It is 1994. Our junior lawyer narrator leaves behind a small, mean and viciously circular life representing petty criminals and takes to the road.
'East-A Novel'
by
Peri Hoskins
 
East takes in sunsets; rain in the desert; a five-year-old girl on a bike; a battered former thief and jockey; old-timers; young lovers; beautiful women, and aboriginals in public bars. The open road connects many vignettes making a rich tapestry of human encounters.
East is poignant, gritty, funny, sad and above all: human. Hoskins’ laconic prose captures the harsh, arid country in all its big, empty beauty along with quirky exchanges with strangers, travel buddies, shop assistants, workmates, and friends old and new. A journey without and within, East taps into the spiritual realm that lies beneath this land and its people.
 Leaving
The bonnet in front of me is big and white. Rain on the windscreen – the wipers sweep it away. The clouds are grey, the road is grey, the suburbs are grey and I am leaving. There is joy in that. I’m leaving it behind – a life – small, petty, viciously circular. Out in front is the road and I don’t know where it will end. I am free. I’m almost young.
A beginning. Renewal pulses in my blood, pumping out from my heart, through my veins, feeding me, making me new again, a keenly conscious being reaching out to the uncertainty. This road will lead me to places that I have not seen – to people I have not met. There’s no place I have to be and no time I have to be there.I drive on and on leaving the city far behind. The rain clears. Sunlight glints on wet grass and trees. I see farmhouses, fences and cows. The gnawing in my belly eases as I’m gently enveloped by the freedom of the great mystery now upon me. The shackles of the old life fall away, for I’m shedding a skin – dry, worn, old and scaly. I found the courage to step into the dream. And the dream has become real. The life of a suburban lawyer is behind me. Small decisions. Small repetitions. Which tie to wear today. Pay the electricity bill. Sunday – iron five shirts for the week ahead. See the same people. Say the same things. Hear the same things said. In that life I wondered whether I had it better than the petty criminals I represented in court. Some had no job and no home. They pleaded guilty and I said what I could say, for something had to be said. And then the court, that street-sweeper of humanity, tidied them away. For there must be a place – there must be somewhere for them to go: a prison, a halfway house, a drug rehab centre. There must be a place for everyone – somewhere. These people had fallen through cracks and become untidy. Did they envy my tidy life, those that I helped to tidy away? Did they see my life as I saw it – not a tidy life, but a tidy prison? Tidiness. I had been taught to lead a tidy life. What was it they had said – the teachers, the headmasters? Work hard at school. Get a good job. Be a good employee. Pay your taxes. Mow your lawns. Be a good neighbour. Be a good citizen. Lead a tidy life. Not a full life, a varied life, a great life – no, a tidy life of small neat circles. I have lived thirty years. As the trees and houses and petrol stations whistle by, the reasons for leaving once again crowd my mind. At thirty, life no longer stretches out before me like an uncharted great ocean. If I live to be eighty, more than one third of my life is spent. Where am I? At a time of life when I’m supposed to be somewhere – I’m nowhere I ever wanted to be. I’ll taste the last drops of youth before the cup passes from my lips, forever. The familiar yearning claws at my insides again – but it’s different now – it’s happy knowing I have been true to it – finally. The yearning … a murmur in a corner of my soul ... that’s how it started … a couple of years ago ... I pushed it away. I was busy; there were things to do. It kept coming back, stronger and stronger: a growing gnawing that would not be denied. The day I turned thirty, I came to know what it was, finally. It was the feeling of having missed my destiny. At one of life’s important junctures, I don’t know when or where, I’d taken the wrong turn. So maybe that’s what it is: a journey back down life’s highway to try and find the turn I missed. A journey to reconnect with who I am and what I should be doing here – in this life. Did I ever really want to be a lawyer? Maybe I did it because my father didn’t finish law school. Maybe I did it for him, and not for me. Didn’t have the courage to find my destiny and follow it … settled for safety and caution. And the small repetitions of the safe life had closed in and were suffocating me. Don’t know if that’s what it is … I had to go – I know that much … it was the most honest thing I could do. And now it’s real: this journey with no end and no decided route. It’s a big country. Yeah, I’ll head east ... And in my travels maybe I’ll find something of the soul of this land and its people ... I have been at the wheel for four hours. The muscular movements needed to keep the car on course have