#BookReview: Hijacked (Scion #3) by Michael J. Allen @TheDScribbler

Synopsis: Manc Shepherd is alive, desperate and mad as hedrin. 

Before the hunt for payback even begins, the Corollas's deadliest killers target Manc as prey. Down to his last, most treacherous allies and his father's old fighters, Manc races against death to find the hapless boy who has endangered Manc's schemes by systematically foiling ambush, assassination, and betrayal. 

Two problems stand in the way of Manc piecing back together his doomed, lifelong vendetta. Alaric Ignaree has vanished, and the kid reminds Manc of the father he is desperate to avenge. 

Manc knows Alaric's weakness, but how far will Manc blur the line between hero and villain to achieve justice? Moreover, can he kill the boy that he always wanted to become?

#BookBlitz: GoodKnight by @crzybookladyluv @XpressoTours #Giveaway

GoodKnight
Giulia Lagomarsino
(Reed Security, #26)
Publication date: August 10th 2020
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
I f*@ked up when I killed that senator. I thought I was uncovering some dirty secrets.
But the things I uncovered could kill millions.
Lives are at stake, but none of that matters to me.
Not when they’ve taken my wife.
They held a gun to her head.
Now they’ll all die.
I won’t stop until I take them all out. Until she’s back in my arms.

#BookBlitz: Witch & Wolf: The Complete Series by @RJ_Blain @XpressoTours #Giveaway $25 Amazon gift card

Witch & Wolf: The Complete Series
R.J. Blain
Publication date: December 18th 2018
Genres: Adult, Urban Fantasy
Life is never easy for those with the strength to change the world.
These are their stories.
Inquisitor
When Allison is asked to play Cinderella-turned-Fianceé at a Halloween ball, the last thing she expected was to be accused of murder. She has to find the killer or she’ll be put to death for the crimes she didn’t commit. To make matters worse, the victims are all werewolves.
On the short list of potential victims, Allison has to act fast, or the killer will have one more body to add to his little black book of corpses.
Winter Wolf
When Nicole dabbled in the occult, she lost it all: Her voice, her family, and her name. Now on the run from the Inquisition, she must prove to herself—and the world—that not all wizards are too dangerous to let live.
Blood Diamond
The world is full of corpses, and Jackson knows them by name. When a group strives to destroy the Inquisition, his powers may be all standing between the supernaturals and extinction.
Silver Bullet
Finished with being a victim, Vicky will do everything in her power to put an end to Basin once and for all, even if it means she must make the ultimate sacrifice and bite a silver bullet for the sake of her family, her friends, and the rest of the supernatural world.
This collection also contains Tales of the Winter Wolf Vol. Six.

#BookReview: Mirage (Mirage #1) by @somiayadaud

Synopsis: In a star system dominated by the brutal Vathek empire, eighteen-year-old Amani is a dreamer. She dreams of what life was like before the occupation; she dreams of writing poetry like the old-world poems she adores; she dreams of receiving a sign from Dihya that one day, she, too, will have adventure, and travel beyond her isolated moon.

But when adventure comes for Amani, it is not what she expects: she is kidnapped by the regime and taken in secret to the royal palace, where she discovers that she is nearly identical to the cruel half-Vathek Princess Maram. The princess is so hated by her conquered people that she requires a body double, someone to appear in public as Maram, ready to die in her place.

As Amani is forced into her new role, she can’t help but enjoy the palace’s beauty—and her time with the princess’ fiancé, Idris. But the glitter of the royal court belies a world of violence and fear. If Amani ever wishes to see her family again, she must play the princess to perfection...because one wrong move could lead to her death.

#ReleaseBlitz for Fragile Things by @samlovelock and @GiveMeBooksPR #Giveaway ($15 Amazon gift card + a signed paperback of Fragile Things)

Title: Fragile Things
Series: Folkestone Sins #1
Author: Samantha Lovelock
Genre: Dark New Adult Romance

Release Date: August 13, 2020

Blurb

Poe Halliday was an accident. A chance meeting that changed my life forever.

