Tag: standalone in an interconnected series

new release

✍🏻 Bl-air! There is nothing better than redemption and love. Kristen Ashley’s Finding the One will absolutely steal your heart, as it stole mine. It is available NOW! ✍🏻

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She’s searching for redemption.

He wants her just as she is.

Book cover for 'Finding the One' by Kristen Ashley featuring a stunning landscape with a castle in the background and a prominent tartan pattern in the foreground.

Finding the One, an all-new beautifully-crafted, tension-filled interconnected standalone romance in the River Rain Series from New York Times bestselling author Kristen Ashley & Blue Box Press is live now!

Their parents being family friends, American/English aristocrat, Blake Sharp, and Scottish playboy Alasdair Wallace were thrust together all through their childhoods.

Blake thought Dair was a filthy, obnoxious, little boy bully.

Dair thought Blake was a spoiled, prissy wee miss.

Then Blake grew up to be a beautiful, loving woman who took care of everyone and made amazing pistachio muffins. And Dair grew up to be a protective, fun-loving, hard-living professional rugby player.

In the meantime, they’d both been deeply betrayed by lovers.

When their paths cross again, Blake is still reeling from her fiancé’s treachery and what she learned about herself during it.

Dair thinks he’s recovered from a marriage to a woman who was not at all what she seemed, and now he’s smitten by the woman Blake has become.

So smitten, he has every intention of exploring what they can grow to be together.

But their combined family history is filled with secrets and lies. Secrets and lies that explode in their faces.

And while they deal with that, ghosts from the past rise up and threaten to haunt their future.

Is what they built together strong enough to hold true?

Or will their personal demons tear them apart?

Graphic featuring a quote from Kristen Ashley's book 'Finding the One', with a background color gradient and images of a physical book and an e-reader displaying the book cover.

Start reading today!

Amazon: https://amzn.to/44MmFYN

Amazon Print: https://amzn.to/4dxy2WX

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

B&N: https://bit.ly/3SjOiRA

Apple Books: https://apple.co/3SOj3y5

Kobo: https://bit.ly/45muLHG

Google Play: https://bit.ly/3H2Exoy

Add Finding the One to Goodreads: https://bit.ly/4fS4aWo

Start the interconnected series with After the Climb→ https://bit.ly/3Uxrjn9

For more information about Kristen Ashley, visit:

https://www.kristenashley.net/

For more information about Blue Box Press, visit:

Website: https://theblueboxpress.com/

Facebook: https://bit.ly/3ONzTtZ

Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rTZdo3

TikTok: https://bit.ly/3G98oYh

Cover Reveal

✍🏻 It’s Cover Reveal week for J. Saman. Check out this sultry cover for Undeniably Corrupt, Vander’s story. What’s not to love about a mysterious, morally gray MMC!!! ✍🏻

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Cover reveal for the book 'Undeniably Corrupt' by J. Saman, featuring two images of a male model with tattoos, showcasing the book cover with the title prominently displayed.

💻💥💔UNDENIABLY CORRUPT COVER & BLURB REVEAL💔💥💻

USA Today Bestselling Author J. Saman revealed the sizzling covers and blurb for Undeniably Corrupt this week. I am obsessed already and can’t wait to read this story.

What you’ll LOVE…

💻Morally gray grumpy billionaire hacker & CEO

👩‍👧Sunshine single mom with troubled past

💥Enemies to lovers

💔Childhood sweethearts, second chance

😬He’s her boss

🛏Forced proximity

☠️Obsessed, touch her and d!e

🤫Forbidden, secret relationship

💗He falls first and falls HARD

🔥HIGH steam with pleasure k!nk and play

💥PREORDER: http://geni.us/UndeniablyCorrupt

Book cover reveal for 'Undeniably Corrupt' by J. Saman featuring a handsome male protagonist and a female character with a child in a cozy kitchen setting.

Blurb:

When my ex leaves me and my little girl penniless, the last person I expect to step in is my childhood sweetheart, Vander Moore.

It’s been years since he walked out of my life, and now he’s barreling back into it, seeking redemption, and making me an offer I can’t refuse–to become his new assistant.

But everything has changed, including him. The broody, sinfully hot bad boy CEO doesn’t trust anyone. Especially me.

It isn’t long before we’re butting heads and fighting at every turn.

He’s a walking red flag. One I need to stay far away from.

Except when life throws me yet another curveball and my daughter and I are forced to move in with him, I start to see the man behind the mask.

And all the tension and heat we’ve been resisting ignites, consuming us both.

But with each forbidden touch and toe-curling encounter, I give him another piece of my heart.

He says he’ll do whatever it takes to keep me and my daughter safe. Even if it costs him everything.

