Lori L. Clark's Blog, page 15

Release Blitz & Giveaway: Shadow Fall

Shadow Fall
Audrey Grey
(Shadow Fall, #1)
Published by: Blaze Publishing
Publication date: November 22nd 2016
Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult

The asteroid hurtling toward the earth will kill billions.
The Emperor and his Gold Court will be safe in their space station, watching from the stars. The Silvers will be protected underground. But the Bronzes must fight it out at the Shadow Trials for the few remaining spots left on the space station.
When an enigmatic benefactor hands Maia Graystone a spot in the Trials, she won’t just get a chance at salvation for her and her baby brother, Max: She gets to confront the mother who abandoned her in prison, the mad Emperor who murdered her father, and the Gold prince who once loved her. But it’s the dark bastard prince she’s partnered with that will make her question everything, including her own heart. With the asteroid racing closer every day, Maia must trust someone to survive.
The question is who?

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / iBooksYou can get your copy now for the special release price of 99 cents, and be sure to meet us at the Facebook Party happening right now!—EXCERPT:My legs wobble as I step into the now lukewarm water. I sink to the bottom. Tiny bubbles escape my nose as I watch all the ugly remnants from the last seven years leave my body.Lungs burning, I rise and come face-to-face with Pit Boy.
I glare at him. “You really have to work on the knocking thing.”
Despite the fact that I’m indecent, his attention never falls from my face. I almost wish it would, just to give me a break from the intensity of his focus.
“I only get a few more hours to be the ‘one-eyed freak’ from the pit. Might as well take advantage.” He doesn’t dare crack a smile, so it’s hard to tell if he’s joking or serious.
“Don’t worry. In my heart, that’s exactly who you’ll always be.”
His words remind me that soon we’ll be reconstructed using forbidden nanotech. But it won’t just be our flesh they’ll reengineer. It will be our brains, too.
I don’t foresee my rewiring being too complicated, but Riser needs to upload almost twenty years of false memories. That will be tricky and time-consuming.
And time is the one thing we don’t have.
Riser flicks his gaze to the mirror. He lifts a hand, touches the patch of mottled flesh where his eye should be.
“How did it happen?” I ask.
“Careful, my lady.” His gaze settles on my face. “You’re beginning to sound like you care.”
I roll my eyes. “And I thought I was lacking in conversational skills.”
He focuses his attention on the graffiti sprayed across the mirror.
“It’s written language,” I blurt, even though all I want to do is end the conversation so Pit Boy can leave. His presence unnerves me more than the other Pit Leeches ever could. “It’s how we communicate.”
“I know what it is.” He examines his jagged thumbnail. “I just . . . can’t read it.”
“It’s just stuff about the Chosen. You know, insults.” The populace is finicky. As much as they love watching the Chosen with their petty intrigues and court life, they would be just as happy to see their heads on a pike.
“Chosen?”
Time to explain what you are, Everly, Nicolai’s voice grates inside my head. Riser’s eyes flutter just enough that I know he’s heard Nicolai’s voice too.
You do it, I think, watching Riser’s reaction. But his face remains emotionless; either he’s a good actor or only Nicolai can hear my response.
“The Royalist astronomers discovered the asteroid twenty-one years ago,” I begin. “It’s actually a slow moving planet called an earth-crosser, meaning its orbit and ours intersect every twenty-thousand years. Usually it’s too far away to affect us, but this time it will pass close enough to wreak havoc and make the earth uninhabitable for years.” I stir the water with my big toe. “Before I was born, the Emperor decided that creating a population of genetically superior humans would be a great idea, you know, just in case the Caskets don’t work or the asteroid does more damage than predicted.”
Riser’s hyper-focused gaze bores through me. “You’re one of them?”
“Yes.” I run my hand through the filthy water. “But my father’s a Bronze, so even though my mother comes from a Gold House, the Emperor only allowed them one Chosen instead of the customary twins. So it’s just me . . . not Max.”
“What makes being Chosen so special?”
“I don’t know . . .” I bite my lip, trying to remember everything my parents told me. “My genes are perfect, I guess.”
For some reason, talking about my body makes me remember that I am naked in a room with a boy. As if reading my mind, Riser slowly lets his gaze fall, his expression both curious and unapologetic as he takes me all in, his thoughts cryptic.
“What are you staring at?” I blurt, smashing my breasts beneath my hands. Not like there’s much there to cover. “Haven’t you seen a naked girl before?”
A smile twitches his lips. “Not one that’s genetically flawless.”
“It doesn’t work that way! You can’t just look at us and tell. We look like everyone else—”
“No.” Riser shakes his head, a dark swath of hair covering his damaged eye. “You don’t. Whatever you are.”
“You must be happy . . . about our reconstruction, I mean,” I mumble, trying desperately to change the subject. “They’ll fix your eye . . . and . . . and all those horrible scars.”
I freeze as he slides off the counter, unable to look away as he hooks one finger beneath his shirt and lifts.
Scars ravage his anemic body in varying shades of red and silver and white. Some deep and pitted like the craters of a far-away planet, others smooth and neat. One particular nasty scar carves down his shoulder, tunneling across his chest and stomach. A fresh red wound nestles just below his throat.
He carefully touches the long ugly one. “I’m not ashamed for surviving.”

Author Bio:
Audrey Grey lives in the charming state of Oklahoma, with her husband, two little people, and four mischievous dogs. You can usually find her hiding out in her office from said little people and dogs, surrounded by books and sipping kombucha while dreaming up wondrous worlds for her characters to live in.
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Book Review: Rhapsody

Rhapsody (Bellator Saga #5)by Cecilia London (Goodreads Author) 4.71  ·   Rating Details ·  85 Ratings  ·  58 Reviews"I'm never going to stop loving you, Caroline. It's just not possible."

