Excerpt & Giveaway by Claudia Y. Burgoa

EXCERPT:

Nights meant sleep and dreams—my archenemies. The Crowley to my Dean Winchester, the Green Goblin to my Spider-man, the list of superheroes and their opposites was long, and so became the analogies I used on a daily basis. My lack of sleep began with Dad and his conditions for me to continue my art. Then came my parents' deaths. Those took a toll on me because I mixed dreams with realities and hopes. Not once did I have a nightmare, all of them were sweet and real. Seeing Mom and Dad on those nights filled my gut with nails, and my head pounded with the reminder that they were gone the next morning. Those had been merely fantasies that would never become a reality.

For the past three months I had been evading sleep and working overtime, over the overtime. The dreams of elevators, trips to sophisticated-secluded spots after a week of work and delicious nights with a man who I was required to forget in order to move on, came daily—nightly. They not only hit me with vengeance, but they came tangled with what humans liked to call hope. The urge to crawl inside myself to avoid the need of his touch, kisses and whatever it was that we had not long ago, consumed me. If I had the powers to morph into an animal, it’d be a sea turtle and I’d stay inside my shell for the next hundred years. Past the stage of melancholy and into the real world, I pushed my body outside of the bed and into the shower, where I got ready to face the Clements and the house next door.

Getting By (A Knight’s Tale I) by Claudia Y. Burgoa is a new-adult contemporary romance novel, published February 18, 2014.

Synopsis:

When Emma Anderson arrived at San Francisco International Airport, she regretted accepting the distinction of being the maid of honor to Gaby’s—her childhood friend—wedding. It had been years since the last time she set foot in Menlo Park, where her parents had been killed. The rug where she had been shoving her feelings since that day looked bumpier than a camel’s hump. Who could blame her; if she hadn’t been selfish they’d still be around. Ever since that fateful day, Emma has been perfecting the knack of Getting By.

Cade’s wedding in Menlo Park—a city close to San Francisco—might be the perfect place for Jake Knight to shake the memories of his ex, Emma Anderson for good. Single, available women galore for an entire week was the perfect medication, one he intended to take three times a day for an entire week to return to his player days. It was a plan the former spy thought flawless until he came face to face with the maid of honor. Jake’s perfect retreat turns into a flight, fight or hide week of celebrations.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19305020-getting-by

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Knights-Tale-Claudia-Burgoa-ebook/dp/B00II6IKLO

This is the first book in the 4 book series.  The second book will be released later this year. 

About the Author:

Claudia lives in Colorado with her family and three dogs. While managing life, she works as a CFO at a small IT Company. She’s a dreamer who enjoys music, laughter and a good story. Claudia writes romance, sci-fi, and fantasy. She has published two novels: Where Life Takes You and Getting By. Claudia is currently working on Standing By, the second book in the Knight series. For 2014, Claudia plans to released three, perhaps four novels.

Website: http://www.claudiayburgoa.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7202946.Claudia_Y_Burgoa

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClaudiaYBurgoa

Twitter: https://twitter.com/yuribean

1 eBook will be given away. Please reply with email address to enter. Contest is done by random.  Ends 4/10/14 at 8 am :)

Good Luck!!

Author Linda Yellin - live broadcast tonight 8:00 pm ET!

People.com features Linda Yellin’s WHAT NORA KNEW (Gallery Books; January 2014; $16.00) in What We're Reading This Weekend!  “[A] quick, funny read…Cute and cynical with funny, raunchy friends, [Heroine] Molly makes for a fun companion.”

 

Please share this event information if you like and join Linda Yellin here for a live broadcast tonight, Monday, April 7^th, 8:00 – 9:00 pm ET!

(http://new.livestream.com/accounts/7521438/events/2833213)

*This event is hosted by The Women’s Exchange.  Autographed copies will be available for purchase after the event at The Book Stall.

 

An undeniable buzz for WHAT NORA KNEW continues to proliferate and grab the attention of readers everywhere with praise such as “Ephron’s influence is felt everywhere in this novel” (Publishers Weekly) and “Beautifully emulating the Ephron-esque vibe” (New York Journal of Books). 

