Read an excerpt from Zoe Forward's NEW RELEASE, Bad Decisions & Back Roads: Second Chance Veterinary Romance (Southern Veterinary, #2) #ContemporaryRomance #NewRelease @XpressoTours @realzoeforward

Bad Decisions & Back Roads: Second Chance Veterinary Romance

(Southern Veterinary, #2)
By Zoe Forward

The problem with bad decisions is you never stop wanting them.

I used to be the rebellious girl from the wrong side of the fenceline. He was the local hellraiser nobody could tame. While our families carried on a feud older than indoor plumbing, we fell for each other.

Then my vicious father found out. To save Timothy’s life, I broke his heart and disappeared.
Now over a decade later, I’m back as a large-animal veterinarian, working at his brother’s clinic and treating everything from prize dairy cows to Timothy’s homicidal llama. Avoiding him should be easy. 

It isn’t.

He’s a single dad running two businesses, still infuriatingly irresistible, and determined to make me pay for every year he spent hating me.

The problem? I never stopped loving him. But if he learns why I really left, I could lose him forever.

Pages: 358
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance 

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EXCERPT

A small helpless laugh escaped me. “Do you know where I can find spray whipped cream?” 

His eyebrows lifted beneath the bit of hair hanging over his forehead. 

I narrowed my eyes. “Please tell me that your brain did not just put whipped cream on my body.”

He looked almost offended. “Well,” he drawled, “it hadn’t…”

His slow grin spread. “But now that you mention it…” His gaze dipped, wicked amusement flashing in his eyes. “Question is, was your brain generous enough to imagine some on me too, or am I doing all the work here?”

A startled choke-laugh burst out of me as I dragged my eyes down his body, taking in the dark t-shirt tucked into jeans that hung a little low. I’d already checked out the backside and confirmed it still looked just as good as when he walked away the other day after agreeing to buy a tractor.

He leaned casually on his cart. “For the record,” he added, “I’m picturing collarbone. Maybe wrist. Then I’d go…lower…to areas that might enjoy some attention.” His gaze dropped to my chest. “Then it depends on how wild we’re getting.”

That sent me over the edge laughing. The image of him standing in a grocery aisle naked and covered in whipped cream looking deeply inconvenienced by it was the funniest thing I’d thought all week.

“So, what do you really need whipped cream for?” he asked.

I swallowed my last snort of laughter. “Obviously, I need to keep my fridge stocked in case you randomly swing by. You’ll have to bring your own sprinkles, if you can get them away from your dad.”

His mouth twitched. His eyes went bright with trouble.

USA Today bestselling author Zoe Forward is a parent, wife, veterinarian, and unapologetic chocolate lover. She writes spicy paranormal and contemporary romances that blend action, adventure, humor, and a touch of magic.

Zoe lives in the South with a lively menagerie of four-legged beasts and two slightly wild kids.

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Bad Decisions & Back Roads Blitz

Read about the inspiration behind Marie Conner, A Leading Lady by Elle Mott #BiographicalNonFiction #ReaderReach #TheCoffeePotBookClub #YardeBookPromotions @novellemott @cathiedunn @maryanneyarde

Marie Conner, A Leading Lady

By Elle Mott

Marie was born a girl. That was only her first mistake, according to her father.

In an era when daughters and wives are not supposed to be concerned with matters outside the home, Marie is determined to prove him wrong. To do this, she must break down barriers placed on women in society, overcome difficulties that befall her, surpass hardships from the Great Depression, and then face an inevitable relocation.

Marie steps into her community and into the hearts of many people to give her time and help with their needs. She wants nothing in return other than her father's acceptance as a worthy woman and yet, she gains much in return, even if it is not her father's praise. This is Marie’s story—of a rise from her girlhood angsts to become a leading lady—and much more.

This definitive biography is the empowering true story of one trailblazing woman who, in the mid-1900s in small-town America, changed her community and beyond for the better and forevermore.

