Thursday, December 3, 2020

O Night Divine: A Holiday Collection of Spirited Christmas Tales Blitz & Giveaway

O Night Divine: A Holiday Collection of Spirited Christmas Tales
Publication date: December 17th 2020
Genres: Adult, Historical Romance, Romance

A MASTERPIECE OF HOLIDAY STORYTELLING…

Enjoy this stunning holiday collection from some of your favorite Dragonblade Publishing authors in this collection of never-before published seasonal tales!

Imagine, if you will, that it is Christmas Eve.

The candles are guttered, one by one, and a hush falls over the parlor. The children have gone to bed, and a tall, gloriously decorated Christmas tree looms in the shadows of the hearth’s dying embers. A tattered copy of Charles Dickens’ masterwork, “A Christmas Carol” sits, cold and lonely, upon a table nearby.

A small gust of wind, hurling from the seam of an ill-fitting window, blows the cover open. The first chapter appears… “Marley’s Ghost”…

The clock on the wall chimes midnight.

Now, the magic happens.

From the gaily bedecked halls of Regency England to the cold and crisp air of the Scottish Highlands, and everything in between, enjoy the magic of a holiday collection that has drawn inspiration from Charles Dickens’ most beloved literary works. Where the ghosts of Christmas, the incandescent spirit of a tiny disabled boy, and the joy that is the very heart of the Christmas season come alive.

USA Today and Internationally bestselling authors bring you their version of a Dickens’-inspired holiday in O NIGHT DIVINE.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo

This collection includes:

Twas the Executioner Knight Before Christmas by Kathryn Le Veque

A medieval version of the Ghost of Christmas Future…

No one survives an Executioner Knight and least of all, Maxton of Loxbeare. But when he married his wife and had children, three little girls right away, Maxton grew a heart. He became a devoted and dedicated father who loved his children dearly. But the Executioner Knight in him still lived. So after a very bad dream, Maxton sees that, for his daughters’ sake, he must change.

Learn more about Kathryn Le Veque: https://kathrynleveque.com

The Laird’s Yulebringer by Caroline Lee

The Mackenzies are in mourning… none so much as their laird. Since the loss of his wife, leaving Callan to raise a young son alone, he believes he’s lost his chance at happiness. As his extended family gathers to celebrate the Yule together, they can do naught to raise his spirits… until a midnight visitor—of the ghostly variety—brings him hope for the future.

Learn more about Caroline Lee: https://collettecameron.com

Making Spirits Bright by Chasity Bowlin

After a lifetime of secrets, scandal, and disappointment… Elizabeth doesn’t believe in happy endings, at least not for herself. But an unconventional nobleman, with the help of a novice Spirit of Christmas, may just change her mind…

Learn more about Chasity Bowlin: https://chasitybowlin.com

The Haunted Scot by Hildie McQueen

The allure of a reformed rake…

She’s as determined to pursue him as he is to keep his distance. After a heartbreaking debacle, Thomas Sullivan decides to give up his roguish ways and considers the priesthood. Unfortunately, the beautiful arrival gives him second thoughts. Mary Asher is not sure why the handsome new driver tries to avoid her at all costs. After being told he follows her every move, Mary decides to test him.

Learn more about Hildie McQueen: https://www.hildiemcqueen.com

Never Keep a Secret at Christmas by Maggi Andersen

’Tis not the season to be surreptitious…

Alice Dountry’s father has gout, and she must spend Christmas with her sister, Marian, Lady Belfries. Their neighbor, the gruff, bad-tempered Earl of Hawkinge, refuses Marian’s invitation to Christmas dinner.

While chatting with him over the garden wall, Alice suspects something deeper lies beneath his humbug opinion of Christmas. Hawkinge and his grandson, Hugh Gifford, are at odds. Alice writes to Hugh but must keep it a secret from her sister.

When the handsome Lord Gifford arrives, there is an immediate spark between them. But Lord Hawkinge is hardly welcoming, and now, Marian and her husband argue over the secret letter.

Learn more about Maggi Andersen: https://maggiandersenauthor.com

Her Star from the East by Mary Lancaster

Miss Emma Sayle has enjoyed two London seasons and rejected many suitors. Her heart was given long ago to an exciting prince of the east, a man of another country and another faith. As Christmas approaches, she daydreams of what her life with him might have been – until his ghost walks out of the freezing fog. But is it the ghost of his past or her future?

Learn more about Mary Lancaster: https://www.facebook.com/mary.lancaster.1656

The Remembrance of Love by Meara Platt

Hyacinth Farthingale has known and loved Lord Innes Buchan since the day she was born. She is now in her debut season, and as Christmas approaches, it is high time this aloof and lonely lord realized his happiness depends on marrying her.

Learn more about Meara Platt: http://www.mearaplatt.com

How to get an Earl of Christmas by Violetta Rand

Learn more about Violetta Rand: http://www.violettarandromance.com/

Yuletide at Gillingham by Alexa Aston

A lonely holiday…

One boy abandoned by a greedy gambling father. Another boy watches his father slowly dying. A lasting friendship that will see them through the hard times—and beyond…

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Can two lonely boys draw strength from one another during a Yuletide season that only promises heartbreak?
Learn more about Alexa Aston: https://alexaaston.com

A Thrill of Hope by Anna Markland

Foiling an attempt to assassinate Queen Victoria earns Parker a medal and royal gratitude. The lunatic’s bayonet plunged into his thigh leaves him with a pronounced limp and reassignment to a small constabulary. Particularly trying is having to spend Christmas Day with his

miserly uncle.

During her family’s Yuletide celebrations, Samantha discovers she doesn’t love her straitlaced fiancé. A bleak future looms large.

