NEW RELEASE: Lost & Found by Bernadette Marie

On behalf of Page Turner Book Tours, I present this cover reveal and release for the fifth book in Bernadette Marie's Keller Family Series. Contemporary romance fans: you should check this one out!  You can even read an excerpt and be sure to visit the author's links below. Enjoy!

Lost And Found

 by

Bernadette Marie

           Darcy McCary came to Nashville with some big expectations--to find her birth parents. She had no plans of making a life in Tennessee. But when her sources lead her to Eduardo Keller, her heart took over, and plans changed.  

          Eduardo Keller is a man who goes after what he wants and he doesn't have time for playing games. Darcy is exactly the woman he's been looking for to assist him in business and be his partner in life.

          Because he loves Darcy, Ed promises to help her find the answers she seeks. What he doesn't know is that if Darcy finds the secret to her past it might mend her curiosity; however, it might also tear apart a branch of the Keller family. 

 Genre: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary

 Series: The Keller Family Series

 Publisher: 5 Prince Books

 Formats Available In: All eBook formats

 Release Date: 9th May 2013

 Digital: ISBN 13:978-1-939217-54-7  ISBN 10:1-939217-54-7

 Print: ISBN 13:978-1-939217-53-0  ISBN 10:1-939217-53-9

 Buy it HERE: www.5princebooks.com/buy.htm

Excerpt:

Ed  Keller  leaned  back  in  his  chair  and  kicked  his  feet up on his desk. The view from his office would never cease to  amaze  him.  The  view  from  his  uncle’s  office  was  much more spectacular, but he had no reason to complain.

 Who would have thought, nearly twenty years ago when he’d  asked  for  an  after-school  job  to  afford  a  limo  ride  to take  a  girl  to  prom, that he’d  end  up  with  the  title  Vice President on his business cards.

 He  laughed.  He  couldn’t  even  think  of  the  girl’s  name that  had  squeezed  at  his  heart.  She’d  been  older. That  he remembered. But he’d never done well with older women. 

 Now he sat atop an empire that his uncle’s grandfather had started and his uncle’s father had carried on. But it was Zach Benson who made it what it was today. 

 Benson,  Benson,  and  Hart  built  big—built  on  time—and built under budget. Nothing had changed.

 Ed  didn’t  have  a  foreman  like  Zach  had.  His  other uncle,  John  Forrester,  had  been  the  best  foreman  any company could have asked for. A loyal employee until Ed’s Aunt  Arianna  made  him  retire  only  two  years  earlier.  But another would come along. Right now he had to focus on a new assistant.

 Interviewing  people  for  a  position  shouldn’t  be  an issue. He’d been doing it for years. But a personal assistant had to be in your business, and he didn’t like that. 

 He’d fought it for years. Temps were good. They came, did the work, and left. He figured it was kind of like dating the  wrong  girl.  There  weren’t  any  he  wanted  to  spend  his life with.

 Perhaps  his  expectations  were  too high.  After  all,  his Aunt Regan had been Zach’s assistant. They’d been married nearly  twenty-five  years, and  she  still  took  care  of  him.  It wouldn’t  be  long  before  Tyler  and  Spencer,  their  sons, would be sitting in Ed’s seat. 

 Ed  dropped  his  feet  to  the  floor  and  pushed  up  from his chair. When the time was right, he’d find the assistant of his dreams. He’d given up on the woman of his dreams, so an assistant would have to do.

 He walked to the elevator and pressed the button to go down  to  the  lobby.  There  was  a  Starbucks  there  now, and he’d grown very fond of caramel lattes, thanks to his Aunt Arianna,  though  he  didn’t  go  for  the  skinny  version.  His Uncle  John  would  say  it  was  a  bit  too  frilly  a  drink  for  a man  in  the  construction  business.  His Uncle  Zach, on  the other hand, would argue that it was a good stress reliever. 

 Ed  laughed  at  himself.  What  an  eclectic  bunch  of people  he  had  in  his  family. And  even  without  them  there with him, he still enjoyed them.

 The  gathering  of  the  masses  in  the  Starbucks  also entertained  him, almost as  much  as  the  thoughts  of  his family and their differences.  

               Ed  ordered  his  drink  and  stood  at  the  counter  waiting for it to be handed to him.

As he looked around the store, he mentally spotted and named each  kind  of  person.  There was  the  tourist,  the executive,  and  the  assistant.  There  was a couple,  obviously just downtown for the day and…hmmm, one that stumped him. 

 She was professional, probably interviewing by the way she  was  dressed,  but  she  wasn’t  comfortable  with  the  big building  and  the  mass  of  people.  She  was  using  Starbucks as  a  common  ground,  something  familiar,  to  ease  her nerves.