Major Caroline Gerard returns from a dangerous mission battered and bruised. Terrified to confront the emotional and physical gap between her and her husband, she's determined to do whatever it takes to avoid reality.

Commander Jack McIntyre has been tasked with saving American democracy, but he has to save his marriage first. He's desperate to regain the passionate connection that he and his wife once shared. And a man on a mission will sacrifice anything to succeed.

In the meantime, the rebellion is in need of a catalyst to spur international action to stop President Santos’ increasingly unstable behavior. As Caroline and Jack repair their hearts, each day brings new secrets and new challenges, and a revelation that could shatter everything they thought was true.


Rhapsody is the fifth book in The Bellator Saga. It should be read after the first four books in the series.
TeriLyn's thoughts: **Rhapsody generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.**

Here we are. Finally. The highly anticipated Book 5 of the 5+ star Bellator Saga series and Cecilia London once again doesn't disappoint. Since it's inception I've been a huge fan of this politically charged, sexy, gritty love story, the characters that make it so special, and the intelligent, gorgeous writing that fuels each and every installment. With the end of each book Cecilia London promises more extraordinary story telling to come and always delivers. The Bellator Saga is one unlike any other and cannot be missed. 

If you haven't started the series you must start at the beginning with Dissident, the books cannot be read as stand alone's. In Rhapsody, we start where we left off in book 4 with the ever present tension running high between Jack and Caroline. To preserve the beauty of this particular plot and the forward direction we're rolling in I can't mention much in terms of plot and specific character details. However, I will say that this book is exactly what fans of this power couple have been waiting for without a doubt. It's evocative, heart breaking, and compelling. The way the story continues and perseveres through the chaos and tragedy surrounding them proves the writing chops of London exquisitely once again. 

As much as the Bellator Saga hails as Caroline Gerard McIntyre's story, and I love me some Caroline real hard, the beacon throughout Rhapsody is without a doubt Jack. His patience, his motivation, his growth throughout the saga hits full force in this one. His belief in Caroline in her strength and fortitude is invigorating. It solidifies his belief in himself and his own strength and fortitude. You'll fall in love all over again with Mr. McIntyre and with their EPIC love story. I'm sharing a favorite passage below spoken by Jack that really captures the essence of him in this story:

"Listen to me," he said. "Everything good I have ever done with my life was because of you. I want you with me. I want to help you heal. I don't care what I have to sacrifice in order to save you."

Cecilia London takes an interesting perspective in this one examining their marriage pre tragedy in a whole different light. She redirects and strengthens how that previous bond defines where they are now and how they move beyond the anger, guilt, and sadness. It's a concise look at the tests of marriage and love and loyalty and how far they'll each go to preserve what they feel even when those feelings aren't properly expressed. It shows the true strength of these two together even when they're emotionally apart. 

Other developments happen along the way too as much is happening in Jack and Caroline's world outside of their relationship indeed. However, Rhapsody for me focuses on revival and healing so much reminding you of the beauty that is Jack and Caroline even during the dire trials of their marriage. 

Cecilia London took an ordinary, political couple and made them extraordinary with her intelligent writing. She gave us characters we feel intimately familiar with and relish being a part of their story. She compels us with each book. She shows us the strength of the human spirit reminding us no matter how often or hard it's tested our resolve can remain whole. She ultimately and most importantly gifts us the belief that love conquers all and if we hang in there for the tough stuff we'll have the most precious gift of all. 

Only one book left. I can't even believe it. Bring on Triumph. I can't wait to see how Jack and Caroline's story concludes. It's been worth every bit of angst, heartache, joy, and healing we've had.

Cover Reveal: Untapped

Untapped
Logan Chase
Publication date: December 20th 2016
Genres: Adult, Romance, Thriller

Some desires are better left uncovered…
Erik Bertinelli is the son of the vilest mob boss in all of New York’s underbelly. He’s the enforcer, the hitman for the syndicate, and the type of guy who doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty. His hideaway is as unconventional as they come… the New York Public Library.
With a thirst for knowledge and a grand getaway at his fingertips, he loses himself daily in the dusty tales of old. Life is too f*cked up most days of the week. Peace would be beyond welcomed.
Grace Adams desires more than anything to live fully alive, and yet, she’s doing just the opposite of that. She’s a librarian at the New York Public Library and spends her days wishing like hell that she could disappear into one of the romance novels she reads.
With an imagination that would shock her family and friends, she keeps to herself and lives in the colorful parts of her mind – alone. Untapped.
When the same deliciously dangerous alpha male keeps showing up between the bookshelves, her daydreams quickly dive into passion that feels too good to be true. The kind that could burn anyone involved. The kind she would do anything for.
Maybe even kill…

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Author Bio:
Romance is a genre that is oftentimes written by women, but my novels give you the chance to see through the eyes of some of the men that perhaps you fantasize about, and the opportunity to read about passion from the other side for a change. Stories told about real relationships, legit problems and past experiences… unless you’re an ex, in which case any resemblance to women living or dead is merely a coincidence. ;)
My name is Logan. I’m a full time firefighter during the day, but I’m not here to put out any fires. I’m here to start them. Hope you enjoy my stories and feel free to reach out at any time. I love to flirt.

