Love Bytes is delighted to reveal to you the brand new cover of Sean Michael’s “Golden”.
Sean also shares an excerpt and brought a ecopy of the book for one lucky winner !
Welcome Sean 🙂
I’m so happy to have Golden out again. Thank you to Dreamspinner Press for reprinting this one. It’s got a great new cover by Brooke Albrecht. I hope you like it, and the book.
Sean
Smut fixes everything
HERE WE GO!
Blurb:
After winning Olympic gold four years ago, Justin retired from swimming, and he’s been floundering ever since. The Fourth of July finds him contemplating doing something stupid, so Justin calls up his former coach, Chris Jarvis. To his surprise, Coach answers.
When Justin retired, Chris cut all ties with the swimmer he’d fallen in love with. He never wanted Justin to love him just because it was easy. But he’s been waiting for Justin to reach out, and he’ll gladly take Justin back into his life.
When he finds out Justin is drowning in a pool of self-doubt and the belief that his happy years are behind him, Chris realizes he made a mistake letting go so suddenly, and now it’s time to remedy that error—as long as he can convince Justin that it’s really love.
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Justin sat on the edge of his balcony, feet swinging, a half-drunk bottle of bourbon in one hand, his gold medal in the other. He could see the swimming pool two stories down, and he wondered, not for the first time, if he would hit the water if he jumped.
A party was going on behind him, people dancing and laughing, celebrating the Fourth of July. Fireworks blossomed in the night sky, blue and red and green and white and….
God, it wasn’t supposed to be this way. It wasn’t supposed to be empty and lonely and…. He wasn’t supposed to be worthless, wasn’t supposed to be sitting on his balcony and thinking about jumping. Was he?
“Just? Honey? You okay?” A girl whose name he didn’t remember came out, smiling at him.
“No. No. I’m just watching.” Go away and leave me alone. Let me sit here.
He let the medal swing, the gold catching the light from the tiny explosions. It took a minute, but the girl disappeared back into the apartment. He was so tired of lying. So tired of fucking everything.
He tugged his phone out of his pocket, opened it, and hit 1 on speed dial. Please, Coach. Just answer the phone. I know you don’t have to, but please….
“Chris Jarvis.”
His eyes closed at the familiar voice, and suddenly he couldn’t speak.
“Hello?” He could picture Coach frowning as he said it, moving to check the call display—which Coach never did when he first answered. “Just, that you?”
“Yeah. Yeah. I…. Hey, Coach.” I miss you.
“Hey, Justin.” Was it his imagination, or did Coach’s voice get warmer? “How’s it going?”
“It’s….” He contemplated the pool again. He could probably make it. “It’s going. Happy July.”
Coach chuckled. “Happy July, kid. Feels odd, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah. Yeah, it does.” Everything did. Everything. “I didn’t mean to bother you.”
“If it was a bother, I wouldn’t have answered the phone.”
“Yeah.” Coach hadn’t answered the phone for the better part of a year, really, telling Justin it was time to move on. Justin had retired with four gold medals, two silvers, and a bronze, and after two Olympic Games, hundreds of competitions, thousands of races, and five shoulder surgeries, he was done.
No more sponsors. No more early-morning practices. No more someone worrying about him. It was just this apartment and a job designing websites for a shoe company.
“You watching the fireworks?” At least Coach wasn’t in a hurry to get him off the phone.
“I’m on my balcony. You?”
“On the TV, over the Capitol.” He could almost hear Coach’s self-deprecating smile. “I was thinking of heading out for a midnight snack.”
“You always loved midnight pancakes.” They’d eaten more syrup at 1:00 a.m….
“Like you hated our midnight snack attacks. The Denny’s on Maple is open all night.”
“I’m…. I’ve been drinking, Coach. I can’t drive down.” Wait. Had Coach invited him?
“I’ll swing by and get you. Those pancakes are calling my name.”
“I… I’ll be downstairs.”
“See you in ten.” Coach cut the line.
Justin slipped off the balcony ledge and walked through the crowd in his apartment without a word. His roommate would deal. He was all the way downstairs and waiting before he thought to wonder how Coach knew where he lived.
Best-selling author Sean Michael is a maple leaf–loving Canadian who spends hours hiding out in used book stores. With far more ideas than time, Sean keeps several documents open at all times. From romance to fantasy, paranormal and sci-fi, Sean is limited only by the need for sleep—and the periodic Beaver Tail.
Sean fantasizes about one day retiring on a secluded island populated entirely by horseshoe crabs after inventing a brain-to-computer dictation system. Until then, Sean will continue to write the old-fashioned way.
Sean Michael on the web:
WEBSITE: http://www.seanmichaelwrites.com
BLOG: http://seanmichaelwrites.blogspot.ca
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/SeanMichaelWrites/
TWITTER: seanmichael09
INSTAGRAM: seanmichaelpics
Have a chance to win an ecopy of “Golden”.
Leave a comment to enter !
That’s a beauttiful cover, Sean. I did not read the first version, but I hope to read this one!
Isn’t it a gorgeous cover? And Thank you!
Something jumped out at me in the character’s dialogue: “Happy July”. Nobody in America says that. It’s “Happy 4th of July”, the only holiday I know of that is known simply by it’s date instead of what the holiday actually is about, which is Independence Day. We Americans can be strange with our version of the English language, but no one would ever just say “Happy July”. Do people say, “Happy Summer?” or “Happy Tuesday “? Not usually, lol. Otherwise the excerpt sounds interesting.
*grins* Actually, they really do mean Happy July – that’s usually when they would be gearing up for the Olympics in past years. So that’s actually what they’re referencing
Congrats on the re-release of Golden, Sean. The cover is beautiful. I love sports romances, so this one will definitely go on my TBR list.
Thank you very much!
Love the cover and the blurb! Sounds like a great read. Thank you for the excerpt and chance ro wina copy.
you’re welcome – and thank you 🙂
This sounds like a great story and I love that cover!
thank you very much 🙂
Since Sean is a Canadian we’ll have to forgive him for the ‘Happy July’ slip. Since his books are always filled with romance, this won’t be difficult for me! I’m so looking forward to reading this one. If it is anywhere as good as his ‘Chess’ series (which was my introduction to mmm’s…hmmm hmmm good) I’ll just keep on reading!
Thank you for the defense – they actually did mean Happy July as that’s when they’d be ramping up to the Olympics in past years. I can see where the confusion might come in, though.
And thank you! I hope you like this one 🙂
Ah, so it’s an Olympics thing then. Duly noted! I know zilch about professional, or amateur/Olympic sports, so I absolutely like learning new things. Figured it was something plot-related since both characters say the same thing. Being American, it just seemed so close to how we say, “Happy Fourth of July”.
I need this book ob my life! The more Sean Michael goodness, the better for me xx
*hugs* Thank you 🙂
Swimboys are yummy, can’t wait!
thank you!
Can his old coach turn things around for the fading swimmer? Can love make a difference?
love can always make a difference 😉
Would love to win a ebook copy of this book. Thanks for the chance.
you’re welcome 🙂
Congrats on the re-release! it looks fantastic. I haven’t read many stories involving the Olympics or Olympic driven characters .
Thank you! I seem to write Olympic swimmers every four years… *grins* I have one halfway done that I started this past summer. Unfortunately I had to put it aside for deadline stuff
Great scene, thank you for sharing and good luck on the re-release!
I love the cover and need to read the book.
Congrats on the re-release. I must have missed the first time around.
I think it’s a really interesting premise looking at what happens after you hit a pinnacle so young.
Congrats on a beautiful cover!