Excerpt Tour & Giveaway - Lucky Charm by Marie Astor

Welcome to my stop on Marie Astor's Excerpt Tour for Lucky Charm.  Please make sure to leave a comment or question for Marie to let her know you stopped by.  Marie has a terrific prize package (see below) which she will be awarding to five randomly drawn commenters during the tour.  You can follow her tour stops here, the more often you comment, the better your odds of winning. 


Marie will be awarding to five randomly drawn commenters at the end of the tour (US ONLY), one of the following five custom-designed jewelry prizes:

Prize 1: Smoky quartz necklace with sterling silver flower clasp
Prize 2: Lapis and labradorite necklace with sterling silver clasp
Prize 3: Kayanite and turquoise sterling silver necklace
Prize 4: Onyx and red agate sterling silver bracelet
Prize 5: Jade, amber and red agate necklace

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Lucky Charm

by Marie Astor

Publisher: Marie Astor

Release Date: July 9, 2011

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Length: 266 Pages

ASIN: B005BZL3L4

Buy Link:

Amazon Kindle 

Book Description:

Twenty-eight-year old Annabel Green is about to tie the knot with her college love, an aspiring author Jeremy Blake, but her plans for an ideal wedding are rudely interrupted when she catches Jeremy kissing his gorgeous book agent.

Shell-shocked by Jeremy’s betrayal, Annabel retreats into the quiet routine of TV dinners and solitary evenings. It is then that Annabel’s best friend, fashion designer Lilly Clayton, sets herself on a mission to draw Annabel out of her shell. In an attempt to persuade Annabel to keep an open mind on dating, Lilly takes Annabel for a stunning makeover, but after Annabel passes on a date with a dashing entrepreneur, Lilly decides that more drastic measures are needed. Lilly invites Annabel to see a palm reader who gives Annabel a lucky charm that is supposed to help her find true love.

A few weeks later, Annabel meets a new love interest, and as the two embark on a whirlwind romance, she starts to believe in the power of the talisman the palm reader has given her. But what Annabel doesn’t know is that Lilly is hiding a secret that could unravel her faith in her newly found luck in love.

Excerpt: 

Annabel told herself that there was nothing for her to be worried about. There was nothing wrong with an author having a meal with his book agent. She was about to walk over and say hello, but the sight of Athena putting her arm on Jeremy’s shoulder stopped her dead.

Her heart pounding like a sledgehammer, Annabel jaywalked across the street and slipped into the grocery shop next to the café, quickly ducking beneath the row of flowers that stood in the shop’s window. From her cover-up, she peered at the table on the sidewalk, hoping that she had been mistaken, but the way Jeremy and Athena leaned into each other, like a couple, along with the sight of Jeremy’s hand on Athena’s thigh left no room for excuses.

A waiter approached their table with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot. He uncorked the bottle and poured the golden, sparkling liquid into Athena and Jeremy’s glasses. The champagne fizzed, and Athena threw her head back in delight, clapping her hands.

They are celebrating, Annabel thought bitterly. Perhaps Athena has finally cinched the deal on Jeremy’s book – the book that I waited for him to write all these years.

Jeremy finished his champagne and moved his chair closer to Athena’s. He whispered something into her ear, and she smiled, turning her face toward his. Then their lips met in a kiss that seemed to last an eternity.

Watching Jeremy and Athena together made Annabel feel as though her heart was being pierced with a million of glass shards, and yet, she remained transfixed in her makeshift hideaway. Part of her yearned to confront them, to unleash the hurt and betrayal that was churning inside her, but she knew that she did not have the guts to walk up to them. She longed for Jeremy to see her, for him to cower in shame for his betrayal, but instead she was the one cowering in her ridiculous hideaway.

“Can I help you?” An alarmed voice sounded behind her.

She turned around and saw the store clerk eyeing her suspiciously.

“No. I didn’t find what I was looking for.” Annabel stumbled onto the sidewalk, quickly turning in the opposite direction of the café where Jeremy obliviously swooned over Athena.

Back in her apartment – that was how she was going to think of it from now on: her apartment, not their apartment, not anymore – Annabel collapsed on the couch.

Did she really see Jeremy kiss Athena? How could she have been such a fool and not suspected a thing? Now, in hindsight, it all started to add up: Jeremy’s lukewarm response to her exotic get-up last night, his frequent trips to conferences, his growing evasiveness about the wedding. Supporting evidence was overwhelming. How long had this affair been going on, and how long did Jeremy plan to sneak behind her back? God, she felt like an idiot!

Her emotions were a tangled wreck. She wanted Jeremy gone, out of her life, and yet, the thought of him leaving was devastating. She had loved Jeremy for so long that it seemed unthinkable that he would no longer be a part of her life. You could not stop loving a man on the spot just because he turned out to be a cheating, lying bastard. That was the thing about love. It was not subject to reason. And yet, she knew that she could never forgive him. Despite it being extremely painful to accept, she could understand the simple fact that Jeremy had stopped loving her, but his decision to lie about it, to go on with such shameless deceit, hurt unbearably. What was it that Athena had that she lacked? Was it her model looks, her expensive clothes, or her powerful job? Perhaps it was Athena’s personality and the sophisticated way she conducted herself. Annabel supposed that she would never know.

In a sudden surge of anger, Annabel jumped to her feet and flung open the closet door. One by one, she ripped Jeremy’s pastel-colored shirts and corduroy jackets off the rack and flung them onto the floor. For several moments, she continued to empty out his closet drawers, adding Jeremy’s possessions to the heaping mound by the front door. Then she opened a carton of garbage bags and started jamming Jeremy’s stuff into them. She wanted him out tonight. Given the circumstances, the least he could do was to leave. And now that he was seeing the glamorous Athena, Annabel was certain that Jeremy would much rather stay in Athena’s posh place on the Upper East Side than in their cramped little studio.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links: 

Marie Astor is the author of contemporary romance novels This Tangled Thing Called Love, Lucky Charm, On the Rim of Love, romantic suspense, To Catch a Bad Guy, and a short story collection, A Dress in a Window. Marie is also the author of young adult fantasy adventure novel, Over the Mountain and Back.

If you would like to learn more about Marie’s writing, please stop by her website: www.marieastor.com or visit her on Facebook: 

http://www.facebook.com/marieastorcollection

Social Media Links:

Website: http://www.marieastor.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marieastorcollection

GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4665230.Marie_Astor

Twitter: @marieastor

Books by Marie Astor:

This Tangled Thing Called Love – a contemporary romance about overcoming one’s inhibitions, learning to tango, and finding one’s true love match.           Amazon Kindle 

Smitten at First Sight - A contemporary romance about the unexpected power of love.       Amazon Kindle 

A Dress in a Window - a collection of short stories about love, coincidences and fate.          Amazon Kindle 

Over the Mountain and Back - Young adult fantasy adventure novel about a boy who takes his snowboard for a ride and finds himself in a magical, hidden world he never knew existed.         Amazon Kindle 

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Don't forget to leave a comment or question for Marie to let her know you stopped by.  Marie has a terrific prize package (see below) which she will be awarding to five randomly drawn commenters during the tour.  You can follow her tour stops here, the more often you comment, the better your odds of winning.