Blog Tour & Excerpt: It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time by Kylie Scott

IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Author: Kylie Scott
Release Date: August 7, 2018

“Addictive like all Kylie Scott books, you’ll swoon, laugh, ache, put your life on hold, and compulsively read until the wee hours of the night—only to reread the whole thing the next morning. Perfection!” – Katy Evans, New York Times bestselling author

Returning home for her father’s wedding was never going to be easy for Adele. If being sent away at eighteen hadn’t been bad enough, the mess she left behind when she made a pass at her dad’s business partner sure was.

Fifteen years older than her, Pete had been her crush for as long as she could remember. But she’d misread the situation—confusing friendliness for undying love. Awkward. Add her father to the misunderstanding, and Pete was left with a broken nose and a business on the edge of ruin. The man had to be just as glad as everyone else when she left town.

Seven years later, things are different. Adele is no longer a kid, but a fully grown adult more than capable of getting through the wedding and being polite. But all it takes is seeing him again to bring back those old feelings.

Sometimes first loves are the truest.

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It was meant to be a soft kiss. A chaste one, even.

The minute my lips touched his, however, everything changed. Callused hands grabbed the sides of my face and my mouth opened on a gasp. His tongue swept inside, taking me over. Holy hell. Shoes and purse hit the floor, forgotten. Nothing about this kiss was slow or easy. The man devoured me. Every ounce of emotion poured into that kiss, all of the anger and frustration between us. His tongue was teasing and tasting, driving me wild. Then he drew back to suck and nip at my bottom lip. One hand slid around the back of my neck, the other over my hip to grab at my ass. His hold was firm, a little rough even. He treated my body like it belonged to him and I wasn’t gentle either.

Apparently experience mattered. Because all I could do was try and keep up.

I held on tight to his open shirt, straining against him, trying to get closer. I’d have crawled inside the man if I could. Turned out that under certain circumstances, the taste of scotch worked for me in a big way. Against my hip, his cock hardened, digging into me. And oh my God, I’d done that to him. Me. How amazing! Meanwhile, my body felt liquid, core aching and empty. I needed him inside of me and it seemed like I’d already been waiting forever.

“Pete. Please.”

“Fuck,” he muttered, breath hot against my ear.

I fumbled at the remaining buttons on his shirt. My damn fingers didn’t seem to be working. Easier to just push the whole thing upward. Luckily, the man decided to help, tearing the shirt off over his head. More skin was good. And he was so hot and smooth, a thrill to the touch. The solid flesh of his pecs and the flat plane of his stomach.

He tore at the zipper on the back of my dress, dragging fabric down over my shoulders. A growl came from the back of his throat, a noise of frustration, impatience. I’m reasonably certain I heard the silk rip. I didn’t care. His hands and mouth seemed to cover every bit of skin revealed, touching and tasting me everywhere. The dress got stuck on my hips. Out of the way enough for now.

He didn’t even bother undoing my bra, simply peeling down one of the lace cups to free my flesh. My breast filled his hot palm as it took the weight. Fingers plumped me, his thumb flicking over my hard nipple. The sting of pain followed by the heat of his kiss made my head spin and my body ache. There was no room for thought as he fed me deep, wet kisses. Slowly, he took us to the floor. No time for anything else. Just the urgent need to have him inside me.

The hardness of the polished wood was cool against my back. My legs were spread, his body between them. And with his broad chest above me, his weight taken on one arm, he was all I could see. I swear even the insides of my thighs were wet, I was so ready. It would have been embarrassing with anybody else. But this man, he had to know, he had to understand. It had always been him.

“Pete, I need—”

“I know,” he said, voice harsh and low.

kyliescottimageKylie is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author. She was voted Australian Romance Writer of the year, 2013 & 2014, by the Australian Romance Writer’s Association and her books have been translated into eleven different languages. She is a long time fan of romance, rock music, and B-grade horror films. Based in Queensland, Australia with her two children and husband, she reads, writes and never dithers around on the internet. You can learn more about Kylie from http://www.kylie-scott.com/

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Blog Tour: Dirty Sexy Player by Laurelin Paige

 

DIRTY SEXY PLAYER
Series: Dirty Games Duet #1
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Author: Laurelin Paige
Cover Designer: Laurelin Paige & Tom Barnes
Release Date: July 23, 2018

A New Duet in the Dirty Filthy Universe from NYT Bestselling Author, Laurelin Paige.

Weston King knows how to play. But wild nights and owning an extensive collection of women’s panties don’t carry the thrill they once did, so when his business partner Donovan suggests an outrageous plan to allow them to take over their competition, Wes takes him up on the offer. The crazy idea? Marry the competitor.

Elizabeth Dyson, the bride-to-be in question, is on board with the plan. She wants access to her trust fund and can only get it once she marries. Each has something the other wants – all they have to do is pretend to like each other well enough to tie the knot.

Only trouble is, playing fiancé to Elizabeth isn’t quite that simple. Wes finds her sexy and brilliant…and soon wishes their engagement wasn’t fake at all. Not that he’d ever tell her that.

But a lover boy like Wes can only stand an empty bed for so long…and even the best of players has to put down his cards eventually.

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I looked at the windows past him, trying to distract myself. Lights flashed and swirled around the dance floor in time to the beat, the only part of the music which made it into the sanctuary of the bubble room. I could tell it was crowded, but I couldn’t make out faces the way they could probably make out ours. “I don’t know if anyone’s looking,” I said.

“Don’t worry about them. Just focus on what you’re doing.”

Easy for him to say. He wasn’t facing them. He was only looking at me.

Nope. I couldn’t think about that either. Just had to focus on the task at hand.

I closed my eyes. “So just pretend that I… That we are… That under my dress…” I couldn’t even say it.

Weston leaned forward and murmured near my ear. “Yes, pretend that under your dress you are not wearing any panties. I have my dick out. I’m working you, and you are showing me exactly how you like it. Now go.”

Just like that, my panties were damp.

I didn’t know if he was saying those things to loosen me up or to get a rise out of me, either was possible.

Whatever his intent, it did the trick. He set the scene. I felt my face flush like the women in the videos as I imagined him rubbing his crown against my slit before nudging his tip inside and then burying himself to the hilt.

I opened my mouth in a silent gasp, acting out how I was sure it would feel. Good. It would feel so good.

This was so…weird. So hot and sexy and arousing and weird.

I wondered if he was feeling it too, feeling turned on, or if it was just me. It wasn’t like I could ask though, and knowing probably wouldn’t help my performance anyway.

So I concentrated on me. Focused on the task.

“Do I move or something?” I bucked my hips forward and felt the friction against my crotch as it rubbed the fly of his pants.

Mmm.

“Yeah,” he said breathlessly. “That’s good. That motion. Just like that.”

“Okay. Okay.” I rocked against him again, and again, my hips tilting back and forth, my clit brushing against his fly. Every time, stroking and kindling a fire in a fireplace I hadn’t had cleaned for some time. I spread my thighs a little wider and braced my knees against the bench so I could swing my pelvis all the way forward, in and out, in and…

Oh.

I froze. “Is that—?” But I didn’t have to ask. There was most definitely a fat, thick ridge pressed against the crotch panel of my panties. I guess that answered the question of whether he was feeling it too.

My eyes flew open. “Oh my God!”

“Look,” he said, ready to defend himself. “There’s an extremely attractive woman sitting on my lap. I cannot help what happens to my cock. It has a mind of its own.”

A really big mind of its own.


READ MY FULL REVIEW HERE

 

 

With over 1.5 million books sold world wide, Laurelin Paige is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling Author. She is a sucker for a good romance and gets giddy anytime there’s kissing, much to the embarrassment of her three daughters. Her husband doesn’t seem to complain, however. When she isn’t reading or writing sexy stories, she’s probably singing, watching Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead, or dreaming of Michael Fassbender. She’s also a proud member of Mensa International though she doesn’t do anything with the organization except use it as material for her bio. She is represented by Rebecca Friedman.

