Ashael Rising Review and Book Blitz

Ashael is a hunter-gatherer woman, apprenticed to Bhearra, the healer and spiritual leader of their tribe.

The Zanthar are invaders from another world who extend their own lives by stealing the life-force of everything around them. They were last seen on KalaDene 200 years ago. They have returned, looking for The Vessel, a being prophesied to hold the life-force of the land.

Iwan is a slave to the Zanthar, descendant of those taken as slaves the last time the Zanthar visited this world. He is sent out as a spy, while his mother is held hostage to ensure his compliance.

When Ashael meets Iwan in the forest, neither realise that she is the one the Zanthar are looking for. The fate of KalaDene and all of its people rests on her shoulders.

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Shattered Dreams Book Blitz

 

 
  
TITLE : Shattered Dreams
AUTHOR : Brenda Kennedy
GENRE : Soft Romance
RELEASE DATE : December 15, 2014
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Emma Greyson, Age 22, has a loving husband, Max, and a newborn son, James. She is finally living her dream, until fate steps in and shatters everything.

Trying to deal with the death of her husband and learning how to be a single mom, Emma decides to move from Fort Drum, New York, back to her hometown of Sarasota, Florida.

Four years later, Emma has a fresh start with a new job and new friends. She meets an attractive doctor, Alec Collins. Taking things slowly, she is happy with the way things are going until fate steps in again and reveals the ugly truth of Alec’s past.

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

BRENDA KENNEDY
AMAZON BEST SELLING
AUTHOR
 

First and foremost I am a wife, mother and grandmother.

I am also a nurse and a new author.

I moved to sunny Florida in 2006 and never looked back. I love fresh squeezed lemonade, crushed ice, teacups, wineglasses, non-franchise restaurants, ice cream cones, boating, picnics, cookouts, throwing parties, lace, white wine, mojitos, strawberry margaritas, white linen tablecloths, fresh flowers and Pinterest. I also love to read and write and to spend time with my family. My books thus far, have been inspired by the things I love and the people who influence me, every single day to be a better person.

 
 

***All wording and images for this post were provided by Christina at BookaLuscious.***

Ivy Book Spotlight & Giveaway

Ivy

 

Blurb:

Widowed photographer Ivy Langdon avoids people in general after her husband’s death. She ventures out days before Christmas for last minute gifts and stumbles into the middle of a terrorist attack in London.  Will her luck ever change?

Steven Samuels and his partner Gareth Richardson are called in with their company, Blackbird Security Firm, to rescue the hostages.  They never expected to find their perfect mate while saving the world.  The more the two wolves learn about Ivy, the more that they want to make her theirs.

Love is never simple or straight-forward and life is often stranger than fiction.

Ivy finds herself drawn into a strange world of shifters and human traffickers.

Can love’s true bite find her before trouble does?

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Excerpt:

With Christmas right around the corner, Ivy reluctantly ventured out to pick up presents for her family and friends.  She would have preferred to stay in her flat to watch re-runs of the Vicar of Dibley.  She had been half-way through the holiday’s specials.

Squeezing between a group gathered outside Harvey Nichols, Ivy made her way into the store and rode the escalator to the second floor.  She tuned out the couple in front of her who were arguing about what to purchase for their son.  She tried to map out her shopping plans in her mind, hoping to save time and get her away from the happy shoppers as quickly as bloody possible.

As she stepped off the escalator, an explosion on the first floor rocked the entire building to its foundation.  The lights overhead flickered several times as ceiling tiles fell and shattered on the ground in front of her.  Ivy ducked her head quickly to avoid the dust and debris in the air.

Gunfire followed the explosion and sent everyone into a mass of swirling panic.  A passing stranger in the fray knocked Ivy to the floor.  Crawling through the swarming chaos to hide behind a nearby perfume counter, she noticed a cabinet large enough for her to squeeze her petite frame inside. She dove in and slid the door shut.

The shouts and screams seemed to continue forever, though her watch told her it had been ten minutes at most.  Ivy turned her phone on silent and sent a quick text to a friend who had been in Alec’s unit.  She didn’t dare place a call, but someone had to let the authorities know there were survivors in the store.

For now.

After several tense moments of waiting, Ivy pulled her phone back out to frantically check the news.  It was impossible to know how long the cabinet would remain safe though moving didn’t seem like that good of an idea either.  Her friend texted a response to say the police were on their way, and she should do her best to avoid detection.

Avoid detection.

Very bloody helpful.

She already knew that much. Alec had been a military man.  They’d known each other long before University.  He proposed during their second year there. Over four happy years of marriage. He had made sure to teach her the basics of self-defense and security awareness.  Not for the first time in two years, Ivy missed him so much her heart ached.

