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✍🏻 Siobhan Davis is serving up her final book in The Sainthood series. Check out this cover and preorder your copy of Reign today! ✍🏻

Release Date: July 9

The thrilling final installment in The Sainthood series by USA Today bestselling author Siobhan Davis.
Everything changed after the attempt on my life, and now, I’m more determined than ever to crush my enemies until they lie in pieces at my feet.
Sinner believes he has pushed me into a corner, but he underestimates my thirst for revenge.
Nothing will stand in my way. 
And I’m no longer in this alone. Saint, Galen, Caz, and Theo have won my trust and my heart. Together, we are an unbreakable team and an unstoppable force.
Staying one step ahead of the game is critical to our success, so we’ve little choice but to partner with the most unlikely of allies. The situation is tense and fraught with danger, and it’s not just our lives at stake.
Everything rests on finding the evidence that links The Sainthood to Daphne Leydon’s kidnapping and murder, and we’re running out of time.
Sinner thinks war has already come to Lowell. But he has overlooked his deadliest enemy and the challenge that comes from within.
We won’t stop until he’s defeated and we have taken his crown.
Sinner is going down.
Pre-Order Your Copy Here:
 
Add to your Goodreads TBR List!
Buy Resurrection & Rebellion Here!
Meet Siobhan Davis
 
I am a USA Today bestselling author and I write emotionally intense young adult and new adult fiction with swoon-worthy romance, complex characters, and tons of unexpected plot twists and turns that will have you flipping the pages beyond bedtime! 
My family will tell you I am little bit obsessive when it comes to reading and writing, and they aren’t wrong. I can rarely 
be found without my trusty Kindle, a paperback book, or my laptop somewhere close at hand.
Prior to becoming a full-time writer, I forged a successful corporate career in human resource management.
I reside in the Garden County of Ireland with my husband and two sons.
 
Connect with Siobhan Davis
 
 
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✍🏻 Blog Tour & Excerpt: M.E. Carter’s Cutie and the Beast is LIVE! ✍🏻

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Welcome back to Weight Expectations, where the unexpected is likely to happen.

Cutie and the Beast, an all-new roommates-to-lovers romantic comedy from M.E. Carter, is now available in Kindle Unlimited!

Read my 4 1/2 ⭐️review HERE!

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Living with her mother seemed like a good idea at the time. But Elliott Donovan’s living arrangements are not working for her anymore. Desperate to get back on her financial feet after a divorce and out from under her mother’s thumb, Elliott takes a job in the child care center at Weight Expectations, a local gym.

It has everything she needs – family friendly hours, more pay than she expected, and a super cute trainer who just happens to have part of his house for rent.

Abel DiSoto was living the good life until his wife walked out taking half of the family income with her. The blow to his ego was bad enough, but after a fire at the gym scattered Abel’s clients, and consequently his commissions, he’s stuck figuring out how to make ends meet, too. Renting out the master suite of his house to his new co-worker seems like an easy solution. They’re both mature adults, they both have eight-year-old daughters, and their work schedules coordinate so they can lend each other a helping hand to ease the burden of single parenthood.

The only downside? Living like a blended family when you’re not actually a family can present some challenges.

Welcome back to Weight Expectations, where the unexpected is likely to happen.

‘Cutie and the Beast’ is a full-length contemporary romantic comedy, can be read as a standalone, and is book #3 in the Cipher Office series, Knitting in the City World, Penny Reid Book Universe.

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Download your copy TODAY or read FREE in Kindle Unlimited!

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2RnGgqQ

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2tt0Az5

Amazon CA: https://amzn.to/38oFcda

Amazon AU: https://amzn.to/2NI0xqc

Add to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2NLdj76

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Excerpt

In my haste to not be late, I barrel right into a woman coming through the front door.

Grabbing her arms to steady her from falling, I apologize profusely. “I’m sorry! I didn’t see you. Are you all right?”

Smiling tightly, the blonde isn’t thrilled a random stranger practically ran her over. But she’s polite anyway. “I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure? You aren’t hurt?” I don’t think she is, but sometimes I don’t know my own strength.

This time her smile is a little more genuine. “I’m sure. You sure are in a rush.”

Letting go of her arms, I feel like she needs an explanation other than me racing around like an idiot. “I’m the one parent who has a tendency to be late for school pickup. The lady at the front desk gives me a nasty evil glare if she has to call me.”

