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Monday, April 2, 2018

Finding Us by K.S. Marshall

Title: Finding Us
Series: Lost & Found Duet #2
Author: K.S. Marshall
Genre: Romantic Suspense/Thriller
Release Date: April 27, 2018
Cover Design: Captured by K. Designs





This isn't a love story. This is a story about redemption. She was lost and then she was taken. He found her twice. But will she ever be truly free again? How can you ever be whole after your entire world was ripped apart? How will they both survive the nightmare when they realize it's not over? She loved him and he loved her. But it wasn't that simple.


TRIGGER WARNING:
Triggers (for both part 1 and part 2): Rape, Violence, Assault, Mental/Emotional Abuse, Death, PTSD triggers



PROLOGUE

The moon hit that perfect point in the sky where its light trickled down and flooded the balcony, shining a beam of light into the bedroom. I peeled myself out from under Derrick’s arms, feeling the same drop in my stomach I felt every time he wasn’t touching me. I was a woman obsessed. I was also terrified of being separated from him again.

When he held me, I didn’t have nightmares. When his hands caressed me, the panic attacks ceased. With Derrick, I was able to forget what happened. I ached with the guilt of not telling him any parts of the ordeal. I knew it was killing him.

But I loved the way he looked at me now, like I was the key to his entire world. If I told him what Jason did to me, the things I’d done during the course of being held prisoner, that look would go away.

I couldn’t risk that.

I stepped onto the balcony, bathing in the moonlight. It was warm and there was a gentle breeze moving the clouds around. We moved to a new wing of the house and it was quieter here. The pool and pool house were right underneath us and I’d been dying to get back into it. Now that my ankle was fully healed, it seemed like a good idea.

There was no point in getting changed. No one ever swam in the pool anymore. I tiptoed down the stairs and padded across the grass to the stone slabs surrounding the sapphire tinted water. I let my nightgown fall off my shoulders and stepped gently down the stairs, wading out to waist level.

Spreading my arms out, I tilted my chin up, gazing at the stars as I fell back into the warm water.The temperature was perfect. I floated on my back, loving the weightless feeling it offered me.

God, how I needed to feel weightless. I didn’t allow myself to feel that way since coming home. There was too much blood on my hands, too many unanswered questions, too much left unsaid for me to spread that around for others to carry.

No, I would shoulder the weight of everything. It had to be this way.

I dove beneath the water, swimming a few laps before floating on my back. It helped soothe my grieving soul. My eyes burned from opening them underneath the water, so I stood in the shallow end rubbing them. Footsteps sounded on the stone behind.

Glancing over my naked shoulder, black boots stood at the edge of the pool near the deeper end. A smile tugged on my lips, assuming it was Derrick coming to join me. But I realized the body was different.

I began to tremble, my smile fading from my face.I recognized the all black outfit, complete with black gloves.

I opened my mouth to scream, but the man held a finger up to his lips, silencing me. Tears blurred my vision. I blinked at them, sending them splashing into the water surrounding me.

He found me.

He came back for me.

I wasn’t going to survive this time.


“Alina?” a voice called out.

Derrick walked out onto the balcony. He hadn’t come to the edge yet, so he couldn’t see me down in the pool. I swallowed, unable to form words from the sheer terror of what would happen next.

When I glanced back down, he was gone.

That was my warning.

He was never going to let me escape anyway.

He was coming back for what he owned.











K.S. Marshall is West Coast girl with a heart for Texas, who found herself calling Pittsburgh, PA her home. Having grown up with an avid romance reader for mother, the pull toward the genre was automatic. She enjoys writing complex stories with dark elements that keep her readers on the edge of their seats. Life and love are both complicated and messy and, true to reality, her characters are authentically flawed. 


When she's not reading or writing another plot twist, you can find her having impromptu dance parties, eating her weight in tacos, and doing fitness stuff with her friends. She's absolutely crazy over her children and her fur-babies, Luna and Weston. And that Sean guy is pretty cool too.






