Drowning by Hope Jones

Title: Drowning

Author: Hope Jones

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: July 2, 2020

Blurb

Imagine
orchestrating your divorce under false pretenses.

That's precisely
what Cecilia Topps did. After receiving a disturbing diagnosis, Cecilia felt
like she was drowning, unable to take a breath. She didn't want to bring her
husband down with her, so she created a damaging lie.

Cameron Topps had
been going through the motions for seven years. The betrayal he felt from his
wife left him numb and unable to love again. His indifference led to hatred
when he walked into his bar, seeing his wife again after unknowingly hiring
her.

Secrets are
exposed, lines are crossed, and Cameron finally learns the truth about his
divorce. Is he willing to drown with Cecilia all over again, or will he move on
for good?

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Excerpt

Prologue

“I’m sorry.” My words were muffled by the hiccup of tears
and snot running down my face. I tilted my eyes down. I couldn’t look at him.
My poor, sweet Cam. He would never forgive me. I knew this. It was what I
wanted. 

I wanted—no, needed him to walk out our
front door and not look back. I needed him to hate me. 

“You’re sorry? That’s what you have to say?” He was calm, so
damn calm it physically made me sick. I knew it was because he was hurting. I
knew that hurt was eating him alive. 

I couldn’t say anything past the lump in my throat, so I
nodded instead.

Cam looked at me, looked through me and for
a moment, I was worried he would see that I was lying and try to demand the
truth from me. I would deny it. I didn’t want him to know the truth. I wanted
him to think I had done the unthinkable, done something he’d never be able to
get over. 

My beautiful, broken husband stared into my eyes for two
solid minutes without flinching. He said absolutely nothing. His gaze flitted
between both of my eyes, then down to my nose, my lips, lingering there, then
finally back to my eyes. I bit my lip nervously, waiting for him to say “Ah-ha”
and catch me in my lie. 

Cam never did, though. I wasn’t going to deny it made me a
little upset that he didn’t know me well enough to know I was lying. I wanted
to take back the words that had left my mouth five minutes ago. I wanted to
take back the entire day, but it wasn’t possible, and I needed to accept what
my new life was going to look like. 

“I can’t even look at you,” Cam muttered, turning away from
me. I caught the curled lip and glare on his face before his back was facing
me. Hurt so strong filled my chest and made it feel like it would explode and
not in a good way. 

God, the pain was so bad. 

I had to rub my chest, right above my heart, but it didn’t
ease the ache I had put there. 

Cameron, the man I had married two years ago, grabbed his
coat off the hook in the foyer and opened the front door. He turned around,
glancing at me one last time. That last time was enough to make a sob escape my
throat. He had a single tear running down his face then splashing on his broad
shoulders. 

I had never seen him cry before. Not when his mother died,
not when we had to put down our first dog, and not when we had gotten married.
Never. That lonely tear trekking down his cheek broke me and I knew, down in
my bones, I would never be the same after putting that tear
there. 

I didn’t speak a word and Cam walked out, slamming the door
behind him, making me jump. I finally crumpled, falling into the fetal position
on the couch and crying until I couldn’t breathe. I had done this to myself. I
knew it had to be done, but that didn’t make it easier. 

Two hours later, he hadn’t come back and I knew he wasn’t
going to. He wouldn’t come back until he knew I was gone. I had packed the
majority of my stuff, placing the few boxes in my small car. I only took my
clothes. I didn’t feel right taking anything we had gotten together when we
moved into this house. 

Glancing around the place I had shared with my husband for
the last year, I felt a level of sadness that I didn’t know I would continue to
feel for six months. It settled over my shoulder like a blanket, except it was
cold—a cold blanket of nastiness. 

At least that blanket wouldn’t be wrapped around Cameron. He
didn’t deserve that. 

I fired off a text to him, locked our front door and left
the key on the porch, then backed my car out of our driveway for the last
time. 

Me: I’m so sorry, I never meant to hurt you. I
love you and always will. 

I didn’t speak to Cameron again until two months later after
a stranger showed up on my doorstep serving me with divorce papers. I could
have let those papers kill me, but I knew it was Cameron’s best chance at a
decent life, so I went to the court dates. I didn’t fight him. He petitioned
for everything except my car. I gave him everything. That’s what he
deserved. 