But there are some things even this undeniably corrupt man can’t hack his way out of. And it’s coming for all of us.

💥PREORDER: http://geni.us/UndeniablyCorrupt

Designer: Lori Jackson

Photographer: Michelle Lancaster

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: L.B. Dunbar’s Sterling Brick ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: B

Tropes/Characteristics: standalone in an interconnected series; high school sweethearts; single mom FMC; second chance romance; small town romance; cinnamon roll MMC

L.B. Dunbar’s second book in her Sterling Falls series, Sterling Brick, is Hallmark romance-worthy with a huge helping of steam. This is the Hallmark story you wished you could watch on your television. Dunbar has written an evolving, emotional story about high school sweethearts who reunite in their hometown of Sterling Falls. She’s a divorcee, single mom of two kids, and he’s a volunteer firefighter, brick-laying man with his eyes set on winning the woman he’s never gotten over. Dunbar creates a driving story filled with reticent attraction, eventual forgiveness, and fated lovers finding their forever. Sterling Brick is everything you love about romance: happily ever afters in the midst of the difficulties of real life. 

Dunbar puts her MMC, Knox, and her FMC, Halle, through their paces which allows for the healing necessary for their eventual future. However, it also causes the story to drag at times, creating repetitious dialogue and actions as Halle struggles to forgive Knox’s early adulthood choices and Knox struggles to forgive himself. Honestly, the first half of the book is working through this emotional entanglement, and I found myself drifting away from their story. Once, Knox and Halle forgive the choices of their past, the book moves forward at a better pace. I would have pushed them along faster to retain the readers’ focus.

Dunbar is a masterful storyteller, utilizing a variety of metaphors to encapsulate Knox and Halle’s struggles. I would, however, like to see her avoid being so “on the nose” with them, i.e. Knox’s nickname/call sign is “Brick,” and there is dialogue about Halle building her life “brick by brick.” Dunbar has more skill than choices like that. With that said, she has written some moving moments about personal growth and the journey forward. I appreciate how Dunbar has written Halle’s relationship with her children, Violet and Tim. Even more, she’s drawn Halle in such a way that she’s strengthened by her love for Knox. It allows her to slowly stand in her own power with Knox as a support, not the only support. 

Overall, I enjoyed Sterling Brick, and I love how this series of siblings is shaping up. Entwining their stories within the supportive, but complicated small-town world of Sterling Falls makes it easy to fall in love with these characters, and L.B. Dunbar’s voice continues to shine with her silver fox romances.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Kristen Ashley’s Rock Chick Rematch, a 1001 Dark Nights/Blue Box Press novella in the Rock Chicks Universe ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: A

Tropes/Characteristics: soulmates; morally gray MMC; single mom; standalone in an interconnected series; found family

I didn’t realize how much I needed to read Kristen Ashley’s Rock Chick Rematch. If you’ve read her Rock Chicks series, Darius Tucker is the silent yet present, morally gray character who keeps on giving to the resolution of trepidatious situations. Yet, until now, his story along with his soulmate, Malia’s, has been unknown. Reading Rock Chick Rematch was like returning home after a long time away. Unlike many of my fellow Rock Chicks, I don’t do an annual re-read of Ashley’s stories. That’s simply because her book list is so prolific that I find myself working through it still after beginning to read her a year and a half ago. Even more, whether you are reading one of her novellas from 1001 Dark Nights/Blue Box Press or independently published full novels, Ashley treats her readers to a full meal of story. I can’t tell you the number of times I leave a novella wanting more. This isn’t the case with Rock Chick Rematch; instead, she gifts you a story between two long-suffering, but deeply-in-love characters who receive the happiest of endings. It has everything you love about the Rock Chicks and the Hot Bunch: an undying love, an MMC who protects beyond any measure of his own happiness, and a quirky, but independent FMC who keeps him and his “brothers” on their toes. 

What did I love about Rock Chick Rematch?

