The Grand Prize Winners for Summer Lovin' Blog Hop!

A Final Salute to All Who Participated in Our Wonderful Blog Hop!  Now that the summer is in full swing, don't forget to buy a copy of your favorite book and take it with you on vacation or maybe when you decide to kick back and relax.  

And to help you finance your book addiction, here are the grand prize winners!

$75 Amazon Gift Card— Kim Turner

$25 Starbucks Gift Card— Trudy Baker Dowling

$25 Amazon (or B&N) Gift Card— Shirley Ann Speakman



Thank you all so much and I hope to see you on the next hop!    :)

Congratulations to My Blog Hop Winner! And the Winner is...

Thank you to all of you who participated!!

All of your recollections were great!  And believe me it was hard to choose. So I didn't. I used computer software to do it for me!  

And without further adieu, the prize winner for visiting my blog is....

Kristin Linehan

I will be contacting you via e-mail.  Hope you enjoy your copy of Cold Warriors!

If you haven't won, don't go away.  'Cause there is still a chance for you to win one of the Grand Prizes!

He Lost His Virginity To An Older Woman-- It's a Summer Lovin' Blog Hop and Giveaway

www.hopswithheart.blogspot.com

And Two Free Giveaways

The first time I ever thought about summer love, it was when I was a child watching a movie that took place in the 1942.  It was about a group of friends spending their summer vacation on Nantucket Island.  

Told through a series of flashbacks, the movie recalls the day when 15 year old 'Hermie' and his friends- Oscy (a jock) and Benjie (the nerd) are on a beach playing ball when they spot a young soldier carrying his new bride into a house on the beach.

They, especially Hermie, are struck by the bride's beauty.  And consequently are unable to get her out of their minds.  This stirs a sexual awakening in them (I guess teenage hormonal lust was not in them before.  Perhaps things were different in the 1940's when the film took place or in the 1970's when the film was made) that drives them to the point of unbridled lust-- where they think about sex all the time.  

Meanwhile Hermie, is still smitten with the bride, whose husband has since left her (to presumably go off to war).  Hermie does odd jobs around the house for her and the two strike up a friendship.

His friend, Benjie finds a sex manual and after sharing it with his two friends, they all think they know everything there is to know about losing one's virginity.  They try out their new found knowledge on the local girls with one chickening out, the other striking out and the other (Hermie) thinking he got to second base when in fact it turned out he'd been feeling his date's arm.  

Like the next day or something, after another brief meeting with the bride, she gives Hermie a kiss on the forehead.  It strikes a fire in his core and spurrs him to go to the drugstore and attempt to buy condoms.  The scene was hilarious!  I remember him buying ice cream, gum, I think a magazine and almost some cigarettes but stumbles out the words when the clerk gives him a weird look.  Eventually he builds up the nerve to ask for the condoms and buys them.

That night, Hermie roasts marshmallows with the local girl from before while Oscy succeeds in having sex with his date from before. He even borrows some of Hermies condoms.  I have no idea what happened to the nerdy friend.  

The rest is best summarized by its Wikipedia Entry--

The next day, Hermie comes across the bride sitting outside her house, writing to her husband. Hermie offers to keep her company that night and she says she looks forward to seeing him, revealing her name is Dorothy. An elated Hermie goes home and puts on a suit, dress shirt and heads back to Dorothy's house... He is convinced that he is on the brink of adulthood because of his relationship with Dorothy.

Going to her house he finds it is eerily quiet. When he enters, he discovers a bottle of whiskey, several cigarette butts, and a telegram from the government. Dorothy's husband is dead, his plane shot down over France. Dorothy comes out of her bedroom, crying, and Hermie tells her "I'm sorry." The sense of empathy triggers her to channel to Hermie some of her loneliness. 

She turns on the record player and invites Hermie to dance with her. They kiss and embrace, tears on both their faces. Without speaking, and to the sound only of the waves, they move to the bedroom, where she draws him into bed and gently makes love with him.

