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Tuesday, November 28, 2017

BLITZ: Locked-Down Heart by Tarina Deaton

Locked-Down Heart
by Tarina Deaton



Blurb:
Denise Reynolds’s tightly controlled life is thrown off kilter when she’s given custody of her young cousins. There are days she has a hard enough time getting herself out of bed, never mind two precocious kids.
If that wasn’t enough, Chris Nolton comes strolling back into town as suddenly as he left it. She’d broken her own rules and given him a chance once before, only to have him ghost on her. But he’s not there for her this time. No, he’s leading the FBI Task Force intent on capturing the kids’ biological father. A man who was sent to prison for manslaughter. A man who was released five years too early. A man who wants his kids back.
The past has a way of repeating itself and once again, Denise finds herself defending the innocent against the evil of world. One wrong decision, one second guess, could have devastating consequences. To protect the most important people in her life, she’ll need to trust the one man with the power to break her.
NOW LIVE!


ADD TO YOUR TBR!



Excerpt #1
Denise was half-way across the yard when lightening split the sky and struck one of the trees in the field next to the barn.
Fists clenched at her side, she screamed into the storm. Everything came crashing down on her—the anger, the pain, the fear and uncertainty pressed mercilessly down on her and she could bear the weight of it any longer. Her knees bucked and she sank to the ground.
Violent sobs forced their way out of her chest. The storm raged and crashed around her echoing the one inside her. A small, rational section of her brain told her to get her dumb ass up and out of the rain, but she couldn’t make her limbs move. Couldn’t find the strength to keep pushing forward.
“Denise! Denise!”
Hands grabbed her upper arms, jerking her out of her stupor.
Surging to her feet, she fought the person holding her, pushing away from them.
“Denise, it’s Chris!”
She didn’t care. She needed to lash out and hurt something—someone. Use her fists to transfer some of the pain and anger away from her onto someone else.
Her fist connected with a hard wall of flesh, followed by a muffled, “oomph.”
“You wanna let it out?” He shouted. “Have at it.”
“Fuck you!” She threw a left jab, followed by a right hook to his jaw, snapping his head to the side.
He turned his head back and laughed. “That’s it?”
“Fuck! You!” She shoved him and forced him back a step.
He took two forward, crowding into her space. The thin material of his t-shirt moulded to his chest and abs while water dripped from his face. He held his arms out to the side, daring her to hit him again. “Come on, Denise. I know you can do better than that. Give me your worst.”
Excerpt #2
Chris reclined the driver’s seat back a few more inches. He’d been sitting in his truck for almost three hours. Bree’s car had been in the drive when he arrived, so he’d parked a few houses down to avoid her spotting his truck. Denise had walked her to the door thirty minutes ago and a few lights had gone off.
Glancing down at this phone, he dimmed the brightness and opened his ebook app. Rereading Pet Sematary would keep him awake, even if it made him damn glad he didn’t own a cat.
The phone rang, Denise’s name appearing on the screen. “Hey.”
“Hey.” She didn’t say anything else.
“Everything okay?” He looked up the street toward her house.
“I’m not sure.”
He sat up straight and scanned around the house for anything unusual. “What do you mean?”
“I think I should call the cops.”
He couldn’t see anything from where he was parked. Was something going on at the back of the house? He thumbed the control to raise the back of his seat. “What’s going on?”
“I think there’s a creeper parked down the street.”
He paused with his hand on the ignition button. “A what?”
“You know…a creeper. Stalker. Weirdo.”
He relaxed back into his seat. “Why does it have to be a weirdo?” Guaranteed she’d spotted him and was fucking with him.
“Well, he keeps shifting around in his seat like he’s rubbing one out.”
“I’m—” A knock on the passenger side window interrupted him. Sighing, he ended the call and unlocked the doors.
Denise climbed inside and pulled the door shut. “Whatcha doin’?”
“Not rubbing one out.”
“So I can see.” She glanced down at his lap.
Author Bio:
Tarina has spent her entire life in and around the military - first as a dependent and then as an enlisted Air Force member.
In 2015, a friend challenged her to complete NaNoWriMo. She dusted off one of the many stories she'd started over the years, threw it in the trash, and started all over.
Her debut novel, Stitched Up Heart, released in September 2016. The military gives her plenty of material to work with and she strives to create characters who authentically represent all facets of the military life - the good and the not so great.
Tarina is still active duty, a single mom of five-year-old twins, and a closet romantic. Her favorite hobby is sleep. She has delusions of retiring from the military and being a stay-at-home mom.
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Friday, November 17, 2017

