Friday, August 30, 2013

Tour Stop & Giveaway: Beauty Bites by Mary Hughes

Beauty Bites (Biting Love Book 6)
Beauty is skin deep…but the beast goes all the way.

When top Minneapolis ad man Ric Holiday is asked to design a campaign for a quaint little town, his first reaction is absolutely not. Meiers Corners is too near Chicago, home of the vampire who turned him as an orphaned boy.

Then the city sends an angel-faced med student with a body made for sin to plead their case. Synnove Byornsson is the ray of sunshine Ric hasn’t felt since he was human.

Armed with determination and a micro miniskirt, Synnove is prepared to crash Holiday’s penthouse cocktail party—and to dislike him on sight. But Mr. All-Style-No-Substance turns out to have a deadly smile, a barely restrained, feral strength, and piercing blue eyes that look at her—not at her cleavage.

Unfortunately Synnove has competition in the form of a sly temptress with a counterproposal. For the first time in her life, Synnove must cash in her genetic lottery ticket and fire back with some sizzle of her own—or her beloved Meiers Corners could become the new Sin City.

Warning: Contains a doctor with a bod for sin, an ad exec with a chip on his shoulder, sarcasm, sex, and a cabin full of annoying friends. Secrets are revealed. One heart-stopping, horrific moment leads to the ultimate of happily-ever-afters.


Beauty-Bites (2)
 
Excerpt:
It was all fun and games until the gun hit my skull.

Thud. A bright pain cracked in my brain, telling me the mountainous hostage-taker had brought his own weapon to bear.

Almost immediately something heavy plowed into us, spinning me away from the gun. I staggered to a stop.

My sight cleared to Ric, wrestling the mountain.

The big goon seized Ric with one arm, hugging him close like he was going to give him noogies. But the gun in his noogie hand made reality more chilling.

Ric shimmered, and suddenly the mountain was holding a cloud of mist.

Vampire fighting technique? I cheered before it occurred to me to wonder why Ric hadn’t used it before and why the shadowman helping us hadn’t used it at all.

The edge of Ric’s mist caught a stray beam of sunlight. It instantly combusted—poof. My elation turned to horror.

Ric snapped back into being like a rubber band. His cheek was seared open, exposing red muscle surrounded by blackened, bubbling skin. But he lost no time raising his bound hands, swinging, and whacked the bad guy’s head with fists like a mallet.

The mountain swayed but didn’t go down. Ric spun, once, twice, winding up his whole body behind it, and whacked him again.

Still the guy didn’t go down. My heart tripped double time. The mountain swept his gun toward Ric.

I leaped at them. Went oof when I hit the shadow’s arm, stuck out like a bar. I folded over it like a cheap towel and staggered back.

Ric slid into the rifle.

The mountainous goon opened fire as Ric knocked the gun to the side—the side where the ogre-like head hostage-taker stood.

Ogre Face ducked and covered. A spray of bullets rat-a-tat-tatted a line where his head had been.

Ric chopped his forearms across the mountain’s right wrist. The mountain howled, both arms flying up in defense, right hand dangling with a protruding lump at the wrist presenting as broken. The gun fell to hang from its clip. The mountain groped for it with his left hand.

Ric grabbed the big man’s balls.

The guy shrieked. Ric wrenched. The mountain dropped, curling on the floor like a shrimp. Apparently Ric also had a grip like a nut crusher.

“Stop!”

I whipped around. Ogre Face pointed his gun at my head. He rasped, “You’re dead.”

Terror burned that instant into my head like a snapshot. I stood facing the ogre. About ten feet separated us. Behind me was the hostage-lined bank of windows, the shadowman already running toward them. A few feet to my right, the mountain goon curled on the floor, Ric breathing deeply over him.

Both Ric and I were too far away to stop the ogre from shooting.

“Down!” The shadowman pushed hostages to the floor, starting with the ones in Ogre Face’s direct line of fire. Well, if you didn’t count me.

Ric leaped.

My knees started to bend.

Ogre Face pulled the trigger.

Ric wouldn’t hit him in time, even though he’d leaped before the ogre pulled the trigger.

The gun went off.

----------------------------------------------

I turned.

Ric Holiday in his full sizzling glory was right on top of me.

I stepped back, spine hitting the edge of the elevator shaft. My nipples reached out as if trying to stay in touch. *The erection of the mammary papilla is due to muscle contraction, like the pilomotor reflex which causes goose bumps*—Stupid nipples. “What do you want?” I spoke a bit sharply, but his heat and heady scent had goosed my frustration into borderline rudeness. I flushed but held my place. Well, fused against the corner of the shaft, I had to.

He stared down into my eyes, his own frustrated too. “I want to explain.”

“You made it clear enough. Me and Camille at the O.K. Corral, one week from today.” I looked away. The elevator was leaving.

“Synnove.” He slid two strong fingers under my chin and urged my face back to him. The blue had softened. “I’m sorry.”

“Why? There’s worse?” I scowled, but I had to work at it. Why did he have to be so gorgeous? Why did his fingers have to be so gentle, so warm? “You’re going to make us bikini mud wrestle?”

“Ouch.” He smiled slightly. “I deserve that.”

“No,” I grumped. “You don’t. But you’re getting it anyway.”

The grin slowly widened, making his whole face edible. “The vaunted Byornsson honesty. I’m beginning to see the advantages.”

And I was beginning to see the advantages of hot sexy sizzle. But no way I was admitting that to him. Not lying, just omission, which is not a lie. Mostly.
When my lips parted to say something that was not a lie and definitely wasn’t about how sexy he was, his eyes darkened. “Shh.”

