Monday 29 February 2016

COVER REVEAL & GIVEAWAY - ROCK BY J.A. HUSS

Title: Rock 
Author: JA Huss
Genre: Rock-star Romantic Suspense
Published: March 7, 2016 – No Pre-Order

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Every day this week JA Huss is giving away FIVE ROCK super swag packs on her Facebook page. 



Enter HERE➔ http://on.fb.me/1MXMGHG

BLURB supplied by Xpresso Book Tours
Welcome to RK’s rock star life.

I was living the dream, I was full throttle, all in, one hundred percent on top of the world. But it’s a hell of a long fall back down when you finally crash and burn.

Welcome to the delusions, the final act, the coming-to-Jesus moment when there’s nothing left to do but look yourself in the mirror and ask… How did I get like this?

I am RK’s living nightmare. I am RK’s empty soul. I am RK’s unchecked fantasy world that makes no sense to anyone.

I only have one thing left. Just one girl holding my broken pieces together.

And even she might be a lie.

Rock is a standalone rock-star romantic suspense by the New York Times bestselling master of twist, JA Huss.




ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JA Huss is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than twenty romances. She likes stories about family, loyalty, and extraordinary characters who struggle with basic human emotions while dealing with bigger than life problems. JA loves writing heroes who make you swoon, heroines who makes you jealous, and the perfect Happily Ever After ending.

You can chat with her on Facebook (www.facebook.com/AuthorJAHuss), Twitter (@jahuss), and her kick-ass romance blog, New Adult Addiction (www.newadultaddiction.com).

If you're interested in getting your hands on an advanced release copy of her upcoming books, sneak peek teasers, or information on her upcoming personal appearances, you can join her newsletter list (http://eepurl.com/JVhAr) and get those details delivered right to your inbox.

AUTHOR LINKS

TEASERS

***GIVEAWAY**
Win $50 Gift Card, Signed copy of ROCK, 
Kate Spade Wristlet, Victoria Secret Lip Gloss Kit, 
and a Brighton Notepad with Pen. 
(Giveaway ends 7th March 2016)

a Rafflecopter giveaway



COVER & GIVEAWAY - PAINTING SKY BY RITA BRANCHES

Title: Painting Sky 
Auhor: Rita Branches
Genres: New Adult, Romance
Publication date: April 25th 2016

BLURB supplied by Xpresso Book Tours
Nobody ever said life was easy...

People pleaser, Jane Skylar wants nothing more than to earn her art degree, start her life, and bask in the bliss of living with her boyfriend.

But things don't always go as planned...

Struggling with her creative side, Jane finds herself in turmoil, often confiding in her roommate - another, more talented art student, Keith Hale. Keith just so happens to be her boyfriend's older, brooding brother. After a devastating breakup, Jane turns to Keith for comfort. But when the lines blur between roommate and lover, Jane's life becomes more complicated than ever before.

When Keith's past comes back to haunt him, their lives all get turned upside down, forcing the truth to surface. Now Jane must fight for what she wants--even if it hurts everyone she loves.



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rita Branches is an independent YA (young adult) author who enjoys spending every free moment (when she´s not reading) writing emotional stories. 



AUTHOR LINKS


***GIVEAWAY***

BOOK BLITZ & GIVEAWAY - SUBMISSION SPECIALIST - ADA SCOTT


Title: Submission Specialist 
Series: Still A Bad Boy 
Author: Ada Scott 
Genres: New Adult, Romance, Suspense
Publication date: February 26th 2016

BLURB supplied by Xpresso Book Tours
Instead of Prince Charming, I got Him.
Skylar
I promised I’d save myself for my wedding night.
Of course, I didn’t know it was going to be a fake marriage to a heavyweight MMA fighter.  I couldn’t have known how good it would feel to be pinned under all those muscles and tattoos, squirming, panting, and even whimpering in ecstasy.
None of us knew how deeply he was involved with the mafia.
When he disrespects them, they think they can use me to punish him.
They’re wrong.
He’s a tank in human form.
And he’s coming for me.
Austin
Men tap out inside the ring, women surrender themselves outside of it.  That’s always been my specialty.
I chose Skylar because she was so innocent.  A good girl like her would help sell my reformed image to the public.  To corrupt her and leave her ruined for all other men would be my hottest conquest yet.
But I found more in Skylar than that.  Who’d have thought that the first woman I wanted to lay more than once would be my wife?
Now they think they can take away what is mine?
Even if I have to kill every last member of the Bertolini Crime Family…
I’m coming for her.