This woman, whose name I still haven’t bothered to ask, laughs and I’m struck by how cute she is. She’s definitely a few years older than I am, but not by much. There’s nothing about her that necessarily stands out in a crowd, but her smile is genuine. This is a woman who likes to laugh and have fun. I always gravitate toward those people, which gives me a fleeting thought: I should have noticed my ex-wife hardly ever smiled for real. Laughing was even rarer unless it was at someone else’s expense. Those should have been easy indicators she wasn’t the one for me.

“Parker Elementary?” the blonde asks.

“Yeah.” I give her a quizzical look. “How did you know?”

“Do not mess with Ms. Alexander’s routine. She will cut a bitch.”

My laugh comes easily, and I find myself hoping this woman is a new member. She’s funny. I love it when clients have a sense of humor. Offering her my hand, I introduce myself. “I’m Abel. Trainer here at Weight Expectations and father of Mabel in second grade.”

She places her cold hand in mine. “Elliott. Interviewee for the childcare position and mother of Ainsley, also in second grade.”

“Ah! Well it’s nice to meet you. Fingers crossed I’ll see you here later as a fellow employee. And if not here, at Parker Elementary as a fellow parent. Hopefully not in Ms. Alexander’s line of sight.”

Elliott holds up her gloved hands and crosses her fingers around each other. “Wish me luck. Now run fast.”

About M.E. Carter

My name is M.E. Carter and I have no idea how I ended up writing books. I’m more of a story teller (the more exaggerated the better) and I happen to know people who helped me get those stories on paper. I love reading (read almost 200 books last year), hate working out (but I do it anyway because my trainer makes me), love food (but hate what it does to my butt) and love traveling to non-touristy places most people never see. I live in Houston with my four kids, Mary, Elizabeth, Carter and Bug, who was just a twinkle in my eye when I came up with my pen name. Yeah, I’ll probably have to pay for his therapy someday for being left out.

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Find M.E. Carter online

Facebook: http://bit.ly/2ly7Fu3

Twitter: http://bit.ly/2lzBqdQ

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2k4SZCf

Instagram: http://bit.ly/2k1O4Sx

Website: https://www.authormecarter.com/

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Connect with Smartypants Romance

Facebook: http://bit.ly/2kvDnb4

Twitter: http://bit.ly/2lzyduO

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2lGdIMQ

Instagram: http://bit.ly/2kwKsYK

Website: https://smartypantsromance.com/

Newsletter: https://smartypantsromance.com/newsletter/

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✍🏻 Willow Aster’s final book in the Kingdoms of Sins series is Coming May 28th, and check out the cover for this angsty saga. ✍🏻

🔥🔥 COVER REVEAL 🔥🔥

Check out the HOT cover for PRIDE, the final book in the Kingdoms of Sin series by Willow Aster! Pride is coming on May 28th! This is Jadon’s story.

Cover designed by: Hang Le: https://www.facebook.com/designsbyhangle

Photographer: Wander Aguiar Photography: https://www.facebook.com/WANDER.AGUIAR.PHOTOGRAPHY/

Model: Neil Ingham

I was raised to be Jadon Safrin’s enemy.

My father was the king of Alidonia and wanted to rule all of the kingdoms, which meant trouble for Jadon when he became king of Farrow.

When war threatened to break out between our countries and I met Jadon face-to-face, I realized I could become his greatest weakness.

I could either do the right thing, or I could let him crash and burn, paving the way for my family to get their greatest wish.

But I’d never met a man like Jadon, pure of heart and unparalleled bravery, and when all was said and done, maybe in truth, I was nothing but a pawn.

He would be my demise.

PREORDER TODAY!

Amazon US: https://bit.ly/Pride-US

Amazon UK: https://bit.ly/Pride-UK

Amazon CA: https://bit.ly/Pride-CA

Amazon AU: https://bit.ly/Pride-AU

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/Pride-GR

Catch up on the Kingdom of Sins series today!

Book 1 – Downfall (Luka & Mara) – FREE for a limited time until Thursday 4/30!

