FS Meurinne's Blog: Book Enticer, page 32

A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang

Inspired by the legend of Xishi, one of the famous Four Beauties of Ancient China, A Song to Drown Rivers is an epic historical fantasy about womanhood, war, sacrifice, and love against all odds.
Her beauty hides a deadly purpose.

Xishi’s beauty is seen as a blessing to the villagers of Yue—convinced that the best fate for a girl is to marry well and support her family. When Xishi draws the attention of the famous young military advisor, Fanli, he presents her with a rare opportunity: to use her beauty as a weapon. One that could topple the rival neighboring kingdom of Wu, improve the lives of her people, and avenge her sister’s murder. All she has to do is infiltrate the enemy palace as a spy, seduce their immoral king, and weaken them from within.

Trained by Fanli in everything from classical instruments to concealing emotion, Xishi hones her beauty into the perfect blade. But she knows Fanli can see through every deception she masters, the attraction between them burning away any falsehoods.

Once inside the enemy palace, Xishi finds herself under the hungry gaze of the king’s advisors while the king himself shows her great affection. Despite his gentleness, a brutality lurks and Xishi knows she can never let her guard down. But the higher Xishi climbs in the Wu court, the farther she and Fanli have to fall—and if she is unmasked as a traitor, she will bring both kingdoms down.

https://amzn.to/4bmzNEG

Window Shopping by Tessa Bailey

https://amzn.to/3yNwgRq

 

USA TODAY BESTSELLER

A sizzling, feel-good, opposites-attract holiday romance from Tessa Bailey, #1 New York Times bestselling author of It Happened One Summer—now in a beautiful new package!

Two weeks before Christmas and all through Manhattan, shop windows are decorated in red and green satin. Stella is standing alone outside a famous department store, when a charming man asks her opinion on the décor.

It’s a tragedy in tinsel, she says, unable to lie. Then he asks for a better idea, with a twinkle in his eye. She didn’t know he owned the place, when he put her on the spot, and now she’s working for that man, trying to ignore that he’s hot.

But as a down-on-her-luck girl with a difficult past, Stella knows how to make a good opportunity last. So she gives it her all, working without stopping. Trying to resist temptation, because she’s just window shopping.

The House at Watch Hill (Watch Hill, #1) by Karen Marie Moning

#1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Marie Moning is back with a gripping, imaginative, and seductive new series in which a young woman moves to Divinity, Louisiana, to inherit a large fortune and a Gothic mansion full of mysteries and ominous secrets…

Zo Grey is reeling from the sudden death of her mother when she receives a surprising call from an attorney in Divinity, Louisiana, with the news she has been left an inheritance by a distant relative, the terms of which he will only discuss in person. Destitute and alone, with nothing left to lose, Zo heads to Divinity and discovers she is the sole beneficiary of a huge fortune and a monstrosity of a house that sits ominously at the peak of Watch Hill—but she must live in it, alone, for three years before the house, or the money, is hers.

Met with this irresistible opportunity to finally build a future for herself, Zo puts aside her misgivings about the foreboding Gothic mansion and the strange circumstances, and moves in, where she is quickly met by a red-eyed Stygian owl and an impossibly sexy Scottish groundskeeper.

Her new home is full of countless secrets and mystifying riddles, with doors that go nowhere, others that are impossible to open, and a turret into which there is no visible means of ingress. And the townspeople are odd…

What Zo doesn’t yet know is that her own roots lie in this very house and that in order to discover her true identity and awaken her dormant powers, she will have to face off against sinister forces she doesn’t quite comprehend—or risk being consumed by them.

https://amzn.to/3X664v7

Counting Miracles by Nicholas Sparks

From the acclaimed author of The Longest Ride and The Notebook comes an emotional, powerful novel about wondering if we can change—or even make our peace with—the path we’ve taken.

Tanner Hughes was raised by his grandparents, following in his grandfather’s military footsteps to become an Army Ranger. His whole life has been spent abroad, and he is the proverbial rolling stone . . . happiest when off on his next adventure, zero desire to settle down. But when his grandmother passes away, her last words to him are: find where you belong. She also drops a bombshell, telling him the name of the father he never knew—and where he might be found.

