Blurb: There’s just one thing I know about the mysterious new man in my life: I can’t trust him.
He’s annoyingly arrogant, hotter than sin…and working for the man who ruined me.
So what if he’s the only one who cares enough to pay attention to me? Who protects me from the world that turned its back on me?
I’ve learned something being America’s most hated: the law is dirty, and Nick Law is no exception.
About the Author: I started writing the moment I could read. My first characters were Wibbley and Squig and I used MS Word and clipart to bring them to life when I was a kid in elementary school. I started seriously thinking about being a writer in High School and I remember the day exactly, because it was such an epiphany. I was always so uncertain. You know how everyone was always asking what you wanted to be when you were older? Well I NEVER could decide.
I wanted to be a marine biologist.
An actor.
A FIRE FIGHTER (thank you Joaquin Phoenix in Ladder 49 for that phase).
One day it hit me—A WRITER. I could do it ALL. Then you couldn’t stop me from writing. I penned my first novel at fifteen (but don’t ask me to show it to you, because it’s like I was in competition to beat the thesaurus). When I was diagnosed with a chronic illness, writing became even more important, because it became my therapy. When I wrote my characters, suddenly I wasn’t so alone.
These days you can find me daydreaming about where to travel with my husband, singing in my car, or lost in the newest K drama. And planning my next novel, of course
“I couldn’t have scripted this, couldn’t have planned it, couldn’t have controlled it. Because sometimes, the best things in life come straight from your blind side.”
Like most romance readers (or readers in general), we have a list of authors whom we love. No matter what they write, we add it to our TBR or one-click preorder it as fast as possible. But, lying in the back of our minds (at least this is my experience), we wonder when we might be dissatisfied with a future book. I mean, not everything turns out as you plan, not to mention, that some books are simply “misses.” I know it’s not fair to take on this mindset, but it’s the truth of reading.
I have quickly fallen in love with Karla Sorensen. I found her with her Washington Wolves series. When she announced that she would be writing a series for the Ward sisters, I ran to GoodReads and quickly added Molly’s book to my TBR. Their stories were compelling: three sisters raised by an older brother with the oldest sister struggling with her autonomy. I knew their stories would own me, and the first of the series, Focused, has done exactly that. Worrying that my expectations for this would let me down, I began reading Molly and Noah’s story, and I found a story about perfection and control wrapped in heady tendrils of soul-abiding love. If I thought Sorensen was going to disappoint with this book, I was clearly delusional. This author has shown me time and time again that characterization, style, and story are her superpowers. Thus, I need not have worried that this book wouldn’t live up to the standards of their predecessors.
We met Molly, the oldest Ward sister, and Noah in Logan and Paige’s story, The Marriage Effect. In that story, these two characters are found in a compromising situation. Given that Molly is a minor, Logan intercedes and warns off Noah. Focused begins ten years later. Molly works for her brother’s former team, the Washington Wolves, as a brand marketer for the team. At the outset of the story, she is provided an opportunity for promotion from her new boss, a woman who perceives Molly has earned her job based on her last name. Wanting to prove her new supervisor wrong, she agrees to the opportunity; however, it entails working with a new player for the Wolves, Noah, the mistake from her past.
As a newly traded player, Noah comes to the team after an incident with his former team. He is not interested in attachments. His whole life is football: creating records, winning games, and forming his body to be a weapon for his profession. Relationships and romantic affection are distractions from football. Enter Molly to complicate Noah’s life. Noah and Molly must work closely together for a series project related to the team. Unfortunately for Noah, Molly has the propensity to break through his heavily-fortified walls. Noah pushes back against this at first, but Molly’s kindness and ability to see the “real” Noah begin to wear him down. As their story progresses, their chemistry builds until their romantic interest in each other cannot be denied. Will these two rekindle their past attraction, or is this a momentary fling for each of them?
