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Expected release date: 21 June 2013

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

K.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

The post COVER REVEAL & EXCERPT: Following Me by K.A. Linde appeared first on Natasha is a Book Junkie.

Expected release date: 21 May 2013

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.

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

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Other books by Lauren Blakely

The post IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Trophy Husband by Lauren Blakely appeared first on Natasha is a Book Junkie.

Scarlett 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?

“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.”

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. 

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The post BLOG TOUR: After Math by Denise Grover Swank appeared first on Natasha is a Book Junkie.

Big 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?

“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.”

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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The post Eyes Wide Open by Raine Miller appeared first on Natasha is a Book Junkie.

Expected release date: 18 July 2013

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

Most 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

The post COVER REVEAL & EXCERPT: Fear of Falling by S.L. Jennings appeared first on Natasha is a Book Junkie.

Expected release date: 10 June 2013

Kiro was shirtless and swinging his tattooed arms around with a cigarette between his fingers and a bottle of rum in his other hand. “What the ever loving f*ck is your problem? Hell, you got momma issues then go bitch at mother f*cking Georgianna. Why am I the one being dealt this crazy shit?” Kiro was yelling at Nan when I walked into the game room. A pair of black lace panties were on the pool table but the female I’d left him with a few hours earlier was nowhere to be seen. Small miracles.

“Rush! Do you hear him? He doesn’t care about me. He doesn’t care that he ignored me most of my life and do you know he has a daughter? Some uptight bitch that won’t even look at me.” Nan was still screaming.

I walked over to her and grabbed both her hands. “Take a couple deep breaths, Nan. You gotta calm down so we can all talk. You yelling isn’t gonna fix shit.”

She glared at me but did as I told her to. I waited until she’d taken two deep breaths before squeezing her hands. “Good. Now, go sit over there on that sofa and don’t talk. Let me talk. Okay?”

She frowned but nodded her head and walked over to the white leather sectional sofa that outlined two of the four walls in this room.  Once she was seated I turned back around to look at Kiro. He was taking another long swig from the rum. The man needed to stop drinking and eat something. You could see his ribs. His fetish with leather went beyond furniture. He wore it too. The leather pants he had on were hanging on his tattooed hipbones.

“Can’t believe you got her to shut up for a whole damn minute,” Kiro muttered and put the cigarette back to his lips.

Read a second teaser at The Autumn Review…

The Story

Rush promised her forever… but promises can be broken.

Torn between his love for his family and his love for Blaire, Rush has to find a way to save one without losing the other. In the end one has to be more important. Letting go isn’t easy.

Blaire believed in her fairytale… but no one can live in a fantasy.

Her love for Rush and desire to have a family keep her believing that they can find a way for this to work. Until she has to make the right decision for her and the baby. Even if it breaks her heart.

Can they find the forever that they both want or has it all just gone… too far?

The Author

Abbi Glines was born in Birmingham, Alabama. She grew up in the small town of Sumiton, Alabama where she left the summer she turned eighteen. She didn’t get far… she chased her high school sweetheart down to the coast and she’s been there every since.

Abbi now lives in the quaint southern town of Fairhope, Alabama with her three children and husband Keith (the high school sweetheart she chased after). Her life is never dull and Keith always makes sure there is another “experience” for them to explore.

Books published by Abbi include The Vincent Boys and the USA TODAY bestseller The Vincent Brothers, Breathe, Because of Low, the USA TODAY bestsellers While It Lasts and Just For Now, The Existence Trilogy that includes the USA Today Bestseller Ceaseless, and The New York Times bestseller and Wall Street Journal bestseller Fallen Too Far. Currently she is working on Never Too Far, the sequel to Fallen too Far.

When Abbi isn’t locked away in her office typing away she is hauling her kids to and from their many social activities. You could say her second job is the Glines Kids personal chauffeur. It’s a rather illustrious job.

Connect with Abbi: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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Anomaly (Causal Enchantments #4)

She was merely a pawn in their game.

And then something happened.

Once the fragile, naïve human, Evangeline has become altogether … different.

A being who holds formidable power, she may be the key to changing the course of fate.

Or she could be the final nail in the world’s coffin.

But Evangeline doesn’t know exactly what she is, what she can do. She knows only that she has to stop an enemy far worse than the Sentinel and the sorceresses—one driven by revenge.

And he’s hunting the man she loves.

As Evangeline fights to keep Caden alive and the human population from eradication, she can’t help but sense the imminent doom.

Find out if fate will prevail in the harrowing conclusion to the Causal Enchantment series.