HOSTED BY:


Jaclyn and the Beanstalk by Mary Ting

Title: Jaclyn and the Beanstalk
Author: Mary Ting
Genre: Young Adult
Release Date: September 4, 2018
Hand Drawn Cover Artist: Sam Shearon
Publisher: Vesuvian Books



What Fate Awaits A Girl Who Hears Monsters At Night…

Sixteen-year-old Jaclyn looks up to her father. An honest man who once fought for the king, he now teaches Jaclyn how to use her wits—and her sword.

But he has a secret. And his secret may have a connection to the one thing Jaclyn is hiding from him.

Upon hearing “monsters” are terrorizing the small villages around Black Mountain, Jaclyn’s father and his friends head out to hunt them … but they don’t return.

Armed only with her sword and three magic beans—a gift from a mysterious old woman—Jaclyn sets out for Black Mountain to save her father.

On her climb, one bean drops and grows into a beanstalk, catching her when she falls.

She isn’t the only one that takes the ride. Jack, her childhood friend and secret crush, is following her.

Together, Jaclyn and Jack must battle to save not only their fathers, but the townspeople the beasts plan to lay waste to before it’s too late.






International Bestselling/Award Winning Author Mary Ting/M. Clarke resides in Southern California with her husband and two children. She enjoys oil painting and making jewelry. Writing her first novel, Crossroads Saga, happened by chance. It was a way to grieve the death of her beloved grandmother, and inspired by a dream she once had as a young girl. When she started reading new adult novels, she fell in love with the genre. It was the reason she had to write one-Something Great. She also toured with Magic Johnson Foundation to promote literacy and her children's chapter book-No Bullies Allowed.



HOSTED BY:



Plummet To Soar by Z.A. Maxfield




A brand new story from Best-selling author Z.A. Maxfield!





Plummet To Soar
by Z.A. Maxfield

Blurb:

Feckless, luckless, and charming, Mackenzie Detweiler is the author of a self-help book one reviewer calls “the most misbegotten motivational tool since Mein Kampf.” He’s maneuvered himself into a career as a life coach, but more often than not, his advice is bad. Really bad.

It’s even getting people hurt… and Mackenzie sued.

It falls to Mackenzie’s long-suffering editor, JD Chambers, to deliver the bad news. He chooses to do so face-to-face—to see if the spark he senses between them is real when they’re together in the flesh. Unfortunately, a snowstorm, a case of nerves, a case of mistaken identity, and finally a murder get in the way of a potential enemies-to-lovers romance.

There are many, many people who have good reason to want Mackenzie dead. JD must find out which one is acting on it before it’s too late for both of them.



Release Date:
May 8, 2018


Available for pre-order at

Also available to pre-order paperback!


