✯BOOK BLITZ:✯ Mogul by Lexi Larue {EXCERPT + GUEST POST + GIVEAWAY!}

Mogul by Lexi Larue

Release Date: May 3rd 2015 by Brazen Romance

Series: The Mogul Series #1

Pages: 90

Genres: New Adult, Romance, Suspense

To the world, I am the Mogul

Alexander Nathan McDonald. Billionaire tech mogul of Globaltech. But to people I care about, I’m just plain Nate. The night when I met sweet wonder woman Diana Prince changed my life. I caught her as she fell off the bar stool and heard her story about being fired from her job for leaking secrets to Globaltech. Now how could I tell her who I really was? To Diana, I was just Nate. It’s now my mission to love and protect my sweet naughty girl. 

I’m nobody’s superhero

Despite what mom named me. I’m Diana Prince, nobody’s wonder woman. My life is in shambles after I get fired after being accused of leaking trade secrets to Globaltech. I owe it all to my former boss Garrett ‘stink-breath’ Holliman, CEO of Techworks. My biggest mistake is sleeping with him one night after a night on the town. 

A sexy, love story.

This is Nate and Diana’s love story. Powerful and full of suspense and intrigue. Nate, the secret billionaire, unravels the mystery that involves Diana and his powerful tech company.

Purchase: Amazon US, Amazon UK

{EXCERPT}

I take the steps to join him on the landing in front of my door as he hands me my purse. “I really do appreciate you going to the trouble to bring it to me at this hour. Come on in, I’ll fix you a cup of coffee.” 

Inside my apartment, I show him to the living room and finally begin to feel a little more like myself. “Make yourself comfortable, I’m going to change and then I’ll make us some coffee unless you’d rather have a glass of wine,” I offer as I step into the bathroom.

“Coffee’s fine. Nice album collection.” 

“Thanks, it belonged to my father.” 

“Oh I’m sorry, how long ago did he die?”

“He’s not dead; he just didn’t want to store them in the garage after they turned his old studio into a sun room.”

“What about your mom?” 

“She would’ve gladly gotten rid of them fifteen years ago,” I couldn’t resist teasing.

I put on a night shirt that falls just above my pebble-dimpled knees and cinch my robe over it before starting the coffeepot. When I step into the living room, Etta James starts to sing Sunday kind of love as he grabs me by the hand and pulls me against him. 

I decide to oblige him in a dance, intending to bow out gracefully after a few moments but as he holds me in his arms with the music playing in the background, I can feel the stress of the day melting away like it was in the distant past. The smell of coffee fills the air as the song ends and the next thing I know, I’m pressed against the wall of my living room, kissing him passionately. 

I can smell the trace of expensive cologne on his collar and feel the wet anticipation building between my legs as he moves his mouth from my lips to my neck. My heart races as he teases me with his tongue from my earlobe to the curve of my shoulder. His warm breath and soft moans against my skin send chills down my spine. He has managed to find my most intensely arousing erogenous zone in less than five minutes and I feel pretty certain at this point that he knows where the rest of them are too. 

I push his suit jacket down over his shoulders as he buries his face just above my collar bone. I desperately want to feel him against me and let go of my tension and worry as I feel him overcome me with his body the way he already has with his sexy, resilient charm. I unbutton his shirt as he removes his tie, his breathless kisses stopping only long enough to take off his undershirt. 

As I begin to writhe with pleasure, he slides his hand under my nightshirt, pulls my panties aside and slips his nimble fingers between my swollen pussy lips. I moan softly in his ear as my hips shudder in response. He teasingly glides his fingertips against my tingling flesh while he kisses my neck, making me moan uncontrollably.

{GUEST POST}

Behind the Scenes

My Mogul Series is special to me because the inspiration comes from my own personal experiences. I write stories that I feel to the core of my soul as I become the character. I’ve lived Diana’s story when I worked in the tech world. I’ve been falsely accused and worked with a couple of guys who were used their power to get what they wanted from women. And luckily for me, I’ve dated my version of Nate…a sweet loving hero of a man.

My readers have shared that they really enjoy my stories because they love feeling what my main characters are feeling. I like getting into the heads of my male and female characters. I’m so happy that my readers enjoy these sexy yet romantic love stories.

If you read through the books in my Saved Series and Secret Billionaire Series, I think you will enjoy the strong heroines that are always working girls facing challenges in their lives. My male heroes are typically the guys I would want to date – strong yet sweet, handsome and sexy, caring with a big heart. Did I mention they all are successful and rich?

