Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Release Blitz - Blackmail by AL Simpson


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Blurb

Avery was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Is she doomed to suffer for the rest of her life at the hands of an unscrupulous club owner?
Destitute, in debt and on the brink of giving up, it’s the death of a friend who brings her hope.
Can Gabe help her turn her life around or, will she insist on solving a murder which could place her in grave danger?
Plot used is from a Lacey Roberts book which has been unpublished.

Buy Links

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Excerpt

Present Day Avery’s shoulders slumped as she trudged up the front steps of the small, run-down apartment block. She clutched a small shopping bag and her purse in one hand, a wad of unopened envelopes in the other. Her apartment was on the ground floor, to the right of the filthy glass entrance doors. There were only six apartments in the building and four were empty. This is the sleazy side of town. Nobody would voluntarily live there but she had no choice. The rent was cheap and it didn't seem to matter whether she paid on time or not. The block had been built in the fifties and had been badly maintained, bricks crumbled from the façade every time it rained. The interiors were as filthy as the entrance, damp oozed from the ceilings. Peeled and chipped paint decorated the walls, the carpet was threadbare and curtains non-existent. The rancid odor of decay permeated the building. She dumped the bag onto the ground and rummaged in her purse for the key to the door. “Come on. I'm not in the fucking mood for this.” Avery had been searching for work for almost a week but, no-one in this town, or the next town over, would even grant her an interview. Vince, the sleazy bastard, had alerted her boss to her pictures plastered all over the internet. Her disgusted boss hadn’t hesitated to spread the word amongst his colleagues. Her career as a Personal Assistant was finished. She would never be able to get a job in her field now. She was behind in the rent and, if her guess was accurate, the wad of envelopes clutched in her hand were bills she had no way of paying. Finally, her fingers wrapped around the single key and she withdrew it, inserted it into the door and let herself in. She flipped the switch on the wall. Nothing. Her power had been disconnected. “Shit, shit, shit,” she shouted while moving to the tiny kitchen table. Apart from her bed, it was the only remaining furniture she had. She couldn't really blame the power company. The check she’d written for the deposit had bounced and they had been asking her to pay the overdue account since she’d moved in four weeks ago. After slamming the shopping bag, envelopes and her purse down on the table, she dropped into a chair. The envelopes now appeared to taunt her. Avery lowered her head into her hands and indulged in self-pity by crying. How much lower would she be forced to sink? Not low enough to be forced back to the club. She would rather live on the streets and starve. She blotted out the pain of her hellish lifestyle by closing her eyes and letting her mind drift to happier times when life was beautiful – with her mom and dad. 14101600_2124582121100211_676586354_n

About the Author

ALSimpson 
 I have always loved to write and have a vivid and overactive imagination. In my spare time, when I’m not writing, I love to walk, read and shop. I believe no mountain is too hard to climb, no river is too wide to span and no journey is too difficult to complete. I follow my dreams and I urge and encourage others to do the same. With a positive attitude, the impossible can become possible. f08a5-facebook2576f-goodreadsbe29c-amazon94dde-website

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COVER REVEAL - Ruin by Clarissa Wild @WildClarissa + GIVEAWAY




Title: Ruin
Author: Clarissa Wild
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Cover Design: Booming Covers
 Release Date: September 20, 2016



Blurb

Maybell Fairweather was the girl of my dreams.

Always smiling brightly, she kept going, despite the names her classmates called her behind her back.
She was full of curiosity and independence, the extent of which I could only be jealous of. Even though she had all odds stacked against her, she knew what she wanted from life and pursued it, no matter the cost.

She was completely my opposite in every way.
Perfect, even though she couldn’t see it.
Perfect … until me.

Because this is the story of how I ruined her.
 

Based on a true story. Standalone Romance. No cliffhanger.





Pre-order Links






Excerpt

Sometimes we just have to live the fantasy in order to feel human again.

“It’s so peaceful out here,” she whispers.

“Yeah … I love it.”

“I just wish I could get up and stand under the trees. Just for a little while.”

I sit up and look at her, waiting until she opens her eyes. “Just standing or more?”

She smiles as she cocks her head towards me. “And maybe dance a little. If I could.”

The left side of my lips perk up into a smile. “You can.”

I get up from the bench, stand in front of her, and hold out both my hands.

“What are you doing?” she asks.

“Take my hands.”

“Why?” She looks at them tentatively.

“Just take them.”

It takes her a while to agree, probably because she’s scared. But there’s no reason to be. I won’t let her fall. I never will.

I pull her up into standing position.

