Naughty Netherworld Press's Blog: Naughty Netherworld Press on Goodreads, page 25
April 18, 2025
The Abandoned Theater Pre-Order Blitz #rabtbooktours
Book One of the Alderland Series
Middle Grade Fiction
Date to be Published: 05-01-2025
Publisher: Our Street Books
Deep in the woods of the Winnodov property sits the abandoned theater. Something mysterious happened during the last performance there - the same night Mr. Winnodov disappeared.
Eight years later, it’s happening again. A group of mischievous teenagers sneaks into the theater. And now, one is missing.
When 12-year-old Beth Shoner learns who the missing teen is, she sets off with two friends to find him. But what they discover is more astonishing than they could ever have imagined.
Early Reviews
5 stars - “Absolute gem of a read that had me hooked from the first page. A thrilling, magical adventure with a touch of danger.”
~K.L, Netgalley
5 stars - “Genuinely brilliant tale filled with lush imagery and fantastical settings. Wonderful fantasy adventure. Very highly recommended.”
~A.S., Readers Favorite
5 stars – “What a compelling and engaging read. Action-packed, magical, and entertaining. A must-read middle-school/YA fantasy read.
~A.A, Author
5 stars - “Masterfully weaves suspense and wonder, keeping readers on edge with unexpected twists and a richly built setting.”
~Kids World book blog
5 stars – “Novel is wonderful, whimsical and beautifully crafted. A spectacular read for people of all ages.”
~T.C., Goodreads
About the Author
Dana Robertson lives in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. She writes fantasy, mystery, science fiction and middle grade fiction.
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April 17, 2025
Summer Fated To Be Mine Teaser #rabtbooktours
YA, Coming of Age, Urban, Romance
Date Published: 05-06-2025
First Love is Overrated
This summer these two broken souls discover if your second love can make you forget your first
Growing up, the Morelli brothers were close
Their kinship sinks deeper than the Titanic the summer they both fall for the same girl. Zakiah always felt Iliana Kaplan's heart belonged to him. All along, it has been their story, until fate removed the blindfold.
Everything falls apart when Zakiah realizes Iliana will never give him her whole heart. This time, the middle brother, Elijah, won't be able to repair the damage. A rift is torn amid all of them, and nothing will ever be the same again.
Two years later, when love comes knocking on his door, Zakiah strays from his motto. He can't pretend the connection he feels with Glory Glover isn't real. He just can't afford to fall victim to love again—already learned that lesson the hard way.
Life drops the other shoe. When his dad reveals who his betrothed is, there's no running from what fate has in store. Can your second love make you forget your first? Zakiah must decide if love only exists in fairytales. No matter what choice he makes, it won't be easy to find what's truly his to behold.
What happened in the spring might've made him forget his summertime dreams, but reality rarely has a silver lining.
About the Author
B. Truly has wanted to be an author since she was fifteen years old. She is grateful to have accomplished this dream. B. Truly has very vivid dreams and a wild imagination. She likes to read, watch tons of TV shows, and movies. She’s addicted to romance and gets a thrill out of suspense and sci-fi. She writes young adult, new adult, and adult romance, sci-fi, dystopian, paranormal, and urban genres.
B. Truly likes to explore conflicted plots of romance with thrilling twists. She also loves creating impossible situations for her characters to grow from and try to overcome.
B. Truly has three wonderful children, and a husband who defines the person that she is today. She works full-time as an Ultrasound technologist in Houston, Texas.
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Preorder Today
https://mybook.to/SummerFatedToMeMine
April 16, 2025
The Pot of Gold at the Rainbow Cafe Book Blitz #rabtbooktours
Contemporary Fiction
Date Published: April 1, 2025
In a time when too much emphasis is on our past sins, instead of our many celebrated successes, The Pot of Gold at the Rainbow Café is a breath of fresh air. It's a story that looks at what’s right with America, its big heart, and its kind and generous people. It is an inspiring, touching, humorous story about main-street America, still the land of opportunity and exceptionalism, where fairy-tale endings are still common. It’s a place where neighbors look out for each other, help each other, then pay it forward, pass their good fortune along. Just look around you. It still happens every day.
About the Author
Dan Chabot is a retired newspaper editor and columnist for a major metro daily, the Milwaukee Journal (now the Journal-Sentinel). For many years he presided over the paper’s most popular section, the Green Sheet, a daily compendium of entertaining feature stories, nostalgia, history, humor and whimsy. He is the author of several other novels and now lives in Florida.
