Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Sarah Daltry - The Flowering Series

Please welcome Sarah Daltry and her 
Flowering Series to the blog today!



18+ New Adult romance


These aren't sweet and innocent coming of age stories. If dirty talk, bedroom toys and threesomes offend you...these are not your books. There are also no billionaires, strippers or virgins. These are just the stories of typical college kids trying to connect to each other. 




Forget Me Not


Synopsis:

“No one tells you when you start school just how homesick you will be, or how hard it will be to start life over with no direction and no friends or family. No one says that becoming your own person is terrifying.”

Lily had a crush on her brother’s best friend, Derek, for years – which led to their steamy night ten months ago in her bedroom. Now, she’s off to college and she and Derek are still going strong. However, when school starts, Lily realizes it’s hard to maintain a relationship, while also trying to live her own life. She and Derek find themselves falling apart and she has no idea where to turn.

Enter Jack. Everything about him is wrong for Lily and she knows it, but she can’t stop herself from being attracted to him. When things implode with Derek, it’s Jack who’s there to pick up the pieces – and to show Lily an entirely new set of experiences she didn’t know she was missing. Of course, Jack has his own problems and once Lily gets to know him better, she starts to wonder if she can handle all of Jack.

When Derek reappears on the scene, Lily is forced to decide between two guys and herself. Can she find herself without losing the people who matter in the process?

Excerpt:

“Is it bad? Is something wrong with Derek?” Abby knows better than anyone how much I obsessed over him for years. She’s the one who bought me the vibrator last year for my birthday that ended up being the catalyst for my entire relationship with him. Four years of high school and three of them consisted of me whining about how badly I wanted to be with him.

“No, he’s okay. But, well, I have only seen him once since school started. We don’t even talk every night lately because our schedules are so different.”

“Are you having a lot of fun at school?”

“Not really,” I admit. “I’m just so sad about Derek. I feel like he doesn’t even care about me anymore.”

“That’s weird. You guys were headed for marriage when we graduated. What happened?”

“I don’t know. When he came to visit, it was amazing, of course, but now we are both so busy, and I don’t know.” I break down, crying for real for the first time since school started, because I know she’s right. It is weird and something must be wrong. I just don’t know what it is. It isn’t just Derek, either. School isn’t what I thought it would be. I feel like I am alone most of the time, even with my small group of friends. Everyone has his or her own schedule and it’s tough finding time outside of meals to talk. On the weekends, we usually try to hang out, but someone is always missing for work, a home visit, or just because something else came up.

“Maybe you need a break,” Abby suggests. “Not like a break up, but just time for you to get settled. I mean, he’s been with you since last year and he also had time to settle in first. You 
haven’t even found your own way around school. I know how you are. You probably just pine over him and act antisocial, aren’t you?”

“I have friends,” I argue.

“You’re in college. What do you do every night?”

I’m about to argue again when I realize that what I do mostly is stay in and work on homework, or go to the library to work on homework, or talk to Derek. Yes, I go to meals and hang out with Kristen and the others, but I don’t take part in most of the events or activities on campus. I can’t claim that the environmental club is a happening social life. I honestly can’t say I know anyone outside of the group of people that Kristen hangs out with – and Jack.

“You’re right,” I say. “I love him, Abby. But I don’t even know who I am.”







Lily of the Valley (Jack's Story)

Synopsis:

“No one tells you about pain. They tell you that it hurts, that sometimes it’s consuming. What they don’t tell you is that it’s not the pain that can kill you. It’s the uncomfortable numbness that follows, the weakness in your body when you realize your lungs may stop taking in air and you just can’t exert enough energy to care. It’s the way taste and color and smell fade from the world and all you’re left with is a sepia print of misery. That’s when the shift starts – the movement from passive to active. I fall asleep, hoping that the morning will bring back the pain. At least the pain is a thing.”

Plagued by a dark past, Jack sees college as a way out. Desperate to escape the area where he grew up, the people who know his secrets, and his own family, he deals with his problems through alcohol and meaningless sex.

When he first sees Lily, she’s the epitome of everything he hates. Yet something about her makes Jack rethink everything he knows and assumes about other people. Now, with the help of his best friend and lover, Jack has to decide if he wants to pursue something that he knows will only end badly.

Can Lily be one of the few people who can see Jack for who he really is – or will his darkness be too much for her to handle?

Excerpt:

“Did you go see your Mom today?”

