Songbird by Cecilia London
Series: Standalone though technically is #7 in The Bellator Saga
Publisher: self-published
Release Date (Print & Ebook): April 14, 2020
Length (Print & Ebook): 80,000 words
Subgenre: Women’s Fiction/Mainstream Fiction with Strong Romantic Elements
Warnings: content warnings for death, violence, psychological trauma
https://books2read.com/u/3yEdRZ
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085T2172L
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B085T2172L
CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B085T2172L
Book blurb:
Christine Sullivan isn’t an easy person to love. She knows how the world sees her – aloof, standoffish, cold…perhaps even bitchy. After a lifetime in politics, including a stint with an expat government in exile, President Sullivan has taken her share of body blows, but now she’s back in Philadelphia…a widow, a recovering Republican, a former public servant seeking a quiet, private existence.
On her to-do list – rebuild her relationship with her estranged daughter and invent the rest of her life. She has her best friend Caroline, her brand spanking new condo, and her ever frustrating Secret Service detail to keep her company. That should be enough for anyone, right?
Until Alexander Guardiola comes along… liberal, emotionally unguarded, younger. A lot younger. Everything Christine isn’t. And isn’t ready for.
But opposites attract, don’t they? And hearts and minds can always be changed…
Blitz Excerpts:
Teaser #1:
“Look, I’ve got a serious question for you.”
“Ask away, then.”
“Do you think I still, you know, have it?”
“It? What is it?”
“You know…” Was she really going to make me say it out loud?
“Chrissy, if you can’t define what it is, I’m not sure you should be using it for anything.”
Susannah wondered why I didn’t want to talk to her about intensely personal bits of my life. If my best friend was going to give me a hard time about my difficulties discussing… things, how would my own child react?
Fortunately, Caroline spoke again before I was forced to explain myself. “You want to know if you’re still sexy,” she said.
A bite of pie dropped rather inelegantly from my fork to the plate. Such timing. “I guess so.”
She started to get up. “We could ask Jack.”
Lord help me. “Please don’t.”
She flounced back on the couch. “You’re no fun. But… should I draw this out for effect?”
“Again, please don’t.”
“You’re super hot. Blazing. Like, blonde bombshell bordering on silver fox hot. On occasion you make me question my own sexuality.”
“Come on,” I said.
“Seriously. And your legs. Damn, Chrissy, you have the lower body physique of a thirty year old. Mine never looked that good. Ever.”
My bestie thought I had great gams. Lovely. “You’re teasing me.”
She licked some meringue off her fork before pointing it at me. “Wouldn’t you like to know, eh?”
I didn’t need her giving me a crash course on the lesbian continuum. “I mean it, Caroline. I need some reinforcement.”
“You’re fucking gorgeous and you know it. And you’ve never fished for flattery before. Why now?”
Revealing things to my best friend involved a delicate balance of timing and phrasing, lest the conversation devolve into chaos. But it seemed as good a time as any to dip my toe in the water. “I went out on a date last night.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I’m telling you now.”
She slapped the couch cushion, making the connection immediately. “This is why you had me bring you a tiramisu yesterday. You never ask me for shit that fancy. You gave a man fraudulent baked goods.”
“Well, yes.” I didn’t bother justifying myself. She knew how to prepare yummy things. I didn’t. Was it so very wrong to tell a little white dessert lie to save face on a first date?
“I spent hours on that thing.”
Okay, now I felt a little guilty. “It was good, though. I believe said man proclaimed it remarkable.”
“Of course it was remarkable! I made it!” She smacked my arm. “You’re a charlatan, President Sullivan, and your schemes hurt me here,” she said, theatrically placing her hand over her heart. “But anyway, your deception is fine, I’m totally over it, please tell me more about the date you neglected to mention while asking me to expend considerable energy in making you a dish that I erroneously assumed was solely for your consumption.”
Caroline may have given up her career in public service, but she could still pivot back and forth between issues to the next like a champ. “It wasn’t something I planned on doing,” I said. “But then it just kind of happened so I went with it.”
