Spotlight & Giveaway: Infidelity Rules by Joelle Babula

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Joelle Babula’s new release: Infidelity Rules

If you enjoy food, wine, and a protagonist who breaks all the rules, Infidelity Rules is for you. It’s a wild ride designed to push boundaries, topple traditional tropes and make you laugh out loud. Grab a glass of wine (a hunk of cheese wouldn’t hurt), strap in and enjoy the rollercoaster. Warning: it may leave you hungry, thirsty and eager to embrace your own journey, wherever it may lead.

 
QUINN DAVIS shatters the norm.

She’s successful in the traditionally male-dominated wine world. She’ll do anything for a hunk of swoon-worthy cheese. And she only dates married men, a practice designed to evade love and protect her battered heart. But even as a mistress, Quinn has rules. No meddling in happy marriages. No men with young kids. No falling in love. And absolutely, unequivocally, no gigantic panties on a date. She prefers her men the way she likes her food and wine – enticing, intoxicating and utterly delicious.

Enter MARCUS: Hollywood hot, absurdly charming, and determined to rock Quinn’s world. He encompasses everything Quinn wants in a fling – simplicity, passion and the mind-blowing infatuation that comes with a new crush. She lusts after him more than she does the most moan-worthy food and wine pairing. When she unexpectedly falls hard for this man with a complicated past, her carefully curated world unravels.

Now she must confront her romantic demons, her mistress status and learn what it means to sacrifice for another. Faced with the punishing choice of relinquishing a love she never dreamed possible or destroying a family, Quinn must decide what’s worth keeping and what she must let go. Wine and cheese? Never. A man she loves? Perhaps.

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from Infidelity Rules 

Daily Special
Ricotta-stuffed meatballs in lemon broth with fried sage
Shaved baby artichoke salad
Bucatini with fresh sardines and wild fennel fronds

I’m pouring the last of the wine for my customers when I overhear a woman sighing with pleasure as she chases a forkful of chef’s pasta with a sip of a juicy Sicilian white, my suggested wine pairing.
Yes! A good match. I’m delighted I was able to provide her with this tiny bit of joy.
I love wine. I love food. I love the magic that happens when a great glass of wine pairs perfectly with a dish. It’s lusty and romantic, the only goal sheer and immediate pleasure. It’s akin to the ideal relationship, fleeting but swoon-worthy, each bringing out the very best in the other. The wine becomes a better version of itself and the flavors of the food become more vivid, livelier and, if you get a lucky match, the combination will make you moan. I swear it will.
This is what I live for. And it’s what I strive to do as a sommelier for my customers at Persimmon.
If only love matches were as easy as pairing food and wine. Stupendous failure would accurately describe all my past relationships, so I don’t date single men anymore. I have affairs with married men instead. But I never, ever play with men in happy marriages. Nor do I mess around with anyone that has children. Either would be like sabotaging the dream food and wine team — barbarian indeed.
I’m smiling at the woman’s utter food bliss and daydreaming about my next meal when I feel the heat of a man from across the dining room. Not just any man. My Mystery Man. The one whose mere presence zaps my appetite, flushes my cheeks and makes me want to giggle like a schoolgirl mooning over her first crush. Mentioning him to Dezi this afternoon must have brought me good juju because he doesn’t come around that often.
I hope he’s married.
Tonight, I find out, I think to myself as I watch him stroll toward the bar, all long legs, muscular shoulders and towering, hoop-star height.
I find myself wafting toward this mystery man almost imperceptibly, like a carb-starved dieter trailing after the luscious aroma of freshly baked bread. I bid a hasty goodnight to the last of my diners and pray I’m able to sneak behind him on my blade-thin stilettos to get a peek at his ring finger.
Come on wedding ring. Come on wedding ring. Come on wedding ring, my thoughts flash like a meditative chant in my head.
Ok. Here goes, I think, hoping my colossal, hold-you-in panties, are doing their job. I did not, per Dezi’s suggestion, wiggle out of them earlier.
Except now Chef is beckoning me from the kitchen. And he’s holding out a huge bowl of his steaming meatballs. Mmmmm. These are moan-worthy, make-your-eyes-roll-to-the-back-of-your-head, meatballs.
But I want to catch My Mystery Man before he disappears again, which is what usually happens. I need to find out if he’s married. But those meatballs …
Do I want the man or the meat? Man or meat? Gah! What to do?

Excerpt. ©Joelle Babula. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
 
 

Giveaway: Two paperback books of INFIDELITY RULES by Joelle Babula for a US giveaway

To enter Giveaway, please share this post and leave a comment to this Q: What did you think of the excerpt spotlighted here? Leave a comment with your thoughts on the book…

This giveaway closes 3 days from the date of this post.

Meet the Author:

Joelle Babula is a nurse practitioner, an award-winning former journalist and forever a food freak. She lives in Baltimore with her husband, two absurd cats and her very own drawer of cheese.

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