He   listened   as   she   ordered   her   drink—decaf   and nonfat. What fun was in that, he wondered.

 She  tucked  her  change  back  into  her  purse, walked  to the end of the counter, and stood behind to Ed to wait for her drink.

 Flowery perfume filled his nose. She had a sweet side.

 The  lady  behind  the  counter  handed  Ed  his  iced caramel latte. He  turned  to  leave and, he’d  say  so  himself, that was when things got interesting.

 The   woman   who   had   been   standing   behind   him, searching  in  her  bag  for  something, looked  up  just  as  Ed turned  around.  She  shifted  to  move  out  of  his  way,  but instead she moved right into him.

 Ed’s  hands  slipped  from  the  condensation  on  the  cup, and  the  entire,  cold  drink  poured  down  the  front  of  the woman.

 She let out a stifled scream, and her hands went into the air. “Oh-my-God!”

 “I’m very sorry.” 

 Ed turned toward the counter and grabbed a handful of napkins. He would have helped to mop up her clothes, but he noticed that the white, silk shirt clung to her and decided it just wasn’t a good idea to try.

 “Look what you did!” She ripped the napkins from his hand and began to blot away the coffee, which had already stained the shirt.

 “Sorry, but I think you ran into me.”

 She  snapped  her  head  up  again.  “Oh,  men.  You’re  not always right, you know. Sometimes you do make mistakes.”

 Not only was she not as sweet as her flowery perfume, she was jaded. Bad news.

 “Again,  I’m  very  sorry.  How  can  I  help  you?”  He turned and reached for more napkins, but when she pulled them from his hand, he noticed she was crying.

 “I think you’ve done enough.”

 “I still think I can help in some way.”

 “Listen. My suit is ruined. This is the only one I have. I  was  searching  for a  job, and  I  can’t  do  that  now.  I  can’t hand out resumes looking like this.”

 Ed  watched  as  the  woman  continued  to  wipe  off  her blouse,  but  to  no  avail. It  was  ruined,  but  he  still  wasn’t going to take the blame.

 “Are you looking for a job in this building?”

 She let out a grunt. “Why else would I be here?”

 “I was just asking. I know most of the businesses in the building. Perhaps I can help you out.”

 The   woman   pursed   her   lips.   “I   don’t   need   your charity.”

 “It’s not charity. You seem to be in need of a job, and

 I’m sure I can help you find one.”

 “What, do you own this place?” She waved her arms in the air.

 “Let me see your resume.”

 The woman stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. That wasn’t new. You didn’t run a multi-million dollar company in your mid-thirties without people giving you a shifty eye.

 Her coffee was set on the counter. He moved in to grab it,  but  she  moved  quicker.  “I’ll  get  this.  I  can’t  afford  to waste a sip of this. It’s my breakfast and lunch.”

 She  picked  up  the  coffee  and  moved  to  a  table where she  set  down  the  cup  and  pulled  a  resume  from  her  bag.

 She  handed  it  to  Ed.  “Here  it  is.  I  hate  to  say  it,  but  I’m desperate.  If  I  don’t  find  a  job  in  three  days, I  have  to  go home.”

 “Why?  Does  that  suit  turn  back  into  a  pumpkin  and your glass slipper breaks?”

 “Have  you  ever  been  desperate  for  anything  in  your life?”

****

Bernadette Marie has been an avid writer since the early age of 13, when she’d fill notebook after notebook with stories that she’d share with her friends.  Her journey into novel writing started the summer before eighth grade when her father gave her an old typewriter.  At all times of the day and night you would find her on the back porch penning her first work, which she would continue to write for the next 22 years. 

In 2007 – after marriage, filling her chronic entrepreneurial needs, and having five children – Bernadette began to write seriously with the goal of being published.  That year she wrote 12 books.  In 2009  she was contracted for her first trilogy and the published author was born.  In 2011 she (being the entrepreneur that she is) opened her own publishing house, 5 Prince Publishing, and has released contemporary titles and began the process of taking on other authors in other genres. 

In 2012 Bernadette Marie found herself on the bestsellers lists of iTunes and Amazon to name a few.  Her office wall is lined with colorful PostIt notes with the titles of books she will be releasing in the very near future, with hope that they too will grace the bestsellers lists.

Bernadette spends most of her free time driving her kids to their many events.  She is also an accomplished martial artist who will earn her conditional second degree black belt in Tang Soo Do in October 2012.  An avid reader, she enjoys most, the works of Nora Roberts, Karen White, Megan Hart, to name a few. She loves to meet readers who enjoy reading contemporary romances and she always promises Happily Ever After.

Author Contact Info:

Website: www.bernadettemarie.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorbernadettemarie

Blogspot: www.authorbernadettemarie.blogspot.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/writesromance