Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Cover Reveal: Of Demons and Stones By Anne L Parks

COVER REVEAL
Of Demons and Stones, A Tri-Stone Trilogy
By Anne L. Parks
Hosted by DRC Promotions


Synopsis

Kylie Tate is highly successful and focused on her future. No one sees the fear that consumes her, ravaged by demons from a past that left her distrustful of love.
Alex Stone is rarely denied. Not by business associates, and certainly not the women he dates and forgets. Romance is never an option. That is until beautiful, sexy, too damned independent Kylie comes into his life and frustrates the hell out of him. She sparks a desire in him to protect her from the one demon that haunts her - and threatens to destroy them both.
Pushed to her limit and unwilling to be a victim any longer, Kylie takes control of her life.
But a madman’s quest for revenge not only threatens to destroy the love she has finally found – but also her life.


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About The Author

Anne L. Parks has penned and self-published six novels, including a standalone and a completed five book series, since 2013. Her debut novel, Strangers, was published on her 45th birthday. Since that time, she has written four more full-length novels and a novella, completing her first full series, Return To Me. This year will be another busy one for her. In May, her first venture into paranormal romance will be published as part of an anthology. In late June/early July, she will have a Fourth of July themed short story included in a boxed set with eight other talented authors. A new series, Tri-Stone Demons Trilogy, will publish in mid-July, Mid-August and Mid-October. She also has plans for a suspense serial to be published throughout the year, as well as a fun, contemporary, blog-only serial.
Anne lives outside of Washington DC with her Navy husband, four children, and one very spoiled German Shepherd. When she is not writing, she loves reading (duh!), hanging out with her family and friends, and drinking wine. She has a full schedule of conferences and signing events this year, so find her and say “hello!”

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Monday, June 29, 2015

Pre-Order Blitz ~ To Kiss A Rake by Barbara Monajem


To Kiss A Rake
by Barbara Monajem
Series: Scandalous Kisses, #1
Genre: Regency Historical Romance
Release Date: July 29, 2015



WHEN A LADY IS ABDUCTED BY MISTAKE…

Melinda Starling doesn’t let ladylike behavior get in the way of true love. She’s secretly helping with an elopement, when she’s tossed into the waiting coach and driven away by a notorious rake.

REVENGE REALLY DOESN’T PAY.

Miles Warren, Lord Garrison, comes from a family of libertines, and he’s the worst of them all—or so society believes. When Miles helps a friend to run away with an heiress, it’s an entertaining way to revenge himself on one of the gossips who slandered him.

Except that he drives off with the wrong woman…and as if that wasn’t scandalous enough, he can’t resist stealing a kiss.



Setup: Melinda Starling was abducted by mistake and is now being returned home by her abductor. She falls asleep in the carriage.