 

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Blog Tour Excerpt & Giveaway: The Proposition by A.M. Salinger

THE PROPOSITION
Series: Night Series #6
Genre: Erotic M/M Romance
Author: A.M. Salinger
Release Date: June 26th 2018

They call me the Charmer. My best friend Wade tells me it’s because I’m suave and mysterious. But he doesn’t know my secret. The one I’ve kept hidden from him for twelve years. The one I will never reveal to him — Rhys

They call me The Brute. Probably because of my physique. And, let’s face it, because I’m a total dick at times. So Rhys likes to tell me anyway. Thing is, there’s something Rhys isn’t telling me. Something I’m dying to hear from his lips. His sinful confession. You see, I know Rhys’s secret — Wade

Rhys Damon has spent most of his adult life watching Wade Tucker bed woman after woman, his dark desire for his best friend and business partner a secret he is determined to take to his grave, since he knows it will never be reciprocated. With their design firm thriving across two continents, Rhys finds himself content burying his heartache in a string of meaningless, casual sex arrangements. Until the night everything changes.

When Wade Tucker stumbles upon his best friend calling out his name as he pleasures himself, he knows his relationship with Rhys will never be the same again. A year later, the memory of what Wade saw is still branded in his mind and his feelings for Rhys have evolved into something he never anticipated. As tension mounts and the relationship between the two business partners becomes increasingly strained, things finally come to a head the night Wade follows Rhys and discovers him with another man.

After an explosive confrontation, Wade makes Rhys a proposition he can’t refuse: that they try things out for six weeks. Six weeks of exploring a side of each other they never knew before. Six weeks of torrid kisses and sultry touches. Six weeks of screamingly good, scorching hot sex. Six weeks of utterly losing themselves to one another.

But as the end of their proposition looms in sight, can Wade persuade Rhys that he wants more? Or will Rhys’s deep-seated fears stop him from fully surrendering his heart and soul to the one man he thought he could never have?

Discover Rhys and Wade’s wickedly intoxicating story in this sixth novella in the hot, contemporary romance series Nights by A.M. Salinger. Note from the author: although each book in Nights can be read as a standalone, you will enjoy this series even more if you read the books in order!

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU

Wade gritted his teeth as he stared at the two men sitting with their thighs touching and their heads tilted toward one another at the polished mahogany bar on the other side of the crowded club. Rhys chuckled at something his companion said and placed his hand on the man’s knee. The man covered Rhys’s fingers with his own and gripped them lightly.  

Wade’s entire body tightened where he sat in one of the booths at the back of Saron. His knuckles whitened on the glass in his hand. He brought it to his lips and took an angry gulp of his Scotch. The liquid scorched his throat and fanned the fire burning inside him.

Tonight was a night of many firsts for Wade.

It was the first time he’d stalked Rhys to see where his friend and business partner was going to go unwind for the day and have that elusive drink he’d mentioned.

It was the first time he’d been consumed with the intense longing to beat the shit out of a perfect stranger when he’d seen the man Rhys had met at an upscale restaurant in Shinjuku. As he sat in a cafe across the road and watched the pair have dinner through the glass windows of the restaurant, it didn’t escape Wade’s notice that Rhys’s companion looked very much like Wade himself. As that realization sank in, Wade found his indignation turning to fury.

It was also the first time he’d visited a gay club in Tokyo.

When he’d followed Rhys and his companion from the restaurant, Wade hadn’t been sure exactly what to expect. He’d told himself he would tail them until their final destination, wherever that may be. The fact that that could end up being the stranger’s place, or even worse, Rhys’s apartment, was a reality Wade told himself he would just have to deal with if it came to that.

Surprise had flashed through him when he’d spotted the club in the dingy alley they’d headed into. It had been rapidly superseded by outrage when he’d seen the asshole Rhys had had dinner with kiss Rhys’s hand before they entered the place.

The doorman had hesitated briefly when he’d seen Wade walk up to the club’s entrance. One look at the vein throbbing in Wade’s temple and a quick scan of his tailored suit and dress shoes was all it took for the man to unclip the rope guarding access to the place.

The interior of Saron had been Wade’s fourth surprise of the night. As he’d studied the unique decor of the club, Wade’s anger had reached boiling point. He could see Rhys’s touch all over the place and knew instinctively his business partner had kept this little side endeavor a secret from him too.

Wade wondered how many more of Rhys’s secrets he would uncover before this night was over.

He’d just glanced at his watch when movement to the right caught his gaze. A man was strolling down the steps of the club. At six foot three, with dark hair and a stubbled jaw, he was dressed in a casual suit and carried himself with a bearing that oozed confidence and sex appeal. The crowd parted ahead of him, the club patrons calling out greetings as he passed them, many following him with longing gazes.

The man headed behind the bar, dropped a kiss on the lips of the blond bartender who’d served Rhys and his companion, and greeted Rhys with a warm smile.

Wade scowled. And who’s this fucker?

Ava Marie Salinger is the pen name of an Amazon bestselling author who has always wanted to write scorching hot contemporary and erotic romance. In 2018, she finally decided to venture to the steamy side. NIGHTS is the first of several sizzling series featuring sweet, sexy men and women with dark pasts and a whole lot of love to give to the ones brave enough to fight for their hearts. When she’s not dreaming up hotties to write about, you’ll find Ava creating kickass music playlists to write to, spying on the wildlife in her garden, drooling over gadgets, and eating Chinese.

Want to be the first to know about Ava’s new releases and get access to exclusive content, sneak previews, sales, and giveaways? Then sign up to her Reader Group here (https://www.amsalinger.com/subscribe/) and join her VIP Facebook Fan Group here (https://www.fb.com/groups/avasnightsclub/).

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Review & Excerpt: Hawkyn by Larissa Ione

HAWKYN
Series:
Demonica Underworld #5
Genre:
Paranormal Romance
Author:
Larissa Ione
Release Date:
February 27, 2018

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Larissa Ione comes a new story in her Demonica Underworld series…

As a special class of earthbound guardian angel called Memitim, Hawkyn is charged with protecting those whose lives are woven into the fabric of the future. His success is legendary, so when he’s given a serial killer to watch over, he sees no reason for that to change. But Hawkyn’s own future is jeopardized after he breaks the rules and rescues a beautiful woman from the killer’s clutches, setting off an explosive, demonic game of cat and mouse that pits brother against brother and that won’t end until someone dies.

Aurora Mercer is the half-wytch lone survivor of a psychopath who gets off on the sadistic torture of his victims. A psychopath whose obsessive psyche won’t let him move on until he kills her. Now she’s marked for death, her fate tied to that of a murderer…and to a sexy angel who makes her blood burn with desire…

**Every 1001 Dark Nights novella is a standalone story. For new readers, it’s an introduction to an author’s world. And for fans, it’s a bonus book in the author’s series. We hope you’ll enjoy each one as much as we do.**

 AMAZON



God, what was it going to be like to have all that intensity focused on her? Touching her? Inside her? All he had to do was look at her and she shivered with violent tingles.The cold air in this drafty castle just got warmer. “Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“You didn’t.”

“Didn’t what?”

“Warn me.”

She huffed. “When I said not to say I didn’t warn you… I was warning you.”

His lazy, lopsided smile made her groan. He was teasing her. She loved these glimpses, brief as they were, into his off-duty personality. He’d been on the go since they’d met, in a constant state of motion, and despite the shitty circumstances, it was nice to see him relax a little.

Of course, that could have something to do with the ninety-proof bottle of attitude adjuster in his hand.

She eyed her own glass of liquid bravery, but really, she didn’t need it. Even if her succubus genes weren’t already going to work, preparing her body with a hot rush of desire, she’d want Hawkyn.

And she’d want to help him.

As he gulped down another swig of vodka, she set her glass on the little end table and turned to him.

“Here’s another warning.” She pulled her shirt up over her head. “Some scenes may be too intense for young viewers.” She tossed the shirt onto the mattress and reached around to unhook her bra.

“What are you doing?” he croaked, the vodka bottle frozen a few inches from his mouth.

“Sex. That’s the fast method.” She dropped the bra on the mattress and flushed at the way he stared at her exposed breasts. “You game?”