He replaced the two fingers on my chin with two cupping hands, holding my face gently, like it was something precious. Like I was precious.

My lips stayed parted but no words came out.

In that moment of silence, he lowered his head. Slowly, so I could have stopped him.

Should have stopped him.

Did not want to.

*He’s nothing but image.*

*Image and intense pleasure.*

*The lips have one of the highest density of nerve endings in the body…*

*Argh. Shut up and kiss him.*

While I was arguing with myself his warm mouth settled on mine, tongue sliding deftly between my lips. It rasped my sensitive skin, rubbing my lips awake like a thorough toweling. A steamed towel, hot and wet.

Confused feelings fled. I gave a little moan and opened wider.

He swept inside, all spice and heat. He groaned, a sound of masculine hunger. His questing mouth, his hot kiss, said lust plain and clear. Yet his hands were tender on my face, his sweet caress speaking of something beyond sex, a closeness that transcended the physical.

Happiness blossomed in my heart. Our groans were intertwined, mutual. For this one moment, the battle was suspended and we were on the same side.
His fingers tunneled into my hair, holding me firmly while his tongue drove deeper. He pressed closer yet, pinning me to the edge of the elevator shaft with his body, imprinting me with every muscle, every bulge, every place he was hard and primitive under his worsted.

I rippled against him and moaned softly in response. If he could generate this kind of pressure standing, how would the weight of his body feel, pressing me into a mattress?

At the thought I nearly exploded.

He shifted me, his powerful hands urging me away from where the corner of the elevator was digging into my spine and guiding me onto the wall. There he pressed me into vinyl wallpaper and kissed me like he was starving for me. The honest hunger in his kiss undid me. I grabbed his head and kissed him back with everything I had.

A big hand slid up my ribs, sparking a trail of heat, stopping under my breast. The mound throbbed, waiting, wanting, yearning for that hot hand to slide up the curve, to touch my delicate and private flesh. To brand it as his own. My soft moans shortened to whimpers, and I arched to thrust my breast more fully into his hand.

A deep rumbling started, a lion’s purr. His hand moved, fingers barely brushing the bottom curve. I stopped breathing. His fingers skimmed higher, circling nearer, nearer to the hardening tip. I twitched in anticipation, greedy for his touch on sensitive flesh barely covered by a thin blouse and the wispiest scallop of lace. Bless Twyla’s endless supply of sexy bras.

Finally, finally his thumb scraped my nipple. I shrieked into his mouth, jerking against him. My nipple furled instantly, wordlessly urging him again, more, now.

He opened his hand and covered my breast, his heat searing. Slotting the nipple between two fingers, he began to pump and tug gently, rhythmically squeezing, pulling. I thought I’d go insane from the sweet soft tugging.

Until he replaced the hand with his mouth.

His lips closed on my erect nipple through thin blouse and bra, breath wetting the material until he could have been sucking directly on flesh. It was the dream become real; it was better. More aroused than I’d been in my life, I grabbed his ears and beat my hips into him, not thinking at all, just moving. A pressure built between my legs, a hot, heavy throbbing that made me want him on his back and me naked and clamping him between my thighs.

A ding startled me; my eyes flew open. The elevator, which had gone and come back again, disgorged half a dozen professional-looking people.


About the Author:
I've worked as everything from a cleaning temp to project manager for global clients. Currently I'm an author, musician, and computer consultant. I live in the United States Midwest with a basement full of spare computer parts and several musical instruments including my husband's romantic cello and my flute for playing bird parts in orchestra...ask me to tell you that story sometime :)

Hugs!
Mary

Giveaway:
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Tour Stop & Giveaway: Mr. Manny by Jennifer Garcia


Summary:
Mia Balducci misses her childhood days and yearns for the big, Italian family that she left behind in small town Massachusetts. At the tender age of sixteen, Mia moves with her bachelor father to Los Angeles, but no matter how many years pass, it never becomes home to her. The years spent living with her father aren’t easy, especially since she can’t stop thinking about what she once had. Her enrollment in the University of Southern California promises to bring exciting changes to her life, but Mia winds up with big problems instead. When she runs into an old friend from her old hometown of Winthrop, she gets swept up in nostalgia, and she soon loses herself in a quickly-progressing romance. When the fantasy falls apart, she is left to raise her precious little girl, Lucia, on her own. The demands of Mia’s work schedule and Lucia’s needs increase, and their lives become increasingly hectic. It is soon clear to Mia that she needs help. Luckily, her life-saving cousin saves the day and brings the mother and daughter a male nanny – their new “manny.”

After losing his high-pressure job on Wall Street, Dominic Roberts wants to follow his dreams to have a family. He’s already one fiancée down, and there are no likely prospects for another. In order to find the family he so desperately wants, he finds himself getting into the manny business. Since he is fully qualified to provide child care and is eager to leave New York City behind, his sister-in-law is able to land him a job in California working for his first client – the beautiful and intriguing Mia Balducci.

Will Lucia like the new man in her mother's life? Will Mia? And will this new trio discover the happily ever after they all so desperately seek?



Excerpt:
I rolled over to face Dominic and he began to stir. I watched him breathe and took inventory of his precious face. His lashes were thick and short against his cheek. The stubble on his face had thickened a bit more and his lips stuck out in a pout. I pecked them and his eyes opened.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty,” I said as he stretched and yawned. He scratched at his stubble and rubbed his eyes. He was adorable in the morning.

“Mhmmm, it is a good morning,” he said with a sleep-coated voice. He wrapped and tightened his arms around me and then squeezed. “A very good morning.”

“I need to get up and get ready for work. Lucia will be up in a bit. But ...” I began to say.

“What’s wrong?”

