R.E. Hargrave's Blog, page 63
October 31, 2021
BOOK BLITZ: The Shade of Santa Fe by Eva Pohler #GIVEAWAY
The Shade of Santa Fe
Eva Pohler
(The Mystery House, #7)
Publication date: October 31st 2021
Genres: Adult, Mystery, Supernatural
A haunting in Santa Fe will either reunite Ghost Healers, Inc. or disband the group forever.
When Ellen decides to buy a fixer-upper in an art community in Santa Fe, New Mexico, she’s reassured by the realtor that nothing evil has ever occurred there. What she doesn’t know is that the bridge near the back of the property is notoriously known in the town as Suicide Bridge. As she and her friends try to uncover why so many people have taken their lives there, they are shocked by what they find. Can the reunion of Ghost Healers, Inc. untether the troubling spirits near Ellen’s fixer-upper, or will their discoveries be too much for them this time?
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—
EXCERPT:
“Ready for our hike?” Tanya asked.
“Do pigs fly?” Sue said with a laugh.
“The sooner we do our hike, the sooner we can get on the road to Santa Fe,” Ellen pointed out. “Just think, in five hours, we could be shopping in the plaza.”
“Is that supposed to motivate me? That’s just what I’m looking forward to, more walking.”
“Oh, come on, Sue,” Tanya said. “This will be more of a stroll than a hike. I promise.”
Ellen and her friends put on their walking shoes and then took the trail beside their cabin into the canyon.
Ellen breathed in the cool, morning air. The beauty of the canyon elevated her mood. Some of the stone formations were thick and striated, while other rocks formed mounds of crushed granite. In the distance was a tall formation that reminded Ellen of the sphinx.
“Watch your step,” Tanya said from up front as she stepped over a large rock.
“This feels so good,” Ellen said from where she took up the rear. “I feel like we’re one with nature.”
“And nature is so majestic, isn’t it?” Tanya said. “Doesn’t that big rock look like the tower of a magical castle?”
“I thought it looked more like the sphinx,” Ellen said.
Sue shook her head. “You see a castle and Ellen sees a sphinx. What does it say about me that I see a penis?”
Tanya scoffed. “You know what it says about you.”
“Don’t tell Tom,” Sue warned. “He’ll say my mind is in the gutter.”
“Isn’t it?” Ellen asked.
“Yes, but there’s no need for Tom to know that.”
The three friends chuckled. Ellen realized that if someone had overheard Sue, they might think she was a promiscuous woman who hid her extramarital interests from her husband, but her friends knew she just liked to make people laugh.
Tanya asked, “You think there’s any truth to what that psychic said about there being a shade in Santa Fe? What if there is? What if he confronts us?”
“Oh, Tanya,” Sue said, “you know as well as we do that there are ghosts everywhere. I’m sure there’s more than one shade in Santa Fe.”
“But why would the psychic warn us?” Tanya wanted to know.
“If anyone can handle a confrontation with a ghost, it’s us,” Sue said. “Don’t let fear get in your way of having a good time.”
Ellen heard a shriek as Tanya stopped short.
“Tanya? What are you screaming about?” Ellen asked from the rear.
“That wasn’t me,” Tanya said, backing up. “It was that tarantula. See it?”
On the trail two feet in front of Tanya, a hairy tarantula stood on its hind legs shrieking like a small child. The spider was as big as Ellen’s hand.
“Turn back” Sue said, as she pushed Ellen in the direction from which they’d come. “I’ve had enough of nature for one day.”
“So much for not letting fear get in the way of having a good time,” Ellen teased.
“I can handle just about anything but a hairy spider,” Sue said. “Especially one that screams.”
Author Bio:
After earning her Ph.D. in English and teaching writing and literature for over twenty years, Eva Pohler became a USA Today bestselling author of over thirty novels in multiple genres, including mysteries, thrillers, and young adult paranormal romance based on Greek mythology. Her books have been described as "addictive" and "sure to thrill"--Kirkus Reviews.