For a long, tortured moment, he said nothing. Oh, God, what if he refused her? How embarrassing. She’d made a huge mistake, and she looked like a desperate fool.

Choking on humiliation, she lifted her hands to cover herself, but he shook his head.

“Don’t.” His voice was a low growl, sultry and dark, so resonant it hit her between her legs. “You’re beautiful.”

“Does this mean—”

He was on her before she could finish. His lips came down on hers and his body pressed her into the cold stone wall and both his hands gripped her shoulders so firmly she figured she’d have bruises later.

Awesome.

 

At this moment, he seemed to be both angel and demon, because what he was doing to her was nothing short of evil, but he was so damned good at it. 

It’s no secret that I’m obsessed with all things Larissa Ione writes. Having read her entire backlist, I don’t think there’s been one book of hers that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy, and this one was no exception. While the story is set in her Demonica world, new readers wouldn’t feel lost. There’s plenty of background, the characters are not ones that have previously introduced, and while part of a series, it’s a solid standalone as well. Though I’d still highly recommend the rest of the Demonica series because it’s just that awesome. But I digress.

Hawkyn is a Memitim; a special breed of earthbound angel that was raised by humans. His father is the powerful ruler of the underworld, Azagoth. But that doesn’t mean that he still doesn’t need to earn his way into heaven by doing his job. His duty is to protect his Primori. Unfortunately for Hawkyn, his Primori happens to be a deranged serial killer and he can’t interfere with destiny. That is, not until his accidental interference causes his Primori to abduct a woman that he can’t stop thinking about.

Aurora Mercer is a wytch; a fascinating hybrid of witch and succubus. She doesn’t know if she can trust the handsome angel that rescued her from the hands of a monster, but she doesn’t have much of a choice when she’s still hunted by the man determined to finish his job.

The chemistry between Aurora and Hawkyn is instant and sizzling, in only a way that Larissa Ione can write. But their relationship is a delicious slow burn that keeps you at the edge of your seat. I couldn’t get enough of these two together. I love Ione’s rich world building and all the characters that she’s created. And while Hawkyn brings mention some of my past favorites, there’s also some new faces that are introduced as well. I loved getting the additional development of Azagoth and Lili’s story. If you haven’t read their book, I can’t recommend it enough: Azagoth.

As for this one? For a short novella, it was incredibly satisfying, well developed and perfectly paced. It offers plenty of action, with a dash of sizzle, and a total page turner from beginning to finish. If you’re looking for a quick and sexy PNR read, you really can’t go wrong!

Larissa Ione is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. An Air Force veteran, she traded in a career as a meteorologist to pursue her passion of writing. She now spends her days in pajamas with her computer, strong coffee, and supernatural worlds. She believes in celebrating everything, and would never be caught without a bottle of Champagne chilling in the fridge…just in case. She currently lives in Wisconsin with her U.S. Coast Guard husband, her teenage son, a rescue cat named Vegas, and her very own hellhound, a King Shepherd named Hexe.

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Geri’s Review: Brooklynaire by Sarina Bowen

BROOKLYNAIRE
Series: Brooklyn Bruisers
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Author: Sarina Bowen
Release Date: February 12, 2018

A sexy new standalone from USA Today bestseller Sarina Bowen.

You’d think a billion dollars, a professional hockey team and a six-bedroom mansion on the Promenade would satisfy a guy. You’d be wrong.

For seven years Rebecca has brightened my office with her wit and her smile. She manages both my hockey team and my sanity.

I don’t know when I started waking in the night, craving her. All I know is that one whiff of her perfume ruins my concentration. And her laugh makes me hard.

When Rebecca gets hurt, I step in to help. It’s what friends do. But what friends don’t do is rip off each others’ clothes for a single, wild night together.

Now she’s avoiding me. She says we’re too different, and it can never happen again. So why can’t we keep our hands off each other?

 

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I grab a towel off a waiting stack of them and toss it onto the edge. “You can sit and put your feet in.”

She’s wearing a short little knit dress that’s been making me crazy all evening, so it would be easy enough for her to strip off those stockings, sit on the towel, and drop both feet in.

And that’s what she does. She eases one stocking down over a smooth knee and tugs it off.

I don’t want to stand there staring like a middle-school boy. Okay, I do want to. But I don’t want to make her uncomfortable. So I go over to the sound system instead, and I set my phone on the speaker and cue up a really old playlist. One she’ll recognize.

When I turn around again, she’s seated on the towel, both legs hanging down into the churning water. “Ah. Wow.” She looks up at me, her eyes sparkling. “Nice place you got here.”

“Isn’t it?” I toe off my shoes and kick them to the side.

The first song comes on, and it’s a Macklemore tune that we used to play far too often in our first office. Rebecca laughs immediately. “You didn’t! I haven’t heard this playlist in forever. But I’ll bet I still know every transition. Lady Gaga is next.”

“She sure is.”

Rebecca kicks her feet, making a splash. “I have a little confession to make.”

“What’s that?” I loosen my tie and slide the knot out.

“Well…” She grins up at me. “I used to have a crush on you. Back in the early days.”

My hands freeze on the tie silk. “Get out of town. You did not.”

“No, I really did.” Her cheeks are pink. “That first year especially. But you were taken, and you were my boss. Those two things made it pretty easy to tamp down, when you’re a practical girl like me.”

I walk over and drop down beside her, my back to the water, though, because I’m still wearing trousers and socks. “So how does that work, exactly?”

“What?” She gives me a sidelong glance, but then looks away again and won’t meet my eyes.

“How do you stop wanting someone? I’m a practical person, but I don’t see how that makes it any easier. Nothing seems to mute the raging attraction I have for you.”

Her chin turns quickly toward me, and I seize the opportunity to kiss her. And it only takes one kiss—one slide of my lips over hers, and I’m on fire again.

We’re facing opposite directions, so it’s awkward as hell. But I don’t even care. I take greedy sip after greedy sip of her mouth, until she pulls back to stare at me. Her color is high and her eyes are bright and happy. “This is like Twister.”

“It’s better,” I correct. Lady Gaga comes on, just as Becca said she would. “Are we getting into this pool or what?”

Becca kicks a foot in the water. “I’m tempted. But I don’t have a bathing suit.”

“Oh, snap.”

She smiles and shakes her head. “Are you really getting in?”

“We don’t have to.” I’m never going to pressure her.

Her fingers trail across the surface of the bubbling water. “But this is an adventure, right?”

“Right.” I stand up and remove my socks. She’s watching me. And I can’t read her expression. “What?”

“Just wondering what else you’re going to take off.” She smiles.

“Come here.” The order rolls off my tongue.

But Rebecca doesn’t blink. She gets up and turns toward me, curiosity in her eyes.

“You tell me. What am I taking off?”

She puts two hands tentatively on my chest, and I make myself be patient. Everything I ever wanted is on the other side of this moment. I just need us to break through this awkwardness—the “will we or won’t we” tension.

Her fingers find the top button of my shirt. “I’m not getting in the water unless you are.”

That’s a compromise I can live with. I find my lower shirt buttons and work upwards, until we meet in the middle. She pushes the two halves of my shirt apart and runs a hand down my bare chest.

My inner caveman stands up and cheers.

 

I had high expectations for this book because it’s Nate! And Becca! I’ve been waiting for this book since I’ve read the first Brooklyn Bruisers book and Sarina Bowen did not disappoint. I adored this book with all of my heart.

Brooklynaire is a fun, all out swoon-worthy romance with Sarina Bowen’s trademark flair.

Nate and Becca had been in this perpetual will they won’t they sexual tension since the first book in this series. In case you haven’t been keeping up, Becca is the office manager for the Brooklyn Bruisers and Nate is the owner. He also happens to be a tech genius billionaire.

I adored their friendship. The transition from employee to friends and then to lovers was seamless. They shared a history together, and Becca was there from the very beginning of Nate’s company. They went through the usual ups and downs together as well. But one significant event — and this is not a spoiler since it has been revealed in the previous books in the series — stood out and that was the moment when Becca was transferred from Nate’s Manhattan office or basically his inner circle to the Bruisers facility.

