Friday, January 30, 2015

Interview/Review – Laura Griffin – Beyond Limits **GIVEAWAY**

I'm so pleased to welcome back a personal favorite and a master storyteller of her genre, New York Times bestselling author Laura Griffin. She's graciously agreed to be interviewed and she's also offering one lucky reader a Tracers Tee-Shirt. I love her Tracers series of novels and I loved Beyond Limits, her latest as you'll see below in my review.
Enjoy the chat, the review and then enter to win a Tracers Tee-Shirt too!
Contest details below!




  • ISBN-13: 9781451689358
  • Publisher: Pocket Books
  • Publication date: 1/27/2015
  • Series: Tracers Series , #8
  • Format: Mass Market Paperback
  • Pages: 400
 



Overview

An FBI agent and a Navy SEAL race against time in New York Times bestselling author Laura Griffin’s newest Tracers novel. “Griffin delivers the goods!” (Publishers Weekly)
FBI agent Elizabeth LeBlanc is still caught in the aftermath of her last big case when she runs into the one man from her past who is sure to rock her equilibrium even more. Navy SEAL Derek Vaughn is back home from a harrowing rescue mission in which he found evidence of a secret terror cell on US soil. Elizabeth knows he’ll do anything to unravel the plot—including seducing her for information. And despite the risks involved, she’s tempted to let him. Together with the forensics experts at the Delphi Center, Derek and Elizabeth are closing in on the truth, but it may not be fast enough to avert a devastating attack…


Giveaway is for one Tracers Tee-Shirt
US ONLY
please use Rafflecopter form below to enter
Thanks Laura!
Good Luck!!

Thursday, January 29, 2015

**JUST RELEASED ** The Paperback Scent Collection from Gonereading - Product Review and Showcase

Those who follow me know how much I love my philanthropic partner Gonereading the e-commerce site dedicated to spreading the magic of reading through bringing books, funding literacy programs and building libraries. All you have to do is look to the right to see their logo proudly displayed on my blog 24/7.
Today I'm so happy to bring you a new product review for their just released "Paperback Scents" products.



Enjoy the review then get out there and buy the products and please whatever you do spread their message!



Gonereading scent review
Just in time for Valentines Day Gonereading is introducing their new Paperback Scent collection including Colognes, Sprays, Roll-Ons, Lotions Shower Gels and more.

I had the opportunity to test the spray and roll-on cologne scents and I LOVE them. The scent is subtle yet
enchanting, it
s clean with a touch of spice and just a slight hint of eau de paperback that lingers in the background. Its carefree enough to wear every day and yet sophisticated enough for that special night out on the town too. Not only did I personally love the scent on me but I have been complimented many times while wearing it.

These are the available sizes and formulas for the cologne/perfume
The spray comes in 1oz for $19.99 and 4oz for $39.99
The Perfume roll-on for $9.99 or Purse sized spray for $9.99


Wednesday, January 28, 2015

The Marriage Charm by Linda Lael Miller - Showcase - Q&A

Today I'm so happy to be hosting a showcase for the Queen of Western Romance and personal favorite, #1 NYT and USA Today bestselling author Linda Lael Miller about her new just released yesterday novel, The Marriage Charm. So sit back relax and enjoy the Q&A and all kinds of info about her newest novel!




  • ISBN-13: 9780373778928
  • Publisher: Harlequin
  • Publication date: 1/27/2015
  • Series: Brides of Bliss County Series , #2
  • Format: Mass Market Paperback
  • Pages: 304
 


Overview

The women of Bliss County have a pact—to find husbands. The right husbands.
One already has: Hadleigh Stevens, who married rancher Tripp Galloway a few months ago. Now Melody Nolan thinks it's her turn. Melody has recently found success as a jewelry designer, and her work is the focus of her life. She's not exactly unhappy, but she wants more. She's always been attracted to Spence Hogan, the local chief of police, but she's convinced that Spence, a notorious charmer, isn't what you'd call husband material.