Excerpt


JD was pissed because he felt goddamn nothing.
Stupid for hoping that, if he embraced the worst, his fears would go away.
Stupid for asking for more than he had when he was arguably the richest, luckiest person he knew.
Stupid for trying out any advice he got from a dumbass like Mac, who had turned out to be just another fucked-up human being after all—even if he was a delightful one.
They were all lucky no one had gotten killed. Yet.
Everyone from editorial to corporate had put in a word. Plummet was going to be pulled off the shelves the following Monday. Press releases had been written. Lawyers were on standby. And he had to tell Mac about that too.
Sorry. I’m the man you trusted with your career, and I’m here to pull the rug out.
It wasn’t right to keep it from him. Years back, they’d pulled a book on canning while the author reworked the section on food safety. Those things happened. But they wouldn’t offer Mac a chance to rewrite and rerelease. The ideas JD had embraced so fully only alarmed them after his ludicrous brush with death, though it had nothing to do with the book.
No. The board didn’t want anything to do with Mac anymore.
JD had argued at first. Thrown his weight around. What happened to him didn’t result from Plummet to Soar. All he’d done was attend a contentious co-op board meeting. Those were a bore but not normally dangerous. It wasn’t like he’d run with the bulls in Pamplona. No one could have foreseen his ex catching him in the parking garage alone.
JD absently rubbed his knee. And why, when his leg was broken on one side, did the other knee hurt so much? JD made a mental note to call his doctor and find out.
His eyes snapped open when the water shut off. From the other side of the door came the sound of more humming and rustling noises. Curiosity was killing JD truly. Killing him.
How did connecting doors in hotels work, anyway? Were there two doors or just one? It seemed kinda old-school—a knob, a dead bolt.
Is the lock engaged?
As though it heated before his eyes, the lock seemed to glow with some inner fire. The knob was the only thing he could focus on.
God, his leg hurt. The buzz from the fight, from the bar, was fading. If he took a pain pill, it would knock him out too hard.
JD laid his cheek against the door and put his hand on the knob. Nope. Nope, Nope. Nope. The door between their rooms felt cool. He let go of the knob, as though it would brand him, but that was just more melodramatic bullshit. He could hear his mother’s voice telling him to get a grip on himself. Which, really, anyone who ever met him would have known that having a grip on himself was part of the goddamn problem.
Try the door.
It was almost as though the door were talking to him—or was that wishful thinking?
He wanted to try it anyway, and what was it they said about confirmation bias? You generally fall in with the data that supports what you already believe?
No. It wasn’t all a scam.
The doorknob turned in his hand. The door opened in his direction. He had to step back to get out of its way. And then he was standing there, staring at Kenzie Detweiler, who wore nothing but a towel.
He looked like a tanned monster, pieced together from scraps. His skin, a patchwork of scars from the dozens of surgeries required after his accident.
Christ, he was beautiful. He had a warrior’s body—lean and weathered, hard from surfing and hiking and biking and sun. He smelled like coconuts, as absurd there in the frozen tundra as Kenzie himself, as absurd as a man created entirely from sunshine and disaster. It was agony to be with him in the darkened room. But JD only had to smile to make Kenzie come to him. Kenzie offered a small, courageous smile in return, and that was it.
They came together sloppily, with more heat than finesse. Lips crashed, teeth clacked together, hands found purchase on skin. There was only hair for JD to grab on to—hair or the rigid, well-defined muscles of a mature athlete. Kenzie got hold of JD’s clothes and dragged him close, his cock rampant, shocking both of them with the fierceness of his need.
JD fell back against the doorjamb, dizzy with lust and shock and the utter wrongness of Kenzie kissing a man he didn’t know was him.
He let his head fall back. “Wait—”
As soon as the word was out of JD’s mouth, Kenzie dropped his hands and stepped away, red-faced and sweating.
“No.” Kenzie’s eyes were too bright. “Shit, shit, shit. I’m so sorry.”
“No worries.” All JD could think about was how to get rid of the towel. He reached for it.
“Wait.” Both hands up, Kenzie confessed. “I left the door unlocked on purpose. I’m such a fucking dog. But the way you acted, I thought you’d want to talk, not—”
“My fault.” JD worked to unstick his tongue. His mouth was bone-dry, his heart racing. He was so turned on he hurt, and fuck—no way. He’d have to tell Kenzie everything. Now. “I’m not who you think I am.”
Mac laughed. “Duh, secret squirrel. There’s no Douglas on my flight manifest. Who the hell are you?”
“Er—” Having Kenzie’s body against his robbed him of speech, of breath, of functional brain cells. He couldn’t think of anything he wanted more than he wanted to feel that lightly furred athletic body against his, without a towel, without clothes, or a goddamn broken leg. He’d have to keep his boot on if they fucked, and suddenly he felt vindicated for all those scenarios he’d placed his anatomical drawing figurines in since puberty.
