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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Play Me by Diana Alberts Book Tour, Review and Giveaway


Play Me
Take a Chance Book 3
Diane Alberts

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
Date of Publication: July 29, 2013

ISBN: 9781622661923
ASIN: B00DTDH8X2

Number of pages: 120
Cover design by L.J.Anderson
Amazon   BN

Book Description:

Even the best-laid plans can go awry.

Single-mom Kiersten Worth knows a bottle of champagne and night of hot, no-strings-attached sex is the perfect solution to her jilted bride blues…and Garrett Kelly, long-time friend and her teenaged son’s sexy basketball coach, is just the stud for the job.

Garrett wants more from the elusive temptress than a casual affair, but he never expects it to come in the form of an unexpected pregnancy. When he proposes an unorthodox solution—move in and raise their baby together—Kiersten has to decide whether to let down her guard and open her heart to the man who secretly loved her for years, or risk losing his tender embrace for good.

Books in the Take a Chance Series:
Try Me: Take a Chance Book 1
Love Me: Take a Chance Book 2
Play Me: Take a Chance Book 3

 Review
Kiersten Worth has always managed to roll with the punches life threw at her.  Raising her nephew as her own, Kiersten had it all until her ex broke her heart.  Now on the eve of her wedding day, Kiersten wants to let loose carefully selecting her closest friend and her son's basketball coach, Garrett Kelly,

 Garrett has been head over heels for Kiersten since high school, but it never led anywhere.  Now that he has the chance, he falls even deeper for Kiersten, but his hopes quickly diminish when he realizes she only wanted him for the one night event.  What neither expected was a baby in the mix and Garrett doesn't plan to be an absent father, even if Kiersten continues to guard her heart and keep Garrett at a distance.

 I felt for Garrett, Kiersten has some issues she is trying to work through and puts Garrett through the ringer.  Entertaining story, would check out the other books in the series for sure.



About the Author:
Diane Alberts has always been a dreamer with a vivid imagination, but it wasn’t until 2011 that she put her pen where her brain was, and became a published author.  Since receiving her first contract offer, she has yet to stop writing. Though she lives in the mountains, she really wishes she was surrounded by a hot, sunny beach with crystal clear water. She lives in Northeast Pennsylvania with her four kids, a husband, a schnauzer mutt, a cat, and a Senegal parrot. In the rare moments when she’s not writing, she can usually be found hunched over one knitting project or another.

She is a multi-published, bestselling author with Entangled Publishing, Swoon Romance, and Decadent Publishing. She has, as of this date, four books with Entangled Publishing, one book with Swoon Romance, and five older books with Decadent Publishing. Her February release with Entangled Publishing, ON ONE CONDITION, hit #18 on the Barnes and Noble Bestseller List, and TRY ME hit #76 on Amazon. Her Swoon Romance novella, CAPTIVATED BY YOU, hit #31 on the Barnes and Noble bestseller list.  Her goal is to write so many fantastic books that even a non-romance book fan will know her name.

She also writes New Adult books under the name Jen McLaughlin. Diane is represented by Louise Fury from the L. Perkins Agency.




Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5081315.Diane_Alberts


Giveaway is 1 eBook per stop. Winner’s choice of a pdf of Try Me (Take a Chance #1) or Love Me (Take a Chance #2).
Leave a comment to enter



