Tuesday 29 December 2015

Excerpt Reveal: Aced by K. Bromberg

Colton Donavan is back in ACED
January 11, 2016!



Rylee and Colton's ride continues...

One moment. Six years ago.

The night she made the world around me so much more than just a blur. Now it's the catalyst that threatens to tear us apart.

Our happily was supposed to be ever after. So why do I feel like it's slipping through my fingers?

How can one moment, when our world seemed so right, resurface and cause our perfect life to spiral out of control?

I can't lose her.

She's my checkered flag.




Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1J7I4gi   


I talked to my parents. To Tanner. To Shane.My voice fades off as the disbelief I have to take stock and let him know the damage control Ive done takes hold. Unsure how to respond to me when hes always so sure, he just nods his head as our eyes hold steadfast. I just dont know...My voice is so soft, it sounds so very different than the storm of anger that rages inside me, and yet I cant find it within me to show my emotions. I can feel his fingers tense from my comment, see his Adams apple bob from the forced swallow, and notice the tick of muscle as he clenches his jaw.

Well get through this.

The condescending chuckle falls from my lips, the first break in my fraudulent façade because its so damn easy for him to say. I know.Voice back, emotion nonexistent, tone unsure.

Colton stares, willing me to say more but I dont. I just match him stare for hollow stare as images of myself from Google flickering through my mind. Finally he breaks out connection and reaches his fingers to pinch the bridge of his nose before blowing out a sigh.

Scream at me, Ry. Yell. Rage. Take it out on me. Do anything but be silent because I cant handle when youre silent with me,he pleads. All I can do is shake my head, dig down within myself to will the emotion to come. When I cant find the words or the feeling behind them, it unnerves him, worries him. Im sorry, baby. Were we stupid? Maybe. Do I regret it?He shakes his head. I regret all of this, yes, but that in general? No. So many damn things happened that put you and me where we are now. So for that? Im not sorry. You pushed me that night, made me question if I could give someone more of myself.He reaches his free hand up to brush a thumb over the line of my jaw. His touch reassuring, his words helping soothe the sting of our situation.

Its not your fault,I say, trying to ease the concern in his eyes.

Maybe not directly . . . but I made you color outside of your perfectly constructed lines . . . do something against your nature, and look what happened. Im so sorry. I wish I could make this right,he says, dropping his head as he shakes his head in defeat. All I can try to do is mitigate the damage. Thats it.He throws his hands up. Its killing me because I cant fix this. The break in his voice and the tension in his body would have told me everything I needed to know even if he hadnt uttered a sound.

I look at my achingly handsome husband, so distraught, so desperate to make wrongs right that arent his to be held responsible for. And seeing him as upset as I am makes me feel a little better and allows me to dig into the deep well of emotion. I finally find the words I need and want to tell him. The decisions I came to last night when I sat on the deck and considered the life-altering situation we were in.

Stop. Please quit beating yourself up over this. I dont blame you.I pause, my teeth worrying my bottom lip as I put words to my thoughts and wait for him to hear that last sentence.



New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author K. Bromberg writes contemporary novels that contain a mixture of sweet, emotional, a whole lot of sexy and a little bit of real. She likes to write strong heroines and damaged heroes who we love to hate and hate to love.

Shes a mixture of most of her female characters: sassy, intelligent, stubborn, reserved, outgoing, driven, emotional, strong, and wears her heart on her sleeve. All of which she displays daily with her husband and three children where they live in Southern California.

On a whim, K. Bromberg decided to try her hand at this writing thing. Since then she has written The Driven Series (Driven, Fueled, Crashed, Raced), the standalone Driven Novels (Slow Burn, Sweet Ache, Hard Beat, Aced (a new Rylee and Colton novel releasing 1/11/16), and a short story titled UnRaveled. She is currently working on new projects and a few surprises for her readers.


