I have a weakness for book related shirts and hoodies. My closet and dresser are stuffed to the brim with a various collection of book shirts. I’ve done these often in the past, but this latest wave of shirts is probably my favorite to date.  There is just something special about taking a special moment/place in a book and bringing a new wave of life to it with a shirt.  I try to bring them back a few times a year just in case there is someone that missed them the first time, but I wanted to make sure that everyone had a chance to see these the first time around.

**Also :: if you’re part of my Facebook reader group, Harper Sloan’s Alpha Babes, make sure and take a look at the pinned post. There are (for a limited time) shirts special for just that group and the readers in it that plan on attending some of the signings that I have this year.

Current Teespring shirt campaigns include shirts celebrating Unexpected Fate, When I’m with You & Perfectly Imperfect.  I’ve been asked to do some other book related ones, but if there is something specific that you would love to see – don’t hesitate to let me know!  🙂

Unexpected Fate :: ends the 26th :: https://teespring.com/wanna-fuggle

When I’m with You :: ends the 26th :: https://teespring.com/new-dirty-dog

Perfectly Imperfect :: ends June 2nd :: https://teespring.com/new-iamwillow

Nate has come.  Literally, actually.  😉

In case you missed it, three weeks ago, When I’m with You was released.  Nate Reid and Ember’s bestselling story has quickly stolen readers hearts.  I mean, he is his father’s son, so it was easy for him to make the ladies love him, but Ember is now being said to be a reader favorite of my heroines.  She’s kind of amazing, if I do say so myself.

Anyway, I just wanted to do a quick blog post just in case you guys hadn’t seen that Nate and Ember’s book (the third in the Hope Town series) is live.

You can find the buy links below for various platforms:

US → http://amzn.to/1YyELll
UK → http://www.amazon.co.uk/When-You-Hope-Town-Book-ebook/dp/B01EBB2BFK
CA → https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01EBB2BFK
AU → https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01EBB2BFK
Kobo → https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/when-i-m-with-you-9
Apple → https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1104712741
BN → http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/when-im-with-you-harper-sloan/1123667721?ean=2940158526978

Praise for When I’m with You:

Nate is coming!

Seriously.

He’s coming soon!  Like REALLY soon!

April 26th is going to be a beautiful day.  I’m spending my birthday week (April 24th) with the release of my tenth book and one of my favorite couples to date.

I can’t even explain to you all how excited I am for you all to get Nate and Ember’s story.  He was beyond fun to write and I can honestly say that I had a hard time letting go of their world.  As with the other books in the Hope Town series, you can read them as standalones, but as many of you know, Nate is a character that you really start to fall in love for in Unexpected Fate (book 1) and Bleeding Love (book 2).  You will also be seeing a lot of the characters from those books within the pages of When I’m with You.  That being said, you do not have to read the first two books to fall in love (hopefully) with Nate and Ember.

For those that are new to the Hope Town crew, these two characters have some pretty strong parents.  If you’re like me and love to experience the big, huge picture, you can meet their parents and see where they came – you can find Nate’s parents in Axel (Corps Security book 1) and Ember’s parents in Locke (Corps Security book 6)  Again, you won’t be missing anything if you decide to pass on those stories.

I’ve had a lot of request to upload the family tree again, so here you go 🙂 :

This is a great tool to help you remember which kids came from which family.  LOL.

Now, back to Nate and Ember.  The preorder links are still going live, as of right now the only ones that are still pending is iBooks and Kobo.  The rest of them are ready for your one-clicking pleasure.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon CA

Amazon AU

Barnes and Noble

iBooks

It’s been so much fun being back in the Hope Town world.  I hope that you all love them as much as I do.  There will be some fun release week giveaways going on over on my facebook page –> Facebook Page <– so keep an eye out there to join the fun.  With just ten days until the release, there will also be more teasers posted to the facebook page as well.

That’s all for now!  Just wanted to update you all on Nate and Ember will be dropping!  I’ll have more information about my next few releases as well as some HUGE news in the coming weeks, but for today – it’s all about Nate Reid and Ember Locke.

Much love!

 Someone asked me once, not long after I announced my plans to write Perfectly Imperfect, how much of this book was really ‘personal’.  I know this person has seen pictures of me, so I couldn’t understand how someone would question whether I had faced body issues of my own.

