Tuesday, May 10, 2016

New Release: Prowled Darkness by Carrie Ann Ryan - Quiz, Excerpt & Giveaway

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The last book in Carrie Ann Ryan's bestselling Dante's Circle series is here - PROWLED DARKNESS is available now! Be sure to get your hands on Eliana and Malik's incredible story now.

prowleddarkness About PROWLED DARKNESS

Humans aren’t as alone as they choose to believe. Every human possesses a trait of supernatural that lays dormant within their genetic make-up. Centuries of diluting and breeding have allowed humans to think they are alone and untouched by magic. But what happens when something changes?

Eliana Sawyer’s life was rocked from its foundation twice in as many years. She risked her heart and had it shattered into a thousand pieces when Malik left her with no warning. While she’d normally raise her chin and ignore the pain, she can’t forget what he gave her before he disappeared from her life.

Malik Ward is a prince amongst the lion shifters and knows that one day he will have to take a mate.
Only, his people can never mate with humans.
Under the mistaken impression that Eliana was only human, he forced himself to leave before they’d crossed a line and he broke his vow to his people. Now that he knows the truth about Eliana, however, it will take more than groveling to win back the one woman fated to be his.

While Eliana and Malik embark on a new sensuous path that might lead to disaster, the realms aren’t ready to allow the final lightning-struck human to be enveloped into their fold. The couple will have to combat those plotting against them, as well as the broken promises and heated emotions they share. Warning: Contains a Leo with a bite that’s worse than his roar, a woman with one last chance at the life she’s always dreamt of, a flame that could extinguish with the wrong sacrifice, and the final journey in the bestselling Dante’s Circle series.

Add it to your Goodreads list here!

Get your hands on PROWLED DARKNESS:

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Get a Quick Peek at PROWLED DARKNESS:

When he pulled into her driveway behind her beat up old truck, he barely had time to turn off the engine before she had her seatbelt off and was trying to wedge herself out of the Rover.

“Wait a minute,” he snapped. “Let me help you before you get hurt.”

“Too late,” she whispered, and he cursed. “I’ve been getting out of cars on my own for a long time, Malik.”

“But you don’t have to do it alone now,” he said, hoping she understood he meant more than just the vehicle.

She shook her head. “It’s never as easy as that.” But she waited for him to help her out of the Rover. That had to count for something.

His hands shook as she slid down his body, her belly protruding and scaring the shit out of him. When he felt a slight push at his own stomach, he froze.

Eliana blushed and tried to pull away from him. “That’s just little squirt making his or her presence known. Just a kick. You don’t have to freak out.”

Malik’s tongue went dry. He swallowed hard so he could speak. “It’s my first kick,” he whispered. Something else she’d said triggered his mind. “You don’t know the sex of the baby?”

“I wanted it to be a surprise,” she answered. “I don’t know why now that I’m trying to figure out the nursery and everything. But I just went green and yellow.” She shrugged. “And as for the kick? You could have felt them all if you’d been here, but you weren’t.” With that parting shot, she slowly made her way to the front door.

Get your hands on PROWLED DARKNESS:


whatkind2

Have you always wanted to know what kind of paranormal you'd be from Carrie Ann Ryan's Dante's Circle series? Now you can find out! Take the quiz here - we'd love to see your results!

About Carrie Ann Ryan

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Carrie Ann Ryan never thought she’d be a writer. Not really. No, she loved math and science and even went on to graduate school in chemistry. Yes, she read as a kid and devoured teen fiction and Harry Potter, but it wasn’t until someone handed her a romance book in her late teens that she realized that there was something out there just for her. When another author suggested she use the voices in her head for good and not evil, The Redwood Pack and all her other stories were born. Carrie Ann is a bestselling author of over twenty novels and novellas and has so much more on her mind (and on her spreadsheets *grins*) that she isn’t planning on giving up her dream anytime soon.

Monday, May 9, 2016

The Neverland Wars by Audrey Greathouse - Excerpt & Giveaway



The Dreamer’s Endeavor
Audrey Greathouse

With just a pinch of Peter’s pixie dust,
Why, I could set sail  through the midnight sky
And cure my incurable wanderlust,
Venturing to where my sleeping dreams lie.
Flying is for those who never look back,
Or down, or anywhere but dead ahead.
In a cosmic kamikaze attack,

Stars fall en masse from high up overhead.
Do you know where dreams go when they expire?
They’re always somewhere in our memories.
And I would be a dreamer-for-hire,
Selling everyone such grand fantasies.
It’d be easy to do from Neverland,
Where the dreams grow like wild blackberries:
So ripe that they fall right into your hand,
So small that they’re delivered by fairies.
I’d shoot like a star  to that very place
That our dreams lead us to, when we give chase.


