Synopsis Jesse dreams of working the land that’s been in his family forever. But he’s cursed to lose everything he loves most.
Scarlett is desperate to escape her “charmed” life. But leaving a small town is easier said than done.
Despite their history of heartbreak, when Jesse sees a way they can work together to each get what they want, Scarlett can’t say no.Each midnight meeting between Jesse and Scarlett will push them to confront their secrets and their feelings for each other.
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My Review A riveting contemporary romance with breathtaking characters and so much angst! Childhood friends Scarlett and Jesse drifted apart their freshman year of high school. Well, Jesse basically drove Scarlett away. She harbors the scars of that betrayal while hiding an ugly secret within the walls of her seemingly perfect home. Jesse is everything Scarlett is not, yet when his Gran dies, the delicate thread that was holding his tenuous world together breaks and Jesse and Scarlett learn they have far more in common than either of them thought. As forces outside their control threaten to rip each of them apart, they find comfort and strength in the renewal of a lifelong friendship.
Plot The primary story is the relationship between Jesse and Scarlett, but deep subplots drive that relationship. Jesse’s tenuous hold on his family’s farm after his Gran’s death affects everything he does. Scarlett’s home life and her dreams for a future she controls impact every relationship she has. A family curse forces Jesse to keep everyone he loves at arms’ length. While the two struggle with their own goals, an undeniable attraction to one another soon becomes the biggest obstacle either of them could have imagined. The story moves from the opening chapter through the gripping conclusion that kept me turning page after page in true Katie McGarry form. No one does angsty teen romance quite like McGarry and I’m a forever fan.
The Characters Oh my gosh, how much do I LOVE these characters? They are complex, driven, damaged, and oh so lovable. Even though Scarlett is known around school as the Ice Princess, she’s much more than just a mean girl. She’s got so many issues and the way she protects herself is utterly relatable. Jesse is damaged from an early age and protects people the only way he knows how — by shutting them out. Watching these two grow and develop is satisfying at every level. The additional cast, Jesse’s posse of equally messed-up friends, Scarlett’s popular friends and her dysfunctional family, only add to the depth of the two main characters. But none of these supporting characters come across as two-dimensional. Each is fully fleshed out with their own goals, obstacles, and backstories.
Top Five Things I Loved About ONLY A BREATH APART 1. The angst. Oh how I love me some teen angst, and ONLY A BREATH APART is dripping with it!
2. Complex characters. Every single character involved in the plot or subplot is fully-developed and three-dimensional.
3. Friends to more. As someone who married my BFF, this is my favorite trope.
4. Scarlett. She’s fierce, self-protective, loyal, and scared, there is some much conflict within her, I want to take her home and let her experience family love the way it should be.
5. Jesse. He’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders, yet he still does things for others for all the right reasons.
Bottom Line A gripping young adult contemporary with realistic characters who are impossible to resist.
Disclaimer
I was provided with a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
About the Author Katie McGarry was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan.
Katie is the author of full length YA novels, PUSHING THE LIMITS, DARE YOU TO, CRASH INTO YOU, TAKE ME ON, BREAKING THE RULES, and NOWHERE BUT HERE and the e-novellas, CROSSING THE LINE and RED AT NIGHT. Her debut YA novel, PUSHING THE LIMITS was a 2012 Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction, a RT Magazine’s 2012 Reviewer’s Choice Awards Nominee for Young Adult Contemporary Novel, a double Rita Finalist, and a 2013 YALSA Top Ten Teen Pick. DARE YOU TO was also a Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction and won RT Magazine’s Reviewer’s Choice Best Book Award for Young Adult Contemporary fiction in 2013..
Today is release day forSOMEONE LIKE YOU, the third book in the adult contemporary romantic comedy series, Imperfect Hearts, by Alexandra Silva. See below for on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
SOMEONE LIKE YOU (Imperfect Hearts #3) by Alexandra Silva
About the Book Title: SOMEONE LIKE YOU Series: Imperfect Hearts #3 Author: Alexandra Silva Release Date: January 31, 2019 Genre: Young Contemporary Romantic Comedy Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | iBooks | Kobo
Synopsis Dorian Anson is my friend. She’s the only person who’s ever questioned my smiles. My jokes. The one liners that have our friends shaking their heads at me. I’ve lived my life on those smiles. They never failed me, until her. I wasn’t counting on her when I designed my front. I never imagined the possibility of someone like her coming into my life.
The wild hair, the kind smile and those eyes that see everything. She was the girl with the beautiful soul, pretty face and whole heart. But hearts aren’t made to stay whole. I watched hers break. I watched her tears fall. I watched as her world tilted on its axis and shattered at her feet.
This girl.
She sees me, all parts of me—the truths I try to hide, the secrets I bury. What’s mine and what’s not. She sees it all, and I can only hope the truth isn’t too much. That she won’t walk away. That she won’t leave me…alone. We both have a past. We have ghosts. We have fears. I’m hoping that somehow in the end, we’ll have each other too. I’ve never needed anyone before her, and I know I’ll never want anyone else after her.
There is no one like her.
My pretty girl.
Dorian.
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Excerpt Over the years our girls’ nights had become more of a child friendly affair. Gone were the cocktails and in was the tea. Willow and one of our friends, Beth, had stumbled on this gem of a tearoom a while back and we’d made it a point to hold our monthly catch-up sessions here. It was a small little teashop in a quiet little residential backstreet close to Willow’s flat in Kensington.
Molly and Pippa enjoyed the vintage dress up box and us older girls liked the natter. Quincy, Willow and I were childhood friends.
Quincy was probably the strongest person I knew. We’d lost Phillip, her brother, and on top of that she’d suffered a stillbirth and divorced her cheating, scumbag of a husband after finding out she was pregnant with Pippa.
I thought that I’d die when I’d found out that Phillip was gone, I couldn’t remember anything but the sheer pain. There were times that it still hurt as much now as it did then. Especially when Phillip’s absence, his death, impacted our son. Losing the man you thought you’d love for the rest of your life was a bitch, but merely thinking of the possibility of losing Daniel, that was enough to truly kill me.
My sweet boy.
“Oh god, this has got to be the best brownie I’ve ever had.” Quincy moaned as she shoved the rest of the small square in her mouth. “If we come here more often, I’ll have to join a gym.”
“I think it might be worth it though.” I giggled, as I watched Molly and Pippa wrap white feather boas around Beth’s and Willow’s shoulders.
“What’re you giggling about over there?” Willow looked between me and Quincy, her eyes narrowed at us like she suspected we were keeping something from her.
“Nothing.”
“The cake.”
“You say nothing,” she gestured toward me and then over at Quincy, “she says cake. Which is it?”
“Cake.” Quincy and I both sighed. It was good cake, almost better than sex, or what I remembered of it.
“I can think of something better than cake…” Beth snickered, waggling her brows at Willow. Her Welsh twang was something that made me smile to this day, I swear she could make the Hail Mary sound dirty.
Molly looked between us, her face pinched in confusion as she said, “Uncle Jake says there’s nothing better than cake and ice cream.”
“Speaking of,” Beth stood from her makeover chair and sat back at the table with us, “how did the football thing go?”
“Good.”
“Just good?” Quincy asked as she examined one of the mini scones glistening with jam and clotted cream atop.
“Yes.”
“Why’re you being so evasive about it?” Willow gave me one of her curious looks.
“I’m not, the match went well, they won. It was nice of him.” I glanced over at Pippa and Molly who were going through the dress up box again.
“Yeah, it was really nice of him.” Beth sang a little too teasingly.
“Stop it.”
“Come on, Dorian, you have to admit he’s a little bit nice himself.”
“Beth.” I warned as she shrugged like I was the one being silly.
I didn’t want to talk about him with them. I didn’t want to think about him any more than I already did, especially about how pleasant he was to look at or spend time with.
“She’s got a point, Dory, he’s actually…you know…” Quincy smiled, her cheeks blushing like she was saying something inappropriate.
“Yeah, he’s hot until he opens his mouth and then you want to slap him or snap his tongue off.” Willow rolled her eyes as she poured herself another cup of tea. I internally chuckled at her indignation, she and Jake were very alike in the way they interacted with people. They didn’t let many people in, but when they did, they were loyal to a fault. Not to mention that they were both great at pressing people’s buttons.
“I love Uncle Jake, he’s my goddaddy like you, Dory.” Molly chimed as she and Pippa sat at the table with us.
“I’m your godmother, sweetie.” I couldn’t help but tap her little button nose with the tip of my finger, something she always pulled a sort of sour face about, but never complained.
God, I’m that aunt that pinches cheeks and coos like a bloody overbearing fool.
The thought alone made me cringe as I then started to imagine myself as the cat lady on the second floor of my building. Nice to everyone, but essentially invisible and alone. As unlikely as that would be with this lot around, it still struck a dissonant chord and it made me uneasy.
When did I become this person? I asked myself, the answer immediately flashing in my mind as a pair of distant, beautiful brown eyes and a soft cheeky smile. Phillip.
“I still struggle with that decision.” Willow groaned.
“He’s great with the kids,” I sighed, trying to ignore the pang my thoughts had brought with them.
“Because he’s a child himself.”
“You know he’s not that bad.” I’d known Jake for over a decade. We’d spent a lot of time with one another. I’d learned that there was a lot more to him than what most people saw, and a part of me didn’t know what to make of that.
I didn’t understand why he’d allowed me to see him in all those lights, but it made me happy, even if that happiness brought a sting of guilt with it.
“But, he is hot, and he likes spending time with you.” Beth smiled. “Anyone would think he might like you…like you. Plus, you need to get back into the tango of things.”
“I can barely balance Daniel and work, and thinking about people like that…well, I don’t know, it seems wrong. Oh, and I have a child.”
Thinking about Jake like that didn’t feel wrong, what felt wrong was thinking about him in one breath and in the next thinking about Phillip. Sometimes I wondered if I would still think of Jake like that if Phillip were still here. If we’d even be friends like we are. The worst part of it was the panicked feeling at the possibility that we might not be the way we are if Phillip hadn’t died.
It was a panic laced with guilt and self-loathing because what if I still felt all the same things toward Jake even if Phillip was here?
It doesn’t mean you’d still be together.
The thought made me cringe. I couldn’t imagine not being with him, not when we had Daniel.
“I have Daniel.”
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Author Alexandra Silva
About the Author Alexandra Silva is a lover of words and romance. She blames the classics and a nutty English teacher for her obsession with books and fiction. Come rain or shine with either coffee or wine in hand you can find her with her nose stuck in a book and her head in the clouds. She lives in London outnumbered by her very loud boys, with her very own hero and their two wild cats–Jack and Jill.
Welcome to the book blitz for EVO, a stand-alone adult thriller by Diane May. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway. For a limited time, you can pick up the ebook for just $2.99.
Synopsis A covert CIA operation that involves genetic engineering.
A serial killer nicknamed “The Hypnotist”.
And the most terrifying threat humanity has to face.
What if someone could take complete control over your mind?
And what if that someone was a serial killer?
Discover EVO, a gripping crime thriller that reviewers and readers describe as “spellbinding”, “high-energy” and “impossible to put down”.
Langley, Virginia, twenty years earlier:
John Blake, a CIA special agent, stumbles upon an illegal genetic experiment within the agency, conducted on unborn babies and officially presented as a fertility program designed to help couples get pregnant. When he realizes that his very own daughter is a product of this sinister plot and that she is in grave danger, he vows to do everything it takes to make sure Maya will be safe and the people behind the experiment will all pay. With their lives.
Verona, Italy, present time:
Livio Marchiori, a homicide detective with the highest rate of solved cases in Verona, is faced with The Hypnotist, a serial killer the likes of which he’s never seen before. He never touches his victims and he leaves no evidence behind, except for the detailed videos of his murders. And what Marchiori and his team see on those videos is more disturbing than all their other cases combined. Because this one is different. This one defies all rational thinking and borders the impossible.
Then The Hypnotist gets personal and threatens to kill Dr. Abby Jones, the chief medical examiner and the woman Marchiori is in love with. Caught in a cat-and-mouse game with the elusive killer, Marchiori knows he is quickly running out of time.
So when Captain Victor Miller from Interpol walks into town, Marchiori is more than happy to partner again with the man who two years ago helped him put an entire mafia clan behind bars. But Miller has his own agenda, and Marchiori soon discovers that there is more to these crimes than meets the eye, an entire thread of things way beyond his pay grade – illegal experiments, secret agencies, and the most terrifying threat humanity has to face.
A gripping serial killer thriller with a “hit-the-brakes-with-both-feet plot twist that may leave even the most jaded among us feeling good about humanity.”
“He stripped down, threw his clothes in the blue hamper behind the door, and got in the shower. He turned his body away from the faucet and placed his hands on the wall, letting the hot water beat down his back. Doing this usually relaxed him, but now it somehow amplified this weird restlessness, this foreboding feeling he couldn’t shake off. Annoyed at himself, he quickly washed his body, turned off the faucet and reached for the brown towel on the hook.
