Penelope Ward is a New York Times, USA Today and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of contemporary romance.
She grew up in Boston with five older brothers and spent most of her twenties as a
television news anchor. Penelope resides in Rhode Island with her husband, son,
and beautiful daughter with autism.
With over two million books sold, she is a 21-time New York Times bestseller and the author of over twenty novels. Her books have been translated into over a dozen
languages and can be found in bookstores around the world.
Dead Man Walking, an all addictive dark MC romance from Wall Street Journal bestselling author Giana Darling, is available now!
A killer. A criminal. A psychopath.
The Irish enforcer for The Fallen Men MC is everything good girls are taught to stay away from.
Only, I found myself inexorably drawn into his dark gravitational pull. I wanted to know what it would be like to walk beside the human personification of Death and hold his hand, feel his kiss, and maybe even earn his undying love.
But Priest McKenna is older, cold as ice, and notoriously unfeeling.
So what are the odds that a dead man walking would come to life for little, insignificant me?
When a serial killer begins to target the women of Entrance, BC, and The Fallen suffers another terrible blow, Priest resolves to hunt down the killer himself.
And when the murderer sets his eyes on me?
My very own psychopath steps between me and certain death, thrusting us into an intimacy I prayed we would never recover from.
About Giana Giana Darling is a USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Top 40 Amazon bestselling Canadian romance author who specializes in the taboo and angsty side of love and romance. She currently lives in beautiful British Columbia where she spends time riding on the back of her man’s bike, baking pies, and reading snuggled up with her cat Persephone.
These best selling romance authors have graciously donated all new stories for this collection:
Willow Winters, K.A. Linde, Skye Warren, Carrie Ann Ryan, Author Nikki Ash, Jennifer Bene, Marni Mann, Melanie Harlow & Corinne Michaels, Amelia Wilde, Livia Grant, Tia Louise, Jenna Hartley, Aleatha Romig, Dylan Allen, Nana Malone, Harloe Rae, and J.D. Hollyfield!
100% of the profits from this anthology will be given to the Live A Thousand Lives charity.
Live A Thousand Lives is a nonprofit dedicated to making audiobooks more accessible to individuals with low to no mobility. To that end, Live A Thousand Lives provides audio players preloaded with classic stories to individuals in hospitals, care centers, and nursing facilities.
For every ONE Romance Audio player purchased (loaded with 17 romance novels!), Live A Thousand Lives is able to donate TWO Classic Fiction audio players. These simple-function, easy-to-use players help open a world of books to readers with physical disabilities that prevent them from enjoying traditional books. Your love of books could help bring audiobooks to TWO book lovers with low mobility or physical handicap that keeps them from enjoying traditional books.
There’s no better feeling than those little butterflies at the end of a romance story. Top Shelf Romance is proud to present a collection of happily ever afters in collaboration with a cause dedicated to providing stories for those in need.
100% of the profits from this anthology will be given to the Live A Thousand Lives charity.
These best selling romance authors have graciously donated their stories for this collection:
Willow Winters, K.A. Linde, Skye Warren, Carrie Ann Ryan, Author Nikki Ash, Jennifer Bene, Marni Mann, Melanie Harlow & Corinne Michaels, Amelia Wilde, Livia Grant, Tia Louise, Jenna Hartley, Aleatha Romig, Dylan Allen, Nana Malone, Harloe Rae, and J.D. Hollyfield!
Blurb: It started with one night out with the boys.
She was the hot diner waitress putting herself through school.
I was the rich, arrogant player everyone misjudges.
On paper we didn’t match.
Yet all it took was one day. One single day to change her mind.
She wasn’t planning to spend her day off with me.
She wasn’t supposed to fall for my charm.
But one day, one smile, turned into several nights of her calling out my name.
I’m not the guy she should end up with. I’m jealous, possessive. Not here for a long time – just a good time.
She’s changed me.
But, for some reason, I feel her slipping through my fingers and no matter what I do, I fear I’m going to strike out with the one and only girl I’ve ever fallen for.
About Meghan Quinn: USA Today Bestselling Author, wife, adoptive mother, and peanut butter lover. Author of romantic comedies and contemporary romance, Meghan Quinn brings readers the perfect combination of heart, humor, and heat in every book.
Two years ago, December 2018, I began Professor Romance. I had been reading romance for about six months, and I loved the person it allowed me to be. I am a college writing professor (to be fair, an adjunct lecturer – but by academic definitions, a professor) who earned her Master’s degree in English Literature and Languages. I was tired from teaching 100 -125 students a semester and reading their writing for over a decade. Some of those essays are inspired, while most are not. Needless to say, I was a traveler in a dry, dry desert, and romance provided some hydration. I could get lost in stories, and they kept me from the hyper thinking of my brain and the overwhelming nature of my job.