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The Night Menagerie New Release Blitz #IndiGo
Title: The Night Menagerie
Series: The Pact of the Veil, Book One
Author: Kathryne Lentes
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: 04/15/2025
Heat Level: 3 - Some Sex
Pairing: Female/Female
Length: 25400
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Romance, paranormal, urban fantasy, lesbian, trans, shapeshifters, police detective, disappearance, role-playing game
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DescriptionSah Williams is used to navigating the fantastical worlds of her own creation, but when her sister disappears, she is thrust into a world of magic and shapeshifters beyond anything she would have put to page. The only things she might be able to count on are a mysterious detective who she suspects has their own agenda and her novel’s main character’s voice whispering her advice.ExcerptThe Night Menagerie Kathryne Lentes © 2025All Rights Reserved Chapter One
I woke to the sound of a person screaming. I sat bolt upright in bed and looked around, trying to remember where I was. There was no one else in the room, and I realized it had been me who had screamed. My heart beat like a jackhammer and I clutched the blanket to myself.
Instinctually, I reached out to the right side of the bed, but there was no one there. There had not been anyone there for almost six months, and most nights, I had no problem remembering that. Robert had been a comfort in the darkness, able to quiet the nightmares I had. Nisha, my sister, had loved him for that. He could also make you laugh, no matter how hard times were.
Everyone loved Robert—everyone but me, I guess, or at least I could not love him in the way he needed me to. I was most at home in solitude and did not really believe in just one person, one love, for the rest of a person’s life.
I reached out and ran my hands along my shoulder; the pain had been so intense in the dream when the beast had torn a chunk of flesh, I half expected to find blood on my fingers. I looked around at the plain white walls barely visible in the moonlight and took several long, slow breaths, forcing myself to calm down. Slowly, my heart began to beat slower, and my mind distanced itself from the nightmare and came back to reality.
Okay, let’s start with the first question: where was I?The room was small and sparsely furnished. I could hear the hustle and bustle of the street outside, even at this hour, and remembered this was my new apartment. I had not decided if I would stay in New York after my breakup.
There were a lot of memories here, good and bad, and it was where Dominique lived. Dominique Fortune, an international thief and woman of mystery, is a character I created for my novels. Dominique had given me everything I had dreamed of when I was a kid. She lived in New York so, as soon as I could afford it, I moved here, even though I have always felt my real home is Saint Louis.
Some people are method actors; I think I am a method author. I had to get into all the details and experiences of a character if the book was going to feel real when I was writing it.I reached out for the notebook I kept by the side of my bed and tried to remember the dream that had shocked me awake. That notebook had served as a constant stream of inspiration, and I wrote down almost every one of my dreams, from the scary to the spicy. This dream was different somehow, and it seemed to be fading quickly; the only thing reverberating in my head was the howl of an animal and that searing moment of pain.
I involuntarily reached out again to the untouched right side of the bed. I knew I could have been using the whole bed, but even after six months, the right side was still Robert’s side. Not sure if the loss of the relationship had hit me so hard because of what it said about us or what it said about me, I lay back and closed my eyes to dispel thoughts of him and tried to return to sleep, but when I did the fear rose inside me like the beast was waiting for me in my dreams.
I gave up and looked at my phone, but it was dead. The clock on the wall said 4:45 a.m. Well, it was too late for warm milk and cookies and too early for a shot of whiskey and a beer, so I figured I might as well go for a jaunt.
I got up out of bed and pulled out some sweats and a baggy T-shirt from the top drawer. Before I met Robert, my choice of outfits had been sexier, but now all I wanted was something that would not shred when I did a jump or tumble.
Dominique had taken up parkour. Thus, so had I, joining lock picking, mastering security systems, combat driving, and generally being sneaky in a series of skills I had acquired to make the novels feel more real. Parkour or free running was all about trying to cover a distance from one point to the next in the most efficient way; usually that included flips, rolls, and jumps using any piece of available architecture to maintain your momentum.
“If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward.” As I said it out loud, I could hear my dad speaking. It was something he picked up in the service from some drill sergeant and passed on to us. I’m not sure what Dad would have said about my current career. His life had been built on service, and all I did was entertain.
I had grown up as an army brat traveling with my father. He went from infantry to the rangers, to OCS, and finally to a battalion command. It had been a long road and my only companion had been my twin sister Nisha. I allowed myself a smile that turned bittersweet. Whenever I thought of my sister, my thoughts naturally went to our mother. She had died in childbirth, and the only thing we had to remember her by was our names, Nisha and Sah; they were small pieces of her—well, our—Nepal ancestry.
