Spotlight & Giveaway: Trusting the Badge by Dorothy F. Shaw

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Dorothy F. Shaw to HJ!

Hi Dorothy F. Shaw and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Trusting the Badge!

I’m so excited to share Jeff and Tish with everyone!

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Annoyed semi-friends to very definitely lovers? Yes, that sounds about right.

The 3rd K9 book is all about Jeff and Tish. In the first two books, these characters bantered and bickered, annoyed each other, and their friends. (And apparently had a secret hook-up everyone suspected but no one really knew about.)

In Trusting the Badge, it’s finally time for Jeff and Tish to get serious!

Please share the opening lines of this book:

Tish Beck stared at the text message from the most annoying man on the planet.

Do Not Reply: Hayy, girl. Hayyyy. Wait… Hay is for horses, right? Yep, at least that’s what I’ve been taught. Anyhoo, how’s it going, mami? Figured I’d check in on you. You heading home from LA tonight?

God help her, she was not going to answer him. And not just because that was what she labeled him in her contacts.
***

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• There’s a song list at the beginning of the book. First time I’ve ever done that. I always create a playlist in my iTunes for each of my books, but I have never listed any of those songs in a list in the book. All of the chosen songs in Trusting the Badge have a place in the story, and the reader gets to see that as they read.
• That said, a few weeks ago, I was going through said list to figure which song I wanted to use in a TikTok promo video. When I looked up the Sara Evans song to listen to it again, I was puzzled. I mean, it’s perfect for Tish, but I don’t recall it. At all. Huh…
  A quick search through the book, and what do you know, the song is nowhere listed. At least word and PDF search functions cant find it.
  So…I guess we have a little rogue song in the playlist and heck if I know why it’s there. But at least it’s a good song. LOL

Please tell us a little about the characters in your book. As you wrote your protagonist was there anything about them that surprised you?

As mentioned, Both Jeff and Tish have been present since book 1. I knew they had a big story, but unlike Jeff (who doesn’t shut up), Tish is pretty tight-lipped. She really would not reveal what was going on behind the scenes. I knew she wanted Jeff and I knew because of that, she was avoiding him like the plague, but I had no idea why.
Jeff on the other hand–he’s an open book. He was pretty clear on what he wanted–Tish. He was pretty clear on the fact that he would wait as long as it took to have her. He was also very confident in the fact that he would be able to give her what she needed when she was ready to let him give it to her.
What he wasn’t clear on. because he wasn’t sharing it with me, was what wereTish’s issues!
Between their behind-the-scenes, don’t let the author (me) know what’s going on stuff, and my personal life getting turned on its ear, it took a while to get this book plotted and then written.
In the end, it was worth it.
Tish has an incredibly tragic backstory, and she is a survivor. I love that about her, but what I love most is she was willing to get the help she needed to recover.
I admire her journey, and if that journey helps another woman out there who also has a difficult past, then that’s more than I could have ever dreamed for.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

Any bar scene with Tish and Jeff when they are among friends. The banter is always quite entertaining.

SNIPPET:

Jeff gave her a minute to get settled before setting things in motion. “Feel better?”

“Who said I felt bad?” She pushed the sleeves of her sweater up.

“Psshaw. You don’t give me enough credit.” He leaned back, balancing his chair on its two back legs.
“I know when my mami isn’t feeling up to par.”

“Hmm. Highly doubtful.” She brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes. “By the way, what, no texts for me today? Did you finally find some other girl to harass?”

Jeff gasped and pressed his palm to his chest. “You wound me. I’m an officer of the law. I would never harass anyone. But wait. Are you saying you consider yourself a girl and not a woman? That’s so surprising. I never would’ve guessed that.”