To Nate it was self-preservation. To Becca it felt like a demotion, and it was sort shadowed their relationship ever since even though they remain good friends. We finally get to know the reason why this happened and the confrontation that followed was utterly satisfying to me.

Aside from my abnormally high expectation with the romantic aspect of this book, I was also curious about how Ms. Bowen will address the issue of the imbalance of power between these two characters. Nate is the all powerful billionaire and Becca is an assistant. Her livelihood depended not just on her skills but how she deals with people around her. And Nate’s romantic interest in her could potentially have a negative impact on her career and how people would perceive her.

I absolutely liked how the author was able to deal with this very real issue especially in light of the workplace harassment scandals that have now been brought to light. And if you say right now that you don’t want to read anything as controversial or political undertones in your book, then tough! ‘Cause you’re getting it here, and it’s wonderful.

The conflict, the banter, the secondary characters made this book a worthwhile read. I loved Lauren’s cameos. And yes, we do get more hockey talk in this book which is always a bonus. Aaaaand someone or something else gets introduced in this book that OMG made me nerd out so hard. Not only that, it added some comic relief. It was a very clever inclusion, Ms. Bowen. Very clever indeed.

Anyway, read this book, people! It can be read as a standalone yet but I highly recommend reading the first books in the series, just so you can get a feel for how other people sees Nate and Becca.

Sarina Bowen is a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance. She lives in Vermont’s Green Mountains with her family, six chickens and too much ski gear and hockey equipment.

In 2016, Sarina became a Rita Award winner! The Romance Writers of America honored HIM by Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy with Best Contemporary Romance, Mid-Length.

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Blog Tour Review & Excerpt: About that Kiss by Jill Shalvis

ABOUT THAT KISS
Series: 
Heartbreaker Bay #5
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Author: Jill Shalvis
Release Date:  January 23rd 2018

When love drives you crazy . . .

When sexy Joe Malone never calls after their explosive kiss, Kylie shoves him out of her mind. Until she needs a favor, and it’s a doozy. Something precious to her has been stolen and there’s only one person with unique finder-and-fixer skills that can help—Joe. It means swallowing her pride and somehow trying to avoid the temptation to throttle him—or seduce him.

the best thing to do . . .

No, Joe didn’t call after the kiss. He’s the fun time guy, not the forever guy. And Kylie, after all she’s been through, deserves a good man who will stay. But everything about Kylie makes it damned hard to focus, and though his brain knows what he has to do, his heart isn’t getting the memo.

… is enjoy the ride.

As Kylie and Joe go on the scavenger hunt of their lives, they discover surprising things about each other. Now, the best way for them to get over “that kiss” might just be to replace it with a hundred more.

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Joe studied her. “I asked you once before, but now I’m going to ask you again. Is there something going

on between you two?”

She tossed up her hands. “Why do you both keep asking me that about each other?”

His eyes narrowed. “I thought nothing was going on.”

“And before today, I could’ve passed a lie detector test on that,” she said.

“What happened today?”

She paused. Not because she had anything to be ashamed of, but because she wasn’t quite sure what had happened.

“Kylie.”

She sighed. “It’s nothing.”

“Try again,” Joe said and gave her the very male universal go on gesture.

She rolled her eyes. “Fine. He . . . finally made a move on me.”

Joe didn’t budge. Not a blink, not a muscle twitch, nothing, but she could’ve popped corn off the electric tension coming off him.

“Describe ‘made a move,’ ” he finally said.

She crossed her arms. “And again, how is this relevant to my case?”

He just gave her that careful stare again and she thought wow, those eyes of his should be registered as a lethal weapon, because she found herself opening her mouth and spilling her guts. “He kissed me.”

“He kissed you.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Do you know that you often repeat what I say?”

“What kind of a kiss?” he asked.

She was momentarily bewildered. “I don’t know. It was a kiss. A normal kiss. A nice kiss.” She cocked her head at him. “How many kinds of kisses are there?”

He just looked at her for a long moment before coming toward her. He backed her to the wall and pressed his big hands on either side of her head.

“There are many kinds of kisses,” he said.

Her breath had backed up in her throat, where her heart had lodged, pounding wildly. “S-s-such as?”

“Such as this one.” And then he leaned in and covered her mouth with his.

At the touch of Joe’s mouth, Kylie’s brain stopped being capable of rational thought. His tongue gave a knee-weakening stroke against hers and she let out a shockingly needy moan as she clutched at him, fisting her hands in the material of his shirt at his chest. Only when he’d thoroughly plundered and pillaged and left her boneless did he lift his head and look into her eyes.

“Wow,” she whispered, fully aware she was still holding on to him like he was a lifeline, but the bones in her legs had liquefied. “I mean . . .” She shook her head. “Wow.”

He nodded. “Yeah. So to be clear, that wasn’t ‘a normal kiss’ or even ‘a nice kiss.’ It was a ‘wow’ kiss. Any questions?”

“Just one,” she said softly. “Can I have another?”

Joe didn’t have to be asked twice. His mouth immediately descended again, his fingers sliding into her hair to change the angle of the kiss to suit him. It was a controlled, alpha thing to do, but she had only one thought—nothing about the usually carefully, purposely leashed Joe was in control at the moment.

And she liked it.

She had no idea how long they went at it because she was in absolute heaven. Who knew that the man could use his preferred silent mode to communicate in a way that she finally approved of?

Only when she was completely breathless and about to strip him down to his birthday suit did she manage to pull back.

“Any more questions?” he asked, also a little bit breathless, which was more than slightly gratifying. Dumbly, she shook her head. His eyes softened and he gently he stroked his thumb over her bottom lip. “And FYI? Gib’s an idiot.”

LANA’S REVIEW

And you kissed me that last time!”
“You were going on about a kiss being nice. But there was nothing nice about that kiss you planted on me in the alley. It was raw and sexy and dirty in the best possible way. You needed to be reminded of that.”
She covered her face. “Oh my God.”
“God had nothing to do with it,” he said smugly.


About That Kiss was everything I had hoped it would be; perfectly swoony with a side of suspense! Jill Shalvis never disappoints. I absolutely adored Joe and Kylie’s story.

Kylie is perfectly quirky and endearing, but a bit of a hermit when it comes to men. An unexpected kiss with the sexy womanizer Joe is not something she’ll soon forget, but she’s trying her hardest. Even though Joe isn’t about to make it easy on her. When a beloved belonging given to her by her late grandfather goes missing, she doesn’t know who else to turn to but Joe. Thus begins a bit of a scavenger hunt with a mystery that’s full of laughs, swoon, and enough chemistry to light up the entire city block.

I’m trying to decide what I want to do with you.”
“What are the options?” he asked.
“Kill you or kiss you.”

I simply loved the two of them together. They were such a fun dynamic of opposites attract. Joe is broody, secretive, and hasn’t given the same woman more than a passing thought before. That is, until Kylie. He has plenty on his plate with demons from the past and a layer of guilt that plagues his present, a father with severe PTSD, and a job that puts him in constant danger. Putting his heart on the line is not something he can do. But he can’t seem to resist the quirky Kylie.

Kylie was so much fun. Between her spine of steel, her disguises on their stakeouts, and her valiant efforts to ignore the chemistry between her and Joe, I couldn’t get enough of her.

The romance is a sizzling slow burn with plenty of laughs thrown in. With a cast of colorful and memorable secondary characters, About That Kiss was a book that put a smile on my face from page one and kept it there until the end. Jill Shalvis is the queen of light hearted romance, and this book was no exception.


GERI’S REVIEW

There are many kinds of kisses,” he said.

Her breath had backed up in her throat, where her heart had lodged, pounding wildly. “S-s-such as?”

“Such as this one.” And then he leaned in and covered her mouth with his.

Image result for hot kiss gif

About that Kiss is another delightful addition to Ms. Shalvis’ Heartbreaker Bay series.

I’ve been looking forward to Joe’s story ever since I found out that Jill is gonna give Archer’s security men stories of their own. And she did not disappoint.

Security expert Joe Malone and woodworker extraordinaire Kylie Masters shared a hot kiss one night, and it suddenly changed everything.