Expected release date: Fall 2013

Allegiance (Causal Enchantments #3)

Evangeline finally got what she longed for—the cursed pendant off her neck and Caden in her arms—only it came at a steep price. An unknown poison now courses through her body, slowly morphing her into something no one but the Fates can foresee.She has her suspicions, though…and if she is right, it will spell certain ruin for her and Caden. But she won’t last long enough to realize that, if Viggo and Mortimer uncover the treasonous secrets she keeps from them– that Veronique, no longer entombed, is now in the torturous clutches of the witches and the People’s Sentinel, or that she is protecting a Sentinel within their very midst.

Always the naive human caught in the vampires’ web of deceit, Evangeline is now weaving her own dangerous web so she can keep her friend alive, rescue Veronique, and stop a seemingly inevitable war from erupting. But can her honor handle the depths of duplicity to which she must descend, in order to be in league with the vampires?

Dark and gripping, riddled with angst, Allegiance will have readers anxiously turning pages to find out if Evangeline can survive, or if she’ll spiral into disaster.

Buy book: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iTunes | Smashwords | Kobo | Sony | Deisel

Asylum (Causal Enchantments #2)

Tucked away in Sofie’s wintery asylum with no hope of release for years, Evangeline must come to terms with her situation: the curse still plagues her, she’s now hunted by a two thousand-year-old vampire, and the guy she’s in love with tried to kill her. Plus, she’s locked up with a cranky Max and the Forero kids—two people everyone seems to prefer dead over alive. Things aren’t looking good.

Meanwhile, back in Manhattan, Sofie struggles to keep forty trapped and bloodthirsty Ratheus vampires at bay and a desperate Viggo from killing Evangeline’s friends, all while hints stir outside the walls of the NYC vampire asylum of a war brewing between the Sentinel and the witches.

Is there any hope for Evangeline and Caden? Can Sofie control the rival powers? Is the fate of Earth predestined?

Buy book: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iTunes | Smashwords | Kobo | Sony | Deisel

Anathema (Causal Enchantments #1)

Evangeline has spent her teenage years in obscurity. Her foster parents have the emotional aptitude of robots and her classmates barely acknowledge her existence. About to turn eighteen and feeling like a social pariah, she is desperate to connect with someone. Anyone.

When Evangeline meets Sofie after literally stumbling upon her café, she believes she’s found that connection. Willing to do anything to keep it, she accepts a job as Sofie’s assistant and drops everything to fly to Manhattan, where she is thrust into a luxurious world of Prada, diamonds, and limitless cash.

With such generosity and kindness, it’s easy for Evangeline to dismiss certain oddities . . . like Sofie’s erratic and sometimes violent behavior, and the monstrous guard dogs. She’s even willing to dismiss her vivid dreams of mob-style murders, beautiful homeless people living in caves, and white-eyed demons that haunt her each night as figments of her imagination—especially when one of those figments is the gorgeous Caden. When she wakes up with bite marks on her neck, the fairy tale quickly turns into a nightmare. She slowly unravels the mystery surrounding Sofie and friends, and the reality of the bites and the “dreams.” What she discovers is far more mysterious and terrible than anything she could have imagined.

In a world where everyone has motive to lie for personal gain, Evangeline must decide which deception is least likely to get her killed.

Buy book: Amazon Kindle | Barnes and Noble | iTunes | Smashwords | Kobo | Sony

The Author

Born in small-town Ontario, Kathleen published her first book at the age of six with the help of her elementary school librarian and a box of crayons. She is a voracious reader and the farthest thing from a genre-snob, loving everything from High Fantasy to Chick Lit. Kathleen currently resides in a quaint small town outside of Toronto with her husband, two beautiful girls, and an exhausting brood of four-legged creatures.

Connect with Kathleen: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

The post COVERS REVEAL: Causal Enchantments Series by K.A. Tucker appeared first on Natasha is a Book Junkie.

There’s complicated. And there’s Rowen Sterling.

After numbing pain for the past five years with boys, alcohol, and all-around apathy, she finds herself on a Greyhound bus to nowhere Montana the summer after she graduates high school. Her mom agreed to front the bill to Rowen’s dream art school only if Rowen proves she can work hard and stay out of trouble at Willow Springs Ranch. Cooking breakfast at the crack of dawn for a couple dozen ranch hands and mucking out horse stalls are the last things in the world Rowen wants to spend her summer doing.

Until Jesse Walker saunters into her life wearing a pair of painted-on jeans, a cowboy hat, and a grin that makes something in her chest she’d thought was frozen go boom-boom. Jesse’s like no one else, and certainly nothing like her. He’s the bright and shiny to her dark and jaded.