Book Blitz: Finding Paradise

Finding Paradise
V.P. Ortiz
Publication date: September 24th 2016
Genres: New Adult, Romance

Mila Quinn is ready to finally move out of the college dorms into an apartment with her longtime boyfriend, Ethan Lowe. But when Ethan reveals a big secret, her world is suddenly turned upside down, stirring up old memories of love and loss. Completely torn apart, she boards a plane to Hawaii to escape for the summer.
Even though Mila wants to spend her time in paradise in isolation, fate has other plans when it drops sexy local Gage Madden in her lap. Hesitant at first, she agrees to let him take the reins on her island exploration. As Mila discovers the wonders of Oahu with Gage, it becomes harder for her to fight the budding attraction between them.
But behind the curtain of island adventures and undeniable chemistry, trouble is brewing where Mila least expects it. Secrets begin to bubble to the surface that could destroy her all over again. Will Mila find her paradise? Or will she leave Hawaii with another broken heart?

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble—EXCERPT:We’re not at this café for a normal lunch between a boyfriend and his loyal girlfriend. No, my dear, we’re here for an ambush. A bombshell. A catastrophic turn of events that’s about to turn my uneventful life upside down. And I’m supposed to have words at this point to speak? What are words?
“Mila…”
Ethan utters my name, but I can’t peel my gaze away from the image in front of me. My tunnel vision is focused on the small grayscale picture he slid towards me with guilty eyes a few minutes ago. The picture next to the Cobb salad that will never be eaten and next to the iced tea covered in condensation dripping down the glass, crying for me.
The picture is actually perfectly clear. They say it’s hard to make out anything but blobs of gray in these things, that you can’t see much at this point. But they say a lot of things, like that love conquers all, and all you need is love. Whoever they are, they are full of shit.
I can see everything in the picture so perfectly. The tiny button nose, the delicate fingers, the rounded belly. I can make it all out just fine.
The baby in the ultrasound picture in front of me belongs to my boyfriend.
But the baby in the ultrasound picture doesn’t belong to me.

Author Bio:
V.P. Ortiz lives, works, and breathes in sunny/snowy/beautiful Colorado with her loving husband, their two beautiful children, and their three fat cats. While her home may be in the Rocky Mountains, she left her heart somewhere on the island of Oahu, where she plans to retire someday in a tiny house with an avocado tree and free-range chickens. Besides reading any book in sight, her hobbies also include eating, dancing, lip syncing, and occasionally running until her husband has to pick her up eight miles away because she got lost and has a leg cramp.
Learn more at http://www.vportiz.com
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Book Review: Hold My Breath

We're celebrating the release of HOLD MY BREATH by Ginger Scott! Check out the review, teasers, and giveaway below!



HOLD MY BREATHNA Contemporary Romance-Stand AloneScheduled to release: November 18, 2016GoodreadsAmazon: https://amzn.com/B01MXFXWRPiBooks: http://apple.co/2ehJysdKobo: http://bit.ly/2dxZZkQBN: http://bit.ly/2dl9THZGoogle: http://bit.ly/2ftjuuK

BLURB:Fractions of seconds can do lots of damage. One decision can ruin lives. A blink can be tragic. And loving a Hollister…can hurt like hell.

I would know.

They say the average person can hold their breath under water for two full minutes when pushed to the extremes. Will Hollister has been holding his for years. The oldest of two elite swimming brothers, Will was always a dominant force in the water. But in life, he preferred to let his younger
brother Evan be the one to shine.

Evan got the girl, and Will…he got to bury all of the secrets. A brother’s burden, the weight of it all nearly left him to drown.

The daughter of two Olympians, my path was set the day my fingertips first touched water. My future was as crystal clear as the lane I dominated in the pool—swim hard, win big, love a Hollister.



My life with Evan burned bright. He gave me arms to come home to, and a smile that fooled the world into believing everything was perfect. But it was Will who pushed me. Will…who really knew me.

And when all of the pieces fell, it was Will who started to pick them up.

In the end, the only thing that matters are those few precious seconds—and what we decide to do while we still have them in our grasp.


TeriLyn's thoughts: **Hold My Breath generously provided in exchange for an honest review.**

5 "God, I love the rush." Stars

Ginger Scott without question stands as one of my favorite New Adult story tellers as she once again made gritty NA magic. Another beautifully compelling, adrenaline-filled rush of a story that I couldn't put down. Hold My Breath ranks up there in my top favorite stories from this authors catalog. Always perfectly expressing the essence of growing up with difficulty, in Will Hollister’s case extreme difficulty, layering her stories with the adrenaline rush of athletics and how that can center you, and building on a foundation of love, trust, and loyalty that may have been overlooked Ginger Scott captivates with her books. Hold My Breath is a definite shining star example of her clout as a gifted writer and the emotional, compelling journey she provides for her readers. 

This is one of those reviews that will be quite vague in terms of plot because Hold My Breath is a story and an experience. Scott’s writing urges readers to feel the gambit of emotions her characters feel throughout the story. She accomplishes this by making both hero and heroine vulnerable. Will Hollister and Maddy Woodsen are connected beyond the pool in which they train. They’re souls entwine in ways even they don’t fully realize. As a reader, we get to witness first hand as this realization dawns and crests throughout this book. They have so much to overcome after all they’ve been dealt. From the prologue to the end, Ginger Scott had me hooked. During my weekend and the times I was busier, Will and Maddy were constantly on my mind. I relived parts I’d already read in my mind constantly wondering where this story was going next. It’s a beautiful feeling for a reader to be completely transfixed by the evocative story telling of a favorite author. 

