Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Blog Tour: Leaving Barringer by @tinamartinbooks #review



Romantic Suspense
Date Published: January 4, 2016


Calista Blackstone has no problem playing her position as the supportive, dutiful wife of Barringer Blackstone. All she wants is a family, but after five years, she's given up hope of actually becoming a mother - at least to Barringer's children.
Barringer (Barry) Blackstone is too busy making money to make babies. CEO of Blackstone Financial Services Group, he's actively working on taking his father's company to the next level and avoids the subject of children. He's no longer certain that he wants the added stress of trying to raise a family while growing the business. But the workaholic will learn the hard way that money should never precede family.




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Review


This is a solid Sweet Contemporary Romantic Suspense. Nothing too detailed or in depth to make it explicit. 

I enjoyed the characters immensely. I felt like the Romance was well balanced because of their respective personalities. Super Alpha vs. Sweet. 

I liked that Tina Martin does not shy away from real topics. She takes the issues head on and brings them  to life for the reader. 

There is some action and it picks up towards the end. Nothing too crazy, but it will keep you on your toes.  


Tina Martin is the Amazon Top 100 Bestselling Author of over thirty women's fiction and romantic suspense novels and novellas. Her books include, The Accidental Series, The Alexander Series, The Dying To Love Her Series, The Champion Brothers Series, The Blackstone Family Series, The Mine By Default Mini-Series, Secrets On Lake Drive, Can't Just Be His Friend, All Falls Down, Just Like New to the Next Man, Might As Well Be Single, Falling Again, The Crush and Vacation Interrupted.


She released her newest novel, Leaving Barringer, on January 4, 2016 and a novella, Who Do You Love?, on December 12, 2015. She is currently working on Book 4 of The Champion Brothers Series titled, Wives and Champions.


When she’s not writing, Tina enjoys reading, traveling, blogging and spending time with her family. Visit her online at www.tinamartin.net where you will find a full listing of her novels, upcoming works and contact information.


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Monday, March 28, 2016

Pre-Release / Cover Reveal - Never Trust a Skinny Cupcake Baker by @denaehaggerty #excerpt #giveaway


Cozy Mystery
Date Published: April 11, 2016

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A cozy mystery with a heap of laughs, a generous portion of romance, and just a smidgeon of suspense.

Callie’s life is rather awesome. She owns a successful bakery and teaches German literature at the local university. There’s just one tiny problem. She has no self-confidence when it comes to her body. And then there’s the little matter of her being accused of murdering her pole dancing instructor. There’s no way Callie’s going to risk losing her teaching position and thus she embarks, with her best baker bud Anna, on a journey to discover the real killer. Between stripper auditions and a detective who insists Callie is the woman of his dreams, it’s a roller coast adventure. Cupcakes not included.

EXCERPT

I take a deep breath and walk into the club. It’s dark and smoky. No surprise there. The floors are covered in shag carpeting, the walls are painted a red so deep it looks black, and the chairs are red velour. Is strip club a euphemism for whore house? To the right is a shiny, black bar. Straight ahead is a stage in an M-shape with three stripper poles. Of course there are stripper poles. Dolly worked here after all.

“You next?” A man shouts, and I nearly jump out of my shoes. I look to my left to see two men in shiny suits sitting at a table in the middle of the room. “Come on, doll, are you the next dancer?”

“Dancer?”

The man rolls his eyes and talks to the man next to him. “Not the brightest one of the bunch is she?” He turns back to me. “Come on, sweetheart.” He looks me up and down, and I feel the sudden need to shower with bleach. “You’ve got the body for it. Show us what you can do.”

I’ve got the body for it? Have we landed on planet opposite? I’m still trying to figure out how to respond when Anna grabs my hand. “Where are the dressing rooms? She needs to change.”

The man points to a door on the right side of the stage behind the bar. “Hurry up. We ain’t got all day!”