Amazon US: http://bit.ly/Downfall-US

Amazon UK: http://bit.ly/Downfall-UK

Amazon CA: http://bit.ly/Downfall-CA

Amazon AU: http://bit.ly/Downfall-AU

Book 2 – Exposed (Elias & Mara)

Amazon US: http://bit.ly/Exposed-US

Amazon UK: http://bit.ly/Exposed-UK

Amazon CA: https://amzn.to/2SM6rd9

Amazon AU: http://bit.ly/Exposed-AU

Book 3 – Ruin (Ava & Gentry)

Amazon US: http://bit.ly/Ruin-US

Amazon UK: http://bit.ly/Ruin-UK

Amazon CA: http://bit.ly/Ruin-CA

Amazon AU: http://bit.ly/Ruin-AU

 

 

Willow Aster is a USA Today Bestselling author and host of Living in the Pages podcast. She lives in St. Paul, MN with her husband, kids, and rescue dog.

Website: www.willowaster.com

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/willowasterauthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WillowAster

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willowaster1/

Listen to her Living in the Pages podcast:

iTunes: https://bit.ly/2DzM9ZU

Android: http://bit.ly/2Uj5JkZ

Google Play: http://bit.ly/2SJE7bI

 

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✍🏻 Surprise! Karina Halle has just released Lovewrecked TODAY! Grab a copy today and get reading. ✍🏻

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From New York Times bestselling author Karina Halle comes a sexy new standalone romantic comedy about getting stuck on a deserted island with a man you hate to love and love to hate.

Lovewrecked is LIVE!

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Daisy Lewis is experiencing a relentless string of bad luck.

Fortunately, Daisy has her sister’s destination wedding coming up. A week of sand, sea, and sun in the South Pacific as the maid-of-honor is exactly what Daisy needs to forget her upturned life and focus on the positive.

That is until Daisy meets the best man.

If you take tall, dark, and handsome, and add a dash of rugged, a pinch of brooding, and a whole lot of sexy, you’ve got Tai Wakefield. Unfortunately, he’s also a major grump, total alpha, and seemingly out to antagonize Daisy at every turn.

As if being part of the wedding party with Tai wasn’t bad enough, Daisy’s bad luck soon resurfaces when she ends up on a cramped sailboat with Tai and the newlyweds.

Which then shipwrecks on a deserted island near Fiji.

Okay, so they aren’t completely alone. There’s an oddball research scientist who has been isolated for far too long, they have rundown bungalows as shelter, stores of water and canned food, plus a feral goat named Wilson. It’s Lost…without the smoke monster.

But with rescue weeks away, Tai and Daisy realize the only way they’re going to get through this mess is to stop fighting and start working together.

And with their guards down, they get closer.

A lot closer.

Soon, Daisy realizes that the only thing worse than being stuck on a deserted island, is being stuck on a deserted island with a man she hates to love and loves to hate.

A man that can break her heart.

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Download your copy or read FREE in Kindle Unlimited today!

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2W3wBIa

Amazon Worldwide: mybook.to/LovewreckedKH

Add to Goodreads: https://bit.ly/39M4jqy

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Meet Karina:

Karina Halle is a former travel writer, music journalist & screenwriter, and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal & USA Today Bestselling author of over 55 bestselling novels, ranging from horror and suspense to contemporary romance. She lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband, and her adopted pitbull Bruce, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails and devours a lot of books.

Halle is represented by the Root Literary Agency and is both self-published and published by Simon & Schuster, Hachette & Montlake. Her work has been translated and published in 20 languages.

Hit her up on Instagram at @authorHalle, on Twitter at @MetalBlonde and on Facebook. You can also visit www.authorkarinahalle.com and sign up for the newsletter for news, excerpts, previews, private book signing sales and more.

Connect with Karina:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorkarinahalle/
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2vo9pq4
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorhalle/
Join her Reader Group: https://goo.gl/wpCBSS
Stay up to date with Karina by signing up for her newsletter here: https://goo.gl/Ve4eCh
http://authorkarinahalle.com

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✍🏻 Have you grabbed B.B. Reid’s The Prince and the Pawn? Happy actual Release Day, B.B. This one will break your heart and mend it up all in one. ✍🏻

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A coming-of-age tale of loss, love, and redemption.

The Prince and the Pawn, the epic finale of When Rivals Play from bestselling author B.B. Reid is LIVE!

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They were wrong for each other from the start.

The jock and the nerd, what a cliché they made.

He was the town prince, and she was a nobody.

Tyra Bradley was invisible.

That is until she told him he needed some manners, and so began their game of cat and mouse.

She ran, he chased.

It was perfect.

Except Vaughn Rees has a deep, dark secret. Promised to the NFL, but fated for something sinister, Vaughn knows she’s forbidden fruit. To want more is to tempt death. He’s already in too deep.

