Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Valentine's Countdown Blitz Day Fourteen: Strike A Match by Lindzee Armstrong





"Lindzee Armstrong is the #1 bestselling author of the No Match for Love series and Sunset Plains Romance series. She's always had a soft spot for love stories. In third grade, she started secretly reading romance novels, hiding the covers so no one would know (because hello, embarrassing!), and dreaming of her own Prince Charming.

She finally met her true love while at college, where she studied history education. They are now happily married and raising twin boys in the Rocky Mountains.


Like any true romantic, Lindzee loves chick flicks, ice cream, and chocolate. She believes in sigh-worthy kisses and happily ever afters, and loves expressing that through her writing."




Connect with the Author here: 


When Kate’s abusive husband dies in a house fire, she only feels relief. Eighteen months later, she’s ready to sweep up the fragments of her past and venture back into dating—but this time with the help of a professional matchmaking company. Surely Toujour can succeed where Kate has always failed and find her the perfect man.

Taylor is a firefighter who’s tired of dousing infernos in his personal life. Exhausted from a string of dysfunctional relationships, he turns to Toujour at the prodding of a friend, hoping for an easier path to love. The last thing he expects is to be matched with Kate, the intriguing widow he met on the night her house burned. The problem is, she’s determined to leave behind any connection to that awful night—and Taylor is a very overwhelming connection.

Past relationship fears and old habits threaten to tear them apart before they’ve even begun. Can the ashes of their pasts hold their happily ever after?




~ Amazon ~ Amazon UK



Snippet:

“So, how’ve you been?” Taylor asked.
Kate squinted, the feeling of familiarity sweeping over her again. It’d been so long since she’d been on a first date that she couldn’t remember if this was a typical conversation. “Um . . . Good, I guess.”
“Good.” Taylor nodded, as though genuinely relieved by her answer. “That’s great. I’ve always wondered.”
Her stomach rumbled with nerves while her palms grew clammy. Something was very wrong with this date. “I’m sorry,” Kate said, the words taking all her courage. “Do we know each other?”
Taylor’s eyes widened, making her stomach tremble even more. “You mean you don’t recognize me?”
“You look familiar, but I thought you just had one of those faces,” Kate said. “I’m really sorry . . .”
“Oh man.” Taylor rubbed a hand over his strong jaw. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of this. I assumed you knew and were okay with it. I recognized you from your photo almost immediately.”
Kate should’ve given in to her fear and never stepped foot outside of the car. This was beyond humiliating. Embarrassed tears prick at her eyes and she forced them back. “You’ll have to forgive me. I don’t usually forget people like this.”
Taylor’s smile turned pained. “We met the night of the fire.”
The sounds of bowling balls smacking against pins dimmed as his blue shirt and jeans morphed into full fire gear, a hat and jacket obscuring most of his features. Bile rose in her throat and she clasped her hands together tightly to hide the shaking. Out of all the men she could’ve been matched with, Brooke had found the one Kate had never expected to see again.

She should’ve recognized him immediately. A wife shouldn’t forget the face of the man who informed her she was a widow.


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Monday, February 13, 2017

Valentine's Countdown Blitz Day Thirteen: Heir of Deceit by Jan M Martin






      Jan would rather write than eat or sleep, which is handy for authors—not so much for husbands. Her research as a nutritionist inspired an unusual murder weapon for Heir of Deceit. Favorite writing moment: meeting famous moonshiner Popcorn Sutton while during research in Asheville, North Carolina for Heir of Deceit. She has won national contests for her comedic poetry on subjects such as Black Friday and her messy kitchen. Some are included in her humor book My Word, That’s Absurd! along with her prize-winning children’s story, Miss Mousie and Mrs. McGreggor’s Closet.
Jan’s quirky sense of humor could classify her as eccentric, but she prefers the term “crazy.” She is the author of two novels, Heir of Deceit and Impressions of Innocence and a non-fiction humor book, My Word, That’s Absurd! She’s going nuts deciding which of seven book ideas she wants to work on next.
She loves cactus flowers, road runners, horned toads (and people). She enjoys cooking, teaching, and learning. The day she stops learning will be the day she stops breathing. She and her husband are the parents of six children.
Jan wrote for a local newspaper at age 11. She worked for her high school and college journalism departments, and as a case worker, tobacco prevention coordinator, and nutritionist. In addition, she has taught religion classes to high school students for more than 31 years as a volunteer.
Visit her web site at: http://janmar916.wix.com/janmmartin
P.S. If you enjoy her books, she’ll love you forever if you leave a 5-star review on Amazon about them.

