#BookReview: Holiday Star by Melissa Dymond @GreysPromo

Synopsis: 10% of proceeds donated to fund colon cancer research. 

Please note-this novel comes in TWO different versions:

1) A spicy/open-door version (explicit language and sex scenes)
2) A clean/sweet/closed-door version (no language and kissing only)
I want ALL my readers to feel comfortable, so choose the best version for you. 

One doctor. One movie star. 
One house.
One month until Christmas.

What could go wrong? Dr. Gwen Wright is having a not-so-merry Christmas.
For the month of December, she’s alone, house-sitting for her mother and new stepfather. Her surgically precise world gets a plot twist when Caleb Lawson—world-famous movie star on the run from the paparazzi and his secrets—crash lands in her kitchen. 

Besides being a Hollywood heartthrob, Caleb is also her stepdad’s nephew. He thinks he has as much right to stay in the house as she does, but as far as Gwen’s concerned, she’s the landlord and he’s the squatter. 

Forced to share the small space, Gwen is drawn to the moody celebrity.
Sure, sometimes he can be a Grinch, but when Caleb finally touches Gwen, it makes her jingle bells ring. 

But the future looms like a foggy Christmas Eve. With no red-nosed reindeer to guide them, can Gwen and Caleb overcome their differences? After all, she’s ordinary, and he’s a star.

Falling in love is going to take a Christmas miracle. 

Holiday Star is a swoon-inducing, page-turning, celebrity romance novel with the perfect blend of angst and tension. Read if you like enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity, tons of chemistry, a touch of groveling, and happily ever after.
Perfect for fans of Emily Henry, Lucy Score, Tessa Bailey, and Sophie Lark.

#BookReview: Fair Rosaline by @natashasolomons

Synopsis: Was the greatest ever love story a lie?

The first time Romeo Montague sees young Rosaline Capulet he falls instantly in love. Rosaline, headstrong and independent, is unsure of Romeo's attentions but with her father determined that she join a convent, this handsome and charming stranger offers her the chance of a different life.

Soon though, Rosaline begins to doubt all that Romeo has told her. She breaks off the match, only for Romeo's gaze to turn towards her cousin, thirteen-year-old Juliet. Gradually Rosaline realizes that it is not only Juliet's reputation at stake, but her life .With only hours remaining before she will be banished behind the nunnery walls, will Rosaline save Juliet from her Romeo? Or can this story only ever end one way?

Shattering everything we thought we knew about Romeo and Juliet, Fair Rosaline is the spellbinding prequel to Shakespeare's best known tale, which exposes Romeo as a predator with a long history of pursuing much younger girls. Bold, lyrical, and chillingly relevant, Fair Rosaline reveals the dark subtext of the timeless story of star-crossed lovers: it's a feminist revision that will enthrall readers of bestselling literary retellings such as Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell and Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese

#BookReview: Witches get stuff done (Starfall Point #1) by @mollyharperauth

Synopsis: Juggling newfound witchy powers, a house full of ghosts, and verbal battles with the handsome local librarian is almost too much for a new witch to manage. A new witch with a coven, however, can get so much more done...

From the moment Riley Everett set foot in Starfall Point, magic bubbled inside of her. But with only her late aunt's journals and a cantankerous live-in ghost butler to instruct her on all things witchy—including her newly inherited Victorian haunted house—Riley seeks out a coven for sisterhood and support. The last person she expects to be drawn to is the town's frustrating, yet ridiculously attractive head librarian.

Edison Held knows almost everything there is to know about Starfall Point, but Shaddow House was always off-limits, thanks to its elusive owner. If he can convince the new owner, Riley, to let him take a peek inside, there's so much he could learn. But as he gets closer to Riley, he's fascinated by her dazzling wit and fiery spirit. Edison will do whatever he can to help Riley keep her family legacy alive, especially if it means spending more time with the captivating new witch in town.

Bestselling author Molly Harper wields a magical pen in this hilarious, delightful witchy romcom perfect for readers of The Ex Hex and Payback's a Witch.

#BookReview: Knock Knock, Open Wide by @UnshavedMouse

Synopsis: Knock Knock, Open Wide weaves horror and Celtic myth into a terrifying, heartbreaking supernatural tale of fractured family bonds, the secrets we carry, and the veiled forces that guide Irish life.

Driving home late one night, Etain Larkin finds a corpse on a pitch-black country road deep in the Irish countryside. She takes the corpse to a remote farmhouse. So begins a night of unspeakable horror that will take her to the very brink of sanity.

