West Coast Love

Journey to the Heart #3

by Tif Marcelo

Publication Date: December 11, 2017

Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks | Books-a- Million

Online food blogger Victoria Aquino has spent years doing social media for True North and Paraiso Retreats, and she’s ready to take her blog and writing to the next level. But after she was catfished and suffered a heartbreak, she’s clamoring for change. She auditions for and accepts a food host opportunity: covering the Labor Day holiday BBQ festivals along the California coast. For eight days, she’ll travel with a producer and a camera and sound person, in a vintage—and rickety—RV, and she’ll get her very first byline as a video journalist. The only catch? She can’t stand BBQ. And the cameraman also auditioned for the job. Joel Silva is a cameraman with his own past and big dreams of his own, and when he finds out that the job he auditioned for went to Victoria—a woman he’d gotten to know covering Paraiso Retreats, and someone he later slept with—he’s understandably furious and curious. Joel knows the BBQ circuit like the back of his hand, and he now has to help Victoria do her job amidst their growing attraction. When the producer picks up on their push/pull vibe and increases the ante to feature both in front of the camera with the best host taking the next cross-country feature, the two have to decide: is their blossoming romance something that should be left to fizzle along with BBQ season? Or is it the beginning of something even more delicious?

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2ggSS4E

EXCERPT

Joel

“I’ve got a lot on my mind.” I turn up the radio volume. “’Love in an Elevator.’ This is a good one.” I laugh when her face scrunches down like she bit into something sour. Too damn cute.

“Don’t tell me you’re not an Aerosmith fan either. Then again, you don’t have to love them to appreciate their success—they have sold over a hundred and fifty million albums.”

She shrugs. “They scream the entire time.” She bites on her bottom lip as she thinks. “Okay, I admit it. I liked the collab they did with Run-D.M.C. But, yeah, that’s it.”

A grin pulls at my lips. These small nuggets about Victoria have made these rough couple of days bearable. I’ve learned the she’s not afraid to jump right in to solve a problem and that she can’t go long without having a conversation. And I’m not going to lie—the fact that she can start a fire kind of turns me on, even if nothing can ever become of us. “You like Run-D.M.C., Miss Classical Music?” I point at the phone perched on the dashboard, at the screen that reads Mandolin Concerto in C major.

“Vivaldi. Surprised?” When I nod, she leans her head back on the headrest so she’s titled upward slightly, and a veil of a smile graces her lips. Her profile is lit by the sun behind her, and damn, she is a sight.

About Tif Marcelo

Tif believes in and writes about heart-eyes romance, the strength of families, and the endurance of friendship. A veteran Army Nurse with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Master of Public Administration, she is a craft enthusiast, food-lover and the occasional half- marathon runner. As a military spouse, she has moved nine times, and this adventure shows in some of her free-spirited characters. Tif currently lives in the DC area with her own real life military hero and four children.