Daily Online Read: Lightning Strikes by Tracy Wolff

Great start...  really piqued my interest with the mention of the parental marital problems.  Then add the friend (that after 7 years suddenly becomes attractive to her) from the rival farm and boy does this story have potential for all kinds of tension!

Gonna go check out your website Tracy!

I think these two will have a HEA, which wouldn't be likely if he was sabotaging their horses.  Sounds like a good story!

I always love a good story revolving around horse racing.  I think the "friend" will wind up being the H, but the challenge to the relationship may be that it appears that he is sabotaging her horses.

I'm looking forward to reading this over the next month. I love best-friends-fall-in-love stories... and what the other commenters said is so true, the hints about her parents' difficulties really caught me. I'm eager to learn more (and read their book in November).

My exact comment April...   Poor James!

I feel for him and this is only the 2nd chapter, we know he's going to be tortured through a bunch more!

I'm going to be feeling bad for poor James, I can just tell that I'm going to be loving this story.  I'm a total sucker for stories about guys who've always been there, being a friend and quietly loving the h the whole time. 

Thanks.  I'll pass the compliment along to my DD.  I thought it was very funny.

Silly silly Willow!

Willow is a blind one, isn't she?   

Papaya,  my November release--A Christmas Wedding-- is Willow's parents' story, so all your questions about them are answered in there.

Tracy, now i have a dilemna!  Do I buy your November release as an ebook or wait until this story is done  I like reading things in order!

Well now, I think that lightning bolt has struck her, she just doesn't know it yet!    I'm sure there's going to be lots of ups and downs with them trying to figure out whether they want to chance ruining a good friendship! 

It's kinda cool to see inside both character's heads and know that they can't see into each other, although after 7 years of friendship you think they might get a clue...

I find it interesting that James is from a rival farm yet her family seems to get along just fine with him!

Poor James.  Poor Willow.  I love it!

Nope Northwind, you are not strange.  It's a nice kind of slow.,.

Sorry, JV-- I know those pins and needles are uncomfortable.

 Papaya, if you get ACW too soon, you'll ruin the surprise of this ending   Although I guess the title does that already . . .

 As for the rivalry between ranches-- there's a few scenes in ACW that show that all is not as nice as it seems on the surface.

Thanks again for reading    I'm so glad you guys are liking the story-- I fell in love with Willow as I wrote ACW and was thrilled when eharlequin gave me the chance to tell her story.

I think that Willow is starting to open her eyes to James now.  I'm sure that there will be all kinds of misunderstandings between them before there is a HEA.  Right now I'm on pins and needles waiting to see what will happen next.

I hate to admit this, but when I am buying books in a store where I can actually put hands on them, I tend to go right to the middle and search until I find the really good parts, if you know what I mean.  If those parts please me, then I get the book and read it from start to finish.

Even in books that I can't lay hands on before I buy them, I rarely stop until I'm finished with it, even if it turns out not to be my very favorite, unless it's pretty bad.  I have to be totally bored with it or totally turned off by it to stop reading it before it's finished.  Sometimes, if it's looking pretty grim, I'll fast forward to see whether or not the ending suits me before I decide whether or not to finish.

LOL Papaya.  You're being fiendish today!

Mom and Dad are in pretty big trouble.  That's what ACW is all about-- them trying to work through their problems.

As for Willow, she drove me nuts as I wrote this.  "Should I, shouldn't I?  Should I, shouldn't I?"  Go for it already-- right?

Never having been good at the whole delayed gratification thing, I bought  A Christmas Wedding as an ebook; however, I won't discuss it here so as not to give anyone any unwanted information about the current story.

I will say congrats, though!  It was very well-written, and I went through the emotional wringer!  Oh, yeah, and since I'm in Louisville, the tie-in on the side to my hometown was a pleasant surprise.  If you do any more thoroughbred stories, you'll have to come here for the Kentucky Derby as part of your research!

papaya, if you really like to read things in order, you definitely want to hold off on ACW until you've finished this story. 

<JV, zipping her lip now>

JV-- thanks so much! I'm so very glad you enjoyed ACW.  As my first book, it holds a very special place in my heart.  And I had so much fun researching the Derby-- and the whole Triple Crown-- while I was writing it.  In fact, it was originally titled, The Turn for Home, and broken into the four main parts of a horse race.   If you check out the recipe section of my website, you'll see a bunch of recipes from the Derby and the other races.

 And for the rest of you wonderful ladies-- give her a couple more chapters.  Willow may be slow, but she knows a good thing when she sees one ;)

JV-- the things we do for our children!  Don't even ask about what I went through trying to get my oldest son a Wii.  His birthday is at the beginning of February and this year they were still sold out everywhere from the Christmas rush.  I finally got one, but it took two weeks of calling every store in the area-- every day, an entire tank of gas, a full day of running around like a crazy woman and much pleading . . .

So I think I too should be nominated for mother of the year  

I'm dying to come to Louisville and check out all those amazing places-- I had so much fun researching while I wrote ACW.  Do you know that in 2006, Churchill Downs served custom-made mint juleps at the cost of $1000 each for the Derby?  They were served in gold-plated cups with silver straws and were made from Woodford Reserve bourbon, mint imported from Ireland, Ice from the Bavarian Alps and sugar from Australia.  The proceeds were used to support charitable causes dedicated to retired race horse.

 And for anyone who lives in Baltimore or NY, I've got trivia about the Preakness and Belmont Stakes as well . . . yes, I'm a nerd and proud of it.  So just ask, and I'll trot that info out as well

April, it's time for the chapter to be up now, and it still isn't!  I clicked on Chapter 5 this morning and was depressed to realize that it was Friday's chapter.

I, too, wonder why it says that we have to wait until tomorrow for the daily read.  No fair!  I think someone just got dates messed up when they coded it or something.

Well, I'm getting teh same thing too! and it's 5:30 pm EST!  Maybe they will give us 6 and 7 on Tuesday!   I wonder if it's a victim of their new look that is suppose to be happening...  Who monitors the supers anyway?  

Thanks Rae! 

The Monday online read did go up, so I guess it's only the daily that had problems. 

It just wouldn't go away and ruined a perfectly good night!  Poor James, kiss the girl and make her run... Bet his ego suddenly deflated!