My parents had met when my dad had been serving in East Asia, and from all the stories he told, it had been true love at first sight. After she had died, he refused to be apart from us except when he was deployed in a forward position. He even put special effort into allowing us to develop our own identities and never dressed us the same or pigeonholed us into being like each other, except when it came naturally. Nisha was more of a girly girl and loved fancy clothes, while I was more of a tomboy and could usually be found halfway up a tree or on a rooftop.
He also decided at an early age to teach us how to take care of ourselves. We both learned general hand-to-hand combat, but he also gave each of us specialized instruction. Nisha was trained on how to handle knives and blades of assorted sizes, while I was taught how to shoot. When I was young, it had always seemed strange that my father had split things up between us, with him constantly trying for us to be a family, but I soon realized that it provided time for each of us to be with him individually. Also, it meant any of the boys who had tried to go too far in high school had an unpleasant surprise waiting for them.
We did have one thing that united us: no matter where we went, we loved stories. It started when we would constantly ask our father to tell the story of how he and our mother had met and their courtship. Then, when Dad was deployed, we would tell each other those stories, and it soon grew into us creating new stories all our own.
We would while away the hours working on huge, convoluted sagas filled with action and romance. Nisha would come up with a grandiose flight of fantasy, and I would populate it with the day-to-day details that would make the story believable.I was still focused on my memories to get rid of the aftereffects of the nightmare when I climbed out onto the fire escape. A moment later, I was on top of the building and sprinting across the heights, leaping, and rolling from one elevated position to another, hopefully looking like a cross between Jackie Chan and Spider-Man.
I had been a gymnast in high school, but this was so much more intense, and after a couple of months in the gym, I was hooked. I had replaced my daily jog with a run over the rooftops in my neighborhood. As I sped through the city, I saw a huge divide looming in front of me. The gap between the buildings was large, but nothing I had not done with pads on the floor. I dug my heels in and propelled myself faster and faster, but as I got closer, a little voice spoke up inside my head.
You’re not Dominique. That is a long way down. You can’t do this.Contrary to what most people believed, being too gutsy was not the greatest danger to a free runner; the biggest threat was hesitation. The moment you were not confident, a person got hurt, and suddenly, my attention was diverted.
I panicked and slammed on the brakes, breaking into a slide. My feet kept moving on the gravel.A moment later, I felt air under me. I started to tumble downwards. As I fell, I saw out of the corner of my eye a clothesline between the buildings. I had no thoughts, just a blind instinct to reach out my hands. I grabbed the rope, the impact causing the line to cut into my fingers, but I held on; for one long moment, my descent was stopped. I took a deep breath as I hung there, then the hook holding the rope to the far building pulled out of the wall. I swung backward, desperately keeping a grip on the rope, and slammed into the wall. The impact smacked the wind out of me, and I tumbled onto the fire escape.
“What the fuck are you doing out there?” A guy looked at me with a menacing glare and turned back to cooking his breakfast.
You gotta love Brooklyn. If I did this in Hell’s Kitchen, I would probably get some yuppie calling the cops. Brooklyn, a little profanity and everything is forgotten.
I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the protest of my body, and swiftly went down the fire escape to the street before the person I woke up decided I was a burglar.I limped my way back to my apartment.
As I walked in, I grabbed my mail. There was a package wrapped in brown paper from my sister in there. I threw the rest of the mail on the nearby counter and ripped into the packaging. It was a thick book with a note stuck to the front.
Hey, sis, I’ve been playing this new game and thought you might like it. I know you don’t normally do the DND thing, but you might find the world-building cool. Let me know what you think.Hmm.PurchaseNineStar Press | Books2Read
Meet the AuthorKathryne Lentes has been writing stories as long as she could hold a pen in her hand. She is a transwoman who, when not working on her own projects, operates Paper Phoenix Ink, a blog showcasing queer creators. She is currently living in Saint Louis with her wife, two cats, and a pile of science fiction and fantasy books.Website | Facebook | TwitterGiveawayOne lucky winner will receive a $50.00 NineStar Press Gift Code!a Rafflecopter giveaway
Earth's Passion Pre-Order Blitz #rabtbooktours
LGBTQ, Dark Fantasy, Steamy
Date Published: April 18, 2025
As their need for each other grows, so does the danger.
Kailee and Tom are falling for each other, but their secrets continue to come between them. Kailee’s afraid to show her physical scars, while Tom dreads his lover will discover the power those he still calls Master and Mistress hold over him.
Dragon and werewolf must join together in every way to defeat those who would dominate Tom and kill Kailee.
The following excerpt contains material suitable only for readers 18+.
EXCERPT
Kailee had been lying next to Tom for close to twenty minutes. Her new dragon lover was fast asleep, and she knew she should be resting too. Instead, she was filled with joy and an incautious sense of promise that she hadn’t felt in years.
