BLOG TOUR: BEFORE AND AFTER YOU by Hope Ellis

Before and After You, an all-new heartfelt small town romance from Hope Ellis, is LIVE in Kindle Unlimited! 

Leigh D’Alessandro is a fighter. She fought to escape her dysfunctional family, to end a soul-killing marriage, and to build a new life in a small Tennessee town.  When the fate of the community hospital she works for is threatened, she’s primed and ready for battle. What she can’t fight any longer is her unshakable attraction to her best friend’s brother, who has a notorious reputation and triggers all her worst fears about trust and betrayal.

Walker Leffersbee is a lover. At least that’s the reputation he’s built in his hometown. Scion of a prosperous Tennessee banking family, he’s a known ladies’ man and a confirmed bachelor. His hands are full as he juggles competing demands from his family’s bank and his growing property renovation business. The last thing he needs is to give in to his long-standing craving for his sister’s headstrong and hot-tempered best friend. Especially because she’s the only one who knows the secret that threatens to upend his life.

When a home renovation project brings them too close for comfort, they both struggle to withstand the growing heat. As they grow closer helping each other navigate family minefields, Walker learns that love is not a four-letter word, and Leigh realizes that some battles are meant to be lost. 

But Walker’s secret is the one thing that could keep them apart, unless they both decide to fight for the love they never looked for but now can’t live without.

‘Before and After You’ is a contemporary romance and can be read as a standalone. Book #2 in the Leffersbee series, Green Valley Chronicles, Penny Reid Book Universe.

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Been There Done That is now available in KU!

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Excerpt

I stopped in my tracks, my breath catching in my throat.

Walker Leffersbee.

Damn it.

Indecision glued my feet to the floor, halting my progress as I stared at his frozen profile. I briefly considered turning the opposite way and retracing the same route I’d used coming down.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see him.

That wasn’t the case.

Well, not exactly.

But there were several reasons why his sudden appearance was damned inconvenient.

First, Walker was the older brother of my best friend in the world, Zora Leffersbee. But I didn’t consider Walker to be my brother, not by any stretch of the imagination. Through all the years we’d known each other, our relationship had continually evolved. He was as supportive of me as he was of Zora. But we both knew he didn’t think of me as a sister.

 Which led to the second problem.

Walker Leffersbee was sexy. Sexy as hell. The kind of sexy that always took my brain captive with the grimy bass line of a 90s R&B song and thickened my blood for the heat of inevitable battle. We were always locked in some kind of mental combat, our traded barbs and jabs never quite masking the powerful current of attraction between us. He would have been easy to ignore if my attraction to him were based solely on his physicality. I’d bounced on more than one pretty man in my day and managed to keep my brain cells unscrambled. But he was hot as hell with all those intriguing layers. Damn it. I didn’t have brain space to deal with Walker right now.

“Leigh?”

I stiffened, surfacing from my thoughts. Walker straightened and ambled closer. He moved with the lumbering grace exclusive to big men, a very slight bowleggedness lending his walk a kind of deliberate, sexy swagger. Advancing, he squinted slightly as if trying to make me out in the muted lighting of the hospital’s basement floor. He stopped only three feet away from me.

I disciplined my eyes, sternly instructed them away from the just-right fit of Walker’s huge shoulders in his white broadcloth shirt. I did not allow my eyes to notice how the tip of his conservative navy tie arrowed the path to his tapered waist and the slightest imprint of powerful thighs just visible in his dark slacks. I refused to dwell on how beautifully his perfectly sculpted dark goatee contrasted with the deep mahogany of his skin.

My fingers clenched against the empty wish for a cigarette.

He wasn’t nearly as circumspect, making no effort to disguise the frank assessment in the gaze that slowly crawled upwards from my clogs in slow degrees. I didn’t miss the banked heat in his eyes when his stare finally met mine.

“Golden Boy,” I said, feeling a perverse pleasure at having launched the opening salvo and earning the answering curl at the corner of his lip. He hated that name, I knew. Hated it whenever I reminded of him of who he was. Son of the richest man in the county, heir apparent to a growing banking empire in Tennessee. Why this bothered him, I’d never know. It was hardly a secret, not with him and his father on billboards advertising his family’s bank around Knoxville and Nashville. But that didn’t make it any less fun to pick at him.

“Umbridge.”

I feigned surprise. “What, have you exhausted all the Disney villains? We’re into the Harry Potter lexicon now?”

His answering smile was sharp and wicked. “You know, there are just so many names for the devil. I don’t think I’ll ever come up empty-handed when it comes to you.”

