GIVEAWAY: Lost and Found by Nicole Williams

18 May

A few weeks ago, I read one of those books that makes you smile like a Cheshire cat every time you think about it and that book was Lost and Found by Nicole Williams. It is truly now one of My Favourite Books ever. Because I loved it so much and I truly believe that this beautiful book deserves for everyone to know about it, I have asked the lovely Nicole to help me out with a little giveaway to entice those who have read Lost and Found to leave a review on Amazon. Please take the time to write your thoughts, enter the giveaway below and you could win a signed paperback!! And did I fail to mention that this contest is open internationally?

Leave you review HERE…
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Good Luck!

8 Comments Filed Under: Giveaways, Nicole Williams, Special Event

Friends & Lovers Trilogy by Bethany Lopez

17 May

makeitlast

Make it Last

In a small town, it’s hard to recover from being dumped by your high school sweetheart. That’s just what Briana has to do after Colin leaves her to follow his dreams. She focuses her energy into her friendships and the pursuit of her own goal of becoming a chef. Just when she finally feels like she’s on the right path, he comes back to town.

Colin knew breaking up with Briana before leaving for college was the right thing to do. He was determined to leave small-town life behind forever, and that included his high school girlfriend. But when a sports injury puts him on the sidelines, he’s forced to return home. Seeing Briana again brings back a lot of memories, and Colin wonders if he made the right decision. It doesn’t take long for him to realize he wants her back, and this time, he wants to make it last.

review

“You’re the only girl I’ve ever been in love with.”

In the first story of the Friends and Lovers Trilogy, we meet Briana and Colin, high school sweethearts, as they painfully part ways after years of being a couple. Colin is on his way to college to be a big football star, and he is leaving Briana behind, in her last year of high school, to nurse a broken heart and make plans for a future that now suddenly does not include Colin anymore.

“You’ll regret this, Colin. One day you’ll come back looking for a second chance, but it’s never going to happen. I’m not going to forget this day.”

Four years later, Briana has not made much of her life. After a short-lived stint at college, she is still living in her home town, working as a short-order cook at a local diner. She has good friends in her life, a job that pays her bills, but she is unable to jump start her life as her broken heart keeps holding her back.

After an injury cuts his football career short, Colin finds himself back home, a place he never thought he would return to, working for his father and taking each day as it comes, accepting his new life but finding no fulfilment in it. Until he runs into Briana again. Leaving her was something he never quite managed to get over, loving her still and hoping for a reconciliation. But for Briana, seeing Colin opens up a wound that never quite healed and even just seeing him again sends her into a tumultuous spiral of self-doubt and heartache.

“What if when I see him I feel just like I did when he left? I never want to feel that way again.”

As their connection still draws them to each other, Colin and Briana attempt to navigate the fiddly waters of second chances at love, hoping that their hearts still ache for each other as much as their bodies do.

A short but sweet, angst-free and easy to read story of giving true love another go. Like eating an ice-cream… deliciously sugary, a treat for the senses but alas over too soon.

“This is the only second chance you’re going to get, Colin. Don’t disappoint me.”

3stars

Make it Last

Buy Make it Last: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Smashwords
Buy the Friends & Lovers Trilogy (contains bonus ending for each story): Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Smashwords

✤ ✤ ✤

A young couple kissingI Choose You

Up until now, Nicole’s life has been mapped out for her. She’d go to college, marry Jake and become the upstanding minister’s wife. When she leaves that life to begin again in a small town in Texas, she finally has the freedom to live as she chooses. There, she meets Kent, a guy whose charm and passion make it hard to stick to her morals.

Dodging his father’s fists and protecting his twin sister made Kent into the man he is today. He learned by watching his mother stay by his father’s side that it’s better to keep relationships simple. Then he meets Nicole. Her sweet smile and genuine response to him land like punches to his resolve.

After a lifetime of learning to protect his heart, can he finally let down his guard?

review

“He couldn’t help but worry that someone like him had no right to be with someone as pure as her.”

The second story of the Friends and Lovers Trilogy features Briana’s former “friend with benefits”, Kent, and Nicole. While still trying to get over losing Briana to Colin, Kent cannot but notice the sweet and shy new girl in town who blushes and get flustered every time he looks at her. His apparent innocence draws him to her, calls the protector in him, igniting a need to share his life with someone that he never had before.