Tom rolled over, draping his arm over her waist. Kailee wriggled a little as the urge to pee made itself known. A deeper craving drew at her also.
“Are you okay?” Tom mumbled. Then he stiffened. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…” He pulled his arm off her.
She turned over, snuggling in close. “I like it when you touch me. I just… I need to get up and use the bathroom.” It was true, but her ulterior motive was to take so long that he fell back to sleep, and she could go outside.
“I’ll wait up for you,” he said, slurring his words a little.
Kailee kissed his temple. “Go to sleep. I’ll be back in a moment.”
His eyes were already closed. As she watched, he lost the tension in his limbs and the worry lines on his face smoothed out. He began to snore.
She waited another five minutes, to make sure he was well and truly under. He’d had a sucky, hard life and she thought he hadn’t probably slept well for large parts of it. Knowing he was safe here, that she would protect him, made her smile.
She got up, padding to the bathroom after putting on the clothes she’d worn before they made love. Once in the bathroom, she unzipped her jeans. As much as she felt one hundred percent female most of the time, she still enjoyed the simple pleasure of peeing while standing up.
When she was finished, she flushed, zipped up, and washed her hands. Then, moving silently, not wanting to wake anyone up because this pack already knew everyone else’s business as it was, she went to the mudroom, put on her boots, and made her way out of the back door into the gloriously dark night. It was a waxing crescent moon tonight, about four days from the first quarter, and with so little light coming from that celestial orb, the darkness was close as a passionate lover, full of kindness. Like Tom.
She wrapped her arms around her chest, which was flat without the boobs she usually wore. That felt a little awkward but for this one moment, she was able to dismiss the feeling. She’d needed to embrace herself for pure joy’s sake. She’d been so very alone for damn near half her life, relying on gentleness and understanding from those who were either hired professionals or simply much older than she was and thus not quite as in touch with their wolflinghood as she could have wished. Maybe it was foolish to assume someone closer to her own age would have “gotten it,” her experiences and suffering. Still, because Tom understood, and only after so short a time, she thought the idea had slight merit.
Wanting to make some sort of noise to express herself, she began to sing. It was a simple song in Werewelsh, her first language. She’d grown up surrounded by the language developed by werewolves for their own kind, and although other people spoke it now, it remained mostly shared among the ones who had to change at the full moon. Werewolves largely did, though, and she was, first and foremost, a wolf.
She translated in her head as she sang, loving the poetry even though it didn’t rhyme in English.
Moon of darkness, moon of light,
Moon of power and strength.
Moon of my heart, full and wise,
Be with me tonight.
Probably, she thought as her joy crested but didn’t recede, I’m being foolish. He hasn’t even said he loves me.
That was true but what made her heart sing was a simple truth, not complicated by whether Tom wanted to be her mate or not. “In all honesty,” she whispered to the night that seemed to be listening, “I never thought anyone could see past my scars and love me anyway.”
All right, so he hadn’t actually seen her physical scars, her dead name carved into her chest with a silver knife and made to stay because of silver powder. She hadn’t been quite that brave. Still, Tom knew she had a reputation, that she’d killed, and he hadn’t pulled away. Wasn’t that worthy of ecstasy?
She closed her eyes and resumed her singing. Now she sang a song of how the sky so loved the moon that he bid her to cross from one edge to the other so he might admire her beauty. The moon’s response Kailee sang too, reveling in the way the moon demanded something in return: to see the stars scattered before her like diamonds.
Once again, her joy crested until it filled her chest. She broke out in a light sweat. That was when she became aware that the exhilaration she felt wasn’t hers alone.
Wary because she’d been influenced by outsider forces before, although less directly or psychically, she mounted her defenses and scanned the area with her telepathy, seeking the source of the external, pushy force.
At first, she felt nothing and no one. Widening her circle of ability, she fumbled in the darkness of the in-between that existed in the psychic world. Reaching, reaching, she felt a half-familiar mind.
About the Author
Emily Carrington is a multipublished author of male/male and transgender women’s speculative fiction. Seeking a world made of equality, she created SearchLight to live out her dreams. But even SearchLight has its problems, and Emily is looking forward to working all of these out with a host of characters from dragons and genies to psychic vampires. And in the contemporary world she’s named “Sticks & Stones,” Emily has vowed to create small towns where prejudice is challenged by a passionate quest for equality. Find her on Facebook at Shapeshifter Central or on her website.
