#BookTour: Layla by @colleenhoover

Synopsis: From #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover comes a novel that explores life after tragedy and the enduring spirit of love.

When Leeds meets Layla, he’s convinced he’ll spend the rest of his life with her—until an unexpected attack leaves Layla fighting for her life. After weeks in the hospital, Layla recovers physically, but the emotional and mental scarring has altered the woman Leeds fell in love with. In order to put their relationship back on track, Leeds whisks Layla away to the bed-and-breakfast where they first met. Once they arrive, Layla’s behavior takes a bizarre turn. And that’s just one of many inexplicable occurrences.

Feeling distant from Layla, Leeds soon finds solace in Willow—another guest of the B&B with whom he forms a connection through their shared concerns. As his curiosity for Willow grows, his decision to help her find answers puts him in direct conflict with Layla’s well-being. Leeds soon realizes he has to make a choice because he can’t help both of them. But if he makes the wrong choice, it could be detrimental for all of them.

#BlogTour: Custom Built (Fast & Fury #1) by @chantalfernando @CarinaPress @Netgalley

Synopsis: New York Times bestselling author Chantal Fernando brings you Fast & Fury: A sexy new series fully loaded with intense emotions and edge-of-your-seat suspense.

After losing her job, saying goodbye to a lifelong dream and having an all-around cruddy year, Bronte Pierce needs a break. A job at Fast & Fury might be just the thing to reset her life, even though she knows nothing about custom motorcycles. But taking a job isn’t the same as keeping it, and her fresh start quickly turns into a fresh nightmare.

Starting with her boss. Crow is hardheaded, stubborn and brutally honest. He may be easy on the eyes, but he runs with an MC and he’s anything but friendly to Bronte. She suspects he has a softer side—just not for her.

Her whole life, Bronte has known that the only person she can truly count on to save the day is herself. But when a single murder turns into a conspiracy and the threat to her life is more than she can handle alone, it’s Crow who comes through—and her newfound family might just become her greatest strength.

Fast & Fury

Book 1: Custom Built

#BookTour: Everything I Thought I Knew by @shannontakaoka @JeanBookNerd

A teenage girl wonders if she’s inherited more than just a heart from her donor in this compulsively readable debut.

Seventeen-year-old Chloe had a plan: work hard, get good grades, and attend a top-tier college. But after she collapses during cross-country practice and is told that she needs a new heart, all her careful preparations are laid to waste.

Eight months after her transplant, everything is different. Stuck in summer school with the underachievers, all she wants to do now is grab her surfboard and hit the waves—which is strange, because she wasn’t interested in surfing before her transplant. (It doesn’t hurt that her instructor, Kai, is seriously good-looking.)

And that’s not all that’s strange. There’s also the vivid recurring nightmare about crashing a motorcycle in a tunnel and memories of people and places she doesn’t recognize.

Is there something wrong with her head now, too, or is there another explanation for what she’s experiencing?

As she searches for answers, and as her attraction to Kai intensifies, what she learns will lead her to question everything she thought she knew—about life, death, love, identity, and the true nature of reality.

#BookTour: FORESHADOW, edited by @exrpan @novaren @algonquinyr @Netgalley

Synopsis: Thirteen Short Stories from Bold New YA Voices & Writing Advice from YA Icons

Created by New York Times bestselling authors Emily X. R. Pan and Nova Ren Suma, Foreshadow is so much more than a short story collection. A trove of unforgettable fiction makes up the beating heart of this book, and the accompanying essays offer an ode to young adult literature, as well as practical advice to writers.

Featured in print for the first time, the thirteen stories anthologized here were originally released via the buzzed-about online platform Foreshadow. Ranging from contemporary romance to mind-bending fantasy, the Foreshadow stories showcase underrepresented voices and highlight the beauty and power of YA fiction. Each piece is selected and introduced by a YA luminary, among them Gayle Forman, Laurie Halse Anderson, Jason Reynolds, and Sabaa Tahir.

What makes these memorable stories tick? What sparked them? How do authors build a world or refine a voice or weave in that deliciously creepy atmosphere to bring their writing to the next level? Addressing these questions and many more are essays and discussions on craft and process by Nova Ren Suma and Emily X. R. Pan.

This unique compilation reveals and celebrates the magic of reading and writing for young adults. 