Hold My Breath tells a story childhood friendship, loss, grief, battle, betrayal, acceptance. It’s about family and friendship tied with loyalties you feel for each. It’s about redemption, perseverance, and forgiveness. For me, it’s also about reveling in the gorgeous writing style and tone of delivery in which Ginger Scott consistently presents. It’s about Will Hollister fighting his demons and carrying the weight of the world alongside the girl that’s always been his dream. Most of all, it’s about love and how that love shapes us every single day. It’s a beautiful journey that will you make smile. It’s a wonderful story any romance reader will enjoy. 












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About the Author:





Ginger Scott is an Amazon-bestselling and Goodreads Choice Award-nominated author of several young and new adult romances, including Waiting on the Sidelines, Going Long, Blindness, How We Deal With Gravity, This Is Falling, You and Everything After, The Girl I Was Before, Wild Reckless, Wicked Restless, In Your Dreams and The Hard Count.



A sucker for a good romance, Ginger’s other passion is sports, and she often blends the two in her stories. (She’s also a sucker for a hot quarterback, catcher, pitcher, point guard…the list goes on.) Ginger has been writing and editing for newspapers, magazines and blogs for more than 15 years. She has told the stories of Olympians, politicians, actors, scientists, cowboys, criminals and towns. For more on her and her work, visit her website at http://www.littlemisswrite.com.



When she's not writing, the odds are high that she's somewhere near a baseball diamond, either watching her son field pop flies like Bryce Harper or cheering on her favorite baseball team, the Arizona Diamondbacks. Ginger lives in Arizona and is married to her college sweetheart whom she met at ASU (fork 'em, Devils).

Social Media Links:

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/GingerScottAuthor

Twitter: @TheGingerScott

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Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/GingerScott

Website: http://www.littlemisswrite.com

Release Blitz & Giveaway: Silver Tongued Devil

Silver-Tongued Devil
Rosalind James
(Portland Devils)
Publication date: November 15th 2016
Genres: Adult, Romance, Sports

No more wild rides. No more wild side.
Blake Orbison’s pro football career may have ended with a bang, but not calling the signals anymore just gives him more time to devote to his business enterprises, including the latest and greatest: the opening of the Wild Horse Resort in scenic north Idaho. And that other one, too. Blake’s on the marriage track, and he’s got a game plan. But when he runs into a trespasser leaping from his shoreline boulders into his lake, what’s a good ol’ boy to do but strip down and join her?
Dakota Savage is nobody’s temporary diversion, least of all the man responsible for her family’s semi-desperate circumstances. Some people may think she has a piercing too many, but she’s had more than enough of being called trash in this town. She’s come home to Wild Horse to run her stepfather’s painting business, and any extra time she has goes into creating her stained glass. An overpaid, entitled, infuriating NFL quarterback is no part of her life plan, no matter how sweet he talks. No matter how slow he smiles. No matter what.

Goodreads / Amazon—EXCERPT:It wasn’t Jerry. That much, she could tell as he got closer. It was somebody a whole lot slimmer. Tall, check. Short dark hair, check. Black shirt, check. But no gut, and she thought there was some darkness around the jaw that wasn’t quite a beard. Another security guy. She could be cute enough for him. Maybe. What would he care, really, what she did?
“Hi,” she said as he approached. “Next time maybe don’t yell right when I’m jumping.” Taking the initiative. Projecting confidence. She was better at that than “cute.”
“Hell of a graceful landing,” he agreed, and glasses or no, she could see the flash of white teeth through the dark stubble just fine. Also that he had a pair of shoulders to die for, and some very nice arms in that T-shirt. Not to mention long legs in dusty jeans and work boots, and about six foot three of lean muscle. Nobody she knew, because she’d have noticed him. She might not be able to see him, exactly, but she could see enough.
“If you’re security,” she said, “I was just going.”
“I’m not security. And I hope that’s a lie that you were just going, because that looked real fun.”
He had a Southern drawl she’d surely never heard in Wild Horse. Slow as molasses, and just that thick and sweet. Ah hope thass a lah that you were juss goin’. “Let me guess,” she said, feeling a sneaky little surge of excitement. “You’re out here to do wrong. Sign says ‘No Trespassing,’ and you’ve been given the big lecture, but you’re not worried, because you’re a badass like that.”
Some more grin. “Could be. Is that water deep enough to be safe? We’re both too pretty to get ourselves paralyzed.”
“Oh, yeah,” she assured him. “Best spot on the lake for it. No place else has rocks like this or a pool this deep. Which means, of course, that the Man comes and fences it off and tells you that you can’t use it anymore, even if you’re working out here. Gotta love capitalism, and this is about the worst.”
He gazed into the distance and scratched thoughtfully at his cheek. “Bad place to work, you think? Huh.”
“I wouldn’t do it for a heartbeat if I didn’t need the money. You could say that I’m not in love with Mr. Blake Orbison or his company. But you know, we all need the money.”
“That we do. Arrogant guy?”
“Let’s say that I don’t like the way he treats people. On an . . . institutional scale.” Whoa, girl, she told herself. Lose the bitter and get back to reckless. More attractive, and a whole lot more fun. Trust her to meet a truly prime specimen of manflesh for once and immediately put him off. “So I’m sure I shouldn’t jump off his rocks. But hey, what’s life without a little danger?” There, that was better.
“Now, see, darlin’,” he said, his voice getting even deeper, the accent going a shade richer, “that’s what I tell myself all the time. It’s a real shame that so few people think like us.”