A heavy silence filled his apartment. A few drops of water from the shower head splashed onto the ceramic tiles below, the sound deafening to his ears. His heart started beating faster. All of a sudden he wanted to hear human voices, his neighbours yelling at each other, their baby crying, anything but this dead silence and the rhythmic tapping of the water drops.
An icy shiver rippled down his spine and his body started shaking. Unseen walls were sliding down around him, trapping him. Suffocating him.”
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Chapter 3 Marchiori took his gun, a 9mm Beretta 92FS – perfect for his hands because of its ample grip – from his shoulder holster, put it on the brown wooden desk in front of him, and then sat down. The big swivel chair squeaked under his weight. Not that he was fat. But he was tall and muscular, the body of a man who exercised regularly, just not in the perfect conditions of a gym. He strongly believed that if you wanted a hard body and a tough mind you needed to go hand-to-hand with Mother Nature. He ran and exercised in the forest and up the hills behind his house, and he did it in all weather conditions. Rain, ice, or the fires of hell, it made no difference to him. He rolled out of bed and into his training gear every morning, never past six am, no matter how late he had hit the sack the night before. The only exception to this rule was when he slept in his office. The police headquarters had an underground space where there were two gyms, showers and locker rooms, and he had no choice then but to train there. Because no exercise was just unacceptable. He had made a pact with himself. The day he was out of breath while chasing a perp would be his last day as a police officer. And he sure as hell did everything in his power to keep that day in the very distant future.
He loved his job more than anything in the world, which was why at thirty-seven he’d already been divorced for more than five years. The fighting had started shortly after they got married. You’re never at home when I go to bed, his wife used to yell at him, we don’t even have breakfast together because you always go to that lousy police bar. Sleepy hellos and good-byes didn’t qualify as communication apparently. And then came the ultimatum. Me or your job, she calmly announced one night, you have one week to decide. He could have given her the answer straight away. It wasn’t that he didn’t love her. Because he did. But his job was an integral part of his being, encoded in his DNA and impossible to live without. Of course he never actually told her this, but she was a smart woman, and by the end of that week she had packed her bags and wished him and his job a happy life together.
While sitting in his chair with one hour until midnight, Marchiori realized he had no idea what he was supposed to do the next day. His first day off in years. A whole day off.
The nice old lady in the Personnel Office had threatened to make him take two weeks off at a time if he didn’t reduce the obscene amount of paid holiday he had accumulated over the years. And Colonel Sanese, chief of The Homicide and Burglary Division of the Verona Police Department, had been on her side. Marchiori had muttered something about how bullying employees was illegal, but realised he had no choice in the matter. So unless he wanted to die of boredom two weeks at a time, he had agreed to take one or two days off every now and then.
And the first one was tomorrow.
He switched off his computer and was about to stand up, when he heard a soft knock on the door. He sighed loudly. There was only one person in the entire building who did that. His new partner. A young man who had no business being a police officer. But whether he liked it or not, the guy had been forced down his throat and he had to work with him. Because the young man’s father was a well-connected, well-known general in Rome.
The door opened slowly.
“Sir…?”
“Giusto, how many times do I have to tell you not to act like a girl on her first date when you come into my office?”
A red patch stretched up from under the lieutenant’s shirt collar and quickly reached his cheeks. He cleared his voice. “Sorry, Sir.”
“So, what is it then?”
“We’ve just received a 112 call reporting a murder.”
For a few moments Marchiori was quiet. He couldn’t believe his luck. If one could call the killing of another human being luck. But Sanese had made it loud and clear that unless someone got killed, he was to stay at home tomorrow, or do whatever the bloody hell he wanted to, but under no circumstances show his face inside the police headquarters.
And someone had been killed.
He pushed his chair back and stood up. “Let’s go then,” he said, as he grabbed his crumpled suit jacket off the back of his chair and slipped it on.
The nice old lady in the Personnel Office would not have her wish come true today. And through no fault of his own.
He put his gun back in the shoulder holster and marched out of his office, quickly followed by Giusto.
Twenty minutes later, Marchiori parked the unmarked black Alfa Romeo between two Carabinieri cruisers next to the kerb on Via Delle Argonne, right outside a posh and elegant building painted in warm shades of café-au-lait. An apartment here must cost more than he could ever afford on a public servant’s salary.
A Croce Rossa ambulance was parked not far from where they were, its blue lights piercing the moonless night. Two carabinieri and one paramedic stood at the back of the red and white van.
He and Giusto got out of the car and were about to head towards the ambulance, when one of the carabinieri saw them and sauntered in their direction.
“Captain, lieutenant,” the man greeted them.
“What do we have here, sergeant?” Marchiori asked him.
“Victim’s name is Niccolò Pasetto, and from what the paramedics have been saying, he was one of the finest virologists at Borgo Trento Hospital.”
“Who called it in?”
“Anonymous, but the call was made from the victim’s mobile phone.”
Which meant it may have very well been the killer himself.
“ID every single person entering or leaving the building, ask them to give you their contact details and start knocking on doors and see if anyone’s seen or heard anything suspicious this evening.”
“Some of the folks living here won’t like it. From what I’ve seen it’s full of doctors, lawyers and such. I think I might’ve recognised a judge’s name on the intercom outside.”
“I don’t care if the Pope himself lives here. This is a police investigation and until further indication we’re treating this as reported. Murder.”
“Yes, sir.”
Marchiori turned on his heels and marched towards the building. A police officer posted in the lobby let him in.
“First floor, door on the left,” the man informed him.
“Thanks,” he said and climbed the steps two at a time, Giusto in tow.
A young policeman he’d never seen before stood guard outside the door and asked them to ID themselves.
“I’m Captain Livio Marchiori, the detective in charge of this case and this is my partner Lieutenant Giusto,” Marchiori answered and flashed his badge.
“Yes, sir, you can go in. The crime scene guys have just arrived as well.”
“Really?” Marchiori arched his eyebrows. “How the hell did they get here so quickly?”
The policeman shrugged and opened the apartment door for them.
“What the fuck!?” Marchiori cursed when a wave of stinking hot air hit him.
“It’s the heating, sir,” Lieutenant Bernini, one of the CSU techs, said and handed both him and Giusto a pair of blue shoe covers and gloves.
“No kidding! And here I was, thinking it was the AC… Well, turn the damn thing off then!”
He took off his jacket, loosened his tie knot and undid the first two buttons on his shirt. He was already drenched in sweat and hadn’t even seen the crime scene yet.
“The body’s in what appears to be the victim’s office, the second door on your right,” Bernini added, his face strained, his jaw set tight.
“That bad, huh?” Marchiori muttered and headed in that direction.
The rancid smell of decaying flesh was getting stronger now. He fished out a handkerchief from the pocket of his trousers and covered his nose, then focused on the room in front of him. A floor-to-ceiling bookcase covered the wall to the left, and right across from it a big cherry wood desk took up almost half the space, standing on a thick green rug covering a portion of the polished wooden floor. A pile of folders, haphazardly stacked, a room thermometer on one corner of the desk and a telephone were the only items on it.
Then his gaze settled on the body in the centre of the room. The victim was dressed in a pair of boxers and looked like he had been dipped in boiling water before sitting in the big black leather armchair where he was now.
But it was the man’s face that made Marchiori’s mouth go dry. His eyes were wide open and sunk deep into his skull, and looked so terrifyingly empty as if the man’s very soul had wrenched itself free from that tortured body without leaving any trace of its presence there. A mask of unseen horrors, his face was red like blood, his mouth twisted in a silent scream.
Marchiori took a few steps closer to the body.
Who did this to you?
“The medical examiner is here,” he heard Bernini’s voice in the hallway.
“Send him in.”
“Her. Send her in,” a feminine voice chimed from behind him.
Marchiori turned around. A woman somewhere in her mid-thirties stood in the doorway and looked at him, her eyes a deep blue, her lips wearing a polite smile.
“You’re not Gianluca Farinati,” he blurted, and as soon as the words were out he wanted to kick himself.
It was plainly obvious she was a woman and not a sixty-year old balding man.
“Dr. Abbigail Jones,” she said and extended her hand, “but you can call me Abby, captain.”
He almost felt more shocked by her presence here than by the victim in the armchair. Without a word, he shook her hand, feeling her firm hold and smooth skin.
Aw, crap.
This was one complication he didn’t need in his life.
“I’m the new chief medical examiner in Verona,” she added, “just transferred from Milan. Dr. Farinati grew tired of always being among the dead and decided to take early retirement and live a little.”
“Can’t say I blame him,” Marchiori said, thinking of the body behind him.
He had a flash about a memo he’d received about a month ago regarding Farinati’s retirement and the arrival of a new medical examiner.
He should pay closer attention to his memos.
“You’re not Italian, Dr. Jones,” Marchiori tried to fill the silence.
He hated small talk. And whenever he had to work with a woman he felt compelled to engage in some sort of conversation. If she’d been a man, after they had finished with the introductions they would have focused on the body.
“And… is that a problem, detective?”
“No, of course not, Dr. Jones, just curiosity.”
“First of all, it’s Abby. Dr. Jones is my father. And second, yes, my name’s not Italian. I’m Italian-American, mother from Sicily, father from Atlanta, USA.”
“Interesting… Well, welcome on board, Dr. Jones,” he said with an emphasis on the words Dr. Jones.
Why would anyone request a transfer from Milan to Verona? It was usually the other way around.
A slight frown had appeared on the woman’s face and her lips weren’t smiling anymore. He chose to ignore that.
“All yours,” he added and stepped aside so she could get a full view of the decaying corpse.
For about a minute she just looked at the dead body without saying a word. She didn’t appear scared or sick or anything. Her face was a mask of detached professionalism, and her hands didn’t hesitate or tremble when she took a camera from her bag and started clicking away.
“Could you tell me the estimated time of death, Dr. Jones?”
The camera stopped clicking and she turned to him. “Either you have problems with your short-term memory detective, or you’re trying to annoy me. But let me make one thing clear: I’m not going anywhere. So the way I see it we only have two options here. We could play nice, or…”
“Or…what, doctor?”
“You know,” she said and shrugged her shoulders, “medical examiners are so busy sometimes, that the results you need could get delayed, or even lost on their way to you. Shit happens, right?”
She then took a few steps closer to the body as if nothing had happened and she hadn’t just threatened him. He couldn’t even see a bead of sweat on her face or neck for fuck’s sake and it was boiling hot in the room. Not to mention the stink. But she seemed oblivious to all of that.
He looked at her closely. She wore elegant clothes and by the look of them he bet they were from the same rack as Gucci or Dolce & Gabbana. Black slim trousers and pumps, and a double breasted trench coat of the same colour, with a belt that flattered her figure, and a pale pink scarf and lip-gloss to add some light to her look. Professional. That would be the correct word to describe her appearance. But there was more to her than met the eye. The way she had threatened him, without any qualms or hesitation, and the way she was now examining the body… well, he got the message loud and clear: Don’t mess with me. Or something to that effect.
He cleared his throat. “So… er, Abby, what can you tell me about the time and cause of death?”
She smiled. “Not so sure about why and when, but I do know who he was having a date with last night.”
“You do?”
“A goddam oven, that’s who.”
He couldn’t help it. The corners of his mouth curled upward. If his colleagues had seen this, they would have teased him about it for a month. The grizzly bear smiled, hell must have frozen over. He could practically hear all the jokes.
Abby started clicking her camera again, taking pictures from all possible angles.
“I don’t know how you did things in Milan, but here we have full time employees who do this.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not trying to steal their job. Got enough on my plate as it is,” she said, without even pausing to look at him, “and I’m not trying to say they aren’t fine professionals either. But I like taking my own photos. It helps me to remember details more easily and concentrate better.”
Well, at least it showed she was thorough, if nothing else, Marchiori thought.
“Hm… It’s strange,” she muttered to herself.
“What is?”
“He seemed to have died of heat stroke.” She put the camera back inside her handbag.
“Well, if you don’t open a window soon, I might die of a heat stroke, too.”
Abby rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry, that’s not gonna happen. Not in this temperature anyway.”
“What do you know?” he muttered. “I bet you sip your afternoon tea with the devil himself. And he’s the one doing the sweating.”
She whipped her head in his direction. “Pardon?”
“Just asking how could the vic have died of a heat stroke if—”
“Sir,” Giusto’s voice interrupted him, “you might wanna come and see this.” He then seemed to realize Marchiori wasn’t alone in the room. “You too, Dr. Jones.”
“What is it?”
“We found a pen drive inserted in the victim’s laptop and there’s a video on it,” the lieutenant said without giving further details. He looked at the body and didn’t even flinch or try to avert his eyes.
Every now and again the young man managed to surprise Marchiori.
“What’s the video about?”
“You need to come and see for yourself, sir.”