When I began Professor Romance, I did it because, for the first time since I had graduated, I had opinions about books that weren’t intended to improve them. I enjoyed most of them, and I could write (something else I had been missing) about them. I also thought, that given my background, I could elevate reviews. No disrespect, but the generic reviews that talked to the steam of a book or the ones who couldn’t “get into” a book based on its believability to reality just didn’t work for me. And so I started my journey…
Over the course of my travels, I have realized that I have a voice. And with that voice comes a bit of responsibility. This past week, people have aired their hurts and some have responded in like. Others have wanted to silence those voices because “the readers don’t need to be involved.” The problem is…the readers ARE involved. As a blogger with a small following, I haven’t received ARCs, probably for having a smaller following, and we are never really told “why” beyond “there were just too many requests.” Interestingly enough, this is for a select few authors. Most of the authors I read have offered me an ARC. But there are a few who are controlling of that (or their PR group is), and that creates a community that doesn’t feel equal.
One of my favorite authors doesn’t provide ARCs for intentional reasons: ARC readers forget to fill out a sign-up form, they have “leaked” spoilers so they’ve lost the trust of that author who wants to protect plot points, or they’ve been downright bullish towards her. For me, those are fair reasons. If you sign up for an ARC through her team or PR representative, and you haven’t broken those rules, you receive an ARC. You know the reasons if you don’t receive one.
Yet, there is another author who, I suspect, uses it like it’s a popularity contest. This type of behavior is the cause of issues in the romance community. This is where readers are influenced by the problems outlined over the course of the past week. From this author, I received ARCs for four books. I wrote impressive reviews, all positive (if I do say so myself), and I posted them on or before the release date. I also filled out my requisite forms post-review showing my links. And suddenly, I stopped receiving ARCs. No explanation. I have since stopped signing up for them because losing out on ARCs after you’ve been involved in reading and reviewing them for a particular author doesn’t make you, a READER, feel good about yourself. I liken it to the centuries-old drama of not getting picked for a team. So I’ve signed up for promos instead, taking the drama out of my life. Honestly, I thought it was just me being sensitive, but I’ve realized that I’m not alone.
Most of the writers I read and review for are some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. They are incredibly complimentary of my reviews. I have slowly but surely grown my WordPress blog, my FB page, my FB group, and my Instagram account. Over the course of the two years, I’ve journeyed on this trail, I’ve embraced it. I’ve tried to push myself. I’ve created more book edits even though my reviews are still my favorite thing to do with my blog. I know that visual representations of a book are popular, but my words have always been my life, so I stick to that. I am not a popular blogger. I have some people who know me, but I’m still growing…
Why write this?
Because I’ve given a lot of time and energy to this “hobby.” On any given day, I spend at minimum an hour a day setting promos for authors. Most days, I spend hours reading books, and on other days, I spend time writing thoughtful reviews so that the authors I love find readers and so readers know where to spend their money. Ninety-nine percent of the authors who I promo and write reviews for acknowledge my efforts through likes, views, and comments. And honestly, that is good enough for me.
Because all is not right in the world of romancelandia when it should be because it is founded in telling stories about love overcoming obstacles and it’s predominately women positive. There should be seats at the table for EVERYONE, and anyone who wants to exclude people from that table should be brought to task.
Because those of you who have supported me deserve to know that most of the authors are amazing people.
Because there are some NOT great people who have actually affected readers out of some pursuit of who knows what.
Because I will never stop moving forward, seeking out good books, and challenging myself and readers to read better, read more, and read all.
I have been excluded from this community through the process of ARC distribution which seems minute in contrast to the claims of others in the community. I have not actively been bullied by readers who disagree with me. However, the little bit of exclusion I’ve felt has made me feel, for lack of a better word, icky about myself. And this means we have to do better. This seems so ridiculous in the grand scheme of life where people’s lives are in danger of death by race, culture, socio-economic, gender issues. Yet, it still a microcosm of our world, and this community should do better.
Since it’s days before Christmas, after today, I’m taking a quick break, promoting a little bit if necessary. Also, if you’re looking for a best reads of 2020 from this blog, you won’t ever find it. There is still so much I have yet to read, and it feels reductive and exclusionary to have a list such as that.
Authors, if I read books for you this year, then you know how I feel about your books. My reviews are clear.