Read an Excerpt:

After the wedding…
Most of his duties as his buddy Tripp's best man complete, Spencer "Spence" Hogan ducked out of the reception, held in the library's community room, as soon as the bride and groom left the scene, both of them beaming with just-married joy and understandably eager to get the honeymoon underway.
It was a five-minute drive to the police station. Once there, Spence strode through the small lobby without sparing more than a nod of greeting for Junie McFarlane, the second-shift dispatcher, or either of the two duty officers chatting her up.
Inside his modest office, he wasted no time swapping out the rented tux and shiny lace-up shoes for the well-worn jeans, blue cotton shirt and everyday boots he'd stashed there earlier in the day. He took his hat from the hook next to the door, put it on and then, feeling like his normal self instead of somebody's pet monkey, Spence allowed himself a sigh of pure relief.
Out front again, he surveyed the goings-on.
The deputies, Nick Estes and Moe Radner, were back at their desks, focusing intently on pretty much nothing in particular and fairly radiating the Protestant work ethic. Both were rookies, their hair buzz-cut, their uniforms so starched that the fold lines still showed, their badges buffed to a high shine.
Junie caught Spence's gaze and smiled slightly. She was just this side of forty and beautiful, in a country-music diva way. Mercifully, though, she went easy on the makeup, at least when she was on the job, saving the big hair, false eyelashes, sprayed-on jeans and rhinestones for her nights off. "How'd the wedding go, Chief?" she asked, with a twinkle in her green eyes. "Did Hadleigh Stevens manage to get herself married for real this time around, or did some yahoo show up and derail the whole shindig?"
Like Spence, Junie had attended the other ceremony, by now a local legend, right up there with the bank robbery back in 1894 and the time Elvis and his entourage breezed through town in a convoy of limos, somewhere in the mid-1950s, reportedly on their way to Yellowstone.
Spence chuckled. "Yep," he confirmed, recalling the almost-wedding, just over a decade before. Tripp Galloway had been the yahoo-of-record, and Hadleigh had been the bride, eighteen, storybook-beautiful, naive as hell and in dire need of rescue, although she'd raised some spirited objections that sunny September afternoon. The ousted groom, well, he'd been the personification of Mr. Wrong. Otherwise known as Oakley Smyth.
Tripp, a man on a mission, had blown into that little redbrick church like a dust devil working itself up into a full-scale tornado, moments before the I dos would've been exchanged, calmly announced that he could give the proverbial just cause why these two could not be joined in holy matrimony and proceeded to do so.
Understandably, Hadleigh hadn't taken Tripp's interference at all well; in fact, she'd pitched a memorable fit and whacked him hard with her bridal bouquet, not once, but repeatedly, scattering flower petals every time she made contact. There was no reasoning with her.
Finally, Tripp had lifted Hadleigh off her feet, slung her over one shoulder like a feed sack and carried her out of the sanctuary.
At that point, Hadleigh's protests had escalated considerably, of course, and she'd kicked and squirmed and yelled all the way back down the aisle, through the main doors and outside, into a world of much wider possibilities. Most likely, she hadn't been aware of that last part, being in a royal tizzy and everything.
For all Hadleigh's outrage, no one had interceded—not the preacher, not Alice Stevens, Hadleigh's grandmother and last living relative, not the stunned guests jamming the pews. Nobody moved a muscle, and nobody spoke up, either.
And that was a peculiar thing in itself, given the nature of small towns in general and Mustang Creek in particular. There, folks didn't hesitate to get involved when there was a ruckus, the way they might in a big city. No, sir. These were country people; the men were cowboys and farmers, carpenters and electricians, truck drivers and garage mechanics, sure to wade in and fight if the need arose—and the women, when sufficiently riled, could be fierce, with or without their men to back them up, alone or running in a pack.
This time, though, they'd all stood by and watched, the whole bunch of them, male and female, while Hadleigh was being, as she'd put it, "abducted, damn it!"
After all, the collective reasoning went, it wasn't as if Tripp was some stranger with dubious intentions. Like the indignant bride slung over his shoulder, he was one of their own, a hard worker, decent to the core—even if he had been a little wild in his youth and not much of a churchgoer.
He'd served his country, honorably and in a time of war, too, when the stakes were high. In places like Mustang Creek, things like that mattered.
Oakley, on the other hand, hometown boy though he was and from a prominent family into the bargain, barely registered a blip on the public-opinion meter, one way or the other. Still more kid than man, he'd never exhibited signs of even modest ambition, partied all through college and, most damning of all, forged himself a reputation for always taking the easy route.
He wasn't hated, but he wasn't liked, either.
When the locals thought about Oakley at all, it was usually to wonder what in creation the Stevens girl, an otherwise intelligent and exceptionally pretty one at that, saw in the guy. She was nice, in addition to her other favorable qualities and, in the town's opinion, could've had just about any eligible man she took a liking to.
At that point in his mental wanderings, Junie snapped Spence back to the here and now with a soft, wistful "Isn't it romantic? How Tripp and Hadleigh finally ended up together, even after everything that happened way back when?"
Spence adjusted his hat, frowning. "Romantic?" Just hearing the word, let alone saying it aloud, made him a little nervous, although he wouldn't have admitted as much. Sure, okay, he was glad for the newlyweds—Tripp and Hadleigh wanted to spend the rest of their lives together, and they were obviously meant for each other. They'd traveled separate trails, long and lonely ones mostly, before their paths finally crossed again and, after some fuss and fury, decided to buckle down and forge the kind of relationship that can ride out practically anything.
And if anybody, anywhere, deserved happily-ever-after, it was those two.
Still, as far as Spence was concerned, Tripp and Hadleigh were the exception, not the rule. He felt what he always did when a buddy got married—a certain bittersweet relief that he hadn't been the groom, standing up in front of God and everybody, vowing to hang in there, for better or for worse and all the rest of it.
In the event that things wound up on the "for better" side of the equation, great. Bring on the house with the picket fence, the regular sex and the crop of kids that usually followed.
But what if "for worse" was the name of the game? And let's face it, the statistics definitely indicated that the odds of success were somewhere around 50/50. For Spence's money, a man might as well make advance reservations at the Heartbreak Hotel—at least that way, he'd have someplace to go when the glow wore off and the crap hit the fan.