Pages: 303 Print Pages

Genre: Nonfiction Historical Biography

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GUEST POST

From Matriarch to Muse: The Real-Life Inspiration Behind Marie Conner, A Leading Lady

By Elle Mott

Inspiration for Marie Conner, A Leading Lady (Luminare Press, 2026) came from my first book, Out of Chaos: A Memoir (Boyle & Dalton, 2018). I wrote that debut to show that no matter what mistakes we make or what problems befall us, we can, through our own actions overcome them. I had not learned this lesson on my own. Rather, it was through my reflections on Marie and the words of wisdom she had imparted to me that I moved forward.

I remember being a little girl in the 1970s, looking through her scrapbooks. She kept a few that held pictures of her children, grandchildren, and their children. Yet the albums I liked to peruse were found in her other collections. I’d thumb through the pages and run my fingers over the edges of newspaper clippings, which were brittle from age. She had taken great care to tape those clippings onto their pages. There were also program brochures, some dog-eared, and ticket stubs, and other memorabilia worthy of keepsake. Black and white photographs were sprinkled in, lending credence to a life much different than I, being a schoolgirl then, could ever imagine.

Each page in those volumes drew attention to events held to raise awareness for an array of needs. She had encouraged people to find a cure for diseases, offered a helping hand to families in need, and sought solutions for the plights felt by women so that one day women wouldn’t have to suffer. 

Our shared moments in these scrapbooks were an opportune time for her to impart her wisdom to me, in hopes I would grow up to do great things. As amazed as I was, there were other things on my mind, like going to the shopping mall or to the roller skating rink. So, I’d look at a few pages then set them aside for another day. 

But the opportunity for another day never came, except in my memories. Years later as an adult, I leaned on her wisdom and guidance to get through a time of chaos, an experience that later became the subject of my first book. Marie is at the very heart of that story. With my memoir finally in readers’ hands and she, long gone, I wondered why I had found strength in her example. I wanted to know who she was before her time with me. That involved research. Marie, who had been my matriarch, became a great muse as I peeled back the layers of a woman who, I discovered, had lived a truly remarkable life.

My memoir was my story. Marie is worthy of her own. 

Uncovering her story took me far beyond my remembrance of her scrapbooks. In a cold call to her community to find out if anyone could recall her impact, I was met with an emphatic “yes.” The voice on the other end let me know that Marie’s legacy is literally cast in bronze. Today, in the twenty-first century, commemorative plaques are on display, honoring her involvement as a true changemaker.

Her scrapbooks were one thing. To realize that her hometown officially recognizes her historical significance is another. It solidified that I wasn’t just writing a tribute to someone I remembered. I was uncovering and sharing the lost history of a strong woman and trailblazer. Peeling back the layers in my research revealed an ordinary woman who had done extraordinary things long before I was a child.

The inspiration I found through Marie to write her historical biography caused me to fully answer the question of who she was before she was my matriarch. More so, it caused me to realize that we don’t have to be flawless or free from hardships to make a monumental difference. Marie faced her setbacks, navigated expectations, and helped others. If she could change her world for the better, forever, then so can I and so can you.

This book is for women who want motivation and a can-do spirit to overcome marginalization, to say no to obstacles, and to build something bigger than themselves. My hope is that you will be inspired by Marie’s story, and that you carry this inspiration into a positive book review in any place that you shop or hang out. 

Elle Mott is a creative nonfiction author who weaves advocacy and strength into her writing, empowering readers to find their purpose. 

“Marie Conner, A Leading Lady" is her third book. She is also the author of “Out of Chaos: A Memoir” and “People Helping People.” Her next book, releasing this fall, will be as a contributing co-author to “When Women Talk, Notes From the Future: What I Would Tell My Younger Self.” Her other publications have been featured in literary journals, news magazines, and anthologies. 

She has a background working in libraries, both at the college level and, for more than ten years, at the public library in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. While library work is her livelihood, writing is her passion.

Elle grew up in Oregon and now makes her home in the suburbs of northern Kentucky with two cats and several pet birds.

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