Neither realize that anarchists are plotting to blow up a newly-constructed railway bridge—although Parker might if he’d heed the mysterious warning voices he hears.

A tale of the eternal struggle between good and evil.

Learn more about Anna Markland: https://www.annamarkland.com/

A Gift for Agatha by Anna St. Claire

A visit and a warning…

Years after her husband’s death, Lady Agatha Wendt has become a surly, cold-hearted miser, increasingly left to her own company. Childless and with little family, the wealthy widow fears

falling into poverty and spurns even the smallest gestures of Christmas giving. A determined spirit visits the wealthy widow and warns her change must happen.

Charles Bentley, her butler, sees goodness in her, and finds himself attracted to the real Agatha—despite knowing they could never be.

Can the spirit awaken Agatha to her real fears and help her to overcome them in time to realize the gift she has always wanted?

Learn more about Anna St. Claire: https://www.annastclaire.com

The Heart is Never Silent by Aubrey Wynne

Miss Etta Rose Comden is desperate to protect her younger sister, Horatia, after the death of their father. When the heir—and Tia’s new guardian—finds out his ward is deaf, he makes plans to send her away and marry Etta. With no one to turn to, the sisters flee in the middle of the night.

Dr. Gus Wharren, disillusioned with his practice in London, retreats to his late grandmother’s estate. Instead of a much-needed respite, he finds two lovely females stranded along the road.

Two sisters on the run. A London physician who has given up on humanity. The spirit of a loving grandmother. The stage is set for a holiday full of coincidence, a little Christmas magic, and a happy ever after.

Learn more about Aubrey Wynne: https://www.aubreywynne.com

Of Christmas Past by Charlotte Wren

Pride and promise before forgiveness

At the volatile age of seventeen, Percival Josiah Northcott storms out of Highfield Hall on Christmas Eve, vowing never to return. It is a vow supported solely by pride, which, as the old adage goes, generally comes before a fall.

Five years later, Percival has fallen about as low as a man can get. He secretly longs to return home, but pride and fear stand in his way. That is, until he’s visited by someone from his past, someone who gives him the courage to seek his family’s forgiveness.

But first, he must promise to complete a very special task.

Learn more about Charlotte Wren: https://www.facebook.com/Wrenbook/

Tidings of Comfort by Elizabeth Ellen Carter

A boy with a remarkable talent…

In the lead up to Christmas, Captain Kit Hardacre is in London looking for his long-lost parents. After a disappointing initial search, he finds himself in the city alone. Bringing him out of his self-pity is a call to help in a search for a missing little boy. But which one of them is more lost?

When Kit finds Pip, he discovers a youngster with a remarkable talent for going directly into the heart of those he meets. After seeing Pip safely returned, Kit’s faith in family is restored and a kind word gives him the courage to continue his search.

Learn more about Elizabeth Ellen Carter: https://eecarter.com

A Christmas Miracle by Elizabeth Johns

Alex Hartmere, Duke of Frompton, has endured enough heartache to make any man bitter.

Having lost his wife and child in the war in Canada, he returns to England, only to inherit a dukedom from a father who dies in a scandalous duel soon afterwards.

Repairing to his family estate for Christmas, Alex finds his first love now widowed and penniless. Can a Christmas miracle, in the form of a crippled little girl, bring them the happiness which was once stripped away from them?

Learn more about Elizabeth Johns: https://www.elizabethjohnsauthor.com/

Her Christmas White Knight by Elizabeth Keysian

England, Yuletide 1587

The dice have really been loaded against Mistress Julia Wentworth. Little wonder she no longer trusts a soul—except for the urchin she rescued from the poorhouse. Having fallen in love with—and been abandoned by—a murderous traitor, Julia’s been turned out by her family and left to scrape what living she can on the brutal London streets. When a goose strays into her yard, it looks as if she’ll at least have something to feast on at Christmas.

Exploding into her life in pursuit of his goose is Myall Farrar, a scarred nobleman who loathes his miserly father and can’t afford to lose the fowl for which he’s scrimped and saved all year.

Can there be any common ground between the mismatched Myall and Julia? Is there any hope of goodwill within their families? And—perhaps more importantly—will the goose prove itself worth saving from the butcher’s knife?

Learn more about Elizabeth Keysian: https://elizabethkeysian.com/

Always the Mistletoe by Emily E K Murdoch

When a woman loves a man, it’ll take more than a little Scrooge like behavior to stop her standing by him. Her family, on the other hand…

Learn more about Emily E K Murdoch: https://emilyekmurdoch.com

A Libertine’s Christmas Miracle by Emily Royal

Christmas is a time for miracles

Alice and Ross Trelawney are enjoying a quiet Christmas in Cornwall, until their daughter Amelia strays onto the nearby estate of Mr. Scrimgeour, the infamous Beast of Boscarne. When Amelia comes home in tears after a terrifying encounter, Alice resolves to teach the Beast a lesson.

Haunted by his late wife’s ghost and taunted by the locals, Edward Scrimgeour hides away in his crumbling mansion. His peace is shattered when his neighbor’s hellion of a wife storms into his home on Christmas Eve. But she’s no ordinary trespasser. When events threaten to take a tragic turn, Edward is given a chance at salvation, showing that miracles can occur in the unlikeliest of places.

Learn more about Emily Royal: http://www.emroyal.com/

Past, Present, Future by Lynne Connolly

Rhona sent the love of her life away once, but now Frederick is back. He doesn’t care that she’s a housekeeper, and he’s a wounded soldier and the brother of a duke. For the three nights of Christmas, he’ll give her three gifts; wooden figures he carved for her in the long nights before his last battle. They represent their past, their present, and what they could have in the future. If she doesn’t accept his love this time, he’ll leave for good.

