Release Blitz and 5+ Star Review: Crown of Lies by Pepper Winters – Truth and Lies Duet – Book 1

Posted on 02/01/2017 by shellbellereads

“I met the boy I wanted. But then he vanished and a new man claimed me instead. My father approved, my colleagues congratulated, and behind closed doors, I was bedded by a stranger.”

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Crown of Lies

Truth and Lies Duet – Book 1

By Pepper Winters

Buy: Amazon / Amazon UK / B & N / IBooks / Kobo

Synopsis

“I met the man I wanted. But then he vanished, and a new man claimed me instead. My father approved, my colleagues congratulated, and behind closed doors, I was bedded by a stranger.”
Noelle Charlston lives a fairy-tale life: a doting father, a powerful job, and a future blessed with financial security.
However, two meetings with two men changes her happy existence forever. First, she meets the man who makes her heart sing. Three years later, she meets the man who makes her blood quiver.
Broken-hearted from a teenage romance, Noelle’s freedom is no longer hers. It belongs to the stranger her father believes is her perfect match. The stranger who pulls his lies over everyone he touches.
Including her.
Seduced and manipulated, Noelle gives into the mysterious Penn Everett. The lies he spins, the truth he hides, the mystery he weaves—it’s all enough to slowly erode the woman she is and turn her into something else.
Until her past collides with her present.
And it’s her turn to lie.
To everyone…including herself.

Michel’s Review

Crown of Lies is the latest release by Pepper Winters.

In true Pepper Winters style, this book is a complicated, intricately executed story where words are chosen with conscious precision to add multiple layers to the complex characters and their evolving story. Each passage is delivered in perfect synchronicity that challenges the reader’s perceptions of the characters and the direction of the story itself. Her thought process and brilliant use of the English language give the readers more than a story, it gives them a dynamic reading experience that not only involves the mind but also engages all the senses. The reader becomes a participant rather than an observer. The slow burn of sexual tension to explosive passion is only a small fraction of what is happening between the complex characters. The true chemistry comes from their psychological sparring and foreplay. It is a battle of wills fighting against the battle within oneself. There are no dividing lines between right and wrong, black and white, or good and bad. It is all a part of the intricate puzzle that is completed with the last word.

The first sentence had me hook, line, and sinker….

“IN EVERY GIRL’S LIFE, there is betrayal.

“Betrayal from loved ones, unknown ones, and from the ones we choose to make our own. However, where there’s deceit, there’s trust, too. And sometimes, those two things camouflage themselves to mimic the other.”

Retail heiress, Elle Charleston, has been groomed to become one of the most powerful women in the United State. Her throne is the Belle Elle retail chain. She spent her childhood reading ledgers and spreadsheets rather than chasing fairytales. Instead of playing dress up with dolls, she dressed mannequins and window displays. She chose clothes for real women rather than Barbie dolls. She was the princess in a world of merchandise rather than an ivory tower. Her seclusion in a corporate world stole her childhood. She became socially awkward unless she was in a business environment. Her contorted perceptions, and social inadequacies were at war with a young girl yearning to experience the real world.

On her nineteenth birthday the desires of a young girl won the battle over the carefully groomed future CEO. The naive princess stepped out of her gilded castle to explore the kingdom known as New York City. She had been prepared to complete multi – million dollar deals but she was not prepared to navigate the streets. What happened the night she stepped out of her gilded prison would change her life and her perceptions of her carefully orchestrated life.

What starts as a celebration turns into a night of violence and paralyzing fear. Her knight in shining armor is a mysterious young man in a hoodie. A young man that is different from any person she has met in her world. Four simple words changed her world. “ Do you trust me?”. Those four simple words led her to adventure, her first kiss, and ultimately a broken heart. It was a night where the boy of her dreams vanished before the sun began to rise. Her unrealistic dreams were forever lost.

Three years later Elle is a completely different woman. She has succumbed to her prison. She takes her position as a prisoner, other wise known as CEO of Belle Elle, with great pride. She knows her strengths in the business world and the power she carries along with it. She has turned her back on the naïve young girl with grand ideas of romance and love. She no longer believes in romance and love. She no longer puts her blind trust in the hands of others. She has resigned herself to the life she was groomed to rule. In a sense she has betrayed her younger self.

Two men are vying for her attention. One has been groomed to become her husband and partner in business. The other is a repulsive man shrouded in mystery and deceit. One makes her blood boil in many ways. The other makes her soul recoil in everyway. The choices are hers to make. Is she willing to take chances with her perfectly synchronized life? Is she ready to step out of her gilded cage and become free at last?

“IN EVERY GIRL’S LIFE, there is betrayal.”

CLIFFHANGER… IN TRUE PEPPER WINTERS BRILLIANCE!

The reader is left with so many questions,. There are so many intricately woven lies that the truth is hiding within the pages and carefully chosen words. It will all be revealed in the Throne of Truth on February 28th, 2017.

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Pepper Winters wears many roles. Some of them include writer, reader, sometimes wife. She loves dark, taboo stories that twist with your head. The more tortured the hero, the better, and she constantly thinks up ways to break and fix her characters. Oh, and sex… her books have sex.

She loves to travel and has an amazing, fabulous hubby who puts up with her love affair with her book boyfriends.

Cover Reveal: Forbidden Dance by Deanna Roy – Lovers Dance Series – Book 1

Posted on 02/01/2017 by shellbellereads

Forbidden Dance
Deanna Roy
(Lovers Dance, #1)
Publication date: March 28th 2017
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance

Shy tender Livia has always been sheltered from the vulgar world of technology, television, and social media. At nineteen, she knows little of life beyond her immediate family, church, and the Dreamcatcher Dance Academy, where she studies ballet and assists a teacher with a group of spunky, beautiful dance students in wheelchairs.

Then comes Blitz Craven, the disgraced star of Dance Blitz, a bawdy, often-censored reality show where Blitz sleeps with as many dancers as possible under the guise of finding his perfect partner. His connections lead him to Livia, where the wheelchair ballerinas are his ticket back into the public’s good graces.

Blitz takes one look at the sweet talented Livia and he wants her. But Livia isn’t as naive as she seems, and her biggest, most tender secret is not going to be unraveled by a sexy muscled dancer who stands for everything she’s ever guarded herself against.

The complete series:
Forbidden Dance (March 28, 2017)
Wounded Dance (April 14, 2017
Wicked Dance (April 28, 2017)
Tender Dance (May 12, 2017)
Final Dance (June 6, 2017)

Each book is a standalone full-length HEA.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / iBooks / Google Play

Author Bio:

Deanna Roy is the six-time USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction.

She is a passionate advocate for women who have lost babies. She has several books on the subject, including her bestseller FOREVER INNOCENT, a romance about a couple whose baby is taken off life support at seven days old.

She has run the website PregnancyLoss.Info for fifteen years, including many large spin-off support groups both online and in person.

To learn about new releases, sign up for her subscriber list at http://deannaroy.com/news. She has regular giveaways in conjunction with major pregnancy loss events.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

GIVEAWAY!
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Release Blitz + 5 Star Review + Giveaway: Mists of the Serengeti by Leylah Attar

Posted on 01/31/2017 by shellbellereads

Leylah Attar’s MISTS OF THE SERENGETI is here!
Check out this standalone contemporary romance/women’s fiction, and don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

Once in Africa, I kissed a king…

“And just like that, in an old red barn at the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, I discovered the elusive magic I had only ever glimpsed between the pages of great love stories. It fluttered around me like a newborn butterfly and settled in a corner of my heart. I held my breath, afraid to exhale for fear it would slip out, never to be found again.”

When a bomb explodes in a mall in East Africa, its aftershocks send two strangers on a collision course that neither one sees coming.

Jack Warden, a divorced coffee farmer in Tanzania, loses his only daughter. An ocean away, in the English countryside, Rodel Emerson loses her only sibling.