#BookTour: Rural Voices by @norawritesbooks @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

Hardcover : 336 pages
ISBN-10 : 1536212105
ISBN-13 : 978-1536212105
Publisher : Candlewick (October 13, 2020)
Language: : English

Think you know what rural America is like? Discover a plurality of perspectives in this enlightening anthology of stories that turns preconceptions on their head.

Gracie sees a chance of fitting in at her South Carolina private school, until a "white trash"-themed Halloween party has her steering clear of the rich kids. Samuel's Tejano family has both stood up to oppression and been a source of it, but now he's ready to own his true sexual identity. A Puerto Rican teen in Utah discovers that being a rodeo queen means embracing her heritage, not shedding it. . . .

For most of America's history, rural people and culture have been casually mocked, stereotyped, and, in general, deeply misunderstood. Now an array of short stories, poetry, graphic short stories, and personal essays, along with anecdotes from the authors' real lives, dives deep into the complexity and diversity of rural America and the people who call it home. Fifteen extraordinary authors - diverse in ethnic background, sexual orientation, geographic location, and socioeconomic status - explore the challenges, beauty, and nuances of growing up in rural America. From a mountain town in New Mexico to the gorges of New York to the arctic tundra of Alaska, you'll find yourself visiting parts of this country you might not know existed - and meet characters whose lives might be surprisingly similar to your own.

#BookTour: How to Get Away with Myrtle (Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries) by @ElizabethCBunce @AlgonquinYR @AnnieBookReader

Synopsis: Before the train has left the station, England’s most accomplished new detective already is on a suspect’s trail, and readers will be delighted to travel along. 
 
Myrtle Hardcastle has no desire to go on a relaxing travel excursion with her aunt Helena when there are More Important things to be done at home, like keeping close tabs on criminals and murder trials. Unfortunately, she has no say in the matter. So off Myrtle goes—with her governess, Miss Judson, and cat, Peony, in tow—on a fabulous private railway coach headed for the English seaside.
 
Myrtle is thrilled to make the acquaintance of Mrs. Bloom, a professional insurance investigator aboard to protect the priceless Northern Lights tiara. But before the train reaches its destination, both the tiara and Mrs. Bloom vanish. When Myrtle arrives, she and Peony discover a dead body in the baggage car. Someone has been murdered—with Aunt Helena’s sewing shears.
 
The trip is derailed, the local police are inept, and Scotland Yard is in no rush to arrive. What’s a smart, bored Young Lady of Quality stranded in a washed-up carnival town to do but follow the evidence to find out which of her fellow travelers is a thief and a murderer?

#BookTour: The Cold War Begins by Roger L. Liles @RABTBookTours #Giveaway

 

Second Volume of the Berlin Tunnel Trilogy

Historical Fiction

To Be Published: September 8, 2020

From Amazon bestsellers list author Roger L. Liles comes the second volume of his Cold War trilogy—THE COLD WAR BEGINS. The setting is war-ravaged Berlin in late 1946. Spies from both sides begin to move with relative ease throughout a Germany occupied by British, French, American and Russian military forces. Kurt Altschuler, our hero, soon becomes one of them.

While working behind enemy lines as an OSS agent in France during World War II, Kurt learns that intelligence collection involves both exhilarating and dangerous encounters with the enemy. He relished every moment he spent as part of the vanguard confronting the Nazis.

That war has been over for 18 months when he is offered a job as a CIA deep-cover agent in the devastated and divided city of Berlin. He jumps at the opportunity, but is concerned that his guise as an Associated Press News Agency reporter will offer little action. He need not worry. Soon, he is working undercover, deep inside of Russian-controlled southeastern Germany. Eventually, KGB agents waylay him and tear his car and luggage apart. His chauffeur is beaten. He is threatened with prison, torture and death.

Enter Erica Hoffmann, a very attractive, aspiring East German archeology student. Any relationship between an undercover CIA agent and an East German woman is strictly forbidden; she might be a KGB or Stasi agent or operative. But he cannot help himself—he has fallen hard for her. Kurt strives assiduously to maintain their tempestuous, star-crossed relationship.

Eventually, Kurt works to counter the efforts of Russian and East German spies, especially a mole who is devastating Western Intelligence assets throughout Europe. He also must work to identify and expose enemy spies who have penetrated the very fabric of the West German government and society. He frequently observes to others that: “the spy business is like knife fighting in a dark closet; you know you’re going to be cut up, you just don’t know how bad.”

