A Special Giveaway

 

Memorial for the Granite Mountain Hotshots

On July 1, I’d just finished the final galley proofs of HOW TO TAME A WILD FIREMAN when news hit of the 19 hotshots who lost their lives fighting a fierce wildfire in Arizona. They followed their training, which was to deploy their fire shelters, but the fire was simply too intense. “Hotshots” are a specialized type of firefighter, highly trained, very physically fit, daring. They work in crews of about 20, and during wildfire season they often travel from one fire to another.  This particular hotshot crew was local, however, based out of Prescott, Arizona. Their deaths hit the entire firefighting community very hard, and especially their home state.

The hero of my book, Patrick “Psycho” Callahan, isn’t a hotshot, but he has all the training to become one, along with heli-rappelling skills. He leaves the firehouse in San Gabriel, California for Nevada, where a huge wildfire threatening his hometown. His role is to rappel out of a helicopter behind the fire lines. It’s dangerous, risky work, and what happened to the Granite Mountain hotshots could easily have happened to him.

Which is why the tragedy of the 19 hotshots struck home for me. I’d immersed myself in the world of wildland firefighting while working on HOW TO TAME A WILD FIREMAN, I’d spoken to guys like those hotshots. I know how grueling and difficult their work is.

Hot Shot crew

I was horrified by such an awful loss and wanted to do something to show my support. I immediately emailed my editor, hoping I could include the Granite Mountain Hotshot crew in my dedication, or make a reference to them somewhere in the text. But it was too late for any of that.

So instead, I decided to try something different. I researched ways to help the families of those fallen 19, and found a website run by the Prescott Firefighters themselves. Of course I donated right away, but then it occurred to me that I could get more people involved – at no cost to them.

So for every comment on this blog post, I’ll donate another dollar to the Prescott Firefighters Charities. The last time I did this, I got a great response and gave a nice, hefty donation. So let’s keep the momentum going! And to add some motivation, I’ll also give one commenter a signed copy of any book in the Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriel series – your choice.

Here’s a little bit about HOW TO TAME A WILD FIREMAN, and a short snippet. Don’t forget to leave a comment! I'll keep the giveaway open until midnight EST on October 3.

Thank you for your support. :-) 

   

The Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriel have a rebel among them, and there's only one woman who

can put his flames out.

Firefighter Patrick “Psycho” Callahan earns his nickname every day. Fast, fit, and a furious worker, he thrives on the danger which helps him forget a near-tragedy that changed his life forever. But when his off-duty carousing gets out of hand, Patrick is sent back to Loveless, Nevada, where the wildfire threatening his hometown has nothing on sizzling Dr. Lara Nelson.

Lara would rather be thought of as the physician who returned to Loveless than as the misfit brought up at a hippie New Age commune. But right now she’s focused on her job at hand, patching up injured firemen...until the past hits her in the hard-muscled, blue-eyed form of Patrick Callahan. Now, the embers of their decade-old attraction have ignited into a full-on inferno, as the bad-boy firefighter and the good doctor take a walk on the wild side they'll never forget.

EXCERPT

Fury carried her the rest of the way into the belly of the chopper. As she rolled onto the steel floor, warm from the flames still only a few yards beneath the helicopter, Patrick reached over and pulled the door shut.

Immediately the terrible roar of the wind and flames lessened. Lara lay panting on the floor until Patrick hauled her into one of the pull-down seats. “I hate you, Patrick Callahan IV.”

“If I had a nickel for every time I heard that from a woman whose life I just saved, I’d … well, I’d have a nickel. Most women want to kiss me.”

“You didn’t save my life,” she ground out. She checked the gash on her shin. Sure enough, blood dripped onto her boots.

From the chair next to her, Patrick fixed his vivid blue gaze on her.

“Fine. Thanks for that part,” she said grudgingly. “But I’m really pissed about the rest of it. You had no right to come onto Haven property and—”

He shrugged, grabbing two water bottles and tossing one to her. “I couldn’t have if I wanted to. Your aunt was pretty strict with her security.”

“You mean … ” She gaped at him. The water bottle felt cool in her hands. She pressed it against her hot cheek.

“I lied. I was trying to piss you off. You always moved faster when you were fired up.”

He gave her a diabolical wink. God, she wanted to rip his head off. Smash his face in. Scratch his eyes out. It took her right back to her teenage years, before she’d claimed her life as a rational med student.

“Congratulations,” she gritted. “I didn’t think I could hate you more, but I do.”

“What’s that they say about the thin line?” He toasted her with his water bottle, then glugged from it. She watched his Adam’s apple move under the stubbly, tanned, filthy skin of his neck. Dirt and sweat shouldn’t be this sexy, should it? Her gaze traveled to the other side of the chopper, where Grant sat opposite them, head tilted back, eyes shut. Even though he too was handsome—and almost as dirty as Patrick—he didn’t have a fraction of Patrick’s impact on her.

She ground her teeth. “In this case, that thin line is the size of a superhighway.”

“Then I think it’s time for you to cross to the other side. In return for saving your life—for which I have yet to receive a decent thank-you—you’re going to do something for me.”

“Dream on.”

“Can you deny that you owe me?”

“Don’t I get any thanks for risking my life in the first place? I’m not a firefighter. Someone owes me!”

He jerked his head toward the injured man. “On his behalf, thank you. He’ll be your love slave as soon as he wakes up.”

Lara ground her teeth.

“Come on, it’s not that hard. All you have to do is go to dinner with me.”

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Jennifer Bernard is the author of the Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriel series, which Romantic Times says is full of "quick wit and sizzling love scenes," and Romance Junkies calls "a captivating series." Visit her at JenniferBernard.net or JenniferBernardBooks on Facebook.