I exhaled a deep breath. “No, nothing’s wrong, but ... well I really want you to move into my room now. Too soon?” I wasn’t afraid he’d say no, but for some reason I felt strange asking him that.

He scoffed. “Did you think I was going to sleep in my room after last night? I had the best night of my life” he said while peppering soft, slow kisses on my face.

“It was my best night, too, baby.” I kissed him one more time and got up. “So, it’s official then. You’re moving in here and we’re a real couple.” I jerked my head in a nod to emphasize my statement.

He rolled on top of me, pinning me down on the bed. “I thought it was a given, Mia. You’re stuck with me forever now. I hope you can handle me.” He laughed.

“Mhmmm, I can handle you all right. I just hope you can handle me.” I kissed his lips.

Author Bio:
Jennifer Garcia’s (aka Forbes Arnone) love of travel began when she went to the West Coast to visit her father at the age of three. Her home until she was sixteen was a small coastal town near Boston. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband, two sons, and two dogs.

Her lifelong love for reading and writing was put aside for many years while she made her way in the world and nurtured her young family. Even though she is older, and life never seems to settle, she’s finding her way while attending college full-time in pursuit of a B.A. in English Literature. She also runs a business, and is still caring for her family. Believing she can do it all, with the help of her family, she worked on her first novel during the late hours of the night while balancing the rest of her life during the day. Her hard work paid off, as her first novel, My Mr. Manny, will be published August 2013.

Find Jennifer on:
Facebook Page Twitter About.me Authorsdb Independent Author Network Amazon - Forbes Arnone

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Cover Reveal: Finding Home by Lauren McKellar

1013-Finding-Home_1400
Synopsis: Moody, atmospheric, and just a little bit punk, Finding Home takes contemporary YA to a new level of grit... When Amy’s mum dies, the last thing she expects is to be kicked off her dad’s music tour all the way to her Aunt Lou in a depressing hole of a seaside town. But it’s okay — Amy learned how to cope with the best, and soon finds a hard-drinking, party-loving crowd to help ease the pain. The only solace is her music class, but even there she can’t seem to keep it together, sabotaging her grade and her one chance at a meaningful relationship. It takes a hard truth from her only friend before Amy realises that she has to come to terms with her past, before she destroys her future.
Finding Home, Lauren K McKellar's debut novel, is coming October 1, 2013. Add it to goodreads today.
Excerpt:
‘Look, I have to go. Can we talk about this later?’ Dad was asking Mum. Joe had shut the door behind him, and it was a good thing he did too, because when Dad had finished speaking, Mum picked up an empty bottle of Grey Goose vodka and threw it at his head. She missed, missed by a mile, but that didn’t stop the bottle hitting the wall behind him and shattering into thousands of tiny pieces. ‘Jesus!’ Dad exclaimed. He turned around, surveying the damage. ‘Oh, look what I did! Can’t have clean-cut Stevie D trashing the green room. People might talk!’ Mum’s voice dripped with sarcasm. It sounded hoarse, no doubt a result of the hours she’d spent alternating between crying and screaming up until now.
‘Even if this was our bloody lounge room, I would still be furious! You can’t just throw s**t like that.’
‘I’ll throw whatever I want to throw!’ Mum yelled. ‘You’re so uptight.’ She walked up to Dad and put her hands on his shoulders, shaking them. ‘Give up this stupid dream already.’ ‘And do what? I can’t afford your habits any other way. If I don’t sing, you have to get a job.’ Dad shook his head. I inched around behind them and started to pick up the pieces of glass. They were all different sizes, and some had gotten stuck in the carpet. They required a bit of twisting to retrieve, but the others I could pick up with ease and place in my hand. ‘What do you want me to do? I don’t have any skills. And there’s clearly only one thing you think I’m good at these days,’ Mum said, leering. She pulled at her top, exposing her décolletage. I focused on the glass again. I counted each piece in my hand. Thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-eight. On the fortieth piece, a shard broke through my skin, spilling bright red blood. Funny. I hadn’t thought my skin would be so thin. ‘Amy, you’re hurt!’ Mum pushed past Dad and came to kneel next to me. ‘What are you doing?’ She knocked my hand with her own, and the pieces of glass flew up into the air and landed back on the floor. All my efforts — ruined. ‘Let me see,’ Dad said.
‘Get the hell away from her!’ Mum yelled, raising her voice again.
‘Do we have to do this in front of Amy?’ Dad asked. I felt them turn to look at me. Did they think I hadn’t heard? That the fights they’d been having all day in the adjacent hotel room hadn’t resonated with a hatred that travelled through walls? ‘Please don’t,’ was all I could say. But it was enough. Dad left the room, and Mum tended to my hand, spilling some vodka to cleanse it before wrapping it in a spare t-shirt. ‘I’m sorry, baby,’ Mum whispered to me. ‘I promise, things are going to get better.’ Only they didn’t. They got much, much worse.
laurenkmckellar
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Cover Reveal: Villere House by Leslie Fear & C.D. Hussey


"Villere House" by Leslie Fear & C.D. Hussey

Coming Early Fall, 2013


Blurb:

The last thing college senior Lottie Boyd expected while on spring break in New Orleans was having strange, yet vivid dreams of a 19th century young widow, desperately trying to save her dying little girl. When doctors are unable to do more, the beautiful woman in Lottie’s dreams is forced to go beyond her beliefs for one last attempt.
Compelled to find answers, Lottie is drawn toward the historic Villere House of Voodoo, where she meets the owner, Xavier Villere. She is attracted to his intriguing creole good looks, but his skepticism of his family's century-old link to Voodoo and the occult keep pushing her away. It isn’t until Xavier begins experiencing unexplainable events from his own past that he begins to understand why he must help Lottie with hers.









