Exclusive Excerpt & #Review of At Home with Andre by Kathleen Duhamel! w/a rafflecopter giveaway! @KathleenDuhamel #giveaway #excerpt #review

At Home With Andre

by Kathleen Duhamel

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GENRE: Contemporary Romance

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BLURB:

New York public relations consultant and self-proclaimed control freak Katie McDowell may have made the biggest career mistake of her life. She’s agreed to temporarily leave her beloved Manhattan to manage the company’s struggling New Orleans office, knowing her biggest client is television chef Andre Thibodeaux, whose massive masculine presence makes her feel hotter than the onset of menopause.

Finding her way in a funky new city and earning the trust of her employees is tough enough without annoying hot flashes, night sweats and ugly mood swings, not to mention the lingering memory of one steamy night she shared with the big man she thinks she can’t have.

Sexy, smart, and successful, Chef Andre has everything a man could want except the right woman, and he’s determined to learn why Katie rejected him. To convince her to stay in Louisiana, he’ll need to find a way to make her fall in love-with him, as well as the vibrant southern city he calls home.

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Exclusive Excerpt:

Chef Andre Thibodeaux takes my hand in his enormous paws and trains his pale gray eyes on my face while I struggle to keep my composure. I’m breaking into another sweat, this one not caused from the temperature inside the building, but by his massive masculine presence, which has a way of unnerving me.

“Katie, dawlin’. I’m glad you’re finally here,” he booms, offering a toothy smile.

How is it possible I can remain cool and professional with CEOS and other luminaries, not to mention rock stars, yet the sight of Andre sends my pulse racing out of control? I haven’t seen him in six months, and I was hoping the time apart would help to dim my erotic fantasies, but today I realize it’s had quite the opposite effect. He looks even better than I remember. Damn, that man is fine.

Andre ushers me into his headquarters, a combination residence and television production facility located on the top floor of the French Quarter building housing his flagship restaurant. The open kitchen, designed specifically for his TV show, At Home with Andre, anchors one end of the space. An oversized contemporary painting of his culinary Holy Trinity—bell peppers, onions and celery—dominates another wall.

His restaurant empire, Crawfish Ventures, is what brought me to New Orleans. Andre was on the verge of pulling his multi-million dollar account from CP Global, the international marketing and public relations firm I worked for in New York, until he was assured the Louisiana office would undergo major changes, including new management.

In an unexpected twist of fate, the “new management” turned out to be me.

I’m going to go ahead say what sets this book apart from any other book that I’ve read are the characters.  I know, I say that a lot but these characters are considered “seasoned”.  Meaning, Andre, and Katie are 50 years old.  Gasp!  I know, that’s how old I am.  Most people wouldn’t even consider writing about them much less getting a reader to read the book.  Personally, I love my characters older.  Sure, I read YA/NA but when it comes to “adult” books, I want them to have a clue, a few life experiences behind them and know what they like in and out of the bedroom.

I love my billionaires and such but at least in the books that I read, even the heroine isn’t a virgin.  But I digress.  There is frank talk about menopause between Katie and her friend, Denise and trust me, what is written is true.  I was laughing when they were talking.  Denise is such a great character and I need to read her book.  And Claire!  Seriously, these two have books before this one and I plan on reading them.

So why am I only giving it 4.5?  At one point in the book, I found I was little lost.  It seems like a chapter was missing.  Otherwise, I can’t say enough about the book.  Katie has to FINALLY figure out what she truly wants from herself and Andre.  Her back story is a bit sad and poignant.  It made her who she is today but does she want to be that person now.  And Andre?  How much can the man take from the one woman that he loves with his whole heart?

The book has depth, humor, characters that you root for and setting that is beyond compare.  If you want a story with older characters that have a clue, this is definitely for you.  After all, how many stories about 20’s somethings can we relate to?  Me, not so much anymore.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Kathleen Duhamel is the author of Deep Blue, Deeper, and At Home With Andre. She wrote and illustrated her first short story at the age of eight, and has been a writer for most of her life. Her love of the written word continued throughout her varied career as a newspaper journalist and editor, public relations executive, freelance travel writer and owner/operator of two small businesses. A native of Texas, she spent most of her adult life in Colorado before relocating to Virginia in 2014, where she lives with her husband, a standard poodle and geriatric cat. She is a lifelong devotee of rock and soul music, contemporary art and pop culture.

 

http://www.kathleenduhamel.com/

https://www.facebook.com/kathleen.duhamel

https://twitter.com/KathleenDuhamel

 

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Kathleen-Duhamel/e/B013JATRME

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

Kathleen will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
a Rafflecopter giveaway “