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BOOK BLITZ: The Darkest Vampire by Juliana Haygert #GIVEAWAY
The Darkest Vampire
Juliana Haygert
(Rite World: Vampire Wars, #1)
Publication date: October 29th 2021
Genres: New Adult, Urban Fantasy
Supernaturals around Portland are turning up dead. I’m next … if the vampire I just made a powerful bond with doesn’t kill me first.
Magic is in a short supply for a half-witch like me, which makes things very difficult when I’m bound by a blood promise to avenge my parents.
With no leads left to follow, I make a bargain with a demon for help. Bad decision. The quest the demon sends me on binds me to a vampire named Killian, a half-mad, half-naked monster who hates my guts almost as much as he longs to drink my blood.
Killian swore to kill all witches on sight, but we agree to work together to solve the murders ravaging the city. He despises me, and I can’t stand him… but there’s an unexpected connection between us, something I can’t help but be curious about.
No, I can’t let anything distract me. Not even a hot and enraging vampire who presses all of my freaking buttons. I’m determined to find my parents’ killers, and stop the chaos taking over the supernatural world.
If only love didn’t get in the way.
A delicious slow-burn enemies to lovers novel, The Darkest Vampire is a new adult urban fantasy that’s full of dark romance, adventure, and twists you won’t see coming. Fans of Linsey Hall, Leia Stone, and Jaymin Eve are going to become obsessed with this brand-new paranormal series by Juliana Haygert!
—
EXCERPT:
The smoke disappeared and I gasped as I took the figure in—a man. A half-naked, half-mad man, with murder written all over his face. He was large, with wide shoulders and very ripped arms, rags for clothes, and an attack stance.
“What—?”
I didn’t have time to say or ask anything.
The man moved like the wind. In a flash, he had his hand around my throat and my back pressed against the bookshelf. Panic laced its way around my spine as I fought his steel-like grip, my legs dangling and my feet off the ground. My flashlight slipped from my hand.
“H—“ I tried telling him to stop, to listen, but my voice wouldn’t come out.
He snarled at me and in the near dark, all I could see were the dark veins around his dark eyes and his fangs—two long fangs. Holy shit, he was a vampire. The panic tightened around me. I had never seen a vampire before but I had heard they were fast and vicious and dangerous.
The vampire’s gaze fell to my neck.
Oh, shit.
I swung my legs and kicked him in the thigh—or at least, I tried to. He probably felt nothing more than a scratch. But it had been enough to take his attention from my neck. His eyes locked on mine as he snarled again.
Then, as quickly as he came, he backed off.
My feet hit the floor with such impact, I thought I would kiss the carpet, but I was able to hold on to the bookshelf and stay upright. My lungs screamed as I inhaled deeply.
I grabbed the dagger from inside my boot and pointed at the vampire. “Stay where you are or I’ll use this.” I was sure I couldn’t really hurt him if he didn’t allow me, but it was all I could do not to panic some more.
The vampire took two slow steps back, his eyes wide, his hand over his heart. “It’s you,” he rasped.
Author Bio:
While Juliana Haygert dreams of being Wonder Woman, Buffy, or a blood elf shadow priest, she settles for the less exciting--but equally gratifying--life of a wife, mother, and author. She resides in North Carolina and spends her days writing about kick-ass heroines and the heroes who drive them crazy.
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October 30, 2021
FOR FREEEEEE! Haunted Raine by R.E. Hargrave
✦•✦ FREEBIE ✦•✦
Just in time for Halloween and all things spooky,
HAUNTED RAINE is FREE Oct. 29 thru Nov. 02, 2021!
GET YOUR COPY HERE
✦Audiobook (narrated by the masterful Penny McPherson) also available: https://www.amazon.com/Haunted-Raine/dp/B08179VYDW
BOOK BLITZ: Deception in the Truth by A.B. Medley #GIVEAWAY
Deception in the Truth
A.B. Medley
Publication date: October 26th 2021
Genres: Adult, Romance, Suspense
Sometimes you think you know the truth.
Sometimes, it knows you better.
