|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Protected by Him by Sara Evou is now live!
Maggie Smith knows a thing or two about bad luck. Watching her ex murder a judge and ending up in WITSEC taught her plenty about the subject. So, finding a new love was the last thing on her mind.
Until she met him.
Ian Murray was…everything. Handsome. Strong. Protective. Their chemistry? Intense.
And it still hadn’t been enough to get them to happily ever after.
But that was over a year ago. And now that fate has brought them together again, she’ll do anything to turn their second chance into forever. Failure isn’t an option. Because this time, the stakes are higher than ever.
Especially when it’s not just their hearts on this line. It’s their lives…
Download today or read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited!
Amazon: http://bit.ly/45QMg3o
Goodreads: http://bit.ly/3T1PlG2
Meet Sara Evou
Sara Evou loves love more than anything. After years of being unable to express her creativity in her job as an accountant, she decided to channel her love of romance into her own stories. She's lived everywhere from Reno to Colorado to DC, but currently calls Nashville home. When she isn't reading, writing, or thinking about writing, she enjoys traveling, baking at home, and playing with her sweet pup.
Connect with Sara
Website | https://saraevou.com
Goodreads | https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/54870957.Sara_Evou
Amazon | https://bit.ly/463imJ3
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/sara.evou.2025
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/saraevou.author/
Bookbub | https://www.bookbub.com/profile/sara-evou?list=about
Pinterest | https://www.pinterest.com/SaraEvouAuthor/
Newsletter | https://shiny-flower-86248.myflodesk.com/o51h3cygol
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Gilded Heiress by Joanna Shupe
Published: August
26, 2025 by Avon
Genre: Historical Romance, Historical Fiction,
Fantasy
In 1880 a baby was stolen from the wealthiest family in America. Though no
ransom was ever demanded, the Pendelton family never gave up hope . . . and
their reward became the stuff of legend.
After being raised in a children’s asylum, Josie Smith ends up on the streets
and quickly learns how to take care of herself. Her singing voice draws crowds
on every corner, and she’ll stop at nothing to become famous and travel the
world, loved and adored by all. Maybe then she won’t think about the family who
gave her away as an infant.
Leo Hardy isn’t afraid to use his charm and wits to make a fast buck,
especially with a mother and five siblings to support. When he stumbles upon a
beautiful young woman singing on the street, Leo notices her striking
resemblance to the infamous missing baby’s mother, Mrs. Thomas Pendelton. The
Hardys lost everything thanks to the Pendeltons, and once Leo sees Josie, he
seizes the opportunity to settle the score. All he needs to do is pull off the
biggest swindle of his career.
As the two are catapulted into Knickerbocker High Society, they grow closer to
their goal, as well as to each other. But secrets can only stay hidden for so
long. Soon the truth unfolds, and both Josie and Leo must separate what’s real
from what’s just gilding.
My Thoughts: I have read quite a few
historical fiction books. The Gilded
Heiress is a different type of historical fiction. It is a story that I had never heard
before. It is a unique story of a stolen
baby and parents who never gave up finding her.
The story of a young women set free from the children’s asylum and
finding her way in life.
I quickly put together where the story was taking me. There was no big surprises but the path taken entertained me the entire way through. I enjoyed watching Josie find her way. I wish there was a big twist or turn but the story was pretty matter of the fact, it was stated what was happening and it went there. Josie was pretty easy going, she went along with whatever people told her without much push back. I would have liked her to be stronger and more confident in herself.
The Gilded Heiress is a fun and easy read.
Thank you Avon for a copy of the book in
exchange for my honest review.
Add to your MUST-READ list on Goodreads
Purchase your own copy on Amazon
Praise for Joanna Shupe & THE GILDED
HEIRESS:
“Historical romance fans will be thrilled to
see another book by the queen of steamy Gilded Age stories.”
— Library Journal
“An appealing historical romance with
enchanting touches.”
— Kirkus
“Affable characters, sizzling romance, and a
sparkling setting make this shine.”
— Publishers Weekly
“Swoon! With The Rogue of Fifth Avenue,
Shupe continues to build on the sterling legacy she’s building for herself as a
gifted weaver of glittering Gilded Age tales (complete with lots of nod to real
historical figures), while also deepening the contemporary resonance of her
themes.”
— Entertainment Weekly
Merry Enemies by Kelly
Elliott
Published: August
3, 2025 by K. Elliott Enterprises, INC
Taken from Goodreads: Working at the library is my dream job, and story time with the kids is my favorite part. I know what you’re thinking, it’s because of the hot single dad who brings his daughter each week. Sure, he’s easy on the eyes, but that man gets on my last nerve.