Joe is fine being a bachlor. He doesn’t lack companionship and besides, the extra time he has is better spent taking care of his father and keeping his sister safe. But the moment the kiss with Kylie happened, he couldn’t get her out of his mind.

For Kylie, Joe is way outside her league. And besides, he’s not her type at all. So what if she can’t stop thinking about him or can’t stop fantasizing about kissing him again? She has better things to do with her time, right?

But when Kylie’s precious wooden penguin (the last tangible connection she has from her grandfather), they suddenly find themselves spending time together, hunting for the missing item.

The chemistry between Joe and Kylie is the first thing that really stood to me in this book. It made the book highly addicting and readable.

Both Joe and Kylie have their issues that they both are trying to deal with which makes them all the more interesting characters to me. I’ve always adored Shalvis’ heroines. They’re complex characters and they don’t always do or say the right thing, which I personally loved.

She was an irresistible dichotomy of sweet charm and heart-stopping sexy, and she threw him off guard with every look, be it a smile or a glare. In fact, he kinda liked when she gave him dirty looks, which meant he was seriously losing his shit. And he never lost his shit.”

Then there’s Joe. Ever since he was introduced a couple of books back, Joe has always stood out to me especially with how he is around his sister Molly and the rest of the team. I had high expectations and Jill Shalvis did not disappoint. She gave us a hero that we can swoon over with Joe.

There’s a bit of whodunnit element in this book, which add an interesting layer to it on top of the love story. I enjoyed it. Don’t expect something heavy like a la Nora Roberts or Sandra Brown. This is after all a contemporary romance but it has enough to keep you guessing until the end.

The Heartbreaker Bay series continues to delight in so many ways. I know I say this with every Jill Shalvis book but I CANNOT WAIT for the next book in this series! And Molly and Lucas had sa few “moments” in this book which made me even more for their book, which is UP NEXT!


New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras with her family and far too many assorted quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is, um, mostly coincidental.

Look for Jill’s latest, LOST AND FOUND SISTERS on shelves and e-readers now, and get all her bestselling, award-winning books wherever romances are sold.

Visit Jill’s website for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.

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Blog Tour: Midnight Valentine by JT Geissinger

MIDNIGHT VALENTINE
Genre:
Contemporary Romance
Author:
J.T. Geissinger
Release Date:
February 6, 2018

A hauntingly powerful love story in the tradition of The Notebook and The Time Traveler’s Wife.

“How can you remember someone you’ve never met?”

Megan and Cassidy were childhood sweethearts who thought they’d be together forever, but fate had other plans. Soon after they were married, Cass’s life was tragically cut short. Still grieving her soul mate five years later, Megan moves to the small town of Seaside, Oregon, hoping to rebuild her life.

Her first night there, she meets the town recluse, Theo. Withdrawn, guarded, and mysteriously silent since a terrible accident left him scarred, Theo takes an instant and inexplicable dislike to Megan. But as their paths cross again and again, Megan becomes convinced there’s more to Theo than meets the eye.

When she discovers the reason for his silence, his nightmares, and especially his pointed dislike, Megan becomes convinced of something far more astonishing.

Is a second chance at a once-in-a-lifetime love possible, or is a broken heart the cruelest kind of liar?

AMAZON

After the warmth of the house, the rain beckons to me. I cross the patio and step out on to the grass. It’s springy beneath my feet, pleasant to walk on. I go about ten yards out, past the reach of the lights, then stop, close my eyes, and lift my face to the rain.

I open my mouth to catch a few cool, sweet drops on my tongue. I hear muffled laughter and music from inside, the sound of voices floating to me on the night air. Then I hear the words that haunt me the most, the thing Cass used to whisper into my ear every night before we fell asleep in each other’s arms. The last thing he said to me before he died.

I love you, sweet pea. I’ll love you ’til the end of time.

How long will it be until I can no longer remember the sound of his voice? How many years does it take to forget the love of your life? Will I wake up one day and the memory of his kiss have vanished, trampled to dust by the relentless forward march of time?

“Babe,” I whisper, my heart twisting. “I miss you so much. Why did you leave me?”

A tingle like a mild electric shock zings up my spine. From one heartbeat to the next, I realize I’m not alone.

My eyes fly open. I swing around and look back toward the house. I’m momentarily blinded by the lights, but when my eyes adjust, I see a figure in the shadows leaning against one side of the columns that support the patio.

It’s a man. A big man with wide shoulders and long legs. His hands are shoved deep into the pockets of his black raincoat. The hood of the raincoat is pulled over his head, but even in the shadows I can see the glint of his dark eyes.

He stares at me with an unblinking gaze, his expression grim.

Theo.

As if he heard his name in my mind, he straightens. He pulls his hands from his pockets and stands there staring at me with his hands flexed open like some kind of psychopath about to pounce on me and wring my neck.

That doesn’t scare me so much as piss me off. I call out, “Lurk much, pal?”

When he doesn’t respond—because, oh, yeah, talking isn’t his thing—I take a few steps toward him. Simultaneously, he takes a few steps back. When I stop, he stops. Then we stare at each other while I try to decide if I should find a rock to throw at him or calm down and act like an adult.

I’m embarrassed he caught me standing alone in the rain, talking to myself, but it isn’t his fault I’m strange.

When his gaze sweeps over me, snagging on my chest before flashing back up to my face, I realize several things at once.

One, I’m not wearing a bra. Unlike Suzanne’s double Ds, my B cups don’t require scaffolding to hold them up. Two, I’ve been standing in the rain in a white T-shirt, which means, three, I’m probably giving this non-talking Theo quite a show.

I hunch my shoulders, grab my shirt, and pull it away from my stomach, trying to make all that look nonchalant.

He doesn’t move. He doesn’t look away. He just stands there, staring, his jaw like granite and his black eyes burning holes into my head.

The tingle in my spine increases until it feels like an itch.

A former headhunter, J.T. Geissinger is the author of more than a dozen novels in contemporary romance, paranormal romance, and romantic suspense.

She is the recipient of the Prism Award for Best First Book, the Golden Quill Award for Best Paranormal/Urban Fantasy, and is a two-time finalist for the RITA® Award from the Romance Writers of America®. Her work has also finaled in the Booksellers’ Best, National Readers’ Choice, and Daphne du Maurier Awards.

Join her Facebook reader’s group, Geissinger’s Gang, to take part in weekly Wine Wednesday live chats and giveaways, find out more information about works in progress, have access to exclusive excerpts and contests, and get advance reader copies of her upcoming releases.

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Blog Tour, Excerpt & Review: Sky’s The Limity by Elle Aycart

SKY’S THE LIMIT
Series: Doomsday Preppers #1
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Author: Elle Aycart
Release Date: January 16, 2018

Tired of waiting for her big break in the fashion industry, Sky Gonzalez, eternal part-time student and overworked retail drone, quits her job, sublets her New York apartment, and embarks on a semester abroad study program in Paris. Paris! Time to throw caution to the winds and jump-start her dreams. What’s the worst that could happen?

How about getting sent to the wrong Paris? As in Paris-frigging-Minnesota?

Bye-bye career dreams. Bye-bye glamour and haute couture. Hello flannel shirts, mind-numbing cold, zero bars on the cell phone, and socially challenged mountain men with tons of unruly facial hair.

So yeah, let the truck barreling her way hit her, please. Less painful.

Logan should have dodged the little lost waif and kept on driving. Who in their right mind walked in the middle of the road, dressed in white from head to high heels, during a snowstorm? Clueless city girls, that’s who. Sky is all that Logan has gladly left behind: stylish, cosmopolitan, and a massive pain in the butt. He wouldn’t trade a single day in his quirky little corner of the woods for all the high-maintenance beauties the city can offer.

Too bad this beauty has been deemed a health hazard and quarantined in his house. Damn his doomsday-prepper neighbors and their paranoid emergency protocols. Now he has to keep Sky in and the pandemic squad out until the roads are clear. The question is, will that happen before or after Sky realizes she’s under house arrest?

Ah, the best-laid plans…

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Logan addressed the pandemic squad up on the platform. “Sorry to break it to you. This is a free country. You can’t go quarantining people at will.”