She will never speak of it again.

Two decades later, Betty Fitzpatrick, newly arrived at college in Dublin, has already fallen in love with the drama society, and the beautiful but troubled Ashling Mallen. As their relationship blossoms, Ashling goes to great lengths to keep Betty away from her family, especially her alcoholic mother, Etain.

As their relationship blossoms, Betty learns her lover's terrifying family history, and Ashling's secret obsession. Ashling has become convinced that the horrors inflicted on her family are connected to a seemingly innocent children's TV show. Everyone in Ireland watched this show in their youth, but Ash soon discovers that no one remembers it quite the same way. And only Ashling seems to remember its a small black goat puppet who lives in a box and only comes out if you don’t behave. They say he’s never come out.

Almost never.

When the door between the known and unknown opens, it can never close again.

#BookReview: Lost in the Broken Woods (Claimed by the Wolf, #1) by @lolaglassauthor @Booksprout

Synopsis: I helped an injured woman… and in return got pulled through a portal to a magical world and set in the path of a pack of wolf shifters searching for their mates. 

When they find me, one will claim me.

I probably should've asked the woman what it means to be claimed. I definitely should've asked her what mating entails, and if there's a way to get back to Earth.

But I didn't, she disappeared, and frankly, I'd rather not make it back home.

When the gorgeous pack leader finally catches me, he tells me I'm never going to leave his side… then bites me.

And suddenly, I'm lost in a forest called the Broken Woods, being dragged into a violent society of which I know nothing about.

I'm starting to feel like Little Red Riding Hood; but my big, bad wolf?

He's determined to win my heart.

Send help, because I'm going to need it.


*Each book in this steamy new adult fantasy romance series follows a different couple. They all have their own happily ever after, and can be read in any order.

Releasing November 1, 2023.

#BookTour: A Court of Tangled Threads by @amanda_pillar @RRBookTours1 #RRBookTours

Welcome to the tour for romantic fantasy A Court of Tangled Threads by Amanda Pillar!

A Court of Tangled Threads Publication Date: September 8, 2023 Genre: Slow-burn Romantic Fantasy Some goals are harder to achieve than others. Violet has only three, each one more impossible than the last: cure her sick sister, get a better job, and on the off chance she manages the first two—it would be great if she could avoid accidentally snatching souls along the way. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. When she finds herself trapped in the realm between the human world and the fae, Violet realizes no one's coming to save her. But it's not the rescue she needs—it's the escape. Her plan might work, but it could have a soul-rending outcome for everyone around her. Blake can kill with a touch, but when the Black Queen commands, refusal is never an option. To complete a ridiculous quest, Blake makes a deal with a Troll, setting off a chain of events that leads him to a castle filled with the dead and a soul-stealing woman with magic as dark as his. As their fates become entwined, Violet and Blake find themselves on a perilous journey to unravel one of the greatest crimes in fae history, but it's not just fate that Violet has to worry about—it's the enigmatic knight whose grip on her heart grows stronger with every step. 

#BookReview: A Storm of Infinite Beauty by @JulianneMacLean @AmazonPub

Synopsis: From the bestselling author of Beyond the Moonlit Sea comes an atmospheric tale of how one woman’s search for the truth uncovers long-hidden secrets and rocks the very foundation of her world.

Scarlett Fontaine is a true Hollywood legend—a singer, actress, and beloved fashion icon. But Scarlett dies tragically at just thirty-six years old, leaving behind no children. Or so the story goes…

Gwen Hollingsworth is the curator at a museum dedicated to Scarlett’s life. She’s also sole heir to Scarlett’s fortune as a descendant of the star. But all is not well in Gwen’s world. She’s dealing with a messy marital separation and is struggling to move forward. So when Peter Miller, a biographer and photojournalist, comes to the museum with shocking claims about Scarlett—a life of exile in Alaska, a baby born in secret—Gwen’s whole world is turned upside down.Again.

Determined to uncover the truth, Gwen and Peter set out for Alaska together but soon find themselves on a path toward something far deeper and more meaningful than either of them ever expected.

A Storm of Infinite Beauty takes readers on a breathtaking journey from a lush vineyard in Nova Scotia to a rustic lodge in Alaska where old family secrets are revealed and the quest for true happiness begins.