Posted by at 1:33 AM 1 comments

Nice Girl To Love by Violet Duke Release Blitz and Giveaway

VioletDukeReleaseBlitz-731




Nice Girl to Love (The Complete Collection)
The • Nice • Girl n. 1. female of the species who never does anything or anyone bad: Hands-off, she’s a nice girl. 2. the woman that men take home to meet mom: Find my son a ‘nice girl to love.’ SEE ALSO: a good girl; girl scout; Abby Bartlett
This is the complete Nice Girl to Love serial romance collection, which contains: Resisting the Bad Boy (Book One), Falling for the Good Guy (Book Two), and Choosing the Right Man (Book Three).
THE ONE SHE NEVER THOUGHT SHE COULD KEEP…
Abby Bartlett is the quintessential nice girl. Between teaching, volunteering, completing her PhD, and helping her best friend raise his daughter, Abby never gets the chance to be anything but nice. That is, until the all-wrong-for-her man she’s only ever known from afar starts daring her to simply take that chance for herself. His sage advice? Try something wild and fast.  Preferably him.
An unbridled, hotshot attorney with a not-so-little black book, Connor Sullivan has earned himself quite the bad boy reputation. But in his defense, he’s a very conscientious one. He knows far too well that sometimes in life, love isn’t enough…or worse, not even a factor at all. To avoid that misery–and repel the drama–Connor has a firm ‘nothing over a month’ rule.  Who knew a nice girl would be the one to make him want to break all his rules?
THE ONE SHE NEVER HOPED SHE COULD HAVE…
Abby is well aware that everyone thinks she’s in love with her best friend Brian. He is, after all, the type of man a nice girl should be with—the polar opposite of the bad boy—the kind of guy who didn’t let his wife’s decade-long illness stop him from showering her with a lifetime of love every second until her dying day. But everyone’s wrong; she couldn’t possibly be in love with him.  Because she’s never once allowed herself that option.
It’s taken a while but Brian has finally come to terms with surviving the woman he spent half his life loving, a third of it losing. Truth is though, he wouldn’t have ‘survived’ any of it really had it not been for Abby—sweet, incredible Abby—the woman he’s never once had to picture his life without, never realized he couldn’t truly live without. Until now. Now that he’s finally able to love her the way she deserves, the way he knows she wants to be loved…by his brother.  Who’s giving him exactly one chance to speak now or forever hold his peace.
A DECISION SHE NEVER DREAMED SHE’D HAVE TO MAKE…
And now it’s up to Abby to decide between the bad boy wanting to start a life with her and the good guy fighting for the life they’ve already built.

Excerpt

Abby went mute as she felt Brian’s tongue lash across her skin, sensitizing the nerves to levels beyond pleasure.
If he didn’t stop, there was a good chance she’d pull the towel he was wearing right off.
“Do you want me to take it off?” he asked, his words tickling her skin.
Yes.  “No,” she stammered, unable to take her eyes off the portion of the towel that was tucked at his hipbone.  Just one good tug—
“I was talking about the ice, sweetheart.  But if you have other things in mind…”
Ice?  What ice?  “Oh!  Ow.”  The burning of the ice at her ankle finally filtered through to her brain.  “Yes, actually, can you take it off?  I’m a wuss when it comes to icing my injuries.”
Brian quickly pulled off the ice and rewrapped her ankle before resuming his massage.  “So back to the other things you wanted me to take off,” he teased.
Okay, seriously?  It was a really good thing the man had never flirted with her before because she was certain she’d never have survived it, especially not when his hands were kneading her muscles into butter.
“You’re impossible,” she complained thickly, though it came out more like a purr.  His massages should be illegal for how good they felt.
She blinked slowly at him and started wondering idly what was so wrong with him losing the towel.  A fuzzy smile drifted across her face.
“Damn, you’re going to fall asleep on me aren’t you?”  Brian’s voice floated over her hair softly as he pressed a smiling kiss to her forehead.  “Go ahead and rest, sweetheart.  You had a pretty eventful afternoon.”
With that, he stood and walked over to the linen closet for some clothes.
Shame.
He was heartbreakingly handsome.  Always had been.  But ever since he’d gone back to coaching afterschool to supplement his teaching income, he’d gotten even burlier from the added lifting sessions before practice.  It was almost unfair.  Superhuman, really.  His build was now more impressive than the average underwear model’s physique—a standard issue Sullivan trait it seemed—though every other aspect of him remained far gentler and way more mellow than Connor.
She’d never thought of mellow as being the new sexy.  But it so was. 
And nice was the new hot.  With two T’s.
Hearing Brian’s soft chuckles echoing in the room, she realized she must have said the last couple of sentences out loud.
“I think you’re ‘nice with two T’s’ too, Abby,” he whispered before kissing her on the cheek.  “Sweet dreams, honey.”


Participating Blogs



Author Info:

VIOLET DUKE is the pen name of Nina Nakayama, lovingly chosen in honor of her two adorably wacky kids.   

Nina blames her lifelong addiction to reading on the public library she all but lived in as a kid.  Now decades later, she's still a bonafide book junkie with a book-a-day habit she can't kick and nightly reading-by-flashlight binges.

You could say that reading was her gateway obsession, with writing being its natural progression.  And she couldn't be happier for it.  She gets to scramble after a bunch of untamed story characters in her head for a living, without the fear of men in white coats and butterfly nets coming after her—not for those reasons anyway.

