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Friday, June 14, 2013

Watch Over Me by Tara Sivec Release Day Blitz and Giveaway


Purchase here!


Book Blurb:

Addison Snow is your typical teenager. She has a family that loves her, friends that make her laugh, and she's wrapped up in the excitement of graduating high school and going off to college to pursue her dream of becoming an author. When her mother, who also happens to be Addison's best friend, dies unexpectedly, her world comes to a crashing halt.

Death changes everyone...

To make the pain go away, Addison and her father travel down separate, dark paths. She chooses to end her grief forever, while he drowns his sorrows in the bottom of a bottle. How do you learn to live again when the most important person in your life is gone?

Addison struggles to pick up the pieces of her life. Instead of getting back to being the carefree teenager she once was, she's stuck handling all of the responsibilities that should have been her father's. She has no time to grieve, no time for emotions, and no time for happiness...until Zander Reinhardt walks in. All it takes is one little handwritten note on a napkin to kickstart
her back to life and help her realize that maybe there's more to that life than pain.

But can it really be that simple? Can she really trust this man who makes her feel alive again for the first time in a year?

Addison and Zander both have secrets they aren't ready to share. When the truth finally comes out, is it enough to tear them apart or has something bigger than themselves always been watching over them, pushing them together, making sure they both get their happily ever after?


T.E. Sivec is the pen name for Tara Sivec. Under T.E. Sivec, she delves into a more serious genre that is her absolute favorite to read romantic suspense. She loves reading a book and feeling her heart speed up with anticipation and wanted to be able to give that feeling to her fans. T.E. lives in Ohio with her husband and two children, living the dream of being a fulltime
writer.
Social Media Links:

Watch Over Me Spotify playlist




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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

International Giveaway on Today's New Kid With A Book featuring Shattered Into Beautiful by Mel Ballew: An Excerpt, A Review and A Giveaway or Two

Synopsis

Her Magick is destined but true love forbidden.

After beautiful Sylver Kyllienne Brady meets death at the hands of her boyfriend, Roland Parks, she transcends into Summerland. There, she reunites with her mother and finds her soul mate, Zander. Pulled back to the earthly plane, she must embark on a journey of discovery. She uncovers a truth. She is the descendent of a long lineage of powerful Witches. She must learn to control her power, protect the family’s Amulet and Book of Shadows. Sylver has no idea what awaits her. And, this is only part of her discovery.

Lives unravel as secrets are discovered and mysteries unfold.

Everything changes when she meets Zander Emmett –a vampire. Zander is gorgeous, exotic, sexy and unbelievably wealthy. He is also the one person a witch, such as Sylver, must avoid. Their love is forbidden but their souls draw them together like a magnet. Their bodies ignite, passion soars and their souls are left to discover, not only each other, but their destiny. His life holds secrets and enticing mysteries of his own that propel the parallels of their worlds to climaxing heights.

Will their colliding worlds separate them? Will Sylver embrace her destiny? Will realizing what is expected of her and falling soulfully in love with Zander - the vampire she is forbidden to love, just leave her breathless?

Or, will she forever be Shattered Into Beautiful?

Excerpt

I am his Light.

He is my Dark.

Together, as one, we are an equal balance. Positive and negative energies collide. A beautiful equilibrium created by the Universe.

One witch.

One vampire.

We are a swinging pendulum, two souls made whole —as one, amalgamating our worlds.

No longer afraid, I straighten. I walk over to Zander and take his hand in mine. I glance at him. With fingers entwined, our souls rendezvous, and part of the mystery between us is unveiled. My eyes shift to the figure standing among the trees. I glare. I look at Zander; he looks at me. Together, we look at him.

Emeralds and sapphires lock with fire-red rubies. Seconds are too long to decipher clearly the amount of time before he vanishes. Less than one split second, then he evaporated into the night, swallowed by the Dark governing him.

Magick unfurls in a moonlit night.


My Review:

When Mel asked me to read Shattered Into Beautiful, I hemmed and hawed. Really, the paranormal genre is something that I have never been all that interested in reading. After all, isn't paranormal only about witches and vampires and shamans, oh my? Boy, was I wrong!