PURCHASE LINKS

Rest Of The Series So Far
Title: Still A Bad Boy
Series: Still A Bad Boy
Author: Ada Scott
Genre: New Adult, Romance, Suspense
Release Date: 2nd November 2015

BLURB from Goodreads
I can’t get him out of my mind, and I can’t keep myself out of his bed

Kendall

He wasn’t supposed to notice me. Jace Barlow: the most powerful man in the city. Mysterious, scarred, pure muscle and tattoos.

He was my first. That didn’t stop him from pinning me against a wall, using me for his own pleasure until I screamed his name.

Now my boss thinks I’m getting the scoop of the century, but all Jace is giving me is orgasm after leg-quivering orgasm. When he puts his hand on my throat and growls in my ear…

“You are mine.”

I know it’s true.

I’ve fallen hard and I’ve never felt safer…

Until I see him kill somebody.

Jace

I dedicated my life to taking down the Picolli Crime Family from the inside. I made a name for myself, the mafia’s most brutal enforcer. I worked my way up the chain, and my revenge came. A righteous bloodbath.

Then I took their place so they could never come back.

Nothing else has ever mattered. Until Kendall.

She was an innocent girl for me to defile, and then leave her ruined for other men like all the rest. But she makes me so hard I ache for release, and for the first time in my life, I want to have her again.

Kendall’s the chink in my armor my enemies have been looking for.

I don’t care.

She is mine and I’ll die before I give her up.

PURCHASE LINKS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Join me here for free downloads, discounts and news:

http://adascott.com/free-bad-boy-romance-download/

A former office drone, a former nurse, I now spend every waking moment doing what I love, creating and publishing these steamy stories about bad boys from the mafia, motorcycle clubs, and mma that make me, and hopefully you, weak at the knees! Anywhere a bad boy can be found, I'll be there taking notes and making it even sexier :)



AUTHOR LINKS

EXCERPT
I felt like I was sitting inside my own head watching a movie play out as I dropped the remains of my apple in the trash and headed towards the Tier-1 fighters’ area.  Uncle Malcolm wasn’t here to show me what to do.  All I had was less than a year of study and a general appreciation of massages to rely on.  It would have to do.
The Tier-1 wing had a guard at the door who looked mean enough to actually fight for NHBFC, but he let me through when he saw my uniform and heard that Gordon had sent me at Henry’s request.  The hallway behind said door was just as chaotic as the ones I’d just left, but for a completely different reason.
With a smaller group of fighters to look after, and an already smaller staff diminished by illness, it was the MMA groupies making the most noise over here.  Clusters of some of the most stunning girls currently in the city hovered around their favorite fighters’ doors, giggling and talking loudly.  It wasn’t official of course, but the guard knew only to let in the best of the best.
The intensity of their beauty only served to make me feel self-conscious, as I awkwardly nudged my way through them to Austin’s door.  Most of them were taller than me and the tops they wore made absolutely sure to show off their breasts, at my eye-level, to maximum effect.
They made me feel like a potato in a diamond display case as I sheepishly knocked on the door.  A few moments later an older guy, Austin’s coach, snatched the door open.
“I told you bitches he isn’t ready yet!”
“Uh, Gordon sent me?  Henry said you-”
“Oh, right, yeah.  He’s just in the shower-”
The groupies in earshot all squealed and started talking at once.
“You come in, he’ll be ready in a second, I’m stepping out.  Lock it behind you.  Which of you girls wants to do me a special favor so I put a good word in for you with The Killer?”
I squeezed past him as a chorus of “I do!” “I will” rang out behind me.  One of them said “How come the cleaning lady gets to go in?” Another said, “I’ll deepthroat your-” just as the door clicked shut.
Stepping into a Tier-1 dressing room after working on the other side for so long was like stepping into first-class on an airplane after only ever flying coach.  They had all the same stuff that we had, but instead of bare concrete, there was actual paint on the walls, a permanent massage table, a brand new heavy punching bag hung from the ceiling on a chain.  Plenty of bells and whistles.
Steam poured out of a cracked-open door and I could hear a shower running.  I walked over and paused by the door, before knocking even more tentatively than I had on the other one.
“Austin?  I’m here for the-”
“I told Ross to tell you I wasn’t ready!” he yelled out.
“Uh… no I’m not… uh… I work here?  Henry said you needed a massage?”
“Oh, yeah.  I’ll be right out.”
The sound of running water stopped and I caught a flash of movement in the steamed-up mirror through the opening.  Quickly, I turned and faced the other way, ashamed at the flush of excitement that came unbidden and made me bite my bottom lip without thinking about it.
After a couple minutes I felt the waft of air as the door was pulled open behind me, and turned to face him.  Standing there, wearing only a towel, with beads of water dripping down his neck and torso from his hair, was fan (and my) favorite, Austin “The Killer” Aquila.
That perfectly sculpted body looked like it was made from granite by an artist with an eye for sin, then decorated with ink in designs that curled all over.  His thick arms had contours that drew my eyes up to his broad shoulders, and then sent them down across his pecs and over each and every bump of his abs.
His lower abdominals formed lines that narrowed as my eyes roamed lower… lower… lower until the visual ride was abruptly cut off by the towel, which he held up by one hand.
I looked up and heard my jaw click shut when our eyes met.  I only hoped I’d closed my mouth before I drooled.  If I was looking at him like a piece of art, he was looking at me like a piece of food, and it took all my willpower not to find a plate to climb on to.
All heavyweights have a certain presence.  It would be hard not to when you’re a tank that has briefly assumed human form, but Austin had presence that almost seemed to make the air crackle between us and around him.  His eyes, they were looking at me in a way that would give my dad a stroke.  That brought me partway back to reality.
“Um… over there?” I pointed at the massage table.
“You sure you work here?” he asked.
“Yeah, I… I normally work in Tier-2…”
Austin closed the distance between us and leaned down towards me.  My heart tried to jump up my throat to get a better view out my mouth at all that solid muscle so close to me, and my ability to breathe be damned.
“Because, if you’re another girl that stole a uniform just to get in here… well, I’ll have to do to you what I did to her.”
A drop of water fell from his head and landed on my ear, making me flinch.  The scent of soap and the faint musk of him filled my lungs as I took a deep breath to offer whatever reassurance I could.
“I promise I work here,” I squeaked.