Like the heroines in her novels, Nina has had her fair share of ups and downs in life...along with a quirky happily-ever-after she couldn't have written better herself.  Her dream house on O‘ahu is one that some crazy builder let her draw up the plans for via an old bargain bin architecture software readable only on WinXP or older.  And the hero of her romantic tale is a guy who, after getting her number from her former student, tricked her into nightly marathon phone calls while she’d been trying to focus on her doctoral dissertation.  She ended up falling in love with the sneaky man within weeks­—before ever meeting him in person—and marrying him a few months later.  Now, whenever folks ask what inspired (possessed) her to one day put a pin in her career as an English Ed professor to pursue her dreams of becoming a romance author, she smiles and points an accusatory thumb at him.

You can find a longer life story here with jucier details...and photos.


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Posted by at 1:32 AM 1 comments

Playing For Love by Angela Britnell

Playing for LovePlaying for Love by Angela Britnell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Finn Alexander agreed to help his sister out, he didn't realize it would change his life forever. Kate Brooke is in need of space, quiet, and a complete getaway from her life. Finn is just the distraction she needs as she tries to put the handsome cellist house in order, although she had not thought she would find herself attracted to him.

Both hold secrets and neither realizes how these secrets threaten to destroy what they have. Kate was an intriguing heroine, on one hand she is haunting with obvious pain in her life, the other side of her is strong and sensual. Finn was a charmer, he is a little set in his ways and does not make excuses for them. Together they are a dynamic couple. Playing For Love is riddled with little curves you don't expect, wonderful story.

View all my reviews
Posted by at 1:31 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Wanted: Wife by Lacey Wolfe Book Tour


Wanted: Wife by Lacey Wolfe

Help Wanted: A Wife

Darcy White can't believe she's answering a help wanted ad from someone looking to hire a wife, but she's hit rock bottom and is on the verge of being evicted from her apartment. When she learns that the guy she had a crush on in high school is the one looking to hire, she'd be crazy not to live out her fantasy.

Steven McDonald needs a wife, or at least a fiancée, before his grandfather retires or else he won't inherit the family business. He knows not just any woman will do, and in a desperate attempt to find a solution, he places a help wanted ad in the local paper. The day Darcy White answers it, his dreams begin to come true.

As Darcy and Steven pretend they're engaged, they make a promise to keep things platonic. But the more time they spend together, the harder it is to keep their hands off one another. With his grandfather's retirement approaching, and the possible end to their fake engagement, can Steven and Darcy admit their feelings to not only themselves but each other?

Content Warning: contains adult language and sensual love scenes



Excerpt:

"I'm making coffee, want any?" Darcy called from the kitchen.

As Steven entered the kitchen he said, "I'd love a cup."

Steven leaned against the counter. Darcy poured water into the coffee maker and then scooped the coffee in. After she pressed the brew button, she turned and stared back at him.

"That wasn't so bad," he said.

She nodded. "Yeah, it was okay."

Steven laughed. "Your parents were kind." He reached his hand out toward her.

Darcy walked to him, taking his hand.

"Your dad gave us his blessing."

"I had no doubt he would. Your family is well known."

Steven wasn't sure what had come over him, maybe it was the scotch he'd shared with her dad, but he couldn't resist the beautiful woman in front of him. He tugged her to him, and her body molded against his perfectly. With his free hand, he pushed her hair behind her ear and then pressed his lips to hers. He expected resistance from her, but she opened up right away, wanting the kiss as much as he did.

Sliding his hand around her neck, he tilted her head so he could deepen the kiss. Her fingers danced around his waist and the little sensation went straight to his groin. Releasing her hand, he gripped her waist and pulled her into him. He was hard and it pressed into her and she didn't seem to mind. Damn this woman! She should be pushing away from him, reminding him they were to stay friends, but instead he kept hoping her hand would find its way lower.

Could they do this once and then pretend it never happened? His erection was telling him yes, but his brain was telling him no. He started to pull away from the kiss, but Darcy wouldn't let him.

God, he was turned on and wanted to touch her, taste her, explore her. He needed her!

"Stop, Darcy." He pushed her off him.

She stepped back, a shocked look on her face.

"I can't control myself. I want to take you to bed so bad."

"I want that too." She moved closer to him again and wrapped her arm around his neck and let her other hand dangle at his waistband. "Can't we have a little fun?"

Do it or not? Yes or no? His core ached and taunted him. Taking a deep breath, he decided to listen to the head below.
He lifted Darcy up and sat her on the counter. His lips were everywhere. Her neck, collarbone. His hands were greedy as they worked the buttons on her blouse. "Stop me now, Darcy."

She gazed into his eyes and then cupped his erection through his pants. "No."

"No turning back?"

"No turning back."