 

Surprise!

A little back story here before I get into the specifics about what my next release will be about – and more importantly, why this particular book is jumping in the line up of releases.

I’ve always been an emotional reader, so it makes sense that I would write the same way. Or maybe a better way of explaining it would be to call me a moody reader and writer. For example, Uncaged might not have ever been written, but because I was feeling a certain way personally and for that family of characters, it was born. The same can be said for my next release. In a sense, it’s the love child of the love/hate relationship I have with myself. A product of my inner insecurities that I just couldn’t let go of.

A few months ago, when I was having a particularly bad ‘self hate’ day, I had a story pop in my head. One that wouldn’t let go no matter how hard I tried to continue working on other projects. I’ve always felt like my characters know what’s best. They know when one should step up and be a little louder than the others. So, I decided to jump right in and write this book first.

At this point you’re probably wondering where I’m going with this. I promise, I’m getting there. But in order to fully understand why this book means so much to me, I need to let you know WHY this subject is so personal for me. I tend to keep a lot of my personal life to myself, but I’ve always put a little bit of ME in my books. You write what you know. For me, writing about depression was terrifying because it let a little piece of my soul fly free. But, it was also freeing. Healing. It was the breath of life that my characters needed to connect to so many other readers. There are lots of little parts of me throughout each book, but with this next release, it will be the second time I’m letting another little part of my soul fly. It’s so deeply personal that I know it won’t be easy to put into words, but it’s also a subject that so desperately needs to be written.

Body image.

It’s a topic that I’ve battled with for as long as I can remember. I was that pudgy kid that used humor to hide how much I hated myself. I was that kid in highschool that hardly ate a thing and ended up being scary thin. It’s a topic that I still, to this day, continue to fight myself over. I’ve been down the road of eating disorders and healing, but I still fight myself to see the ‘pretty girl’ under my overweight body.

So for me, Willow will be about as much of ME as it gets. I’ve been in her shoes. I still try them on day in and day out. And I know I’m not the only one that feels that struggle daily.

And with that – Willow Tate was born.

Perfectly Imperfect will be a standalone romance that I hope to have released by the end of next month, but it might be more realistic to say November. As soon as I have a firm release date, that will be announced on all my social media platforms. Either way, Willow and Kane’s story will be my next release.

I know that a lot of you were hoping that Nate would be next and I’m sorry if this news isn’t good news to you, but I strongly believe that I have to let me characters take the lead. Nate’s book and the first book in the Loaded Replay series will be released next year, but I have no set date at this time.

Now, on to the cover. As you might have noticed, this is NOTHING like any of my other covers, and that’s for a reason. Because of the subject of this book, I wanted my readers to be able to build Willow and Kane with my words. Not everyone has the same image for what is considered ‘over-weight’ and because of the journey that Willow takes during Perfectly Imperfect, it’s important to me that you have creative freedom for them. Models aren’t needed for this book. Not because I don’t know what they look like – I do – but because I feel like had I given faces and more importantly bodies to them, it would water down what I’m hoping you as readers will feel. And if you’re like me, Willow takes her face often looking just like mine. This cover might just be my favorite cover to date.

My cover designer, Sommer Stein with Perfect Pear Creative Covers, knocked this one out of the park, like always.  I couldn’t be more thrilled with the way this turned out.  I know it isn’t what you guys are used to seeing as the face of my books, but I really feel like Perfectly Imperfect might be one of my most ‘perfect’ covers.

Perfectly Imperfect – coming late 2015 – a standalone contemporary romance

Synopsis:

Mirror, mirror … who’s the fairest of them all?

I still cringe when I hear that line. A fairy tale that had girls pretending they were the fairest, the most beautiful, and the most entitled. A fairy tale most couldn’t grow out of turned my haunted childhood memories into a living nightmare. Girls who grew up believing that pile of garbage became the meanest of all ‘mean girls.’

And those mean girls were right – it was a line meant for all the beautiful people in the world – and I knew the answer would never be me.

The women with long legs, flat stomachs, and perfect chests.

The type of women Kane Masters gravitated toward.

Well, that’s definitely not Willow Tate.

No. That will never be me.

Because I’m completely imperfect.

And … I hate myself.

I have no idea what Kane could possibly see in someone like me when he could have them.