Friday I’m In Love is out now

I’m so excited to release this surprise novelette at the end of the year, like a mini Christmas present for readers! Friday I’m In Love: A Sweet and Saucy Novelette is a super cute and funny short read, which I first published in the Hot In The City collection in June 2022. I thought some readers would prefer a short stand-alone ebook, so here it is!

It’s only 99c from major ebook sites so grab it now…all links on my Books page.

Friday I'm In Love book cover by Cassandra O'Leary. Features an illustration of a young couple with dark hair dancing, with a heart as a background image.

Blurb

A girl couldn’t help spying sometimes. Surely if she ever met him, he’d understand…

Megan Macauley looks forward to her private rendezvous with her ridiculously hot, across-the-road-from-work neighbour. Every Friday morning, Megan and her inappropriate older colleague Jean, stop work on the company website to stare goggle-eyed at the vision of manly beauty in the apartment across the street. When he returns from his gym sessions and strips off his shirt, Megan can barely keep her tongue in her mouth.

Megan didn’t mean to become a voyeur. It was an accident! She’s always had a feeling the situation might rear up and bite her. One Friday, fate proves her right. The hottie from across the road shows up at her office as the new auditor, in other words, the man with the power of hiring and firing.

Cruz Ono is even more smouldering hot up close. A prime example of Japanese-Australian beefcake and smart as a whip. When he invites her to a private meeting, Megan nearly faints. He could either fire her or let her keep her annoying, underpaid job. Which would it be?

When Cruz reveals he knows Megan has been watching him, she knows it could be the end of her career. But the way he smiles and flirts with her says it could be the start of something else…

Note: Friday I’m In Love is a short read or novelette of approximately 10,000 words. It’s also available in Hot In the City: A Romantic Comedy Story Collection in both ebook and paperback formats.

Buy Now!

More news coming soon…

Girl Under The Christmas Tree – new release out now!

I’m so excited to share my new release with all of my readers. Girl Under The Christmas Tree is a steamy holiday romance novella, guaranteed to add a smile to your face. This novella was a joy to write, and I hope my you all find it just as much fun to read.

Blurb

A hilarious holiday romance on the steamy side, featuring a girl who won’t say no to a fling, a guy who needs some holiday fun, one naughty night in a hotel suite… and a conga line of Santas!

Yuki Yamimoto isn’t the kind of girl to say no to opportunity, especially when it comes swaggering into the five-star hotel where she works, dressed in a three-piece suit. The handsome wavy haired man with a movie star smile and charming Irish accent is almost irresistible… If only he wasn’t a hotel guest!

Declan Moriarty can’t keep his eyes off the gorgeous girl at hotel Reception. Her wide eyes and flirting have him wondering, should he dare ask her out? When his whole life has fallen into the cosmic toilet the past year, it seems too much to ask for a dream girl like Yuki for Christmas. But maybe just this once, luck might be on his side.

A steamy Christmas Eve date has them both wanting more, but Yuki isn’t supposed to fraternize with hotel guests. Not even a cheeky, handsome guest who also happens to be one of the youngest tech CEOs in Ireland. She definitely isn’t supposed to stay in his hotel suite, even if it is just a fling for one night only. What if she loses her Christmas bonus or gets fired?

Declan wants nothing more than to keep Yuki, the girl under his Christmas tree. But he only has days in Melbourne, Australia before he has to fly back to Ireland for Christmas, then back to work. Is it foolish to risk putting his heart on the line again, when it was recently battered and bruised by his cheating ex-fiancée?

Yuki’s about to embark on a life full of adventure…but will she get to keep Declan as part of the package deal? She hopes so. It’s her number one Christmas wish.

Note: Girl Under The Christmas Tree is a holiday romance novella of approximately 18,000 words, written as a prequel or companion story to Cassandra O’Leary’s novel, Girl on a Plane. This novella has a Happy For Now (HFN) ending, leaving Yuki’s future wide open.

Buy Now!

Universal link – books2read.com/GirlXmasTree

Available at the introductory price of 99c / 99p on all major ebook sites.

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I’ve had a bit of a break from writing, not only because of the super long and hard lockdown where I live in Melbourne, Australia (but it was super long, and hard), but because of some ongoing health issues. Anyway, it seems my brain is back in action for now, so I’ll look forward to working on some more new releases for 2021. Here’s hoping the new year will be a new beginning, in lots of ways.

