blog tour

✍🏻 Have you met Will and Mel yet? A freshman virgin hero and an experienced intelligent senior heroine? Grab Andi Burns’s Scoring Chance, book 1 of the Bainbridge Hockey series. ✍🏻

professorromance

When our date ends in disaster, the last thing I expect is for Will to ask me for a favor. 

And what I really don’t expect is to say yes.

Scoring Chance, an all new stand alone hockey romance with a feisty heroine and a virgin hero from bestselling author Andi Burns is available now!

Will

Freshman year is going to be my year. 

I’m no longer the ugly duckling I used to be. Thanks to a late growth spurt and a nasty puck to the face that knocked my buck teeth right out of my head, I no longer resemble the awkward kid I once was. 

As Bainbridge Hockey’s newest center, I’m gonna enjoy every bit of attention the ladies of Bainbridge want to give me. 

But I soon find out that looking the part is only half the battle. And if I want to lose my virginity before I make it to the big leagues, I’m going to need to learn the fine art of dating. Or at least how to kiss without being compared to a dying jellyfish. So that means I need help. 

But they don’t make tutors for dating. Do they?

Mel

Senior year is off to a rough start. 

One of my best friends has moved on to grad school, and my other best friend spends all her free time with her boyfriend. 

And my boyfriend? Oh, he’s a lying, cheating jerk. I learned that the hard way when I caught him in bed with his wife.

Looking back, it’s clear that my ex lied about everything and I wasted almost a year of my life with him. Dating a professor wasn’t my smartest move, but I’m wiser now, and I’ve made a promise to myself: no more relationships. 

So when my friends surprise me at the charity bachelor auction and buy me a date with a hot young hockey player, I’m less than thrilled. I mean, he’s nice to look at, but I’m not in the market for anything more than a hookup. 

When our date ends in disaster, the last thing I expect is for Will to ask me for a favor. And what I really don’t expect is to say yes.

Start reading today!

Amazon: http://bit.ly/scoringchance

Amazon Worldwide: https://mybook.to/scoringchance

“Are you listening to a word I say?”  

I get my answer when Cammie starts clapping her hands together. “Oh my God, Mel. Who’s the tall guy?”

I don’t bother looking up from the counter I’m wiping down. “What do you mean, who’s the tall guy? They’re all tall. But the tallest one is Santos.” 

“This guy’s almost as tall. And he’s new. I’d definitely remember seeing him around. Holy crap, he’s beautiful.” 

I look up to see who the hell has Cammie so smitten and I spot our topic of conversation right away. Holy. Shit. She wasn’t kidding. This guy’s like a walking advertisement for sex. Yeah, Van’s known around campus as the hot one, and Ollie’s never short on admirers, but this guy’s on a whole different level. His broad shoulders taper to a narrow waist. His butt is a work of art. Soft, faded jeans hug his ass and thighs and dear god, I want to take a bite. What the hell is wrong with me? New Hot Guy looks up and I get a glimpse of his face. It does not disappoint. He’s got a strong jaw covered in a day’s worth of stubble. His nose is crooked–the sign of a good hockey player–and his eyes are a piercing blue, so dark they’re almost navy. His hair is cut short, but the top’s a little overgrown, the dark chocolate strands falling into his line of vision. It’s the lips for me, though. God, they’re unreal. Pouty and perfect and totally kissable.

“Uh, what the hell? I mean, I’m not complaining–trust me–but what the hell?”

“I know– I probably shouldn’t have kissed you like that, but I had a good reason.” 

He leans back against the wall and shrugs. “It’s the dimple, right?” he jokes, smiling. 

“It’s a hell of a dimple,”

Learn more about Andi Burns and her releases by visiting her website: 

https://www.andiburns.com

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Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: Jolie Vines’s Burn, the final book of her Dark Island Scots series ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Jolie Vines’s epic conclusion of her Dark Island Scots series, Burn, is like riding a way at the Mavericks: adrenaline-inducing and extreme. In fact, the entirety of this series has been a departure from her earlier books. She still calls on her brand: heroes who fall maddeningly in love with their heroines on sight, even heroes who would be more aptly considered anti-heroes, and heroines whose character qualities bloom under this love. The story is the driving force of a book such as Burn, and Vines offers a bonfire of an ending. Throughout the series, she has focused on the same common themes: the depravity of human trafficking and the corruption of the political system. Interestingly, it doesn’t matter whether you are a reader in the US or one in Vines’s native England; these themes feel global in the manner in which she presents them. Even though they are presented as a community evil in Scotland, it’s felt in any country. The foundation of the books in her Dark Island Scots series does two things: 1) it entices the reader into the entirety of the series because you must read the first book to the last one to find its conclusion, and 2) it drives the reader forward more than character development. Honestly, her characters don’t change much throughout the series. Instead, their situations change. That’s the meat on the bone of this series. It keeps you engaged and is a wise authorial choice for Vines. 

