Tag: romance

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Cover Reveal: A Scottish Island Summer – Julie Shackman

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A Scottish Island Summer

When ambitious city girl, Darcie Freeman is sent to the Isle of Skye to conduct research for a travel guide, she’s horrified. The prospect of having to travel to a remote island in the Scottish Highlands leaves her wondering what she’ll do.

Step in Logan Burns. Gorgeous and adventurous, he lives and breathes the island, and along with his sister Iona, who owns a rather haphazard PR company, they’re going to show Darcie everything she needs to know about Skye.

As Darcie swaps her designer shoes for her walking boots and her faux fur jacket for her raincoat, will she learn there’s more to life than the picture-perfect presence she shares on social media, or will it be the case that Skye is the limit…

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Publication Date: 30th January 2025

Julie Shackman is a former journalist from Scotland, who has always wanted to write feel-good romance. As well as being an author, Julie also writes verses and captions for greetings card companies. Julie admits to having an obsession with stationery and handbags. She is married, has two sons and adopted a Romanian rescue puppy, Cooper. A Scottish Island Summer is Julie’s twelfth novel.

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Blog Tour: A Love Letter to Paris – Rebecca Raisin

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Late at night when I wander the streets of Paris, my thoughts turn to her… How do I tell her how I feel? Perhaps, I need to show her…

The pretty little streets of Montmartre are abuzz with a rumour. Apparently a mystery matchmaker, known only as ‘Paris Cupid’, has somehow helped the city’s most famous bachelor find love.
But old-fashioned romantic Lilou is staying very quiet. She’d just wanted to set up her best friend, and to get on with her life selling whimsical old love letters, in Paris’s famous St. Ouen market.
She hadn’t imagined her little Paris Cupid project could ever have attracted so many people looking for true, heartfelt romance. Though the truth is that Lilou adores helping people find the right person. Even if her own love life is nothing short of disastrous.

But then a message arrives. And it’s just for her. Someone is in love with her. Someone who knows her secret. But they’re keeping their own identity secret too… Could it be from cheerful, talkative,
flame-haired Felix? Or quiet, beautifully handsome Benoit? Or even Pascale – who drives Lilou mad every day?
After so long of helping others find their soulmate, is it time for Lilou to find love of her own in Paris herself?

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Rebecca Raisin writes heartwarming romance from her home in sunny Perth, Australia. Her heroines tend to be on the quirky side and her books are usually set in exotic locations so her readers can
armchair travel any day of the week. The only downfall about writing about gorgeous heroes who have brains as well as brawn, is falling in love with them – just as well they’re fictional. Rebecca aims
to write characters you can see yourself being friends with. People with big hearts who care about relationships and believe in true, once in a lifetime love. Her bestselling novel Rosie’s Travelling Tea
Shop has been optioned for film with MRC studios and Frolic Media.

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My thoughts: this was a delightful story about love, finding it in the last person you expected and about helping others find love.

Lilou sells old diaries, letters and books from her stall in one of Paris’ famous flea markets, giving new life to old things. She loves romance and wants to help others find it, even if her own love life has been a bit disastrous. Secretly she sets up Paris Cupid, a matchmaking website that connects you to your potential soulmate and then you write love letters to one another before agreeing to meet. Old fashioned romance for the 21st Century.

When a famous actor gets matched and then talks about how he found his fiancèe, in every interview he gives, word is out and Paris Cupid is overwhelmed with lonely hearts. And now they’re wondering who the anonymous matchmaker is. What can Lilou do?

Meanwhile she’s being sent love letters of her own, but who is her secret admirer? Is it Felix, with his printing press, or Benoit with his beautiful calligraphy? Or is perhaps grumpy scowling Pascale who sells vintage typewriters across the way?