Kenzie cupped his face. His thick, hard cock proved JD’s desire wasn’t one-sided. The contact made him squirm, and when Kenzie finally stiffened with resolve to pull away, JD wanted to collapse at his feet and sob.
“I can’t do this.” Kenzie let him go. “I’m sorry. You have no idea. If there were any other way, I’d totally be down. But—”
JD tried to follow him and stepped wrong. Oops. There went the pain again, and the sweat, and his body was so confused. He was hard, he was hurt, he was hungry too, goddammit. He wondered if taking a pill after all the alcohol was even safe.
“Oh God, Kenzie.” He practically threw himself at Kenzie. “It’s me. JD. Just... don’t flip out. Okay? It’s JD.”
“JD?” Kenzie pulled back, pale with shock.
He swallowed. “Er—”
This is how you do it?” Kenzie asked. “This is how we meet? You lie to me?”
“No. Not really. My name is Douglas. Middle name.” It was time to come clean, but it was harder than he’d thought. “I... I had to see you. I missed you so much. But there’s... umm... a business problem we need to talk about.”
“My God, JD. I thought you’d been downsized or something.” Apparently oblivious to his near nudity, he caught both of JD’s hands and peered deeply into his eyes. “Are you all right? Jesus, you’ve got a broken leg, and you’re probably angry with me, and I’m not even sure—”
“I’m not angry—”
“Don’t lie. You came here to give me hell. I could see it when we met.” Kenzie glanced at JD’s leg in horror. “What did you do? Please tell me you didn’t go skydiving or something stupid like that.”
“It’s nothing to do with Plummet.” Still in the doorway between their rooms, still throbbing with unaccustomed lust and shame, he waved off the question. “It was a total fluke. I was just—”
“Were you mad at me about something? Because all of a sudden you were just—gone. Breathe with me.” Kenzie stood on tiptoe to brush their cheeks together while they breathed in that familiar way. Count to four on the inhale. Count to eight on the exhale, which felt so much nicer in person. A text with the words Breathe with me had nothing on the feel of Kenzie’s body, flush against JD’s—the sharp angles and crisp hair and pebbled brown flesh of his nipples. “You can tell me. Did I piss you off somehow? I do that. Most people—”
“Oh, no.” His heart was going to break if Kenzie thought he’d been faithless.... He pressed his forehead to Kenzie’s. “It’s nothing like that. I was an idiot.”
Kenzie’s smile was hesitant. “Was it because I pressured you to talk on the phone? To meet me in person? I shouldn’t have—”
“It’s not that either, Kenzie. I—”
“I felt like we really had something, JD. You and me were Lamplighters. We were gonna light up the world. You haven’t changed your mind, have you?”
Oh, when Kenzie said the words that way, how could he? Of course he was Kenzie’s man. #RideNDie. No choice anymore, really. Not since he’d fallen in love.
His heart hurt. Whether it was because it wasn’t going to be easy, or because Kenzie felt the need to ask, he didn’t know.
“It’s seems pretty cheesy, now.” JD’s turn to blush. “Considering.”
“Waging love and peace is not cheesy,” Kenzie said softly. “It’s more essential than ever in a frightening world. We have to be brave and strong and uphold our principles.”
JD cleared his throat. “I didn’t have the confidence to meet you. I’m sorry about that now. That was the one thing I did think, when”—he tapped his boot with his crutch—“this happened. I wished I had.”
Kenzie’s smile was radiant, glowing with warmth and humor and wickedness. “Never too late.”
“Please?” JD was taller by half a foot, and yet it was Kenzie who wrapped him in his arms and Kenzie who bruised him with the most exciting kisses he’d ever received. Kenzie shoved his back into the doorjamb again. Switzerland, he guessed. Between the rooms was neither Kenzie’s nor his territory yet.
Soon, though. Soon he’d let Kenzie roll past his borders and over his hills and valleys. Kenzie could plant his flag on anything of JD’s he wanted, anything in the world he asked for, everything JD had.
“Please,” he whispered again as he pressed kisses to Kenzie’s face, his neck, and his jaw.
“On it.” In Kenzie’s impatience, he broke a belt loop pulling the buckle loose. JD let his hands play while he memorized the mesmerizing sweep of muscle that was Kenzie’s back—strong, tan, ripply, sure.
He was warm and alive and there. Oh God, Kenzie was right there, and he was real, even if the plummet things were the saddest little parade JD’d ever seen.
“Where?” Kenzie asked. “Wing chair? Bed? I’ll suck you. Where would you be most comfortable?”
“I—”
“Fuck it.” Kenzie dropped to his knees and mouthed JD’s cock through his boxer briefs.
“Oh—” JD’s mouth stayed in that shocked, round O of perfection that is the surprise of hot breath on your dick through cotton fabric— and also the sound of glass shattering when the curtains blow in, along with a massive gust of wind and snow.
Boom, crack, crack, crack. Kenzie’s paper cutout flew across the room—head full of holes and smoking—to land on the bed.