Two ordinary people, bound by a tragic afternoon, set out to achieve the extraordinary, as they make three stops to rescue three children across the vast plains of the Serengeti—children who are worth more dead than alive.

But even if they beat the odds, another challenge looms at the end of the line. Can they survive yet another loss—this time of a love that’s bound to slip through their fingers, like the mists that dissipate in the light of the sun?

“Sometimes you come across a rainbow story—one that spans your heart. You might not be able to grasp it or hold on to it, but you can never be sorry for the color and magic it brought.”

A blend of romance and women’s fiction, Mists of The Serengeti is inspired by true events and contains emotional triggers, including the death of a child. Not recommended for sensitive readers. Standalone, contemporary fiction.

♥ Buy the Book ♥

Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Kobo

Robin’s Review

Isn’t it true that each time you open the cover of a new book, you allow yourself to be whisked away to another world? That’s the really magical thing about reading. Instead of just leading your own ordinary life, you can lead a thousand different lives, all in your spare time. I don’t recall a time when I’ve ever been more aware of this than now, while reading Mists of the Serengeti. Mists of the Serengeti is a blend of women’s fiction and contemporary romance, a standalone novel where author Leylah Attar takes readers on a grand adventure across the grassy plains of northern Tanzania.

A major theme of Mists of the Serengeti is, “We are all connected.” Our lives are intertwined by invisible threads, connected in more ways than we can possibly understand. Told from dual first-person perspectives, English schoolteacher Rodel Harris Emerson and divorced coffee farmer Jack Warden learn this truth the hard way. When a bomb explodes at the Kilimani Mall in eastern Africa, the explosion triggers events that send Jack and Ro on a direct collision course, one where they find themselves in an extraordinary fight to save children who are worth more dead than they are alive.

If you don’t remember anything else that I tell you about Mists of the Serengeti, remember my thoughts about the writing. It’s absolutely stunning in this story! Both lyrical and poetic, Leylah Attar’s writing flows just like rich wine as she immerses you in the world of Tanzania and the Maasai peoples. Attar paints each scene with exceptional descriptive writing. Her vivid descriptions of the African grasslands and wildlife, rife with vibrant sounds and color, appealed to each of my senses. Satisfying my thirst for knowledge, the author educates readers about various topics ranging from coffee farming to the Maasai culture. She introduces readers to languages, traditions and customs many of us will not be familiar with.

As exceptional as I found the writing and literary content to be, I was equally swept away by the uniqueness of this love story. Both main characters begin this story with the grieving process, but it doesn’t take long for attraction to begin blooming between Jack and Rodel. United in purpose, the two of them discover a rich, vital love, a “rightness” found in each other, and they both grow in ways they couldn’t have possibly imagined when they set off on this adventure. Jack and Ro are also joined by a delightful cast of secondary characters – Goma, Bahati and Scholastica – whose presence only enhanced my reading experience!

If you’re looking for a 5-star book that promises great adventure, look no further. Let Leylah Attar whisk your senses away with the quiet beauty of the African plains, with the love and suspense you’ll find waiting in the Mists of the Serengeti!

Leylah Attar’s Release Day Giveaway
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Leylah Attar writes stories about love – shaken, stirred, and served with a twist.Sometimes she disappears into the black hole of the internet, but can usually be enticed out with chocolate. Leylah is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of contemporary romance/women’s fiction.

Release Blitz: 1001 Dark Nights Discovery Bundle Nine … 6 Novellas … by… Melanie Harlow,Lili Valente,Carrie Ann Ryan, Heather Graham, Jennifer Probst, and Christopher Rice

Posted on 01/31/2017 by shellbellereads

We are absolutely thrilled to bring you the Release Day Launch for 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Nine, brought to you by 1001 Dark Nights. Introducing Discovery authors Melanie Harlow and Lili Valente, the Bundle contains 6 novellas, including novellas from New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors Carrie Ann Ryan, Heather Graham, Jennifer Probst, and Christopher Rice! Grab your copy of this incredible bundle today!

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About 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Nine:

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors Carrie Ann Ryan, Heather Graham, Jennifer Probst, Christopher Rice, and introducing Melanie Harlow and Lili Valente.

Six Dark Tales. Six Sensual Stories. Six Page Turners.

Hidden Ink by Carrie Ann Ryan
Hailey Monroe knows the world isn’t always fair, but she’s picked herself up from the ashes before. Sloane Gordon lived through the worst kinds of hell yet the temptation next door sends him to another level. He’s kept his distance but when she comes to him with a proposition, he’ll do everything in his power to protect her.

Blood on the Bayou by Heather Graham
When a family friend receives a message from the Blood Bayou killer—It’s your turn to pay, blood on the bayou—he comes to Danni Cafferty for help. Cafferty and Quinn soon realize that a gruesome local history is being repeated. They find themselves in a fight to save not just a friend, but, perhaps, their very own lives.

Searching for Mine by Jennifer Probst
Connor Dunkle knows what he wants in a woman, and it’s the three B’s. Beauty. Body. Boobs. Other women need not apply. Ella Blake is a single mom and a professor at the local Verily college. When sparks fly, neither of them are ready to face their true feelings, but will love teach them the ultimate lesson of all?

Dance of Desire by Christopher Rice
From New York Times bestselling author Christopher Rice, comes a steamy, emotional tale of forbidden romance between a woman struggling to get her life on its feet and the gorgeous cowboy her father kept her from marrying years before.

Some Sort of Happy by Melanie Harlow
Skylar Nixon. She’s even more beautiful than I remember. Ten years ago she was an impossible dream, and now she’s right here in front of me, offering everything I ever wanted. But happiness never lasts, not for someone like me.
Sebastian Pryce. He’s the most complicated, frustrating, beautiful man I’ve ever met, and my body craves his with a hunger I’ve never known. My heart is his completely. Why won’t he let me in?

Magnificent Bastard by Lili Valente
Face it, ladies: love sucks and then you cry…while your ex rides off into the sunset banging your best friend. But why let a break-up end in tears when it can end with sweet revenge? Enter Magnificent Bastard Consulting and me, chief executive bastard. With the help of my virtual assistant, I’ve built an empire giving broken-hearted women the vengeance they deserve, while keeping myself far from the front lines of the heart. Until my virtual assistant shows up on my real doorstep for the first time, begging for a Magnificent Bastard intervention of her own.

Every Dark Nights tale is breathtakingly sexy and magically romantic.

Experience the 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Nine Here…

Bundle 9 - Harlow Teaser

Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CAN | Amazon AU

Beautiful muscular male model in revealing briefs in provocative pose with open shirt

5Star

Tracey’s Review

What’s better than one story by one author that you love? A whole bundle of them, together in one book. The 1001 Dark Nights series is a take on the Arabian Nights, where tales were told for 1,001 nights to keep the heroine from a horrible fate. Bundle 9 in this series is a compilation of some of my favorite authors, and a great way to find several really great stories bundled. Below are just a few of the stories you’ll find in this bundle.

SEARCHING FOR MINE by Jennifer Probst:
Connor Dunkle wasn’t looking for a lesson on women when he enrolled in teacher Ella Blake’s English class. No, what Connor wanted was to ace the class so that he could graduate and get on with his life. But Ella isn’t settling for anything but Connor’s best, and she’ll get it from him no matter what. And when the two find themselves far more involved in each other’s live than they’d anticipated, both Connor and Ella find out things about themselves that they weren’t expecting.

Author Jennifer Probst is a favorite of mine. Her stories are always so full of heart, of self-discovery, of learning to trust the safe place offered by someone completely unexpected. Written as part of the 1001 Dark Nights novella series, SEARCHING FOR MINE is a story in Jennifer’s Searching For series, and is a sweet and sexy addition.