Ivy sat in the cramped cupboard for close to an hour when she realized that she desperately needed the loo.  Bugger. She couldn’t risk it, could she? The restrooms were directly across from where she was hiding.

Another ten minutes passed.

It was time to try to either run for the loo or piss herself. Deciding she didn’t relish sitting in her own urine (not very pleasant), she cautiously eased the door open and waited for any signs of the armed men.  She didn’t know if the silence was comforting or terrifying.

Keeping low to the ground, Ivy crawled along the floor.  It brought back memories of watching her husband when he had been training young recruits.  She could hear his deep voice in her head describing the best and quietest way to low-crawl.  She made it into the loo without being seen.

She finished her business as her mother liked to call it.  The difficult decision now was whether to stay in the toilets or make her way back to the little cubbyhole.  She glanced around the room with an assessing eye.  If the terrorist bastards decided to come inside, there was nowhere to hide effectively from them.

Back to the cupboard.

Definitely.

Retracing her route across the floor seemed somehow more daunting as Ivy started to make her move.  She was halfway to her cupboard when a strong hand grabbed the back of her coat and lifted her off the ground.  His other hand clamped around her mouth to muffle the scream she’d been about to utter.  He dragged her backwards into what appeared to be a staff locker room.

Bugger.

Oh, bloody hell.

The second he had her backed into the staff room, Ivy went from passive captive to violently struggling to escape.  She had no intention of going without some sort of a fight.  His hands pinned her arms to her side and crushed her back against his body.

She closed her eyes and waited for the knife or gunshot she knew was bound to come;  the irony of dying two days before Christmas was not lost on her.  She tried desperately not to fidget.  She realized after a moment that she hadn’t actually felt a weapon at any point. In fact, the hands holding her while firm were also very gentle.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Ivy was surprised at how good the man smelled; he reminded her of dark chocolate and something exotically spicy.  She told her mind and body to behave themselves.   She would not lust over a perfect stranger who was probably about to murder her.

Why the hell hasn’t he done something yet?

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Ivy Teaser

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About the Author:

Dahlia is a bit of a hermit.  She’s happiest with a large mug of coffee or tea (two sugars and drop or two of milk) and a good book.  She lives for comfortable jeans and over-sized sweaters.  Ivy is her first novel and it started life as an attempt to complete National Novel Writing Month.  

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Find Ivy online:

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Nook

Amazon

GoodReads

Find Dahlia online athttp://dahliadonovan.wordpress.com/

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Sex in the Title Blog Tour

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Synopsis

New York City, May 2000. The Internet bubble has burst and Evan, a computer programmer, is fired with an email from his boss. The next day, his girlfriend dumps him, also via email. Afraid to check any more emails, Evan desperately seeks a rebound romance but the catastrophes that ensue go from bad to hilariously worse.

Fortunately, Evan meets Sammy — someone whose legendary disasters with females eclipse even his own. To reverse their fortunes, they recruit their friends — Trevor, Yi, and Carlos — to form a group of five guys who take on Manhattan in pursuit of dates, sex, and adventure.

When Evan, a closet writer, falls desperately in love with a Hollywood starlet, he schemes to meet her by writing a novel that will sweep her off her feet. Sammy knows nothing about publishing but is confident of one thing: Evan’s book should have the word “sex” in the title.

With musings about life, relationships, and human psychology, this quintessential New York story about the search for happiness follows five men on their comical paths to trouble, self-discovery, and love.

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Sex in the Title Cover

AMAZON / AMAZON CA / AMAZON UK / BARNES & NOBLE

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Teaser

Sex in the Title Teaser 1

Excerpt

“Why do I feel the need to succeed in an art form that’s doomed to extinction?” Evan asked, in despair.

“Just because I don’t read novels doesn’t mean they’re doomed,” said Heeb, as he unwrapped his Snickers bar.

“Look, novels made sense as an entertainment form back in the 1800s, when the closest you could get to a soap opera was Dickens and Balzac.”

Heeb was somewhat distracted by his Snickers chocolate bar now. Compared to the hospital food, it seemed to Heeb as if it were the quintessence of pure and natural food – grown organically from the earth and full of goodness for the body and spirit. His mouth began to salivate, just looking at the large bar of chocolate and imagining beneath it the nutty and creamy filling that would provide his mouth with an instant orgasm.

Somewhat pained by the social obligation of having to offer some of this heavenly treat to his neighbor, Heeb extended the bar out to Evan while hoping that Evan would decline. To Heeb’s substantial relief, Evan quickly shook his head, almost irritated with such a frivolous interruption of their all-important discussion.