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Author Diane May
About the Authors DianeMay is a crime thriller writer and she lives in Verona, Italy, with her husband. When she’s not in her office writing, she can usually be found curled up on the sofa with a good book in her lap and a cup of green tea next to her.
The only daughter of an army colonel, she grew up on military bases where she learnt about weapons, discipline and the sacrifices of military life. She also worked for many years as a translator and interpreter for the Court of Law on mostly criminal cases.
EVO is her debut novel and she is currently working on her second crime thriller, Till Death Do Us Part, scheduled to be released in 2019.
Welcome to the release blitz for UNRAVELING THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE, the third book in the adult contemporary romance series, Sweet with Heat: Weston Bradens, by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Melissa Foster writing as Addison Cole. See below for information on the book and series, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
UNRAVELING THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE (Sweet with Heat — Weston Bradens #3) by Addison Cole
About the Book Title: UNRAVELING THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE Series: Sweet with Heat — Weston Bradens #3 Author: Melissa Foster writing as Addison Cole Publisher: World Literary Press Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance Release Date: January 23, 2019 Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo | GooglePlay
Synopsis Discover the magic of the Bradens, and fall in love with AddisonCole‘s rich and romantic storytelling.
In Unraveling the Truth About Love…
Small-town overachiever Riley Banks has finally scored her big break–working in Manhattan as a fashion design assistant for her childhood crush, Josh Braden. She enters her new job hoping to make a name for herself and–just maybe–explore the romance that slipped through her fingers way back when.
Josh Braden has models at his beck and call, a staff that never says never, and an elegant clothing line for the holiday season. When he hires Riley Banks, he expects her to learn the business from the ground up. But the girl next door turns out to be much more than he remembered.
When Josh and Riley’s friendship heats up, every steamy kiss, and every passionate caress stirs a love they cannot deny. But when Riley designs a wedding gown that would cause even the most jaded fashion editors to swoon, Riley’s mentor accuses her of stealing the design.
Facing indisputable proof and the mistrust of her lover, Riley is not sure she can take the heat of life in the fast lane of the fashion industry–and Josh is forced to choose between the woman he loves and the career he adores.
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Unraveling the Truth About Love is a Sweet with Heat novel and conveys all of the passion you’d expect to find between two people in love without any graphic scenes or harsh language. If you’re looking for a more explicit romance, pick up the steamy edition, Friendship on Fire, written by New York Times bestselling author Melissa Foster. AddisonCole is Melissa’s sweet-romance pen name.
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Excerpt Riley Banks hurried down Thirty-Seventh Street in her red Catherine Malandrino dress and Giuseppe Zanotti leopard-print, calf-hair pumps. It was the week after Thanksgiving, and Manhattan was buzzing with the feverish zeal of the holidays. Riley slowed her pace to catch her breath. Tomorrow I’ll find the courage to take the subway. Maybe. She tugged her coat tighter across her chest to ward off the chilly air and silently hoped that nobody would figure out that she’d purchased her outfit on Outnet.com, an online designer outlet store. She felt like such a hypocrite, heading to her first day at her new job as one of world-renowned designer Josh Braden’s assistants wearing discounted clothing. The thought turned her stomach—but not as much as showing up in her hometown jeans and cowgirl boots would have. She was a long way from Weston, Colorado, and she’d spent the last few weeks gathering discount designer clothes and practicing omitting “y’all” from her vocabulary.
She stood before the thick glass door of Josh Braden Designs and took a deep breath. The sign above the door read, JBD. This is it. She closed her eyes for a split second to repeat the mantra she’d been playing in her mind like a broken record for weeks: I’m educated, knowledgeable, and eager. I can do this.
A warm hand on her lower back pulled her from her thoughts.
“Have any trouble finding us?” Josh Braden stood beside her with a friendly smile and perfectly shorn, thick dark hair. His black Armani suit fit his lean, muscular frame perfectly. A few years earlier, he’d been named one of America’s Most Eligible Bachelors. Back then she hadn’t given the magazine cover a second thought. He was in New York, and she was back in Colorado, so far removed from him that she’d still thought of him as Josh Braden, the boy she’d had a crush on for too many years to count. Now, standing on the streets of New York City beside the man whose name rivaled Vera Wang, she felt the air sucked from her lungs.
His deep voice sent a shiver right through her. Not only had she had the good fortune to be reconnected with Josh when he was back home visiting his family, but during his visit, the two of them had also spent a few days getting reacquainted. Riley hadn’t been sure if it was her crush going haywire or if there was something more real blossoming between them, but those few days had each felt a little more intimate than the last. And while their lips never touched and their bodies remained apart, she’d felt like they were always one breath away from falling into each other’s arms.
About the Author SIGN UP for ADDISON’S Sweet with Heat newsletter. Fun, flirty romance with a dash of heat. www.AddisonCole.com/Newsletter
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Addison Cole is the sweet alter ego of New York Times and USA Today bestselling and award-winning author Melissa Foster. She writes humorous and emotional sweet contemporary romance. Her books do not include explicit sex scenes or harsh language. Addison spends her summers on Cape Cod, where she dreams up wonderful love stories in her house overlooking Cape Cod Bay.
Addison is proud to be part of the Main Street Romance family, a partnership with bestselling authors Nancy Naigle, RaeAnne Thayne, and Chris Keniston, bringing sweet happy-ever-after love stories to the Main Street Romance community. Join them at www.MainStreetRomance.com ~ open 24/7 just for you.
Addison enjoys discussing her books with book clubs and reader groups and welcomes an invitation to your event.
Welcome to the blog tour for DOWN WE’LL COME, BABY, a stand-alone adult contemporary romance, by Carrie Aarons. See below for information on the book, buy links, and an exclusive excerpt.
DOWN WE’LL COME, BABY by Carrie Aarons
About the Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited Title: DOWN WE’LL COME, BABY Author: Carrie Aarons Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance Release Date: January 27, 2019 Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU
Synopsis Imogen There is no way we can still love and cherish one and other.
When I married Theo Walsh, the rough, bearded townie who worked construction on my family’s summer house, I’d found my happily ever after.
That was before the fighting. Before the jealousy. Before the infertility.
We’ll be divorced long before death does us part. But to secure my place in the family dynasty, there is just one more hoop I have to jump through. And I need him to do it. Faking the marriage we once thrived in will gut me. Especially with the secret I’m carrying.
Theo I would have sacrificed for her until the end of time.
My job. My home. My happiness.
I’d given it all up to marry her. That’s how much I loved Imogen Weston, the daughter to one of the world’s richest families. From the day we met, I’d done nothing but try to live up to the man she expected to be with. And now, I was done. Sure, I’d complete this one final ask of hers, even if it destroyed me.
But I’ve made her promise the one thing that might save me. She swore that after she got everything she ever wanted, she wouldn’t look back. I made my wife vow to leave me forever.
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Excerpt “Hi,” she breathes, her eyes shifting around the coffee shop. Looking anywhere but at me.
“Hi,” I respond, my voice awkward in my throat.
Here is a person I know everything about, who knows everything about me. I’ve been inside of her, she’s nursed me back to health, we’ve shared meals and walks and bank accounts and even a cat. Yet, right now, we’re acting like complete strangers.
Is that why divorce is so brutal? Because it takes two people who once shared love and dismantles every emotion between them until they don’t know each other at all?
Except in this case, the love is not gone. I’m still so very in love with this woman that I want to stand up and scream that this has to be some kind of mistake.
“Thanks for meeting me.” Imogen is twisting her hands under the table. I know because that is her nervous tic.
I clear my throat. “I would go to the moon if you asked me to after not hearing from you this week.”
She sighs. “Please don’t make this harder than it is.”
“So don’t make this … this. Why did you leave, Immy?” I use her nickname, my hand slapping on the table between us as my voice becomes impassioned.
Her nervous eyes flit over to Kira, whose gaze was probably directed toward us when I slapped my hand down. “Don’t do this, not here.”
“Then where? You won’t return my calls, you moved out. You didn’t give us a chance.” My voice breaks.
Her eyes are so sad, it hurts. “The last two years were our chance. We couldn’t make it work, Theo. You think I want to get …”
“Don’t you dare say it.” If that word came out of her mouth, I might throw the coffee mug in front of me against the brick wall behind her.
“We’ve been headed there for a long time, don’t try to say you didn’t see it too. I’m just making the most logical decision for both of us. The life we have … it’s no life.” Imogen rubs her hands up and down her arms as if trying to get warm.
“Love isn’t logical,” I spit at her, furious. She’s discounting everything we have.
Her next sentence is a whisper, “Please, stop this. Can’t you see? There is too much pain. I can’t live in that house anymore. I can’t see the ghosts of the children that were supposed to fill it.”
And now my heart actually does break. Cracks wide open, bleeding the pure anguish we’ve both felt.
I nod, because if this is hurting her, I don’t want to do it anymore. I love her enough to let her leave.
“But … before it comes down to legally …” Imogen breaks off, and I know she doesn’t want to say the word. Maybe, just like me, she can’t. “I need your help.”
“What?” The switch from her deepest emotion to her asking a favor throws me off.
“You know what happened when we got married … how my father revoked my position at Weston?”
“Of course I do. Not that you need your family’s company to be successful.” I get the jab in there because her family has always irked me.
Immy bows her head. “You have your opinions. But, now that we’re … separating, I have a chance to gain the executive role back.”
My hands ball into fists under the table. Her fucking father is the evilest mastermind I know.
“Well, if that’s what you want, I guess that’s great for you.”
She nods slowly. “Except … my parents don’t want a scandal following my promotion. So … they would like us to remain married until they can smooth a public … separation over and hide it behind the story of my rise to power within the company.”
Apparently, I underestimated the old bastard. He was going to make her jump through hoops, even in her lowest of times.
“What exactly does that mean?” I have a sneaking suspicion I know, but I want her to say it.
Those green eyes latch onto mine. Imogen may be quiet, but she’s brave and confident when needed. “It means that I need us to stay married, look happy for the public, until we … divorce.”
And she’s said it. The firing squad murders my heart in my chest.
“You’re asking me to pretend for you? To fake love you? I don’t need to fake that Imogen.” My teeth snap together in anger.
Inside, I’m dying. My organs are in multi-system failure, because if the heart goes it all goes. I feel so cold and numb that I can barely sit upright. How is this not killing her too? Did I miss the point where she fell out of love with me? Or had I always been the more invested one?
“Please, Theo. You know why … I have to be on my own. I don’t want to have this fight again, but I gave that job up for you. I have the chance to get it back.”
Did she have any idea what I’d given up for her? I had a feeling she never really cared about what I’d sacrificed. And suddenly, that struck a deep chord of rage in me. Imogen wanted our marriage to end and for me to help set her up for her next chapter. How selfish was that?
It was time to be done with this back and forth forever. Our marriage, our love, had been in a state of limbo for the last two years. And now I’d rip out my heart making this decision, but I’d do it.
“I’ll do this for you.” I puff out my chest, trying to ignore the lightning bolt of pain that fissures my heart.
Imogen’s big green eyes blink, those thick lashes working over the words I just said. “You’ll help me to get back in my father’s good graces?”
“If this helps you … after we’re over, then yes.” My soul feels like it’s being strangled, suffocated by my own hands.
“Theo, thank you. I know it won’t be easy, but we know the motions, we can fake this.” Her eyes are hopeful.
How the hell can she possibly pretend to love me? Just so that the public can see it? This will mentally slay me, and yet here she is, motivated by the scent of money and her family’s precious company. Maybe I’d decided to ignore this part of her because I was so in love with her when we got married. But Imogen is revealing a part of her true colors right now, and it’s filling my mouth with the taste of blood money.
I want to hurt her as much as she’s hurting me right now. “But you have to promise me something.”
“Anything.” She nods, her blond waves rustling over her shoulders.
“After you secure the position, if this works to get you back into the fold … I want you to leave me. Really leave me. A fast divorce, and then no contact. I don’t want to see you after all of this is over. You have to vow to leave me forever.”
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Author Carrie Aarons
About the Author Author of romance novels such as Red Card and the Captive Heart Duet, Carrie Aarons writes sexy, swoony and sarcastic characters who won’t get out of her head until she puts them down on a page.
Carrie has wanted to be an author since the first time she opened a book. She loves spinning tales that include dapper men, women with attitude, and the occasional hunky athlete.
When she isn’t in what her husband calls a “writing coma”, Carrie is freeing up her jam-packed DVR, starting her latest DIY project, or planning her next travel adventure. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, who is more than happy to watch sports while his wife plots love stories.
Welcome to the book blitz for PIGGYBACKER, the first book in the young adult urban fantasy/thriller series, Vessel of Lost Souls, by Mikki Noble. See below for information the book, buy links, an exclusive peek at the character’s favorite songs, and details on her giveaway.
PIGGYBACKER (Vessel of Lost Souls #1) by Mikki Noble
About the Book Title: PIGGYBACKER Series: Vessel of Lost Souls #1) Author: Mikki Noble Release Date: January 28, 2019 Genre: Young Adult Urban Fantasy/Thriller Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU
Synopsis TOO LATE TO SAVE HIS LIFE. NOT TOO LATE TO BRING HIM BACK.