There were times that I just wanted to pinch Connor. He comes across as sort of superficial, especially where women and relationships are concerned, something that really drives Ella crazy. For her part, Ella has been disappointed by life and love, and doesn’t do much to mask her disdain for Connor and the way that he’s living his life. She refuses to let him skate by or take the easy way out, and ends up teaching him far more about life and himself than he ever expected when he signed up for her class.
I love the back and forth between Ella and Connor, and Ella’s son, Luke, is both sweet and snarky, completing the circle of family that is built in this story. SEARCHING FOR MINE is an easy 4.5 stars for me, and I recommend it for fans of Jennifer’s books.

MAGNIFICENT BASTARD by Lili Valente:
Got an ex that needs to be taught a lesson? Need a love connection intervention? Look no further: Sebastian ‘Bash’ Prince, head honcho and Magnificent Bastard extraordinaire, is your man. With the help of his Girl Friday, Penny, Bash will help you have the last laugh as you leave your former Prince Charming in your rear-view mirror. But what happens when the master of the art of magnificent bastardry falls hook, line, and sinker? Ah, the tangled web of love…

There isn’t one book that Lili Valenti has written that I have not absolutely loved. Stories filled with intrigue, white-hot passion, and angsty characters never fail to satisfy my yen for a darker read. But, guess what? Lovely Lili has outdone herself with this one. MAGNIFICENT BASTARD is, and I do not say this lightly, probably one of my favorite of her books to date, hands down, and one of my favorites of this year.

While I love a darker angstier read, it’s no secret that I am also a huge fan of the books that leave me with a light heart, where everything comes together just like I hoped that it would, where everyone ends up just where they should be, and all is right with the world, a feel-good book, if you will.

I was not prepared for how much I would adore Bash and Penny. These two, well, they are wonderful. The chemistry and connection, the humor, the passion, all come together to create a story that had me at the first paragraph. This story, like all of Lili’s, is one that sucked me right in and kept me turning pages until the very end, completely captivating me along the way.

I really love that MB is written from Bash’s point of view. It’s always interesting to me to see how the man views things, especially in a romance, because, let’s face it, we’re like polar opposites when it comes to love so much of the time. Lili nailed it here, writing the unfolding of events completely engagingly, while managing to stay true to a male perspective.

And, Penny. It’s impossible not to love Penny, in all of her madcap perfection. That she’s able to maintain her sense of humor after having a mother like Anastasia, an ex like Phillip, and the childhood that she had, makes her all the more lovable, and strong as heck. She’s just what Bash needs, even though he takes a while to realize it. There really ought to be more Pennys in the world.

Kudos to Lili for this gem of a book, with its lovable kookiness, its wonderful secondary characters (everyone needs a Francis and Eddie in their lives, for real, and, Aidan, yum!), and lots and lots of ice cream. 5+ stars for this one, lady. It’s simply magnificent.

DANCE OF DESIRE by Christopher Rice:
Telling her how he really felt should have been the last option. The absolutely dead-last, nuclear apocalypse option. And touching her? Well, that was beyond the nuclear option. That was a “zombies are breaking down the front door and the only way out is through the nearest window” kind of option.

Amber and Caleb have known forever that their feelings for each other were something special. But just when they were beginning to let each other know, life events changed everything, making anything other than a platonic kind of love unacceptable. True love, though, cannot be denied, and sometimes the heavens smile down on lovers after all.

I was lucky to happen upon one of Christopher’s earlier books in the 1001 Dark Nights series, and really enjoyed it, so when DANCE OF DESIRE came along, I put it right at the top of my TBR list. This little book was a true delight to read. Christopher’s combination of humor, steamy sexiness, and heartfelt emotions, along with great characters and a realistic story line made this one of the most enjoyable, feel-good books I’ve had the opportunity to read lately. The relationship between Amber and her mother had me laughing out loud, and Belinda, Dora, Amanda, and all of the supporting characters are just great. I enjoyed every single bit of this book, and would be happy to see more of these folks in future. 4.5 stars for DANCE OF DESIRE; add this one to your reading list, because you will thoroughly enjoy it.

***ARC generously provided for an honest review.***

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About the 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Nine Authors-

About Carrie Ann Ryan:

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Carrie Ann Ryan never thought she’d be a writer. Not really. No, she loved math and science and even went on to graduate school in chemistry. Yes, she read as a kid and devoured teen fiction and Harry Potter, but it wasn’t until someone handed her a romance book in her late teens that she realized that there was something out there just for her. When another author suggested she use the voices in her head for good and not evil, The Redwood Pack and all her other stories were born.

Carrie Ann is a bestselling author of over twenty novels and novellas and has so much more on her mind (and on her spreadsheets *grins*) that she isn’t planning on giving up her dream anytime soon.

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About Heather Graham:

New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Heather Graham has always been an avid reader, from classics to sci-fi, mystery, horror, thriller, romance, and all kinds of non-fiction. She’s fairly certain that her mom’s deliciously crazy family–arriving in the US a bit before her birth from Ireland–gave her the love of storytelling. She started out in theater and commercials, but once her children began to arrive, she stayed home and gave writing a try. She’s incredibly grateful to be doing what she’s doing for a living. Heather belongs to MWA, RWA, Sisters in Crime, HWA, and ITW, and has the recipient of the RWA Lifetime Achievement Award, a Silver Bullet for charitable works, and this year, she will receive the Thriller Master title from ITW. She has over 200 novels in print, and has been published in 22 languages.

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About Jennifer Probst:

Jennifer Probst wrote her first book at twelve years old. She bound it in a folder, read it to her classmates, and hasn’t stopped writing since. She took a short hiatus to get married, get pregnant, buy a house, get pregnant again, pursue a master’s in English Literature, and rescue two shelter dogs. Now she is writing again.

She makes her home in Upstate New York with the whole crew. Her sons keep her active, stressed, joyous, and sad her house will never be truly clean.

She is the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of sexy and erotic contemporary romance. She was thrilled her book, The Marriage Bargain, was ranked #6 on Amazon’s Best Books for 2012, and spent 26 weeks on the New York Times. Her work has been translated in over a dozen countries, sold over a million copies, and was dubbed a “romance phenom” by Kirkus Reviews.

She loves hearing from readers. Visit her website for updates on new releases and her street team on her website.

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About Christopher Rice:

After publishing four New York Times bestselling thrillers by the age of 30 and being declared one of People Magazine’s Sexiest Men Alive, award-winning writer Christopher Rice became the first author to make his erotic romance debut part of the 1,001 DARK NIGHTS series. THE FLAME: A Desire Exchange Novella kicked off a steamy new series set in New Orleans, featuring magical candles and a sexy new breed of supernatural beings, The Radiants, who are devoted to helping heroes and heroines realize their heart’s desire. THE FLAME earned accolades from some of the biggest names in erotic romance and was quickly followed up by THE SURRENDER GATE: A Desire Exchange Novel, available from Evil Eye Concepts as a Blue Box Special. Aside from authoring eight works of dark suspense, Christopher is also the co-host and executive producer of THE DINNER PARTY SHOW WITH CHRISTOPHER RICE & ERIC SHAW QUINN, all the episodes of which can be downloaded at TheDinnerPartyShow.com and from iTunes. Make sure you’re subscribed to The Dinner Party Show’s You Tube channel to receive their newest content in 2016.

Photography credit: NANCY ROSE PHOTOGRAPHY

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About Melanie Harlow:

USA Today bestselling author Melanie Harlow likes her heels high, her martini dry, and her history with the naughty bits left in. She’s the author of AFTER WE FALL, MAN CANDY, the HAPPY CRAZY LOVE series (contemporary romance), the FRENCHED series (contemporary romance) and the SPEAK EASY duet (historical romance). She writes from her home outside of Detroit, where she lives with her husband, two daughters, and one insane rabbit.

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About Lili Valente:

USA Today bestselling author Lili Valente writes both naughty things and funny things (that are also naughty). She has slept under the stars in Greece, eaten dinner at midnight with French men who couldn’t be trusted to keep their mouths on their food, and walked alone through Munich’s red light district after dark and lived to tell the tale.