Praise for Heir of Deceit: "A plot that is full of questions to keep readers turning pages--secrets, lies and drama. Good Stuff!" --Bethany Miller Cole (writing as Bethany Michaels) Judge at Romance Writers of America

"This is part love story, part genealogical mystery, a little bit about redemption and quite a lot of fun for the reader." --Jonesy, Amazon Reviewer

"A love story that . . . offers a satisfying mix of intrigue and idealistic love." --Kirkus Reviews

"It's captivating and it really keeps you guessing." --Lord of the Books Reviews


Connect with the Author here: 

On the eve of her wedding, Lacey uncovers a problem too large for love to conquer: a family curse which causes the women to kill the men they love, and puts her fiancé, Evs, in danger. Lacey vows to uncover the secrets of her lineage, even if it requires her ultimate sacrifice--the loss of her marriage to her beloved Evs.

Her search leads to the Smoky Mountain backwoods, where the shotgun is more respected than the law, and family may not be what is expected. HEIR OF DECEIT is set in an area, where, even today, hands of tobacco are used as currency, and moonshine stills explode.

Heir of Deceit is a clean Romantic Mystery suitable for teens and adults.


~ AmazonAmazon UK



Snippet:

Tsali lifted me from his pickup and carried me into his house. He sat me gently on his living room couch.
I sat there in a trance, staring blankly ahead. This felt worse than death. In my numb state, I could no longer think of Evs, or what I’d learned from Ruthella. That happened to someone else, on another world, and in another period of time.
 “You sit here, Lacey. I will bring you something to drink.”
Tsali appeared with a steaming cup of tomato soup and handed it to me. I didn’t want it. I never wanted to eat again.
“Drink it.” Tsali demanded, and stood with his arms crossed, waiting for me to obey.
I sipped a little simply to please him. He’d been so kind to me. It tasted delicious, which surprised me, numb as I felt. I sipped in silence while he watched, until it was gone.
“Tsali, how can I tell him? I can’t simply stop loving him.”
“I don’t know. I wish I could help you with that.” He sat beside me on the couch and took my hand in his.
“I came here to find my family, and all I’ve found is that I’m a character in a horror movie.” He looked at me with sympathy, but said nothing. “I can’t go home. I can’t face anyone.”
“Lacey, stay here tonight. I don’t want you to be alone. Sleep here on the couch.”
His concerned look spoke volumes to me. I knew he was interested only in my well-being. “I can’t. It wouldn’t look good.”
“Do you really care how anything looks right now? I don’t. I only care that you are taken care of. I think I’m the only one that can do that right now.”
I knew he spoke the truth. The fact remained that he was an extremely attractive man, and I . . . I at the moment, was everybody’s fool. “We can only be friends, Tsali. Just friends.”

He drew both his hands to his chest in a hands-off gesture. “For as long as you like.”



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Saturday, February 11, 2017

Valentine's Countdown Blitz Day Twelve: Becoming Bryn by Angela Carling






Angela Carling was raised in Palm Springs California, but lives Arizona with her husband, three kids and five felines. She loves reading and writing for the young adult genre and has published Unbreakable Love, Shackled, Becoming Bryn and the first three books of the Secret Keeper series. In 2012 Shackled won the silver IPGA award and has since been optioned as a screenplay. She always eats the frosting off her cake and leaves the rest, and can be caught singing in public bathrooms. When she’s not creating stories, she’s mentoring teen writers, making pizza with her family or dreaming of taking a nap, not necessarily in that order.  





