Sunday Spotlight: Finding Fraser by kc dyer

Posted May 1, 2016 by Holly in Features, Giveaways | 5 Comments

Sunday Spotlight is a feature we’re running in 2016. Each week, we will spotlight a release we’re excited about. We’ll be posting exclusive excerpts and being total fangirls. You’ve been warned. 🙂

I have a confession to make: I’ve never read an Outlander book. I know. I know. I tried. Really. I just couldn’t get into the first book. Even worse? I started watching the STARZ series last year and got totally hooked…and yet I still have no intention of reading the books. I did read all the Wiki spoilers, though. My booknerd card should probably be revoked. (Don’t kick me out! I love you guys!)

Still, I love Jamie. He’s the entire reason I watch the series. And the sole reason I read all the spoilers. I want a Jamie of my very own. Which is why I can totally relate to this book.

FINDING FRASER by kc dyer
Releases on May 3, 2016 by Berkley

Pre-Order the Book:

AMAZON || BARNES AND NOBLE || KOBO

Sometimes searching for true love can be a little…Outlandish.

I met Jamie Fraser when I was nineteen years old. He was tall, red-headed, and at our first meeting at least, a virgin. I fell in love hard, fast and completely. He knew how to ride a horse, wield a sword and stitch a wound. He was, in fact, the perfect man.

That he was fictional hardly entered into it.

At 29, Emma Sheridan’s life is a disaster and she’s tired of waiting for the perfect boyfriend to step from the pages of her favorite book. There’s only one place to look, and it means selling everything and leaving her world behind. With an unexpected collection of allies along the way, can Emma face down a naked fishmonger, a randy gnome, a perfidious thief, and even her own abdominal muscles on the journey to find her Fraser?

A naked fishmonger, a randy gnome and a perfidious thief? Ha!

Excerpt

March 14
Inverness, Scotland

I was just sliding out of the corner booth in the pub when I felt a hand on my arm.
“D’ye trrrust me?”
An extremely small man stood beside my seat. His eyes didn’t meet mine, but glared straight forward, which meant they were glued to my chest.
“D’ye trrrust me, lassie?” he repeated.
“I—I . . .”
Craig walked back up, regarding us with a twinkle in his eye.
“Ah, Emma—I see ye’ve met Rabbie. Rabbie Rowanby, meet Emma the American.”
The small man’s hand remained in my face, so I leaned backward and shook it weakly.
“The name’s Rowanby by birth,” he confided. “But everyone knows me as Rabbie the Gnome.”
He smiled, favored me at last with a straight look in the eyes, and hoisted himself up into the seat by the beer, which was thankfully across the table. Unfortunately, Craig slid back in beside me, effectively blocking any easy exit.
“Another pink drink for the lady,” cried Rabbie, and then reached across the table to take my hand again.
Craig leaned over and poked him in the chest and I took his instinctive recoil as an opportunity to pull my hand out of his grasp.
“Never trust this man,” Craig intoned.
Rabbie glared at him a moment, and then the two of them broke into helpless laughter.
I leaned back against the seat and took a sip of the drink that had magically appeared in front of me. This cranberry juice had added to it a generous helping of something that tasted distinctly of alcohol.
I smiled as Craig chuckled his way through an explanation of what a true, old, and dear friend Rabbie was. The individual in question was still doubled over, laughing.
I guess one beer goes a long way in a small man.
“Rab, Rab—ge’ aholda yerself, man,” spluttered Craig at last. “Now, this young lady is lookin’ to find hersel’ a set of nearby standin’ stones on the side of a hill. Have yeh go’ any ideas?”
“Ach, yeh can have a look at me own stones, lass,” Rabbie replied, reaching under the table. “Fair fine they are, with one standin’ tall between ’em right now!”
I tried desperately to unhear that sentence.
“Rabbie Rowanby, behave yersel’,” scolded Craig. “This young lady has been kind enough to share her table wi’ the likes of us. There’s no need fer that sorta language.”
The tiny man’s face puckered in an entirely insincere expression of apology. But as much as he turned his mouth down, he could not still the evil twinkle in those eyes. I scootched a little farther into the corner.
“Ah, yer right as allus, Craigy-boy. I see a beautiful woman and I cannae help mesel’.”
He tapped a blackened fingernail against his chin. “Hmmm. To tell yeh the gospel truth—and I seen me share of faerie rings around the north—there ain’t any circles on hillsides I can recall. Now, doon Fort William way, there’s a couple a beauts, mind . . .”
My bladder, by that time filled not only with my own cranberry juice, but also with this newer, strangely tastier concoction, had suddenly made itself known to me. And as it did, the light dawned.
“Excuse me,” I muttered, head down. “Just have to go to the ladies’.”
Craig had to stand to allow me out. Rabbie jumped out of his own seat and, advancing his leg, made a deep bow as I slid out of the booth.
“Jes’ round the corner, there,” he said, helpfully. And then not so helpfully: “Ye mus’ have a bladder o’ steel, lass! I’d a been t’ the bogs twice wi’ the amount of drink ye’ve got down yer gullet!”
I dashed to the washroom, the feeling of relief at escaping only mildly tempered by my own maybe less than steel-like capacity. There had to be a back door to this place—I could leave Craig and Rabbie to briefly mourn my passing before hitting on the next single woman they could find.
It wasn’t until I was washing my hands that I realized I’d left my backpack at the table.

Doesn’t this sound like a hoot? I can’t wait to read it.

Giveaway: We’re giving one lucky winner their choice of one of our Sunday Spotlight books. Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter for one of March’s features.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Are you as excited for this release as we are? Let us know how excited you are and what other books you’re looking forward to this year!

kc dyer resides in the wilds of British Columbia in the company of an assortment of mammals, some of them human. She likes to walk in the woods and write books.

Her most recent novel—an Amazon #1 Bestseller in romantic comedy for grown-ups—is FINDING FRASER, first published in 2015, with a new Berkley edition slated for release in May, 2016 . For teens, kc’s most recent work is FACING FIRE, a sequel to the acclaimed novel, A WALK THROUGH A WINDOW, published by Doubleday/Random House. kc is represented by Laura Bradford of Bradford Literary Agency.