Rowen knows there’s no happily-ever-after for the golden boy and the rebel girl – happily-right-now is a stretch – so she tries to forget and ignore the boy who makes her feel things she’s not sure she’s ready to feel. But the more she pushes him away, the closer he seems to get. The more she convinces herself she doesn’t care, the harder she falls.

When her dark secrets refuse to stay locked behind the walls she’s kept up for years, Rowen realizes it’s not just everyone else she needs to be honest with. It’s herself.

“Sometimes we just have to cut off the dead branches in our life. Sometimes that’s the only way we can keep the tree alive.”

Books like this one are the reason why I love reading. There is nothing more exhilarating than finding a rare gem of a story that holds you captive from beginning to end, makes you smile so much your jaw hurts by the time you turn that last page, and leaves you so delightfully enthralled by the characters, you wish the story never ended. This book quite simply stole my heart.

Rowen is a young woman desperately in need of a wake-up call in life. For the past five years, she has been spiralling down an angry hole of self-destructive behaviour, rebelling against everything and everyone around her. But behind the provocative black clothes, the dark contact lenses and the black lipstick, hides a broken-hearted young girl whose life has hurt and disappointed her so badly, that she has convinced herself not to expect anything but further pain.

“Instead of trying to get to the bottom of why her daughter was floundering through life, she sent me off to ranch boot camp to “prove” myself worthy of art school.”

After being shipped off by her emotionless mother to a ranch in the middle of nowhere with the directive to prove herself as responsible, hardworking and worthy of trust, Rowen finds herself sticking out like a sore thumb in wholesome countryside Montana. But for the first time in her young life, instead of fingers being pointed at her and being labelled a freak, people are actually taking their time to get to know her and seeing past her appearance. From barely having a parent who never showed her any love to suddenly being part of a large family where small demonstrations of love are a daily occurrence, Rowen is truly out of her element.

“Every morning we get a chance to be different. A chance to change. A chance to be better. Your past is your past. Leave it there. Get on with the future part, honey.”

At this point I think there should be a drumroll or some trumpet playing somewhere because lo and behold, prepare your hearts for the divine Mr Jesse Walker! Jesse is the ranch owner’s son and he is nothing like the guys Rowen is normally attracted to. He is cheerful, positive, affectionate, he pays her compliments and asks nothing in return, and he seems to see the person she so desperately tries to hide. The more she pushes him away, the more he gently pursues her, with nothing more than kindness and understanding. And a heart-melting smile.

“Why don’t you want to know that I like you, Rowen? Why don’t you want me to tell you I’m so damn attracted to you, I almost don’t trust myself to be alone with you like we are right now? Why don’t you want to know that I care about you so much…?”

Once her walls start crumbling and one very delicious cowboy gets under her skin, Rowen begins her journey of self-discovery.

“…when I looked into those eyes of his that saw everything, those eyes that saw me, I knew the fight would be worth it. The struggle to let him in when I wanted to barricade the windows and lower the gates would be a battle I’d never regret fighting.”

What is possibly one of the most enchanting and heart-warming romances I have read in a very long time, this is as much of a love story as it is a beautifully written and flawlessly developed tale of finding oneself and accepting that life is not just a string of negatives. Rowen is a complex character – her past has made her emotionally weary and afraid to let herself accept affection from others. She is hungry for it, starved for even the smallest sliver of unconditional love, but she has also been programmed to believe that she is unworthy of the kind of love Jesse is offering her. She perceives him as a ray of sunshine that her hang-ups would only end up clouding, but she ultimately fights their connection because she sees herself as undeserving to be loved, something her mother had ingrained into her with continuous neglect and grave lack of positive affirmations.

“You think you deserve this. You think you deserve to be alone and suffer. You’ve convinced yourself you’re so worthless that you’ve gone to the extreme to punish yourself. You think you deserve a life of misery.”

We watch the romance between Jesse and Rowen take root, blossom, weather the storms, as this young woman finds herself and learns that every woman deserves to have a ‘Jesse’ in her life. There is something very special in the way Nicole Williams gives her characters ‘life’, it is evident that they come from her heart and she somehow makes us love even the most imperfect of them.

It has been two days since I finished reading this book and my heart is still bursting at the seams!! A stunning book with a positive message – it was just what I needed, it was totally not what I expected, and it was simply perfect.

“We all want to open up to someone, Rowen. The hard part is finding someone we trust enough to open up to. That person we’re not afraid to let into the darkest parts of our world.”

