Today I wanted to share an exclusive excerpt from one of my favourite moments in Hart of Winter, my fantasy holiday romance set in a small ski village in France.
Despite setting the book in a ski village, my confession is I am stomach-turning scared of chair lifts! Which makes it difficult to get to the top of the piste to do the skiing. Luckily Rob, our snowboarding cursebreaker in the story, doesn’t have that problem, as you’ll see below. But as for me, every time I reread this scene I feel cold sweats coming on.
Yet that feeling Rob has at the end of this scene, standing on the side of a mountain with cold wind on your face, and the snow glittering below? That is absolutely worth the journey.
Though perhaps Rob should’ve been paying more attention to his immediate surroundings…
Excerpt
People in line chattered to one another in French, and Rob shared excited smiles with people when they caught his eye. He shifted his weight as he waited his turn. He’d decided to start with a blue run to ease himself back in; the piste led down to the center of the village, almost straight to the wooden terrace of a local hotel. Later in the afternoon he wanted to take the gondola, a covered cabin lift running high up the mountain and linking to the network of runs and lifts comprising the Three Valleys. For his first run, though, Rob decided to play it safe. Even the best charms were no substitute for caution.
Finally the trio ahead of him got on the chair and were lifted with a creak of cables, the chair swaying as it rose. One foot in his bindings, Rob skated forward on his snowboard when the liftie beckoned. The liftie held the chair steady as Rob climbed on, and two kids with skis followed him onto the bench, eyes glued to their phones. The liftie stepped back, and the safety bar came down. The chair lurched forward.
Absurd as it sounded, Rob had forgotten how big mountains were. His breath caught as they rose, the side-to-side movement seeming more exaggerated than when he’d been watching. He exhaled in a rush when they hit the main stretch of the lift and the motion smoothed as the thick cables crackled with subtle magic. His lift-mates never looked up from their phones, where warming charms made the air around their fingers glitter. Rob curled his fingers in his gloves. He should’ve packed better.
Whatever. It was his first time in Les Menuires, and no one could tell Rob he was doing it wrong. Unlike his actual “first time,” during which Lydia Charles had directed him so firmly, he became half-convinced she had a camera crew in her closet. Turned out it was just him in there.
Rob propped his snowboard with one foot beneath the base to ease the pressure on his strapped-in foot and twisted around to look at the village growing small behind them. The chair lurched as he moved, and he grimaced, turning carefully back around. He’d forgotten about that. The chair shuddered as it passed a support. Rob focused on the light shimmer over the distant peaks, the sky an impossibly clear blue. Rob wanted to take a picture on his phone, but he also wanted to retain use of his fingers. Wind bit at his exposed cheeks, and he ducked his chin under the high collar of his jacket. The chair began to slow on the approach to the station pole, and the kids finally put away their phones, disparate strains of tinny music singing from their helmets. Pulling his goggles down from his helmet, Rob let the kids pop the safety bar, and they all shuffled forward.
Here it comes.
Rob’s heart skipped when he put his deck to the snow and let the gentle push of the chair propel him from the landing area. The kids skied confidently away, leaving Rob alone with the mountain and his heartbeat. He let gravity and the gradient of the slope draw him away from the chairlift and toward the top of the piste, where a small clearing waited. Between the crest of the hill ahead and the bank of snow behind, Rob had himself a little moment, at one with the universe.
“Watch out!”
***
Want to know what happens next? Check out Hart of Winter, released today!
Title: Hart of Winter by Parker Foye
Imprint: Dreamspun Beyond
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Genre: Contemporary, Holiday, Paranormal, Romance
Length: 197 pages/Word Count: 52,716
Summary:
Magic-using winter sports enthusiasts find love on the slopes.
Luc Marling is cursed to transform into a stag from sunset to sunrise, making him vulnerable to black-hearted collectors. Thanks to a family heirloom, Luc can contain the change—but the magic is starting to fade. Luc intends to live fast while he can and doesn’t care who he hurts along the way… until he meets Rob.
Rob Lentowicz accidentally broke the curse on a famous singer and became a magical reality-TV star. Tired of having to lie to protect his bank balance, and unwilling to destroy his family reputation with the truth, Rob runs away to France—and straight into Luc.
They navigate slopes, secrets, and each other. But are the feelings between them real—or just magic?
Add to Goodreads.
Purchase Links: Dreamspinner Press * Amazon US * Amazon CA * Amazon UK * B&N * Apple * Kobo
Author Bio
Parker Foye writes speculative-flavoured romance under the QUILTBAG umbrella and believes in happily ever after, although sometimes their characters make achieving this difficult.
An education in Classics nurtured a love of heroes, swords, monsters, and beautiful people doing stupid things while wearing only scraps of leather. You’ll find those things in various guises in Parker’s stories, along with kissing (very important) and explosions (very messy). And more shifters than you can shake a stick at.
Parker lives in the UK but travels regularly via planes, trains, and an ever-growing library.