VBT: Take Me As I Am by Charmaine Ross

Take Me As I Am

by Charmaine Ross

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GENRE: Contemporary Romance

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BLURB:

Forget the whole billionaire tycoon thing: Kate Moore is a billionaire’s daughter, and she knows first-hand that they’re not all romance novel worthy. Her father is brilliant, inflexible, and brutal – and nothing she’s ever done has been good enough for him.  Her one chance to take over the massive Moore’s Hotel Corporation is restoring the run-down Burnham Beeches in beautiful Sassafras to its former glory. To that end, she hires David Wright, a talented landscaper with an unparalleled eye for beauty and an unparalleled talent for distracting her from her goal. 

David really needs this job. He needs the contract, the Moore’s name on his portfolio, and the money to pay for his ailing father’s health. Everything he’s worked for is now within his grasp, and he’s going to reach for it with both hands. What he doesn’t need is the diversion, or the temptation, presented by his new boss. 

Neither David nor Kate are free to follow their own desires, but they’re powerless to fight their growing attraction. But they come from very different places; perceptions will have to crash, misconceptions will have to collapse, and they will have to face their own personal challenges before they find their space to meet in the middle.

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Excerpt Two:

She rested the side of her head on the doorframe and yawned. Her eyes half closed as she watched him and he was caught in a lasting gaze that made his stomach clench. She was all soft and luscious and a sexy woman beneath that bristly exterior.

‘David?’

He hadn’t realised he’d been standing here, staring at her. ‘I want to talk to you about tomorrow’s plans. I need to make an early start. I want you to tell me if you don’t like something. I like to be up-front.’ He stepped towards her. One small step. So close he felt her body warmth reaching for him.

‘So do I.’ Her voice was so soft. So gentle it seemed as though it caressed him.

He shouldn’t be standing here so close to her because that would mean he had no control over what his body wanted and he couldn’t let that happen. The reasons. Remember them. His mind searched desperately. The first one. It was …

But when he breathed in, her scent was in the air. It was sweet and feminine and warm and set his blood on fire so that it raced through his veins screaming with an unquenchable need. He couldn’t move, was hypnotised beyond physical ability.

‘If there’s anything you think of I can do …’ Like take her in his arms and kiss her. Just a little kiss. A taste. The slightest of touches. Lips to lips.

‘I’ll tell you.’ Kate’s gaze dropped to his mouth and flicked back to his eyes. A quick movement, but one he didn’t miss.

Feminine perfume stirred in a slight breeze. He almost groaned out loud. He needed to keep space between them. She was off-limits. Beyond touch. He needed to keep himself in line. Reaching to the depths of his most steadfast will he stepped back.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

My first foray into romance was as a fourteen year old where I fell hopelessly and eternally in love with my hero as only a teenager can. Instead of watching movies and staying up late, I would go to bed at eight thirty and continue my very romantic, very safe, love affair.

Since then, I have fallen in love with many heroes, some less safe than what my teenage brain could possibly imagine. After earning a Fine Art’s Degree, a Diploma of Secondary Education and a Diploma of Marketing, I worked as a Graphic Designer in various advertising agencies as well as in-house marketing roles and am currently involved with digital marketing and everything web in my current position. But I always return to writing.

Although I have travelled, I always return to my home town of Melbourne and live with my husband, two children and two cats in the ferny-greens of the Dandenongs. If I'm not working on my latest romance and falling in love with yet another hero, you’ll find me reading, watching and basically indulging in my addiction to any story on any media type I can get my fingers on.

Check out my web site to download and read two fun, flirty novellas - the best news is they're free - plus free chapter downloads from all of my books, as well as updates on my latest news @ www.charmaineross.com

Website: www.charmaineross.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/CharmaineRossAu

Facebook: www.facebook.com/charmaine.ross.01

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/charmaineatt/

Contact information:

e: charmaineross44@gmail.com

Interview with Charmaine Ross

As a kid did you write or make up stories?

I have always been interested in writing since I can remember. I used to sit up and night and fill pages, usually inspired by movies like Indiana Jones. Then I went on to write about boys and boyfriends. It was quite safe having a boyfriend right out of your imagination. I imagine my mother thought so too.

Where does most of your Character inspiration come from?

I like putting people in a situation and then think about what type of person would this be particularly challenging for. I think that makes for interesting characters. I want my characters to freak out, be uncomfortable. Be tortured. Bwa ha ha. LOL

Do some qualities of your characters come from real people?

