Friday, March 31, 2023

New Release!! Falling First Hell by Marika Ray

 

Title: Falling First Hell
Series: Hellman Brothers Series
Author: Marika Ray
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Tropes: Cinnamon Roll Hero; Reverse Grumpy/Sunshine; Small Town
Release Date: March 30, 2023




"These two had me basking in all the feels as they tugged at my heartstrings and tickled my funny bone. It is impossible not to laugh out loud as you read this book, but your heart is also going to wickedly ache for Andi." -Gladys, Goodreads
"I know all good things must come to an end but I am not ready to say goodbye to this series! ...the perfect epilogue that left me in tears." Booked On Lattes
"...another hilarious and sweet rom-com from Marika Ray." Jenn, Goodreads


I’m unemployed and down to my last dollar—thank you stranger who bought my coffee when my card was declined this morning. If that wasn’t bad enough, I just T-boned the truck belonging to the guy I was meeting on a first date.

Ethan Hellman, small town sweetheart with a secret, and an instant—unbelievable—love for me despite me denting his truck.

It’s not that I don’t believe in love per se. It’s just that I’ve done the calculations—it won’t happen to me. And especially not now when I’m bouncing off rock bottom with the bruises to prove it.

But Ethan doesn’t seem to care about all that. He offers me a job, a place to live…and a rock on my finger. I just have to turn my back on my career, pretend to be giddy in love, and be the face of his new company. His constant sunshine makes me grumpy. It’s also kind of addicting. So I agree to his terms and find myself living a life I don’t even recognize.

Things are going surprisingly well when someone from my past reappears offering a similar lifeline. I’ll have to make some tough decisions that just don’t compute in my logical brain.

Ethan may have fallen first, but I’m afraid I’ve fallen harder.



I’d done more crazy things in the last forty-eight hours than I’d done in my lifetime. And apparently, I wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. Marching across the room, I flung open the door and didn’t even wince when it slammed against the wall with a bang. 

“Ethan?” I called, heading toward the living room. 

“In the kitchen,” he called back.

I hightailed it in that direction, not giving my brain a chance to talk me out of this. I, Andrea Higgs, was going to grab life by the horns—err, Ethan by the ears—and kiss the hell out of him. I wasn’t sure how and I wasn’t sure if it would even be any good, but I was going to do it.

He was standing by the refrigerator, door open as he pondered the contents. His head came up as I approached and his lips started to curve up in a smile I wanted to taste. I walked right up to him, stepped on his foot, and lifted up onto my toes to mash my lips to his with all the finesse of a toddler. His eyes popped wide open. I knew this because my eyes were wide open too.

I couldn’t even explain what happened next. I was a first-party witness to the whole thing, but it didn’t make any sense. Usually this was when the snoozers would make a boob grab like that was enough to make me wild for them.

This was not the move Ethan made. He changed from the mild-mannered man I’d agreed to work for and fake marry to the kind that growls like an animal. I knew it was him because I felt the vibration of his chest as the growl was let loose. His arms came around my waist and my eyes slammed shut. My legs climbed him like a koala in a love tree, a move he must have anticipated because he grabbed my hips with both hands and spun us until my back knocked against the refrigerator.

Someone whimpered but it couldn’t have been me because Ethan’s tongue was familiarizing itself with mine. The room began to spin and the fever was back. Ethan’s lips were not like that of a fish, I was happy to find out.

Ethan’s rough palm swept across my jawline and into my hair, tilting my head to the side so he could devour me like a TSwift album the night it was released. My thighs quivered with need and Ethan pulled back just enough to whisper against my lips.

“I’ve been wanting to do this since the second I saw you.”






 





Marika Ray is a USA Today bestselling author of steamy and sweet RomComs, spending her time behind a computer crafting stories, walking any beach she can find, and making healthy food for her kids and husband whether they like it or not. Prior to writing novels, Marika held various jobs in the finance industry, with private start-up companies, and then in health & fitness. Cats may have nine lives, but Marika believes everyone should have nine careers to keep things spicy. All her books come with a money-back guarantee that you’ll smile at least once with every book.

More information can be found at www.marikaray.com



HOSTED BY:

Book Blitz for Stars on Fire by Sky Gold with a GIVEAWAY

 



Stars on Fire by Sky Gold

(The Sable Riders, #1)
Publication date: February 26th 2023
Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Romance, Science Fiction

Synopsis:

The thing is, Selene, I don’t do forever. It’s not what this is.’ – Kainan Sable.