“Wrong. Exactly because this is a free country, we can.”

There were some mumbles of agreement from the crowd, “That’s right” and “You got it” and “Try to stop us.”

“We live in a democracy. Let’s take a vote,” Carol suggested. “All in favor of quarantining Patient Zero, please raise your hands.”

Everyone, including a smirking Ty, raised their hands.

“Oh, come on,” Logan grumbled. “Really? You serious?”

“Motion accepted,” Carol said, wrestling the gavel from the mayor and banging it on the podium.

“Besides, Patient Zero doesn’t have to know she’s been quarantined. Just keep her indoors by any means necessary until she gets better.”

“Or she kicks the bucket,” somebody chimed in.

Nuts. The whole bunch of them. Down to the very last one.

“She’s not Patient Zero, people. Her name is Sky and she’s got the flu, damn it. Not Ebola. Just a common, garden-variety flu.”

“By our calculations, Patient Zero has been here almost twenty-four hours. We’re late on containment,” Carol said.

Logan shook his head in dismay. Man, like talking to a wall.

“You had her hidden away for a whole day?” Ty asked impishly.

“She was just sleeping on my sofa.” Logan realized his mistake right away and turned to Carol and the rest. “You are not burning my sofa. Are we clear?”

Whether it was clear or not, Logan didn’t know, because Carol ignored his words. “And we’ll be monitoring you,” she added while the rest nodded. “At the slightest indication you’re sick—”

“Yeah, yeah, you’ll quarantine me too, and if I don’t get better fast enough, you’ll shoot me and cremate my remains.” Along with the damn couch, of course.

Carol rolled her eyes. “Don’t be silly.”

“Yeah, don’t be silly,” someone interjected. “We’ll autopsy you before that. Dissect you into tiny pieces.”

Jesus fucking Christ. Why couldn’t his neighbors have been the gearheads prepping for solar flares that would fry the grid? More kumbaya. Less ready to dissect.

“This is all your fault, Megan,” he said to his sister, who was sitting two rows behind him. “Couldn’t you have moved somewhere else? A normal fucking place?”

She just laughed. “You heard the lady. Keep Patient Zero indoors—by any means necessary.”

“Ha. Ha.”

“What? Skills too rusty to keep a woman indoors?” she asked.

“I can help,” Ty added. “Is she pretty?”

Gorgeous, actually. Big, dark eyes. Olive-colored skin. Delicate features. But that was beside the point too.

“Fuck off, both of you,” Logan muttered. Raising his voice, he addressed the crowd again. “You’re certifiable. All of you.”

“I totally agree,” Carol said. “We give you far too much leeway. Look at how flexible we’ve been about your toxic contaminants.”

I knew you were kinky. Bearded men always are.”

Sky’s The Limit was a quirky, cute and sweet romance with just the right amount of sizzle and plenty of laughs. It was nothing like I expected and a total step away from what I’m used to from this author, but an entertaining and satisfying read nonetheless.

Where had she gone wrong? She’d had a nice, comfortable city life. Friday meant cosmopolitans, sexy clothes, and a fancy date with dinner and dancing. Hot sex if she was lucky. Now? She was in the middle of nowhere, getting ready for an evacuation drill, her mascara down her chest, her hair a mess, and her clit hurting like a bitch from not coming. No dinner. No dancing.

A paperwork error switching Sky Gonzalez’s Paris, France internship to Paris, Minnesota is bad enough. But then her car breaks down in the middle of No Name, Minnesota in a snow storm and lands her smack dab into survivalist territory. Meeting a bunch of kooky people prepping for the end of the world is one thing. But living amongst them as she tries to figure out her next step? Well that’s a whole different thing entirely.

Enter bearded sexy guy that offers her a solution to her problems by allowing her to crash at his house. But how can she trust a man that the locals refer to as the Alchemist? And the inconvenient attraction between them certainly doesn’t help matters.

This was a slow paced, character driven story that admittedly didn’t keep me riveted to the pages. Don’t get me wrong, it was cute and entertaining, but it also wasn’t something I had a problem putting down. I enjoyed the kooky side characters and the even kookier town. I enjoyed the slow burn romance between Sky and Logan. I even found myself googling all the beauty hacks Sky had up her sleeve throughout the story. Logan was an equal amount of sweet and sexy. He’s definitely got his share of baggage courtesy of his pretentious ex wife, but he was still the perfect amount of swoony.

While I can’t say this was my favorite book from the author, it was definitely intriguing enough to have me read the rest of the series. If you’re looking for something different, light hearted, and with plenty of bearded sizzle, definitely pick this one up.

After a colorful array of jobs all over Europe ranging from translator to chocolatier to travel agent to sushi chef to flight dispatcher, Elle Aycart is certain of one thing and one thing only: aside from writing romances, she has abso-frigging-lutely no clue what she wants to do when she grows up. Not that it stops her from trying all sorts of crazy stuff. While she is probably now thinking of a new profession, her head never stops churning new plots for her romances. She lives currently in Barcelona, Spain, with her husband and two daughters, although who knows, in no time she could be living at the Arctic Circle in Finland, breeding reindeer.

Elle loves to hear from readers!

elleaycart@gmail.com

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Blog Tour & Review of Team Player Anthology

SBPR-BLT.jpgTEAM PLAYER
Genre: Sports Romance
Authors: LJ Shen, Emma Scott, Kate Stewart, Meghan Quinn
Release Date: December 14, 2017

 Hot jocks. We love them all.

Sexy baseball players. Intense footballers. Sweaty MMA fighters, and sizzling hockey hotties. Score!

The good news? Eleven bestselling authors have gathered to give you a set of stories focused on the men we love most—sports heroes.

We bet you’ll love this thick…book.

The bad news? The men in these novellas don’t actually exist.

*This anthology does not contain calories, just eleven original, never-before-seen stories by the following authors: Adriana Locke, Mandi Beck, Charleigh Rose, Kennedy Ryan, LJ Shen, Meghan Quinn, Rochelle Paige, Ella Fox, Kate Stewart, Emma Scott, and Sara Ney. We aren’t responsible for melted devices.

AMAZON US | AMAZON INTERNATIONAL

AvailableNOW KU.jpg

4 Douchebag-Man-Whore Stars!! (Review of The End Zone by L.J. Shen)

You wanna know what this book is about?

This book is about L.J. Shen making the Douchebag-Man-Whore her bitch.

This book is exactly why I love L.J. Shen. Like Sara Ney, L.J.Shen can make me hate/love the douchebag.

Sage is a Grade-A Douchebag-Man-Whore. He is the college quarterback, soon to be drafted, and can get anything he wants, including women. After a recent incident, he is lusting after his roommate, Jolie. He has never felt anything for her before now. Sage and Jolie have been best friends since they were kids. Jolie has been in lurrrrve with Sage since then as well, but OF COURSE he doesn’t know it, and OF COURSE he is a Douchebag-Man-Whore. There is no way she is going to put herself out there only to get hurt and lose her best friend in the process.

I love love love the fake relationship stories, and that is exactly what happens. Sage convinces Jo Jo to be his fake girlfriend, and it quickly escalates into something more. Were there a couple of predictable cliché moments? You betcha. Did I care? Not one bit. I read this book in one sitting and enjoyed every second.

I loved this short by L.J. Shen. I wish it was a full book, and those are the best kind of novellas.

LJ Shen

L.J. Shen is an International #1 best-selling author of Contemporary Romance and New Adult novels. She lives in Northern California with her husband, young son and chubby cat.

Before she’d settled down, L.J. (who thinks referring to herself in the third person is really silly, by the way) traveled the world, and collected friends from all across the globe. Friends who’d be happy to report that she is a rubbish companion, always forgets people’s birthdays and never sends Christmas cards.

She enjoys the simple things in life, like spending time with her family and friends, reading, HBO, Netflix and internet-stalking Stephen James. She reads between three to five books a week and firmly believes Crocs shoes and mullets should be outlawed.