 Afterward, withdrawing again into her world of hurt, Dorothy retires to the porch, leaving Hermie alone in her bedroom. He approaches her on the porch, where she can only quietly say "Good night, Hermie." He leaves, his last image of Dorothy being of her leaning against the railing, as she smokes a cigarette and stares into the night sky.

Trying to sort out what has happened, Hermie goes back to Dorothy's house. Dorothy has fled the island in the night and an envelope is tacked to the front door with Hermie's name on it. Inside is a note from Dorothy, saying she hopes he understands she must go back home as there is much to do. She assures Hermie she will never forget him, and he will find his way of remembering what happened that night. Her note closes with the hope that Hermie may be spared the senseless tragedies of life.

In the final scene, Hermie, suddenly approaching manhood, is seen looking at Dorothy's old house and the ocean from a distance before he turns to join his friends. To bittersweet music, the adult Raucher sadly recounts that he has never seen Dorothy again or learned what became of her.

The screenplay was turned into a novel of the same name prior to the film's release. It was a runaway bestseller, to the point that audiences lost sight of the fact that the book was based on the film and not vice-versa. Eventually it fell into obscurity and went out of print throughout the decades until a Broadway adaptation in 2001 brought it back into the public light and prompted Barnes & Noble to acquire the publishing rights to the book. 

Despite the obvious jail bait tone of the entire movie, and the obvious fact that the main characters were boys, for the longest time I thought that's how teenage first love was suppose to be.  You know, being away on vacation on a cool island with your friends. Having the best summer ever, then meeting a gorgeous guy, having the greatest fling of your life and remember it forever.  

Alas that sort of thing never happened to me at least.  And now that I think about it, I'm glad.  Because I hate water bugs, flies and other insects associated with being around open water and the grasses that go with it.  

But when I allow myself to dream, occasionally, I remember the movie with fondness and see the waves sloshing onto the sandy beach while everyone is basking in the beautiful weather during that summer on Nantucket and think-- what if?

What about you?  Do you have an incredible summer memory?

-Clare  

Don't forget to leave a comment for your chance to win a free copy of one of my books!

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

To enter the Grand Prize Giveaway, fill out the Rafflecopter box and press enter! (One entry per person!) You do not get extra entries for visiting more blogs! 

You have a chance to win prizes during your visit to individual blogs.  Winners will be chosen on Tuesday, June 24 using Random.org! 

Once the grand prize winners are chosen, I will post them on the blog!


My personal giveaway will be on June 25th. At random I will choose from the commenters  and I will post the winner on the blog and will e-mail the lucky person his or her prize!

GRAND PRIZES:

*Special THANKS goes out to authors Sue Lyndon and Denisea Kampe for their contributions to the Grand Prizes!! :)


Here’s the Grand Prize list:

1 $75 Amazon Gift Card

1 $25 Starbucks Gift Card (Donated by Sue)

1 $25 Amazon (or B&N) Gift Card (Donated by Denisea)

Summer Lovin' Blog Hop

There's something about hot nights and steamy days that bring out the sexy in all of us. Less clothes, suntans, holidays...what is it that you love about summer? Join us in our blog hop and blog about anything to do with summer. What are your best summer reads? What's your favorite thing about summer? Perhaps you have an excerpt that will get us all hot under the collar. Whatever it is you want to blog about, why don't you join us on our blog hop and have a bit of fun along the way!

The hop will run for 4 days until 8th August.

One of the best summers I had was on the beach of Lake Huron.  It had been a goal of mine to go there for some time and it did not disappoint.  Lake Huron is so huge, when on the lakeshore you can not see the land in this case Canada, on the the other side.  With the beautiful blue water and sky and the perfect breeze coming off the water, I felt like I was on a beach in California.  My friends and I spent only a weekend there but it was all I need to cool off from the hot and muggy heat that was south and west of us.

The entire time I was there, I kept thinking now I see why people love reading books while on the beach because it would have been a perfect place to settle in with my favorite romance novel!