The Neverland Wars
Audrey Greathouse
Published by: Clean Teen Publishing
Publication date: May 9th 2016
Genres: Fairy Tales, Retelling, Young Adult

Magic can do a lot—give you flight, show you mermaids, help you taste the stars, and… solve the budget crisis? That’s what the grown-ups will do with it if they ever make it to Neverland to steal its magic and bring their children home.
However, Gwen doesn’t know this. She’s just a sixteen-year-old girl with a place on the debate team and a powerful crush on Jay, the soon-to-be homecoming king. She doesn’t know her little sister could actually run away with Peter Pan, or that she might have to chase after her to bring her home safe. Gwen will find out though—and when she does, she’ll discover she’s in the middle of a looming war between Neverland and reality.
She’ll be out of place as a teenager in Neverland, but she won’t be the only one. Peter Pan’s constant treks back to the mainland have slowly aged him into adolescence as well. Soon, Gwen will have to decide whether she’s going to join impish, playful Peter in his fight for eternal youth… or if she’s going to scramble back to reality in time for the homecoming dance.


EXCERPT:

A flash of lightning electrified the sky, shooting light through the forest with a jarring pang. The boom of thunder followed immediately after. The sky was grey and the clouds shifted like a swarm of dark fish in a pond. Gwen feared she would be caught in a storm, but not a drop of rain had fallen yet.
All at once, Gwen found herself in a meadow. She had never been here before; she knew that.

Wildflowers cropped up in sporadic clumps, and the long, green grasses were uncut at her calves. The tree line had suddenly broken. One minute, she was racing through the forest, the next, she was floating here. Pausing to catch her breath, she ironically felt safer in this open area than in the claustrophobic security of the forest. She landed gently, unthinkingly. Turning her head to the sky, she saw the faint grey clouds blowing and rolling away. Darker clouds seemed to be coming to take their place.

On the other side of the meadow, Peter burst into the clearing. Bramble was leading him, guiding the boy to poor, lost Gwen. If Gwen had understood the fairy language, she would have already known that.

“Gwenny!”

“Peter?” Gwen shouted. She ran to him, and between her bounding strides and his quick flight, they met in the middle of the meadow, cornflowers and lilacs growing up around them. Perhaps if he had been on the ground initially, she would have hugged him. Peter lingered in the air for just a moment though, and by the time he landed, the impulse to hug each other had melted away into urgent discussion. “What are you doing out here?” His voice carried the sort of anger that only accompanied concern.

“I got lost in the woods; I was trying to come back. Is something wrong, Peter?”

Bramble flitted back and forth, pacing in the air, objecting to Peter and Gwen having this conversation now, rather than when they were safely underground.

“The opposition, they’ve launched an attack. We’ve got to get to cover.”

“What? No, it’s just a storm.” Gwen didn’t understand what Peter was telling her, but she had already made up her mind that she didn’t believe it.

“Gwen-dollie, we’ve got to go. There’s—”

The sky was suddenly drained of light. The thin, grey clouds that had blocked the sun were eclipsed by darker, brooding storm clouds, and as the daylight faded, small, grey flecks began to rain down. As they drifted softly, Gwen knew it wasn’t rain. Her attention was as captivated as Peter’s was, but she did not understand what it was the way he did. “Snow?” she asked quizzically, looking at the grey and dirty powder as it started to fall around her.

Peter held out his hand and caught a flake of it, crushing it in his hand. It left a smoky residue on his palm. “Ash.”

The winds picked up, and more of the ash furiously fluttered down. It became larger, and Gwen could hardly comprehend the charred flecks of paper that were plummeting down. Peter zipped up into the air, jumping more than flying, to grab a large square of it. He came back down immediately, a look of horror on his face.

“Peter, what is it?” Gwen pled, hoping that her fear was born of her unknowing, that if she only had answers she wouldn’t be afraid, but from the look on his face, she knew that answers would only bring more fear.

The invisible hand of the wind grabbed the paper from out of Peter’s hold. It blew straight to Gwen. Catching it, she realized it was a page from out of a newspaper; the title read—ISIS ATTACK ON ERBIL; HUNDREDS DEAD.

She had seen newspaper headlines before, but this news did not belong here. Not in Neverland. It was too dark, too terrifying of a thing to read amid the lilacs and cornflowers. Again, she begged, “What is this, Peter?”

The page was torn out of her hand by the vindictive wind. Peter answered her, with a word she had never feared so greatly. “Reality.”