Ivie Davis’s seemingly perfect life is not quite so perfect thanks to a stalker who is determined to hurt her in every way possible.
The guy she falls for is forbidden.
Malicious intent is around every corner she turns.
She runs…for a while.
When she returns home to piece together the puzzle of her past, she finds herself working painfully close to the one man she knows she can’t have.
Her heart has other plans.
Sterling Brigg is a rancher by blood, detective by choice.
He is driven by a need to find the truth.
He fell in love with Ivie, even though he knew better.
Years later, he still searches for the answers to her past.
Now that she’s back in his life, he has no intention of letting her go again.
Together, they vow to find the truth, and in doing so, they will have to decide if the truth will bring them together or be the barrier that keeps them apart forever.
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—
EXCERPT:
I cross my arms over my chest, and my stomach flips. Is she going to fess up about lunch with Dean today? Do I want to hear this? I haven’t heard from Dean since last night. He made his intentions clear, but I didn’t.
“Okay, what do you want to talk about?” I ask around the dread settling in my gut.
She takes a deep breath. “I had lunch with Dean today. It was…weird.” And there it is.
“You did?” I ask, as if I didn’t already know. “Why’d you do that?”
Her brows slam together. “We were close a long time ago. I haven’t seen him in years. You already know that. It was just us…catching up.”
I feel anger coursing through my veins. “So you say.” I can feel the muscles working in my jaw.
“Sterling, why would I lie to you? You know my secrets.” She closes the distance to where I’m leaning on the counter. She reaches out to put her hand on my face, but I turn away.
She pulls back like I burned her. “Don’t do that, Sterling.” I didn’t mean to react that way. I’m just so angry and jealous, even a little scared. I don’t want her near Dean. I want her with me. I want him to know that she’s mine.
“Do what, Ivie? I don’t know how I’m supposed to react to you spending time with your ex-boyfriend. If there’s a certain way I need to act about this, please tell me.”
She bites her bottom lip like she does when she gets nervous. “He asked me if I was seeing anyone. I didn’t know how to answer him. What are we doing? Are we a thing? Was the other night a fling?”
I blow out a frustrated breath. “What did you tell him?” She looks at me, wide-eyed. “Nothing. I told him things were complicated. Because that’s how they feel right now. That’s all I said. I didn’t want to assume this was something it might not be without talking to you.”
I lift my cap and run my hand through my hair. “Ivie, what do you want from me? He’s been my best friend for years. None of us are kids in high school anymore, and I thought you knew how I felt. But if it’s complicated, I don’t know what to tell you.”
She backs up. “What are you saying, Sterling?”
“I’m saying I think you know how I feel about you, and if you don’t, you should. I’m saying I can’t tell you how to feel or what to do. You’re the only one who knows what you want and how you feel. But I can tell you this.” I walk right up to her and grab her hand and put it flat on my chest over my heart. “This, my heart, belongs to you. And only you. It has for a long time now.”
She lets a tear fall down her cheek as her fingers splay on my chest, feeling my heartbeat underneath. “And Ivie, I didn’t fight for you before. I stood on the sidelines and let you go. I can’t do that again. I won’t. My heart can’t take it. Having you back here made me realize that. So, whatever you’re going to do or decide, don’t wait too long. I can’t handle not knowing where we stand.” I brush a kiss over her lips and wipe away her silent tears. “I’m getting in the shower. You can stay, or if you need to leave, I understand.” I walk away and leave her in my kitchen speechless.
Author Bio:
A.B. Medley lives in Tennessee with the love of her life and two sons. Her husband stole her heart when she was sixteen and their relationship is one of those meant to be love stories you find in magazines and novels.
She is a dental hygienist who loves to read and has always dabbled in writing. When she's not making people's smiles shine, she enjoys belting out songs with her boys, dancing, raspberries, baseball, and anything vintage. Like any proper Tennessean, Sundrop is her drink of choice.
She loves her family and friends fiercely and believes in always chasing your dreams.
Deception in the Truth is her debut novel—but now she's hooked, and there's more to come!