To a certain extent, Focused has an enemies-to-lovers feel to it. Yet, it’s more than that trope. Yes, Noah is initially cold and abrasive towards Molly, but Sorensen makes it clear that this is simply Noah’s defense mechanism. Through Noah, Sorensen’s readers recognize the power of perfectionism and control. This is the message underlying the romantic story of Focused. His character has hyperfocused on football for his career because most of the variables of football are controllable. In doing so, he reduces himself and his life. He stands as a reminder that life is meant to be lived, to give and receive love, and to allow people to help mold us. When Noah recognizes this truth, he moves from being a flat character to being one so round that your heart squeezes for his transition. Noah’s epiphany brought the biggest tears to my eyes.
“‘But I think’—I breathed unsteadily—’I need him to climb through my window this time. Do something that feels risky and crazy for me. I deserve that.’”
Molly is the impetus for change. This is a mature Molly even though she still struggles with impulsive decision-making. Yet, she is also grounded and secure in her family and her self. Because Logan, Paige, her sisters, and her nephew provide a foundation of love and acceptance, Sorensen uses her character to challenge Noah, effectively breaking down his walls. As we know in romancelandia, this generally comes with some level of heartbreak, and this is true in Focused. The emotional upheaval of Noah and Molly’s struggle winds your heart up and sets it into a spin. For me, a book is “good” when it hits the depths of my stomach and sets the butterflies into action. Focused does this brilliantly. Before the story even ended, I found myself becoming nostalgic for its beginning. I didn’t want it to end because it would be the end of Molly and Noah’s beautiful story. These two are both a salty and sweet combination.
There is something comforting about Karla Sorensen’s stories. As I was reading Focused, hoping it would stand up to the impeccable storytelling of her other books and recognizing very quickly that it holds its place well in her universe, I found myself reveling in Sorensen’s storytelling. She never disappoints me. Her romances are character-driven, and her stories take common romance tropes and add a twist to them. I simply do not tire of her. Her stories are impressionable because her characters are us. Even when they are NFL football players, team owners, supermodels, etc., we can find ourselves in them, in their struggles, in their love, and in their happy endings. I was waiting for Noah and Molly’s story, trusting that Sorensen would dazzle me again with her storytelling. And she surely did not disappoint with this book.
“The conclusion in the Forever Trilogy did not disappoint! Allen delivers the third book in this heart-stopping series with talent and poetry-esq writing. Five stars!”–Jenika Snow, USA Today bestselling author
Between Now and Always, the highly anticipated conclusion to the powerful and epic Forever Trilogy from Dylan Allen, is available now!
How do you move on
when the only thing you want,
is the one thing you can’t have?
They set their sights on forever
And lost everything.
Beth and Carter are trying to move after heartbreak brought them both to their knees.
When Beth makes a life-altering decision, she finds herself in a world where everyone is a stranger.
Except the man she’s forced to love from afar.
Carter’s star has exploded. The career he’s always wanted is finally his.
He’s determined to put loving Beth behind him.
But his heart won’t let her go..
They try to learn to live with their choices.
But nothing is at it seems.
Can these two overcome the obstacles in their way to find their way back to each other?
This is the stunning, breathtaking conclusion of The Forever Trilogy.
You must read book 1, Between Now and Forever, first!
Download your copy today or read for Free in Kindle Unlimited!
“I couldn’t put it down! The incredible premise and the tension will keep you turning the pages until dawn.” -Sarina Bowen, USAToday bestselling author
Release, an all-new powerful and emotional standalone romance from USA Today bestselling author Aly Martinez, is available now!
Growing up, Ramsey Stewart branded my soul in ways time could never heal.
At twelve, he asked me to be his girlfriend.
At thirteen, he gave me my first kiss.
By sixteen, we’d fallen in love, planned a future together, and had our eyes set on the horizon.
Love never fails, right?
But for Ramsey, it did.
Love failed him.
I failed him.
The entire world failed him.
At seventeen, Ramsey was convicted of killing the boy who assaulted me.