become automatic. My thoughts drift freely now, first to the future – new, pregnant with possibility – before anchoring in my childhood. I recall a long-buried idea – from a time of wonder at a world full of possibilities. As a child I thought I could see into people, a kind of second sight. Memories flow into my mind – sharp, clear, focused. I see things now as I saw things then. I am a small boy sitting in the passenger seat of a car. My father is driving. We approach an intersection. A policeman is standing in the middle directing traffic. He signals the car in front to stop. The policeman fascinates me – his neat blue uniform, high black boots, long white gloves – his precise hand signals. He makes cars stop and go by moving his hands like the man who made the puppets move at the fairground. The gloved hands move and the cars obey, crossing the intersection, slowly and respectfully passing the uniformed man. From above I hear the noise of a plane. In the eye of my mind as a child I see the silver wings and fuselage. The policeman’s eyes turn skyward to the plane I see clearly in the window of my imagination. The officer’s long-gloved hands slowly fall to rest at his heavy belt. Cars bank up at the intersection. The driver in front looks at him for directions but he gives none. Unconscious of the traffic, his attention is focused in the sky above. The face of the policeman loses form and I see into him. First I feel his discomfort in the hot uniform, the dryness in his throat and the tiredness behind his eyes. Gradually my perception deepens. I sense the numbed heart, the thwarted ambitions – the hopes and dreams unrealized and gone awry. He doesn’t want to be here, directing traffic. The past has cheated him. He is disconnected from the present and fearful of the future. A car horn honks from behind. A driver doesn’t know why the traffic is not moving. The policeman’s eyes return to the traffic, his arms snapping up with military precision. As he waves us on, the look of purpose clothes his face once again and the moment of seeing into him has passed. The second sight would come to me without warning and always just for a fleeting moment or two. I would see my mother trying to hide an emotion or catch my father unguarded, looking into the distance. In the moment of second sight the physical would melt – the body become transparent and amorphous. Instead of seeing the person I would see into the person – reach inside to the heart, sense the fears, touch the dreams – see the humanity, raw and struggling. Want To Sample More? Click Here! 
5 Stars Across The Board
A winner!To be honest; ‘East’ is not the kind of book that I typically read. I am more used to Zombies taking over the world and all kinds of science fiction. I read ‘East’ in an attempt to diversify. I am glad that I did. There were no Zombies, no alien attacks, but instead; I was presented with the story of a lawyer in Australia who walked out on his old life and started a new one. He has adventures; some good, some bad as he travels across the country. Hoskins writes with a brutal honesty that brings the character to life. After reading this book, I felt like I had an “insider’s view” into what life was like for some folks in Australia in the mid-90’s. That is the whole purpose of reading; isn’t it? To get into other character’s lives and to experience things you would otherwise have no clue about. Hoskins does a masterful job of drawing you in to his world with vivid descriptions and a detailed insight of the character’s observations as he travels from big cities to remote locations. It wasn’t an easy journey; but it certainly was entertaining!
~By Ken Gusler
Once again, as with Hoskins’ other book, Millennium, I was not disappointed. The novel, East, has something of a Kerouac and Cormac McCarthy feel to it; a tone that suits the on the road style journey that the main character, Vince, takes. East is refreshingly honest in its commentary about society’s foibles, life, the people Vince meets (themselves on their own journeys) and Vince’s own reasons for self-exploration. In some ways, the characters Vince meets along the way are a perfect foil for Vince's reflection; themselves giving the reader greater insight, not just into humanity, but also into Vince himself (and, dare I say it - ourselves). Through his travels, we learn more about Vince’s life and the need to connect with his father, seek approval; and in doing so, find some form of self-acceptance within a society that is quick to identify and perhaps vilify, the “other”. Hoskins’ ability to capture the humanity in the characters he writes of, some of them less than sympathetic in personality, prevents the personalities that populate East, from existing as caricatures secondary to the main character, Vince’s, own journey. East will make you think, smile, laugh, gasp, shake your head and reflect upon your own attitude to yourself and your place in the world around you. Oh, and the moment with his father – perfect. I thoroughly recommend this novel.
