Today I am so pleased to welcome Wendy Qualls to Joyfully Jay. Wendy has come to talk to us about her upcoming release, Worth Fighting For (#3 in the Heart of the South series). She has also brought along an excerpt and a great giveaway! Please join me in giving Wendy a big welcome!

Thanks for having me on the blog! Kensington has provided me with GORGEOUS covers for this series – all M/M romances set in the small-town deep south – and this one is no exception 🙂

Excerpt

“You’re awfully quiet,” Jericho said, breaking into Sterling’s spiraling self-doubt. He dropped a hand down on top of Sterling’s bare foot—not squeezing, just skin-to-skin contact. “Do you want to pretend this never happened and go back to how we were? I can’t promise I’ll never think about you like that, but I’ll do my best to keep our relationship professional if I drastically misread what you want.”

Sterling licked his lips. The maelstrom in his brain condensed down to a single thought. “So…what if I do want it? That?”

Jericho’s eyes sparkled. “If you do,” he murmured, leaning closer and letting his hand travel higher up to curl around Sterling’s ankle, “then we go splash around with Alexa for a while. Enjoy the beach. Maybe Alexa and I try to bury you in the sand, and I get an excuse to put my hands all over your body while we’re both pretending nothing has changed. We’ll each catch the other ogling when Alexa’s not watching. We’ll all go home, take our showers, eat dinner…and then take I’ll Alexa to the ‘Summer Nights at the Y’ event she and I saw a flyer for at the library the other day. Costs thirty bucks to drop her off between five and six and pick her up at ten and she’ll have a blast. While she’s there, though, we’ll get the house to ourselves. And I’ll finally get to touch you the way I’ve been wanting to ever since that interview at the coffee shop. Sound good?”

Blurb

For two gay men in the Deep South, fighting for love and family can lead to one beautiful, sexy, and unexpected knock out…

In college, an “are you sure you’re gay?” experiment with his (female) best friend left Sterling Harper married with a baby on the way. Eleven years later, his life is flipped upside-down—his wife has died, his “little boy” is transitioning to her new life as a girl, Alexa, and his embittered in-laws have proven too transphobic to babysit for the summer like they’d planned. They’re fighting for custody of Alexa, though, so Sterling can’t afford to give them more ammunition. If only there were a nice, conservative, trans-preteen-friendly nanny available on short notice…

Jericho Johnston doesn’t do “conservative,” but Alexa takes to him immediately. He’s got a teaching job lined up for the fall, a killer smile, and loads of charisma… but he is <i>not</i> going back in the proverbial closet. It doesn’t take long for the two men to go from comrades-in-arms against their rarified community to two men in love. This kicks off the looming custody battle with Sterling’s bigoted in-laws, though, and the idea of two gay men raising a trans daughter isn’t going over well with anyone. Now, with so much to lose, Sterling and Jericho must fight harder than ever—for themselves, for Alexa, and for their future.

Bio

Wendy Qualls was a small ­town librarian until she finished reading everything her library had to offer. At that point she put her expensive and totally unrelated college degree to use by writing smutty romance novels and wasting time on the internet. She lives in Northern Alabama with her husband, two girls, two dogs, and a seasonally fluctuating swarm of unwanted ladybugs. Wendy can be found on Twitter as @wendyqualls and online at wendyqualls.com.

Giveaway

Wendy has brought a $10 Amazon gift card to give away to one lucky Joyfully Jay reader. Just leave a comment at the end of the post to enter. The contest ends on Wednesday May 9th at 11:59 pm ET.

• By entering the giveaway, you’re confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
• Winners will be selected by random number. No purchase necessary to win.  The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning.
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• Void where prohibited by law.