My mother didn't have secrets; her secrets had her. After she disappeared, I had nothing.

Or so I thought.

When the invitation arrived, the opportunity to learn about my mother's past was too great to pass up. Heading west to meet an aunt I had never heard of, I knew I was taking a risk, but I craved answers. Instead, I ended up with more questions, and now the dark history of this town threatens to tear me apart.

It's all about him.

I knew this was a mistake.

Stella Bradleigh was a distraction. Something to play with when my shadows got too dark.

I spent my entire existence forced to live a life I didn't want. There was only one way out.

Or so I thought.

When she arrived, none of us had any idea what it meant. Meeting the beautiful stranger with the mysterious past, I thought she would be a good time, and then I could just throw her away like all the others. Instead, she consumed me, and now she's made me question everything I know to be real in my life.

It's all about her.

I knew I was a mistake.

Sometimes what seems most fragile can't be broken.

★ Folkestone Sins is a series of interconnected duets.  Fragile Things is the first book in Stella and Poe's duet, and the first book in the series. This is a dark, mature high school/new adult romance. It contains situations and flashbacks that may trigger some readers, language that may be offensive, and scenes of a sexual nature (all consensual).  Recommended for 18+ only

#BookReview: COOP Knows the Scoop by @TarynSouders @SourcebooksKids

Synopsis: "An engrossing, good-humored page-turner. " - Kirkus Reviews 

"Artfully composed and offering several genuine surprises, this mystery will have young readers speeding through it in a quest to uncover the truth." - Booklist 

The whole town is talking about what's buried beneath the playground...

Windy Bottom, Georgia is usually a peaceful place. Coop helps his mom at her café and bookstore, hangs out with his grandpa, and bikes around with his friends Justice and Liberty. The town is full of all kinds of interesting people, but no one has ever caused a problem. Until now.

And somehow, Gramps is taking all the blame! It seems like there are a lot of secrets that were buried in their small town after all...

Will Coop and his friends get to the bottom of the mystery and clear Gramps's name before it's too late? 

#TeaserTuesday: Superbu by Debarshi Kanjilal @RABTBookTours #Giveaway

Fiction (Family Life), Fiction (Pets and Animals), Fiction (Urban)

Date Published: August 15, 2020

 

You cried with Hachiko. You got spooked and then laughed it off with Scooby Doo. And you fell in love with John Grogan's incorrigible Marley. But you have yet to meet a dog quite like Super Bu ♥.

After years of arguments on the matter, the Bera family has finally decided to bring home a dog.

 

① Ajay has wanted a dog since he was a child. He has fantasized about every version of his future life around them.

② His brother, Arun, would love to get a dog as much but doesn't mind not having to clean up after one.

③ Ajit, their father, also wants to get a dog. He just wants to feel the love of a dog again, like he used to when he was a child.

⚠ Barnali, Ajit's wife, loathes the idea of having a dog in the house. She spent her childhood praying for only one thing, that she shouldn't get married into a family that has dogs. And until now, she got her wish.

 

But now, Ajay has finally worn out his mother's resilience and the Beras are bringing home a dog. Can this be just the homecoming that the dog or the family had anticipated?

 

Read now and find out.

#ReleaseBlitz for Walk Me Home by @alisonmelloauth and @GiveMeBooksPR #Giveaway (2 signed paperbacks of Walk Me Home)

Title: Walk Me Home

Author: Alison Mello

Genre: Friends-to-Lovers Dance Romance

Release Date: August 13, 2020

Blurb

Can Jade overcome the hurt from her past for the one man she now sees as more than a friend, the man who makes her pulse race?

Bentley

They may be friends, but she has no idea that he’s been mesmerized by her over the last few years. The way she moves on the dance floor… her grace… her beauty. He’s wanted nothing more than to make her his, but there’s one problem. She’s with a man who has very little respect for her, and she’s blind to it. 