     Melinda dreamed she was safe in the arms of a truly wonderful man. He adored her with a passion that knew no bounds; she loved him with all her heart. The swaying of the coach pressed them together. She inhaled his warm, male scent and snuggled closer, savoring the way her breast rubbed against his arm. She ached for the pressure of his lips on hers, yearning, yearning… She always woke before her dream lover kissed her.
     Not this time. His lips were warm and soft, his breath hot and laced with brandy. Her lips parted instinctively beneath his, and she heard herself give a little moan of pleasure. The tip of his tongue slipped between her lips and touched hers.
     The coach came to a halt. Her eyes fluttered open as she woke. The obnoxious lord who’d sworn he wouldn’t touch her broke the kiss, still holding her in his arms. She shoved at him, but he held fast.
     “How dare you?” she cried.
     The interior of the coach was still cloaked in gloom, but dawn was well on the way. She caught a glimpse of amused eyes before he pulled the brim of his hat over his face. “You fell asleep and slid right into my arms,” he said, his calm voice feeding her rage. “I couldn’t resist.”
     She wiped a hand across her mouth. “I was—I was—” She couldn’t get the words out. She’d been saving her first kiss for the man she would marry, and this dastardly person had stolen it.
     Thank God she was home. She wrenched herself from his arms just as the groom opened the door.      She tumbled out of the coach without waiting for the steps, gathered the skirts of her costume, and ran up the pavement to the house.
     She lifted the knocker and rapped it hard against the door, and rapped it again. And waited, shivering in the chill dawn wind, her arms tight about herself. Hurry!
     No one answered. The servants must be asleep, but surely Grandmama would have left someone on watch for her. She knocked once again. And waited.
     Silence, but for the shuffling of the horses, the barking of a dog, and the rumble of a wagon in the next street. London was coming to life.
     She turned, anxious now. Why did the coach still wait? “You needn’t stay any longer. Someone will wake up and let me in.”
     “Someone should already be awake and waiting,” the man said irritably from within the coach. He didn’t give the order to leave.
     Melinda rapped again. What was going on? She thought she heard a sound within the house, thought she heard a voice, and knocked once more… Nothing. This was ghastly. She had to get indoors before someone saw her.
     “Miss Starling, are you sure this is the right house?” The man who’d kissed her was framed in the coach window, his hat low over his brow once again.
     “Of course I’m sure. Why don’t they answer?”
     “Try the area stairs,” he suggested softly.
     She’d never gone in by the servants’ entrance, but it was a good idea, the sort she would usually think of herself, but she couldn’t get her mind to work properly. She lifted the latch and hurried down the steep, winding stairs, shivering now from anxiety as much as the chill dawn air. She banged hard on the door. It was close to the housekeeper’s room, so surely that kindly woman would hear.
From inside the house came a furious bellow. “No! Do not open that door.”
     Melinda froze. That was Grandma’s voice. She was…ordering the housekeeper not to let Melinda inside.
     Her shiver became a tremble. She stumbled up the steep, narrow stairs and through the gate. She gaped at the dark house, her home, its curtains drawn like the blank eyes of a statue, cold and forbidding and utterly silent again.
     “Damn,” the man who had kissed her said. “What the devil is going on?”
     The sky lightened, and it finally dawned on Melinda. Grandmama wasn’t going to let her in. She’d been turned away from her own home.
     “Did I hear her say not to open the door to you?” the man asked in a low, disbelieving voice.
     Melinda blinked back hot, horrified tears and faced him, away from the house and the grandmother who had always wanted to be rid of her. “She used to threaten to wash her hands of me,” she said. “And now she has done it.”




Winner of the Holt Medallion, Maggie, Daphne du Maurier, Reviewer’s Choice and Epic awards, Barbara Monajem wrote her first story at eight years old about apple tree gnomes. She published a middle-grade fantasy when her children were young. When they grew up, she turned to writing for grownups, first the Bayou Gavotte paranormal mysteries and then Regency romances with intrepid heroines and long-suffering heroes (or vice versa). Some of her Regencies have magic in them and some don’t (except for the magic of love, which is in every story she writes).

Barbara loves to cook, especially soups, and is an avid reader. There are only two items on her bucket list: to make asparagus pudding and succeed at knitting socks. She’ll manage the first but doubts she’ll ever accomplish the second. This is not a bid for immortality but merely the dismal truth. She lives near Atlanta, Georgia with an ever-shifting population of relatives, friends, and feline strays.







ARC Review How to Marry a Royal Highlander by Vanessa Kelly






How to Marry a Royal Highlander (The Renegade Royals #4)

by Vanessa Kelly

~ Categories ~ Regency, Historical romance


Illegitimate yet thoroughly irresistible, the Renegade Royals are leaving behind their careers as daring spies for the greatest adventure of all…

At sixteen, Alasdair Gilbride, heir to a Scottish earldom, fled the Highlands and an arranged betrothal. Ten years later, Alasdair must travel home to face his responsibilities. It’s a task that would be much easier without the distracting presence of the most enticing woman he’s ever met…

After one escapade too many, Eden Whitney has been snubbed by the ton. The solution: rusticating in the Scottish wilderness, miles from all temptation. Except, of course, for brawny, charming Alasdair. The man is so exasperating she’d likely kill him before they reach the border—if someone else weren’t trying to do just that. Now Eden and Alasdair are plunging into a scandalous affair with his life and her reputation at stake—and their hearts already irreparably lost.


What an enjoyable read this book is! It is the 1st book that I have read by this author and I look forward to reading more to this series and her future series. 