There is an ultimate intrigue in a story such as Burn: what is considered heroic? It’s one of my favorite questions for a dark romance because a character such as Jamieson is complicated as he commits murder and engages in arson. How can a character such as he be absolved of these crimes? Well, the answer is simple: in the same way that Batman does. When it’s done in the name of justice or to right a wrong, it makes it easier for the reader to accept, and Vines writes this truth well in Burn. 

Just as Vines does with the first three books of her Dark Island Scots series, there is plenty of spice to entice, but, for me, the draw for a book such as Burn is the plotline and its intricacies. Thankfully, she gifts us the perfect ending to a series wrought with turmoil and injustice. In the end, the bad guys get what is coming to them. And it’s exactly as it should be: a huge wipeout of justice.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release

✍🏻 My friend, Andi Burns, has a new story for you. Scoring Chance is LIVE! Grab this first book of her Bainbridge U Hockey series. ✍🏻

professorromance

When our date ends in disaster, the last thing I expect is for Will to ask me for a favor. 

And what I really don’t expect is to say yes.

Scoring Chance, an all new stand alone hockey romance with a feisty heroine and a virgin hero from Bestselling author Andi Burns is available now!

Will

Freshman year is going to be my year. 

I’m no longer the ugly duckling I used to be. Thanks to a late growth spurt and a nasty puck to the face that knocked my buck teeth right out of my head, I no longer resemble the awkward kid I once was. 

As Bainbridge Hockey’s newest center, I’m gonna enjoy every bit of attention the ladies of Bainbridge want to give me. 

But I soon find out that looking the part is only half the battle. And if I want to lose my virginity before I make it to the big leagues, I’m going to need to learn the fine art of dating. Or at least how to kiss without being compared to a dying jellyfish. So that means I need help. 

But they don’t make tutors for dating. Do they?

Mel

Senior year is off to a rough start. 

One of my best friends has moved on to grad school, and my other best friend spends all her free time with her boyfriend. 

And my boyfriend? Oh, he’s a lying, cheating jerk. I learned that the hard way when I caught him in bed with his wife.

Looking back, it’s clear that my ex lied about everything and I wasted almost a year of my life with him. Dating a professor wasn’t my smartest move, but I’m wiser now, and I’ve made a promise to myself: no more relationships. 

So when my friends surprise me at the charity bachelor auction and buy me a date with a hot young hockey player, I’m less than thrilled. I mean, he’s nice to look at, but I’m not in the market for anything more than a hookup. 

When our date ends in disaster, the last thing I expect is for Will to ask me for a favor. And what I really don’t expect is to say yes.

Start reading today!

Amazon: http://bit.ly/scoringchance

Amazon Worldwide: https://mybook.to/scoringchance

Learn more about Andi Burns and her releases by visiting her website: 

https://www.andiburns.com

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 5 ⭐️ Review: Kristen Ashley’s The Girl in the Woods, book 2 of her Misted Pines series ✍🏻

professorromance

Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: romantic thriller; small town romance; insta-attraction; divorced FMC and MMC; over 40 MMC

This review will begin in a strange way. Kristen Ashley gifted me a beautiful gift box complete with a paperback copy of The Girl in the Woods. I adore my therapist, and she and I share a love for KA, so I gave her the paperback. She read the book before me and shared some initial insights. For one, The Girl in the Woods hosts the POV of the MMC, something that is different for KA. It isn’t as though we never receive the story through the POV of her male characters, but it’s fairly rare. However, TGITW is predominately (Cin’s POV shows up in the last chapter) from the perspective of Rus (Zachariah Lazarus). For my therapist, it made the storytelling strange. However, I loved KA’s insistence on presenting this story through the scope of Rus’s voice. That’s intentional in that it infuses a feminist perspective through a male’s voice. It gifts readers with a man who is intentional in his acceptance and admiration for women in power. To a certain degree, the typical roles of a KA story have been flipped. To be fair, Rus is still decidedly masculine and virile, just as her other MMCs have been. However, Cin takes up the alpha space of the story. She’s intelligent, emotionally insightful, and she knows herself. She’s a great mother and a better boss. She acknowledges her agency and can go toe to toe with any man in the story. And they know it. Because she knows herself, she challenges Rus to be a better version of himself. For example, she points to the error in his thinking about his past marriage. She connects him to a new version, one grounded in a better truth. Even though this book comes through the POV of Rus, it is distinctly pro-woman and very much Kristen Ashley. The Girl in the Woods illustrates KA’s capacity for telling compelling stories that diverge from her usual. 