He’s lethal, wraith-like, a warrior who lives in the twilight, the hidden inferno amongst the stars.

She’s driven, ambitious, and unrelenting, with an allure that forces him from the shadows.

He needs to control the intensity of his reaction to her.

She fights the temptation glinting in his sapphire wildfire eyes.

He wants revenge.

She wants forever.

But he can’t give her ‘forever’.

Or can he?

War is stirring in the skies and stars above Eden II. Between empires in ascension and realms in decline. Kainan and Selene find themselves caught up in the maelstrom. Together they’ll light the stars on fire, even as darkness beyond their control seeks to turn their destiny – and their forever – to ashes.

__________________________

If you’re in the mood for:

  • A strong, smart heroine AND a sexy, badass anti-hero
  • Unrequited love and a personal growth saga that spans a universe
  • Steamy, hot epic jolts!
  • Paranormal action
  • All the feels AND heartfelt escapism

Then take to the Skies Above Eden II. A whole new world awaits you. 







AUTHOR BIO:
Sky Gold is a best selling author, writer and lover of all things delicious, fun and courageously life affirming. She imagines herself a warrior for the people she loves and values she stands for! She looks to her gorgeous husband, her whimsical kids, her loyal friends, her sweet Russian Blue Cat, and the stars themselves for her heavenly inspiration.




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Thursday, March 30, 2023

Release Blitz for Playing by the Rules by Monica Murphy

 




Playing by the Rules by Monica Murphy is now live! 


Camden Fields is the star quarterback of our college football team.

Quiet.

Smart.

Absolutely gorgeous.

He's the man all the women on campus rave about. And while he's had a few casual hookups over the years, it's never anything serious. Cam doesn't do serious.

He also doesn't do me.

See, I'm his best friend's little sister, and whenever we're around each other, he's always warning me that I'm off limits. That nothing can ever happen between us.

But I see the way he looks at me when he thinks I'm not watching. The heat in his gaze. The hunger. He can deny it, but that man wants me.

I want him too.

I'm tired of always being the good girl and doing what everybody expects. For once, I'm going to break all the rules that have restrained me my entire life.

I'm going after Camden Fields.

And no one can stop me.




  Download today or read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited

Amazon: https://bit.ly/41tmpcZ

Amazon Worldwide: https://mybook.to/PlayingByTheRulesMM


Add to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/3ZlJI6I



Meet Monica



Monica Murphy is a New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling romance author. Her books have been translated in almost a dozen languages and have sold over two million copies worldwide. Both a traditionally published and independently published author, she writes young adult, new adult and contemporary romance. She's also known as USA Today bestselling author Karen Erickson.

A native Californian, she lives on fourteen acres in the middle of nowhere with her husband, two kids, one dog, and four cats. When she's not writing, she's an assistant coach for her daughter's high school cheer team, which is a two season sport. Meaning, she's at practice with a bunch of teenage girls all the time. Or she's at a football game. Or a basketball game. Maybe someday, she'll even write about this experience.

 

Connect with Monica


Website: http://monicamurphyauthor.com

Goodreads:  http://bit.ly/MonicaMurphyGR

Amazon:  http://amzn.to/1YUl0Vm

Facebook: http://bit.ly/MonicaMurphyFB

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/monicamurphyreadergroup/

Instagram: http://bit.ly/MonicaMurphyIG

Twitter: http://bit.ly/MonicaMurphyTW

Bookbub: http://bit.ly/2ZAthV1

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/msmonicamurphy/

Verve Romance: https://ververomance.com/app/monicamurphy





Book Review for Collateral Damage by J.A. Jance

Collateral Damage by J.A. Jance

320 pages, ebook

Publication March 14, 2023

Genre:  Mystery Thriller


Taken from Goodreads:  Ali Reynolds and High Noon Enterprises face the dangerous consequences of one man’s desperate search for revenge in this unputdownable thriller from J.A. Jance, the New York Times bestselling author who “has been delivering must-read books for a long time” (The Real Book Spy).


After spending twenty years behind bars, Frank Muñoz, a disgraced former cop, is out on parole and focused on just one thing: revenge. The wife who abandoned him after his arrest, the mistress who ratted him out for abetting a money-laundering scheme, the detectives who presided over his case all those years ago—they all have targets on their backs.