Author Bio

Hope Jones is the wife of her very own alpha male and the mother of four
beautiful daughters. She lives in a small town in South Carolina, but was born
in Brunswick, GA. She's always had a love for reading, even at a young age
thrillers always interested her. As she got older, romance mixed with some
thriller/suspense became her obsession.

If you can't find Hope glued to her Kindle, you'll usually find her
chasing her girls around, running her hectic household, and plotting stories
for the alpha men that have taken over her mind.

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Forgotten Magic by Eden Butler

Forgotten Magic
Eden Butler
(Crimson Cove, #1)
Published by: City Owl Press
Publication date: June 28th 2020
Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Romance

Bane Illes never smiled.
He never spoke.
But each day, that brooding wizard gave Janiver Benoit a glance.
And when she could not take another quiet stare, or the warmth that look sent over her skin, she took from Bane something he’d never give freely—one lingering, soul knocking kiss.
Ten years later, someone has stolen the one thing that keeps magic hidden from the mortals in Crimson Cove and only Janiver can recover it. But returning to her hometown means she’ll have to face the past and all the secrets she left buried there, including the one person she promised herself she’d never see again. The dangerous wizard that might make leaving Crimson Cove the last thing she wants to do.
WHAT REVIEWERS ARE SAYING:
★★★★★”Butler’s tantalizing fantasy romance, originally self-published as Crimson Cove, burns slow and hot…The magical elements are electric and the chemistry between Bane and Janiver is delicious. Butler builds the tension slowly, carefully pulling story threads to a satisfying but open-ended climax. Readers will be eager to return to Crimson Cove.” – Publishers Weekly
★★★★★ “Eden is a masterful storyteller who takes mere words and turns them into magic.”
★★★★★ “I REALLY LOVED this fresh, innovative, and out of the box concept of a modern romance with a dark, ethereal twist.”

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—

EXCERPT:

“Some of us didn’t need to train in Norway with thousand-year-old mages to learn our craft.” Made a little bolder by the liquor, I stepped into Bane’s personal space and ran the tip of my fingernail over the runes wrapped around his forearm. “All these runes, all that pain and blood, I never once had to suffer so much for my craft.”
“Maybe,” Bane said, taking the bottle from me, “if you had, you wouldn’t need the liquor.”
“Maybe I like the liquor.” My tongue was heavy in my mouth and I wasn’t sure why my voice had suddenly lowered or how I could feel the ley lines whispering against my mind.
But Bane wasn’t drinking, and he seemed able to control how the lines affected him. He was too versed in blocking raw magic. Still, he didn’t seem wholly unaffected, and for whatever reason, he at least didn’t object to how closely I stood in front of him. “You strike me as the type of witch who likes things that are bad for her.”
The laughter came quickly, the first I’d released in over a week. Just then, I didn’t think about the darkness that took me with Freya’s death. Something light, almost sweet came into my head and I glanced at that bottle, only just realizing that I hadn’t been drinking whiskey at all.
“Berry Burn wine?”
“You didn’t know?” He laughed, scrubbing his face. “Circe, Jani. I thought you were more careful.”
Shrugging, I let the elixir work through me, enjoying the way its potency made everything feel electrified and sweet. Dipping my head back, a sudden reminder of the worst possible thing for me—the wizard standing inches away—seemed so attractive, so sweet, and I licked my lips, my inhibitions lowered as I watched him.
Unbidden, a memory of that solitary day when I’d bitten the forbidden fruit and I forgot myself for just a moment filled my head. “And, baby, you’ve got no idea how much I like things that are bad for me.”
Bane blinked. I blinked and just for a second I savored the silent room, the energy that built between us then. “Did you…did you just call me baby?”
It was if he’d unstoppered a drain and I twirled down into its belly. Berry Burn wine or not, I immediately sobered. Mortification, humiliation, it had to be all over my face, easily read in my expression. But I was not a witch who would admit defeat or mistakes made so quickly. I was a natural survivor. I’d say anything to weasel my way out of a tight spot. Or utter humiliation.
“No.” There was a touch of humor in my response—forced and clearly fabricated—but it didn’t stop me from making that sound or stepping back when Bane held my wrist.
“You did.” He pinned me in the corner of the counter with that wide body nearly engulfing me in shadow and heat. “Damn.” Bane came so close, mouth too near my neck as though he was just managing to control himself and not devour me right then and there. “Why do I like that?”
I knew why and just then, I hated that he didn’t. Because you claimed me! Ten years ago, I wanted to scream. Because I am yours, because you belong to me.
Some part of him had to know the truth, despite the block I had put on his memories. Somewhere, behind all that power, the knowledge, the lists of lines of duty and expectations, lay the hidden memory of that one blissful afternoon with me in that empty classroom. The day our nexuses melded. The day we claimed each other.
The way Bane looked at me, the deep focus of his gaze on my mouth, shifting across my fingers brought us closer and closer to the edge of something that could mean nothing but misery. For him, at least. And I couldn’t stop it. I didn’t want to stop it.
All around us seemed to settle, every sound, every scent, just like it had that day, just like it had the first time we kissed. The only sound I could clearly hear was the steady, rhythmic pulse of his heart and mine—two separate bodies moving toward each other, closer, nearer until Bane’s stubble grazed on my cheek and he held my head still, insistent between his fingers.
I had only to tilt my head back a little. Move my chin, wet my bottom lip and he’d take my mouth. It was all there on his face. Expressions that told a thousand stories, made a million promises, and I wanted them all inside me with him, where he was meant to be.
Just one small movement and it would be done.
Bane tilted my chin, held my face between both hands now and I heard him come closer, waiting, making my mind up that I would only take a taste…
A taste that wasn’t mine.
A touch that belonged to someone else.
Eyes shut tight to clear away Caridee’s perfect skin, her perfect hair—the flawless Rivers coven regalia that Bane deserved. The one taught over and over to us as expectation. Certainties that had never been changed. The way the Cove existed so that there was no upset, no chance of shaming all of the Cove by letting the mortals know what we are and how we lived.
Expectation.
Certainty.
Things that had been constants for everyone in the Cove. Each coven depended on the other. Each den, every pack, all connected.
The way of things.
The things I’d left behind.
Before I realized I’d uttered a sound, the word came out, my hands pushing against that wide chest and “Parley!” echoing around the kitchen.
Bane steadied my hands when I tried to push at him again, holding me by the shoulders so I wouldn’t leave. Eyes wrinkling as he squinted at me, the expectation was evident. He wanted clarification. He wanted me to explain why I’d used the most antiquated, passé respite possible in our world.
Parley? Had I really said that?
“What…did you just?”
But the black flag had been lifted and measures were maintained even in such…personal matters. Bane was heir to the most powerful coven in the Cove. Even he had to mind the rules we all lived by.
“I did.” Damn. An inhale to push back the tension crowding between my eyes and I glanced up at him, grateful that I hadn’t spelled him to back away. “Parley. Back off. Don’t…don’t touch me. Talk only.”
“Why in the hell would you…”
“I have reasons.” I waved my hand so he’d step back. “Please, I already told you…I have a job to do and a creature to find. I can’t have you being a distraction.”
“I’m the distraction?” He moved his gaze over my body.
“Didn’t you say we’re on a time crunch here?”
He nodded, reluctantly agreeing. “Fair enough.” He stepped back, pulling on the neck of that bottle fisted between my fingers. “We have to get this search going.” He set the bottle on the counter next to the sink. I nodded, started to walk away, but Bane tugged on my arm, his fingers touching right on my skin. Shuddering in my limbs, in his, and his eyes grew wide. He twisted his head to the side like he needed to shake the sensation away, then jerked his gaze up at my face. “What…what the hell was that?”
“I…I don’t know.”
He stared at me a long time, then at his fingers still gripping my arm before he dropped it.
“The search?” I said when Bane had stayed too quiet. “I’ll see you out there in ten minutes.” Before I left into the hallway, Bane called my name. Stopping would be stupid. Not stopping, though, might tell him I couldn’t control myself alone with him. He’d already gotten enough of my fear in the past few days. I wouldn’t hand him anymore.
Eyes, chin twisted toward him, I didn’t dare stare right at his face. I can admit that I was a coward when it came to him. But Bane didn’t seem to care that I wouldn’t look directly at him. He clicked back into control mode. “We finish this…all of this, as quickly as possible.”
“That’s fine with me.” A little more relaxed now that he was back on task, I turned around. “I’ve got…a life waiting for me in New York.”
“That’s not why I want to hurry.”
“Why then?”
Two long strides put him back in front of me and I immediately cursed myself for stopping. Bane’s mouth was tight, eyes narrowed as though he needed to concentrate on anything other than the rip of energy that bubbled between us. The lines feed off anger, passion, lust. All of those things, with a few other emotions, permeated the room. It made the lines pulse square into us.
“The sooner the job is over, the sooner we can discuss what the hell that was and what you’ve been running from for ten damn years.”
He didn’t wait for me to answer. He didn’t want to see me huddle against the counter or try like hell not lean across the granite just to get my skin to cool. It didn’t matter that Bane was curious, that he wanted answers. I was there to do a job. I was there to save my family’s name. None of that would include a conversation with Bane Iles about what had happened to us when we were kids. I’d be long gone before then. Again.