Learn more about Lynne Connolly: https://lynneconnolly.com

A Yuletide Yearning by Maeve Greyson

Regret is a sly enemy…

Captain Tait Mackenzie doesn’t regret a life of pirating, but it’s Christmas and he’s lonely. Thoughts of dying alone trouble him. What woman would settle for a life with a pirate lord?

If wishes and dreams were oceans and streams, she’d sail her way to happiness…

Ellie has always loved Tait, but he politely ignores her. She intends to change that with a little help from the North Star.

Can three pirate ghosts on Christmas Eve scare some sense into a Scottish rogue and make him see that the love he needs has been right in front of him all along?

Learn more about Maeve Greyson: http://www.maevegreyson.com/

A Strange Christmas Game by Whitney Blake

Mr. Charles Mason doesn’t expect a December summons to end in his own love story…

Learn more about Whitney Blake: https://www.whitneyblakeauthor.net


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Thursday, August 6, 2020

Claimed by the Alpha by Lia Davis Blitz & Giveaway


Claimed by the Alpha
Lia Davis
(Shifters of Ashwood Falls, #13)
Publication date: July 28th 2020
Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Romance

Battle and betrayal will befall this alpha… can Luna rise to the challenge?

Alpha wolf of Ashwood Falls, Luna Raines has the weight of her pack’s safety on her shoulders. She doesn’t need the complications of facing her fated mate, who walked out on her when she needed him most. Together, Luna and Rafe work with a rebel group, a spy, and new allies to take down a mad man, ending the shifter war.

Claimed by the Alpha is the explosive finale of the Shifters of Ashwood Falls series by USA Today Bestselling Author Lia Davis.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo

EXCERPT:

He was staring like he usually did. “Forever the loving Alpha.”

“I’m good at it.” She crossed her arms and glared at him. His black hair was cut short with the top long enough to curl. His ice-blue eyes were thankfully different from Royce’s midnight blue that looked black most the time. Black like his soul.

But Rafe’s eyes were like looking into heaven, calm and cool.

A dimple formed in one cheek as he gave her a crooked smile. “Have lunch with me.”

Even though he said the statement as a request, there was a demand in his tone. Luna wonder if she refused would he bully her into doing what he wanted. Royce would have. She couldn’t tell him no because it didn’t matter what she wanted. “What if I say no?”

He shrugged. “I’ll be eating alone. It wouldn’t be the first time.” Then he leaned in until their lips were inches apart. “I don’t use force to get what I want. I’m a patient male. You’re my mate. Nothing will change that.”

Her heart pounded, and she had to fight the urge to lean forward that fraction of an inch to claim his mouth. But she wouldn’t. Not until she knew for sure that what she was feeling was real. She thought Royce was her true mate, and she was wrong.

She wouldn’t be wrong again. If that meant living the rest of life alone, so be it. However, she was hungry and did have questions she hadn’t had a chance to ask him. “I can eat.”

His features turned lethally gorgeous as he extended his elbow for her to take. “Good. Do you still like Mexican?”

“Of course.” Luna took his arm and fought off a groan as an electric current of need and desire flowed through her. Damn him. She was supposed to hate him for walking out when she needed him. But he had his reasons. She was going to find out just why he stayed away for as long as he did.

If he thought he could just walk back in and claim her, expecting her to jump in his arms, he was delusional. She was going to make him work for the right to mate with her.

Author Bio:

In 2008, Lia Davis ventured into the world of writing and publishing and never looked back. She has published more than twenty books, including the bestselling A Tiger's Claim, book one in her fan favorite Ashwood Falls series. Her novels feature compassionate yet strong alpha heroes who know how to please their women and her leading ladies are each strong in their own way. No matter what obstacle she throws at them, they come out better in the end.

While writing was initially a way escape from real world drama, Lia now makes her living creating worlds filled with magic, mystery, romance, and adventure so that others can leave real life behind for a few hours at a time.

Lia's favorite things are spending time with family, traveling, reading, writing, chocolate, coffee, nature and hanging out with her kitties. She and her family live in Northeast Florida battling hurricanes and very humid summers, but it's her home and she loves it!

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter


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Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Calistos by Felicity Heaton Tour & Giveaway


New York Times best-selling paranormal romance author Felicity Heaton is here today for the book tour of her new paranormal romance release, CALISTOS, the latest novel in her epic Guardians of Hades series.

If you love dark, alpha Greek gods and strong heroines who bring them to their knees, together with epic action, sizzling passion and high stakes drama, then this series is definitely for you. Plus, each book has a happily forever after and there are no cliff-hangers, because there’s nothing worse than a cliff-hanger!

 

About the Book

by Felicity Heaton
Prince of the Underworld and Lord of Air, Calistos was banished from his home by his father, Hades, two centuries ago and given a new duty and purpose—to keep our world and his from colliding in a calamity foreseen by the Moirai. Together with his six brothers, he fights to defend the gates to the Underworld from daemons bent on breaching them and gaining entrance to that forbidden land, striving to protect his home from their dark influence.

Tormented by the death of his twin sister, Calistos wants nothing more than to find a way to save her soul, but the pain of continuing without her, the constant feeling that he got her killed, is slowly pulling him down into the darkness and he knows it’s only a matter of time before he succumbs to the call of the abyss.

Until a battle sets him on a collision course with a kind-hearted and beautiful mortal, one who rouses softer emotions he had sworn he would never risk feeling again, threatening to peel away his mask of playfulness and shatter the barriers around his heart.

Marinda is a woman on a mission—to become a great cellist and repay her father for his faith in her. But her regimented and studious life is thrown into chaos when a handsome man is carted into the ER where she works and takes her hostage, pulling her into a dark and dangerous world… one where she discovers there’s more to her than meets the eye and her entire life has been a lie.

