Monday, December 21, 2020
RICKY STEELE MYSTERIES!
Friday, August 07, 2020
LAST CHANCE BEACH BOX SET AND FREE COCKTAIL BOOK #LastChanceBeach
There’s still plenty of time to find summer fun and summer love, new romances and second chances, hot alpha males and heartwarming heroes, beach bunnies, dudes, and romance popping up when you least expect it.
Throw a log on the beach bonfire tonight and celebrate LAST CHANCE BEACH: Summer’s End, a special collection of 14 short stories from bestselling authors—all new, never published before—that will thrill the hopeful romantic in you. Some stories are sweet; some are sizzling hot. All will touch your heart and make you want to book a vacation to LAST CHANCE BEACH.
Only 99
cents and only for a limited time!
Purchase link is https://www.amazon.com/Last-Chance-Beach-Summers-End-ebook/dp/B08CV3GN3R
LAST CHANCE BEACH: Summer’s End
Genre: Contemporary romance
By
14 members of the Romance Gems https://romancegems.blogspot.com
LAST CHANCE BEACH
is the island paradise where dreams go to live again and wishes may come true.
It’s Summer’s End on the island, and
the cottages, condos, hotels, and bungalows are filled to capacity. Where is LAST CHANCE BEACH? The island is just
off the mainland—wherever you want it to be.
Let your imagination carry you to the island!
Video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1dAWk_o9Fk
Puzzle https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=04cd695b6511
Hot August Night by Joan Reeves, NY Times and USA Today
Bestselling Author
Can a chef and a hot
dog loving cop resist desire when they’re forced to share the same overbooked
beach cottage?
Something
New by Liz Flaherty, USA Today Bestselling Author
Their lives are all
planned out—until they're not.
I
Do…Again by Nancy Fraser, Amazon Top 100 Author
Can they re-ignite
what they once had and take a last chance on love?
The Man
in Gull Cottage by Caroline Clemmons,
Amazon Top 100 Author
Will the solution to
her dilemma drive them apart or into one another's arms?
That One Summer by Maddie James, Amazon Top 100 Author
He's the one who got
away. She's the one who couldn't commit.
Romancing
the Spouse by Jan Scarbrough, Amazon Bestselling Author
Can she turn back
the clock to save her marriage?
Blue Sky
Summer by Kathleen Lawless, Amazon Bestselling Author
Of all the beaches
on the coast, who does she see again? Him!
Hangover
Husband by Bonnie Edwards, Amazon Bestselling Author
What happens in
Vegas doesn't always stay there
One Last
Shot by Marcia King-Gamble, National Bestselling Author
She can run, but can
she hide? Will love still find her?
Secondhand
Hearts by Kathryn Hills, Award Winning Author
Life takes you down
many winding paths. Will theirs lead to love on Last Chance Beach?
Paradise Perfume by Connie Vines, Award Winning Author
Fragrance and love
cannot be hidden.
Dreams of
the Past by Laura Hunsaker, Award Winning Author
Can dreams of the
future erase her nightmares of the past?
Beach
Kisses & Sunset Wishes by
Nora LeDuc
She wants someone
interested in a fling. He wants someone interested in a ring.
Can't Buy
Me Love by Hannah Rowan
Things aren't always
what they seem.
That’s not all—we have
a FREE book of recipes for tempting cocktails to drink while you read!
In case you don’t drink alcohol, the recipe I contributed is for an
alcohol-free punch that also doesn’t leave a permanent stain when spilled.
https://www.amazon.com/Cocktails-Last-Chance-Beach-Reeves-ebook/dp/B08DR4K3YX
COCKTAILS ON LAST CHANCE BEACH is the companion recipe book to LAST CHANCE BEACH: SUMMER'S END box set.
What's not to love about savoring a fruity, icy cocktail in the dog days of summer? Or sipping a crisp spritzer to wake up your senses after a sleepy afternoon on the beach? Can any of us resist a tart margarita or the lure of a tequila sunrise during a beachside seafood dinner? Perhaps there are those who could resist all of the above--but not the authors of the LAST CHANCE BEACH: SUMMER'S END collection of romantic short stories set--where else?--on Last Chance Beach.