When a betrayal unravels their fragile ties, the good girl runs as fast as she can. What Tyra doesn’t know? They’re a siren’s song. She can run, but they’ll always be bound.

They’re two souls torn apart and mended by fate. And now…Vaughn isn’t the only one with a secret.

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Download your copy now or read FREE in Kindle Unlimited!

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3cOE2tK

Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/ThePrincePawnBBR

Add to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/3c7jwVI

Are the When Rivals Play books standalone?

Each novel depicts a different and completely unique romance. However, the stories and their plots are connected. It’s recommended that you read them in order for the full reading experience beginning with The Peer and the Puppet then The Moth and The Flame.

Content suitable for ages 18+.

Read The Peer and the Puppet today!

Amazon US → https://amzn.to/3bU67jt

Amazon Worldwide → https://geni.us/peerpuppetBBR

Read The Moth and The Flame today!

Available FREE to read with Kindle Unlimited.

Amazon US → https://amzn.to/2C6zlew

Amazon Univ → mybook.to/TheMothtotheFlame

Read Evermore: A When Rivals Play novella

Available FREE to read with Kindle Unlimited.

Amazon US → https://amzn.to/2wnM0Kf

Amazon Univ → mybook.to/EverMoreWhenRivalsPlay

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About B.B. Reid:

B.B. Reid is a bestselling author of new adult romance. She grew up the only daughter and middle child in a small town in North Carolina. After graduating with a Bachelors in Finance, she started her career at an investment research firm while continuing to serve in the National Guard. She currently resides in Charlotte with her moody cat and enjoys collecting Chuck Taylors and binge-eating chocolate.

Please visit her website for more information: http://www.bbreid.com

Connect with B.B. Reid:


Reiderville http://bit.ly/Reiderville

Facebook http://bit.ly/FB-BBREID

Instagram http://bit.ly/IG_BBREID

Twitter http://bit.ly/TWBBREID

Amazon http://bit.ly/amzbbreid

Bookbub http://bit.ly/bookbubbbreid

Newsletter http://bit.ly/NEWS-BBREID

Book + Main http://bit.ly/BMB-BBREID

Website www.bbreid.com

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✍🏻 Jolie Vines’s Lion Heart is Live! This story will pull at your heart. Grab this third book in the Wild Scots series today. ✍🏻

Lion Heart (Wild Scots, #3)

He went to jail for her, now she intends to pay him back.

Sebastian

Out of jail after three years locked up, I’m burning for freedom. Before, I’d wanted commitment. Marriage. Babies. A woman who could never be mine. No more. Now my only plan is to live it up.

But at the probation office, a desperate woman pleads for help while a toddler clings to her skirts.

She’s a stranger. Not my problem. No way should I be listening in.

Except…I know her. She’s the reason I went to prison. Now I have a chance to find out why.

Rose

My twenty years on the planet have given me few gifts, aside from the ability to con. The moment I know Sebastian Fitzroy is out of jail, I’m on my way to intercept him. I’ve waited a long time to see him again, even if he has no idea who I am or how, years ago, he’d saved my skin.

I plan on giving Sebastian the only thing of value I have—my body. What sex-starved ex-con could refuse? After that, we’re square.

I didn’t count on having to rescue my kidnapped niece along the way. Or fix my broken sister. I hate asking for help, but maybe just once I can’t lie or cheat my way out of this situation alone.

Lion Heart is an ex-con romance, high on heat and sexy Scots. Standalone with HEA guaranteed.

Wrap yourself up with the Wild Scots today!

mybook.to/WildScots3

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4 1/2 ⭐️ Review: Jolie Vines’s Lion Heart ✍🏻

Overall Grade: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2

It’s a golden day when a Jolie Vines ARC lands on my Kindle. Oftentimes, I can’t get to reading it right away, as I am a reviewer blogger who has several ARCs at any one time. Her ARC screams to me, though,  because there are some qualities of her writing that can be guaranteed: a universe of characters whose experiences, while seemingly far-fetched, represent truths found in our real life, heroes who adore their heroines from almost the first page and strive to woo them until the heroine accepts them, heroines who are compelling in either their acceptance of the hero’s pursuit OR in their personal insecurities that require the hero to finesse their love of them, and a believable happy ending that makes the strife of her stories worth your momentary misery. These truths are foundational to Jolie Vines’s books, and this reader conscripts herself to gobbling Vines’s stories. 