When the enemy makes a play for Marinda and the gates, will Calistos find the strength to let someone into his heart again and look to the future, or will the pain of his past lead him to unleash hell on this world?

 

Purchase Links

Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.ca | Amazon.com.au
Apple USA | Apple UK | Apple Canada | Apple Australia | Apple New Zealand
Barnes and Noble | Kobo Books | Google Play

 

Enter the grand tour-wide giveaway to win one of a $75, $50 or $25 Amazon Gift Card at the Calistos book page. This giveaway is international and open to everyone, and ends at midnight on August 16th. Enter now: http://www.felicityheaton.com/guardians-of-hades-calistos-paranormal-romance-book.php

 

Excerpt

“Clear the way!”

Marinda plastered her back against the cream wall of the busy hospital corridor as two paramedics rushed towards her, pushing a gurney. From the opposite direction, a doctor hurried to them, meeting them just before her.

“What do we have?” The woman looked the patient over and Marinda didn’t miss the flicker of horror in her dark eyes.

Marinda could understand her shock. The unconscious man on the gurney was covered in a black oily substance, had blood pooling beneath him on the pale sheets and staining his long blond hair, and had multiple lacerations across his bare chest.

Together with a bone sticking out of his left arm.

“Adult male. Early thirties. Someone found him on the Pont Sant-Michel. Unconscious.” The male paramedic glanced at the doctor before he went back to attending to the man. “He hasn’t regained consciousness.”

Coupled with the grave look he exchanged with the doctor and the other paramedic, Marinda knew what that meant.

He was bound for the morgue.

They rushed past her and her gaze tracked them, focused on him. How had he even managed to survive such extensive injuries? She had seen people in better conditions lose their lives, and didn’t hold out much hope for him. She hated nights like this, when she saw such horrible things, when she felt hopeless despite how badly she wanted to be able to help these people.

She drifted back along the corridor in the direction she had come, not noticing any of the people or the things happening around her as her feet carried her towards the ER.

Towards the man.

Was it morbid curiosity or something else that had this need awakening inside her? A desire to remain at his side. To watch over him.

She paused at the door of the room they had moved him into and watched as nurses joined the paramedics and another doctor, this one a man, rushed into the room from the doors to the theatre. She only caught snippets of their conversation as she stared at the blond man, her eyes transfixed on his face.

“We have any hope here?” a man muttered. One of the nurses.

“Just get him hooked up,” a woman hissed back at him as she worked to clear some of the black from the patient’s chest. “What is this stuff? Motor oil?”

“It stinks, whatever it is.” Another man moved around the blond on the gurney, blocking Marinda’s view for a moment, and she inched another step closer, compelled to remain within sight of the man.

“Vitals coming in now.” The first male nurse shifted to his right. “What the hell?”

Marinda glanced at the machine as he punched the buttons.

“That can’t be right.” He looked at his colleagues.

Marinda agreed with him. She had worked as a receptionist long enough to know what normal vitals looked like, and this man’s were as normal as they got. The machine had to be wrong. There was no way a man in his condition could have stable, near-perfect blood pressure. He hardly had any blood left in him judging by the crimson now dripping from the gurney to splatter on the tiled floor.

Weird.

She inched another step closer, bordering on entering the room now as that compulsion grew stronger. Her gaze dropped to his face again, and a feeling struck her.

He felt like home.

The strangeness of that thought had her frowning at him. She wasn’t normally one for such fanciful thoughts, and definitely not about men. Did she know him? It was possible he had lived in the small town where she had grown up, where she had spent her entire life before she had moved away to study at the Conservatoire de Paris.

The entire room erupted into pandemonium, shattering her thoughts and hurling her back into the world.

The blond jacked up off the gurney, growled like an animal as people rushed to restrain him, and she gasped as he kicked one of them. His heavy black boots caught one of the men in the chest and sent him flying across the room.

“Get him under control!” The doctor who had been the first to attend to him barrelled across the room with two large male nurses.

The woman seized the man’s legs, a vain attempt to contain him as he bucked and thrashed. The two nurses grabbed his shoulders and tried to pin him, and the second doctor joined the first, helping her keep the man’s legs under control.

The male paramedic fumbled with some straps, almost had them around the man’s legs when someone injected the blond with something.

His already strange vitals shot off the charts and he exploded from the bed, sending everyone staggering backwards, slamming into machinery and the walls. Marinda gasped and eased back a step as the man swung violently in all directions, the needle dangling from his arm swaying as he twisted and turned, taking in his surroundings.

His vivid blue eyes were wild, so bright they entranced her and she froze in the face of him.

He looked savage as he towered in the centre of the room, his bare chest heaving, the air around him swirling in a way that tousled the dirty strands of his long golden hair.

Like a man out of one of the fairy tales her father had told her as a child, not one made of flesh and blood.

Three of the male nurses attempted to capture him. He shoved the first to reach him, planting a hand against his chest, and the man flew across the room to hit the wall near the doors to the operating theatre. The other two didn’t fare any better. He knocked one out with barely a tap on the head, and swept his broken left arm out to catch the second one across his chest, sending him crashing into the machines.

He moved a step backwards, a tear in his black combat trousers opening to reveal a deep laceration that cut into his thigh muscle. He growled and flashed his teeth as he knocked against a trolley of equipment and turned on it, raising his right hand at the same time. The trolley flipped, scattering the contents across the tiles, and careened into the wall, embedding itself in the pale cream plaster.

No man had that kind of strength.

Was he on drugs? It seemed like a very real possibility as she stared at him, at the wounds that littered him and how crazed he was. He had clearly faced off against the wrong people and had lost.