Author Bio:
Eden Butler is a writer of contemporary, fantasy and romantic suspense novels and the nine-times great-granddaughter of an honest-to-God English pirate. This could explain her affinity for rule breaking and rum.
When she's not writing or wondering about her possibly Jack Sparrowesque ancestor, Eden patiently waits for her Hogwarts letter, reads, and spends too much time in her garden perfecting her green thumb while waiting for the next New Orleans Saints Superbowl win.
She is currently living under teenage rule alongside her husband in southeast Louisiana.
Please send help.

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Helplessly Hoping by Douglas Kent

Helplessly Hoping

Douglas Kent


Genre: Memoir

Date of Publication: May 8, 2020

ISBN: 979-8641132112 (Paperback)

ASIN: B088CQZSD8 (Kindle)

Word Count: 114,000

Cover Artist: Shawn Burkett

Tagline: When Love is All You Have Left

Book Description:

High school sweethearts Mara and Douglas are young and in love, but they’re about to discover that the nightmares of the past have a way of haunting us in the present. Together they will face the demons of Mara’s childhood…but will either of them get out alive?

A true and hauntingly candid look into the tragedy of sexual abuse and mental illness, and the struggle to stay afloat when everything seems hopeless.

Amazon Paperback     Amazon Kindle

Excerpt:

One night we were lying in bed watching television.
As a general rule at this stage, I would fall asleep hours before Mara would.
She’d stay up until 2am or later watching television, unable to sleep, and
instead would sleep until 10am or later in the morning, waking up only for a
moment to take the handful of pills I’d give her before leaving for work.

Mara had been strangely quiet all evening, neither
laughing at the TV nor complaining of any discomfort. I rolled over, gave her a
kiss goodnight, and started to settle in to fall asleep. At that point, Mara
reached back and opened her own bedside drawer, pulling out the Bowie knife and
showing it to me.

“Tonight, when you are sleeping,” she said in an
emotionless monotone, “I am going to stab you to death.”

“Okay,” I replied calmly. “And why would you want to
do that? Did I do something wrong?”

“No, but I’m tired of living. And if I kill you, I
won’t have a reason to live anymore. So I will be free to kill myself. And that’s
what I am going to do.  I’m sorry, but I
just can’t take it anymore. And I don’t want to kill myself and leave you
behind to deal with the guilt and the mess.”

I could actually see the warped logic of what she
was telling me. But I didn’t know what to do, or what to say. Life had been
dragging us both down, and for a long time I’d had no hope of things getting
any better. At any rate, I was tired too, physically, mentally, and
emotionally. And I felt completely helpless in my life. I didn’t see how anything
would ever really get better. Sure, there would be better days and worse days,
but the trend was set: downwards.

I rolled over on my side and faced away from Mara. I
didn’t want to look at her. I just put my head down on the pillow, said “I love
you,” and closed my eyes. Death has always been a huge fear for me; trying to
fathom the concept of nonexistence makes me shake all over, and when that
happens, I have to snap out of that quickly. I knew Mara was serious, and I
felt fairly certain she would follow through with her plan. But in my state of
misery, it didn’t matter. The fear of death, and the thought of that knife
plunging in and out of my body, barely moved the needle. I simply didn’t care
any longer. In only a few minutes I was asleep.

About the Author:

Born in Danbury, CT, Douglas Kent now makes his home in the Dallas, TX area with his two black cats. While he still dabbles in fiction and satire, his published works have focused on personal experiences in the form of memoirs.

He is also an avid supporter of independent film and music, and a lifelong animal lover.

http://www.douglaskent.net/

Blog: https://itstheirhouse.wordpress.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ItsTheirHouse

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/itstheirhouse/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9798292.Douglas_Kent

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Douglas-M.-Kent/e/B00O71711E

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If Tomorrow Ever Comes by Magda Alexander

Contemporary Romance

Date Published: June 2020

Publisher: Hearts Afire Publishing

 

 

USA Today bestselling author Magda Alexander brings you a tale of
heartbreak and love, loss and redemption in this Hollywood meets small town
summer romance.