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Thursday, August 29, 2013

This Man Series by Jodi Ellen Malpas

 
This Man (Book One)
Young interior designer Ava O'Shea has no idea what awaits her at the Manor. A run-of-the-mill consultation with a stodgy country gent seems likely, but what Ava finds instead is Jesse Ward--a devastatingly handsome, utterly confident, pleasure-seeking playboy who knows no boundaries. Ava doesn't want to be attracted to this man, and yet she can't control the overwhelming desire that he stirs in her. She knows that her heart will never survive him and her instinct is telling her to run, but Jesse is not willing to let her go. He wants her and is determined to have her.

 
Review
Urrrgggg!!! <--- this was me throughout most of the book every time I read about something Jessie Ward did or said!! That man was so infuriating, demanding and a control freak to top ALL control freaks. To be completely honest he drove me insane and I couldn't stand him most of the time. I just wanted to punch him in the face and I would yell at my kindle for Ava to slap him or leave him alone. He was relentless!!! Even though I had a love/hate relationship with The Lord of the Manor, meaning I loved to hate him, because lets face it I loathed him most of the time. I just couldn't put it down, I was sucked into that book all dazed and confused as to why I was still reading this crazy wonderful story if I couldn't stand one of the main characters, it just didn't make any sense. I guess my main issue was his control freak ways. He chased Ava down, showed up every where she was just to make her agree to be his. You can tell he is hiding things from his past and will do anything to please Ava, but keep her on a short leash as well. By the end of the book I just had to have more, I couldn't stand it. I became addicted to Jesse Ward and like a crack whore I needed my fix. Thank God, I didn't have to wait for the next book and I dove in head first, staying up all hours of the night, sneaking around at work, ignoring my husband just to keep reading!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Beneath This Man (Book Two)
Jesse Ward drowned her with his intensity and blindsided her with his passion, but he kept her away from his dark secrets and broken soul. Leaving him was the only way Ava O'Shea could survive. She should have known that Jesse Ward is impossible to escape--and now he's back in her life, determined to remind her of the sensual pleasures they had shared. Ava is equally determined to get at the truth beneath this man's steely exterior. That means letting herself get close to the Lord of the Manor once more. And it's exactly where Jesse wants her--within touching distance...

 
Review
I was so proud of Ava for standing up to Jesse and leaving, but I was just as heart broken as she was too. How is it possible to love someone as much as you hate them. I'm still a little baffled by this. Jesse is determined to get Ava back and keep her this time. The more I read the more I fell in love Jesse, and I know I keep saying that but you just won't get it until you read it. There is no one and there never will be another Jesse Ward, no one even comes close. There is all kinds of drama, not only drama from Jesse himself but things start happening to Ava that no one can explain. Jodi Ellen Malpas can write one damn good sexy, steamy book, filled with some romance, suspense, and drama. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
This Man Confessed (Book Three)
The Manor, the very place where their passionate love affair began, fills with guests on what should be the happiest day of Ava and Jesse's lives. She has accepted that she'll never tame the fierceness in Jesse-and she doesn't want to. Their love is profound, their connection powerful, but just when she thinks that she's finally gotten beneath his guarded exterior, more questions arise, leading Ava to believe that Jesse Ward may not be the man she thinks he is. He knows too well how to take her to a place beyond ecstasy . . . but will he also drive her to the brink of despair? It's time for this man to confess.

 
Review
This is the book where Jesse Ward stole my heart! I was completely undone by him. It no longer mattered what had happened in the other books, all was forgiven, all was forgotten. Everything from Jesse's past comes to light in this book. Jesse Ward will forever hold a spot in my heart. He finally reveals why he acts the way he does and let me tell you, his story chipped away all the remaining ice chips around my heart. This book is more about Jesse dealing with his past, admitting things to Ava and FINALLY opening up to her. This is the book where they learn to grow as a couple as well as individually and Ava has a choice to make. Is Jesse's baggage too much this time, will it finally be her breaking point along with everything else she has had to endure from him. In this third and final book, Ava finally stands up for herself against Jesse's domineering ways, she pushes past his barriers and meets him head on and I can honestly say it was about time, I was beginning to wonder about her. This series completely blew me away. I've read about BDSM and all that kinky fuckery in Fifty Shades and I was tired of reading the same story over and over, everyone wanted a Fifty Shades type story and I was worried this was going to be the same, BUT I was WRONG!! Yes there is a rich man with control freak issues and a girl that makes him want to change his ways but that is where the similarities stop. This is nothing like that, it is in a class all it's on. Any book that can take you from despising the main character to falling in love with him all the while being captivated by the story so much that you can't put the book down and once you finish one book you jump right into the next, any book series like that gets a 5/5 stars from me and will make me a fan for life of the extremely talented Jodi Ellen Malpas.



Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Release Day Blitz: Good by S. Walden


Synopsis
Cadence Miller is a good girl. She just happens to make one terrible mistake her junior year in high school which costs her ten months in juvenile detention. Now a senior, she’s lost everything: her best friend, the trust of her parents, driving privileges, Internet access. It’s a lonely existence.
But there is one bright spot: Mark Connelly, her very cute, very off-limits 28-year-old calculus teacher. She falls hard for him—a ridiculous schoolgirl crush headed nowhere. She can’t help it. He’s the only good thing at Crestview High. She doesn’t expect him to reciprocate her feelings. How inappropriate, right? But he does. And he shows her.
And that’s when her life goes from bad to good.

