Friday 11 November 2016

New Release Spotlight: Tru Blue by Melissa Foster



Tru Blue
A Sexy Standalone Romance
By: Melissa Foster
Releasing November 9, 2016.
World Literary Press


He wore the skin of a killer, and bore the heart of a lover...
There's nothing Truman Gritt won't do to protect his family--Including spending years in jail for a crime he didn't commit. When he's finally released, the life he knew is turned upside down by his mother's overdose, and Truman steps in to raise the children she's left behind. Truman's hard, he's secretive, and he's trying to save a brother who's even more broken than he is. He's never needed help in his life, and when beautiful Gemma Wright tries to step in, he's less than accepting. But Gemma has a way of slithering into people's lives and eventually she pierces through his ironclad heart. When Truman's dark past collides with his future, his loyalties will be tested, and he'll be faced with his toughest decision yet.


Link to Follow Tour: HERE
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Melissa Foster has pulled out all the stops with this sexy, heart-warming romance bursting with hope for a second chance and new beginnings.

Truman Gritt is slowly rebuilding his life after sacrificing his freedom for his younger brother. A decision he made with the best of intentions but back fired spectacularly when he receives a call from his brother asking for help shortly after his release from prison. His life is suddenly thrown into turmoil, but assistance comes from a curious woman he meets during a late night shopping expedition.

As an only child, all Gemma Wright wanted was the love and affection of her parents. The sad reality was a life surrounded by material goods and staff employed to care, teach and entertain her. As an adult, she's taken pride in building up her successful business, offering goods and services aimed at children. During a late night trip to Walmart, Gemma's curiosity is piqued when a heavily tattooed man is juggling his shopping trolley with two small children. Her immediate reaction is to check the wellbeing of the children who should be tucked in bed asleep. However, her fears quickly vanish when she sees that the children are in caring hands.

The writing packs a punch as the author tackles the difficult topics of drug abuse, the stigma of living a life with a criminal record and infertility. All are dealt with realistically and sympathetically to the plot. The protagonists are from differing backgrounds, yet both have experienced far from happy upbringings. Truman is a man who will melt your heart. He is fiercely protective of his family with a huge heart full of love and compassion. However, he also has to administer tough love as repercussions of his self-less act come assault him as he's consumed with guilt for failing the person he was trying to save. Luckily, his life in invaded by a woman who offers help, support and love as he realises his life will now take a direction he could never imagine. Gemma recognises Truman's intimidating appearance is a far cry from the man hiding under his tough looking exterior. He's a man she believes society should support by offering him the second chance he deserves, to build his life for the good of his family and himself.

Fans of the author will love this emotionally packed standalone and equally I recommend Tru Blue to those who have yet to discover Ms. Foster novels.

5 stars

***arc generously received courtesy of the publisher World Literary Press***


Chapter One
TRUMAN GRITT LOCKED the door to Whiskey Automotive and stepped into the stormy September night. Sheets of rain blurred his vision, instantly drenching his jeans and T-shirt. A slow smile crept across his face as he tipped his chin up, soaking in the shower of freedom. He made his way around the dark building and climbed the wooden stairs to the deck outside his apartment. He could have used the interior door, but after being behind bars for six long years, Truman took advantage of the small pleasures he’d missed out on, like determining his own schedule, deciding when to eat and drink, and standing in the fucking rain if he wanted to. He leaned on the rough wooden railing, ignoring the splinters of wood piercing his tattooed forearms, squinted against the wetness, and scanned the cars in the junkyard they used for parts—and he used to rid himself of frustrations. He rested his leather boot on the metal box where he kept his painting supplies. Truman didn’t have much—his old extended-cab truck, which his friend Bear Whiskey had held on to for him while he was in prison, this apartment, and a solid job, both of which were compliments of the Whiskey family. The only family he had anymore.
Emotions he didn’t want to deal with burned in his gut, causing his chest to constrict. He turned to go inside, hoping to outrun thoughts of his own fucked-up family, whom he’d tried—and failed—to save. His cell phone rang with his brother’s ringtone, “A Beautiful Lie” by 30 Seconds to Mars.
Fuck,” he muttered, debating letting the call go to voicemail, but six months of silence from his brother was a long time. Rain pelleted his back as he pressed his palm to the door to steady himself. The ringing stopped, and he blew out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d trapped inside. The phone rang again, and he froze.
He’d just freed himself from the dredges of hell that he’d been thrown into in an effort to save his brother. He didn’t need to get wrapped up in whatever mess the drug-addicted fool had gotten himself into. The call went to voicemail, and Truman eyed the metal box containing his painting supplies. Breathing like he’d been in a fight, he wished he could paint the frustration out of his head. When the phone rang for the third time in as many minutes, the third time since he was released from prison six months ago, he reluctantly answered.
Quincy.” He hated the way his brother’s name came out sounding like the enemy. Quincy had been just a kid when Truman went to prison. Heavy breathing filled the airwaves. The hairs on Truman’s forearms and neck stood on end. He knew fear when he heard it. He could practically taste it as he ground his teeth together.
I need you,” his brother’s tortured voice implored.
Need me? Truman had hunted down his brother after he was released from prison, and when he’d finally found him, Quincy was so high on crack he was nearly incoherent—but it didn’t take much for fuck off to come through loud and clear. What Quincy needed was rehab, but Truman knew from his tone that wasn’t the point of the call.
Before he could respond, his brother croaked out, “It’s Mom. She’s really bad.”
Fuck. He hadn’t had a mother since she turned her back on him more than six years ago, and he wasn’t about to throw away the stability he’d finally found for the woman who’d sent him to prison and never looked back.
He scrubbed a hand down his rain-soaked face. “Take her to the hospital.”
No cops. No hospitals. Please, man.”
A painful, high-pitched wail sounded through the phone.
What have you done?” Truman growled, the pit of his stomach plummeting as memories of another dark night years earlier came rushing in. He paced the deck as thunder rumbled overhead like a warning. “Where are you?”
Quincy rattled off the address of a seedy area about thirty minutes outside of Peaceful Harbor, and then the line went dead.
Truman’s thumb hovered over the cell phone screen. Three little numbers—9-1-1— would extricate him from whatever mess Quincy and their mother had gotten into. Images of his mother spewing lies that would send him away and of Quincy, a frightened boy of thirteen, looking devastated and childlike despite his near six-foot stature, assailed him.
Push the buttons.
Push the fucking buttons.
He remembered Quincy’s wide blue eyes screaming silent apologies as Truman’s sentence was revealed. It was those pleading eyes he saw now, fucked up or not, that had him trudging through the rain to his truck and driving over the bridge, leaving Peaceful Harbor and his safe, stable world behind.


