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Saturday 30 April 2016

New Release - Goodnight by Susie Tate

New Release - Leave A MArk by Stephanie Fournet

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Blue Tulip Publishing

She’s pierced, and dyed, and covered in tattoos—and she’s everything Dr. Lee Hawthorne wants.




Dyed, pierced, and covered in tattoos, Wren Blanchard is the exact opposite of everything Dr. Lee Hawthorne thought he wanted.
His residency is almost finished. With the perfect job, the beautiful house, and the polished girlfriend, he knows he should be happy, yet he isn’t.
But once Wren lands in his ER with her sharp tongue and artist’s soul, she leaves a mark on him that just won’t fade.
Wren knows the good doctor is way out of her league. To people like him, she’s a circus freak. Besides, she’s not the type to get hung up on guys, especially ones with midnight blue eyes—ones who know all about antiques, crack bad jokes, and love Joss Whedon.
No. She doesn’t need that.
After all, she has friends, a psychotic cat, and a promising career as one of the best tattoo artists in town. And it’s enough.
Really, it is.
Or it would be if Lee weren’t there every time she turned around.
One kiss seals their fate.
Their attraction is undeniable–but Wren’s past is full of ghosts. Is their bond strong enough for a solid future? Or will their new relationship crumble beneath the weight of all she carries?
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Wren seethed.
A part of her had been secretly elated to see him again after their morning encounter. This wasn’t an accident. He’d come to her.
But the other part told her she’d be a fool to trust him. He might, indeed, have ended things with Marcelle, but once a cheater, always a cheater. And even if it had just been one kiss, Lee Hawthorne was bad for her. It had been so hard to walk away from him just a few hours ago. And she barely knew him. What would happen if she let him in?
“Well? What do you want?” she snapped, glad that her resentment sounded convincing.
Lee blinked, and Wren held her breath, hoping that the question would be enough to call his bluff. Nobody as buttoned-up as Lee came in and got tattooed on a whim. She crossed her arms and waited, giving him a look of supreme impatience. He’d call it off. She knew he’d call it off.
If he goes through with it, I’ll give him my number.
The moment she placed this bet with herself, Lee reached into his back pocket and drew out his wallet.
“I know what I want.” He opened the brown leather wallet and pulled out an antique brass skeleton key.
“What’s that for?” Wren asked, completely surprised.
One side of Lee’s mouth turned up, but the corners of his eyes angled down just a little. “It was my mother’s.”
She stopped her line of questions right there. The look in his eyes had the power to melt her defenses. It was so far from the cocksure grin he’d worn when he’d declared she’d kissed him back or the amused smile that sat on his lips whenever he was laughing at her. This look was innocent. This was the look of a boy.
Without a word, she held out her hand for the key, and Lee placed it on her palm. It was short, perhaps three inches long with a decorative head and a bit that was notched in the shape of a cross. The head bore three perfect circles just above the shaft with kidney-shaped loops on either side. She could only guess at its age, but it was beautiful, and she knew inherently that the piece it opened had to be beautiful, too.
Wren steeled herself. She could do this. She could let him make his play and be the professional she always was. The key was cool, and it would make a kickass tattoo. And that would give her confidence.
“You want it life-sized?” She glanced back up at him, all business.
He considered the key a moment. “Yes. Just like that.”
“Color or true black?”
Lee’s eyebrows drew together. “What do you think?”
Wren turned the key over in her hand. It was tarnished in places and buffed into a high shine in others.
“If you want it to look just like this, I could do mustard for the brass and platinum for the shadows. And a thin outline in black, of course.”
The left side of Lee’s mouth curled in a grin again, and his eyes danced. “Yeah, that’ll work.”
Wren pulled her eyes away. “Lemme make a copy of this to use as a stencil.” She turned and ducked into Rocky’s office without another word and took her time centering the key on the thermal copier’s glass and loading the feed tray with a sheet of transfer paper. Wren wasn’t about to take any chances with the perfect lines of the key’s shaft and bit. The overhead light in the office was off, and the space was a little cooler, so she drew in a slow breath to calm herself.
When she returned with key and stencil in hand, Lee had sat himself on the end of her table, and Rocky was finishing up with Dallas.
“Okay, doc, where do you want it?” she asked, sounding as detached as she could.
Lee’s eyes narrowed slightly on hers, and he drew a finger up to his chest. “Right here.” His fingertip brushed across his left pec, and Wren had to shift the weight on her feet and concentrate on keeping her expression even. She moved past him and raised the head of her table just a little.
“Okay,” she breathed. “Shirt and tie off. Lie back on the table.”
She turned away to her ink cart and felt her face heat when she heard the whir of silk on silk as he pulled open his tie. She busied herself setting up a fresh razor, her green soap, her alcohol wipes, and gauze. With her sterile scissors, she cut around the stencil and set it aside. Wren laid out two sterile grips, her liner and shader tips, and got her colors ready.
Knowing he’d be shirtless, Wren schooled a bored look on her features before she turned. She met his eyes first, and it would have helped if he’d looked back at her with that smug grin. Feeling pissy was a good defense, and his grin pissed her the hell off.
But the look he gave her was far from it. He lay back, watching her with a mix of wonder and… What was it? Hope? Whatever it was, it made her cheeks burn again.



