Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Ask Me
    Ask Me
    Ask Me
    Ebook73 pages56 minutes

    Ask Me

    By Laura Strickland

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Alone on Valentine’s Day, Leo Rankin attends the library’s Blind Date With a Book event hoping for something he can take to bed with him that night, and finds himself competing against Gerri Webb for the last remaining book. Wild child Gerri is not his usual type. Yet he feels an immediate, sizzling attraction and agrees to share the book and its accompanying bag of candy hearts. The whole idea of a Blind Date With a Book is to go off genre, so Gerri doesn’t mind when their flirty conversation suggests they unwrap each other rather than the mystery book. When a candy heart advises, “Ask Me,” she asks Leo back to her apartment. She never expects button-down Leo to hit all her buttons, but by the next morning she fears her heart’s in danger. Can one night spent off genre translate to real life?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe Wild Rose Press
    Release dateFeb 3, 2016
    ISBN9781509202874
    Ask Me
    Author

    Laura Strickland

    Born and raised in Western New York, Laura Strickland has been an avid reader and writer since childhood. Embracing her mother's heritage, she pursued a lifelong interest in Celtic lore, legend and music, all reflected in her writing. She has made pilgrimages to both Newfoundland and Scotland in the company of her daughter, but is usually happiest at home not far from Lake Ontario, with her husband and her "fur" child, a rescue dog. She practices gratitude every day.

    Read more from Laura Strickland

    Related to Ask Me

    Related ebooks

    Contemporary Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Falling In Love, By The Book

      May 18, 2021

      Falling In Love, By The Book
      4 min read

    • Article

      All Our Hidden Gifts

      May 28, 2021

      All Our Hidden Gifts
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Reader

      May 1, 2020

      The Reader
      5 min read

    • Article

      A new CHAPTER

      Jul 29, 2020

      A new CHAPTER
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Mr Darcy MYSTERY

      Nov 23, 2022

      The Mr Darcy MYSTERY
      6 min read

    • Article

      La Bohème

      Mar 1, 2022

      ON A SATURDAY or Sunday afternoon in the cold early months of 1988, I sat alone at a table for two in a Greenwich Village diner, twenty-four years old, hopelessly young, my notebook open in front of me. At the table next to mine were three people, al

      13 min read

    • Article

      You Can’t Judge A Book By Its Cover

      Jan 25, 2024

      GOOD NOVELS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN heavily buffeted in the marketplace of ideas. “Many books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered,” said W.H. Auden, who had clearly never heard of Wuthering Heights. So it’s natural — essential — for

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Shanthi Sekaran

      Dec 19, 2017

      You know when your friend writes a play or belts out a song or makes a working beehive out of marzipan and you’re like, “Oh, good God”? I read most of this novel sitting stick-straight, my mouth agape, quietly cursing. The post A Year in Reading: Sha

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Rachel Yoder

      Dec 10, 2020

      But then, March. Then, my child’s kindergarten teacher says to me, “I don’t know if we’re ever coming back.” And we didn’t. We never went back. I kept reading, but it got weirder, or maybe I did. The post A Year in Reading: Rachel Yoder appeared fir

      3 min read

    • Article

      PRESENCE Tense!

      Jan 12, 2020

      This feels like the wrong season to read a ghost story, as they somehow seem to belong in cold, dark places. But this one kicks off during the famously long, hot UK summer of 1976 and is no less atmospheric for it. The Corvino family is renting Iron

      2 min read

    • Article

      Spooky Storyteller

      Oct 5, 2022

      Spooky Storyteller
      2 min read

    • Article

      Shelve This in Memoir: Confessions of a Teenage Bookseller

      Sep 5, 2022

      I’d begged my way into this job in the hopes that it might lead me closer to a literary life. And it would. Eventually. The post Shelve This in Memoir: Confessions of a Teenage Bookseller appeared first on The Millions.

      10 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      May 1, 2023

      One day the Internet will be gone.The lights will blink off.Buildings will be only the outline of their foundations,then those too will turn to dust.The gods give you fire:you put it in your heartand walk forward.Heat and pain. Dim light, long shadow

      3 min read

    • Article

      Read At Your Peril!