He shifted his right foot forwards, dragging it through the blood, and then his left, slowly moving towards her.

The sensor leads attached to his body pulled taut and he snarled something in a language she didn’t know.

Everyone in the room suddenly dropped to their knees and clutched their ears.

Thunder pealed outside and the ground shook, threatening to send her to her knees too.

He tore the leads from his chest, leaving circular red marks where they had been, and ripped the needle from his arm. Blood tracked down it, dark against his dirty oil-slicked skin.

Marinda swallowed hard as he lifted his head and their gazes collided.

His eyes were even brighter now, as stormy as the lightning that ravaged the sky and shook the ground with another ear-splitting bang.

They softened as he gazed at her, as he slowly lifted his right arm and stretched a hand out towards her. He pushed his right foot forwards again, his knee buckled and he collapsed, catching his broken arm on the end of the gurney. A pain-filled bellow ripped from his lips and he spoke again, muttered things in that strange language that had the nurses and doctors curling over, holding themselves and crying out in pain too.

The man braced his right hand against the floor, his jaw tensed and he tried to push himself up. He sagged, breathing hard, and instinct had her moving towards him even as the sensible part of her screamed at her to run away. This man was dangerous. She could only watch herself as she closed the gap between them, as she crouched and laid a hand on his shoulder.

He was burning up.

He needed help.

Her help.

“Step away from him.” A flinty, hard male voice came from behind her and she glanced over her shoulder at the owner of it. A police officer. Two of them occupied the doorway, both of them looking at the man as he struggled to push himself up off the tiles. Someone must have raised the alarm. The man drew a gun and aimed it at the blond. “Stay down.”

The world whirled around her and she froze as she found herself facing the two police officers. The man behind her palmed something in his right hand and she tried to see it out of the corner of her eye. Her pulse spiked, fear flooding her veins for the first time as she made out what it was.

A scalpel.

He banded his left arm around her and her spine met his front as he brought the makeshift blade up to her throat. Instinct said to break free. This time, Marinda ignored it. She glanced at the carnage he had wrought, at the nurses who were slowly recovering now he had stopped speaking, several of whom were bleeding badly. She didn’t want to end up like them, and she had the feeling she would if she fought him.

He loosed another inhuman snarl and edged her forwards. He was heavy against her as he held her to him, his weight pressing down on her back, forcing her to support him. She struggled to move towards the door, her legs like jelly beneath her as she eyed the police officers, praying they would get out of his way. Fear crushed her lungs. She felt sure she wouldn’t survive the fight that would break out if they didn’t move.

As she neared them, she threw them both a pleading look. It hit its mark with the younger of the two officers and he moved back a step. The second joined him, easing backwards as the man moved her forwards, using her as a shield.

His grip on her tightened as they hit the corridor, the strength of it surprising her. With the amount of blood he had lost, and was continuing to lose, he should have been weakening, not growing stronger, but she swore he was doing just that. His steps grew surer too, the weight of him against her back lessening with each minute that trickled past as he slowly eased her backwards, keeping her facing the police officers.

He was surprisingly gentle with her as he guided her towards the exit and then out into the cool autumnal night air. He lowered the scalpel from her throat and turned her to face him, a flare of regret in his eyes as they dropped to the point where he had held the blade close to her vein. When his eyes lifted to hers again, she expected him to ask her where her car was.

Instead, he spoke in that unusual language of his and thunder rumbled overhead.

“I don’t understand,” she said in French, unsure he would know what she was saying.

When he clutched her shoulders through her white shirt and shook her, frustration crossing his features, she decided to try English instead.

“I don’t understand. What language is that anyway? Russian? Greek?” It was nothing she had ever encountered on her limited travels. It sounded similar to what her friend Cassandra spoke, although it might have something to do with how frustrated he sounded. Cass rarely spoke Russian outside of the times she was angry about something.

He snarled something else and blue light sparked across her vision, almost blinding her. She dropped her gaze to his right arm and the blue glow emanating from the tattoo of script that ran along the inside of his forearm. Maybe she had fallen asleep during her break and was dreaming all of this, because none of it seemed real.

That feeling compounded when he grabbed her and the light engulfed them.

She shrieked as she tried to break free of him, fighting his hold, and stumbled backwards as he released her. She hit the tarmac.

Or at least she should have hit tarmac.

She looked down at the smooth black ground beneath her that resembled tiles.

And then up at the man as he staggered away from her, muttering things under his breath, heading for an enormous four-poster bed draped with sky-blue linen. He collapsed onto it and rolled onto his back, breathing hard.

Marinda breathed hard with him, the pace of them quickening as she took in her new surroundings, unable to believe her eyes. The pitch-dark walls of the huge room seemed to close in on her as she struggled for air.

She shrieked again when a boom came from behind her and swiftly twisted onto her knees to face that direction.

A beautiful woman with scarlet hair that looked like blood against her pale skin and the delicate layers of her black dress drew to a sudden halt in the doorway, her emerald eyes falling to land on Marinda.

They darted to the man.

Marinda had the ridiculous urge to deny that she had been doing anything to him, that she hadn’t been with him in any fashion—not to harm him or seek pleasure with him.

“What have you done?” the woman whispered, her voice like a summer breeze as she swept towards Marinda.

Marinda lined the words up on her tongue, ready to deny that she had done anything, but then the woman glided straight past her, heading for the man, and she had the feeling the redhead had been speaking to him.

“Oh, you will be in trouble now,” the woman murmured as she gazed down at him, her green eyes overflowing with worry. “But it seems you were already in trouble.”

Marinda tensed when the woman looked back at her.