Shattered opens in the year 1647 in the town of Hartford, Connecticut. To the shouts of "burn, witch, burn", Alse Lake was hanged to death by the neck, having been accused of being a witch. Her husband John and daughter Alice were there to witness the hanging. Thirty years later in the exact same town, daughter Alice was also hanged to death for the very same reason.

Fast forward several hundred years, and we witness Sylver dies at the hands of a madman. Battered, bruised and shattered, Sylver's blood pouring out onto the floor, she passes over into the Summerlands. The last words she hears before she dies are "Hang on my li'l Kitten. Fight Sylver"... Her travel to the Summerlands brings her face to face with Zander. Let me assure you, Zander is quite yummy.

Now, I would tell you more, but I don't want to spoil this beautiful book for you. This is a poetically beautiful story about a love between a witch and a vampire that transcends time. You will find that Mel's words are rich, warm and poetic. After reading this book, it is still very hard for me to believe that she hasn't written for years. Her descriptions will put you right there with the book's characters, but be prepared for the kisses to light a spark and the caresses to draw a low moan because the action between Zander and Syler is hot.


Author Bio

Mel Ballew resides in rural Pennsylvania with her husband and daughter, along with their two adorable cats. 
An avid reader, she has always had an equal passion for writing and has written her entire life, to date. Her mother initially birthed, inspired, and encouraged these loves. The two often discussed writing together but unfortunately, that dream never came to fruition.
Years later, this happened, that happened—life happened. 
She stepped away from writing to place more focus on being a wife and a full-time mom. Today, she would not have changed a thing. The day her daughter was born became the first day she realized a significant rhythm to her heart was also born. Her daughter, now preparing to go off to college, has grown into a beautiful and responsible young adult.
A twisted turn of events in September 2009 left Mel unable to work outside of the home. Forced to consider other options, and while embracing a therapeutic approach of transcribing all of the challenges facing her, post-accident, she returned to journaling. Once again, the writer within her has been re-birthed—awakened from slumber.
Mel is a hopeless romantic. Blessed, she has her very own soul mate, which she calls husband, best friend, and lover. 
She is a simple country gal, with a profound love of true simplicity. She is just as hopeless in her love of nature and regards many of her writing aspirations to appreciating its beauty, although every single story is birthed from her dreams. Sometimes, in life, simply enjoying a chilled glass of sangria on a warm summer’s eve or indulging in her love of chocolate and peanut butter is an expression of enjoying such simplicity. For her, these moments are truly d’vine.


How to find Mel




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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Cover Reveal for Very Bad Things by Ilsa Madden-Mills






Title: Very Bad Things (#1 Briarcrest Academy) 
Author: Ilsa Madden-Mills 
Expected release date: September 10, 2013 
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance 
Age Group: Mature YA and NA 
Cover Designed by: Toski Covey Photography and Sommer Stein from Perfect Pear, Model is Mariah Jane Scott   


Born into a life of privilege and secrets, Nora Blakely has everything any nineteen-year-old girl could desire. She’s an accomplished pianist, a Texas beauty queen, and on her way to Princeton after high school. She’s perfect… Leaving behind her million-dollar mansion and Jimmy Choos, she becomes a girl hell-bent on pushing the limits with alcohol, drugs, and meaningless sex. Then she meets her soul mate. But he doesn’t want her. When it comes to girls, twenty-five-year-old Leo Tate has one rule: never fall in love. His gym and his brother are all he cares about…until he meets Nora. He resists the pull of their attraction, hung up on their six year age difference. As they struggle to stay away from each other, secrets will be revealed, tempers will flare, and hearts will be broken. Welcome to Briarcrest Academy…where sometimes, the best things in life are Very Bad Things.  