So in honor of that, here's a selection for your summer reading.

Blurb--

A New Threat? After a long and vicious war, peace is on the horizon for Earth and its allies. However, a series of mysterious attacks on several secret military installations causes hostilities to rise once again.

Redemption. Having left under a cloud of disgrace, retired Marine Colonel Medoro Keegan is called back to duty.

Bound. His wife Caitlin, the only surviving member of her team, chooses to embrace life, albeit grudgingly, as a cryo soldier. Seen as sub-human, she is forced to serve a planet that denies her rights as a person.

Driven. Guided by their sense of duty and belief that some things are bigger than them, they are determined to risk it all.

Hope. The cost of war is high. Can their love and marriage survive? Or will it be killed off by the very same mission that brought them together?

An Excerpt--

Caitlin was a sight for sore eyes. She was beautiful. Her petite frame was perfectly accented by the curves of her figure. And her brown eyes and coffee-brown skin was smooth, creamy.

Standing at attention, she did not meet his gaze. Though it was customary not to do as a sign of military courtesy, he could tell she was not doing it for that reason. Her gaze was different. Circling her, he tried to see if he could catch her watching him out of the corner of her eye. In fact, she appeared to be staring blankly ahead.

Peering directly at her, he spoke in a soft tone. “At ease.”

She relaxed.

“Cate. Can you hear me?”

“Yes, sir,” she responded mechanically.

Pain pierced his insides. She was definitely not there. Keegan placed his hands on his hips and hung his head in defeat. The one thing that was supposed to go right did not. For whatever reason, they had placed her in a deeper state of mental control than she’d ever been in. He controlled the hostile emotions brewing with him. Touching her face gently, he felt her icy skin.

This is unacceptable! Not here. I will not let this happen here. Not under my command.

“Chief, listen up,” he said in an authoritative tone. He knew in this state, it was the only way he could speak to her and still have her respond.

“Yes, sir.” Her gaze became even more distant.

Her response fueled his anger. “You are going to hightail it down to the doc and receive a full examination. Tell him it is based on my orders. He will know what to do. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

Knowing that she was under the influence of cryo neurotransmitters, Keegan figured the only way to combat it was to get someone to reverse it. They usually wore off once she was away from the stimulus triggers for a long period of time. But considering her stimulus triggers were high-ranking officers in uniform and combat situations, being around here meant she was going to be in a drone zone for a very long time. The last thing he needed was a zombie on board, especially one in charge of the lives others.

Only the jerks in psyche warfare thought doing this to someone would be a good idea. As long as he was running the ship, none of that would be allowed. There weren’t going to be any super zombies soldiers on board his ship. And he’d rollover in his grave before he let them do it to his wife.

“After you come back from the doc, you will report to me, understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Are there any questions?”

“No, sir.”

“Dismissed.”

She did an about face before leaving the room. Keegan clasped his hands behind his back. In the blink of an eye, his joy had turned to sorrow. Now faced with the responsibility of looking after his wife, he wondered how could he handle the burden of command and still protect the woman he loved.

Available now at all retail book outlets including-

Amazon- http://www.amazon.com/Peace-Cold-Warriors-Universe-ebook/dp/B00DZV25QS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1374248311&sr=8-3&keywords=clare+dargin

and

ARe- https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-iceandpeace-1245582-143.html

Don't forget to visit my friends below where you can find other sexy reads!

And there will be a grand prize too, so don't forget to leave your comment to win...

<!-- start InLinkz script -->

<script type="text/javascript">

document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src=http://www.inlinkz.com/cs.php?id=289535&' + new Date().getTime() + '"><\/script>');

</script>

<!-- end InLinkz script -->

Wordpress Link

<!-- start InLinkz script -->

 <a href="http://www.inlinkz.com/wpview.php?id=289535"><img style="border:0px"  src="http://www.inlinkz.com/wpImg.php?id=289535"></a>

<!-- end InLinkz script -->