My Thoughts: Novellas
are not my favorites to read but Kelly Elliott is one of my favorite authors so
I picked up Merry Enemies hoping for the best.
This novella is wonderful! There
is a complete story within 79 pages. The characters have full lives and the
storyline is missing nothing.
Harrison and Emma are perfect for each other. I liked that they fell fast and hard. Their story was not perfect but it was real. The had hiccups in their relationship and
worked to get through them.
Thank you to the author for a copy of the book in exchange
for my honest review.
Add to your MUST-READ list on Goodreads
Purchase your own copy on Amazon
Offside and Off-Limits
Kate O’Keeffe
(Love in Maple Falls)
Publication date: August 20th 2025
Genres: Adult, Comedy, Contemporary, Romance, Sports
I survived chronic illness and a cheating ex. Surely I can resist one charming hockey player…right?
Clara
Working as the social media manager for a pro hockey team is all fun and games—until you trip into the arms of their biggest flirt during a livestream. Now the fans are shipping us, my boss is thrilled with the engagement, and I’m stuck dodging feelings for Cade Lennox, aka the certified charmer. The problem? My contract says he’s off-limits. My heart, unfortunately, didn’t get the memo.Cade
I came to this small town to turn over a new leaf. But you know what they say about the best laid plans. All bets are off the second Clara Johnson literally stumbles into my arms and straight into my heart. She’s focused, loyal, and the most beautiful challenge I’ve ever met. All I have to do is prove I’m worth the risk.Offside and Off-Limits is part of the Love in Maple Falls sweet hockey romcom multi-author series. It’s a forbidden love story between one flirty hockey player and the team’s social media manager in this small town romance with all the sizzle and chemistry, but none of the spice.
Welcome back to Maple Falls—the small town where hockey players fall in love! This is a multi-author series of seven full-length books that could be read as standalones, but we think you’ll enjoy them best in order.
Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble
—
EXCERPT:
Clara falls into Cade’s arms on the ice
“Oh, man, this is awesome!” Joel declares, holding my phone in his hands. “You guys look sick! Even you, Clara.”
I let out a surprised laugh at Joel’s comment when Asher calls, “And now turn!” and as I do my legs fly from underneath me, and my breath wooshes out as I scrunch my eyes shut, bracing for the impact of cold, hard ice against my poor, under-protected butt.
But the ice-cold contact fails to happen, and when my eyes spring open I see Cade, his eyes wide with alarm as large, strong arms pull me against his firm body.
He grins down at me as my heart beats out of my chest.
I tell myself it’s because I almost fell, but being in Cade’s arms feels…well, it feels pretty dang amazing.
Not that I’m going to tell him that.
“Thanks,” I mumble, the heat rising in my cheeks as I gaze up at him, at total odds with the cold of the arena.
“My pleasure,” he replies, and the way he says those two words sends a flash of something hot through me that I’ve got to work hard at resisting.
But resist it I must, no matter how good this feels.
I haven’t been held by a man since Dwayne left me for my friend. And that was years ago.
I heave out a breath as I drag my gaze from his. I need to remember that this guy is a total player, and I don’t mean just on the ice. He probably catches falling women in his big, strong arms every day of the week—and I bet most of them don’t even bother to resist the heat this feeling elicits.
But I’m not one of those women, and I refuse to act on my physical attraction for this man. There are so many reasons, the non-fraternization clause in my employment contract being right at the top of that list.
Throwing away my new job because I’m attracted to one of the players? Not going to happen.
“You guys, I’m getting so many likes on this!” Joel calls out.
Wait. Likes?
I snap my attention to Joel, who’s still holding up my phone, pointing it straight at Cade and me. “Cade, would you mind putting me down? Like now.”
“I’ll do you one better,” he replies as he glides me smoothly back toward the bench, still holding me close in his arms. Holding me in one arm, he pulls open the door, and returns me to my feet—which I note are now trembling.
Author Bio:
Kate O’Keeffe is a USA Today bestselling author known for her fun, feel-good romantic comedies brimming with humor, heart, and happily ever afters. A native of New Zealand, Kate has crafted numerous popular series, garnering a devoted international readership.
With a flair for witty banter and irresistible heroines navigating the ups and downs of modern dating, Kate’s novels showcase strong friendships, comedic entanglements, and the of course sometimes bumpy but always hopeful road to love.
