Men in Books Aren't Better by Amanda Nelson and Lisa-Marie Potter

Men in Books Aren't Better

by Amanda Nelson and Lisa-Marie Potter

Buy Link

Blurb:

Pressured by her looming deadline and an unfinished romance manuscript, author Molly Covington applies her immersive research skills and goes all in. She hires a male companion for inspiration during three days of research in Las Vegas.

Enter sexy, confident Jared Washington—an extreme sports enthusiast and relationship skeptic who moonlights as a Plus One male companion. Molly’s contract puts him within arm’s reach of buying his own business and making his dreams come true.

The chemistry between her and Jared is surprisingly easy. Before their Vegas rendezvous comes to an end, one of them will need to lay all their cards on the table to discover if they’ll be lucky in love.

Excerpt:

Searching for an escort was not the same as searching for porn. At least, that’s what I kept telling myself as I hit enter on my keyboard. Holding my breath, I waited as the list of results—Elite Males, Premium Gigolos, Stags R Us—populated my laptop screen. I perched on the edge of my black leather desk chair in my home office overlooking the Seattle harbor. All the entries sounded like adult films. Each one screamed precisely what to expect, which made choosing any one in particular impossible. With one eye shut and a tentative finger, I clicked on the top entry, Elite Males. An obscene amount of oiled flesh filled most of my monitor—a close-up photo of a smooth-chested guy flexing his defined muscles while lying on his back. The shot highlighted his torso and prominent tattoos, capturing only his lips and chin; he was clean-shaven, and his jaw was also, for some reason, shiny. Ugh! Too much! The home page wasn’t quite as bad as I’d expected but still cringe-worthy: almost laughable. The guy in the image provided what was supposed to be an enticing, yet exaggerated, display, which I assumed—combined with his other “talents” listed in the reviews that read like porn—must have earned him his five-star rating. To each his own. The parts of the man I could see on my screen were considered conventionally hot. However, after reading the list of customers’ erotic comments, I swallowed back the bitter tang filling my mouth. I felt dirty just looking at his image—and desperate. But I guess, for all intents and purposes, I was. My deadline from my publisher loomed overhead, and I had no manuscript to submit. My stomach rolled. “It’s been a year, Molly,” Renee had said last week after huffing into the phone. “The editors expect something after that advance. Your reputation will only buy you so much time. Can you at least give me the first fifty pages so I can appease them? Try to barter an extension?” Picturing Renee’s scowl was easy—an otherwise non-existent crinkle above the bridge of her button nose, with her perpetual bold lips in full pout mode. A cold sweat broke out across my forehead. “I’ll get you something soon. I promise.”

Author Bio:

Amanda and Lisa-Marie are an award-winning, co-writing team of best friends who share imaginary worlds, including Men In Books Aren't Better (September 29, 2024), Just What the Doctor Hired (July 9, 2025), and a short story, Shivers, published in Moments Between (February 28, 2022). Lisa-Marie Potter (BIPOC) is a mom of four who grew up in Nottingham, England, and now resides in Alaska with her husband and golden retriever. Amanda Nelson grew up in Maryland and moved to Arizona, where she attended ASU and currently lives with her husband and four kids. Both women are hopeless romantics, but Lisa-Marie also enjoys suspense novels, while Amanda's second go-to genre is romancy. The duo review books on their socials, hike the Olympic National Park, and fight over the same fictional crushes. Men In Books Aren't Better has received the book of the month award from Long and Short Reviews, the Literary Titan Book Award, and won romance book of the year from the Mid-Atlantic Region Authors. 

 

Will There Be Wine & Love by Whitney Cubbison

 

 

If you love European settings, wine, romance, female friendships, laughter, heartbreak, redemption, and a bit of spice, these are the books for you!

Will There Be Wine?

by Whitney Cubbison

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Austen Keller was living her dream. She landed a career-defining job which moved her and her husband to Paris. Swoon! Shortly thereafter, she was divorced. Thud. This wasn’t the plan. Yet there she was—pushing 40 and starting over.