An actor who's lost his soul

There is nothing studios won't give for my name in their movie, whether
it's money, women, or fame. But fame bores me. Money? I have more than
enough. And women? Not interested in the Hollywood types. The one thing I
crave they can't give me. The redemption of my soul. For you see, I
committed the ultimate sin, one I can't take back. I can't find absolution.
No matter how hard I try. Until I land in a small beach town for a summer
production and meet a waitress with a heart of gold.

A down-on-her-luck waitress

The last thing I want is another man in my life. The last one stole every
penny from me. Money I'd been saving to go back to school. If I work double
shifts at the diner, I just might earn enough. But only if I keep my eye on
the ball. Only if I'm not sidelined by distractions.

A summer they won't forget

But when a stranger stumbles into my diner one stormy night looking for a
meal and a place to stay, I offer the unthinkable--shelter in my home. When
he's gone in the morning, I think that's the end. But I’m wrong. Dead
wrong. Because the stranger returns, and this time he wants much more than
my couch. He wants me in his bed.

 

If Tomorrow Ever Comes is a standalone romance with a guaranteed HEA, smexy
times, and lots of pies.

 

 About the Author

Magda Alexander loves piña coladas and walks in the rain. Okay,
enough of that. Rewind.

Magda loves reading steamy romances which she’s been doing since she
was ten. Ummm, that’s not quite true. Steamy romances did not exist
when she was ten, and if they had, she’s pretty sure her mother would
not have allowed her to read them. She did read the hand-holding,
longing-glances kind, along with her catechism, which got her into trouble
more than once. Let’s just say Mother Superior was not amused. 

As soon as sexy romances came into existence, thank you Rosemary Rogers,
she’s been lapping them up. So when it came time to write one, guess
what she wrote. A no-brainer, right?

Magda, a lifelong learner, graduated from the University of Maryland where
she majored in Business Administration (because her family had to eat) and
minored in English (because she needed to dream). She’s lived in
Maryland most of her life and now resides close to the Catoctin Mountains in
a city whose history dates back to colonial times.

 

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Raine by MV Ellis

Title: Raine: Gods of the Fifth Floor 2

Author: MV Ellis

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: June 30, 2020
Cover Design: Sarah Paige Opium House Creatives.

They think they’ve lost everything. But then they find each other. 

RAINE

I’m the clichéd “poor little rich boy”

I have everything I want, but nothing I need

I get high to escape the lows of my past

Yet there’s no escaping the monster in the mirror

I’ve always been about taking, until I took too much 

They paid the price, and it’s a debt I can never repay 

So I’m killing myself slowly 

Because I can’t bring myself to end it fast

NOA

I know what it is to have loved and lost

Now I’m slowly picking up the pieces of my life

I should put my needs first, but that’s not me

If someone’s broken I need to fix them

Even if I get hurt along the way

Nobody should feel like they want to die 

My love alone wasn’t enough before 

So this time I’m determined to be a reason to live

MV ELLIS knows what it’s like to fall head over heels in love with a badass musician. She followed her heart halfway around the world to be with one. She moved from London to Sydney after a steamy holiday romance with a sexy bass player in sultry Brazil.

Twelve years, two children and a dog later, and she’s still smitten. All this with a guy she sat next to on a bus for 36 hours! She has toured internationally as a ‘WAG’, and her experiences inspire her writing.

Ellis’ love of romance began when she was 11 years old, after a summer spent secretly reading her auntie’s books. She’s been a sucker for an alpha hero and strong heroine ever since.

An avid reader, Ellis always knew that she’d write a book of her own one day. She was right about that. Following a career spanning advertising, marketing, and social media, she finally wrote Catching London in 2017. She has continued to expand the Heartless Few series beyond Catching London, with releases planned through to 2020. In addition, she has launched a new four-part

series, Rough Ink series, set in the sexy world of a New York tattoo studio. Expect the same sexy badass guys, angst galore, witty banter, scorching bedroom scenes, and kickass sassy women; but with a whole new world, and cast of characters to get to know and love. Zed, the first book in the series launched in June 2019.

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