“There is plenty of trademark Hoover emotionand surprises in this engrossing read…This twisting novel will instigate excellent book discussions about regrets and second chances.” —Booklist
From #1 New York Times bestselling author of It Ends with Us comes a poignant novel about family, first love, grief, and betrayal that will touch the hearts of both mothers and daughters
Morgan Grant and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Clara, would like nothing more than to be nothing alike.
Morgan is determined to prevent her daughter from making the same mistakes she did. By getting pregnant and married way too young,
Morgan put her own dreams on hold. Clara doesn’t want to follow in her mother’s footsteps.
Her predictable mother doesn’t have a spontaneous bone in her body.
With warring personalities and conflicting goals, Morgan and Clara find it increasingly difficult to coexist. The only person who can bring peace to the household is Chris—Morgan’s husband, Clara’s father, and the family anchor.
But that peace is shattered when Chris is involved in a tragic and questionable accident. The heartbreaking and long-lasting consequences will reach far beyond just Morgan and Clara.
While struggling to rebuild everything that crashed around them, Morgan finds comfort in the last person she expects to, and Clara turns to the one boy she’s been forbidden to see.
With each passing day, new secrets, resentment, and misunderstandings make mother and daughter fall further apart. So far apart, it might be impossible for them to ever fall back together.
About the Author: Colleen Hoover
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. Visit www.colleenhoover.com.
I’m not the naïve young girl I once was, and I no longer believe in fairy tales. My divorce eight years ago cured me of that. Jack was everything to me… until he wasn’t.
Jack
I’ve loved her for as long as I can remember, and I was a fool to let her go. When Amelia stumbles upon my doorstep—literally—I’m faced with the toughest decision of my life. Let her walk away again or fight for her the way I should have eight years ago?
OR
Now partial owner of Briarleigh Lodge and Resort after the passing of his partner and ex-father-in-law, Jack Prescott is determined to make Bruce Hamilton’s last dream come true—but a series of incidents threatens to hold up the construction of the huge resort. When Jack finds a discrepancy in the accounting books, he realizes it’s more than just a few disgruntled townsfolk trying to cause trouble.
Amelia Hamilton has made a great life for herself over the past decade, and she doesn’t need any reminders of her past—especially not her ex-husband Jack. But her father’s sudden death turns her world upside down. A clause in his will stipulates she spend four weeks at a mountain resort, and she finds herself at Briarleigh to fulfill his last request.
Still desperately in love with his ex-wife, Jack is determined to save the resort from ruin and win Amelia’s heart—this time for good.
“We’re combined in the most elemental way. We’re forged in fire in front of that hearth, as bright as the stars. We move together, ocean waves pulled by the moon, salt licking at the sand. In that moment of blinding heat, we find forever.“
There is just something special about Skye Warren and her dark romances. She finds this way of taking heroes, well, actually anti-heroes, and cajoling us through her word and style to embrace them. She places them alongside incredibly capable, intriguing, empowered women who, at first glance seemingly under the spell of the hero, are actually the impetus for humanizing her anti-hero. Through this process, as one of her devoted readers, you find yourself torn between loving and hating her hero. It’s this struggle that engages you in her storytelling until she offers you respite in a happy ending of sorts. Skye Warren and Amelia Wilde’s newest tome, Audition, is no different, and it makes for a slow-burning, fraught, sexy, devil of a reading ride.
Warren intertwines her characters, Joshua and Bethany, in her books, Concerto and Sonata, the two books preceding Audition. Their chemistry is palpable in those books, yet Warren gives us little more than their devout attraction to each other. Going into Audition, we really have little more than their inability to stay away from each other and Josh’s propensity towards protecting Bethany. As you traverse Audition, you recognize quickly that Audition is a “second-chance” romance, as Bethany and Josh have a past. These two have history, and their history informs their present and potential future. In this story, Bethany has received letters from a possible stalker. Worried over her safety, Josh insinuates himself into her life as protection. However, given that he’s a Warren hero, he “can’t” be with her. Everything in his being is drawn to her, but his past and sense of self compel him to deny himself of his interest in her. This situation creates quite a story of unspoken dreams and love and tension. Is it possible for Joshua North to love Bethany? Will he ever allow himself to do so? Can they find their happy ending?
Additionally, beyond their romance, Warren and Amelia Wilde have crafted Bethany as a woman desired for her body and talent. She illustrates womanhood fraught with her purpose in life. She’s someone who has fought for her talent and art while struggling with the challenges of an impoverished daily living. There is an innate discussion in Audition about suffering for one’s art, about only being seen as a body, not a person, and about one’s worth. Through the characterization of Bethany, we must question whether our power comes from our appearance or our internal beauty. As a dancer, Bethany struggles to be seen as someone more, to be taken seriously for her talent and intelligence.
