Preorder FULL MOON OVER FREEDOM, book 2 in Milagro Street series

In a recent Fated Mates podcast, New York Times-bestselling romance author Sarah MacLean described me as the "reigning queen of bad-ass heroines." That's a crown I'll wear proudly!

But what happens when all the things that make a woman feel bad-ass are taken away?

I explore that -- in my own bonkers, escapist, sexy way -- in my upcoming book, Full Moon Over Freedom. Full Moon Over Freedom is the second book in the Milagro Street series and is now available for preorder.

Cover by Alex Cabal coming soon!

Good Mom Gone Bad

Full Moon Over Freedom is about perfect D.C. wife-and-mom Juliana "Gillian" Armstead-Bancroft, the oldest of the three Armstead sisters, who has to return home for the summer. Please God, just for the summer, she tells herself. She plans on keeping her head down, finding a good job, and getting her and her kids back out of the town she never thought she'd have to return to.

Screwing up her plans, however, is Nicky Mendoza. She hasn't seen her childhood-friend-turned-gorgeous-bad-boy in thirteen years, and when she picks him up on the side of a country road, she thinks it's a sign. They're on the country road where he taught her about pleasure, and -- as an antidote to the misery of her failed marriage and failed life -- she thinks they can have a one-time lesson.

That, however, goes incredibly awry when she discovers that Nicky is not available. To make matters worse, she learns that Nicky is a successful artist who will be spending the summer in Freedom. If Gillian wants the part-time job she desperately needs to make ends meet, she'll have to work by his side.

Tropes

Full Moon Over Freedom is a high-heat, small-town, Latinx, second-chance contemporary romance with tons of pining, a big Mexican-American family, forced proximity, competence porn, lost history, and a touch of bruja magic. It's not out until September 2023, but preordering is a HUGE GIFT to authors -- preordering signals to publishers that readers are excited about this book, and will encourage publishers to spend more on marketing and promotion.

I've seen the cover and it's GORGEOUS, another beautiful design from artist Alex Cabal, the same artist who designed After Hours on Milagro Street. I will be revealing it soon.

giveaway

Win an annotated version of After Hours on Milagro Street that has all my thoughts, hopes, and passions as well as a printed ARC of Full Moon Over Freedom (when it's released).

How to enter:
1. Sign up for my newsletter (if not already a subscriber)
2. Preorder Full Moon Over Freedom
3. Send me proof of purchase (image of a receipt is fine) to my email.

Contest will be open until February 1, 2023. I should receive ARCS in March. Because of the cost of shipping, contest is for U.S. subscribers only.

HATE CRUSH Cover Reveal and Exclusive Excerpt on Frolic

FINALLY!! After waiting FOREVER, I can finally share with you the cover of Hate Crush, which is getting a big reveal along with an exclusive excerpt over on Frolic.

Hate Crush, is the second book in the “Filthy Rich” series and follow-up to Lush Money. But you might notice some intense design changes between the two covers in the same series. Why? Well, I have to be coy for now. But there will be some exciting new things happening with Lush Money, so the awesome powers-at-be at Carina Press decided that a new cover theme would be appropriate. I can’t wait to tell you more!

But why are you still here?

Also, if you’re a book reviewer or blogger, Hate Crush is available now over on NetGalley. Early reviews are super helpful for just-starting-out authors like myself!

The digital edition of Hate Crush will be available on June 29 and the mass market paperback copy will be available on June 30. You can preorder now. And thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone for your excitement about this second book in the series!

HATE CRUSH cover reveal coming WEDNESDAY!

Preorder now!

Join me on Frolic Wednesday, April 8 for the cover reveal and exclusive excerpt of Hate Crush, my second book in the “Filthy Rich” series and follow-up to Lush Money.

You know what’s better than an enemies-to-lovers story? When the enemies were lovers FIRST (I guess that makes it a lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers story).

As a reference point for those of you who read Lush Money, Hate Crush is Mateo's sister's story. You might remember the hot-headed, long-haired Princesa Sofia? Ten years ago, when she was a 19-year-old wild child, she fell in love crazy fast with bad boy Aish Salinger during one California harvest season. Three months later, he broke her heart and she's sworn to never fall in love again.

