Out Today: Polar Night
A Contemporary RH/WhyChoose Romance
Hi everyone,
I cannot begin to tell you how thrilled I am to be writing this. Finally, FINALLY, after over a year, I am releasing another book! For various reasons, personal and professional, this book has taken an age to write. But, after a ton of hard work, I am delighted to be launching it today. Polar Night has truly been a labour of love, and I really hope you’ll check it out. It’s a contemporary reverse harem/whychoose romance with very spicy scenes. It will only be available on Amazon for the first 90 days, and for this time it will also be in Kindle Unlimited. So for those of you who subscribe, please ensure you add it to your list ASAP, because after the 90 days are up, it will be removed from the KU platform and I will be uploading to all the other retailers. I don’t want you to miss out! And now here’s the skinny:
Blurb:
Following her divorce, Amber leaves everything she knows and loves behind to take a job in Finland. But will her Arctic adventure heal her, or break her?
Amber Lowe has had enough. Her divorce might have been amicable, but the aftermath certainly hasn’t been. The stares and sympathy from the other residents in her small Derbyshire town are driving Amber crazy. Her ex, Jesse, moving on at the speed of light hasn’t helped – and the final nail in the coffin is discovering his new partner is pregnant.
Taking matters into her own hands, Amber hits up job websites and discovers something that’s perfect for her, but so far out of her comfort zone it’s ridiculous. She soon finds herself deep inside the Arctic Circle with a new job, a new home, new bosses, and a bunch of new colleagues.
Amber’s not looking for romantic entanglements – casual or otherwise. But it seems the universe has other ideas. Has she got what it takes to embrace new possibilities, or is her adventure over before it’s barely begun?
Buy on Amazon, or read in KU: https://books2read.com/polarnight
Add to your Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/244948194-polar-night
Add to BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/polar-night-a-contemporary-reverse-harem-romance-novel-by-lucy-felthouse
*****
Excerpt:
Prologue
Amber Lowe tilted her head back to enjoy the sun’s rays on her face as she walked arm in arm with her mother down the pedestrianised high street of their pretty Derbyshire market town. It was a busy Saturday afternoon in early September, and the two women had been shopping for cards and presents for Amber’s father, Nigel, and her brother, David, who both had birthdays in October. It had been a successful trip, punctuated by a leisurely and very enjoyable lunch stop in their favourite cafe, and now they were headed home. Amber let out a contented sigh.
Her mother, Elaine, tensed, squeezing Amber’s arm into her side as she did so. “You all right, love?”
She righted her head and looked to her mother with a smile. “I’m fine, Mum. Just enjoying the warm sun on my face. Soaking up some vitamin D. Who knows how much more of this glorious weather we’ll get? It’s almost October, remember?”
“How could I forget?” Elaine replied, lifting the hand carrying the shopping bags and giving it a jiggle, before rolling her eyes. “The curse of the two most important men in your life having birthdays within days of each other. Inconsiderate of them, if you ask me.”
Amber raised her eyebrows. “I don’t mean to be indelicate, Mum, but while you had nothing whatsoever to do with when Dad’s birthday is, you are at least fifty percent responsible for when David’s is.”
“I resent that comment,” Elaine said with a sniff and a toss of her head. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m only about twenty percent responsible. The other thirty I lay firmly at the door of the bottle of white wine your dad and I quaffed on our date night while you were staying with your gran and grandad. The first one we’d shared since you were born, I might add. I’m just glad I can remember what happened afterwards. It was glorious.” Her eyes lost focus, and a dreamy expression took over her face.
“Ugh, Mum!” Amber pulled her arm out from her mother’s, wrinkling her nose. “Too much information. Way too much. I do not want to know about yours and Dad’s sex life, and my brother’s conception.”