Author Bio:
Sign up for my newsletter and never miss a release, special, or free book! http://www.rosalindjames.com/mail-list
Yes, ALL the books are stand-alones except JUST ONCE MORE and FRACTURED.
Rosalind James, a publishing industry veteran and former marketing executive, is an author of Contemporary Romance and Romantic Suspense novels published both independently and through Montlake Romance. She was raised in North Idaho, but now lives in Berkeley, California, with her husband and a Labrador Retriever named Charlie. Rosalind attributes her surprising success to the fact that "lots of people would like to escape to New Zealand! I know I did!"
Visit www.rosalindjames.com to listen to the songs from the New Zealand books, follow characters on their travels, watch funny and fascinating New Zealand videos, and learn about what's new.
Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

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Release Blitz: Heat Wave

They say when life closes one door, another one opens.

This door happens to lead to paradise.

And a man I can never, ever have.

Still grieving the loss of her sister who died two years ago, the last thing Veronica "Ronnie" Locke needed was to lose her job at one of Chicago’s finest restaurants and have to move back in with her parents. So when a window of opportunity opens for her – running a kitchen at a small Hawaiian hotel – she’d be crazy not to take it.

The only problem is, the man running the hotel drives her crazy:

Logan Shephard.

It doesn’t matter that he’s got dark brown eyes, a tall, muscular build that’s sculpted from daily surfing sessions, and a deep Australian accent that makes your toes curl.

What does matter is that he’s a grump.

Kind of an asshole, too.

And gets under Ronnie’s skin like no one else.

But the more time Ronnie spends on the island of Kauai, falling in love with the lush land and its carefree lifestyle, the closer she gets to Logan. And the closer she gets to Logan, the more she realizes she may have pegged him all wrong. Maybe it’s the hot, steamy jungles or the invigorating ocean air, but soon their relationship becomes utterly intoxicating.

There’s just one major catch.

The two of them together would incite a scandal neither Ronnie, nor her family, would ever recover from.

Forbidden, Illicit, off-limits – sometimes the heat is worth surrendering to, even if you get burned.


AMAZON | Amazon Paperback | iBooks | B&N




PROLOGUEI saw him first.

It shamed me to think it then, it shames me to think it now.

But that’s what the truth does to you sometimes. It shames you because it’s only in the truth that you realize how human you really are. What a raw, devastating thing that is, to embrace your humanity and learn to live with all your sharp points, the hollow places, the cracks and the crevices. To be utterly real. To be terribly flawed.

Those cracks had always been forming inside me, slowly making their way to the surface over the years. In my family, there wasn’t much you could do but try and hold yourself together, to stick glue on your wounds, to paste over the imperfections. But the cracks still grew, until all of us were held together by crumbling cement, just statues waiting to collapse.

That was years and years ago. I was just twenty-two at the time. A baby. I’m still a baby in the grand scheme of things, but there’s something precious about your early twenties, where you think you’re so much older, bigger, than you are, where life is just about to deliver the crushing blows that will knock you off your feet for the rest of your days. The small things become the big things and the big things become the small things and you aren’t quite sure when they made the switch.

But in the end, I saw him first. He was mine, even before he knew it. He was mine in some strange way that I still don’t understand. The only way I can think of to explain it is…

You just know.

There are moments in your life, people in your life, that when they cross your path and meet your eye, you know. Maybe it’s all in the chemistry, certain pheromones that react when they mix together, maybe it’s a smell that triggers a memory, maybe it’s a glimpse at a future you don’t recognize or a hint at the past, a life you’ve lived and forgotten. Whatever it is, you know that moment, that person, is going to shape you for the rest of your life.

That’s what it was like when I saw him. Standing over by the windows and staring out Lake Michigan, like he was wishing he could be anywhere but there.

I wished the same. My mother’s the deputy mayor of Chicago and this was another one of her fundraisers I felt obliged to attend. It was tradition in my family, for my father, for me, for my sister, to show up and wave the flag of support. It didn’t seem to matter that the stuffy politicians that surrounded these events never paid me any attention. And if they did, it was the wrong kind of attention, always the sixty-year-old man leering after the young thing with the nice smile.

Luckily I didn’t smile all that often. My resting bitch face took over whenever I was deep in thought, which was pretty much all the time.

But this guy…I felt a kinship with him. I felt like I knew exactly what he was thinking, feeling, and that it was completely wrapped up in and connected to everything that was going through me.

I don’t know where I found the nerve to go over and talk to him. He seemed so much older, not quite the sixty-year-old politicians I was used to seeing, but maybe in his early-thirties. More than that, there was some kind of aura around him. Sounds stupid, I know. Whatever it was, it was like he belonged in some whole other universe than here, a star on earth, permanently grounded and yearning to be in the sky.

It was usually Juliet’s job to go around and make everyone feel warm and comfortable at these events—hell, in every event—but she wasn’t here yet. And though I could have easily stayed in the shadows, I was pulled to him, like he had a wave of gravity whirling around him.

I remember what I was wearing. Strappy flats because I hated wearing heels, a knee-length cocktail dress in emerald green, sleeveless, high-neck. It made me look older and I wore it because my mother always wanted me to look like a lady.

With a glass of champagne in hand, I made my way over to the windows, my heart racing the closer I got to him. He looked taller up close, well over six feet. His shoulders were broad, like a swimmer’s, and suddenly I had a vision of him diving into the lake. The navy blue suit he was wearing looked well-tailored but he seemed uncomfortable in it, like he couldn’t wait to get rid of it.

I stood beside him for a moment, following his gaze out the window. He seemed lost in his thoughts but out of my peripheral his head tilted slightly and he brought his eyes over to me while I kept staring at that wide expanse of water, stretching out to the horizon.

“Can’t wait to get out of here?” I asked, but though my tone was mild, my delivery was bold. It was as if someone else had taken a hold of my body, forcing me to speak. I slowly turned my head to meet his eyes.