If you are a reader such as me looking for recommendations, you can check out my blog at https://professorromance.blog where I post my reviews (or my GoodReads or Amazon profile).
I hope everyone has a blessed Christmas, and we stay focused on the things that matter the most: family and friends and staying healthy.
Have you met JR and Hope yet? Tia Louise’s newest book gives you the hope you need right now in our world. Run and grab this one FAST! The low release price will go away soon.
A single dad with a grudge. A girl with a dream. Love is not on the agenda…
⭐Get it Now:
Amazon (all): https://geni.us/TMITamz
Audio: https://geni.us/TMITaudio*Free in Kindle Unlimited.
BLURB
A smart and sexy romance about a grumpy single dad on a mission of revenge, and the girl he can’t leave behind by USA Today bestselling author Tia Louise.
Hope
I blame the alcohol. I lost my restaurant business, was forced to sell my dad’s cherished 1967 Chevy Impala, and I got a little drunk. Now I’m waking up with the hottest, angriest guy I’ve ever seen, speeding down the highway like a bat out of hell. Ice-blue eyes hit mine with stomach-clenching force… and he swerves onto the shoulder, ready to kick me out. Needless to say, our romance doesn’t start out sweet.
J.R.
Two years ago, I hugged my little boy goodbye and told him I’d be right back. Next thing I knew, I was arrested and sent to prison for a crime I didn’t commit. Until they let me out early…
Now I’m headed home to confront the man who put me away. A lie put me behind bars, and I’m ready to find the truth. I don’t have time for a sexy girl with pale blonde hair and bright blue eyes stowed away on the backseat of my new car. My mission is to get my son back and clear my name. Love is not on the agenda. It never is, though, is it?
(THIS MUCH IS TRUE is a single-dad, opposites attract, STAND-ALONE romance. No cheating. No cliffhangers.)
He’s the leader of the mountain rescue service. She might just need saving.
Lochie
For too long, I’ve been alone. Just me and my daughter. Keeping her safe is everything, so taking a job in the remote Scottish Highlands suits us fine.
I shouldn’t need anything more.
Yet I’m beyond distracted by a lass.
Smart, beautiful, and living right next door, Cait McRae makes it clear she’s not interested.
Every sly glance tells another story.
It’s all I can do not to throw her over my shoulder and take her home.
Cait might claim she only wants to explore the physical, but I know she’s wrong.
She’s mine.
If the people pursuing us both don’t destroy what we’ve found.
Cait
I always knew I was different. No one ever caught my eye.
Until a huge, scowling man moves in next door. He’s the new head of the mountain rescue service, and a single dad to a sweet little girl.
Turns out, I’m a late bloomer, as all I can think about is Lochie.
But someone else wants me.
A series of strange events point to one conclusion. I have a stalker, and the danger I’m in is only just starting.
—
The Wild Mountain Scots series follows on from the Wild Scots series with more of your favourite McRaes. Meet the brooding, tough, protective men of the mountain rescue and the beautiful women who tame their hearts.
—
Preorder Obsessed now! Live January 28th, 2021.
(Preorder bonus – the launch day version of this book will include a bonus epilogue. This will be later available to newsletter subscribers.)
Adriana Locke’s The Relationship Pact is a decisive exclamation point to the Kings of Football series, started with Ilsa Madden-Mills’s The Revenge Pact and developed further by Meghan Quinn’s The Romantic Pact. Each of these stories has its own voice, but there is this connecting thread of family, created through the bonds of friendship and football. Locke’s book, however, takes that idea further through the development of her hero, Hollis Hudson. I had fallen deeply in love with River from The Revenge Pact, and my heart ballooned with Crew in The Romantic Pact, but Hollis stole my heart completely. The Relationship Pact reminds readers that finding our family, whether it is biological or constructed, can heal the wounds of our past. That when we allow ourselves to be loved fully, we can find a sense of belonging that help us overcome the struggles of life. The profundity of Locke’s story feels important, especially today.
Why should you read The Relationship Pact?
*First of all, you should know that it doesn’t take much to make me tear up or cry when reading stories. I am in touch with my feelings, and I’m easily manipulated by authors. One way to get me to cry: write a hero who has been abandoned multiple times in his life. Give him an affable and playboy-esque exterior to hide his vulnerabilities and brokenness, along with a habit of deflection. When I encounter a hero like this, I’m done. Stick a fork in me because my heart bleeds for this type of hero, and Adriana Locke has deftly crafted this type of hero in Hollis. I knew after the first five chapters that I 1) would not want to put this story down EVEN though I have end of semester grades due and 2) I would cry. And, of course, both of those happen. There is really nothing better than a broken hero to make reading a romance an emotional experience, and Locke easily connects you to Hollis’s story.