A decade after she’d last been single, Austen enters the dating scene playing by a new set of rules in a different language, culture, and lingerie standards. She experiences every type of miserable first date imaginable and lives to tell the tales of Pierre the Mansplainer, Simon the Snoozer, Emile the Over-Sharer, Guillaume of the Gym Shorts, and many more. On most dates, she struggles to get past one glass of Bordeaux without wanting to bolt. Even worse, no one chases after her when she runs. It doesn’t take long for her to realize that whoever said French men were romantic deserves a swift kick in the pants.

A rewarding and high-powered career. Check!
Fabulous female friendships. Nailed it!
True love. Umm?

Austen continues to ask herself: Is “having it all” too much to ask?

A genuine and tragically hilarious novel about an ex-pat woman's journey of self-discovery through a string of disastrous dates, relationships forged in a deep cultural divide, world travels, and wine. A lot of wine.

  

Amazon * Bookbub * Goodreads

Will There Be Love?

by Whitney Cubbison

Genre: Romantic Drama

A propulsive exploration of romantic and platonic love, commitment, shared history, betrayal and personal reckoning.

To celebrate her fortieth birthday, Ophelia and her husband Gianluca gather an unlikely group of eight friends and lovers – some old, some new, some false, some true – for a long weekend in Ibiza. However, the idyllic villa setting may be the only thing holding together a complicated tangle of friendship, love, and betrayal.

Among the guests is Ophelia’s old university flame, Matt, and his new girlfriend, Austen. While Matt finds himself falling in love, Austen is holding back, carefully protecting her heart.

Ophelia knows she loves her husband, but “love” is a word she never learned to say, a silence rooted in a childhood tragedy. What she doesn’t know is that Gianluca has been whispering it to someone else. And when his mistress crashes the party along with her own boyfriend, she brings a revelation that could unravel everything.

Across Rome, Paris and Ibiza, the party guests navigate the tangled paths that bring people together and push them apart, exploring where love begins, where it falters, and the courage it takes to hold on—or to let go.

Will There Be Love? is the sequel to Whitney Cubbison’s debut novel, Will There Be Wine?, however it can be read as a stand-alone.

  

Amazon * Bookbub * Goodreads

 

Whitney Cubbison is a dual American & French citizen living in Paris since 2009. She grew up in Texas and California and graduated from UCLA with a degree in French. She started her career in Communications working for high-tech PR agencies in San Francisco and eventually joined Microsoft where she worked for sixteen years, thirteen of which from the Paris office. During that time, she held various international roles that encompassed public relations, employee communications, executive speechwriting, and social media.

She earned her French citizenship in early 2022 and left Microsoft that summer to focus on completing her first novel, Will There Be Wine?, which came out in January 2023. The story, while fiction, was deeply inspired by Whitney’s own experiences as an ex-pat divorcée living in Paris and trying to navigate the cultural minefield of dating in a foreign country. A sequel called Will There Be Love? will be out on April 29, 2025.

When she’s not writing, Whitney can be found sitting in Parisian cafés and restaurants with her friends, drinking wine.

 

Website * Facebook * Instagram * Bluesky * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads

 

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a $25 giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

THE REASON WHY By Caroline Clemmons

One of my favorite artists is Norman Rockwell. He captured emotion with paint that conveyed a story. After President Franklin Delano Roosevelt introduced his concept of the Four Freedoms, Rockwell created these amazing illustrations of those rights for The Saturday Evening Post.

The ideas enunciated in the Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms were the foundational principles that grew into the Atlantic Charter declared by Winston Churchill and FDR in August 1941; the United Nations Declaration of January 1, 1942; President Roosevelt’s vision for an international organization that became the United Nations after his death; and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948 through the work of Eleanor Roosevelt.

The Four Freedoms are:

1. Freedom of Speech:

The right to express one's opinions and ideas without censorship or restriction.

2. Freedom of Worship:

The right to practice one's religion or belief without fear of persecution or discrimination.

3.  Freedom from Want:

The right to a basic standard of living, including access to food, housing, healthcare, and other necessities.

4. 44. Freedom from Fear:

The right to live without the threat of violence, aggression, or war.


These freedoms were not only a statement of American ideals but also a call to action, inspiring the war aims of the Allied forces during World War II.

The text of the "Four Freedoms" speech, delivered by FDR, is available here.

