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Blurb
Two ambitious people team up to prove themselves to their families—and find there may be more to their partnership than just business…
Elizabeth Brannigan is determined to show her father she’s capable of running the family business. Saving his struggling Chicago bar seems like the perfect project. But she’ll need a little help dealing with the rough crowd. Who better to assist her than the handsome co-owner of a thriving Irish pub? Of course, with so much work to do, there are bound to be a few late nights…
Colin O’Leary’s father passed away before he could prove to him that he wasn’t a screw-up. Now he wants to show his brother he’s responsible enough to own a bar of his own—and Elizabeth may be able to help him. But when their professional aspirations clash, tempers—and passions—flare. Are they mature enough to mix business with pleasure—or will they have to choose between the two?
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Book Excerpt
Elizabeth has been researching bars in the area and has just arrived at O’Leary’s. This is the first time she meets Colin.
This bar was doing something right.
The bartender came over as she was reading the menu. “Hi. What can I get you tonight?”
She looked up and swallowed hard. The man in front of her was mouthwateringly gorgeous. His mussed black hair framed a face dominated by a happy-go-lucky smile. She lost her ability to form coherent sentences. “Uh…”
He tilted his head and studied her face. “You look beat. Tough day?”
She nodded. What was wrong with her? She didn’t do this around men. She’d had no fewer than eight different men try to pick her up tonight. This one was just doing his job, and she had to fight for focus.
“How about an Irish coffee?” Dark brows arched over navy eyes.
She cleared her throat. “Sounds good.”
He walked away. She studied the menu. It wasn’t fancy. Like the rest of the bars, it offered burgers and hot wings, but they had more traditional pub fare, like fish and chips and shepherd’s pie. Her mouth watered at the thought of real food. The drink menu was plain as well, but at least displayed a list of drinks with the basic ingredients. Pictures and descriptions would’ve been better, but this bar had already exceeded the competition from the other Chicago neighborhood pubs she’d visited.
The bartender returned with her Irish coffee. She sipped and found it perfect. The whipped cream puffed and floated on top and she used her straw to scoop some up. She ran her tongue over the cream-laden straw and heard a groan.
She looked up to find the bartender looking at her. Replacing the straw, she waited for an explanation.
His mouth quirked up at the corner. “Sorry. I couldn’t help it. That was downright sinful.”
Her cheeks flamed. She was blushing? No. The alcohol from earlier in the evening was catching up with her and colliding with her exhaustion. He broke eye contact and mumbled, “Give me a holler if you need anything else.”
He walked away and picked up a conversation with other customers. She tried not to be obvious in studying him and the way he interacted with people. This was something the other bars had been missing as well. A personal touch.
She finished her drink, tossed cash on the bar, and took a few moments to wander toward the back of the bar. There was a small stage, a jukebox, and dartboards. Down a dimly lit hallway were the bathrooms. Too tired to think, she opted to leave. Part of her wanted to talk to some of the patrons, get their perspective as to why they came here, but it would have to wait.
By morning, hopefully Meg would have information about The Irish Pub and, with any luck, the books wouldn’t be as bad as she imagined. As she wound her way back toward the front, raucous laughter exploded at the bar. The sexy bartender was enjoying something.
He caught her eye as she passed. His laughter made his eyes twinkle with mischief, his smile lighting his face, like he had the best life in the world. She wondered what it would be like to feel that even for a night. It wasn’t that she was unhappy; she liked her life very much, in fact, but it had been too long since she’d experienced a laugh that shook her whole body.
Guest Post
Something to Prove – Meet the Heroine: Elizabeth Brannigan
Elizabeth Brannigan comes to Chicago to check into a property her father owns because it’s losing money. When she discovers a run-down bar, she decides that this is the perfect project she can use to prove to her father that she has what it takes to be CEO of the family business. She’s smart and tough and spends a lot of her time stressed out, which affects her health. Because she has always felt like she’s needed to prove herself, she has a hard time relaxing and just having fun.
Elizabeth is a businesswoman first and foremost. She’s driven and dedicated. There are parts of her that she keeps tight control of and tucked away from everyone. For example, when she’s nervous, she gets clumsy. She’ll trip over her own feet or crash into people. As you can imagine, there’s sometimes collateral damage when she’s feeling even the good nervousness of lust. Elizabeth also snores (most unladylike) and when she really lets go of an all out laugh, it comes out more like a snort. She immediately tries to cover it and hide it, but lucky for her, the hero, Colin, won’t let her. In fact, Colin gets her to lose a whole lot of control.
Elizabeth has a lot to learn about herself over the course of the book. For so long, all she thought about was becoming CEO that not only does she not have a backup plan, but she also has no plan for her personal life. She has no idea what she wants. Unfortunately, it takes a bit of her life unraveling for her to figure it out.
As a character, Elizabeth was much more difficult to write than Colin. Because a character like this often comes across as too hard-edged, I had to dig to really find out what would make her more human and likeable. I loved when she got flustered and couldn’t quite hold onto her control of everything.
Author Info
Even though she wrote from high school through college (mostly poetry), she’d never considered a career as an author. Writing fell by the wayside as she focused her energy on creating lesson plans and new and fabulous ways to torment her teen students. One group in particular dubbed her “The Torture Master,” a title she carried into motherhood.
After the birth of baby number two, Shannyn resigned from teaching and fell in love with reading romance novels. She read so many books so quickly that her husband teased, “If you’re going to read so many damn books, why don’t you just write one?”
So she did.
That first book is safely buried on her hard drive, but the process set Shannyn on the path to where she is today—agented with a debut ebook coming out with Kensington in late 2012.
She is recovering from her Diet Coke addiction, fears putting her foot in her mouth on social media, and has a renewed appreciation for the bad girls of the world.
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Giveaway
Nook Simple Touch ($79.00 Value),
TWO Digital Copies of Winner’s Choice O’Leary Romance or
FIVE Keeper Kase with O’Leary’s cards
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