Month: December 2013
12 NA’s of Christmas featuring Frosted Midnight by Breena Wilde (excerpt and giveaways)
Willow needs a miracle…
Twenty-year-old Willow is a librarian in the tourist town of Bandon, Oregon. During the summer the town is bursting with interesting people from all over the world.
Two summers ago she met Austin. He was everything she ever wanted in a man: smart, funny, and gorgeous. But after eight perfect weeks he left, and she hasn’t heard from him since.
Until Christmas Eve. She receives an email from Austin asking her to meet him at midnight so he can explain.
It might be a booty call, but Willow has to see him one last time, even if it’s just to say good-bye.
He cleared his throat and shifted in the blanket. “I was married,” he finally whispered.
My mind screamed. No. No. No. No. No. Married? He said ‘was.’ Did that mean he wasn’t married any longer? “Was?” I asked, finishing off the wine, grabbing the bottle, and refilling my glass. I had a feeling I’d need it.
“Yes. We married right out of high school, attended college together. Started our careers together.” He smiled and my heart shattered.
“What happened?”
He gulped down the rest of his drink. “She died,” he finally said.
That surprised me. “I-I’m sorry, Austin.” I took another drink. Is that why he left suddenly? Had he left her and she died? Was it my fault?
He stared into the fire, the flames dancing in his faraway eyes. “She was the love of my life. I knew with absolute certainty there would never be another woman for me…” He trailed off.
I stopped breathing.
What did that make me? A booty call? Had he come back to try and forget her? That seemed like a lot of work. The man was extraordinarily handsome. I had no doubt droves of women wanted him. So maybe it was guilt. He came back to tell me he was sorry he’d left abruptly.
But I didn’t want to hear that. I realized the only words I wanted to hear from Austin were words that meant we were supposed to be together.
His wife had been the love of his life, but Austin was the love of mine, regardless how little time I had left.
God, it hurt. The fucking knowing.
Breena Wilde has been writing for years. She’s the international bestselling author of the BLURRED LINES series. She’s sold more than five hundred thousand books under another name in the last year. Breena loves to write about love, loss, and the strength of the human spirit. If you’d like to know more about her, you can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, or her Blog: http://www.breenawilde.blogspot.com.
Cover Reveal: Believed by Brei Betzold
Blog Tour: Gabriel’s Redemption by Sylvain Reynard (Review)
I’m interested in the way literature can help us explore aspects of the human condition – particularly suffering, sex, love, faith, and redemption. My favourite stories are those in which a character takes a journey, either a physical journey to a new and exciting place, or a personal journey in which he or she learns something about himself/herself.
I’m also interested in how aesthetic elements such as art, architecture, and music can be used to tell a story or to illuminate the traits of a particular character. In my writing, I combine all of these elements with the themes of redemption, forgiveness, and the transformative power of goodness.
I try to use my platform as an author to raise awareness about the following charities: Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation, WorldVision, Alex’s Lemonade Stand, and Covenant House. For more information, see my Twitter account.
Blog Tour: Fighting Redemption by Kate McCarthy (review and giveaways)
“For six years I fought every day not to think of you and I lost, because every day you were all I could see. You were the best thing in my life–so sweet and innocent, and so goddamn tempting.”
12 NA’s of Christmas featuring Cross Country Christmas:A Woodfalls Girls Novella by Tiffany King (excerpt and giveaways)
With the holiday season upon her, Jamie Foster is once again stressed about making her yearly visit back home to Woodfalls, still single. Fate intervenes in the form of Grant Johnson, a boy she grew up with, who catches the same flight while returning home from a business trip.
When a malfunction sends their plane crashing down on the runway upon takeoff, Jamie and Grant decide to rent a car and make the nine-hundred-mile drive home together. Ironically for them, anything that can go wrong does as they face one hysterical hurdle after another.
Christmas may finally bring Jamie the gift of love she has always wanted if she and Grant can manage to overcome a few obstacles along the way. Ho-ho-ho!
“Why do you care so much?” he asked, scooting the tray to the foot of the bed and moving closer to me.
My body reacted to his close proximity. “What makes you think I care?” I said breathlessly as he inched closer.
“I think you care a lot,” he said, dropping his eyes to my mouth.
I swallowed hard as his mouth hovered close to mine. “Tell me you haven’t been thinking about this,” he said, stroking a thumb over my bottom lip.
“Have you?” I whispered.