I was taken aback for a second. He was staring at me like he knew me, even though I’d never seen him before. Then again, I was sure I’d been staring at him in the same way. That feeling of knowing. He knew me, I knew him, and who the hell knows how that was possible.

His eyes were brown—are brown—dark with currents of gold and amber, giving them beautiful clarity. Slightly almond shaped. His brows were also dark, arched, adding to the intensity of his gaze. He’s the type of guy whose eyes latch onto you, dig deep, trying to sift through the files of your life, see who you really are.

“How did you know?” he asked, a full-on Australian accent rumbling through his gruff voice. It made my stomach flip, my core smolder. How deed you now, is what it sounded like. Funny how I stopped hearing the accent after time.

I gave a half shrug and looked back to the party. More people had flooded the room, mingling around the appetizers. My mother was in the corner, a crowd of politicians around her. She didn’t see me. She never did.

“Because I think I’d rather be in the middle of Lake Michigan too,” I told him, “then be stuck here with all these people.”

“These people,” he repeated. My focus was drawn to his lips, full, wide, tilting up into a smirk. Beneath them was a strong chin and even sharper jaw, dusted with a five o’clock shadow that seemed permanent, like the man couldn’t get a clean shave even if he tried. “How do you know I’m not one of these people?”

“Because you’re over here and not over there. How come you keep answering my questions with more questions?”

He studied me for a moment. My blood pounded in my head and I felt a giddy kind of thrill at how this was progressing. If anything, I was proud for holding my own with this handsome stranger. He was the first man I ever really felt at ease with.

He cleared his throat, offered me a quick smile before he nodded at the lake, his hands sliding into his pockets. “She almost looks like the ocean, doesn’t she?”

“Not quite the same as Australia, I would imagine.”

“No hiding this accent, is there?” He glanced at me and stuck out his hand, which I shook for a moment, warm palm to warm palm. “I’m Logan Shepard. Australian. And the reason I’m here is because I was invited by a friend of mine. I’m only in town for a few days and he didn’t want to go alone. He’s over there.” He nodded at a tall black man in the corner, listening intently to another man.

“Warren Jones,” he said, as if I should know him. Perhaps I should. He probably thought I was one of them. “He’s local and the key piece to my investment.”

I wasn’t one for business talk—I never had anything to contribute other than lamenting student loans—but I wanted him to keep talking. “What’s your investment?”

“Starting my own hotel,” he said. “In Hawaii. Have you ever been there?”

“Once. When I was eight. I think we were in Honolulu. I remember a city, anyway. Waikiki Beach.”

“This hotel is in Kauai. The Garden Isle. Went there once as a teenager and couldn’t get it out of my mind.”

I didn’t know the right things to say. I wanted to ask more about the hotel, what it means when you have an investor, but I didn’t want to appear dumb. I kept my mouth shut.

“You haven’t introduced yourself,” he said. “Protecting a secret identity?”

I smiled, close-lipped. “Not really. I’m Veronica Locke. American. And I unfortunately I don’t have much else to add to that.”

“Locke?” he repeated, eyes darting to my mother. “Are you the daughter of the deputy mayor, Rose Locke?”

“One of them,” I told him.

He nodded quickly. “I see. No wonder you’d rather be in the middle of the bloody lake. I bet you have to do this stuff all the time.”

“It’s not so bad.” I took a sip of my drink so I didn’t have to say anything more and looked away at the crowd. The bubbles teased my nose, making my eyes water.

I could feel his gaze on me as he spoke. “I’m sure you have plenty more to say about yourself though. Where do you work? Student?”

“Culinary arts,” I told him. “I’m one of those crazy people who dream of being a chef one day.”

He frowned. “Why is that crazy?”

I gave him a look, forgetting that most people have no idea how hard it is. “Because it’s a long road, long hours, and nothing is guaranteed. People think being a chef is easy. They see Gordon Ramsey or Nigella Lawson and think it’s all fame and food and money and they have no idea what it’s really like. I’m not even out of school and already I feel half-beaten.”

He was still frowning. He did that a lot, I would soon learn. “Sounds like life to me.” His eyes dropped to my lips and something intensely carnal came over them, like suddenly I was the food, not the wannabe chef. “Did you want to get a drink somewhere. After this? When you’ve done your daughterly duties?”

I swallowed hard. I didn’t know what a drink meant. Just a drink? A date? Was it sex? I started going through my head, trying to think of reasons why it was a bad idea. My legs were shaved, did my bra and underwear match? Did I have a condom? I had taken the pill this morning, even though my last boyfriend and I had broken up months ago. I hadn’t been with a guy, let alone a man, in a long time.

Don’t flatter yourself, I quickly thought. What makes you think he’d be interested in you that way?

“Yes,” I said when I finally found my voice. “Yes, I would like that.”

A spark flashed in his eyes, lighting them up in such a way that made my toes literally curl. Damn. I was in trouble with this man. “Any way you can get out of your duties sooner?” he asked.

I couldn’t help but smile, raising my brow at his presumptuousness, while simultaneously trying to hide the fact that I was freaking out. I looked around the room and tried to judge how likely it was that someone would notice if I was gone. My mom was still surrounded by a wall of people and no one was paying any attention to us, standing by the windows, already removed.

A sad thought hit me, sliding past before I could really dwell on it: no one even notices when I’m here.

“If we’re quick and sneaky,” I told him.

“Being quick isn’t in my repertoire,” he said, “but I could give it a shot.”

