Monday 31 July 2017

New Release Spotlight: Leave the Night On by Laura Trentham

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Leave The Night On
Cottonbloom #4
By: Laura Trentham
Releasing August 1, 2017
St. Martin’s Press
Leave The Night On

Cottonbloom series


Love, betrayal, and sweet revenge--life in Cottonbloom is about to get a whole lot hotter . . .

Sutton Mize is known for lavishing attention on the customers who flock to her boutique on the wealthy side of her Mississippi town. So when she finds a lace thong in her fiance's classic cherry-red Camaro, she knows just who she sold it to: her own best friend. In an instant, Sutton's whole world goes up in flames. . .

Wyatt Abbott has harbored a crush on Sutton since he was a young kid from the other side of the tracks. He witnessed Sutton's shocking discovery in the Camaro at his family-owned garage--and it made him angry. What kind of man could take lovely, gorgeous Sutton for granted? But then Sutton comes up with an idea: Why not give her betrothed a taste of his own medicine and pretend that she's got a lover of her own? Wyatt is more than happy to play the hot-and-heavy boyfriend. But what begins as a fictional affair soon develops into something more real, and more passionate, than either Sutton or Wyatt could have imagined. Could it be that true love has been waiting under the hood all along?




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 “Can I ask you a question? Something serious?” Sutton asked.

Alright,” Wyatt said cautiously.

Do you find me doable?”

His hand jerked on the steering wheel and sent the car skidding on the shoulder before he righted it. “Do I what?”

Find me doable? Because that no-necked bouncer and those two brothers did.”

He choked on a gulp of air. What was happening? Had he crossed the river into the Twilight Zone instead of into Mississippi?

Her voice was as bland and conversational as if discussing commodity cotton prices. “Because I find you doable. Very, very, very, very doable.”

Her string of “verys” slurred together. She was drunk, which meant her thinking was impaired. Or . . . he glanced at her. Maybe, just maybe, the whiskey had stripped away her social niceties like turpentine to peeling paint, and she was being honest.

The woman had been put through the wringer by her best friend and her fiancĂ©. Despite her wishes otherwise, she was nice. And sweet. And cute. And unbearably sexy in a way she didn’t even understand. Not yet anyway.

No way could he let this opportunity to be with her in whatever way possible slip through his fingers. While the ramifications went on repeat in his head, she slipped out of the car and headed to her door.

He rolled down his window and shimmed half-way out to see her over the top. “Hey, Sutton!”

She turned with only a slight wobble, jutted a hip, and set her hand on it. “What?”

For the record, I find you extremely doable.”


An award-winning author, Laura Trentham was born and raised in a small town in Tennessee. Although, she loved English and reading in high school, she was convinced an English degree equated to starvation. She chose the next most logical major—Chemical Engineering—and worked in a hard hat and steel toed boots for several years.
She writes sexy, small town contemporaries and smoking hot Regency historicals. The first two books of her Falcon Football series were named Top Picks by RT Book Reviews magazine. Then He Kissed Me, a Cottonbloom novel, was named as one of Amazon’s best romances of 2016. When not lost in a cozy Southern town or Regency England, she's shuttling kids to soccer, helping with homework, and avoiding the Mt. Everest-sized pile of laundry that is almost as large as the to-be-read pile of books on her nightstand.
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New Release Spotlight: My Hellion, My Heart by Amalie Howard & Angie Morgan

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My Hellion, My Heart
Lords of Essex #3
By: Amalie Howard & Angie Morgan
Releasing July 24, 2017
Entangled Select
My Hellion, My Heart