Along with this discussion of the objectification of women is a deeper discussion about the influence of our past on our present. If you haven’t read the first three books of the North Security series, this is a bit of background. It’s not a spoiler necessarily, but it does inform Joshua and his brother, Liam’s, stories. The North boys encounter horrific abuse as children at the hands of their father. It changes their chemistry, and it impacts the decisions of their present and future. In the character of Joshua, we see the power of this abuse in his inability to acknowledge love. He seems broken. I’m always reticent to write that, though, as it isn’t that he’s broken; instead, he’s changed. He’s complicated. And he’s a lock. He’s closed up and locked up that he moves through life emotionally repressed. It’s these traits that exemplify him as a Warren hero. There is only one key that can unlock the deadbolt of Joshua North, much as we see with Warren’s other heroes, and the key to the lock resides in Bethany. Their chemistry, their reticence around each other, and the denial of their passion for each other is the compelling force of Audition’s romance.
As Warren and Wilde move us through Bethany and Joshua’s romance, they use the tension of their denial to drive each chapter forward. On the one hand, you hate turning the page because the abuse meted out on Bethany through Joshua’s dismissal of her feels painful. Yet, the reader intuits his love and interest in Bethany even when he refuses to declare it. It’s the promise of his revelation of his feelings for her along with his acceptance of those feelings that keep you turning the page. Even in the midst of the darkest places of the romance, it’s the kiss of that promise that keeps you engaged. Once I picked up Audition, I couldn’t put it down even though Josh made it difficult to read for its emotional turmoil. Yet, this is the genius of Warren and Wilde. When you think you can’t take any more of their story, they craft nuggets of hope in order to endure it. And that’s the pay-off. For me, the emotional roller-coaster of the storytelling makes a romance “good.” Audition exemplifies what makes dark romance a profound sub-genre of romance.
There were a couple of moments in the chronology of the storytelling where I found myself confused. Given that the storytelling utilizes flashback chapters to offer us the depth of Bethany and Josh’s story, it’s not uncommon for this to happen. Overall, however, I found myself engaged and invested in their story. To be honest, it was refreshing to read a North Security story that began and ended in the same book. And Bethany and Joshua’s stories are important ones. They are reminders to find our worth from within, dependent on character traits such as perseverance, intelligence, and compassion, not the traits of our outer beauty. The emotional characterization of Joshua’s background is also an admonition about child abuse and the toll it takes on the development of a child. People aren’t broken; instead, they are forever changed in ways that can be devastating. Together, though, Bethany and Joshua find wholeness, a completed soul. It’s the beauty of their coupling that makes Skye Warren and Amelia Wilde’s Audition a must-read to end 2019.
Manhattan, a standalone in the Becker Brothers series is a small town, country, friends-to-lovers romance coming on December 19th. The fire… the guitar… THE FEELS!
Everyone knows not to fall in love with your best friend.
But when your best friend is Michael Becker, it’s impossible not to.
He’s everything our town knows a Becker brother to be: devastatingly handsome, charming as a thief, and the icing on the cake — a sentimental musician who’s never without his guitar.
And he was mine. At least, that’s what I’d convinced myself.
Our bond was born in elementary school, strengthened by circumstance and the promise to always be there for each other, no matter what. And the best thing about my life was being friends with Michael Becker.
Until it was the worst.
I watched him fall in love with someone else, and helped patch him back up when she left him behind. But when he drops the bomb that he’s moving to New York, I realize it’s my last chance to tell him how I feel. And I ask him to make one more promise.
One summer. One list of adventures to remind him that our small town has more to offer than memories of the girl who left him behind.
One last chance to tell him I’m in love with him.
And I’m just dumb enough to believe that maybe he could love me, too.
Kandi Steiner is a bestselling author and whiskey connoisseur living in Tampa, FL. Best known for writing “emotional rollercoaster” stories, she loves bringing flawed characters to life and writing about real, raw romance — in all its forms. No two Kandi Steiner books are the same, and if you’re a lover of angsty, emotional, and inspirational reads, she’s your gal.
An alumna of the University of Central Florida, Kandi graduated with a double major in Creative Writing and Advertising/PR with a minor in Women’s Studies. She started writing back in the 4th grade after reading the first Harry Potter installment. In 6th grade, she wrote and edited her own newspaper and distributed to her classmates. Eventually, the principal caught on and the newspaper was quickly halted, though Kandi tried fighting for her “freedom of press.” She took particular interest in writing romance after college, as she has always been a diehard hopeless romantic, and likes to highlight all the challenges of love as well as the triumphs.