Everyone thinks Marley tried to take her own life, that is, except Marley. After her mother sends her to a youth center for troubled teens, she starts hearing the voice of a boy who claims he was murdered and begins questioning her own sanity. The voice is Gavin, a seventeen-year-old boy who promises Marley he can help her find the truth about what happened the day she supposedly tried to kill herself—if she completes a resurrection spell in the next four days.
Upon discovering Gavin’s death in the newspaper, Marley realizes she’s not hallucinating, and that she has a chance to save Gavin’s soul and clear her name. The task seems simple: complete the spell, then she and Gavin are free, right? But a powerful, unseen force is determined to stop her, and soon Marley finds herself following clues from the universe to find ingredients for the ritual to save herself and her newfound friend, and most of all, to find the truth about what really happened that day.
Piggybacker is the first in MikkiNoble’s spell-binding Vessel of Lost Souls trilogy, and promises a thrilling mystery with powerful enemies, broken relationships, captivating magic, and two souls both caught up in a plot beyond any they could ever imagine.
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Piggybacker Character’s Favorite Songs
Marley: Stronger by Britney Spears and Fighter by Christina
Gavin: Immortals by Fall Out Boy
Kimmy: used to be Stitches, but now it’s Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes
Circe: anything, but especially OneRepublic
Crystal: Chicago by Benny Goodman
Taylor: anything by her girl Beyoncé
Shawn: he tells everyone it’s Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5, but it’s really True Colors by Phil Collins
Sammy: Insensitive by Jann Arden
Melissa: Express Yourself by Madonna
Len: Keep Talking by Pink Floyd
Genie: California Gurls by Katy Perry because she was born in California
Noah: The Death of Romance by Zeromancer because the cd is the last thing his father bought him before he passed away
Uncle Sam: Bless the Broken Road by Rascal Flatts
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Author Mikki Noble
About the Author As far back as she can remember, Mikki was creating characters and stories in her head. It wasn’t until fate brushed the tip of its wings over her eyes that she began to see that writing was what she was born to do. She loves animals, reading, everything supernatural related, and enjoys spending her free time on social media whenever she can.
THE BIRDS, THE BEES, AND YOU AND ME by Olivia Hinebaugh
Synopsis Seventeen-year-old Lacey Burke is the last person on the planet who should be doling out sex advice. For starters, she’s never even kissed anyone, and she hates breaking the rules. Up until now, she’s been a straight-A music geek that no one even notices. All she cares about is jamming out with her best friends, Theo and Evita.
But then everything changes.
When Lacey sees first-hand how much damage the abstinence-only sex-ed curriculum of her school can do, she decides to take a stand and starts doling out wisdom and contraception to anyone who seeks her out in the girls’ restroom. But things with Theo become complicated quickly, and Lacey is soon not just keeping everyone else’s secrets, but hers as well.
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My Review Fiercely feminist main character — check, viola player — check, ace BFF — check! My daughter is a fiercely feminist, viola playing, asexual teen, so really there was almost no chance I wasn’t going to loveTHE BIRDS, THE BEES, AND YOU AND ME, but it still surprised me. I was surprised by how much I loved Lacey, Theo, and Evita. The complex relationships explored and the bonds of friendship stretched were incredibly realistic. The choices that the three of them face as high school seniors are typical, but no less intense because of that. When Lacey pushes back against her school’s archaic and factually inaccurate abstinence-only program that attempts to shame teens into not having sex, things go hilariously wrong. Lacey and her friends appoint themselves the sexperts, even though Lacey has never had sex, herself. They offer advice in the bathroom and provide covert access to condoms, until they get caught and suspended. But Lacey’s no wallflower and she fights the system with her mother’s support.
Plot This is really a story of standing up for what you believe in and the enduring bonds of friendship more than a romance. There is a romantic subplot involving Lacey and Theo, but Evita’s past relationship with Theo, before she realized she was ace, only complicates this. How the three best friends navigate their life goals, their determination to bring comprehensive sex education to their peers, and balancing loyalty is what drives this story and that’s where it really shines. The romantic elements serve more of a supporting role. The author doesn’t let her characters off without facing the consequences of their actions, making it believable. She weaves humor throughout the story, creating a lighthearted tale that could easily have taken on a darker tone.
The Characters This is really a character-driven story more than anything else, and the characters are utterly delightful. While this is Lacey’s story, all three have their own arcs and grow over the course of the book. Lacey’s knowledge of sex, without any firsthand experience, is a breath of fresh air. I wish more teen girls were this comfortable with the topic. Evita, as the leader of the trio, is fierce, funny, and loyal — everything you want in a BFF. Theo is a delightful third, the only boy in their close-knit group, who lends a little testosterone to all the estrogen flying around.
Top Five Things I Loved AboutTHE BIRDS, THE BEES, AND YOU AND ME 1. Representation. As the mother of an ace teen, I loved seeing such a strong ace character who was true to herself and didn’t end up in a romantic relationship.
2. Comprehensive sex ed. Another topic near and dear to my heart handled, with a responsible, fact-based approach.
3. Music. A cello, a viola, and rock music. What’s not to love?
4. Friendships. I love that the friendship is the primary focus over the romance. While romance plays a part, the enduring friendship is the glue holding everything together.
5. An honest portrayal of teen pregnancy. Nothing is sugar coated, but it’s not presented as shameful either. Really well done.
Bottom Line A book about friendship, personal responsibility, and the value of education, wrapped with humor and heart.
Disclaimer
I was provided with a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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About the Book Title: THE BIRDS, THE BEES, AND YOU AND ME Author: Olivia Hinebaugh Publisher: SwoonReads Release Date: January 22, 2019 Pages: 304 Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Romance Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo
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Author Olivia Hinebaugh
About the Author OliviaHinebaugh loves all stripes of literature for children. When she isn’t writing fiction, she can be found writing freelance, making art, discovering new songs on spotify, texting her writing buddies, or folding laundry. She lives near Washington, D.C. with her spouse, three kids, a dog that looks like a coyote, and a one-eyed cat. The Birds, The Bees, And You And Me is her debut novel.
Today is release day for SUDDENLY MINE, the ninth book in the adult contemporary romance series, Montgomery Brothers, by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Samantha Chase. See below for information on the book and series, buy links, and an exclusive teaser.
SUDDENLY MINE (Montgomery Brothers #9) by Samantha Chase
Christian Montgomery is burnt out—the family business might be his entire world, but his father’s judgment means Christian never stops working. His only respite is gazing at the beach and the carefree surfers riding the waves…especially the curvy redhead who’s caught his attention.
Sophia Bennington has just fled from her small Kansas town to California, where she’s trying her best to embrace her new beginning. Soon Christian and Sophia find one another, and it feels like sanctuary. But when their difficult pasts catch up to them, will they run away from each other?
About the Author Samantha Chase is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller of contemporary romance. She released her debut novel in 2011 and currently has more than forty titles under her belt! When she’s not working on a new story, she spends her time reading romances, playing way too many games of Scrabble or Solitaire on Facebook, wearing a tiara while playing with her sassy pug Maylene…oh, and spending time with her husband of 25 years and their two sons in North Carolina.
Today is release day for INTERLUDE, the latest release in the new adult contemporary romance series, Illusion, by D. Kelly. See below for information on the book and buy links.
Synopsis Jordan Weston is good-looking, mysterious, and sexually uninhibited, but his life is more like the name of his bar―Just an Illusion. His cousins are the bad boys of Bastards and Dangerous, but their fame hasn’t made everything rainbows and sunshine for him. He’s haunted, flawed, and the sole survivor of a homicide that wiped out his immediate family.
Allie Baker, the most recent hire at the bar, can see through Jordan’s façade. She knows he’s everything she doesn’t need, but she’s beginning to crave his cocky attitude and the way he looks at her. The more she tries to stay away from him, the more she wants to get to know him.
Jordan knows falling for an employee is a bad idea, but Allie pushes buttons he never realized he had. Even though Allie desperately needs her job, she soon decides being with Jordan is more important. Will they be able to compromise, or will she let her chance at love pass her by for the sake of a paycheck?
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Author D. Kelly
About the Author D. Kelly, author of The Acceptance Series, The Illusion Series, and standalone companion novels Chasing Cassidy and Sharing Rylee, was born and raised in Southern California. She’s a wife, mom, dog lover, taxi, problem fixer, and extreme multi-tasker. She married her high school sweetheart and is her kids’ biggest fan.
Kelly has been writing since she was young and took joy in spinning stories to her childhood friends. Margaritas and sarcasm make her smile, she loves the beach but hates the sand, and she believes Starbucks makes any day better.
A contemporary romance writer, D. Kelly’s stories revolve around friendship and the bond it creates, strengthening the love of the people who share it.
Today is release day for ANTON, the first book the adult contemporary sports romance series, Chicago Blaze Hockey, by Brenda Rothert. See below for information on the book, buy links, and an exclusive teaser.
ANTON (Chicago Blaze Hockey #1) by Brenda Rothert
About the Book Title: ANTON Series: Chicago Blaze Hockey #1 Author: Brenda Rothert Publisher: Silver Sky Publishing Release Date: January 29, 2019 Genre: Adult Contemporary Sports Romance Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo
Synopsis He’s known as Father Anton to his teammates—the brooding, sexy captain of the NHL’s Chicago Blaze has a reputation for…not having a reputation. Just like his diet and sleep routines, celibacy is part of Anton Petrov’s on-ice mojo. Or so they say. Anton stays mum on the subject. If the world thinks he chooses to abstain from sex, so be it. Better that than the truth getting out: there is a woman he burns for, but he can never have her. She’s his teammate’s wife, after all.
Mia Marceau is finally on her own. Now that she and her husband are living apart, she’s finding the peace she was desperate for. She spends her days in classes and late nights bartending, making her own way in the world at last. After what she’s been through, as long as her husband leaves her alone, she doesn’t plan to rock the boat. He still has the power to hurt those dearest to her, and she can’t demand a divorce with such a high cost.
A chance encounter with Mia has Anton hoping for a shot he never thought he’d get. And while she’s drawn to the intense, serious hockey center, Mia’s leery about playing with fire. That’s all Anton has ever known for Mia, though—a living, burning desire that won’t be denied—no matter the cost.
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Author Brenda Rothert
About the Author Brenda Rothert is an Illinois native who was a print journalist for nine years. She made the jump from fact to fiction in 2013 and never looked back. From new adult to steamy contemporary romance, Brenda creates fresh characters in every story she tells. She’s a lover of Diet Coke, chocolate, lazy weekends and happily ever afters. .
Welcome to the blog tour for DARING THE DETECTIVE, the third book in the adult historical romance series, Restitution League, by Riley Cole. See below for information on the book and series, buy links, and an exclusive excerpt.
DARING THE DETECTIVE (Restitution League #3) by Riley Cole
Synopsis He’s everything she disdains. She’s nothing he admires.
But love has its own delightful logic.
Whether bartering with Barbary pirates or angry Gypsy kings, Zadie Whitlock lives by her wits… and the business end of her parasol.
Detective Caleb Burke lives to right wrongs. He can’t abide Zadie’s daring, impulsive ways, especially after she leaves him bound to a library shelf with his own handcuffs.
Still, he can’t ignore the passion the damned woman ignites.
Nor can Zadie dismiss his smoldering allure. Which is troublesome in the extreme, because Caleb Burke isn’t the man for her. He’s too honorable, too loyal, and far too likely to follow the rules.
Dazzled by her indomitable spirit, Caleb makes a fateful choice that sets the two of them on a hunt for lost Viking treasure. Failure will see his career in ashes, and Zadie on trial for her life.
Pursued by deadly forces, they’ve got the power of the Restitution League on their side… and their own stubborn hearts in the way.
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Excerpt #1 Irritated beyond all reason, Caleb stalked into the study Zadie’s aunt used as an office, eager to find whatever clues he could. He needed to solve Dr. Whitlock’s disappearance and get far away from their newest client. Quickly. His sanity demanded it.
The hansom ride to her house had been excruciating. She took up too much space, too much air, too much of his psychical energy. He couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.
She was a charlatan, an opportunist, and a stunningly attractive woman who wouldn’t hesitate to wield all the skills at her disposal to flummox any man foolish enough to enter her orbit. He knew the sort. She’d take on any job, with no regard for legalities, or her own safety, as long as the fee was high enough.
But then she’d kissed him. Caleb scratched his cheek. It hadn’t even been a real kiss. But it did make him want another, a deep, breathtaking kiss that would leave both of them gasping for air.
He jerked his head back, startled by the direction his thoughts were taking. He didn’t even like her. And yet that one feather-light kiss had sent him ass over teakettle.