I nod. Before moving in, I made my regular visit to the cemetery. Nothing there ever changes. It’s both a relief and a constant reminder. Even my grandmother stopped going, but I can’t. I can’t just not go. Someday, I’ll be ready. Someday.

“You don’t have to say it,” I tell Sandee. “I know she’s not there.”

At one point, during my father’s trial, when I refused to take his side on the stand, he nearly kicked me across the lawyer’s office. “Your mother was a fucking junkie, and you meant shit to her. Driving up there every weekend, eaving flowers on her grave? You’re wasting your time. She’s dead and good riddance to her. There’s nothing in that grave because even if there is a soul, that bitch didn’t have one.” The lawyers later came to work out guardianship one afternoon when I was home and shook their heads when they saw me. Was it guilt? Irritation? Something else? I don’t know, but fuck them. That’s what I know now.

“You do what to need to do, Jack. She’s there if you want her to be there.”

“You know, they spelled her fucking name wrong. Right there on the tombstone. E-V-E-L-Y-N. It was Eveline, with an I-N-E. And no one even bothered to fix it. I remember being led to a plastic folding chair out on the cemetery lawn, the gaping hole my last physical memory of my mother, and looking up. That fucking Y. By the time we noticed, it was done and they said it would cost us several hundred dollars to change it. Like it was our fault.”

“Shit. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It doesn’t matter. They couldn’t really change it, even if they had put up a new one. They did it and you can’t fix something that deeply ingrained, can you? It’s been dug in too far. That Y is not going anywhere, no matter if I cry, punch something, or just give up.”

“Things can always be fixed.” Sandee’s a regular source of inspiration, but her optimism wears me down right now. I don’t get how some things can be fixed. Whenever I think of my family, either then or now, all I feel is rage. Rage at my mother for turning out like she did, rage at my father for what he did, rage at the way the world shits on your dreams, and rage sometimes at myself. For existing.





Star of Bethlehem

Synopsis:


“With you, Jack, it was the first time I ever felt real. It was the first time anyone looked at me and saw substance. It was the first time I wanted to make someone see me.”

Jack and Lily have navigated his past, her desire to move on from her family’s demands of her, his depression, and her loneliness. Now, on New Year’s Eve, they have an entire year laid out ahead of them. First, though, Jack needs to meet Lily’s family, to be welcomed into her life. It’s intimidating, but with a sweater that is way too hot and his grandmother’s ugly car, he arrives at Lily’s gleaming house on a hill, ready to open himself up completely to her.

Inside the perfect, sparkling house, Lily waits for the boy she has come to love. But Lily’s house and family are a lot like her – shiny and pretty on the outside, with a sad emptiness on the interior. Lily wants to give Jack the one thing he has always dreamed of – family and love – but can she keep him from seeing 
how hollow a lot of the picture perfect life he fantasizes about really is?

This is a novella length work that follows Forget Me Not and Lily of the Valley.


Excerpt:

I take his hand and pull him down beside me on my bed. I feel so complete in his arms, as if nothing can go wrong when he holds me. It’s all the other stuff. The world, people, pressure. Maybe it’s a little fear that things just ended with Derek. That one day, as quickly as I fell for Jack, I also fell out of love with Derek. I don’t have enough experience to know if that’s normal. What if it happens again? 

“What? Tell me,” Jack whispers.

“Have you ever felt like your entire life is some surrealist’s joke? That you think you’re in control of it, while really, you’re probably just…” 

“A melting clock?” he finishes and laughs. I look at him, disappointed that I can’t explain it, but also relieved that he doesn’t care.

“All the fucking time,” he says. “I know you’re scared. I know I’m scared. But I seem to remember you telling me that I should remember what matters. I made you a promise, princess. Yes, your house intimidates me. Your life intimidates me. Hell, loving you intimidates me. But I’m in this. I’m here. Present. Entirely. I’m looking only forward. And all I see is you.”

“Take the damn book,” I tell him. “I just wanted to show you that I have faith in us. It was a conscious decision to give you something that was a very special gift to me, to tell you that I trust you with it, because I trust you to be there. Long term.”

He takes me in his arms and kisses me. I decide I won’t stop him if he goes further, but he doesn’t. Our bodies crackle with the energy between us, but as much as the sex thrills me, Jack does so much more for my mind than his body could even do. I can’t believe how alive I feel when he’s near me. Perhaps it’s selfish. Perhaps it’s desperate. But I want him here in my life; I want him with me, because I love being this aware. 

