BLURB TOUR FOR :THE CUPCAKE DIARIES: RECIPE FOR LOVE By Darlene Panzera
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Blog tour,
Darlene Panzera
·
The
Cupcake Diaries
Sweet
On You, Recipe for Love, Taste of Romance
By: Darlene Panzera
The
Cupcake Diaries Book Two: RECIPE FOR LOVE
(Avon
Impulse; on-sale May 14th, 2013; e-book ISBN: 9780062242686)
For fans of
Debbie Macomber comes Recipe for Love,
the second installment in the Cupcake Diaries series Relationships can be
tricky, but will Mike the magician convince Rachel to break her two-date rule?
Rachel Donovan believes first dates are fabulous, second dates are fun, but
third dates? She never sees a guy three times in a row for fear he'll break her
heart, but she's tempted to make an exception when her coworkers, Andi and Kim,
hire Mike Palmer to drive their Cupcake Mobile. Mike meets Rachel when he's
wearing his black-masked magician costume at a Creative Cupcakes birthday party
and then tries to saw her in half. He draws closer while helping Rachel devise
promotion plans to outsmart the arrogant new French pastry chef threatening to
put the shop out of business. When a rat runs through the middle of her glitzy
promo party and the video is uploaded to YouTube, Rachel fears she won't be
able to save the shop, help her mother pay for her grandfather's medical
treatment, or win back the heart of the one guy she's come to love . . . or
will she?
EXCERPT:
Chapter One
Life is
uncertain. Eat dessert first.
—Ernestine
Ulmer
Rachel
pushed through the double doors of the kitchen, took one look at the masked man
at the counter, and dropped the freshly baked tray of cupcakes on the floor.
Did he plan to rob Creative
Cupcakes, demand she hand over the money from the cash register? Her eyes
darted around the frilly pink-and-white shop. The loud clang of the metal
bakery pan hitting the tile had caused several customers sitting at the tables
to glance in her direction. Would the masked man threaten the other people as
well? How could she protect them?
She stepped over the white-frosted
chocolate mess by her feet, tried to judge the distance to the telephone on the
wall, and turned her attention back to the masked man before her. Maybe he
wasn’t a robber but someone dressed for a costume party or play. The man with
the black masquerade mask covering the upper half of his face also wore a black
cape.
“If this is a holdup, you picked
the wrong place, Zorro.” She tossed her fiery red curls over her shoulder with
false bravado and laid a protective hand across the old bell-ringing register.
“We don’t have any money.”
His hazel eyes gleamed through the
holes in the mask, and he flashed her a disarming smile. “Maybe I can help with
that.”
He turned his hand to show an
empty palm, and relief flooded over her. No gun. Then he closed his fingers and
swung his fist around in the air three times. When he opened his palm again, he
held a quarter, which he tossed in her direction.
Rachel caught the coin and
laughed. “You’re a magician.”
“Mike the Magnificent,” he said,
extending his cape wide with one arm and taking a bow. “I’m here for the
Lockwell party.”
Rachel pointed to the door leading
to the back party room. The space had originally been a tattoo shop, but the
tattoo artist relocated to the rental next door. “The Lockwells aren’t here
yet. The party doesn’t start until three.”
“I came early to set up before the
kids arrive,” Mike told her. “Can’t have them discovering my secrets.”
“No, I guess not,” Rachel agreed.
“If they did, Mike the magician might not be so magnificent.”
“Magnificence is hard to
maintain.” His lips twitched, as if suppressing a grin. “Are you Andi?”
She shook her head. “Rachel,
Creative Cupcakes’ stupendous co-owner, baker, and promoter.”
This time a grin did escape his
mouth, which led her to notice his strong, masculine jawline.
“Tell me, Rachel, what is it that
makes you so stupendous?”
She gave him her most flirtatious
smile. “Sorry, I can’t reveal my secrets either.”
“Afraid if I found out the truth,
I might not think you’re so impressively great?”