About S. Walden
S. Walden used to teach English before making the best decision of her life by becoming a full-time writer. She lives in Georgia with her very supportive husband who prefers physics textbooks over fiction and has a difficult time understanding why her characters must have personality flaws. She is wary of small children, so she has a Westie instead. Her dreams include raising chickens and owning and operating a beachside inn on the Gulf Coast (chickens included). When she's not writing, she's thinking about it.

She loves her fans and loves to hear from them. Email her at swaldenauthor@hotmail.com and follow her blog at http://swaldenauthor.blogspot.comwhere you can get up-to-date information on her current projects.
Twitter: @swaldenauthor

Promo Sale
Three days only on Amazon! S. Walden is dropping the price of Going Under to only .99¢ on Amazon to help celebrate the release of Good during the Release Day Blitz from August 27 - 29!

Giveaway
  • Grand Prize: SIGNED paperback of Good by S. Walden & $25 Amazon Giftcard
  • 3 Winners: FREE eBook copy of Good by S. Walden

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Monday, August 26, 2013

Release Day & Giveaway: Crazy Beautiful Love (The Martelli Brothers) By J.S. Cooper

 
Crazy Beautiful Love is live!! To celebrate the release we are hosting a giveaway for a CBL Swag pack! Use the rafflecopter below to enter.

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This is not the typical bad boy meets good girl story.
Logan Martelli is a bad boy. He's handsome, sexy, and knows what he wants. He steals cars. He doesn't do relationships. And he has the hottest green eyes in River Valley.

Maddie Wright is a good girl with a wild streak. She's confident, strong, and goes after whatever or whoever she wants. And Maddie wants Logan Martelli with a passion.

One fateful night brings Logan and Maddie together and electricity sparks between them. Maddie and Logan make a real connection, but when Logan finds out who she is, he wants nothing to do with her. However, he soon realizes he can get the ultimate revenge for his family if he continues to date Maddie. The problem is he's starting to fall for Maddie, and he knows that a relationship will mess up everything.

Logan has to decide if revenge is worth losing his one shot at real love. What price will he pay if he betrays the one woman who may finally see behind his bad boy image?

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Tour Stop: Get Bent (Rock Hard Root Book #2) by C.M. Stunich

Mature - Ages 18 and Up. Contains sex, drugs, violence, and rock 'n' roll.

"I fell in love with a girl last week. I didn't expect it, didn't even know what was happening to me until it was too late."

Naomi Knox is missing.
I don't even f*cking know whether she's dead or alive.
What I do know is that she's the air I need to breathe.
She's my redemption, an all consuming fire that burns in my blood.
And I'll do anything to find her. Anything. Even if it means the end for me.

& & &

Turner Campbell is searching.
But he has no f*cking clue what it is he's searching for.
There's darkness all around and enough secrets to choke.
There are angels, and there are devils. It's impossible to tell them apart.
Light needs to be shone on the truth, but there's no one left to hold the torch. The line between life and death is blurred, and the players are all thoroughly entrenched in the game. The question is: am I still one of them?

Get Bent
 
Real Ugly (Book #1)
 
Meet Turner Campbell
Turner is a special kind of guy. He grew up without respect, so he demands it, even if it makes him come across as a bit of an asshole. He's got piercings and tats for days, and a mouth with no filter. If you're expecting wise words woven into his insults, you're looking in the wrong place. Turner Campbell's searching; he just doesn't know what it is that he's searching for. But he does have tattoos on his … well, you know. Yep. All over down there. Bats and spider webs. Kinda cool, right?

Meet Naomi Knox
 
Naomi Knox is hardcore. She has to be. Growing up without parents will do that to a person, especially when you're subjected to the horrors only a special type of foster family can provide … But she can play a mean guitar and she'll write music that'll make Beethoven weep in his grave. Just don't ask about her dirty, little secrets. Well, I suppose little isn't exactly the right word. Huge. Monstrous. Looming. Maybe those are better choices?


Review
This is the second book in the Real Ugly Series and gives us a better look into Turner Campbell. Get Bent is from his POV and picks up right where Real Ugly left off. Naomi Knox is missing, everyone believes that she is dead, that she is the cut up mangled body laying in the morgue, everyone that is except for Turner Campbell. He knows deep down that she isn't dead, she can't be, she's out there somewhere and he is going to find her.

The web of lies is spun so thick you can't see through them to know who to trust. Anyone on or off the tour could be involved and some people are acting shady. Turner is determined, he will find her but until then he will do what he can to keep her music alive, to keep her spirit alive.

Things will happen that will shock you to your core and you really don't know who to trust or what's really going on for that matter. I thought I had everything figured out but this web is so big and there are so many players as to who or what is going on and why for that matter, then we get another cliff hanger!! Not as big as the first one from Real Ugly, but it's still a cliff hanger!!

I really like Turner and liked reading from his POV but I love Naomi and her snarky attitude, I was more drawn into the story in her POV but it's good to know what's really going on in Turner's head. He really does love Naomi and it's good to see that change in him. He's not such a dirt bag like we originally thought :)

 
About the Author
C.M. Stunich was raised under a cover of fog in the area known simply as Eureka, CA. A mysterious place, this strange, arboreal land nursed Caitlin's (yes, that's her name!) desire to write strange fiction novels about wicked monsters, magical trains, and Nemean Lions (Google it!). She currently enjoys drag queens, having too many cats, and tribal bellydance.

Always a fan of the indie scene and 'sticking it to the man,' Ms. Stunich decided to take the road less traveled and forgo the traditional publishing route. You can be assured though that she received several rejections as to ensure her proper place in the world of writers before taking up a friend's offer to start a publishing company. Sarian Royal was born, and Ms. Stunich's books slowly transformed from mere baking chocolate to full blown tortes with hand sculpted fondant flowers.