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

That recovery is possible, whether it’s from alcoholism, addiction, depression, past scars or traumas, etc…but it may not be what we thought it was going to be, or look like what we thought it would look like, or for that matter, who we thought it would be that recovered.
And even when life is kicking our butt, there is still light to be found, people to hold us up. Asking for help, land then letting people in to help, that’s key.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

Well, a small break happened recently but I am ready to dig back into book 4 of The Donnellys series. The book is already written, but let’s just say, it needs to be completely rewritten. My goal is to work on that next. I’m excited to get back into The Donnellys world.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: I’m happy to send out 5 signed paperbacks to 5 US-only readers. For any 5 which are international, I have some download codes we should be able to use for 5 ebooks.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: If you’ve read books 1 and 2, you’re already familiar with Jeff and Tish and have been patiently waiting for their story — What’s one thing you hope happens between the two of them? (besides them ending up together lol) If you haven’t read 1 and 2, I hope you do, but tell me, what’s your favorite kind of romance? Warm and fuzzy or chock full of angst?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Excerpt from Trusting the Badge:

* * * *
Outside the Whiskey Barrel, with her back pressed against the wall, Tish Beck gazed up at him. And what a beautiful sight he was.

He’d rested one hand on the bricks above her head and hooked the pointer finger on his other in the belt loop of her jeans. Aside from that, he hadn’t touched her…yet. At least not touched her in the way he was looking like he wanted to touch her.

She hadn’t touched him yet either. Her palms were pressed firmly against the wall she was backed up to, but God help her, her entire body buzzed in anticipation of what the expression in his pretty brown eyes was promising. Even so, the excitement pumping through her veins was a shock. Jeff Pearl was not the type of man she would’ve chosen for herself in the past.

He was too goofy.
Too good-looking.
Too…everything.

His gaze settled on her lips before moving—oh so slowly—to her eyes. “So, we doing this?”

Tish’s breath caught at the raspy sound of his voice. The heat from his body so close to hers felt wayyyy too good. And for the love of all things holy, he smelled incredible. Jesus, she needed to get a leash on herself. Tish ran her tongue over her bottom lip. “Doing what?”

He grinned, the corners of his eyes crinkling in reaction. “All right, mami.”

Mami…

She had no idea why he called her that. Most of the time, it was annoying. Except the way he said it this time, the raspy low tone had a knot of arousal tightening in her stomach in a way she’d never thought possible. Jeff let go of her belt loop and ran the flat of his hand up her side, breaking contact long enough to frame her jaw in his big hand between thumb and forefinger.
Christ, she was going to spontaneously combu—

Jeff tipped his head to the side and kissed her.

No preamble. No little strokes. No teasing, coaxing, nothing timid about it. This annoying god of a man kissed her, his tongue immediately in her mouth, tangling with hers and…

Yeah, wow…just, wow.

Unable to keep her hands to herself any longer, she slipped her palms up his sides, relishing the feel of tight male body beneath his T-shirt. Tish’s entire body lit up like a Roman candle. Hot tingles spread from her tummy to between her legs, and a moan escaped. Shit, she was so screwed. Totally done for.

Jeff broke the kiss and pulled back. He let out a sigh and stroked the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip, trailed it down her chin and continued down her neck. “Yeah, mami, we’re doing this.”

She swallowed, nodding her head. “Yeah, we are.”
* * * *

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Book Info:

For members of a police K9 Unit, partnership is everything—in work and in love.

LOVE AT FIRST NIGHT . . .

Shuttled between her alcoholic parents and foster homes that separated her from beloved younger brother, Steven, it’s no wonder Tish Beck is a woman with trust issues. To avoid getting hurt—or hurting someone else—she’s kept her romantic life commitment-free, and that’s fine by her. Until she meets exasperatingly hot, funny, smart-ass K9 officer Jeffrey Pearl, and stupidly spends the night with him . . .
Currently single and content, Jeff’s always got his canine bestie, Rio, by his side, and loads of human friends. He enjoys the occasional close encounter, but hasn’t been tempted into anything serious. Until Tish. He’s inexplicably head over heels. Too bad she’s determined to keep him at arm’s length.
But when Tish’s brother winds up in jail—again—Jeff’s glad to be the man Tish turns to for help. And with Steven back on the scene, she’ll need it. Soon Tish will have to open her eyes—and her heart—to love, and realize where, and with whom, her safety truly lies . . .

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Meet the Author:

Get in bed (and read) with your favorite redhead!
Dorothy F. Shaw lives in Arizona where the weather is hot and the sunsets are always beautiful. She spends her days running her CBD store and writing between customers!
Between her ever-open heart, her bright red hair and her many colorful tattoos, she truly lives and loves in Technicolor!
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