“What happened to him?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. He was brought into the ER, found unconscious at the Pont Sant-Michel.”

A crinkle formed between the woman’s fine eyebrows. “ER?”

“Emergency room… at the hospital.” She tried to keep her focus on the woman, but her eyes strayed to the man as he laboured for breath, unconscious again. “I work there.”

She lifted the lanyard draped around her neck, pulling it away from her white shirt to show the woman her pass.

The woman shook her head and looked the man over again. When her gaze reached his left arm, she frowned, stooped and gently lifted it. She placed her delicate hand over the bone, closed her eyes and pressed down.

The man roared and bucked up. He violently struggled, wrestling against the woman’s hold, and Marinda waited for him to send the woman flying. Only he didn’t. She weathered his frantic thrashing, kept hold of his arm and remained perfectly still, as if he wasn’t jolting around like a wild animal.

This time, when his lips parted, Marinda understood him.

“Hurts. Fucking hurts,” he snarled and sagged against the blue bedclothes, his fight leaving him again.

“I know.” The woman stroked her hand over his arm and Marinda’s eyes widened.

The bone was no longer poking out of his skin, and the cut left behind wasn’t even bleeding.

She had to be dreaming.

Or having a nightmare.

“He’s badly hurt. He needs medical attention.” Marinda tried to push onto her feet but her legs refused to bear her weight and she crashed back onto her knees.

“You are a doctor? A nurse? A practitioner of medicine?” The woman turned hopeful green eyes on her.

They were about to be filled with disappointment instead.

“I’m a cellist.” She braced her hands against her bare knees beyond the hem of her grey pencil skirt and drew down a slow breath to steady her heart. Panicking wasn’t going to get her anywhere. If she wasn’t dreaming, then she had been magically whisked to another place and was at the mercy of her hosts.

“A cellist?” The woman frowned.

“I play the cello.” She didn’t mean for it to come out apologetic, but it did. Of all the people to grab, he had unfortunately grabbed the one person in the room who was of little use to him. “I just work at the hospital to help pay for my education. I man the reception desk in the ER.”

The scarlet-haired beauty sighed. “You do not know anything about doctoring?”

She started to shake her head and then shrugged. “I did basic training a couple of years ago. Just things like recovery position, bandaging, treating minor wounds.”

“So you can help him.”

This time she did shake her head. “No. Those are not minor wounds. He’s bleeding badly, has broken bones, and—”

“Much of it is not his blood,” the woman said in a deadpan voice that had Marinda lapsing into stunned silence.

If it wasn’t his blood, whose blood was it?

The woman stared deep into her eyes. “I am asking you to help me to help my son.”

Her son? Marinda looked at him where he rested on the bed, finally calm again. He didn’t look a day older than this woman.

“He will heal faster if we both aid him.” The woman gently brushed tangled strands of his dirty hair from his forehead and a sigh slipped from his lips, a contented sound that was so at odds with his terrible condition.

He had to be in a lot of pain. So much that she couldn’t see how he could find a simple touch comforting. Perhaps he was delusional. She had seen patients in so much pain that they had been out of their minds.

“He needs treatment. Surgery. He needs doctors at the very least. Painkillers.” Marinda looked at him, taking stock of the numerous wounds covering his arms and chest, and the gashes in his combats that revealed more cuts.

Strangely, all of the wounds looked shallower now.

As if they were healing rapidly.

“No human medicine.” The woman’s voice gained a hard, cold edge that didn’t suit her.

Those three words ricocheted around Marinda’s head, stirring more questions. No human medicine?

The floor trembled beneath her and she leaned forwards and pressed her palms against it, waiting for the ominous peal of thunder that would follow it just as it had when they had been in the hospital.

It remained eerily quiet.

“He should not have brought you here.” The woman turned away from Marinda and gazed down at the man on the bed. “He will be in trouble with Hades when he comes around. Reckless child.”

Marinda’s eyes widened. “Hades. Like… Clash of the Titans?”

Now she knew she was dreaming.

The woman scowled at her. “Now is not the time for ridiculous questions. My husband is not a Titan, nor is he an Olympian.”

This woman had to be insane. She was talking about being married to the god of the Underworld as if it was perfectly normal and utterly sane.

She touched the man’s right arm and the writing tattooed on it glowed blue. A sigh slipped from her rosy lips.

“Hades will not be pleased,” she whispered, as gentle as the first kiss of morning light, and lifted her hand and stroked his cheek in a way only a mother could. Her touch was light, spoke of love that Marinda could feel across the expanse of air between them—a touch meant to take away all the pain and make everything better.

A touch Marinda had never known.

Disquiet stirred inside her as she watched the interaction, longing to know what that touch felt like mingling with jealousy that this man knew it, that the woman standing over him clearly loved him with all of her heart.

Her thoughts slipped to her father, and an ache bloomed inside her, a need that grew rapidly to fill her. She missed him. She should have stayed with him until the last day of summer break as she normally did, soaking up every moment with him. If she had, she wouldn’t have been in this mess.

Presuming it wasn’t all in her head.

She pinched herself, but didn’t wake.

In fact, it only seemed to make things worse. The woman waved her hand over the bloodstained blue sheets near the man’s legs. Bandages, sutures and other things she couldn’t make out from this distance appeared there. Magic. Marinda pinched herself again.

“Come, child.” The woman held her hand out to Marinda as she glided towards her, her bare feet silent on the cold black stone floor. In her wake, flowers bloomed, entwined with twisted brambles.

Marinda went to pinch herself a third time but the woman took hold of her hand and the warmth of her touch sank straight into Marinda’s bones, reached right down into her soul to soothe some of the fear from it.