C.M. is a writer obsessed with delivering the very best and scours her mind on a regular basis to select the most unusual stories for the outside world.


Saturday, August 24, 2013

Tour Stop & Giveaway: Unstoppable (Book #2 Fierce Trilogy) by Ginger Voight

Book Title: Unstoppable (Book #2 in the Fierce Trilogy)
Author: Ginger Voight
Release date: August 20, 2013
Goodreads

Book Summary:
His eyes were rimmed red when they met mine. "I die inside every time he touches you, and there's nothing I can do about it. You've made it clear that you're going to go on with this sham of a marriage, no matter who it hurts in the process. You lie to everyone, Jordi, including the people you're supposed to love the most. And I just can't take it anymore. This is not the way I want to live my life."

"I thought I was worth it," I mumbled.

"You have no idea what you're worth," he said softly. "That's the problem."

In book #2 of the Fierce saga, Jordi Hemphill has joined her true love Jace Riga on cross-country tour with Giovanni Carnevale and Dreaming in Blue. The star-crossed lovers anticipate the freedom to explore their burgeoning relationship, despite the continued complications of her ties to her tormentor Eddie Nix and Jace's new standing as a rock icon. Nothing is as it seems, which make the pair fodder for the rumor mill. Forces from all directions threaten to tear them apart, but it is Jordi's own insecurities that drive a wedge between the aspiring diva and her hero.

Author Ginger Voight further delves into the key issues that keep Jordi from defeating her demons once and for all. This sweeping saga unearths revelations that will rock Jordi's world forever... and set her on the path to the path to her story's epic conclusion.



Teaser:

The next ten days followed the same annoying pattern. Eddie decided he liked being a part of the tour and joined us at the next stop in Chicago, so I ended up traveling with him, staying with him and even sightseeing with him, to ensure that PING wouldn’t have any more ammunition against his character. He insisted that Jace, Shelby, he and I all hang out together, which Shelby thought was a fine idea. So we ended up a fearsome foursome, which felt most days like juggling wet dynamite.

Jace and I ended up sublime actors in a macabre play, which meant we could be together but not. It was torture, though Eddie and Shelby were blissfully unaware.

Most of all, Eddie enjoyed the party life that came with touring. He managed to get whatever he wanted, even discarded groupies who wanted one night with someone – anyone – famous. This helped me keep him at arm’s length, but he was getting even more and more brazen with me as well. Of course, most of it was to piss off Jace, rubbing it in his face that he couldn’t be with me. But it also played into Eddie’s plan to get Shelby. He wanted to show her how romantic, loving and passionate he could be with me, to plant it in her head that he was a romantic, loving and passionate guy. When the day came, he would cry on her shoulder over my betrayal with Jace, and she would realize what a great catch he was, giving herself over to him before his tears dried on her shirt.

That was his plan anyway, and he wasn’t shy about telling me about it.

After that night I stayed with her in Tennessee, he started making lewd comments about how he could have the best of both worlds if I decided to play on both teams.

“We’re celebrities now,” he’d leer. “We’re expected to do freaky shit.” He’d then go into explicit detail how we’d make that Eddie sandwich, pushing the envelope farther and farther each time he broached the topic. I wasn’t sure what got him off more, the fact that it was a top male fantasy of sex with two girls, or that it disturbed me so greatly to hear him talk about it.

It was humiliating and infuriating, but it was a burden I ultimately carried alone. I didn’t tell Jace half of what Eddie said, there was no point. He’d argue we should call his bluff, but I would balk and it would frustrate Jace even more.

So I did what I always did. I protected everyone else at great personal cost.

After staying with Shelby in Tennessee, and watching how her father treated her and how she reacted to it, I knew that Shelby’s troubles ran deep. I pieced it together that she was a binge eater when she was upset, just like I was. Only whenever she would binge, she would either go into exercise overdrive or – since the tour at least – purge. With her emotional history of cutting and being hospitalized, it became my first priority to be a buffer between her and anyone who could hurt her. Given that Eddie became one of Coy Goddard’s favorite people during our stay, that meant I had to do whatever I could to keep her away from Eddie. I found myself pushing her toward Jace on more than one occasion, while throwing myself on an Eddie grenade so she wouldn’t step any closer into his trap.

This meant she and Jace were thrust together as the “sweethearts” of the tour. It became the focus of every interview as the gossip propelled us from city to city. Their photos were scattered all over the Internet and every single grocery store checkout. They were on billboards from coast to coast, thanks to T&L, so they were now being asked to do mall appearances.

So far, none had gone as badly as the one in Dallas, but the “scandal” that T&L didn’t sell clothes for plus-size customers dogged the campaign. How could they come from a show that said everyone was welcome, everyone fit in, and endorse a product that was purposely exclusive?

Jace was ready to bail on the campaign but I begged him to hang in there, for Shelby’s sake. She had been shortchanged in her career by her domineering father – this was one of the few perks she was able to enjoy. I reminded him that it was a manufactured controversy that would have followed them no matter which designer line they opted to endorse, so they might as well ride the wave and get their names out there.

It wasn’t until we landed in Philadelphia that February 29th that I realized the extent of the controversy. PING cameras were thrust into my face the minute I disembarked, as the gossip peddlers that disguised themselves as legitimate press pounced Eddie and me.

“What do you have to say in response to the T&L CEO saying he doesn’t want to sell his clothes to fat people?”

“Jordi! Feeling betrayed by your cast mates that they endorse a clothing line that hates anyone who isn’t thin?”

I held up my hand to push through the horde, and Eddie barked at them to get a real job as he propelled me through the crowded airport to the hired limo out front.