 

Share Linda Yellin’s heartfelt tribute to the beloved Nora Ephron:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZbxMlucHTE

 

With her smart, funny and highly relatable writing style, Linda Yellin’s WHAT NORA KNEW will charm readers with the story of Molly Hallberg, a self-professed cynic who navigates New York romance with help from Nora Ephron’s romantic comedies!

Guest Post with Faye Hall

Passions in Australia

She giggled knowingly. “I knew your name, Re, both your first and your last.  How could I not.”

“Then why pretend you didn’t know me?”

She shrugged casually. “Would you rather me have told those ladies that we slept together?”

-          From Faye Hall's 'She's a Lot Like You', released April 2014

Faye Hall, an Australian author, will have her second eBook, ‘She’s A lot Like You’ released with Red Sage Publishing April this year.

Like her other passion driven, mystery filled books, her new release is set in a small township of North Queensland, Australia during the late 1800's.

Ravenswood, the setting for ‘She’s A lot Like You’, is a township in Queensland most commonly known for its history in gold mining.  However, for her story, Faye has chosen to show a more glamorous and risqué side of this once very prosperous town.  There are beautiful gowns, gala dances and the hidden beauty of a country estate, all things Ravenswood had and more before the gradual decline of the town.  As with all her stories, Faye has included something singularly Australian to entice her readers into the hypnotic allure of the Australian culture in the late Victorian period. 

Faye has chosen this period to set her stories in precisely because she feels it has not been explored enough, nor has the beauty of Northern Australia during that period been represented to its fullest extent.  Other townships Faye explores through her writings include the Burdekin Shire, Sarina, Proserpine and Bowen (the township made famous by Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Australia’).

With every book, Faye has shrived to give her readers not only the passionate connection between the hero and heroine, but also the ever present threat of deceit, scandal, theft and sometimes even murder.

A third book has recently been contracted with Red Sage, but as yet a release date is unavailable.

Faye’s books can be purchased direct from Red Sage at:-

http://eredsage.com/store/MyGiftToYou.html

http://eredsage.com/store/ShesALotLikeYou.html

From Amazon:-

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00DPIMSMW

Also you can visit Faye’s blog and website for any updates:-

http://www.faye-hall.com

Or find her on social networks:-

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Faye-Hall/174774709247649

https://twitter.com/FayeHall79

The Assassins Hockey Hop

 

 

Stop by the other blogs for a chance to win!!!

 

 

1.	Romantic Reads and Such	2.	BookHounds
3.	The Jeep Diva	4.	I Read Indie
5.	Blackraven's Erotic Cafe	6.	AJ's Reading Nook
7.	Blackraven's Reviews	8.	HEARomances With A Little Kick
9.	The Readers Roundtable	10.	Books Books and More Books
11.	Devoured Words	12.	Globug and Hootie
13.	Book Monster Reviews	14.	StuckInBooks
15.	Book Lovin' Mamas	16.	Book-A-Holic Anon
17.	Read Your Writes Book Reviews	18.	Tome Tender
19.	Eye on Romance	20.	Seduced By A Book
21.	The Autumn Review	22.	Cocktails and Books
23.	What's On The Bookshelf	24.	All Aboard!
25.	Bitten By Love Reviews	26.	Mimmi's Musings
27.	Readers Confession	28.	From the TBR Pile
29.	Over the Edge Reviews	30.	Spare Time Book Blog
31.	As the Page Turns	32.	Bookshelf Confessions
33.	Always YA at Heart	34.	What I'm Reading
35.	Lushbookreviewss.blogspot.com	36.	Reading Between the Wines
37.	Insane Hussein	38.	PonyTails Book Reviews
39.	Literati Literature Lovers	40.	Socrates' Book Review Blog
41.	My Book Muse	42.	Burning Impossibly Bright
43.	Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews	44.	Book Nerds Across America
45.	Literary, etc	46.	Julie Reviews Books
47.	Parnormal and Urban Fantasy Reviews	48.	SJMaylee
49.	Phantasmic Reads	50.	My Secret Romance
51.	Insightful Minds Reviews	52.	A Novel Affair [book blog]
53.	RomCon	54.	Cheeky Reads
55.	The Revolving Bookcase	56.	Aislynn @ Stitch Read Cook
57.	MsRomanticReads	58.	Blogging by Liza
59.	In Love with Romance	60.	A Little Bit Tart, A Little Bit Sweet
61.	cupcake's book cupboard	62.	my secret romance

