Spotlight & Giveaway: The Love Plot by Samantha Young

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Samantha Young’s new release: The Love Plot

There’s a magnetic attraction when a happy-go-lucky gig worker agrees to a fake relationship with a rich, uptight New Yorker in this steamy romantic comedy from New York Times bestselling author Samantha Young.

Star Shine Meadows is all about freedom, thanks to the hippie parents who raised her. Juggling her jobs as a professional costume character actor and a line sitter, she believes in no expectations, no stressful ambitions, and no-strings-attached relationships. So when she meets a birthday girl’s grumpy uncle while working a princess party, she can’t help but needle him. She’ll never see him again, and honestly, he’s pretty hot.

Rafe Whitman may be a veterinarian with a great bedside manner, but that doesn’t mean his patience extends to anyone with opposable thumbs. His family will not stop nagging him about finding “the one,” so when he runs into obnoxiously cheery Star again, he makes her an offer: He’ll pay her more than she would make doing her odd jobs if she’ll pretend to be his girlfriend at family gatherings. She can stop sitting in line waiting for someone else’s new phone, and he’ll get his family off his back.

When the tension between them heats to a breaking point, Star’s desire for “no strings” is tested against Rafe’s staunch stability. They say opposites attract, after all….

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from The Love Plot 

Rafe released a sigh as if he was deflating, grabbed my hand, and glowered his way through the guests. He picked up two bottles of beer from the bar and kept walking until the music and murmur of conversation was just a hum in the background. We stopped in the shade of trees in the woodland behind his parents’ property.
As I took the beer Rafe held out to me, I leaned against the nearest tree. “Is it shyness?”
Rafe pushed his sunglasses into his hair and frowned at me in question as he took a swig of cold beer.
“You’re different around people you don’t know.”
His frown deepened. “I’m not shy. I’m just not comfortable making small talk with strangers. Never have been. Don’t ask me why, I don’t know. It’s just the way I am.”
Something like tenderness filled me. I considered him. “So if you’re uncomfortable talking to strangers, how did you ever get a date?”
Rafe shrugged. “My lack of loquaciousness never seemed to bother the women I’ve dated.”
My gaze dragged over him and his masculine beauty. “Of course, it didn’t.”
“What does that mean?”
I snorted, gesturing to him with my free hand. “Look at you. You don’t look like a vet, Rafe. You look like the model they hire to play the vet for the hot guy career calendar.”
A tinge of red crested high on his cheeks as his eyes narrowed on me. Then his gaze swept down, lingering on my breasts, before traveling downward and back up again.
I was being smoldered at by Rafe Whitman and every inch of me loved it.
He was wearing too many clothes and so was I.
Shit.
“Anyway, lack of loquaciousness or not, I’m starting to think I’ve never really had a good radar for picking women who don’t have ulterior motives,” he mused sullenly.
I studied him in all his brooding. “What does that mean?”
He shrugged. “Most of my relationships have ended because my girlfriends turned out to be different people from what I’d been led to believe. And the hell of it is, my family always seemed to pick up on it before I did. Maybe that’s why I never caught one of them chatting away with Gigi like they’re long-lost friends.” Rafe’s gaze turned hot and intense again as he stared into my eyes, as if daring me to acknowledge the insinuation that I was a better fit than his previous girlfriends.
Heart racing, I pushed off the tree, then took a long swig of the beer before I said, “Shouldn’t we get back?”
“Dying to know which Birkin bag should be in your closest or what the best insurance provider for it is?” Rafe drawled wryly.
Chuckling, I forced myself to relax. “Hey, these are your people. And they’re not all like that. Most of them talk about their kids, which is nice. I like how much they care about them.”
Rafe was quiet for a moment before he surprised me. “I know things aren’t great with your parents, but you are in contact, right?”
I stiffened. “I texted my mom two months ago and she never got back to me. Worried, I tried my dad and he finally texted last week to let me know they were all good. Alive and stuff.”
“I’m sorry.”
“My mom is too uninvolved and yours is too involved. What a pair we make.”
But Rafe didn’t want to make light of my parents’ shittiness. Anger and concern lit his eyes. “It’s their loss, Star. It’s their big fucking loss because they’re missing out on someone very special.”
My breath caught.
Rafe Whitman had just told me I was very special.
His expression darkened to something surprising. Arousing. “Star—”
“We should get back to the party,” I practically squeaked as I pivoted away from him and toward the house. What was going on? Why was he suddenly acting like he wanted me? I couldn’t handle it. “We can’t make your family and friends believe we’re dating if they’re not around to see it.”
A few seconds later, I heard Rafe’s footsteps behind me and then he was at my side, his hand on my back. “That’s very true.”
I waited for more flirt.
None came.
Great.
We were back on the same page. Hopefully.
So why was my heart racing a mile an hour as Rafe guided me back to the party? We put our empty beer bottles on the bar and grabbed two fresh, cold ones. We nodded at people we’d already said hello to and then stopped to watch Gigi cannonball into the pool with the kids.
I grinned as she reached the surface, screaming, “I am the awesomest!”
“I love your sister,” I told him in all honesty.
Rafe grunted at that.
“Get in here!” Gigi caught sight of us.
“I don’t have a suit,” I called back to her.
“You can have one of mine!”
Considering I was packing more curves than Gigi, I doubted anything of hers would fit me.
“C’mon, Star!”
“No!” Rafe called back.
Gigi made a face. “Why not?”
“Because she’s busy.” The bastard made sure of that by pulling me into him with one arm around my waist and bending his head to cover my mouth with his. I gasped at the sudden kiss, and he used the opportunity to slide his tongue over mine. Gigi’s whistle was a reminder that we were in public and I had no choice but to lean into him and kiss him right back.
Absolutely no choice.
Honestly.
It had nothing to do with the fact that Rafe Whitman kissed like it was the last kiss he’d ever give.
Clapping broke through the hazy, lusty spell he’d cast over me, and I was the first to pull away. His arm tightened around me as if he didn’t want me to go, and he glared at my now swollen mouth.
“Rafe,” I murmured. “We have an audience.”
He turned his head to look and sure enough, some guests were clapping and hooting at the show we’d put on, while others frowned in disapproval.
As if remembering himself, Rafe released me. I eased away and he licked his lips, eyes on my mouth. “Just . . . making sure they’re buying it.”
“Right,” I murmured before taking a long pull of my beer.

Excerpted from The Love Plot by Samantha Young Copyright © 2023 by Samantha Young. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Excerpt. ©Samantha Young. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
 

Giveaway: 1 Finished copy of THE LOVE PLOT (US only, 18+)

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and post a comment to this Q: What did you think of the excerpt spotlighted here? Leave a comment with your thoughts on the book…

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 
 

Meet the Author:

Samantha Young is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the On Dublin Street series, including Moonlight on Nightingale Way, Echoes of Scotland Street, and Fall from India Place, and the Hart’s Boardwalk series, including Every Little Thing and The One Real Thing, as well as the standalone novels Fight or Flight and Much Ado About You.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/695829/the-love-plot-by-samantha-young/