When Kandi isn’t writing, you can find her reading books of all kinds, talking with her extremely vocal cat, and spending time with her friends and family. She enjoys live music, traveling, anything heavy in carbs, beach days, movie marathons, craft beer and sweet wine — not necessarily in that order.
“She could enjoy her pretty, perfect world a little longer. Soon enough, everything she owned would be mine.”
Devious Lies, an all-new enemies to lovers standalone romance from USA Today bestselling author Parker S. Huntington, is coming December 16th and we have the smoking hot new cover!
I had a plan to escape the friend zone.
Step one: sneak into Reed’s room.
Step two: sleep with him.
But when the lights turned on, it wasn’t familiar blue eyes I saw.
These were dark, angry, and full of demons.
And they belonged to Reed’s much older brother.
Four years later, Nash Prescott is no longer the help’s angry son.
I’m no longer the town’s prized princess.
At twenty-two, I’m broke, in need of a job.
At thirty-two, he’s a billionaire, in need of revenge.
Who cares if my family ruined his?
Who cares if he looks at me with pure loathing?
Who cares if every task he assigns me is designed to torture?
I need the money.
Simple as that.
I’ll suffer his cruelty in silence, knowing there’s one thing he wants more than revenge…
Parker S. Huntington is a USA Today, Amazon Top 15, KDP All-Star, and KDP All-Star UK bestselling author from Orange County, California. She has a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of California, Riverside and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Liberal Arts in Literature and Creative Writing from Harvard University.
She was the proud mom of Chloe, the sweetest princess to have ever lived; has two puppies, Bauer and Rose; and lives with her boyfriend of five (almost six!) years–a real life alpha male, book-boyfriend-worthy hunk of a man.
Check out the HOT cover for EXPOSED, book 2 in the Kingdoms of Sin series by Willow Aster! Exposed is coming on January 9th! This is Elias and Mara’s story.
I knew I loved Elias Lancaster and that he loved me.
At least I always thought he did.
But for some reason, he always found an excuse not to be with me.
The pain I felt as my childhood love rejected me, again and again, after promising me the world when we were kids…
Well, it just wouldn’t go away.
No matter how hard I tried.
Desperate times called for desperate measures, and I never wanted to be considered desperate, but I knew if something didn’t change soon, I’d lose Elias for good and die of a broken heart.
No one told me how many times my heart could break in the process.
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.
Skye Warren is the New York Times bestselling author of dangerous romance such as the Endgame trilogy. Her books have been featured in Jezebel, Buzzfeed, USA Today Happily Ever After, Glamour, and Elle Magazine. She makes her home in Texas with her loving family, sweet dogs, and evil cat.
Amelia Wilde wrote her first story when she was six years old, a narrative strongly inspired by The Polar Express. When she was nine, she wrote her first novel-length work, all in one paragraph.
Now, Amelia is all about that love. Her romances feature unique, independent heroines and alpha heroes who are strong of heart and body. Readers have described her work as “emotional,” “intense,” “phenomenal,” and “like a child scribbled with a crayon,” which she takes as the highest praise.
The wait is over! Gilded Lily, the second standalone in Staci Hart’s Bennet Brothers Series, is LIVE! Trust me when I say you do NOT want to miss this one! Lila & Kash are everything. Grab your copy today on Amazon or snag this beauty in Kindle Unlimited today!
They say there’s no such thing as perfect. But I’ve built my life to perfection—the perfect boyfriend, the perfect apartment, the perfect career planning celebrity weddings. My job—my only job—is to make sure every event is absolutely and completely perfect. What’s not perfect? Kash Bennet. And I wish I didn’t find that so appealing. I could have told you every perfectly imperfect thing about the gardener at Longbourne. Like his hair, lush and black and far too long. Or his nose, the flat bridge of a Greek god, bent a little like it’s been broken. Or his size. Beastly. Roped and corded with muscles, gleaming with sweat and peppered with dirt. There’s no escaping him, not if I’m going to use his family’s flower shop for my events. But nothing is what it seems. And in the span of a heartbeat, my perfect life is turned inside out. They say the best way to get over somebody is to get under somebody new. When Kash offers his services to the cause, it sounds like the perfect plan. What’s not part of the plan? Falling in love with the gardener. But they were right—there’s no such thing as perfect. And I’m the fool who finds out the hard way.