“Hold onto me for support,” I say, and then take a step back until I’m so far back she has to come to me. “C’mon. Don’t be scared. I’m here.”

One, two, three. Hop. Her leg sways, but she stays put, putting every ounce of weight on my arms.

“Again,” I say, taking another step back and tugging her with me.

She goes along with it, taking another step of blind faith.

I never take my eyes off her as she continues to hop closer to me. Not even when we reach the center of the field. Leaves are scattered all around us, and when the wind blows a cascade of more leaves follow. Some drop on her head, making her giggle as she brushes them off.

Still, I can’t stop looking.

I’m no longer afraid or embarrassed about it.

I simply am … in love.

“What now?” she asks.

I pull her as close as I can so I can wrap both my arms around her. “Put your arms around my neck.”

She complies, her fingers lacing behind my neck. I can feel the warmth of her skin against mine, and as I soak in the heat of the sun I feel invigorated, strong. Strong enough to carry her across the ocean and back.

In one go I lift her up, her cheerful squeal creating goosebumps all over my body. Then I start to move my feet, one by one, until I’m no longer just walking … Until I’m dancing in a whirlwind of leaves … dancing with her in my arms.

The beauty of this place fades in comparison to her.

And even though I adore every inch of her presence, I do not deserve her.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t fulfill her dreams.

Her smile is wide, her teeth sparkling in the light of the sun. She looks so happy. Happier than I’ve ever seen her, and it fills me with something I’ve never experienced before. Hope.

After spinning and circling around for so many times, my head is getting dizzy, so I slowly come to a stop and admire the renewed look on her face. Her rosy cheeks. Her tousled hair floating in the wind. She leans away and grabs my hands as I pull her back to the seat once again.






Author Bio


Clarissa Wild is a New York Times & USA Today Bestselling author, best known for the dark Romance novel Mr. X. Her novels include the Fierce Series, the Delirious Series, Stalker Duology, Twenty-One (21), Ultimate Sin, VIKTOR, and Bad Teacher. She is also a writer of erotic romance such as the Blissful Series, The Billionaire's Bet series, and the Enflamed Series. She is an avid reader and writer of sexy stories about hot men and feisty women. Her other loves include her furry cat friend and learning about different cultures. In her free time she enjoys watching all sorts of movies, reading tons of books and cooking her favorite meals.



Author Links

Giveaway

BOOK TOUR -The Hard Way by Katie Ashley



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Sports + Bad Boy + Second Chance
The Hard Way by Katie Ashley NOW AVAILABLE!




**Additional retailers to follow**


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Blurb


Cade Hall has always been the golden boy of the gridiron. Because of his talent at football, coupled with his father’s wealth, he’s always gotten his way. But when a night of drunken debauchery lands him in hot water with the college athletic board, neither his influential father nor his charming grin can save him. Cade finds it a total buzz kill when he is sentenced to community service with troubled youth at an inner-city shelter. But his nightmare is only beginning when his greatest high school regret is the very one in charge of the program, and she has him by the balls in more ways than one.


For Avery Prescott, senior year was a nightmare of epic proportions, and Cade Hall played the lead villain. After she fled her small town for college in the bright lights of Atlanta, she thought she had escaped the painful memories of her past. She never could have imagined Cade would waltz through the door of the outreach program she presided over. But Avery has news for Cade—she isn’t the same shy, doormat of a girl she was in high school. Since she holds Cade's football future in her hands, she’s more than ready to make payback a real bitch.


Will they stay in the defensive zone or discover that sometimes life's greatest lessons are learned the hard way?