She loves to hear from her readers so make sure you check her out on social media.
Connect With Kristy

Release Day: Caught By You by Jennifer Bernard


Enter to Win a Love Between the Bases Print Bundle
(ALL OF ME & CAUGHT BY YOU)


CAUGHT BY YOU
Love Between the Bases #2
Jennifer Bernard
Releasing Dec 29th, 2015
Avon Books



Love comes out of left field in the second novel in USA Today bestselling author Jennifer Bernard's sexy baseball-themed series...

Months of alternately flirting and bickering with Kilby Catfish catcher Mike Solo just turned into the hottest kiss of Donna MacIntyre's life—and that's a major league complication. Any hint of scandal could keep her from getting her son back from her well-connected ex. Then Mike comes up with a game-changing idea: a marriage proposal that could help win her case—even as it jeopardizes her
heart.

Mike hasn't been able to get the gorgeous, gutsy redhead out of his fantasies. The least he can do is fix the mess he helped create. Yet their engagement is quickly becoming about a lot more than doing the right thing. Because after swearing he'd never risk love again, Mike has found a passion that puts all his emotions in play, and a woman he'll go to bat for again and again.


Amazon | B& N | Google Play | iTunes | Kobo

Mike looked around at the milling Roadhouse crowd. Denim jackets and cowboy boots, short skirts and long legs, plenty of lip gloss and teased hair, glimpses of cleavage, earrings dangling against bare skin, pretty girls flipping their hair, laughing, teasing, sexy, cute …
And not Donna.
He drained his club soda. “Mañana,” he said to the other Catfish, who stared after him with expressions of shock and betrayal. He never left the party early. Too bad. The Roadhouse without Donna was like a game without a hit. A dinner without steak. A shower without water.
It just wasn’t worth the bother.
He strode out of the Roadhouse into the still-warm night. Up above, stars bedazzled the blue-velvet sky. The Wade kid had it right. Play well, get out of town. That was the plan. Definitely, for sure, forget Donna.
Unless, of course, she was standing right in front of him.
Donna?”
He blinked, but she didn’t disappear. On his way to the stadium for batting practice, he’d stopped at the Dunkin’ Donuts for coffee and a cruller. Now his coffee steamed, forgotten, in his left hand while he drank in the sight of Donna MacIntyre. She stood next to a miniscule red Kia in the drive-through, a little brown bag in one hand and a Big Gulp of coffee in the other.
She looked … different.
You are Donna, right? Donna MacIntyre?”
She rolled her eyes with a Lord-help-us expression that confirmed her identity. “Solo. How’ve you been?”
Great. What are you wearing?” It looked horrible, whatever it was. Boxy, boring blue, below the knee. Its only benefit was that it showed off her calves. Unfortunately, they were covered in beige panty hose. “Did you just come from Salvation Army band practice?”
That’s an extremely inappropriate comment.”
Yeah, it was, but he was rattled. “Sorry. I’m a little traumatized. Are you on a Mormon mission or something? What did you do to your hair?”
The state of her hair made him want to cry. All the curls had been flat-ironed out of it; he knew the process because his sisters used it on their curly black mops. The color hadn’t changed, thank the saints, but she wore a headband that hid most of the glorious red. A headband! And her hair was short too. She’d chopped it to shoulder-length. All that wild, beautiful hair, sitting on a salon floor somewhere.
Wait, let me guess. You’re on your way to an encyclopedia convention.”
Looking extremely annoyed, she brushed past him. He caught the scent of fresh woodlands. At least that hadn’t changed. As she peered into the Kia, he followed her gaze and saw a sleeping kid strapped into a car seat in the back. The window was halfway open, giving the child plenty of air. He had red hair and his mouth lolled open.
Is that the Shark?”
For the first time, she looked kindly at him. “You remember about the Shark?”
Of course. You’re a nanny for a Shark. Hard to forget that. Or the rest of it.” He raised one eyebrow suggestively, but she ignored his double entendre. His suspicion grew that something was wrong in Donna’s world. In the old days, she never let a chance to flirt pass her by.
I’m not a nanny anymore,” she told him, circling around to the driver’s side. “I’m a receptionist at a dentist’s office. You should come by sometime. We’re famous for our root canals.”
Cradling her coffee and paper bag against her chest, she put her key into the lock on the driver’s side door. Damn. She was about to drive away, and he didn’t know when he’d see her again.
You know, I could use a good teeth cleaning. They look kind of green up on the Jumbotron. Where’s your office?”
Oh. Where? It’s, um, at the corner of Twelfth and Forget I Said Anything.”
Ouch. Now there’s the Donna I remember.”
She fumbled with the lock. “Well, forget her.”
I tried that. It wasn’t any fun.”
She glanced up at him, her eyes narrowed, and a zing shot between them. For the first time since he’d gotten back to Kilby, Mike felt completely happy with life. He bounded around the car and lifted her coffee out of her way. “There, is that easier?”
You don’t have to help me. I’m fine. Don’t you have some balls to play with?”
Ouch again. I think our Donna’s back in business.” He squinted at her. “Are you wearing a football pin? Now you’re just breaking my heart.”
Welcome to Texas,” she said, all sassy. “Where football is king, and baseball is the nerdy neighbor boy your mom makes you play with.”
Them’s fighting words, Donna MacIntyre. You can’t just say something like that and not give me a chance to prove how superior baseball is in every possible way.”
She turned the key in the lock and swung open the door. He stepped back to avoid getting a crotch full of South Korean automotive metal. In the car seat, the child’s legs twitched, and a low wail began.
Gotta go,” said Donna, suddenly in a big hurry. “Nice running into you and all. Have a good season.”
Mama!!!” the boy cried. Mike could see it was a boy now. A boy with bright red hair the exact color of Donna’s.
Shhh, sweetie. It’s okay. I’m here, and I got you some milk.” She stuck a straw in the cup and handed it to him.
Abruptly, the crying stopped. Donna shot Mike a complicated look—he detected regret, warning, pleading, and probably a few more layers—then closed the door.
He watched her drive away, speculation running rampant. So Donna had a kid. She’d never mentioned any such person. Neither had Caleb or Sadie. Not that it was his business.
Except … well, he kind of wanted to make it his business. How many dental offices could there be in Kilby, Texas?