Room for one, please, and no definite checkout date.
He liked women and made no bones about it, but his reputation had gotten out of control because he didn't typically stick around after a date or two. There were reasons—one reason, actually, and she had a name—but whose business was that, anyway?
Clearly no optimist when it came to matters of the heart, Spence didn't make commitments if he could avoid it. He was considered a ladies' man, even a womanizer, and if that perception wasn't entirely accurate, so be it. Nobody needed to know about the side of himself he went to great lengths to hide—or that he was essentially incapable of breaking a promise, no matter how stupid that promise might be farther down the road. Come hell or high water, he wouldn't—couldn't—be the one to call it quits.
His own father had bailed on the family early on, when things got rocky, and the last thing Spence wanted was to follow in the old man's footsteps. He couldn't help sharing Judd Hogan's DNA, obviously, but the rest of it was a matter of choice.
If the woman he'd married ever wanted a divorce, he wouldn't try to stop her, wouldn't harass her or anything like that. But he knew this much about himself: he'd be half again as stubborn to make the first move. Not only that, but he'd know, deep down, that forcing somebody's hand was bound to leave him feeling like a coward.
He was almost grateful when Junie brought him up short again. She touched his arm, and there was an impish sparkle in her eyes and a got-your-number slant to her mouth.
"What?" Spence asked, looking and sounding more irritated than he really felt and taking care to keep his voice down. On the other side of the room, Estes and Radner sat with their thick noggins bent over their keyboards, fingers tapping industriously away. Spence figured they were probably playing shoot-'em-up video games or updating their profiles on some social-media website rather than checking lawenforcement sites for all-points bulletins and other information of interest to dedicated cops everywhere, as they no doubt wanted him to believe.
Neither scenario, of course, meant their ears weren't pitched in his and Junie's direction, in case a tidbit of gossip drifted their way, something they could take home to their young and talkative wives. Although there was no truth to the rumor that he and Junie had been having an on-again, off-again love affair for years, it was out there and circulating, just the same.
Junie's smile turned downright mischievous. They'd been friends, the two of them, long before they'd become coworkers, and she could read him like a road sign. She liked to remind him of this often.
They'd buddied up, he and Junie, way back when Spence's mother had dumped him on her sister-in-law's doorstep when he was nine, loudly declaring that enough was enough, by God, and she was through being a parent, through being the responsible one, through making all the decisions and all the sacrifices. Done, kaput, over it, fed up, finished.
Kathy Hogan was never the same after Spence's dad ditched her for another woman—younger and thinner, of course—though the truth was, she hadn't exactly been the nurturing type even before the divorce. To her credit, Kathy had made a few half-hearted attempts at parenting after that initial dropoff at his aunt Libby's place, reappearing periodically to gather up her young son and haul him, over Libby's protests and his own, "home" to Virginia. But she'd never really gotten the hang of mothering, for all her fretful efforts, and sooner rather than later, Spence always ended up back in Mustang Creek.
When Judd and the new wife were killed in a boating accident three years after they got married, something in Spence's mom had evidently died right along with them. At Libby's insistence, she'd stopped hauling him from one place to another, the only bright spot in an otherwise dark time.
With a sigh, he pushed away the memories of that initial parting, although he knew they'd be back, soon and with a vengeance. Just when he thought he had it handled, squared it all away in his mind, the whole sad scenario would ambush him again.
If it hadn't been for Libby, his father's oldest sister, and for Junie, who'd lived down the block and appointed herself Spence's new best friend, he might have run off in his teens. It wasn't like it hadn't crossed his mind.
End result: he didn't have a whole lot of faith in marriage. He liked women, no question, but maybe his trust in them was more than a little compromised.
Ya think, Einstein?
He set his jaw briefly before meeting Junie's silent challenge with a glare. "I'm out of here," he told her gruffly. "If you need me—do your best not to—I'll be over at the Moose Jaw. After that I plan to go straight home, do the chores, rustle up some grub and then sleep until I damn well feel like waking up." He turned, adjusting his hat again as he moved, and stopped long enough to fling a narrow-eyed glance at the pair of deputies. "There's a town out there," he reminded them, indicating its presence with a motion of one hand. "If you two can work a little patrol time into your busy schedules, I would appreciate the effort and so would the taxpayers. We've had those robberies lately. I think some visibility would not hurt this department."
Instantly flustered, Radner and Estes clattered and jingled into action, grabbing keys and gear and beating feet for the exit. Chorusing a hurried "yes, sir," they nearly collided with each other in the rush to get out there and protect truth, justice and the American way.
Presto, they were invisible, which was how Spence preferred them to be, at least most of the time.
"You enjoy watching those poor guys scramble like a pair of idiots," Junie observed, amused, from her post behind the desk.
Spence smiled, looked back at his friend. "Yeah," he agreed affably. "I do. Guess all this power goes to my head." A pause. "See you around."
Junie's stock response was not if I see you first, but the phone rang just then, so her reply was a distracted, "See you," instead, followed by a business-like, "Mustang Creek Police Department. How can I help you?"
Spence didn't wait for a rundown, since anything he really needed to know could be relayed to him in nanoseconds via his cell phone or the state-of-the-art communications system wired into his truck. Anyhow, genuine emergencies were blessedly rare in this neck of the woods; most incoming calls had to do with stranded cats, scary noises coming from an attic or a basement, routine fender benders, inconsiderate neighbors blocking somebody else's driveway or playing their music too loudly, sometimes parents fretting about teenagers who should've been home hours before and weren't. The duty officers ought to be up to handling any of the normal problems.
But the robberies had him mightily bothered. They were definitely not business as usual in this quiet town. It disturbed him that the thieves seemed to know exactly where to go. When he reached the police station parking lot, said deputies were already pulling out in their spiffy city-owned SUVs, one headed east, one west.


Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Julia London - The Devil Takes a Bride Showcase

Today I'm so happy to be showcasing New York Times and USA Today bestseller Julia London's latest Cabot Sister's novel The Devil Takes a Bride. Wow What a title and that's quite the cover right? And Guess what it's out today!!!




  • ISBN-13: 9780373778904
  • Publisher: Harlequin
  • Publication date: 1/27/2015
  • Series: Cabot Stepsisters Series , #2
  • Format: Mass Market Paperback
  • Pages: 368
 


Overview

Publishers Weekly calls the Cabot Sisters the free-spirited, well-intentioned and irrepressibly exuberant bad girls of high society!
A plan born of desperation…
Once the toast of society, Grace Cabot and her sisters now await the shame of losing high status and fine luxuries upon the death of the Earl of Beckington. The dire circumstances are inevitable unless, of course, Grace's wicked plot to seduce a wealthy viscount into marriage goes off without a single hitch. But once a stolen embrace with the wrong man leads her to be discovered in the arms of Jeffrey, the Earl of Merryton, her plan takes a most unexpected—and scorching—twist.
…and altered by passion
Governed by routine and ruled by duty, Jeffrey had no desire for a wife before he succumbed to Grace's temptation. Though his golden-haired, in-name-only bride is the definition of disorder, he can't resist wanting her in every way. But once her secrets meet his, society might consider their lives to be ruined beyond repair…while Jeffrey might just see it as a new beginning.

