This year, the Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award (BBNYA) is celebrating the books that made it into Round Two with a mini spotlight blitz tour for each title. BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner.
If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.
Lucinda Green knows something is missing from her life. But what? Her catering business is enjoying modest success and she loves her cosy house, even if she does have to share it with her irritating ex-fiancé.
Whatever’s making her unsettled and edgy, Lucinda’s certain that a lack of romance isn’t the problem. How could it be when she doesn’t believe in true love?
But Lucinda’s beliefs are shaken by a series of electric encounters with Alex Fraser, a newly notorious actor who gradually proves himself to be infuriatingly funny and smart, as well as handsome.
Not that any of that matters. Because Lucinda doesn’t believe in all that ‘The One’ nonsense. That’s the rule.
But doesn’t every rule have an exception?
A sweet, slow-burn romcom perfect for fans of Portia MacIntosh, Trisha Ashley and Kathryn Freeman. This standalone, grumpy-sunshine romance is part of the Love in the Comptons collection.
Claire Huston lives in Warwickshire, UK, with her husband and two children. She writes uplifting modern love stories about characters who are meant for each other but sometimes need a little help to realise it.
As well as her website, clairehuston.co.uk, you can find her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok: linktr.ee/clairehuston_author
Green thumbs beware. Plants are beautiful, peaceful, abundant, and life-sustaining. But what if something sinister took root in the soil, awakening to unleash slashing thorns, squeezing vines, or haunting greenery that lured you in? Perhaps blooms on distant planets could claim your heart, hitch a ride to Earth on a meteor, or simply poison you with their essence. Imagine a world where scientists produced our own demise in a lab, set spores free to infect, even bred ferns to be our friends only to witness the privilege perverted. When faced with botanical terror, will humanity fight to survive, or will they curl and wither like leaves in the fall? Read ten speculative tales ripe with dangerous flora to find out. Purchase
An excerpt from Spread: Tales of Deadly Flora (Page Turn Press). Black Thumb by Alyssa Beatty.
When a woman encounters a mysterious plant on an alien planet that can make all of her pain go away, she must decide whether to let it.
Lexa’s dirty secret: for a botanist, she had a shockingly black thumb. She could identify and classify like nobody’s business but give her an actual houseplant, and she’d kill it within a month, despite knowing its preferred soil pH level, sunlight, and watering requirements. So, it was a bit of a surprise to see a mutated version of Nepenthes Distillatoria, a pitcher plant, sitting in the arc of her windowsill, with a red bow on it. She tiptoed toward it. The flora on this planet was more aggressive than the plants on Earth. The ice-shard leaves of the towering trees had a nasty habit of detaching and plunging to the ground, right through the skull of an unsuspecting settler below. Then the trunk sent out winding tendrils that drank the blood up with a truly unsettling slurping sound. On the other hand, the little purple-leaved plants near the beach sang when you stroked them, a lilting melody that Ciara, Lexa’s boss, swore was an Irish lullaby. The plant sat placidly in its pot. It didn’t hiss or try to bite. Smaller pitchers surrounded a large central one, all facing it like children sitting around a teacher at story time. Their lids were delicate blue, a rare colour in this red-tinged world. Lexa bent to the largest pitcher to smell the phytotelmata, the reserve of nectar resting in the bottom of the trap. It smelled like real rain on real soil. She heard the tapping of raindrops on green leaves. She bent closer, then stepped back. “Nice try,” she told the plant. The lid snapped down over the pitcher. A little petulantly, Lexa thought. She fingered the bow on the pot. The thought skittered across her mind, briefly, that maybe this was some sort of peace offering from Gary. He knew her affinity for carnivorous plants. Or at least the affinity she used to have. On this planet, where every other plant harboured a murderous urge, the bloom was off the rose for her and Dionaea Muscipula. And anyway, it was unlikely Gary was in a peace offering mood. And there it was, that pressure in her chest again, like some unseen hand squeezing the life out of her heart. She closed her eyes and breathed. It was probably her imagination, but when she opened her eyes, she swore the little plant looked repentant. “It’s okay, ” she told it. “It’s nothing to do with you. You’re lovely, whatever you are. This is human stuff.” The stems straightened, and the pitchers opened, releasing the sweet scent of rain into the pod. “Thanks,” Lexa mumbled. Then felt like an idiot. She talked to plants all the time; they were good listeners. But this was the first time she’d thanked one. She shut off the lights and curled into the bed, which was just large enough for one body. She scootched until her back met the curve of the wall. It was almost like being held.