Move on,he wrote in his first and only letter from prison.
Start a new life, he urged.
I don’t love you anymore, he lied.
There was no such thing as giving up on Ramsey. Love may have been our curse, but he was mine—then, now, and forever.
So here I am, twelve long years later, waiting for a man I don’t even know to emerge from between the chain link gates.
Download your copy today or read FREE in Kindle Unlimited!
Originally from Savannah, Georgia, USA Today bestselling author Aly Martinez now lives in South Carolina with her husband and four young children.
Never one to take herself too seriously, she enjoys cheap wine, mystery leggings, and olives. It should be known, however, that she hates pizza and ice cream, almost as much as writing her bio in the third person.
She passes what little free time she has reading anything and everything she can get her hands on, preferably with a super-sized tumbler of wine by her side.
I wouldn’t say I ran away exactly—twenty-two is too old for that.
I’d call it self-preservation.
I have one objective: protect my heart from the boy next door who has no clue I’ve loved him my whole life, even with a front row seat to his revolving bedroom door.
My escape plan almost worked.
Except I left one thing behind.
Logan Carter hijacked my heart, and now it’s time to get it back. This time for good.
Logan
I wouldn’t say I’ve been lying this whole time—not about everything.
Not about how much I miss my best friend, and definitely not about how pissed I am that she left with hardly a goodbye.
She’s the last person I ever expected to ghost me, and her absence left a gaping hole in my chest.
When Joey Grayson steps off that bus, I know I’ll do anything to keep her home, and that means finding out the truth.
But I’m not sure how to tell her my truths when I’m living so many lies.
Lex Martin is the USA Today bestselling author
of the Texas Nights series (Reckless/Shameless) and the Dearest series. She
writes contemporary romances, the sexy kind with lotsa angst, a whole lotta
kissing, and the hot happily ever afters. A former high school English teacher
and freelance journalist, she’s lived all over the country but currently
resides in her hometown of San Antonio with her husband and twin daughters.
Voice. A person’s writing voice is as distinct as their speaking voice. It’s indelible, and it’s the thing that sets them apart from other writers. It is also my favorite part of teaching writing. While I have the pleasure of learning my students’ speaking voices, I also learn their distinct writing voice. If anyone ever asks you how you can read romance when it’s “all the same,” any romance reader can tell you that isn’t true. It’s the voice of the romance writer that distinguishes their work from the others. It’s the reason that so many of us read a variety of writers even when tropes or subgenres or sub-tropes are so similar.
I learned Dylan Allen’s writing voice in The Sun and Her Star aka Envy. It’s where I fell deeply in love with her storytelling. It was clear that this author’s writing voice involves epic storytelling. She imagines these broad, sweeping tales of love and angst that wrap around your heart and pull on it until the tension seems like it will break it. Then, she infuses your heart with a wrap of healing emotions that leaves it repaired and reinvigorated in the end. This journey stays with you through every single one of her books, and it is what sets her apart from other romance authors. Her writing voice carries her readers away on clouds of epic romantic dreams.
It would be easy for me to sit here and say “read Dylan Allen’s newest book, Between Now and Always because Carter, the hero, is amazing, Beth, the heroine, is divine, and their story is transcendent.” Yet, when you read this last book in her Forever Trilogy, you earn the last piece of the puzzle for this sweeping story of salvation. Because that’s the essence of this story: finding salvation in the unbound depths of love. Between Now and Always provides the finality to Carter and Beth’s story, but it unlocks the understanding that love is transcendent, moving beyond space, time, and trials. Carter and Beth’s story is truly an epic epoch, and it divinely illustrates the gravity of Dylan Allen’s writing voice.