Tanner is due at his next posting soon, but his curiosity is piqued, and he sets out for Asheboro, North Carolina, to ask around. He’s been in town less than twenty-four hours when he meets Kaitlyn Cooper, a doctor and single mom. They both feel an immediate connection; Tanner knows Kaitlyn has a story to tell, and he wants to hear it. For Kaitlyn, Tanner is mysterious, exciting—and possibly leaving in just a few weeks.

Meanwhile, nearby, eighty-three-year-old Jasper lives alone in a cabin bordering a national forest. With only his old dog Arlo for company, he lives quietly, haunted by a tragic accident that took place decades before. When he hears rumors that a white deer has been spotted in the forest—a creature of legend that inspired his father and grandfather—he becomes obsessed with protecting the deer from poachers.

As these characters’ fates orbit closer together, none of them is expecting a miracle . . . but that may be exactly what is about to alter their futures forever.

 

https://amzn.to/3SvLf8g

Tiny Threads by Lilliam Rivera

In this gorgeously sinister novel of supernatural suspense, a young woman gets her dream job working for a famous designer—and discovers the dark side of the glamorous world of fashion.

Fashion-obsessed Samara finally has the life she’s always dreamed of: A high-powered job with legendary designer Antonio Mota. A new home in sunny California, far away from those drab Jersey winters. And an intriguing love interest, Brandon, a wealthy investor in Mota’s fashion line.

But it’s not long before Samara’s dream life begins to turn into a living nightmare as Mota’s big fashion show approaches and the pressure on her turns crushing. Perhaps that’s why she begins hearing voices in her room at night—and seeing strange things that can’t be explained away by stress or anxiety or the number of drinks she’s been consuming.

And it may not be just Samara imagining things as her psyche unravels, because she soon discovers hints that her new city—and the House of Mota—may be built on a foundation of secrets and lies. Now Samara must uncover what hideous truths lurk in the shadows of this illusory world of glamour and beauty before those shadows claim her.

 

https://amzn.to/430YT8f

A Jingle Bell Mingle (A Christmas Notch, #3) by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Murphy and USA Today bestselling author Sierra Simonewho gave us A Merry Little Meet Cute comes a new holiday rom-com—’tis the season for second chances!

What happens when there’s no room at the inn and you and your potentially demonic cat become roommates with your grumpy one-night stand?

Part-time adult film actress/one-time adult film director/makeup artist Sunny Palmer has accidentally sold her very first screenplay to the Hope Channel. That was six months ago. Fast forward to a looming deadline, an uninspired Sunny has returned to the source of her inspiration in Christmas Notch, Vermont, to immerse herself in the local Christmas miracle on which her fever dream of a movie pitch was based.

Isaac Kelly, former boy band heartthrob and the saddest boy in the music biz, is the latest owner of the town’s historic mansion. After his years of heartbreak following his young wife’s death, Isaac’s record label is done waiting for new music. What better place to attempt his first holiday album than a snow-covered mansion where he can become a hermit in peace?

But after their best friends’ wedding leads to them waking up together in a freezing motel room with questionable wiring and a broken shower, Isaac takes a chance and asks Sunny to stay with him at his home. Surely the place is big enough that he’ll hardly see her or her unhinged cat. But when the two discover they’re both creatively blocked, they make a handshake deal: Isaac will help Sunny hunt down the truth behind the local lore, and Sunny will find Isaac a new muse.

And with these two opposites under one roof, there’s no way this jingle bell mingle could go off script…right?

https://amzn.to/4avZu3T

The Worst Duke in London (Taming of the Dukes #3) by Amalie Howard

 

Bridgerton meets 10 Things I Hate About You in this spicy enemies-to-lovers Regency romance from a “must-read author” (Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author).

Lady Evangeline Raine prefers animals to people and has no interest in marriage­–much to the dismay of her flirty younger sister, Viola. Because their father has one rule: Viola may be courted, only if Effie has a suitor as well.

Saddled with debt, Gage Croft, Duke of Vale, is determined to rebuild his estates. When the owner of his vowels offers him a fortune to charm the impervious Lady Evangeline for the season so Lady Viola can be courted, the game is on, even if it means pretending to seduce an unconventional wallflower.