“Jams, I’ve been thinking about this longer than I can remember,” he said, crushing his lips to mine. His words rang through my head, but there was no way I could make sense of them when his lips felt so good. I responded with a small moan when his tongue trailed across the same spot where his thumb had been. My pleasure filled acceptance affected him and he dragged me into his arms, deepening the kiss. A shiver rippled down my body as our tongues found each other. I gripped the hem of his shirt, wanting him closer. Hearing my unspoken plea, he settled the upper half of his body on top of mine. I gasped with pleasure, running my fingers up under his shirt. I could feel the firmness of his muscles and smoothness of his skin. It was almost my undoing when I felt him tugging at my shirt moments before his hand glided over the sensitive skin of my ribcage. My blood roared through me. His hand moved farther up to my breasts and I bowed my body, whimpering against his lips. I wanted his touch everywhere on my body.
“Jams, you’re seriously killing me,” he said raggedly against my lips. He pulled back slightly.
“Is that good or bad?” I asked, running my hands up his torso. My fingers trailed to the small patch of hair that disappeared down his jeans. Ever since I’d seen him in nothing but his jockey shorts the other night, I’ve fantasized about that small trail of hair.
“So good it almost hurts,” he said, leaning in for another kiss. Before his lips could reach their destination, a beeping noise from downstairs followed by the sound of voices in the hallway interrupted us. “Really?” he asked incredulously, climbing off the bed. I couldn’t help giggling. Of course something was going on. With our luck lately, I could have almost set my watch by it.
USA Today Bestselling author Tiffany King is a lifelong reading fanatic who is now living her dream as a writer, weaving Young Adult and New Adult romance tales for others to enjoy. She has a loving husband and two wonderful kids. (Five, if you count her three spoiled cats). Her addictions include: Her iphone and ipad, chocolate, Diet Coke, chocolate, Harry Potter, chocolate, zombies and her favorite TV shows. Want to know what they are? Just ask.
12 NA’s of Christmas featuring Christmas Catch by Chelsea M. Cameron (Excerpt and Giveaways)
“I’m sorry,” I say. I mean for breaking up with him and for a lot of things. About his dad. He and Sawyer were never close, which was one of the reasons we got along so well. He was really close with his mom, though.
“What are you sorry for, Ivy?” Ah, the old Sawyer is back. He never let me get away with vague statements. He always made me explain them. Big fan of honesty, that boy.
“I’m sorry for a lot of things.” I look down at my shoes. Our toes are almost touching.
“Maybe . . . maybe we can sit down and talk about some of them. It’s . . . it’s really good to see you.” I look up from his feet and see that he’s serious. God, it’s good to see him. I didn’t know how much I missed him until he popped up in my life again.
“It’s good to see you, too. I have to get home, but maybe later? Where are you living now?”
“I’m back at home, but they built me a place over the garage. Come around five and we’ll talk. I’ll make sure I have plenty of vanilla Coke and Red Vines.” The mention of the Coke and Red Vines makes my heart stutter for a moment.
“You still remember that?”
“I couldn’t forget if I wanted to. See you at five.” With that he backs the cart up and vanishes down another aisle.
You can buy this book or any of the 12 NA’s of Christmas titles on Amazon.
Promo Blitz: Skipping Stones by J.B. Mcgee
They say there are five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
Not everyone will grieve in this order, nor will everyone go through every stage. It’s during the stage of denial when Alex Hart meets Andrew Foster. He takes her one-step closer to acceptance: the stage when new, meaningful relationships are formed. The stage when the realization occurs that this is now the new state of normal.
Just when Alex thinks she is on her way to healing, she enters the bargaining phase. That’s the phase where you wonder what you could have done differently. You wonder “what if?” Specifically, what if the ones you loved hadn’t left you?
Leaving…this is what makes heading off to war so difficult and frightening for Alex. She knows all too well what it’s like to be the one on the losing end of life, which is why she’s made it her personal mission in life to save as many lives as possible. The extreme high she gets from treating trauma victims turns into Alex’s own form of therapy, or so she thinks.
When faced with her world being turned upside down, Alex may just find that her true therapy is in the one who has always saved her.
J.B. McGee was born and raised in Aiken, South Carolina. After graduating from South Aiken High School, she toured Europe as a member of the 1999 International Bands of America Tour, playing the clarinet. While attending Converse College, an all-girls school in Spartanburg, South Carolina, she visited Charleston often. It quickly became one of her favorite vacation spots. She met her husband, Chad, during Christmas break her freshman year, and they married in 2001 and she moved back to her home town.
In 2005, the couple welcomed their first son, Noah. J.B. finished her Bachelor of Arts degree in Early Childhood Education at the University of South Carolina-Aiken in 2006. During her time studying children’s literature, a professor had encouraged her to become a writer.
