Welcome to EskieMama Reads Saturday Spotlight!!
Today we are spotlighting Michele Callahan's
Up All Night!
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Book 3 of the Love You Like A Love Song series
Up All Night!!
Up All Night!!
Once upon a time Mitchell Walker fell in love...and trusted the wrong woman. That one mistake nearly cost him his future. His older brother, Derek, stepped in to take the fall. Mitchell has never forgiven himself for that day, and vowed to never trust another woman.
Now he is a young, successful surgeon. Women throw themselves at his feet, and he gives them what they want, as long as they don't ask for his heart. The strategy is working well for him until he meets freelance reporter Jessica Finley.
She's smart, she makes him laugh, and she sees right through his playboy persona. When Mitchell finds out she has links to the past he's tried so hard to forget, his life implodes, and Jessica is at the center of the detonation.
Jessica's fire may burn hot enough to keep him up all night, but will her love be strong enough to burn away the ghosts of his past and melt the ice around his heart?
Now he is a young, successful surgeon. Women throw themselves at his feet, and he gives them what they want, as long as they don't ask for his heart. The strategy is working well for him until he meets freelance reporter Jessica Finley.
She's smart, she makes him laugh, and she sees right through his playboy persona. When Mitchell finds out she has links to the past he's tried so hard to forget, his life implodes, and Jessica is at the center of the detonation.
Jessica's fire may burn hot enough to keep him up all night, but will her love be strong enough to burn away the ghosts of his past and melt the ice around his heart?
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Q & A with Michele Callahan about Up All Night
Tell us about Up All Night!
Up All Night is book 3 (of 4) in the Love You Like A Love Song series. BOOK 1 is FREE everywhere! (All the books have original songs written just for their romance. Seriously.) To check out the music go to www.laurenkayley.com and listen to the music. :)
What initially inspired you to write this book/series?
I sat down last November for the NaNoWriMo challenge (It’s a writing challenge during which the challenge is to write a complete book (or 50,000 words) during the month of November.) I was all set to work on my next science fiction/time travel and, instead, I sat down to write and this group of four adopted brothers started talking to me. They had just lost their mom to cancer and were having a hard time dealing with losing her. (I can totally relate because I lost my mom to breast cancer a few years ago.)
So, the Walker brothers started talking to me, and in the back of my mind their mother started talking, too. She told me she left them each a card, a very special card that she forced them to write when they were younger - a card that listed their innocent, childhood hopes and dreams. Her challenge to them was to promise her they would do their best to follow the dreams of their youth, to not lose sight of what they had once wanted so badly. And so, the love song books were born. These four brothers all meet their one true love as they are fulfilling that special promise to their mother.
Tell us little about the characters in Up All Night.
This book features the third brother, Mitchell Walker, who grew up to be a surgeon. He’s a second year surgical resident with no social life whatsoever. He fell in love when he was 18 and the girl betrayed him badly, breaking his heart and nearly destroying him. As a result, he has completely walled off his emotions and focused on his career.
Jessica Finley’s is a songwriter who had to quit playing music. She still writes for the band, but had to rebuild her life. Her father was a doctor, and both of her parents have been married and divorced multiple times. Her one rule for dating is NO DOCTORS. When her brother gets in a car accident and nearly dies, Mitchell is the surgeon who saves his life. From the first moment they meet, sparks fly. To make things work they will both have to throw out all of their rules and take a chance. Not an easy thing to do after so many years, and so many disappointments.
What was the hardest part of writing Up All Night?
My cousin is a doctor, and I talked to her about some of the most difficult things a doctor must face - doing everything they can to save someone, but losing the patient. I wanted to put a human face on that experience, that loss. I needed to show Mitchell’s all too human heart to the reader, and to Jessica. That scene was really difficult for me to write.
What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?
This is going to sound crazy, but I LOVE writing that first love scene, the moment all their barriers are broken and they decide to take a chance on one another. This book has some really smoking hot love scenes. When Mitchell finally falls in love, he falls hard.
That said, I LOVE the interaction between these four brothers. Any time they get together, the stuff that comes out of their mouths is hilarious. They don’t hold back, at all. They give each other so much shit, I’m laughing out loud as I write it down. I love these guys. They are incredibly real to me. I feel like I could walk down the street to a sports bar and sit down next to them. They are real. Very real. And very much men I’d be happy to fall in love with. I hope you all love them as much as I do.
What are your future project(s)?
I’m finishing up the final book, Make Me Forget, for the oldest brother, Derek. That is coming out next, and I can’t wait to share him with all of you. He’s the most complex of the four, and he’s been a real challenge for me because he’s so intense and doesn’t like to share - even with me.
Is there anything else you would like to tell the readers about this book/series?
These four brothers went through hell to survive and it made them strong, but closed off. It’s been an honor to help them find their way in the world and fall in love. Healing their hearts had felt like a personal privilege and I know you will fall in love with them, just like I did.
Now an exciting excerpt from Up All Night!
In this excerpt, Jessica takes Mitchell out to her sister’s club, keeping him on a “just friends” basis. But the “friend zone” isn’t working out very well, especially when her sister, Sophia, makes a play for Mitchell’s attention. ;)
“Jess!” Sofia stood as they approached and held out her arms for a hug, which Jessica happily gave her.