AUTHOR BIO:

I’ve always loved writing suspense and romance short stories since I was a teen. I love a little bit of mystery woven in my romances. I like strong characters who love life and live with abandon. I often write from personal inspiration. Stories I’ve lived. Men I’ve met and loved. So you will find a bit of me in every story. I live in Chicago and love hanging out at jazz clubs and looking for the best food in hole in the wall restaurants. I found my hero and hope you find yours! Live life to the fullest!

Lexi 

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✯BOOK BLITZ✯: Sinfully Ours by Sasha {EXCERPT + GUEST POST}

Sinfully Ours by Sasha

Release Date: November 30th 2015

Genres: New Adult, Romance

Savannah: If you had a chance to roam with the Devil on earth or take God’s hand to heaven, which would you choose?

Dominick: I think without a doubt, I’d choose God’s hand.

Savannah: I used to think so too.

Savannah and Dominick share the same last name but not the same parents.

It’s… complicated, as most everything has always been between them.

But they would never have it any other way.

This is the story of how two members from the same notorious crime family found love, solace and acceptance in no one else but each other.

How the only man this woman ever trusted with her life became her sole destruction and only salvation. How they both learned to survive their own darkest thoughts and erotic desires, painful experiences and deepest fears of the unknown through no one else but each other. How they almost fell apart each time his passion for her turned deadly for others. And how in the end, he managed to save her from herself and the life of dread she was so sure she was destined to lead.

Purchase: Amazon

{EXCERPT}

Everything I ever thought I knew about the man who became my brother ten years ago has suddenly turned into something greater and more passionate. Something that I only vaguely knew existed inside of him. He’s completely naked in front of me despite being entirely clothed, dangerously yet exceptionally vulnerable. And it tells me all too loudly, too wildly, vividly and excitingly that our connection and devotion to each other, this love that we’ve always shared while like heaven to us just might be the same kind of love to force us into eternal damnation alongside the Devil himself. But I’ve never been too afraid of the fire. God knows there’s never been anything but flames waiting for me on the other side since the day I was born. ~ Savannah

{GUEST POST}

Here's just a little bit about the girl behind this crazy story:

Writing a story like this is not normally my "cuppa" as they say.

But I read stories like this, and quite often because they take me out of my comfort zone and on a journey into worlds that I never really knew existed outside of the local 10 o'clock news.

I love reading stories like this. I crave reading stories like this.

But I don't write stories like this.

Except this time, I did. In part out of desperation to spread my wings, in part out of fear that I never would. And somewhere in between all of that, there was some thrill in actually putting certain words on paper and realizing that they had actually come from me.

I wrote an unconventional romance about two people who come from the same family. Which makes it not just any unconventional romance, but the kind you only talk about in secret. The kind most often frowned upon in the world outside of fiction and waved off as 'disgusting', ‘foul’ or ‘offensive’. But much like the stories I’ve often read and loved, this one took me on a journey of discovery, personal and professional, and I learned a lot about myself, about intolerance and about people.

I stepped completely outside of the box to write “Sinfully Ours” and after a lot of soul searching, I'm glad that I finally did. It won't be everyone's “cuppa” for the subject matter alone and I understand that. But I need to be able to flex my writing muscles and more importantly, create stories outside of the norm, stories that make you uncomfortable while also questioning society and life and yourself and the world around you. Because life doesn’t happen inside a cardboard box. I, like the characters, need to be able to sink into myself and really think about who I am and what I want and who I want to be as a human being.

I'll be 30 years old in two weeks and I'm realizing that time is tick, tick, ticking away and I can't waste any more of it by NOT doing the things I want to do or writing the books I want to write out of fear or retaliation. So here it is, the book that caused me anxiety and fear as a writer.

I'm really excited to finally unleash it after months of wavering due to the content. I'm also extremely nervous about what the response will be to the world, the characters, the story itself and I’ll continue wondering even after it’s ‘out there’ if it was all really worth it in the end to put every crazy thought in my mind on paper.

But I won't know unless I try, and so I did.

AUTHOR BIO

“Sasha” is the pen name for author Kiki Leach, whose more conventional works include contemporary dramas about spoiled twenty-somethings living it up in NYC, and fairytale retellings. She enjoys wine, skittles, Hershey’s chocolate bars and creating secret stories on the side that will make you ask yourself “WTF did I just read?”. In. That. Order.  