What captured me beyond the pro-woman perspective, though, is the thriller storyline. KA’s stories are hefty; they are a complete meal with an appetizer, main course, and decadent dessert. It’s usual for her stories to hit 400 to 500 pages. This one, for example, is 432 pages of pure engaging entertainment. I couldn’t put it down, and it was mostly due to the way that KA paced her thriller. There are early revelations of the culprits of crime, but the big fish of her story is a late-in-the-story reveal that turns your head. I wouldn’t say it was ultra-surprising, but it was a bit of a shock. For me, The Girl in the Woods was pure titillation. 

Lastly, I also loved the friendships developed over the course of the book. Since this is the second book in KA’s Misted Pines series, everyone from book 1, The Girl in the Mist, is present, and KA treats us to their future selves. The bromance between Rus, Sheriff Moran, and Cade Bohannan feels as essential as Cin’s relationship with her daughter. These characters add depth to Rus’s story and showcase his growing need for a place in Misted Pines.

I hope we return to Kristen Ashley’s fictionally messed up small town in the future. I absolutely need stories for several of the characters from The Girl in the Woods (I see you Jase, Jesse, Moran, Kleo…), but I will always trust KA’s muse to lead us to the right stories. Much like the whispering ghost of the epic movie, Field of Dreams, “if [she] builds it [I] will come.”

In love and romance,

Professor A

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: Stacy Travis’s He’s A Charmer ✍🏻

professorromance

Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes: forced proximity; best friend’s sister; soccer romance; sports romance; long distance

I had the pleasure of beta-reading Stacy Travis’s He’s A Charmer. To read a book from a rough draft to a final draft is a special distinction. Noting keen changes that help the book bloom makes me excited. And this is definitely the case with Travis’s next book in her San Francisco Strikers series. 

I love a forced proximity story. In this book, this is created when Linnie, the story’s FMC, finds herself snowed in with her brother’s best friend, Weston. From the minute they meet, Travis has crafted a distinctive and slow-burning chemistry. Weston is struck by the beauty of Linnie’s eyes, while Linnie finds herself attracted to Weston’s professional athlete physique. Travis deftly draws out their attraction, building it to an incendiary fire. When they can no longer avoid each other, Travis creates fireworks in the bedroom for her couple. Unfortunately, this is short-lived, yet Travis carefully draws them back together, gifting her readers with a sweet ending. 

With the pacing on point, character development is also important. Linnie struggles with wanting to be more than just a pretty face as well as her strained relationship with her father (much like her brother, Tim). She wants her father to see her capacity as an individual, not her weakness as a woman. Weston struggles with people leaving him behind, so the fact that Linnie lives in London makes it difficult for him to consider anything with her. Due to being snowed in, Linnie and Weston must confront their feelings about these issues. Their vulnerability to each other adds dimension to their physical attraction, deepening their character development and the storyline. You must be patient with Travis’s He’s A Charmer because this is a slow burn that seems necessary for Linnie’s and Weston’s journeys.

Unlike the other books in this series, Travis’s ancillary characters play small parts in the story. Tim and Mary, Linnie’s siblings, offer moments of wisdom to help her make decisions about her future, but they are fairly silent for much of the book. Instead, Weston and Linnie grow closer with each turn of the page. Their banter and survival tasks create the excitement of the story.

Stacy Travis ends He’s A Charmer with the promise of more stories in a new series. I hope Mary gets a story because her situation is long-suffering. If you’re looking for sport in this romance, you won’t find it. Instead, you’ll fall in love with a couple thrust together in a difficult situation, finding out that true love will find you when you least expect it.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release

✍🏻 Happy Release Day for Kristen Ashley! The Girl in the Woods is LIVE!!✍🏻

professorromance

Do you love…

💙 an MMC who looks like Henry Cavill and has the character qualities of Clark Kent

💙 an FMC who is a boss bitch with a FABULOUS wardrobe and home

💙 a twisty, turny story of romantic suspense

💙 a quirky small town that acts as the backdrop of the story

If so, RUN! Grab A Girl in the Woods TODAY! I finished it this morning because I couldn’t put it down.