***GIVEAWAY***
This is an International Blitz Wide Giveaway
The Prize = 1 x $15 Amazon Gift Card
1 x $10 Amazon Gift Card
5 x $5 Amazon Gift Cards




BOOK BLITZ & GIVEAWAY - NORA AND KETTLE BY LAUREN NICOLLE TAYLOR

Title: Nora and Kettle 
Author: Lauren Nicolle Taylor 
Published by: Clean Teen Publishing
Genres: Historical, Young Adult
Publication date: February 29th 2016

BLURB supplied by Xpresso Book Tours
What if Peter Pan was a homeless kid just trying to survive, and Wendy flew away for a really good reason?
Seventeen-year-old Kettle has had his share of adversity. As an orphaned Japanese American struggling to make a life in the aftermath of an event in history not often referred to—the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the removal of children from orphanages for having “one drop of Japanese blood in them”—things are finally looking up. He has his hideout in an abandoned subway tunnel, a job, and his gang of Lost Boys.
Desperate to run away, the world outside her oppressive brownstone calls to naïve, eighteen-year-old Nora—the privileged daughter of a controlling and violent civil rights lawyer who is building a compensation case for the interned Japanese Americans. But she is trapped, enduring abuse to protect her younger sister Frankie and wishing on the stars every night for things to change.
For months, they’ve lived side by side, their paths crossing yet never meeting. But when Nora is nearly killed and her sister taken away, their worlds collide as Kettle, grief stricken at the loss of a friend, angrily pulls Nora from her window.
In her honeyed eyes, Kettle sees sadness and suffering. In his, Nora sees the chance to take to the window and fly away.
Set in 1953, NORA AND KETTLE explores the collision of two teenagers facing extraordinary hardship. Their meeting is inevitable, devastating, and ultimately healing. Their stories, a collection of events, are each on their own harmless. But together, one after the other, they change the world.


PURCHASE LINKS

EXCERPT
“Keeps?” She swings around, hair hanging over her eyes and in her mouth. “Come here, let me show you something.” She shuffles closer, looking a little scared. I pull out a hairbrush from the bag I brought home last night. “This is a hairbrush.” She squints at it, waiting for it to do something. “It’s for your hair, so it’s not so, um, hard to manage…” She tips her head to the side, looking for all intents and purposes like a puppy about to have its first bath. She’s our first and only girl resident. “Come sit in front of me.” I pat the ground gently, and she slides backward. “Don’t be scared. I’m not going to hurt you,” I reassure, although I’m not one hundred percent sure that’s true. “Keeps, what did I say when you came to live here, when you became a King?”
“Dat I could stay as long as I wanted and dat you would keep me safe,” she replies warily.
I grip the brush firmly in my hand and gesture to the section of cold stone in front of my crossed legs. “Do you believe that’s true?”
She scrunches her eyes shut and says, “Yes.” Crawling over to sit in front of me, she turns her mound of thick, black hair my way.
I raise the brush to her head, place it in her hair, and make a liar of myself.