Twitter: @RoyalChronicles

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✯BOOK BLITZ✯: Canvas Bound by Laura M. Kolar {GUEST POST + GIVEAWAY!}

Canvas Bound by Laura M. Kolar

Release Date: September 2013 by Red Adept Publishing 

Series: Captive Art #1

Pages: 233

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult

Sixteen-year-old Libby Tanner’s art comes to life. Her painted skies turn from day to night, leaves rustle on trees, and sometimes, a mystery boy appears.

While attending England’s Aldridge Art Academy, Libby meets charming Brent Henderson, a performing arts student who showers her with attention. But his rival, gorgeous Dean James, is the one who occupies her mind, even though he’s very much attached to his current girlfriend.

Libby soon learns there’s more to both Brent and Dean than she ever imagined. In order to save her future and the boy who’s captured her heart, she must unlock the secrets behind her art by entering the most dangerous place of all… the world within her paintings.

But once she steps into the canvas, she risks being trapped forever.

Purchase: Amazon, B&N

{GUEST POST!}

How Not to Start a Novel

In the beginning

It was a dark and stormy night

Long ago and far away

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Call me Ishmael

You get the idea. 

A question I get asked a lot when I tell someone I write, is how do I start the story? How do I know what words to put first on the page? This isn’t easy for me to answer because every story is different. Normally, I write linearly, as in page one to ‘The End’, but the last two stories I’ve written as the scenes have come to me and the beginning wasn’t the first thing I wrote.

I have found it helpful to figure out who the key characters are in the story and what I want the reader to know about them right away as opposed to something I want the reader to find out as the story unfolds. For example, if your main character is a mechanic, you could start the story with them staring at a pan of dirty oil and remembering or noticing something intriguing that gives the reader some insight into the character’s personality. But later you find out they’re not really a mechanic, they’re in a witness protection program and only know about cars because they were some mobster’s driver.

One thing I’ve never done is start a story with dialog, though other authors like this format. I personally feel it’s a bit too abrupt to start with people talking and not even know who they are in order to get a feel for how the dialog should be read, happy, mad, psychotic. A couple I started with what’s considered a ‘cliché’, the girl woke up from a dream, the boy stood in front of a mirror (they’ve since been changed). I’m not saying that’s right or wrong (I’m not saying any of this is right or wrong), but I’ve heard that agents and publishers shy away from these types of beginnings. I think mostly because they’re not very original ideas.

Some writers like to introduce secondary characters right away and some like to hold off a few pages or even a chapter. Also, if you’re writing from two points of view, deciding which character to start with is a whole other dilemma because you kind of have to start two separate stories.

Then, once you’ve gotten through all of that, you have to actually sit down and write the first words. Are they funny? Are they thought provoking? Do they make any sense at all to anyone but you? The very first book I wrote started, My name is Charlie Murphy and I just got dumped. Is it good? Is it bad? I suppose that depends on how much you want to know about Charlie. (By the way, he’s a super sweet guy. The kind every mother wants for her daughter.) At any rate, if you haven’t figured it out already, the first words are quite possibly the hardest to write.

Then again, Once upon a time has a nice ring to it.

Click Here to read an excerpt of Cavas Bound!...

AUTHOR BIO:

Laura M. Kolar lives with her husband and daughter in a one-stop-light town in northern-lower Michigan. Though she didn't discover her love of books until she turned thirty, as a self-declared hopeless romantic, she has spent the past few years reading and writing stories with mostly happy endings. If not at her day-job or with her family, you will find her sipping a cup of chai latte while sitting in her favorite rocking chair, hunched over her laptop writing or spending entirely too much time on Twitter. 

Website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads

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✯BOOK BLITZ✯: The Clairvoyant’s Glasses by Helen Goltz {GUEST POST + EXCERPT}

The Clairvoyant’s Glasses by Helen Goltz

Release Date: September 28th 2015 by Atlas Productions

Genres: New Adult, Paranormal, Romance

When Sophie Carell was eight-years-old, her eccentric, clairvoyant great aunt, Daphne, predicted Sophie would be one of the greatest clairvoyants of her time. Sophie wanted to be a movie star. Her mother said not to worry about it—Aunt Daphne was daffy. 