I’ve been excited for Vines’s newest offering, Lion Heart. The third book of her Wild Scots series, Lion Heart, follows the story of James and Beth’s son, Sebastian. In the first two books of this series, we find Sebastian struggling with the strictures of his life. He’s aimless and fraught with self-doubt and ennui, as he determines his future. Given his unsettled nature, he finds himself in trouble at the end of the second book of the series, Perfect Storm. More specifically, he’s earned himself a stay in prison. Given this cliffhanger, I was ready to gobble Sebastian and Rose’s story. And, in true Vines fashion, she grabbed me from the first page. 

Now, I do want to note a feeling about the book before I launch into everything I loved about this story.  I’m not sure what it was, but the first third or half of the story had a strange pacing issue. At least, that’s how I read it. As Rose struggles with her feelings for Sebastian, I think Vines might have taken her indecision too far. Oftentimes, the “back and forth” of accepting love can build the tension of the story; it’s a necessary tactic towards the climax of a romance. Instead, there were times when I felt confused by it. She would, one moment, accept it and the next moment, reject it. She has very good reasons for it, and Vines clearly articulates it. However, the first part of the storytelling felt “off” for lack of a better word, and that isn’t the usual case for Vines. She has a melody to her writing that engages the reader from the beginning through to the end, but I found myself stopping and starting in a way that didn’t seem characteristic of reading her books. It’s possible it’s this reader, but I’ve read all of her books and the beginning seemed different in its narration from her other books. It is also possible that I had high expectations for this book because Sebastian’s story is distinct from his predecessors. He’s a Viscount sent to prison for a term, unjustly imprisoned based on false accusations. It is brave of Vines to take her readers to that place, but given the seriousness of his story, I hoped that I would gobble each morsel of her pages. Instead, I found myself slowly plodding through the beginning. To be honest, this is minute, and I suspect more my issue than Vines’s story, but I wanted to mention it here for anyone who might be surprised. 

Now, that being said, the beauty of Vines’s Lion Heart is its central message. A quality of her books is the simple characterizations of her hero and heroine. In most of her stories, the hero and heroine are dealing with internal struggles related to the same issue. Oftentimes, it’s different sides of the same coin, and Lion Heart is no different. For this romance, the idea of expectations runs deep. One of the issues with Sebastian is the expectations he places on himself about his behavior and his life. Vines makes it clear through the story that no one (the other characters) feels disappointed in his imprisonment. The disappointment lies in the lie behind it. However, Sebastian’s expectations for his life are destroyed during his prison stay, and his life loses aim because those expectations no longer match his reality. Through his characterization, Vines deftly acknowledges that, sometimes, we must adjust our life by having new expectations for ourselves and making different decisions. Like Sebastian, Rose lives under the expectations of her life. Her background is dichotomous to Sebastian’s, and there is an expectation that she cannot transcend her past. This is the lie that Rose tells herself to dissuade Sebastian from loving her. Just as Sebastian struggles to find his new normal, Rose wraps herself in her lies as a protection wielded against Sebastion and his love, thus undermining living an abundant life. Since both of these characters struggle to redefine themselves, they only begin to live abundantly as they accept their love. Once again, here is Vines reminding us of the transformational nature of love, an impetus for change and growth. 

It’s there where the depth of Vines’s story lies. In the love between these two. Just as she has done before, Sebastian falls deeply for Rose from the first page. This is one of my favorite qualities of her storytelling. In Hard Nox, Lennox falls deeply for Sebastian’s sister, Isobel, and she denies his love for her throughout that story. When Lennox wins her over, the story crescendos to their happy ending. Vines does the same thing in Lion Heart. Sebastian understands the depth of his feelings for Rose before Rose is able to bear them. It’s Sebastian who loves her through the lies she tells herself about him. As Rose recognizes and acknowledges her feelings, Lion Heart builds to its peak, and the happy ending is beautifully wrought as their future is set. Vines does this time and time and time again in her storytelling. I trust her books to take me on an adventure, wring out my heart just a little, and offer a plausible, deeply moving ending. Some might say it’s predictable; it never is. Vines keeps it fresh, as she introduces us to different heroes and heroines with different stories. That isn’t predictable; it’s titillating. 

Jolie Vines’s Lion Heart met my expectations in offering a story of two people looking for that elusive abundant life. While Vines doesn’t surprise us in the end, what she does adroitly is craft a story that reminds us to allow love to heal our past and set the course for our future. You will never go wrong with reading her stories, and Vines has already piqued my interest with Viola’s forthcoming story. Additionally I’m thirsty for Lennox and Skye’s younger brother, Blayne’s story. I think there is something new afoot in Vinesland. 