By that time, I turned on my cell phone and found a text from Jace. “I’m quitting. That’s it. Don’t even try to talk me out of it.”

I used my phone to find the quote by T&L’s CEO, Phillip Larabee, that was causing such a brouhaha. Someone had unearthed a memo he had written to the shareholders in response to a 2002 campaign to expand their sizing selections.

I am aware that the average size of the American female has grown into the double digits,” he wrote. “But I have never been interested in attracting the average American shopper. There is no shame in attracting a more elite clientele; this is, in fact, a defining characteristic of the T&L branding. Our exclusivity is what attracts today’s youth to T&L. They want to be successful in all areas, demonstrated in the pride they have in their own image. That’s the example we set with our hiring standards, and that is the standard we’ve created with the public. If we let just anyone come to the party, we’re going to undermine our own value. We are a brand that doesn’t have to change to attract the buyer – it attracts the buyer that knows she needs to change. People aspire to wear T&L. Period.”

I sighed. Why did he have to be such an asshole about it? I had no problem with his marketing to smaller shoppers, but does he have to make such a point about how the larger customers are big fat losers who would sully his brand?

I didn’t care that Eddie was sitting right next to me. I called Jace anyway. He didn’t even give me a chance to say hello. “I’m quitting, Jordi. That’s final.”

“Think of Shelby,” I tried to reason, but he was ready for me.

“She supports me in this. It’s not worth it to us to do this if it’s going to hurt you in the process.”

“But it doesn’t hurt me,” I insisted. “If I cared about wearing T&L clothes, I’d lose weight and fit into them. Honestly it’s overpriced for a bunch of T-shirts and jeans anyway. Besides, Andy found me a clothing boutique that is practically begging me to model. It’s all good. I promise.”

He hesitated for so long I thought he had hung up on me to call T&L, but finally he said, “Okay. But one more scandal with this thing, Jordi, and I’m quitting. Period. Got it?”

“You won’t hear a peep from me,” I agreed with a grin, but I’m pretty sure we both knew that wasn’t true. “I love you,” I said.

“Ditto,” he responded, and I knew then he was with Shelby. It was what I wanted, yet it scared me at the same time. I was quiet as I ended the call and pocketed my phone.

“Modeling, Jordi? Really?”

I glared at Eddie. “Yes. Believe it or not, there are plenty of people who find me attractive.”

“You honestly think I would have slept with you for years if I didn’t find you attractive?” he asked as he reached into the tiny refrigerator for a drink. It was such an unexpected compliment that it struck me mute as I stared at him. After a few minutes, his eyes met mine. “What?”

I shrugged. “That was the nicest thing I think you’ve ever said to me.”

He laughed. “You honestly think that you were the only girl I could have slept with? There were plenty of girls I could have fucked if I wanted to. So if I fucked you, it was because I wanted to.”

“Why?” I asked at last.

He was quiet as he considered me for a moment. Finally he shrugged. “There’s something about you, Jordi. Something that makes a guy want to figure you out.”

This was all news to me. “If you think I’m attractive, why are you so mean to me?”

“I’m just frustrated, I guess. If you were thin, Jordi, you’d take over the world. My God. Can you imagine? You with that voice with a body like Shelby? There would be no limit to what you could do. But you stay fat like this big ol’ ‘fuck you’ to everyone and everything. How else is the world supposed to respond to you?”

“It’s better this way,” I mumbled as I stared out the window.

He shrugged and emptied the bottle of beer in one swig. “Your funeral,” he responded. “But let me tell you, Shelby has the same exact quality you do. Eventually, everyone is going to see that she at least wants to make the effort.”

I wanted to snap that she had an eating disorder. Just like the lyrics of the song I gave to her said, she wanted to be perfect no matter the cost. The only difference was that no one could tell at first glance what was wrong with her the way they could with me. In effect, we were exactly the same.

“You’re an idiot to shove her at Jace all the time,” Eddie continued. “He’s only a man. He won’t be able to deny her forever.”

“You shouldn’t judge all men by what you would do,” I smiled sweetly, which made him laugh.

“All men do what I would do, Jordi. How many times do I have to tell you that? Or is it going to take walking in on Jace and Shelby to prove it once and for all?”

Just the thought of them together made my blood run cold. “He would never do that. To her or to me.”

Eddie just shook his head and chuckled. “How can you still be so naïve?”

“I trust the man I love,” I corrected.

“That’s what I said,” he murmured as he watched our hotel come into view. “Naïve.”

As if to make his point, Eddie insisted we invite Shelby and Jace for a double date that night. He picked a popular restaurant that offered live music and dancing, and featured private booths for a more intimate dining experience. We all sat around a chairless table, sorting through a dozen tapas dishes that we could feed ourselves, or each other, with our fingers.

With the exotic instrumental music that pulsated like a heartbeat, it was a restaurant that appealed to all senses.

Eddie sat close to me, feeding me tiny bites in between increasingly insistent kisses. He would lick away any sauce around my lips, and my innards tightened every time I saw Jace clench his jaw and look away.

“Follow my lead, Chief,” Eddie encouraged, before he tried to feed Shelby a bite.

Jace couldn’t stop him from touching me, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to let Eddie make any advances to Shelby right in front of me. He grabbed the piece of food from Eddie’s hand. “I got it,” he snapped, then added, “Chief,” with a sneer.

Shelby’s eyes were wide as she watched Jace feed her. I couldn’t even watch as her lips closed around the tiny piece of toast covered in olives and cheese.

