#BookReview: Match Me If You Can by Swati Hegde

Synopsis: A young magazine writer in Mumbai must prove her matchmaking skills—and contend with growing feelings for her close family friend—in this debut desi romance.

Confident fashionista Jia Deshpande spends her days writing cliché-ridden listicles for Mimosa, Mumbai’s top women’s magazine. When she can, Jia dishes about the messy truth of real love on her anonymous blog, attends her family’s weekly game nights, and ignores her true feelings for her childhood friend. If that wasn’t enough, Jia needs to successfully set up a coworker with her perfect match to get the green light for her new matchmaking column. Thankfully, organizing meet-cutes has never been difficult for her. 

Local pub owner and cocktail genius Jaiman Patil can’t help but be enamored with Jia and her meddling spirit. He’s always been an honorary part of her family, but even more so since his own moved to America. Life with the Deshpandes is chaotic and loud, but it’s also more loving than anything he experienced growing up, and he wouldn’t risk losing that for the world. It feels manageable—until his pub begins to struggle and his long-hidden feelings for Jia grow deeper. 

When Jia’s attempts at office matchmaking go haywire, risking new friendships and her relationship with Jaiman, she must reevaluate her own thoughts on love. For the first time, Jia Deshpande realizes that love may be a lot more complicated than she thought. Luckily, happily-ever-afters are never in short supply in Mumbai.

This title will be released on June 4, 2024.

#BookReview: Hall of Mirrors (Nightingale Trilogy #2) by John Copenhaver

Synopsis: When a popular mystery novelist dies suspiciously, his writing partner must untangle the author’s connection to a serial killer in award-winning John Copenhaver’s new novel set in 1950s McCarthy-era Washington, DC.

In May 1954, Lionel Kane witnesses his apartment engulfed in flames with his lover and writing partner, Roger Raymond, inside. Police declare it a suicide due to gas ignition, but Lionel refuses to believe Roger was suicidal.

A month earlier, Judy Nightingale and Philippa Watson—the tenacious and troubled heroines from The Savage Kind —attend a lecture by Roger and, being eager fans, befriend him. He has just been fired from his day job at the State Department, another victim of the Lavender Scare, an anti-gay crusade led by figures like Senator Joseph McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover, claiming homosexuals are security risks. Little do Judy and Philippa know, but their obsessive manhunt of the past several years has fueled the flames of his dismissal.

They have been tracking their old enemy Adrian Bogdan, a spy and vicious serial killer protected by powerful forces in the government. He’s on the rampage again, and the police are ignoring his crimes. Frustrated, they send their research to the media and their favorite mystery writer anonymously, hoping to inspire someone, somehow, to publish on the crimes—anything to draw Bogdan out. But has their persistence brought deadly forces to the writing team behind their most beloved books?

In the wake of Roger’s death, Lionel searches for clues, but Judy and Philippa threaten his quest, concealing dark secrets of their own. As the crimes of the past and present converge, danger mounts, and the characters race to uncover the truth, even if it means bending their moral boundaries to stop a killer.

#BookTour: Quantum Consequence by @booksmurphey #Giveaway @RABTBookTours

Physic, Lust and Greed Series, Book 5

 

Sci-Fi

Date Published: 05-16-2024

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

 

After foiling the political ambitions of a would-be American dictator, time-traveling lovers Marta Hamilton and Marshall Grissom return to their life in the Caribbean only to confront the murder of a friend and inherit responsibility for a gutsy 10-year old boy. Throughout their unlikely and tumultuous relationship, Marta has harbored suspicions that her time-traveling companion is not being honest with her. Is Marshall really the bumbling, good-hearted klutz she has come to love and trust? Or is he the cunning, cold-blooded assassin Gillis Kerg suspects him to be? In this fifth tale of physics, lust and greed, a bizarre parallel universe and a monstrous product of artificial intelligence will impose a costly consequence requiring both Marta and Marshall to face the truth of her most haunting question:  “Who are you, Marshall Grissom?”

#BookReview: Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy #1) by Brynne Weaver @zandoprojects @lexilikestoread

Synopsis: Every serial killer needs a friend. 
Every game must have a winner.