Set in Sydney, Australia, Courting Samira is a charming and frothy romantic comedy about a twentyseven-year-old Palestinian woman who finds herself in an unexpected love triangle—a sparkling ode to meddling best friends, traditional courtship, The Princess Bride, and, of course, the possibility of love.
Coming from a moderately traditional Muslim family, twenty-seven-year-old Samira Abdel-Aziz has endured her fair share of arranged matches—first dates she calls “doorknock appeals,” where she and her possible suitors eat snacks in her living room in the company of both sets of parents. Her general rule: no shoes with tassels, no cheesy leather jackets, no mustaches. A girl has to have some standards, right? The truth is, Samira is already experiencing enough wedding drama as an assistant at Bridal Bazaar magazine and as a gofer for her soon-to-be-married cousin and nemesis Zahra. She’s not sure she needs to add any of her own.
When she meets the charismatic Menem at a work retreat, Samira finds herself intrigued. But her best friend Lara insists Menem isn’t right for her, and now her childhood friend Hakeem has begun behaving oddly. Adding to the confusion, Samira is seeking a promotion at work, yet isn’t sure it’s the job of her dreams. Suddenly, her life is full of drama and complications, and she realizes that part of growing up is making difficult choices about what—and whom—she really wants.
Amal Awad is a journalist, author, and screenwriter. She has written for Elle, The Guardian, and other publications and held senior editorial roles at a number of trade media publications. She has spoken at schools, universities, and writers’ festivals around Australia, and she facilitates workshops on diversity, multiculturalism, women’s issues, and pop culture. Amal is the author of eight books, including four novels— Courting Samira, This is How You Get Better, The Things We See in the Light, and Bitter & Sweet—and the nonfiction books The Incidental Muslim, Beyond Veiled Clichés, Fridays With My Folks, and In My Past Life I was Cleopatra. Courting Samira is the first of her books to be published in America.
My thoughts: Samira reminded me of some of my friends and their sisters, bound by tradition and family. She’s a 21st century woman determined to make more of her life than just as a wife and mother. She thinks she wants to be a journalist or perhaps a photographer. But she does also want to find the one – it’s just not so easy when you’re Muslim.
After a string of “door knock” disasters – hello Manga Boy – she’s fed up. Then she meets Menem at work and suddenly there’s a possibility. His brother is getting married to her bitchy cousin Zahra – which means lots of rushing around but also the potential for more meetings. If she can get best friend (and another cousin) Lara onside.
When Samira decides what she wants, from her career, from love, there’s nothing that can stop her. A funny, charming and delightful read with an equally entertaining protagonist.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
This year, the Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award (BBNYA) is celebrating the books that made it into Round Two with a mini spotlight blitz tour for each title. BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner.
If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.
They say the country of Zeuten no longer has any need for heroes.
Quests have been completed, the great Powers have withdrawn from the world, and the Sentinels
who guard the last Relics are largely forgotten. Unlike their neighbours in the country of Aestin, whose Invokers wield the magic of the deities in exchange for glory and prestige, they leave the gods alone, and the gods extend the same courtesy to them.
When Zeuten’s last Sentinel disappears, Zelle, her granddaughter, intends to track her down. Instead she runs into an Aestinian stranger with no memories of his past, who claims to be looking for a long-lost Relic hidden in the mountains by the first Sentinels. To Zelle, the rumours of lost Relics are just stories told to trick gullible travellers, but the hordes of enemies on the stranger’s tail suggest otherwise. Armed with nothing but her grandmother’s sentient (and temperamental) magical staff, Zelle finds herself tasked with keeping them both alive.