Publisher on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok: @changelingpress
Fate of the Storm Cover Reveal #rabtbooktours
Demon Storm, Book Eight
Young Adult Fantasy
Date Published: 05-13-2025
Publisher: Shadow Spark Publishing
The shadows have retreated with Raven's downfall, but darkness still curls at the edges of the world. For a moment, though, Kari and Ari have a moment of peace. There is a glimmer of light that threatens to wash away the darkness as they finally bind their fates together in a formal ceremony.
But Raven hasn't given up, and there's an older, crueler foe who hasn't forgotten Kari - the Lord of Demons, the very one who crafted the Catalyst which Raven sought to control, still trapped in an ancient Tree.
Kari's moment of joy comes to a halt as the world shakes and Taris is ripped apart.
Velthas has risen.
About the Author
Valerie Storm was raised in Tucson, Arizona. Growing up, she fell in love with everything fantasy. When she wasn’t playing video games, she was writing. By age ten, she began to write her own stories as a way to escape reality. When these stories became a full-length series, she considered the path to sharing with other children & children-at/heart looking for a place to call home.
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April 14, 2025
Warpath Release Blitz #rabtbooktours
An Axel Blaze Crime Action Thriller
Action Adventure; Military thrillers; Vigilante justice
Date Published: April 10, 2025
A cartel kingpin. A botched raid. A blood-soaked vendetta.
When Mexico’s deadliest cartel, La Manada, spills blood on American soil, Delta Force Captain Axel Blaze gets the call. His mission: capture cartel boss Javier Salazar and crush his empire. No red tape. No half-measures.
But when an ambush forces Blaze to pull back stateside, the cartel takes the fight across the border—hitting civilians, targeting officials, daring him to respond.
Now, it’s personal. This time, it’s not about taking prisoners—it’s about ending threats. Blaze is coming for Salazar, and he won’t stop until La Manada is nothing but a smoldering memory.
About the Author
Bill Runner cut his teeth as an investigative journalist, plunging into the gritty underbelly of crime, before turning to writing edge-of-your-seat thrillers. Raised on a steady diet of westerns and lone ranger sagas, Bill’s real-life encounters with rogues and heroes shaped his electrifying protagonist, Axel Blaze. An adrenaline junkie at heart, Bill is a seasoned mountain climber and paraglider, and also a lifelong student of martial arts. Working the crime beat and studying the art of fighting honed his skills to craft pulse-pounding thrillers, renowned for their razor-sharp action sequences. You can find out more about Bill at his FB profile under the name Bill Runner Author.
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Knuckles Teaser Tuesday #rabtbooktours
(Kiss of Death MC)
Motorcycle Club Romance, Suspense, Age Gap
Date Published: April 18, 2025
The following promo contains material suitable only for readers 18+.
Hannah’s stubborn, abrasive, and vicious. She’s also mine.
Hannah: My life as I knew it ended the night my boyfriend tried to rape me. I killed the swine, and I’m not sorry. After that night, it became my mission to rid the world of as many predators as I could. If that meant I got slapped around a little, I’d sacrifice for the cause. What I didn’t count on was my brother’s best friend coming to my rescue. That dangerous vibe he’s giving off is making me feel things I never expected. Knuckles fought for me. Protected me. Now he’s using words like “claim” and “old lady,” but I’m not sure I want to be anyone’s property. Not unless it means he’s my property too.
Knuckles: I came to Afternoon Delytes to get the information I needed to destroy a woman who’d betrayed me. I never expected to see my best friend’s sister take a backhand to the face. She has the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met. She’s also vicious. And mine.
EXCERPT
Knuckles
“You tell that bitch I’m comin’ for her. She has a week at most to make her peace.” I’d never meant a statement more in my fucking life.
“I’m just puttin’ you in touch with her, Knuckles. Ain’t your errand boy. You want to negotiate, you go through her people.”
“Nothin’ to negotiate. When you confirm your job’s done, you tell her the only thing I want from her is her fuckin’ head on a pike.”
“You’re not gettin’ your daughter back until you talk with her, man. She made that very clear.”
“Too bad for her I already have my daughter.”
Finally, I got a reaction out of Wild Bill. Only a raised eyebrow but way more than the man normally showed. He wasn’t a man I trusted exactly, but he held to a code and I respected that. “OK… That’s news.”
“Is it.” I didn’t phrase my words as a question.
“How long have you had her?”
“Since before they managed to sell Pippa,” I snapped. “I know Beth wants my supplier, and I know she worked for several months to undercut me, so I was prepared for somethin’. It never occurred to me she’d sell her own daughter for a drug deal, but it should have. I knew years ago there was somethin’ not right with Beth. Even before she brought Pippa to see me. I knew there was another shoe to drop but wasn’t expectin’ her to actually sell our daughter to get even with me.”