Praise for Julia's novels
"Julia London writes vibrant, emotional stories and sexy, richly-drawn characters."--New York Times Bestselling author Madeline Hunter
"London knows how to keep pages turning." -Publishers Weekly
"The Last Debutante is another successful merger of witty writing and passionate romance that gracefully delivers everything romance readers could want." – Booklist
"...London's story is satisfying as it builds on the excellent chemistry of the leads, gracefully unfolding with the perfect amount of tension."- Publishers Weekly review of The Revenge of Lord Eberlin
"Exceptionally entertaining...sinfully sexy." - Booklist on The Dangers of Deceiving a Viscount
"As London explores the intricate, authentic-feeling relationships blossoming among the players, her masterful ability to bring characters to life makes this romance entirely absorbing."- Publishers Weekly on The Dangers of Deceiving a Viscount
"London's love story is tense and tender, held aloft by endearing, dynamic characters."- Publishers Weekly review of The Perils of Pursuing a Prince

Thursday, January 22, 2015

**GIVEAWAY** Interview with author Martine Bailey – An Appetite for Violets

Today I'm so pleased to introduce debut author and cook Martine Bailey enjoy our interview learn how she incorporated her love of food into her writing and then enter to win your very own copy of An Appetite for Violets generously sponsored by Martine's publisher St. Martin's Press. Giveaway details below
Bon Appétit!






















  • ISBN-13: 9781250056917
  • Publisher: St. Martin's Press
  • Publication date: 1/13/2015
  • Edition description: First Edition
  • Pages: 400




Overview


“That’s how it is for us servants. No one pays you much heed; mostly you're invisible as furniture. Yet you overhear a conversation here, and add a little gossip there. Then you find something, something you should not have found.”
Irrepressible Biddy Leigh, under-cook at forbidding Mawton Hall, only wants to marry her childhood sweetheart and set up her own tavern. But when her elderly master marries young Lady Carinna, Biddy is unwittingly swept up in a world of scheming, secrets, and lies. Forced to accompany her new mistress to Italy, she documents her adventures and culinary discoveries in an old household book of recipes, The Cook’s Jewel. Biddy grows intrigued by her fellow travelers, but her secretive and unconventional mistress is the most intriguing of all.
In London, Biddy finds herself attracted to her mistress’s younger brother. In France, she discovers her mistress’s dark secret. At last in Italy, Biddy becomes embroiled in a murderous conspiracy, knowing the secrets she holds could be a key to a better life, or her downfall.
Inspired by eighteenth-century household books of recipes and set at the time of the invention of the first restaurants, An Appetite for Violets is a literary feast for lovers of historical fiction. Martine Bailey's novel opens a window into the fascinating lives of servants, while also delivering a suspenseful tale of obsession and betrayal.

Giveaway is for one print copy of
An Appetite for Violets
US ONLY
Please use the Rafflecopter form below
Thanks St. Martin's Press
Good Luck!


Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Interview with NA author Michelle Manning – Siding With Plato

Today I welcome yet another new to me author who's here today to talk about her brand new NA debut novel, Siding With Plato.
Enjoy our conversation!

             

Overview

Siding With Plato is a romantic laugh-out-loud chick lit novel about Being Young, Beautiful, and a Seriously Hot Mess!
Brooke Aarons can't get to college fast enough. Leaving behind her small town life, she intends to transform herself into a brilliant psychologist at the University of Texas, with no distractions to slow her down. But when she finds herself on a double date with the school's notorious playboy - and worse, enjoying it - Brooke has to wonder if she's the one who needs her head examined. 