Buy Links:    Beachwalk Press 


 About the Author:

Lacey Wolfe has always had a passion for words, whether it’s getting lost in a book or writing her own. From the time she was a child she would slip away to write short stories about people she knew and fantasies she wished would happen. It has always been her dream to be a published author and with her two children now of school age, she finally has the time to work on making her dream come true.
Lacey lives in Georgia with her husband, son and daughter, their six cats and one black lab who rules the house.
Author Links:    Her Site      Twitter    Facebook



Giveaway:

Lacey is giving away any book off her backlist to a lucky winner. To enter for a chance to win just fill out the Rafflecopter below.



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Posted by at 12:56 AM 0 comments

One Wicked Night by Emily Quinn Book Tour, Review and Giveaway


One Wicked Night (Wicked #1) by Emily Quinn


Blurb:
Angel Jones is a career-driven woman at the top of her game with a big problem: a wickedly handsome boss. It is impossible to get him out of her mind, so her friends talk her into using someone else’s invitation to an exclusive dating service. It’s a dare she can’t resist.

Fernando Durante knows lusting after someone at work is not an option. He has managed to avoid direct contact with her for years, but thanks to a recent promotion, the witty goddess reports directly to him. When a friend emails him an invitation to an exclusive dating service, Fernando accepts against his better judgment.

Will Angel and Fernando let their hearts guide them?


You can add One Wicked Night to your to-read list on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18006383-one-wicked-night

You can find more about One Wicked Night on the Entranced site, you can also find the buy links here as soon as One Wicked Night is available:
http://www.entrancedpublishing.com/imprints/thrills/one-wicked-night/ 
Informaton about the book:
Title: One Wicked Night
Series: Wicked #1
Author: Emily Quinn
Genre: Contemporary Erotic Romance
Length: 45 pages
Release Date: July 15, 2013

Review
In love with her boss, Angel Jones knows she can never cross the line but she can't seem to get get him out of her system.  When she takes her friends invitation for a discreet dating service, where she can live out every fantasy she has ever dreamed about, she knows this is her answer to forgetting the man who has stole her heart.

Little does Angel know, Fernando Durante shares the same feelings for her.  Accepting the invitation to a one night stand date, he doesn't expect to find the woman who  is driving his fantasies waiting for him.  Will she agree to more than one night though?

Definitely sets you up for more in this series.  I thought it was provocative, alluring, and a sizzler of a quick read.   


About the Author:
Emily Quinn writes sexy contemporary romances with irresistible bad boys, feisty heroines, a bit of conflict, humor and a dash of spice.

She loves books and falls in love with every hero she reads. She lives in sunny Southern California with her husband, two kids, and her dog.

Emily loves hearing from her readers.

You can find and contact Emily here:
Website: http://emilyquinnauthor.com/ 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/equinnauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emily.quinn.37017794
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/equinnauthor/ 
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7020325.Emily_Quinn

There is a tour wide giveaway for the blog tour of One Wicked Night. One winner will win a 15$ gift card from Amazon and 2 other winners will each win 1 e-copy of One Wicked Night by Emily Quinn. 
Buy Links:
- Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/One-Wicked-Night-Series-ebook/dp/B00DYAIJ4M/ref=sr_1_7?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1373971685&sr=1-7&keywords=one+wicked+night 
- B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/one-wicked-night-emily-quinn/1116054890?ean=2940148491743 
- Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/One-Wicked-Night/book-sCZtsinDuES-l8m7LvbuvQ/page1.html?s=y4Ypd-dg5U-9EKRRS5Cf2Q&r=6 
- Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/327868 
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Thanks from the Entranced team for being part of the One Wicked Night blog tour!

 Follow the tour:
http://emilyquinnauthor.com/2013/07/12/one-wicked-night-blog-tour-2/ 


Posted by at 12:55 AM 0 comments

A Criminal Defense by Steven Gore Book Spotlight


 

FROM THE AUTHOR OF ACT OF DECEIT AND POWER BLIND COMES THE SECOND BOOK IN A THRILLING SERIES FEATURING EX-SFPD DETECTIVE HARLAN DONNALLY


A CRIMINAL DEFENSE
A Harlan Donnally Novel
by Steven Gore

­
“Rich, gritty, and terrifically twisty…crackles with legal and psychological authenticity.”
—Lou Berney, author of Whiplash River