About The Author

Z. A. Maxfield started writing in 2007 on a dare from her children and never looked back.  Pathologically disorganized, and perennially optimistic, she writes as much as she can, reads as much as she dares, and enjoys her time with family and friends. Three things reverberate throughout all her stories: Unconditional love, redemption, and the belief that miracles happen when we least expect them.

If anyone asks her how a wife and mother of four can find time for a writing career, she’ll answer, “It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you give up housework.” 

Readers can visit ZAM at her








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Jaclyn and the Beanstalk by Mary Ting


Jaclyn and the Beanstalk
Mary Ting
Published by: Vesuvian Books
Publication date: September 4th 2018
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
What Fate Awaits A Girl Who Hears Monsters At Night…
Sixteen-year-old Jaclyn looks up to her father. An honest man who once fought for the king, he now teaches Jaclyn how to use her wits—and her sword.
But he has a secret. And his secret may have a connection to the one thing Jaclyn is hiding from him.
Upon hearing “monsters” are terrorizing the small villages around Black Mountain, Jaclyn’s father and his friends head out to hunt them … but they don’t return.
Armed only with her sword and three magic beans—a gift from a mysterious old woman—Jaclyn sets out for Black Mountain to save her father.
On her climb, one bean drops and grows into a beanstalk, catching her when she falls.
She isn’t the only one that takes the ride. Jack, her childhood friend and secret crush, is following her.
Together, Jaclyn and Jack must battle to save not only their fathers, but the townspeople the beasts plan to lay waste to before it’s too late.


Author Bio:
International Bestselling Author Mary Ting/M. Clarke resides in Southern California with her husband and two children. She enjoys oil painting and making jewelry. Writing her first novel, Crossroads Saga, happened by chance. It was a way to grieve the death of her beloved grandmother, and inspired by a dream she once had as a young girl. When she started reading new adult novels, she fell in love with the genre. It was the reason she had to write one-Something Great. Why the pen name, M Clarke? She tours with Magic Johnson Foundation to promote literacy and her children's chapter book-No Bullies Allowed.

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The Secret Lab by A B Carolan






YA Sci-fi Mystery
Date Published: March 2018
Publisher: Carrick Publishing; 2 edition

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In the future when humans are exploring the home solar system, four kids discover a mutant cat on the International Space Station. In solving the mystery of the cat’s origin, they uncover an old conspiracy. Young readers will identify with the kids’ problems; they and older readers who are young-at-heart will enjoy the suspense and science and identify with the themes. Return to the magic that is found in sci-fi.



The cat’s name is Mr. Paws. He’s an expert mathematician and becomes the kids’ friend who’s willing to help them with their calculus homework. But he’s also attached to his creator, a stealthy presence who runs a secret genetics lab. Why does that lab exist? Who finances it? And who on the space station are his collaborators? The kids’ parents? Station personnel? The twists and turns will keep the reader guessing.






About the Author




I am a collaborator of the American author Steven M. Moore. We met at Blarney Castle in Ireland (appropriate, don't you think?). After a wee bit of chatting there and emails to and fro, I signed on to be his collaborator for all his YA books. I love writing for young adults and adults who are young at heart. Some people think I'm related to that great Irish harpist and singer, Turlough O'Carolan, but who knows?--I don't think any of his DNA is around to check. Others say I was stolen and raised by leprechauns. We do a lot of kidding in Donegal, but maybe they know something I don't.