Happy reading!

Tree Love Is In The Air. . .

Last week I made an executive decision as captain of my own writing ship. I decided to indie publish a romantic short story of mine, Tree Love. This story was previously published a year ago in the Taste of Romance anthology along with other stories from authors in my writing group, the Melbourne Romance Writers Guild.

Tree Love is a short and sweet story about first loves reunited, emails to trees, art, nature and taking chances. It’s now up for pre-order, ready for release on 13 February, just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Tree Love: A Romantic Short Story by Cassandra O'Leary, cover design

Here’s the cover for Tree Love. I designed it myself with a gorgeous stock illustration (copyright warawiri) sourced from 123rf.com. Isn’t it pretty? Well, I think so.

Tree Love story inspiration

I was actually inspired to write this story after reading a wacky newspaper article about something that happened in my home city of Melbourne, Australia.

Under a new environmental plan, the city assigned email addresses to trees. And people started emailing, not just to report on the condition of the trees as had been expected, but they wrote to the trees. Letters, poems, confessions. This was pretty hilarious to me, but also sweet. So a story idea was born!

The original article is on the News.com.au website — People around the world have been emailing trees in Melbourne to confess their love.

In Tree Love, I imagined my heroine, Natalia, was the admin person working for the Parks and Gardens department tasked with answering the Tree-mails. It’s entertaining but also baffling at times.

Blurb

If your first love fell out of a tree. . . would you catch him?

Natalia Bianchi is a botanical artist, who finds herself accidentally working for the city’s Parks Department in admin and also accidentally engaged to her boss. It’s not what she had planned.

One day she checks on ‘her’ tree in the botanical gardens, and her first love, Dan “The Man” Mancini falls at her feet. Literally. Almost like it was meant to be. But that’s what she thought ten years ago when they were friends at university.

Should Natalia shake up her entire safe, convenient life to climb Dan like a tree? Could this be her second chance at love that could last forever?

Buy links

You can pre-order Tree Love now from Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, Barnes & Noble and Google Play Books. It’s only 99 cents or 99p.

Universal link:

books2read.com/TreeLove

Inspiration pics

Stock photo of tree from Pixabay

Check out my Tree Love Pinterest board for some great pics of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne, and some character inspiration too.

P.S. join my newsletter list if you’d like to know more about my writing and receive a free novelette, Chocolate Truffle Kiss!

Heart Note Blog Blitz!

It’s almost the festive season and this weekend my new release, Heart Note, is having a party! Well, sort of. It’s a Blog Blitz and everyone is invited.

From 25 to 27 November 2017 a whole host of bloggers are playing home to my Christmas romcom novella and lots of blogs about perfume, Christmas, romantic comedies, working as a ‘spritzer chick’ on a perfume counter and much more. There’s also a giveaway so make sure to check out the blogs to enter.

Thanks so much to the fabulous Rachel’s Random Resources for organising my Blog Blitz!

Visit the Blog Blitz stops

And now just a little note about Heart Note! I enjoyed writing a novella which is a fast-paced romcom with a little heist sub-plot and a great big dash of Christmas festiveness mixed in.

I hope you’ll love the main characters, Lily and Christos, as much as I do and cheer them on towards their happy ending.

Heart Note – blurb

A funny, romantic comedy Christmas novella, perfect for fans of Love Actually . . . from the award-winning author of Girl on a Plane.

Love is like a fine perfume. The top note draws you in, an instant attraction, but the Heart Note is the true essence. Like true love – a great perfume should be a woman’s perfect match.

At least, that’s what perfume counter manager, Lily Lucas, tells her customers in one of Australia’s largest department stores.

It’s almost Christmas, the store is bedecked with baubles and Lily has about eleventy billion gifts to wrap and sell. She and her team of spritzer chicks are glamorous, professional and hoping they don’t have to wear the hideous red onesies and reindeer antlers the store manager has in mind.

The high point of Lily’s work life is Christos Cyriakos, ex-cop, security guard, possible Greek god. He’s a mystery box she’d love to unwrap. But can she trust him?

All Lily wants for Christmas is to kiss Christos (and more), catch a band of thieves running amok in the store, and live happily ever after. Is that too much to wish for?

Reviewers love Heart Note!