Now she's a millionaire, and the future of her kingdom, the Monte del Vino Real, rests on the success of her about-to-launch winery. Faking a relationship with her heartbreaking ex, now a world-famous rock star, would ensure her winery's success and a future for her people. Only problem: She hates him more than any other person in the world.

Trying to recover from scandal, fallen superstar Aish Salinger jumps at the chance to be near Sofia again. Leaving her was the biggest mistake he's ever made, and he's waited ten years to win her back. He never counted on finding a woman who despised him so much she didn't want to be anywhere near him.

Folks, there is so much groveling in this story. So. Much. Groveling. And sex. And wine. And deep, intense feels. And groveling.

Sound good?

You can preorder Hate Crush now!

And don’t forget to check in Wednesday, April 8 on Frolic to check out the cover and an exclusive excerpt!

If you’re a book blogger, reviewer, or fan, Hate Crush will be available on NetGalley.com on Wednesday after the cover launch. Don’t forget to request it!

Read First Pages and Preorder LUSH MONEY

I am so glad to finally share with you the first pages of LUSH MONEY, my debut romance novel. Dedications have been written, typeset is complete, and now begins the marketing that hopefully gets this book noticed by readers. You can help: preorders are a big part of getting my book noticed by reviewers, so if you're planning to buy it, preordering it is hugely appreciated. I hope you enjoy this excerpt. It’s long so I put the beginning here and the rest in the link.

Lush Money
by
Angelina M. Lopez

A marriage of convenience and three nights a month.
That’s all the sultry, self-made billionaire wants from the impoverished prince.
And at the end of the year, she’ll grant him his divorce…with a settlement large enough to save his beloved kingdom.

As a Latinx woman, Roxanne Medina has conquered small-town bullies, Ivy League snobs and boardrooms full of men. She’s earned the right to mother a princess and feel a little less lonely at the top. The offer she’s made is more than generous, and when the contract’s fulfilled, they’ll both walk away with everything they’ve ever wanted.

Príncipe Mateo Ferdinand Juan Carlos de Esperanza y Santos is one of the top winegrowers in the world, and he’s not marrying and having a baby with a stranger. Even if the millions she’s offering could save his once-legendary wine-producing principality.

But the successful, single-minded beauty uses a weapon prince Mateo hadn’t counted on: his own desire.

January: Night One

Mateo Ferdinand Juan Carlos de Esperanza y Santos—the “Golden Prince,” the only son of King Felipe, and heir to the tiny principality of Monte del Vino Real in northwestern Spain—had dirt under his fingernails, a twig of Tempranillo FOS 02 in his back pocket, and a burning desire to wipe the mud of his muck boots on the white carpet where he waited. But he didn’t. Under the watchful gaze of the executive assistant, who stared with disapproving eyes from his standing desk, Mateo kept his boots tipped back on the well-worn heels and his white-knuckled fists jammed into the pits of his UC Davis t-shirt. Staying completely still and deep breathing while he sat on the white couch was the only way he kept himself from storming away from this lunacy.

What the fuck had his father gotten him into?

A breathy ding sighed from the assistant’s laptop. He granted Mateo the tiniest of smiles. “You may go in now,” he said, hustling to the chrome-and-glass doors and pulling one open with a flourish. The assistant didn’t seem to mind the dirt so much now as his eyes traveled—lingeringly—over Mateo’s dusty jeans and t-shirt.

Mateo felt his niñera give him a mental smack upside the head when he kept his baseball cap on as he entered the office. But he was no more willing to take his cap off now than he’d been willing to change his clothes when the town car showed up at his lab, his ears ringing with his father’s screams about why Mateo couldn’t refuse.