A charming, whimsical romance story set in beautiful Montmartre in Paris. There’s even a pair of loved up feral cats as well. So cute.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: Love at First Sight – Jessica Gilmore

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‘A lovely warm escapist read’ KATE EBERLEN

She’s in love. Just with the wrong man…

Nora is done with dating, but still dreams of finding the one. So when a handsome stranger comes to her rescue one night and vanishes leaving only a business card, it’s like a scene out of a movie…

It doesn’t take long for the two to ‘bump’ into each other again, and Nora falls for the perfect-on-paper Gabe. Only a few weeks later, he invites her to Sicily, and she cannot believe her luck!

Until Gabe is forced away for work, leaving her alone with his big and warm family in gorgeous Sicily who welcome her with open arms. Everyone but Luca, his older and distrustful brother, who is
always around.

Soon Nora finds herself on a dreamy, romantic getaway-just with the wrong brother.

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A charity-working, dog-walking, child-wrangling, dust-ignoring bookworm, Jessica lives in the beautiful and historic city of York with one patient husband, one daughter, one very fluffy dog, two dog-loathing cats and a goldfish called Bob.
As day dreaming is her very favourite hobby and she loves a good happy-ever-after Jessica can’t
believe she’s lucky enough to write romance for a living. Say hi on Twitter at @yrosered or visit sprigmuslin.blogspot.com

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My thoughts: I seem to be reading a lot of books set in Florence recently, maybe it’s a sign! Nora visits Florence while staying with her sort-of fiancé’s family in Sicily, on the trail of her father, the great love story of her mother’s sadly cut short life.

Her own love story is a bit bumpy too. She’s dating Gabe, who doesn’t really seem too interested in her as a person and abandons her at the airport with his entire family, who she has never met before, and goes off to New York for work. Which considering he works in finance and the internet exists seems suspicious. I’m sure he could have stayed in Sicily and worked from there. I’m onto you Gabe.

However, Gabe aside, the Catalano family are a delight, loud, loving Italians (Sicilians don’t always identify as Italian, I was told once, the island’s history being quite complicated) who feed her, give her a place to stay and take her to their hearts. And then there’s Gabe’s older brother Luca. Well, I think he might be the perfect Italian Stallion. And so does Nora. Which might be a bit awkward.

I loved Nora and her supportive and charming friends, the Catalanos never stop talking and embrace her so thoroughly, and it just has such a sweet and charming ending. Delightful, lovely heartwarming stuff.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Cover Reveal: The Red Woman and the White Bear – Fern A. Ellis

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Check out the cover for The Red Woman and the White Bear by Fern A. Ellis! Coming this Fall!

Front Cover

The Red Woman and the White Bear

Expected Publication Date: Fall 2024

Genre: Romantic Fantasy

  • Fae courts
  • Enemies to lovers
  • Hurt/comfort
  • Shadow magic
  • Court politics
  • Opposing religions/religion is magic
  • Slow burn forbidden love
  • Hidden identity
  • Morally grey characters
  • Reluctant chosen one
  • Soul-deep connection

It is both the fate and the burden of the Red Woman to bring peace.

The Fae are real—this is a fact that Aisling Morrow has believed with varying degrees of certainty since she was a child. Her late mother’s accounts of their beauty still linger in her mind, but always with the caveat: Do not involve yourself uninvited with matters of the Fae. Aisling has no plans to do so—until she discovers an arcane prophecy which names her the Red Woman, destined to turn the tides of war in the realm of Wyldraíocht by ensuring the fall of the Unseelie Court.

On a quest to understand her role, Aisling ventures into Wyldraíocht. Except Fae prophecies aren’t so easily interpreted, and she is soon ensnared in a dangerous web of political machinations, opposing religions, and dark magic—at the center of which stands the fierce and vengeful Unseelie King.

King Kael Ardhen, a vessel for raw power bestowed upon him by an eldritch god, is consumed by his own unbridled rage—a rage which he would not hesitate to turn on the human woman prophesied to destroy his court. Yet something about the way Aisling calls to his shadows draws him in, at once both granting him control over his violent magic and inviting him to relinquish control over his guarded heart.

