First Page Friday - Joss Wood's Top Pick "KISS"

My First Page Friday guest this week is fellow KISS author, Joss Wood, who is giving us a taste of her 4.5 star TOP PICK debut book IT WAS ONLY A KISS.

Here’s the blurb!

Luke Savage never failed! Ok there was the marriage thing, he’d dropped the ball on that one, but in his defence he’d been duped from the beginning. Now he was divorcing Satan’s sister, so everything was back on track. That was until a beautiful, cocky twenty-something interning in his marketing department waltzed into his office and announced his marketing plan, for his recently inherited family vineyard, sucked!

Jess Sherwood was bright, ambitious and a know-it-all. She was also gorgeous as sin and made Luke feel things he shouldn’t. But that didn’t excuse her intrusion into his office and her blatant disregard for his authority in his own company. So after kissing her senseless, Luke fires Jess and kicks her out of his office. No way was an arrogant little madam with all of five minutes experience going to tell him his business would fail!

Eight years later, Luke’s family vineyard is failing. With the insurmountable debts he’s inherited from his father to pay off, Luke is struggling to keep St Sylve Vineyards afloat. A successful businessman in his own right, it would be so easy to sell up and return to his own thriving company. But how can he sell off the work of his many fore-fathers and generations his family’s history? Luke has never failed in business before and he isn’t about to start now. What he needs is a hip new marketing strategy… and he knows just the woman for the job! Their only problem is how to keep their minds on work and off that kiss!

And here’s the first page…

Eight years ago…

‘So, in conclusion I think the marketing strategy your people presented to you is hackneyed, stupid and asinine and plays absolutely no attention to your demographics, to the market research and to where your competitors are placing themselves. It’s under researched and knocked together and if you follow it I guarantee that you will lose most of your market share in five years time, if not your business.’

Luke Savage looked across his messy desk at the earnest young woman perched on the edge of her chair, her face animated with youthful zeal and healthy dose of arrogance. What was her name again? He glanced down at her file in front of him─ Jess Sherwood. She was twenty-two, he read and was currently doing her MBA in marketing. The file did state that she was over blessed with brains, her school and university achievements were─ to put it mildly─ impressive but it failed to mention that she was solidly gorgeous as well.

A true brown eyed blonde.

She was quite a parcel and boy, did she know it…

Luke kept his face impassive as she draped one long, slim leg over the other and lightly linked her hands around a bare knee, an index finger tapping away. She wore a short, flouncy dress falling off one shoulder and showing a thin purple bra strap; belted at slim hips by a broad leather belt. Falling to mid-thigh, it was too short, too casual and too sexy an outfit for work but she wore it with careless confidence.

Luke, who was seldom surprised at much, was taken aback by her self-importance and her balls-to-the-wall chutzpah.

 ‘Wood’s tortured hero is believable and compelling and the story takes readers on a passionate, emotional rollercoaster ride.’ Sabrina Madan RT Book Reviews Top Pick for May. 


Click to read on  in the US                                          Or at Harlequin Australia