#BookTour: A Whirl with my Mocha-Chocolate by @dalia_dupris @RABTBookTours #Giveaway

Contemporary Romance

Date Published: September 9, 2020

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press

 

Rebecca Layton returns to her beachside hometown of Sunnyville, California, determined to explore the possibility of rekindling her past relationship with the love of her life, Raymond Colton. She's devastated to discover that he has moved on and is now engaged.

Raymond Colton harbors resentment towards Rebecca for abandoning him to pursue her dreams of life in the big city. Now she's back and more beautiful than ever. But Raymond's heart has been broken more than once and risking more heartache with Rebecca isn't a gamble he's willing to take.

When Rebecca agrees to use her marketing expertise to help Raymond's father salvage his failing family business--Colton's Ice Creamery--she and Raymond are thrown together, and old flames are ignited. Can they heal the wounds from their past and embrace the possibility of a brighter tomorrow?

#BookTour: Mystery Bones Murders by @klrandau @RABTBookTours #Giveaway

Notorious Minds Crime Mystery Thriller Boxset

Mystery/Thriller

Date Published: October 13, 2020

Publisher: Fire Quill Publishers

Frankie Shep is still mourning the deaths of her husband and young son when she finds a bone in the far corner of her Wyoming cattle ranch.

Excited to think she may have discovered an ancient Native American village, she takes the bone to a lifelong friend who is now a forensic anthropologist on contract with her county.

After a cursory inspection, he turns a blood-chilling stare at Frankie. The bone isn’t ancient. Worse, the victim could be the remains of Frankie’s mother. She disappeared from her own bed more than a decade ago.

And now her retired father is missing.

As Frankie digs deeper, she discovers the terrifying truth that a serial killer is using her land to bury his victims, all members of her family and inner circle.

And now he’s watching her.

Mystery Bones Murders is a story of love, heart-wrenching deception, and finding redemption.

#BookTour: Collective Darkness: A Horror Story Anthology @CollectiveDark1

Synopsis: Collective Darkness, a horror anthology, isn’t for the faint of heart 

Love horror? Then you’re in luck. Collective Darkness, a horror anthology (a collection of short stories) has twelve new and emerging authors who really know how to make your skin crawl. 

Best of all, this horrific collection is a group effort. Not only did we have authors involved, but three editors, four audiobook narrators, two marketers, and many more helping hands. This project was a labor of the most horrific kind of love, maybe something akin to our story “Feast,” a sort of sweet possession of the senses—obsession into the unknown, draining our life fluids. 

This dark collection isn’t for the faint of heart. Read… if you dare. 

#BlogTour: The Legend of Akikumo by @danihootsauthor @YABoundToursPR

Check out my stop on the blog tour for The Legend of Akikumo by Dani Hoots!

The Legend of Akikumo
by Dani Hoots
Genre: YA Japanese Fantasy
Release Date: September 15th 2020
FoxTales Press

Summary:

Ketsueki would give anything to find out why her mentor Akikumo, the last wolf in Japan, abandoned her. He left her with other kitsune at the Inari Shrine, but she doesn’t fit in. And now the other kitsune are bullying her and saying Akikumo is dead.

After causing trouble for the hundredth time, the Inari, instead of punishing her, has given Ketsueki a task: she must find out what happened to Akikumo. She quickly agrees, not realizing the delinquent son of the shrine’s head priest must accompany her.

Will Ketsueki be able to make peace with a human? Or will her years of resentment make this partnership impossible?

#BookTour: The Book of Hidden Wonders by @WriterPolly @parkrowbooks

Synopsis: A charming, deeply imaginative debut novel about a young girl who is immortalized in her father’s illustrated books containing clues to their family secrets.

Romilly Kemp and her eccentric father have happy but sheltered lives in a ramshackle mansion in the English countryside. To help make ends meet, he creates an illustrated book with Romilly—striking girl with red hair and a mole on her cheek—as the heroine with her cat, Monty. The book becomes an instant success and their estate is overrun with tourists and adventure seekers after rumors spread that hidden within its pages is an elaborate treasure hunt.

As Romilly gets older and her father writes more books, he starts disappearing within himself. She returns to his illustrations, looking for a way to connect with her ailing father, and finds a series of clues he’s left just for her. But this treasure hunt doesn’t lead her to gold or precious stones, but something worth far more—a shocking secret that is crucial to understanding her family.

Written with tremendous heart and charisma, The Book of Hidden Wonders is an unforgettable story about growing up, facing mortality and discovering the hidden wonders that make us who we are.