After a painful childhood marred by neglectful parenting and an abusive father, and having watched his own twin sister go through a horrible marriage, Kent cannot help but perceive relationships as finite, having very little trust in the institution of marriage. But Nicole’s quiet demeanour but passionate heart shake everything he’s ever believed relationships to be, making him see that not all patterns must be followed and that it only takes the love of one good woman to awaken a heart that has never loved before.

Nicole and Kent are in so many ways each other’s firsts. Kent teaches Nicole how to be independent and answer only to herself; Nicole teaches him that a heart will love no matter how much you tell it not to and that there is always hope. They teach each other the true meaning of love and family, and together learn to patiently shape their own future as they see fit.

Another angst-free little injection of romance, with slightly better character development and a more in-depth background story that could have been even better with those aspects attended to even more.

3halfstars

I Choose You

Buy I Choose You: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Smashwords
Buy the Friends & Lovers Trilogy (contains bonus ending for each story): Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Smashwords

✤ ✤ ✤

young coupleTrust in Me

Roni’s dreams of becoming a contemporary dancer were smashed under the brutal rage of her ex-husband’s fists. Getting divorced and starting over at the age of twenty-two was never her plan, but maybe in Texas, she’ll find her path. When the town’s local player, Rich, opens a Rec Center, she sees a way to rekindle her dancing dreams…and maybe have a little fun with her sexy new boss.

Rich never expected to fulfill his dreams in the town he planned to leave behind, but that’s just what he’s doing. His reputation as a noncommittal ladies’ man might make it challenging to earn respect in the business world, but he’s willing to prove that he’s serious. In fact, when it comes to pursuing Roni, he’s more than willing. But she’s taking a page out of his book, not wanting to risk another relationship. Can he convince her that his playboy days are over and that she can trust him with her heart?

review

“Don’t tell me what I deserve… Maybe you’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”

The third novella is perhaps the most intense and emotionally charged of them all in the Trilogy. This is the story of Kent’s twin sister, Roni, and Colin’s best friend, Rich.

The story itself starts with a domestic abuse scene from Roni’s past that is equally shocking as it is heartbreaking. We watch this young woman being beaten by her ex-husband for wanting to leave their marriage, his violence not only damaging her body but also destroying all hope she ever had in love and finding a happily-ever-after in life. When we meet Roni again, six months after her brother rescued her from her husband’s hands, she is a broken woman. Her marriage had killed all her dreams of becoming a professional dancer, and now she finds herself adrift, clueless what to do with her life or how to finally take charge of her future.

“She didn’t miss Hank, their house, or the life that they’d shared, but she did miss the dream.”

Her bright opportunity comes from the last man she ever wanted to get involved with at this point in her life, a known womanizer but also a man she has secretly admired from a distance, her body drawn to him like a moth to a flame. Rich is a serial dater and he is not ashamed of this. He treats all his conquests with respect and cherishes their bodies lovingly but passionately. He makes it clear from the beginning what they can expect from him, allowing him to never get tied to anyone and live his life commitment-free. But Roni is unlike any other woman he has ever met.

While women normally fall victim to his charm and self-confidence, Roni’s smart mouth disarms him and her resistance intrigues him. He does not hide his attraction to her and is certain that she is not completely immune to his attempts to seduce her, but he gives her space and time to make the first move.

When Roni finally succumbs to her body’s craving for Rich, one night of passion changes everything between them, leaving two different people in its aftermath. Rich has no doubts whatsoever about wanting Roni to be his family and building a future together, but Roni’s reservations run deep and they are hard to overcome for someone who has never felt that kind of love from another man.

“You deserve someone who isn’t broken. A girl who won’t fall to the ground if you raise your voice. Someone who can give you babies…”

Their story made me wish for so much more from these characters. The foundations were there, there was a solid back story that could have been taken so much further had it not been so short in length, but it was over before it even began in a way. Just like the previous two tales, this is a story to be enjoyed while indulging yourself with a warm bath and a glass of wine – it is a “romance espresso” to feed the romantic glutton in you and leave you smiling.

4stars

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Trust in Me

Buy Trust in Me: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Smashwords
Buy the Friends & Lovers Trilogy (contains bonus ending for each story): Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Smashwords
The Author

Bethany Lopez was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in Michigan and San Antonio, Texas. She went to High School at Dearborn High, in Dearborn, Michigan, which is where she has set her Young Adult series. She is married and has a blended family with five children. She is currently serving in the United States Air Force as a Recruiter in Los Angeles, California. She has always loved to read and write and has seen her dream realized by independently publishing her novels through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.