Anna pulls me to the door. I stumble behind her unsure if I should follow her or get the heck out of Dodge. She pushes through the door and looks around before spotting a room filled with racks of clothing. She lets my hand go and starts pawing through the outfits.

“Anna, stop!” I say when my brain finally catches up. “I can’t go up there and dance. Let’s just get out of here and come back another time.”

I don’t even get a chance to stand up from the chair before Anna’s on me. Her tiny body boxes me in the chair. “I don’t want to hear it! You heard the man. You’ve got the perfect body for this because you’re… let’s say it together… sexy!” She turns back to the rack of clothes. “Besides, while you’re up there doing your thing, I can snoop around.” She pulls out an outfit and hands it to me.

I don’t have a choice but to take the hanger as she shoves it in my hand. There’s not enough fabric here. She’s got to be kidding me. “I can’t wear this,” I protest.

Anna’s having none of it. “You will wear it, and you will go up on that stage and totally rock! In the meantime, I’ll be doing some investigating so we can save your job. You know the one that you spent the last 10 years studying and preparing for?”

I want to scream and shout and fight her, but I don’t really see what other option we have. I suppose we can sneak out the back door, but then we’d have to come back at some point as this is our only lead. Mr. Creepy #1 and Mr. Creepy #2 might not recognize me – a chubby girl with boring brown hair. But a tiny pixie with bright pink hair? I shake my head and put on the darn outfit.





About the Author


I grew up reading everything I could get my hands on from my mom's Harlequin romances to Nancy Drew to Little Women. When I wasn't flipping pages in a library book, I was penning horrendous poems, writing songs no one should ever sing, or drafting stories which have thankfully been destroyed. College and a stint in the U.S. Army came along, robbing me of free time to write and read, although I did manage every once in a while to sneak a book into my rucksack between rolled up socks, MRIs, t-shirts, and cold weather gear. A few years into my legal career, I was exhausted, fed up, and just plain done. I quit my job and sat down to write a manuscript, which I promptly hid in the attic after returning to the law. Another job change, this time from lawyer to B&B owner and I was again fed up and ready to scream I quit, which is incredibly difficult when you own the business. Thus, I shut the B&B during the week and in the off-season and started writing. Several books later I find myself in Istanbul writing full-time.

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$15 Amazon gift card


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Blog Tour: Wealth and Privilege by @JeanetteAWatts #review #giveaway


                

Historic Fiction
2013 / 2015


Book One (Wealth & Privilege)
Boy meets girl, falls in love at first sight. Oops, she's already married. Bad planning. She becomes a friend and a muse, helps him find his voice. He knows that no one gets to capture their own muse, but he can dream, can't he...?



Review
Do you like to be swept off to a different time and place? If yes, this is definitely a great choice. I loved the way that Jeanette really sets the scene for novel. I was completely immersed in the year and it felt real to me. Kudos to her for doing her research. 

The characters were probably my favorite part. I really enjoyed each of their stories. I didn't feel like anyone was out of place or didn't fit. 

The plot was smooth and I liked the way it flowed from chapter to chapter. A quick and easy read and overall great Historical Novel.



Jeanette Watts is a dance instructor and performer of many different kinds of dance, a costumer, a former television producer, and a big softie who can't learn to say no when people need help with their festivals. It makes it really difficult for her to get time to write.

Twitter: @JeanetteAWatts    

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Friday, March 25, 2016

PROMO Blitz: Back in My Life by @Mariecrauthor




Romance / Erotica
Date Published: February 27, 2016

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Back in my Life is a story set in the beautiful cities of New York and Chicago. This story is not the typical and simple "boy meets girl, boy and girl get marry story." This story is a powerful story that shows how real and unselfish love truly looks like. The love between Ruby and Clyde is an amazing and genuine love that survived everything that came in between them—even the most painful experiences that destiny had planned for them.