“Look. I got in touch with you as a favor to her. I can see I made an error in judgment.” Yeah, Wild Bill could see how pissed I was. “I’ll deliver your message to the bitch and go one better. I’ll give you a heads-up before she does anythin’ else to piss you off.”
“Now, why would you do that, Wild Bill?” I drawled out the question as I leaned against the bar and took a sip of my coffee. Wild Bill had met me just outside the Kiss of Death compound in Nashville. The area we’d purchased and walled off sat in the industrial outskirts of the city, but there were still a couple bars and a strip club in the area, which is where we were currently. Little club called Afternoon Delytes. The music was loud, the girls had big tits, and the alcohol wasn’t watered down. A good place for an enemy to be distracted if he wasn’t cautious. Which was why I liked to meet here with men I didn’t fully trust.
“I know you think I’m amoral, but I do have a code, Knuckles. A line I won’t cross. If what you told me is true -- and your reputation says you know your shit before you speak -- that bitch obliterated my line. I ain’t above pimpin’ out girls willin’ to split the profits, but I don’t force women. For any reason. And I absolutely do not traffic. Beth broke both those hard and fast rules for me. I agreed to this in good faith with her mostly because I respect you. If it were my daughter, I’d kill anyone who knew what was goin’ on and didn’t tell me. But, honest to God, I thought Beth had the girl. Maybe in a gilded cage, or maybe it was an empty threat to you and there was no danger to your daughter at all.”
“I could be lying.”
Wild Bill shook his head. “Nope. That’s not your style. You’ve always given it to me straight. Whether or not it’s what I wanted to hear.” I had to admit, the man might have gone up a little in my estimation. I’d still verify any information he shared with me before acting on it. It might not tell the tale, but I’d be able to better see if Wild Bill subscribed to the honor among thieves mentality, or if it was every man for himself.
“You know where Beth is?” Even if he was lying, I wanted any information he doled out. If it was bogus, I’d act accordingly. Which would not end well for Wild Bill.
“Yep.” He took out an envelope. “I’ve had a guy on her for a couple months. She’s at the same place she’s always been at. Way too rich for a nurse’s salary.” He handed me the envelope and I took it.
I stared at him a long time. Wild Bill held my gaze without flinching. “Few men surprise me, so I’m going to give you this one time to tell me your agenda. I won’t consider you an enemy and I’ll respect your territory, but only if you come clean now.”
“No agenda, Knuckles. No repayment expected. No favors later. This is because I agreed to help your ex without investigatin’ beyond the surface. Knowin’ the girl was her daughter? Yeah. Wasn’t expectin’ her to hurt her own kid.” He shook his head like he knew he’d fucked up royally. “I don’t question things beyond the job because the job speaks for itself, but with somethin’ like this, I should have dug a little deeper. Ain’t too proud to admit when I’m wrong.” The corner of his lips curled up in a self-deprecating smile. “I’d also prefer it if you didn’t see this as a betrayal of the fragile alliance we have.”
“OK, now that I believe.” I took a sip of coffee, never taking my eyes from Wild Bill.
“How’d you get out of a life sentence anyway?” Wild Bill took a healthy pull of his beer before signaling the bartender for another.
“Friends in high places.” I continued to study the other man. “I’d’ve been out years ago except I had to help a guy out.”
Wild Bill snorted. “Right. You went in on a triple murder the way I heard it. That ain’t somethin’ you get out of that easy.”
“I did confess to a triple murder. Yes.” The smile I gave him wasn’t genuine.
Wild Bill looked like he wasn’t sure whether or not to believe me. “Must have been some long, hard dick you sucked to get out of that kind of rap.”
“All you need to know is it’s none of your Goddamned business.” This was getting tiresome. “You can spread the word to anyone you want to live that I’m back.”
About the Author
Marteeka Karland is an international bestselling author who leads a double life as an erotic romance author by evening and a semi-domesticated housewife by day. Known for her down and dirty MC romances, Marteeka takes pleasure in spinning tales of tenacious, protective heroes and spirited, vulnerable heroines. She staunchly advocates that every character deserves a blissful ending, even, sometimes, the villains in her narratives. Her writings are speckled with intense, raw elements resulting in page-turning delight entwined with seductive escapades leading up to gratifying conclusions that elicit a sigh from her readers.
Away from the pen, Marteeka finds joy in baking and supporting her husband with their gardening activities. The late summer season is set aside for preserving the delightful harvest that springs from their combined efforts (which is mostly his efforts, but you can count it). To stay updated with Marteeka's latest adventures and forthcoming books, make sure to visit her website. Don't forget to register for her newsletter which will pepper you with a potpourri of Teeka's beloved recipes, book suggestions, autograph events, and a plethora of interesting tidbits.