I speak against his cheek, while his hands slowly explore my body. It’s sensual but not sexual. He’s studying me like a work of art. “I don’t want to fall out of love with you. I thought Derek was all I ever wanted. I don’t want to be in the same place with you a year from now.”

“You won’t be,” he tells me. 

“How do you know?”

He kisses along my face, brushing his lips against my cheek, my forehead, my nose, but never reaching my mouth. “I don’t know how. But I do.”

I love that he can put aside his doubts to ease my own. I know Jack’s had so much trouble in his life, and the fact that he can comfort me, when my problems are so petty and stupid in the scheme of things, is one more thing I love so much. “I know I’m shallow. But I don’t want to be, Jack.”

“You’re not shallow. You’re not empty. Anything you think of yourself – it’s crazy. If you want to talk about surreal, it’s the fact that you think you’re less than something. Maybe you didn’t get shit on the same way I did in high school, but clearly, people have underestimated you. They missed out on you. And you have every right to be hurt. But, Lily? No one will ever hurt you again.”

I smile. “Thanks. I’m sorry I’m being so moody. It’s probably hormones or something. I think I’m just frustrated.”

“Yeah?” He laughs. “Well… I mean… I can help you relieve some of that.”






BUY THE FLOWERING SERIES NOW:












Meet the Author:

Sarah Daltry writes about the regular people who populate our lives. She's written works in various genres - romance, erotica, fantasy, horror. Genre isn't as important as telling a story about people and how their lives unfold. Sarah tends to focus on YA/NA characters but she's been known to shake it up. Most of her stories are about relationships - romantic, familial, friendly - because love and empathy are the foundation of life. It doesn't matter if the story is set in contemporary NY, historical Britain, or a fantasy world in the future - human beings are most interesting in the ways they interact with others. This is the principle behind all of Sarah's stories.

Sarah has spent most of her life in school, from her BA and MA in English and writing to teaching both at the high school and college level. She also loves studying art history and really anything because learning is fun. 

When Sarah isn't writing, she tends to waste a lot of time checking Facebook for pictures of cats, shooting virtual zombies, and simply staring out the window.  

Ten Favorite Books:

The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
The Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Dandelion Wine – Ray Bradbury
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Clockwork Angel – Cassandra Clare
Lola and the Boy Next Door – Stephanie Perkins
Days of Blood and Starlight – Laini Taylor
Red Moon – MA Grant


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Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Blog Tour and Giveaway - 'Dressed In White' by Jessica Gibson

Delighted to be a part of Jessica Gibson's blog tour for her new novel, Dressed In White. Check out the excerpt and be sure to enter the giveaway below! Also, you still have five days to enter my Little Drummer Boy Book Blitz Giveaway here. Enjoy and as always, thank you for stopping by! I hope you will leave a comment before you go. :-)







Gorgeous cover, huh? :-)




Synopsis

Lorelei Peters had everything she had ever dreamed of. Amazing friends, a sexy boyfriend, and a job that she absolutely loved.

Dillon Brockwell was all she had ever wanted. Handsome, successful, and he loved her as much as she loved him. Life was going along the way it was supposed to, until someone from Dillon’s past shows up and shatters everything to pieces.

Can Lorelei and Dillon get through all the craziness and make it down the aisle? Or will lies of omission be enough to derail them forever.


Excerpt:

Just as I had predicted, I fell asleep as soon as we got moving. The next thing I knew, Dillon was lifting me into his arms and carrying me off the bus.

“When did you get on the bus with us?” I slurred.

He laughed and planted a kiss on my head. “You’re home, baby, let’s get you out of these slutty clothes and into some pajamas.”

He carried me through the house and up the stairs.

“Wait, wait.” I called when he deposited me on the bed and went to get my pj’s.

“What?” He stopped and turned toward me.

“You look nice.”

He smothered a laugh. “I do? You like my sweat pants and ratty t-shirt combo?”

“Mmmhmm. Except you could lose the pants, if you want.”

“You, my love, are very drunk.”

“Uh-uh, I’m just the right amount of drunk.” I shook my head and the world spun a bit.

“Be right back.”

I watched him go, my eyelids getting heavier.

The next time I opened my eyes, light was streaming in through the curtains and my head felt like it was going to explode. True to his word, Dillon had gotten me out of my slutty dress and finagled me into my pj’s.

The man in question was lying next to me on the bed, working on his computer. I rolled toward him and covered my face with a pillow.

“Morning, sunshine, how are you feeling?” I could hear the smile in his voice.

“All things considered, not as bad as I should. I think I consumed all of the alcohol in San Diego.”