In love and romance,

Professor A

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✍🏻 The book that romancelandia is waiting for is coming. Soon. And the cover is finally here. L.J. Shen’s The Hunter, book 1 of her Boston Belles series releases May 11th. Add it to your TBR TODAY! ✍🏻

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Boston’s debauched elite is going up in flames, and it’s the Fitzpatrick family that set it on fire.

The Hunter, an all-new dazzling and delicious contemporary romance from USA Today bestselling author L.J. Shen is coming May 11th and we have the stunning cover!

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Hunter

I didn’t mean to star in a sex tape, okay?

It was just one of those unexplainable things. Like Stonehenge, Police Academy 2, and morning glory clouds.

It just happened.

Now my ball-busting father is sentencing me to six months of celibacy, sobriety, and morbid boredom under the roof of Boston’s nerdiest girl alive, Sailor Brennan.

The virginal archer is supposed to babysit my ass while I learn to take my place in Royal Pipelines, my family’s oil company.

Little does she know, that’s not the only pipe I’ll be laying…

Sailor

I didn’t want this gig, okay?

But the deal was too sweet to walk away from.

I needed the public endorsement; Hunter needed a nanny.

Besides, what’s six months in the grand scheme of things?

It’s not like I’m in danger of falling in love with the appallingly gorgeous, charismatic gazillionaire who happens to be one of Boston’s most eligible bachelors.

No. I will remain immune to Hunter Fitzpatrick’s charm.

Even at the cost of losing everything I have.

Even at the cost of burning down his kingdom.

Mobile phone with a white and pink notebook and piony flowers on a marble background

Add THE HUNTER to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2Qav1lR

Be notified FIRST when The Hunter is live: http://bit.ly/36MnmAQ

Cover Designer: Lori Jackson Designs

Photographer: Michelle Lancaster

Cover model: Chase Mattson

LJShenAbout LJ Shen

L.J. Shen is a USA Today, Washington Post and Amazon #1 best-selling author of contemporary, New Adult and YA romance. Her books have been sold to twenty different countries.

She lives in California with her husband, son, cat and eccentric fashion choices, and enjoys good wine, bad reality TV shows and catching sun rays with her lazy cat.

Connect with L.J. Shen

Facebook: http://bit.ly/2OhSvp1

Goodreads: https://bit.ly/2yhgPBx

Instagram: http://bit.ly/2AIOiTo

Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2oMbFsu

Stay up to date with L.J. Shen by signing up for her mailing list:

http://bit.ly/36MnmAQ

Website: http://www.authorljshen.com/

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✍🏻 Ready for a bit of Sierra Simone’s Harvest of Sighs? This third book of the Thornchapel series is coming May 1st and I’m ready for more of the secrets of Thornchapel. How about you? ✍🏻

HARVEST OF SIGHS (Thornchapel #3) by Sierra Simone
Release Date: May 1st

Add to Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44451017-harvest-of-sighs

PRE-ORDER TODAY!
Amazon: sierrasim.one/kindlesighs
Amazon Universal: mybook.to/harvestofsighs
Apple Books: sierrasim.one/applesighs
Nook: sierrasim.one/nooksighs
Kobo: sierrasim.one/kobosighs

START THE SERIES TODAY WITH
A LESSON IN THORNS (Thornchapel #1)
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2OgiJGp
Amazon INTL: mybook.to/ALIT
B&N: http://bit.ly/2UO1VsN
Apple Books: https://apple.co/2HJxKiI

FEAST OF SPARKS (Thornchapel #2)
Amazon US: http://mybook.to/feastofsparks
Amazon INTL: http://mybook.to/feastofsparks
Apple Books: https://sierrasim.one/iSparks
Nook: sierrasim.one/NookSparks
Kobo: sierrasim.one/KoboSparks

Blurb:
The genius and the sunshine girl. As children, we fought bitterly and often, bickering every chance we got.

But then we grew up.
Then we came back.

Delphine Dansey carries her heart on the outside of her body; she’s looking for love and chasing dreams. She’s spoiled and selfish, the kind of beautiful that’s made for money and fame. But somehow she’s ended up in my keeping: a pretty submissive I can’t seem to resist, a lover who obsesses and tempts me.