Cover Reveal - Locked-Down Heart by Tarina Deaton

~ Cover Reveal ~

Locked-Down Heart
by Tarina Deaton



Blurb:
Denise Reynolds’s tightly controlled life is thrown off kilter when she’s given custody of her young cousins. There are days she has a hard enough time getting herself out of bed, never mind two precocious kids.
If that wasn’t enough, Chris Nolton comes strolling back into town as suddenly as he left it. She’d broken her own rules and given him a chance once before, only to have him ghost on her. But he’s not there for her this time. No, he’s leading the FBI Task Force intent on capturing the kids’ biological father. A man who was sent to prison for manslaughter. A man who was released five years too early. A man who wants his kids back.
The past has a way of repeating itself and once again, Denise finds herself defending the innocent against the evil of world. One wrong decision, one second guess, could have devastating consequences. To protect the most important people in her life, she’ll need to trust the one man with the power to break her.



Excerpt:
Denise glanced through the peephole, then rocked back on her heels.
The bottom dropped out of her stomach then rushed up again to choke her. What the fuck? She stared at the door, trying to decide if she should open it or not.
Three more sharp knocks made the decision for her.
She unlocked the door and yanked it open.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she demanded.
Chris took a step back. Whether from the door opening suddenly, her, or her question, she wasn’t sure. He looks tired. It wasn’t her problem. Never was.
“Denise?”
“Yes, Chris. What are you doing here?”
The lines between his dark eyebrows grew more pronounced.“What are you doing here?”
His strong jaw was covered with stubble, accentuating the lines of his mouth. A mouth that was surprisingly soft, especially when it grazed over her skin. Her nipples pebbled under her thin t-shirt. Damn her traitorous body. It’d been almost seven months since he’d ghosted, it should have gotten the message by now and forgotten him.
“I asked first.” She set her gun on the high shelf above the coat hooks and grabbed the zip-up hoodie hanging by the door, zipping it half way up.
“Why are you answering the door with a gun?” he asked.
“Because this isn’t the greatest neighborhood and some asshole was pounding on my door.” The neighborhood sucked. It wasn’t the greatest when Sarah bought the small three-bedroom house and it had only gotten worse in the last five years. She was pretty sure her neighbor two doors down was dealing. As long as he wasn’t cooking, and he kept it to his doorstep, she was willing to over look it. But Kimber and Kaden were going to her parents’ the minute the school year was over.
“Why are you here?” She enunciated the question this time. She needed a quick answer so she could work on forgetting Christopher Nolton. Again.
“I’m looking for Sarah Reed.”
Her shoulders sagged and she rubbed her hand over her eyes. “She’s not here.”
“When will she be back?”
Denise glanced over her shoulder. Sprocket sat in the opening of the short hall that led to the two small bedrooms at the back of the house. She let out a low woof and laid down, resting her head on her paws. She sensed Denise’s stress, but was doing what she’d been told to do.
Denise stepped out of the house and pulled the door shut behind her, leaving it cracked. Chris stepped back on the small concrete pad.
“She’s not coming back. She’s in the hospital with terminal cancer.”
Light dawned behind his eyes. “Shit. She’s your cousin.” Chris ran his hands over his hair. It had grown long and now curled around his ears and jawline. If it weren’t for the stubble and dark circles under his eyes, he’d look boyishly charming. Things she should not be noticing.



Author Bio:
Tarina has spent her entire life in and around the military - first as a dependent and then as an enlisted Air Force member.
In 2015, a friend challenged her to complete NaNoWriMo. She dusted off one of the many stories she'd started over the years, threw it in the trash, and started all over.
Her debut novel, Stitched Up Heart, released in September 2016. The military gives her plenty of material to work with and she strives to create characters who authentically represent all facets of the military life - the good and the not so great.
Tarina is still active duty, a single mom of five-year-old twins, and a closet romantic. Her favorite hobby is sleep. She has delusions of retiring from the military and being a stay-at-home mom.
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Tuesday, November 14, 2017