“That’a boy,” Eddie smiled as he hugged me closer. “One thing I learned on the football field. You gotta act fast when you really want something,” he advised as he regarded Jace with those lazily hooded eyes. “Otherwise someone else is going to be the one that scores.” He tugged my hair back in one hand. “Right, baby?”

I said nothing, even as he fed me another bite which he finished off with another kiss.

I hated every second he touched me, mostly because I knew what it was doing to Jace. I begged him with my eyes to grit through it, but by the end of the night – and a bottle of shared wine – he was over it. He pulled me to the dance floor, his fingers hard and unforgiving as they circled my elbow. “I swear to God I’m going to punch his arrogant face in,” Jace bit out as he crushed me to his body.

“He’s just doing it to get to you,” I said. “Don’t play into his game. You’re way too smart for that.”

“If I were so smart, I’d figure out a way to punt that sonofabitch to the moon. This is ridiculous, Jordi.”

“I know,” I said as I glanced back to the table, where Eddie was cozying up to Shelby and making her laugh. “But it’ll be over soon.”

“How soon?” he demanded softly. “Hopefully before I can fall asleep without seeing you in his arms, his hands on your body, his mouth on you.” He glared at me. “Oh wait. Too late.”

“I hate it, too,” I spat. “You think it’s easy to see you and Shelby together? You think I don’t see you touching her or kissing her?”

“I would never do that,” he asserted.

“I know,” I said softly, before hearing Eddie whisper “Naïve,” in my ear.

He gestured over to Eddie, who had persuaded Shelby to join him on the dance floor. “Not all of us are like that,” he assured.

I watched Eddie pull Shelby to his body, his hands along her back, then sliding down to light over her ass accidentally-on-purpose. That was all it took. Jace stomped over to where they swayed to the music, with me running to catch up.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Jace demanded.

Eddie merely grinned. “Hold up, Chief. No need to get territorial. I was just keeping Shelby company while you were dancing with my wife.”

“If you cared about your ‘wife,’ you wouldn’t be putting your hands on another woman’s body,” Jace corrected in a low voice.

“It’s OK,” Shelby tried to interject. “It was an accident, Jace. Really.”

Jace glared at Eddie, who would not back down from the steely gaze. Instead he got just close enough to take my hand from Jace’s and pull me to where he stood. “Where have you been putting your hands, Hero?” Eddie asked, almost defying him to come clean.

“Where they are wanted,” Jace answered.

Shelby stared between the two men, feeling the same urge to step in between and diffuse the situation as I did. “Jace,” she said as she took his hand. “Let’s get back to the hotel. We have an early day tomorrow.”

Jace continued to glare at Eddie. At the last second he turned to me, and I gave him an imperceptible nod. He finally turned on his heel to leave with Shelby.

Eddie was chuckling all the way out to our own rented car. After the door slammed shut between us and the outside world, I turned on him. “What?”

He wore a victorious smile. “You don’t even realize what just happened back there, do you?” I crossed my arms in front of my chest and waited. “You’ve been traded in. Jace wants Shelby now.”

“How could you possibly know that?”

He leaned closer. “I touch you, kiss you, stake my claim with you and he does absolutely nothing. I barely brush my hand on Shelby’s ass and he’s ready to tear my arms off. That is a dog who has found another bone.”

“You know why he can’t do anything when you touch me.”

He shrugged as he leaned back against the seat. “I don’t see him complaining. There could be several reasons for that. One, he’s not man enough to stake his claim. Two, he’s afraid of that sex tape leaking just as much as you are or three… he gets the best of both worlds. You’ll screw him behind closed doors and shove a beautiful, sexy girl at him in public.”

“Or he could just love me and be honoring my choices.”

“Yeah, right,” Eddie dismissed as he grabbed a drink from the refrigerator.

“Why are you here?” I demanded softly.

He grabbed my chin in his hand. “Because you’re here, my sweet.” He leaned forward and planted another kiss on my lips, but I thrust him away. He slid off the bench seat into the floorboard.

“I love this feisty streak you have going,” he said as he climbed back up beside me. “It’s going to make the next time we fuck much more fun.”

It had become a familiar refrain from Eddie, tormenting me with some unavoidable reality that I would succumb once again to his seduction, though I had never done anything to encourage a belief whatsoever.

“There won’t be a next time,” I informed him yet again.

“Oh yeah?” he said softly as his hand wound into my hair. “Even after you catch your big hero in bed fucking your best friend? Where are you going to go for comfort, then?”

I glared into those cold, blue eyes. “I’d rather walk off a bridge.”

He shrugged again. “We’ll see.” He handed me the beer bottle, but I turned away to stare out the window.

 About Ginger:



Ginger Voight is prolific author, freelance writer and optioned screenwriter. Her fiction is diverse, with novels like the edgy, coming-of-age drama DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS, and the fun family adventure for kids of all ages, COMIC SQUAD.


Having grown up reading different authors like Danielle Steel and Stephen King, Ginger has always been drawn more to story than to genre. This shows up in her various stories. Titles such as MY IMMORTAL and TASTE OF BLOOD are a delicious, heady mix of horror, suspense, and romance.


Genre romance, however, has held a special place in her heart, ever since she read her first Harlequin novel when she was only eleven. As a result, Ginger is making a name for herself writing romances of her own, starring women who look more like the average American woman rather than those traditionally represented in the size-biased American media. Her Rubenesque romances were created especially for those heroines with fuller figures, who can still get the man of their dreams if only they believe they can. Such titles include UNDER TEXAS SKIES, LOVE PLUS ONE, THE GROUPIE TRILOGY, FIERCE and PICTURE POSTCARDS.


Ginger was included in the best-selling book by Smith Magazine NOT QUITE WHAT I WAS PLANNING, featuring her six-word memoir.



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