#BookTour: Realms of Edenocht by DS Johnson @RABTBookTours #Giveaway

Action Adventure Fantasy

Date Published: March 2020

Publisher: Rosecrest Publishing

 

In a time of desperate measures, the Queen of the most powerful city in Edenocht threw the world into a fallen and broken state in an attempt to destroy the most powerful Necromancer the world has ever seen.  The once magically enhanced world is no more and the elemental beings that once inhabited it are gone. The only thing strong enough to bring it back is the ancient artifacts of the Sev-Rin-Ac-Lavah and the only one strong enough to use them is The War Wizard.

Edenochts only hope is a War Wizard, but none have been born in a millennium, until now. Hidden from the Necromancer in a time realm not his own, the future of the world resides in a barely grown man’s destiny. The War Wizards protectors did the best they could to prepare him without the use and teaching of his magic and Shaz must now quickly learn his true potential and battle the evils of the shadow world.

As a being which hold all the elements and the dreaded shadow magic, Shaz must find the descendants of the ancient magical races and the artifacts before the Necromancer does and the world of Edenocht’s future succumbs to the evil Shadow. 

#BookTour: Blood Feud by J.W. Webb @LegendsofAnsu @RABTBookTours #Giveaway

The Legends of Ansu (Book 9)

Epic Fantasy

Date Published: July 16, 2020

Jaran Saerk is an exile from the North, driven out of his homeland by a sorceress who killed his family. Now serving as a warrior in the armies of the Imperial Shen, he’s never forgotten his vow to avenge his family and take back what is rightfully his.  

Recently captured, Savarna hides a dark secret and doesn’t plan on staying a slave for long. Once she’s escaped, she’ll slip inside the Golden Palace and kill the Empress of Shen. When she meets the exiled warrior from the North, she finally may have her chance.

Finvar the Droll is a retired thief who insists he can help Jaran in his revenge against the witch. But whose side is he really on?

With enemies surrounding them on all sides, the trio must unite to stay alive in a realm trapped between war and sorcery, and to take down the witch Sheega before she destroys them all.

#BookTour: THE LAST STORY OF MINA LEE by @njooyounkim

Synopsis: “Kim is a brilliant new voice in American fiction.” —Alexander Chee, bestselling author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel 

“Suspenseful and deeply felt.” —Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists 

“Fans of Amy Tan and Kristin Hannah will love Kim’s brilliant debut.” — Booklist , starred review

A profoundly moving and unconventional mother-daughter saga, The Last Story of Mina Lee illustrates the devastating realities of being an immigrant in America.

Margot Lee’s mother, Mina, isn’t returning her calls. It’s a mystery to twenty-six-year-old Margot, until she visits her childhood apartment in Koreatown, LA, and finds that her mother has suspiciously died. The discovery sends Margot digging through the past, unraveling the tenuous invisible strings that held together her single mother’s life as a Korean War orphan and an undocumented immigrant, only to realize how little she truly knew about her mother.

Interwoven with Margot’s present-day search is Mina’s story of her first year in Los Angeles as she navigates the promises and perils of the American myth of reinvention. While she’s barely earning a living by stocking shelves at a Korean grocery store, the last thing Mina ever expects is to fall in love. But that love story sets in motion a series of events that have consequences for years to come, leading up to the truth of what happened the night of her death.

Told through the intimate lens of a mother and daughter who have struggled all their lives to understand each other, The Last Story of Mina Lee is a powerful and exquisitely woven debut novel that explores identity, family, secrets, and what it truly means to belong.

This title will be released on September 1, 2020. 

#BookTour: The Sergeant’s Daughter by Teressa Shelton @JeanBookNerd

As a little girl, Teressa’s father dotes on her and little sister, Karen, while mercilessly mocking her older sister, Debbie. Teressa thinks its Debbie’s fault―until she gets a little older and he begins tormenting her, too. Soon enough, his verbal abuse turns physical. Her sergeant father brings his military life home, meeting each of his daughters’ infractions with extreme punishment for them all. Meanwhile, their mother watches silently, never defending her daughters and never subjected to physical abuse herself. Terrified to be at home and terrified to tell anyone, Teressa seeks solace in books, music, and the family she can find outside of her home: a best friend, a kind neighbor, and a doting grandfather. At first cowed by her father’s abuse and desperate to believe that maybe, one day, things will change, Teressa ultimately grows into a young woman who understands that if she wants a better life, she’ll have to build it for herself―so she does.