When she’s not writing, Kate can often be found reading romcoms, binging her favourite shows, or spending time with her friends and family in the beautiful Hawke’s Bay region of New Zealand.
GIVEAWAY!
Offside and Off-Limits Blitz
Stranger Still
George Ochoa
Publication date: August 19th 2025
Genres: Adult, Literary Fiction, Thriller
Paul Inster, a brilliant, insane Columbia college student majoring in English with an undisclosed minor in knives, is in love with graduate student, Tracy Iridio. Seeing her in the library every day, he mistakenly believes she is in love with him and that she is a goddess, Teresa. In fact, the two have never met, and she does not know who he is. When, for the first time, he sees her with her boyfriend, classical history professor Larry Post, Paul sets out to destroy Larry via a campaign of terror. As the campaign mounts, Larry, mystified, tries to figure out who is attacking him and why. Through a series of surprises and confusions, the campaign escalates to murder.
Stranger Still is both a thriller and a literary novel, combining suspense and violence with rich language, webs of cultural allusions, and themes of love and madness.
Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo
—
EXCERPT:
Teresa and I often made love, though never in the flesh. To this day the psychiatrists will scrutinize such a statement as if it meant something other than what it plainly says, as if it were the telltale boil of some rare mental pox that might explain the blood spills photographed by the police. But these doctors do not understand love, optics, metaphysics, error, or even good taste. As far as flesh went, I never touched or even talked to Teresa, not until our moral decline had already begun. Before then, seeing the chaste tables that divided us in the Columbia library less than a decade ago, in the middle years of the 1990s, you might have thought Teresa and I were strangers, that she didn’t know I was alive.
I first saw her early in my junior year, a new female sitting several tables away in the Burgess-Carpenter reading room on the fourth floor of Butler Library. She seemed at first like any other of the pretty women on campus whom I liked to ogle and who regarded me as if I were invisible. But the more I stared at her, the more she particularly interested me. A pile of books rested near her elbow on the blond pine table, her head bent with rapt attention over her open book. Hazy September sunlight from the tall windows bathed her small breasts in her magenta top, made the white skin of her forearms glow. Her dark-brown hair was long and luxuriant, her neck long, her face shaped like that of a Raphael Madonna. But what captured me most were her eyes—large, sad eyes, ringed with mauve circles as if she hadn’t slept well. Why was she sad? Was there something I could do to make her happier?
We sat like that for a long time, she near the east end of a table in the back, never noticing me, while I shot frequent glances at her from near the west end of the second table from the door. About twenty feet diagonally divided us, too far for me to discern her eye color, though I tried. Finally, she got up, gathering her books into a white canvas tote bag and walking toward the door. As her gangly frame passed me, I gave her eyes a good look and saw they were hazel, flickering elusively under their long lashes from green to brown to gold.
The thought of her big, sad, long-lashed hazel eyes kept me happy for the rest of my day at Columbia. Even when I boarded the downtown Number One train, the first of the three trains that every evening buried me back in Jamaica, Queens, I was still thinking of those eyes. But an hour and fifteen minutes in the subways will discourage anyone. By the time I left the second leg, the D train, for the final and longest leg, the F, my thoughts were turning dark. The train was crowded with smelly, loam-colored laborers imported from faraway continents, and me just one of the horde.
Most students at Columbia boarded, but because my family was poorer than that of the standard Ivy Leaguer, I was a commuter. Combined with my natural tendency toward solitude, this meant I had no friends either on campus or anywhere else. I longed to make contact with someone, anyone, but did not know how. Sometimes I just wanted to pet them—the young secretary sitting before me on the subway in vinyl jacket and glittery eyeliner—to touch her shoulder, her pulsing throat, and say, “I am here. I am lonely. Help me.” Sometimes I wanted to hit them—the goon in the Yankees cap. When I felt particularly desperate, I wanted to stab them. I had knives that would have fit that purpose, but I never took them out of the house.
Author Bio:
George Ochoa’s first novel is the thriller Stranger Still. In addition, he has written or cowritten thirty-five nonfiction books, including The Book of Answers, The Writer’s Guide to Creating a Science Fiction Universe, The American Film Institute Desk Reference, and Deformed and Destructive Beings: The Purpose of Horror Films. His short fiction has been published in North American Review, Eureka Literary Magazine, Eunoia Review, Bangalore Review, and elsewhere. He is also the author of published poems and essays.
GIVEAWAY!
Stranger Still Blitz