“Good to know. What are you doing here?” I flicked a pointed glance at the doorway to Radiology he’d evidently just come through, and I noticed the orange paper had somehow disappeared into his pocket by the time he greeted me.

And … cue the third complication.

Walker Leffersbee and I shared a secret, and seeing him here had just made it much more, well, complicated.

About Hope Ellis

USA Today bestselling author Hope Ellis is a health outcomes researcher by day and writes romances featuring sexy nerds by night.  She hopes to one day conquer her habit of compulsively binge-watching The Office.

Find Hope Ellis online

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Review: Before and After You by Hope Ellis

Before and After You by Hope Ellis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC via Smartypants Romance, all opinions are my own.

I loved Leigh and Walker together.  While it took them both a little while to come to terms with what they were feeling for each other and their baggage, it was well worth the wait.  I also really enjoyed that they each had their convictions about their respective professions.  Leigh was so passionate about her job at the hospital and the personal relationships she builds with her patients and their families.  Walker wants to keep the legacy of the bank that his grandfather built and be an upstanding pillar of the community, but he also wants to pursue his passion of flipping houses.  There is quite a bit of drama on both sides as Leigh's hospital is being privatized by a company whose reputation is not particularly great.  Walker is dealing with some family drama as his younger sister Tavia has come home and wants to implement new changes to the bank that he doesn't feel their customers are ready for and that fit their brand.  Sidenote, I really hope we get Tavia's story, I'm super anxious to find out what she's dealing with and if she is able to find her way within her family.

While both Leigh and Walker are dealing with work stress, they both want nothing to do with a relationship.  Walker doesn't see himself ever settling down, but his friends and family think he just hasn't found the right woman yet.  Leigh doesn't trust relationships after her divorce.  She has plenty of family drama as well.  You have to read the book to fully understand the depth of her trust issues and why she feels the way she does about relationships and love.  When Walker ends up renovating her duplex and he ends up moving in with her because of the renovations, the end up growing closer.   What is supposed to be a one time thing ends up turning into something more that neither of them expected.  

This has a moderate level of steam.  There are some decent steamy scenes, but there are just the right amount.  Walker and Leigh had great conversations and good banter.  I also loved the side characters.  The Leffersbee family is great as is Leigh's sister and brother-in-law.  There were lots of serious moments, but there were some comedic ones woven in throughout.  I really enjoyed watching Leigh and Walker develop both together and apart.  While Walker's decision making was suspect, he finally came around.  I really like how this wrapped up and leave room open for more books about the family.  I like how we got some resolution about Leigh's family drama and potential to know about what is going on with Tavia.  

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Blog Tour: Been There Done That by Hope Ellis

Theirs was a forever kind of love, until it was stolen.

Been There Done That, an all-new second-chance romantic standalone by debut author Hope Ellis, is available now!

ZORA LEFFERSBEE’S once perfect life is no longer perfect. Her tenure at the University is in question, funding for her employees uncertain, and her faux-fiancé, Jackson James’s unpredictability is wearing on her last nerve. Just when Zora is convinced things can’t get more complicated, life proves her wrong.

What the heck is he doing here?

NICK ROSSI’s complicated life is still extremely complicated. He’s used to fighting for everything he has, but he’s also used to winning. Now a man of power and influence, his return to Green Valley after so many years hasn’t gone according to plan, especially with the woman he’s always wanted.

She can’t know why I left, or why I’m back.

A powerful woman intent on righting the wrongs of the world, Zora doesn’t have time or energy to deal with the man who broke her young heart.

A powerful man intent on righting the wrongs of the past, Nick can’t help wanting to protect Zora, even if his devotion is unrequited.

‘Been There Done That’ is a full-length contemporary romance, can be read as a standalone, and is book #1 in the Leffersbee series, Green Valley World, Penny Reid Book Universe.

Download your copy today or read FREE in Kindle Unlimited!

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Excerpt

My Grandmother Leffersbee used to say, “Life isn’t perfect, but that’s what makes it so interesting.” Then she’d wink before adding, “Do you want interesting? Or do you want boring?”

Right now? I could use some boring perfection. Just a little. Just a smidge. Please.

“Zora.” A vaguely familiar-sounding voice said my name from someplace in the vicinity of my office doorway. I ignored it, hoping they’d take my silence as an invitation to go away.

You’re almost out of time.

My eyes stung, but I wasn’t going to cry. There is no crying in clinic communication research; there is only more research, more grant applications, more trying, more doing. But, damn, I really thought we had this one in the bag. Folks’ livelihoods depended on it. My tenure, my job, depended on it. Not to mention the research itself was important—so incredibly important.