Lords of Essex series


He fought battles for crown and country. She waged war for his heart.
Lord Henry Radcliffe, the scarred but sinfully sexy Earl of Langlevit, is a beast. The only way Henry can exorcise the demons of his war-ravaged past is through intense physicality. In and out of bed. An endeavor that has no shortage of willing participants.
Intent on scandalizing London, Princess Irina Volkonsky is a hellion and every gentleman’s deepest desire...except for one. Irina knows better than to provoke the wickedly forbidding earl, but she will stop at nothing short of ruination to win the heart of the only man she’s ever loved.
But when one scandalous kiss makes dangerous passions ignite, neither of them can fight their sizzling attraction. When a sinister plot emerges to threaten them both, they will have to fight one last battle, this time for the ultimate prize...love.
You’re good with children,” her sister commented as they left. “You should think about having some of your own.”
I am content with yours, thank you.”
Irina—”She stood, raising a hand and strode back to the window.
I don’t want to fight with you about this, Lana. The truth is I have no interest in marrying anyone. And, yes, I do intend for London to be a repeat of Paris: diverting and fun. I won’t be anyone’s trophy.”
Is it because of Lord Langlevit?”
Irina’s breath halted painfully in her lungs. She turned to face her sister, composing her face into a mask of indifference. “What do you mean?”
You’ve carried a tendre for him for five years,” Lana said quietly. “Ever since you were fourteen. I suspect you still carry it, which is why no one else can measure up.”
A hundred reasons, excuses, words popped into Irina’s brain. Her sister had always been able to see right through her. She settled for four hard ones. “You mean my infatuation.”
That doesn’t mean your feelings weren’t real.” Her sister rose unsteadily and met her at the window as Irina’s fingers wound into the folds of her skirts. “Certain events draw people close, tying them together in inexplicable ways. It’s not surprising that you...cared for Henry.”
Hopelessly unrequited, as it were.”
Be that as it may,” Lana said. “Henry is not the same man you knew, and I know you can see that for yourself. He has changed.”
Because of France,” Irina whispered.
Lana nodded. “He’s never confided in me, but yes, Lady Langlevit has suggested that what happened to him is beyond understanding. I fear much of him was lost there.” She pulled Irina close. “I don’t want you to lose your heart to him and have it broken. You cannot save him, no matter how much you may wish to.” Her voice wavered. “Trust me, Henry does not want to be saved.”
How do you know?”
Because he told me so.”
Amalie Howard’s love of romance developed after she started pilfering her grandmother’s novels in high school when she should have been studying. She has no regrets. A #1 Amazon bestseller and a national IPPY silver medalist, she is the author of My Rogue, My Ruin, the first in the Lords of Essex historical romance series, as well as several award-winning young adult novels critically acclaimed by Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, VOYA, School Library Journal, and Booklist, including WaterfellThe Almost Girl, and Alpha Goddess, a Kid’s IndieNext pick. She currently resides in Colorado with her husband and three children. Visit her website for the latest news and information.
Angie Morgan lives in New Hampshire with her husband, their three daughters, a menagerie of pets, and an extensive collection of paperback romance novels. She’s the author of MY ROGUE, MY RUIN, the first book in the Lords of Essex historical romance series, as well as several young adult books, including The Dispossessed series written under the name Page Morgan. Critically acclaimed by Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, School Library Journal, VOYA, and The Bulletin, Angie’s novels have been an IndieNext selection, a Seventeen Magazine Summer Book Club Read, and a #1 Amazon bestseller. Visit her website for the latest news and information

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Friday 28 July 2017

New Release Spotlight: The Dress In The Window by Sofia Grant



The Dress in the Window
By: Sofia Grant
Releasing July 25, 2017
William Morrow



A perfect debut novel is like a perfect dress—it’s a “must have” and when you “try it on” it fits perfectly. In this richly patterned story of sisterhood, ambition, and reinvention Sofia Grant has created a story just right for fans of Vintage and The Dress Shop of Dreams.