These days you can find her writing in a tent beside the sea, drinking coconut water and thinking delightfully dirty thoughts.

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Bundle 9 - Now Available

Teaser Tuesday: Come Closer by Brenda Rothert

Posted on 01/31/2017 by shellbellereads

ComeCloser_TeaserBanner

Today we are sharing some incredible teasers for COME CLOSER by Brenda Rothert. This book is a contemporary romance, standalone, title that will be released on February 7th. Check out the pre-order links below to reserve your copy now!

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Come Closer by Brenda Rothert

An adult standalone, contemporary romance

Coming February 7, 2017!

PRE-ORDER IT NOW!

Amazon | iBooks | Kobo | B&N

Book Blurb:

Sometimes appearances deceive. Take me, for instance. I look like a respectable doctor with his shit together, but the rural Montana mental hospital I work at is actually a sanctuary from my demons. At just thirty-five years old, I’ve already failed on an epic scale. Treating patients at Hawthorne Hill is part of my atonement.
I’ve found peace when a new patient turns me inside out. Allison Cole is a beautiful, haunted survivor who fell into silence after witnessing a murder. But even without words, I’m drawn to her. The closer we get, the more I’m tempted to cross my professional boundaries and give in to my desire.
Soon I find myself in a desperate race to put the pieces of Allison’s silence together. Her life becomes inextricably entwined with mine as I fight to save the second chance I never thought I’d have. I’ll break whatever rules I have to in order to protect this woman who’s been to hell and back. For her, I’ll do harm.

Teaser 3 copy

Teaser 2 copy

Teaser 1 copy

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AUTHOR INFORMATION:

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Brenda Rothert is an Illinois native who was a print journalist for nine years. She made the jump from fact to fiction in 2013 and never looked back. From new adult to steamy contemporary romance, Brenda creates fresh characters in every story she tells. She’s a lover of Diet Coke, chocolate, lazy weekends and happily ever afters.

AUTHOR LINKS:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | | Wattpad | Amazon

Release Blitz + Excerpt + Giveaway: Almost A Bride by Jo Watson – Destination Love Series – Book 2

Posted on 01/31/2017 by shellbellereads

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Almost A Bride

Destination Love Series – Book 2

By Jo Watson

Buy: Amazon / B & N / IBooks / Kobo

Synopsis

That awkward moment you catch your boyfriend in bed with another woman and then mistakenly get arrested #chargesdropped Annie knows life isn’t always fair. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes you get mistaken for a crazed intruder when you come home early and find your boyfriend wearing nipple clamps with a coworker on the night you thought he was going to propose to you. The important thing is to move on, and for Annie that means treating herself to a tropical vacation. But when she runs into her ex and his new woman staying at the same resort, reason is washed out to sea. Caught off guard, Annie pretends she’s with Chris, a cute screenwriter she meets on the beach. With his own writing blocked, Chris is happy to help Annie craft a story to save face. Soon Annie isn’t just getting over her ex, she’s getting under Chris. As her fictional feelings grow increasingly real, Annie has to decide if she’s ready to risk her heart on a new relationship.

******

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Excerpt

Iknew something was wrong the second I walked up to my front door. Call it intuition. Call it a sixth sense. But I just knew. I blame the shoes. The shoes were undoubtedly the cause of all the problems that day. It was the shoes’ fault that I came home early, and the shoes’ fault I was fired. I suppose I can’t blame the shoes for making me late, though— that was the alarm clock’s fault for rudely deciding not to do its job. And when I finally realized, through the thick haze of sleepiness, that it hadn’t gone off, it was too late. I was already late for work. And when I say work, I mean my brand-new job—job of my dreams—as a fashion assistant at Glamorous Girl mag. I’d just made a total career change, leaving behind a successful job as a stylist in advertising to pursue a job in the magazine industry. It was early days, so I was still desperately trying to impress by being perfect, polite, and oh so obliging. Whether it was the request for the latte to be served at 97.7 degrees with no sugar, soy milk froth, and a sprinkling of organic cocoa powder flown in directly from the foothills of the Andes. Or whether it was for the jasmine-and-lavender- scented candles to be burned in the office for exactly ten minutes before my boss arrived—that was me. Little Miss Annie Obliging. Because let’s face it, the word assistant is just a glammed-up euphemism for slave. But I was ambitious and determined, so when I realized I wouldn’t be able to attend to the scented candles, or fetch the latte, I panicked. So much so, that I left the house without the said troublemaking, life-ruining, world-annihilating shoes. Let’s take a moment to talk about the shoes. They weren’t ordinary shoes, oh no, they were none other than the just-off-the- Paris-catwalk-and-not-for-sale-to-mere-mortals-yet Christian Louboutins. They also happened to be the centerpieces for that day’s shoot. The same rushed panic that had caused me to forget the shoes in the first place had also left me with barely enough time to scrape my hair back into a casual bun and slip on a creased T-shirt and pair of jeans from my floor. The latter is a bigger sin than you think. Because where I work, wearing anything other than the most fashionable apparel is sacrilege. People practically throw holy water at you and start wailing in Latin for fear that you’ve been possessed by the demon of bad fashion. In fact, a real demon possession, complete with a backward-rolling head and the ability to speak in tongues, would be preferable to the demon of last season’s handbag and Crocs sandals. So when I finally got to work, underdressed, out of breath, without the shoes, and over an hour late, I was in serious trouble. My boss was throwing a hissy fit, due to lack of flowery scents in her office, and her personal assistant Cedric was in the throes of an overly dramatic caffeine withdrawal, due to lack of latte. And it kept getting worse. Two hours later the panicky fashion director summoned the Louboutins. Those shoes had been troublemakers from the start. It had been an absolute trauma getting them in the first place. They’d been flown into South Africa late the previous night, and I’d been tasked with collecting them. Everyone was holding their collective breath for the grand arrival. So when I was forced to confess to their absence…well, you can only imagine. When lunch finally arrived, I jumped into my car and sped home. I had exactly one hour to get in and out before the photo shoot, more than enough time. I pulled into my driveway at breakneck speed, ran for the front door, slipped my house keys into the lock, and turned— But… Something made me stop. Something told me not to go inside. Something was very wrong. I looked around nervously. Everything seemed normal. Peter across the road was blasting his TV as usual, the ratbag Chihuahua from number 45 was running up and down the garden perimeter yapping at an unseen force, and Mildred, my neighbor, was outside watering her hydrangeas. So why was I hesitating? I took a deep breath and inched the door open. Nothing looked out of place. Everything was exactly the way I’d left it. Yet everything felt wrong. I slunk down the hallway toward the kitchen, where I knew I’d find the shoes perched next to the coffeepot. But once inside, I was hit by a terribly eerie sensation…someone was in the house. A shiver licked the length of my spine when my suspicions were confirmed. Creeeeaaakkk…A noise was coming from my bedroom directly above me. Shit, shit, shit, there was an intruder in the house! I launched myself at the cutlery drawer, grabbing the largest knife I could find while simultaneously dialing the police and still managing to hold on to the shoes for dear life. “Police! Help, there’s an intruder in my house. Forty-Seven Mendelssohn Road, Oaklands. Quick.” Now what? I’d never been in a situation like this before. What was the correct protocol? Should I hide, evacuate the house, attack the intruder, scream loudly? Or perhaps a combination of the above? I thought for a second before deciding to get the fuck out of there! But just as I had one foot safely installed outside the front door, I heard another noise. This time it was different. It was… It sounded like… My blood ran cold. But it couldn’t be. Trevv was at work. Trevv had a very important day in court, he told me. His client’s final hearing was today. Right now, in fact. I’d called him from my office about an hour ago and he’d told me he was in court. He was in court, dammit! I started climbing the stairs. More noises. Two voices? But that was impossible…wasn’t it? The noises grew louder and louder the farther up the stairs I went. I’m not really sure at what point I knew what the noises were or knew what I was going to see when I opened the door. But I just knew. It’s one thing walking in on your boyfriend having sex with another woman, but it’s another thing entirely walking in on him the second the other woman is coming. She was facing the door but was bouncing up and down so vigorously that her face was a blur. And then suddenly her body stiffened, she threw her head back, opened her mouth, and let out a high-pitched wail. As if that wasn’t self explanatory enough, she decided to toss in a few words for good measure. “Yes, Trevvy, yes. Oh my God, oh my God, oh Trevvy. Harder! Ah, ah, ah.” *Pant, pant, pant* “I’m coming!” *Long high-pitched scream* Now…there were several things wrong with this picture, aside from the obvious. Firstly, who the hell screams like that in bed? No one does! Sex is not so good that you have to break the sound barrier with your squealing dolphin sounds. Secondly, what the hell was she wearing? She was clad in some kind of leathery studded number that looked like it had been worn by one of the Village People. And to make matters worse, Trevv was blindfolded with the tie that I had bought him two Christmases ago and…OH MY GOD…were those, were those…nipple clamps? I felt sick to my stomach. And thirdly, who was this mystery woman without an ounce of cellulite, without the slightest smidge of fat, and with boobs that seemed to defy all known natural laws of gravity and motion? Which woman can be that damn perfect… …and then her features came into focus and the answer dawned on me. Tess. Tess Blackman. My boyfriend’s “coworker.” The woman I’d invited into my home on several occasions for dinner. The woman that I always phoned when I couldn’t get hold of Trevv, because I knew they were probably together working on a case, tired and exhausted and burning the midnight oil when they’d rather be at home with their significant others. She had a fiancé after all. Poor overworked Trevv and Tess. God, I was naive. But the show didn’t end there. Tess’s eyes were still closed when Trevv started making some delightful grunting-moaning-squeaking sounds. He’d never made sounds like that with me before. His sweaty hands reached up and grabbed at her hungrily. Faster. Harder. Loud, long moan. I was frozen. It’s hard to know what to do when you watch your partner of two years with his penis somewhere you wouldn’t even like to imagine, let alone witness in full blinding daylight. Once all their postcoital panting had tapered off, Tess opened her eyes and saw me standing in the doorway. The look on her face was indescribable. Shock and horror and fear all at the same time. And then she opened her mouth and screamed. Trevv then turned his head toward the door and whipped off his blindfold. Our eyes locked and then he did something truly bizarre. Unexpected. He grabbed Tess by the hand and dragged her to the other side of the bed. “Anne, please…you don’t want to do this.” Trevv threw his hands in the air defensively. He looked terrified. She was bleating hysterically by this stage. What was going on? Wasn’t I the jilted one? Wasn’t I the one that was supposed to be upset? I started walking toward them, which seemed to only make matters worse. “Anne, please. Please.” He seemed to be begging now. “Think about what you’re doing. I know this is bad, but this isn’t the way to handle it. Please don’t do this.” Things happened pretty quickly after that. Suddenly, the room was filled with armed police officers. I was about to tell them they could all go home, when Trevv cut me off. “She has a knife. She’s going to kill us!” he shouted, pointing at me. What knife? I glanced at my hands, and that’s when I realized I was still holding the large knife, and it was pointed in their direction. I quickly turned to explain. “I wasn’t going to—” “Ma’am…” One of the police officers cut me off and started creeping toward me as if I was a feral pit bull that hadn’t eaten in a week. “Put down your weapon.” “I swear, this isn’t what you think, I was just trying to—” BAM! Face on floor, handcuffs around wrists. Three really painful things happened at that point: One, the knife slipped and cut the entire length of my palm. Two, some of my newly acquired, gorgeous nails snapped off. And three, the crystal-encrusted, six-inch heel of the priceless Louboutin snapped off, rolled across the floor lifelessly, and disappeared under the bed. almost-a-bride-quote-graphic-2