Of course, I look at past hurts, past events, and how their backgrounds would have turned them into the people they are today.

What was the inspiration for your book?

I’ve always been intrigued by the Burnham Beeches in Sassafras, in the Dandenongs in Melbourne and have wanted it to be restored to its former beauty. I didn’t have enough time, money or logistical prowess to do it myself, so I wrote about my heroine who was more than capable of undertaking a job like that. The gardens surrounding the Burnham Beeches are absolutely beautiful and would have been stunning in their nineteen thirties glory. I needed a lean, toned, muscular landscaper for that job and so my hero was born.

In this book, I wanted to turn the tables on the rich man / ordinary gal plot and so made my heroine a billionaire’s daughter, having been groomed for luxury and educated in the best schools money could buy, and my hero a sexy, hard-working, yet salt-of-the-earth man. My favourite scene is when my hero strips off his shirt in the summer sun, my heroine can’t ignore the sizzle in her blood or the voice in her head that tells her that what her body wants is a bad idea. A very bad idea. 

Add in some sexy spice, some differences of opinion, undeniable physical attraction and you have ‘Take Me As I Am’.

What is your favorite spot to write?

I love writing in my favorite local café. I let them bring me coffee and muffins and they let me use their electricity. Win win situation.

What advice would you give budding writers?

Don’t give up. Only listen to constructive advice. Don’t ask your Mum or your best friends for their opinion of your books. Be open minded about honest advice. Join a critique group. Join the RWA.

Thank you so much for having me here and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading a bit about me. As a thank you to your readers I’m offering two free fun and flirty novellas on my web site when you subscribe to my very sporadic email. I also have free sample chapters on my web site. It’s worth a look@ www.charmaineross.com

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION 

Charmaine Ross will be awarding a copy of the e-book Take Me As I Am (international) to three randomly drawn winners via rafflecopter during the tour.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

COVER REVEAL: From the Ashes (Force of Nature #1) by Amber Lynn Natusch

Piper Jones can't catch a break.

After a lifetime of animosity and indifference from the supernatural community, she thought she'd finally found a home with the vampire king’s enforcers. Then the dark and mysterious Merc walks into her life, and it takes a disastrous turn for the worse.

Now under attack by enemies both known and unknown, Piper has little choice but to flee her refuge—and start over in a place few vampires ever go. Rural Alaska seemed to fit the bill, except for Knox and his crew of werewolves. The pack shares a connection with Piper that few of them can explain, and none of them can escape.

With time running out for answers, Piper must fight the demons of her past to ensure her future—or die trying.

A NEW SERIES FROM BESTSELLING AUTHOR AMBER LYNN NATUSCH!

KEEP READING TO SEE THE COVER

AND TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BOOK!

Release Day Blitz for MudMan by James A. Hunter

ujk.MudMan
The Golem Chronicles
Book One
James A. Hunter

Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Shadow Alley Press

ASIN: B01BX7PT7M

Number of pages: 415
Word Count: 111,000

Cover Artist: Lou Harper

Book Description:

Levi Adams is a soft spoken, middle-aged Mennonite man—at least he tries to be when he’s not murdering people.

Levi’s a golem, a Mudman, crafted from the muck, mire, and corpses of a World War II concentration camp—killing is just a part of his DNA. He doesn’t like it, but unfortunately he’s been saddled with a divine commission to dole out judgment on those who shed innocent blood. After seventy years as a cold-blooded murder machine, however, Levi’s trying to change his grisly nature. And the AA meetings and church services are helping. A little. But when he runs across a wounded girl, Sally Ryder, during one of his “hunting expeditions,” he realizes self-help may have to go on the back burner.

Someone is attempting to revive a pre-Babylonian murder god, and the road to rebirth is paved with dead bodies. Lots and lots of them.

Now, Levi must protect Ryder—the key to an unspeakable resurrection—and defeat a Nazi mage from Levi’s murky past. But the shadowy mage holds a terrible secret about the Mudman’s unorthodox birth, one offering insight into Levi’s morbid compulsion for bloodshed. It’s a secret Levi would pay anything to uncover: maybe even Ryder’s life. If Levi isn’t careful, he may end up turning into the monster he always imagined himself to be.