Between monstrous beasts, magical storms, and an enthusiastic but inept aspiring assassin and her dragon sidekick, Zelle has her work cut out if she wants to survive long enough to save her grandmother and prevent the destruction of a nation.
Maybe Zeuten is in need of a few heroes after all…
Emma L. Adams spent her childhood creating imaginary worlds to compensate for a disappointingly average reality, so it was probably inevitable that she ended up writing fantasy novels. She has a BA in English Literature with Creative Writing from Lancaster University, where she spent three years exploring the Lake District and penning strange fantastical adventures.
Now, Emma lives in the middle of England and is the international bestselling author of over 50 novels including the world-hopping Alliance series, the urban fantasy Changeling Chronicles series, and the fantasy adventure Relics of Power trilogy. When she’s not immersed in her own fictional universes, Emma can be found with her head in a book, playing video games, or wandering around the world in search of adventure.
‘No one likes death. It just happens to be our business.’
Nobody who meets Dr Jack Cuthbert forgets him. Tall, urbane, brilliant but damaged, this Scottish pathologist who works with Scotland Yard is the best the new DCI has seen. But Cuthbert is a man who lives with secrets, and he still battles demons brought back from the trenches. When not one but two corpses are discovered in a London park in 1929, Cuthbert must use every tool at his disposal to solve the mystery of their deaths. In the end, the horrifying truth is more shocking than even he could have imagined. As he works the case, Cuthbert realises that history rarely stays in the past. And even in the final moments, there is still one last revelation that leaves him reeling.
Allan Gaw is a Scot who lives and works near Glasgow. He studied medicine and is a pathologist by training but a writer by inclination. Having worked in the NHS and universities in Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and the US, he now devotes his time to writing. Most of his published work to date is non-fiction. These include textbooks and regular magazine articles on topics as diverse as the thalidomide story, the medical challenges of space travel and the medico-legal consequences of the Hillsborough disaster. More recently, he has been writing short stories, novels and poetry. He has won the UK Classical Association Creative Writing Competition, the International Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize, the International Globe Soup 7-day Writing Challenge and was runner-up in the Glencairn Glass/Bloody Scotland Short Crime Fiction Competition. He has also had prose published in the literary journal, From Glasgow to Saturn and anthologies from the Edinburgh Literary Salon and Clan Destine Press in Australia. His poetry has been published by Dreich, Soor Ploom Press and Black Bough Poetry. His debut poetry collection, Love & Other Diseases, was published in 2023 by Seahorse Publications. The Silent House of Sleep is his debut novel and is the first in the Dr Jack Cuthbert Mystery series. You can read more about him and his work at his website
My thoughts: this was really good, slightly creepy – the method of murder was very and the killer was too.
Haunted by his experiences in WW1, Dr Cuthbert was an interesting protagonist. He’s a brilliant doctor, up on all the latest forensic technology (bearing in mind what they knew was very new – and years before DNA sequencing etc), with an inquisitive mind and helpfully for this case, a working knowledge of Latin.
I won’t reveal the ghoulish method of murder, but it is pretty nasty. So much so that it leaves DI Mowbray and his team completely at sea. Thankfully Cuthbert can provide a little information and that sets the police on the right path. But the doctor wants to see this one through – and it turns out that there is a connection to him, one that adds to his trauma.
I hope that this becomes a series, with Cuthbert and Mowbray becoming better friends and colleagues, and Cuthbert finding some happiness in his life, even if it is by solving gruesome killings.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Jo Brenner now has a spicy cover for eBook editions along with the discrete paperback cover. Meet Me in the Dark is the third and final book in the Bad Heroes series!
Meet Me in the Dark (Bad Heroes #3)
Expected Publication Date: January 11, 2024
Genre: Why Choose/ Dark Navy Seals Romance
Obsession tied them together. She won’t let anything tear them apart.
For Micah, Luke, and Conor, there are no limits to what they’ll do to win Kara’s heart. Lie, cheat, steal…and kill. But just when it seems like they’ve succeeded, an old enemy strikes. The ex-Navy SEALs will do anything to keep Kara safe—including surrendering to the predator intent on destroying them.