Author Bio:
Audrey Greathouse is a lost child in a perpetual and footloose quest for her own post-adolescent Neverland. Originally from Seattle, she earned her English B.A. from Southern New Hampshire University's online program while backpacking around the west coast and pretending to be a student at Stanford. A pianist, circus artist, fire-eater, street mime, swing dancer, and novelist, Audrey wears many hats wherever she is. She has grand hopes for the future which include publishing more books and owning a crockpot. You can find her at audreygreathouse.com

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Friday, May 6, 2016

Passion, Poison, & Puppy Dogs by Sally S. Smith & Jean Steffens





Passion, Poison, & Puppy Dogs
A Danger Cove Pet Sitter Mystery
Sally S. Smith & Jean Steffens
Gemma Halliday Publishing
ISBN: 9781943587469



—In this dog eat dog world, it’s people you have to keep your eye on.

When Lizzie Jones, pet sitter extraordinaire, is asked to watch over her best friend's two spoiled dogs at the posh gated community of Craggy Hill Estates, the last things she expects is to wind up in the middle of a homicide. But that's exactly what happens when she finds her best friend's cheating husband and Danger Cove’s celebrity bodybuilder champ, Mr. Jupiter, floating facedown in his hot tub. To make matters worse, the police aren’t looking any further than the wife for a suspect—isn’t it always the wife? Well, not in this case—at least Lizzie refuses to believe it.

Between dealing with Craggy Hill's hot security guard, Tino Morales—who also just happens to be the man who broke Lizzie’s heart in high school, caring for her grieving friend, and watching three rambunctious dogs, Lizzie has her hands full. So she recruits her famous granddad, retired network field correspondent, Jimmy John Jones, to help her put two and two together to find the real killer. Was Mr. Jupiter murdered by one of his women on the side? A jealous, disgruntled employee? Or someone with a bitter and deep-seated hatred of the superstar? It's up to Lizzie, Jimmy John, and Lizzie's own pug, Vader, to crack the case before the killer claims another victim...this one much closer to Lizzie’s own heart!




Visit the Town of Danger Cove official website!



Buy Links:   GemmaHalliday Publishing      Amazon     Nook
iBook    Kobo    Smashwords    Print




Excerpt: Passion, Poison & Puppy Dogs

"I was thinking about you too," I said. "I had a terrific time last night. Dinner, dancing. What more could a girl ask for?"
He smiled down at me, lifted my hand over my head, and led me to circle beneath our arms. Humming softly, he pulled me into a slow dance and whispered in my ear, "There are all kind of rhythms to the bachata. You like this one?"
Whew. When exactly had his cute-and-cuddly factor flipped the switch to hot and sexy? I was so caught up in the nearness of him that I actually made it a few beats before stepping on his toes and causing him to flinch in pain.
Dang. "Sorry, Tino. I guess I should have warned you that I'm a notorious klutz."
He was all dewy-eyed and cuddly. "But the cutest klutz I've ever seen." And before I realized what he had in mind, he bent his head, pulled me in at the waist, and planted a kiss on me. Our lips met softly, then tightened as we pushed against each other, caught by surprise at the heat we were generating.
I stepped back, breathing hard. He blinked a few times and ran his hand through his soft dark hair.
"Oh my," I said.
"Caliente," he said.
"Yes." I shook my head to clear it. "You can say that again."
"Caliente."



Sally J. Smith & Jean Steffens Author Bio

The international best-selling writing team of Sally J. Smith (right brain) and Jean Steffens (left brain) make up equal halves of one totally functional writer’s mind. Creative and intuitive and organized and systematic? What could be better than that?

The two desert dwellers work together side-by-side, literally finishing each other’s sentences, putting together their novels faster and more efficiently than they ever could individually. 

When their heads aren’t together over a manuscript, you’ll find them with their families, at a movie, the yoga studio, the mall, or out-to-lunch—in the food sense, not the spaced-out sense, well…most of the time. Their current series include Jordan Welsh & Eddie Marino Novels, Mystic Isle Mysteries, Danger Cove Pet Sitter Mysteries, and coming soon, Aloha Lagoon Gabby LeClair Mysteries, and Digby Sloan Mysteries.
Visit our website, look around, and sign up for our newsletter. We love hearing from our readers and always answer our e-mails: smithandsteffens@cox.net.

Sally J. Smith and Jean Steffens, are partners in crime—crime writing, that is. They live in the Valley of the Sun in Arizona, awesome for eight months out of the year, an inferno the other four. They write bloody murder, flirty romance, and wicked humor all in one package. 

Youtube: Passion, Poison, & Puppy Dogs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fWMwPCldt0



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Register for these 2 great giveaways !!

$25 Amazon Gift Card
Valid tour wide (US & Intl)



As well as a special giveaway from Sally & Jean


The Passion, Poison & Puppy Dogs Give-Away: A Digital or print copy of the book, a coffee mug of adorable Vader, and a bib apron with our celebrity pug.
Go to our Smith and Steffens, International Best-Selling Authors FB Page by Saturday May 12th. Comment under Vader's picture to enter and win a bib apron and coffee mug starring Vader, our celebrity pug, & your choice of a digital or paper copy of the book.