In Between Now and Forever (BNF), Allen introduces us to Carter and Beth’s story. In that book, these two are individuals who are finding themselves within the confines of challenges. They find and figuratively mark each other before losing their connection. This book is meant to start their story and introduce us to them, to their challenges. It also offers the catalyst for Beth’s journey. Without this book, there is no future Beth. In Between Now and Heartbreak (BNH), Allen develops Carter and Beth’s love story. It’s their foundation. While BNF is their introduction, BNH is their awakening and their downfall. When BNH ends, Carter and Beth’s relationship is fractured, yet the individuals aren’t. In BNF, the individuals are broken, and the relationship has yet to truly exist. Both of these tomes exist for the purpose of Between Now and Always (BNA). Without the actions of the first two books, BNA could not be, which makes this book this trilogy’s frosting. Yet, this book isn’t a sugary sweet covering. No, it’s a concrete reward for the hard work of the first two books, but Allen doesn’t make it easy for her readers with this book. The resolution of Carter and Beth’s challenges comes near BNA’s end, so don’t go into this book thinking these two will resolve their trials quickly. In true Dylan Allen form, she makes us work for it. In doing so, it elevates Carter and Beth’s story, and it adds gravity to it.
The true gem, the jewel of Between Now and Always, is the character of Beth. I had messaged with Allen after reading Between Now and Heartbreak, and she was insistent that Beth would be Carter’s inspiration, the motivation for his continued emotional growth. We find this temporarily in BNH in that Carter is Beth’s muse and Beth is Carter’s influence on his creativity. Yet, the motivation behind this is their soul-driving interest in each other. In Between Now and Always, Beth’s strength is illuminated in her belief in herself. This is a woman who has come into her own, and she uses it to inspire everyone around her. For me, she is the most enlightened character. Yes, she still struggles with her beauty mark, but she fully accepts herself in this book. She becomes the fully realized Beth, her strength exuding from her characterization. As a woman who is always looking for strong heroines, this is exciting. Carter is still handsome, he finds his place in music, he’s successful, and he loves Beth, but he still flails in his emotions. His inconsistency of emotion and actions is a frustration. As a reader, you need him to stand in his conviction and knowledge, not his emotion. However, through Beth’s example and strength of character, Carter becomes more grounded; he becomes a better version of himself by the book’s end, and Allen’s prologue from Between Now and Forever can be realized. It is Beth’s example in this book that acts as a shole to Carter’s character. As a reader of romance, this is important. In so many romances, the hero is the impetus for change. For a genre that is continually evolving, seeking out better versions of itself, we oftentimes still get it wrong. In Allen’s book, it’s clear that Beth’s characterization is its feminist message on feminine strength of character and evolving standards of beauty.
Is this book still $exy like her others? Yes. Is the story compelling? Yes. Are Carter and Beth a match made in heaven? Yes. Yes to all of the parts of romance we love incorporated in Between Now and Forever. It is all here. Crucial, though, is Dylan Allen’s voice. It’s comforting. We know that, while she will take us through the fire, she will deliver respite and care at the end. When her heroes and heroines struggle to find their way to each other, she will make it so, but she will need to teach us important lessons about the difficulty of living because, while writing should entertain, it should also ring true to our own experiences or we can’t find ourselves in it, making it less palpable, more transitory. For a book, one like Dylan Allen’s, to be profound and necessary, we must lose pieces of ourselves in it. We must find ourselves embedded in its pages. And this, readers, is Allen’s superpower. Her ability to cull the experiences of her readers, transform them into the beautiful words of her story, and leave us panting for more lies at the heart of Allen’s writing voice. The Forever Trilogy beautifully illustrates the power behind Dylan Allen’s writing voice. Most importantly, Beth and Carter’s journey to forever is a necessary read in a world of processed, filtered Instagram ideals.
Welcome! My name is Layla Hagen and I am a Contemporary Romance author.
I fell in love with books when I was nine years old, and my love affair with stories continues even now, many years later. I write romantic stories and can’t wait to share them with the world. And I drink coffee. Lots of it 😀
Cole Covington is the most popular heartbreaker at school.
Every guy wants to be him and every girl wants to screw him.
Except me.