Connect with the Author here: 


For months, Jesse has been envious of her twin sister Bryn and even has a crush on Bryn’s gorgeous, popular boyfriend, Quinton. When Jesse awakens from a coma to learn that everyone thinks she IS Bryn, the option of actually taking over her sister’s life is beyond tempting, but there’s a downside. She’d have to give up her relationship with Ethan, her best friend and the only person she trusts. Could she actually live s Bryn for the rest of her life? And if her family and friends found out, would they ever forgive her?




Snippet:
My shirt was covered with long brown runs of chocolate ice cream. I began trying to at least dab the extra ice cream off the soft cotton fabric. Unfortunately, the pastel pink showed every stain with perfect distinction. Soon, most of my shirt was wet and sticking to my body. I’d already used up all the towels I’d brought with me. I stepped into the main area of the back room at the same time Ethan walked in from the other side. He took one look at me and a shameless smirk spread across his face. “It’s not funny,” I said, thinking about how terrible I must look. Ethan walked the length of the room and grabbed some more towels from above the sink. He turned on the sink and after dampening the towels, gave several to me. I wasn’t dripping ice cream anymore, but now I felt so sticky I could have been the floor of a New York taxi cab. Seeing Ethan’s smirk change to compassion let me know it was okay to smile. “Guess that was kind of funny,” I admitted. Ethan’s smirk returned as he looked me over. His gaze was gentle but playful. “Where to start?” He posed the question as if I was an unfixable disaster. His words, his tone, everything about our interaction felt eerily familiar yet different than it had ever been before. I’d seen Ethan in lots of different situations before. Yet somehow, this situation, standing so close to him in the backroom of an ice cream shop, felt intensely intimate. Using the warm, damp towels, Ethan began wiping off my arms. In long slow strokes, he wiped every sticky inch clean. Sometimes, his fingers would touch my moist skin and I would be surprised when my heart rate would flutter. What was happening? I’d always thought Ethan was hot, but this chemistry was new. When my arms were clean, Ethan moved to my neck. By folding the towels in half, he created smaller cloths and began cleaning the little bits of ice cream and pineapple off my neck. “Look,” he whispered as he lifted a piece of hair that escaped from my ponytail, “You even have it in your hair.” I knew I should stop him. I was perfectly capable of cleaning my own neck and arms but I found myself pulled in by his tenderness and locked in by the colony of butterflies that had erupted in my stomach. Thoughts of Quinton passed through my mind, but my budding desire for Ethan was undeterred. Ethan had stepped closer and I caught a fresh whiff of his cologne. When had Ethan become intoxicating? I made a feeble attempt at conversation to clear my head. “That cologne, is that the one Jesse gave you?”  I could feel his breath quicken on my neck at the mention of my name. Stupid, stupid, stupid, I thought when he pulled back a little but not far enough to put any real distance between us. A rush of terrible selfish relief followed. Ethan met my eyes with his own expressive ones. He was searching, but I didn’t know for what. All I knew is in a few hours everything had changed. I wanted to kiss Ethan, more than I’d wanted anything in a long time. I stood there looking at his lips. They were gorgeous, completely kissable. It’s not that I hadn’t thought about what it would be like to kiss him before, you know, when we were friends. I just figured it would never happen. Now, we were inches apart and I knew it could happen, and I wanted to feel his lips against mine. Subconsciously, I ran my tongue across my lips in anticipation. That was all it took. Without a trace of noise, the washcloth fell to the floor and with his now free hands he cupped my face in his warm fingers and purposefully brought his lips to mine.



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Friday, February 10, 2017

Valentine's Countdown Blitz Day Eleven: Returned by Kimberly Griffiths Little






When Kimberley was a kid she read a book a day, scribbled stories, and dreamed about having her very own book on the library shelf. After growing up in San Francisco, she now lives in an adobe house on the banks of the Rio Grande with her big, messy family.

Kimberley once stayed in the haunted tower room at Borthwick Castle in Scotland and didn't sleep a wink, sailed the Seine in Paris, rode a camel in the ancient world wonder of Petra, shopped the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, and spent the night in an old Communist hotel in Bulgaria. She adores anything old and musty with a secret story to tell.