I love historical romances but I really love historical romances that push the boundaries of what one feels they should be like. This author does a phenomenal job of bringing in the issue of poor eyesight and what society feels about one wearing glasses. I love how she wove this into the story line with how Alasdair felt about Eden's need for them, Eden's mother and society constantly putting her down for wearing them and Eden's final decision about wearing them.

The plot was well written with lots of twists and turns to keep the reader involved. The pace was continual forward movement with no slowness. The interaction between the Scots and the two Sassenach women was believable and amusing. 

I believe everyone would love this book but it should be read by 18+ due to some well written steamy parts between Alasdair and Eden.

An ARC copy was gifted in exchange for an honest opinion via Netgalley.


~ My Reviews of the Renegade Royals Series ~  
Lost in a Royal Kiss (Novella #.5), Secrets for Seducing a Royal Bodyguard (#1), Confessions of a Royal Bridegroom (#2), Tall, Dark, and Royal (Novella #2.5), How to Plan a Wedding for a Royal Spy (#3), How to Marry a Royal Highlander (#4)



Vanessa Kelly writes bestselling Regency-set historical romance for Kensington Zebra. Her books have finaled in numerous contests, and she was named by Booklist as "one of the new stars of historical romance." Her second book, Sex And The Single Earl, won the Maggie Medallion for Best Historical Romance. Secrets for Seducing a Royal Bodyguard, the first book in her new Renegade Royals Series, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and spent four weeks on the BookScan Romance bestseller list. Vanessa also writes USA Today Bestselling contemporary romance with her husband under the pen name of V.K. Sykes. Find her on the web atwww.vanessakellyauthor.com or at www.vksykes.com.

~ Find The Author At ~
Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Facebook




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ARC Review ~ Tall, Dark and Royal by Vanessa Kelly




Tall, Dark and Royal (The Renegade Royals #2.5)

by Vanessa Kelly

~ Categories ~ Regency, Historical romance



Magnificent and stubborn. Fourteen years apart had not changed Chloe Steele, or Dominic’s love for her. He’d been a street urchin, a boy raised at court, and finally a magistrate, yet he’d never belonged anywhere—except by her side. Now Chloe devoted herself to girls threatened by scandal—like she had been. But she was in danger, and Dominic was determined to help—and hopefully make up for lost time…

Even in childhood, Dominic had made Chloe feel safe. Now she also felt thrillingly flustered by the powerful man he’d become, and by the longing he inspired. Because Dominic meant not only to protect her, but to untangle the lies that had separated them. Yet for Chloe, surrendering to temptation may be easier than risking a future that could ruin them both.


I got to read this unique novella as part of "How to Marry a Royal Highlander (#4)". It's a story of a man and a women who became friends as children and an awful situation that happens to a young girl, Chloe and how her life as she knows it is destroyed. It tells a story of her strength to change her life and a boy who becomes a man that still loves this women he no longer knows. It is a quick read, though there are parts where I got a little lost and had to reread them, an enjoyable read. It has intrigue, forgiveness and love.

I loved how Chloe's character was developed and she was shown as strong and able to survive her obstacles with grace. It was very refreshing to have the male lead, Dominic, be faithful in his love for her. 

An ARC copy was gifted in exchange for an honest opinion via Netgalley.


~ My Reviews of the Renegade Royals Series ~  

Lost in a Royal Kiss (Novella #.5), Secrets for Seducing a Royal Bodyguard (#1), Confessions of a Royal Bridegroom (#2), Tall, Dark, andRoyal (Novella #2.5), How to Plan a Wedding for a Royal Spy (#3), How to Marry aRoyal Highlander (#4)



Vanessa Kelly writes bestselling Regency-set historical romance for Kensington Zebra. Her books have finaled in numerous contests, and she was named by Booklist as "one of the new stars of historical romance." Her second book, Sex And The Single Earl, won the Maggie Medallion for Best Historical Romance. Secrets for Seducing a Royal Bodyguard, the first book in her new Renegade Royals Series, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and spent four weeks on the BookScan Romance bestseller list. Vanessa also writes USA Today Bestselling contemporary romance with her husband under the pen name of V.K. Sykes. Find her on the web atwww.vanessakellyauthor.com or at www.vksykes.com.

~ Find The Author At ~
Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Facebook



~ Find This Book At ~








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