Connect with Bethany: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Pinterest
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COVER REVEAL & EXCERPT: Following Me by K.A. Linde

17 May

Secrets secrets secrets!!! You know when you read a book’s blurb and it gives you goosebumps? And then you read the excerpt and you need to read more? Well, I give you THAT book… Mark your calendars for Following Me…

Expected release date: 21 June 2013

FollowingMe

The Excerpt

Sweat beaded on Devon’s temple, and she wiped it off her forehead and out of her eyes. The party had been going all night, and it was nice to loosen up and get lost in the music and dancing. She hadn’t partied in so long, and she couldn’t resist when Amy had actually invited her out. Either she was getting over her hatred for the new girl, or Devon had just been there long enough that she wasn’t considered the new girl any longer.

People were packed into the club shoulder to shoulder, many even closer than that. The music was ear-splittingly loud. Crazy lights traversed the warehouse-sized room, and they alternated to strobes slowing everything down to slow motion. She hadn’t had much to drink, but she was dizzy with dehydration and the energy in the room. Her tank top was sticking to her back, and she had long since pulled her hair up off of her neck into a ponytail.

God, I need another drink, she thought.

Her eyes moved around the room taking in as much as she could from her vantage point. It really only ended up being the two feet encircling her. Amy had to be somewhere inside the building. How had she lost track of her?

Well, she knew how. There were too many damn people in the place. It was easy to lose track of one person, especially when that person was as short as Amy. Still, she should have done better. She didn’t like being alone in dark places. Whether she was surrounded by people or in a back alleyway at night, she was still alone.

She craned her head to look for her, but was having no luck. It felt like more and more people were being crushed into the space. How was this in line with fire code? Surely the place would be shut down soon.

Walking in the direction of the bar, Devon tried to find Amy in the crowd. Seriously it was getting harder and harder to maneuver through. She was literally having to elbow people out of the way. This wasn’t okay, and it wasn’t fun. They shouldn’t let any more people in. Things could get out of control.

Devon looked up over the heads of people in front of her and sighed. It felt like she was never going to reach the bar, and there was a huge line anyway. She thought maybe the bathroom would be a better alternative… at least there she would have some privacy.

She turned to walk the other direction and slammed right into a meaty guy in front of her, who glared at her as she lost her balance and tumbled to the floor. Someone stepped on her hand as she tried to get up. Devon swore and hissed pulling her hand away from the ground where someone else could do the same thing. She stood as best she could, cradling her aching hand. It wasn’t easy pushing through people with one hand pressed between her breasts to keep from someone else smashing into it. All it did was cause people to unknowingly smash into other parts of her. She hadn’t made it more than a few feet toward the bathroom, and she had already been elbowed in the arm, gotten her foot stepped on, and been drunkenly body slammed knocking the breath out of her. The club was getting dangerous.

A space opened in the crowd, and she took advantage, rushing forward through the throng of people. It took her closer to the bathroom but not close enough. Then she felt it. Eyes on the back of her head. She didn’t even know how it was possible. There were hundreds of people in the place. No one could be focusing that intently on her, but she could swear that someone was watching her.

The Story

“I knew you were running the first time I saw you…”

Devon didn’t have a game plan when she decided to leave St. Louis on a Chicago-bound train for the summer. Just a reason. One she couldn’t share with anyone.

Not Hadley, her best friend from college, who lets her stay in the guest bedroom; no questions asked. Or Brennan, the bartender at the local restaurant they frequent, who she actively tries to avoid. Or Garrett, Hadley’s boyfriend, who befriends her when she has no one else to turn to.

“I just didn’t know what you were running from….”

Desperate to hide at all costs, Devon plunges into her new life in the city. Everyone around her starts to reveal sides of themselves Devon never expected. And just when she starts to get comfortable, her world flips upside down…

“…but I think all along you were running toward me.”

4 lives.

All connected.

All with secrets that just keep following them.

The Author

KA Linde_picK.A. Linde graduated with her Masters in political science from the University of Georgia in 2012. She also has a bachelors in political science and philosophy. She wrote the Avoiding Series while struggling through advanced statistical modeling and writing her thesis. She enjoys dancing and writing novels that keep you guessing until the very end.