Rachel froze, fearing Mike the
magician might be a mind reader as well. Careful to keep her smile intact, she
forced herself to laugh off his comment.
“I just don’t think it’s nice to
brag,” she responded playfully.
“Chicken,” he taunted in an
equally playful tone as he made his way toward the party room door.
Despite the uneasy feeling he’d
discovered more about her in three minutes than most men did in three years,
she wished he’d stayed to chat a few minutes more.
Andi Burke, wearing one of the
new, hot-pink Creative Cupcakes bibbed aprons, came in from the kitchen and
stared at the cupcake mess on the floor. “What happened here?”
“Zorro came in, gave me a panic
attack, and the tray slipped out of my hands.” Rachel grabbed a couple of paper
towels and squatted down to scoop up the crumpled cake and splattered frosting
before her OCD kitchen safety friend could comment further. “Don’t worry, I’ll
take care of the mess.”
“I should have told you Officer
Lockwell hired a magician for his daughter’s birthday party.” Andi bent to help
her, and when they stood back up, she asked, “Did you speak to Mike?”
Rachel nodded, her gaze on the
connecting door to the party room as it opened, and Mike reappeared. Tipping
his head toward them as he walked across the floor, he said, “Good afternoon,
ladies.”
Mike went out the front door, and
Rachel hurried around the display case of cupcakes and crossed over to the
shop’s square, six-foot-high, street-side window. She leaned her head toward
the glass and watched him take four three-by-three-foot black painted boxes out
of the back of a van.
“You should go after him,” Andi
teased, her voice filled with amusement. “He’s very handsome.”
“How can you tell?” Rachel drew
away from the window, afraid Mike might catch her spying on him. “He’s got a
black mask covering the upper half of his face. He could have sunken eyes,
shaved eyebrows, and facial tattoos.”
Andi laughed. “He doesn’t, and I
know you like guys with dark hair. He’s not as tall as my Jake, but he’s still
got a great build.”
“Better not let Jake hear you say
that,” Rachel retorted. “And how do you know he has a great build? The guy’s
wrapped in a cape.”
“I’ve seen him before,” Andi said.
“Without the cape.”
“Where?”
“His photo was in the newspaper
two weeks ago,” Andi confided. “The senior editor at the Astoria Sun assigned Jake to write an article on Mike Palmer’s set
models.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Mike Palmer created the miniature
model replica of the medieval city of Hilltop for the movie Battle for Warrior Mountain and worked
on set pieces for many other movies filmed around Astoria. His structural
designs are so intricate that when the camera zooms in close, it looks real.”
Mike returned through the front
door, wheeling in the black boxes on an orange dolly. Rachel caught her breath
as he looked her way before proceeding toward the party room with his
equipment. Did the masked man find her as intriguing as she found him?
Andi’s younger sister, Kim, came
in from the kitchen with a large tray of red velvet cupcakes with cherry−cream
cheese frosting. The three of them together, with Andi’s boyfriend, Jake
Hartman, as their financial partner, had managed to open Creative Cupcakes a
month and a half earlier.
“Who’s he?” Kim asked. She placed
the cupcakes on the marble counter and pointed toward the billowing black cape
of the magician.
“Mike the Magnificent,” Rachel
said dreamily.
About the Author
Darlene
Panzera is the winner of the “Make Your Dreams Come True” contest sponsored by
Avon Books. The win led her novella, The Bet, to be published with Debbie
Macomber’s Family Affair. The award-winning novella (chosen in a blind-read by
Debbie Macomber) was then published as a full length novel retitled, Bet You’ll
Marry Me. Born and raised in New Jersey, Darlene is now a resident of the
Pacific Northwest where she lives with her husband and three children. When not
writing she enjoys spending time with her family, two horses, and loves:
camping, hiking, photography, and lazy days at the lake.
Author Links
@DarlenePanzera
https://twitter.com/DarlenePanzera
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