Read an excerpt HERE…

Buy book: Amazon Kindle | Amazon Paperback | Amazon UK | Barnes and Noble

The Author

I’m a wife, a mom, a writer. I started writing because I loved it and I’m still writing because I love it. I write young adult because I still believe in true love, kindred spirits, and happy endings.

Here’s to staying young at heart *raises champagne glass* . . . care to join me?

Connect with Nicole: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

The Giveaway

To win a paperback of Lost and Found, a leather cuff bracelet with metal inscription “Love is organized chaos”, or a $50 Amazon Gift Card, please enter below. This contest is administered by AToMR Tours and it is open internationally.

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The post BLOG TOUR: Lost and Found by Nicole Williams appeared first on Natasha is a Book Junkie.

Can you ever really outrun your past?

Krissy Mullins, an overworked, obsessive-compulsive publicist has been giving it her best shot for the past ten years. Throwing herself into her work and devoting all her time to her teenage starlet client, Krissy finds little time for anything else. But as fate would have it, her world is turned upside down when she falls in love with laid-back California native, Ben Torres. Unfortunately, her only frame of reference on love and marriage is her parents and they weren’t exactly the poster children for a happy relationship.

As Krissy attempts to navigate the precarious world of love, acceptance, and compromise, her past comes flooding back like she never expected. An ex-boyfriend returns from a life she has tried to forget, stirring up feelings in Krissy she had thought were long gone. Pulled in opposite directions as her past and present collide, she makes a rash decision that will forever change her life.

“This is my life. Somehow, somewhere I took one small misstep and ended up here.”

Once in a while you will read a book that does not fit into a mould, that does not follow a formula or try to romanticise life. A book that does not hide the ugly reality of the choices or the mistakes me make along the way. A book that portrays human nature as it is, gritty and real, and shows that sometimes it takes losing everything to truly see the value of what was in front of you all along.

Krissy Mullins is a young woman who spends her days emotionally ‘skimming’ on the surface of life, focusing on her career as a high profile publicist, a job that makes her miserable, but never truly stopping and taking stock of what her life has regrettably become. Even with the love of a man who absolutely adores her and would do anything to make her happy, Krissy is unable to let him in and let herself love him completely. She hides behind the demands of her job, tailoring her choices in life so that she would never have to face her emotional misgivings, including giving up on the one thing that could have made her happy in the long run.

“It wasn’t supposed to be this way. I wanted to love you forever. I wanted you to quit your job, move in with me, have babies and take vacations to Disney World. I wanted you to want that life.”

Her dysfunctional and loveless relationship with her mother being her only point of reference in life when it comes to family, Krissy finds it easier to connect with a man who behaves in a similar fashion to her mother than with someone who offers her what she has never experienced in life before – unconditional love. Her self-sabotaging tendencies eventually lead her down a road she travelled once before, but instead of learning from her mistakes, she chooses to repeat them, knowing all too well this could hurt her again. When the life she has chosen turns to be exactly as expected, instead of demanding more, Krissy lowers her standards, and stays in a relationship that only feeds her insecurities.

This is a book about what family teaches us about life, trust, love, and how much what we learn from our own parents can form the way we shape any future relationships. It offers a very untraditional version of a happy ending, free from all the glam and glitter that we often find in romance books. In essence, this is not a romance book but it is a book about romance. It shows the enduring power of true love and how misguiding our own heart can sometimes be.

“It’s funny how your heart can deceive you. Follow your heart, people say but they never tell you that sometimes it makes the wrong choice.”

Everyone will take something different with them from reading this beautiful book. It will appeal to people in so many different ways – you might find a little bit of yourself in Krissy, you might recognise someone close to you in her, or her choices in life might be those you always feared you’d make. Regardless of what she represents to you, I assure you that her story will move you and that you will find yourself travelling her journey with her, living through her mistakes, feeling her pain, anger, heartbreak, and eventually her realisation of what her heart knew all along.

Nikki Young’s writing is honest, touching, authentic. A splendid debut novel by an author whose sensitivity and realness shine through in her every word.

“You’re my most wonderful downfall.”

Buy book: Amazon paperback | Amazon Kindle | Smashwords

The Author

Nikki Young was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago where she still currently lives with her husband and two boys. She is a third grade teacher and spends her days forcing her love of reading and writing onto a group of poor unsuspecting eight year olds.

Connect with Nikki: Website | Facebook | Goodreads

The Blog Tour

For a full list of the A Life More Complete Blog Tour stops, click on the image above.

The Giveaway

To win a signed paperback or one of two eBook copies of A Life More Complete, please enter below. By entering, you accept the following Giveaway Conditions. 

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