“Obviously.”
Her feelings were hurt. I could tell. And it wasn’t really about the tiramisu. “I was going to tell you but…”
“Did you think I would talk you out of it?”
It had been so, so hard to keep my mouth shut. I told her almost everything I felt was worth sharing. “No, but I was afraid that talking to you would provide me with an excuse not to do it.”
“Ah,” she said. “The curse of the overthinker.”
Pretty much. Both of us had the annoying habit of analyzing everything to pieces. “I met him at Susannah’s office.”
She raised an eyebrow. “At that retirement party she forced you to go to?”
“Yes. You might say he was an unintentional bonus to a fairly uneventful evening.”
“Oh, my my my.” Caroline took another generous scoopful of meringue. “We have been busy, haven’t we?”
Dare I tell her the meatiest part? “Susannah was trying to set me up with the retiree and, well, I hit it off with his son.”
“No way.” She started laughing. “Some poor little man got cockblocked by his own flesh and blood. Harsh.”
Teaser #2:
“I would like to talk about where this relationship is going.” There. That sounded good.
“I think it’s going well, don’t you?”
“I meant, more specifically, where it might go tonight.”
“Oh.” He looked as if I’d genuinely caught him off guard. “I see.”
“I’m not being impulsive this time.”
“I can tell.”
“But I also think I need to… discuss expectations. I mean, neither of us are virgins but—” How could I possibly complete that sentence without dying of embarrassment?
“In a way, we are,” he said. “The first time you sleep with someone is a discovery, right?”
Oh, okay. That made sense. I could build on that. “I suppose so.”
“Much of a couple’s initial intimacy is about discovering likes and dislikes, don’t you think? Almost like sexual information gathering. The joy of discovery. Science but fun.”
“Are you comparing me to an archaeological dig?”
He kissed my neck. “I want to know everything about you. That might require some pretty intense studying. And I’m an eager student.”
“That might take a while. I’m much older than you.”
“I am a man of uncommon dedication.”
Didn’t hurt for me to make the journey a little easier for him. “All my internal organs are in the right places,” I said.
“Duly noted.”
“I’m very sensitive so you don’t have to worry about getting a response out of me.”
“That’s consistent with my observations so far but thank you for sharing.”
“I like soft touching but sometimes a little harder.” In case he hadn’t picked up on during any of the times we’d crept toward home plate while spending lengthy periods of time at first and second base.
“Mmm-hmm.” He nuzzled my neck. Apparently he was eager to get to third as quickly as possible.
There went my plan of hiding my fears. I didn’t like that he could read me so well. “My body is not as springy as yours.” I gestured vaguely. “And my parts are not as, um—”
“I have lube,” he said. “And condoms. Even if pregnancy isn’t a possibility, I want us both to be comfortable.”
“I agree. Safe sex is important.”
“Good.” He mock wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “Saves us that discussion.”
I was glad he brought it up first so I wouldn’t have to. Any man who wouldn’t insist on taking precautions was not a man I’d want in my bed. His proactivity was definitely a point in his favor. “If you call me ‘Madam President’during any of this, whether we are undressed or not, whether sensitive places are being touched, or whether parts are inside other parts, I am running out the door and never looking back.”
“Fully naked?”
“Fully naked.”
About the Author:
Cecilia London is the pen name of a native Illinoisan currently living in San Antonio, Texas. She’s filled several roles over the course of her adult life – licensed attorney, wrangler of small children, and obsessed baseball and footy fan, among others. An extroverted introvert with a serious social media addiction, she is the author of The Bellator Saga, an epic, genre-crossing romance series, and its spinoff, Songbird. You can most often find her causing trouble on Twitter or, less frequently, on Facebook.
Connect with Cecilia:
Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon Author Page | BookBub Author Profile
Website | Jack McIntyre fan page | Spotify
Giveaway: Cecilia London is giving away 3 complete e-sets of the first 6 books of her Bellator Saga, Books 1 – 6, to celebrate her new release, SONGBIRD. You can enter below! Must be 18 to enter and win. Open Internationally.
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