We hope you try out and enjoy each of these recipes soon--perhaps while you are reading our stories!
Friday, July 03, 2020
THE MACLEODS OF SKYE - TAMING LILY
Don't miss the Rafflecopter giveaway at the end of the post!
Don't miss the sale book and free book in this post!
Taming Lily
JR Salisbury
Lord Malcolm's Heart
The Sins of Rory MacLeod
Donnan's Rose
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J R Salisbury, Author |
Monday, June 15, 2020
THE FINAL HOUR SERIES -- SALE -- FREE BOOK!
Don't miss the Rafflecopter giveaway at the end of the post!
Don't miss the sale book and the free book in this post!
Until the End
Juno Rushdan
Kit was a liar. A habitual, no, pathological, no, no, compulsive liar! His gut churned with white-hot anger, but the sucker punch of betrayal was worse.
She was innocent of collusion with terrorists. That much he believed. But he could only buy stock in eighty percent of what came out of her mouth. And it wouldn’t be so bad if the remain-ing twenty percent wasn’t going to get them killed.
He sharpened his focus on the task at hand. They were going to get through this, alive, so he could strangle her later.
Castle held on to her waist as he guided her to swing one leg over the side, followed by the other. The breeze blew her dress up higher than appropriate and he caught an indecent glimpse of her ass. Sweeter than he’d imagined.
She stared up at him with those crazy-beautiful eyes, trying to suck him back in.
Damn it to hell, why did he enjoy touching her so much? Why had it taken every ounce of strength in him not to kiss her back earlier when she was shivering in his bed, pressed up against him, wearing nothing but his T-shirt?
Why did he still want to kiss her?
“Put your toes on the tiny lip,” he said, referring to the barely-there ledge, keeping his voice controlled, low.
“Tiny is an overstatement.” She struggled to get her footing stable, her thin-soled shoes slipping around with no treads, but he held onto her.
“I won’t let you fall, Kit.”
Her anxious gaze locked onto his and narrowed. “I know. You want the pleasure of killing me yourself.”
And why oh why did her sassy remarks not only torque him tighter and tighter but also turn him on brighter than a popped flare in the pitch-black night?
“You probably want to use your bare hands around my throat,” she said.
“So you’re a psychic liar. I was trying to pinpoint how to classify you, but I don’t think that one is listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders.”
“Whatev—” She swallowed the rest of the word, controlling her tongue before she pushed him from peeved to righteously pissed.
About time she advanced to Go and collected a clue.
“Those shoes are a problem,” he said. She’d be better off barefoot out here. He took another look at the six-inch thick wall separating her bedroom balcony from the main one and sized up the length of her arm span.
Holding on to one balcony and reaching over to grasp the other might prove tricky for her. Doing it at night in those slippery shoes was suicide.
He gestured for her to come back and helped lift her over the rail.
“Climb on.” He knelt. “I’ll piggyback you over.”
For once, she simply did as he told her. No smart-ass remark, no protests. No questions. Maybe she did trust him, at least in this.
Standing upright, he adjusted her weight on his back, getting it balanced. “Hold on tight.”
She wrapped her legs around his hips and clamped her arms around his neck in a choke hold.
“Not that tight,” he hissed, shooting a quick glance over his shoulder at the door. The curtain was in place, giving them precious minutes—perhaps only seconds—that might mean the difference between success and death.
He swung his leg over the side and shimmied across the ledge.
The curtain rustled. Their time just ran out.
He stepped up the pace, reaching across the wall to the other side as the drapes were drawn. Castle stared at a man wearing glasses. His gaze was hard and pitiless. He matched Kit’s description of Bravo.
Castle wouldn’t be able to draw his weapon until they were on the other side and he had a free hand. “Kit, reach into my holster and grab my gun?”
“Wh-what? I’ll fall.”
“You won’t.”
“Oh God. I’m going to be sick. I can’t.”
“You can. Trust me. They’re coming. Do it!”
She fumbled inside his jacket, her body plastered to his, legs in a death grip around his waist, and drew his Maxim 9.