Connect with LJ Shen

FACEBOOK | TWITTER | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM

Kennedy Ryan:

Kennedy Ryan is a Southern girl gone Southern California. A Top 100 Amazon Bestseller, Kennedy writes romance about remarkable women who find a way to thrive even in tough times, the love they find, and the men who cherish them.

She is a wife to her lifetime lover and mother to an extraordinary son. She has always leveraged her journalism background to write for charity and non-profit organizations, but enjoys writing to raise Autism awareness most. A contributor for Modern Mom Magazine, Kennedy’s writings have appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul, USA Today and many others. The founder and executive director of a foundation serving Georgia families living with Autism, Kennedy has appeared on Headline News, Montel Williams, NPR and other outlets as a voice for families living with autism.

Connect with Kennedy

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Adriana Locke:

A contemporary romance author running on coffee and sticky kisses from my rowdy four little boys.

From Indiana, I’m a true Mid-Westerner. Life, for me, is about family, faith, and food. When I’m not running my kiddos around or having a lunch date of fajitas with my husband (and high school sweetheart), you can find me outside. I love a good sunny day almost as much as I love candy, random quotes, and steamy bad boys in fantastic books.

I’m on nearly every social media platform. Please find me on the ones you frequent – I love chatting with readers.

Connect with Adriana

FACEBOOK | TWITTER | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM

Mandi Beck:

Mandi Beck has been an avid reader all of her life. A deep love for books always had her jotting down little stories on napkins, notebooks, and her hand. As an adult she was further submerged into the book world through book clubs and the epicness of social media. It was then that she graduated to writing her stories on her phone and then finally on a proper computer.

A nursing student, mother to two rambunctious and somewhat rotten boys, and stepmom to two great girls away at college, she shares her time with her husband in Chicago where she was born and raised. Mandi is a diehard hockey fan and blames the Blackhawks when her deadlines are not met.

Connect with Mandi

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Emma Scott:

I write romances with flawed characters, characters with artistic hearts: builders, poets, and writers of various makes and models. I love to write book lovers; those who have found refuge, companionship, and escape in books, much as we do in real life. I like realism, honesty, authenticity in storytelling. I love to write about enduring love, soul-deep love, in as real a setting as I can make, but with big smooshy HEAs. I believe in diversity, open-mindedness, and inclusion. I like sweetness mixed with steam, love conquering all, and above all, hope. Love always wins.

Connect with Emma

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Charleigh Rose:

We are a duo of an international best-selling author and a blogger who teamed up to write the taboo, thought-provoking stories we want our audience to have–without filters.

Both Charleigh and Rose are committed to giving you witty, sexy, intelligent novels that will leave you wanting more.

Connect with Charleigh

FACEBOOK | GOODREADS

Ella Fox:

When she’s not writing, Ella indulges the gypsy in her blood and travels the country. Ella loves reading, movies, music, buying make-up, reading Tmz, Twitter and pedicures… not necessarily in that order. She has a wild sense of humor and loves to laugh. Her favorite thing in the world is hanging out with her family and watching comedy movies.

Connect with Ella

FACEBOOK | WEBSITE | TWITTER

Sara Ney:

Sara Ney is the USA Today Bestselling Author of the How to Date a Douchebag series, and is best known for her sexy, laugh-out-loud New Adult romances. Among her favorite vices, she includes: iced latte’s, historical architecture and well-placed sarcasm. She lives colorfully, collects vintage books, art, loves flea markets, and fancies herself British.

Connect with Sara

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Meghan Quinn:

A BLONDE AT HEART

Born in New York and raised in Southern California, Meghan has grown into a sassy, peanut butter eating, blonde haired swearing, animal hoarding lady. She is known to bust out and dance if “It’s Raining Men” starts beating through the air and heaven forbid you get a margarita in her, protect your legs because they may be humped.

Once she started commuting for an hour and twenty minutes every day to work for three years, she began to have conversations play in her head, real life, deep male voices and dainty lady coos kind of conversations. Perturbed and confused, she decided to either see a therapist about the hot and steamy voices running through her head or start writing them down. She decided to go with the cheaper option and started writing… enter her first novel, Caught Looking.

Now you can find the spicy, most definitely on the border of lunacy, kind of crazy lady residing in Colorado with the love of her life and her five, furry four legged children, hiking a trail or hiding behind shelves at grocery stores, wondering what kind of lube the nervous stranger will bring home to his wife. Oh and she loves a good boob squeeze!

Connect with Meghan

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Kate Stewart:

Kate Stewart lives in Charleston, S.C. with her husband, Nick, and her naughty beagle, Sadie. A native of Dallas, Kate moved to Charleston three weeks after her first visit, dropping her career of 8 years, and declaring it her creative muse. Kate pens messy, sexy, angst-filled contemporary romance as well as romantic comedy and erotic suspense because it’s what she loves as a reader. A lover of all things ’80s and ’90s, especially John Hughes films and rap, she dabbles a little in photography, can knit a simple stitch scarf for necessity only and does a horrible job of playing the ukulele. Aside from running a mile without collapsing, traveling is the only other must on her bucket list. On occasion, she does very well at vodka.

Connect with Kate

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Rochelle Paige:

Rochelle Paige is the Amazon bestselling author of nineteen books. She absolutely adores reading and her friends growing up used to tease her when she trailed after them, trying to read and walk at the same time. She loves stories with alpha males, sassy heroines, hot sex and happily ever afters. She is a bit of a genre hopper in both her reading and her writing. So far she’s written books in several romance sub-genres including new adult, contemporary, paranormal and romantic suspense.

She is the mother of two wonderful sons who inspired her to chase her dream of being an author. She wants them to learn from her that you can live your dream as long as you are willing to work for it.

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Blog Tour, Excerpt, Review & Giveaway: So Over You by Kate Meader

SO OVER YOU
Series: The Chicago Rebels #2
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Author: Kate Meader
Release Date: December 4, 2017

Three estranged sisters struggle to sustain their late father’s failing hockey franchise in Kate Meader’s sizzling Chicago Rebels series. In this second entry, middle sister Isobel is at a crossroads in her personal and professional lives. But both are about to get a significant boost with the addition of a domineering Russian powerhouse to the Rebels….

Isobel Chase knows hockey. She played NCAA, won Olympic silver, and made it thirty-seven minutes into the new National Women’s Hockey League before an injury sidelined her dreams. Those who can’t, coach, and a position as a skating consultant to her late father’s hockey franchise, the Chicago Rebels, seems like a perfect fit. Until she’s assigned her first job: the man who skated into her heart as a teen and relieved her of her pesky virginity. These days, left-winger Vadim Petrov is known as the Czar of Pleasure, a magnet for puck bunnies and the tabloids alike. But back then… let’s just say his inability to sink the puck left Isobel frustratingly scoreless.

Vadim has a first name that means “ruler,” and it doesn’t stop at his birth certificate. He dominates on the ice, the practice rink, and in the backseat of a limo. But a knee injury has produced a bad year, and bad years in the NHL don’t go unrewarded. His penance? To be traded to a troubled team where his personal coach is Isobel Chase, the woman who drove him wild years ago when they were hormonal teens. But apparently the feeling was not entirely mutual.

That Vadim might have failed to give Isobel the pleasure that was her right is intolerable, and he plans to make it up to her—one bone-melting orgasm at a time. After all, no player can perfect his game without a helluva lot of practice…

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“So we are agreed. You are looking for nice.”

“Most everyone is, Vadim. No one wants a creep.”

He inclined his head until it almost touched hers. “The opposite of nice does not have to be a bad thing. Not when it comes to certain areas. Sex, for example.”

“You can never stray long from that subject, can you?”

“Men think of it often, yes. I am just a slave to my gender. My offer is still open, you know.”

Oxygen was at a premium. He was far too close. “What offer?”

“To apologize. With my cock.”

Oh, she got it now. There was no apology on the table. This was purely Vadim Petrov trying to prove he was top dog, the man who could make a woman’s panties drop with a smile and a wink.

“You raging dingus! You’re not interested in ‘my disappointment’ or in making up for that first terrible time. All you care about is that there are women living in this universe who didn’t go off into the stratosphere when your dick made its debut inside their vaginas.”

