"Beyond What is Given" (Rebecca Yarros) ★★★★ with GIVEAWAY!!

 

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BEYOND WHAT IS GIVEN

Flight & Glory #3

Rebecca Yarros

Releasing Sept 28th, 2015

Entangled Embrace

Lt. Grayson Masters is focused on graduating the Apache helicopter course, and the last thing he needs is his gorgeous new roommate Samantha Fitzgerald distracting him. While her smart mouth and free spirit are irresistibly irritating, he can’t deny their off-the-charts chemistry, no matter how hard he tries.

Having just been expelled from college, Sam has no business digging for Grayson’s secrets while she’s hiding her own, but that doesn’t stop her from trying to tear down his walls. Each barrier she busts through drops one of her own, though, and she’s not prepared for the truth: another woman laid claim to Grayson’s heart long ago.

Falling in love is something neither Grayson nor Sam can afford, and when that line is crossed and secrets are exposed, they’ll learn that sometimes it’s the answered prayers that will put you through hell.

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EXCERPT

I shrieked as the mixer whirred a shrill pitch and batter exploded, hitting the walls, the cabinets, my face...everything. I sputtered as some landed in my mouth, and slammed my hand against the lever to turn it off.

This was going to be a bitch to clean up.

“Are you okay?” Grayson ran in, hair damp from the shower. His eyes widened as he took in the state of his precious kitchen. “You weren’t kidding about the mess.”

“Oh this?” I smiled. “It’s a new aeration technique. I totally meant to do this.” My awesome excuse died as a glob of brownie mix fell off the tip of my nose.

“Is that so?” he asked, walking over to me slowly, consuming my vision. My breath hitched as he swiped his finger across my cheek, and then licked the brownie mix off the digit. Holy hot. “Hmm... I think there’s something to be said for this method. Maybe a little more air in the batter?”

My mouth popped open. “Are you making fun of me?”

He smirked, which must have had a direct link to my panties, because they unanimously voted to drop. Now. There was sexy, and there was Grayson’s tongue sweeping across his lower lip, which was a step beyond hedonistic. His eyes took on a mischievous glint but kept the same signature intensity that held me captive, unable to look anywhere else as he lowered his face toward mine. What...what was he doing?

Do you even care? Nope. Not one bit.

“Maybe another taste to be sure?” he asked, his voice low as his lips skimmed across my jawline. “Mmm. Definitely more.” Shivers coursed down my body. Holy shit. His mouth was actually on me, and I was awake.

He flipped the switch on the mixer and chocolate flew.

“You did not!” I let my knees buckle so I slipped to the floor, leaving Grayson to be splattered by the flying confection.

“I most certainly did!” He lifted me up like I weighed nothing, and batter smacked the back of my tank top. “Man, you’re slippery.” He mock-dropped me.

I yelped, locking my ankles around his waist and my hands around his neck. He turned off the mixer and chuckled low in his throat. “You can laugh?” I asked, yanking my head back to look at him.

“I have been known to on occasion,” he answered, that stupid, crazy-sexy smirk in play despite the chocolate on his cheeks and forehead. How the hell could someone look so hot while literally dripping brownie batter?

“I like it,” I admitted.

His smirk disappeared, and his grip tightened on my bare thighs as his gaze dropped to my lips. They parted as if he’d freaking asked them to. We weren’t just stepping out of the friend-zone here, we were on a damn missile into let- me-jump-you-ville.

“I do, too,” he whispered.

CAT'S REVIEW

So, "Beyond What is Given" is a wonderful read - filled with love and strength, angst and heartache, and romance and heart flutters!   I absolutely LOVED Sam and Grayson!  Sam, she's witty and confident, yet she's also vulnerable.  Grayson - ooh la la!  He's hot and sexy and he makes my panties melt when he talks to her.  The story progressed at a great pace and I like Ms. Yarros' writing style.    Grayson has some heavy stuff to deal with from his past and that puts a lot of tension on this young love.  At times, it was almost too much, for me.  Overall, this is a fantastic book that keeps the reader involved and, sometimes, biting her nails wishing for the HEA to come and the anxiety to cease!  However, that anxiety is what makes this story and Sam and Grayson so much better!  I haven't read works by Ms. Yarros before but she has certainly gained a new fan and I look forward to checking out her other tales.   (received copy from NetGalley for honest review)