Stephanie Fournet, author of Fall SemesterLegacy, Butterfly Ginger, and Leave a Mark, lives in Lafayette, Louisiana—not far from the Saint Streets where her novels are set. She shares her home with her husband John and her daughter Hannah, their needy dogs Gladys and Mabel, and an immortal blue finch named Baby Blue. When she isn’t writing romance novels, she is usually helping students get into college or running.  She loves hearing from fans, so look for her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, and stephaniefournet.com.
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Friday 29 April 2016

Cover Reveal - Mobster’s Fate: Book 2 in the Chicago Mob Series by Amy Rachiele




Mobster’s Fate: Book 2 in the Chicago Mob Series. (Book 1, Mobster's Gamble)
This series is by Amy Rachiele, author of the bestselling Mobster Series.
"I ran because everything I looked at reminded me of what I didn’t have anymore."
~Meryl, Mobster’s Fate
When the death of her beloved husband strikes, Meryl is faced with crippling heartbreak. She handles it by running as far away from her life as she can get. Landing on her cousin Lisa’s doorstep in New Jersey, Meryl is full of unexpected surprises.
Alex, an enforcer for the Caruso crime family, has grown up in and worked at La Bella Regale Casino in Chicago for his entire life. He’s a tough guy not driven by emotion—but when a woman he meets in the casino’s bar disappears, he goes to the ends of the earth to find her. He believes in love because it has smacked him so hard in the chest it cripples him. Alex is committed to finding Meryl again, and when he does the tough mobster refuses to let her go.
“It sounds crazy but no one can tell me that I don’t know what I feel. Meryl has changed me from the inside out. I’ve told millions of lies, I’ve killed people, but now Meryl is in everything I do. No matter what, she is there.” ~Alex, Mobster’s Fate
Can Meryl and Alex make it work? Is it fate, or a mistake?


Mobster’s Fate:
“It sounds crazy but no one can tell me that I don't know what I feel. Meryl has changed me from the inside out. I've told millions of lies, I've killed people, but now Meryl is in everything I do. No matter what, she is there.” ~Alex. Mobster’s Fate




Mobster’s Gamble


Carlo Caruso runs the family businesses. The son of mob boss Ennio Caruso, Carlo knows his place and he is up to the challenge of taking care of both the casino business and the not-quite-legal “other” business, all without drawing unwanted attention from the authorities. But when a group of cult extremists, headed by a guy who calls himself Priest, decides to target his family’s casino as a den of sin while attempting to recruit for their cause, Carlo may be in for a challenge he has never been trained for.

Anya was born inside the walls of a cult and has never known anything different. Anya’s beauty has always stirred the wrong kind of attention from the leader and then, when he was gone, his son. Anya has had a complicated and volatile relationship with Priest since she was a little girl toddling around in the religious commune. She knows she deserves better but has no idea how to go about getting it.

Can Carlo and Anya overcome their upbringing and find love?

“I can’t change it. Sometimes you just have to live with it.” ~Anya, Mobster’s Gamble










Amy Rachiele is a widowed military spouse who spent many years volunteering and on staff for the Army National Guard and Department of Veteran Affairs with family support, family readiness, as well as, families of the Fallen. Amy devoted 10 years to teaching at-risk students in the Providence School System. She holds a Master's degree from Rhode Island College in English and Secondary Education. Besides writing, she is a reader, tea-er, shifter-lovin’, Sci-fi junkie, who enjoys scrapbooking, sewing, and traveling. Amy lives in Massachusetts with her son.

   

   

New Release - Passion's Magic by Julie Shelton

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Synopsis
Molly Duncan, forty-one, has come to Passion Lake for three things. A new job. A new life. And a new Dom. Her Dom husband has been dead for four years and she desperately wants the closeness of a loving D/s relationship. So she accepts a job at the Passion Lake library and buys an old semi-run-down farm suitable for boarding horses. Horses were a huge part of her life growing up, until she met and married Tom and entered his world of BDSM. Now she hopes to combine both of her passions.
Enter Jared Thompkins, seven-time World All-Around Rodeo Champion and circuit heart-throb. His career ended by injury at age twenty-eight, he’s ready to settle down and find a submissive of his own. A woman he can love and cherish and dominate the hell out of. On the recommendation of his older brother Mitch, he applies for the position of stable manager.
Molly sees a handsome, cocky, young cowboy with a swagger for a walk and a panty-melting grin. Jared sees a lusty, voluptuous, mature blond who’s ready for what he can give her.
The attraction between them is instantaneous and explosive. Each is exactly what the other has been seeking. Now all Jared has to do is prove to a wary Molly that it’s not just sex. He’s in it for the long haul. And a thirteen-year age difference is not the insurmountable obstacle she seems to think it is.
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Passion's Dream Cover
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AboutTheAuthor
Julie Shelton is 73 years old, a retired storyteller/puppeteer. She loves reading and writing, ballet, pistachio ice cream, the mountains, Medieval illuminated manuscripts, Classical music. 80’s rock ballads, and violets.
She hates hypocrisy, intolerance, liver, and sushi.
If she were a tree, she would be a live oak because it lasts for hundreds of years, it doesn’t shed its leaves in the winter, and it’s great for climbing and hanging swings from.
If she were a piece of music…hmmm, that’s a bit tougher. She’d either be Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto #2 in C Minor, the most achingly romantic piece of music ever written, or Prokofiev’s sumptuous score to the ballet Romeo and Juliet.