The frosted-glass door closed behind him, enclosing him in a sky-high corner office as regal as any throne room. The floor-to-ceiling windows showed off Coit Tower to the west, the Bay Bridge to the east, and the darkening hills of San Francisco in between. The twinkling lights of the city flicked on like discovered jewels in the gathering night, adornment for this white office with its pale woods, faux fur pillows, and acrylic side tables. This office at the top of the fifty-five-floor Medina Building was opulent, self-assured. Feminine.

And empty.

He’d walked in the Rose Garden with the U.S. President, shaken the hand of Britain’s queen, and kneeled in the dirt with the finest winemakers in Burgundy, but he stood in the middle of this empty palatial office like a jackass, not knowing where to sit or how to stand or who to yell at to make this situación idiota go away.

A door hidden in the pale wood wall opened. A woman walked out, drying her hands.

Dear God, no.

She nodded at him, her jowls wriggling as she tossed her paper towel back into the bathroom. “Take a seat, Príncipe Mateo. I’ll prepare Roxanne to speak with you.”

Of course. Of course Roxanne Medina, founder and CEO of Medina Now Enterprises, wasn’t a sixty-year-old woman with a thick waist in medical scrubs. But “prepare” Roxanne to…

Ah.

The nurse leaned across the delicate, Japanese-style desk and opened a laptop perched on the edge. She pushed a button and a woman came into view on the screen. Or at least, the top of a woman’s head came into view. The woman was staring down through black-framed glasses, writing something on a pad of paper. A sunny, tropical day loomed outside the balcony door behind her.

Inwardly laughing at the farce of this situation, Mateo took a seat in a leather chair facing the screen. Apparently, Roxanne Medina couldn't be bothered to meet the man she wanted to marry in person.

Two minutes later, he was no longer laughing. She hadn’t looked at him. She just kept scribbling, giving him nothing to look at but the palm tree swaying behind her and the part in her dark, shiny hair.

He glanced at the nurse. She stared back, blank-eyed. He’d already cleared his throat twice.

Fuck this. “Excuse me,” he began.

“Helen, it sounds like the prince may have a bit of a dry throat.” Roxanne Medina spoke, finally, without raising her eyes from her document. “Could you get him a glass of water?”

“Of course, ma’am.”

As the nurse headed to a decanter, Mateo said, “I don’t need water. I’m trying to find out…”

Roxanne Medina raised one delicate finger to the screen. Without looking up. Continuing to write. Without a word or a sound, Roxanne Medina shushed him, and Mateo—top of his field, head of his lab, a goddamned príncipe—he let her, out of shock and awe that another human being would treat him this way.

He never treated people this way.

He moved to stand, to storm out, when a water glass appeared in front of his face and a hair was tugged from his head.

“Ow!” he yelled as he turned to glare at the granite-faced nurse holding a strand of his light brown hair.

“Fantastic, I see the tests have begun.”

Mateo turned back to the screen and pushed the water glass out of his way so he could see the woman who finally deigned to speak to him.

“Tests?”

She was beautiful. Of course she was beautiful. When you have billions of dollars at your disposal, you can look any way you want. Roxanne Medina was sky-blue eyed, high-breasted and lush-lipped, with long and lustrous black hair. On the pixelated screen, he couldn’t tell how much of her was real or fake. He doubted even her stylist could remember what was Botoxed, extended, and implanted.

Still, she was striking. Mateo closed his mouth with a snap.

Her slow, sensual smile let him know she’d seen him do it.

Mateo glowered as Roxanne Medina slipped her delicate black reading glasses up on her head and aimed those searing blue eyes at him. “These tests are just a formality. We’ve tested your father and sister and there were no genetic surprises.”

“Great,” he deadpanned. “Why are you testing me?”

Her sleek eyebrows quirked. “Didn’t your father explain this already?” A tiny gold cross hung in the V of her ivory silk top. “We’re testing for anything that might make the Golden Prince a less-than-ideal specimen to impregnate me.”

(Click to keep reading…)

P.S. Save the date! My book launch party will be Friday, November 8 at One More Page Books in Falls Church, Virginia. Pre-order your book by clicking “One More Page” in the above link, and I’ll sign it Nov. 8! We’ll celebrate with tapas and wine!!