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destination-love

The Destination Love Series

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Burning Moon

Destination Love Series – Book 1

By Jo Watson

Buy: Amazon / B & N / ITunes / Kobo

Synopsis

There’s a very fine line between blushing bride and mascara-streaked sobbing mess. #beenthere Lily Swanson has been planning her perfect life since she was twelve years old: Meet Mr. Right, have the big white wedding, buy a house in the ‘burbs and raise 2.5 picture-perfect kids. However, when her fiancé bails, leaving Lily alone at the altar to face 500 gossipy guests, her dream turns into a nightmare. But then Lily makes an impulsive decision—she ditches the dress, grabs her passport, and heads off to Thailand to spend her honeymoon alone. Or so she thinks… Because Lilly quickly learns that everything in Thailand is very hot-the weather, the merchandise, and especially Damien—the sexy, spontaneous man she meets before her feet even hit the sand. Now with no plan, and nothing holding her back, Lily lets Damien lead her on a wild, unpredictable ride to the world’s most exclusive party, Burning Moon. But after a week of letting go, indulging her every impulse and desire, Lily must go back to the girl she used to be. Or can Damien convince her that their party doesn’t have to end?

***

Coming Soon …

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Finding You

Destination Love Series – Book 3

Release Date: May 2, 2017

Pre Order: Amazon

Synopsis

When you go to Greece to meet your family but end up making out with your smokin’ hot tour guide #sorrynotsorry Being adopted never made Jane Smith feel unloved, just unlike the rest of her family. As her twenty-fifth birthday approaches, she is struck by an overwhelming longing to finally find her place in the world. So in a very un-Jane-like move, she books a last-minute ticket to Greece to find her birth father and the real Jane. All she knows about him is it that he was a tour guide named Dimitri. Armed with this knowledge and several surprise boxes of condoms from her mom (not embarrassing at all), Jane takes off. Within minutes of landing she makes two important discoveries. First, everyone in Greece is named Dimitri, and second, fate might be playing a sick joke on her when a sexy tour guide called Dimitri comes to fetch her from the airport. He offers to help Jane with her search—if she’ll go on an adventure with him. Stable Jane would never risk a steamy vacation romance. But real Jane might finally be ready to listen to her heart. Will Jane find her biological father, or will she end up finding something else entirely?

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Jo Watson CREDIT Chelsea Nicole Photography Jo Watson is an award-winning writer of romantic comedies. Burning Moon won a Watty Award in 2014. Jo is an Adidas addict and a Depeche Mode devotee. She lives in South Africa with her family.

Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Instagram ~ Pinterest ~Goodreads

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Giveaway

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Release Blitz + Excerpt: Cold Secrets by Toni Anderson – Cold Justice Series – Book 7

Posted on 01/31/2017 by shellbellereads

The next book in Toni Anderson’s bestselling Cold Justice series, COLD SECRETS, is available now! Romantic suspense lovers do not want to miss this one.

About COLD SECRETS

When an international ring of sex traffickers kidnaps an eight-year-old girl in Boston, FBI Agent Lucas Randall heads undercover. But his rescue operation goes disastrously wrong and Lucas barely escapes with his life. Now the ruthless traffickers are hunting him down, along with everyone else who threatens their operation.

Computer expert Ashley Chen joined the FBI to fight against evil in the world—evil she experienced firsthand. She has mad skills, and deadly secrets, and once she starts working with Lucas, she also has big trouble, because after years of pushing people away, she’s falling for the guy. The feeling is more than mutual, but as Ashley intensifies her online pursuit of the trafficking ring, her traumatic past collides with her present and suddenly Lucas can’t tell which side she’s on. And as the case escalates into a high-stakes game of cat and mouse, it turns out Ashley isn’t the only one with something to hide.

If neither can trust the other with their secrets, how can they trust each other with their hearts?

Get your hands on a copy of COLD SECRETS now:

Amazon | iBooks | Barnes and Noble | Kobo | Google Play

Read an excerpt from COLD SECRETS:

She walked toward him and he forced himself not to move. She was only a few inches shorter than he was which was a change from the women he usually dated. Her hands rested on his chest as she eased up to kiss him. Her mouth was soft and sweet, and tasted like bourbon.