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Excerpt


“Is this one of those old-timey record players?”
“A Victrola,” I answered as I joined him.
Cade snapped his fingers. “That’s right. There was one of these at my grandparents’ house.” He eyed the contraption curiously. “Does it work?”
“Sure.” I set my cup down before winding up the crank. Then I placed the needle on the record, and a slow instrumental tune came out of the Victrola’s horn. At Cade’s groan, I grinned. “Not a fan of classical music?”
“No. It’s more about the fact that it’s one of Strauss’s waltzes.”
Cocking my brows at him, I asked, “You know Strauss?”
With a snort, Cade said, “Don’t look so surprised, and no, I didn’t learn about him in Harlington’s music appreciation class either.”
I held up my hands. “I wasn’t alluding to anything.”
“Yes, you were alluding, as you say, to the stereotype of me being an uncivilized jock,” Cade teased in a snooty-sounding voice.
“I’m sorry. I’ve got to stop doing that. You really are so much more than a jock.”
He swept his hand to his heart. “Why, thank you.”
“So tell me how you know Strauss.”
“I have waltzed at ten cotillions and three debutante balls.”
“Wow. That’s quite impressive.”
“What about you?”
“I’ve never been to a cotillion or deb ball.”
“No, I mean, haven’t you ever waltzed before?”
I laughed. “Oh yeah, I often practice my dance skills out in the corn.”
“Every lady should know how to dance.”
“But I’m not a lady.”
Cade smiled. “Yeah. You are.” When I started to protest, he said, “Money and position aren’t what make a lady. It’s what’s inside you that counts.”
His words and his tone caused the breath to wheeze out of my lungs. Just when I thought he couldn’t surprise me any more with the things he said, he went and said something like that. “Thank you,” I finally mumbled.
“You’re welcome.” The world seemed to slow to a crawl around us as we stood there staring at each other. The sound of Cade clapping his hands together caused me to jump. “Okay. One waltz lesson coming up.”
“I’m going to warn you that you’re probably going to regret this. I’m the worst dancer ever.”
“How can anyone who plays the piano suck at dancing?”
“I’m not sure how it’s possible, but trust me, it is.”
Cade laughed. “We’ll see.”
A tingling jolt of electricity shot through me when Cade took one of my hands in his. After he put his other hand on the small of my back, he drew me closer to him. Even with all the times I had sat next to him while we worked on our project, I hadn’t been this close.
“Now you put your other hand on my shoulder.”
“Okay.”
“Step back with your left foot and then bring your right to the side.” After I followed Cade’s lead, he said, “Now bring your left foot to your right, and then step forward with your right.”
My mind spun as I frantically tried processing Cade’s instructions. Somehow it managed to click together, and I followed his lead. “Hey, you’ve got it,” he remarked with a smile.
“It’s not because of me—it must be the teacher.” I glanced up at him and smiled. “Sports, brains, and dancing; you’re really a true triple threat.”
“You forgot devastating good looks and charm.”
I grinned. “Does that make you a quintuple threat?”
“Make it a sextuple threat if you throw in the money.”
“I should have known you’d find a way to have ‘sex’ in your title.”
Cade threw his head back and laughed. “Always busting my balls, Prescott.”
“Yep. Just consider me your Little Ball Buster like Judith in Walking Dead was called Little Ass Kicker.”
Cade’s brows rose in surprise. “You watch Walking Dead?”
“Sure I do.”
“That surprises me.”
“Why?”
“I guess I just figured you only watched pretentious stuff like Downton Abbey.”
Downton Abbey is not pretentious.”
Cade grinned. “I’ll take that as a yes that you watch it.”
“I certainly do.”
“At least I’m 1 and 1 on picking the TV shows you like.”
“While you know me pretty well, you have a lot more to learn, Mr. Hall,” I teased.
“I look forward to you educating me.”
As I stared into his face, Cade’s expression grew serious. The idea of educating him suddenly seemed to take on a deeper meaning—one of both mental and physical knowledge.
Cade dipped his head to where our mouths were just inches apart. His breath fanned across my cheek, causing me to shiver. I stared into his eyes, silently pleading with him to go ahead and kiss me. We’d already been down this road before. Since Thanksgiving night, I’d wanted nothing more than to feel his lips on mine again.
When he finally kissed me, it sent energy humming all over my body. I’d kissed other boys, but it had never felt the way it did with Cade. It was all-consuming of my mind, body, and spirit.
Considering his experience, it shouldn’t have been too surprising that Cade was a good kisser. What surprised me the most was the emotion behind his kiss. It ran so much deeper than just a physical act, as if he was putting his heart and soul into kissing me.
Cade deepened the kiss by plunging his tongue into my mouth. It tangled along with mine in a waltz of its own composing. My hand snaked up his back to capture the hair at the base of his neck, and I ran my fingers through the silky strands, marveling at how much softer it was than I had imagined.
The Victrola ran out of steam, and the only sound filling the room was heavy breathing. At the loss of music, Cade stopped leading me around the floor, and his hands slid underneath my buttocks. He gripped the globes of my ass before hoisting me up to wrap my legs around his, and I molded myself tighter against him. I couldn’t seem to get enough of him—the way his strong arms felt around me, his thick waist against my legs, his broad, muscular back underneath my hands. Even though I knew I shouldn’t, I wanted all of him.
When we crashed into a chest of drawers, Cade momentarily released my lips to breathlessly ask, “Are you okay?”
“Mmhmm.” I gazed into his hooded eyes. “Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”
I rubbed myself against the ridge in Cade’s pants, causing him to groan against my throat. “Jesus, Prescott, if you keep doing that, I won’t be able to stop.” When I did it again, my action was rewarded with a growl.
Cade’s wild eyes glanced around the room before leading us over to the wide red settee in the back corner. We collapsed onto the smooth velvet material. I widened my legs to allow Cade’s hips between them and his mouth sought out mine in a frantic kiss.
As our tongues battled against each other, Cade’s hand came to my breast. He kneaded and cupped it over the fabric of my uniform, my nipples hardening under his touch. When he began undoing the buttons of my dress, he broke the kiss to glance at me as if asking my permission. At my nod, he practically ripped the remaining buttons open.
He gave me a sheepish grin as he pulled me into a sitting position. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s okay,” I said as I slid my arms out of the sleeves.
My breath hitched when Cade’s arms snaked around my back to undo my bra. Once it was unhooked, I couldn’t help bringing my arms to cover my chest and keep the bra in place. I hated that in this moment I couldn’t seem to get past my modesty, or my fear that my average-sized chest would turn him off.
Cade tilted my chin with his fingers, forcing me to look him in the eye. “You sure you’re okay with this, Prescott?”
“I am, I promise.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“I’m just a little scared,” I whispered.
“That I’ll hurt you?” Cade questioned with a wounded look.
I gave a quick jerk of my head. “That you won’t like what you see.”
“Huh?”
“You’ve been with so many other girls. I’m afraid I won’t measure up.”
His expression darkened. “That’s the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever heard.”
I ducked my head. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help the way I feel.”
Cade cupped my face in his hands. “There’s only right here and right now, and there’s no one else but you and me. None of the past, just us and this moment.”
My heartbeat thrummed wildly at his sentiment. “Okay,” I murmured as I stared deeply into his eyes.
“And you could never not be beautiful to me. I like everything about you, both inside and out.” At what must’ve been my incredulous look, Cade grinned. “And I’m not just saying that so you’ll let me in your pants.”
“I know you wouldn’t.” Deep down, I knew it to be the truth. If Cade had really wanted to just screw me, he would have attempted it over the past two months.
“I wouldn’t be here tonight if I didn’t want to be with you for the long haul.”
Once again, my heart began to beat so erratically that I felt a little dizzy. “Really?”
He nodded. “You’re all I need, Avery.”