Elaine snickered and slipped her arm back into Amber’s. “Oh, don’t be such a prude. You’re a grown woman. Anyway, you’re the one who started being ‘indelicate’, as you put it. You know perfectly well how babies are m—” She stopped abruptly, her eyes widening as something behind Amber caught her attention. “Oh!” she said, so loudly and exaggeratedly that Amber immediately smelt a rat. “Come on, love, I just remembered—”
“What is it, Mum?” She tried to turn around to see what had prompted such an extreme reaction, but Elaine clamped her arm fiercely and all but dragged her down the street. “Ow! Hey, what the—? Mum! What are you doing, you crazy woman? Let go!” She stood her ground, despite being aware they were probably making a bit of a scene.
“No.” Her mother held on and continued trying to propel Amber in the direction of the car park, succeeding only in moving the two of them a handful of steps. People were beginning to stare, and understandably so. “Trust me, you don’t need to see this.”
“See what?” she asked, but even as the words exited her mouth, her brain cottoned on to the likely culprit of her mother’s sudden panic and resultant hurry to leave. She groaned, and her stomach lurched uncomfortably. “Oh, for Christ’s sake. It’s him, isn’t it?”
Elaine didn’t need to say a word. Her flushed cheeks and the way she’d pinched her bottom lip between her teeth told Amber everything she needed to know.
Amber swallowed and pushed out her next words with considerable effort, her entire body starting to go lax as defeat seeped through her. “A-and her?”
Her mother nodded. The fact her daughter now knew the thing she’d been trying to hide didn’t seem to have lessened her concern any. Anxiety was etched deeply into the features so similar to her own. “Afraid so, love. Come on, we’re almost at the car park. Let’s go back to mine and we’ll have a nice cup of tea. I’ve got some lovely lemon drizzle cake, too.”
Amber didn’t move. “Ugh, I hate this, Mum. I’m twenty-eight years old, and being protected from seeing my ex-husband in our local town.” She sighed, most definitely not contentedly this time, her heart rate increasing as defeat turned to irritation. “It’s ridiculous. We split up so amicably to begin with, it wouldn’t have been that much of a problem to bump into him, especially once we got all the uncomfortable legalities out of the way. But the moment he shacked up with her, despite insisting there was no one else involved in his reasons for wanting to separate, everything changed.”
Elaine’s eyes swum with empathy, even as she continued to edge them along the road. “I know, love. It’s awful.”
“People went from sympathetic to full-on pitying. Like I was an idiot for not realising there was someone else.”
“We don’t know there was,” her mother put in, shaking her head. “Not at the time.”
“No, not for sure. But come on, it was so quick. How do you make the transition from a long-term relationship and marriage to meeting someone new and getting into another relationship just like that?” She snapped her fingers on the ‘that’. “Either way, it makes me look like a complete moron. A doormat. I’m so sick of the sad faces, the stares, the questions. We’ve been separated for well over a year, officially divorced for however many months. I bet they don’t ask him about me. He’s allowed to move on, so why aren’t I? Why do I have to keep being reminded of my failed marriage, as though it’s the only thing that defines me as a person? Is it because I don’t have anyone else—not that I want anyone—or because I’m a woman? Bloody double standards.”
Elaine’s gaze darted over Amber’s shoulder, then back to her face. The earlier flush in the older woman’s cheeks had all but leached away, and she was now looking decidedly pale.
The cold hand of dread took Amber’s stomach in its grip. Oh God. That can’t be good. “W-what is it, Mum?” She stumbled, warring with the urge to look behind her and see precisely what was causing her mother’s reaction.
Elaine swallowed hard, closed her eyes for a second, then said, “It gets worse.”
Amber’s heart skipped a beat. “Worse? How the hell does it get worse?”
The words came out on a pained whisper. “She’s pregnant.”
*
I really hope you’ll check this book out. Please tell all your RH/whychoose-loving friends. Spread the word. It’s been so long since I released a book, people have probably forgotten about me - so any help you can give is so, so useful (and I’m incredibly grateful). Oh, and for those of you who prefer paperback - it’s coming. I’m working on it and will get it sorted as soon as I possibly can. Bear with me!
Happy Reading!
Lucy x