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October 29, 2021
BOOK BLITZ: Dangerous Temptation by Giana Darling #GIVEAWAY
Dangerous Temptation
Giana Darling
Publication date: October 26th 2021
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
He arrives all dressed in black. Diamond cufflinks. A watch on his tanned wrist that cost more than we would ever see in a lifetime of work. He carries a single red rose for my mother.
Months later, Tiernan Morelli lays red roses on my mother’s grave. That same day, he tells me that he is my new guardian.
I should have known from the very start that he had more in common with the thorns than the rose. Now I know the truth: I’m a pawn in his dangerous game of revenge. I was too young and naive. Now it’s too late to save myself from his clutches.
Now I belong to him.
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—
EXCERPT:
“Have you ever heard of personal space?”
I blinked, momentarily mute and dumb, the sight of him dominating every other one of my senses. So it took me a second to realize he was insulting me in a voice dripping with poisonous disdain.
I blinked again as my mouth dropped into a shocked “O.” “Excuse me?”
One inky brow rose, thick and slashing so that he had a perpetual expression of aggravated contempt. When he spoke, it was slow and overly enunciated as if he were addressing an imbecile.
“Per-son-al sp-ace.” One tattooed hand, the one with the shiny watch, gestured dismissively between our bodies, his knuckles brushing my chest. There was a tightening to his flat mouth that made me wonder if it was as accidental as it seemed.
My nipples beaded beneath my hoodie, but the fabric was too thick to betray me.
Anger sparked through my blood like a delayed fuse, heat racing out from my heart to set my entire body on fire. I didn’t move back. In fact, I took one daring step closer and fisted my hands on my hips. My head was forced back at an awkward angle to maintain eye contact with the tall beast of a man, but I didn’t care.
This jackass was not going out with my mother.
I bared my teeth at him. “If this is how you normally greet your girlfriend’s family, it’s no wonder you were still single when you met my mother and it’s even less of a wonder why you’ll be single again after tonight.”
A slow grin, somehow more vicious for its calculated movement, claimed his handsome face and made it acutely beautiful. “You are operating under the assumption that Aida cares enough about your opinion to end our relationship because you’re embarrassed I caught you making a pass at me.”
My mouth flapped open, then closed. I felt like a fish out of water, gasping for breath. Never in my entire life had I faced such a rude, horrible man.
“Making a pass at you?” I almost stomped my foot in outrage and just managed to resist the urge. “You show up at our doorstep and speak like this to a teenager? What kind of man needs to put down a little girl in order to make himself feel big, hmm?”
“At least you acknowledge you are a little girl,” he said with faux pride. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t give a single fuck what you think of me. I’m dating your mother. Not you.” His pale gaze, a green so light they glowed almost unnaturally, seemed to burrow into me. Past my dark blue eyes straight into my brain, reading my thoughts like an X-ray machine read bones. “Though, it’s obvious you wish things were different.”
Outrage crackled in my chest, my lungs steaming with it, my ribs creaking as they threatened to cave in on the fiery rage in my heart.
I was a fairly good-looking girl though I knew I was no Aida Belcante. Still, enough of her boyfriends had hit on me when she wasn’t looking. They cupped my ass while I reached for a cereal bowl, complimented me lecherously at the pool, watched me walk to my room when I came out of the shower. They were all the same, eager for some woman to make them feel like a king. So, his comment rankled me more than it should have.
I’d dealt with innumerable men in my mother’s life, but never someone like him.
A demon in a suit more expensive than three months’ rent.
I gathered myself, rising to my full five-foot-three height as I pinned him with a look I wished ardently had the power to kill him.
“I wouldn’t date a jackass like you if you were the last goddamn man on the planet.”
Author Bio:
Giana Darling is an USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Top 40 Amazon Best Selling Canadian romance writer who specializes in the taboo and angsty side of love and romance. She currently lives in beautiful British Columbia where she spends time riding on the back of her man's bike, baking pies, and reading snuggled up with her Golden Retriever puppy, Romeo.