During a college internship at a prestigious New York magazine, Ruby Sparks (a journalist graduate student from Chicago) meets Clyde Holt, (a fellow intern and a creative photography student from a London based college) whom from day one became Ruby's obsession and the new reason for her existence. After developing strong feelings for her emotionally unavailable friend, Ruby finds herself trapped in a whirlpool of emotions while trying to earn her friend's love. What Ruby doesn't know is that while she is looking for true love, Clyde's presence in her life came with a different purpose.



About the Author


I have been writing for pleasure for the past couple of years, but this is the first time I do a book tour so I am very excited for it. Writing is my passion, and I enjoy using real-life stories as the basis for my novels, but giving them a little twist to make them more melodramatic and breath-taking. I am also the author of Pamela's Confessions and Confesiones del Alma. I currently live in Florida with my husband and three children.

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Blog Tour: Two Brothers: Species by @sofiadianagabel #review



YA Sc- Fi


The third and final book in the Ramtalan Triology brings Argus and Tai Dachel to a critical juncture in their lives. Struggling to maintain some sort of normalcy, the boys soon discover that they’ll never be the same and those around them, including Argus’s girlfriend Lola, are in danger from the Invaders and the government agency AURA. With enhanced abilities, Argus has to come to grips with being different from his brother, and being an enemy to the Ramtalans he thought were his friends. When hyper-intelligent, powerful Argustine Lenox and his sister, Galena, threaten to cleanse the Earth of humans and New Breeds, Argus and Tai have a difficult decision to make. Which side do they join? The Invaders accept him, while the Settler Ramtalans consider him dangerous. As if that’s not enough, Argus is on the brink of adulthood and must choose what sort of man he wants to be; defiant, compassionate, strong or all three. Nothing will matter though if he can’t save the Earth.





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Review 


This series and these characters have really come full circle. I enjoyed getting to know Argus and Tai throughout this series and watching them grow from one novel to the next.


Sofia Diana Gabel has penned a wonderfully imaginative series and I have enjoyed the way they built from one to the next.

A thrill ride of a final installment. Full of action and surprises that will keep you on the edge of your seat.




Born in Sydney, Australia, I moved with my family to the United States when I was only four. Home wasn’t settled for a long time and included living in Toronto, Canada; Henrietta and Buffalo, New York; Northridge, Southern California; a short stint back in Sydney, Australia; Reno, Nevada; Dallas, Texas; Daytona Beach, Florida, with an eventual semi-settled life in Ojai and Ventura, Southern California as a single parent to my three daughters.
Perhaps the unsettled partial nomadic lifestyle is the reason I love to travel. Moving around and travelling to different countries are adventures which serve as potential settings and plots for stories. I’m a multi-genre fiction writer, with degrees in environmental science and archaeology, and coursework in creative writing and criminal justice. This has all helped in developing stories
When not glued to my desk writing or researching, I love spending time with my family and hairless Sphynx cats. Writing is a true passion, born from a love of the written word and how those words can transport the reader to different places or worlds and deliver them back to reality, safe and sound.

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Twitter: @sofiadianagabel


Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Blog Tour: Sophie and the Cowboy by @MystiParker #review



Erotic Romance
Date Published: February 1, 2016


Clint has been running a ranch by himself since his father’s death. It’s backbreaking work. He needs something to loosen up his sore, tense muscles before his wedding, though massages aren’t the manliest thing he’s ever done. Thanks to a gift card he got at the bachelor party, he decides to give it a shot. He doesn’t know what to expect, but once he meets Sophie, he realizes she’s a lot more than meets the eye. What she gives him is no ordinary massage, but a hefty dose of reality and a full-body feast of pleasures he never knew existed.

Review 

I liked how quick and smooth this read was. There is enough going on to keep my attention and to provide a getaway from all things reality. 

It is very different than I was expecting. The massage aspect was very imaginative on the authors part and I think that bringing about the encounter that way was exciting.

Overall great Erotic read and very HOTT! 



Mysti Parker is a wife, mother, and shameless chocoholic. While her first love is romance, including award-winning historical and fantasy romances, she enjoys writing flash fiction (the weirder the better) and children's stories. She resides in KY with her husband, three children and too many pets.
  