 

 

About the books:

Taking Shots: In Toni Aleo’s exhilarating debut, the first in a series featuring the hockey hunks of the Nashville Assassins, a reformed bad boy helps a charming, willful woman face off against the demons of her past. No matter how hard she tries, Eleanor Fisher never thinks she’s good enough, from her job to her weight to her love life. After enduring years of abuse at the hands of an ex-boyfriend, Elli has been drifting through life in a daze. Until, that is, she meets Shea Adler on a promotional shoot for the NHL’s Nashville Assassins. Before Elli knows what’s happening, the gorgeous Shea breaks the ice and shatters her world. A brilliant athlete inside the rink, Shea Adler is tired of the life he’s living outside of it: the girls, the money, the drinking. But everything changes when he meets Elli. After laying eyes on this feisty, witty, beautiful woman, he feels like he’s just taken the hardest hit of his life. No matter how skeptical she is, Shea knows they are meant to be together—if only he can convince Elli to put her insecurities aside throw her insecurities out the window before she misses out on a shot at love.
Trying to Score: In a captivating novel of hockey and healing hearts, the newest member of the Nashville Assassins pulls a power play to make things right with the one that got away. Fallon Parker’s dream has always been to turn her family’s wine company into a runaway success and eventually to start a cellar of her own. Since graduating from college, she has worked relentlessly to make that dream a reality, especially after taking a chance on love—and losing. By the time Fallon becomes an official sponsor of the Nashville Assassins, she feels like all her hard work is finally paying off. And then the man who broke her heart skates back into her life. On the ice, Lucas Brooks is the NHL’s leading scorer—at least when he’s not in the box. Off the ice, he’s a mess, with all his anger and misery bottled up inside. He threw away the most important person in his life and has regretted it ever since. But when Lucas returns to Nashville in a trade, he’s determined to convince Fallon that he’s a changed man. The attraction is still there. The tension is electrifying. But the odds are stacked against them—especially after Lucas finds out that Fallon has been keeping a devastating secret.
Empty Net: The chiseled men of the Nashville Assassins can make anything happen when they go all-out for the women they want—even turn a one-night stand into a happily ever after. Audrey Parker is up against the boards. She’s stuck in a job she hates and pining for a total jerk. Meanwhile, her sister Fallon is moving out and getting married to hockey star Lucas Brooks. Where is Audrey’s Prince Charming? Nothing she does has ever seemed to be good enough for any of the men in her life. Audrey’s about to hit rock bottom . . . until she wakes up next to Tate Odder. The thrill of moving up from the minors to the Nashville Assassins was a welcome distraction. But not even becoming the first rookie goalie to tally three shutouts in the Stanley Cup Finals alleviates the pain. With the loss of his parents and sister weighing as heavily on his soul as ever, Tate Odder can’t keep pretending he’s okay. That’s when he meets smart, sexy Audrey. Her gentle warmth and quirky sense of humor make him feel whole for the first time in too long. But to stay that way forever, Tate must find a way to accept his past and learn to live for love.

 

Giveaways galore:

• 5 sets of the series to etailer of choice;
• 10 net galley preview copy giveaway sets;
• $20 EGC Starbucks, the drink of hockey fans everywhere!

 

 

 

Enter to win here: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/c46e0b17/

 

 

Guest Post & Giveaway with Author Zoe Archer

By Zoë Archer

Good girls love bad boys.  We’re drawn to men who don’t follow the rules—or even break those rules.  We’re fascinated by how little they care what others think of them.  They do what they want, when they want, and to hell with anyone who doesn’t like it.  And we love the idea that somehow, beneath all that unruly behavior, there’s a good man, one who not only possesses honor, but the ability and need to be loved.  We want to tame the bad boy…but not too much! After all, what’s the fun in having a bad boy if he’s lost all his badness?

But how bad is too bad?  When does that bad boy become irredeemable?  Is it possible to write romance novels where the heroes were also the villains?

When I starting writing the HELLRAISERS series, I asked myself that very question.  How far could I push the boundaries with my five wealthy, privileged rakes?  I wondered, throughout the series, if the Hellraisers could be both the heroes of their stories, and also the antagonists.  And could the heroines (and the readers) love them? 