The safety was already off.
“Aim at the other balcony,” he said, “finger on the trigger, squeeze, and shoot at anything that moves.”
A swish echoed in the wind as the balcony door opened.
Kit screamed, ducking her head, cheek pressed against his neck, and started shooting, wild and erratic.
For fuck’s sake. Were her eyes even open?
Silencers on both sides softened the pop of the shots. Bits of stone from the concrete wall sprayed in the air. Bullets cracked by his head, too close for comfort.
Castle hooked his leg on the rail of the living room balcony and rolled over, nearly knocking against the steel staircase that went up to the roof. He tucked Kit beneath him, using his body as a shield. “Please tell me your eyes were open when you fired?”
“You said nothing about my eyes.”
Wasn’t it implicit in the bit about aiming?
He snatched the gun from her, hopped to his feet, and aimed for the master bedroom balcony—with his eyes open.
No sign of Bravo or any from his band of merry hitmen.
Shit. “Change of plan.” Gripping her elbow, he hoisted her up. “They’re about to rush us, coming in through the living room doors. Can you swim?”
She gulped and looked over the balcony. “Oh, sweet Lord. You want us to jump?”
“Yes.”
“What if we miss the pool?”
“Push off from the railing when you jump. You won’t miss. Take off your shoes first so you don’t slip.”
“Stop making everything sound so flipping easy. There’s four hundred feet between us and going splat.” She shoved the flats in her bag.
“It’s more like forty feet.” He helped her stand up on the top of the balustrade. “Grip the handrail of the staircase.” He gestured to the metal bar right beside her. “Steady yourself.”
“If we don’t die, we’ll break bones.”
A distinct possibility. “Who’s the crybaby now? If we don’t jump, we don’t make it.”
Once she was in place with stable footing, Castle trained the gun on the French doors, ready to lay waste to anyone who dared set foot on the balcony.
“This plan sucks!”
“Did I neglect to mention I have a degree in sucky planning?”
Nothing to Fear
Every Last Breath
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Juno Rushdan, Author |
Monday, May 18, 2020
SINGLE CHICAS
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Sandra C. Lopez will be awarding a $15 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour! The book is free during the tour! Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
Single Chicas is a collection of stories about modern Latinas being in, out, and around the zany hurdles of relationships.One woman receives strange calls from a lonely soul, another seeks advice on how to love herself, and another wakes up in a parallel universe to a man she's never met. These chicas will make painstaking effort to survive the complexities with humor and grace.
Once again, López dazzles audiences with her brilliantly candid craft. Smart, witty, and funny, these stories will explore the true endurance of singlehood.
Read the Excerpt
I'll never forget the day my brother gave me a stroke. Of course, being that he was my little brother, a stroke should've been classified a recurring condition by then. Instead, the most he had ever given me was a chronic eye twitch, which, now that I think about it, may have been an indicator of an on-coming stroke. But, yes, it was definitely a stroke I had when Benito (I always called him Benny) came over that day to tell me he was getting married.
My brain blew a short and my whole body went numb. I think, at one point, the world before me was engulfed in a white flash, and then somehow I ended up on the floor. When I finally got the feeling back in my jaw, the only thing I could muster to say was: "Are you a moron?" The clear answer was "yes." He was a moron. Getting married? Was he out of his freaking mind? Oh, hell yeah! Let's put aside that he was only 19, not even old enough to drink, for god sakes; let's put aside that he'd only known the girl for 6 months, at most; let's even put aside how annoying the girl was and how I couldn't stand her. Why in the hell would he want to hang himself like that? Had he forgotten that marriage is basically a prison? Had he not paid attention to all the disaster stories I'd told him? Broken marriages from all around the table, starting with our parents and going all the way to our grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, to damn near everyone else we knew. It all ended the same: divorce, the blissful release from a life sentence.
"Why, Benny, why?"
"Oh, Bea, don't you even start," he retorted with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I don't want to hear your putdowns on marriage…again. I've heard them over and over and over."
"Well, have you heard that marriages basically suck the big weenie?"