World War II has ended and American women are shedding their old clothes for the gorgeous new styles. Voluminous layers of taffeta and tulle, wasp waists, and beautiful color—all so welcome after years of sensible styles and strict rationing. 
Jeanne Brink and her sister Peggy both had to weather every tragedy the war had to offer—Peggy now a widowed mother, Jeanne without the fiancĂ© she’d counted on, both living with Peggy’s mother-in-law in a grim mill town.  But despite their grey pasts they long for a bright future—Jeanne by creating stunning dresses for her clients with the help of her sister Peggy’s brilliant sketches.
Together, they combine forces to create amazing fashions and a more prosperous life than they’d ever dreamed of before the war. But sisterly love can sometimes turn into sibling jealousy. Always playing second fiddle to her sister, Peggy yearns to make her own mark. But as they soon discover, the future is never without its surprises, ones that have the potential to make—or break—their dreams.
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Excerpt #2: Peggy

It was well past time to turn out the light and get some sleep, but Peggy didn’t set the square black ContĂ© crayon down. She took a dainty sip of the bitter, cold coffee left over from the morning—yesterday morning, to be accurate, since it was nearly one-thirty—and made a bold, broad stroke down a fresh piece of newsprint. The piece of wood she’d rigged as an easel—taken from a cabinet face from a building being torn down around the corner—shifted on the bolster on which Peggy had propped it. Too bad they didn’t know any carpenters who might make her a real easel, Peggy thought grimly. Too bad they didn’t know any useful men at all.
On her little mattress not three feet away, Tommie shifted and rolled, her rosette lips pursed. She was a restless sleeper, as she had been a restless baby—she’d
come into the world uneasy, as though she knew already that she’d be denied a father, denied the perfect charmed life that Peggy had promised her many months earlier, when she’d first made her presence known on a prodigious wave of nausea, harbinger of the difficult pregnancy to come.
No, nothing about Tommie was easy, and sharing a room with her—and yes, Peggy knew she was lucky to have a room at all, with her sister making up a bed each night in the freezing attic—was a daily torment.
Another curving black stroke of the crayon, to meet the first. In those two lines were the suggestion of the back, the shoulders, the curve of the hip. Peggy glanced at the latest issue of Vogue, open to a spread titled “The New Blouse-and-Skirt Formula,” featuring full-circle skirts nipped in tight over balloon-sleeved blouses. The first wave of outrage over Dior’s new look seemed to have abated, silenced, perhaps, by the unstoppable tide of women hungry for a bit of glamour. Peggy could sympathize. The wartime fashions, made severe and scant by textile regulations dictated by the War Production Board—had looked all right on angular, thin women like her sister. But on curvy Peggy, they looked downright ridiculous.
She sketched soft, feathery strokes to suggest a full skirt like the one in the Vogue layout. Underneath the skirt, there would be structured layers of tulle to give it shape, but her drawing would only show the fanciful outline, like a bell, with satin pumps peeping from the bottom. Peggy could wear such a skirt—if she had anywhere to go. She had retained her small waist even after Tommie’s birth, and her bosom remained high and generous. She was still making do with her corset from two years ago, but if she could afford one of the new French-waisted ones, with the tabs that could be cinched tightly . .

Sofia Grant has the heart of a homemaker, the curiosity of a cat, and the keen eye of a scout. She works from an urban aerie in Oakland, California.
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Thursday 27 July 2017

New Release Spotlight: Where I Need To Be by Jamie Hollins

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Where I Need to Be
McKenna # 3
By: Jamie Hollins
Releasing July 18, 2017
Self-Published
Where I Need To Be

McKenna series


When heroin stole James Foley’s wife and destroyed his marriage, he poured all his energy into raising his young son and running his auto garage. There’s no room in his life for anything else until Megan McKenna walks into his shop. He finds it impossible to resist the sexy school teacher.
After an ugly divorce, Megan lost her home, her job, and a big chunk of her self-respect. With her posh lifestyle now a memory, she starts over by indulging in an unexpected fling with a hard-bodied mechanic.
What begins as something casual turns into something meaningful. But how can their relationship survive when it’s built on half-truths? 
James and Megan soon discover that being honest with themselves is just as important as being honest with each other. Only then will their relationship fire on all cylinders.