“You’ve got interactive games, DVDs, Internet, 3D films, and an ever shrinking attention span,” Evan continued, as Heeb proceeded to take an enormous bite of his chocolate bar. “Novels don’t stand a chance against such easy and immediate gratification. These days, people just consume whatever gives them the fastest form of amusement, without any concern for the long-term effects that these empty pleasures may have on their constitution.”

Heeb blissfully focused for a moment on the easy and immediate gratification of his Snickers bar, as he methodically chewed on the large chunk of candy bar that filled most of his mouth. He wasn’t at all concerned about its long-term effects on his constitution.

“Are you listening to me?” snapped Evan, somewhat irked that his neighbor seemed so untroubled by the social and technological trends that would doom literature.

Heeb’s mouth was obviously stuffed, but it was clear that Evan wanted an immediate answer.

“You gotta have sex on the cover,” Heeb blurted out, rather unclearly, with his mouth full.

“Sex under the covers?” Evan asked, trying to make out what Heeb said.

“No. Sex on the cover,” Heeb replied, with his words just as garbled by his glutted mouth.

“Sex undercover? As in, undercover sex?” Evan asked, trying again to decipher what Heeb said, and now impatiently convinced that whatever Heeb was trying to say was going to be an annoyingly irrelevant, inappropriate, or unsatisfying response.

“No.” Heeb shook his head and took a few more bites before trying to speak this time. “You just have to have the word ‘sex’ on the cover.”

“What do you mean?” Evan asked, still not sure that he was hearing Sammy correctly. By now, Sammy had finished most of his chewing and could enunciate properly.

“I mean, the book can be about sex on the covers, sex under the covers, or undercover sex. Or anything else really. It doesn’t matter, as long as you’ve got the word ‘sex’ on the cover.”

“You mean the cover of the book?”

“Yeah. Even better: make sex the first word in the title. Like Sex and the City did.”

“But that was television.”

“It doesn’t matter. If it’s a novel about racecar drivers, call it ‘Sex and Speed.’ Or if it’s a work of historical fiction set in antebellum Texas; call it ‘Sex in the South.’”

Evan looked like a priest hearing sacrilege from a proud atheist for the first time in his pious career.

But the appalled expression on Evan’s face only goaded Heeb on more: “Suppose you’ve written a mystery thriller about an evil scientist who changed his identity into someone totally unknown. Don’t just call it ‘Unknown’; call it ‘Sexual Unknown.’”

“Sexual Unknown?” Evan repeated, incredulously.

“Yeah, that still works.”

“How could that possibly make sense as a title?”

“Look, if the disguised scientist is now generally unknown to people, then he’s probably also sexually unknown to them.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding.”

“OK, maybe that’s not a good example,” Heeb conceded, before continuing, undeterred. “Take a novel about a man’s self-discovery. A good title for it would be something like ‘Sexually Searching Self.’ You get the idea. Just have the word sex in there, and make it prominent enough so that it’s the first thing that people see when they see your book.”

“Sammy, you’re more full of bull– than a Texas ranch!” Evan exclaimed, in an agitated, high-volume reaction.

“All right, maybe I’m overstating things a little. Look, I’m a math guy, not a literature guy. So I’m looking at this from a purely statistical perspective: all else being equal, your novel is more likely to sell if it has the word ‘sex’ in the title than if it doesn’t. That’s all I’m saying.”

MeetTheAuthor

http://www.sexinthetitlebook.com/

FACEBOOK / GOODREADS / TWITTER / SEX IN THE TITLE FACEBOOK PAGE

Check out Zack’s Comedic Review of Sex in the Title over at Goodreads

Zack Love graduated from Harvard College, where he tried to create a bachelor’s degree in Women. With the bachelor portion of that degree in hand, he settled in New York City but – to afford renting his bed-sized studio – found himself flirting mostly with a computer screen and stacks of documents. Determined not to die a corporate drone, Zack decided to sacrifice sleep for screenwriting, an active social life, and Internet startups offering temporary billion-dollar fantasies.

To feed his steady diet of NYC nightlife, he regularly crashed VIP parties in the early 2000s and twice bumped into his burgeoning crush, a Hollywood starlet. But – much to Zack’s surprise – neither of those awkward conversations led to marriage with the A-list actress. Zack eventually consoled himself by imagining fiascoes far worse than those involving his celebrity crush. In the process, he dreamed up a motley gang of five men inspired by some of his college friends and quirky work colleagues. And thus was born Sex in the Title. But the novel is not autobiographical: Zack never had his third leg attacked by any mammal (nor by any plant, for that matter). In fact, keeping his member safe has been one of Zack’s lifelong goals – and one of the few that he’s managed to accomplish.