★★★★

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Rebecca Yarros is a hopeless romantic and lover of all things chocolate, coffee, and Paleo. In addition to being a mom, military wife, and blogger, she can never choose between Young Adult and New Adult fiction, so she writes both. She's a graduate of Troy University, where she studied European history and English, but still holds out hope for an acceptance letter to Hogwarts. Her blog, The Only Girl Among Boys, has been voted the Top Military Mom Blog the last two years, and celebrates the complex issues surrounding the military life she adores.

When she's not writing, she's tying on hockey skates for her kids, or sneaking in some guitar time. She is madly in love with her army-aviator husband of eleven years, and they're currently stationed in Upstate NY with their gaggle of rambunctious kiddos and snoring English Bulldog, but she would always rather be home in Colorado.

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"Callous Truths" (Taabia Dupree) with GIVEAWAY!!

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CALLOUS TRUTHS

Taabia Dupree

Releasing Sept 25th, 2015

Have you ever loved someone so much that you ignored what was right in front of you?

After a decade of friendship, Zaniel Baker finds himself envious of his best friends, Micheal, Ryan and Trevor. Even with a dark cloud of unspoken tragedy lingering over their friendship, his friends have managed to find everything that Zaniel wants for himself...happiness and love.

Then he meets Anastasia. Love at first sight soon turns to a licentious obsession.

When tragedy strikes yet again, Zaniel's blinders are ripped off, leaving him in a web of lies, deception, and betrayal.

Can he come back from something that has turned his life upside down? Will his past be a part of the problem or the solution?

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Amazon Bestselling Author Taabia Dupree was born in the United States and grew up on the Eastern Seaboard. Her love of books and anything with words came from her parents. As a young person, Taabia read anything she could get her hands on, from cereal boxes, to the Encyclopedia Britannica, to the National Geographic, to the business section of the local newspaper. Yet some of her favorite reads came from writers; L'Amour, Tolstoy, Eddings, Tolkien, Hugo, Wright, Dickens, and Hemingway.

In 1999, Taabia started writing erotic fantasy stories for online story groups. She self-published her first erotic story in 2011.

Today, Taabia Dupree writes poetry and erotic short stories. Her books can be found in several genres, including coming of age, mystery & psychological-thrillers, fantasy, and paranormal. She's currently working on a crime novella and a sci-fi fantasy novella.

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""Sit Stay Speak" (Annie England Noblin) ★★★★★ with GIVEAWAY!!

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SIT! STAY! SPEAK!

A Novel

Annie England Noblin

Released Sept 9th, 2015

William Morrow

Echoing the novels of Mary Alice Monroe, Allie Larkin, and Holly Robinson, this charming debut novel tells the unforgettable story of a rescue dog that helps a struggling young outsider make peace with the past.

Addie Andrews is living a life interrupted. Tragedy sent her fleeing from Chicago to the shelter of an unexpected inheritance—her beloved aunt’s somewhat dilapidated home in Eunice, Arkansas, population very tiny. There she reconnects with some of her most cherished childhood memories. If only they didn’t make her feel so much!

People say nothing happens in small towns, but Addie quickly learns better. She’s got an elderly next door neighbor who perplexingly dances outside in his underwear, a house needing more work than she has money, a best friend whose son uncannily predicts the weather, and a local drug dealer holding a massive grudge against her.

Most surprising of all, she’s got a dog. But not any dog, but a bedraggled puppy she discovered abandoned, lost, and in desperate need of love. Kind of like Addie herself. She’d come to Eunice hoping to hide from the world, but soon she discovers that perhaps she’s finding the way back—to living, laughing, and loving once more.

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Excerpt

Adelaide Andrews stared out the living room window and into the yard across the street where an elderly man, who she could only assume was her new neighbor, was frolicking through the sprinkler in his underwear. He was at least eighty years old and was very spry for his age. Every time the water shot up into the air, so did the man’s legs. It was as if he were involved in some kind of synchronized sprinkler event in the Olympics. Nobody came to ask the man to go back inside. Nobody asked him to stop.