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Even over the wailing guitar of an old Chevelle song, James had no trouble hearing a deep rumbling and god-awful clanking outside the closed bay doors. After dusting off his hands on a shop rag, he turned down the radio in time to hear a car door slam shut.
It was half past eight o’clock on a Friday night. The shop was officially closed. He had half a mind to stay put and let whomever was out there figure that out on their own.
But when he heard the distinct clacking of high heels across his front parking lot, he changed his mind. Not because he knew it was a woman. More because he was hopeful it was one particular woman.
Reaching the front office door, he peered outside to see Megan McKenna scribbling furiously across a scrap of paper. Even in the partial darkness, he could see she was concentrating hard, biting her lower lip as she wrote the note. Something about her biting her lip sent all his blood rushing below his belt.
Jesus, he felt like he was in high school again. He had no idea what type of spell this woman had cast over him, but he found himself thinking about her too often. And looking at her now, he really didn’t have to wonder why that was.
She was fucking gorgeous.
She had the most gloriously long legs he’d ever seen, made even longer by her black patent leather heels. The remnants of the day’s light made Megan’s red cardigan and matching shirt glow above her tight black skirt. He was starting to think he was getting a thing for cardigans too.
Before he started to drool on the glass, he quickly unlocked the deadbolt and opened the door. Megan looked up, startled.
“Oh, my gosh,” she breathed. “You scared the crap out of me.”
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.”
That was true, but he liked the way her cheeks got all flushed.
She smiled. “I wasn’t sure what time you closed. When I saw the times on the door, I was going to leave my keys with a note in your drop box. I parked my car over there.” She turned and pointed to her Accord. It was kind of hard to miss. “I was on my way home from work and something broke, so I drove straight here.”
She sounded exhausted.
“What exactly happened to it?” he asked, stepping from the doorway and walking toward the car.
“I had just pulled out of the parking lot and made it about a block before I hit a pothole, and I heard this really loud bang followed by a high-pitched scraping sound. I couldn’t see anything out the back window, and it seemed like all my gauges were okay, so I continued driving.” She stopped beside where he knelt to look under the back of the car. “Within two blocks there was another awful sound, then all of sudden my car sounded like a helicopter.”
James knew even before he looked at it what had happened. “Your muffler fell off.”
Megan sighed. “Is that bad?”
He looked up at her from where he stooped on the pavement—trying not to check out her legs—and nodded. He stood up, dusting off his hands on his thighs. “I’m gonna have to order you a new muffler. I can probably have it here by Tuesday.”
His eyes got caught on where she was biting her lower lip again. “How much is that going to cost me?”
He pulled his gaze away from her lips and saw the worry in her expression. “You’re looking at anywhere between two hundred to two fifty for parts and labor.”
She looked back at her car and sighed. “I guess there’s no way around it, so go ahead. Do you need me to fill out any paperwork?”
“No. But I’ll need your keys.”
She dropped her keys into his grease-stained hands. “Thanks, Mr. Foley. Just give me a call whenever it’s done.”
She heaved her purse up her shoulder before giving him a tired smile and wave. James was too busy watching her walk away when he suddenly realized that she planned to walk home by herself.
“Megan,” he yelled. When she turned toward him, he asked, “How far is your place from here?”
“Oh, it’s just a few blocks. No biggie.”
She had just started to turn back toward the sidewalk when he had a completely stupid idea.
“I was about ready to head home for the night. How about I give you a ride?”
She regarded him for a moment before saying, “You know, after the day I’ve had, I think I’ll take you up on that.”

Jamie Hollins was born and raised in rural Northeast Ohio.  After graduate school, she embarked on a perilous career in Human Resources where she met plenty of real life characters.  When she’s not writing or chasing after her toddler, she enjoys reading and golfing.  Jamie lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, son, and their dog, Winston.