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October 28, 2021
#RachelReviews: WHAT SHE DESERVES by Clare Bentley
BLURB:
Two years ago, Kaidence Hadaway thought she had met the man she would spend the rest of her life with. But when Mitchell Stevenson lost his job a year later and has to move in with her, she is thrust into a life of abuse.Without her parents around and with her friends gradually driven away, she takes the punishment she feels she deserves until fate brings a police officer to her door, who makes it his mission to rescue her.But just when she decided it’s time to get out, Mitchell discovers the secret she’s been hiding. Will she make it out alive? Or will she be so close only to fail?
Release Date: March 2020; 583 pages
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MY THOUGHTS
Wow. Where to start? Probably best to start with a warning: the subject matter of domestic abuse is a hard one to tackle, and Bentley pulls no punches with her debut novel (pun NOT intended). If you trigger easily, this is likely not the book for you.
The mind is a powerful thing—a place where we can find confidence and the strength to endure, but also capable of crippling us to our core with fear, self-doubt, and loathing.
Kaidence Hadaway’s story opens mid-beating, setting the tone for what is about to be a hell of an emotional ride as Bentley takes us through the ups and downs of trying to live a double life. With little family left, and no remaining friends to lean on (thanks to the mind games of Mitchell, her abuser), Kaidence opts to hide her abuse. Until she can’t.
A chance meeting with Officer Jackson Chase, while not an immediate fix to her problems, starts to open the door to her salvation. As her live-in manipulator, I mean boyfriend, gets deeper into her head, the missed days at work add up along with her injuries and injustices, leading to the increased need for professional intervention from those in the medical field and law enforcement. Unfortunately, with the amount of humiliation, degradation, and physical attacks she has endured, only Kaidence can decide when she’s had enough. What follows is a “two steps forward, one step back” situation. With every new friend she makes and chance at life she takes comes the inevitable “step back” as Mitchell’s vitriol and anger rain down on her. Somehow, she gets back up each time, stronger than before.
The technical writing aspects of this book are a little rough in places. Slipped tenses, rapidly shifting points of views (sometimes within a single paragraph), minor punctuation issues, and some inconsistencies in the narrative along with some concepts being repeated multiple times (making me, as the reader, feel the author doesn’t trust me to “keep up”) influenced my rating.
My editorial opinions aside, Bentley delivers a story not to be missed in What She Deserves. It’s an experience that truly is raw, real, and relatable.
Bravo, Ms. Bentley.
B@@K REVEAL: Heinous by Yolanda Olson
Heinous
Yolanda Olson
Publication date: February 15th 2022
Genres: Dark Tabou
Someone once said that if you talk about the devil, he’s bound to appear.
Most would keep silent, hoping that they’d never be found by such a monster, but I prayed for his touch every night.
I knew the devil when I was a child and fell in love with him the first time he taught me that I wasn’t as damaged as I was led to believe that I was.
He cared for me, helped me learn how to smile, and see the world in a different way even though he didn’t realize that he had done so.
But they feared him; hated him.
So seventeen years ago, they ripped him away from me.
What they didn’t know was that he had already created a monster in his very image.
I thought I’d never see him again—I finally resigned myself to that. But then he came back, just like he promised he always would through that smile of his.
We’re together again.
And now, no one will be able to keep us apart ever again.
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Author Bio:
Yolanda Olson is a USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author. Born and raised in Bridgeport, CT where she currently resides, she usually spends her time watching her favorite channel, Investigation Discovery. Occasionally, she takes a break to write books and test the limits of her mind. Also an avid horror movie fan, she likes to incorporate dark elements into the majority of her books.
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B@@K REVEAL: Moxie (A Salvation Society Novel) by Michelle Cornish #GIVEAWAY
Moxie: A Salvation Society Novel
Michelle Cornish
Publication date: November 7th 2021
Genres: Adult, Historical, Romance
A WWII love at first sight romance with dual timelines, codebreaking war heroines, and prisoners of war.
People always asked Faye why Will called her Moxie.
