Spotlight & Giveaway: Costa Rican Fling with the Doc by Traci Douglass

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Traci Douglass to HJ!

Hi Traci and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Costa Rican Fling with the Doc!

 
Hi HarlequinJunkie! Thanks so much for having me on the blog today!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Costa Rican Fling with the Doc is my first “seasoned” romance. Meaning both of the main characters are older. Not geriatric by any means, but they’ve lived. They’ve been there, done that. My hero, Dr. Gabriel Novak, is 55. He lost his family during the Croatian War and afterward became a bit of a nomad, never settling too long in one place before moving on to the next. He’s now working for a charity hospital organization in Costa Rica, which is where he meets the heroine.

Nurse Sara Parker is 42 and she’s an RN in a Chicago PICU. After her son goes off to college in California, she decides to take early retirement from her job and explore things she’s always wanted to do, but never had the time because of being a single mom. She signs up to volunteer for the same charity organization where Gabe works and that’s how they meet. Sparks fly and drama and passion ignites.

She’s wary of giving up her newfound freedom for what starts as just a fling and she’s used to being on her on. Gabe does not want to risk his heart and start a new family because he’s afraid he won’t be able to protect this one either since he failed with the first one.

You’ll have to read the story to find out how they manage to get past their barrier to reach their HEA!
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

“That’s when he knew things would be okay. Maybe not tomorrow. Definitely not in a few weeks when she was gone. But for tonight, for now, they were okay.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• Researching all the food for this book was amazing. So many new dishes to try. Like Casado—a mixed platter of beef, chicken or fish with rice, beans, cabbage salad, tortillas, and sweet fried plantains. And Chifrijo—a yummy sounding combination of deep-fried pork belly/pork rinds and beans, rice, and pico de gallo. Served with chips, it sounds like the perfect compact meal. Oh, and desserts too. Empanadas, of course, but also Tres Leches (sponge cake soaked in three different types of milk) and Pan Bon, a sweet, dark bread from the Caribbean made with flour, unrefined sugarcane, butter, mild white cheese, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, raisins, and candied fruit.
• Also, if you want a Coke in Costa Rica, don’t ask for a soda. Sodas there are small family-owned restaurants. You’ll get a great meal, but not a Coke. My pick for non-alcoholic drinks would be either Fanta Roja (red pop. Favorite as a kid!) or batidos, smoothies made with yummy fresh fruit grown locally in Costa Rica. Alcohol-wise, I’d want to try a Guaro Sour, the country’s take on a Whiskey Sour. It uses the country’s most popular alcohol, Guaro, that’s made from sugar cane and similar to vodka in taste. And a Colada Fresca, Costa Rica’s take on the classic Piña Colada, using guaro and spiced honey syrup with coconut water, lime juice, and pineapple.
• And now I’m getting hungry all over again.

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

For Gabe, it’s her competence in her work. She’s there to do a job and doesn’t let anything stop her. Gabe has been working at the charity a long time and has seen a lot of volunteers come through, but Sara is different.

For Sara, I think she’s attracted to Gabe because he’s not like the doctor’s she’s used to working with in Chicago. He’s rough and tumble, not afraid to put himself in danger or get a little dirty. She’s very intrigued by him and what makes him the way he is.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

How about cringing? The scene where ___ has a crush on Sara was very sweet, but also cringe-worthy too because I remember being that age and having crushes on older boys in high school who were never going to date a freshman in a million years, but I still followed them around like a lost puppy, mooning over them anyway. LOL! I certainly channeled some of my old teen angst into poor, thirteen-year-old Lalo in the book. Like this scene, after Lalo has injured himself playing soccer to try and impress Sara and she and Gabe have treated his dislocated shoulder:

“Better,” Lalo said again, staying still this time.

“We’ll make him a sling then walk him home,” Gabe said. “I need to talk to his mother.”

“Okay.” She turned away to hide the weird urge to kiss him silly in celebration. “Do we have slings?”

“No. We’ll need to make one from a shirt.” Lalo asked Gabe something in Spanish, and Gabe scowled and shook his head. “No, no.”

Confused, Sara looked between them. “What?”

Lalo glared at Gabe.

“He wants to make his sling out of one of your shirts,” Gabe said. “To remember you by.”

Sara laughed and stood. “Considering what happened today, that’s the least I can do for him. Let me run to the laundry tent. Be right back.”

***

The breeze was a welcome relief from the humid air inside Lalo’s house. They’d spent the last hour packed into the living room as Gabe showed the boy’s mother techniques to force his shoulder back into place. All the while, Lalo glued himself to Sara’s side and rambled on about how she was the best nurse he’d ever seen.

“Gabe couldn’t argue. The boy was right. Sara was remarkable.

Readers should read this book….

If you want a fun, exciting story set in a tropical paradise with heat and heart and older characters not often seen on the pages of romance novels, the give Costa Rican Fling with the Doc a try!

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I just finished my 11th book for the line called Island Reunion for the Single Dad, a second chance romance set on Whidbey Island, off the coast of Washington state, and am hard at work on number 12 for the line, which will be a Christmas book and a sort of Grinch-retelling. Plus, book two in my Point Beacon series for Entangled Bliss.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: Digital copy of Costa Rican Fling with the Doc and a $10 Amazon

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Have you ever been to Costa Rica? If so, what was your favorite part?

 
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Excerpt from Costa Rican Fling with the Doc:

Cicadas sang their nightly song outside the tent, but inside it was just the two of them. Sara hesitated, then asked the question that had been on her mind since she’d arrived and first met Gabe. “What happened to them? Your family?”