But Kara refuses to lose them. After years of them protecting her, it’s time to return the favor. And if it involves payback against their enemy, well, she’s not the woman she used to be. Running was easy when she had nothing to lose. But now? Forged into someone stronger, she’s no longer afraid of her own power. Kara’s determined to fight—for her men, for their family, and for herself.
Even if it means the fight of her life.
Meet Me In The Dark is the third and final book in the Bad Heroes series, and ends with an HEA. The heroine never has to choose between the heroes for her HEA, and the heroes choose her and each other. Please check the author’s website, jobrenner dot com, for content notes.
This year, the Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award (BBNYA) is celebrating the books that made it into Round Two with a mini spotlight blitz tour for each title. BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner.
If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.
For centuries, the Four Kingdoms have lived in fear of the dragon Raksen-Kal, who roosts upon the peak of the Black Mountain. To satiate his hunger, a noble maiden is sent to the dragon as tribute every Autumn, with each of the kingdoms trading off the duty of sending the sacrifice year by year.
Shivuri is the youngest princess of Endaru, the smallest and poorest of the Four Kingdoms. Today, her cousin is sent to the dragon, and in four years’ time, she will be as well.
As the day of her death draws ever closer, the young princess seeks solace in darkness, and explores the forbidden art of witchcraft. In doing so, Shivuri learns of secrets that would once have filled her with terror– and of freedom that she never before could have imagined.
Seann Barbour is a writer of fantasy and horror who resides in Virginia. When not reading or writing, he’s usually either playing games, working with dogs, or spending time with his girlfriend. You can find him on Twitter at @SeannWritesStuf, Instagram at SeannWritesStuff, Bluesky at seannb.bsky.social, and Tumblr at AMonsterOnMapleStreet
Welcome to the tour for Legends of Astrea: Cupid’s Arrow by Sophia Alessandrini. Read on for more details and visit one of our Bookstagram hosts for a chance to win a book box!
Ailie, a gutsy girl who possesses a sharp wit and a playful, irreverent voice that pairs well with that of her best friend’s, a werewolf; embarks on a quest for revenge with the help of her psychotic, warmongering, and good-hearted legal guardian. She alone can open the gates of hell just like Pandora did when she opened the jar that contained all evils.
And evil wants those doors open.
Fallen Angels conspire to help her with Cupid’s Golden Arrow.
She finds herself in a whimsical world of myths, legends, glittering gowns, priceless jewels, life threatening enemies, and eccentric immortals that call themselves Strzyga.
However, there are side effects to the arrow. What’s not to like about a gorgeous, two-hundred-year old Strzyga prince who is totally and completely head over heels for her?
But things never go as planned, do they?
Will Ailie manage to save the world, or will she accidentally open the gates of hell?
Find out in the exciting pages of this whimsical, legend-filled fantasy romance.
Sophia Alessandrini is a cum laude BS graduate in Mathematical Physics and a degree in International Relations. She studied and traveled all over Europe, always fantasizing about the middle ages, dragons, ghosts, and fairies. For fun she wrote short stories to read to her sister and young cousins during Christmas family gatherings. When she returned to America and discovered cooking, she became a Chef. However, stories were always popping in her head all the time, making her realize that her first love was writing.
She resides in sunny Southern California and enjoys walks on the beach at sunrise, collecting seashells and beach glass, always wondering about mermaids. She loves anything cute with little four legs, including frogs, and iguanas (although she avoids the kissing part), that she names after green food items when they show up at her doorstep.
When she escapes into the magic of the California forests, Sophia ponders about the existence of elementals, fairies, werewolves, and Big Foot. A geek at heart with an odd fascination for Chinese Kung Fu movies, Star Wars, and Vampire TV shows, plotting a way to time travel to the middle ages, meet dragons, talk to ghosts, and perhaps become a Ninja with pink hair like a forest fairy.
Her books keep her readers on their toes with her adrenaline-fueled adventures, suspense-filled cliffhangers, and romantic whimsical scenes. You will find her sitting down with a book in hand, hiding in corner of the nearest coffee shop when she isn’t writing.