~By Kate 'griz' Pill
Excellent writing and an awesome book.
I loved this book it made me want to pack up my truck and take an adventure like the author Peri's character Vince did. I really enjoyed this book set in Australia in the style of Jack Kerouac On the Road. The author Peri paints a picture of a dissatisfied lawyer, named Vince who decides to pack up his car and head east for new adventures. He comes across many interesting characters each impacting his life in their own ways. He's 30 years old and searching for his life's purpose after leaving his promising career in law. He sets off on his soul searching journey to find himself and gets entwined in the lives of the supporting characters. Staying with friends, youth hostels, and camping he finds his nomadic journey to become a spiritual quest and opens himself to whatever is meant to be. I felt invested in Vince as the main character and I wanted him to find his life's purpose and happiness. I highly recommend this wonderful book especially if you're a traveller or are ready for a new adventure.
?~By Jsack
I couldn't put it down. The way in which Vince's experiences are delivered is morishly unique; both unsettlingly raw and yet comfortingly nonjudgmental. Peri Hoskins drew me into the life of his protagonist with humble mastery.
~By Teresa Herleth
Read All The Reviews! Click Here!
 Who Is Peri Hoskins?Peri Hoskins is the author of 'Millennium – A Memoir’, a travelogue memoir that has received many five star reader reviews. Christopher Moore of the New Zealand Listener had this to say about ‘Millennium – A Memoir’: 'Written with perhaps the merest of bows to Joseph Conrad and Robert Louis Stevenson, the book’s colourful cast of characters come together to greet the dawn of the 21st century. It’s a vigorously written sly-humoured account of human encounters in a small place lapped by the tides of change…It’s a genial well observed book that insinuates itself into the affections.’
~Christopher Moore, New Zealand Listener, 2 August 2014.
Peri Hoskins was born in Wellington, New Zealand. He is the second son of a family of five children, four boys and a girl. He is of mixed Maori and Anglo-Celtic ancestry. Peri grew up in Whangarei, Northland, New Zealand, a provincial city then home to about 30,000 people. He was educated at Whangarei Boys’ High School where he twice won a national essay competition. After completing high school and winning the school prizes for English, History and Geography, Peri went to Auckland University where he studied law and the humanities, including history and English literature.Peri was substantially based in Australia between 1985 and 2005. He completed his study of law and the humanities at the University of Sydney including several courses in philosophy. He worked as a lawyer in New South Wales before embarking on a 1995 five-month road trip all around Australia. This road trip comprises the material for his soon to be published second book, East. Peri subsequently worked as a lawyer in both New South Wales and Queensland, and developed his current specialisation in legal work – civil litigation. In December 1999 Peri travelled to the Kingdom of Tonga to be in the first country in the world to see in the new millennium. The diary of his three weeks in Tonga has become his first book, Millennium – A Memoir. In 2004 Peri completed a post graduate diploma in film and television production at Queensland University of Technology. Peri now lives, writes and works as a barrister (being a self-employed lawyer) in Northland, New Zealand.
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It’s December 1999, the cusp of a new millennium. The tiny Pacific Kingdom of Tonga will be first in the world to usher it in. We travel there with our narrator to see the sun set on the old and the dawn rise on the new. We discover much more.
In a time and place of old customs we see the gentle advance of the new. This Pacific paradise is home to a diverse group of human beings at this unique time. Our journey with our narrator through many human exchanges – quirky, funny, and sad – accompanied by quotes from Hindu scripture echoes through the millennia and asks us what it is to be human in these dark times. This book constantly entertains and delves beneath a fascinating surface to examine the quality of our age. Millennium – A Memoir is a novella-sized slice of life travelogue of about 25,000 words. In capturing the time and the place this book evokes the work of Ernest Hemingway.
Get Millennium Here>>books2read.com/millennium
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East-A Novel
By Peri Hoskions
Preorder Now
End of August Release
‘About ‘East – A Novel'
It’s 1994. Junior lawyer, Vince Osbourne, leaves behind a small, mean and viciously circular life in the city representing petty criminals and takes to the road. He’s lived 30 years. The wide continent of Australia is out in front. He’s almost young. Where will the road lead?