The author of 10 award-winning middle-grade and Young Adult novels with Scholastic and Harpercollins, Kimberley makes way too many cookies when she's writing - and the best book trailers in the universe. Check them out here: www.kimberleygriffithslittle.com. Please find her on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Youtube.

Awards: Southwest Book Award, Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel, Whitney Award Finalist, Association of Mormon Letters of Art Award, Bank Street College Best Books of 2011, 2013, and 2015, Crystal Kite Finalist, New Mexico Book Award Finalist, and Arizona/New Mexico Young Adult Book Award Winner. 




Connect with the Author here: 


After tragedy strikes on the day they were to wed, Jayden must support Kadesh as he ascends the throne and becomes king of Sariba. But with the dark priestess Aliyah conspiring to control the crown, and the arrival of Horeb, Jayden’s former betrothed, Kadesh’s kingdom, as well as his status as king, is at stake.

Jayden knows that the time to be merciful has come and gone, and that some enemies can only be halted by death. Now she and Kadesh must prepare to fight not only for their love, but also for their kingdom.

Perfect for fans of Cleopatra’s Moon and the adult bestseller The Red Tent, this is the final book in the epic trilogy that began with Forbidden and Banished.











Snippet:

It was still dark outside the windows, but from a distance, a cock crowed loud and long. Wordlessly, we hurried out the door of the bedroom suite and into the hallway.
Liquid moonlight dripped along the walls of the palace as I followed my handmaids to the Temple of the Sariba Goddess—the stronghold of the High Priestess Aliyah—the woman who hated me and wanted the man I loved.
The last of the moon lowered itself to rest upon the distant horizon and my chilled fingers clutched at the folds of my gown.

The reality was, depending on what happened at the temple, I might not ever come back. I was desperate to bring my sister back home with me, but terrified of Aliyah’s power over Leila, including the power of the Egyptians and their magic incantations.


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Thursday, February 9, 2017

Valentine's Countdown Blitz Day Ten: Lady A by Cassie M Shiels





Cassie has loved stories since she was little. Her love of writing started even before she could write words. She was one to be found, reading late into the night (wait, she still does that!), on the school bus or before she did her homework. In middle school she determined that she liked creating her own stories as much as she liked reading them; so she decided she wanted to be an author and keeps working on making that dream come true with every story idea that bounds into her head.


Connect with the Author here: 
~ Facebook ~ Website
Twitter ~





Lady A is in terrible danger, an annoying side effect of her brother's latest scheme. Forced to run for her life from a madman she must return to the one place she vowed never to go again or die. After a failed attempt on her life leaves her without a name and her memories. Lady A must fight to regain them in order to help the handsome prince defeat the madman, who is threatening their kingdom. But will she remember in time? Or will she lose everyone and everything she loves? Excerpt: He slowly raised his eyes to mine; the look I saw there caused a shiver to run down my arms, prickling my skin. I pulled my arms tight to my chest, attempting to stop the cold feeling from spreading. "You have to get out of here, now!" he gasped. "Dan, what happened?" He shook his head and looked at the floor. "Tell me!" "There is no time, they are coming for you.”

~ Amazon ~ Amazon UK



Snippet:

You can't remember anything?" she asked eyes wide. “Nothing at all?”
            "No," I said as Madge the Healer began to lay dried leaves on my wound. She was murmuring under her breath as she did so. No one else was looking at her strangely so I decided this must be normal.
            "Not even your name?" Iree asked a moment later with a mischievous look growing on her face.
            "I'm afraid not. Everyone keeps calling me Lady A though."
            Iree burst out laughing and nearly rolled off the bed onto the floor. The Queen’s lips even twitched a bit.
            "What is it?" I asked looking from one person to the other. "Did I miss something?"

            "Yes," said Iree. "The best joke ever," she said, laughing hard once again. “Poor James.”



To view our blog schedule and follow along with this tour visit our Official Event page