefully sat up with his help.

“Are you ready?” Aidan asked, helping her to her feet.

“Do I have a choice?” she asked, as he adjusted the water.

“I’m afraid not,” he said with a helpless shrug before admitting, “Once, when my brother Garret refused to share his sandwich, I convinced him that he was invisible.”

“Wow,” she said, shaking her head in wonder before asking, “And how long did that last?”

He shrugged. “A year, give or take a few months, but by then Arik and Reese had convinced him that he was adopted.”

She chuckled. “You’re so mean.”

With a heartfelt sigh, he said, “True, but that wasn’t the worst thing that we did to him.”

“I probably don’t want to know.”

“That might be for the best,” he admitted with a shrug.

“Okay, so what’s the fifth completely random bit of information that I absolutely must know about you?” she asked with a teasing smile.

“That,” he said, shooting her a wink as he shoved his jeans off, “I love baths.”

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