East takes in sunsets; rain in the desert; a five-year-old girl on a bike; a battered former thief and jockey; old-timers; young lovers; beautiful women, and aboriginals in public bars. The open road connects many vignettes making a rich tapestry of human encounters.
East is poignant, gritty, funny, sad and above all: human. Hoskins’ laconic prose captures the harsh, arid country in all its big, empty beauty along with quirky exchanges with strangers, travel buddies, shop assistants, workmates, and friends old and new. A journey without and within, East taps into the spiritual realm that lies beneath this land and its people.
(#travel & Adventure, #Travel, #Aus, #RPBP, #preorder, #ebook, #NewRelease)
~Pre-release review~
A Journey of Self Discovery
This intriguing book is based on the author’s personal memoirs and although it is described as fiction it feels very, very real.
Vince has reached a stage at 30 when he wants to break free from a life that seems to be suffocating him. He has been working as a junior lawyer but needs to do something different and this book tells of his travels towards the East of Australia.
His journey draws you along with him as he discovers himself and realises that he can achieve so much more than he previously thought possible. He settles in places with people from his past that he sees in a new light, along with their prejudices.
Then there are the long and testing journeys across the deserts of Australia, meeting a fascinating mix of people along the way. Vince’s observations on the Aboriginal people, being of Maori origin himself, are extremely revealing. The back breaking work he takes on in a mine, to earn some extra money, couldn’t be further removed from his previous work as a lawyer.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys travel writing and journeys of self-discovery. ~Robert Fear 8.10.16
~Enjoy Chapter One From East~
Leaving
The bonnet in front of me is big and white. Rain on the windscreen – the wipers sweep it away. The clouds are grey, the road is grey, the suburbs are grey and I am leaving. There is joy in that. I’m leaving it behind – a life – small, petty, viciously circular. Out in front is the road and I don’t know where it will end. I am free. I’m almost young.A beginning. Renewal pulses in my blood, pumping out from my heart, through my veins, feeding me, making me new again, a keenly conscious being reaching out to the uncertainty. This road will lead me to places that I have not seen – to people I have not met. There’s no place I have to be and no time I have to be there. I drive on and on leaving the city far behind. The rain clears. Sunlight glints on wet grass and trees. I see farmhouses, fences and cows. The gnawing in my belly eases as I’m gently enveloped by the freedom of the great mystery now upon me. The shackles of the old life fall away, for I’m shedding a skin – dry, worn, old and scaly. I found the courage to step into the dream. And the dream has become real. The life of a suburban lawyer is behind me. Small decisions. Small repetitions. Which tie to wear today. Pay the electricity bill. Sunday – iron five shirts for the week ahead. See the same people. Say the same things. Hear the same things said. In that life I wondered whether I had it better than the petty criminals I represented in court. Some had no job and no home. They pleaded guilty and I said what I could say, for something had to be said. And then the court, that street-sweeper of humanity, tidied them away. For there must be a place – there must be somewhere for them to go: a prison, a halfway house, a drug rehab centre. There must be a place for everyone – somewhere. These people had fallen through cracks and become untidy. Did they envy my tidy life, those that I helped to tidy away? Did they see my life as I saw it – not a tidy life, but a tidy prison? Tidiness. I had been taught to lead a tidy life. What was it they had said – the teachers, the headmasters? Work hard at school. Get a good job. Be a good employee. Pay your taxes. Mow your lawns. Be a good neighbour. Be a good citizen. Lead a tidy life. Not a full life, a varied life, a great life – no, a tidy life of small neat circles. I have lived thirty years. As the trees and houses and petrol stations whistle by, the reasons for leaving once again crowd my mind. At thirty, life no longer stretches out before me like an uncharted great ocean. If I live to be eighty, more than one third of my life is spent. Where am I? At a time of life when I’m supposed to be somewhere – I’m nowhere I ever wanted to be. I’ll taste the last drops of