I look forward to a world founded upon the four essential human freedoms. The first and most important freedom is freedom of speech and expression. As a writer, this freedom is particularly important to me. I hope you will also use your freedom of speech and expression in a positive way to make the world a better place than you found it.

During this time of unrest and fear of what’s in store for our country, please keep our inalienable rights, as outlined in our Constitution and the Bill of Rights, in mind. As you celebrate July 4th, remember it’s America’s Independence Day.

Happy Fourth of July! Thanks for stopping by.

Join my mailing list HERE.

The Spirit of Vanderlaan by Susan Harris Howell

The Spirit of Vanderlaan

by Susan Harris Howell

Cozy Mystery

Buy Link

Blurb:

When Samantha and her students uncover a campus death, they must draw on everything from science to seances, to learn what happened before Samantha gets fired for “dabbling in the paranormal.

Excerpt:

As she walked to her first class of the day, Samantha congratulated herself that for the first time this semester she would arrive at her own class on time. A glance at her watch revealed she even had five minutes to spare. With Douglas Hall in sight and her classroom on its main floor, she was sure to make it on time— 

“Samantha!” 

Grrr! So close. Although showing up late for class frustrated her, she was mostly annoyed by the person who was about to detain her. If I ignore him, maybe he’ll go away. 

“Samantha!” This time he was more insistent. 

Samantha released a breath of resignation. She should have known better. He wasn’t the kind to be ignored. Samantha turned to face him as she reached the door of the building. She hadn’t been at Vanderlaan long enough to flout someone who carried the weight around here that he did. “What can I do for you, Len?” 

Dr. Len Titus stood before her, dressed as always, in a suit with a starched white shirt and tie which he would loosen by afternoon. His graying hair with a precise part on the side had become his hallmark, along with his hands-on-hips pose and gravelly voice. Levi’s imitation of each was spot on, although professional decorum required that Samantha refrain from the encouragement her laughter would ensure. Since Len Titus was of slight frame, someone unfamiliar with this man might assume passivity or weakness. Not Samantha.  

“I see we’re both teaching in Douglas Hall this semester,” he said. “Hope I won’t be in your way.” He peered over his wire-rimmed glasses. “Or you in mine.”  

Samantha took a breath, gritted her teeth, and walked through the door. She would use the back entrance next time. 

 Author Bio:

Susan Harris Howell is a psychologist, speaker, and author of The Spirit of Vanderlaan. This book is a fun, cozy, ghost story featuring a professor, Samantha Hayes, and her lively band of students who get caught up in solving a campus mystery. This book draws on her teaching career of over thirty years to capture the camaraderie and warmth between a professor and the assortment of personalities which inhabit her office.  

Susan is also the author of Buried Talents, which explores the subtle ways women are discouraged from entering male-dominated occupations. Buried Talents was named a winner in InterVarsity Press’s 2022 Readers’ Choice Awards. 

Susan and her husband have two grown children, a daughter-in-law, one adorable grandson, and an incorrigible beagle named Doc. While Doc doesn’t understand a word she says, he fully supports her speaking and writing endeavors.  

Then Time Stands Still by Mary Georgina De Grey

Then Time Stands Still

by Mary Georgina De Grey

Buy Link

The subject of today’s Spotlight is Then Time Stands Still. I really enjoyed writing this book, especially doing the research into archaeology and wine-making. And, of course, the food and customs of the country. Even if I know the place well, I have to ensure everything is up to date. The internet is fantastic, but person-to-person is still the best. 

I love writing contemporary novels, as the research is also into jobs and professions, how they are carried out, and by whom, what it feels like day-to-day. People sometimes suggest it might be boring, but I have often found research unearths plotlines and forces me to consider a completely new (and usually better) way forward. 

But my readers don’t want a travelogue, and, at some stage, I get down to writing the story. I write in my study at home, sometimes four or five hours a day, once I’m in the story. It’s scruffy, but I’m not in there to admire its décor. Generally, I’m seated by a lovely Art Nouveau window which glows gradually brighter, as the sun moves around the house in the afternoon. 

Inspiration comes from newspapers and news website articles, stories people tell me, history, but mainly from observing how people react in different situations. 