          

About the Author Ilsa wrote her first work at the age of twelve when she penned a little ditty about a handsome prince who had no sense. Since then, she’s written plays, poems, and numerous short stories. Very Bad Things is her first full-length novel and part of a new series called Briarcrest Academy. She graduated summa cum laude with a master’s in English. After graduation, she directed plays, worked with autistic children, helped start a children’s clothing company, and eventually had a family. Now, she spends her days with two small kids and her Viking husband. When she’s not typing away at a story, you can find her drinking too much coffee, jamming out to Pink, or checking on her carefully maintained chocolate stash. She loves to hear from fans and fellow avid readers. You can find her on Facebook and a soon to come author website.

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Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Safe Word by Teresa Mummert - Excerpt, Review and a chance to win one of 25 e-copies or $300 Amazon Giftcard


Synopsis:

A chance meeting with a stranger can turn your entire world upside down. 
When Colton ‘Colt’ Bishop enters a bar in New York City, he has a plan. His job is to find an easy target and take her back to his place for a few days. He is working his way up the crime ladder doing a job he never wanted.
Lily Hilton has it all, but is hiding from a troublesome past. When she enters a bar downtown, and runs into her old high school crush, her entire world is turned upside down. She is determined to make him notice her, but that plan may work better than she expects. 
Colton does not hesitate to take Lily home and use her as his new pawn, but their past begins to catch up with them as their secrets unravel and he must decide what is more important to him, protecting Lily or himself.



Review today by Debi Barnes:


I could not wait to get my hands on this book.  I love books from the male’s POV. I love to know what is going on in a man’s head. God knows I can’t in real life.

This is not your typical love story of boy meets girl, they fall in love and live happily ever after. This is a story of young love ripped apart and somehow in a wicked, dark twist of fate they reconnect. But there are no roses and rainbows. Colt has a twisted job and Lily gets sucked up into it.
Colt tries hard to deny his love for Lily. “ I didn’t want to deal with the pain, I wanted to fucking drown it; kill off any part of my heart that still beats for her.”  But Lily worms her way back in.

“I wasn’t the boy that was going to swoop in and save her when she needed me. I was the monster.”
Lily is a great heroine that was strong and determined. She had a horrible childhood but Colt saved her once. Can he do it again?  “This isn’t a joke. This is life or fucking death, Lily. I am trying to save you.”
This book started off slowly and then began to suck me in.  It took us on a ride full of crime, emotions and hot sex.  I began to enjoy the story and the characters, even though Colt is someone I had a very strong love/hate relationship with; then the last chapter happened. There was a complete plot twist that was left for the very last pages. It seemed like there was so much build up and then, bam! Fade to black. I wish the author would have added a few more chapters and let the story play out. The Epilogue didn’t help ease the pain I felt after reading the last chapter. It just seemed so rushed and unlikely. Yes, I realize this is fiction but after building a relationship with these characters and getting to know them, it just didn't feel right.

I enjoyed this book. It is different from what is flooding the market. I give it 3.5 stars.



About the author:

I was a Russian spy at the ripe age of thirteen, given my uncanny ability to tell if someone was lying ( I also read fortunes on the weekends). By sixteen I had become too much of a handful for the Lethal Intelligence Ensemble (L.I.E.). I was quickly exiled to the south of France where I worked with wayward elephants in the Circus of Roaming Animals and People (C.R.A.P.). I was able to make ends meet by selling my organs on the black market for pocket change and beer money. At the age of twenty three I decided to expand my horizons and become a blackjack dealer in Ireland. I loved the family atmosphere at Barney's Underground Liquor Lounge (B.U.L.L.). People couldn't resist the allure of Liquor up front and poker in the rear. Eventually I became tired of the rear and headed off to the United States to try my hand at tall tales. That is what brings us here today. If you have a moment I'd like to tell you a story. 
(This bio is not to be taken seriously under any circumstance.)

Teresa Mummert is an army wife and mother whose passion in life is writing. She is the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling novels White Trash Beautiful and Suicide Note. Born in Pennsylvania, she lived a small town life before following her husband's military career to Louisiana and Georgia. 