Jennifer Bernard is a graduate of Harvard and a former news promo producer. The child of academics, she confounded her family by preferring romance novels to … well, any other books.
She left big city life for true love in Alaska, where she now lives with her husband and stepdaughters. She’s no stranger to book success, as she also writes erotic novellas under a naughty secret name not to be mentioned at family gatherings.


Don't Miss the First in the Love Between the Bases Series, 
ALL OF ME






New Release Spotlight: Till Death Us Do Part by Cristina Slough


Enter to Win a $10.00 Amazon eGift Card


TILL DEATH US DO PART
Cristina Slough
Releasing Dec 29th, 2015
Limitless Publishing



The fateful day Mimi Marcus has dreaded begins with a phone call...

The wife of a U.S. Marine, Mimi spent countless nights worried that her husband Joel would fall in the line of duty. He had fought valiantly and served his country with honor. That’s exactly what they tell her when they deliver the news—Joel was taken by the enemy in Afghanistan. Her husband is dead.

In desperate need of closure, Mimi travels to the one place Joel still has ties—The Marcus Ranch in Texas, inherited by his handsome younger brother Austin.

New beginnings are only an illusion...

The closer Mimi grows to the Marcus family, the more she considers it home. But when suspicions of Joel’s past surface, Austin refuses to disclose family secrets—even to his brother’s widow.  It’s only by accident she uncovers evidence of Joel’s tainted past. Devastated by his lies and betrayal, she slowly opens up to Austin, and together they unfold layers of pain and grief.