*Of course, you need a heroine such as Larissa “Riss” for a hero such a Hollis. She must be empathic, thoughtful, kind, light to his dark, and tenacious. In her pursuit of exposing his wounds and wanting to heal them, the emotional gravitas of their journey develops and burgeons into love. That becomes the beauty of the story of a broken hero healed by the powers of love.
*The chemistry between Larissa and Hollis is both sensual and friendly. I think some of my favorite moments from this book lie in how he is comforted through physical connection with her. Locke shows us how chemistry can be both familiar and fiery, and you ache for their happy ending as they struggle against their feelings for each other.
*The inclusion of River and Crew into this story illustrates Locke’s capacity for world-building. In fact, of the three books, Locke’s is most wise in connecting to her larger universe of romances. You will find familiar Locke characters in this story, and it’s an opportunity for you to connect with her newest series of the Mason family. However, River’s compassion and wisdom that make you fall for him in The Revenge Pact rings clear in The Relationship Pact. This is missing in Meghan Quinn’s story, and I love how Locke intuits the need for it in this finale to the trilogy of standalones.
I am always worried when three separate authors create a moment in romancelandia. Will I love all three stories, or will one read stronger than others? With the Kings of Football series, all of our favorite authors found equal footing, creating these profound sports romances that steal your heart. Adriana Locke’s The Relationship Pact isn’t an addendum or a final; it’s an opportunity to remind us that there are people with intense hurts who simply need love. This is a prevailing theme in romance right now, and it’s an admonishment that the more love we pour into this world, into people, the easier it is to heal their hurts.
Colleen Hoover Introduces a Scene from her New Paranormal Romance Layla!
This month bestselling author Colleen Hoover released her very first paranormal romance, Layla. Today Colleen shares one of her very favorite parts of the book and introduces the scene. Colleen, take it away!
“Leeds and Layla have just met about an hour before this scene takes place. I wouldn’t say they experienced insta-love, but it was definitely an immediate attraction. Leeds is lonely and withdrawn from life, while Layla is the opposite. She’s over the top and fun and everything Leeds isn’t. He’s a musician who has never released any of his own music due to insecurities and doubt. But Layla lights a fire in him and uncovers the confidence about his music that he keeps buried.”
Excerpt from Layla by Colleen Hoover
Layla leans in and I expect her to kiss me, but instead she whispers, “Play me something,” against my mouth. Then she moves to the couch and lies down. “Play something worthy of that piano,” she says.
She crosses her legs at her ankles and lets one of her arms dangle off the couch. She runs her finger against the hardwood floor while she waits for me to start playing, but I can’t stop staring at her. I’m not sure there’s another woman on this planet who could make me want to stare at her without blinking until my eyes dry up, but she’s looking at me expectantly.
“What if you don’t like my music?” I ask. “Will you still let me kiss you?”
She smiles gently. “Does the song mean something to you?”
“I wrote it using pieces of my soul.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about,” she says quietly.
I spin around on the bench and place my fingers on the keys. I hesitate for a moment before playing the song. I’ve never performed it for anyone before. The only person I’ve ever wanted to sing it for is my father, and he’s no longer alive. His death is the reason I wrote this in the first place.
I’ve never been nervous while playing Garrett’s songs onstage, but this feels different. This is personal, and despite the fact that there’s only one person in the audience right now, it feels like the most intense audience I’ve ever performed for.
I fill my lungs with air and slowly release it as I begin to play.
That night I stopped believing in heaven
I can’t believe in a god that cruel
Can you?
That night I stopped praying on my knees
But I don’t pray standing either
Do you?
That night I closed the door and closed the
window
I’ve been sitting in the dark
Are you?
That night I learned happiness is a fairy tale
A thousand pages read aloud
By you
That night I stopped believing in God
You were ours, he didn’t care, he
Took you
So that night I stopped . . .
I stopped . . .
I just
Stopped.
That night I stopped.
I stopped.
I just stopped.
That night I stopped.
I . . .
When I’m finished playing the song, I fold my hands in my lap. I’m a little hesitant to turn around and look at her. The whole room got quiet after I played the last note. So quiet—it feels like all the sound was sucked out of the house. I can’t even hear her breathing.
I close the cover to the piano and then slowly spin around on the bench. She’s wiping her eyes, staring up at the ceiling.
“Wow,” she whispers. “I wasn’t expecting that. I feel like you just stomped on my chest.”