My thoughts: Ailie has had a difficult childhood, orphaned and raised by nuns, bullied by her classmates and mistreated by the Sisters, some of whom think she’s possessed.
But as her sixteenth birthday arrives, it’s finally time to learn about who she really is and why she’s so important. In a war between two races hiding among humans, she’s vital to the survival of her people, as long as she doesn’t open the gates to Hell first.
This was an interesting take on angels and demons, vampires and werewolves. Centered around a teenage girl who doesn’t know anything about this hidden world of ancient beings, cursed and at war.
I liked Ailie and felt for her, her confusion and mine matched at times, she was inundated with new information and struggled with understanding it all, and then trying to reconcile all of that with what she does know.
Michelle Alger flees when her secretly recorded tryst winds up on the internet. She has no option but to hide. Her one-night stand—the son of a powerful US senator—was murdered. Learning she’s the prime suspect is traumatizing. Already a member of witness protection thanks to a Colombian drug lord kidnapping her in college, she now has to run from the senator and law enforcement. To make matters worse, the drug lord finally knows her location and is hot on her trail. There’s only one man she trusts. He saved her once, can he do it again six years later?
Captain Jeremy Malone no longer wears a Green Beret. He’s traded in his fatigues for a new life leading Delta Squad, a covert unit within SweetBriar Group. His latest orders from the senator: find the unknown woman and bring her to me. But Jeremy knows her identity. He once rescued her from a Colombian cartel, and has never forgotten her. He assigns his squad a new mission: find Michelle first and learn the real story.
Michelle and Jeremy can’t deny their explosive chemistry. But, with every new piece of evidence, Jeremy’s faith in Michelle’s innocence is questioned. Is her plea for help a ruse…or a trap set by a beautiful woman determined to expose Jeremy’s own secrets…
This is the second book in the SweetBriar Group (SBG) series and can be read as a standalone.
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Author Bio:
P. A. DePaul is a Publishers Weekly Bestselling and award-winning author.Her books are full of action, suspense, and romance.
As a hybrid author, she has books traditionally and independently published. Her traditional publishers include Berkley, a Penguin Random House imprint, and Harlequin Books.
A Key Element of Romantic Suspense That Keeps the Pages Turning
I absolutely love it when a book has me sitting on the edge of my seat with my heart pounding and pages turning so fast, I risk a papercut or dead battery. As a reader, I get to enjoy the ride, as an author it’s my job to transport someone else into that adrenaline space. Oh, excuse me, I should introduce myself. My name is P.A. DePaul and I write Romantic Suspense. I’ve had books traditionally published with Penguin and Harlequin, and I’ve indie published a romantic suspense series.
Writing Romantic Suspense is a lot of fun, but like any genre it has rules. Since no one wants me to go on forever, I’ll talk about one of my favorite components with examples from my latest release, Shadow of Doubt.
Golden Rule: Increase suspense through the use of High Action. This is the fun stuff. The heart-pounding, pulse-racing, page-turning situations the hero and heroine have to accomplish/escape/evade/stop/hurdle before something really bad happens. But, as the story progresses the stakes must rise or the story falls flat.
In Shadow of Doubt, the heroine finds out someone filmed her drunken escapade with a senator’s son and posted it on YouTube. Normally that’d be embarrassing but nothing noteworthy. But when you pair that film with the next day’s headlines that the son was found dead in his hotel room, now you’ve got an attention getting opening. Now, I need to raise the stakes. So, add in her being wanted by the FBI, getting kicked out of Witness Protection which puts her back into a drug cartel’s sights, and I’ve raised the stakes. But we can’t stop there. We need the hero involved and he can’t just be a boy scout. Let’s make him wonder if she truly did murder the senator’s son and what he has to do about it in his investigation. Hopefully the readers’ heartbeats are thumping as they are turning the pages.
In each High Action sequence, (think washed out smuggled plane rides, daring escapes, and cat-and-mouse with a villain just to name a few) I consistently increase the suspense. The risk-level of the outcomes affect the group if the hero/heroine fails. Putting more and more at stake in each action sequence keeps readers hooked until the very end.