In their pursuit of pleasure, the Hellraisers inadvertently free the Devil from his prison.  They’re rewarded for their service by receiving supernatural gifts, one per Hellraiser, that speaks to their hearts’ darkest desires.  Whit, the hero of DEVIL’S KISS, is addicted to gambling, so he’s given the power to control probability and the odds.  Leo, the hero of DEMON’S BRIDE, is a self-made man who’s created a huge fortune through investments in trade, and so his power is the ability to see the future. 

Bram, the hero of SINNER’S HEART, is the darkest and most tormented of the Hellraisers.  He’s a veteran of the war with the French and their Native allies in the Americas.  Bram returned to England with terrible physical and emotional scars, and, as a Hellraiser, he loses himself in sensual pleasure to forget the horrors of war.  Mr. Holiday, as the Devil likes to call himself, gives Bram the supernatural ability to convince anyone to do anything—though Bram can only use the power once per person. 

I won’t sugarcoat it: through most of the Hellraisers series, and into his own book, Bram isn’t a good person.  He’s ruthless when it comes to securing his pleasure, and many of his actions are problematic.  But Bram’s the key player when it comes to the war against the Devil.  Without Bram on the side of good, the world could literally go to hell.

That’s where Valeria Livia Corva comes in.  During her lifetime, Livia wasn’t a particularly good person, either.  Yes, I do mean “during her lifetime,” because (not a spoiler) Livia’s a ghost.  She was the Roman priestess who originally summoned the Dark One over a thousand years ago, but learned too late the disastrous repercussions of her actions.  So she had to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to put the Dark One into a supernatural prison.  Now that the Hellraisers have freed him once more, Livia must work to prevent the Devil from creating hell on earth.  She has some allies in a few of the other Hellraisers, but it’s Bram who’s essential to win the fight.

Trouble is, a man as fallen as Bram isn’t much interested in saving the world.  It’s fortunate that, while Livia may be a ghost, she’s not without power, and she’s got a will as strong as Bram’s.  So, can one formerly evil woman convince this incorrigible sinner to take up his sword to battle the Devil? Can this very, very bad boy be redeemed? 

(You may have noticed all the pictures of Richard Armitage in this blog post. Not only is he the model for Bram, I thought everyone might enjoy just looking at pictures of him.  You’re welcome. *wink*) 

So, my question to you is this: is there such a thing as a hero being too bad?  What could make him beyond redemption?  And what is it that you love most about bad boys?  Leave a comment, and you could win a copy of SINNER’S HEART (US and Canada only). 

SINNER’S HEART

The Hellraisers, Book 3

Demons Of The Past

Abraham Stirling, Lord Rothwell, was a fighter once, a soldier in the Colonies. But Bram returned to London with more nightmares than tales of glory. Now he drowns his senses in the arms of countless women, while his friends, the Hellraisers, ensure he needn't sin alone.

Until, that is, the Devil himself grants them each a wish, undoing their camaraderie as they explore their wicked powers. Bram finds himself magically bound to Valeria Livia Corva, the sensuous priestess who raised the Devil the first time--and died to send the demon back.

She may be a ghost, but Livia is no angel. The raw passion she witnesses in Bram's memories isn't much different from her behavior when she had a body to enjoy. But it doesn't make it any easier to convince Bram to become a warrior again, lest all London burn. And the fierce desires reawakening within her might just start the blaze. . .

Zoë Archer is an award-winning romance author who thinks there's nothing sexier than a man in tall boots and a waistcoat. As a child, she never dreamed about being the rescued princess, but wanted to kick butt right beside the hero. She now applies her master's degrees in Literature and Fiction to creating butt-kicking heroines and heroes in tall boots. She is the author of the acclaimed BLADES OF THE ROSE series and the paranormal historical romance series, THE HELLRAISERS. She and her husband, fellow romance author Nico Rosso, created the steampunk world of THE ETHER CHRONICLES together. Her new gritty Victorian romance series, NEMESIS, UNLIMITED, launches this year.  Zoë and Nico live in Los Angeles.