This body would be the last for Zachariah Lazarus…

The Crystal Killer’s latest casualty was discovered in a sleepy town in the Pacific Northwest, Misted Pines.

His years in the FBI, and tracking the Crystal Killer, have taken their toll on Rus. He lost his marriage to the job. And the burdens he carries for the victims were crushing him.

Misted Pines has recently survived a killer’s rampage and a town scandal that made global news. The media was primed to devour a new story. So Rus already has his work cut out for him.

But it’s more.

Something is just not right with this latest victim.

As Rus works with the local sheriff to unravel the mystery, the victim’s employer, Lucinda Bonner, decides she’s going to do everything she can to help.

To help Rus find the killer. To help Rus survive the hunt. To help Rus navigate the intricate, and sometimes sordid, history of the town of Misted Pines.

And to help Rus let go of his burdens.

Grab your copy of THE GIRL IN THE WOODS!

The Girl in the Woods
Cover Reveal

✍🏻 Who’s ready for more from Adriana Locke’s Carmichael clan? Check out the cover for Fluke, and preorder your copy now. ✍🏻

professorromance

FLUKE BY ADRIANA LOCKE

Release Date: April 10th

Genre/Tropes: Fake ex-husband / Blue Collar/Silver Spoon / Small Town Romance

CHECK OUT THIS SEDUCTIVE COVER!!

Fluke by USA Today bestselling author Adriana Locke is coming April 10th!

Pre-order this fake ex-husband, small-town romance TODAY!

https://amzn.to/3FCU3Uj

Add to Goodreads

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61946841-fluke

Blurb:

SEEKING AN EX-HUSBAND

I need a fake ex-husband.

Let me explain …

I may have let it slip to my new co-workers that I have an ex-husband. Now they’re fascinated with the details, specifically with him.

Why wouldn’t they be? He’s gorgeous, has exceptional skills in the bedroom, and is determined to win me back.

But there’s a problem. He doesn’t exist.

The bigger problem? I have to produce him to save my job.

This is where you come in.

I’m seeking someone to play a smitten ex-husband for two weeks. You’ll need to remember our love story—details matter when it comes to romance! Please be prepared to travel in-state at a moment’s notice. We may be in close proximity and sharing a bed may be required.

One more thing—kisses are required for optics as necessary.

If this sounds interesting or, at the very least, entertaining, let me know.

Signed,

Your Future Ex-Wife

Buckle up for a steamy adventure between friends-turned-lovers in this new “fresh twist on a favorite trope!” take on fake dating, close proximity, and romance in the workplace from USA Today Bestselling author Adriana Locke.

About the Author:

USA Today Bestselling author, Adriana Locke, writes contemporary romances about the two things she knows best—big families and small towns. Her stories are about ordinary people finding extraordinary love with the perfect combination of heart, heat, and humor.

She loves connecting with readers, fall weather, football, reading alpha heroes, everything pumpkin, and pretending to garden.

Hailing from a tiny town in the Midwest, Adriana spends her free time with her high school sweetheart (who she married over twenty-five years ago) and their four sons (who truly are her best work). Her kitchen may be a perpetual disaster, and if all else fails, there is always pizza.

Learn more at adrianalocke.com.

Connect w/Adriana:

Website: https://adrianalocke.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authoradrianalocke

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/booksbyadrianalocke

Twitter: https://twitter.com/authoralocke

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authoradrianalocke

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8379774.Adriana_Locke

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3ivy7xd

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/adriana-locke

Newsletter Signup: http://bit.ly/NewsletterAddy

Cover Reveal

✍🏻 Hunk alert! Check out the cover for Carrie Ann Ryan’s Best Friend Temptation, coming October 30th! ✍🏻

professorromance
Title: Best Friend Temptation
Series: Montgomery Ink Legacy #4
Author: Carrie Ann Ryan
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Cover Design: Sweet N Spicy
Photographer: Wander Aguiar
Release Date: October 30, 2023
BLURB
The Montgomery Ink Legacy series continues with a forbidden romance between two best friends and the woman they both crave. Ford, Noah, and Greer aren’t ready for what happens next.
I fell for my best friend long before I knew what that meant. Only I know he’ll never love me back.
He’s stuck in his head and his past demons and can’t see what is right in front of him.
But when Greer loses her home and needs a place to stay, both Noah and I know the only place she belongs is with us—in every way possible.
Now I’m falling for both of my roommates and trying to keep the people I protect safe.
Only someone is coming for them, and I can’t stop the inevitable fall.
I just have to hope that we made the right choices and that one day soon Noah and Greer will finally see who we can be.
Before we lose it all…or I finally walk away for good.