Jade

Her ex broke her heart into a million pieces, leaving her shattered and wondering if she could ever retake the stage. Now, it's time to go back, but she'll never dance with a partner again. That is until she's told she’ll be dancing her friend Bentley. Despite her wishes, she’s pushed into another partner routine. Her instructor told her it’s for her own good, but she doesn’t believe it. 

Bentley and Jade are magic together on the dance floor, and she knows it. Their magic leads to a connection she never thought possible. She’s only just left the man, she thought she’d love forever. Can she move on? Can she admit the feelings she has for Bentley? Will they finish this dance? 

Download this romance to experience a story of friendship, healing, and passion! 

#BookReview: Vengeful are the Drowned (Blood Phoenix Chronicles, #3) by Michael J. Allen @TheDScribbler

Synopsis: Past Mistakes Never Stop Haunting... 

A dark spell enslaves the phoenixes. Dunham unleashes their elemental powers against those who murdered his family while the deposed Wyldfae Queen uses them to lure even bigger prey. 

Vitae's desperate crusade to save Mare takes a darker turn, putting him at odds with Quayla. With Quayla on the run and Vitae setting up his own kingdom, the Sidhe turn Atlanta into a bloody playground. 

An unexpected ally emerges to help Quayla's fight for freedom, and a betrayal brings Vitae face to face with the Sidhe royals. With the phoenixes pitted against one another and True Death a certainty, can Atlanta's dwindling Shield prevent the Sidhe from devouring mankind?

#Cover for Hot Pickle by J.J. Knight @XpressoTours

Hot Pickle
J.J. Knight
Publication date: August 31st 2020
Genres: Adult, Comedy, Romance
I’m rock hard.
No, not like that.
When that happens, you won’t need me to tell you.
I’m a competitive bodybuilder, ready for my very first contest. And winning requires more than killer workouts and stage presence.
It’s all about the tan.
My training partner Franklin uses the best in the business — Camryn Schultz. She understands the career killer of a badly placed white spot.
She’s also his sister.
So when the craptastic tan I’m given for my first competition requires an emergency patch, Franklin knows exactly who to call.
The thing is, when Camryn’s hands hit my skin, more than a few muscles spring to life.
I’m about to head on stage in the tiniest Speedo imaginable and parts of me no longer fit.
What I need to do for my friendship and my future on the circuit is to walk away.
But when my best friend’s sister has her hands on my hard body, there’s no way this Pickle is going to get anything but hot.
__
Hot Pickle is a 300-page standalone romantic comedy about workout junkies, bodybuilding gods, and the couple who sprays together, stays together.

#BookReview: When Elephants Fly by @nfischerauthor

Synopsis: There are some battles worth fighting even if it means losing yourself.

T. Lily Decker is a high school senior with a twelve-year plan: avoid stress, drugs, alcohol and boyfriends, and take regular psych quizzes administered by her best friend, Sawyer, to make sure she's not developing schizophrenia.Genetics are not on Lily's side.

When she was seven, her mother, who had paranoid schizophrenia, tried to kill her. And a secret has revealed that Lily's odds are even worse than she thought. Still, there's a chance to avoid triggering the mental health condition, if Lily can live a careful life from ages eighteen to thirty, when schizophrenia most commonly manifests.

But when a newspaper internship results in Lily witnessing a mother elephant try to kill her three-week-old calf, Swifty, Lily can't abandon the story or the calf. With Swifty in danger of dying from grief, Lily must choose whether to risk everything, including her sanity and a first love, on a desperate road trip to save the calf's life, perhaps finding her own version of freedom along the way. 

#BookReview: The Silent Invasion, Abductions by Larry Hancock, Michael Cherkas (Illustrations)

Synopsis: Several years after his fateful final encounter with would-be presidential assassin Matt Sinkage, private detective Phil Housley finds himself reluctantly protecting a paranoid lawyer from alien abductions, sinister government agents, and mad scientists. At the same time Housley is battling demons from his past that threaten to unravel his own fragile sanity.