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New Release Spotlight: Bliss by Lynsay Sands

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Bliss
By: Lynsay Sands
Releasing July 25, 2017
Avon


No one blends humor and sensuality like New York Times bestselling author Lynsay Sands in this captivating story of feuding nobles forced to marry…and destined to fall in love
Love thy neighbor, ’tis said. A fine idea, except when the neighbor in question is Lord Holden. Lady Helen Tiernay has complained frequently about his treatment of his people. Too frequently perhaps, for the king intends to curb their constant bickering by ordering them to wed. Helen can’t refuse a royal decree, but she’ll do everything possible to drive away her devilishly attractive husband-to-be.
Holden has faced all manner of horrors on the battlefield. But marriage to “the tyrant of Tiernay” is still a worrying prospect—until he glimpses Helen in the flesh. What flesh it is…soft, lush, made for his touch. If she weren’t so intent on thinking up devious ways to prevent consummating their bond, Helen would see how perfect they are together, and that a marriage begun as enemies can turn to absolute pleasure.

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Lady Tiernay,” Templetun greeted, jogging up the last few steps to come abreast of Hethe as he passed before their two hostesses. “May I introduce Lord Hethe of Holden. Lord Holden, this is Lady Helen of Tiernay and her aunt Lady Nell Shambleau.”
Hethe moved up another step so that his face and Helen’s were on a level, and managed a smile as he gazed into his fiance’s sky blue eyes that matched her gown. Actually, his mouth was responding to his nether regions, and it fashioned itself into a beaming grin of pleasure for the woman—until she smile back and said, “How do you do?”
His smile died an abrupt death, becoming a dismayed grimace. It wasn’t the woman’s words that affected him so but her foul breath that blew at him as she spoke. The shock of it made Hethe take a hasty step backward. He would have tumbled down the stairs had William not steadied him with a fist at his back.
God’s teeth!” he gasped in horror, bringing a perplexed and even slightly offended look to their hostess’s face. It also brought him a rather sharp and confused look from Templetun, reminding him of his manners. Forcing a false smile of apology to his lips, Hethe turned his face slightly to avoid the noxious fumes and excused himself by muttering, “Nearly lost my footing.”
Oh, well, you must be careful, my lord,” his betrothed breathed at him sweetly. Leaning closer, she snatched his arm through her own, presumably to save him from losing his balance again. She then smiled brightly and sighed gustily into his face. “Such a handsome man. We would not wish you to tumble down the stairs and break your neck! At least, not before the wedding, hmmm?” she teased, her eyes sparkling.
Hethe nearly whimpered. His head was swimming under the onslaught of her poisonous exhalations. Sweet Saint Simon! He had never smelled anything quite so raw or putrid. He hadn’t thought it possible for such a scent to come out of a human’s mouth. And the fact that it was coming from the sweet bow-shaped lips of the lovely woman before him just seemed to make the horror of it that much worse.
Shall we go inside?” the woman’s aunt suggested cheerfully.
Aye,” Lady Tiernay agreed. “I am sure you gentlemen are ready for a nice mug of ale after your journey.” She spoke the words to Hethe, her breath wafting over his face like an ill wind carrying the stench of death. Feeling his stomach roil, Hethe nodded faintly, more than eager for any excuse to move and avoid the situation he was in.
Lord love me, I have to marry this wench, he thought as he hurried rudely up the last step and into the keep, dragging her a step behind. She would be breathing this putrescence at him for the next fifty years or so, he thought faintly, too dismayed to even realize how rude he was being by pulling Lady Tiernay about and leaving her aunt and the others to follow.


Lynsay Sands is the nationally bestselling author of the Argeneau/Rogue Hunter vampire series, as well as numerous historicals and anthologies. She's been writing stories since grade school and considers herself incredibly lucky to be able to make a career out of it. Her hope is that readers can get away from their everyday stress through her stories, and if there's occasional uncontrollable fits of laughter, that's just a big bonus.

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