“You look amazing.” Jessica stepped back and looked at the smoking-hot red mini-dress and five-inch black high heels Sofia was wearing.
“Thank you.” Her sister smiled and looked over Jessica’s outfit with raised eyebrows. “You’re looking hot tonight.”
Oh God. She heard the suggestive tone in her sister’s voice, but did Mitchell catch it above the noise? She hoped not, but was afraid her fair skin was already giving away her blush. She glanced over her shoulder at her non-date, who was patiently waiting. “You remember Mitchell Walker? Mitchell, my sister Sofia.”
He stepped forward with his hand out and Sofia grinned at him like a cat that ate the canary. “Doctor Hottie-pants. Yes, I definitely remember you! And I owe you a drink for saving my brother’s life.” Sofia lifted one long, elegant wrist in a little wave and a waiter magically appeared at their side in seconds. “What are you drinking, Doctor? And I won’t take no for an answer.”
“Whiskey on the rocks.”
“Jess?”
Jessica shook her head. Someone had to drive Doctor Hottie-pants home. “Iced tea with mint.”
Sofia nodded, ordered enough food for a small army, and told her waiter to keep the drinks coming, and the doctor’s glass full. When she sat back down on one of the rust-colored couch cushions, Jessica hurried to sit beside her, leaving Mitchell to take a chair on her right. The couch was too comfortable, too tempting, and way too intimate.
The food was great and the conversation flowed, thanks in no small part to Sofia’s charm. Mitchell was on his sixth or seventh glass of whiskey, his words taking on a cute slur when the music slowed and her sister jumped to her feet. Sofia held out her hand to Mitchell. “Come on, Doc, dance with me.”
Mitchell looked at Jessica, but she just raised her eyebrows and gave a helpless little shrug. Mitchell wasn’t her date, exactly. They weren’t a couple, and it was just a dance.
Less than sixty seconds later Jessica regretted that decision. Sofia was plastered all over Mitchell on the dance floor in that tight-ass red dress, looking like a sex kitten. Jessica loved her sister, but the woman was deadly where men were concerned. Jessica had yet to meet a man who could resist Sofia’s charms for long.
Jealous? Yes, she was jealous. Which was stupid and ridiculous and she had no right, but there it was. She’d brought Mitchell out tonight. He was her Doctor Hottie-pants, at least for now. She was the one driving him home. The least she could do was save him from making a drunken decision he’d regret in the morning.
But then again, Jessica had never heard any man complain after leaving Sofia’s bed. They were usually chasing her around, begging to be allowed back into it.
“Shit.”
Felix, the youngest of the Castillo clan, and two years younger than she was, had been quiet all night. But he chuckled from her left and Jessica turned to glare at her younger brother. “What?”
“You’re turning green.”
“Am not.”
Felix raised his half-empty glass and used it to point toward the dance floor. “Then you won’t mind watching Sofia make her move on your doc. She’s playing with his hair.”
Jessica jumped to her feet and headed for her sister, Felix’s chuckle chasing her across the room. Sure enough, Sofia had her head on Mitchell’s shoulder and her left hand had found its way to the base of the Mitchell’s head. She was petting him. To give Mitchell credit, he wasn’t taking advantage of the situation. His eyes were straight ahead, his head up and not buried in the mass of Sofia’s black, silken hair and his hand at Sofia’s waist hadn’t drifted anywhere…inappropriate. Good thing, because she wasn’t sure she’d be able to prevent herself from accidentally kicking him in the shins. But if Sofia had her way…
Oh, hell no.
“Excuse me, Sofia, but I’m cutting in.”
Sofia lifted her head from Mitchell’s shoulder as if she were drunk on the man’s pheromones. “Why?”
Okay. Sofia had a point. It wasn’t like Jessica had been acting territorial. She hadn’t held his hand, or even let him sit next to her.
But that did not mean it was open season, either. “I want to dance.”
“Wait your turn.”
Seriously? Sofia was going to push her? Now? She had the insane urge to stomp her foot, or reach over and pull Sofia off Mitchell by her hair, but she just smiled instead, and physically removed Sofia’s right hand from Mitchell’s left to tug her away. When Jess had her sister completely untangled, she gave Sofia a little shove back toward the corner. “Get off my man, little sister, before I kick your ass into next week.”
EskieMama Reads was priviledged to receive a copy of Up All Night by Michele Callahan. Here is Jara's review of Up All Night! Thank you Michele for the opportunity to read & review Up All Night!
5 Star Review
Mitchel Walker a young Doctor who's past is holding him from his present and future. Enters Jessica Finley, oh my does she turn his neat world upside down.
But even Jessica has things that stop her from trusting, will the two young lovers be able to trust one another and declare their love for each other. The story was well writen, it had me laughing and giggling and even a few tears were shed. The author took me on a lovely trip and I look forward to reading her other books.
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A #1 Amazon Bestseller, M.L. (Michele) Callahan is a science fiction and romance fanatic and full time writer whose earliest movie memories are of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and light sabers. (Still waiting on Santa to come through on that one.) She wrote her first short story at age eleven about five friends who fell into another dimension and had to save the Earth - all in ten, sloppy but action packed, wide-ruled notebook pages. Her mother inspired a love of reading and writing and Michele writes seven days a week. She writes sci-fi action adventure as ML Callahan, and romance as Michele Callahan.
Connect with M. L. (Michele) Callahan:
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