She currently resides in Georgia with her boyfriend and two puppies, Lucy and Riker.

Connect with K.A.: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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2 Comments Filed Under: Cover Reveal, K.A. Linde

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Trophy Husband by Lauren Blakely

15 May

The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Lauren Blakely, returns once more with another delicious story of finding love when you least expect it. With the release date just around the corner, sink your teeth into a hilarious never-seen-before excerpt from Trophy Husband…

Expected release date: 21 May 2013

trophyhusband

Sometimes you can’t help falling in love, even when you try to do the opposite…

Successful fashion blogger McKenna Bell has spent far too long protecting herself after the way her ex-fiancé left her at the altar for a college chick he met the night of his bachelor party. Loving again, trusting again, well, that’s just not in the cards. Especially now that her ex is back in town with his new woman, demanding custody of McKenna’s favorite creature in the whole world–her dog. No effing way.

McKenna’s had enough of him, and she decides to even the score by finding her own hot young thing – a Trophy Husband. Sure, she’s only twenty-seven, but doesn’t that make it even more fun – and infuriating to her ex – to pursue a younger man?

When she declares her intentions on her daily blog, her quest quickly skyrockets in popularity, and that’s when Chris enters the picture, and he’s got all the assets. He’s handsome, successful, and turns her inside out with a kiss to end all kisses, the kind that makes you feel like a shooting star.

But loving again could mean losing again, and it’s so much easier to focus on getting even, isn’t it? Unless, you just can’t help falling in love. Which means McKenna will have to come face to face with what she really wants in life – protecting her heart from hurt, or letting go of her fears of a new beginning.

The Excerpt

I start the Craiglist search with the Personals section and type “trophy husband” into the search bar. I tap open the first entry.

“Extreme satisfacktion for the rite woman. Hansome male seek to belong to the woman who need to have nothing but the finest at her cummand. If your fantasy is to be in the company of a beeuutiful, intelligent and discrete, sexy man than you is getting warmer.”

Our public education system is much worse than I thought. After all, is it really that much to ask for one’s potential next mate to be able to make a noun and verb agree? The answer, evidently, is yes. I try the next entry.

“Let me be your boy toy. I will obey your every order and serve your every wish.”

At least his grammar is correct. And his writing has a nice rhythm to it, so I click through to his photo.

Ouch.

I am just going to pretend I didn’t see that.

I squeeze my eyes shut. I remind myself that I am not a prude. I am not a priss. I am not weirded out by sex, or sexy people, or public displays of affection. But I am pretty sure – and I wouldn’t have known this before because I have never seen one – that I am not into penis piercings.

So I move on to the next entry, trying my best to un-see what I just saw.

“I have a job, my own place in the city and am clean and well-kept,” the next one writes.

What, like a lawn?

I hit the home button on the browser, returning to the safe haven of Google, then lay my cheek on the edge of my desk, wondering yet again if I am out of my mind? Because clearly I am not cut out for a Craigslist match. As much as I’d love to end my streak, I also wouldn’t mind a bit more than a fling. I’m almost embarrassed to admit this because I’m supposed to be an independent woman – hear me roar – but I would really like to have a boyfriend.

The word sounds so high school, but I don’t care. I don’t want to be alone any longer. I want to be in love and carefree and have someone to talk to, laugh with, make fun of other crazy people in San Francisco with. Someone who would never even think of leaving me with two mixers and a vintage white dress.

I can picture it perfectly – a night out on the town, then we’d come home, turn on some torch music, he’d take me in his arms for a slow dance. Touch my hair in a way that sends sparks through me. Then a hand on the back of my neck, bringing me closer, lips meshing with mine. He’d slide his hand down to the small of my back, while laying a smoldering path of kisses down to the hollow of my throat.

We’d slow dance and sway, the kind of dance that’s not for anyone else to see. The kind that’s a delicious tease of foreplay, where every subtle move, every brush of the fingers, and dusting of the lips on shoulders, is the promise of what’s to come. That dress straps will be pushed down, that zippers will come undone. Clothes will fall in the floor in a heap, tugged off quickly, as the dance moves to the couch and shifts into something horizontal. Slow and tender and tantalizing, each move, each touch turning me higher, sending me further into a dizzying state of longing.