He wanted to unwrap that shirt from her body and drag her off to bed. But it didn’t matter how long it had been, this was a really bad idea.

As she was about to pull away, he cupped her face and took the kiss deeper, feeling the surprise, followed by the searing heat of her response. Her breathing hitched as her tongue met his. He fitted her more closely against him, his calloused fingers rough against the slippery satin of her blouse. Her arms wound around his neck and her hands sank into the hair at his nape. She was hot—body, face, mouth. His body begged him not to pull away, not to stop, but he did it anyway, and stared down into her pretty eyes.

“What was that for?” he asked gruffly.

“Curiosity.” Her lips were reddened from their kiss. Her honey skin held a flush of scarlet. “I wanted to see if you tasted as good as you looked.”

His throat grew tight. “What’s the verdict?”

She pulled away and walked over to where she’d dumped her laptop and coat. Picked them up.

He made himself stand very still as she walked away. Made himself accept that the kiss had been enough.

She opened the door and looked over her shoulder. “Better.”

Then she closed the door, severing the connection. And he knew a kiss was never going to be enough.

About Toni Anderson

New York Times and USA Today international bestselling author, Toni Anderson, writes dark, gritty Romantic Suspense novels that have hit #1 in Barnes & Noble’s Nook store, the Top 10 in Amazon and Kobo stores, and the Top 50 in iBooks. Her novels have won many awards. A former Marine Biologist from Britain, she inexplicably ended up in the geographical center of North America, about as far from the ocean as it is possible to get. She now lives in the Canadian prairies with her Irish husband and two children and spends most of her time complaining about the weather.

Toni has no explanation for her oft-times dark imagination, and only hopes the romance makes up for it. She’s addicted to reading, dogs, tea, and chocolate.

If you want to know when Toni’s next book will be out, visit her website (http://www.toniandersonauthor.com) and sign up for her newsletter. If you want to read other fascinating stories about life in a city that, during winter, is sometimes colder than Mars, friend her on Facebook: (https://www.facebook.com/toniannanderson).

Blog Tour + Excerpt + 2017 Favorite + 6 Star Review: The Do-Over by Julie A. Richman

Posted on 01/31/2017 by shellbellereads

The Do- Over

By Julie A. Richman

Buy: Amazon / Amazon UK / B & N / IBooks / Kobo

***

Synopsis

~ Sometimes, one degree is all that separates you from the one you were meant to be with. ~

Wes Bergman was sex on a stick.

We’d been circling one another our entire lives, mingling at the same clubs… attending the same events…sharing mutual acquaintances…yet we’d never actually met.

Until . . . we both boarded a Windjammer Cruise in the Caribbean. And it was like meeting my long, lost best friend for the first time. I hadn’t ever connected with a guy that way before.

But Wes had a girlfriend. So, when the week was over, he walked off the ship, unknowingly taking a piece of my heart with him.

Now, over a decade later, newly divorced, I’m the proverbial fish out of water. Dating has totally changed. Apps. Swipe left. Swipe right. Catfishing. Men my age want two things: twenty-five-year-olds—like my ex’s new child bride of a wife—or just a quick hook-up.

After a string of bad dates, I finally did something I never thought I’d do. I had a hot one-night stand with a really handsome guy I met online who didn’t even know my real name.

Turned out Mr. Fling is a big shot for my company’s newest client. And just my

luck, that client’s CEO is none other than . . . Wes Bergman.

Now I’m separated by one degree again from the man who stole my heart.

And Mr. Fling could destroy my chance of what I want most –

A Do-Over with Wes.

Excerpt

His hand slowly stroking up and down the outside of my thigh is what roused me from my dream state. It was so soft and tender that I was getting more and more turned on with every movement. With my eyes still closed, I enjoyed the sensation. It wasn’t until his lips started brushing my shoulder, that I was unable to stifle a moan, revealing that I was awake.

“Good morning,” his whisper was hoarse.

“Mmm, good morning.” I stretched my body against his and turned my head to see his face hovering over mine, before our lips met.

“Sleep good?”

“Surprisingly, I did. I was so exhausted. Sorry for passing out on you last night,” I apologized.

“I think we both passed out the moment our heads hit the pillows.” Wes’ hand had migrated from my thigh to my stomach, where he softly drew circles with his fingertips.

Rolling over to face him, I pushed my hair out of the way, silently praying my humidity enhanced curls didn’t make me look like a deranged housewife, scaring the erection right out of the man. Slinging a leg over his thigh, I instantly got my answer. The crazy morning coif was not a cock killer. Thank God!

“You’re a morning person, I see.” Hiding my smile was not a possibility.

“Yeah, I am,” Wes laughed, moving closer to me, his eyes filled with the unmistakable desire to become lovers, something I’d dreamed about on the deck of a windjammer long ago.

“You can wake me up like this anytime.” I needed to let him know it was okay. He’d said he’d take it as slow as I wanted it and what I wanted right now was a slow rhythm of him plowing into me. Hard.

“Are you hard to wake up?” He was pressed up against me.

“I think you’ll figure out the secrets to rousing me.”

“You’ve already figured out the secrets to arousing me.” His voice still had that sexy edge of morning roughness to it, making me want to skip all foreplay and have him inside me.

“I’ll bet you have a few more secrets I can discover,” I said against his lips, as I shifted the leg I had slung over him, pressing my heat and wetness against his already throbbing cock.

Wes groaned and I could feel his smile against my lips. “You know you’re going to make it impossible to make slow, sweet love to you.”

“Good, because I don’t want it slow and sweet.”

Wes flipped me onto my back, “I can easily accommodate your wishes. Are you on anything or do I need to…”

“We’re good,” I assured him.

“Yes, we are.” He kissed my neck, then swiftly pulled my tank top over my head tossing it to the floor. “We’re going to be really good together. Of that, I have no doubt.”

And I knew he was right. Being with this man had been so perfect from the night we met. We meshed with ease and the result was pure joy.

The warmth in his eyes and smile made my breath catch, and in that moment, I was flooded with overwhelming emotion at how much I wanted him. How much I’d always wanted him. It was more than lust, beyond the heat of the moment. Wes Bergman was the man I had always wanted, from the night we met. That was clear to me now.

“I vote we skip the foreplay.” I wriggled out of my underwear.

“You’re on.” His smile told me he was taking on the challenge.

“You’re in,” I gasped, my breath catching in my throat, surprised at the swiftness with which he filled my request.

Michel’s Review

Julie A. Richman is in a class by herself when it comes to romance. Her speciality is creating magical romances between mature adults while still including the wonders of young love in it’s purest form. The memories of what once was or could of have been if the world would of been in sync, are part of her special magic. The youthful mistakes, decisions in the works, and life dictating it’s own hand take her characters in new directions that are beyond their control. She adds layers of life experiences that allow her characters hearts to percolate for years, preparing them to grasp the epic love story that is to come later when they are completely ready for it. She allows them to mature and become the best kind of individuals they can possibly be. Along the way they gain wisdom, experience the good and bad in life, and become emotionally stronger people. They learn the true meaning of sacrifice, giving of oneself, and loving unconditionally. They learn that love is more than a word or an emotion in a heated moment. It is the true gift in life. A gift that completes a person as an individual as well as a partner.

It’s refreshing to read a romance that I can identify with as a mature adult. Life experiences are priceless and mold a person into something more than they could of dreamed about in their younger years.

Tara and Wes were each other’s “one that got away”. They met on a vacation cruise and instantly connected on so many levels. At the time they were in different places in their lives. Wes was living in California and was in a relationship. Tara was building her career in New York City. Their lives were miles apart and heading in different directions. What seemed like a slip of fate was only the beginning. Fate had something else in store for them.

