Blog Tour & Giveaway: Taking Shots by Toni Aleo

Title: Taking Shots
Author: Toni Aleo
Pub. Date: Oct. 5, 2011
Find “Taking Shots”:
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Elli Fisher has never thought she was good enough. Let it be her job, her weight, her love life, nothing, she was convinced she couldn’t do anything right. She had walked through life for the past six years in a daze, never thinking that life could be good again after the abuse she endured from her ex boyfriend. She is lonely, sad, and depressed, that is until she meets Shea Adler. After doing a promotional shoot for the NHL team, the Nashville Assassins, she meets the hunky hockey player who shoots a puck, shattering her world.
Shea Adler was tired of the life he was living outside of the rink. The girls, the money blowing, the drinking, everything had to stop and it all did when he met Eleanor Fisher. He had never met anyone like her. She is feisty, witty, shy, and simply gorgeous. When he laid eyes on her, it was as if he was taking the hardest hit of his life into the boards, and he had to have her.
Elli is a little skeptical of Shea, but he knows that they were meant to be together, and he needed her in his life. But Elli just doesn’t understand what Shea could see in her. She is overweight, loud, and not even that pretty, so why would someone so gorgeous and so amazing want to be with her? It seemed that no matter how hard she tried to shake Shea off, he wasn’t going anywhere, and for the first time Elli didn’t feel alone.
But could Elli throw her insecurities out the window and love Shea with everything inside of her? Or will she let a past relationship, and her family ruin any chance of her being happy?
Would Elli miss her shot at love?

~Excerpt~

Next was the captain, Shea Adler.
Elli blushed as she got to the close-up of Shea. She had always thought the defense man was gorgeous. With his almost black hair that fell in the brightest blue eyes she had ever seen, and a crooked nose that had been broken two years ago during a game with the Red Wings, she had to admit that she had a little bit of a crush on him. When he smiled, her heart melted. Yeah, his teeth were probably false, but damn, he had a pretty mouth.
“Why’s he blinking so much?” Harper asked. Elli was too busy looking at his mouth to notice.
“Harp, shut up,” she whispered, but then she noticed that the captain was blinking a little too much.
“Is he hitting on you?”
“Oh, my God!”
Elli’s whole face flushed deep red as she looked down at the picture viewer of her camera. In all the pictures, the captain’s eyes were shut. Elli looked up, and Shea was rubbing his eyes.
“Mr. Adler,” she said as she started walking towards him. He looked over at her.
“I’m sorry, but I need you to stop blinking. Your eyes are closed in every picture I have taken.”
“I’m sorry.”
Oh God, his voice was butter, thick with a Boston accent. Elli swore she came at the sound of it.
“I got new contacts and they are bugging the hell out of me.”
“Someone get Adler another pair!” somebody yelled as he pinched the little lenses out of his eyes, throwing them down on the ice.
“We can do this without them, right?”
Elli just nodded. Gosh, he was gorgeous! He tried to make eye contact with her, and it was obvious that it was hard for him to see.
“I won’t be able to see your beautiful face for a little bit, but I’ll have a new pair soon. Then I can stare some more.”
Elli stood there blinking.
Was he flirting with her?
Did he just call her beautiful?
She turned without a word and went back to work. When it came time for Shea Adler to skate off, he ran into the goal, then the wall, before making it to the bench. Everyone was in a fit of laughter except for Elli. She was still in shock.
Shea Adler had called her beautiful.

~About the Author~

My name is Toni Aleo!
I am twenty eight years old, and married with two children. I live outside of Nashville TN, in the city called Clarksville. I have been writing since I was in high school, but never thought to publish anything until now! It took me seven months to write Taking Shots, when I was almost done; I posted it to Booksie.com and had an amazing response. Everyone loved it, and I have gotten so many comments on how real the characters are, and how every big event in the book had made people feel like they are in the book with the main characters. Which was what I wanted, I wanted people to read my book and feel for Shea and Elli, root for them when things didn’t look like they would work out. I am absolutely in love with my novel, and I hope you love it too! I just finished the second in the Assassins series called Trying to Score. Thank you so much!

~Giveaway~

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Doesn’t Ms. Aleo sounds awesome?! I can’t wait to pick up Taking Shots!