My breath catches at the thought. Not only the prospect of kisses that ignite goosebumps all over me, but the possibility of someone who wants only me. Who only has eyes for me. Who wants to look at me, longing and lust in his perfect green eyes, and then throw me down on my couch, strip me naked, and bury his face between my legs.

Okay, so evidently, I both want a boyfriend and the kind of oral plundering that makes you quiver, and roll your eyes in the back of your head, and grab the guy’s soft, shaggy hair, and shout his name over and over into oblivion.

Then curl up in his arms, safe and warm, and know he’ll be there the next day and the next and even then some

Is that so much to ask for?

Love, and a talented mouth?

I close out of Craigslist. I’m not going to find what I really want there anyway.

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The Author

Lauren Blakely is an unabashed fan of clever jokes, toast, and good guys in novels. Like the heroine in Caught Up In Us, she thinks life should be filled with movie kisses and coffee drinks. Lauren lives in California with her husband and children, and spends her days writing both true stories and make-believe ones.

Connect with Lauren: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
✤ ✤ ✤
Other books by Lauren Blakely
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BLOG TOUR: After Math by Denise Grover Swank

12 May

aftermath_322x500Scarlett Goodwin’s world is divided into Before and After.

Before she agreed to tutor Tucker price, college junior Scarlett was introvert, struggling with her social anxiety and determined to not end up living in a trailer park like her mother and her younger sister. A mathematics major, she goes to her classes, to her job in the tutoring lab, and then hides in the apartment she shares with her friend, Caroline.

After junior Tucker Price, Southern University’s star soccer player enters the equation, her carefully plotted life is thrown off its axis. Tucker’s failing his required College Algebra class. With his eligibility is at risk, the university chancellor dangles an expensive piece of computer software for the math department if Scarlett agrees to privately tutor him.Tucker’s bad boy, womanizer reputation makes Scarlett wary of any contact, let alone spending several hours a week in close proximity.

But from her first encounter, she realizes Tucker isn’t the person everyone else sees. He carries a mountain of secrets which she suspects hold the reason to his self-destructive behavior. But the deeper she delves into the cause of his pain, the deeper she gets sucked into his chaos. Will Scarlett find the happiness she’s looking for, or will she be caught in Tucker’s aftermath?

review

“How long have I existed in this nether world? Living in it but not part of it? Standing on the sidelines as a bystander? I’m like an alien, exiled to a foreign land in which I never fit, no matter how hard I try. For twenty years I’ve lived alone, keeping me safely tucked inside, but it’s an illusion. A lie. I thought I could protect myself from the horror of my home life growing up, but all I’ve done is isolate and ostracize myself from the world. I’d always hoped someone would hold the key to open the door to my prison. Someone I felt safe letting in. Now I’ve found him. And he doesn’t want me.”

Every coin has two sides, every stick has two ends, and every person has two faces. This is the story of two people who live their lives presenting a brave façade to the world around them, keeping their true vulnerable face hidden deep inside them where no one can hurt them. It’s a story of finding the one person in the world who makes you want to lower your defences for them, finally let your guard down and let them see the real you. And hopefully find yourself in the process.

“Could someone really see past the walls I put up and see me?”

Scarlett grew up in a trailer park, raised by a mother who only saw her as a burden and a way to get welfare. Never having experienced unconditional love or any love for that matter from the one person that should have taught her the meaning of love, Scarlett has not only moved away from the only home she’s ever known and the only family she has in the world, but also left her past behind forever. Desperate to become the very opposite of what her mother always expected her to become, she now lives her life surrounded by rules, structure, set plans for her future. Striving to achieve independence in her life and to never need anyone to feel complete, Scarlett steers away from romantic relationships, seeing them not only as a distraction she cannot afford, but also as something that could potentially break her fragile heart. Afflicted by anxiety attacks compliments of her traumatic childhood, she struggles in social contexts and in a world without order, she finds solace in the only constant in her life, the only thing she could always rely on to give her the control that her life lacked – math.

“With math, as long as you have all the necessary factors, you can find the answer. Life, on the other hand, is so much messier… Math is the one constant in my life, the one thing I can count on to always be the same.”

Tucker Price is in appearance Scarlett’s very opposite. He is the famous soccer player the entire school idolises; he is cocky, arrogant, irresponsible and popular with the opposite sex. He appears to have the world at his feet, a bright future, guaranteed success. But one chance glance exchanged between them and their lives suddenly but irreversibly collide. They recognise a deep but suppressed sadness in each other’s eyes and an unexpected connection immediately sparks between them.