Almost two decades later, Tara finds herself a new divorcee , single parent to her teenage daughter, and pushing forty. She is once again thrust into the dating pool. A pool that has changed severely since she last swam in it. The rules have changed. It’s not just herself that she has to consider. She has to put her daughter first and her own needs second. The players in the game have changed. Potential dates are no longer fresh faced young men with a boat full of dreams and the world unexplored. They are experienced men with their own suitcase full of baggage. The game itself has changed as well. Clubbing and hanging out with friends is no longer the way to play the game. Online dating sites are the way to go. She’s a fish out of water. Trying to survive in this new world of dating is like swimming against the tide. There are a lot of sharks, guppies, and minnows in the pool. After some disastrous dates and a really bad experience, she’s ready to throw in the towel once again. That is until she crosses paths with Wes Bergman once again. What could of been might just be what’s next.

Wes Bergman has changed from the charming young man to an intense successful CEO. His life’s journey has brought him back to New York and founder of a specialized clothing company. When his company hires a new advertising firm it brings him back to the charming young woman he met years ago on a vacation cruise with his sister. This woman has matured into a devastatingly beautiful, intelligent woman who still sparks his heart. What could of been is going to happen. It’s his second chance at happiness. This time he’s ready and he’s going to hold on.

Wes and Tara discover more than love. They discover completion when they are together. Fate is finally smiling on them, or so they thought. Fate is once again going to throw them in the waters without a paddle.This time around they are experienced swimmers in the game called life. Their life experiences are going to collide but they are also going to be their saving grace.

Without giving anything away, I can say Julie A. Richman brings so much more than swoon worthy romance to the table. She brings very real life issues to the table. She brings an awareness of how precious life really is. It’s not always sunshine and roses. It’s how one deals with life that makes the difference. Choosing to love is what matters most.

Julie A. Richman has once again floored me with her gift of storytelling, her compassion for mankind, her wisdom, and insightful observations. She created a story that is very real and emotional. It was a true pleasure to read The Do-Over.

______________________________________

About the Author:

USA Today Bestselling author Julie A. Richman is a native New Yorker living deep in the heart of Texas. A creative writing major in college, reading and writing fiction has always been a passion. Julie began her corporate career in publishing in NYC and writing played a major role throughout her career as she created and wrote marketing, advertising, direct mail and fundraising materials for Fortune 500 corporations, advertising agencies and non-profit organizations. She is an award winning nature photographer plagued with insatiable wanderlust. Julie and her husband have one son and a white German Shepherd named Juneau.

Connect with Julie:

Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Goodreads

Reader Group ~ Amazon ~ Newsletter

Release Blitz: How To Date A Douchebag:The Failing Hours by Sara Ney

Posted on 01/31/2017 by shellbellereads

Are you ready to meet Zeke? Sara Ney’s HOW TO DATE A DOUCHEBAG: THE FAILING HOURS is available now, and trust us – you do not want to miss this one!

About THE FAILING HOURS

Zeke Daniels isn’t just a douchebag; he’s an asshole.

A total and complete jerk, Zeke keeps people at a distance. He has no interest in relationships–most assholes don’t.

Dating? Being part of a couple? Nope. Not for him.

He’s never given any thought to what he wants in a girlfriend, because he’s never had any intention of having one.Shit, he barely has a relationship with his family, and they’re related; his own friends don’t even like him.

So why does he keep thinking about Violet DeLuca?

Sweet, quiet Violet–his opposite in every sense of the word. The light to his dark, even her damn name sounds like rays of sunshine and happiness and shit.

And that pisses him off, too.

Get your hands on THE FAILING HOURS:

Amazon | iBooks | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

About Sara Ney

Purveyor of all things witty & romantic, I love: iced latte’s, traveling, and bright, bold colors. On any given day, you can find me in my office, lovingly gazing at my bookshelf or shuffling my Bic felt-tip pen collection. I love hand writing letters, and sarcasm.

I live in the midwest, but “Will Write for Travel,” and believe everyone should follow their dreams, no matter how big or small. My favorite authors include Cindy Miles, S Walden, Suzanne Enoch – and am a glutton for Historical, RomCom, Sports and MC romance.

One husband. Two daughters. Plenty of chaos.

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Amazon

Paperback Release Blitz + Excerpt + 5 Star Review + Giveaway: To Wild To Tame by Tessa Bailey – The Clarkson’s Series – Book 2

Posted on 01/31/2017 by shellbellereads

Too Wild To Tame

The Clarksons Series – Book 2

By Tessa Bailey

***

Mass Market: $5.99 USD

eBook: $2.99 USD

Buy: Amazon / B & N / IBooks / Kobo

Synopsis

Sometimes you just can’t resist playing with fire . . .

By day, Aaron Clarkson suits up, shakes hands, and acts the perfect gentleman. But at night, behind bedroom doors, the tie comes off and the real Aaron comes out to play. Mixing business with pleasure got him fired, so Aaron knows that if he wants to work for the country’s most powerful senator, he’ll have to keep his eye on the prize. That’s easier said than done when he meets the senator’s daughter, who’s wild, gorgeous, and 100 percent trouble.

Grace Pendleton is the black sheep of her conservative family. Yet while Aaron’s presence reminds her of a past she’d rather forget, something in his eyes keeps drawing her in. Maybe it’s the way his voice turns her molten. Or maybe it’s because deep down inside, the ultra-smooth, polished Aaron Clarkson might be more than even Grace can handle . . .

Excerpt

His progress toward the door halted when Grace shot to her feet, arms stiff at her sides, those green eyes like glowing jade moons. “I…that isn’t what I was asking for. I just meant, let me help you, in general. I—I didn’t think…”

Aaron’s neck heated. “If you don’t like the idea, we can change it—”

She jumped. She actually jumped straight up in the air, hands flying to her cheeks. “I love it. Oh, please don’t change anything. I was just so surprised.”

He inclined his head, mentally cursing the way his heart decided to make its presence known at such an inconvenient time, walloping his rib cage with thick booms, courtesy of Grace’s pleasure. How juvenile. “I’m kind of surprised myself,” he admitted, then wished he’d kept his mouth shut.

At least until Grace floated toward him. All shining eyes and rosy excitement, she spurred a lust storm in his stomach. “It’s so much better when you say what you’re thinking, Aaron.”

“You mentioned that.”

And of course, it made him want to say more. Say whatever it would take to get her legs wrapped around his hips. To rock between her thighs until her wetness drenched the fly of his pants. “Get away from me, Grace,” he rasped. “It would be just like me to take advantage of you after having to tell that story.”

Silence deepened around them. “How can you say that after you just found a way for me to rebuild the camp?” It seemed as if her entire body lifted and fell on a harsh sob. “Last night, you asked me if I still saw some good in you…and I didn’t answer. How could I not have answered you?” She shook her gorgeous head. “I didn’t mean to—”

Aaron shot forward, capturing her unspoken words with his own mouth. Guilt. There had been even more guilt in her eyes. Aaron’s response was pure denial. Not because of me. Not over me. But as soon as their lips joined, his mind wiped clean of anything but Grace’s one-of-a-kind taste. She was juicy, sweet, refreshing, intoxicating madness. He let it pull him down into its depths—her depths—gathering up her taste greedily so he could live with the effect as long as possible, even though surely a man couldn’t withstand this type of arousal for an extended length of time. He’d want to fuck her again as soon as he came. It was a certainty his body was all too eager to confirm. Yet protectiveness held him in a state of limbo. Wanting—needing—to mate with her delicious body while determined to protect her from himself.

Couldn’t she sense the past meaningless encounters he wore like gloves, cheapening everything he touched? Couldn’t she sense his inability to be meaningful to her? Grace should have someone with substance, not someone who couldn’t even garner the love of his own family. Someone who considered the ramifications of his actions and how they would serve as betrayal. This is how you repay me?

The voice from his not-so-distant past had Aaron tearing his mouth away with a guttural growl, clasping Grace by the shoulders. Too hard. Ease up. “Get away.”

“If you really want that, let me go,” she whispered.