Book Blurb:

Then Time Stands Still, a novel set in the north of Spain near Zaragoza, on a Roman archaeological dig situated on a vineyard.  

English archaeologist Dr Amancia Harding has looked after her family for five years. Now it’s time to take care of herself, and leading a team on a dig in Spain is the perfect way to propel her career forward. Her good intentions are threatened when she meets vineyard owner Max Serrano. 

Damaged by war in Ukraine and a tragic event in his past, Max has given up on relationships and taken refuge in making wine, but the attraction he feels to Amancia forces him to confront painful issues. There’s also the gulf between their two cultures to consider if a relationship is to have any chance of success. 

Ambitious and fiery in character, can either accept that compromise is sometimes necessary to find happiness? 

Excerpt: 

She warmed at the sight of her oldest friend. They’d been at primary school together and, although they’d studied at opposite ends of the country, the friendship had continued right through university. But five years ago, they’d both returned to Bristol, and here Lizzie was, to provide the support that friendship demanded. Just seeing her made Amancia feel better, stiffening her backbone. Despite the rubbish day she’d had, she found herself grinning. 

Sliding onto the rough wooden chair, she pointed to the wine. “Not sure about this, Lizzie. I might get seriously into it, the way things are going.” 

The other woman laughed. “I did feel for you for a couple of minutes, when you texted me the result.” 

“Only a couple of minutes?” What did she mean? Surely this was the one person she could count on for support. 

“Well, I decided it’s for the best.” 

“What? I thought you were my friend.” 

“I am – and you can stop being sorry for yourself because I’ve got some good news.” She paused dramatically, watching Amancia’s face. “Hope you really are prepared to leave your job at the museum – like right now.” 

“How did you know what I’d decided?” 

“I didn’t but I knew you had to come to that decision sooner or later and I think it’s the right move.” Amancia began to protest but Lizzie wasn’t having it. “I’m only judging from what you’ve been saying recently and it’s clear you’re not appreciated – or not enough.” She grasped her friend’s hand and pulled it towards her, turning it to reveal the dark stain on the inside of the wrist. Her eyes flicked to Amancia’s chin and back to the wrist. “Not appreciated – and not only by the museum.” 

“What? – oh this? I dropped a stone exhibit, tried to grab it before it hit the floor, and this was the result.” Her laugh sounded artificial to her own ears and wouldn’t have convinced a stranger, let alone her best friend. 

“Don’t lie to me, Amancia. He did this, didn’t he?” She reached across and gently touched the almost invisible bruise on her friend’s jaw. “And when did this happen?” 

Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. “Three days ago. I … I couldn’t believe it, but he’s under terrible pressure just now, and I know I annoyed him. It was such a silly argument. Please, Lizzie – can we not talk about this for the moment? I’ve had a tough day, and I’m meeting him later – maybe. That’s more than enough of James.” 

Lizzie gave her a long, hard look.  

 Then Time Stands Still published by The Wild Rose Press

Author Bio:

I’ve lived and worked in several countries in Europe and also in south America and visited many more, using my language skills to understand the culture and how it affects anyone with a different background. I taught and was writing educational materials but not fiction until about ten years ago. 

Now I use the setting of those countries in my novels to give my readers the experience of being in that place in the same way as I am as I write..  

I like to make the main character in my novels a strong young woman determined to make her way in the world and each novel has a love story at its centre. 

I live on the beautiful English Riviera in the UK with my artist husband where I indulge in my passions of writing, reading and creating things, especially in fabric. 

My next romance will be set in France, a country I know well, though I have noticed that doesn’t seem to make it any easier to write. 

Website: https:// https://marygeorginadegreyauthor.com/  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086424198194 

Email: marygeorginadg@gmail.com for newsletter and other enquiries. 

I have since written three further novels: 

Then The Earth Moved https://amzn.eu/d/fNtaXHK (Italy) 

Let Love Find a Way  https://amzn.eu/d/gHMpQkC (Wales and Colombia)  

Then Time Stands Still  https://amzn.eu/d/1pGgH5Q (Spain) 

The Disappeared is romantic suspense and not yet published. (Colombia)