His devastatingly good looks, golden arm, and flirty smiles don’t do it for me anymore…because I know what’s lurking underneath the star quarterback’s gorgeous armor.
At least I thought I did.
Sometimes the most beautiful people…hide the ugliest truths.
And sometimes the only way to save someone…
is to walk beside them through hell.
Sawyer Church is the bible-thumping nerd of Royal Hearts Academy.
Girls pick on her and guys don’t notice her.
Except me.
Sweet, curvy, and sarcastic, she’s impossible to ignore.
No matter how much I try.
Everyone at school has her pegged as the chubby, Jesus loving geek, but unlike them—Sawyer’s real and never pretends to be someone she’s not.
Until I ask her to be my fake girlfriend.
Sometimes the most beautiful souls…hide the greatest pain.
And sometimes the only way to save someone…
is to fight for them.
About the Author:
Ashley Jade loves to tackle different genres and tropes within romance. Her first loves are New Adult Romance and Romantic Suspense, but she also writes everything in between including: contemporary romance, erotica, and dark romance.
Her characters are flawed and complex, and chances are you will hate them before you fall head over heels in love with them.
She’s a die-hard lover of oxford commas, em dashes, music, coffee, and anything thought provoking…except for math.
Books make her heart beat faster and writing makes her soul come alive. She’s always read books growing up and scribbled stories in her journal, and after having a strange dream one night; she decided to just go for it and publish her first series.
It was the best decision she ever made.
If she’s not paying off student loan debt, working, or writing a novel—you can usually find her listening to music, hanging out with her readers online, and pondering the meaning of life.
Check out her amazon page and Facebook page for future novels.
She recently became hip and joined Twitter, so you can find her there, too.
She loves connecting with her readers—they make her world go round’.
Presley Marks has just become a cliché: the jilted bride. Wearing a white dress, standing in front of her friends and family, she announces that her fiancé—according to his text—has forgotten about the wedding.
Humiliated and angry, she hides from the world in the mundane routine of her life. Working at the Clifton Forge Garage isn’t glamorous, but it’s safe from the spotlight.
At least it was, until Shaw Valance comes to town.
The notorious Hollywood actor is starring in a movie based on the town’s infamous murder. When he’s not on set, Shaw hovers at the garage, watching as they build his custom motorcycle and irritating her with his handsome smile. He was supposed to leave once filming wrapped and go back to his fancy life, not buy the house next door.
But Shaw might regret that purchase once Presley’s ex-fiancé returns, bringing with him a war between old rivals that could burn both their houses down.
Blurb:
It was such a shame that she was in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
She knew that we would come for her.
We had seen her delicate face that night, hidden in the shadows, and she had seen what we did, her gasp of horror giving her away.
She was perfection, beauty, and oozed goodness but that wasn’t going to save her from us.
No one could ever find out our secret, which meant we needed to get rid of her.
But killing her wasn’t an option and scaring her into silence wasn’t as easy of a feat as we expected. She was strong, resilient , and smart doing whatever she could to evade us.
Thus without even knowing it she turned it into a game, and so we became blood thirty wolves.
Run and we’ll find you. Keep our secret and you might live.
That is until someone else finds out what we did…
**This is a standalone DARK bully romance. This book contains scenes that may be triggering to some readers. This is not a YA romance novel and should be read by those only 18+ or older. **
About JL Beck:
J.L. Beck loves good books, wine, and coffee. She’s a lover of words and when she isn’t writing you can find her working on her newest book baby. She started her publishing journey back in 2014 and hasn’t stopped writing since. Living in Wisconsin with her husband, two kiddos, and dogs she wouldn’t trade them for anything. Well, maybe…
About C. Hallman:
Born and raised in Germany, C. Hallman moved to the United States when she was eighteen. She’s now a stay-at-home-mom to three boys, and happily married to her husband of 13 years. With a love for reading, that love slowly transpired into writing she put fingers to the keyboard and started writing about the dark side of romance.
Professor Romance 