  • Malia is fierce. Kristen Ashley knows that you can’t gain entry into the Rock Chick world unless you can go toe to toe with a possessive, alpha-male Hot Bunch guy. I love strong female characters, and Kristen Ashley’s portrait of Malia and the Rock Chicks is exactly that. While Malia doesn’t know herself when she’s young, she figures it out quickly, and she doesn’t suffer fools, namely Darius. In fact, my only disappointment was how quickly she forgives Darius for a secret, and I understand this is a novella so KA has only so much space to write this story. However, I felt Malia’s pain and hurt, and I wanted her to revel in it a bit more. Even more, I wanted it seen and acknowledged more by the participants in that secret. Kristen Ashley has written a saint in Malia.
  • I loved Darius’s journey. That we are gifted his story is a treasure. My favorite moments of Rock Chick Rematch are Malia’s realization that Darius has become the best of his father. I won’t divulge more details, but Darius’s swooniness comes through his need to protect and care for Malia and their son, Liam. A morally gray character is always one of my favorites, and Darius has taken a top 10 spot of morally gray romance heroes for me after this book. 
  • The reunion with the Rock Chicks and Hot Bunch. This is the sweet cream of this story. If you’ve read this series from Kristen Ashley, you know that it never lets go. It sticks to your ribs forever. Being granted the opportunity to return to it, to recognize the parallels of other stories as Kristen Ashley divulges Malia and Darius’s story is the thing that will make bubbles in your soul. Everyone is here. Everyone. And there’s a nod to the future. For me, this is Kristen Ashley’s superpower: developing her universe and allowing us continued access to it even when a particular world seems closed. She knows her reader fans, and she gifts us stories such as Rock Chick Rematch constantly, earning our undying love.

Rock Chick Rematch is all caps DIVINE. I inhaled this story of lost love and love regained. I am so thankful to Kristen Ashley for writing this beautiful book about soulmates who needed to wait for their time. In the end, they find it and a wealth of happiness that will absolutely warm your soul.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release

✍🏻 Jessica Peterson’s I Wish You Were Mine is pure romance gold. Maren and Tuck (especially this cinnamon roll MMC) simply steal your heart in this one. ✍🏻

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I Wish You Were Mine by Jessica Peterson is now live! 

A smoking hot standalone romance in the small-town Harbour Village series, featuring a single dad, a nanny, and an accidental pregnancy!

I know Tuck Monroe is trouble the second I walk in to interview for the nanny position. Six-four and covered in tattoos, he’s distractingly hot. He’s also grumpy as hell. But I need to pay for school, so I take a job as his daughter’s live-in caretaker and move into the apartment above his garage.

I fall hard for Katie, his adorable four-year-old. But I never expected to fall for my new boss, who’s a decade older than I am. Turns out there’s a heart of gold beneath Tuck’s broody exterior, one I work to reveal bit by bit. Casual small talk leads to late-night conversations I can’t get enough of.

No surprise our simmering sexual tension explodes with one deep, toe-curling kiss.

He tells me I’m his good girl; I tell him I love the praise. We give ourselves one night, and one night only, to explore the fiery attraction between us.

It’s the best sex of my life. But when I wake up, Tuck is gone, and life goes back to normal. Or at least I think it does, until I start to feel nauseous. Turns out I was right: my boss is trouble. The kind that comes with one night I can’t forget and two pink lines that will change our lives forever.

  Download today or read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited

Amazon: https://bit.ly/3QeCM8i

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

Add to Goodreads: https://bit.ly/45Fruji

Meet Jessica

Jessica Peterson writes romance with heat, humor, and heart. Heroes with hot accents are her specialty. When she’s not writing, she can be found bellying up to a bar in the south’s best restaurants with her husband Ben, reading books with her adorable daughter Gracie, or snuggling up with her 70-pound lap dog, Martha.

A Carolina girl at heart, she fantasizes about splitting her time between Charleston and Asheville, but currently lives in Charlotte, NC.

Connect with Jessica

Website: https://www.jessicapeterson.com/

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/JessicaPetersonGR

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2KoS0sb

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

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

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

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/JessicaPAuthor

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/jessica-peterson

Verve: https://ververomance.com/app/JessicaPeterson

new release

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Dylan Allen’s The Wild Card, a Rivers Wilde novella ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: B

Tropes/Characteristics: novella; standalone in an interconnected series; opposites attract; close proximity; second chance romance

Dylan Allen does what she does best in her newest Rivers Wilde story, The Wild Card: create emotional, erotic, entertaining romance. Her voice is decidedly spicy, and her characters bear all in this story of second chances. She draws Cassie and Leo together in the most creative of ways: jewelry theft (although that isn’t the situation at all), and as Allen does so well, she crafts an emotional journey between soulmates. Do they have different backgrounds? Yes, but it’s the individual struggles of her characters that unite them. Allen draws you into her story as they work through those struggles and find happiness and completion in each other. Dylan Allen has a special way of building empathy between her characters, their story, and her readers. My only criticism of hers is a need for polish to the story and consistency within a particular character’s development.

However, Dylan Allen’s Rivers Wilde series is one of my favorites, and The Wild Card is another wonderful story to add to the mix. It returns us to a beloved place, and it allows us to fall back in love with this extraordinary fictional community, adding more interesting characters to the mix.

In love and romance,

Professor A