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Book #2 In the Series


Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Blog Tour: What the Sea Wants from @KCtwitter with a #review and #giveaway




New Adult Contemporary Romance (with paranormal elements)
Date Published: January 29, 2016



Juliette Brewer can’t face the truth.
Ash Gordon can’t bear another lie.
A passion for surfing brings them together,
but will the sea, with all its sorrows, tear them apart?

“There’s something about me you need to know—something I’m not sure I can tell you.”

Juliette Brewer has always been different. From the age of four, she’s endured frequent premonitions of tragedy, but the one thing she never saw coming was the thing that would send her under. When she catches the ocean-coloured eyes of surf-lifesaving heartthrob Ash Gordon, Juliette’s life changes for the better … until a tragic accident destroys their dreams. Everyone else has given up, moved on, and put Ash's loss behind them, but Juliette can’t—and perhaps she shouldn’t. Not all who are missing are lost, but if she refuses to accept reality, will the sea claim her sanity as well as her lover’s life?


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Review

The main thing that stuck with me from this novel was the great setting that Karin Cox brought us. I loved that it was set in Australia, and learning new things about the culture. 

It is a very fast paced story and that goes for pretty much every aspect. 

Its a whirlwind of a read and you wont want to put it down. I think its a great continuation and look forward to reading more. 



Karin Cox is the author of an Amazon #1 bestselling paranormal romance and dark fantasy series (DARK GUARDIANS), among other titles, and officially has too many words in her brain, usually all swimming around in wine. Often they come out in dribs and drabs, sometimes in poetic explosions, but mostly she has to coax them out one at a time and manually wrangle them into line.
She lives in sunny Queensland, Australia, where she occasionally hits the beach in an effort to avoid a vitamin D deficiency from shutting herself in a dark room to converse with fictional people. She comes with all the usual accessories: cat, dog, kid, full-grown man-child, several outfit changes, and shoes she can't seem to walk in (so swaps for thongs/flip-flops). She would also like a "dream house," a hot pink camper with a waterslide, and an unrealistically proportioned waist, but Barbie beat her to it.
She enjoys camping, bellydancing, folk music, poetry, writing, wine and Facebook. 

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Twitter: @KCtwitter



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Thursday, March 17, 2016

Blog Tour: A Gentleman's Surrender with #review and #giveaway from @mariel_grey



Historical Romance
Date Published: January 1, 2016


Call her a romantic—or a fool, Lady Monique Cathdon is determined to marry for love. After watching her parents tolerate an arranged betrothal, life seems too short to be wasted on keeping up appearances.

After all, what’s the point of having a heart if one refuses to follow it?

With a smile the devil himself might be proud of, James Stanton is not what her mother would call “a matrimonial prospect”. Still, there’s something about the young man that sends Lady Monique’s heart thumping around her chest, and silences her voice of reason.

Unfortunately for Lady Monique, the stakes are high, and young ladies of the ton make for very poor gamblers. Especially when James Stanton is on the hunt for revenge, and won’t let an innocent woman—or his own passionate desires—get in the way of righting past wrongs.

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Review 

I think the thing I love the most about Historical Novels is how naive and impressionable the women are, but the fact that they are also strong in their own right which defy their generation. I think this is a great description of Monique.

I think I may have been missing a little more of the history lesson (I need a bit since I'm not very good in History) to help me understand everything that went into this period. I was able to understand most of it, but a little more would have made it perfect.

The main characters were of opposite upbringings and temperaments, but they really complemented each other well. I liked how their romance unfolded. It didn't feel rushed at all. 