youth before the cup passes from my lips, forever. The familiar yearning claws at my insides again – but it’s different now – it’s happy knowing I have been true to it – finally. The yearning … a murmur in a corner of my soul ... that’s how it started … a couple of years ago ... I pushed it away. I was busy; there were things to do. It kept coming back, stronger and stronger: a growing gnawing that would not be denied. The day I turned thirty, I came to know what it was, finally. It was the feeling of having missed my destiny. At one of life’s important junctures, I don’t know when or where, I’d taken the wrong turn. So maybe that’s what it is: a journey back down life’s highway to try and find the turn I missed. A journey to reconnect with who I am and what I should be doing here – in this life. Did I ever really want to be a lawyer? Maybe I did it because my father didn’t finish law school. Maybe I did it for him, and not for me. Didn’t have the courage to find my destiny and follow it … settled for safety and caution. And the small repetitions of the safe life had closed in and were suffocating me. Don’t know if that’s what it is … I had to go – I know that much … it was the most honest thing I could do. And now it’s real: this journey with no end and no decided route. It’s a big country. Yeah, I’ll head east ... And in my travels maybe I’ll find something of the soul of this land and its people ... I have been at the wheel for four hours. The muscular movements needed to keep the car on course have become automatic. My thoughts drift freely now, first to the future – new, pregnant with possibility – before anchoring in my childhood. I recall a long-buried idea – from a time of wonder at a world full of possibilities. As a child I thought I could see into people, a kind of second sight. Memories flow into my mind – sharp, clear, focused. I see things now as I saw things then. I am a small boy sitting in the passenger seat of a car. My father is driving. We approach an intersection. A policeman is standing in the middle directing traffic. He signals the car in front to stop. The policeman fascinates me – his neat blue uniform, high black boots, long white gloves – his precise hand signals. He makes cars stop and go by moving his hands like the man who made the puppets move at the fairground. The gloved hands move and the cars obey, crossing the intersection, slowly and respectfully passing the uniformed man. From above I hear the noise of a plane. In the eye of my mind as a child I see the silver wings and fuselage. The policeman’s eyes turn skyward to the plane I see clearly in the window of my imagination. The officer’s long-gloved hands slowly fall to rest at his heavy belt. Cars bank up at the intersection. The driver in front looks at him for directions but he gives none. Unconscious of the traffic, his attention is focused in the sky above. The face of the policeman loses form and I see into him. First I feel his discomfort in the hot uniform, the dryness in his throat and the tiredness behind his eyes. Gradually my perception deepens. I sense the numbed heart, the thwarted ambitions – the hopes and dreams unrealized and gone awry. He doesn’t want to be here, directing traffic. The past has cheated him. He is disconnected from the present and fearful of the future. A car horn honks from behind. A driver doesn’t know why the traffic is not moving. The policeman’s eyes return to the traffic, his arms snapping up with military precision. As he waves us on, the look of purpose clothes his face once again and the moment of seeing into him has passed. The second sight would come to me without warning and always just for a fleeting moment or two. I would see my mother trying to hide an emotion or catch my father unguarded, looking into the distance. In the moment of second sight the physical would melt – the body become transparent and amorphous. Instead of seeing the person I would see into the person – reach inside to the heart, sense the fears, touch the dreams – see the humanity, raw and struggling. 
~About The Author~
Christopher Moore of the New Zealand Listener had this to say about ‘Millennium – A Memoir’: 'Written with perhaps the merest of bows to Joseph Conrad and Robert Louis Stevenson, the book’s colourful cast of characters come together to greet the dawn of the 21st century. It’s a vigorously written sly-humoured account of human encounters in a small place lapped by the tides of change…It’s a genial well observed book that insinuates itself into the affections.’
~Christopher Moore, New Zealand Listener, 2 August 2014.