It started with a dare at a dance in 1942 that ended in a kiss. Will loved that story.
But there’s more to the story than that. Much more . . .
Gretchen knows this story well. Her grandfather told it over and over while he was alive. But when Gretchen goes home to Jersey to be by her grandmother’s side one last time, Grandma Faye tells a different version of the story.
She knew the moment she saw him, they were meant to be together. Her girlfriends may have dared her to kiss him, but she would have anyway. Then the war got in the way. Faye thought she’d never see Will again. Until that night he took her breath away.
Will may have given Faye the name, but he’s the one with all the moxie.
Author Bio:
Michelle Cornish is a recovering CPA with a passion for stories. Writing mostly romance and women's fiction with strong female heroines, Michelle's books often include nods to her former life as a CPA. When Michelle’s not writing, she’s hanging out with her two boys and husband in the beautiful Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada.
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BOOK BLITZ: Cross My Heart by Kris Jayne #GIVEAWAY
Cross My Heart
Kris Jayne
(Lone Star Crossed Saga, #1)
Publication date: October 5th 2021
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
The star-crossed love affair starts with a lie…
Real-estate mogul Carter Cross has spent his life toiling for another man’s legacy. Then, a phone call unlocks his true destiny as part of the country’s wealthiest oil dynasty. With his famously cool command, he’ll stop at nothing to seize the Cross family’s birthright.
When an infamous oil baron drops dead in a most scandalous fashion, tabloid reporter Nisha Donovan gets assigned to dig up dirt on the new J.P. Star Energy executive—the filthier, the better.
Neither of them counts on their undeniable attraction derailing their plans, but sometimes a star-crossed love can’t be denied. Can Carter and Nisha escape the snares of power to build a new legacy together?
Cross My Heart is book one in The Lone Star Crossed Saga and has a happily ever after. The family saga unfolds with soapy dramatic fun in each book, but there are no romance cliffhangers. Book one has a slow burn but heats up—way up—at the end, so grab a fan!
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—
EXCERPT:
Nisha
I hoped I wouldn’t miss him. The only downside to these loosey-goosey barbecues was not knowing who was going to be there and when. I got to Victoria and James’ early to position myself on a barstool in the huge, eat-in kitchen with a wide view of the backyard.
If he came in the front door, he’d have to pass through to get outside, and if he walked around and went directly into the yard via the side gate, I should be able to catch him.
Doing another visual sweep of the patio and pool area where other guests enjoyed the warmer weather, I lost track of the conversation with my host temporarily. Victoria snapped a finger over my head while holding a knife in the other hand. “Hello, Nisha?”
I smiled and turned my gaze back to her, and she continued chopping onions and tomatoes for guacamole.
“What? Oh, yeah. Maya’s doing okay. She’s still staying with me.”
“You’re going to keep her?”
“Hopefully.” I sighed. “All Maya has to do is get through the next three years.”
Of course, I knew nothing about how to raise a teenager except worrying every day we were crammed into my townhouse. And now Lisa was back. My spine stiffened until my neck hurt.
It would be okay. Maya knew what she wanted. And I’d handle the rest. I reached out to my lawyer. He agreed to help, but representation would cost a couple thousand dollars I didn’t have just to get started. I would figure it out.
Lord. Today wasn’t for worrying about Maya. Today was for meeting the guy at the heart of the story that would help me not have to worry.
That’s why I’d asked Victoria about one particular hot, successful guy on the guest list. I hadn’t wanted to get her involved, but I needed to make sure he was going to be here. Otherwise, I’d have to get much more creative.
“Well—oh, hey.” She lowered her voice. “Your hookup is here.”
“What’s up, Victoria? I brought beer.”
The back of my neck tingled at the masculine rumble behind me.
I knew before I swiveled around that he was handsome.
All the news clippings and online pics told me that. But they couldn’t warn me about the earthquaking timber of his voice that surely registered on the Richter scale. The vibration made my toes curl around the footrest of my barstool. The only shakes like that around here came from fracking. The tremors in my stomach told me he might be as dangerous as his new oil magnate employer.