~ COVER REVEAL ~ Love By The Slice by Heather Young-Nichols

~ COVER REVEAL ~
Love By The Slice
by Heather Young-Nichols



BLURB:
What’s better? Love, or pizza? Definitely pizza.
Bianca Russo is obsessed with Romano’s; her grandfather’s pizza parlor comes with a lot of memories, as well as trouble. A secret sauce recipe handed down through generations keeps Romano’s popular with tourists and locals alike. It’s so good, several corporations have offered to buy the business… and have even attempted to steal the recipe that makes Romano’s pizza great.
Bianca came to help her grandfather run the parlor. She didn’t expect to find a hot Italian working there with her.
Gio Diamati is ridiculously sexy, and he sure can throw a pizza. Their chemistry is instant, their romance forbidden and delicious. Bianca refuses to date Gio because they work together, but she can’t deny the truth her heart betrays… she’s falling for him.
But Gio isn’t there for the money. He’s there for the sauce.
Gio wasn’t supposed to fall in love during his mission to discover Romano’s secret recipe, but that’s just what he did. Now, he has to choose between the family who has given him everything, or the girl he can’t stop thinking about.
Gio must decide… his obligations? Or his heart?
Mysterious, romantic, and full of twists and betrayal, Love by the Slice is a new adult contemporary romance novel featuring laughs, pizza, sweet kisses, and erotic nights. This college-age story is a heartbreaking and endearing tale about forbidden love and second chances.


99 Penny Pre-order!


Snippet #1
“Hey.” I shook his hand as his eyes roamed my body from top to bottom which warmed my blood. Yeah, it probably should have bugged me but it didn’t. I didn’t mind him looking even if I only wore shorts and a tank top.
I’m pretty sure Gio could’ve been wearing a trash bag and it would’ve been the hottest trash bag in the world. The man was gorgeous.
Standing six feet, maybe a touch more, Gio looked like a mountain next to my five feet and a couple of inches. The way the white t-shirt stretched across his chest led me to believe I wanted to see what was underneath and it’d be worth any wait. On top of all the hotness, Gio had a face that made you want to slap your Italian grandma. Nice olive skin perfectly complementing short black hair and dark, almost black, eyes.
I was light where he was dark. I was soft where he was hard. And boy was his body hard.


Snippet #2
Suddenly, he stopped. Both of his hands fisted against the counter on either side of my thighs while his head dropped as he stared at the floor, his eyes squeezed shut. What the what? I wondered what I may have done wrong but nothing came to mind, tried to find the moment when things had changed but there wasn’t one. He took deep breaths but avoided any eye contact with me.
“I can’t do this,” he said softly.
Thinking he was trying to be chivalrous, I pushed my knee against the front of his pants.
“I think you can,” I said trying to sound and look as enticing as possible.
“That’s not what I meant.” His fingers wrapped around my wrist to pull it away from his chest. The gentleness with which he did it crushed me. Was he turning me down? With as hard as he’d tried in the beginning and the way he seemed to enjoy spending time with me, it was hard to fathom he might not want it as much as I did. I refused to believe that. Something else had to be going on.
Finally, he looked up at me, our eyes locking in some sort of nonverbal showdown. I tried to read whatever he had going through his head. He definitely had desire sparkling within those beautiful brown orbs, but why he’d stopped wasn’t clear. At first. And then it felt like a slap to the face. It was me.
“O…oh…ok.” I stammered past the humiliation. “You mean you can’t do it with me. Got it.”
“Bianca—”


Snippet #3
“Come on,” I took his arm pulling him into my apartment. Grabbing a bag of frozen peas, I tossed it to him then plopped onto the couch. He followed, dropping the bag onto his crotch with a groan. He hadn’t said anything. I didn’t know if it he couldn’t or if he had nothing to say in response to being hit in the nuts.
“I deserved that. She’s right,” he finally said.
“Yeah, she kind of hates you.”
“Is she the only one? Do you want a shot at my junk?” He didn’t sound like he was kidding. Like he would gladly stand there and let me injure him further if it’d make me feel better.
I’d be lying if I said my ovaries hadn’t been jumping like a basketball since he’d been back. Only now I let my head do the thinking. “I’m good. Thanks for the offer, though.” I guessed it was time for grown-up talk. “I don’t hate you. I tried to, but it never took. I’d steer clear of my dad, though.”
“You told them…everything. Everything?”
I nodded.
He squeezed his eyes shut as if he’d been punched again. “Then I deserve for him to kick my ass, too.”





AUTHOR BIO:
Heather Young-Nichols is a multi-published YA and contemporary romance author and a native of the great and often very cold state of Michigan. She is better known at home and to her friends as the Snarker-in-Chief, a job she excels at beyond anything she could have imagined. She loves many things, but especially cold coffee, hot books, and baseball. But not necessarily in that order.


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