Peri Hoskins was born in Wellington, New Zealand. He is the second son of a family of five children, four boys and a girl. He is of mixed Maori and Anglo-Celtic ancestry. Peri grew up in Whangarei, Northland, New Zealand, a provincial city then home to about 30,000 people. He was educated at Whangarei Boys’ High School where he twice won a national essay competition. After completing high school and winning the school prizes for English, History and Geography, Peri went to Auckland University where he studied law and the humanities, including history and English literature. Peri was substantially based in Australia between 1985 and 2005. He completed his study of law and the humanities at the University of Sydney including several courses in philosophy. He worked as a lawyer in New South Wales before embarking on a 1994 five-month road trip all around Australia. This road trip comprises the material for his soon to be published second book, East. Peri subsequently worked as a lawyer in both New South Wales and Queensland, and developed his current specialisation in legal work – civil litigation. In December 1999 Peri travelled to the Kingdom of Tonga to be in the first country in the world to see in the new millennium. The diary of his three weeks in Tonga has become his first book, Millennium – A Memoir. In 2004 Peri completed a post graduate diploma in film and television production at Queensland University of Technology.
Peri now lives, writes and works as a barrister (being a self-employed lawyer) in Northland, New Zealand.
You can connect With Peri Hoskins here:
Read an interview with author Peri Hoskins here:
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Heat Level: Spicy
Book Eleven of the Plus Size Romance Series
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Comedy
Interracial and multicultural Romance
Length: 214 pages
Price: $1.99 or Free with Kindle Unlimited
Amazon Universal Link: http://hyperurl.co/e9tiup
Amazon US link: http://bit.ly/BrownieBoo2aeoFuh
Author: Lynn Cooper
About The Book
Gina Wilde has her sights set on her hot psychology professor, Dr. Trey Stanton. Despite giving him her most seductive come-hither looks in class and sitting on the front row in skimpy outfits, he doesn’t seem to notice she’s alive. Heck, he probably wouldn’t bat an eyelash even if she balanced a brownie—the scrumptious kind she’s been baking for him all semester—on the tip of her nose while spinning around in a tutu. Nonetheless, she will not be deterred. With a relentless stubbornness, she’s determined to crack his stuffy, stoic exterior and worm her way into his heart.
It kills Trey Stanton to rebuff the beautiful, bubbly sophomore sitting in the front row lustily eyeballing him as if he was her favorite dessert. Although he’s flattered and, in another reality might reciprocate, there’s only one bone-crushingly painful reality. One where he can never again risk his damaged heart. So, no matter how she looks at him with those dark-brown, sultry eyes or how much she crosses and uncrosses those shapely legs or leans forward and reveals the swell of her creamy breasts, he must diligently resist her and her delectable, mouthwatering brownies. Brownie Boo is part of the Plus Size Romance Series. Each book is a standalone with no overlapping characters, storylines or cliffhangers. This series is a perfect combination of romance, steamy love scenes and humor. The stories are sensual and romantic, uplifting and lighthearted. Feel-good reads that leave you feeling great! 
Even if she balanced a brownie on the tip of her nose while spinning around in a tutu, Gina Wilde doubted Trey Stanton would bat an eyelash.
A long, sexy eyelash. For a man, he sure did have dark, luxuriously-thick ones. Of course everything about the thirty-something screamed hotness. The fact that he seemed unaware of his good looks made him all the sexier. He had longish black hair that splayed on his collar and was just starting to show a little gray, which gave him an ultra-distinguished look. His eyes were a soft, sensuous green and kept all of his female students mesmerized whether they were interested in what he was lecturing about or not. Gina was very much interested. She hung on every word passing through those full, kissable lips. Unlike most of her other professors, Dr. Stanton wasn’t stuffy. He didn’t wear shiny, tasseled shoes or suits with bowties. Most days he wore brown, penny loafers, khaki-colored Dockers and a white dress shirt unbuttoned at the collar. He kept the sleeves rolled halfway up his muscular forearms, which kept Gina thinking about how good those arms would feel wrapped around her. To her knowledge, he was available. While students always knew one or two tidbits of gossip about their professors, all anyone seemed to know about him was that his wife had died ten years ago. Other than that, he was a mystery man. And a bear. Gina could tell by the thick tufts of chest hair peeking out at the opening of his shirt. God help her, but she loved a hairy man. Even if a tutu would have grabbed Professor Stanton’s attention, Gina