I drew in a steadying breath and turned.
“Hi.” The wicked energy of his grin swayed toward me in time with samba-like way his hips moved when he walked.
Damn.
Focus, Nisha.
What I needed from him didn’t have anything to do with his hips. Or the sinewed ripple of his forearms as he reached past me to set a case of Mexican beer on the counter. He wore a plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up. It was open. His dark, smooth chest rippled and narrowed to hard abs that cut arrows pointing down into the waistband of his long swim trunks.
He started to say something else, but Victoria interrupted.
“There’s a tub of ice outside for the drinks. Then, come back in, and I’ll let Nisha introduce herself.” Victoria took a break from chopping and wiped her hands on a dish towel.
The slash of his smile spread across his face again. My heart swelled and thumped to the beat that had played in my head as I watched him walk in.
“Or we could do that now before I head outside.” He extended a hand. “Carter Cross.”
Even his hands were sexy. Callused, but smooth at the same time. Strong, but elegant. His fingers wrapped around my hand, and I thought about having the grip sliding up my arm, over my shoulder, and down, down, down.
I was sweating like Victoria’s A/C wasn’t cranked to a chill for the party.
Straightening my spine lifted my chest in my magenta bikini, and his eyes flickered down and back up to my face. Normally, that would have irritated me, but instead, my stomach did another salsa dance.
Let go of his hand, creeper. I’d clung on a nanosecond too long, then dropped it. “Nisha Donovan.”
“How have we never met before?”
“Are you sure we haven’t?” I crinkled my brow as if maybe I remembered him from somewhere else and not the days of research I’d done.
“No. I have an expert eye for faces. Yours”—he paused and pointed at me—“I haven’t seen before.”
I grinned. “Well, now you have.”
Author Bio:
Kris Jayne is a devoted writer, reader, and traveler, crafting addictive contemporary romance novels with heat and heart. She spends her days blissfully sweating out the writing process in the Dallas area with her dogs, Otis the Shih Tzu, Rocco the Terrier, and Red the Foxy Mutt.
Her passion for writing is only matched by her passion for the adventures of travel. In 2008, she let a friend talk her into sleeping outside for the first time in her life when she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.
P.S. If you're buying her a gift, she has a penchant for single-malt Scotch and scarves.
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BOOK BLITZ: Aries & Libra by Kayt Miller #GIVEAWAY
Aries & Libra
Kayt Miller
(Zodiac Hills, #1)
Publication date: October 26th 2021
Genres: Comedy, New Adult, Romance
Lou
My life is great. Perfect really.I mean, I’m thirty-two and I live with my dad…All right, let me say this a different way. I have the best job in the world. I get to painstakingly renovate old houses—diamonds in the rough—until they’re polished gems. What woman can say that? I work alone most of the time and I like it that way.Okay, maybe I wish I could find someone nice to work alongside me, a partner in life, or better yet, someone tall, dark, and sexy, like the guy who waltzes into my latest project uninvited. Sadly for him, he ends up with wood stain all over his face and shirt.What?He startled me.
ChaseI can’t resist stopping into the huge old Queen Ann house in the town off the highway. Sure, it’s late, but I knocked.I did.I heard someone inside singing badly at the top of their lungs. And when I get a look at her from behind, with her hands in the air singing like her life depends on it, well, I couldn’t help myself. I had to meet her.She turns out to be a surprise. A beauty wrapped in flannel and a tool belt. She’s nothing like the women I’ve met or even dated before with her affinity to early-bird dining and meatloaf covered in mashed potatoes. No, she’s nothing like the women I’ve known.And I’m okay with that.More than okay.It’s too bad I’m only in town for a few days. I could get used to Lou Hamlin.
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EXCERPT:
Libra
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Velma Lou. Here we go again.”
At the mention of my name, I glance up from my drawing of the new kitchen layout I’ve been fretting about for days to my father, Kip. It’s not like him to use Jesus and Mary like that. I mean, the guy probably says six words a day and right there was his quota.
“What?”