Author on Instagram & TikTok: @marteekakarland
Publisher on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok: @changelingpress
April 13, 2025
Shattered Compass Cover Reveal #rabtbooktours
A Memoir of Loss, Escape, and Renewal
Memoir
Date Published: June 11, 2025
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
How does a young woman cope when she cannot speak the truth?
When nineteen-year-old Lenore experiences sexual assault while studying abroad in Italy, her entire world shifts. Survival becomes the focus of her daily life, physical illness grabs control of her body, and no one can free her from her pain. A ghost of herself, she takes the path of denial, believing it’s the only way to protect her loved ones and herself from her harsh reality.
On her journey toward peace, she assumes the expected roles of mother and wife, but a traumatic diagnosis puts her at a crossroads. She must start living the life she wants or roam her days as a victim in the chaos of fear. Lenore’s escape through travel allows her to reconcile the imprisonment she’s suffered over the years.
However, when another family tragedy strikes, Lenore understands she must finally come to terms with the silence she’s kept. But what if one incident that happened decades ago is too destructive, too deep to be excavated? Will she be able to find herself in the rubble? Or will she be lost forever?
About the Author
Award-winning travel writer Lenore Greiner grew up in Marin County where, at thirteen, she began her writing journey as a lifelong journal keeper.
At nineteen, her passion for adventure led her to Italy’s heart to study at the University for Foreigners in Perugia and immerse herself in the language and culture. There, the seeds of her memoir were sown.
Lenore has garnered eight prestigious Solas Awards for Best Travel Writing and was honored in Best American Travel Writing 2013, edited by Elizabeth Gilbert. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Fodor’s travel guides, and three volumes of Shaking the Tree, an annual anthology curated by the International Memoir Writers Association.
A graduate of UC Davis, Lenore married her college sweetheart, and they now call Southern California home. They share two kids, two kayaks, and too many rambunctious grandkids.
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Through Smoke and Shadows Review #IndiGo
Title: Through Smoke and Shadows
Series: Beyond a Shadow, Book One
Author: L. Alyse Amidon
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: 04/08/2025
Heat Level: 1 - No Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 79400
Genre: Para, paranormal, lit/genre fiction, gay, trans, crime/mystery, action/adventure, dark, immortal, law enforcement, magic/magic users, slow burn/UST, mental illness, revenge, monsters, violence, guns and knives
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DescriptionA long-hidden force stirs in the heart of the Utah desert, and a killer sets out on a path to power and vengeance, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake.
Gene Bradshaw and Jack Cartwright, newly partnered detectives, are called to a gruesome murder scene, and neither knows what to make of it. The mutilated body is so unidentifiable it’d be easy to call it an animal attack, but neither detective buys such a simple explanation. While Gene relies on his gut that something more sinister is afoot, Jack knows the killer isn’t an animal, and it’s certainly not a human.
To catch the murderer, Jack and Gene must set their differences aside and learn to work together. But the closer they become, the more the lines blur between personal and professional. When the case takes an unexpected turn, Gene learns there’s more to his partner’s world than he ever imagined, and he has to dive headfirst into it, whether he’s ready or not.
Set against the deep, desolate canyons and the endless landscape of Southern Utah, Through Smoke and Shadows weaves a twisting tale of the evil that lurks down dark alleys, in our closets, and even in plain sight.
The following excerpt contains depictions of explicit fantasy violence.ExcerptThrough Smoke and ShadowsL. Alyse Amidon © 2025All Rights Reserved
Little Cottonwood Canyon
About six miles west of Solitude Mountain Resort
You got demons inside you, girl.” His sweet, sickly Southern drawl made my skin itch.
Real original, I thought, turning my head to spit blood on the floor.
“Someone ought to help you with that.”
The man was older than others I’d met, maybe forty-five and tall, with a somewhat portly build to him. It was embarrassing to admit, but I’d dismissed him earlier, thought him harmless. Now, chained to a chair, beaten and torn, I was paying for that mistake. But I wasn’t too worried.
He walked over to the far corner of the…barn? Was that where we were? It had to be something akin to a barn, with its high ceilings, unfinished floors, and walls made of wood. It didn’t smell like animals, though, so perhaps it was an outbuilding.
“Been tracking you for a while,” he said as he pulled out a knife, the blade catching the small bit of moonlight seeping in through the cracks in the roof. “Never thought I’d catch you.”
“First mistake was underestimating yourself.”
The man’s eyes narrowed as he approached. “More like I was overestimating you.”