I thought I’d locked my heart away a long time ago, along with all my other weaknesses. But some doors won’t stay closed, no matter how hard I fight to keep them shut. She unravels me, just like our friends are unraveling, just like Thornchapel itself is unraveling.

All year long, we’ve been sowing lust and jealousy and pain, heedless of the consequences. But a harvest is inevitable, and so now we must reap our sorrows.

And our sighs.

*Harvest of Sighs is Book Three in the Thornchapel series.*

Excerpt:
“Dammit, Auden, let me the fuck go.”

“Use your safeword, and I will.”

I open my mouth.

I can’t make the words come out.

May I, I think. May I, May I, May I. But still my tongue won’t move; the sounds won’t push past my lips.

Auden’s mouth curls up at the corner. “That’s what I thought.”

“Fuck you,” I retort.

“No,” Auden says heatedly, his hands tightening on my wrists, “fuck you. Just yesterday you promised—you promised me that you were mine, you promised me forever together. You swore. And now you’re running away again? You couldn’t even keep your promise for twenty-four hours?”

I sputter, tripping over the words as they tumble out of my mouth. “There is no promise, Auden! Things have fucking changed! And you lied about it! Jesus fucking Christ, Auden, you lied about it.”

“I didn’t lie.”

“You didn’t tell me.”

He sniffs. “That’s not lying.”

I glare at him. He glares right back at me. “That’s a juvenile justification and you know it,” I say.

“I was going to tell you.”

“When? After you’d fucked me again? Or after Lammas? Or maybe ten years from now when I finally worked up the courage to ask you to marry me?”

Auden’s glare softens into something boyish and vulnerable. He blinks long-lashed eyes at me. “You want to marry me?”

“Oh my God, Auden, that’s not the point,” I groan. “The point is we can never get married, and we can’t be together, and we can never be together again, and you knew and you didn’t tell me. You let me—you let us—yesterday, we—”

I can barely get the words out. He and I have done something unthinkably bad, something so wrong that even the word wrong isn’t heavy enough. We were more wrong than wrong—we were corrupt and unholy. Immoral and depraved.

“I know what we did yesterday,” Auden says, his voice as gentle as the grip on my wrists is firm. “I don’t see the problem, and I don’t see why you can’t keep your promise to me.”

I stare at him a moment, totally confounded. “Auden…am I talking at thin air right now? Am I not making sense? Is it my accent? Should I switch to yours?” I say the last part in my best I wear a regatta blazer to actual regattas voice, and he makes a face.

“Don’t do that, you’re terrible at it,” he says. “Listen, it’s not like—this isn’t like you’re thinking. I didn’t wait to tell you because I was trying to trick you, I waited because I wanted to find the right way to explain it all. Say it the right way so that you wouldn’t run away from me when I told you, so that you wouldn’t sever your heart from mine. I didn’t want this to be the end of us. And why should it be? Why shouldn’t you belong to me?” he finishes with a wild urgency.

I search his face. His stupid, handsome face, where even now I see glimmers of yesterday’s revels. A small bruise in the shape of Rebecca’s bite on his jaw, visible even under the shadow of his day-old beard, a small scratch disappearing into his cinnamon-colored hair from his run through the trees. The vibrant flicker of those hazel eyes—the eyes of the forest.

Never in a thousand years did I think God would be this sadistic or this pitiless, to put me in a position where I have to refuse this man.

“You know why I can’t,” I say finally. “We can’t. We just—it can’t be, Auden. You know this.”

His eyes stay stark and raw on mine as he says, “But I want you.”

“You can’t.”

“But I want it,” he says, and with his eyes like that and his voice so low, there’s no mistaking what it is.

“You can’t want it,” I whisper, and his grip tightens on my wrists as he pushes them out to the sides until my arms are spread on either side of me and my wrists are pinned to the wall. It’s like I’m about to be crucified, like I’m already on the cross, but without the nails and the thorns, because Auden himself is all the nails and thorns I’ll ever need.

“Oh, can’t I?” he says. “Because I do, St. Sebastian, I do want it. I need it. I don’t care what that makes me, I don’t care what that means for my immortal soul. I’ve known you were mine since I kissed you in the thorn chapel, and I’ve known that you wanted to be mine since you let me bite your lip until it bled.” His eyes drop to my lip piercing now, and I can feel how much he wants to pull on it and kiss it. I can feel how much he wants that labret running along his shaft, how much he’d love to see it gleaming in the dark while he fucks me. “You can run away all you want, but it’s too late. You already swore to me. I’ve already known what it was like to have your heart in my hands, and it’s simply too late.”