When Sophie is called to the reading of Daphne’s Will, she is given a pair of glasses that will change her life. But that’s not all she acquires. Along with the glasses, Sophie ‘inherits’ a protector—the handsome and powerful Lukas Lens; plus brooding Detective Murdoch Ashcroft who is keen for Sophie to fill her aunt’s shoes and put her talents to work for him. 

Sophie has to decide if she will focus on her acting career or explore her new-found clairvoyant skills. But danger lurks around the corner...

Purchase: Amazon

{GUEST POST}

The Agony of Love by Helen Goltz

“Everything you say, I’m feeling it too,” he assured her. He felt a sharp tinge behind his eyes. He cleared his throat, looked away and looked back at her. “I’m falling in love with you Lucy.”

We’ve all been there … that first month of love; the ecstasy and the agony of all the promise and all the fear. 

The wanting to call, not wanting to be too eager; hoping every text message, email, phone call is them; impatient with everyone who is not them. 

Lying awake at night thinking of them and wondering if they are thinking of you. Being wonderfully exhausted the next day.

Thinking about that first kiss, trying to remember to capture every second of it in your mind so you’ll never forget it. Going back over every word they have said, every compliment they have given.

Worrying about their ex, their friends of the same sex, how long it has been since their last relationship. Not being truly calm until you are together.

Ah, the anguish of love! Capturing all the emotions of a romance scene is a challenge for any writer and I hope in the scene in my paranormal romance The Clairvoyant’s Glasses, where Lukas tells Lucy he loves her, readers will understand his vulnerability and how brave he was saying that to her.

I’m inspired by some of the wonderful scenes of love and loss I’ve read by authors who have captured the ‘anx’ perfectly. Such as Kylie Scott’s description in Play when Anne thinks she’s lost Mal: “Anger and sadness owned me” and in Lick when Evelyn loses David: “I had to chase him out of my mind a thousand times a day.”

Charlotte McConaghy’s beautiful characters in Avery are so rich in their depth of emotions. As the love builds between Ambrose and Ava and they are yet to touch as lovers, Ava inhales as Ambrose is “sinking down to press himself along the length of me. My heart was beating so fast I thought it might give out.”

Finally, here’s a thought for the true romantics—there are theories as to why we wear our wedding ring on the fourth finger of the left hand. The Romans believed there was a vein in this finger, referred to as the ‘Vena Amoris’ or the ‘Vein of Love’ which directly connected to the heart.

Long live love.

{EXCERPT}

Sophie studied Lukas. 

“You have more questions?” he asked.

“A thousand—like do you age normally, do you change at all when you are doing witch stuff and many more, but not for now, I need to take it all in.”

Lukas ran his hand through his light brown hair. “Good idea, enough for now. But in a nutshell… yes, I do age normally… look at Alfred. No, I don’t change into the Incredible Hulk and I’m on your side.”

Sophie smiled as she stood and walked to the window to look out on the street. “A month ago none of this world existed, now I’m hanging with a witch, it’s surreal,” she said.
Lukas rose behind her. “I imagine it is a bit daunting.”

“That would be the understatement of the year,” she said, turning to face him. “Can I ask you one more question today?”

“Of course.” Lukas leaned against the counter watching her, his hands flat on the counter top.

“Don’t be offended, but you’re not the most masculine guy—in your suit, you look like you’ve just stepped off a Calvin Klein fragrance shoot. How exactly does your line of the family protect us?”

“Mind power,” he answered.

“Is that enough?” Sophie lifted a glass paperweight that was reflecting prisms of light from the window and held it up in her palm. 

Lukas glared at the glass prism, his pale blue eyes went amber; it shattered into pieces.
Sophie screamed and dropped the remaining shards from her hand. His eyes returned to a pale blue colour.

“I’ll do my best,” he assured her.

AUTHOR BIO:

After studying English Literature and Communications at universities in Queensland, Australia, Helen Goltz has worked as a journalist and marketer in print, TV, radio and public relations. Helen is the author of seven books and is published by Clan Destine Press and Atlas Productions.

Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads

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✯BOOK BLITZ✯: All At Sea by Pepper Ellison {GUEST POST + GIVEAWAY!}

All At Sea by Pepper Ellison

Release Date: July 15th 2015 by Muse Contemporary

Pages: 233

Genres: New Adult, Romance

When eighteen-year-old American Amelia Beauchamp arrives in Honolulu for an extended stay on her family’s yacht, the only thing she has on her mind is conquering her fear of water and hopefully—for once in her life—making a few friends. The last thing she expects is to fall for cocky surf instructor, Kody Murdock.

