KRISTINE BRIA
You know the beginning of the movie Grease where Sandy and Danny are having their beautiful
romantic innocent fling? The brief relationship that was so beautiful, they each wrote a song
about it? Mine wasn’t like that.
We didn’t have a moment where we locked eyes across a crowded room. We didn’t see each
other standing on the beach. He wasn’t a millionaire trying to woo me with a bottle of
champagne. None of those were even close.
I was at the beach with my sister and some friends. Being hot, young, single girls, we went to
one of those “meat market” clubs that exist for the sole purpose of encouraging sunburned
college students to party. A friend of a friend knew the owner and took us to the second floor of
the club to visit with him in his office. We enjoyed it, mostly because he was a fun guy. I guess
you would have to be to run a joint like that. On the way back down the spiral staircase, I was
the last in line.
I would never describe myself as particularly coordinated. That night was not an exception.
Narrow spiral staircases are tedious even for the graceful, at least that’s what I tell myself.
These steps were a beautiful black cast iron with scrollwork that was all but imprinted on my
backside as I slipped and nailed the last three with my rear.
My sister isn’t mean; she just has a wicked sense of humor. Nevermind that this type thing
doesn’t ever happen to her. She had an image to uphold so she kept walking and didn’t look
back. I sat there on the floor of the club in my pale pink mini-skirt stunned, embarrassed, and
alone. While I wondered if 1) I was hurt, and 2) if it was possible to regain my dignity, the crowd
parted for a muscular, tan guy with brown hair and green eyes who leaned down and gently
asked, “Are you okay?”
The consummate gentleman, he helped me off the floor then asked, “Will you dance with me?”
Beautiful, right?
Not when he’s the guy that you and your sister had spent the evening evading because he had
that certain something…that you don’t want in a guy. He wasn’t ugly or impolite. He was just
plain uncool. We didn’t want to be seen with him let alone be with him. And I had no graceful
way out.
Sure, I could’ve blown him off, but I couldn’t have done it with a clean conscience. The guy had
done nothing to deserve any disrespect from me. He had linked himself with the club’s token
klutz. I had no room to judge. So I danced.
Not Quite Home Blurb
Adam’s life is headed south—to the hometown he swore he’d never see again. Adam’s plan is
to head home to settle a pending lawsuit and then get out fast. The last thing he counted on was
falling for sexy Kate Braswell. The slow burn that starts when they meet soon begins to sizzle,
but Kate is putting down roots in the last place he wants to be … how can they build a future?
Newcomer Kristine Bria is pleased to present Not Quite Home, Book 1 of her new contemporary
romance series, Moss Point.
Architect Adam Moultrie’s bad-boy past is catching up with him and his blossoming career.
Inheriting the Moss Point plantation he never wanted, he can’t get rid of it fast enough. Even
though he paid someone to board it up, a local teenager breaks in and gets hurt. Her mom,
Adam’s ex from high school, seizes the opportunity to get revenge on the guy who abandoned
her at the plantation on prom night fifteen years earlier. With a professional partnership in
Portland slipping through his fingers, he heads to his hometown on the Georgia coast to resolve
the lawsuit as quickly as possible.
Kate Braswell gave up everything to open Local Flavor, her coffeehouse showcasing art, but her
builder shatters his leg—and possibly her dreams. Facing bankruptcy and failure, Adam is the
only one who can save her and her shop. He becomes her unlikely hero, but the last thing he
needs is a sexy woman in pink lip-gloss. Kate doesn’t want a man, even smoldering Adam,
regardless of what her hormones say. Still, he can’t keep his hands off the conservative Kate,
using all his bad-boy moves to show her what she’s been missing.
Adam and Kate’s sexual attraction eclipses their attempts to dodge an affair that neither wants.
She adopts Moss Point while he longs for Portland. His exile is her home, and both must decide
if either can survive a compromise.
About Kristine Bria
Kristine Bria was the annoying teacher’s pet who always made straight As. Sure, she used to
ride to and from school with the principal–it wasn’t her fault they lived next door to each other.
Carpooling made sense. She shared her toys and played well with others. In short, she was a
good girl.
When you have been a good girl, people around you have high expectations of you. Kristine
knows all about how stressful it can be when friends, family, and bosses want different things at
the same time. What do you do? How do you decide? What happens when you don’t (because
you can’t) make everyone happy? There are fabulous stories all around us, and she loves to tell
them.
Kristine also likes to write about who we are in public versus who we are in private. With whom
do we reveal our true selves? Why does someone get to see the real us inside?
Hint: It must be love.
P.S. Kristine is good…but not too good. It turns out she has a bit of a wild streak that likes to
come out and play as Kristi Hancock. Kristi writes erotic novellas where good girls are very, very
bad and bad boys are very, very good.