“Only one woman, Isobel.”

She scoffed. “So sure.”

“I know.”

“You didn’t know back then. You just assumed tectonic plates shifted because, like all men, you imagine you’re the epicenter of the orgasm earthquake. As long as you feel the earth move, to hell with everyone else.”

Nothing but aristocratic hauteur from him now. “I am trying to be nice—”

“Nice? You just said you only recognize nice because you’re the opposite!”

He curled a hand around her neck, his touch shockingly sensual. “Then I shall be the opposite. I shall be very, very bad, Isobel.”

She wanted to say something about how “bad” wasn’t the opposite of “nice,” but this wasn’t an appropriate time for an English lesson. Her pulse stuttered, then gathered strength, a relentless pounding of yes, yes, yes. He must have heard it because, the next second, his lips crashed into hers, taking control as if it was his right.

But she knew better, didn’t she? She knew that Vadim Petrov was all smoke and mirrors, style without substance, a man whose only focus was his own pleasure.

Boy could he kiss, though.

This wasn’t your standard teenage fumbling. This was a man who knew exactly what do with his mouth. Probably all that practice over the years, she thought bitterly.

The bitterness melted in the face of a wildfire consuming her body. Pure, white-hot need. Maybe the owner of the lips didn’t matter. Maybe it was just a joining together of body parts that worked in this never-to-be-repeated moment.

He halted, his expression impossible to read in the shadows.

“It is bad, yes?” His breathing was labored.

“Terrible,” she murmured. “Again.”

She expected him to say something cutting, but he surprised her.

He did as he was told.

He didn’t taste like the boy she remembered. She thought she’d committed everything about that experience to her soul, both the bad and the good, yet Vadim’s mouth was different now. He was different.

This kiss . . .

. . . different.

Spicy and sweet, authoritative yet testing. It cracked open something. Not inhibition, because that had never been her problem, but reticence. With other men, she would hold back, waiting for the sparks to fly. If it didn’t ignite within a few seconds, she was already moving on, steeling herself for the disappointment that would come later.

Vadim’s kiss blew her wariness away. If it was this good, then the rest . . . No, that was not going to happen.

He was an employee, a coworker, a tabloid manwhore, sort of a dick, and the guy who took her virginity and did a piss-poor job about it. If none of these reasons were enough to put a halt to this nonsense, then she was in deep freakin’ doo-doo.

“Well?” he asked, though there was no missing the blink back to reality of his eyelids. He was just as affected as she.

“You want a score?” she panted. “Seven point four. The French judge marked you down. Too much tongue.”
This appeared to delight him, delight coming in the form of a lift at the corner of his decadent mouth.

“It seems we both have lessons to learn. Again.”

In a flash, he had pulled her across into his lap—okay, she may have helped because this couldn’t not continue. Strangely, the snark fired her up. That hadn’t been their thing before, but maybe his time in North America had improved his personality.

She liked this version of Vadim. She liked it very much.

She also liked his positioning of her core over his erection. His hands kneading her ample ass to bring her closer was another check in the “like” column. And, additionally, helping her improved opinion of him was his mouth back on hers, sucking, testing, exploring.

“Again,” he murmured.

“Again,” she sighed right back into his mouth.

Again.

Rubbing her center against him was divine.

His hands everywhere were divine.

That mouth . . . oh, God, that mouth was ten steps above divine.

And then that mouth was speaking Russian, rough, sexy, sweet nothings that drove her wild. Forced out all common sense. His mouth trailed her jaw, delivering little nips and hot licks to her neck.

“Bella”—something in Russian—“Bella”—more Russian—“Bella.” As if one language was inadequate to express how she affected him.

She heard the scrape of her track jacket zipper, felt tingles as he applied openmouthed kisses to newly exposed skin. Her nipples were on fire, sensitive and needy. Can’t stand this. Going to die. She ripped her bra strap off her shoulder and freed one aching breast.

“Suck me,” she begged, and then his mouth closed over her tit and suckled hard. His moan on tasting her sounded like he was in pain, but she didn’t care; all she cared about was this mindless grasp at pleasure.

The insistent pulse thrumming through her body beat louder, stronger, showing no sign of stopping and heading for the one place she’d never visited with this man. She rolled her hips and hiked her suggestive rubs into a dirty grind. He was huge against her, toting this hard, hot instrument of pleasure that stroked her just right.

Still not enough.

“Please,” she begged as she rode him harder. Faster. Dirtier.

“Da, da, da,” he said. Yes, yes, yes.

I would like to apologize. Properly.”
Her lungs went on hiatus. He couldn’t mean what she thought he meant. “Apology accepted,” she said cheerfully, though it came out chipmunk style. Alvin would be so proud.
“You choose to act clueless about what I mean?”
“Are you offering to apologize with your penis?”
“It is my most improved area.”

Is it any wonder I’ve been obsessed with all things Kate Meader ever since reading her first book? The woman is the queen of banter and she writes some of the most sizzling enemies to lovers romances I’ve ever read. I was immediately hooked on her brand new Chicago Rebels series, and it isn’t just because it’s based in my home town. Though it’s safe to say I may have been a tiny bit biased. But let’s be real, any author that can take three estranged sisters and make them the new owners of a sport that’s a boy’s only club and not only make them sassy and powerful, but totally endearing too is a total rockstar in my eyes!

So Over You brings the story of Isobel Chase. And while her sisters have had a connection to the game because of their famous and philandering hockey player father, no one was closer to hockey than her. She had her sights set on a professional career and a handsome Russian hockey player until both were ripped away from her in the worst way possible. While she may have licked her wounds over her lost hockey career, the man that made her first time the most ho hum affair and then disappeared from her life…not so much. Here a girl builds up losing her virginity to the most handsome boy she knows and it’s a wham bam, not even a thank you m’am affair. And now said man is back in her world as the newly traded player on her team and not only does she have to suffer his glares, but she has to coach him, too.

Can I just say how much I absolutely adored the banter and camaraderie between the Chase sisters in this latest installment. It feels like with each book, their bond just gets tighter and tighter, and I simply can’t get enough of it.

The man has only ever had eyes for you.”
“Yeah, the minute he laid those Cajun peepers on you,” Violet chimed in, “he was all, ‘Me Remy, you Remy’s baby mama. Take my seed. Take it all!’

But the center stage of the story was definitely the banter between Vadim and Isobel. There’s nothing sexier than a brooding and glaring Russian. Unless said Russian is also now determined to right the wrongs of the past and deliver on the missing orgasms. GAH! I loved this grumpy puss. So much. I don’t know how the author managed to take his grumpy and glaring ways and make him hilarious and endearing, but she totally did. Add in the secondary characters and the banter, and I had a goofy smile on my face the entire time!

Isobel!” Mia called out. “I’m bored, and Vadim doesn’t know how to entertain me.”
“Entertainment was not part of the deal. Neither was little dog with big shits.”
“Don’t call Gordie Howe that. He’s very sensitive.”

As always, the sexual tension was even hotter than the sexual chemistry. I was literary vibrating with glee to finally see the two of them give into the undeniable attraction and feelings that still run between them.

While I loved Isobel’s fierceness, admittedly her stubbornness at times wore on me. But Vadim was the perfect salve and together with her sisters, they gave her what she needed to get herself together.

I love a sexy second chance romance, and So Over You delivered on that end and then some! If you’re looking for a fun, quick paced, and sizzling sports romance, this book is not to be missed.

My woman is the North Star in my night sky, but also in her own. If she is not there to guide me, there is only darkness. For us both.”


DON’T MISS THE REST OF THE SERIES

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Kate Meader was raised on romance. An Irish girl, she started with Catherine Cookson and Jilly Cooper novels, and spiced it up with some Mills & Boon. Now based in Chicago, she writes romances of her own, where sexy contemporary alpha heroes and strong heroines match each other quip for quip. When not immersed in tales of brooding mill owners, oversexed equestrians, and men who can rock an apron or a fire hose, Kate lives on the web at katemeader.com.

Kate Meader will be giving away a $25 Amazon gift card during release week. To enter, please go here!

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