First things first: Don’t forget to follow #SparkPlugs on Twitter to see the rest of the Spark Books line-up in this blog series!
Do take that trip to your nearest National Bookstore or Powerbooks or go ONLINE to get your print copy of Simply Joei, then add and/or rate it on Goodreads. ♥
Simply Joei by Clare Elisabeth Marquez
Pay -up Time! Or Is it?One never gives up on true love. So Jake didn’t.
Holding on to the one that shouldn’t have gotten away, gorgeous Jake Calleja – engineer, entrepreneur and all-around hunk of a man – brings up old debt to bring in possibilities of future love with the beautiful and elusive Josephine Telencio. The two had a brief but unforgettable “history” in college, a past that Jake would seek to bring back in order to bring his “Joei” back in his life. To face their “unfinished past” entails a make-believe relationship for the sake of an ailing matriarch, an unforgettable country drive into the heart of the storm, a family drama of the queen mother and the wicked sisters, the inevitable supermodel ex, and lots of sparks in between.
A story of second chances and risking it all for a journey to a lifetime love – Jake and Josephine will take you to laughs and tears, to the highs and lows, to knowing when to hold on … or to let go.
Are things better left in the past? Or will true love prevail in the future?
Excerpt:
“Truth or dare?” Jake asked as the rain pounded on the vast windshield of his monstrous truck.
We were on the fifth-hour run of the trip. After grabbing a quick lunch at a stop-over in Pampanga and hearing that a tropical storm threatened to hit Luzon in a few hours, Jake decided to leave immediately before we got stranded. It was raining heavily, and the sound of water hitting the car was deafening. The strong winds bent trees along the highway, as the rain smashed on all sides of the truck.
“Right, I’m not gonna play that game with you,” I said, defiant, shaking my head while glancing at him. I didn’t want to either tell any truth or do any dare with Jake. It seemed like a trap. Possibly a bigger, deeper trap than I was already in.
“Why, I have a chicken in the car!” shouted Jake, then he started clucking his tongue to create chicken noises, even flapping his arms to prove his point.
He ended up looking cute and stupid, though.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Truth or dare? So cliché!” I teased back.
“Well, you can always admit you’re too scared for me to know your deepest, darkest, kinkiest secrets, Josefina. But what better way to know each other than playing this game? C’mon now! We have hours on the road and I am bored,” he whined. Like a petulant child, wanting to play but it was raining outside so he’s holed up inside his cave.
I looked at him sideways and shook my head. “It’s not as if there is much a ‘dare’ to do in the confines of this car no’,” I reasoned out.
Jake laughed out boisterously and even thumped his palm on the steering wheel. “That’s what you think, baby.” He then deliciously air-kissed me.
Adorable dork!
About the Author
Then she wakes up. And writes.
A closet romantic through and through, C.E. Marquez is a voracious reader, writer, and dreamer, never failing to believe that dreams can come true for those who wait . . . and do something about it! Her towering piles of notes of handwritten stories (which she started collecting when she was ten!) are her well-kept treasures, tattered and bruised, but still waiting for their chance to see the light.
She writes about things that matter: love, life, and everything else in between.