“Zora,” that voice said again, firmer this time. Closer.

Given my present state of mind and eau de sweat fantastique, I can’t help barking out, “Now isn’t a good time.”

The man didn’t respond for a beat, but then once more said, “Zora,” this time with a hint of grit and impatience.

My glare cut away from the offending rejection email and I opened my mouth to volley something scathingly polite and dismissive, but then every nerve and muscle in my body seized. The clouds outside my office window parted at that very moment, emitting a biblical shaft of light that illuminated my overstuffed bookcases—and the breathtaking specimen of man standing in my office doorway on the fifth floor of the medical research building.

What the . . .?

Shock choked me. I couldn’t breathe. The cracked vinyl of the office chair’s armrests bit into the tender flesh of my palms.

I recognized him immediately even though he looked very, very different. All the awkward lankiness and unformed promise of his youth had been ruthlessly fulfilled in the intervening years. But after twelve years of empty, aching absence, of wondering and worrying, of resignation and sadness . . . he was here.

Was he real?

“I thought . . . I thought you were dead.” The whispered words left my mouth at the same time they formed in my brain.

Nick Armstrong stood silent and unmoving, a stolid sentry, looking at me. Just . . . looking.

The width of his shoulders filled the doorway, leaving scant space between his head and the door frame. I couldn’t help devouring the sight of him, half-wondering if he were a mirage. Despite being as fashion challenged as I was, I easily identified the perfect fit of a bespoke suit, noting how the high-quality fabric closely followed the muscled bulk of his shoulders and arms. The unassuming dark jacket, white dress shirt, and trousers did little to hide his tapered waist and well-developed thighs.

His hulking presence alone ensnared my attention, but his face arrested it. He was striking. Thick, ink-black hair just starting to curl over his collar matched the dark stubble shadowing his square jaw. His slightly off-center nose, likely the result of a break, ruined the pure symmetry of his features. But his eyes were a startling shade of green, the same showy, verdant hue of summer leaves under an ominously gunmetal sky.

So unsettlingly familiar. And yet . . . No, it couldn’t be him. There was no way it was Nick. Not after all these years.

This isn’t possible.

I lurched up and made a spectacle of myself as I struggled to stand. Panic weighted my feet. Disbelief severed any connection with my brain’s higher processing, leaving me stuck to my chair with my mouth hanging ajar. “Letting in flies,” as my Grandma Leffersbee would have said.

I blinked back confusion as I stared at him, captured by a whisper, an echo of a memory. “Who . . . ?”

His mouth moved, like maybe he was going to introduce himself. But instead, he repeated my name for a fourth time, “Zora . . .”

This voice was different from the Nick I had loved. Deeper. But the way he said my name, slowly, as if savoring the taste of something rich? I could never forget that.

It is him.

About Hope Ellis

Hope Ellis is a health outcomes researcher by day and writes romances featuring sexy nerds by night. She hopes to one day conquer her habit of compulsively binge-watching The Office.

Find Hope Ellis online

Facebook: http://bit.ly/2PszyQ6

Twitter: http://bit.ly/3c6Awey

Instagram: http://bit.ly/2w6WttF

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2I2xDxK

Connect with Smartypants Romance

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Website: https://smartypantsromance.com/

Newsletter: https://smartypantsromance.com/newsletter/

Review: Been There Done That by Hope Ellis

Been There Done That by Hope Ellis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was a cute second chance romance.  I liked Nick and Zora's story.  Zora is a strong, smart woman who is always looking out for everyone else.  Because she is always taking care of her staff, her family, and everyone else, she often doesn't take the time to take care of herself.  Working at the local university and hospital to fix communication issues between doctors and patients, you would think she would be a perfect fit, but she's lost her passion for her job being stuck filling out grant applications and sorting through mountains of data.  Nick has turned his life around from the lost boy of Green Valley to a successful business man who wants to partner with Zora's team for his company's latest healthcare app.  Nick and Zora had the perfect romance, but she never knew why he left her with little explanation and never came back for her.  They are both striving for some imaginary bar that they just can't seem to reach so they will be worth of one another so they can be together.  After 12 years apart, they finally face why they were separated and the truth of why Nick left her comes out.  Zora is understandably hurt, but neither of them can deny that they never stopped loving each other and there will never be anyone else.

I really enjoyed the character development of this story.  All of the characters seemed real and relatable.  When they were doing something destructive someone call them on it.  When they were making bad decisions, someone said something and told them there would be consequences.  This had great side characters.  I hope to see some of them in future books.  The pacing of the story was a bit slow for me, but it didn't take away from the enjoyment of the story. 

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