*****

The boys cover their ears to shield themselves from her caterwauling.
“Throw her back,” Krow mutters, scowling, which only makes her scream louder.
She bends her head back every time I run the brush through and screeches like I’m actually scalping her. The brush snags in the dirty clumps, and I can’t pull it through. I’ve said sorry about a hundred times but now that I’ve started, I feel like I need to finish it. She needs to look less like a street urchin and more like a child on her way to school if we’re going to remain inconspicuous.
On the hundredth and fiftieth scream, Kin finally storms over. He gets up in her face, and I think he’s going to tell her to shut up. It’s what I should have done, but I feel at a loss on how to deal with a ten-year-old girl who thinks I’m torturing her.
“Keeper, what would you like me to do? I can cut it all off or you can let us clean it up. Right now you look like a drowned rat wearing a dead cat toupee. Do you want to look like a drowned rat with a bad hairpiece?” Kin says.
She shakes her head and whimpers. Then she whispers, “I wanna look like that.” She points to the catalogue I’ve been teaching some of them to read from. A sweet girl with long brown hair in two plaits on either side of her head smiles thinly at us, her eyes round and blue, her ribbons frozen in mid-swing.
Both Kin and I stare at each other and gulp. Then Kin puffs out his chest, swears, and laughs. “If you can rescue women from burning buildings, together we can surely plait a ten-year-old girl’s hair.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lauren Nicolle Taylor lives in the lush Adelaide Hills. The daughter of a Malaysian nuclear physicist and an Australian scientist, she was expected to follow a science career path, attending Adelaide University and completing a Health Science degree with Honours in obstetrics and gynaecology.
She then worked in health research for a short time before having her first child. Due to their extensive health issues, Lauren spent her twenties as a full-time mother/carer to her three children. When her family life settled down, she turned to writing.
She is a 2014 Kindle Book Awards Semi-finalist and a USA Best Book Awards Finalist.

AUTHOR LINKS
https://twitter.com/LaurenNicolleT

***GIVEAWAY***
This is an International Blitz Wide Giveaway
The Prize = Clean Teen Publishing Mystery Box!



Sunday 28 February 2016

PROMOTIONAL SPOTLIGHT - BOOKS BY CONNIE LACY

INTRODUCTION TO THE AUTHOR

Connie Lacy is the author of VisionSight: a Novel, The Time Telephone, and The Shade Ring.  All three are available in ebook and paperback on Amazon, and in paperback at BarnesandNoble.com.

VisionSight is about a young woman who inherits the gift of future sight – a gift she views as a curse. The Shade Ring is set a hundred years in the future when oceans have risen fifteen feet. The Time Telephone is about a teenage girl trying to call through time to save her mother from a bomb blast.

In her writing she often draws on her experiences as radio reporter and news anchor covering a variety of stories.

She lives in Atlanta with her husband and their goofy dog, Pistol – so named because he’s a real pistol. She has three grown sons who’ve flown the coop and three grandchildren.

Connie always creates a multi-ethnic cast of characters in her fiction.

Title: VisionSight
Author: Connie Lacy
Genre: Magical Realism, Contemporary
Release Date: 17th October 2015

BLURB from Goodreads
Jenna Stevens sees the future. But only when she looks into her loved ones’ eyes. And it’s driving her crazy because she can’t prevent all the misery and heartache lying in wait. 

She quickly decides the gift of “vision-sight” she inherited from her mother is actually a curse. So she distances herself from everyone she cares about, throwing herself into her acting career and the arms of a young director. 

But she’s haunted by her visions and begins drinking as her life spirals out of control. VisionSight is the story of a young woman’s search for courage as she tries to figure out how to help the people she loves. What she doesn’t realize is that she must save herself as well. A heartfelt novel of secrets and unexpected love. 


PURCHASE LINKS

Title: The Shade Ring
Author: Connie Lacy
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action & Adventure, Romance
Release Date: 30th April 2015

BLURB from Goodreads
A romantic, action-packed story set in the near future… 

The year is 2117. Oceans have risen fifteen feet and it’s 120 degrees in Atlanta as Neave Alvarez graduates with a degree in Climatology. But it’s a field she’s forced into by a domineering father who drags her into his campaign to launch a solar shade ring into space. The goal is to block the sun’s rays and cool the oceans. 

But Neave begins to have doubts during an expedition to sunken Charleston. That’s where she meets the first man who’s ever vibrated her molecules, only to discover he’s a clone – a clone who asks infuriating questions about what her scientist parents are really up to. 

Her quest for the truth plunges her into a dangerous world of political intrigue and dark family secrets where it’s hard to tell who’s the good guy and who’s the bad guy. She wrestles with the meaning of family, whether clones have a soul and whether one more scientist can really make a difference in the fight against rising seas. 