In 2007, she welcomed their second child, Jonah, and she became a stay at home mom/entrepreneur. In 2009, the found out their two children and J.B. have Mitochondrial Disease. In 2011, a diagnosis also was given to Chad. Please take a moment and learn more about Mitochondrial Disease. Awareness is key to this disease that has no cure or treatments.
J.B. McGee and her family now reside in Buford, Georgia, to be closer to their children’s medical team. After a passion for reading had been re-ignited, J.B. decided to finally give writing a shot. Broken (This Series), is her first book and first series.
The 12 NA’s of Christmas featuring Brave by Zoe Dawson
In the season of hope, in the season of giving…
How far would you go for your friend?
Alissa Thompson has been the good girl her whole life. Her uninterested parents don’t understand her hopes and dreams. But this Christmas when her steadfast childhood friend Charlie needs her more than ever, she can’t back down. Crossing the line means being braver than she has ever been in her life. It means changing and growing and taking a stand.
Dakota Gray was brave in the face of debilitating fear. But he lost himself in that blood soaked day and has shunned everything he once knew. Now shattered and broken, he hides out in isolation, his wounds beyond healing. His heart closed, his emotions buried, he’s a man on the edge of self-destructing. Little does he know that courage would be found in another searching for the strength to be brave.
Now snowbound in the Colorado Rockies one week before Christmas, Alissa thought this was about her journey and her friend, about setting him free. But from the moment she meets Dakota, she learns about what real bravery is all about. What real love is all about. But is the season enough, her courage enough, her love enough to heal this hero’s brave heart and in the end set herself free?
Dakota
I was vibrating with the memory of her skin against mine. The sounds of her distress had triggered another flashback. It wasn’t her fault. She hadn’t meant to do it. But after four months of successfully keeping the flashbacks at bay, I’d had two in her presence in less than an hour. She’d only been worried about her own burden. I didn’t know what it was, but I recognized the sadness in her eyes. The loss of something precious.
But it was her scent that had brought me back, the glorious feel of her arms around me. None of this made sense, though. I barely knew her, but it was as if our hearts knew each other. I didn’t normally go in for that kind of crap, but it was true.
I closed my eyes thinking about how close her lips had been to mine. It had been such a long time since anyone had touched me. It had felt so good, so f**king great, but I couldn’t allow myself to get used to it. I’d come here for the isolation, to suffer alone with my failures and pain. No one was allowed to help me. I couldn’t bear it, no longer had the courage to try.
Seeking calm, I focused on getting Alissa’s dishes washed. I knew I had to touch her again and I didn’t want to. But she was injured. She couldn’t walk with her sprained ankle. She probably thought I didn’t want to touch her, but that wasn’t the real truth. I did want to touch her. I ached to. But once the snow stopped and she did what she came to do, she’d be gone. I’d be alone again. That didn’t hold as much appeal as it had only a few hours ago.
I bent down and slipped my arms around her, gritting my teeth as my senses stretched open painfully, like muscles that hadn’t been flexed in a long time. My whole being cried out for the comfort, for the simple human contact. I went down the hall adjacent to the kitchen to the spare room next to mine. I wanted her close, in case she needed me.
You can buy this book or any of the 12 NA’s of Christmas titles on Amazon.
Zoe Dawson is the alter ego of Karen Anders, award winning, multi-published author. Her writing journey started with poetry and branched out into fiction. With a couple of college English courses under her belt, she penned a historical, then moved onto contemporary romance fiction. Today, she is happy producing romantic suspense, romantic mystery, and paranormal novels. The words feed her soul and the happily ever afters feed her heart.
Promo Blitz and Giveaways: 12 NA’s of Christmas (various Authors)
Tears gather on my lashes, a few falling as I blink. “I don’t understand why you’re doing this. I was fine until you showed up.” I swallow a sob. “Why couldn’t you leave me alone?” I realize that I’m not just referring to him showing up all of a sudden, but rather years of West being a constant thorn in my side.
He uses the pad of his thumb to gently wipe away the tears on my face, leaving tracks of heat. “Because I was a stupid high school jock.”
I make a noise, swallowing yet another sob. My heart is pounding, and I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. This has to be a joke. “And now you’re all mature?”
West’s expression turns as serious as I’ve ever seen. “I’d like to think so, but only you can be the judge of that.”
“I don’t want to be the judge.” I sniff, tears falling faster. “I want you—”
He kisses me, softly. Lightly. A gentle pressure of his lips to mine, and yet it feels as though he’s taken a sledgehammer to my body, breaking me into tiny pieces.