Are you hooked? I’m hoping you’re at least curious. You can pick up a digital or paperback copy of Shadow of Doubt, at your favorite retailer.
Extract from Chapter One
Cappy was going to hell.
The sight of Michelle’s perfect ass disappearing out the window was now permanently burned into his brain. He was such a bastard for avidly watching it wiggle as she forced her body through the tight opening.
Every nerve ending north of his toes still vibrated from touching her. Though he had sounded like a bumbling idiot earlier, he’d meant it when he’d blurted how amazing she looked, so healthy and whole. The antithesis of the bloody, broken woman damaged by the Osvaldo Cartel in that shithole room six years ago. This beautiful, vibrant, sexy woman surged his blood and overloaded his fantasies. God built her body for a man like him. Built her for deep, hard sex, be it up against a wall or bent over a chair . . . Goddammit.
Straight. To. Hell.
Remember the mission. He couldn’t think of her in any terms other than professional. For Christ’s sake, he had to find out if she killed the senator’s son. Not have her starring in his latest mental porno.
He pulled a disposable phone from his leg pocket and dropped it inside her overlarge bag. Once he zipped the thing closed, he called, “Heads up. Purse coming through.”
He gave it a little nudge over the sill, hearing it thud into her hands before he yanked the battery out of the back of her cell phone. Now no one could trace her from the GPS in the device—which had been his plan if she hadn’t called him.
He dropped the pieces into his leg pocket for later disposal. Putting on his sunglasses, he ensured his gun holster wouldn’t knock into the frame’s edges, and slid soundlessly through the small opening, then closed the window. Turning, he half expected to find her gone, but she stood just to the left, chewing on her lip with fear lacing through her irises.
“This way,” he whispered, grabbing her hand and motioning toward a grungy building next door.
The electricity from the contact instantly had him hard. He grunted and urged her forward. He pulled her around the back corner of a convenience store and stopped, shifting his hips to relieve the pressure.
“Cutting it too close, Cappy,” Talon admonished softly. Michelle jumped, squealed, then slapped a hand over her mouth.
Yeah. Talon had that effect on people. He was so damn good at blending into the background, he caught most by surprise.
Cappy seized Michelle’s hand to stop her from inching backward. “Relax.”
Her eyes were as large as her face, and she didn’t seem able to look away from his teammate. A sudden shot of jealousy spiked through his veins. Stow that shit. He had no time for the destructive emotion, and it was wrong on so many levels.
“Where’s the car?” he barked, jolting them all. Christ.
Engines raced into the parking lot next door and instantly shut off. Car doors opened, then slammed shut.
Cappy didn’t need to see his teammate’s eyes to know they were both thinking about how they had just barely made it. Michelle trembled underneath his palm.
“Car’s on the other side of the dry cleaners, as commanded.” Talon pointed to a building that had seen better days adjacent to the convenience store.
* * *
Dear God, who is this guy? Michelle couldn’t stop staring at the wicked knife with the onyx blade still protruding from SCK’s [Stone Cold Killer’s] fist.
She shivered.
A male voice yelled from the hotel’s parking lot, “You two cover the back. White, start peering in windows. I’ll talk to the desk clerk.”
“Our signal to move,” Jeremy whispered, jerking her arm as he pulled her forward.
She ran as fast as possible but knew she wasn’t close to the speed both men wanted. Tough darts. She didn’t live in a gym like them.
Had she done the right thing, calling Jeremy? She trailed behind the two men, still rattled by his apparent connection to the FBI’s investigation. He saved you before. Yeah, he did. Was he doing that now? Every TV show, movie, and book she’d ever read clearly pointed out how only those closely connected to a case were privy to details like a raid on a hotel room. Did that mean Jeremy saw the YouTube video?
Talon glanced over his shoulder. His dark shades had slid down and the cold light in his eyes sent fear racing down her spine. No. No! She pulled against Jeremy’s grip, her mind plunging back into Colombia without warning. Cold steel bit into her skin while the man with a pair of emotionless yet fanatical eyes stared at her. “You going to talk now, puta?”
“Michelle,” Jeremey snapped. “Stay with me.”