hadn’t worn one since she and her identical twin Tina were eight, performing in Miss Dod’s ballet recital in the O.T. Earl Elementary School auditorium. She wasn’t planning on doing any pliés or pirouettes now; but, she was determined to let her handsome professor know how unhappy she was about a certain situation. Being a big believer in discretion, she hung back and waited for the other students to leave before making her move. As he sat at his desk, putting papers into a briefcase, Gina boldly approached him. Really working her high heels, denim miniskirt and tight, pink T-shirt, she sashayed up to his podium and planted her hand on her hip. “Times up,” she said. Understandably, he looked puzzled, but Gina wasn’t about to back down. Not even when his deep, honey-tinged voice reverberated through the empty classroom nearly buckling her knees. “For what?” “For you to stop acting like an asshole and start behaving like a decent human being.” “I see. Exactly what act of asshole-ishness have I committed, miss?” “Don’t you even pretend you don’t know my name! I’ve been baking brownies and leaving them on your desk this entire semester. Not one damn time have you bothered to say thank you, kiss my ass or anything else. What the hell’s wrong with you?” With a characteristic calm Gina usually found intriguing but, in this moment, was majorly irritating, Dr. Stanton pushed the Tupperware container of brownies across his desk toward her. “Thank you for the brownies, Miss Boo. I’m sure they are delicious, but I don’t need the extra calories. Perhaps you should take this batch back home with you.” Stunned, Gina stood there blinking for a few seconds. When she finally spoke, she hated how weak and disappointed she sounded. “You didn’t even try one?” “No offense, but I usually don’t eat things prepared by people I don’t know.” “I’ve been in your class since January.” “You’re being too literal.” “What about restaurants? Don’t tell me you don’t go out to eat.” “Of course I do. But those places are regulated by the Board of Health.” On some level, Gina realized she was being ridiculous. Nothing said the man had to consume or even like her brownies. But she couldn’t help but feel his rejection of her confections was a rejection of her. Which hurt her heart. And, when she was hurt, she got mad. “If you didn’t eat any, what did you do with them?” Dr. Stanton shrugged. “I took them by the homeless shelter. I didn’t want them going to waste, and I knew they would be appreciated there.” Damn him, she couldn’t be upset about that. Helping those less fortunate was a selfless, noble act she greatly respected. For years, she and Tina had volunteered during the summer to build houses with Homes for Habitat, strapping on their tool belts so those who couldn’t afford a place of their own could have one. Even after Tina’s death four years ago, Gina had continued volunteering after school. “Why didn’t you just tell me that?” Instead of letting me make a fool of myself. “I should have. I apologize for my oversight.” Oversight? Just because his clothes weren’t stuffy didn’t mean the man wearing them wasn’t. Sexy-as-hell or not, he was acting like a gigantic prick. She definitely needed to work on her character-judging skills. “Well, you should,” she snapped. Snatching up the Tupperware bowl, Gina whirled and stormed out his classroom. FEELING LIKE THE WORLD’S biggest jerk, along with being just as big a liar, Trey shut his eyes. Inwardly kicking himself, he listened to Gina Wilde’s high heels echoing down the stairs. There was no homeless shelter; he had eaten every single one of her delectable, mouthwatering brownies. Hell, he even had to add an extra hour to his evening exercise routine to burn off the delicious treats. It would probably take him two hours to will away the massive erection he’d kept hidden from her behind his desk. The curvy spitfire was doing things to his body no other woman had for years. It killed him to have to rebuff her like that. But it had to be done. Trey had recognized early on that the beautiful sophomore who sat in the front row lustily eyeballed him as if he was her favorite dessert. So, during class or any other time he had crossed her path, he had gone out of his way not to encourage her. On those many occasions when she yelled out a greeting or waved from across campus, he had pretended not to hear or see her. When he was lecturing and caught her eyes locking intently on his, he would quickly glance down at his notes. The ironic thing was, he found her infatuation flattering. He even let himself be enthralled by the sensuous heat that constantly emanated from her. In another reality, he might have reciprocated. But there was no other reality. Just the bone-crushingly painful one he had many times thought about abandoning altogether. But, since he was still here, he needed to nip this thing with Gina Wilde in the bud. A platonic student-teacher relationship was all he could offer her. Philosophically speaking, while these short-lived dalliances were acceptable at the college level, Trey believed such behavior