Nobody offered him a towel or chased after him with a fistful of medications, which he’d clearly forgotten to take. When the sprinkler stopped several minutes later, so did the man. He didn’t even bother to shake himself off as he bounded up the steps and disappeared back inside the house.

This wasn’t what Adelaide had in mind when she moved from Chicago to the Arkansas Delta. She’d left the midwestern city to escape insanity, not to move in next door to it.

She turned back to the sea of boxes that covered her living room. She’d spent all day sorting and hadn’t even made a dent. She halfheartedly opened the box nearest her. Inside she found a hodgepodge of items, an indication that this had probably been one of the last boxes she packed up.

Looking up from the box, Adelaide scanned the room. Her aunt Tilda had died and left the house to her almost six months ago, and it was obvious that it had been empty for entirely too long. Well, not empty, exactly. Aunt Tilda died in the middle of the night—a stroke, the coroner said. Clearly, from the look of the place, her aunt hadn’t planned on dying. When she said in her will that she wanted everything to go to Addie, she’d meant it. Not even the toilet paper had been disturbed since the day of the funeral. She’d had several calls from the only real estate agent in town to see what had been left to her, but Addie couldn’t bring herself to do it. Yes, the hardwood floors needed to be refinished.

The walls needed to be repainted. The ceiling fans needed to be replaced, and all of this was just in the living room. She heard her aunt’s voice in her head. Someday this house will be yours, Addie. I hope you’ll take care of it like I have.

Addie hadn’t really believed her. What twelve-year-old pays attention to those kinds of things, anyway? Fifteen years later, the words hovered above her like the dust collecting in the corners of the walls. She’d let her aunt down over these last few months. She’d let everyone down, it seemed.

CAT'S REVIEW

"Sit, Stay, Speak" has captured my heart!  I absolutely fell in love with the entire story - the characters, the plot and, of course, the puppy!   Addie is terrific - I loved her.  Yes, there is a male character (whom I also loved!) that shows a bit of romance, but this is not the focus of this story.  Addie is trying to rebuild her life with the house she inherited in a new town.  The people and events of this town make for such an interesting read that keep the reader involved and invested.  Ms. Noblin has written a tale that demonstrates the bonds of love and friendship and, of course, puppy love!   At times, I cried.  At times, I laughed.  At times, I was outraged!  This, for me, is evidence that this is an exceptional read that I have already recommended to many friends and family members.  (received copy from Edelweiss for honest review)   

★★★★★

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Annie England Noblin graduated with an M.A. in Creative Writing from Missouri State University and currently teaches English for Arkansas State University. Her poetry has been featured in such publications as the Red Booth Review and the Moon City Review. She lives with her son, husband, and four rescued bulldogs in the Missouri Ozarks. In addition to her writing, Noblin started working with rescue organizations across the country ten years ago, and has never looked back. The work she does serves as an inspiration in everyday life, as well as in her writing.

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"The Lair" (A.B. Michaels) ★★★★★ with GIVEAWAY!!

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THE LAIR

A Sinner's Grove Novel

A.B. Michaels

Released June 16th, 2015

Red Trumpet Press

The Lair follows on the heels of Sinner’s Grove, a contemporary suspense novel centered around the fictional artists’ retreat on the northern California coast known as “The Grove.”

Dani Dunn, the local innkeeper, has just learned of her famous father’s death and must travel back to her home country of Italy to attend the funeral. To say she’s not looking forward to it is an understatement. In fact, she’s petrified. The estate she grew up in holds terrifying memories that she knows she’ll have to confront if she’s ever to get on with her life.

Complicating matters is the fact that her flirtatious friend, Detective Gabe de la Torre, is coming along for the ride – without being asked. However, as Dani discovers the true evil that awaits her, Gabe proves he’s much more than a friend – he’s a sworn protector who may lose his own life in the process of saving hers.

Author's Note: THE LAIR deals with a very real, but sensitive subject, human trafficking.  It may be disturbing to some readers.