As unsettling truths about the world her mother so loved challenge Aisling’s convictions and call into question the true purpose of the Red Woman, the Veil between realms grows ever weaker with the echoes of war. Soon, the crueler sorts of Fae will no longer be confined to Wyldraíocht. With time running out to protect those she loves, Aisling finds herself at the crossroads of fate and choice—and the ultimate price of peace may demand more than she is willing to pay.

COMING SOON

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Blog Tour: Cursed Under London – Gabby Hutchinson Crouch

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Two strangers.

Two Londons.

Two hearts that won’t stop beating…

In an alternative Elizabethan London, Fang awakes from his death to discover he is not quite human anymore. In fact, despite having somehow acquired the power of immortality, he’s also not quite vampire, zombie, werewolf or any of the other supernatural beings who roam the twin cities of Upper London and its underground counterpart, Deep London.

A jaded traveller from the Ming Empire, Fang is desperate to find a way to reverse the spell and get on with being dead when he stumbles upon Lazare de Quitte-Beuf, a theatrical Frenchman who is afflicted with the same mysterious condition. Thrown together by the curse they share, the two men set out to undo the strange magic that binds them. As they are drawn further into the shadowy world of Deep London, they unearth a dangerous plot which they appear to be right in the middle of…

And, surely, when in grave danger, the worst thing they could do would be to fall in love, wouldn’t it?

My thoughts: this is very very funny, very silly and just a bit brilliant. I loved it.

Fang is cursed not to die, he gets stabbed a fair bit, but nothing seems to kill him. He’s fed up, tired and a long way from home. Lazare also gets cursed but nothing (except maybe not getting cast in Kit Marlowe’s play) gets him down, he’s basically happy all the time. Thrown together in an attempt to undo their curses, successfully avoid getting arrested and finding themselves in Deep London, literally under the city, with a small dragon called Amber (I would love a small dragon pal), Nell the apothecary and a little girl who is very scared, they’re on the adventure of a lifetime and right in the middle of a total lunatic’s scheme! 

It’s just a lot of fun, there’s so many fantasy (and romance) tropes and little references and I just had a ball reading it. The first in a new series, it’s an absolute treat. 

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: It Started With a Book – Camilla Isley

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Lose yourself in Lakeville Hills in this gorgeous new romance from bestselling author Camilla Isley…

When she’s ghosted by yet another Tinder match, Leighton swears off dating for life. Who needs apps and blind dates when she has the perfect-in-every-way (apart from being fictional) heroes of her beloved romance novels?

That night Leigh finds a second-hand book on her TBR pile, which transports her to the small-town of Lakeville Hills, where the heroines wear shorty-shorts and the men drink bourbon. And as Leigh drifts
off to sleep, she dreams of billionaire cowboy Killian St Clair, who could win a gold medal for smouldering and bicep flexing.
For a while, Leigh finds it easier to stomach misogynistic supervisors, newly coupled friends, and extravagant bridesmaid duties knowing she can return to Lakeville Hills each evening.

Until one day, she wakes up to find she’s brought a bit of Lakeville Hills back with her: the impossible sexy and entirely implausible Killian St Clair is in her apartment.
Now Leigh must help Killian navigate the real world. But as she gets to know the man behind the trope, can she keep her heart safe, or does she risk falling in love with her book boyfriend in real life?

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Camilla is an engineer who left science behind to enter the whimsical realm of romantic fiction.
She writes contemporary rom-coms. Her characters have big hearts, might be a little stubborn at times, and love to banter with each other. Every story she pens has a guaranteed HEA that will make your heart beat faster. Unless you’re a vampire, of course.
Camilla is a cat lover, coffee addict, and shoe hoarder. Besides writing, she loves reading—duh!—cooking, watching bad TV, and going to the movies—popcorn, please. She’s a bit of a foodie, nothing too serious. A keen traveler, Camilla knows mosquitoes play a role in the ecosystem, and she doesn’t want to starve all those frog princes out there, but she could really live without them.

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My thoughts: this was lots of fun, we all have that romantic lead that we think we’d fall in love with if they were real, and suddenly right there. Well, Leighton wakes up with her book boyfriend in her bed.

