Guest Blog, Excerpt & Contest: Unfinished Business by Isabella Drake

I grew up in the suburbs outside Detroit but have lived in the country for a while. At the start of my country life, I made the mistakes city people make when they move to the country. Most of these errors were pointed out to me by experienced country folks but I did what most city people do when they’re given advice by country people—I ignored it. The errors were most obvious when I started raising chickens. The up side to these blunders is that they make for good stories at parties and added a lot of humor to my latest novel, Unfinished Business.

Free range eggs! Organic, fresh chicken for dinners! How great does that sound? To someone who’d moved from the city and has no idea what’s involved in raising chickens that sounds fantastic and like a whole lot of fun. After deciding I wanted to raise chickens, I bought some books, went online, and talked to people. Things I learned: how much space each chicken needs, what type of heat lamps are best to keep chicks warm, and the best atmosphere for nesting boxes. One piece of advice I ignored: put the nesting boxes in a cozy, dim corner because hens prefer darkness. That simply didn’t sound right. Surely the hens would appreciate my thinking of their happiness and providing them with a cheerful coop.After weeks of preparations, I brought the chicks home from the feed store and every morning, afternoon, and evening I checked on the adorable baby birds. I fussed over them and let myself be charmed by the silly peeping and the ridiculous way they fall asleep standing up.

It wasn’t until the chicks’ sweet yellow fluff had been replaced by brightly-colored feathers and the birds were old enough to venture out into the yard that my errors became apparent and I learned a few things that are, in retrospect, painfully obvious.

Chickens can and will fly. Right over the fence. My perfectly measured yard? Abandoned. The birds’ favorite place to spend the day was my herb garden, scratching and digging up all the tiny tender seedlings I’d carefully planted earlier that spring.

Something else I learned is that hens really do prefer dim lighting for egg laying. My cute tin nesting boxes, bolted to the wall of the coop in the pretty morning sun–empty. Instead of filling the boxes with eggs, the hens flew off, far away from the coop in search of cozy corners. Where did they find them? In my garage. On top of the trash bins. Or in the barn. Way in the back by the lawn furniture I’d bought at a garage sale years earlier and kept meaning to refinish.

The harshest lesson? Roosters really are mean. They look cute in cartoons and are pretty perched on fences, crowing at sunrise. But they’re mean. They don’t appreciate the hard work of taking care of them and they don’t want to be friends. Given the chance, they probably will hop up and scratch you with their spurs. It was this lesson that found its way into Hayley’s story.

---

Title: Unfinished Business by Isabella Drake
Publisher: Totally Bound
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic, Romance
Length: Super Novel/Word Count: 70,952

Summary:

She ran away from the town that wouldn’t forget, to a city that doesn’t forgive, right into the arms of the guy who insists she set things right.

Less than a year ago, Hayley Jones made a scandalous decision that sent her packing. She left her country hometown, moved to the city and made a new life for herself. But it’s hard being someone else when the real you has some unfinished business.

Hayley knows taking care of the unresolved piece of her past could stir up more trouble and humiliation, so she dodges the truth and puts her energy into her new friends and job. That strategy works for a short while but people from her past start showing up in her present.

Life gets even more complicated when she realizes she’s falling for Nick Noel, a guy who knows she’s running from something, and continually challenges her to be herself. But Hayley is afraid of what will happen if Nick finds out who she really is and what she did back home.

Purchase Link: Totally Bound

---

Excerpt

As he drives over the curb and rolls to a stop under a tree, I jog over to take a peek. Sure enough, he’s got chickens crammed in his car. I lean in closer for a better look. A beautiful, burgundy Araucana rooster is fighting with Tony, who looks like he really could’ve used that nappie. The bird is hopping around inside a box while Tony is trying to stuff it back in. In the back seat, two caged birds and two more boxes with holes are clucking and crowing and making a substantial fuss.

I stare at the box on the passenger seat. “Whoever put that bird in that box didn’t know what they were doing.”

Tony scowls at me. “No shit,” he says, trying to shove the bird back into the box. The rooster is flapping its wings and clucking like mad. Keeping one hand on the box lid, Tony turns off his car then grabs the roll of twine that’s sitting on his lap.

With quick, clumsy movements, he wraps up the box, which is shaking from the bird’s escape efforts.

In the back seat, a gorgeous Rhode Island Red and a huge, fat Leghorn are challenging each other with an energetic display of wing flapping. I turn back to Tony. “Are they all roosters?”

“Yeah.” He throws the end of the twine down and wipes the sweat off his forehead. “That’s what I needed. After I’m done here I’m taking them back. Thank God.

---

Author Bio

Thrill-seeking risk takers, heroes with the dark past, sexy locales, untamed women! Isabelle Drake writes stories featuring men and women who aren’t afraid to go after what they want. An avid traveller, she’ll go just about anywhere—at least once—to meet people and get story ideas.

Author Links: Website * Facebook * Twitter * Goodreads * Email * Pinterest * YouTube * Instagram * Tumblr * Amazon

---

Giveaway

If the form is unavailable, please click HERE to enter.