He ducks his head enough to move his lips over mine—something both more and less than a kiss—something like a promise made with touch instead of words.

And fuck me if I don’t want to promise something right back.

“It can’t be too late,” I whisper. “Even if you did wait to tell me until you got what you wanted.”

Auden doesn’t lift his mouth from mine, and I feel his words as much as I hear them.

“And what did I get, my little martyr? What do you think I wanted?”

I wish so much I weren’t still hard as I answer him. “You wanted to fuck me.”

“No,” he says, tugging on my lip piercing with his teeth. “I wanted what I still want.” He kisses me again. “I want forever, stubborn boy. Only that.”

About the Author:
Sierra Simone is a USA Today Bestselling former librarian (who spent too much time reading romance novels at the information desk.) She lives with her husband and family in Kansas City.

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 5 ⭐️ Review: Lucy Score’s By a Thread ✍🏻

Overall Grade: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lucy Score, in her endnote for By A Thread, asked reviewers to post a “gushing review” if we  desire to do so. Warning: this will be that such review. As a reviewer/blogger, you find yourself, hopefully, reading any number of ARCs in a given week. For me, it’s not uncommon to read four or five a week. Oftentimes, I’ll read two at the same time, given deadlines, or if I need a break from a story that might be angsty, etc. Knowing that release day is coming on Thursday, April 23rd for Score’s By A Thread, I picked it up and began reading it while reading another ARC, thinking I would read a few chapters of it and switch to the other ARC, going back and forth between the two. What I didn’t expect was to pick up Lucy Score’s book and not be able to put it down. That Dominic and Ally’s tale would be so compelling and charming and entertaining is an understatement; I simply needed to finish the story because Lucy Score’s storytelling both challenges and beguiles me. I’ve said this in other reviews of her books: at first sight, you believe you are reading a rom-com tinged with contemporary and new adult leanings. You believe you are offered a basic genre or trope, only to be challenged in its exposition about modern-day topics. 

In By A Thread, as Dominic and Ally’s romance unfolds, Score challenges our thinking about consent, socially responsible inclusive fashion, privilege, and more. Yes, their story envelopes the reader. Like Score, I love a grumpy hero and joyful heroine who can’t seem to get out of her own way. This is a rom-com dynamite pairing as they provoke each other with a $exy chemistry belying their evolution. For me, this is the initial reason to turn the page. Dom and Ally are no different. Their chemistry rockets past you, and as a reader, you hold on, hoping to keep up with them. Their dialogue, their momentary disdain for each other, all of it colludes to engulf you in By A Thread. It’s one of the main reasons I kept turning pages even though my workload is out of control. The question of their coupling drives you forward. You need these two to recognize that their pairing completes each of them. Score crafts palpable tension, authentic emotional connection, and hilarity between these two that you root for them throughout the story. 

Yet, there is one more reason this story is necessary: consent. In fact, this is the essential message of this romance. In its most obvious form, Score tells us at the end of this book that she wanted to imagine a workplace romance in the world of the “#metoo” movement. In romance, where we take consent for granted sometimes, there is a keen discussion in By A Thread that acknowledges it should be a primary and essential conversation. However, the idea of consent goes beyond that obvious message. With Dominic, he needs consent to move beyond the difficulties of his upbringing. Like most of us, we carry our baggage in tons. This is Dominic’s almost fatal flaw, as he doesn’t allow himself consent to move past it. Similarly, Ally needs consent for others to help her. Her pride undermines living an abundant life. In fact, it becomes a borderline health issue. She needs to give herself consent to accept assistance. The theme of consent runs like a heavy thread through this story, and it’s the tie that binds the lighthearted parts of Score’s tale. And Score does this artfully and intentionally, which adds to her genius as a storyteller. 

Like Lucy Score, I’m a fan of The Devil Wears Prada, and she litters her story with nods to that movie. Add to that the charming hate-to-love relationship between Dominic and Ally, along with an epilogue and bonus scenes that melt your heart. Even more, Score doesn’t allow the romance to fly away, ethereal in its romantic telling. Instead, she grounds it with the truths of our time and our need to be vigilant in protecting others from harm. All of these qualities conspire to bring her readers a story that leaves you feeling ebullient. Should I have graded essays and input grades? Yes. Do I regret giving my heart, soul, and time to By A Thread? Not a chance. And neither will you. 

In love and romance, 

Professor A