Impatient with his own imaginings, he focused his attention on the room, straining to make sense of the scene. She’d described it accurately. Papers were flung about as if someone had made a hasty search. Before touching a thing, he stood in the center of the space and breathed. He couldn’t have articulated what he was after. It was too ephemeral to name. He only knew he did it at the scene of every crime. He wanted to see it as the criminal, and the victim, might have seen it.
And here, he sensed urgency. There was no blood, no torn draperies or overturned furniture. No indication of a struggle. Either Zadie’s aunt had been threatened with a weapon, or she’d fled of her own accord.
After waiting in the doorway, allowing him space, Zadie joined him in the study, moving close enough that her fragrance radiated over the few inches separating them. Sweet, with a bite of spice, it called to mind exotic locales shimmering with heat.
He clenched his jaw, willing away the distraction, and forced himself to focus on the room itself, soaking in the details, letting his mind imagine the scene. Like the other rooms in the house, it was tastefully furnished. There was the desk, of course, and the chair opposite, where he imagined her aunt’s occasional patients sat. A skeleton stood in the corner, suspended from a black wire stand. The skull regarded him with detached interest.
Zadie pointed at it. “That’s where I found the necklace.”
He stepped around the desk, careful not to tread on the papers littering the floor. She was right to dismiss robbery as a motive. Too many items of value remained in plain sight. Shelves of finely bound volumes lined the wall behind the desk, and a silver ink set and letter opener sat, untouched on an expensive-looking leather blotter.
Zadie scooped a blank paper from the floor and held it out to him. “Here’s something.”
He held it up to the light from the window next to the desk. A dark footprint covered most of the surface.
She picked up another sheet. “Here’s another.”
Caleb compared the two prints. “Same boot.” So they were after a single intruder. The lugs were thick, the heel worn almost away. “Work boots. Large ones.” He examined the rest of the papers but saw no other prints. “Do you have any male servants?”
“No.” She thought for a moment. “I can’t think of the last time a man was in the house, actually.”
He rolled the pages into a tube and stuck them in the inside pocket of his jacket. “Probably our intruder, then.”
“Oh no.” Zadie brushed past him to pick up an ancient book, its pages yellowed with age. “Her treasure map. She kept it in this volume.” She thumbed through the pages, then held the book by its spine and shook it. Eyes wide, she looked up at him. “She must have taken it with her.”
Caleb squinted at the bookcase behind the desk. Old books, new books, thick tomes, and sheaves of journals crowded the shelves. Clearly, only the one volume had been removed. Whoever had grabbed the book knew what they were after.
Zadie was right. Her aunt had probably removed it herself.
But had she been coerced? He refrained from voicing that dark thought, though the prickle between his shoulder blades didn’t bode well. If someone believed the treasure existed, a map could be worth killing over. “You’re certain no one else knew about it? Not the housekeeper or one of the maids?”
Before he’d completed the question, Zadie was shaking her head. “I’m the only person she confided in. She worried that it would put people in danger.” A pained look crossed her face. “I used to laugh at that.”
A pencil poised to roll off the edge of the desk caught his attention. He snatched it up and tapped out a rhythm on the blotter while he let his imagination sift through the evidence at hand. Best to start with what they did know…or could reasonably surmise. Whatever his motives, the intruder had rushed up the steps, kicked in the door, and barreled in. A glance would have told him the front parlor was empty. Less than a second, and he’d have been in her study.
Not enough time for her aunt to remove her necklace, grab a map, and get out.
She’d had some warning. But how?
The window.
The answer smacked him between the eyes. Zadie’s aunt had seen the intruder walking by on the street below.
He inched forward, gaze on the quiet view outside. “It was someone she recognized, or someone—”
“Who didn’t fit,” Zadie chimed in.
“Exactly.” He paced the office, clasping his hands behind his back. “It’s the only way she would have had time to get her map and leave you the necklace.”
Zadie seemed to be thinking through the scenario as well. “That makes sense.”
“But it’s not the only explanation that fits the facts,” he cautioned.
“I know.” She twisted her fingers together. “And it doesn’t explain the intruder’s motives.”
“No, it doesn’t.” He gave her a small smile, trying to ease her guilt. And then he thought of a marvelous distraction. “Are you up for an experiment?”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Let’s assume your aunt was at her desk.” He pointed at the desk chair and pulled the drapes wide. “When you see me walk toward the house, pretend to grab the map, then put the necklace where you found it. I want to see if you can evade me.”
“What makes you think I want to try?”
The heat in those few words was enough to make him hard. Painfully, achingly hard. Despite their dissimilarities, their opposing temperaments and the way she was able to anger him with the smallest shrug, he smiled. Grinned, actually. “You should try, Miss Whitlock. Because when I do catch you, you’ll find yourself in more trouble than you can handle.”
“Doubtful, Detective.”
He laughed. There was no getting the better of her. Not with words, anyway.
He was still laughing as he hurried down the hall and out the door, shutting it behind him. Then he strolled off down the street. Not the way they’d come. He thought he’d try the opposite direction first. Her aunt would have seen them coming sooner from their original direction. He wanted to try this under the worst possible conditions.
The corner would do. He turned on his heel and walked back toward the house, careful to temper his stride. A seasoned criminal wouldn’t move too quickly…or too slowly. He strove to mimic the pace of a man with an agenda, but a man loath to attract attention.
He walked up the front steps at a sedate pace, then kicked softly at the broken door. Even though he barely brushed it, the door swung open hard enough to bang against the wall. He rushed in, taking only the briefest instant to scan the front parlor and the hallway toward the kitchen. It only took three steps to reach the study.
Zadie already had one leg hooked over the windowsill. She smiled at him, relief obvious in the set of her shoulders. “She could have made it.”
“Easily.” He crossed to her and held out a hand to help her back in. “It’s clear she could have—”
A harsh male voice called out from the pavement. “Hold it! Hold it right there.”
Two uniformed officers were rushing toward the house, followed by a dark-suited detective. Avery Pitcairn. The nastiest detective on the South London force.
“Miss Zadie Whitlock?” Pitcairn called out, loud enough to be heard over the cascade of footfalls behind him. “You’re wanted for questioning in the disappearance of Dr. Margaret Whitlock. It’s best for all concerned if you come along quietly.”
Holy blazing hell. He had to stop them. It made no sense, but the feeling was so strong, he couldn’t help himself. He had to prevent them from arresting her.
He yanked her back inside. “Do as I say. Exactly as I say. Trust me,” he whispered.
Her face pale, Zadie nodded.
He couldn’t turn her over. She hadn’t harmed her aunt. He didn’t know how he knew it, but he did. It was simply the way his detective brain worked. Bits and pieces of evidence coalesced into a larger picture. And the picture he had so far convinced him Zadie was innocent. Besides, if he was wrong, he could cart her off to Newgate himself. And he hated Pitcairn. A cruel little weasel of a man, Pitcairn took an outsized pleasure in the misfortune of others. Particularly women.
He couldn’t allow it. Which wouldn’t protect him from the consequences of what he was about to do.
He shoved his misgivings aside and greeted the ginger-haired officer. “You’re too late. I already have Miss Whitlock in custody.”
The shorter detective jerked to a stop halfway into the room, the whiskers of his large mustache quivering. “What?” He squinted at him. “Burke? Thought you worked out of the Yard. What the hell are you doing out here?”
“I am at the Yard. Miss Whitlock is a person of interest in a very sensitive case. I’m to take her there immediately.”
The man huffed. “More important than a possible murder? Her aunt is missing.”
“I’m aware of that.” Caleb pulled his handcuffs from his trouser pocket. “My case takes precedence. Trust me. There are people above me you don’t want to upset, if you know what I mean.”
Pitcairn’s cheeks reddened. “No, I don’t know.”
“Orders from the highest level.” Caleb tried to sound apologetic as he slid his hand down to Zadie’s wrist and snapped on the cuff.
Her gasp filled the room.
The other detective gave her a searing glare. “Did you know Dr. Whitlock’s solicitor dug up her will? Left everything to this baggage here. She’s the woman’s only living relative.”
“What?” Zadie gasped, earning her another angry look from Pitcairn.
His expression was still flat and cold when he turned his attention back to Caleb. “Didn’t mention that, did she?”
He laughed, but the sound held no mirth. “We had a bit of luck with that piece. The housekeeper knows the solicitor. Her sister’s his cook.”
He crossed to the window and squinted out at the street. “Where’s your carriage?”
“The driver’ll be right back,” Caleb lied. “Had to drop Morgan and Fitz at the Limehouse docks. We weren’t expecting Miss Whitlock to be here.”
Nor had he expected her to have such a strong motive to make her aunt disappear. Though the house was modest, it spoke of comfort…and more wealth than many enjoyed. His impassive, police officer’s expression firmly in place, he studied her, checking for any of the telltale signs of a liar. But all he saw was shock.
Pitcairn chewed the ends of his mustache while he ruminated. “Can I have her when you’re done?” he asked finally.
“I don’t see why not. As soon as the toffs running my investigation allow it.” Caleb snapped the handcuffs around her other wrist.
Pitcairn jerked his chin at Zadie. “Good. There’ll be plenty of time for us to chat once you’re locked up. Come on now, lads. Nothing else we can do here.”
Caleb waited until the lot of them had funneled out the door and back into their wagon before he allowed himself to consider what he’d just done.
Ruined his career, most likely.
Zadie turned her back toward him and wiggled her fingers, jangling the chains. “About these? You promised.”
Preoccupied with the weight of his actions, it took a moment for Caleb to process her statement. He eyed the cuffs. “I promised not to arrest you for theft. I never promised not to arrest you for murder.”
“That’s not funny. Take these off.”
It wasn’t. Not in the least. But the sight of her, helpless before him, chest heaving, lips parted, was the most erotic thing he’d ever seen.
He ran a hand over his mouth. Holy hell. He’d just tossed his career in the sewer, and all he could think about was throwing her on the nearest couch and undoing the tiny pearl buttons running down the front of her bodice.
Afraid he’d make good on his imaginings, he turned toward the window and watched the officers depart. “It’s not meant to be funny.” The consequences of what he’d just done certainly wouldn’t be humorous.
“Caleb, please?”
The catch in her voice pricked at his conscience. Whatever disaster he’d just made of his career, torturing her wouldn’t help. Old habit had his fingers around the key in his vest pocket before he’d even realized he’d decided to free her.
She evaded his gaze, but the strong pulse beating at the side of her neck and the way her breasts moved with the rhythm of her breathing suggested she didn’t fully trust him to unlock the things.
Nor did he. He walked behind her and rubbed his thumb over the inside of her wrists, tracing the delicate pulse. The skin of her thighs would be this soft. This warm. “I could renege on my promise.”
She shivered. “You wouldn’t.”
“How do you know? We’ve only just met.”
“I know you’re an honest man.”
Caleb snorted, trying to shake off her sensual spell. “Not all policemen are honest. Far from it.”
“You are.”
“You can’t know that.”
“Oh, but I can.” She tossed her head back, flinging a dark curl out of her eyes. “It’s your friends. The League. They trust you, and I trust them.”
But could he trust himself? Maybe he should steal a kiss before he released her. He considered it, thinking long and hard about how she’d feel in his arms, but propriety and a healthy dose of self-preservation won out. Toying with a woman as bright and sensual as Zadie might leave a scar.
And he had plenty of other things to worry about now. He jabbed the key in the lock. The cuffs fell away, severing the electric connection between them.
She rubbed her wrists. “They’ll be expecting you to bring me in.”
“I know.” He dropped the cuffs back into his pocket.
Something in his tone must have concerned her. She scooted back, just out of reach. “You wouldn’t.”
“Of course not.” He ran a hand through his hair. “But I’ll need to explain why you’re not in custody.”
She strode back and forth across the worn carpet, obviously considering alternatives as well. Outside, the light was fading as afternoon slid into a golden autumn dusk. He’d be expected at the station before long. There wasn’t much time to lose.
And then he had it.
It was an idiotic idea, but it was the best he could come up with. He motioned her to him and spread his legs, bracing himself for what was to come. “Hit me,” he commanded.
She backed up until the bookcases stopped her. “This is no time for jokes.”
“Hit me,” he insisted. “Make it good.”
“I can’t do that.”
He caught her gaze and smiled. “There were a couple of times at the League you would’ve loved to plant me a facer.”
Her delicate earrings swayed as she shook her head. “I was angry then. This…this is cold-blooded.”
Still giddy with panic over what he’d just done, he grinned. “I can make you angry, if you like.”
She rolled her eyes.
He turned the side of his face toward her. “Hurry.” Before he came to his senses. Before he did the reasonable thing and took her to the station himself.
Her lips parted as she drew in a fortifying breath and then, before he had time to steel himself, she balled her hand into a fist and swung.
About the Author Riley has a long fascination with all things Victorian. She loves the peculiar mix of science, mysticism and innovation that collided in the Victorian Era.
To say nothing of bustles. Bustles and elaborate hats and parasols. Parasols for rain. Parasols for sun. And parasols that morph into swords…of course.