“I’m surrounded by people every day, yet I always feel alone, no matter how hard I try to connect. It’s as though a veil has been thrown over my heart, and no one has ever been able to tear it down. Until this boy. This unattainable, untouchable, unreliable boy.”

What starts as a math tutoring arrangement benefiting both of them in different ways, slowly grows into a friendship that becomes something they both start relying on and drawing comfort from. Scarlett is comfortable around Tucker, he calms her, appears attuned and responsive to her emotional needs, he sees all her quirks and does not judge her for them. For the first time in her young life, Scarlett is able to just be herself and slowly let her guard down. He makes her want to live life, not just watch it pass by, and he makes her feel things she has never felt for another boy before.

“The door to me, the me deep inside, has cracked open, and I’m emerging into the daylight for the first time in years.”

While they both initially try to ignore and fight their mutual attraction, theirs is inevitably a superbly heart-warming and utterly addictive tale of first love, self-acceptance, learning to love another person selflessly and bravely, and feeling deserving of being loved. It is also a story that puts emphasis on making your own choices in life and then living with those choices. I experienced so many different emotions while listening to Scarlett’s sad but oh-so-very brave inner voice. She is a heroine to admire and learn from, a beautiful example of how much a human heart can endure and still not shatter and remain optimistic. Her quiet hope to feel loved someday by someone, but not feeling worthy of making a man want to stick by her, ultimately never expecting her own happy ending, are heartbreaking. Nothing gets to me like the false perception of unrequited love, it pulls my heart strings every single time, and by the end of this book I was as emotionally drained as I was ecstatically happy. And then I went back and re-read some of those scenes because I was not ready to let go of Scarlett and Tucker just yet, knowing all too well that another ten books would have not satisfied my craving for more of their story.

I cannot recommend this delightful book enough – it was my undoing from the very first page. I am now eagerly awaiting the second book in the series, Redesigned, which will be Scarlett’s best friend Caroline’s story.

“I look up into his face and his gaze lowers to my mouth. His arm tightens around my back, and he closes his eyes, pressing his forehead against mine. For several seconds, our breaths mingle and we’re breathing each other in. I’m amazed at how right this feels. Like I’ve been searching my entire life for this peace I feel in his embrace.”

4halfstars

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Buy book: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Smashwords
Pre-order Redesigned (Off the Subject #2): Amazon
The Author

Denise Grover Swank lives in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. She’s a gypsy who can’t live in one place too long or stay in one genre. She writes contemporary romance, urban fantasies without vampires and werewolves, young adult science fiction, and romantic comedy mysteries set in the south. Denise has six children, three dogs, and an overactive imagination. She can be found dancing in her kitchen with her children, reading, or writing her next book. You will rarely find her cleaning.

Connect with Denise: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
The Giveaway

To win one of TWO eBook copies of After Math, please enter below. By entering, you accept the following Giveaway Conditions. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

3 Comments Filed Under: Blog Tours, Denise Grover Swank, FAVOURITES, Giveaways, REVIEW Book Series:

Eyes Wide Open by Raine Miller

11 May

eyeswideopen4Big surprises are on the horizon for Ethan and Brynne as they struggle to adjust to what life has thrown at them.

Demons from the past are threatening to destroy the passionate bond they’ve forged despite their vow that nothing will ever keep them apart. A truly devastating loss coupled with the promise of a new hope opens their eyes to what is most important, but is it possible for the lovers to move on from the painful histories that continue to haunt them?

A stalker is still lurking in the shadows, plotting evil amidst the distraction of the 2012 Olympic games in London. Brynne and Ethan are on the cusp of losing everything as the stakes rise.

Will they yield to circumstances beyond their control or will they give every ounce of fight they have left to save each other and win the ultimate prize of a life together?

review

“Are you real?” he whispered, brushing up my face with the back of his fingers in a cherished caress. “Because I’ll want you forever.”

The anxiously awaited third book of The Blackstone Affair does not only live up to its prequels’ high expectations, it exceeds them and then some. It almost appears like the previous instalments were there to set the stage for this book, and let me tell you, goosebumps and all, it was definitely worth the wait. This will not be a book that you’ll be able to put down so make yourself comfortable, have a glass of wine handy and be ready to become even more engrossed in the exquisite love story of our Ethan and Brynne.