was reckless. Morally, he had a problem with young, susceptible, vulnerable females being taken unfair advantage of by someone older, wiser and in a position of authority. Psychologically speaking, college women were just beginning to blossom. To find out who they were and what they wanted from life. To his way of thinking, that meant discovering those things in the company of males their own age. Guys who were also in the first, full blush of adulthood. He wanted that for Gina. Such a sexy, vibrant female needed youth and vitality and newness in her world—not cynicism and brokenness and memories of a misery too deep to be overcome. Still, he couldn’t help but smile when he thought of the note she always attached to the Tupperware lid: Dr. Stanton, may your week be filled with laughter and love. Yours truly, Brownie Boo. Her nickname was every bit as cute as she was. Any red-blooded male would be attracted to such a sensual combination of womanly body and youthful, innocent exuberance. Including him. That was the best reason of all to keep Gina at arm’s length. For the first time since losing his wife in the tragic accident that had destroyed his world, his body had begun involuntarily responding to another woman. During the last decade, he had felt nothing more than a defeated numbness inside. The hollowness of being an empty shell. Blood flowed through him, but it was cool and placid. He breathed in and out and put one foot in front of the other because they were habits. Merely part of a routine which made up his mundane existence. But now, every time Gina Wilde turned those dark-brown eyes on him or crossed and uncrossed those shapely legs or leaned forward and revealed the swell of her creamy breasts, his cock twitched like a damn divining rod. Because of her, he had spent most of the semester hiding a raging hard-on behind his desk and podium. But his physical reaction to her was of no consequence. Soon enough, her crush would run its course. A young man worthy of her spirit, vivacity and even her temper would come along to turn her head. When that happened she would be extremely grateful her psych professor had behaved like a rude bastard. Besides, her wishing him a week filled with laughter and love just proved how innocent and naïve she really was. At her age, life was still filled with rainbows and roses. She was far too young and optimistic to be tied to a grieving widower. A man who, at the ripe old age of thirty-six, was bitter and viewed life as a cruel trap. One randomly set with heart-wrenching misery for any fool who dared to believe happiness could ever last. There was no need for Gina to ever find out about these purely autonomic responses of his body to hers. Bodies were not hearts. Once those were crushed beyond repair, they were best left to beat in solitary silence. 
About The Author
Lynn Cooper grew up in a small town in South Carolina with big dreams of becoming a ventriloquist. She ordered her first and last dummy from a Sears catalog. It didn’t take her long to realize that she was never going to be able to talk without moving her lips.She got married at the age of twenty-three and worked for a decade in the health field as a surgical technologist and later as a dental assistant. When she grew tired of looking at people’s innards, she decided to give writing a try. As it turns out, she’s pretty good at it. Lynn lives to write plus-size romance. It is her greatest desire to create stories that entertain and provide a sensual escape for all the amazing women who need one. You can connect with Lynn here: Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Lynn-Cooper/e/B00LPX4HGO/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1454551014&sr=8-1 Website: http://www.writesromances.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lynn.cooper.940 Twitter: https://twitter.com/WritesRomances Email: hotromancewriter@gmail.com
It's A Giveaway!!!
Hurry, this giveaway is for a
LIMITED TIME ONLY!
Buy Brownie Boo and get one of the adorable hats hand made by Lynn Cooper herself delivered to your door!
Available to US residents only at this time.
We wish we could offer this internationally, but the cost of shipping outside the US is astronomical:{
What you need to do:
Purchase your copy of Brownie Boo by Lynn Cooper, send her the proof of purchase by email to hotromancewriter@gmail.com
~ Subject: Boggan Giveaway
But Wait, we aren't done yet.....
To make up for not being able to offer a hand made hat to you fans outside the US, Lynn is offering up a free eBook to all international purchasers!
What you need to do:
Purchase your copy of Brownie Boo by Lynn Cooper, send her the proof of purchase by email to hotromancewriter@gmail.com ~ Subject: Licorice Lass Giveaway.
She will send an eBook of 'Licorice Lass' to the first three respondents! So get your copy of 'Brownie Boo' and send the proof of purchase to get 'Licorice Lass' for free!
Read about this eBook here: http://hyperurl.co/rid09j
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Photos from Rising Damp, Nelo Hotsuma, Archives New Zealand