God, he couldn’t do it. Not with her face tipped back, lips swollen and shined up, those eyelids halfway fallen. He’d never in his life had trouble resisting sex. It was always a logical decision based on his needs. This? There was nothing cut and dried about it. His attraction to Grace was messy and wild and untapped. Made his chest expand with the effort to contain the expanding of something unfamiliar. Crazy and blinding. His dick needed a good, rough handling from one woman only. Grace. And she wasn’t pushing him away. Seemed like she wanted the job, too, her tits sliding up and down his abs with every breath. Give her one more chance. Show her what she’s in for with a bastard like you. With a muttered epithet, Aaron raked his hand up the back of Grace’s thigh, sliding it down the back of her tights, and settling his middle finger in the valley of her ass. “Get away from me,” he managed, wedging his straying digit a little more securely, earning him a closed-lipped noise.

“No,” she gasped after a few seconds.

Aaron’s tether broke. Recapturing Grace’s mouth with an obscene amount of tongue, he backed them toward the bed, satisfaction rippling in his middle when she went down beneath him, her legs falling open in welcome. He draped his body over Grace’s slighter one, eager grunts leaving his mouth as he positioned himself over her pussy and bore down with his erection. Their groans were pain-filled, reaching every corner of the cabin, breaking off when Aaron got back to kissing that addictive mouth, yanking the oversized sweater up, up to her belly, so he could rock against her sex with only his pants and her tights as obstructions.

“Aaron.”

“You were warned,” he reminded her with a strangled shout, delivered into the space above her head. “Three times, Grace. That’s three times more than I’d give anyone else.” He slid up and back in the cradle of her legs, groaning over the rasping friction her tights delivered to his stiff, fuck-hungry dick. “Make it four times. I gave you an out back at the house. You should have taken it.”

When Grace should have been trembling or alarmed by the cut steel in his voice, she only stretched out beneath him like a cat, opening up for him. Almost preening beneath his rough ministrations. “Maybe I should have. But we’re here now, so stop trying to scare me.” Her fingertips moved down Aaron’s chest to the seat of his pants, where she smoothed her palm over the curve of his cock, which started him panting like a marathon runner. “You don’t really want to scare me, do you, Aaron?”

Christ, her soft words, the sight of her, were choking him up. Her hair was a haphazard display framing her face, those crooked front teeth somehow making him twice as eager to seal their mouths together again. He was a hunter who’d discovered a sprite dancing in the woods and dragged her home, intending to use her body for vigorous relief, but got forgiveness in return. “No, I don’t. I don’t want to scare you.”

“I know,” she breathed, unfastening his belt buckle. “I just know.”

_______________________________________

Tracey’s Review

Aaron Clarkson is the mover and shaker, the take-charge man, the man that always has a plan. And right now, his plan is to put his recent crash-and-burn behind him, the one that almost derailed his career, and get back in the game. Aaron isn’t about to let a chance meeting with free-spirited Grace Pendleton throw him off course, but he’s never met anyone like Grace before, and she’s about to show him a whole other side of life.

I am absolutely in LOVE with the Romancing the Clarksons series by author Tessa Bailey. This interesting and complex cast of characters has grabbed my heart and run with it, and I could not be enjoying these books more.

Aaron is an interesting guy. He’s the Clarkson that sees things the way that they are, that calls a spade a spade and to heck with emotions or feelings. It’s just the way that he’s always been, and he’s comfortable with the status quo. A stop in Iowa during their cross-country trip to grant their dead mother’s wish presents the perfect opportunity for Aaron to do what he does best. He knows the game of politics inside and out, and, if he can just spin things the right way, he’ll be back in the thick of things in no time.

Aaron comes across as self-centered, and a little bit amoral, and I wondered how he was going to redeem himself. Until Grace showed up. From moment one, she is the flame to his moth, and a force of nature that he cannot evade.

It was insane. Everything was insane. She was forcing him to consider light and shadows, when he’d only ever dealt in black and white. And she was the light. Shining bright enough to flay him.
He’d operated until now as if people were only hiding selfishness, the kind he didn’t bother to conceal. But not Grace. She contradicted everything he held true and it made the earth shake under his feet.

Grace knows what it’s like to have her inner spark dimmed, and she’s not doing it anymore. Living life on her terms, righting wrongs, doing good, Grace calls to something in Aaron, something long-buried, and makes him question everything that he thinks that he knows and wants. Grace is not without her own issues, having dealt with some very heavy issues in her past. But she looks deeper than Aaron’s surface, and finds something that calls to her, too, believing in him before he believes in himself, in them. But when it finally clicks for Aaron, when he finally sees himself, the real him, underneath all of the shell that years of negative self-talk had created, it’s magic.

He’d been thrown into a vast ocean without a life jacket, and she was reaching out with something resembling help, but it was so foreign and nothing like he’d ever experienced that gripping on to it was difficult. Slipping. It kept slipping. What finally forced him to hold…on was Grace. She was in the same ocean. Maybe she was always there. What if having him reach out and clasp on was the rescue she needed?

There are plenty of super-sexy moments in between all of the self-actualization that goes on. I mean, oh, MY, the heat. Aaron is one dirty talker, and the scenes between him and Grace are intense, and, at times, raw. When wide open meets tamped down, the point of intersection is sheer passion, and it is off-the-charts incendiary, which is something that I’ve come to expect in Tessa’s books. This series just keeps getting better, and I cannot believe that I have to wait until next year to get the other books. These are stories that you don’t want to miss. They’re hot, they’re emotional, and they wrap you right up and take you along for the always-interesting ride. 5 stars for TOO WILD TO TAME. Get these. Now. You can thank me later.

***ARC generously provided for an honest review.***

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Romancing The Clarkson’s Series

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When rescue looks like a whole lot of trouble . . .

The road trip was definitely a bad idea. Having already flambéed her culinary career beyond recognition, Rita Clarkson is now stranded in God-Knows-Where, New Mexico, with a busted-ass car and her three temperamental siblings, who she hasn’t seen in years. When rescue shows up—six-feet-plus of hot, charming sex on a motorcycle—Rita’s pretty certain she’s gone from the frying pan right into the fire . . .

Jasper Ellis has a bad boy reputation in this town, and he loathes it. The moment he sees Rita, though, Jasper knows he’s about to be sorely tempted. There’s something real between them. Something raw. And Jasper has only a few days to show Rita that he isn’t just for tonight—he’s forever.

____________________________________________

About Tessa Bailey:

Tessa Bailey is originally from Carlsbad, California. The day after high school graduation, she packed her yearbook, ripped jeans and laptop, driving cross-country to New York City in under four days.

Her most valuable life experiences were learned thereafter while waitressing at K-Dees, a Manhattan pub owned by her uncle. Inside those four walls, she met her husband, best friend and discovered the magic of classic rock, managing to put herself through Kingsborough Community College and the English program at Pace University at the same time. Several stunted attempts to enter the work force as a journalist followed, but romance writing continued to demand her attention.

She now lives in Long Island, New York with her husband of eight years and four-year-old daughter. Although she is severely sleep-deprived, she is incredibly happy to be living her dream of writing about people falling in love.

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About 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Nine:

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors Carrie Ann Ryan, Heather Graham, Jennifer Probst, Christopher Rice, and introducing Melanie Harlow and Lili Valente.

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Today we are sharing some incredible teasers for COME CLOSER by Brenda Rothert. This book is a contemporary romance, standalone, title that will be released on February 7th. Check out the pre-order links below to reserve your copy now!

Come Closer by Brenda Rothert

An adult standalone, contemporary romance

Coming February 7, 2017!

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The next book in Toni Anderson’s bestselling Cold Justice series, COLD SECRETS, is available now! Romantic suspense lovers do not want to miss this one.

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~ Sometimes, one degree is all that separates you from the one you were meant to be with. ~

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Are you ready to meet Zeke? Sara Ney’s HOW TO DATE A DOUCHEBAG: THE FAILING HOURS is available now, and trust us – you do not want to miss this one!

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When rescue looks like a whole lot of trouble . . .

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