But Gage gets much more than he bargains for in an adversary who wants to make her own scandalous arrangement. Effie will go to London for the season, but only if Gage agrees to be her lover. Yet when their fake courtship leads to passionate feelings, will their indecent proposal end with the season or be the start of something real?

https://amzn.to/3UMs7nV

A Fire in the Sky by Sophie Jordan

New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan returns to the high-stakes, sweeping world of dragons, romance, and drama first evoked in her bestselling young adult Firelight series, in a brand-new epic adult romantasy series.

Dragons are extinct. Witches are outcast. Magic is dying.

But human lust for power is immortal.

Dragon fire no longer blisters the skies over Penterra, but inside the lavish palace, life is still perilous…especially for Tamsyn. Raised in the glittering court alongside the princesses, it’s her duty to be punished for their misdeeds. Treated as part of the royal family but also as the lowliest servant, Tamsyn fits nowhere. Her only friend is Stig, Captain of the Guard…though sometimes she thinks he wants more than friendship.

When Fell, the Beast of the Borderlands, descends on her home, Tamsyn’s world becomes even more dangerous. To save the pampered princesses from a fate worse than death, she is commanded to don a veil and marry the brutal warrior. She agrees to the deception even though it means leaving Stig, and the only life she’s ever known, behind.

The wedding night begins with unexpected passion—and ends in near violence when her trickery is exposed. Rather than start a war, Fell accepts Tamsyn as his bride…but can he accept the dark secrets she harbors—secrets buried so deep even she doesn’t know they exist? For Tamsyn is more than a royal whipping girl, more than the false wife of a man who now sees her as his enemy. And when those secrets emerge, they will ignite a flame bright enough to burn the entire kingdom to the bone.

Magic is not dead…it is only sleeping. And it will take one ordinary girl with an extraordinary destiny to awaken it.

https://amzn.to/4fhDlu7

Devotion: A Mate Games: War Novella by Meg Anne and K. Loraine

https://amzn.to/3Mfd81S

SPOILER WARNING: THIS NOVELLA TAKES PLACE APPROXIMATELY ONE AND A HALF YEARS AFTER THE EVENTS OF TEMPTATION AND INCLUDES SPOILERS FOR THE MATE GAMES: PESTILENCE AND DEATH.

IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THOSE SERIES, YOU MAY WANT TO STOP HERE AND DO THAT FIRST.

Turns out happily ever after isn’t what the storybooks promised.

We thought it was over, that we’d earned a peaceful life filled with love and tender moments. We couldn’t have been more wrong.

With Sunday and our sweet Eden at the center of our group, the four of us are more protective than ever, so when I’m called to return as Headmaster of Ravenscroft University, I assume our family is safe.

You’d think I would’ve learned my lesson by now. No one is ever truly safe. Especially not with all the obstacles in our path.

An uneasy wolf pack.

Unfinished business with the Shadow Court.

An adorable menace with far more power than should be possible.

And a ghost I never expected to see again.

So much for enjoying retirement. It seems fate isn’t done with us yet, because happily ever after isn’t an ending at all.

No, it’s only the beginning.

 

Illicit Temptations by Katee Robert

From the New York Times bestselling author of Neon Gods comes two emotionally intense and dangerously sexy novels in one volume.

What if the one person you shouldn’t want is the one you can’t resist?

Make Me Yours

Becka Baudin gets what she wants, and she wants Aaron Livingston—but only for a quick affair. Weeks later, her coveted freedom starts to disappear thanks to a plus sign on a pregnancy test. Aaron insists she move in to his penthouse and commit to a relationship, but Becka demands he give her space without pushing for more. They are total opposites—with different jobs, interests, lives. But their chemistry keeps pushing them together…for better or for worse?

Make Me Need

Trish Livingston desperately needs her new job. Which means putting up with the world’s grumpiest boss—who is also her brother’s best friend and business partner, Cameron O’Clery. The way he looks at her is pure disdain…but when he touches her, it’s pure fire. With family and business ties at stake, they are not supposed to be together. There’s a fine line between hate and lust, and they are going to cross it…but at what cost?

Previously published as Make Me Yours and Make Me Need.

https://amzn.to/3W1VN1W