#BookTour: Inferno of Silence by @toluakinyemi @RABTBookTours #Giveaway

Literary Fiction

Date Published: 08 May 2020

Publisher: The Roaring Lion Newcastle Ltd

The first collection of short stories by this multitalented author entwines everyday events that are articulated in excellent storytelling. The title story "Inferno of Silence" portrays men's societal challenges and the unspoken truths and burdens that men bear. While "Black lives Matter" shows the firsthand trauma of a man facing racism as a footballer plying his trade in Europe.Stories range from "Return Journey" where we encounter a techpreneur/ Poet/Serial Womanizer confronting consequences of his past actions to "Blinded by Silence" where a couple united by love must face a political upheaval changing their fortune. Completed with stories of relationships: "Trouble in Umudike" - family wealth and marriage, "Everybody don Kolomental" where the main character deals with mental health issues, and "In the Trap of Seers" when one's life is on auto-reverse and with the death of her confidante, her mother as she takes us through her ordeal and journey to redemption. This is a broad and very inclusive collection.

#BookTour: Best-Case Scenario by @DirkSayers @RABTBookTours #Giveaway

Best-Case Scenario, Act I of Nyra’s Journey

New Adult

Date Published: Nov 2018

Publisher: PhoenixPhyre

More than a year after graduating from college, Nyra is beginning to wonder when her life, professional and personal, gets started. Was it like this for her mother? She doubts it, but things were different, then. Nyra's reality is nothing like her mother's. Each generation confronts its own challenges.

Still, she's tired of feeling like she's wading through waist-deep wet cement. Buried somewhere deep in a future she can sense but not feel, Nyra can hear the siren's song of hope and hypothetical options whispering to her. She's so ready! But is the song she hears hope or just an illusion?

Best Case Scenario is the first act in Nyra Westensee's journey from student to self-aware, fully actualized woman.

#BookTour: Counting Hope by Hope Mueller @hpmueller242 @RABTBookTours #Giveaway

Follow Up to Hopey: From Commune to Corner Office.

Memoir, Business

Publisher: Hunter Street Press

If you thought Hopey: From Commune to Corner Office was compelling, then Counting Hope will further inspire and challenge you.

In her memoir sequel, we follow Hope Mueller's journey into adulthood as she unwittingly recreates the dark, chaotic world she was attempting to escape. As Hope finishes college, she digs herself out of drug addiction and abusive relationships to ensure her survival. She charges forward to build a better life for herself and her two daughters. Hope reveals the most intimate and painful events of her life while illustrating an unwavering motivation to improve her circumstances and discover her true worth.

Ultimately, Hope's story shows how small, daily steps towards confidence propel us forward, even beyond our darkest hours, to a place of more joy, more purpose, more fulfillment. Written in heart-pounding flashbacks and encouraging looks forward, Counting Hope is an epic journey of liberation, empowerment, and eventual success.

#BookTour: First Second Coming by Jeff Pollak @PublishingAcorn @RABTBookTours

Book One In The New God Series

Supernatural Suspense, Romantic Suspense

Date Published: August 1

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

In 2027 the deity known as NTG – short for New Testament God – retires after more than two thousand years of minding the store for his employer, Milky Way Galaxy, Inc. The new god, a planetary turnaround specialist, must decide whether Earth’s dominant species should or should not be included in his plan to bring the planet back into full compliance with Milky Way Galaxy, Inc.’s planetary operation standards.

Earth’s new God introduces himself to humanity by unexpectedly appearing on the Ram Forrester Hour talk show. Ram, an atheist, and co-host Brendali Santamaria, a devout Catholic, are stunned. God's interview, beamed worldwide, shocks and infuriates viewers. They learn that a sixty-day conference will take place in Los Angeles to determine whether humans are capable of helping him implement his planetary turnaround plan. All mankind must do to earn a coveted spot in this God’s good graces is eliminate religious violence forever, without his heavenly help. Failure means extinction.

God designates Ram and Bren as the conference’s only authorized media reporters. This assignment, fraught with peril, ignites their romance. Not only must the harried couple attend the conference meetings by day and do their show at night, they must also outwit a fanatical religious group bent on killing them. When rising conflicts within the conference intensify, it’s up to Ram and Bren to do whatever it takes to protect their budding romance and mankind’s very survival.