“Together we can do this.” She raised her hand and Marinda marvelled as strength flowed through her limbs, as her legs grew steady enough for her to stand.

There was magic in this woman’s touch.

Magic and an endless well of love.

She guided Marinda to the man, and released her to place two rolls of bandages into her hands. “Tend to his wounds while I mend his arm. Do not be afraid of him. He will not hurt you.”

Marinda knew that. She didn’t know how she knew it, but she did. He had been gentle with her in the hospital, had regretted what he had done afterwards, and the weird tongue he had spoken hadn’t pained her as it had everyone else.

She moved to the foot of the bed, crawled onto it and up to his other side, opposite his mother. A bowl of water appeared on the bed beside her, together with a stack of dark towels, and she looked at the woman.

“Help me save my son.”

Marinda nodded, because maybe if she helped him, she could go home and this crazy dream would end.

She soaked a cloth, squeezed it out and went to wipe some of the blood and grime from the man.

Home.

She paused and looked at him, that feeling stirring inside her again, and as ridiculous as it seemed, she found it impossible to deny.

He felt like home.

She looked around at the room as that pull towards him filled her again, drawing her closer to him, deeply aware that the woman hadn’t lied and she was in a hellish realm of dark gods and the dead.

And the craziest thought yet pinged into her mind.

It felt like home.

And she didn’t want to leave.

 

Purchase Links

Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.ca | Amazon.com.au
Apple USA | Apple UK | Apple Canada | Apple Australia | Apple New Zealand
Barnes and Noble | Kobo Books | Google Play

 

Books in the Series

 

About Felicity

Felicity Heaton

Felicity Heaton is a New York Times and USA Today international best-selling author writing passionate paranormal romance books. In her books, she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons! If you’re a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.

If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, the best-selling Her Angel series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm series or any of her stand-alone vampire romance books. If you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful, passionate and erotic then try the best-selling London Vampires series. Seven sexy and sinful Greek god brothers can be your new addiction in the Guardians of Hades series. Or how about four hot alpha shifter brothers in her Cougar Creek Mates series? Or if you prefer huge detailed worlds filled with hot-blooded alpha males in every species, from elves to demons to dragons to shifters and angels, then take a look at the Eternal Mates series.

If you want to know more about Felicity, or want to get in touch, you can find her at the following places:

WEBSITE | BLOG | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | GOODREADS | INSTAGRAM

 

Saturday, May 9, 2020

Tour & Giveaway: Mousse and Murder (An Alaskan Diner Mystery) by Elizabeth Logan

Mousse and Murder (An Alaskan Diner Mystery) by Elizabeth Logan

About Mousse and Murder

Mousse and Murder (An Alaskan Diner Mystery) Cozy Mystery 1st in Series 
Publisher: Berkley (May 5, 2020) Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages 
ISBN-10: 0593100441 ISBN-13: 978-0593100448 Kindle ASIN: B07WCZPZY7
A young chef might bite off more than she can chew when she returns to her Alaskan hometown to take over her parents' diner in this charming first installment in a new cozy mystery series set in an Alaskan tourist town.
When Chef Charlie Cooke is offered the chance to leave San Francisco and return home to Elkview, Alaska, to take over her mother's diner, she doesn't even consider saying no. After all--her love life has recently become a Love Life Crumble, and a chance to reconnect with her roots may be just what she needs.
Determined to bring fresh life and flavors to the Bear Claw Diner, Charlie starts planning changes to the menu, which has grown stale over the years. But her plans are fried when her head cook Oliver turns up dead after a bitter and public fight over Charlie's ideas--leaving Charlie as the only suspect in the case.
With her career, freedom, and life all on thin ice, Charlie must find out who the real killer is, before it's too late.

About Elizabeth Logan

 
  Camille Minichino is turning every aspect of her life into a mystery series. A retired physicist, she’s the author of 28 mystery novels in 5 series, with different pen names. Her next book is “Mousse and Murder,” May 2020, by Elizabeth Logan. She's also written many short stories and articles. She teaches science at Golden Gate U. in San Francisco and writing workshops around the SF Bay Area. Details are at www.minichino.com
  Author Links 
  Website - http://www.minichino.com 

  Purchase Links


TOUR PARTICIPANTS
May 5 – Cinnamon, Sugar, and a Little Bit of Murder – REVIEW, RECIPE 
  May 5 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – GUEST POST 
  May 5 – I'm Into Books – SPOTLIGHT 
  May 5 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW 
  May 6 – Elizabeth McKenna - Author – SPOTLIGHT 
  May 6 – The Avid Reader – REVIEW 
  May 6 – The Power of Words – REVIEW
May 6 – Hearts & Scribbles – SPOTLIGHT 
  May 6 – Island Confidential – SPOTLIGHT 
  May 7 – Ruff Drafts – GUEST POST 
  May 7 – StoreyBook Reviews – REVIEW
May 7 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
May 7 – Reading Is My SuperPower - REVIEW 
  May 8 – Reading Reality – REVIEW 
  May 8 – A Holland Reads – SPOTLIGHT 
May 8 – Ascroft, eh? – CHARACTER INTERVIEW 
  May 8 – Carla Loves To Read – REVIEW 
  May 9 – Christy's Cozy Corners – REVIEW 
  May 9 – The Ninja Librarian – REVIEW, CHARACTER GUEST POST
May 9 – Lisa Ks Book Reviews – REVIEW, GUEST POST
May 9 – Eskimo Princess Book Reviews- SPOTLIGHT
May 10 – Socrates Book Reviews – REVIEW 
  May 10 – Brooke Blogs – REVIEW 
May 10 – Literary Gold- SPOTLIGHT 
  May 10 – Moonlight Rendezvous – REVIEW 
May 11 – eBook Addicts – REVIEW 
  May 11 – Brianne's Book Reviews – REVIEW
May 11 – Sapphyria's Books – REVIEW
May 11 – A Wytch's Book Review Blog – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
May 12 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW, AUTHOR INTERVIEW
May 12 – Diary of a Book Fiend – REVIEW

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Thursday, April 30, 2020

The Sugar Rush Boxed Set by Nina Lane.