Twenty-two-year-old Kody has fled Australia. Kody’s not looking for love, he’s not looking for a hook-up, he just wants to surf. But when pale, awkward Amelia comes walking down the beach he can’t help but think she’s kind of adorable. The pair strike up a complicated friendship.

Can these two people from different worlds find a way to interact without strangling each other? And what, or whom, is Kody running from?

A surfer romance told through text messages and emails, ALL AT SEA will appeal to fans of Meg Cabot's THE BOY NEXT DOOR and Alyson Noel's LAGUNA COVE.

Purchase: Amazon

{GUEST POST}

Phrases American Girls Should Know Before Dating An Aussie Bloke by Pepper Ellison

For an American girl, if you’re going to date an Aussie guy, it’s not just the accent that is hard to understand. They seem to speak a language that is not English. Your guy might lean to you and say, ‘Stone the crows! How blotto is that bush pig from whoop whoop?’ Or, ‘I’m totally spewing that I missed those cracker bumnuts smornin.’ 

Never mind. Pepper is here to translate for you.

‘Chuck a sickie’ is to feign sickness, this is also called ‘bludging’. ‘Chuck a u-ie’ is to make a u turn in traffic. To ‘chuck a wobbler’ means to throw a tantrum, just ‘chuck’ on its own means to vomit. ‘Spewing’ on the other hand means feeling disappointed.

To ‘wear the wobbly boot’ means to be drunk. You can also be ‘blotto’. ‘Off your chops’ means to be intoxicated. To ‘carry on like a pork chop’ also means to throw a tantrum. To have ‘chops’ means to be a skilled musician.

‘Sinking’ generally means drinking, as in ‘sink a coldie’, ‘sink a tinny’, ‘sink a brew’. These are all drinking beer, so you are likely to hear them a lot. (‘Sink a knuckle’ means something else…) You can also ‘crack a tinny/coldie/brew’. (To ‘crack a fat’ means something else…)

If something is a ‘cracker’, that means very good. A ‘ticker’ is your heart. To ‘have ticker’, means to be courageous.

Your freckle is… Well, your freckle is your bum – as in ‘don’t fret your freckle’.

‘Whoop whoop’ means a long way away. ‘Within cooee’ means not far from here. It’s equivalent to a ‘stone’s throw’. ‘Stone the crows’ means, ‘I am astonished!’

‘Smornin’ is a contraction of ‘this morning’, and later in the day is ‘sarvo’.

Having a ‘Barry Crocker’ (shocker) means having a bad day.

‘Pig’s arse’ means ‘I find your story unlikely’. However, ‘rat’s arse’ means ‘I don’t care’.

A ‘boogie’ is a half-sized surf board that you ride on your belly. A ‘booger’ is snot. (Either way you don’t want to date this guy, because boogie boarding is not real surfing.)

A ‘blue’ is a fight. Most red heads are also called ‘Bluey’, or ‘bloodnut’. Your ‘nut’ is your head, unless it’s a testicle – you can assess this from context. …usually.

‘Bum nuts’ are eggs, as are ‘cackleberries’ and ‘googs’.

To take a ‘slash’, a ‘wet’, a ‘snake’s hiss’, or to ‘drain the lizard’ all mean to urinate. Females might ‘split the whisker’.

A ‘bush pig’ is an unattractive woman. She might have a face ‘like a busted arse’.

A ‘servo’ is a petrol station. A ‘servie’ is a napkin.

‘Dommies’ are condoms.

Aussie males also have a tendency for rhetorical questions. For example:

‘How good is this brew?’

‘Doesn’t that Bluey have a cracker of a coin slot?’

‘How blotto is that bush pig from whoop whoop?’

You are generally not required to answer, but you could say something like, ‘I don’t give a rats. I’m going to split the whisker. Don’t fret your freckle. I’ll be within cooee.’

AUTHOR BIO:

Pepper Ellison was born in 1991 on a Royal Navy ice patrol ship stationed near Ross Island along the coast of Antarctica. Currently, she divides her time between Waipahu, Hawaii and Sydney, Australia. She has worked as a marine science research assistant, specialising in sea mammals, a brand ambassador for a craft beer company, and most recently, a Harley-Davidson joy-ride driver out of Kings Creek Station in Central Australia. She is a keen surfer and gymnast. ALL AT SEA is her first novel.