For Ali Reynolds, the first Christmas without her father is riddled with grief and uncertainty. And with her husband and founding partner of High Noon Enterprises, B. Simpson, preoccupied by an upcoming New Year’s trip to London, she is ready for a break. But when Stu Ramey barges into her home with grave news about a serious—and suspicious—accident on the highway to Phoenix involving B.’s car, things reach a breaking point.

At the hospital, a groggy, post-op B. insists that Ali take his place at a ransomware conference in London, as troubles brimming around High Noon come to light. But questions remain: Who would go to such lengths to cut the tech company from the picture? And what if Ali and the rest of the team are also in danger?

 

My Thoughts:  I was desperate for a book that I would lose myself in.  J.A. Jance wrote that book.  Collateral Damage is a mystery thriller that had me hooked from the first chapter and kept me turning pages until I turned the last one.   Even with the last page turn, I was left wanting more. 

 

This book tells of a suspicious car accident that Ali’s husband, B., was in.  Ali cannot let it rest in the police’s hand.  She does her own investigating with the help of the people at High Noon and starts to put it all together.   I enjoyed watching her work to solve the mystery but also how much she takes care of B. while he works to heal.   

I have read a few of the other books in the Ali Reynolds series but not them all.  I really like that this series can be read as a standalone.   Each book has its own mystery but is solved by the end.   I am excited to find more books in this series and continue reading more of Ali Reynolds and her skills at solving mysteries.  

Thank you Gallery Books for the copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. 

 

Add to your MUST-READ list on Goodreads

Purchase your own copy on Amazon or Barnes and Noble




Meet J.A. Jance  (Taken from Goodreads):  As a second-grader in Mrs. Spangler’s Greenway School class, I was introduced to Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz series. I read the first one and was hooked and knew, from that moment on, that I wanted to be a writer.

The third child in a large family, I was four years younger than my next older sister and four years older than the next younger sibling. Being both too young and too old left me alone in a crowd and helped turn me into an introspective reader and a top student. When I graduated from Bisbee High School in 1962, I received an academic scholarship that made me the first person in my family to attend a four year college. I graduated in 1966 with a degree in English and Secondary Education. In 1970 I received my M. Ed. in Library Science. I taught high school English at Tucson’s Pueblo High School for two years and was a K-12 librarian at Indian Oasis School District in Sells, Arizona for five years.

My ambitions to become a writer were frustrated in college and later, first because the professor who taught creative writing at the University of Arizona in those days thought girls "ought to be teachers or nurses" rather than writers. After he refused me admission to the program, I did the next best thing: I married a man who was allowed in the program that was closed to me. My first husband imitated Faulkner and Hemingway primarily by drinking too much and writing too little. Despite the fact that he was allowed in the creative writing program, he never had anything published either prior to or after his death from chronic alcoholism at age forty-two. That didn’t keep him from telling me, however, that there would be only one writer in our family, and he was it.

My husband made that statement in 1968 after I had received a favorable letter from an editor in New York who was interested in publishing a children’s story I had written. Because I was a newly wed wife who was interested in staying married, I put my writing ambitions on hold. Other than writing poetry in the dark of night when my husband was asleep (see After the Fire), I did nothing more about writing fiction until eleven years later when I was a single, divorced mother with two children and no child support as well as a full time job selling life insurance. My first three books were written between four a.m. and seven a.m. At seven, I would wake my children and send them off to school. After that, I would get myself ready to go sell life insurance.

I started writing in the middle of March of 1982. The first book I wrote, a slightly fictionalized version of a series of murders that happened in Tucson in 1970, was never published. For one thing, it was twelve hundred pages long. Since I was never allowed in the creative writing classes, no one had ever told me there were some things I needed to leave out. For another, the editors who turned it down said that the parts that were real were totally unbelievable, and the parts that were fiction were fine. My agent finally sat me down and told me that she thought I was a better writer of fiction than I was of non-fiction. Why, she suggested, didn’t I try my hand at a novel?

The result of that conversation was the first Detective Beaumont book, Until Proven Guilty. Since 1985 when that was published, there have been 24 more Beau books. My work also includes 19 Joanna Brady books set in southeastern Arizona where I grew up, 115 Ali Reynolds books, set in Sedona, AZ, and five novellas. In addition there are five thrillers, starting with Hour of the Hunter and Kiss of the Bees, that reflect what I learned during the years when I was teaching on the Tohono O'Odham reservation west of Tucson, Arizona.