Title: The Sugar Rush Boxed Set
Author: Nina Lane
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: April 30, 2020



Blurb

Taste the men of the Sugar Rush Candy Company. From rigid CEO Luke Stone to notorious bad boy Tyler Stone, these brothers (and their charismatic father) collide with smart, sassy, sexy women who fire up their lust, muddle their brains, and bring them to their knees. Savor the journeys of these five couples as they discover just how delicious life and love can be.

The Sugar Rush books are sexy contemporary romances that can be read as standalones or enjoyed as part of the series.


SWEET DREAMS

Can a sexy bohemian bakery owner teach a rigid CEO how to taste the sweetness of life?

Warning! Contains chocolate eclairs, skinny dipping, hard candy, hammocks, hippie music festivals, and super hot tent sex.


SWEET ESCAPE

Heartbreaker Evan Stone offers to teach world traveler Hannah about love, but can they keep the lessons temporary?

Warning! Contains Sparkle Pops, knee-high socks, wanderlust, road trips, and wicked acts involving a chocolate mousse cake laced with Kahlua and ancho chilies.


SWEET SURRENDER

Efficient Kate Darling needs lessons in seduction, and hot bad boy Tyler Stone is the perfect teacher. But falling in love isn’t part of the curriculum.

Warning! Contains kitchen sex, disco music, classic cars, pancakes at 2:00 a.m., dirty movies, alphabetizing, and bad puns.


SWEET TIME

Vibrant, flirty Mia is pink glitter and rainbows. Security chief Gavin is steel and pain. What happens when their worlds collide?

Warning! Contains caramel coffee with rainbow sprinkles, fairy coloring books, Rodents Of Unusual Size, and a hot controlling hero who does dirty things with a whoopie pie.

SWEET LIFE

He knows if she’s been bad or good.

Ice queen Julia Bennett is hot for Sugar Rush CEO Warren Stone…but will an explosive, sexy night shatter their longtime friendship?

Warning! Contains Christmas peppermint martinis, Grinchiness, designer gowns, red stilettos, mountains, Rubik's Cubes, mulled wine, and mistletoe sex.







Purchase Links

AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU

Free in Kindle Unlimited






Author Bio


New York Times & USA Today bestselling author Nina Lane writes hot, sexy romances about professors, bad boys, candy makers, and protective alpha males who find themselves consumed with love for one woman alone. Nina is also the founder of WHERE I WRITE (www.whereiwrite.com), a website dedicated to the creative writing spaces of your favorite authors.

Originally from California, Nina holds a PhD in Art History and an MA in Library and Information Studies, which means she loves both research and organization. She also enjoys traveling and thinks St. Petersburg, Russia is a city everyone should visit at least once. Although Nina would go back to college for another degree because she's that much of a bookworm and a perpetual student, she now lives the happy life of a full-time writer.


Author Links



The Run Around by Bernadette Franklin blitz & Giveaway



The Run Around
Bernadette Franklin
Publication date: April 28th 2020
Genres: Adult, Comedy, Contemporary, Romance

Arranging a wedding for her brother and a five-time thoroughbride tests Hope’s skills and patience. She’d believed the vows would be the most dangerous part of the ceremony, but a baseball to the head during the photography session proves her wrong and lands her in the sights of her brother’s best friend, Fredrick.
He wants her to plan his wedding.
She wants to be his bride.
Diving into the treacherous world of wedding planning, Hope keeps her word and arranges the vows for the one man she believes she could love. He doesn’t know how much she cherishes him and his friendship.
What she doesn’t know lands her in the heart of a royal mess.
EXCERPT:
A sensible woman would’ve been delighted to be her future sister-in-law’s maid of honor, as it implied cordial relationships or some sort of bullshit like that. I knew better.
I made an excellent scapegoat.
As the wedding party’s weakest link, everyone expected me to trip on my dress, maybe break an ankle along with my neck, or spill the entire wine fountain onto the floor. My brother claimed he loved me, but I believed he’d been the one to spread the rumor I was the world’s clumsiest woman.
When I secured my revenge, it would be sweet.
But first, I needed to survive my brother’s wedding without being responsible for a single hiccup. Playing to my brother’s misconceptions, I’d spent months tripping over nothing on purpose so I could transform myself into the image of traditional beauty and grace.
I’d even lost twenty pounds so my dress would fit.
The wedding would be a disaster, but I would emerge from the chaos smelling like roses, red wine, and garlic bread. Honestly, I doubted the wedding would make it to the reception.
Some weddings had bridezillas. We had a thoroughbride, and if she got it into her head to run, I wished my brother the best of luck catching her before she fled from the church. My proposal to have the wedding on a yacht, where my brother’s thoroughbride couldn’t escape, hadn’t earned me points with anyone.
The bride hated the ocean.
My brother was smart enough to catch onto my implication.
It wasn’t my fault Amy wasn’t exactly the most reliable woman in the world when it came to marriage. Once was a fluke. Twice was a trend. Five incidents of running from the wedding was evidence the thoroughbride would strike again, and my dear old brother would be saddled with the fifty thousand dollar bill, as he refused to believe Amy would run out on him.
Oh, no. Amy would never run out on him.

Author Bio:
Bernadette Franklin is a figment of imagination owned and operated by two cats, a few plants, and a human.

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