Killian St Cloud is a cowboy billionaire, suddenly in Chicago, no billions in the bank, because he doesn’t exist. Except he does, other people can see him and now they have to make him a life. First there’s getting him some non-cowboy clothes, a job, an ID, and are they really in love?

Funny, silly, entertaining and with a fantastic pair of protagonists, this is a fab read and will keep you amused for hours.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Book Blitz: The Love Chase – Emily Schneider

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If you love sweet, small-town romance with a marriage of convenience, you are going to want to get a copy of The Love Chase by Emily Schneider!

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The Love Chase

Publication Date: July 8, 2024

Genre: Romance/ Contemporary Romance

TROPES:

💍Marriage of convenience
🩷Friends to lovers
⛈️Storm chasing
🎸Country music
🏠”One townhouse”
💕Forced proximity
🏘️Small town romance
🥰”It’s always been you”
💘She fell first, he fell harder

Marrying my best friend for money without revealing my hidden feelings for him…How hard could it be?

Everything was going great until my life fell apart. One minute, I had a great internship, I was accomplishing my dream of becoming a storm chaser, and I was happy.

But in one single day, I became jobless, homeless, and deeply in debt, my life stuttering to a crashing halt.

Forced to head home to Meridel, proverbial tail tucked between my legs, things only got worse when I ran into my best friend, Liam—err, ex-best friend.

We’d been friends since we were kids, up until he moved away two years ago to chase his own dream of being a famous country music singer, effectively cutting me out of his life for good.

But now he’s back, and to top it off, his manager has created a harebrained scheme to improve his new bad boy image—marrying me.

If it weren’t for the money promised to me in exchange, I never would have agreed, especially when I’d been hiding the fact that I’d been in love with Liam for years.

But now, I have to marry my best friend, live in close quarters with him, and help him fix his reputation, all while keeping my feelings hidden?

Should be a piece of cake. Right?

The Love Chase is a sweet, closed-door romantic comedy, full of laugh-out-loud moments, sizzling chemistry, and swoony kisses.

This is the third interconnected standalone in the A Sweet Meridel Romance series.

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Cover Reveal: Of Monsters Of Kings – Kelly St Clare

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We are thrilled to present both the stunning cover and blurb for Of Monsters Of Kings by Kelly St. Clare! Now available for pre-order!

image

Of Monsters Of Kings (Unworldly City Book 1)

Expected Publication Date: July 25, 2024

Genre: Gothic Romantasy

  • Destined to be
  • Royal immortals
  • Monsters with manners
  • Age-gap
  • Hidden society
  • Ancient magic
  • Romance vs. duty
  • New girl in town

Bring. Take. Raise. Change. See.

Three princes, each, shall come to thee.

Monsters to guide kings to thrones,

To keep real monsters chained with blood and bone.

Your immortal burden cold and lonely,

Hear! Rule until the bloody finish.

For the mighty never stirred at dawn,

They burst forth at dusk,

into toothed beast’s yawn.

In the 1200 years since The End, fifty mothers in my line have passed the truth to their daughters. They passed truths of how the world was, of how the world changed, and even mythical stories of powerful romances that sparked great tragedy and war.

Those romances are dead and gone, and as the fiftieth daughter, I am determined the truths of my ancestors will die with me too.

I will be the last daughter to bury her withered mother.

But ancients pull back the bloodied curtain without warning, and I cannot unsee the hidden world revealed beyond. Sinister impossibilities lurk in this walled city. They have always existed—dusk immortals who battle and prowl, filled with menace and conflicting purpose. And they, even the dark creature I blind with my presence, must decide the fate of all.

Yet fifty mothers prepared for nightfall. They knew five kings could not win.

Now the fiftieth daughter will walk into the toothed beast’s yawn.

For the mighty never stirred at dawn… and I’m about to inherit something more monstrous than the truth.

Of Monsters Of Kings is a dark fantasy romance thoroughly drenched with the morally gray and intended for mature audiences. This story contains monsters with manners, heaped teaspoons of spice, magical impossibilities, and not many conventional things at all, really.