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Monday, June 3, 2013

A Glimpse Behind the Words featuring Forgiven by JB McGee and an AMAZING giveaway


Amazon link to purchase

About the book

Everyone has a past… good or bad, they are always there. They lurk and linger in the shadows, sometimes reappearing at the most inconvenient times.
Gabby and Bradley thought that their pasts would remain dormant, that happiness was theirs for the taking. Still the strongest of relationships can be rocked by the ugliness from a previous life, even if it seems to be a world away. The fact remains an ugly past is never distant. It taints everything it touches, drives permanent rifts between loved ones, and sometimes can ruin everything. Gabby and Bradley must find the only way to battle the past. Forgiveness becomes a light through the darkness, a guide for the lost, and hope for the hopeless. With forgiveness comes bright, new beginnings.




Getting to know the real JB McGee


Tell us 5 surprising things about yourself.
 1.  I really don’t like being outside unless I’m at the beach.  I love watching a beautiful day from the comforts of my home.  I hate bugs.  Maybe that’s why.  Which is really ironic since my second job was as a receptionist for a pest control business.
2.  My senior year of high school I attended night school and completed the course to sell real estate.  But I never took the state test to get my license.
3.  I took 10 years of tap, 4 years of ballet, and 1 year of jazz.  I’ve been involved in some form of arts and performing in some way since I was 5 years old.
4.  I hate scary movies…and snakes.  I can’t bear to watch either of them.  They give me nightmares.  Every. Single. Time.  My husband does like to watch both and finds my phobia cute and amusing.
5.  When I was 18 months old, I broke my arm, but my parents didn’t realize for a couple of weeks because I didn’t cry for very long when it happened and it didn’t look broken.  When they realized, the doctors had to re-break my arm.  I went into cardiac arrest.  I had to be resuscitated. 

There was a bit of a cover up.  My parents were told the reason was that I was allergic to Lidocaine.  However, when we got the records before I had my first child because we were concerned about my being numbed for my epidural, I was told it was either an accidental overdose, or the tourniquet had not been tightened enough and it got into my bloodstream.

We still don’t know the reason.  My mom has told me the story multiple times.  About how they were ushered out of the room as the doctors called a “code blue” and she watched me lifeless as she left the room.  I can’t imagine.  

 What does love feel like? 
Love is a stomach filled with butterflies flipping in every direction. 
Love is feeling every part of your body turning red. 
Love is your head feeling fuzzy and not being able to make coherent thoughts. 
Love is caring so deeply about another human being that you’d give your own life to save theirs. 
Love is not being able to imagine how you ever existed without the person in your life. 
Love is best described in 1 Corinthians 13.  ;)

Do you believe in love at first sight? 
I believe in lust at first sight.  I believe in knowing the moment you meet your soul mate that you will never be able to part with them.  I knew the moment I saw Chad (my husband) that I wanted more from him.  I knew within two weeks I loved him, that he was the one.  We were engaged in four months, and we’ve been married for almost 12 years.  It’s hard for me to wrap my head around it happening any faster than that in real life. 

What type of book have you always wanted to write? 
I want so badly to write a book that has a lot of sex in it because I know that people love that right now.  But it’s so hard for me to write just one sex scene.  It’s hard and exhausting for me to think about writing a bunch of them. 

I can’t wait to write a mystery.  Maybe it will be an erotic mystery.  That would be the ultimate challenge. 

Who is JB McGee?

J.B. McGee was born and raised in Aiken, South Carolina. After graduating from South Aiken High School, she toured Europe as a member of the 1999 International Bands of America Tour, playing the clarinet. While attending Converse College, an all girls school in Spartanburg, South Carolina, she visited Charleston often. It quickly became one of her favorite vacation spots. She met her husband, Chad, during Christmas break her freshman year, and they married in 2001. They moved back to her hometown. In 2005, the couple welcomed their first son, Noah. J.B. finished her Bachelor of Arts degree in Early Childhood Education at the University of South Carolina-Aiken in 2006. During her time studying children's literature, a professor had encouraged her to become a writer.
In 2007, she welcomed their second child, Jonah, and she became a stay at home mom/entrepreneur. In 2009, they found out their two children and J.B. have Mitochondrial Disease. In 2011, a diagnosis also was given to Chad. Please take a moment and learn more about Mitochondrial Disease. Awareness is key to this disease that has no cure or treatments.
J.B. McGee and her family now reside in Buford, Georgia, to be closer to their children's medical team. After a passion for reading had been re-ignited, J.B. decided to finally give writing a shot. Forgiven (This Series), is her fourth book and first series.
Please follow J.B. on Twitter and Facebook to get updates on what is coming in 2013.