"I believe I did hear that from you, yes."
"Well, then tell me why? Why the fuck would you do something like that!?" Oh, I could feel my poor blood pressure rising. Good grief, the boy was going to give me a heart attack. I tried taking in a few calming breaths, but the whole thing was basically useless. I was in total freak-out mode. "C’mon, Benny, tell me, please, because I'm not understanding here. What, did she pull that voodoo-hoodoo crap on you? Did you crack your head on something? Have you just completely lost your mind? C'mon, you gotta give me something here."
With an easy shrug, he said, "Oh...you know."
"No, I don't know!" Okay...one, two, three...breathe. I shot him a stern glance and asked directly, "Did you knock her up?"
He looked at me accusingly, his dark eyes narrowing. "You would think that, wouldn't you?"
"Well, I don't know what else to think."
Benny shook his head with a petulant eye roll. I know that eye roll. It's the same one he pulls whenever someone tells him to pick up his socks or wash his hands. In a huff, he simply stated, "No. I didn't knock her up."
"Then why?"
"Because she's just..."
"What? Say something."
"You know..." At a loss for words, he paused then added, "she's just so...you know...great."
A literary master at work here. "Great? What's so great about her?"
He shrugged his shoulders.
"That's a good answer," I inserted wryly.
"Well, I can't think with all these questions," he snapped.
"I'm sorry, do you need a minute? I mean, I know I'm throwing really hard questions at you. Worse than poking your nose or scratching your balls, evidently."
"Why you gotta be like that, huh?"
"Hey, I'm not the one ruining my life here. I'm not the one going after those little titties."
Pulling his "talk to the hand" gesture, Benny turned to walk away.
Sandra C. López is a writer, artist, blogger, and book reviewer. She is one of today's funny and influential authors in YA and chick lit. Her first novel, Esperanza, was published in March 2008 WHILE she was still in college. Her most recent and bestselling book is Single Chicas, a collection of humorous short stories about zany chicas. She is currently working on the next installment of the Single Chicas series called Holiday Chicas. Release date coming soon! When not writing her stories, Sandra supports the art and literary communities with freelance work and book promotion.
Website: http://www.sandra-lopez.com
Book Review Blog: http://sandrasbookclub.blogspot.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SandraLopezAuthorArtist/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArtistSandraL
Purchase Links: https://www.amazon.com/Single-Chicas-Sandra-C-Lopez-ebook/dp/B01KG85F1Y/
Please note: The book is free during the tour.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Friday, May 15, 2020
SAILOR TAKE WARNING -- AND COZY MYSTERY BIG SALE!
Don't forget the Rafflecopter giveaway at the end of this post!
Sailor Take Warning
M K Scott
The round golden sun glistened in the pristine blue skies rather like a Christmas ornament, except it was May. The low hum of the waves punctuated with an occasional childish scream of joy as a child met the ocean for the first time provided background sound. Donna Tollhouse, innkeeper, and her sister-in-law Maria stood on The Painted Lady Inn’s wraparound porch while peering in the direction of the ocean, which would have been visible if the trees hadn’t leafed out so much.
“I could help with your regatta-themed dishes,” Maria offered with a grin.
There were a few more screams, not so childish but equally playful. Donna, who had been holding Baby Cici, her niece, cut her eyes to her sister-in-law Maria and asked, “Did they hire another half dozen hot life guards this year?”
“Oh, my!” Maria rolled her eyes and waved her hand in front of her face as if the thought heated her up. “You should see them. I doubt they’ll be here long. Most probably aspire to be models or actors.”
“Well then,” Donna began, then cast a mischievous glance behind her where her husband, Mark, was seated in one of the wicker chairs reading the local newspaper. “It’s been quite a while since I’ve taken a stroll on the beach.”
Mark lowered his newspaper to reply, “I’ll be more than glad to take a walk on the beach with you. No reason for you to join the mob of Legacy women drooling over boys young enough to be your son.”
A derisive snort erupted from Maria. “There’s a female lifeguard, or maybe two, attracting all the old geezers’ attention.”
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M. K. Scott, Author |