Sadly, Riley has little use for umbrellas in the dry foothills of the Eastern Sierra, but she consoles herself with forest hikes and dips in cool mountain lakes. Besides—no matter where one resides—a proper cuppa never comes amiss.
If you enjoy a little high adventure—and a lot of desire—with your historical romance, delve into Riley’s version of late Victorian London.
Thieves, rogues, and love await…
For more information about Riley, please visit her website, “like” Riley on Facebook and follow her on Twitter. Sign up for Riley’s newsletter to be notified about upcoming releases. She’s loves hearing from her readers. Email her directly at riley@rileycole.com.
Welcome to the book blitz for THE SQUARE, the second book in the adult romantic suspense series, Shape of Love, by USA Today bestselling author, J.A. Huss and Johnathan McClain. See below for information on the book and series, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on their giveaway.
THE SQUARE (Shape of Love #2) by J.A. Huss and Johnathan McClain
Synopsis ALEC
Against all odds we found each other. And then a single moment of betrayal ripped it all away. I thought Christine had forgiven me. I thought we’d moved past it. I thought she’d healed.
CHRISTINE
I loved them both and they loved me. But then Danny left and our triangle was broken. So was I really that surprised when Alec put it back together again?
DANNY
We are meant to be together. We all know that. But what did Alec do after I left? What could he have possibly done to make Christine want revenge?
The Square is book two in The Shape of Love series collaboratively written by New York Times Bestselling author, JAHuss and actor/screenwriter, JohnathanMcClain.
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Excerpt 2 DANNY She holds her breath. And even though I can’t hear it, I know her heart speeds up. Her grip on the railing tightens and her back goes stiff.
She’s wondering who I am and what I’m doing and if I had an answer for that, I might offer it up.
But I don’t.
I have no idea who I am anymore.
I did. Not too long ago. I was Danny Fortnight, maker of custom motorcycles, partner to Brasil Lynch. Thief. Loner.
Then Christine came, and Alec came, and that Danny—he’s just gone now. But I’m not old Danny either. I’m something new. Some sick combination of the two.
I pump my cock a few more times, getting ready. Christine’s gaze wanders down to catch a glimpse. She’s already so wet.
It’s only been a few hours since we last fucked but it feels like we’ve been apart forever and we’ve got things to make up for.
Which isn’t far from the truth, really.
“Don’t let go,” I remind her.
She swallows, licks her lips, and nods her head. Silent submission.
Which makes me grin. And with that grin, in that same moment, I thrust my cock inside her, sliding her along the table’s surface with such force, her head bumps into the railing.
She does not let go. She does just as I hoped. Stiffens her arms, pushing back on me so when I pull back and then thrust forward again, there’s resistance.
Not that I could push any closer to that railing. Her head isn’t even on the table anymore. It’s suspended in mid-air over empty space. Just the very bottom of her shoulder blades and the force of her arms, now bent at the elbows, keep her from being pounded over the edge and disappearing into the depths of darkness. So she has no choice but to resist.
I do it again, and again. Fucking her faster, harder with each forward push.
She grits her teeth, watching me. Nothing relaxing or soothing about this.
In fact she’s so crumpled up against the railing that I have to kneel on the table, hike her hips up, and prop the underside of her thighs over the top of mine, just so I can keep fucking her.
It’s a messy, messy fuck.
Nothing artistic about the picture we paint. Nothing slow, or sensual.
It’s just… erotic and hard.
And she’s probably thinking, What the fuck, Fortnight? What am I? One of your little sluts you pick up in random cities?
But if she is, she doesn’t say it. And I don’t stop.
About the Authors Two accomplished writers come together to create unforgettable sexy romance. JA Huss is the New York Times bestselling author of 321 and has been on the USA Today bestsellers list eighteen times. Johnathan McClain is a veteran actor and writer whose work, either performed or written, is probably airing on at least one of the channels on your television right now. You can contact them on their website www.hussmcclain.com or find them at their social links below.
Welcome to the book blitz for CRONIN’S KEY IV, the fourth book in the adult fantasy series, Cronin’s Key, by N.R. Walker. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
CRONIN’S KEY IV (Cronin’s Key #4) by N.R. Walker
About the Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited Title: CRONIN’S KEY IV Series: Cronin’s Key #4 Author: N.R. Walker Release Date: January 28, 2019 Genre: Adult Fantasy Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Barnes & Noble
Synopsis Kennard and Stas have been enjoying being newly bonded mates, hidden away for the last six months in Stas’ cabin, deep in the forests of Northern Russia. When they get a visit from Alec, Cronin, Eiji, and Jodis, Kennard and Stas decide to return to London where they get news of a supernatural disturbance in India.
Excited for a new adventure, the band of friends embark on a journey like they’ve never seen before. Following a trail of snakes and serpents, they slip through gates into timeless dimensions all over the world, leaving them without their vampire powers. Even Alec is powerless as they follow a trail of gates and doorways to their final destination.
But the bad guy isn’t who they think it is, and Kennard will need to draw on his past to save their future. Because history is never what it seems…
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Chapter 1 “Do you think we should try and get out of bed today?” Kennard asked.
“No.” Stas’ voice was gruff, warm and delicious in his ear.
Kennard smiled into the mattress and tried to pull himself toward his pillow, a feigned escape attempt, but Stas’ huge hand gripped his hip and slid him back into place. Then Stas rolled on top of him, his erection pressing against Kennard’s ass. Kennard lifted his hips and spread his legs, giving Stas all the permission he needed as he laughed into the sheet. “It’s been six months. I guess one more day won’t hurt.”
Stas pushed inside him and both men groaned. “We never leave,” Stas whispered, his fangs at Kennard’s shoulder. “Stay here forever.”
Kennard had always doubted the mating bond between vampires. Well, not doubted. He’d never understood it. He’d spent most of his six hundred years alone. He’d had acquaintances and friends and a lot of lovers. Yet his heart had never been moved by anyone. He almost thought it had frozen in his chest when he was changed from human to vampire, because the way he’d seen mated pairs behave was so foreign to him.
But then there was Stas.
As soon as he’d seen him, he knew. The melancholy that had settled over him in the months before, like a mist, had dissolved the moment his eyes fell upon him. His purpose was now clear. This huge, hulking Russian vampire was his.
They’d been holed up in Stas’ cabin in Lithuania at first, barely leaving each other’s embrace for a minute. Then they’d driven Stas’ truck to one of his cabins in some far-off Russian forest and hadn’t left each other’s side, or their bed. Except to feed, which hadn’t been anywhere near as often as it probably should’ve been, because they seemed to feed off each other. Energy, blood, love. Sex. So much sex, yet nowhere near enough. They’d barely stopped long enough for important conversations. Stas had managed to give some of his history, Kennard even less so.
The desire, the bone-deep need to be with Stas, to have him inside him, to be one with him was so profound it was dizzying. Kennard used to roll his eyes at newly fated mates. They used to make him sick. Now he wanted nothing more.
“You are everything,” Stas whispered. He ran his hand through Kennard’s hair, messing it up even further, kissing his head. “My everything.”
Kennard rolled his hips and pressed his forehead into the mattress, arching his back. “I ty moy,” Kennard murmured.
And you are mine.
Stas always reacted when Kennard spoke Russian. Especially in bed. He growled into the back of Kennard’s neck and sunk his fangs into Kennard’s shoulder while he thrust deeper inside him, and Kennard’s whole body sang.
Every cell, every fiber of his being.
And afterwards, when Stas had wrung Kennard of every ounce of pleasure, they lay in bed in each other’s arms.
“I might even try turning on that old radio set today,” Kennard said. “If the batteries work.”
Stas laughed. “You said yesterday. And last week.”
Kennard laughed into his chest, Stas’ chest hair tickling his face, but lovely and soft and warm. “I’ve lost all track of days.”
“I think is March,” Stas said with a chuckle.
Kennard found his broken English adorable, and he hummed happily. “Sounds about right.”
Stas ran his wide hands over Kennard’s slender form, over his pointed hip, up his spine. He was literally twice Kennard’s size. Stas had a masculine build, short, dark-brown hair, blue eyes, and a square jaw. Broad shoulders, huge hands. Everything about him screamed man. Whereas Kennard was fine-featured with pretty, boyish looks and white-blond hair. Stas was a loner, his home in the Russian wilds, in a basic cabin with no electricity or running water, and Kennard was a social guy who lived in an expensive apartment with every conceivable technology and thrived in the London nightlife. Opposites in every way, yet one perfectly complemented the other. “Do you wish to feed?” Stas asked.
Kennard considered it and took stock of his body, his baser need to feed. “No,” he said simply. “I don’t need anything but you right now. What about you?”
But Stas didn’t answer. He cocked his head and he frowned. “Hear that?”
It took Kennard a second to shake his mind of his post-coital haze, but then, yes, he could. “Someone is coming? In this weather?” It was snowing. The entire forest was under a blanket of white.
Stas sat up on the bed and pulled on some jeans. “Is human.”
“Can you read their mind? Do you know who they are?”
Stas froze and turned back to Kennard, who was still sprawled naked on the bed. “No. I not hear them.” He frowned. “How can I not hear them?”
Kennard sat up then. “I don’t know.”
Stas’ cabin was isolated, deep in some Northern Russian forest. It was old, built a few hundred years ago. A simple A-frame log cabin with a bedroom loft on the mezzanine and a small living room on the ground floor, an unused kitchen, and an old-fashioned bathtub they needed to heat water for. It was positively prehistoric compared to Kennard’s apartment in London, but it was all Stas had ever needed. He’d relished in the isolation, a reprieve from his vampiric ability to hear the minds of those around him.
The driveway to the cabin was long and overgrown; the cabin couldn’t be seen from the road, especially in winter. And most human drivers who passed by—of which there were few—didn’t know it was a driveway at all.
Stas had told Kennard he knew humans ignored his driveway because Stas could hear their thoughts. Except he hadn’t heard a thing since Alec had blocked Stas’ mind when they were in the pits under Moscow and…
“Have you heard anything since Moscow and Pennsylvania?” Kennard asked.
Stas seemed confused. “I don’t know. I think no. The campers at lake we found were sleeping, and I focus on you so much, I not notice.”
That was true. They’d only fed once, when some foolish hunters camped out by the lake and drank far too much homemade vodka. It was the first time he and Stas had fed together, and well… it had been a feed and fuck fest. Kennard wasn’t surprised Stas was so distracted. The memory made him flush. “Well,” Kennard said, slipping on a robe. It belonged to Stas, and it swam on Kennard—it was far from his usual stylish garb—but he didn’t care. “Let’s deal with this human first. See if you can hear anything when you speak to him.”
Kennard wasn’t sure of the science behind mind reading or how any vampire talent worked, for that matter, but he gave Stas a smile he hoped was a comfort.
A black van came into view, driving slowly, clearly very unsure or lost. It was getting dark and the van’s headlights cast a yellow light across the snow. It pulled to a stop, and after a moment, a man exited the vehicle. He slid back the side door and pulled out a large bouquet of flowers. Not just any flowers, but white stargazer lilies.
Funeral lilies.
Kennard burst out laughing, dashed down the stairs, and opened the door. The porch cover was deep enough so no sunlight could reach the front door—not that Northern Russia saw much sunshine—and the delivery man smiled at first. Then upon closer inspection, as though realizing Kennard wasn’t exactly human, or perhaps he felt the danger, that cold shiver of fear from being so close to evil, the man’s smile disappeared and he stumbled closer to the door. He mumbled something in Russian that Kennard couldn’t quite work out—huge payment, middle of nowhere?—but he handed over the large bouquet and staggered back, waving as he climbed into his van before he sped back down the driveway.
Kennard spun inside, twirling like a dancer, and laughed as he held out the flowers. “Well, at least we know what day it is.”
Stas was clearly confused. “What?”
“It’s March twenty-fourth.”
“What is the significance of this date to you?” Stas asked. “And who sent you flowers? Who even knows where we are?”
Kennard flitted over to his big protective lump of a mate, leaned up on his toes, and kissed him. “March twenty-fourth is a dark, dark day in England’s history. A day of mourning, really.”
Stas was immediately concerned and angry, even. “What is it? What happened to hurt you like this? I will find them!”
Kennard chuckled. “Nothing like that, my love. Cronin sends me flowers on March twenty-fourth, every year, to commemorate the union of the crowns.” Kennard frowned and sighed loudly. “A dark, dark day indeed.”
Stas cupped Kennard’s face. “What is this union of crowns? I not understand.”
Kennard shook his head sadly. “It was when a damn Scot became King of England.”
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Author N.R. Walker
About the Author N.R. Walker is an Australian author, who loves her genre of gay romance. She loves writing and spends far too much time doing it, but wouldn’t have it any other way.
She is many things: a mother, a wife, a sister, a writer. She has pretty, pretty boys who live in her head, who don’t let her sleep at night unless she gives them life with words. She likes it when they do dirty, dirty things… but likes it even more when they fall in love.