Again. Damn. I wasn’t one to blush but I could feel my cheeks heating up and hoped my skin supressed the flush. He was so much older than me in so many ways, the last thing I wanted was to appear the naïve schoolgirl.

And I didn’t know what to say to that. He was staring at me with those dark eyes, a look so intense yet sparkling with charm and something…wicked.

I’d never find out how wicked they could be.

“Ronnie!” A melodic, ultra-feminine voice sliced through the moment like an unwieldy machete, causing me to flinch, my fingers tightening around the stem of the glass.

Oh no, I thought. Not now.

Logan’s head swiveled toward the sound of the voice, like a hound picking up a scent. I didn’t bother looking over, I kept my focus on him, watching his expression intently. It changed, as I knew it would.

She had walked into the room.

He saw her.

And like it was for so many men, that look of lust I had thought was for me, was now for her.

That’s when I knew it was over. Whatever thing I had felt for him, it didn’t matter anymore, not when she was in the room. Nothing ever mattered as long as she was around.

I might have saw him first.

But he was all hers after that.















Karina Halle is a former travel writer and music journalist and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of The Pact, Racing the Sun, Sins & Needles and over 25 other wild and romantic reads. She lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails and devours a lot of books.

Halle is represented by the Waxman Leavell Agency and is both self-published and published by Simon & Schuster and Hachette in North America and in the UK.

Hit her up on Instagram at @authorHalle, on Twitter at @MetalBlonde and on Facebook. You can also visit www.authorkarinahalle.com and sign up for the newsletter for news, excerpts, previews, private book signing sales and more.

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Cover Reveal: This Piece of My Soul

This Piece of My Soul
Robyn M. Ryan
(Clearing the Ice #2)
Publication date: January 3rd 2017
Genres: New Adult, Romance, Sports

They believe love conquers all.
One of pro-hockey’s golden couples, Andrew and Caryn Chadwick live in the limelight reserved for elite professional athletes. On their second anniversary, Andrew receives an unexpected contract offer to join the Tampa Suns. As they look forward to a new adventure, neither foresees an event that challenges their love and threatens their marriage.
Until the day it doesn’t.
A sudden and senseless accident threatens Andrew’s life and inexplicably drives a wedge between the couple. Shattered by the incident, paralyzed by fear that it could happen again, Caryn finds herself at odds with her husband and unable to provide the support he needs—at the time he is most vulnerable.
As their perfect world crumbles, each makes choices that take Andrew and Caryn further apart. Distrust, fears, and secrets construct walls. This Piece of My Soul follows the joint and separate paths the couple navigate as each hopes to rediscover the love that can conquer all.
**Although This Piece of My Soul is the second book in the Clearing the Ice Series, it can be read as a standalone novel.**

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Author Bio:
By the time she was an eight-year-old tomboy growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, Robyn M. Ryan definitely knew what she wanted to do when she grew up—play major league baseball or write. This goal grew throughout elementary and high school, first composing novels featuring favorite TV and music personalities, then venturing into sports writing.
Attending UGA’s journalism school launched her career in public relations, which included an internship with the Atlanta Flames NHL hockey team. At that time Robyn wrote books she and her friends wanted to read. With the encouragement of a writers group on twitter—WritersThatChat—This Piece of My Heart, a hockey romance, and the first book in Robyn’s series Clearing the Ice was published May 2016. The second book in the series, This Piece of My Soul, introduces the Tampa Suns professional hockey team. This Piece of My Soul is set for release January 2017.
Besides writing, Robyn’s passions include following NASCAR and the New York Rangers, reading all the great books in the sports romance genre, and splitting time between homes in Atlanta and Palm Coast, with two brilliant Westies who definitely rule both homes.
As do many writers, Robyn chooses to write using a pseudonym—hers is a combination of her sons’ names, a contribution from her youngest nephew.
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The Girl Duet Cover Reveal

COVER + BLURB REVEAL:
THE GIRL DUET THE MONDAY GIRL (PART 1) + THE SOMEDAY GIRL (PART 2)FROM INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR JULIE JOHNSON comes an angsty, addictive new contemporary romance duet about the consequences of falling for someone who’s guaranteed to shatter your heart into pieces… and the struggle to put yourself back together again.
THE MONDAY GIRL - COMING DECEMBER 6, 2016
BLURB: Katharine Firestone is a bit of a mess.

Between an acting career that’s never quite made lift-off to stardom, a pathetic love life of online-dating-app losers, and a maxed-out balance on every one of her credit cards, things can’t get much worse. So, when she’s plucked from relative obscurity to land a lead role in Hollywood’s next big blockbuster, Kat is sure she’s finally on the right track.

Until she meets her co-star, Grayson Dunn… and all her plans are completely derailed.

Grayson is everything you’d expect the hottest actor alive to be — charming, disarming, and cocky as hell. As their characters slowly spiral into love on screen, Kat struggles to keep herself from falling for real. She knows handing Grayson her heart and expecting him not to break it would be the biggest mistake of her life. Yet the deeper she’s immersed in his glamorous world, the more blurred the boundaries between scripted affection and sincere passion become… and the harder it is to deny that their on-camera chemistry has crescendoed into a behind-the-scenes love affair…

What happens when you fall for someone who’s guaranteed to shatter you into pieces? Do you walk away? Or do you let him break you because, even broken, there’s simply no way you can’t stay?

THE MONDAY GIRL is a messy contemporary romance about a mixed up girl who falls for the wrong boy. It is the first part of a duet. The second installment, THE SOMEDAY GIRL, will be released a few weeks later, in early 2017. Each installment is approximately 85,000 words. Recommended for readers ages 17+ due to strong language, sexual situations, drug use, and other mature elements.