PRE-ORDER LINKS

AMAZON / B&N / KOBO
APPLE BOOKS / PAPERBACK
ALSO COMING SOON IN A
SPECIAL EDITION PAPERBACK
AVAILABLE NOW
AMAZON / B&N / KOBO
APPLE BOOKS / GOOGLE PLAY
AUDIBLE / AMAZON AUDIO
PAPERBACK / SPECIAL EDITION
AMAZON / B&N / KOBO
APPLE BOOKS / GOOGLE PLAY
AUDIBLE / AMAZON AUDIO
PAPERBACK / SPECIAL EDITION
AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU
PAPERBACK
COMING SOON
Releasing July 3
AMAZON / B&N / KOBO
APPLE BOOKS / PAPERBACK
Releasing March 4
AMAZON / B&N
KOBO / APPLE BOOKS
AUTHOR BIO
Carrie Ann Ryan is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of contemporary, paranormal, and young adult romance. Her works include the Montgomery Ink, Talon Pack, Promise Me, and Elements of Five series, which have sold millions of books worldwide. She’s the winner of a RT Book of the Year and a Prism Award in her genres. She started writing while in graduate school for her advanced degree in chemistry and hasn’t stopped since. Carrie Ann has written over one hundred novels and novellas with more in the works. When she’s not losing herself in her emotional and action-packed worlds, she’s reading as much as she can while wrangling her clowder of cats who have more followers than she does.
AUTHOR LINKS
Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: Parker S. Huntington and L.J. Shen’s My Dark Romeo ✍🏻

professorromance

Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes: marriage of inconvenience; enemies to lovers; billionaire hero; intelligent, insightful heroine

I picked up My Dark Romeo by L.J. Shen and Parker S. Huntington the night before release day. I want to be honest. I’m a huge Parker S. Huntington fan, and I’m on the fence about L.J. Shen. As I read the “Prologue” and “Chapter 1”, something interesting occurred. First the first time in a bit, I didn’t want to put My Dark Romeo down. I was hooked from almost the first page. Let me tell you all the ways “why” you should read this story and tell you a couple of things that didn’t feel necessary to the story.

The positives

  1. I’m a fan of romances where the hero is an alpha-hole. I would NEVER want to date this kind of man in the real world. I’d tell him to take a long walk off a short pier. However, in a romance, they provide the perfect set-up for a chemistry between the hero and heroine that is off the charts. And this is entirely true of My Dark Romeo. Romeo is a staid, unemotional, and unapologetic jerk. He doesn’t think highly of Dallas. In fact, he has no problem telling her his thoughts about her lack of work ethic or his perception of her intelligence. Obviously, given that he wears blinders about people, he heartily misses his understanding of her. That’s where the magic lies for this romance. This means, at some point, he will be schooled, and how he responds will melt the heart of the reader. Shen and Huntington take their time in getting to this point. Even then, there is no apology or huge emotional revelation. Before this moment, he feels deeply attracted to her and fights it for much of the story. It’s what made me fall in love with this book because the banter and the chemistry are continuously on the verge of combustion. It’s what keeps you engrossed in the story. I did nothing on release day except read this book. That’s it. There were only breaks to eat and care for pets because I HAD to know how Romeo would fall for Dallas. And he falls…HARD.
  2. This is Shen and Huntington’s version of a rom-com. It’s funny. Not over the top, goofy rom-com. But Dallas and Romeo’s journey has moments of hilarity. I found myself chuckling every time Dallas did her thing and Romeo became annoyed. It’s the foreplay of their relationship, making you chuckle.
  3. Romeo’s journey reminds us that past trauma resides beneath a hard heart and cold exterior. Romeo wasn’t born an alpha-hole; he was fashioned into one by horrible parenting and traumatic experiences. 
  4. The band of brothers’ friendship between Romeo, Zach, and Oliver “Ollie” does two things: it adds another layer of funny to the story and sets up future stories in this new world from Shen and Huntington. I’m not sure whose story I want more.