SITT Award Graphic

1) Winner of five categories in the 2013 Novel Grounds Literary Awards:

-Most Original Story
-Author of the Year
-Favorite Indie
-Favorite Book Couple
-Favorite Supporting Character

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****Images and wording for this post were provided by Enticing Journey Book Promotions.****

The Queen of Swords Blog Tour

Queen of Swords

Title:  The Queen of Swords

Author: Nina Mason

Publisher: Vamptasy Publishing

Genre:  Paranormal Romance

Where to buy: Amazon

 

 

Blurb: 

When Graham Logan, a Scottish earl turned vampire by a dark wizard’s curse, draws the Queen of Swords, he knows he’s about to meet the love of his life. For the third time. But surrendering his heart will mean risking her life…or making her what he is. Neither of which his morals will permit him to do. Graham, who believes he lost his soul to the curse, rages at God: Why give her back only to take her again?

Cat Fingal, the third incarnation of Graham’s twin flame, won’t let him escape so easily. As soon as they meet, she feels she knows him and begins having past-life flashbacks. A white witch, she casts a spell to summon him, wanting answers and to fill the void she’s felt all her life.

Graham has other problems, too. Like the seductress who wants him for herself and the dark wizard who cursed him and killed his beloved the first two times.

Will he find a way to save her this time around? Or will she save him?

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Excerpt: 

Biting his lip, Graham turned the card of the here and now quickly. Seeing what he’d most feared tightened his chest. The central figure sat in profile upon a throne carved with angels and butterflies. She wore a white gown and a cloak decorated with clouds. More clouds gathered in the background, suggesting a storm was coming. The woman’s left hand reached out toward someone or something unseen in the distance. Her other hand gripped the up-thrust symbol of her suit.

The Queen of Swords.

He’d drawn the card only once before: the morning he’d met Catharine La Croix at a sidewalk cafe overlooking the Seine. To say her resemblance to Caitriona discomposed him was an understatement. He’d been floored by the likeness. He’d also been drawn to it like a sailor to a siren’s song. Unfortunately, he’d had no ship’s mast to rope himself to until the danger passed. Within a few weeks, they were deeply in love. He never suspected she might meet the same fate as her previous incarnation. Not until it was too late, anyway.

He’d done his best to protect her. After seeing Gerard Fitzgerald, the dark wizard who’d cursed him, on the street outside her apartment on Rue de Cherche Midi, he’d kept a watchful eye on her. Being as stubborn as before, she didn’t care for his vigil. One morning, she slipped out after he’d fallen asleep. He’d searched for her everywhere, out of his mind with worry. He’d had her blood, should have felt her, but he didn’t. That evening, he learned why.

Fitzgerald had done it. Of that, he was certain. He just didn’t know why. Now, it looked as if history was about to repeat. And what could he do about it except tear out his hair, beat his fists on the walls, and cry to heaven, “Why? Why give her back to me only to take her again?”

Grief closed around his throat like a strangler’s hands. Coughing to ease its grip, he overturned the card of his future. Surprise stung his heart when he saw The Fool. Squinting, he studied the image of a gaily-dressed youth whose open arms seemed to embrace the world. His right hand held a knapsack, his left, a single white rose. Nipping at his heels was a wee white dog. The Fool, fearing nothing, looked skyward with a dreamy expression as he strode toward the edge of a cliff.

Bewildered, he shook his head. What could it mean? The Fool stood on the threshold. He was the protagonist of the tarot, the archetypal hero embarking on his quest, the soul starting its journey toward atonement. The Fool, in other words, was the polar opposite of the hopeless, faithless tightrope walker Fitzgerald’s dark curse had turned him into over the past one hundred years.

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About the Author: Nina Mason

Nina Mason is a hopeful romantic with strong affinities for history, mythology, and the Nina Masonmetaphysical. She strives to write the same kind of books she loves to read: those that entertain, edify, educate, and enlighten. Three of her books will be published in 2014: The Queen of Swords, an urban fantasy/paranormal romance; The Knight of Wands, book one in the Knights of Avalon Series; and The Tin Man, a political thriller about the dangers posed by media monopolies.  She is currently at work on Book Two of the Knights of Avalon series and is itching to get back to a book she started a while back about a merman who falls for an oil company spokeswoman after a phantom tanker capsizes on the coast of the Hebrides islands. When not writing, Nina works as a communications consultant, doll maker, and home stager. Born and raised in Southern California, she now lives in Woodstock, Georgia, with her husband, teenage daughter, two rescue cats, and a Westie named Robert.

Social-media links:

Website: http://ninamasonauthor.com

Blog: http://ninamasonromance.blogspot.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ninamasonromance

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ninamasonauthor (@ninamasonauthor)

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/ninamasonauthor

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/ninamasonauthor

Google+:https://plus.google.com/105622637668245901733/posts

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Giveaway!

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Review coming soon!

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****Images and wording for this post were provided by the author, Nina Mason.****