I stare as his head slowly lifts from the small-town newspaper he’s reading, The Zodiac Hills Gazette, and turns until our eyes meet. “They’re making that goddamn show again.”
Well, sadly, that’s not enough information. He’s going to have to give me a bit more. “What show?”
“That show.”
Still not enough. “Dad. What show?” It hits me. “No.” I say it in a breathy, shocked way that tells him everything he needs to know. That I’ve figured it out. “Reruns?” I squeak.
Please say it’s only reruns. We’ve been through those before with only minor repercussions.
“Worse.”
“Worse than reruns?” What could be worse than reruns of the 1980s show, 1985 to be exact, that put my little town on the map and ruined a whole lot of lives. Well, not a whole lot. Several. It ruined several lives. Like mine and my dad’s.
A few people actually got lives thanks to that show, but that’s neither here nor there, because the show Dad is talking about, Love in Zodiac Hills, turned my little town of Zodiac Hills, Nebraska, upside down and sideways. Granted, I was a young when it first aired, but I know, firsthand, the impact it had on the people here.
“They’re re-making it. So it’s new.”
“Re-making it? Who’s doing that?” Please don’t say Netfilms, because that company is huge. So big that everyone has that particular streaming service.
“That Net thing you always watch on your computer.”
“Shit.”
Dad gives me his best scowl. He doesn’t care for my curse words even though he too cusses when it’s warranted. But “Do as I say, not as I do” is one of my father’s favorite sayings.
“Sorry,” I say with very little remorse.
“It says here, it’s coming out this April.”
I glance at the calendar. “Next month?”
“The fifteenth. They’re gonna call it Return to Zodiac Hills.”
“You read that in the paper?” The local paper.
Dad nods. “Which means, everyone will know.”
Which also means, the town is going to go apeshit crazy. It also means we’re going to get split in two. Again.
As soon as Dad heads off to work, I reach for the abandoned newspaper. I need to read it for myself. Scanning the front page, I see nothing about the show. Weird because, to me, this is front-page news. Opening our small-town paper, I search pages two and three. Since it’s a weekly paper, it’s usually only four or five pages long. I mean, how much news can a town with the population of over three thousand people generate in a week? Finally, I find the article on the second to last page.
Well, article isn’t the right word. It’s a paragraph posted in the part of the paper called Kitty’s Korner. Katherine “Kitty” Standish has been writing what she refers to as “her column” for a century. Just kidding. It’s been years and years, though. She’s got to be in her seventies by now. You can’t tell her age for sure, though, because she’s rarely seen during the daylight hours. Some speculate that she’s a vampire due to that fact, but Dad says it’s not true. According to him, “She’s a night owl. Always has been.”
I believe my pops. He’s a no-nonsense kind of man. What he says, he means, and what he means, he really means. Also, don’t piss him off, because he’s a grudge holder of epic proportions. Just ask my mom.
Well, I would ask her if she ever came back to Zodiac Hills after she ran off with that Capricorn.
But that’s a story for another day.
Lifting the paper, I read Kitty’s Korner.
Hear ye! Hear ye!
She always starts off announcements like she’s a town crier. I usually laugh but not this time.
People of Zodiac Hills, hold onto your hats!
She does that too—makes archaic references like that. I mean… who wears hats nowadays? Well, lots of people wear baseball caps, I guess.
But I’m getting off track.
Starting this April, that big movie-streaming company called Netfilms will be showing a brand-new version of Love in Zodiac Hills. (For those of you young’uns out there, that was a show they had on television in the ’80s. Sort of like that other show, The Love Boat, only it was on land.) Anyhoo, it was a program about people finding their one true love all based on their birthday which is ridiculous because what does that have to do with anything?
They’re calling it Return to Zodiac Hills.
Which means, you’d better get ready because… they’re coming.
Author Bio:
Kayt enjoys writing steamy love stories about curvy Heroines (big H) and brawny Heroes. Sometimes they're all about that instant-attraction, sometimes the stories are more of a slow burn. Either way, they're hot.
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