PRE-ORDER ON AMAZON

About the Author

Kelly St. Clare is the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Supernatural Battle, The Tainted Accords, The Darkest Drae, and Honey & Ice Trilogy.

She exists in her own fantasy in New Zealand where she works to regenerate the land, grow marvelous things, and create magical memories for her family.

Books are her fated mate, and she is immortally grateful to exist in this world of words where fresh opportunities hook her at every new chapter.

KELLY ST. CLARE

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Cover Reveal: Since We’re Here – Chrissy Hopewell

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We’re thrilled to present the cover for the next Hart Sister’s book by Chrissy Hopewell, Since We’re Here!

Since We're Here_Chrissy Hopewell_Cover_Media

Since We’re Here: A Grumpy Sunshine Irish Romance

Genre: Romance/ Interconnected Standalone

Expected Publication Date: September 9

  • Grumpy sunshine
  • Irish setting
  • Close proximity
  • He falls first
  • Fish out of water
  • Main characters in their 30s
  • Just once to get it out of our system
  • Pet sheep
  • Open door/ medium spice

Nine messy breakups, nine jobs lost. When restaurant manager Maddie Hart learns that number ten—a surf instructor based in the Caribbean—is cheating on her, she changes her destination flight (but not the contents of her suitcase) to Ireland. She’ll delay disappointing her family and figure out how to get her life back on track, while also planning her oldest sister’s pre-wedding Irish road trip. Except the groom-to-be’s best friend isn’t replying to her emails.

Ex-pro soccer goalkeeper Patrick McNulty has deep roots in the seaside town of Dingle, Ireland. He’s got clear priorities: be there for his aging parents, support his sister and nieces, and take over the family brewery while also managing his pub. None of that includes dating, because after one disastrous engagement, Patrick is done with relationships.

When the sunshine-y American tourist who asked him to kiss her in the pub turns out to be the same woman emailing for help planning a road trip, Patrick vows to keep it platonic. Especially after his pub manager quits and Maddie jumps in to help. Their sizzling chemistry leads them to sleep together just once, but it’s not nearly enough for either of them.

Maddie knows her future isn’t in Ireland—or with Patrick. And he needs to stay focused before his carefully planned life unravels with the distraction of the American tourist. The Irish road trip is their last chance…Will Patrick be able to convince her (and himself) that fighting for number eleven is worth the journey?

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Book Blitz: Dream Walker – Brittany Gossin

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Happy release day and congratulations to author Brittany Gossin on the release of Dream Walker, the first book in a brand-new series!

ebook

Dream Walker (Realm of Dreams #1)

Publication Date: July 2, 2024

Genre Romantic Fantasy

🗡️found family
🗡️Secrets and betrayal
🗡Closed-door spice
🗡️magic, fae, elves
🗡Dragons and demons
🗡️slow burn

In the aftermath of a harrowing nightmare, seventeen-year-old Ella Windsor must face a chilling reality as the wounds from her dreams appear on her body. To add to her terror, she witnesses the intrusion of a nightmarish creature come to life, lurking on her high school campus.

Faced with no choice but to escape the nightmares and search for why she’s the only one who can see them, Ella ventures into the mysterious Astral Realm. Alongside Ethan Wessex, a stunningly gorgeous Lieutenant of the Queen’s Astral Guard with his own air of mystery, Ella discovers a realm on the brink of war.

Azvameth, the King of Nightmares, harboring secrets of his own, seeks dominion not just over the Astral Realm but every waking world. With the assistance of other dream walkers, including the devastatingly handsome Cole, a Fae Prince, and Rhea, a feisty Elven female, each armed with latent magic, Ella may prove to be the missing piece in destroying Azvameth and saving her precious Mortal and Astral Realms.

In this epic romantasy, Ella grapples with love and betrayal, torn between the mysterious Ethan and the potential true love of Cole, all while embarking on a journey of self-discovery and found family. The nightmares have awakened, but so has she.

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