He smiled a cruel smile before sticking the blade into my stomach. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt, but it wasn’t that bad. I’d probably had worse menstrual pains if I were being honest.
The coppery taste of blood filled my mouth yet again, and I returned his smile with my own. I squirmed forward as best I could, considering my bindings, and pulled the blade further into my gut.
“You really think I got demons inside me?” I asked. “You think a knife’s gonna do anything?” I laughed.
The man’s face turned from haughty to frustrated in an instant, and he twisted the knife, causing blood to rise in my throat. I didn’t stop laughing, though, and it sounded as if I was gurgling mouthwash. Blood dribbled down my chin.
With a huff, the man pulled the blade out abruptly and stalked over to his corner, where he rifled through his bag of toys. I went limp and opened my mouth, letting gravity pull the blood from it, watching as it ebbed out of me ever so slowly. I wasn’t sure how long the man stayed in his corner, but sooner than I would have liked, his shoes came into view before the pool of blood.
The hilt of a different knife, a larger one, pushed my chin up so that I was forced to meet his gaze, and I noticed he was older than I thought. His eyes…they held so much more light than I realized.
“You think you’re so clever, don’t you? You think you can go around doing whatever you want, huh? You can’t.”
The edge of my mouth quirked up on instinct. “I beg to differ.”
A hint of challenge gleamed in his eyes.
In the next instant, his free hand gripped my hair in a tight hold while the other flipped the knife around and used it to slice my throat from end to end.
Now, that one? That one hurt. A lot. And a considerable amount of blood was added to the little pool I had going.
For a beat, neither of us breathed.
When he released his hold, I let my head and body fall limp. He stumbled back, his breathing labored—the sounds of a man who had completed some long-awaited task. I gave him time to get a hold of himself. When he started cleaning up his mess, I made my move. He came over to unchain my body, and I snapped the chains around my wrists, lifting my gaze to meet his.
Fear filled his eyes as I took hold of his lapels. I pulled him in close.
“I told you the knife wasn’t going to work.”
I shoved him to the ground, and he grunted on impact, rolling over to his front and then trying to push himself up.
I stood, and the rest of the chains slid down my body. I picked up a broken piece, wrapped it around his neck, and pulled him upright. His hands shot to his throat, desperately clawing at it to pull the chain away from his skin.
“What? You thought that’s all it would take?” I tsked. “You should have known better.”
He elbowed me in the ribs, but I just tightened my grip. His mouth agape, he tried to suck air into his lungs, though his efforts were futile. As his face drained of color and his eyes rolled up into his head, I released him, shoving him away.
He gasped for breath on all fours. I kicked him over onto his back, and he stared up at me in fear. I stood over him and imagined how I must appear to him. A tall, pale woman with bruises he’d inflicted littering her skin, fresh knife wounds on her neck and stomach. Blood draining out of her. I gave him a wicked smile.
“For the record, there are no demons inside me.”
His eyes grew wide as I lunged for his throat.PurchaseNineStar Press | Books2Read
Meet the AuthorL. Alyse likes stories that push against and break genre norms. She likes to crack genres open and write about what’s most interesting. She’s fascinated by characters who are different, unapologetically themselves, and morally complex. Her stories are filled with dark, twisty plots that let the characters breathe. When she’s not working or writing, L. loves to crochet, watch TV, cuddle her dog, and spend as much time outside as she can.Website | InstagramGiveawayOne lucky winner will receive a $50.00 NineStar Press Gift Code!
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Ornery Owl's Review
RatingFour out of Five Stars
This story begins on a hard-hitting note and continues with a snappy pace throughout. A monster hunter holds a supernaturally strong female humanoid captive. His blade cannot kill her, so she slips his grip, turning the tables on him.
In the next chapter, Jack Cartwright, a monster hunter turned police officer, leaves his frustrated partner Gene Bradshaw to deal with a body so badly mutilated it's impossible to tell if the victim is male or female. Jack goes to consult with his twin sister Maggie, who initially wants nothing further to do with monster hunting, but then her curiosity gets the better of her. Then more bodies turn up, further complicating the situation.
The snappy pace of these first two chapters continues throughout the story. I enjoy the banter between Jack and the other characters. I assumed the victim to be the monster hunter from the first chapter and guessed that his captive was a vampire. However, the creature becomes more complex as the story goes on, and so does Jack's story. He is keeping a lot of secrets.
Since I was deeply invested in the mystery and monster hunting aspects of the story, the relationship arc felt superfluous. This is not a criticism of the way the romance arc was written; it is strictly a subjective preference. More action! More monsters! Romance? Meh...whatever.
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