We find the young couple exactly where we left them at the end of All In and the emotional rollercoaster ride that their relationship seems to have been from the beginning only picks up in pace from that point onwards. After escaping to the countryside to recover from everything that has happened to them and focus solely on each other without external threats and pressures, we see them completely immersed in one another, with all their defences down, fully absorbing and accepting their feelings for one another. Their bond is as strong as ever, their physical connection setting sparks whenever they lay hands on each other and it is a sight to behold.

“Ethan made me feel desirable. He made me feel beautiful and sexy, from the words that came out of his mouth to the touch of his body in mine when he made love to me. And afterward, when he held me against him like I was precious.”

Brynne is exactly what Ethan needs to extinguish the raging blaze inside his soul and to quiet his demons. Her safety and wellbeing have become his priority and he has become so finely attuned to the needs of the love of his life, that he can sense her every emotional shift and pre-emptively deal with it. By allowing him to protect her and take care of her, Brynne gives Ethan the control he so desperately needs to function.

“Brynne was my heaven. I’d seek out my heaven endlessly.”

Ethan’s protectiveness makes Brynne feel safe for the first time in years, safe enough to show him all her fears and anxieties. His passionate but healing touch calms and grounds her. However, as much as she needs him at this point to stay strong, she is also desperately afraid of losing complete control of her life, of feeling helpless and vulnerable again. This inner struggle tears her apart at times and affects all important decisions that they need to make as a couple.

“The one who had the power to take me apart was also the only one with the power to put me back together again.”

The intensity between these characters is breathtaking, their emotional connection closely rivalled only by their physical one. Desperate to stay together and constantly afraid of losing one another, Brynne and Ethan are faced with a myriad of circumstances that are out of their control and which ultimately set the pace for their relationship. In a story that is a lot more emotional, intimate, raw in every way, we witness the bond between them being challenged, surviving the odds, strengthening from within, and ultimately blossoming into something very little can break.

Ms Raine is a masterful wordsmith and once more her ability to balance impeccably developed characters with a solid plot makes her a force to be reckoned with. It seems that she is able to express in a paragraph what often takes a chapter to achieve. The connection between the characters is not only palpable, it is all-consuming for the reader. We feel their chemistry, their need and aching for one another, their desperation to hold onto each other and protect their growing relationship.

The timeless romance between Brynne and Ethan reaches a very happy milestone at the end of this book, leaving us at a satisfying place, eager for more but quite happy to wait.

“Are you ready?”
I nodded and whispered, “Yes.”
“And nothing changes us.”
“Nothing changes that we love each other.”

5stars

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Read Chapter 1 of Eyes Wide Open: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Pre-order Eyes Wide Open: Amazon | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble
Connect with Raine: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
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The Blackstone Affair – Reading Order and Purchase Links
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COVER REVEAL & EXCERPT: Fear of Falling by S.L. Jennings

10 May

The moment I heard about this book I knew I had to have it! Everything about this story calls to me, from the psychological element of the plotline to the hopeless attraction between the characters, so it is a very special honour for me to present to you today the stunning cover, designed by the cover guru herself, Ms Regina Wamba of Mae I Design and Photography, and a delicious excerpt from Fear of Falling…

Expected release date: 18 July 2013

FearofFalling

The Excerpt

“Hey,” I smiled, stepping behind the bar and tying the little black apron around my waist. Dive had just opened and was completely empty aside from the day shift preparing for the lunch crowd.

Blaine turned from his task of refilling the soda dispenser and crooked a grin. I could only describe it as polite, and that fact tore me in two.

“Hey, Kami.” His deep chocolate eyes narrowed. “You change your hair?”

I twirled a lock of my honey blonde highlighted mane and shrugged. “Felt like I needed a change.” I didn’t have the guts to tell him that it was really an attempt at bribery by Angel. She knew I was a whore for spa days at the upscale salon she frequented and used my weakness to try to get me to gush about my feelings for Blaine. It didn’t fully work as she intended but I did throw her a bone: I told her I was attracted to him. It was harmless enough. Even a 90 year old deaf and blind woman would have a raging lady boner for him.

Blaine gave me the most genuine smile I had seen from him in days and I swear I felt something in my chest swell. “I like it. Makes you look…I don’t know… devastatingly sexy.”

I didn’t try to stifle the blush that I could feel heating my cheeks. I embraced it. It was the first time I had felt anything but regret in days. “Yeah?”

