Tuesday 11 July 2017

Release Day Spotlight: Conditioned by Liz Crowe

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Conditioned
Brewing Passions #3
By: Liz Crowe
Releasing July 11, 2017
Totally Bound
Conditioned

Brewing Passions series


Trent Hettinger’s turbulent formative years transformed him into a cynic—and into a man who realized he required something outside himself to control his temper. Something he finds as a Dom—at least for a while. But he allowed himself to trust a woman once and was slapped back into reality with a vengeance and now devotes all his energy into building his real estate empire, raising his teenaged daughter…and avoiding anything resembling authentic attachments.
Melody Rodriguez kept her head down for years—working hard, making her own money, trying to get ahead with every deck stacked against her.  She’s determined to move beyond the ugliness that haunts her without anyone’s help. When a mutual friend sets her up with Trent, she’s determined to have some fun with him and move on.
A man with nothing to left to lose. A woman hiding behind her past. When two lives spent in emotional denial collide, it’s a perfect match—at least on the surface. But neither Trent nor Melody are prepared for the full force of their true feelings, once fate intervenes and blows a cold breeze into their white-hot relationship.

He grabbed the remote and handed it to me between bites. “Well? I thought I was getting subjected to that horrible game.”
I took the remote, stuck my tongue out at him and clicked on the telly. The match flickered on after a few seconds.
Ah, right,” he said, sipping his beer, then tucking into the soup. “The pretty boys game.”
Damn straight,” I said, taking a bite of my own carnitas creation. Pretty damn good if I say so myself. “These men are fine.”
Guapo?” He raised a dark eyebrow at me, which intensified the heat gathering in areas of my body I’d forgotten I even had.
No. They’re too prima donna to be truly guapo.”
Good. I like that word being reserved for me.” He stood. “I need another one of those amazing tacos. And you’re right. I hardly miss the cheese.”
Of course I’m right.” I winked at him, then felt my face flush so hot I put my hand to my cheek.
We sat in companionable silence, regarding the game and eating for a while. As we leaned back, our feet up on the table, finishing our second beers, the match got more intense. At one point I leapt up and started cursing a stream of Spanish at the official.
Calm down, already. What happened?” Trent asked, amusement on his face.
That hijo de puta claimed offsides and called back that goal! Are you blind? Mierda!”
I flopped back onto the couch, this time so close our thighs brushed together when I propped my feet back on the table.
Offsides, eh?” Trent put his glass to his lips and eyed me over the rim. “I have no idea what that means, at least in this game.”
I shoved our plates aside, grabbed the salt and pepper shakers and the empty beer bottles and attempted to explain it. After ten utterly frustrating minutes, I gave up and threw my napkin at his face after he asked one more stupid question. “Mierda! El burro sabe mas que te!”
He leaned back in mock horror. “Did you just call me a burro? Is that like an ass?”
I dissolved into giggles at the look on his face. “¡Mira qué cabrón! There, I just called you a smartass.”
Neat,” he said, grinning widely. We stared at each other for a few seconds too long, then both turned to the match.
For the record, I did say a burro was smarter than you.”
Ah, of course,” he said, getting up and stretching right in front of me. I swallowed hard and made myself not look at his ass. When he turned around again, his face had gone pensive. “Your poor, beautiful face,” he said, out of the clear blue. “It’s all I can do to look at you and not run out of here and kill that motherfucker.”
I blinked fast, covered by grabbing my beer and totally missed my mouth. A dollop of the brew landed right on my best Real jersey. I stared down at it in horror. Trent chuckled. I glared up at him, daring him to say anything. He tried to stop laughing, but that made it worse. By the time I’d gotten up for a towel and maybe a shot of that tequila, he was practically rolling around on the floor in hysterics.
Are you quite finished?” I asked, brushing at the stain, my face so hot I could have warmed a whole house in the middle of winter. I’d kept my back to him, the tall counter between us. Mortification was making my vision blur. Or was that tears? Shit, I’d never get this right. I was ruined. Ruined for relationships with real men, anyway. I whirled around to tell him to take his funny bone and get the fuck out of my apartment.
I think…oh…”
He was there, in front of me, too close for it to be in any way considered casual. His broad, black-cotton-covered chest filled my vision. His scent—a clean, fresh, outdoorsy odor—filled my nose. His voice—deep and musical—filled my soul.
Melody,” he said, as he took my hands in his and brought them to his lips. Mi Dios, those lips! He kissed each one of my knuckles softly, keeping his eyes on mine. Then he turned my hands over and pressed his lips to first one, then the other of my palms.
Trent,” I whispered, my mind awash with images and sensations, all of them good for a change.
Sh,” he whispered, placing my hands on his shoulders, then sliding his hands around to the small of my back. “Sh, no talking.” His smile lit up my entire universe—corny, but true and I’m not ashamed to admit it. “I have wanted to kiss you since I saw you across that diner.”
When… Oh, right,” I said, my voice breaking at the end like a silly virginal teenager’s.
Surely he won’t want me, when he finds out I’m spoiled goods. Surely he won’t…Surely he has got to be the best kisser in the entire known universe.