She used to think having people in her head talking to her was weird, until one day she happened across other writers who told her it was normal.
DOWN WE’LL COME, BABY, is live early! A stand-alone adult contemporary romance, by Carrie Aarons. See below for information on the book, buy links, and a link to read Chapter 1.
DOWN WE’LL COME, BABY by Carrie Aarons
About the Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited Title: DOWN WE’LL COME, BABY Author: Carrie Aarons Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance Release Date: January 27, 2019 Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU
Synopsis Imogen There is no way we can still love and cherish one and other.
When I married Theo Walsh, the rough, bearded townie who worked construction on my family’s summer house, I’d found my happily ever after.
That was before the fighting. Before the jealousy. Before the infertility.
We’ll be divorced long before death does us part. But to secure my place in the family dynasty, there is just one more hoop I have to jump through. And I need him to do it. Faking the marriage we once thrived in will gut me. Especially with the secret I’m carrying.
Theo I would have sacrificed for her until the end of time.
My job. My home. My happiness.
I’d given it all up to marry her. That’s how much I loved Imogen Weston, the daughter to one of the world’s richest families. From the day we met, I’d done nothing but try to live up to the man she expected to be with. And now, I was done. Sure, I’d complete this one final ask of hers, even if it destroyed me.
But I’ve made her promise the one thing that might save me. She swore that after she got everything she ever wanted, she wouldn’t look back. I made my wife vow to leave me forever.
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Chapter 1 Theo
I slept with my wife on our first date.
I’m not revealing this to brag or boast, or for you to infer anything from either of our personalities. It was just the simple fact that I knew from that first chance meeting, deep in my bones, that she would be the woman I’d spend the rest of my life with.
Honestly, I was never the kind of guy to get naked with a woman that quickly. If I were going for romance, which in Imogen Weston’s, the future Imogen Walsh, case I should have been … I would have laid out the red carpet. Flowers, picnics on the beach, candles, and gazing at the stars … my definition of dating was something out of a Nicholas Sparks’ novel. It’s just how you did things if you wanted to impress a woman.
To read the rest of the first chapter, click here.
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Author Carrie Aarons
About the Author Author of romance novels such as Red Card and the Captive Heart Duet, Carrie Aarons writes sexy, swoony and sarcastic characters who won’t get out of her head until she puts them down on a page.
Carrie has wanted to be an author since the first time she opened a book. She loves spinning tales that include dapper men, women with attitude, and the occasional hunky athlete.
When she isn’t in what her husband calls a “writing coma”, Carrie is freeing up her jam-packed DVR, starting her latest DIY project, or planning her next travel adventure. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, who is more than happy to watch sports while his wife plots love stories.
Welcome to the book blitz for THE PRINCESS OF BAKER STREET, a stand-alone young adult LGBTQ+ contemporary romance, by Mia Kerick. See below for information the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
Synopsis Always wear your imaginary crown” is Joey Kinkaid’s motto. For years, Joey, assigned male at birth, led the BakerStreet kids in daring and imaginative fantasy adventures, but now that they’re teenagers, being a princess is no longer quite so cool. Especially for a child who is seen by the world as a boy.
Eric Sinclair has always been Joey’s best friend and admirer—Prince Eric to Joey’s Princess Ariel—but middle school puts major distance between them. As Eric’s own life takes a dangerous turn for the worse, he stands by and watches as Joey—who persists in dressing and acting too much like a Disney princess for anybody’s comfort—gets bullied. Eric doesn’t like turning his back on Joey, but he’s learned that the secret to teenage survival, especially with and absent mother, is to fly under the radar.
But when Joey finally accepts who she is and comes to school wearing lip gloss, leggings, and a silky pink scarf, the bullies make her life such a misery that she decides to end it all. Eric, in turn, must decide who he really is and what side he wants to stand on… though no matter what he chooses, the consequences will be profound for both teens, and they’ll face them for years to come.
Is there a chance the two teens can be friends again, and maybe even more?
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Excerpt #2 “Joseph Kinkaid, your study buddy is Eric Sinclair. Eric, please join Joseph at the desk beside his with your belongings.”
“Damn it to hell and back,” I mutter, but not loud enough for Ms. Paloma to hear. And for the record, I don’t feel as guilty forswearing as I used to because Grandma’s gone, and she was the only one who cared. And if there’s ever been a good time to say “damn it to hell and back,” it’s right now. But I’m the kind of guy who follows the rules, so I toss my backpack over my shoulder and head to the front of the classroom where Joey’s sitting with the other brainiacs and their new dumb partners.
“Hi, Eric,” he says. I look away but can feelJoey gawking at my face. He’s probably hoping to catch my eye and use his bewitching blue-eyed stare to hypnotize me into longing for the stellar best friendship we used to have.
And the sad fact is I haven’t really talked to Joey since two summers ago. “Hey, Joe,” I mumble. I call him Joe, even though in my head, he’s still Joey. Joe sounds more grown-up. And less girly.
Princess! You used to call him Princess! my insides scream, but I tell them to shut the hell up.
“So I guess we’re study buddies now,” he says. I can hear the smile in his voice. My belly tightens into a ball and rolls over. This situation is risky.
“Looks like it.” I’m fairly sure he’s still watching me, but I decide it’d be better for both of us if I don’t make eye contact with him at all. As in never during this entire semester. Because when I see those sparkling blue eyes, I feel guilty and rotten… and some other stuff. Whatever.
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Author Mia Kerick
About the Author MiaKerick is the mother of four exceptional children—one in law school, another a professional dancer, a third studying at Mia’s alma mater, Boston College, and her lone son, heading off to college. (Yes, the nest is finally empty.) She has published more than twenty books of LGBTQ romance when not editing National Honor Society essays, offering opinions on college and law school applications, helping to create dance bios, and reviewing scholarship essays. Her husband of twenty-five years has been told by many that he has the patience of Job, but don’t ask Mia about this, as it’s a sensitive subject.
Mia focuses her stories on the emotional growth of troubled people in complex relationships. She has a great affinity for the tortured hero in literature, and as a teen, Mia filled spiral-bound notebooks with tales of tortured heroes and stuffed them under her mattress for safekeeping. She is thankful to her wonderful publishers for providing her with an alternate place to stash her stories.
Her books have been featured in Kirkus Reviews magazine, and have won Rainbow Awards for Best Transgender Contemporary Romance and Best YA Lesbian Fiction, a Reader Views’ Book by Book Publicity Literary Award, the Jack Eadon Award for Best Book in Contemporary Drama, an Indie Fab Award, and a Royal Dragonfly Award for Cultural Diversity, a Story Monsters Purple Dragonfly Award for Young Adult e-book Fiction, among other awards.
MiaKerick is a social liberal and cheers for each and every victory made in the name of human rights. Her only major regret: never having taken typing or computer class in school, destining her to a life consumed with two-fingered pecking and constant prayer to the Gods of Technology. Contact Mia at miakerick@gmail.com or visit at www.miakerickya.com to see what is going on in Mia’s world.
Welcome to the blog tour for SPECULAR, the first book in the young adult science fiction/superhero adventure series, IXI Comics, by L.K. Brooks-Simpson. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on his giveaway.
SPECULAR (IXI Comics #1) by L.K. Brooks-Simpson
About the Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited Title: SPECULAR Series: IXI Comics #1 Author: L.K. Brooks-Simpson Release Date: August 16, 2018 Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction Superhero Adventure Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU
Synopsis The first installment of the IXI COMICS series by author L.K BROOKS-SIMPSON
This novel is of the fantasy/superhero fiction genre and tackles some important implications of mental health and Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).
Imagine being afraid to fall asleep in fear that you will not wake up to the life you know. This is exactly what Tre Moon experienced at nine years old. He awakes to his second dissociative identity having set his house aflame. With his home ruined and his parents murdered at his own hands, he is sentenced to trial for a life sentence. Young Tre Moon is forced to walk a path that will change his life forever.
When seventeen year old Tre comes into contact with a prohibited substance called Colloidal Supersilver his life will change forever when he finds out he has the ability to change how light refracts from his body. His new powers come with new challenges to an already complicated life, having battled Dissociative Identity Disorder for the majority of his youth.
Follow the origin story of IXI COMICS first hero as he becomes Indiana’s newest vigilante, Specular! In a city full of crime, recession, drug underlords and other mysterious vigilante’s, the legend of Tre Moon will unfold, all the while, his dark past tries to catch up with him…
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Excerpt #1 Word of the murder of Natalie and Cecil Moon quickly went around the city of Signot, Indiana. Word started in the Hive Borough, where the Moon residence was situated, and continued to the outer reaches of the huge city. Inevitably, word of the incident also reached local news, then the legal system. With no lawyer, witness or irrefutable evidence to defend him, in June of the year 2003, Tre Moon was convicted of murder on two counts and given a mandatory life sentence. He was to serve his sentence in Signot’s Juvenile Detention Centre until he was eighteen years of age. When he became of age he was to be transferred to Hallows Island; an isolated, maximum security prison for America’s worst offenders. At the age of nine Tre had everything taken away from him. His mother. His father. His best friend. His home. His hopes. His freedom. His innocence.
Throughout all his loss, one thing did remain however, the voice inside of his head. The voice provided him with constant company during the first year of his sentence, a feature that he reckoned, ironically, kept him from falling further into insanity. Besides, he knew for a fact that no one else inside the detention facility had an ominous counsel or a savage alias to handle the rough aspects of Juvenile Hall. And it got very rough. During the first five years of his sentence, Tre became very familiar with the offenders’ lifestyle. On any day he was liable to see: fistfights followed by revenge in the form of knives formed of whatever abrasive material one could find. Gym practice and betting championships with all types of tactics and juvenile algorithms employed to get the advantage. Religious sessions and prep talks were held in improvised lecture halls. Readings and plea deals, which led to weaklings, robbed of their free meals. Tre Moon was not like the offenders around him and so he tried to keep to himself, however he found it increasingly hard to do this. His reputation as a cold murderer preceded him and ego grown individuals began to pick fights with him to establish the pecking order. The aphorism ‘you are a product of your environment’ proved to be true time after time. The pecking order changed, Tre picked up weights and developed popping pectorals to handle whatever problem came his way, or in the case of his phantom, to compensate for the inmates that short-changed them back in the day. Tre was not always alone though. In the third year of his sentence a boy one year older than him came into the detention centre. The boy’s name was Chevron and allegedly was a part of the Block Boys Tre once new, who were now a full-fledged gang. He immediately gravitated toward Tre, giving the young boy some further reputability inside the detention centre. Though Block Boy Chevron’s sentence was a feeble year compared to Tre’s lifetime sentence, even when he left, word of Tre’s associations remained. He was not proud of it, but he took advantage of the respect nonetheless. With this new freedom, Tre was able to reform back to his former ways somewhat. He took intensive studying sessions in his free time and though he always knew he had a fascination for science, he discovered that he had a pension for physics in particular. His academic progress became hard to ignore and so he was given his age range exams to take, only to pass them all. This was a notable and uplifting achievement for the young teenager who was conditioned to believe his life would play out in the darkness from the fading light of his former life.
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Author L.K. Brooks-Simpson
About the Author L.K. Brooks-Simpson is a native of London, England. He is an English Literature graduate and Film Production student.
Aside from his creative ventures, he is a strong supporter of philanthropy. He cites his biggest influences as J.R.R. Tolkien, Sanyika Shakur, J.K. Rowling, Tsugumi Ohba, Stan Lee and Maya Angelou, among many others.
Three sentences he would use to describe himself – A book is for the mind. Travel is for the heart. Family is for the soul.
Lara has always considered himself a student of literature and story form and for this reason, his taste is eclectic. Ranging from novels to manga – poems to screenwriting and even comic book story boards. Just as genres define certain works, there are a lot of elements that define his creative process. He has aspirations to write in many different genres..
Author D. Kelly is revealing an excerpt from INTERLUDE, the latest release in her new adult contemporary romance series, Illusion, coming January 29, 2019. See below for information on the book, pre-order links, and the exclusive excerpt.
Synopsis Jordan Weston is good-looking, mysterious, and sexually uninhibited, but his life is more like the name of his bar―Just an Illusion. His cousins are the bad boys of Bastards and Dangerous, but their fame hasn’t made everything rainbows and sunshine for him. He’s haunted, flawed, and the sole survivor of a homicide that wiped out his immediate family.
Allie Baker, the most recent hire at the bar, can see through Jordan’s façade. She knows he’s everything she doesn’t need, but she’s beginning to crave his cocky attitude and the way he looks at her. The more she tries to stay away from him, the more she wants to get to know him.
Jordan knows falling for an employee is a bad idea, but Allie pushes buttons he never realized he had. Even though Allie desperately needs her job, she soon decides being with Jordan is more important. Will they be able to compromise, or will she let her chance at love pass her by for the sake of a paycheck?
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Excerpt “You’re just a big ol’ loveable ball of fur, aren’t you? Why did your daddy name you Fat Bastard? That’s just mean.”