      Apr 15, 2024

      With magical books, travel to amazing places, a mysterious hidden library and an epic battle against evil, this fantasy thriller ticks a lot of boxes. There were things I didn’t love about it – in particular the level of brutal violence – but it’s b

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Book Lover

      Jun 29, 2021

      The Book Lover
      6 min read

    • Article

      Karl Geary: ‘I Was Writing Out Of Confusion And Horror, Rage And Love’

      Mar 25, 2023

      Before making his literary debut in 2017 with Montpelier Parade, Irish-born novelist Karl Geary spent more than two decades acting and screenwriting, with credits including Coney Island Baby (starring his wife-to-be, Breaking Bad’s Laura Fraser), The

      4 min read

    • Article

      ‘Out With The Bins’

      Mar 5, 2023

      ‘Out With The Bins’
      5 min read

    • Article

      Beetlemania

      Oct 9, 2020

      Beetlemania
      4 min read

    • Article

      Child’s PLAY

      Jun 2, 2020

      Child’s PLAY
      6 min read

    • Article

      Reading CORNER

      Jan 15, 2023

      It’s time to kick back and lose yourself in romance Light and frothy reading is often called for at this time of year, as we relax as much as possible. Modelled on Lucinda Riley’s Seven Sisters series, this book definitely fits the bill. It’s the fir

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Monica Heisey

      Dec 5, 2022

      Monica Heisey reflects on 2022 through the books she read. The post A Year in Reading: Monica Heisey appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Ask Me

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Ask Me - Laura Strickland

      Inc.

      Be a gentleman, the black-haired woman told Leo, and let me have the book. She already had her library card out, clutched in her other hand.

      Why don’t you share it? the clerk suggested impishly. See what happens.

      The black-haired woman laughed a bit nervously. Before Leo could speak, the clerk snatched the library card from her hand and wanded the book. There you go. Oh, and every book comes with a little bag of candy hearts. Have a happy Valentine’s Day.

      Leo frowned and snatched the small red bag the clerk pushed across the counter at him. Elsewhere in the building, lights dimmed. They had little choice but to leave.

      Yet the woman still clutched her side of the book.

      Who gets to take it home? she asked.

      Leo smiled suddenly. Pretty ridiculous to be negotiating over an unknown book for company tonight, isn’t it?

      Pitiful, she agreed.

      Leo hesitated, impulse nibbling at him once again. He could suggest they get a coffee or a drink together. Sure, she was a far cry from the kind of woman he usually dated, almost diametrically opposed. But it beat being alone, right?

      She gave him a provocative look. Maybe the candy hearts hold the answer to who gets the book first. She dug into the bag in his hand to draw forth a single heart, and Leo saw her fingernails were painted black. She opened her palm with the heart on it, words facing upward.

      Ask Me, Leo read. Well, then. He drew a breath. Want to go somewhere for coffee?

      Praise for Laura Strickland

      The world building is phenomenal.

      ~Daysie W. at My Book Addiction and More

      ~*~

      Laura Strickland creates a world that not only draws you in, but she incorporates it…seamlessly. …the kind of book that keeps you awake well into the wee hours, and sighing with satisfaction when you've finished the very last page.

      ~Nicole McCaffrey, author

      ~*~

      As I read I became so involved with the story, I found it difficult to put down the book. …Definitely …an author to watch.

      ~Dandelion at Long & Short Reviews

      Other Books by Laura Strickland

      available from The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

      Dead Handsome: A Buffalo Steampunk Adventure

      Off Kilter: A Buffalo Steampunk Adventure

      Devil Black

      His Wicked Highland Ways

      Daughter of Sherwood

      Champion of Sherwood

      Lord of Sherwood

      The White Gull

      ~*~

      Christmas Stories:

      Mrs. Claus and the Viking Ship

      The Tenth Suitor

      Ask Me

      by

      Laura Strickland

      A Candy Hearts Romance

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

      Ask Me

      COPYRIGHT © 2016 by Laura Strickland

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

      Contact Information: info@thewildrosepress.com

      Cover Art by RJ Morris

      The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

      PO Box 708

      Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

      Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

      Publishing History

      First Champagne Rose Edition, 2016

      Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-0287-4

      A Candy Hearts Romance

      Published in the United States of America

      Chapter One

      The sign in front of the library on Waterbury Street lured Leo Rankin in out of the cold February night, only minutes before closing time.

      BLIND DATE WITH A BOOK

      His wire-rimmed glasses steamed up in the warm air of the library; he blinked and pulled them off. Patrons streamed toward the exits in ones and twos, arms piled with books and DVDs. The impulse that had brought him in wavered; he didn’t usually follow impulses, even his own. But the sign intrigued him and, anyway, if he could think of one thing worse than spending the evening of Valentine’s Day alone, it would be doing so with nothing to read.

      He straightened the lapels of his coat, polished the specs on his sleeve, and made for the circulation desk. The clerk on duty, clad in red and wearing a heart-shaped pendant, smiled at him.

      Happy Valentine’s Day!

      Same to you. Leo tucked his briefcase under his arm. May I ask how the ‘Blind Date With a Book’ works?

      The clerk gestured to a nook nearby, which had been set up with a number of comfortable chairs and a bookshelf, now nearly bare.

      "You choose one of our wrapped books. You’re not allowed to unwrap it till you get it home, and there are no hints about the plot, storyline, or even the genre. The idea is to

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1