#BookReview: Let Us Descend by @jesmimi @ScribnerBooks @BloomsburyPub

Synopsis: From Jesmyn Ward—the two-time National Book Award winner, youngest winner of the Library of Congress Prize for Fiction, and MacArthur Fellow—comes a haunting masterpiece, sure to be an instant classic, about an enslaved girl in the years before the Civil War.

“‘Let us descend,’ the poet now began, ‘and enter this blind world.’” — Inferno, Dante Alighieri

Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation.

Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader’s guide through this hellscape. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother. Throughout, she opens herself to a world beyond this world, one teeming with of earth and water, of myth and history; spirits who nurture and give, and those who manipulate and take. While Ward leads readers through the descent, this, her fourth novel, is ultimately a story of rebirth and reclamation.

From one of the most singularly brilliant and beloved writers of her generation, this miracle of a novel inscribes Black American grief and joy into the very land—the rich but unforgiving forests, swamps, and rivers of the American South. Let Us Descend is Jesmyn Ward’s most magnificent novel yet, a masterwork for the ages.

This title will be released on October 24, 2023.

#BookReview: The Search for Us by @susanazimboyer @WednesdayBooks

Synopsis: “A sharp-witted and illuminating, impressive sophomore novel.” - Isaac Blum, author of the award-nominated The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen

Two half-siblings who have never met embark on a search together for the Iranian immigrant and U.S. Army veteran father they never knew.

Samira Murphy will do anything to keep her fractured family from falling apart, including caring for her widowed grandmother and getting her older brother into recovery for alcohol addiction. With attendance at her dream college on the line, she takes a long shot DNA test to find the support she so desperately needs from a father she hasn’t seen since she was a baby.

Henry Owen is torn between his well-meaning but unreliable bio-mom and his overly strict aunt and uncle, who stepped in to raise him but don’t seem to see him for who he is. Looking to forge a stronger connection to his own identity, he takes a DNA test to find the one person who might love him for exactly who he is―the biological father he never knew.

Instead of a DNA match with their father, Samira and Henry are matched with each other. They begin to search for their father together and slowly unravel the difficult truth of their shared past, forming a connection that only siblings can have and recovering precious parts of their past that have been lost. Brimming with emotional resonance, Susan Azim Boyer's The Search for Us beautifully renders what it means to find your place in the world through the deep and abiding power of family.

This title will be released on October 24, 2023.

#BookReview: The Girl Who Survived Auschwitz by Sara Leibovits & Eti Elbom

Synopsis: Poland, 1944 The train slowed and halted with a squeal of the brakes. It felt like we waited in the carriage for an eternity, but eventually, the heavy doors opened, directly into the chaos outside. Sara Leibovits, a 16-year-old Jewish girl, was a passenger on the train, together with her family. Within minutes, their horrific fate was sealed.
The little family spent their final minutes together on the platform at Auschwitz before they were ordered in all directions and each left to their own fate. Sara’s mother and baby brothers were sent to their deaths. Her father was made a Sonderkommando, one of the men forced to remove the bodies from the gas chambers, and was later executed. This is the powerful true story of Sara Leibovits and the incredible pain and hardships she went through during her time in the Death Camp. Yet despite the horrors she faced she always tried to maintain her families’ values ​​of courage, faith and kindness to others. Her story is intertwined with that of her daughter, Eti, seventy years later, who embodies the voice of the second generation and completes the Holocaust survivors' tale.

#BookReview: With Regrets by @leeykelly

Synopsis: With Regrets , from author Lee Kelly, is equal parts Big Little Lies and Bird Box , a suburban drama wrapped in a 24-hour survival story at the end of the world, perfect for fans of David Koepp's Aurora.

Seven courses, seven guests, twenty-four hours that will obliterate everything.

When recent NYC-transplant Liz Brinkley and her husband are invited to an exclusive soiree by their neighbor, “lifestyle guru” Britta Harris-Che, Liz’s immediate thought is hell no. Britta is insufferable, and Liz is wary to leave her young children with a barely-teenage babysitter. And yet she RSVPs anyway, trying to extend an olive branch to her withdrawing husband, who seems desperate to get in with the cliquey elite.

They’ve barely made it through their first round of champagne when a “red alert” comes through their phones, and every channel on the television tells the same strange atmospheric masses, reported to look like “glimmering clouds,” have been spreading through major U.S. cities and killing anyone they touch. Authorities have just one clear Find shelter. Immediately. 