#ReleaseBlitz: She Wears the Mask by @sstrattonbooks @RABTBookTours

Women’s fiction, Historical Fiction

Date Published: August 11, 2020

 

 

Gripping and moving, She Wears the Mask is a novel about two women from two very different worlds, both burdened with secrets from their pasts, who form an unexpected bond…

1950s Chicago: Angelique Bixby could be one of many fresh-faced sales girls working along the Magnificent Mile, but she’s unique. She’s a white woman married to a black man in 1950s Chicago, making her stand out among the tenements on the South Side where she lives. Despite the challenges the couple faces, they find comfort and strength in their love for one another. Angelique is content, as long as she has her Daniel by her side and their baby in her arms, until she loses them both—one to death and the other to dire circumstances.

1990s Washington, D.C.: Angelique Crofton is a woman of privilege. A rich, aging beauty and mother of a rising political star, she has learned to forget her tragic past. But now that she is facing her own mortality, she is finally ready to find the daughter she left behind, remember the young woman she once was, and unearth the bittersweet memories she had long ago buried.

Jasmine Stanley is an ambitious lawyer—the only black woman at her firm. She is too busy climbing the corporate ladder to deal with her troublesome family or their unresolved issues. Tasked with Angelique’s case, Jasmine doesn’t know what to make of her new client—an old debutante with seemingly too much time and money on her hands. Jasmine eagerly accepts the challenge though, hoping if she finds Angelique’s long-lost daughter, it will impress the firm’s partners. But she doesn’t count on the search challenging her mentally and emotionally. Nor does she expect to form a friendship with Angelique, who is much more like her than she realizes—because Jasmine is harboring secrets, too.

#ReleaseBlitz: Lost and Found by @MsMaggie_Clare @RABTBookTours

Tactical Solutions International, Book 3

Romantic Suspense

Date Published: August 11, 2020

Publisher: Wave Equation Media

Dr. Lissa Morgan has had a crush on her best friend’s older brother since they were kids, but handsome, brooding Cam Taylor has never given her a second glance. When Cam unexpectedly shows up on Lissa’s doorstep bleeding and bruised, his personal life in shambles, things between them take a steamy turn.

After an incredible weekend with the sweet, sexy doctor, Cam realizes what he’s been missing. But he’s run from intimacy his whole life, sure he doesn’t deserve a woman like Lissa. He’s doing her a favor by walking away – or so he tells himself.

Frustrated and hurt by Cam’s distance, Lissa must nonetheless rely on his private security firm when an annoying admirer becomes a threat. The more time Cam spends with Lissa, the faster his defenses crumble. When the disturbed stalker finally makes his move, Cam will do whatever it takes to save the woman who’s slowly healing his wounded soul.

 

Lost and Found is the third book in the Tactical Solutions International series but can be read as a stand-alone.

#BookReview: Stolen Lives (Scion #2) by Michael J. Allen @TheDScribbler

Synopsis: Alaric’s made a new life in the Protectorate despite his missing memories. His ship’s AI, Cassii, and a successful trading venture help fill his accounts with enough credits to finish repairing his ship for a rescue mission to Earth. Or would have, had his heroics not smashed Cassiopeia once more.

His interference with the Corollas crime syndicate fills his thruster wash with more than just an angry ex-mentor. Pirates thrive on the star lanes, preying on all those who stray within their sights. Cassii’s been stolen and with her Alaric’s hopes to rescue his friends. Pirates, bounty hunters, and disgruntled plants besiege him along all vectors, preventing his capture of the scum responsible.

Alaric recruits a reluctant doctor, a pacifistic AI, and several escort pilots to help him chase down Cassii. Kindhearted decisions leave Alaric wallowing in misery. Deaths and desperation, financial losses and constant attack force him to make dark choices that threaten all.

Alaric embraces the vast interstellar emptiness, struggling to harden himself enough to thwart the Protectorate’s criminal elite. Every sacrifice he makes to rescue Cassii seems to cost chunks of his soul. Will he free her before he loses himself or will she return to find her beloved captain a worse villain than her kidnapper? 