Website, Goodreads, Twitter: @PepperEllison

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✯BOOK BLITZ✯: Forever Bound by Deanna Roy {EXCERPT + GUEST POST + GIVEAWAY!}

Forever Bound by Deanna Roy

Release Date: July 28th 2015 by Casey Shay Press

Series: The Forever Series #4

Pages: 300

Genres: New Adult, Romance

A new full-length standalone romance from the USA Today bestselling romance series

Jenny is a girlfriend-for-hire, the platonic kind. 

While under contract with her movie director boyfriend, glamour has ruled. Designer gowns. Red-carpet premieres. And, of course, seeing her face in the tabloids.

She loves tabloids.

But her reign has come to an end. Her sugar daddy has fallen in love -- with someone else. Her contract is over and tonight she has to end it publicly by making sure the paparazzi "catches" her with another man.

She just has to find the man.

Chance has been hitchhiking across the US, playing and singing for tips. This is the life he's always imagined, and the farther he gets from his disastrous family in Tennessee, the better he feels.

An unexpected invitation to sing with an indie blues group at a movie premiere party gives him a sweet taste of fame. As a bonus, a beautiful girl with pink dreadlocks only has eyes for him.

But the collision between Jenny and Chance is more emotional and intense than either of them expected. When the scandal hits the news, Chance's family finds him, pushing him to come home and face his demons. 

The night has even more consequences for Jenny. She needs to find Chance, but nobody knows anything about him, not even his last name.

Her journey takes her across the country and into the disaster Chance is running from. But she can't give up on him, because what neither of them realized is that sometimes a single night can be the beginning of forever.

Purchase: Amazon, B&N

{GUEST POST}

The Song Behind the Book Forever Bound

I was DUMBSTRUCK when I first read the words to my friend Brad Whittington's song "Forever."

There ain't nothing you can say

To make me turn away

There ain't nothing you can do

To make me take my love away from you

Because I said forever

And that's just what I'm gonna to do

I couldn't have imagined a song that better fit the theme of my Forever series. All the books have couples struggling to find their forever loves, and the newest novel in the series, Forever Bound, was definitely no different.

Chance is a singer/songwriter hitchhiking across the US for tips. Jenny has just been let out of her contract as a girlfriend-for-hire. Their collision is supposed to be a one-night stand. But it becomes something so much more.

Chance writes a lot of songs in the novel, courtesy of Brad's talented lyrics, and I was thrilled when both Brad and his don Daniel recorded acoustic and full-band versions of the song.

So go give them a listen!

http://www.bradwhittington.com/forever

{EXCERPT}

The guy I’d been watching walked over to the mike and said, “Hello, I’m Chance, and Paul here has kindly invited this Tennessee boy up to do a number.”

His name was Chance.

“Yeah!” Paul bellowed. He lifted his guitar strap over his head and handed it to Chance.

I made it to the base of the stage, where the crowd had left a gap in its disinterest. I wondered if my boy choice was doing to get their attention, or if he would be terrible.

I was rooting for him.

The band crashed into the opening licks, and when Chance started singing, I wanted to laugh out loud with giddiness. His voice was pure magic, deep and edgy.

He moved across stage like a fury, all energy and muscle. I was so close I could feel the wood floor shifting under his feet. His fingers squeezed the guitar in a steady grip. I was mesmerized by every movement. I could already see how his skilled hands would work on me.

I was hooked.

The song rollicked along for another chorus, then Chance brought them to a strong stop with a motion of his hand.

That’s when he saw me.

He froze a second, as if he couldn’t believe I was so close after he’d searched for me for so long. His smile spread to a wide grin. I’m sure my panties would have gone flying, if I’d been wearing any.

AUTHOR BIO:

Deanna Roy is the five-time USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance and women's fiction.

She is a passionate advocate for women who have lost babies. She has several books on the subject, including her bestseller FOREVER INNOCENT, a romance about a couple whose baby is taken off life support at seven days old.

She has run the website PregnancyLoss.Info for fifteen years, including many large spin-off support groups both online and in person.

To learn about new releases, sign up for her subscriber list at http://deannaroy.com/news. She has regular giveaways in conjunction with major pregnancy loss events. 