Other Books by J.B. McGee

Broken (This #1) - Now Available
Mending (This #2) - Now Available
Conspiring (This #2.5) - Now Available 
Falling (This #3.5) - Coming Summer, 2013
Blinded (This #4) - Coming Fall, 2013
Nitro vs. Niko (A children’s story co-authored with McGee’s two sons, ages 6 and 8  - Coming Fall, 2013
Breathe and Count to Three (A children’s story) - Coming Winter, 2013


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My review of Forgiven

Once again, JB McGee has captivated my heart and entranced my mind with her writing. From the first pages of Broken when we felt Gabby's pain and indecisiveness, to the pages of Mending where Bradley worked to mend Gabby's heart, through Conspiring where we saw Veronica and Ian conspire against our Bradley and Gabby, and now into Forgiven where Bradley and Gabby muddle through and find themselves right where their hearts need to be...together, THIS series has held on to a standard of morals and principles that aren't commonly found in today's mix of love them and leave them. Forgiven shows us that everyone has a past and can be forgiven, promises made by young girls can be kept, and true love can conquer all! Bravo JB on a job well done! You've far surpassed my expectations and I can't wait to watch you grow even more.

Today's New Kid with a Book featuring Renee Ericson and a GIVEAWAY


After Tuesday Book Synopsis (released May 7th):


Family really is a pain…especially when your father is an addict.

For the last two years, high school senior Ruby has been her own rock and solace. She has learned to depend only on herself and hides her family's issues by keeping herself somewhat unnoticeable. Despite her isolation, Ruby has intrigued the affections of someone unexpected. She finds herself loving life once again as his persistence sparks a romance awakening a well-protected heart.

While Ruby’s relationship with her father is constantly teetering, her new-found affection continues to blossom into something more than she ever thought possible. Soon, Ruby comes to realize that opening up your heart means being susceptible to love and disappointment.

YA-M: This book contains mature content including profanity, drug/alcohol use, and sexual situations/language.

Bio:

Renee loves to wear hoodies, is fluent in Yoda speak, and likes to make videos with Lego figures. She is a long time insomniac, but doesn't have the energy to start an underground Fight Club so she settles for writing stories about the characters who plague her mind. She grew up in the Midwest and currently resides in the Boston area, but sounds nothing like Ben Affleck or Matt Damon.

Keep in touch with Renee:


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Saturday, June 1, 2013

New Kid with a Book featuring Megan Smith and a Giveaway!

Today's featured author is Megan Smith who wrote the amazing Trying Not to Love You!



MacKenzie Cahill has dealt with overbearing and overprotective brothers her entire life, making it near impossible to enjoy her teenage years. Having a boyfriend was practically impossible until she met a guy that wasn't afraid to stand up to them - Dominic. He was sweet, thoughtful, and everything MacKenzie ever wanted in a man.

But when they go away to college at Old Dominion University, MacKenzie sees a whole new side of Dominic and begins to wonder if he really is different from every other guy.

Her world is turned upside down after a party, and her brothers' best friend Hunter is the one there to offer her a shoulder to cry on. The chemistry between them is electric, and feelings for each other that have been hidden for years are finally voiced.

Is Hunter willing to be disloyal to his best friends in order to be with the one girl he's always secretly wanted?


Bio:
When Megan Smith is not writing she is a wife to her high school sweetheart and a mom to her son. She lives in the New Jersey. At the end of the day when she is done with work and being a mom, you can find her curled up with a good book or writing.

How to find Megan and keep in touch:



Megan has a second book in the works, Easy to Love You, scheduled to be released this fall.  Find it here on Goodreads.


Giveaway here!


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