She blinked away the vision, disoriented at being ripped back into the present so fast. Jeremy tightened his grip and dragged her against his side. For a brief moment, she allowed her head to fall against his meaty shoulder. She inhaled his addictive scent and instantly felt better.
“Eyes front, Talon.” Jeremy flattened her body against the side of the dry cleaners. “We clear to make a break for the car on the other side?”
From beyond the hotel and as far as Michelle could glimpse in the other direction, the backs of the buildings were relatively flush with each other. Some had blacktop as if for additional parking while others had large dumpsters filling the space.
“O Romeo, Romeo. Wherefore art thou Romeo?” Talon crooned softly.
What the heck?
Jeremy flashed SCK a grin and placed his lips next to her earlobe. She shivered at the faint breath and almost missed his command. “Keep low but run as fast as you can. Don’t stop or slow down. Once you clear the corner, wait for us.” Her mind turned to mush at his whispered words. “We’ll use our bodies to block the view if someone should glance this way.”
It took everything she had not to giggle and lift her shoulder. Get it together, Michelle. This is serious.
He placed a large hand at the small of her back. “Go.” He gave her a little push.
My thoughts: want an action packed, thrill filled read with sexy secret agents, a damsel in distress and plots galore? Here you go!
Michelle went through hell aged 19 after being kidnapped and tortured by a Colombian cartel. She was rescued but left with more than physical scars. When she’s set up to look like the killer of a senator’s son, she calls the one person she thinks can help her.
Cappy – once Captain Jeremy Malone, is now the leader of a black ops squad, and he and his team leap into action. The senator is technically their boss, so it’s in their best interests to solve the case before any law enforcement anyway. Their former employer is in prison and out for revenge. As is an old friend of Cappy’s.
As all hell breaks loose and they hunt the killer, Michelle is also being stalked by a man with a grudge over what happened in the Colombian jungle. Can the team stop all these dangerous figures in their tracks and save the day? Can Cappy and Michelle out their mutual attraction to one side so they can survive long enough?
The team still find time to crack jokes (the ongoing hat gag had me smiling) and tease each other, the code names are amusing, and it’s easy to warm to them, even grumpy Talon. Highly enjoyable and entertaining, like an episode of your favourite cop/spy show.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
We’re thrilled to share the cover of Awry by Meghan Ciana Doidge. This looks like it’s going to be a fantastic read!
“Without me, there is no existence, no future or fate, for anyone else. Or so I’ve been told. It’s possible my ancestors were just seriously full of shit.”
⚡Chosen One
⚡Fated Mates
⚡Found Family
⚡Magic
⚡Ride or Die
⚡Shifters
⚡Slow burn Romance
⚡Why Choose – MGMM
On my way to investigate my aunt’s untimely death, I chance upon a teenager with purple eyes. Her destiny is so vibrant, so intertwined with the essence that fuels all our lives, that I cannot stand to see her caged and crushed.
What I don’t know is that rescuing the teen isn’t chance or happenstance at all. It isn’t just another random bit of destiny I can fix. It’s a snag in the weave of the universe that unravels … everything.
I am exactly who I am meant to be. I belong to no one but the universe. My destiny was spun and measured before I was born. I never really had a choice. But the path that brought me to becoming the Conduit at least a century before my time has been manipulated. And along the way, I’ve somehow lost far more than I ever knew I had.
Friends.
Lovers.
Soul-bound mates.
More than just my life has been twisted, all our fates ripped away.
And I remember none of it.
Awry is the first book in the Conduit Series, which is a secondary-world urban fantasy romance. Content warnings and tropes/themes can be found at the beginning of the book or on the author’s website.
Meghan Ciana Doidge is the author of Adept Universe, including the Dowser, Oracle, Reconstructionist, Amplifier, Archivist, and Misfits of the Adept Universe series. She lives on beautiful Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada with her husband, Michael, Molly, the Chocolate Shar Pei, and a turtle, Miranda the Yellow-Bellied Slider. She has a penchant for bloody love stories, superheroes, and the supernatural. She also has a thing for chocolate, potatoes, and cashmere.
ramblingmads 