BUY DRESSED IN WHITE NOW:




















Meet the Author


Jessica Gibson is a recovering bookaholic, she's down from four books a week to a more reasonable one. It was that love of words and creativity that made her dream about writing her first book. That dream was hidden for years,always put on the back burner, filed away in the "someday" section, until her husband Matt gave her the kick in the pants she needed to actually get off her butt and write. Jessica and Matt live in Southern California and have a serious addiction to reality tv shows like Pawn Stars and American Restoration. They have one son and hope to add to the family in the near future. Aside from writing, she runs an online event planning business called the Release Day Diva. In addition to novels, Jessica writes and maintains the blog Book on the Bright Side. Keep up with Jessica and her latest releases and events on her blog.


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Monday, December 9, 2013

Book Blitz - 'Little Drummer Boy' by ME!


Heat up your holiday for only 99 Cents
with my smokin' little Christmas tale!





Little Drummer Boy - Vol. 3 of the Savannah Rossi Chronicles
Published Dec. 16, 2012
5,837 words
Erotic Romance


Synopsis:

It's Christmas Eve and sexy singer/songwriter Savannah Rossi has plans to spend the evening at a local jazz club sitting in with a friend's band. After months of flirtation with the smouldering drummer, Jesse Bauer, she's also got plans to light his yule log after the gig. Oh cum all ye faithful, it's the most wonderful time of the year! *Contains graphic sexual content and strong language.*

The Savannah Rossi Chronicles are a series of stand alone short stories/novellas preceding an eventual full length novel that follow the steamy adventures of sexy, independent, musically-gifted singer/songwriter Savannah Rossi, who is teetering on the verge of national success. This is no spoiled brat pop princess looking to be saved. Confident, driven, intelligent and unabashed in her sexuality, Savannah has created her own success and enjoys a vibrant sex life on her own terms with men of her choosing. Is it possible that any one man could tame such an independent free spirit? Who says she even needs to be tamed? Join Savannah on her erotic musical journey to find out! 

Ten volumes total are planned, to be followed up with a full length novel. So don't worry; Sav will get her HEA!


Visit the MUSES page to see what Jesse looks like!






BUY 'LITTLE DRUMMER BOY' NOW!


     

 


    


  



And don't forget to grab the other three 
in the series as well!

     


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COMING IN EARLY 2014:











CHRISTMAS STORY GIVEAWAY!!!

ONE LUCKY WINNER 
GETS THE WHOLE SHEBANG!








Stalk Me!!!





Read my bio here.


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Blog Tour - 'At Last' by Susan Thatcher

Thrilled to be part of my friend Susan Thatcher's blog tour for
At Last, the sequel to These Foolish Things!

(click any image for a larger view)







Title: At Last (sequel to These Foolish Things)
Author: Susan Thatcher
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release date: December 1, 2013


Synopsis:

These Foolish Things is a response to all the love stories that begin with young lovers and end immediately after mutual declarations of love. Life continues after youth and love can happen anytime, anywhere.

At Last picks up where These Foolish Things leaves off. Elizabeth Gardner and Ty Hadley seem destined for “happily ever after,” but fate has challenges in store that could tear them apart. Is their love strong enough to survive?


Excerpt:

“Well, this afternoon promises to be a good time,” Liz commented as she rinsed her hair.

“Why’s that, Babe?” Ty asked over the hiss of the shower.

“OB-GYN visit and mammogram, so much fun. ‘Mrs. Hadley, good to see you. We’ve devised some new tortures to visit upon your body in the name of practicing medicine, beginning with a nicely chilled speculum and ending with the pressurized fun of a mammogram. Welcome to your mid 40s, Elizabeth,’” Liz answered.  "‘By the way, did we remember to recommend that you have a colonoscopy, too? Just a thought.’”

She heard Ty chuckling.

“You make sure that prostate stays in good working order, Ty. I’m not done with it yet.”

“You got it,” he said laughing.

Liz raised her left arm over her head and began making firm circles on the skin of her left breast with her right hand, feeling for irregularities underneath. “Okay, so far, so good.”

“What’s that?” Ty asked.

“Breast self-exam,” Liz answered. “Every month, like clockwork, haven’t missed in 9 years.” She put her right arm over her head and repeated the procedure on the right breast.

“Want me to do it for you?” Ty asked. “Be no trouble at all.”

