#BookReview: Harry Houdini (The First Names Series) by Kjartan Poskitt, Geraint Ford

Synopsis: Discover the man behind the magic and see how Houdini pulled off his most daring escapes

Before Harry Houdini (1874–1926) became the greatest magician in the world, he was just little Ehrich Weisz, a Hungarian-born immigrant who moved to America with his family and performed stage tricks for a little extra cash. He started off with card tricks and then eventually began performing the escape acts that would make him famous. Known for his daring and death-defying illusions, he would do some of the greatest tricks ever: escaping from a milk can, being buried alive, and being locked inside a crate and thrown into a river. He conquered each of these seemingly impossible feats and showed the world the power of a little magic. Fun, fast-paced, and highly illustrated, Harry Houdini tells the story of the curious boy who became the world’s greatest magician and reveals how Houdini did some of his most stunning escapes. It includes a timeline, glossary, and index.

#Cover for a Booze & Bullets by @melanie_munton @XpressoTours

Booze & Bullets
Melanie Munton
(Brooklyn Brothers, #3)
Publication date: November 3rd 2020
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

We are the Rossetti’s.
The exiled “sixth family” of the New York mafia. We’re the good guys.
People don’t fear us…much. They respect us.
The five of us? We’re the Brooklyn Brothers.
And we protect what’s ours.

Lexi Kozlov is a spoiled brat. Rich. Entitled. And unfortunately, she’s now my wife. The marriage is part of a deal I struck with her father…the boss of the Russian mafia. Insane? Maybe. But the payoff could mean millions for my family. Marriage is just a contract anyway. We barely even have to speak to each other. Piece of cake, right?

Wrong.

Lexi is not what I bargained for. Her millions of Instagram followers see her as an international sex symbol, but I’m learning that she’s so much more. I should be relieved that she’s the bachelorette to my bachelor. I shouldn’t want to convince her to turn our fake marriage into a real one.

But when her life is threatened, you better believe I’m going to protect my wife, contract or no contract. Because this sham marriage is the most real thing I’ve ever had in my life.

And I’m not about to let anyone take that away from me.

#ReleaseBlitz for A Date for the Regatta by @HeidiJoVT @LPDover and @GiveMeBooksPR

Title: A Date for the Regatta

Series: Dating #9

Authors: Heidi McLaughin & L.P. Dover

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: October 13, 2020

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New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors Heidi McLaughlin and L.P. Dover come together for a sexy new series that delivers romance for every season! 

Hoist the main sail and ready the bow thruster, this ship is going to be rocking. 

London Bauer hates her job. Working with the New England elite, she’s used to yacht club snobs glaring down their noses at her as she serves them dinner and caters to their extravagant whims. Thankfully, they tip well and London needs every cent she can get. 

One shift goes from bad to worse when Max Richmond saunters in. As if she needed another reminder why she should never mingle with the sailors, he has the audacity to ignore her. London wasn’t looking to sail off into the sunset with him after the night they spent together, but acknowledging her would have been common decency. She follows Max into the bathroom, fully intending to give him a piece of her mind. Instead, she finds herself getting wonderfully reacquainted with his drive shaft. 

Now, Max is insistent that London join him at the Kingstown Regatta. Surrounded by his uppity friends and family, London fears the divide between their lives is too deep for any vessel to sail. While she’s ready to weigh anchor and move on, Max is manning his helm and prepared to show her they can weather the roughest of seas... together. 

Climb aboard and wax the deck, the motion of this ocean will leave you weak in the knees. 

#ReleaseBlitz for Love in the Aisles by @HLVanFleet @jess_calla and @GiveMeBooksPR

Title: Love in the Aisles

Series: Sunrise Valley #1

Authors: Heather Van Fleet & Jessica Calla

Genre: Sweet Small-Town Romance

Release Date: October 13, 2020

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On a scale from one to ten on the epic failure charts, Charlotte Dawson’s day just passed an eleven.

The last thing Charlotte wants to do is go to the supermarket, but with a four-year-old to feed, she doesn’t have a choice. Just when she thinks she’s free and clear of marketplace drama, Charlotte finds herself in the throes of a hide-and-seek game with the nosiest woman in town. And if that wasn’t enough to add to her bad day, the hot new bag guy catches her hiding out…in the liquor section…on a Sunday in the South. But she can’t formulate the words to tell him to get lost. In fact, she can’t speak at all once she gazes into those hazel eyes.

Having been ditched at the altar by his long-term girlfriend, Hollywood sensation Ian ‘Cleary’ Tate escapes to Sunrise Valley for one reason—peace. Serving as a temporary apprentice under his stepfather at Adler’s Market is the perfect cover—nothing says redefining his life like a little manual labor. Until he runs into a problem…Charlotte Dawson, the widow of the town’s biggest hero. He in no way expected to develop a fascination with the bumbling, yet refreshing, young mom, who just so happens to have the grace of a one-legged chimpanzee.