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RABT Book Tours & PR

Arresting Mason by Amber Daulton


Arresting Mason
Series: Arresting Onyx (book 1)
By Amber Daulton


About the Book:
Their chance encounter resulted in a steamy affair, but will his former gang and a parole officer tear them apart? 

Once you’re in a prison gang, you’re in it for life. That’s what Mason Harding thought until the boss accepted his resignation. After the State releases him on parole, a sexy divorcée behind the wheel of a car almost ends his life quicker than a shank. His chance encounter with Mia Eddison results in a night of passion, but her brother—his parole officer—catches them together and doesn’t approve.
Mia falls hard for the cocky ex-con, but not because of his chiseled body. She vows to break through his walls and discover his secrets, but never expects those secrets to threaten her life.
When members of an organized crime ring kidnap Mia to force Mason’s return to the gang, he goes up against an old friend to save the woman he loves. Will his sacrifice be enough or will everything fall apart in a blaze of gunfire?
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Release Date: April 30th, 2018
Print ISBN: 978-1-5092-2007-6
Digital ISBN: 978-1-5092-2008-3
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Length: 80k
Heat Rating: Spicy/Hot

Buy Links: 
The Wild Rose Press store – http://bit.ly/2FSVvBa
Barnes and Noble – TBA
Kobo – TBA

Excerpt:


They reached her store and he stared at her car parked by the curb. “Harper doesn’t know where you live or anything about you. That means you’re safe for now, but he’ll probably search this area to find us. Stay cautious, okay? Drive your car from now on. Don’t walk anywhere.”

“Why are you avoiding my questions? You can tell me anything.”
“Not this. If you trust me, don’t ask those kinds of questions.” He tightened his fingers around her forearm as she tried to jerk free from his grip. “Listen to me, damn it. You mean a lot to me, but I can’t tell you this. At least not right now. That’s nothing against you. It’s all on me. I just need time to take care of this problem. Okay? I’m fucking stressed, in a shitload of pain, and I don’t need you to hound my ass.” He dropped his hand from her arm and scowled as though he just noticed the dirt and blood on his knuckles. “I’d like to go upstairs to clean up before you take me home. I don’t want Alan to know what happened.”
Mia dug through her purse with shaky hands, so angry she didn’t trust herself to speak.
He took the keys from her before the little pieces of metal slipped between her fingers, and he hugged her despite the grime on his skin and clothes.
Tears clogged her throat. Her mind screamed at her to push away from him, but the strength in his arms enveloped her and stole her will. His heartbeat soothed hers, and she no longer cared about his lies or if filth caked him.
At least not at the moment.
“I never meant for this to happen, Mia. I will fix this.”
“I know, but at what cost?” She pried her face from his chest to stare up at him. “You’re nothing if not determined, but I’m scared and confused. You have answers to my questions, but I won’t hound you for them as you so eloquently stated. I just thought we got past this. I thought you knew I would never insult or condemn you for whatever it is you did.”
“And I thought you knew not to push me too fucking hard.” His deep voice sent shivers of unease down her spine. “I have to keep certain parts of my past to myself.”
“Whatever.” Mia finally pushed against his chest for freedom and stomped to the stairwell door.


 About the Author:

Writing is the fruit of happiness.
Amber Daulton lives her life by that one belief even though she normally isn’t so Zen.
As a fan of contemporary, paranormal, and historical romance novels alike, she can’t get enough of feisty heroines and alpha heroes. Her mind is a wonderland of adventure, laughter, and awesome ways of kicking a guy when he’s down. She probably wouldn’t be too sane without her computer and notebooks. After all, what’s a girl to do when people are jabbering away in her head and it’s hard to shut them up? Write! Nothing else works.

Social Media Links:

Facebook Author Page – www.facebook.com/amber.daulton.author
Amazon Author Page  http://amzn.to/14JoZff