Goodreads, Website, Twitter, Facebook

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❥ Release Day Blast: Love, Lucy by April Lindner {GUEST POST + GIVEAWAY!} ✈

 

Love, Lucy by April Lindner

Release Date: January 27, 2015 by Poppy

Pages: 304

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Travel

While backpacking through Florence, Italy, during the summer before she heads off to college, Lucy Sommersworth finds herself falling in love with the culture, the architecture, the food...and Jesse Palladino, a handsome street musician. After a whirlwind romance, Lucy returns home, determined to move on from her "vacation flirtation." But just because summer is over doesn't mean Lucy and Jesse are over, too. 

In this coming-of-age romance, April Lindner perfectly captures the highs and lows of a summer love that might just be meant to last beyond the season.

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | THE BOOK DEPOSITORY | INDIEBOUND | GOODREADS

About April Lindner:

April Lindner is the author of three novels: Catherine, a modernization of Wuthering Heights; Jane, an update of Jane Eyre; and Love, Lucy, releasing January 27, 2015. She also has published two poetry collections, Skin and This Bed Our Bodies Shaped. She plays acoustic guitar badly, sees more rock concerts than she’d care to admit, travels whenever she can, cooks Italian food, and lavishes attention on her pets—two Labrador retriever mixes and two excitable guinea pigs. A professor of English at Saint Joseph’s University, April lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons. 

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Here is a special guest post from the author in which she shares "Some Rules of the Road" for traveling abroad, as Lucy did in the book! :)

Some Rules of the Road

Like Lucy Sommersworth, the heroine of Love, Lucy, my parents gave me the gift of a lifetime: a backpacking trip to Europe. I was a bit older than Lucy—22, and just out of college—but when I arrived in Milan, Italy with a Eurail pass, a copy of Let’s Go: Europe, and a seventy-pound backpack I could barely lift, I was a wee bit terrified. Like Lucy, I spoke only a little bit of Italian, just barely enough to get by, and I wasn’t particularly good at reading maps or train schedules. Unlike Lucy, I was travelling solo. 

Luckily, my journey began with training wheels. I’d just taken a college Italian class, and my professor had offered a safe crash pad for the first few days of my trip—in her family home in the Alps. Less luckily, when I reached Malpensa airport, nobody was there to pick me up. Giddy with excitement and jet lag, I wandered around the airport, eavesdropping on Italians as they hugged each other hello and goodbye, and had noisy arguments. I’d never felt more alone in my life. Where would I sleep that night if my ride didn’t show up?

Luckily, my professor’s brother arrived at last to whisk me away to the family home in Domodossola. The extended family welcomed and fed me, gave me tours of their city with its charming medieval center, helped me practice my Italian, and, when the time was right, brought me to the train station where my solo travels began for real. It was time to take off the training wheels. 

If I’d felt alone back in the airport, I was even more so on that train to Verona, a city where I didn’t know a soul. In those pre-internet days, I could disappear into thin air and nobody would even notice I was gone. The thought was chilling, but oddly exciting. 

By nightfall, I’d made it to Verona. I’d figured out the public transportation, found a youth hostel, and booked myself a bed. Best of all, I had introduced myself to a handful of other backpackers. We hung out together in the hostel’s common area, sharing bread and cheese, exchanging stories, discussing the rules of the road—those bits of practical wisdom our travels were teaching us. Here are a few.

Time passes differently on the road. Spend a few very intense hours seeing the sites with strangers and by the end of the day, those strangers have become a part of your story. Years later you’ll see their faces in your photo album and still remember stray details of the adventures you shared together, even if you can’t quite recall their names. 

Spontaneity is key. There are few things as magical as showing up at a train station with no idea where you’re headed next, picking a random train, and hopping on.

Janis Joplin said it best: Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose. When you’re carrying all your possessions on your back in a city where you don’t know a soul, you’re absolutely free. You can go anywhere, do anything. That freedom has its lonely moments—but it can be the doorway to all kinds of adventures.

Embrace misadventure. As carefully as you plan there will be crazy mistakes: wrong turns, slept-through train stops, multilingual misunderstandings, and all kinds of other blunders—and these will make the best stories. My misadventures are some of my favorite memories. The time I missed curfew and had to climb into my hostel through a second-story window. The morning when, hanging out my recently washed clothes to dry, I dropped my wet underthings out the window, onto a stranger’s head. The night when, with no room to stay in, I slept on Venice’s train station steps with about a hundred other backpackers, the stars above us and the Grand Canal stretched out before us.

Would I trade that last memory for a safe, comfy night in an actual bed? Not on your life.

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