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About the Author
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Katie Ashley is a New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon Best-Selling author. She lives outside of Atlanta, Georgia with her daughter, Olivia, and her two very spoiled dogs. She has a slight obsession with Pinterest, The Golden Girls, Harry Potter, Shakespeare, Supernatural, Designing Women, and Scooby-Doo.
With a BA in English, a BS in Secondary English Education, and a Masters in Adolescent English Education, she spent 11 1/2 years educating the Youth of America aka teaching MS and HS English until she left to write full time in December 2012.




GIVEAWAY
$25 Amazon Gift Card



COVER REVEAL - Neighbors by Stylo Fantome @StyloFantome


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Are you ready to meet the neighbors?

Neighbors by Stylo Fantome releases on September 27th!

Add to your TBR at: http://bit.ly/2bxk5rb


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Blurb
Things a good neighbor can do for you:

1. Give you a cup of sugar

2. Let you borrow his lawnmower

3. Water your plants while you're on vacation

4. Make your eyes roll back in your head with his tongue

Katya Tocci has never paid much attention to who lives next door - her career always kept her too busy. She's a good girl, working her way to becoming the most sought after cake designer in all of San Francisco.

But even a good girl's gotta cut loose once in a while, right? So one fake dating profile later, and she's ready to tarnish her squeaky clean image. Little does she know, her fun time is closer to home than she ever imagined.

Throw in a neighbor who wants to corrupt her, and another who just wants to own her, and her entire world is flipped upside down.

Who knew neighbors could be so helpful?


About the Author:
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Crazy woman from a remote location in Alaska (where the need for a creative mind is a necessity!), I have been writing since ... forever? Yeah, that sounds about right. I have been told that I remind people of Lucille Ball - I also see shades of Jennifer Saunders, and Denis Leary. So basically, I laugh a lot, I'm clumsy a lot, and I say the F-word A LOT.

I like dogs more than I like most people, and I don't trust anyone who doesn't drink. No, I do not live in an igloo, and no, the sun does not set for six months out of the year, there's your Alaska lesson for the day. I have mermaid hair - both a curse and a blessing - and most of the time I talk so fast, even I can't understand me.

Yeah. I think that about sums me up.