"Cute cover for a fun story. Lots of drama and a splash of romance. Nikki has kept me turning the pages, again." -- Author Renee Conoulty, of #romcom Don't Mean a Thing and non-fiction for authors including Narrated by the Author, a primer on how to produce an Audiobook. ❤❤❤❤❤
Chick Lit Shop -- Wow! Spring #RomCom is in the air! If you've been following me on Facebook or Twitter this past month in April, you've seen my picks for some of the most awesome authors's #NewReleases for April! One that I want to add onto the list is this #NewRelease #book, Cats, Chaos, & Condo Board Wars by #CozyMystery and #RomCom author Nikki LeClair!
"Nikki LeClair's books have wonderful, unique plots and intriguing characters!" -- Chick Lit Shop 😍
Excerpt!
I’m barely into the condo when Luna’s flung the door open wider and yanks me inside. I drop my purse and almost slide out of my heels. “What’s wrong?”
She slams the door shut behind me and as I look at her I notice that Paulette, Brian and Mr. Tweed are sitting in our living room. There’s a big box on the coffee table and next to it are flyers with my face printed on them. Behind Paulette is an enormous stack of plastic cups and lids.
“Okay, before you freak out, I want you to know that we are on it,” Luna exclaims, her hands grip my shoulders. “We saw it a few hours ago and we’ve formulated a plan.” She blows a few strands of curly blonde hair from her face in exasperation.
“Saw what?” I frown.
“You didn’t see it?” Paulette gets up from the ground and exchanges a look with Brian before playing nervously with a strand of her blue hair.
“See what?”
“Oh dear,” Mr. Tweed leans back into the couch and fiddles with his fingers.
Brian picks up a folded piece of paper from the coffee table and walks over to me and Luna. “Glover posted these all over the building a few hours ago, and slid them into mailboxes.”
I take it from him and unfold it. My gasps echoes around the room sharply.
It’s a picture of my face, plastered over a photo of the shop I bought the washer and dryer from. In bold red letters, bleeding like droplets of blood, it says Supports Crime Lords? Mafia Princess?
“What the [h-ll] is this?” I demand.
“The start of a smear campaign is my guess,” Paulette says.
“The store you bought the washer and dryer is rumored to buy products off the back of trucks,” Brian explains. “Nothing’s been proven but that’s the rumor. A building rumor really.”
Luna lets go of my shoulder. “She’s making it seem like you support crime.”
I fling the flyer at her, “Obviously! I had no idea about this rumor!”
Luna picks up the fallen flyer. “We’ve managed to take most of them down in the building.”
“Mr. Dorst says there are new ones in the elevator and lobby,” Brian announces as he looks up from his cellphone. “His wife is tearing down the ones in the laundry room and he’s removing the ones in the parking garage.”
“Oh my God,” I grimace, “how many are there?”
Nobody in the room answers me and I let out a groan.
“Don’t worry yet,” Luna says, “it’s really a ridiculous thing to have done. Nobody is going to believe that you’re a mafia princess. I mean, you don’t even look Italian.”
Paulette smirks from across the room and we all look at her. “I don’t know, with that big hair and push up bra she kind of does.”
“It’s a regular bra!” I cry as I stomp both feet.
I reach for the door and pull it back open. Luna backs away so it doesn’t hit her. “Where are you going?”
“Where do you think?” I huff, “To take down the stupid posters!”
I ride the elevator down, ripping the posters down. Once I’m down in the lobby, I stuff them into the trash can across from the elevator, and look around the room. I can see ten of them right away, taped to the wall, there are even some taped on the security desk.
“Unbelievable,” I grunt as I head to the posters directly across from me on the wall.
I have a bunch crumpled under my arm as I make my way towards the mailbox nook. I freeze when I see how much she’s taped in that small corner.
The entire corkboard of building events is covered in the posters.
I drop the crumbled papers on the ground and begin to work on removing the posters on the corkboard. After a few seconds I hear a familiar voice ask, “I thought you were Greek?”
I pause for only a second. “I’m not Greek. And I’m not Italian.”
From the corner of my eye I can see Neal step up to his mailbox. I watch as him smirk at the poster taped on the box, and then yank it down. “Heard you’re running against Glover.”
“What gave it away?” I can’t help the sarcasm.
I get annoyed when I see him smirk again; he scratches the light stubble along his jawline as he reaches into his mailbox. “You better be prepared to fight dirty, she’s pissed.”
“Really? I had no idea.”
He shuts his mailbox but instead of leaving, he leans against it with his shoulder so he can face me. “You think you have what it takes to be Condo Board president?”
He stares at me with half a smile and I frown at him in irritation. “I guess we’ll see, won’t we?”
“It’s a big job,” he adds.
I stand on my toes to reach the last poster on the top of the corkboard. Downside to being only 5’5“, is that even in heels, I still can’t reach most things.
“I know,” I haughtily tell him.
He watches as I swing on my toes again. “It’s not an easy job.”
“I know.”
I grab the bottom of the poster and pull, it rips in half and I fall back into my heels defeated.
He pushes off his mailbox and walks over to me. I say nothing as he reaches up and tugs the other half off the corkboard easily. He hands it to me with a brassy smile, leans closer to me and says, “You’re welcome.”
I snatch the paper from his hand.
I recognize the cologne he wears; it’s the same woodsy but sweet scent from our first date. My eyes drop slightly down to the chest hair that escapes his v-cut T-shirt and I have to look away before he notices.
I hate the way my chest feels around him, all tight and warm.
I kneel down and pick up the crumpled papers at my feet.
“Want some help?” he then asks.
Blurb!
Still recovering from an amazing-turned-terrible date, Hilary Brandt lives each day as best she can with her successful event planning career, flamboyant assistant, escape-artist cat, and eccentric roommate.
Most events run smoothly for Hilary, but occasionally, one goes awry and a client turns...evil. Relieved that her boss knows that type of client, Hilary quickly jumps into her next event, planning two parties for a very handsome executive.
When elections for condo board president come around, Hilary lets her friends and neighbors convince her to run against the by-the-letter, long-sitting president — also known as Hilary’s number one personal critic. As the election campaigns launch, the romance-that-almost-was reappears, a coworker tries to steal a client, and her opponent starts to fight dirty.
Hilary quickly realizes she may just be in over her head, but can she fight fire with fire? Stumble through the awkward encounters with the hot neighbor or swoony client? Fight for a new event when the election begins to meddle with her career? Or is the chaos just too much?
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About The Author
Nikki LeClair lives in Canada with her loving husband and their two rambunctious children. When she isn’t ordering her children to behave or begging her Border Terrier to listen to her, she sits behind her laptop plotting out the next adventure of her new characters. She’s a fan of a good glass of Pinot Noir and can’t live without her favorite tea blends.
She enjoys hearing from readers and fans of her work. You can find her on twitter at @NikkiL_Books, and on her Facebook fan page Nikki LeClair.
Happy Reading! 😊❤📚
Chick Lit Shop 💖