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Character interview - The Jinxes from Jinxed by Donna Augustine

Today I'm so happy to welcome back a fantasy author who may be relatively new to me but one who's become a must read when a new novel comes out. I loved Karma the first book in her Karma series so when Jinxed came out I jumped at the chance to read it and was not disappointed. The Jinxes have a considerable role in Jinxed and I asked author Donna Augustine what she'd like to do to talk about the novel she thought maybe you'd all like to get up close and personal with Bobby, Billy & Buddy, otherwise known as The Jinxes.

 

  • BN ID: 2940150442405
  • Publisher: Strong Hold Publishing
  • Publication date: 11/1/2014
  • Series: Karma Series , #2  

Overview

Karma, it’s what they call me and the very essence of who I am. When I died young, I was recruited by the agency that keeps the Universe running smoothly. As someone with a human past, most of my coworkers consider me inferior.

But not everyone. Something evil has been stalking me for centuries. It’s been biding its time, waiting for the moment when it will strike and it needs me to to do it. 

Monday, January 19, 2015

Interview with Mingmei Yip author of Secret of a Thousand Beauties

Today I'm welcoming back award winning author Mingmei Yip who is here to talk about her new release, Secrets of a Thousand Beauties. Her historical novels are rich with folklore and facts about the period she writes about and this novel is the same with beautiful scenes and wonderful characters.




  • ISBN-13: 9781617733215
  • Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
  • Publication date: 11/25/2014
  • Pages: 320
 


OVERVIEW:
Set against the vibrant and intrigue-laden backdrop of 1930s China, Mingmei Yip's enthralling novel explores one woman's defiant pursuit of independence.

Spring Swallow was promised in marriage while still in her mother's belly. When the groom dies before a wedding can take place, seventeen-year-old Spring Swallow is ordered to become a ghost bride to appease his spirit. Under her in-laws' protection, she will be little more than a servant, unable to know real love or bear children. Refusing to accept her fate as a "bad-luck woman," Spring Swallow flees on her wedding day. 


Read an Excerpt:

PROLOGUE
It was my wedding day. I was horrified.
Because my soon-to-be-lawful—and awful—husband was not even a man.
He was a ghost.
Well, a man, but a dead one! A sinister being, his cold hands reaching toward me from the yinworld....
When we were engaged, in accord with tradition, I'd never met him. In fact, no one had ever met him, because my ghost husband-to-be and I had been engaged long before we were even born. My mother and her best friend, my ghost husband's mother, lived in the same village and happened to get pregnant around the same time. Following the ancient tradition zhifu weihun, they pointed to each other's protruding bellies, and proclaimed, "If we give birth to a boy and a girl, they'll be husband and wife when they turn seventeen."
So, because of our extremely old and extremely unfortunate tradition, my fate had been decided even before I was born. I was going to marry a man I could never know, not even see, because he'd died before he could make it outside his mother's belly. Like a snake, her umbilical cord wound around his tiny neck and squeezed the tiny breath out of him.
"But, Spring Swallow," said my mean aunt, addressing me by name, "a promise is a promise."
It was my misfortune to have been raised by this very mean woman because both of my parents had died in a bus accident not long after their future son-in-law's failure to enter this life. It was whispered around the village that because the baby could not lure his parents to join him in hell, he dragged down his intended parents-in-law instead.
My heartless aunt went on. "You know, failing to keep a promise not only shames your ancestors, but will bring your husband's ghost back to haunt you. So, you have no choice but to marry him, dead or alive. Also, because not only your future husband but your parents also died, no man will marry you."
Before I had a chance to ask why, she cast me a malicious glance. "No man wants to marry a bad-luck woman!"
But I knew the real reason that Mean Aunt was so eager for me to marry a ghost. Not because I was bad luck, but because I would be good luck for her. My ghost husband's family was one of the richest in the village. Though the wedding would bring me no husband, it would bring her a bundle of cash and a heap of expensive gifts. But, of course, rich people do not give away their money just because they are nice. Once married to their ghost son, I would be obligated to take care of my mother-in-law until she died!
My aunt went on to threaten me. "You think any man would want to marry you? Born under an all-destroying star? Spring Swallow, you really have no choice. So don't even think of escaping. I won't let you destroy my reputation and ruin my life!"
Escape. That was exactly what I had in mind all along. I didn't care about my aunt's reputation and life. Because living in our remote village and being an old maid, she didn't have much of a life to begin with anyway.

(Continues...)