In Steven Gore’s page-turning second installment, A CRIMINAL DEFENSE by Steven Gore (Harper Mass Market; July 30, 2013; $9.99; ISBN: 9780062025074), readers find ex-SFPD detective Harlan Donnally running a small cafe north of San Francisco. But when Mark Hamlin, a criminal defense lawyer with a slimy reputation, is found murdered underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, Donnally is drawn back into a twisted and corrupt world he thought he’d left behind.
Over three decades, Hamlin's practice devolved into just another racket: intimidating witnesses, suborning perjury, destroying evidence, laundering money. But is he the victim of murder—or of a dangerous sexual encounter gone wrong? And when law enforcement believes justice has already been done, who can be trusted to find out?
Despite a mysterious request left in the dead man’s hand, Donnally had resolved it wouldn't be him. He had no desire to immerse himself in the deceit that was Hamlin's career . . . nor entangle himself in the corrupted loyalties that turned the dead lawyer's associates into both co-conspirators and suspects . . . nor make himself the proxy for the hatreds and betrayals Hamlin left behind.
But the presiding judge demanded otherwise—and that might cost Donnally his life.

Blog Post:
Steven Gore, A Criminal Defense


Counterintuitive.
If there is single word that characterizes my encounter with writing crime fiction after decades as a criminal investigator, it’s counterintuitive.
And it’s part of the explanation why true crime makes for lousy crime fiction, why so few career-long law enforcement officers and private investigators succeed in crime writing and why most of those who do have only worked in the field briefly. In truth, much of what readers want from investigator protagonists are characteristics and habits that experienced investigators have to train out of themselves and train out of young investigators in order for them to succeed.
Readers want different things from investigators than do law enforcement agencies and private investigator clients. Readers want to feel increasing tension, while, with the rarest of exceptions, experienced investigators aim to lower it; readers want to watch investigators overcome obstacles, while experienced investigators aim to avoid them; readers want to read about characters who are uniquely qualified, while in the real world there are only investigators who are especially qualified; readers want to watch investigators run up against walls and then force their way through them, while experienced investigators aim how to slip around them; readers want spontaneity and surprise, while experienced investigators plan and plan in order to limit surprises; readers want to see investigators try and try again, while clients want real investigators to get it right the first time; readers are not troubled by brash, aggressive protagonists injecting conflict into a scene, while real investigators don’t inject it, they anticipate potential conflict inherent in a situation and work to mute it.
In the end, in the real world, doing all these things in these ways is both the criteria of competence and the conditions for successful investigations.
There is one kind of law enforcement that matches readers’ expectations: narcotics. But it isn’t at heart a crime solving assignment. Narcotics cases are generally built from leaning on people who’ve already been caught dirty—by patrol officers and street drug task forces and through search warrants and wiretaps--to give up those above them. It’s less about solving crimes and more about discovering crimes already in progress or creating crimes by means of informants or undercover agents. The problem is that since the skills and attitudes that succeed in narcotics enforcement fail in investigations, few narcotics officers become first rate homicide detectives. Observe the contrast between the drug enforcement reality shows and A&E’s The First 48. In The First 48, at least during the first few years of the show and before detectives began to play to the camera, nearly all of the excitement came from the music and the jump cuts. The detectives themselves were generally low key and methodical.
The problem for me was to translate the reality of investigation into fiction. That is to say, there could be no “When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand” of Raymond Chandler or “My way of learning is to heave a wild and unpredictable monkey-wrench into the machinery” of Dashiell Hammett. Rather, plots had to be driven internally and conflict had to be exploited from within, rather than imposed from without and the methods used had to be those that succeeded in real life.
On the domestic front, I’m making this effort in the Harlan Donnally novels of which A Criminal Defense is the latest, and on the international front, in the Graham Gage thrillers of which Power Blind is the latest. In each series, the central problem I faced was investigative competence: the protagonists had to apply real world methods and approaches in a realistic way. That meant applying the techniques of genre fiction to stories whose aim is realism. And the challenge was to make the stories not only informative about the real world of crime and investigation, but exciting for readers. In the end, it’s the readers who will judge whether I have truly bridged the gap between the real and the fictional.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Steven Gore is a former private investigator whose international thrillers draw on his investigations of murder, fraud, money laundering, organized crime, political corruption, and drug, sex, and arms trafficking in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Gore has been featured on 60 Minutes for his work and has been honored for excellence in his field. He is trained in forensic science and has lectured to professional organizations on a wide range of legal and criminal subjects.
To find out more, please visit www.stevengore.com

A CRIMINAL DEFENSE
by Steven Gore
Mass Market, $9.99; ISBN: 9780062025074
E-book, $9.99, ISBN: 9780062198082
Publication Date: July 30, 2013
Harper, An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers www.harpercollins.com



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