Grab Coming Up Roses, the first stand alone in the Bennett Brothers series, available now on Amazon in Kindle Unlimited!
Everyone hates parts of their job. Maybe it’s the paperwork. Maybe it’s the day-to-day grind. Maybe it’s that client who never knows what they want, or the guy who always cooks fish in the microwave. But not me. I love every corner of the Longbourne Flower Shop, every flower, every petal, every stem. I love the greenhouse, and I love Mrs. Bennet, my boss. I love creating, and I love being a florist. I don’t hate anything at all. Except for Luke Bennet. The Bennet brothers have come home to help their mom save the flower shop, and Luke is at the helm. His smile tells a tale of lust, loose and easy. He moves with the grace of a predator, feral and wild. A thing unbridled, without rules or constraint. When he comes home to save Longbourne, I almost can’t be mad at him. Almost. He doesn’t remember that night I’ll never forget. That kiss, touched with whiskey and fire. It branded me like a red-hot iron. But it meant nothing to him. Everyone hates part of their job, and I hate Luke Bennet. Because if I don’t, I’ll fall in love with him.
Staci has been a lot of things up to this point in her life — a graphic designer, an entrepreneur, a seamstress, a clothing and handbag designer, a waitress. Can’t forget that. She’s also been a mom, with three little girls who are sure to grow up to break a number of hearts. She’s been a wife, though she’s certainly not the cleanest, or the best cook. She’s also super, duper fun at a party, especially if she’s been drinking whiskey. When she’s not writing, she’s reading, sleeping, gaming, or designing graphics.
You are ‘label-less’ in the fact that you write in several genres. Readers never know what to expect next. If someone asks, how do you label yourself?
When I self-published my first novel I had no idea what genre to put it in. I thought I had written a drama but it turns to that I had written a romance. I’ve learned a lot since then, but I still don’t put a lot of weight in genre when I write. When your best friend is begging you to read a book, it’s not going to matter what genre it is when someone you trust is passionate about the story.
To keep all of your stories and characters straight, you must be very organized.
I’m the most disorganized person you will ever meet! I have no schedule. I can’t wake up before nine in the morning. I probably don’t go to bed until like three in the morning. I usually work about 16 hours a day.
What happens if you get blocked when you are writing?
If I get stuck writing, I go for a drive and play music. Music really helps me plot. I love The Avett Brothers, X Ambassadors, Airborne Toxic Event…I could go on and on.
What can you tell readers about your latest release Regretting You?
I would spoil it if I told you about it! Most of my books are like that. I can’t say what they are about or it spoils it. But I can say that Regretting You is told from a dual point-of-view centered on the inner lives of both a teen and adult protagonist.
Sounds like lots of different types of readers will be interested!
Absolutely. I wanted to write a book that bridged the gap between young adult and contemporary romance so that mothers can read with their daughters. I think it’s exciting to see people sharing reading experiences.
***Excerpt: Regretting You by Colleen Hoover
Despite knowing I just pissed my mother off by being half an hour late for curfew, I still can’t stop smiling. That kiss with Miller was worth it. I bring my fingers to my lips.
I’ve never been kissed like that. The guys I’ve kissed in the past all seemed like they were in a hurry, wanting to shove their tongue in my mouth before I changed my mind.
Miller was the opposite. He was so patient, yet in a chaotic way. It was like he’d thought about kissing me so often that he wanted to savor every second of it.
I don’t know that I’ll ever not smile when I think about that kiss. It kind of makes me nervous for school tomorrow. I’m not sure where that kiss leaves us, but it felt like it was a statement. I just don’t know what exactly that statement was.
My phone buzzes in my back pocket. I roll over and pull it out, then fall onto my back again. It’s a text from Miller.
Miller: I don’t know about you, but sometimes when something significant happens, I get home and think of all the things I wish had gone differently. All the things I wish I would have said.
Me: Is that happening now?
Miller: Yes. I don’t feel like I was entirely forthcoming with you.
I roll onto my stomach, hoping to ease the nausea that just passed through me. It was going so well…
Me: What weren’t you honest about?
Miller: I was honest. Just not entirely forthcoming, if there’s a difference. I left a lot out of our conversation that I want you to know.
Me: Like what?
Miller: Like why I’ve liked you for as long as I have.
I wait for him to elaborate, but he doesn’t. I’m staring at my phone with so much intensity that I almost throw it when it rings unexpectedly. It’s Miller’s phone number. I hesitate before answering it, because I rarely ever talk on the phone. I much prefer texting. But he knows I have my phone in my hand, so I can’t very well send it to voice mail. I swipe my finger across the screen and then roll off the bed and head to my bathroom for more privacy. I sit on the edge of the tub.