In a series of unexpected encounters between the aisles of the supermarket and the gossip-filled streets of Sunrise Valley, Charlotte and Ian get to know one another, Georgia style—all under the watchful eyes of a group of meddling old women known as the GOLs (Gossiping Old Ladies).

It’s not easy falling in love after heartbreak, but Ian and Charlotte have a chance at exactly that…if Ian’s secret Hollywood fame and Charlotte’s former life don’t get in the way first.

#ReleaseBlitz for First to Bid by @mjohnstonwriter and @GiveMeBooksPR

Title: First to Bid

Series: Unraveled #2

Author: Marie Johnston

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: October 12, 2020

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In high school, my crush on Flynn wasn't so secret, but he was so far out of my league that I didn’t care. I had more important things to survive. Ten years have passed, I’ve built a new life, and it’s my lucky day. He's one of the eligible bachelors in the fundraising auction I'm helping organize. 

I saved money to donate to an organization that helped me escape a bad situation, but if I can give it to the same cause and buy a week away with Flynn, why not?

***

The girl I once knew as Crazy J, the one obsessed with me in high school, just won a week with me at my lake cabin. I’ve built my empire on reputation, it’s how I land accounts worth millions, but Tilly Johnson gives zero thought to what people think of her. From her Wacky Monday work clothes to her raucous laughter, I should be cringing every time she walks into the same room as me and opens her mouth.

Only I'm starting to crave it. I want more of what Tilly has to offer. Until her reputation clashes with one of my biggest accounts and threatens to bring my world crashing down. Helping her could cost me everything.

First to Bid is a full-length standalone novel in the Unraveled series. It was previously published as Highest Bidder in the now obsolete Fanboys series. 

#CoverReveal for Ruthless King by @lanasky101 and @GiveMeBooksPR

Title: Ruthless King

Series: Mice and Men #1

Author: Lana Sky

Genre: Dark Mafia Romance

Cover Design: Killastrationz Designs

Teaser Design: Ms. Betty's Design Studio

Release Date: October 27, 2020

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After a decade spent claiming a throne for himself in the seething violence of the criminal underbelly, all Donatello Vanici craves now is peace. 

Only a union forged between his heir and the most powerful mafiya family in existence could ever be strong enough to end the bloodshed for good, but the Stepanov head resists his overtures at every turn... 

Until tragedy strikes, and forces Donatello’s hand. 

Haunted by a past that dogs her every thought, Willow Stepanov will do anything for the man who adopted her—until a chance encounter with the enemy lands her right in the middle of a dangerous power struggle and a war that grows more violent and vicious each day. 

But it's not just her future her captor holds hostage. 

He is a man with nothing left to lose—while she may just lose everything. 

Her life, her family, and her heart… 

Mice and Men is a new standalone series in the War of Roses Universe.

#BookReview: The Furies by Katie Lowe

Synopsis: This page-turning, harrowing debut is the story of a girl trying to fit in, whose obsessive new friends and desperation to belong leads her to places she'd never imagined...dark, dangerous, and possibly even violent. 

In 1998, a sixteen-year-old girl is found dead.

She's posed on a swing on her boarding school's property, dressed all in white, with no known cause of death. Whispers and rumors swirl, with no answers. But there are a few who know what happened; there is one girl who will never forget.

One year earlier: a new student, Violet, steps on the campus of Elm Hollow Academy, an all-girl's boarding school on the outskirts of a sleepy coastal town. This is her fresh start, her chance to begin again in the wake of tragedy, leave her demons behind. Bright but a little strange, uncertain and desperate to fit in, she soon finds herself invited to an advanced study group, led by her alluring and mysterious art teacher, Annabel.

There, with three other girls--Alex, Grace, and Robin--the five of them delve into the school's long-buried grim history: of Greek and Celtic legends; of the school founder's "academic" interest in the occult; of gruesome 17th century witch trials. Annabel does her best to convince the girls that her classes aren't related to ancient rites and rituals, and that they are just history and mythology. But the more she tries to warn the girls off the topic, the more they drawn to it, and the possibility that they can harness magic for themselves.

Violet quickly finds herself wrapped up in this heady new world of lawless power--except she is needled by the disappearance of a former member of the group, one with whom Violet shares an uncanny resemblance. As her friends' actions take a turn for the darker and spiral out of control, she begins to wonder who she can trust, all the while becoming more deeply entangled. How far will these young girls go to protect one another...or to destroy one another?