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Amazon best-selling author, mom of three, Realtor, beer blogger, brewery marketing expert, and soccer fan, Liz Crowe is a Kentucky native and graduate of the University of Louisville currently living in Ann Arbor. She has decades of experience in sales and fund raising, plus an eight-year stint as a three-continent, ex-pat trailing spouse

Her early forays into the publishing world led to a groundbreaking fiction subgenre, “Romance for Real Life,” which has gained thousands of fans and followers interested less in the “HEA” and more in the “WHA” (“What Happens After?”).
With stories set in the not-so-common worlds of breweries, on the soccer pitch, in successful real estate offices and at times in exotic locales like Istanbul, Turkey, her books are unique and told with a fresh voice. The Liz Crowe backlist has something for any reader seeking complex storylines with humor and complete casts of characters that will delight, frustrate and linger in the imagination long after the book is finished.
Don’t ever ask her for anything “like a Budweiser” or risk bodily injury.
Rafflecopter Giveaway (1st prize: $25 gift card to Amazon or Barnes and for the 2nd prize: a signed copy of TAPPED, book 1 of Brewing Passions)


Release Day Blitz: A SEAL'S COURAGE by J.M. Stewart



A SEAL’S COURAGE 
by JM Stewart
(July 11, 2017; Forever Yours eBook; $3.99; Military Match Book 1)



A sizzling new series about three friends looking for love-and the sexy SEALs who are ready to fulfill their craziest fantasies.
He's a man on a mission.
Navy SEAL Trent Lawson isn't a man to back down from a challenge. Ever since he opened his eyes in that army hospital to learn the men from his unit were gone, Trent has been determined to live life in their honor. Even if that means facing his most terrifying mission yet…dating.
She's done playing games.
Lauren Hayes has standards. In fact, she's got an entire list of them. There's only ever been one man to come close to making the cut-Trent Lawson. Except her best friend's too-sexy-for-his-own-good brother is strictly off-limits.
When Trent and Lauren find themselves matched up by a dating service, the chemistry between them is nothing short of explosive. They both know getting involved is a huge mistake, but life is too short to walk away from something this good.



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Then be my first.” Lauren drew a deep breath and pressed herself into his arms, sliding her hands up his back. “It’s not like I’m asking you to do me right here and now. It can happen at whatever pace you need it to.”

He cupped her chin in his palm, brow furrowed, gaze intense. “You’re okay with that?”

She lifted onto her toes, trying to close the space between them. “I’m okay with that. If it makes you feel better to put a label on this, consider us friends with benefits. When it stops being mutually satisfying, it ends.”

She’d just have to be sure to keep her head in the right place, so that her heart didn’t get broken in the end. This was a fling with a sexy guy, no more, no less.

He let out an agonized groan and brushed his mouth over hers, so lightly she shivered. “God, I can’t resist you anymore. I have a few requests.”

Her heart hammered in giddy anticipation. She hadn’t expected him to accept. That he had sent myriad thoughts flying through her mind, all of which settled low in her belly. “Okay.”

He pulled back. For a moment his gaze dropped as his fingers idly stroked her shoulder, like he couldn’t help but touch her. “You can’t tell Mandy.”

Lauren rolled her eyes. “Trent, she’s my best friend.”

Yeah, but she’s my sister. The last thing I need is her privy to the intimate details of my prowess in the bedroom.” He brushed his nose against hers, amusement glinting in his eyes. “I recall overhearing a conversation about size once.”

Heat rushed into her face, but Lauren couldn’t contain her grin. She recalled that exact conversation. They hadn’t discussed him, exactly, but she remembered distinctly wondering.
All right. On this I’ll concede, because you have a point.” She rubbed a circle over his chest. “What else?”

I want to put a time limit on this. A month. When it’s over, we go back to being just friends.” His hands looped around her waist, pulling her flush against him. Heat flared in his eyes. “I also think we should ease into this. So my last request is no sex.”

Lauren dropped her forehead to his shoulder with an exasperated sigh. “I’m never going to lose my virginity that way.”

He chuckled and hooked two fingers beneath her chin, tilting her gaze back to his. His eyes blazed at her. “At least not right away. I’m proposing we do everything else first. Because I was thinking…you want the full experience, right?”

She shrugged. He had her there. “I guess.”

And that includes things like kissing. Touching.” He leaned down, his voice lowering to a husky rumble against her mouth. “Tasting.”

A hot little shudder moved through her as her mind filled with the possibilities: his rough hands closing around her breasts, fingers sliding into her panties, stroking her sex.

His warm mouth buried between her thighs.

I like that idea. Doing it all. How ’bout, since you stayed last night, instead of lunch today, we start with dinner tomorrow night?” She pinned him with a direct stare and arched a brow, attempting to look fierce, but one corner of her mouth twitched, betraying her. “You still owe me a date.”


J.M. Stewart is a coffee and chocolate addict who lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, two sons and two very spoiled dogs. She's a hopeless romantic who believes everybody should have their happily ever after and has been devouring romance novels for as long as she can remember. Writing them has become her obsession.




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