Excerpt

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To buy: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Chapters Indigo, Amazon UK, All Romance eBooks

Guest Post with Maya Rodale

Dear Annabelle,

My dear sister has fled into the night rather than marry a rake like the Duke of Temberlay. There’s a reason why he’s known as Devil—several in fact! Without this marriage, my family faces poverty, and I will be forced to seek employment to support my mother and two small sisters. I am considering a desperate course of action, Annabelle—taking my sister’s place at the altar. By the time Temberlay discovers I’m an imposter, things will, ahem, have gone too far for an annulment. I’m willing—just to save my family of course, not because he’s the handsomest man alive, and a duke, and a war hero with a fortune.

Do I dare to marry him, Annabelle?  Waiting breathlessly for your advice!

Lady Marguerite Lynton from How To Deceive A Duke by Lecia Cornwall

Dear Lady Marguerite,

I am also breathlessly awaiting my advice for that is quite the quandary you are in! If you must seek employment, do join me, Lady Brandon, Lady Roxbury and Lady Wycliff and become one of The London Weekly’s infamous Writing Girls. However, we hardly compare to a devilish duke, who is a wealthy war hero to boot!

The part of me that reads romantic novels says Yes! Marry him in secret! But my practical side encourages you to make your feelings plain and propose to him (that alone is scandalous!). In seeking a compromise, I spoke to my friend, Lady Charlotte Brandon, who is a notorious schemer (famously of Three Schemes and a Scandal) but her suggestion included highway robbery, assorted disguises and all sorts of scandalous behavior taking place in the dead of the night.

Above all, I encourage you to live daringly and courageously, for I have recently discovered that the whole world opens up if you do.

Yours,

Annabelle from Seducing Mr. Knightly

Reprinted with permission from The London Weekly

Question: If you were in Lady Marguerite’s situation, would you marry the duke? 

Early Review: Eternal Beast by Laura Wright

Ever since his abduction by the Eternal Order of Vampires, Gray Donohue has finally found his true calling: vengeance. He will stop at nothing to bring his fellow Impure vampires the freedom they deserve. Now if he could just release his primal need for the beautiful vampire who saved his life—and rules his thoughts and desires…

After nearly killing the senator she was assigned to protect, Dillon is now in mortal danger. The jaguar within her has been unleashed, and she can no longer control it. Sex is the only thing that can tame her shift. And Gray is the only man who can make her surrender to a passion strong enough to overpower her inner beast. But she doesn’t want to surrender—she wants her life back. Because she is determined never to belong to anyone, especially not Gray—the male whom destiny claims is her mate…

Review:

Eternal Beast is the 4^th book in Mark of the Vampire series, and I swear, each book just gets better and better! I have been anxiously awaiting Gray’s book since book 1. I’ve just been drawn to him from being the mysterious brother of Sarah who went through such a tragic event that locked him in his mind and nonspeaking, to his mind being unlocked and discovering and having to deal with being an Impure Vampire to finding out secrets about his own family that has led him to the point where we start off in Eternal Beast.

Grayson Donahue is the leader of the Impure Resistance, as his father was before him. He has been working with a small group of Impure Vampires to rescue other Impures from the authority of The Order. He is very strong minded and focused on his cause and won’t let anything deter him from his mission, even Dillon.

Dillon and Gray always seem to have intense interactions and that doesn’t fade in this book. Dillon has had a traumatic past and she has learned to shut off her feelings and prefers to be closed off and pushes others away. When she finds herself stuck in her mutore form as a jaguar and it seems the only thing to help her make the shift back to vampire is Gray’s touch, she seeks his help but Gray is determined to not be used by her anymore and is determined to try and discover what this attraction is between them. They butt heads a lot and one importantly is Gray’s mission. I loved the struggles these two had to work through and how Gray wouldn’t give up on Dillon no matter how much she tries to run away or push him away.

I loved that we get to see plenty of the other characters that we love and are still involved with them even when some parts of the story isn’t tied directly to Gray or Dillon, it all ties in together very nicely and helps give the story a rounded look at everything going on.  We discover a few interesting twists and look forward to those playing out more in future books.

If you are new to this series I would HIGHLY recommend starting from the beginning. Each book builds on to the last and I think that you would miss out on some crucial events and story lines to full appreciate this book… well and can’t forget to mention getting to know these hot, sexy, loveable vampires through each book ;) The Epilogue left off with a great introduction to the next book Eternal Demon, can’t wait to read about Erion!!!