THE SOMEDAY GIRL - COMING FEBRUARY 1, 2017
Blurb coming soon




EXCERPT:

Romance is dead.

It died the day a gangly technology whiz with coke-bottle glasses who'd never been on a date in his twenty-three years of life sat down at a laptop, punched out a string of code, and created an application which would later sell to a Silicon Valley tycoon for billions and inspire a slew of similar dating programs. The concept is simple enough — hundreds of singles at the tips of your fingers. A virtual, veritable matchmaker, taking the guesswork out of crossing a crowded bar to talk to a stranger or — heaven forbid! — actually making eye contact with someone at a coffee shop as you sip your six-dollar caramel frappuccino.

Now, you don’t have to put yourself out there. You can “date” from the comfort of your couch.

See photo. Swipe right if sexy. Swipe left if snaggle-toothed.

Easy.

Convenient.

And, thus, the complete, total antithesis of everything that makes falling in love so terrifyingly, gut-churningly wonderful. My friends may call me old-fashioned and cynical, but… since when was love ever supposed to be convenient? Simple? Something to be squeezed in between your forty-minute elliptical session and half-hour nightly news program?

Swipe, swipe, swipe.

We've never had so many options... And we've never been so miserable.

We are waiting longer and longer to settle down into relationships that begin with the flick of a fingertip. Courtship has been usurped, eradicated. Fuck flowers and old-fashioned wooing; we declare our interest by staring at pixelated profile photographs and exchanging stilted text messages. We go out on awkward first dates and have nothing to talk about because we've already engaged in thorough virtual stalking, gleaning information from web pages and Internet searches like detectives digging up clues.

Oh, look! He likes dogs. And he's got a photo with his niece! He'll make a great father for our kids one day.

We have no idea what to do with our hands or where to look or how to behave when confronted with someone without the safety of a screen between us. Because we are never quite as polished in person as we appear in our photographs, never quite as witty or charming as we pretend to be when we have four hours to craft the perfect written response to a text message.

There was no spark, we tell ourselves as we walk home alone. Something was missing.

He was different than I thought he'd be, we tell our girlfriends over margaritas, shaking our heads as though mystified that a total stranger failed to live up to expectations we conjured out of thin air. I don't think I'll see him again. Plus, I have three dates lined up next week with new matches that seem promising.

And on we swipe, until we are so fucking exhausted by the prospect of another awful first date, we settle down with a guy we aren't even all that sure we like, but stay with because the idea of faking an orgasm every now and then isn't quite as daunting as swiping on into oblivion.

I watch friends settling down into lackluster relationships that will morph into loveless marriages and eventually disintegrate into bitter divorces, and wonder if we are all just playing an endless game of musical chairs, wandering round and round in different social circles until, abruptly, you turn twenty-eight and the music stops and whoever you happen to be sitting next to winds up being your spouse.

Call it timing, call it dumb luck... Call it anything except romantic.

It bears repeating: romance is dead.

We’ve killed it.

I know for a fact it’s not just me who feels this way.

I know because I have a dozen twenty-something single friends who bartend with me at Balthazar and spend most every night lamenting their lack of eligible male partners over shitty, eight-dollar bottles of Merlot they bought at a pharmacy on their way home from day jobs they hate.

I know this because the divorce rate still hovers around fifty percent, yet we rush headlong into marriage as if it's ever a good idea to throw yourself into anything with a higher failure rate than the pull-out method.

I know this because there are a million millennials still living at home with their parents, who are full-grown adults and haven't been out on a date since they moved back into their childhood bedrooms post-college.

And even if you do defy the odds and meet someone who makes you feel giddy and sort of nauseous, like you've just stepped off a roller coaster on a ninety degree day after consuming too much cotton candy, it's almost certain you'll fuck it up by doing what we all do — asking those pesky, persistent two words: what if.

What if there's someone better out there?

What if there's another match I'm more compatible with?

What if I go on just one more date, just to see what it would be like…

Swipe, swipe, swipe.

We have never been so connected.

We have never been so alone.

Cover Reveal: Yours and Mine

Yours And Mine
Christine Duval
(Freshman Forty, #2)
Publication date: February 2017
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult

The highly anticipated sequel to Positively Mine….
Picking up from the dramatic ending of Positively Mine, Yours and Mine continues the Freshman Forty series as we meet Danny Santoro, Laurel’s baby’s father, for the first time.
It’s been almost a year since he last saw her, that sultry morning she walked off the beach before dawn had even cracked the August sky. It seemed from her silence, she was out of his life forever.
But Laurel’s timing couldn’t be worse to tell him he’s a father. The last year hasn’t been easy. Danny’s own father was arrested for a DUI, his mother moved out, and Danny started sleeping with his brother’s old high school, drug-abusing girlfriend.
After Laurel shocks him with the news, she attempts to relinquish Danny of any parental responsibility leading to a heated custody battle. In an unorthodox arrangement, an eccentric judge orders Danny and Laurel to spend alternating weekends with each other for the upcoming school year.
Told from Danny’s point of view, Yours and Mine explores the second chapter of a romance that never got off the ground, the challenges of young parenting, and the hope of rekindled love.

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Author Bio:
Christine Duval lives in New Jersey with her family. She is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, Women Who Write, and the Authors Guild.
When not creating fictional characters or organizing carpools, you can find her walking through houses and writing about them for an upscale real estate company. She also has an extensive social media background and has worked for several well-known magazines.
Find her online at www.christineduval.com or on Twitter @christineduval1.
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