“Hell yeah,” he said, closing the distance between us in three long strides.

And there it was again. The smell of mint and spice and pure male. The heat that seemed to roll off his body and enfold me like a mink blanket. Those intense brown eyes that made me forget my own name and had me imagining screaming out his. Him. It was all him. Blaine somehow made me forget me. The me that wasn’t allowed to feel all these beautiful, exciting things. The me that didn’t believe in happy endings. The me that was unlovable, and in turn, could never, ever love.

“You were sexy before…unbelievably so. But the way the golden strands seem to meld with your green eyes, it just… wow. Makes it hard to look at anything or anyone else.”

I sucked in a breath of air and let it out slowly through my mouth, closing my eyes in attempt to regain some sense of composure. “Blaine…” I couldn’t say anymore. His name, occupying my tongue like his skin once did, was enough.

“I’m sorry,” he sputtered quickly, breaking me from the sweet memories of tasting him. My eyes fluttered open to him looking sheepish, rubbing the back of his neck with a tattooed hand. Shit, even that was sexy.

“I think I should explain.” He rolled the barbell in his mouth before flashing me a strained grin. “I have this habit of always saying how I feel, no matter how embarrassing it is. A long time ago, I didn’t speak my mind. I didn’t ask the right questions because I was afraid of the answers. And life shitted on me because I kept my mouth shut. So I vowed to always be brutally honest and let the chips fall where they may. I’m sorry if that makes you uncomfortable.”

I looked away, seeking refuge from his penetrating stare. It didn’t make me uncomfortable. His words, his presence, it made me anxious. It made that pesky flutter in my stomach evolve into a full on swarm of butterflies.

“It doesn’t make me uncomfortable,” I replied, speaking my truth. For once, I didn’t let fear suppress my first instinct. “But you do make me nervous.”

“Nervous?” Blaine asked, crooking a brow.

“In a good way,” I quickly recovered. Shit. Real smooth.

Blaine chuckled, and that fascinating sound chipped at the wall around my forgotten heart. “I wasn’t aware there was a good kinda nervous. But I’ll take it. Anything to see your cheeks get pink like that. You have no idea how it makes me feel when that happens.”

Speechless. I was rendered completely speechless and my cheeks had taken on a life of their own and complied with his wishes. The smile that spread across Blaine’s lips as he took in my reddened face was undeniable and I suddenly felt completely stripped bare before him. I just wanted to cover myself and hide. But Blaine wasn’t having that. Before my nerves sent me cowering in a corner, his head dipped, placing his lips at my earlobe.

“I know you said you don’t feel anything,” he whispered. “But can you honestly say that you don’t feel this? That this heat, this attraction, is all in my head? Don’t think about it; just answer. Tell me what your heart wants to say and not what your head keeps trying to make you believe.”

I swallowed down the ‘no’ that was already reflexively building in my throat and let Blaine’s proximity push away the fear. His presence did that for me; it got me out of my own way.

“Yes, Blaine,” I rasped. “I feel it.” I did. I felt all of it. I felt all of him.

The Story

I can’t remember the last time I felt completely safe. Security seemed more like a luxury to me, reserved for those who were fortunate enough to have picture perfect childhoods. For those who didn’t bear the ugly scars that keep me bound in constant, debilitating fear. I’ve run from that fear my entire life. But when I met him, for once, I couldn’t run anymore.

He scared the hell out of me in a way that excited every fiber of my being. It wasn’t the tattoos or the piercings. It wasn’t the warmth that seemed to radiate from his frame and blanket me whenever he was near. It was just…him. The scary beautiful man that threatened to alter 23 years of routine and rituals, and make me face my crippling fear.

My name is Kami and I am constantly afraid. And the thing that scares me the most is the very thing I want.

***Inspired by true events***

The Author

SL Jennings_picMost known for her starring role in a popular sitcom as a child, S.L. Jennings went on to earn her law degree from Harvard at the young age of 16. While studying for the bar exam and recording her debut hit album, she also won the Nobel Prize for her groundbreaking invention of calorie-free wine. When she isn’t conquering the seas in her yacht or flying her Gulfstream, she likes to spin elaborate webs of lies and has even documented a few of these said falsehoods.

Connect with S.L.: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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Leave a Comment Filed Under: Cover Reveal, S.L. Jennings
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