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New Release - A Mended Man by Jaime Reese

Series: The Men of Halfway House #4
Genre: M/M Contemporary Romance
Release Date: April 28, 2016
Photographer: wagnerLA Photography
Cover Artist: Reese Dante
Detective Aidan Calloway is rock-solid strong. He's a man of justice—loyal to his friends, family, and job—even if it requires bending a law…or two. He shields himself behind an abrasive, fearless facade, until a phone call one night chips his armor and throws his perfectly planned, hollow life into a tailspin.
Jessie Vega is the epitome of optimism. His carefully crafted attitude of hope and positivity protects him from a past filled with too much pain. When a ghost from a dark time resurfaces and nearly breaks him, he must tap into his inner strength or risk losing everything he's worked so hard to build.
But Jessie can't do it alone. He must fight to break through Aidan's ironclad defenses to reveal the heart of the man hiding beneath the tough surface and mend his damaged spirit. Only then can they truly heal and become strong enough to battle the demons that haunt them and threaten their chance to finally be together.
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***This book contains scenes and subject matter some readers may find distressing.***
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Although part of a series, this book can be read as a stand-alone.
“This book is wonderful and beautifully worded. Jessie has a gift with words.” - Reader Review
“This story is not only an emotional roller coaster but it is full of action and mystery as well. There are several different stories all coming to a proverbial head in this book, and the outcome is excellent.” - Alpha Book Club
(This is taken from a scene between Aidan and Jessie.)
"You don't give up, do you?"
"Not when it comes to you. No."
"Jess, I'm not easy. I have more baggage than the underbelly of a cargo plane."
"Then I'll set my bags right next to yours."
He shook his head. No one had ever been this relentless to be with his miserable ass.
"I've got one last question for you," Jessie said.
Aidan turned his head slightly toward him but refused to make eye contact.
"Do you…" Jessie hesitated and rubbed his hands on his thighs again, revealing a hint of that introverted, vulnerable side others usually saw when they looked at him. "Do you want to be with me?"

Point-blank. That was the million-dollar question that determined how this conversation would end. Even if he did have enough energy to erect his shield, he couldn't lie to Jessie. He exhaled heavily. "More than anything."

"Then that settles it."

"Jess…it's not that easy."
"Don't make it harder."
Aidan sighed. "I'm not used to this," he said, gesturing between them with his hand.

"Talking or having a relationship?"
"Either. Both. Fuck if I know."
"Okay. Well, you've never had a problem talking to me before, so we'll work up to the big stuff. One detail a week. I'm not going to stress you out with a one-a-day quota. One detail we wouldn't share with anyone else."
One a week. Aidan forcefully rubbed his hands together. He could handle that. Maybe. Sorta.
"And as far as the whole relationship thing, I'm not an expert. But, we kinda already have something. Don't you think?" Jessie looked over to him with a hint of a smile playing in his expression, cocking his head.
He definitely wasn't an expert in relationships, but if Jessie thought this defined a relationship, then maybe he could totally handle this.
Jessie bumped his shoulder. "We're just missing out on all the fun stuff."
Aidan groaned. It drove him nuts when Jessie teased him.
"I'm not saying it'll be easy. I know…" Jessie hesitated and rubbed his thighs again. "I know we're both very different from each other and from what other people usually see when they look at us. But…I see you, not the guy you want everyone else to see. And you're worth it, Aidan. It bothers me that you don't recognize how amazing you are, but I'm willing to give this a shot. I just…I hope you think the same of me." He quieted for a few moments then subtly nodded, concluding some internal conversation. "You work at things so you can appreciate the success at the end."
Aidan shook his head and scoffed. Jessie and his inspirational poster lines…too fucking cute to deny. His ability to take a mountain and turn it into a few pellets of dust always amazed Aidan. Jessie was bossier than people could imagine and far more of a control freak than anyone suspected.
"Jess."
"Yeah?"
"You're totally worth it."

Jaime Reese is the alter ego of an artist who loves the creative process of writing, just not about herself. Fiction is far more interesting. She has a weakness for broken, misunderstood heroes and feels everyone deserves a chance at love and life. An avid fan of a happy ending, she believes those endings acquired with a little difficulty are more cherished.

The Men of Halfway House A Better Man A Hunted Man A Restored Man A Mended Man …More to come…