#BookBlitz: Marauder by Bella Di Corte @XpressoTours #Giveaway $15 Amazon gift card

Marauder
Bella Di Corte
(Gangsters of New York, #2)
Publication date: August 7th 2020
Genres: Adult, Romance, Suspense
He stole my heart out of revenge.
There was one thing I always thought was mine to give: my heart.
I never imagined a marauder would steal it out of vengeance—vengeance that had nothing to do with me. His greatest enemy happened to be the man in love with me, and somehow I became nothing but a pawn. I was no damsel in distress, though. More like an archer, ready to battle.
And my target? The marauder himself.
Cashel “Cash” Kelly.
Kelly might have been as gorgeous as he was ruthless, but he had no idea what I’d do to steal it back. Or better yet, get even.
She was determined to keep what was mine.
They say hearts can’t be stolen unless they’re willing to be. Tell that to the man everyone on the streets called “the marauder.”
Me.
Because by the time I was through, Keely Ryan’s heart would be mine. And my enemy’s? As good as broken. Trouble was, the archer was precise with her aim, and her arrow was pointed at my heart.

#BookBlitz: Beyond the Moon by @veldabrotherton @BookBuzznet @RABTBookTours

Women's Fiction

Publisher: Oghma Creative Media

Katie agrees to teach art techniques at the vet's hospital to deal with the painful loss of her husband. She discovers her own buried strengths when Glen's lost soul reaches out to her and they become close friends. Dealing with a damaged warrior is more difficult than she thought. But love makes no room for defeat, and their battles though hard won promise a life together if only they can persevere.

#BookReview: Giant (Giant #1-2) by Mikaël

Synopsis: New York, early 1930s. A mysterious, laconic Irish colossus known as ‘Giant’ sweats blood, along with his fellow immigrants, to build the skyscrapers of Rockefeller Center. For a while, he has not received a reply to the typewritten letters he continues to send, as well as money, to the other side of the ocean, to Mary Ann, the wife of one of his colleagues who died accidentally. Giant, who seems to be afraid of nothing, still has not found the courage to reveal to the young woman that she is a widow ... What does her silence mean? An entrancing everyday working-class tale with the majestic background of the rising skyscrapers of New York.

#BookReview: The Beast's Heart by @leioss

Synopsis: A sumptuously magical, brand new take on a tale as old as time—read the Beast's side of the story at long last.

I am neither monster nor man—yet I am both.

I am the Beast.

The day I was cursed to this wretched existence was the day I was saved—although it did not feel so at the time.

My redemption sprung from contemptible roots; I am not proud of what I did the day her father happened upon my crumbling, isolated chateau. But if loneliness breeds desperation then I was desperate indeed, and I did what I felt I must. My shameful behaviour was unjustly rewarded.

My Isabeau. She opened my eyes, my mind and my heart; she taught me how to be human again.

And now I might lose her forever.

Lose yourself in this gorgeously rich and magical retelling of The Beauty and the Beast that finally lays bare the beast's heart. 

#CoverReveal for Cruel Seduction by @kellicallahan92 and @GiveMeBooksPR

Title: Cruel Seduction

Series: Underground Kings #2

Author: Kelli Callahan

Genre: Dark Romantic Suspense
Cover Design: Silla Webb
Photo: Wander Aguiar
Model: Christoph L.

Release Date: August 21, 2020

Blurb

I’ve heard blood is thicker than water, but those people must not have ever been stabbed in the back by their family.
At least water made rivers.
All blood did was stain.
My brother was a stain on my damn life.
No matter how hard I scrubbed, his betrayal was still there.
He set me up to take the fall on one of the biggest jobs we ever did together, and I did five years behind bars for fraud and money laundering.
I’m out of prison now, and I’m ready to turn the river red.
No one messes with me and gets away with it. I’m going to take everything that belongs to me.
Including her. His ex-wife that he kept under lock and key like an animal.
Last I heard, Gabriella Regio has the bite of a beast, and I can’t wait to set her free.