Amazon

ZERO:

Awakening

June, 1943

He blinked his eyes open for the first time: a newborn stealing his first look at the world, which, in a way, is exactly what he was. Except no squealing, rosy-cheeked infant had ever been so big, so ugly, or so filled with blood-boiling rage. Never had a child been so appalling. He squinted at first, letting in only the merest trickle of light because even the wan illumination from the moon, which loitered over the world like a fat thumbnail, was harsh to his virgin eyes.

Smells came next: the scent of musky earth, the harsh tang of powdery slaked lime—used to mask the reek of decay—and buried beneath that, the sour stink of rotten flesh and burnt hair.

The sky spit down a misty drizzle, fine droplets of cool water that turned his gray skin slick. After a few moments more his eyes adjusted fully, allowing him, at last, to survey his surroundings. Mud and muck, deep brown and goopy, lined everything. It squished beneath his shoulder blades, clung to his arms and legs, and liberally coated the corpses crudely piled to his right. Despite the mud, the bodies appeared almost white, like angry specters waiting for him, welcoming him to this new hell with silent screams and vacant eyes.

How he knew anything was beyond him, since this was the first day of his life, the day—or rather night—of his unnatural birth. Surely, no baby pushed and fought its way into the world with dark and grisly thoughts of murder and death lingering in its mind, with knowledge of mass graves, heinous experimentation, and hasty executions. But he knew such things. Fragments of memories floated and swirled inside his skull, dancing a slow funeral dirge, parading incoherent snatches of imagery through his head.

The Wehrmacht march through the streets in their black spit-shined boots and high-collared, gray wool uniforms. Smart and dashing, those uniforms, dressing up the face of murder in civility and pageantry …

The Luftwaffe soars overhead. The buzz of the single-prop Focke-Wulf and the thunderous roar of the colossal Messerschmitt transport planes fill the air with their racket …

He clutches a small boy to his chest, his body trembling as he hides, holding his breath for fear of being heard. Terror and panic wriggle in his guts as the black-garbed Schutzstaffel—the SS—make their way from door to door, fists rapping on wood, rifle buttstocks smashing out windows, booted feet kicking their way inside …

Then, train cars, loaded to capacity, roll through his thoughts. Bodies press up against one another so tightly he can’t breathe—except he isn’t a he, but a she. And she is searching for her sister. They’d been separated in all the chaos …

So many images, circling around, each screaming more loudly than the last, each demanding he lend them an ear or an eye or a hand. He clutched at either side of his head. Broad, fleshy palms pressed in as though he could simply pulverize the images and send them back to whatever nightmare they’d come from. But they kept coming, and as they came—faster and faster, like a hail of automatic machine gunfire—his chest began to itch and burn. It felt like someone had taken a cherry-red fire iron and jabbed it into the meat covering his breastbone.

A huge hand flew to the pain, his fingers finding crude markings etched directly into the skin, cut deep into the muscle below. As he touched the mark, the jagged wound, the voices and visions coalesced into a single demand. A demand for retribution. The anger came next, flowing from the brand like gasoline pumping through his veins, scorching his insides and propelling him to action. He lumbered to his feet, the muck squishing around his thick toes, and made for the muddy wall of his earthen womb. In reality, an open grave. He dug his digits in and used his flabby, though powerfully built, arms to pull himself upward and free.

He lay on the edge of the pit for a long beat, charting the lay of the land, eyes scanning the dark, which covered everything like a velvety blanket. In the distance, not so far off, he saw a squat building. Some sort of bunker, outlined by the faint glow of light bulbs. He wasn’t sure what he was. Where he was. Or how he’d gotten there. But, as the brand burned in his chest, he was certain of one thing: someone—or, perhaps, lots of someones—had quite the butcher’s bill to account for, and he was ready to collect.

About the Author:

Hey all, my name is James Hunter and I’m a writer, among other things. So just a little about me: I’m a former Marine Corps Sergeant, combat veteran, and pirate hunter (seriously). I’m also a member of The Royal Order of the Shellback—’cause that’s a real thing. I’ve also been a missionary and international aid worker in Bangkok, Thiland. And, a space-ship captain, can’t forget that.

Okay … the last one is only in my imagination.

Currently, I’m a stay at home Dad—taking care of my two kids—while also writing full time, making up absurd stories that I hope people will continue to buy. When I’m not working, writing, or spending time with family, I occasionally eat and sleep.

You can visit me to find out more at www.JamesAHunter.wordpress.com

www.twitter.com/@jamesahunter13

www.facebook.com/WriterJamesAHunter

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 I received this product free in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

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