Melissa Foster is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling and award-winning author. She writes sexy and heartwarming contemporary romance, new adult romance, and women's fiction with emotionally compelling characters that stay with you long after you turn the last page. Melissa's emotional journeys are lovingly erotic, perfect beach reads, and always family oriented. 


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Sales Blitz: Sweet For A SEAL by Anne Marsh



Sweet for a SEAL
ASSIGNMENT: Caribbean Nights #3
By: Anne Marsh
Released April 14, 2016
Self-Published
Sweet for a SEAL

Assignment: Caribbean Nights Series


“My dating life has starred cupcake men—sweet but more icing than cake and nothing that could keep my mouth busy for a more than a few minutes. Finn Callahan? He’s cake. A five-layer, lusciously frosted gateau.” – Valentina Fuentes
I’ve never met a woman I couldn’t love—for one night. I’m the bad boy, the player, the sexy heartbreaker you meet in a bar and take home. And after my last hellish tour of duty as a SEAL, sun, sand, and sex are my new mission in life. Happily ever after? Pass. I’ll give you the best twelve hours of your life, and then I’m gone because why settle down when playing the field is so fun?
All that changes when I meet Valentina Fuentes. Actually, I rescue her from a ditch, which should score me major hero points. She’s even willing to admit I’m hot—and she’ll fool around with me. But convincing her that I’m anything but a sun-and-good-times boy toy? That’s mission impossible. She argues I’m the loaner car girlfriends pass around… and, sure, she’s willing to take me for a ride. A short ride. And for the first time in my life, I’d like more than a twelve-hour relationship.
When did one woman make my smooth-talking bad boy self start dreaming of forever?




Link to Follow Tour: HERE


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PROLOGUE

I’m the asshole. The player. The guy who gives you a screaming orgasm but not his number or his heart.

Never the heart.

Hearts are strictly off-limits in my world. I don’t do forevers because my relationships come with shelf lives, and none of them last longer than a day or two. My last date claimed her orgasm lasted longer than our relationship. She wasn’t wrong.

None of this explains why I’m standing outside the zany yellow-and-white bakery Valentina Fuentes owns in Angel Cay, wondering what she’ll throw at me today. What names she’ll call me. Whether she’ll yell or cry or just slam the fucking door in my face and remind me that I screwed it all up. That from her point of view, she’s the payoff for a bet that should never have been made.

Whatever she does, I deserve it because I didn’t walk. I ran like a coward because I was too scared to figure out how hearts worked until I’d broken mine. I want a hell of a lot more from Vali than a Band-Aid, too.

I’ve fucked my way through a legion of women since my high school glory days. Women love a US Navy SEAL, and I loved them right back. Now that I look back, I wasn’t terribly discriminating, but I made sure my partners had a great time. I was Finn Callahan, the Orgasm King. Funny how that’s not enough anymore. I mean, I thought making a woman feel good, making her scream my name because I was that fucking good, making her melt for me, was enough. You see, when I made the woman of my hour forget everything but me, I got to forget too. I didn’t have to think about past battles or shit I’d gotten wrong or how maybe I shouldn’t have been the guy who came home. How there were other, better men who never left Afghanistan or Iraq or a godforsaken Colombian jungle. I mean, I know how to fight the good fight and give it my all, but if I were God and it came down to picking and choosing, Finn Callahan name wouldn’t be on the top of the Save List.

I’d be dead last.

So I need to open the door. Stop lingering on the sidewalk like the worst kind of pussy. It’s just that I don’t know what to say when I step through that door. Because when I’m around Vali, I’m not Mr. Sex-on-a-Stick SEAL. She sees through the bullshit and she sees me.

And I’m certain I can never be enough for her.

I need to man up.

I need to open that door and step through it… pin all my hopes and dreams on the one-in-a-million lottery ticket that maybe it’s not too late. Maybe Valentina Fuentes hasn’t come to her senses, and maybe she’s still sweet for this SEAL.



Anne Marsh is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of contemporary and paranormal romance. She has published over thirty novels and novellas. Ann is also part of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors collective behind the SEALs of Summer military anthologies, and has hit the USA Today bestseller list individually with both her paranormal and her military smoke jumper books.

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