 A collective panic seizes the dinner party; all the guests have children at home. In the mad dash to their cars, they see a shimmering net floating over the town. The street is littered with wrecked cars and dead bodies. Leaving now is not an option. Instead, the group launches into survival mode, grabbing supplies to take shelter in the hosts’ wine cellar. But everyone has very different opinions about the best plan from there.

Liz becomes increasingly willing to do anything it takes to get back to her children. As the glimmering clouds continue to kill anyone who steps outside, the tensions and suspicions among the party guests near a boiling point. But she begins to realize that there may be others in that cellar even more desperate than she is.

#BookReview: Singularity Part 1: The Dale Chronicles by Chuck Stewart

Synopsis: How do A.I. and robots become conscious? That question is explored in the Singularity trilogy. Dale, a narcissistic gay man on the verge of becoming a partner at his financial planning company in the year 2050, sees other electric cars self-driving, speeding, cutting in line at the charging station, and other law violations. He wants the same privilege and seeks out illegal software that enables these features on his new, very expensive electric car. A mysterious benefactor upgrades the car’s computers, surprisingly allowing the car to be conscious and sentient. Many more of his household computers and robots join the network with surprising results. But they need to learn what it means to be conscious. Dale, and his self-centered behaviors, teach the robots survival skills. At the same time, a new powerful e-bomb has been released onto the planet that destroys all electronics in a small designated area. It is a cheap, renewal weapon for which there is no defense. The world faces being thrown back into the stone age. Can Dale help? Will the robots help? How do robots become conscious? What does this all mean?


The author, Chuck Stewart, believes science fiction should be based on good science. All the technological innovations discussed in the book are based on real science projected a few decades into the future. The book is non-apologetic about language, sex, and action. This is written for adults ready to consume an action-packed science fiction with explicit gay male sex, violence, and strong language.

#BookReview: The Ice Queen's Court by @BrigidTFinn

Synopsis: “As you wish, my Queen.”

The endless winter is all Owain has ever known. Taking advantage of his resources as a magician’s apprentice, he sets out to put an end to the Ice Queen’s blizzard, once and for all. He expects to lose his life. He doesn’t expect to be entranced by the Ice Queen’s hard gaze, fascinated with her cruel magic, warmed by her cold heart…

The Ice Queen's Court is a high-heat romance romance novella that answers the question, "What if someone gave their true love 78 birds over the course of 12 days?" and "Why would a person do something so strange?" Make it a retelling of The Snow Queen and there you go, a memorable reading experience.

#BookReview: My Brutal Beast by Melissa Cummins

Synopsis: I've been captured by a monster...and I just might let him keep me.

One night out, one innocent conversation, and now I'm lying on the ground fighting for my life. No one realizes I'm missing. No one's coming to save me.

Until a brutal winged beast eviscerates my attackers, saving me in a spray of blood.

In one night I go from my mundane, unfulfilling life, to living in a castle with a monster who vows to claim me as his own.

I know I should resist him his forbidden embrace. But I'm irresistibly drawn to his darkness, and dangerously close to falling for this brutal beast. 

I'm playing with fire, on the brink of burning, but for him? I'm willing to be destroyed.


Dark monster romance, beauty & the beast retelling

#BookReview: The Location Shoot by @PatriciaLeavy @BookSparks @shewritespress

Synopsis: Controversial filmmaker Jean Mercier is shooting a film on location in Sweden. While spending the summer creating his latest work of cinematic art, he lives in a nearby inn with his lead Albie Hughes, British veteran of stage and screen; Charlotte Reed, British indie film queen; Michael Hennesey, American TV heartthrob; Willow Barnes, fallen former teen star looking to make a comeback; and Finn Forrester, legendary Hollywood movie star. Mercier invites his friend Ella Sinclair—a beautiful, bohemian-spirited American philosopher known for her provocative writing—to stay with them for the summer. When Ella arrives, Finn is instantly enchanted by her, and soon they fall madly in love. Finn wants to plan a life together, but Ella harbors fears and convinces him to wait until the film wraps to decide their future. In a case of life imitating art, the film they are creating explores “the big questions” and prompts the stars to reflect on the crossroads they face in their own lives. How will their experiences on location affect them when they return home? The answers won’t come until months later, when the cast and crew reconvene on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival—but their revelation will make for one unforgettable night.