He swallowed hard and straightened, and for an awful second, she thought he might shut her out again, but then he took a deep breath and said quietly, “They died. When our apartment in Croatia was bombed during the war. I lost my family, everything I cared about within a matter of hours.”

“Oh, God.” Sara’s own heart broke at the eviscerating agony in his voice. “I’m so sorry, Gabe.”

She tried to put her hand on his arm, but he took a step back, reaching into the back pocket of his scrub pants for his wallet. “I have a picture of them. Would you like to see?”

Sara nodded, trusting herself not to cry.

The photo he pulled out was a bit crinkled and bent at the edges, as if handled a lot. He moved closer to Sara again, handing her the picture, then pointing at the pretty woman smiling in it.
“Her name was Marija. We were married almost two years when this was taken. She’s holding our son, Karlo.”

Blinking back tears, Sara smiled. “She’s lovely. And Karlo is precious.”

“Thank you.” He took the photo from her, staring down at it reverently. “He was our everything. We couldn’t wait to move from Vukovar to Prague and start a new life there, but I had to finish medical school first. Marija and I used to fight about it, but she let me win.” He gave a sad little snort. “I was so young and stupid back then. I thought we’d have all the time in the world.”

“You couldn’t have known this would happen,” Sara said, touching him now to emphasize her point. “No one knows what the future holds.”

“I should have.” His expression darkened to a scowl, and he put the photo away, those damned walls of his crashing down hard again. “Anyway, I apologize if I seemed distracted during the delivery earlier.”

It took a moment for his words to penetrate the emotional fog in Sara’s brain. “You weren’t distracted. I thought you were brilliant today. You saved them both, Angela and her baby.”

“No, you did.” Gabe smiled again, and it felt like a million stars shining to Sara, that dimple of his making “her slightly dizzy with yearning. “Without your small hands, all would have been lost.”

Sara held her hands up as she shrugged. “Genetics, I guess.”

“Hmm.”
The low whirr of the generators kicking on outside reinforced the fact that she and Gabe were still alone out here in the tent, standing in the shadows, so close that the heat radiating from his skin penetrated the thin cotton of her scrubs, sending her pulse skyrocketing.

“We should probably go into the dorms,” she murmured past her taut vocal cords.

“We probably should,” he agreed.

Neither of them moved.

Finally, Gabe reached into one of the drawers of the nearest table and handed her something.

“What’s this?” she asked, staring down at the chunk of cellophane-wrapped white in her palm.

“Sweets for the sweet. Dulce de coco,” he said, his teeth even and white as he smiled in the darkness. “Coconut candy. I get tired of eating beans and rice.”

“She sniffed the stuff. “Wow. Smells amazing.”

“It’s very good.” Gabe stood there a moment, staring down at her, then sighed and turned away. “Well…uh… I guess this is good night, then.” He started to leave, but Sara placed a hand on his forearm, her fingertips tingling from the touch. Gabe froze, looking back at her, his green eyes flicking from her eyes to her mouth, then back again. Her name emerged low and rough, and she felt it like a physical caress. “Sara?”

“Yes?”

Silence stretched for eons. Finally, he stepped closer once more, his fingers trailing down her arm, firm but tentative. Gentle but wanting. “I want to kiss you, but I know I shouldn’t.”

He was probably right—she knew that. With his past and her future waiting back in Chicago, getting involved, even temporarily, made no sense. And yet, at that moment, Sara wanted to kiss him more than she wanted her next breath. Taking the initiative, she closed the small distance between them and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down until their lips met. She put all of her whirling emotions into it—the sweetness of the birth, the sadness “of his picture, the need and want she’d felt for him since the first day she’d met him. Gabe seemed taken aback at first, holding back, but then her tongue traced his lips, and he gave in with a grunt, pulling her tight against him as he deepened the kiss. His mouth was perfect against hers, mirroring the soft eagerness of his touch. She couldn’t help giving a desperate whimper.

More. I need more.

The sound of footsteps outside the tent finally jarred them back to reality.

Sara inched away, breathless and light-headed.
Gabe’s warm breath fanned her face, stirring the tiny hairs near her temple. He gave a short sigh full of frustrated need, then kissed her forehead. “Tomorrow we talk, yes?”

“Yes,” she whispered, savoring the feel of him against her while she could.

“Good.” Then he brushed his lips across her forehead and started for the exit again. “Sleep well.”

She waited a moment, catching her breath and calming her racing heart, then headed for the dorms herself. Sara wasn’t sure about a lot of things, but having a restful night after a kiss like that would be impossible—of that she was certain.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Sometimes the future…
…is just a fling away!

For single mom Sara, life has been all about raising her now adult son. But volunteering for a medical charity in Costa Rica is finally the nurse’s chance to focus on her passions. Only, her guarded new boss, Gabe, stirs something deep in her that she’d thought long forgotten… And as the devastatingly handsome doctor sends all her senses into overdrive, for once sensible Sara can’t help wondering—what if they didn’t resist temptation?
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Meet the Author:

Traci is a USA Today Bestselling romance author with Harlequin/Mills & Boon, Entangled Publishing, and Tule Publishing and has an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She writes sometimes funny, usually awkward, always emotional stories about strong, quirky, wounded characters overcoming past adversity to find their forever person. She believes Love is Love and hopes to accomplish brave, beautiful things with her one wild and precious life.
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