“Hello?”
“Hey,” he says.
“Sorry. It’s too much to text.”
“You’re kind of freaking me out with all the innuendos.”
“Oh. No, it’s all good. Don’t be nervous. I just should have said this to you in person.” Miller inhales a deep breath, and then on the exhale, he starts talking. “When I was fifteen, I watched you in a school play. You had the lead role, and at one point, you performed a monologue that went on for like two whole minutes. You were so convincing and you looked so heartbroken I was ready to walk onto the stage and hug you. When the play was finally over and the actors came back out onto the stage, you were smiling and laughing, and there wasn’t a trace of that character left in you. I was in awe, Clara. You have this charisma about you that I don’t think you’re aware of, but it’s captivating. I was a scrawny kid as a sophomore, and even though I’m a year older than you, I hadn’t quite filled out yet, and I had acne and felt inferior to you, so I never worked up the courage to approach you. Another year went by, and I continued to admire you from afar. Like that time you ran for school treasurer and tripped walking off the stage, but you jumped up and did this weird little kick and threw your arms up in the air and made the entire audience laugh. Or that time Mark Avery popped your bra strap in the hallway, and you were so sick of him doing it that you followed him to his classroom, reached inside your hoodie, and took off your bra and then threw it at him. I remember you yelling something like, ‘If you want to touch a bra so damn bad, just keep it, you perv!’ Then you stormed out. It was epic. Everything you do is epic, Clara. Which is why I never had the courage to approach you, because an epic girl needs an equally epic guy, and I guess I’ve just never felt epic enough for you. I’ve said epic so many times in the last fifteen seconds—I’m so sorry.”
He’s out of breath when he finally stops talking.
I’m smiling so hard my cheeks ache. I had no idea he felt this way. No idea.
I wait a few seconds to make sure he’s done; then I finally respond. I’m pretty sure he can hear from my voice alone that I’m smiling. “First of all, it’s hard to believe you were ever insecure. And second, I think you’re pretty epic, too, Miller. Always have. Even when you were scrawny and had acne.”
He laughs a little. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
I can hear him sigh. “Glad I got that off my chest, then. See you at school tomorrow?”
“Good night.”
We end the call, and I don’t know how long I sit and stare at my phone.***
About the Book
Title: Regretting You
Author: Colleen Hoover
Release Date: December 10, 2019
Publisher: Montlake Summary Morgan Grant and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Clara, would like nothing more than to be nothing alike.
Morgan is determined to prevent her daughter from making the same mistakes she did. By getting pregnant and married way too young, Morgan put her own dreams on hold. Clara doesn’t want to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Her predictable mother doesn’t have a spontaneous bone in her body.
With warring personalities and conflicting goals, Morgan and Clara find it increasingly difficult to coexist. The only person who can bring peace to the household is Chris—Morgan’s husband, Clara’s father, and the family anchor. But that peace is shattered when Chris is involved in a tragic and questionable accident. The heartbreaking and long-lasting consequences will reach far beyond just Morgan and Clara.
While struggling to rebuild everything that crashed around them, Morgan finds comfort in the last person she expects to, and Clara turns to the one boy she’s been forbidden to see. With each passing day, new secrets, resentment, and misunderstandings make mother and daughter fall further apart. So far apart, it might be impossible for them to ever fall back together.
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. Visit www.colleenhoover.com.
Beautifully Broken Control, an all new emotional small-town romance with a dash of suspense, in the Sutter Lake Series from Catherine Cowles, is coming February 18th and we have the gorgeous cover!
A woman trying to rebuild her life.
Kennedy is doing all she can to escape, to prove that she’s not the monster her father was. A simple life of peace and service is all she needs.
A man haunted by a past he can’t forget.
Cain has buried his demons under layers of control and success. The only thing he needs is his company and his solitude. Certainly not a woman with captivating green eyes filled with ghosts so similar to his own.
He’s a reminder of the life she’s left behind. And she’s a threat to his tightly guarded control. As sparks fly between them, they discover that what they might need most is each other.
But with pasts like theirs . . . you never know when darkness might descend.
Enter the Giveaway for a signed paperback of Beautifully Broken Control on Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2sMwTZd
About Catherine
Writer of words. Drinker of Diet Cokes. Lover of all things cute and furry, especially her dog. Catherine has had her nose in a book since the time she could read and finally decided to write down some of her own stories. When she’s not writing she can be found exploring her home state of Oregon, listening to true crime podcasts, or searching for her next book boyfriend.
Professor Romance 