“Because that’s what he is to most people.”
I jump and grab the cat, who isn’t pleased I disturbed his resting place. “Jesus, Jordan! You scared the crap out of me.”
He leans back against the wall, a grin kicking up at the corner of his mouth. Jordan seems tired but also quite amused. “Sorry, I didn’t expect anyone to be in my house. And I definitely didn’t expect to see my ornery cat curled up in your lap. Did you cast a spell on him?”
“He’s really that bad? I thought Sasha was exaggerating. All I did was feed him, give him water, and talk to him.”
Jordan takes a seat next to me, and I swear the temperature in here just rose about ten degrees. What is it about him that affects me like this? He’s not my type at all. Then again, my type hasn’t worked out so well for me either.
“Fat Bastard earned his name all by himself. Maybe you should have been the one to find him instead of me. I’ve never seen him take to someone like this, except with kids, but kids are pretty special in their own right, so I figured that was probably normal.”
Oh my God, he likes kids.
I’m not sure how to reply because I’m still stuck on the kid thing, but I get a reprieve when my phone rings. Jordan passes it to me and accidentally hits the speaker button.
“Hello? Allie … Christ, Allie, it’s about time! Are you finally going to talk to me?”
Shit. Evan is pissed. Jordan’s eyes cloud over like a thunderous rainstorm as he scowls at my phone.
“Evan, I can’t talk right now.”
“The hell you can’t. The gala is in three days, Allie. We’re announcing our engagement, your father is out of his mind, and he froze your trust fund. You have no money, Allie. It’s time to stop having a tantrum and come home.”
This is so embarrassing. My gaze locks on J’s, and I mouth “I’m sorry.”
“Evan, I suggest you do some damage control. Find the trollop you were fucking and announce your engagement to her instead for all I care. As I said in my letter, I’m not coming back. I’m sorry if you were planning to live off my trust fund, but if I can live without it, so can you.”
“You selfish bitch!” Evan rages.
Jordan’s eyes widen before he opens his mouth, and when he does, I’m not sure if I want to kiss him or punch him—or both.
“Babe, come back to bed. My cock misses your lips.”
“Who the hell is that?!” Evan screams.
Jordan nudges the cat to the floor and scoots closer to me. “This is the man Allie is currently fucking. Who are you?”
Evan sputters, and I can picture him losing his cool. “Allie, what is going on?”
Jordan flips me onto his lap, and I squeal in surprise. My eyes widen as he mouths “Go with it.”
What do I have to lose at this point?
Jordan leans in closer, holding the phone between us. “Come on, babe. Hang up the phone and let’s go back to bed.”
“Bed? That’s my fiancée you’re talking about. Allie Bear, tell me this is some kind of sick joke,” Evan whines.
“There’s no ring on her finger. Besides, possession is nine tenths of the law, and since her pussy was just wrapped around my dick, I’d say that makes her more mine than yours right now. Wouldn’t you?”
My cheeks flush as J runs his fingers across one with a lazy grin.
“Come on, Bear, tell him you’re just paying me back. A little quid pro quo, right?”
Jordan snickers. “You call her Bear? That’s adorable, but I think she’s more of a tigress myself. My little Allie Cat.” Jordan drops his mouth to my neck, and I can’t help the moan that escapes me. “Hear that, Evan? Doesn’t sound like anyone’s fiancée to me.” Jordan’s lips ghost over mine, and I whimper. It’s been a long time since I’ve been this attracted to someone, if ever.
“This isn’t over, Allie. Do you hear me?” Evan is probably redder than a beet, but when Jordan lowers his mouth to mine, it erases the image of Evan in my mind.
He kisses me loudly, like a man on a mission. Weaving his hands through my hair, he pulls me close. J nips my bottom lip, and I gasp in pleasure, his length growing beneath me as I press into him with a contented sigh. He turns off my phone and tosses it to the opposite side of the couch.
Jordan’s mouth closes over mine, and I fall into his kiss with all my senses. His tongue meets mine and claims it. This isn’t a sweet getting-to-know-you kiss. This is a sexual awakening I never knew I was missing, and I want more. Evan is already a distant memory as I press myself closer while losing myself in his kiss. As I tug on his hair, he growls into my mouth. I remember the freshly fucked look he had to him when we met, and I want to be the one to make him look that way. I want to be the one on my knees for him.
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Author D. Kelly
About the Author D. Kelly, author of The Acceptance Series, The Illusion Series, and standalone companion novels Chasing Cassidy and Sharing Rylee, was born and raised in Southern California. She’s a wife, mom, dog lover, taxi, problem fixer, and extreme multi-tasker. She married her high school sweetheart and is her kids’ biggest fan.
Kelly has been writing since she was young and took joy in spinning stories to her childhood friends. Margaritas and sarcasm make her smile, she loves the beach but hates the sand, and she believes Starbucks makes any day better.
A contemporary romance writer, D. Kelly’s stories revolve around friendship and the bond it creates, strengthening the love of the people who share it.
There’s less than one week left until the release of ANTON, the first book in Brenda Rothert’s latest adult contemporary sports romance series, Chicago Blaze Hockey, releasing January 29, 2019. See below for information on the book, and preorder links.
ANTON (Chicago Blaze Hockey #1) by Brenda Rothert
About the Book Title: ANTON Series: Chicago Blaze Hockey #1 Author: Brenda Rothert Publisher: Silver Sky Publishing Release Date: January 29, 2019 Genre: Adult Contemporary Sports Romance Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo
Synopsis He’s known as Father Anton to his teammates—the brooding, sexy captain of the NHL’s Chicago Blaze has a reputation for…not having a reputation. Just like his diet and sleep routines, celibacy is part of Anton Petrov’s on-ice mojo. Or so they say. Anton stays mum on the subject. If the world thinks he chooses to abstain from sex, so be it. Better that than the truth getting out: there is a woman he burns for, but he can never have her. She’s his teammate’s wife, after all.
Mia Marceau is finally on her own. Now that she and her husband are living apart, she’s finding the peace she was desperate for. She spends her days in classes and late nights bartending, making her own way in the world at last. After what she’s been through, as long as her husband leaves her alone, she doesn’t plan to rock the boat. He still has the power to hurt those dearest to her, and she can’t demand a divorce with such a high cost.
A chance encounter with Mia has Anton hoping for a shot he never thought he’d get. And while she’s drawn to the intense, serious hockey center, Mia’s leery about playing with fire. That’s all Anton has ever known for Mia, though—a living, burning desire that won’t be denied—no matter the cost.
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Author Brenda Rothert
About the Author Brenda Rothert is an Illinois native who was a print journalist for nine years. She made the jump from fact to fiction in 2013 and never looked back. From new adult to steamy contemporary romance, Brenda creates fresh characters in every story she tells. She’s a lover of Diet Coke, chocolate, lazy weekends and happily ever afters. .
Today is release day for DARE ME AGAIN, the second book in the adult contemporary romantic comedy series, Angel Fire Falls, by Shelly Alexander. See below for information on the book and series, buy links, and an exclusive excerpt. For a limited time, you can pick up DARE ME ONCE the first book in the series, for just $0.99!
DARE ME AGAIN (Angel Fire Falls #2) by Shelly Alexander
About the Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited Title: DARE ME ONCE Series: Angel Fire Falls #2 Author: Shelly Alexander Publisher: Montlake Romance Release Date: January 15, 2019 Genre: Adult Contemporary Romantic Comedy Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU
Synopsis Making dreams come true is a red-hot challenge for two stubborn hearts risking it all on a second chance…
Hot-wired and restless, financial wizard Elliott Remington doesn’t turn down a dare. This time it’s to coordinate a service-dog boot camp for veterans at his family’s resort. Success means a one-way ticket to the West Coast to pursue his dream career. But it comes with a hitch: teaming up with his ex, who vanished on him ten years ago with nothing more than a kiss-off note.
As fiery as her hair and as stubborn as her name, Rebel Tate did what she had to do—for Elliott’s sake and her own. A dog whisperer with a keen sense of survival, she’s lived a tough life. Here she is, back in Angel Fire Falls, doing what she loves, next to a man she’s never forgotten. While the flame between them still smolders, neither is ready to get burned.
For Elliott, trusting Rebel is a gamble. For Rebel, sharing the secrets that sent her running is a risk. Now, while finishing a job that could define both their futures, two hearts are about to collide—and a second chance at true romance could be the greatest dare of all.
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Excerpt #2 He wished like hell the Remington didn’t need this event so much, but it did. Canceling because of an old flame would be a wuss move. Especially since they were grown adults now.
He could handle it for a little while. Didn’t matter that she was still as gorgeous as he’d remembered. Didn’t matter that he might need dentures by the time it was over because of the way he was grinding his teeth into dust.
“This is how it’s gonna go down.” He gave his brothers a pointed stare. “I’ll take the lead for now, but I’m going to have Lily start looking for someone to take my place. She’ll have to make the sponsor understand that putting a family member in charge of this event isn’t an option right now.”
It was the best he could do under the circumstances. If it didn’t work out, he’d figure out another way to stabilize the resort’s future and tell his family that he was leaving the island for the career he’d put on hold. For the partnership he’d earned. For the long work hours he’d used to keep his mind off the past.
His firm in San Francisco had been patient and understanding. Not common for a group of finance experts who thrived on risk and were constantly forging ahead to reach the next business goal. But they weren’t going to wait for him forever, no matter how good he was at his job, how many lucrative clients he’d reeled in, or how much money he’d made them.
He might owe his family and the resort, but every man had his breaking point. Losing all the years of hard work he’d invested in that firm was his. So was working with the only girl who’d managed to rip his heart out of his chest while it was still beating.
About the Author Shelly Alexander is an Amazon Bestseller in multiple categories and a 2014 Golden Heart® finalist. Shelly grew up traveling the world, earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing, and worked in the business world for twenty-five years. With four older brothers, Shelly and her sister watched every Star Trek episode ever made, joined the softball team instead of ballet class, and played with G.I. Joes while the Barbie Corvette stayed tucked in the closet. When she had three sons of her own, she decided to escape her male-dominated world by reading romance novels and has been hooked ever since. Now, she spends her days writing contemporary romances that are sometimes sweet, sometimes sizzling, and always sassy. She enjoys the arid climate of the beautiful Southwest where she lives with her husband and two toy poodles named Mozart and the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel..
Author Carrie Aarons is revealing another teaser from DOWN WE’LL COME, BABY, a stand-alone adult contemporary romance, releasing January 27, 2019. See below for information on the book, a link to add it to your Goodreads TBR, and the exclusive teaser excerpt along with a link to read the rest of Chapter 1.
DOWN WE’LL COME, BABY by Carrie Aarons
About the Book Title: DOWN WE’LL COME, BABY Author: Carrie Aarons Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance Release Date: January 27, 2019 Links:Goodreads
Synopsis Imogen There is no way we can still love and cherish one and other.
When I married Theo Walsh, the rough, bearded townie who worked construction on my family’s summer house, I’d found my happily ever after.
That was before the fighting. Before the jealousy. Before the infertility.
We’ll be divorced long before death does us part. But to secure my place in the family dynasty, there is just one more hoop I have to jump through. And I need him to do it. Faking the marriage we once thrived in will gut me. Especially with the secret I’m carrying.
Theo I would have sacrificed for her until the end of time.
My job. My home. My happiness.
I’d given it all up to marry her. That’s how much I loved Imogen Weston, the daughter to one of the world’s richest families. From the day we met, I’d done nothing but try to live up to the man she expected to be with. And now, I was done. Sure, I’d complete this one final ask of hers, even if it destroyed me.
But I’ve made her promise the one thing that might save me. She swore that after she got everything she ever wanted, she wouldn’t look back. I made my wife vow to leave me forever.
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Chapter 1 Theo
I slept with my wife on our first date.
I’m not revealing this to brag or boast, or for you to infer anything from either of our personalities. It was just the simple fact that I knew from that first chance meeting, deep in my bones, that she would be the woman I’d spend the rest of my life with.
Honestly, I was never the kind of guy to get naked with a woman that quickly. If I were going for romance, which in Imogen Weston’s, the future Imogen Walsh, case I should have been … I would have laid out the red carpet. Flowers, picnics on the beach, candles, and gazing at the stars … my definition of dating was something out of a Nicholas Sparks’ novel. It’s just how you did things if you wanted to impress a woman.
To read the rest of the first chapter, click here.
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Author Carrie Aarons
About the Author Author of romance novels such as Red Card and the Captive Heart Duet, Carrie Aarons writes sexy, swoony and sarcastic characters who won’t get out of her head until she puts them down on a page.
Carrie has wanted to be an author since the first time she opened a book. She loves spinning tales that include dapper men, women with attitude, and the occasional hunky athlete.
When she isn’t in what her husband calls a “writing coma”, Carrie is freeing up her jam-packed DVR, starting her latest DIY project, or planning her next travel adventure. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, who is more than happy to watch sports while his wife plots love stories.