The week before Until Proven Guilty was published, I did a poetry reading of After the Fire at a widowed retreat sponsored by a group called WICS (Widowed Information Consultation Services) of King County. By June of 1985, it was five years after my divorce in 1980 and two years after my former husband’s death. I went to the retreat feeling as though I hadn’t quite had my ticket punched and didn’t deserve to be there. After all, the other people there were all still married when their spouses died. I was divorced. At the retreat I met a man whose wife had died of breast cancer two years to the day and within a matter of minutes of the time my husband died. We struck up a conversation based on that coincidence. Six months later, to the dismay of our five children, we told the kids they weren’t the Brady Bunch, but they'd do, and we got married. We now have four new in-laws as well as six grandchildren.

When my second husband and I first married, he supported all of us–his kids and mine as well as the two of us. It was a long time before my income from writing was anything more than fun money–the Improbable Cause trip to Walt Disney World; the Minor in Possession memorial powder room; the Payment in Kind memorial hot tub. Eventually, however, the worm turned. My husband was able to retire at age 54 and took up golf and oil painting.

One of the wonderful things about being a writer is that everything–even the bad stuff–is usable. The eighteen years I spent while married to an alcoholic have helped shape the experience and character of Detective J. P. Beaumont. My experiences as a single parent have gone into the background for Joanna Brady–including her first tentative steps toward a new life after the devastation of losing her husband in Desert Heat. And then there’s the evil creative writing professor in Hour of the Hunter and Kiss of the Bees, but that’s another story.

Another wonderful part of being a writer is hearing from fans. I learned on the reservation that the ancient, sacred charge of the storyteller is to beguile the time. I’m thrilled when I hear that someone has used my books to get through some particularly difficult illness either as a patient or as they sit on the sidelines while someone they love is terribly ill. It gratifies me to know that by immersing themselves in my stories, people are able to set their own lives aside and live and walk in someone else’s shoes. It tells me I’m doing a good job at the best job in the world.

 

 

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Cover Reveal for Bookworm by Cookie O'Gorman

 



Bookworm by Cookie O’Gorman

Publication date: April 20th 2023
Genres: Romance, Young Adult

Synopsis:

Bookworm (buk-werm): Someone who loves books, reading, and/or studying. For reference, see Charlotte Kent.

Seventeen-year-old Charlotte Kent likes happy endings. Not that she’s looking for one herself. Awkward, never been kissed, and bookish to the core, Lottie would rather read about love than experience it.

But she enjoys helping others find their HEA in books.

Lottie loves working at the library…even if it means running into Bo Stryker.

Broody, athletic, and unfairly attractive when he frowns, Bo works at the flower shop across the street. Lottie is about to get rejected…when surprisingly, Bo steps in, pretends to be her boyfriend, and steals her first kiss.

One viral video later, everyone thinks they’re together.

Bo wants to keep pretending. Lottie wants to make amends—long story short: she was on a ladder; he startled her; the book slap was an accident.

A fake relationship may be the solution. But as they grow closer, Lottie can’t help falling for Bo—which is a disaster because grumpy sunshine only works in fiction…right?

This book features two opposites with undeniable chemistry, one lovable librarian, so many stolen kisses and answers the question:

What happens when a nerd falls for the grump-next-door?








AUTHOR BIO:
Cookie O'Gorman writes YA & NA romance to give readers a taste of happily-ever-after. Small towns, quirky characters, and the awkward yet beautiful moments in life make up her books. Cookie also has a soft spot for nerds and ninjas. Her novels ADORKABLE, NINJA GIRL, The Unbelievable, Inconceivable, Unforeseeable Truth About Ethan Wilder, The Good Girl's Guide to Being Bad, WALLFLOWER, CUPCAKE, and FAUXMANCE are out now!  She is also the author of NA sports romances, The Best Mistake, The Perfect Play, and The Sweetest Game.

Author links:
http://cookieogorman.com/
https://twitter.com/CookieOwrites
https://www.facebook.com/cookieogorman
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/cookie-o-gorman
https://www.instagram.com/cookieogorman/
https://mailchi.mp/bdb1d9c56ae7/the-cookie-jar
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14924267.Cookie_O_Gorman