From the moment she could put pen to paper, Mariel Grey knew she wanted to be a writer. Like all good adventures however, it didn’t happen overnight; it was after several decades of working in litigation that the desire to create dramatic worlds and characters became too great to ignore. Her first foray into historical romance, Surrender of Trust, explored the grime and glamour of regency horse racing, following the determined but impoverished Lucy Goodwin and upright Lord Chalifour. Her second novel, A Gentleman’s Surrender, released January 1, 2016 introduces the innocent Lady Monique and tortured Mr. Stanton, both struggling to find love in a world filled with deceit.
Though entirely at home in the ballrooms and street alleys of London past, Mariel Grey’s is currently working on  a contemporary story set in Florida, a landscape dear to the author’s heart. When she isn’t conjuring words on her computer screen, Grey can be found on the water fishing, snorkeling, and enjoying the incredible natural beauty of her home.
Mariel has a wonderful husband (the hero of her own romantic story) as well as a mischievous cat (who seems happy to play the role of villain). In addition to being a dutiful wife and animal wrangler, Mariel is a member of the Romance Writers of America and the Ancient City Romance Authors chapter.

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Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Blog Tour: Heart of Stone with #review from @DakotaWillink

 


Contemporary Romance
Date Published: December 27, 2015


Krystina Cole was a girl on a mission.  She had big dreams and aspirations, none of which included a man by her side.  She knew better than that – at least until she met Alexander Stone, the New York billionaire real estate tycoon.  She saw the way that he looked at her, and the dark promises in his eyes.  She was curious about his world and all that it entailed. But the shadows of her past haunted her, making her afraid to explore possibilities that she could never before have imagined…
Alexander Stone was a man who knew how to get what he wanted.  He understood the value of finesse, and the importance of patience and diligence to achieve the desired result. He was successful and wealthy, relying on his naturally sharp instincts to guide him through life.  But a chance run in with Krystina Cole quickly turned his world upside down. Her quick wit and firecracker attitude was the complete opposite of what he wanted in a woman, and his instincts failed him at every turn…
However, both Krystina and Alexander are clinging to the secrets of their past, and neither of them are willing to compromise.  Krystina’s hardened heart makes emotional surrender a hard limit.  But for Alexander, revealing his past could have devastating results.


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Review 

Definitely on the steamy side of Romance. Being that Alexander introduces Krys to BDSM, really has a 50 Shades of Grey feel to it. Does it stand up? It holds its own, but that is one hard scenario to make original with how big 50 Shades became. 

The writing style itself was very well done. I loved how easy this novel was to read and how the plot flowed so smoothly.

The connection and chemistry was definitely apparent and I loved the naughtier scenes and how much detail Dakota Willink gave us. 




Dakota Willink is a self employed writer and editor, and the author of Heart of Stone, a contemporary romance novel.   
She has always had a passion for reading and writing. From the time she was an adolescent, she enjoyed curling up with a good paperback, reading genres that ranged from thriller and fantasy, to mystery and romance.  She always dreamed of one day writing her own book, but had put her aspirations on hold to focus on her family and a career that would pay the bills. 
Although she earned a degree in business and had built a solid reputation in retail sales, her heart continued to be with fictional characters – whether they belonged to a favorite author or if they were just stories that she made up in her own head.   
In 2013, Dakota gathered enough courage to turn her dreams into a reality. In between playing chauffeur to two very busy children and working her job during the day, Dakota began to put words on paper.  Eventually, she began to describe her life as a book.  Everything she saw or heard throughout the day, intertwined with her imagination for the creation of future writings.  By 2014, with the support of her husband and two children, she gave up the security of a steady paycheck and began working on her first novel full time.
Dakota Willink is a lover of music, and appreciates the power and stimulating effect it can have on the brain.  She often uses lyrics and melodies to help her through bouts of writers block.  At the end of her novel, you can find an authors note that recognizes and thanks the artists that gave her inspiration.
Dakota resides in the Western New York area, where she enjoys spending time with family, her two Labrador Retrievers, and her spoiled rotten cat.  During the summer months, she can often be found on a boat, soaking up the sun on the Great Lakes with her family. 
Heart of Stone is available in paperback and for Kindle eReaders.

Twitter (@DakotaWillink)