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EXCERPT

The nerve of Gabriele. For the past fourteen months, ever since he’d joined the Marin County Investigation Division, Detective de la Torre had made it his life’s work to get under Dani’s skin. Well, perhaps that was a bit of an exaggeration, but still. First he’d tried to come on to her, using their shared heritage as a line. They were both from northern Italy; surely they could get together some evening and talk over their shared cultural roots? Fortunately she’d put a stop to that pretty quickly. In no uncertain terms she’d told Mr. Dolce & Gabbana that although he seemed like a nice enough man, he held no physical attraction for her whatsoever. It was a lie, of course, but she wasn’t about to share why they couldn’t make a go of it.

 Her brush-off was a gamble. Gabe was single and didn’t like eating by himself, so he was a regular at her restaurant, part of the inn she owned in Little Eden. She didn’t want to lose his business, so she had tried to be firm but not rude.  It appeared to be working. He still ate at her place without seeming to harbor any bad feelings.

            Oh, who was she kidding? Gabe had dropped any romantic interest in Dani in a flash—so quickly that she wondered if she’d imagined his interest all along. He still flirted with her, but there was a slightly mocking tone to it, as if he dared her to take him seriously. Of course, she didn’t.  She couldn’t. Now he was simply a friend who liked to tease her—a good friend most of the time, and a meddling friend at times like these.

            Dani glanced at the businessman, who had asked the flight attendant if she had any Italian newspapers. She came back with a copy of Corriere della Sera. As Don Juan leafed through it, a photo on page three caught Dani’s eye; it was a stock shot of her father, Armando Forcelli. The headline read, drug use suspected in fatal joyride of hotel heir. Immediately, tears began to well up and Dani quickly fumbled in her bag for some tissue, hoping neither of her seat-mates would notice.

Several days earlier she’d learned that her father, the son of one of Italy’s most famous hoteliers, had died in a boating accident. As his sole beneficiary, she was in fact headed to the Forcelli family compound in Verona to attend her father’s funeral and sign some papers pertaining to his estate. She told herself there was no logical reason to feel so emotionally vulnerable.  She’d seen her father only a handful of times over the past dozen years, ever since … ever since she left Italy. Yet it was as if her feelings had climbed aboard a roller coaster and wouldn’t get off the tracks. She’d be fine for a while and then a memory would skirt by of her babbo carrying her on his shoulders down the long picture gallery … or taking her to a special place in the old city he said had the best gelato in all of Italy. She’d remember the scent of his cologne, just a hint of lemons and spice … and the feel of her small hand encased in his big warm one. Then the tears would start to flow and she’d wonder, panicked, if they would ever stop.

CAT'S REVIEW

I have to say - this one rocks!  "The Lair" was so much more than I expected it to be.  There is so much mystery and intrigue, I was guessing the whole time and couldn't wait to turn the page to see what would happen next and who it was!  It's a rollercoaster ride, never know what the next turn of the page will bring.  The main characters were quite likable and together they were terrific.  I loved how Dani tried to deny the romance, wanting to handle things on her own.  And Gabe was great!  He's a flirt but really a good guy that cares for Dani.  I am very impressed with Ms. Michaels' writing style and imagination and look forward to reading her other works in the future.  Although "The Lair"  is part of a series, it can be read as a stand alone.  I have not read the other books in the series yet but look forward it to doing so.   For readers that enjoy mystery and romance, this is one that I highly recommend!  (received copy for honest review)

★★★★★

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A.B. Michaels' dual-genre series "Sinner's Grove" follows the family, friends and associates connected to a world-famous artists' retreat on the California coast.  While The Lair is a contemporary novel of romantic suspense, The Depth of Beauty (soon to be published) is historical fiction, set at the turn of the twentieth century. Both San Francisco and the retreat of Sinner's Grove are featured in the story.  

To read a free sample, visit https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/3MTD47701RSD4.  If you enjoy the sample, please nominate it for Kindle Press; if it's accepted, you'll receive a free download of the entire book.

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Born and raised in northern California, A.B. Michaels holds master's degrees in history and broadcasting, and worked for many years in the public relations and marketing fields. An avid quilter and bocce player, she currently lives in Boise, Idaho with her husband and two furry "sons" who don't seem to realize they're just dogs.

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