Liz laughed, “Thanks for the offer, but it’s not really all...that…ero…tic…” The circling stopped and she returned to the spot and felt again.  No, she hadn’t imagined it. “No. Oh, God.”

The shower curtain snapped aside.

“What just happened?” Ty’s eyes were fixed on her hand. He reached out to touch, imitating Liz’s hand and circling, pressing her wet flesh. “You found something?” Liz heard the fear in his voice.

“I’m not sure,” she admitted, “Could be my imagination. Could be a cyst.”

“Could be cancer,” Ty finished hoarsely. He yanked a towel off the rack and wrapped Liz in it, sarong-style, then pulled her close. They stood there for a minute, Liz holding as tightly to Ty as he held her. He was only wearing a towel around his waist and Liz needed the intimate contact of skin to skin.

“God damn it,” she heard Ty growl, “God damn it.” She could feel the anger in him beginning to build.

Liz put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed. She slid her hand up to Ty’s face and looked into his eyes.

Quietly, she said, “Look. This may be nothing, okay? Let’s stay calm until we know for sure.” She brought Ty’s face down for a kiss that took on more urgency the longer it lasted.

Ty broke off first. “I love you, Liz. I don’t want to think about losing you.” He kissed her forehead and left his lips pressed to it. “Ever.”

He kissed her again. “That’s it. I’m coming to the doctor with you.”

Liz buried her face in his shoulder, smiling. “No, Counselor. I can handle this. Besides, if there is a lump, the doctor will refer me to someone else for a biopsy and that will take a few days to schedule, so you’d be terrorizing the doctor today for no good reason. Take it out on opposing counsel instead, okay?” She kissed Ty again, deeply. “I love you.”

“I love you, Liz,” Ty said. “Sure you’re okay with doing this by yourself?”

“Done it before, remember? I know the drill.” Liz felt him relax slightly.

Luckily, Liz thought, she’d done pretty good job of hiding her own terror.


BUY AT LAST NOW!

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autographed paperbacks:


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READ MY REVIEW OF THESE FOOLISH THINGS HERE.


My Thoughts:

So At Last is considerably shorter than These Foolish Things, and it absolutely picks up in the middle of nowhere, so if you haven't read TFT, you'd better. Here's the good news: this book delves into the "happily ever after" part of romance novels, which frankly, doesn't exist - either in romance novels or in real life. That's not to say Liz and Ty's love fades and they get a nasty, bitter divorce, because they don't. But some rough shit comes down the pike after they marry. Like seriously rough. Like life-threateningly rough. But they are realistic issues that real people have to deal with in real life, as opposed to someone being kidnapped by a jealous ex or something soapy and silly. While I appreciated that there wasn't any noticeable fluffing out to make the sequel longer, I actually wished there was a bit more, because I very much enjoyed the comfortable ease and warmth the relationship exuded in this part of their story. Long past the butterflies and batting eyelashes stage, they settled into their real relationship and I would have liked Susan to have explored that in more detail. She makes significant time jumps in the story that in the hands of a lesser writer probably would've ripped you out of the moment, but fortunately she makes it work. I do happen to know Susan personally, and that means I also happen to know that These Foolish Things and At Last were originally one novel, so I highly recommend if you haven't read TFT yet, get both of them at the same time and read them back to back, because while both are good reads, I do happen to think they would've worked better as one cohesive work. But alas, we indie authors in particular are living in the world of The Almighty Trilogy and I understand why it is what it is. Still a well written novella and worth it. But again, you'll be lost if you don't read TFT first. Up next, I believe, is the prequel, which I'm looking forward to. 

I have to make note of one little thing that made me a little nuts: the very last sentence of the book. Without giving it away, I have to give the author crap for writing a cliffhanger that's not a cliffhanger. Seriously, woman???  *throatpunch*

Get this book. Get both of them. smiley 16a3c6a

Rating: Four smooches (out of 5): smiley Kiss smiley Kiss smiley Kiss smiley Kiss






http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/61050a5/" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway







Meet The Author




Susan Thatcher was born in New Hampshire and raised in Vermont, graduating from the University of Vermont (including a stint in Salisbury, South Australia as an exchange student starting in January 1982. She hates winter that much). She contributed occasional articles to UVM’s newspaper, the Vermont Cynic. Susan has also contributed to Morning Edition on NPR (they read her letter on the air.), the Boca Raton News and ww.dognewsteam.com, a news parody website. Susan also earned a Juris Doctor from Franklin Pierce Law Center.  

She presently lives in Southern California because the climate and topography suit her.  And she is writing more material.

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