Set against the backdrop of runaway global warming, The Shade Ring is a compelling tale of a young woman’s pursuit of justice. And there’s also her search for true love, even though she doubts it still exists anymore. 


Goodreads Link


PURCHASE LINKS

Title: The Time Telephone
Author: Connie Lacy
Genre:  Magical Realism, YA, NA, & Adult
Release Date: 17th August 2015

BLURB from Goodreads
A time travel story with a twist… 

17 year old Megan McConnell’s notebook is filled with poetry about the loss of her mother, killed in a bomb blast covering the war in Afghanistan. But moments after her mom's funeral, an antique phone rings in the farmhouse where her mother grew up. When Megan answers, the operator tells her it’s a time telephone that she can use to call her mom in the past. Which launches her on a high-stakes quest to save her mother’s life and salvage their relationship. 

Her dream is that her mother will come home instead of gallivanting around the globe, year in and year out, as a foreign correspondent. This is a coming of age story about a teenager dealing with feelings of rejection and abandonment. But can you change someone you love? Megan is going to find out. 


Goodreads Link


PURCHASE LINKS

AUTHOR INTERVIEW
What is your name, where were you born and where do you live now? 
My name is Connie Lacy.  I was born at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky while my father was stationed there in the Army.  I’ve been living in Atlanta for a long time and think of it as home.

Did you always want to be a writer? If not what did you want to be?
When I was 8 years old I thought I’d like to be a hair stylist.  At 11 years of age I wanted to be an astronomer.  When I was 14 I thought I’d like to be a lawyer and live in a high-rise apartment in New York.  But I gravitated toward journalism in college and worked for many years as a radio reporter and news anchor.  I started writing fiction when I was in junior high.  But it wasn’t until last year that I finally self-published my first, second and third books.

What is the name of your latest book, and if you had to summarise it in less than 20 words what would you say?
My latest book is “VisionSight: a Novel.”  It’s magical realism for women readers.  It’s about a young woman who inherits the ability to see the future when she looks into her loved ones’ eyes. 

Which of your books were easier/harder to write than the others?
My first book, “The Shade Ring,” was a real challenge.  It’s Sci-fi – Climate Fiction – and is set a hundred years in the future when runaway global warming has caused a fifteen foot rise in sea levels.  I did a ton of research preparing to create the world of 2117.  I actually love doing research.  The only problem is sometimes I have to tell myself to quit researching and get on with writing.

What can we expect from you in the future?  ie More books of the same genre? Books of a different genre?
Right now I’m working on two sequels to “The Shade Ring.”  Book 2 will be published this summer and Book 3 will come out in early 2017.  After that, I’ll be working on a novel about a high school girl set in the 1960s.

Do you have a favourite character from your books? and why are they your favourite?
I like the protagonist in each of my first three books.  But I’m most partial, I think, to 17 year old Megan McConnell – the main character in my second book, “The Time Telephone.”  She’s determined to try to save her mother, who’s a foreign correspondent, by calling her in the past.  She has to deal with feelings of abandonment but… without giving too much of the story away… she learns a lot about life and love.

Where do you get your book plot ideas from?What/Who is your inspiration?
Ideas pop into my head.  The idea for “The Shade Ring” came from all the media coverage of global warming.  I started wondering what a hotter world would be like and developed a character who actually gets sucked into efforts to deal with climate change.  The idea for my third book, “VisionSight,” came to me while watching my son’s high school soccer game.  I was wondering what a group of teenagers several rows in front of me would look like in thirty or forty years.  And it occurred to me that I could write about a character who can see the future.

Do you basic plot/plan for your book, before you actually begin writing it out? Or do you let the writing flow and see where it takes the story?
With all of my books I come up with a basic idea or a character I want to write about and then make tons of notes – pages and pages of ideas and possible scenes – until I know where I’m going with it.  Before I start writing a manuscript I know where the story is supposed to go, including how it ends.  Of course, sometimes once I’m writing, a character may not do exactly what I had planned.  But the ending is always what I aimed for.

Have you ever based characters on people you know or based events on things that have happened to you?
I draw on all kinds of experiences and people in my own life.  But I never lift a real person and write him or her into a novel.  I do borrow traits or habits and write them into characters, including certain parts of myself.  I think a good many writers do that.  And I’ve taken some events from my life and included them in stories but the specifics are so transformed and altered that not even my family members recognize them.

Where can readers follow you?
Blog: www.connielacy.com
Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/ConnieLacyBooks
Goodreads author page: www.Goodreads.com/ConnieLacy
Twitter: @cdlacy