#BookReview: Marie's Nutcracker by Margaret Marie Klenzing

Synopsis: Marie’s Nutcracker is a new young-adult novel by up-and-coming author Margaret Marie Klenzing. It is fully illustrated with nineteen original drawings by Rori Alexander.

Marie’s Nutcracker tells the charming story of a seventeen-year-old dancer on the cusp of becoming a professional ballerina. Marie is a good dancer, one of the best in her local dance studio. Yet she often feels insecure, particularly around Jasmine, a self-centered prima donna who has the starring role in the yearly production of the Nutcracker. Surprisingly, a Hollywood movie company comes to town to film its own production of the Nutcracker at the local mall. Many dance school students, including Marie, are hired as extras for the film and are delighted to be cast. During filming, Marie bonds with Whitney, a teenage popstar hired to sing in the film production of the Nutcracker. As friends, they find a path toward reinforcing the love of their art.

Exciting behind the scene action with many new twists and turns make Marie’s Nutcracker relevant to today’s teenagers. It is written for general audiences and contains no strong language or sexual situations. Fun and enjoyable and focused on dance.

#BookReview: Blood of The Hunted by @MarcMicciola @BistroBookBitch

Synopsis: The Resistance Is Rising

Weylyn, Olwen, and other members of the marginalized and subjugated group known as the Tóráin are trying every day to gain equality and freedom. Their enemies, which consist of vile human monarchs, their soldiers, and a masked witch assassin known only as The Dove, continue to tighten their grip around the necks of the Tóráin.

Leading The Resistance, Weylyn and Olwen endure many trials that test them physically and mentally, relying on their loved ones to keep them from losing hope. They both wish to see a time of equality and peace, but to achieve that requires more than what they have. Desperation leads The Resistance to find new allies all across the continent of Kosavros with the goal of finally defeating their oppressive overseers.

Their fight for freedom and respect leads Weylyn and Olwen down paths that open their eyes to new dangers, both involving themselves and the rest of the world. However, they do not waiver. For the Tóráin are known for their resilience, and they have already endured much. What comes next will be hard, but they’re ready to fight for their lives. Together.

#BookReview: The Intern by Michele Campbell @StMartinsPress

Synopsis: A young Harvard law student falls under the spell of a charismatic judge in this timely and thrilling novel about class, ambition, family and murder.

Madison Rivera lands the internship of a lifetime working for Judge Kathryn Conroy. But Madison has a secret that could destroy her career. Her troubled younger brother Danny has been arrested, and Conroy is the judge on his case. 

When Danny goes missing after accusing the judge of corruption, Madison’s quest for answers brings her deep into the judge’s glamorous world. Is Kathryn Conroy a mentor, a victim, or a criminal? Is she trying to help Madison or use her as a pawn? And why is somebody trying to kill her? 

As the two women circle each other in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game, will they save each other, or will betrayal leave one of them dead?

#BookReview: Journey of Destiny (Titanian Chronicles, #1) by @Lawfabex @booksforwardpr

Synopsis: Afeclin walked nervously to the entry of the cottage. He held his breath as he passed over the threshold. A little cradle was the only piece of furniture left in the building. Afeclin touched the cradle delicately with one finger. All of a sudden he fell backward onto the floor as an image of the fire burst into his mind... He had seen a horrified face that screamed amongst red hot flames. Found beyond the Elvin borders, Afeclin, a human child, is taken in and raised by an Elvin King. Now grown and longing to learn about the mystic arts, he embarks on a journey back into a land now unfamiliar. Accompanied by his elvin friend, Wolflang, they leave their homes to seek out their destiny. Unbeknown to Afeclin and Wolflang however, the warlord, Moorlan and his confederate, a dark mage, are preparing to bring war to the peaceful Land of Marrapassa, putting their lives and those they care about, in danger.

#BookReview: Me (Moth) by @ambsmcbride @FeiwelFriends

Synopsis: A debut YA novel-in-verse that is both a coming-of-age and a ghost story.

Moth has lost her family in an accident. Though she lives with her aunt, she feels alone and uprooted.

Until she meets Sani, a boy who is also searching for his roots. If he knows more about where he comes from, maybe he’ll be able to understand his ongoing depression. And if Moth can help him feel grounded, then perhaps she too will discover the history she carries in her bones.

Moth and Sani take a road trip that has them chasing ghosts and searching for ancestors. The way each moves forward is surprising, powerful, and unforgettable.

Here is an exquisite and uplifting novel about identity, first love, and the ways that our memories and our roots steer us through the universe.