That’s how I’ve felt since I first laid eyes on her tonight.
“I like how it ends,” she says. She sits up on the couch and tucks her legs beneath her. “You just stop in the middle of the sentence. It’s so perfect. So powerful.”
I wasn’t sure if she’d realize the intentional ending, but the fact that she does makes me all the more enamored of her.
***
About the Book Title: Layla
Author: Colleen Hoover
Release Date: December 8, 2020
Publisher: Montlake
Summary When Leeds meets Layla, he’s convinced he’ll spend the rest of his life with her—until an unexpected attack leaves Layla fighting for her life. After weeks in the hospital, Layla recovers physically, but the emotional and mental scarring has altered the woman Leeds fell in love with. In order to put their relationship back on track, Leeds whisks Layla away to the bed-and-breakfast where they first met. Once they arrive, Layla’s behavior takes a bizarre turn. And that’s just one of many inexplicable occurrences. Feeling distant from Layla, Leeds soon finds solace in Willow—another guest of the B&B with whom he forms a connection through their shared concerns. As his curiosity for Willow grows, his decision to help her find answers puts him in direct conflict with Layla’s well-being. Leeds soon realizes he has to make a choice because he can’t help both of them. But if he makes the wrong choice, it could be detrimental for all of them.
Author Biography Colleen Hoover is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of several novels, including the bestselling women’s fiction novel It Ends with Us and the bestselling psychological thriller Verity. She has won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Romance three years in a row—for Confess (2015), It Ends with Us (2016), and Without Merit (2017). Confess was adapted into a seven-episode online series. In 2015, Hoover and her family founded the Bookworm Box, a bookstore and monthly subscription service that offers signed novels donated by authors. All profits go to various charities each month to help those in need. Hoover lives in Texas with her husband and their three boys.
I think it’s important to recognize that there is nothing profoundly heroic about Skye Warren’s heroes. By definition, they are anti-heroes. They are mobsters, hitmen, burlesque club owners, hungry billionaire businessmen, and soldiers of war turned mercenaries. By their definition, they seem unloveable, detached, stark. Yet, Warren’s heroes are heroic in their love and adoration for their heroines. That is what allows them to make more moral choices than before, what challenges them to live better even when their lives are shadowed in darkness, what changes them. It’s their danger, their bravado, their stalwart facade of rejection that draws you to them because you know…you know, that they will fall hard, and while their life choices won’t change, their hearts will. And therein lies the danger of a Skye Warren romance: you find yourself enthralled by the characters you should detest. That is the conundrum and the deliciousness of a story like Silver Lining, the final book of the Diamond Trilogy.
Skye Warren ended this trilogy so well, interrogating Elijah’s sense of self in ways that convey the consequences of early life traumas. Through Elijah’s characterization, we find the lack of vulnerability and the brokenness that comes with abuse. This book, the actions that take place, become an illustration of Elijah’s second “well” moment, for those of you familiar with this series. With his first well moment, Elijah had to make a decision that would be difficult for most to make out of his need for survival. He finds himself again in a similar situation, and against the odds (his first well moment, his relationship with the colonel, and the complications of the aftereffects of that relationship), he must resolve to choose love to fight against thinking that could derail him. I love the complicated construction of Elijah as he adds the grit to Warren’s Silver Lining.
As the heroine, Holly exists to counteract Elijah’s brokenness. In her, Warren crafts a woman who in earlier books was searching for purpose, but she steps fully into her power in Silver Lining. In her want to deliver Elijah from the shackles of his situation, she becomes the true hero of this book. She is decided, applying the same strength she uses in saving her sister to saving Elijah. And there is where they both find freedom.
If I have any criticism of this book, I’d say it’s the additional points of view of Adam and London. While they are crucial in helping to resolve Holly and Elijah’s journey, connecting them directly to the story through chapters from their points of view muddies Holly and Eljah’s story. Personally, I would have preferred a novella for their story separate from this book. Their chapters in Silver Lining simply interrupt the forward motion of the main plot, and they would have been better served as ancillary characters aiding in our hero and heroine in a Holly or Elijah chapter.
When you finish a Skye Warren duet or trilogy, you feel like a survivor. In her romances, you find, end to end, messages about trauma and the healing capacity of love. The Diamond Trilogy is another delicious helping of that message, and each turn of the page in Silver Lining satiates a hunger for the darkness of Warren’s brand of romance. While I’m sad to see the end of the North brothers, I can only hope that there might be a bonus epilogue in the near future, a veritable icing on the cake of this decadent dessert.
Professor Romance 