When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive—the friendship of a like-minded, pitch-black soul. From small town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country. But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love. Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves? Or have they finally met their match? 

Butcher & Blackbird is the first book in the Ruinous Love Dark Romance trilogy of interconnected stand-alone dark romantic comedies. This dual POV novel ends on a HEA.

#BookTour: Zero Risk Startup by Paulo Andrez @RABTBookTours

The Ultimate Entrepreneur’s Guide to Mitigating Risks When Starting or Growing a Business

 

Business Nonfiction / Self-Help

Date Published: May 7, 2024

Publisher: ForbesBooks

  

Unlock Your Entrepreneurial Potential!

 

In the realm of entrepreneurial endeavors, where the brilliance of innovative ideas holds the potential to reshape markets and industries, the shadow of risk often looms over visionary business pursuits. This often discourages numerous promising entrepreneurs from pursuing their dreams or it leaves them seeking grants or external funding to mitigate risks associated with launching a new business venture.

But what if entrepreneurs could systematically diminish that risk, paving a clearer path to success and even securing the trust of banks or investors? In Zero Risk Startup, Paulo Andrez, a serial entrepreneur and angel investor, offers an invaluable masterclass to help mitigate key entrepreneurial risks, providing more than one hundred concrete tips and tools to empower you to start or grow your business with virtually zero risk.

This transformative manual is far from being a mere compendium of theoretical insights. It's a reservoir of practical wisdom that you can put into action, whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or a first-timer.

 

In this informative read, you’ll learn about 

• determining whether or not to start a business 
• identifying and mitigating the risks of your business with Zero Risk Startup methodology (MEFLO) 
• increasing chances to get external funding from accelerators, angel investors
• venture capitalists, or banks, and leveraging cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies for risk mitigation.

 

Every page is infused with real stories and tips from all over the world, clearly laid-out strategies, and profound insights aimed at bolstering your venture against the unpredictable tides of the business landscape.

Zero Risk Startup is more than just a guidebook; it guides you through the initial steps of minimizing every conceivable risk for your future business, including reducing capital requirements to launch it.

Whether you're a budding founder stepping into the unknown with a revolutionary idea or a seasoned innovator striving to elevate your venture to the next level, Zero Risk Startup serves as your strategic ally. It's your practical companion to transform visionary ideas into realities, navigating through the array of risks facing your business project, systematically eliminating them one-by-one.

#BookTour: Opium et Moi by Robert Miller @RABTBookTours

Memoir

 

Every perfume is a unique work of art, no different than a piece of music or a painting in its ability to evoke feelings in its audience. In 1976, Yves Saint Laurent fell in love with the idea of creating a new perfume that would convey the lush, sensual mood of the name he had already chosen, OPIUM.

Working with Yves, his personal and business partner Pierre, and so many others in the world of high fashion and fragrance could be exhilarating, infuriating, and often, a simmering pot-au-feu threatening to boil over. This narrative takes you behind the scenes, providing a glimpse of that fascinating world and the people who kept it spinning.

It is a highly personal story, and one I know well. It is my story.

#ReleaseBlitz for Catalyst by Emma Nichole @GiveMeBooksPR

Title: Catalyst

Series: Meadow Lake #1

Author: Emma Nichole

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Tropes: Small Town/Single Father

Elementary School Teacher

Release Date: May 24, 2024

BLURB

Mason Shaw.

He’s exactly what I want and need in a man. He’s also off-limits as the father of one of my students.

I didn’t expect to be wildly attracted to him the moment he walked into my classroom.

Nor was I even looking for this type of… connection.

I’m only supposed to share my mind and knowledge as his son’s teacher. Not my body as his lover.

I’m a professional. Surely I can resist his perfect, blue eyes, work-calloused hands, and that deep timbre in his voice.

Having a temporary tryst with a single father is one thing.

Falling in love with him is another thing entirely.

Especially when I know for certain I can’t give him what he wants, or needs, in life

I want to be his.

I want to explore this.

I just don’t know if he’ll want me when he finds out how broken I truly am.

Catalyst is a single father/elementary school teacher small town romance. 

It’s book 1 of the Meadow Lake Series but can be read as a complete standalone.