Mimi is sure she’ll never love again, but is Austin the man to prove her wrong? Then the unthinkable happens…

Just as Mimi finds new hope in a future with Austin, Joel returns home from war. Enraged, traumatized, and teetering on the edge of insanity, Joel confesses to a history of deception, revealing yet another secret—this one too terrible to forgive.

In an awful twist of fate, Joel proves marriage vows are made to be honored.

No matter what.



She took the palm of her hand and wiped her face. “You don’t mean that.” She paused and looked at him. “Do you?”
Yes, this is so fucked up Mimi. You don’t belong to me. You belong to him.”
But…God, Austin, I don’t know what the hell I’m thinking or feeling.”
I don’t care. The truth is, I got caught up in everything with you. I felt sorry for you; I pitied you.”
Austin stop,” she cried “You don’t mean that.”
Mimi, I do. The truth is. You were my final up-yours to my dear brother.”
You’re lying.”
He took his hands out of his jean pockets and placed them on her sunken shoulders and looked firmly into her eyes. “Yes I do. Everything I told you about loving you was a lie. And this, what we had was nothing but revenge. Joel played it well, the son of a bitch. He even cheated death. Now get your goddam bags packed and get the hell out of my life.”
She jolted back, falling out of his grip.
Austin stood in silence after the hard slap connected across his left check; it caught his lip, making it bleed. She turned on her heel and ran away, her long hair flowing in the breeze behind her.
He stood there for a second, but it seemed like an hour. He walked a little, and then for the first time in his adult life, he cried.
The digital clock read 2 am. He gazed out of the window. The sky was tar-black, the large clouds gathered fast and furiously. Soon, the gentle specs of rain flicked against the window. As it grew heavier, the tarmac on the car-park soon turned into a black river. He saw a man quicken his pace and slip into a beaten old truck. He opened the door, letting the rain fall on him, drenching through his clothes. He moved out into the stormy weather, needing to wash away the hurt that lay inside him.
He remembered having this feeling once before, after the death of his father. It was then that the divide between him and his brother had become even greater. It had torn them apart, ripping them at the seams. Austin had stolen Joel’s father, and now he was taking his wife. He had no control over the first time, but he swore that he wouldn’t let Austin win this time.

Blood pounded in his ears; he was still at war, but this time with himself. 





Novelist, movie addict, and animal lover, Cristina Slough is the author of Till Death Us Do Part, her debut novel.

Cristina has always been a bookworm, rarely seen without a pen and paper in her hand, she loves delving into a literacy fictional world of her own.

At the age of 11, her junior school teacher told her mother that she would be wasting her life if she didn’t become an author. Throughout her teenage years and beyond, her parents spurred her on to keep writing. She later began a career in commercial real estate, working in London’s West End, a corporate bubble where she was unable to fuel her passion to write.

It was on her Californian honeymoon in 2012 that the bug to write was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. After visiting Yosemite National Park she was inspired by the natural beauty of the land that surrounded her. Holding a special place in her heart, Yosemite would later be written into her debut novel.

She finally gave up the ‘big smoke’ when her son, Lucas, was born in October 2013.

When Lucas was a newborn, Cristina was told to sleep when the baby sleeps. She never could. There was a calling inside her to write. After getting to grips with her new role as a mother, she began working a psychological thriller, but she couldn’t fully connect to the characters she created. She ditched the manuscript and started Till Death Us Do Part (Limitless Publishing, 2015).

Cristina is married to Adam, who runs a successful business; together they share their Bedfordshire home with their son, crazy white German Shepherd and three spoiled cats. They can be found trekking through woodlands, or around the many shops Cristina loves to explore. As a family, they love to travel frequently, the United States being a firm favorite.




Teaser Tuesday: The Baller by Vi Keeland




Releasing 18th January '16

Preorder at iBooks    http://apple.co/1QM9TfP
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Preorder at Kobo   http://bit.ly/1SEiOhC