The negatives

  1. Romeo’s past revelation comes VERY late in the story, and for me, it felt like a quick add-on. It was barely hinted at, and its integration didn’t seem totally organic. I liked it because it explains how he lives his life, but the timing seemed off.
  2. People will think My Dark Romeo is an allusion to “Romeo and Juliet”. The epigraph even suggests it, but this book actually has heavy Beauty and the Beast allusions. There’s a rose, a heroine who loves books more than anything in life, and a beast of a hero. It’s also a bit on the nose. I’m waiting for the day when we don’t need to rely on fairytales to tell romance stories. I didn’t think Shen and Hungtington needed that allusion to tell this one.

I seriously enjoyed My Dark Romeo. From the cover to the writing, except for a few things, I hated for it to end. I will always love stories about a difficult, emotionally unavailable hero and a heroine who brings him to his knees. And L.J. Shen and Parker S. Huntington did that well. 

In love and romance,


Professor A

blog tour

✍🏻 Have you grabbed L.J. Shen and Parker S. Huntington’s My Dark Romeo? I GOBBLED this story. ✍🏻

professorromance

My fairy tale turned into a cautionary one.

Inked in tar and sealed in tears.

My Dark Romeo, an all-new marriage of inconvenience, enemies to lovers, standalone romance from Wall Street Journal bestselling authors L.J. Shen and Parker S. Huntington is available now!

From Wall Street Journal bestsellers L.J. Shen and Parker S. Huntington comes an explosive marriage of inconvenience…between a tarnished Romeo and a reluctant Juliet.

It was supposed to be a harmless kiss at a lavish debutante ball.

A clandestine moment with a handsome stranger.

But unlike his namesake, my Romeo isn’t driven by love.

He’s fueled by revenge.

To him, I’m a chess piece. Leverage.

His rival’s betrothed.

To me, he is a man deserving of poison.

A dark prince I refuse to marry.

He thinks I’ll accept my fate.

Well, I plan to rewrite it.

And in my story, Juliet doesn’t die.

But Romeo? He perishes.

Start reading today!

Amazon: http://bit.ly/mydarkromeo

Amazon Worldwide: https://mybook.to/mydarkromeo

I hadn’t come here to find a husband. 

Before my birth, Daddy had already promised me to someone, which the diamond ring on my engagement finger reminded me. 

This always seemed like a problem for the future—up until I discovered the official announcement on the society pages two days ago. “I hear Romeo is dead-set on becoming the CEO of his daddy’s company.” Lord, Sav was still droning on about him. Were they planning on penning the man’s Wikipedia? “Already, he’s a billionaire.”

“Not just a billionaire. A mega billionaire.” Emilie fingered a marquise diamond on her Broderie bracelet, her poker tell. “And he’s not the type to blow it all on yachts and gold toilet seats or funding self-indulged pet projects.”

Sav snuck a desperate glance at them through her compact mirror. “Do you think we can be introduced?”

Emilie’s eyebrows pinched together. “Nobody here knows them. Dal? Dallas? Are you even listening to the conversation? This is important.”

The only grave situation I’d witnessed was the lack of shortbread, too. 

Reluctantly, I fixed my eyes on the two men that parted the thick crowd of silk chiffon and frozen updos. 

They both stood at least six-three. A towering height that made them look like giants trying to squeeze into doll houses. 

Then again, nothing about them was conventional. 

Their similarities ended with their height. Everything else was arctic opposites.

One was silk and the other leather. 

If I had to guess, the live-action Ken clone was von Bismarck. Dirty-blond, square-jawed, and adorned with shabby whiskers of stubble, he looked like something only a Walt Disney illustrator could sketch. 

The perfect European prince, down to the scandalous blue eyes and Roman-like structure. 

Silk. 

The other man was a polished savage. Menace decanted into a Kiton suit. 

He wore his inky hair in a gentleman’s cut, trimmed into submission. Everything about him seemed carefully crafted. Intentionally designed to deliver lethal doses straight into a woman’s bloodstream. Sharp cheekbones, thick brows, lashes I’d risk jail time for, and the frostiest gray eyes I’d seen to date. In fact, his eyes were so light and frosty, I decided they had no business coupling with his otherwise tan Italian features.

 Leather. 

“Romeo Costa.” Savannah’s voice curled with longing as he breezed right past us, heading toward the table reserved for VIPs. “I would let him ruin me as thoroughly and impressively as Elon Musk destroyed Twitter.”

For more information on L.J. Shen’s books visit her website: 

https://www.authorljshen.com

For more information on Parker S. Huntington’s books visit her website: 

https://www.parkershuntington.com/